My latest MMORPG.com column is up: this one is on RMT, which I’m sure a few have one or two opinions about. I tend to write these columns with an eye towards a reader that *doesn’t* obsessively read every MMO-focused blog and message board, as opposed to you, Dear Readers, who I assume know far more about MMO-related drama than I do.
Ironically, I've never actually watched any of the CSI shows.
Also, I’m employed! (At least for 3 months – after the end of which we’ll see if I move to full-time from contracting.) I’m a developer attached to NCsoft’s Customer Surveillance Unit (CSU) team, which is being put together to quash RMT, botting, and such in NCsoft’s titles. The irony of not having to ask where to go for the job interview did not escape me.
It’s not a design position – I’m still determining if I want to get back into design at some point in the future or just work on my own garage-band titles. Heading up the design for two large projects roughly one after the other which failed to make it out the door – well, I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been difficult for my ego. We’ll just have to see where things go – in the mean time this new position certainly has some interesting challenges of its own.
#1 by geldonyetich on November 29th, 2009
You’re more a diehard MMORPG fan than me if “what’s available” is nothing but games of that genre.
#2 by Doug on November 30th, 2009
When I play offline games I get this overwhelming feeling that I am actually wasting my time. With an MMO I feel as though I am progressing for some reason even though it appears that every five years I quit my MMO and begin a new one. Both are a waste of time, but at least one of them is long term waste, much like a liberal arts degree but without the excessive cost.
#3 by geldonyetich on November 30th, 2009
I’ve been there. Lately, my philosophy has shifted more along the lines of thinking that what I get out of games is entertainment.
If a game isn’t really entertaining me (perhaps because I no longer give a damn about virtual achievement knowing its just a bunch of 1s and 0s on a computer somewhere which will soon be made obsolete when the next expansion comes out or I move on to another MMORPG) then the game isn’t performing the role in my life that games are there to perform.
Worse, if I consider entertainment from along the lines of Raph’s Theory of Fun, where a sense of fun is actually learning going on, I’m afraid that playing a game which fun will actually make me stupider over the long run.
When you’ve been playing a game long enough that the goal is to sit there and accumulate, not dodge the enemies’ attacks, not use the terrain to your advantage, not strategize, basically sit there and soak damage and hammer out a predictable pattern of hot keys because to do anything else would be considered exploiting, then you’re being trained not to play a game at all.
I’ve actually noticed this behavior in me if I’ve been playing a MMORPG a lot lately and then move on to another game. I won’t try to play that game intelligently, e.g. think of ways to play the game better, because I’m too used to the idea of a game in which there are no ways to play it better, by design, to level the playing field. The “persistence>skill” model is a genuine brain killer.
So, in terms of time investment, I’m feel I’m probably wasting my time a whole lot less playing something genuinely entertaining but without a persistent space than I am playing something mind-numbingly boring but with a persistent space.
But I still see some appeal in a persistent space. It does make you feel a certain sense of creation to know that your efforts in a game are actually producing a sense of progress (even if it is an illusion). To these ends, I’ve been experimenting with a game that can be both a dynamic (as opposed to the usual static – nothing ever changes) persistent game world and interactive in a way a game should be interactive.
#4 by Guy on November 30th, 2009
If a lone player levels in an offline world, do they actually “ding”?
#5 by geldonyetich on November 30th, 2009
If it’s a Square-Enix game, they spend about 5 hours in non-interactive cinematics dinging.
#6 by Gx1080 on November 30th, 2009
They are really good non-interactive cinematics. Just saying.
#7 by Doug on December 1st, 2009
You know, Lum complained about us posting too much but I have never been so engaged in a discussion before. All in all I think his lack of posting has made me take a hard look at what I play and why I play it as opposed to just looking at the next update and not bothering to get into a drawn out discussion.
@Lum
It’s like we’re keeping your blog warm while you are away. We’re generating our own content!
#8 by CmdrSlack on December 1st, 2009
So this is emergent behavior? If so, I am currently selling comment replies for $5 each.