One of the main characters involved in Turbine (makers of AC, AC2, DDO, and MEOLOTRO or something) left a few weeks ago and has now found new employment.
Jason Booth is working for some non-MMO company so it’s unimportant. Ha.
Anyway, he left some comments regarding MMOs that I wanted to point out to see what people think about them. There is a lot of truth there to be sure, but is it really that black and white? Here is an excerpt:
… the MMP industry is boiling the formula down to a very destructive set of lesson for our society. These lessons appear to be:
Achievement is far more important in life than enjoyment, family, friends, etc.
We should all be equal, regardless of our given talents. Time and devotion to achievement is all that matters, skill and smarts are worthless.
Don’t think, just grind.
If you grind harder, you will be “more cool†than others.
The problem is that none of these really lead to a happy or compelling life. Play is supposed to be an enjoyable learning function which helps you to understand some aspect of life, not a time waster, or worse, something which literally drives you to neglect your life.
Good luck in the future Jason!
– Ethic
I totally agree with him here, and I can see how that doesn’t really gel with the premise of Vanguard.
Maybe he should go look for a job with Cryptic studios?
Cryptic? There’s quite a bit of grind in City of Heroes. Even if you really enjoy the gameplay, you recognize that there is a lot of repetition.
Has it been a transitional point at Turbine lately? I recall seeing several people leave recently, including Jessiva Mulligan.
This guys sounds like just about any whiny loser that recent left their job. They want to tell the world just how much they know and how right they were.
I agree with Jason’s sentiments, despire having left my job at Turbine over two years ago. Am I still a “whiny loser” for continuing to believe that?
Oh, and Jason is hardly a “loser.” He’s one of the five most intelligent and creative people I’ve ever met, a genial mad scientist hippie.
Not to kiss ass too much, but of all the people in the industry I am aware of, Jason and Chris are people very worthy of my respect. Wherever they go, I have no doubts that the company that gets them will be better off for it.
Jason does “know” and he is “right” in my opinion.
I see two sides to this arguement. Let me preface my comments though with this;
I don’t think these lessons he refers to are being created by the MMP industry but are more a reflection on our society. Society values achievement over all things. Look at corporate America, it thrives on achievment. America rewards those who achieve not those with skill or intelligence.
Now there are two sides I see here. The “I play more I should have more” and the “I pay the same I should have the same opportunities”. Both arguments have thier merits. Yes if you put more time into a game you should get more reward from that game. On the other hand since I am paying a monthly fee shouldn’t I have access to the same rewards? I mean it’s not like since I am only using 1/2 the game I get to pay 1/2 the fee.
This is a tricky balance. Games are dependent on the repeat subscription. Make it too easy and you lose the “hardcore” gamers who got to end game in a month and now are bored so they leave for the next shiny bauble of a game. Make it too hard and you lose the more casual gamer who gives up because they feel like they can’t make any progress. Finding a balance is trick and no two games are going to do it the same way. On a console (XBOX, PS2, GC) you can program difficulty levels. You can’t really do that with an MMOG.
In short we could debate the central issue here for days, weeks, months and even years. However, that isn’t what this is for, suffice it to say that his statements have validity and weight. Weather or not we agree in whole or not is irrelelvent.
I wish Jason the best in his future endeavors. I’ll take his old job if no one wants it.