Month: December 2012

Video Games, Real Life, and Goal-Seeking Strategies

Hello, player character, and welcome to the Mazes of Menace! Your goal is to get to the center and defeat the Big Bad. You know this is your goal because you received a message from a very authoritative source that said so. Alas, the maze is filled with guards and traps that make every step dangerous. You have reached an intersection, and there are two doors before you. Door A leads towards the center; it probably takes you to your destination. Door B leads away from the center; it could loop back, but it’s probably a dead end. Which door do you choose?

The correct answer, and the answer which every habitual video game player will instinctively choose, is door B: the probable dead end. Because your goal is not to reach the end quickly, but to search as much of the maze’s area as you can, and by RPG genre convention, dead ends come with treasure. Similarly, if you’re on a quest to save the world, you do side-quests to put it off as long as possible, because you’re optimizing for fraction-of-content-seen, rather than probability-world-is-saved, which is 1.0 from the very beginning.
…
Permanent choices can be chosen arbitrarily on a whim, or based solely on what you think best matches your style, and you don’t need to research which is better. …
You shouldn’t save gold pieces, because they lose their value quickly to inflation as you level. …
— jimrandomh, Memetic Hazards in Videogames

You may also be interested in the paragraph contrasting cheat books with real life skill manuals.

: Zubon

False Scarcity

Steam sales are brilliant experiments in applied economics.

During these holiday sales, Steam runs sales of several durations at once. There are daily sales, flash sales, and community-selected discounts. If you watch, these are all the same games. There may be a bit of plus or minus to it, but the same game will appear in all three spots. Voting for a game in the sidebar just gives you another few hours in which the sale is available (and makes you feel more invested, a more likely buyer). Time is (always) running out, this is (always) your last chance, buy now!

Steam seems to have stumbled on the model used by that one store down the street that seems to be having a clearance or holiday sale 48+ weeks of the year. They also seem to be experimenting less and settling on that model of having continuous sales that are always just about to end.

My favorite ad is still “last chance to pre-order!” That usually comes with a discount or bonus, or at least a chance to pre-load, but not always. Sometimes it is just your last chance to pay full price earlier than necessary. Yesterday, a few colleges and charities e-mailed me with a “courtesy reminder” that I had just four days left to give them money this year. Which is technically true and may have some tax benefits associated, but…

: Zubon

You too, dear Kill Ten Rats reader, have just three days left this year to send your favorite Kill Ten Rats writers games, money, and in-game money.

Yearly Contemplations and Prognostications

2012 was a good gaming year for me. There were some nice surprises. I am looking forward to what 2013 has to bring. Here’s what I thunk and think as we cross the yearly threshold.

Play to Finish MMO Paradigm

With all credit to this term going to SynCaine, this simple concept has been in my rock tumbler since it opened my eyes. It is also very pertinent because arguably my favorite MMO relies on the concept. A “play-to-finish” MMO is one where players get to some end of their choosing, such as a storyline, max level, or something clearly designed as an end point. Then the bulk of the experience has been played. Players that do stick around do so in a fashion similar to single-player gamers doing game achievement unlocks. This is an oversimplification, but this is where I want most MMOs to head. Continue reading Yearly Contemplations and Prognostications

Vote In The Second Annual Popehat “Censorious Asshat of the Year” Poll

Our friends at Popehat have a poll for you. This one is just the “online” part of “online gaming” that we cover here; I don’t think we have any really good anti-gaming attempts to censor free expression this year. Strong candidates include suing charities and knitting circles, a bomber who found a judge unaware that prior restraints on speech are not constitutional in the United States, and actual cases of governments sending men with guns ’round when they were unhappy with free expression.

Note that this is for asshattery rather than thuggery, as you’ll note several major government missing from the options. That would explain why several people who are just huge jerks are beating out actual government threats; the reigning champion as I type this combines both.

: Zubon

Saved for Friday, since you could spend a long while pursuing those links. Apologies for having linked to TV Tropes on a Monday before; I promise not to do it again until you least expect it.

Trust

Once you no longer trust the developers, quit the game.

This realization took me a long while, and I see people struggling with it in comments and forums. If you do not trust the development team’s competence or good will, stop giving them time and money. (That used to be just “money,” but with the emergence of F2P, you see a lot of people playing things they would not pay to play. If you do not think the game is/will be worth your money, it is probably not worth your time.) Game companies are not the government. They cannot come to your house with guns and demand your money. You are free to go, and yes you may lose access to a game, but you are already on the downward spiral to where you quit the game angrily.

I can see sticking around a little longer for the community. This is where you start packing up your community or developing links to it outside the game. They are not serfs either. It is good to make friends with people overcoming the adversary within the game; if the game itself is an adversary, take your friends and find somewhere better to play. Happiness loves company more than misery does.

: Zubon

[LotRO] Help Me with This One

Is this LotRO’s community being typically atypical, F2P players displaying entitlement, or something else I’m missing?

LotRO recently added (character level) experience for crafting, which is the sort of thing we like around here. As with any change, forum-goers announced they are going to quit. It is “More then ridicules. It’s underhanded,” “a deal bracker,” and it will not “do anything aside from discouraging people from doing crafting.” Oh, you laugh now, but “I hope you feel the same when the game is shut down from everybody leaving and Turbine not making a profit.” (One poster took the interesting tactic of replying until he had 10% of the posts in the thread then declaring, “Good for you u like the idea but sorry to say your out numberd.”) (sic on all those)

Some players do not like outleveling content or leveling too quickly. Except there is more content next zone over, and you can run an alt through that level range rather than doing everything from that level range on every character. Except if you are not paying anything and want to avoid running out of free, level-relevant content. Except your opinion does not matter if you are not paying anything, so pushing the free players through the free content faster is a good business decision. Out of alt slots, out of quests? Oh sorry, that is not a problem for subscribers, $$ button’s over there.

Logging on a level 30-something alt, she needed to farm 2.5 stacks of blackberry (master tier) seeds to get one level, and that is with rested xp. Given the leveling curve, this must be a significant amount at the F2P levels but virtually nothing near the level cap. Festival quests now give scaling xp, I’m told, which will also help F2P players level to paid content more quickly.

Turbine also added an xp disabler to the cash store (although not as a consumable as originally designed). Sure, you can stay in F2P levels all you like, but you’re paying for it. I have sympathy for the argument “this should be free for VIP players,” because there are several things in the cash shop that you would expect as part of your paid account rather than monetization monetization, but I’m also sympathetic to “if you think this game is worth playing for months, how about paying us for it?”

: Zubon

My sympathy for that argument does not extend as far as $70 expansion packs.

Holiday Shopping Public Service Announcement

The War Z has been pulled from Steam. It has politely been described as “a scam,” “blatant fraud,” and “the most shameless, amateurish cash grab I’ve ever played.” This last came from a friendly reviewer, and he has the best summary of the situation.

But the usual holiday Steam sale is going, as is Humble Indie Bundle 7, which includes Dungeon Defenders with all DLC, if you were curious about that. Steam already convinced me not to buy things anywhere below 50-75% off unless I want to play it today; Humble Bundles may push me further down that slope.

: Zubon

[GW2] Stages of RNG

I can’t believe ArenaNet made an untradeable set of miniatures in the Wintersday Mystery Boxes. It must be a mistake. There will be ways to get those account-bound miniatures another way. They wouldn’t have decided to restrict this collectible to straight up personal randomness.

I got burned so badly during The Lost Shores where I stupidly gave them $10 for a failed attempt at exotic miniatures. I used to be collecting all of the miniatures back when people didn’t understand the pyramid scheme that is miniature collecting. When those three ultra-rare karka miniatures hit, I just threw my hands up.

Okay, here’s another $10, ArenaNet. Let’s pick up a sack of Wintersday Mystery Boxes and hope they aren’t loaded with default coal (tonics). All I want is the Mini Festive Golem. I know I am going to take one across the face by the RNG, just like I did for Halloween and The Lost Shores. Maybe I will just get something worthwhile this time. I don’t even want the chase item. Just give me something cool, ArenaNet?

Foo. I got three Mini Snoman miniatures. They got forged into Foostivoo; stupid little quaggan staring at his feet is how I feel. People want this dumb miniature too, and I can’t do anything about that. I also can’t gamble anymore because Lionguard Lyns is down without comment. I guess I’ll just play some Wintersday content with this dumb beluga-thing following me around.

Even with this disappointing gamble, Wintersday is pretty fun, you know. I still get a kick out of the jumping puzzle even though I can one-shot it daily. The story of Tixx is also pretty good. Are the skritt being turned in to toys in the Infiniararium? There’s some Tyrian pest control there. I’m starting to like Foostivoo too. My little girls get a kick out of seeing the “blue frog with the silly hat” following me around. I crafted them an early Christmas present of an Endless Princess Doll Tonic, that I can’t wait to give them. I think ArenaNet definitely earned my $10. Excuse me, I have to go snipe some people in a snowball fight.

–Ravious

Org Charts Matter

I have been thinking about PopCap Games recently. In 2009, they made one of the best games ever, Plants vs. Zombies. They have had a couple of new titles since then, but Steam does not list any since EA acquired them in 2011. The new economic model seems to be exploiting existing properties in as many variations as possible, on as many platforms as possible, using as many monetization streams as possible. And a couple rounds of layoffs.

With 5 versions of Bejeweled, PopCap might not have been entirely averse to this structure, but I mostly hear about their games in my Facebook feed these days. The dumbed-down version of solitaire is surprisingly popular.

: Zubon

[GW2] Wintersday Flurries

In the downtime surrounding the stress of the passing of a loved one (who lived an awesome, long life), I did get to play a bit of Guild Wars 2 Wintersday event. Unfortunately in picking up the pieces and tearing up drafts of some of my more frustrating thoughts, all I have left are brief windswept flurries. Feel free to add your own too! Apologies; I meant to add that Bhagpuss and Jeromai already have very thorough posts up about Wintersday!

  • As a holiday event, Wintersday is amazing. I am just blown away with the magnitude of the event. It feels like there is something for everybody.
  • Snowball Mayhem is now my favorite Guild Wars PvP aside ever. It blows away Dragon Arena and Costume Brawl of old, which used to be my favorites. It sucks that the achievements tied to Snowball Mayhem are not fun, especially Gift Stopper. It’s a small dent in an otherwise beautiful game mode.
  • I am exhausted and puzzled at what the team behind the gem store are thinking. We go from souvenir miniatures (Halloween) to exotic tradable miniatures (The Lost Shore) to rare, untradable miniatures (Wintersday). Untradable RNG leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
  • This puzzlement is compounded by taking down Lionguard Lyns and padding the RNG chests with so much crap! Who wants tonics? Seriously.
  • I love Bell Choir and the Wintersday themes. I hope that ArenaNet puts them up for people to download again like they did for Halloween. Some great holiday songs.
  • The difficulty of the jumping puzzle and the Tixx events are just spot on. The jumping puzzle is a tad hard, but definitely not impossible. The Tixx events are great for a 5-man solo/group instance. Could this lead in to something like Rift’s Instant Adventures?
  • I need to go check out WvW breakout events now. Cya!

–Ravious