Category: General

General

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Tao of the MMO Gamer

Plenty of people put forth their forward–looking posts, and I am going to do it as well.  Whether it is from a Steam-driven library of games, an aging MMO population, an economic recession, or plenty of different business models coming in to the MMO world, I believe that the subscription model of today is nearly done being “the way.”  Walk with me a second…

Continue reading Tao of the MMO Gamer

Grind, the Everpresent

It’s kind of like suspension of disbelief.  Gameplay becomes grind ultimately when the player believes the tasks are artificial and arbitrary rather than naturally incorporated into what the character should be doing.

It is definitely one of the hardest MMO terms to define.  Almost like pornography.  You just know it when you see it (SFW).

–Ravious
It means that we’re just dolls.

p.s. I had an epic “grind” post – that spawned from the comments of Hobby Elements – covering when grind was used to teach, used to make a worthwhile feeling of accomplishment, etc… and I think the only intelligent thing that came out of the entire multi-rewritten post is what is above.

Internet Connections, Trivial and Important

Now Facebook-equipped, I can catch up on the lives of friends around the world by looking at status changes. I can keep them similarly informed. I have a news feed that tells me how their lives have changed. Except that most of my friends are not on Facebook, and about half the friends list is not active. And then there is the problem of what one posts to Facebook.

It is basically a parade of the trivial. I have friends, family, and co-workers on my friends list. While this lets you keep up with everyone, it also limits you to saying things you want heard by friends, family, and co-workers. And whatever teachers from high school friended you. That, combined with the usual Twitter feeds, gives you a lot of information about what sandwiches people are eating and ensuing effects, but not so much about their personal crises. (Oddly, many of those go on blogs that anyone can view, not just your friends list, under a thin veneer of anonymity.) If your innermost thoughts cannot be summarized in 140 characters, or if you might not want your niece to have access to them, this one-to-many communication thing may not be terribly helpful.

If you do want to post about important things, there will be a time lag. You probably will not post mid-catastrophe. Maybe you will text an update while on the way to the delivery room, and I know our current 20-somethings do at times, but you see variants of “Zubon is glad *that* is over.” You can get context in the comments, where you will discover that it was a passive-aggressive status update, not a house fire. I like my stream of updates, even if I am not terribly concerned about the latest reality shows that people seem to be watching.

And Bildo is on my friends list now, so I must watch what I say about all of you.

: Zubon

Zero Punctuation Is Pretty Good This Week

The words of hate against the latest Tomb Raider take a little bit to get going. It starts out seeming like the same ol’ bile for the same ol’ sequel, but around the two minute point he begins ranting about why she is evil. As MMO players, I think you can recognize the unprovoked killing of imposing but non-hostile species that will calmly wait for you to start attacking them in their homes, to say nothing of murdering people who are doing the same things you are doing but for a different team.

And for the Americans, “Bristols” is a standard bit of rhyming slang. Rhyming? Here, you do not even need to Google it.

: Zubon

Philosophical Adventures

Can we make an MMO of this? I like it more than the previous edition.

I need City of Heroes to have a chat variable equal to your current accuracy, so I can use Kimiko’s line in real time with my attacks. Add it and I will re-subscribe just to make an Empirimancer. I already have an Osteomancer.

(There may be no lulz there if you do not know philosophy. Sorry. l2hume noob)

: Zubon

Manipulating Perceptions

As human beings, we are rather good at detecting relationships and rather poor at estimating absolutes. There are plenty of optical illusions that play on how you perceive size, brightness, and color based on surroundings. The author of Mindless Eating found that people eat more snacks if you offer them in two large bowls than in four medium bowls. Not only do people take more, but they do not notice that they have taken more, nor do they feel like they have eaten more, nor are they more satisfied.

Does “a good deal” even have an objective meaning? Probably not, but you can tell when one offer is better than another. Presentation and context still matter here. City of Heroes got good press for engaging in microtransactions: it was presented as an extra employee (not taking away from the existing staff), and the profits were linked directly to hiring more staff and getting more stuff in the next update. Players liked having the opportunity to pay more. Blizzard, on the other hand, got immediate flak for planning to sell Starcraft 2 in three pieces. The first impression was of trying to sell the same game three times or demanding $150 for the full set of units. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, however, did more or less the same thing, and I did not see a backlash.

Note that this is more than cynical manipulation. You can improve the game experience this way. Indeed, that is the point of half the content: hide the fact that you are fighting the essentially the same monster by giving it a different model and slightly different stats. The people eating from smaller bowls felt no less full: they were satisfied with fewer calories. If I can make you happier just by presenting my game in a better way, I am adding value practically for free.

Most restaurants tried this with the size of their fries, drinks, and combos. One day, they were called, “large,” “mondo,” and “colossal.” Wow, a large is that cheap? And I ate the whole thing by myself, I must be full. Nothing was called a “small,” and there might have been a “medium” on the “value menu.” That was a poor manipulation that did not last, and everyone was irritated by trying to remember whether a “king” was bigger than a “biggie,” what they were called at this restaurant, and guessing what you would get if you ordered a medium or a large. I just got back from Burger King, where they changed their sizes to “small,” “medium,” and “large” (with a “value” size on the value menu). Holy crap, realism? This works on several levels. First, I suddenly like Burger King more because they made this change. It implies that they do not think I am an idiot. Second level? We are still conditioned to think of sizes the way every other restaurant lists them. When you order a Whopper combo, they ask if you want that in small, medium, or large. No one buys a small! You might not have ordered the colossal combo, but you order larges all the time. This is a great way to increase sales while manipulating people into thinking you have stopped manipulating them.

: Zubon

Hobby Elements

Paul Barnett, said again and again during pre-release interviews for Warhammer Online that they were creating a “hobby,” rather than a simple (add British sneer here) game.  His line of reasoning was that Warhammer Online required dedication, but what you got from that dedication was something good… more than simply defeating a final boss and turning off the console.  I wanted to take a look at why MMOs transcend being a mere game in order to become a hobby.

Continue reading Hobby Elements

Boobies?

A discussion of the D&D 4th Edition dragonborn race caused an unfortunate realization: the females have breasts. Female reptilians that lay eggs. If you have a female reptilian pet, I will give you a moment to go check that. Note that the bottom of a female turtle’s shell does not have cleavage. I do not know how consistent the illustrations are: fantasy setting regularly reverse the decision on whether female dwarfs have beards, and some of the images could be female dragonborn without breasts. Once the epiphany arrives, you start seeing it everywhere. See, for example, Earth Eternal. Those are some prominent breasts on frogs and birds. If you have a female avian pet, I will give you a moment to go check that.

If you have a female mammalian pet, I will give you a moment to go check that. Note the cat’s chest: fuzzy but flat. If you have seen a litter-bearing species nursing, count. Catgirls? No. Female tauren, really? Those are not udders. And for the places that put udders on all humanoid cows: that is a bull, and there are degrees of wrong going on when he is squirting things. We will not get into female-aspected rock and fire elementals that somehow exhibit sexual dimorphism.

The Everquests, I am told, are good about this. I am even willing to give pectoral credit once a few races get it right. You also lose no points if the species in question was originally a humanoid mammal (naga) or was designed to interact with humanoid mammals (succubi). I am going to stop thinking of examples before it gets stuck in my head, but you are welcome to contribute yours. Comments are open.

For the furries in the audience, yes, I know this is old territory for you. Please do not link to those discussion threads, especially ones with illustrations, especially especially ones that get into fetishes. Discussion threads from Earth Eternal and other games are acceptable. I hit TV Tropes, which led me to the dragonborn breasts discussion thread (past 500 posts). (Official word: D&D has a hand-waving explanation about how they are not really reptiles. Neither are dragons.) For anyone reading at work, I recommend waiting until you get home to click any links.

: Zubon