Chronicles of a Game Player, Part II - Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - WintyreFraust | |
| When I started playing MajorMUD several years ago, it was on some dial-up BBS in Kansas City. They had a local line down here where I live in Texas, and so there were no long distance charges. I thought it was going to be a really cool adventure into a text game; what it turned into was an exploration of the most bizarre personalites and corrupt social structure I've ever witnessed. Remember dialing up with a 9600, or a 14.4, and thinking how fast it was? It was the difference between winning at PvP and losing. I logged in at 9600 for the first time, and got a free month of MajorMUD on "Metropolis", a BBS that was relatively busy. When I entered the game, there were always 10-15 other people on, playing ... or so I thought. The truth was, they weren't really playing, the had "scripts" that played their character 24/7. I wasn't really interested enough to care about it, I was just interested in playing the game, exploring it. Very quickly I learned that these people were obsessive about the game. They had their own lingo in the game, and ridiculed anyone who didn't demonstrate a complete understanding of the rules and how to set up scripts and macros. Highly technical arguments would erupt in the game; people with 9600 baud modems were called every derogatory name in the book; people that didn't have macros were dismissed as idiots. Your reputation lived and died by how well you could PvP; that was the true pecking order of the social structure in the game. If you were lousy at PvP, you might as well just tattoo "abuse me" on your forehead. I didn't like to PvP, so I avoided it. I just wanted to explore the game and have some fun. Generally I never talked to anyone, because knowing a little about psychology I knew there wasn't really anything I could say that would make any difference. I wouldn't suck up to the ruling clique of that particular BBS, so I was deemed fair game. As time went by, I realized just how unstable and bizarre these people were. It's one thing that they meet offline in pizza parlors and bars to have a good time - hey, why not? - but it's entirely another when several of them leave their spouses because they've fallen in love with someone's on-line persona. There were several instances of this, and of young women and men that moved ... picked up and moved ... in order to live near their online friends. Left jobs and families. And this was just in a game pool of about 50 people, at most. Soon enough, the ruling clique had decided that I'd been on my own enough, and that they didn't like the fact that I was off by myself just enjoying the game and staying out of their little soap opera. It became hunting season on my character. This in itself was rather interesting, because it added a new element to the game, and I had to be very careful and cunning. Eventually there was a confrontation in the "crypt" between myself and a couple of the members of the ruling guild; I killed both of them. This was really the worst thing I could do, because the one thing those kind of people cannot abide is being killed in PvP by someone they've ridiculed or consider to be not as informed about the game as they are. From what I learned later, one of them threw his computer against the wall, smashed his keyboard and vowed to kill me .. in real life. I didn't take this threat very seriously, but then this same guy ended up in jail for assault a couple of weeks later. The motive? His girlfriend had left him for another guy who passed him on the "top 50" mudder's list ... so he went out and beat him up. I played MajorMUD for about a year, and these are just a few of the countless stories. The lives of these people actually resembled the lives of people on soap operas, and they seemed to live and thrive on the high drama. I don't know if it's the caffeine and cigarettes, or if online games just seem to attract the high-drama type. but I continue to be amazed at how people online seem to be so addicted to behavior and group structures that would shock Jerry Springer. However, I did manage to pick up a good friend in all that time; we ended up running around in the game together and ditched it when Everquest went live. I sold my character in the game for $200 and never looked back. However, I hear those same guys are still playing the same game, and have the same trailer-park intrigue going on. My theory is that they are the big fish in a little pond, and that it never really was about the game for them - it was about fulfilling some psychological need. Moving to Everquest, where they'd be lost as an individual and their little group wouldn't really amount to much, wouldn't satisfy whatever personal needs they have. I sure hope that soon, online games will be designed by people that enjoy gaming, and not fulfilling tyrannical, "lord it over everyone else" desires. Until then, I think I'll stick to "Dungeon Siege". Tell me how boring this is here. | |
Hope you haven't invested too much - Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - D 0ne | |
| From Casters Realm where there are no opinions! Here's mine, Verant Nerfs EverQuest in toto... How does level 60 and being the best in the game feel now? ---------------------- The June issue of PC Gamer has a lot of information on the upcoming EverQuest 2 project being developed from Sony Online. From the reading of the article the designers have learnt a lot about the world of Norrath and how they can build upon it. This knowledge has been garnered not only from EverQuest but from many of the other MMOG's which have been released over the last three years. It's system requirements when released (currently slated for October 2003) will be a P3-733 (or Athlon XP), 512MB of Ram and GeForce 3 or higher. It's graphics engine was developed along with that used in the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies title. The world of EQ2 is set some time into the future from the current EverQuest world. There will be only three continents however at release. 50% of the zones will be entirely new, and 50% will be rebuilt areas of the traditional Norrath. But the world has changed. The article describes how Freeport has been taken over by the corrupt Freeport militia and the remnant paladins isolated in a new area known as Marr. The Iksar still roam, but the Vah Shir have disappeared (Kerrans are however playable). Banks will no longer be global. Rather each town will have a unique bank to be accessed, and if large amounts of goods need to be moved from one bank to another then a horse and cart or boat can be acquired for the journey. Players will be able to purchase houses. As towns develop from the placement of houses the world will spawn guard towers and NPCs to man them to protect the towns. No stats will be assigned at creation. Simply race, appearance and sex. Classes and any stat assignment will occur later in the game. At Level 6 you will pick a base class: fighter, priest, mage, rogue or tradesmen. At Level 15 you can then specialize these classes further. At Level 30 you will make a final specialization choice and that will determine your class for the rest of that characters life. The current planned Level cap is 100, though it could be extended up to 200 through expansions. Items will be able to decay or break. Items will have recommended levels, and use of items far above you will have diminished effect and a greater chance of breaking. This is obviously to address twinking (the equipping of high level items on low level players). Item decay will however ensure tradeskills are more viable and a greater part of the economy. There will be 3 'skills' which enhance your character. Knowledge, Technique and Arts. According to the article Knowledge affects what level of items you can equip , Technique determines how well you can use weapons or items, and Arts handles more basic functions like foraging or kicking. This system will be interesting to keep an eye on, most particularly in relation to its advancement model. The death system is still not fully determined. The article does show however that the development team will ensure death still has a reasonably heavy penalty. Whilst doing corpse recovery for hours will be probably become a thing of the past, death will still be a pain. One change however is that death will simply incur an XP debt: extra experience you will need to recover before continuing to advance through your level. This means no more loss of level from death - ever. The graphics engine apparently looks amazing and we are beginning to see the first signs of it (click here to view our gallery of EQ2 images). There is a lot more in the article which begs reading and it should be on stands within a couple of weeks. Discuss! | |
Send in or post the links we need in the links section - Saturday, April 20, 2002 - D 0ne | |
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Chronicles of a Game Player, Part 1 - Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - WintyreFraust | |
| No, this isn't a rant, but I'm not always in the mood to rant, and I figure, what the heck, putting something on the board is better than putting nothing on the board. Maybe you'll find it entertaining. I started "gaming" about 20 years ago. After checking out some Dungeons & Dragons type games and finding them horribly complicated, I used my creative skills to come up with a new game. I wrote and illustrated it, then took it to the family reunions and entertained all the kids with it. We'd stay up all night long playing that game. As the years passed, the game evolved. I cannibalized other game piece from various fantasy games and various standard games like Risk to add scope and depth to what had become a hobby. Eventually, I made foot-square wooden tiles painted with map of a fantasy world to fashion a 10ft by 10ft playing field for the game. Every teenager in my little home town would be at my house, at the office in the back, all weekend playing that game. I have a great love of gaming. I guess that's because in my philosophy of life, I don't hold the events of the world as very important, and even if they are, then my role in such matters is insignificant. What I can do, however, is enjoy my life, and help those around me enjoy their lives as well. This is why I consider it important that games are enjoyable, and do not contribute to the misery or problems of life. Anyway, as time went by and I went through your usual spate of early computer games played on ancient relics like the TI99-4a and the Commodore 64, I always hoped that some day the computer media would produce some truly engrossing, wonderful games that would enrich the enjoyment of life for so many people that could really use a break from the efforts and troubles of life. My brothers and I spent many a great night playing games on machines capable of providing no more than stick-man graphics, but we loved it, and we enjoyed that time immensely. Not that gaming, or game design is a noble profession, or a spiritual task, but life is hard enough as it is, and a good game that brings smiles, laughter, and joy to the heart can only benefit the human condition, and the lives of many individuals. Much to my dismay, the advent of online gaming seemed to bring about only more disharmony, not joy. It seemed to relish in, and desired to promote, strife between players, not cooperation in fun. While it was always my desire as a game designer to help everyone have fun, it seemed to me that online games were about creating venues where a few had fun at the expense of everyone else. Provide your own story here! NEXT INSTALLMENT: My Experience in Early Text MUDs | |
Everquest and Addiction - Monday, April 15, 2002 - WintyreFraust | |
| When you buy a new car, you practically sleep in it. You spend as much time as you can in it. You find yourself looking out the window and standing in the yard gawking at and appreciating your new car like some kind of love-struck puppy. I think the same is true of the MMOG industry; when you first find it, you dive in and don’t come up for air for a long time. It is so cool, and so fun, that it pretty much swallows up your time and effort. However, like with most things, over time you cool off and spend less time doing it. The new wears off and then something good happens; the difference between "new" and "quality" becomes apparent. At about this time, as a group, we stop and say to ourselves - and others - "this isn’t really that good of a game." The industry response to that is that we suffer from burnout, or that, in moderation, the game is still just as enjoyable. This is simply not true. Everquest was never a "good" game; it was, however, a great "experience". The experience it offered was virtually unique and groundbreaking, and that, in and of itself, can be enough for great success - especially in the computer game market. Why was Everquest not a good game? Frankly, it requires too much investment of time and effort in order for the average player to enjoy the game; and it requires that investment of time and effort in ways most players are unwilling to commit. Yes, you can enjoy the "experience", but the game? Even in life, what "team sport" requires forty to fifty people suited up and on the field ready to play in order to reach the pinnacle of the game? What game requires 36 hours of continuous play in order to have a remote chance of achieving a specific goal? Everquest requires too much - far too much - time and effort and collaboration; essentially, those that attain the higher levels of the game have to invest unhealthy, even fanatical amounts of time into the game. At those levels, the game isn’t "fun" for anyone; it is a syringe of electronic drug soothing some psychological wound or need. Any game designed in this manner is intrinsically "unfun" to play, because as you progress through the game you recognize that unhealthy devotion to it is required in order to progress much further. You are then left ultimately dissatisfied because you have to - HAVE to, if you are sane and well - make the decision that you must leave the game to the fanatically obsessed, while you settle for simply enjoying the experience. If you choose to go ahead with the game, then "fun" isn’t driving you; aberrant psychology most likely is. In either case, the game is unfun for everyone at this point; the experience of the 3D interactive MMOG might still be greatly entertaining, but the game has a built-in cut-off point for actually having any fun in it. From that point on, the game is about as fun as being an alcoholic begging people for liquor money, and "the experience" is more like just playing around in a graphical chatroom with interesting side stuff to do while you chat. And yet, SOE treats you as a second class citizen in its game unless you sell your soul to them. No particle effect weapons for you. No epic quest. You don’t get to visit the places that the designers spend the most time creating, nor fight the creatures the live team devoted their best effort to. You don’t get to put on the special, unique armors or cast the best spells or train the best skills. Unless you are willing to ignore your wife, kids, job, and school in self-destructive obsession to Everquest, SOE will not reward you. They seem to delight in creating even greater divisions between the rewards granted to the fringe-group obsessives, and the "average" player. Being a "casual" player is something that is looked down upon by the professional gaming infrastructure - the people who design and produce these games, and those that invest 40+ hours a week playing them. Everquest isn’t a good game because it caters to a very small, fringe group that aren’t really even having "fun" playing the game; they’re shooting up with an electronic syringe. And if you’re not willing to plunge that needle of self-destruction into your arm, SOE refuses to allow you to enjoy their game; you can enjoy the experience all you want, but the game is reserved for the addicts. Hopefully, at some point, an MMOG will come out that doesn’t require self-destructive, obsessive addiction in order to play "the game", and therefore average, casual players can enjoy more than just the "wonder" of being in an online, interactive virtual world. That wonder has worn off. What we need now is an actually decent game that doesn’t require a psychosis to play. Buy your next fix here. | |
Suggested Reading... - Thursday, April 11, 2002 - D 0ne | |
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Mobhunter breaks a big one! - Monday, April 8, 2002 - D 0ne | |
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Old news but the site is working again - Monday, April 8, 2002 - D 0ne | |
| Death of a game addict Ill Hudson man took own life after long hours on Web By STANLEY A. MILLER II of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: March 30, 2002 Shawn Woolley loved an online computer game so much that he played it just minutes before his suicide. The 21-year-old Hudson man was addicted to EverQuest, says his mother, Elizabeth Woolley of Osceola. He sacrificed everything so he could play for hours, ignoring his family, quitting his job and losing himself in a 3-D virtual world where more than 400,000 people worldwide adventure in a never-ending fantasy. On Thanksgiving morning last year, Shawn Woolley shot himself to death at his apartment in Hudson. His mother blames the game for her son's suicide. She is angry that Sony Online Entertainment, which owns EverQuest, won't give her the answers she desires. She has hired an attorney who plans to sue the company in an effort to get warning labels put on the games. "It's like any other addiction," Elizabeth Woolley said last week. "Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died." In the virtual world of EverQuest, players control their characters through treasure-gathering, monster-slaying missions called quests. Success makes the characters stronger as they interact with other players from all over the real world. Woolley has tried tracing her son's EverQuest identity to discover what might have pushed him over the edge. Sony Online cites its privacy policy in refusing to unlock the secrets held in her son's account. She has a list of names her son scrawled while playing the game: "Phargun." "Occuler." "Cybernine." But Woolley is not sure if they are names of online friends, places he explored in the game or treasures his character may have captured in quests. "Shawn was playing 12 hours a day, and he wasn't supposed to because he was epileptic, and the game would cause seizures," she said. "Probably the last eight times he had seizures were because of stints on the computer." Woolley knows her son had problems beyond EverQuest, and she tried to get him help by contacting a mental health program and trying to get him to live in a group home. A psychologist diagnosed him with depression and schizoid personality disorder, symptoms of which include a lack of desire for social relationships, little or no sex drive and a limited range of emotions in social settings. "This fed right into the EverQuest playing," Woolley said. "It was the perfect escape." Vulnerable to addiction Jay Parker, a chemical dependency counselor and co-founder of Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Wash., said Woolley's mental health problems put him in a category of people more likely to be at risk of getting addicted to online games. Parker said people who are isolated, prone to boredom, lonely or sexually anorexic are much more susceptible to becoming addicted to online games. Having low self-esteem or poor body image are also important factors, he said. "The manufacturer of EverQuest purposely made it in such a way that it is more intriguing to the addict," Parker said. "It could be created in a less addictive way, but (that) would be the difference between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine." Parker doesn't make the narcotics analogy lightly. One client - a 21-year-old college student - stopped going to class within eight weeks after he started playing EverQuest his senior year. After playing the game for 36 hours straight, he had a psychotic break because of sleep deprivation, Parker said. "He thought the characters had come out of the game and were chasing him," Parker said. "He was running through his neighborhood having hallucinations. I can't think of a drug he could have taken where he would have disintegrated in 15 weeks." Common warning signs There are several questions people who think they are addicted to computers and the Internet can ask themselves to see whether they might have a problem, Parker said, including whether they can predict the amount of time they spend on the computer or have failed trying to control their computer use for an extended period of time. Parker said that any traumatic setback to Shawn Woolley's character in EverQuest could have traumatized an already vulnerable young man. It may be that the character was slain in combat and Woolley had trouble recovering him. Or, he could have lost a treasured artifact or massive wealth, or been cast out of one of the game's social clubs, called guilds. "The social component is big because it gives players a false sense of relationships and identity," Parker said. "They say they have friends, but they don't know their names." Elizabeth Woolley remembers when her son was betrayed by an EverQuest associate he had been adventuring with for six months. Shawn's online brother-in-arms stole all the money from his character and refused to give it back. "He was so upset, he was in tears," she said. "He was so depressed, and I was trying to say, 'Shawn, it's only a game.' I said he couldn't trust those people." Sony Online Entertainment declined to comment for this story, but EverQuest fans say the game is a fun diversion that is much better than watching television. 'It's like an adult playground' Donna Cox of Schaumburg, Ill., has played for about two years and enjoys the adventuring and socializing. Cox and her husband, Bob, play together and team up against the game's challenges. "It's like an adult playground," said Donna Cox, a professional who manages a team of computer programmers. "You can become anything you want. People only see the side of you that you want them to see." Cox played about 40 hours a week at the height of her gaming but now plays only a couple of times a week. "Once you get into the high-end game, it takes a a lot of time," she said. Dody Gonzales of Milwaukee has played the game for about three years and has more than a dozen characters spread across the EverQuest realm. Gonzales, who plays about four hours a night, knows EverQuest has been blamed for people's problems because it's a topic discussed in the online community. Said player Vincent Frederico of Rochester, N.Y.: "It's almost like a drug. If you are not happy with your real life, you can always go in. . . . Someone who lacks social skills, they could find it much easier just to play the game instead of going out to a bar." A game without end How does it pull people in? One key component is that the game can be played indefinitely, and there are always people populating the online world. EverQuest and other online games also have a social structure. "The graphics are absolutely thrilling. They just haul you in," said Parker, who has treated several people for EverQuest addiction. "The other piece is that it takes time to leave the game. You have to find a place to hide to get out, and that makes people want to play longer." For people who are unhappy, socially awkward or feel unattractive, online games provide a way to reinvent themselves. Shawn Woolley - who was overweight, worked in a pizza restaurant and lived alone in an apartment the last months of his life - may have depended on EverQuest to provide the life he really wanted to live. "People like to create new personas," Parker said. "You see a lot of gender-bending." Hooked on 'EverCrack' Interest in online games grew in 1997 with Origin Systems' Ultima Online, now with about 225,000 players. Microsoft's Asheron's Call, with around 100,000 subscribers, provides a virtual world similar to EverQuest's. Most online games require an initial software purchase plus monthly fees of about $10. The games have roots in Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game created in 1974 by TSR Games in Lake Geneva. But D&D requires human contact to play; its digital counterparts do not. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis, said many EverQuest players refer to it as "EverCrack." Walsh, who didn't know the details of Woolley's suicide, thinks mental health problems linked to playing online games, especially EverQuest, are growing. "Could a person get so engrossed that they become so distressed and distraught that it could put them over the edge?" Walsh said. "It probably has something to do with the game. But your average person or average gamer won't do this. It's a coming together of a number of circumstances." Walsh and Parker both said online games as a whole are not inherently bad, and Walsh compared playing online games to drinking alcohol. Both can be harmful if abused. A call for warning labels "I've seen a lot of wreckage because of EverQuest," Parker said. "But they are all the same. It's like cigarettes. They need to come with a warning label. 'Warning, extensive playing could be hazardous to your health.' " Warning labels are exactly what Jack Thompson, a Miami attorney and vocal critic of the entertainment industry, wants to result from a lawsuit he plans to file against Sony Online Entertainment for Elizabeth Woolley. "We're trying to whack them with a verdict significantly large so that they, out of fiscal self-interest, will put warning labels on," he said. "We're trying to get them to act responsibly. They know this is an addictive game." "I am sure we are going to find things akin to the tobacco industry memos where they say nicotine is addictive," he said. "There is a possibility of a class-action lawsuit." John Kircher, a professor at Marquette University Law School and expert in personal injury law, said a negligence action might be won if plaintiffs could successfully argue EverQuest's publishers "should have foreseen an unreasonable risk of harm, that people could potentially hurt themselves. "Then there is the issue of First Amendment rights," Kircher said. "Does the First Amendment right trump the rights of the plaintiff? If the Internet is a form of publication . . . there is a balance the courts try to strike, and it's not an easy question." Journal Sentinel correspondent Joe Winter contributed to this story. ---------------------------- He probably masterbated a lot too. news story | |