Remember the Multiplayer
Two topics this past week really caught my attention, and while they are totally different, they both tend to revert back to the same issue – the “Multiplayer” aspect of MMOs is neglected.
Above: Zyphwar, displaying his love of community.
The first one came from a discussion on the Vanguard forums, where an end game player was making an appeal to the developers for more content, because end game raiding guilds were at the point of leaving. Beau Turkey, from the Voyages of Vanguard podcast, replied the following:
It’s like a balanced diet: never increase the intake of something to that degree unless you want some complications like boredom, worrying about the next dungeon and obsessive loot hunting.
That’s not an insult, that’s the reality of the “end-game”. (I really don’t like that term, as though the game has an end.)
If your favorite past-time in game is “farming after items”, then go for it. I have nothing wrong with that. But there isn’t an unlimited number of items. Knowing that, maybe farming is not the best activity to pass the time.
I know he didn’t intend it, but he basically implied that A) their playstyle isn’t the “right” way and B) they deserve their frustration.
The conversation turned tense, as conversations like that usually do. But then something really cool happened. The original poster actually offered to have Beau attend one of their raids, so he could see exactly what it is that they do, and why they find it fun.
Hot damn – a raid guild offering to let Beau on their raids! My first thought was, how can I get in on this deal? Then I thought about the immense resentment from non-raiders towards raiders. Picture a person seeing a high level player, in raid gear, standing by the broker, and I bet that 99% of the time, that person’s reaction is going to be “Look at the epeen weenie, who has no life and lives in his mother’s basement.” This is really the only venue where those who succeed are overwhelmingly scorned by the general population.
Yes, raiding takes time. But to simply dismiss raiding as a bunch of people doing wads of ass time shows a complete lack of knowledge about what raiding really is. The amount of coordination, precision, communication, and above all, commitment that’s needed to competitively raid is incredible.
Funny thing is, you hear that line of thinking a lot, as if those who don’t raid are “above it” or somehow taking the more noble path. What even more interesting is how many times I’ve come across it from fellow bloggers and podcasters. What concerns me is that those who write about MMORPGS are neglecting to examine an essential facet of the game – the Multiplayer.
Above: Remember the multiplayer. (And multi-cockatrice, and multi-pumpkinhead, and multi-sokokar…)
That leads me to the next news item I came across – Keen and Graev deciding to cancel Age of Conan after only about a week.
Cancelling Age of Conan already? Keen and Graev have been gaming for years, and I’ve always enjoyed reading their blog because of their passion and enthusiasm for MMOs. But lately they have focused their blog on critical reviews of games. People look to them for information on whether to buy a game or not. How on earth can you write about a game, and have any real foundation, after a week’s worth of play? This surprised me, and yet, it didn’t. It’s dismaying how many articles and reviews are written by people who have played a game for only a few hours, or who aren’t actively playing, or just based their review off of a company sponsored preview.
Allow me to take it further – all too often, reviews are based purely on the game mechanics. How does it perform, how long does it take to level, what’s combat like (that’s the flavor of month these days!), etc. Lately, I hear a ton about how AoC’s combat system works, but zero on what combat is like in groups or raids. What are AoC’s combat dynamics in a multi player setting? How do classes compliment/conflict with one another? How does the combat affect class roles, player positioning, combat strategy? What are the nuances of AoC’s combat in a multiplayer environment, not merely a one-on-one situation? Once again, those who write about games are neglecting the multiplayer part of the MMO.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there is a right or wrong way to play. I can’t do end game raiding. I can’t decorate my house like some of these talented people can. I can’t multi-box, tradeskill, readily quote game lore, play the broker game, or PvP. Heck, I can’t even do immersion or roleplaying well. But I have an appreciation for all of these game styles, and I’d love to see the blogging and game writing community do the same. Writing about the game from a community perspective is as important, if not moreso, than writing about pure game mechanics.
I understand that it’s a 6 of one, half dozen of the other scenario. It’s impossible to find the time to play several different games, write a good article, maintain your daily responsibilities, and maybe, just maybe, play an MMO for fun. (Ironically, Michael Zenke wrote a great entry about this as I was putting this together) In general, those who do it, do it well. But why not seek out the best resource that can provide insight into the “multiplayer” aspect of MMOs – guildleaders, specifically guildleaders of high end guilds – the people who log in day in, and day out, see the ebb and flow of community changes, and have their fingers on the pulse of all of the game content and mechanics. I’d love to sit down with guild leaders from all sorts of MMOs, and pick their brains.
That would make a great podcast. Now I just need to learn how to record and edit….
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (9)
Beau does make a valid point though. Especially in Vanguard. If you know (and let’s just assume any new player today would have some clue of VG’s storied first year and lack of “new” content) from the moment you make your first character that the game has limited “end-game” content, why rush to level cap? Why the push? Because WoW and other end-game-centric games have taught people that *in those games* the end-game is the only game in town. They switch MMO’s and think because it’s the same genre, it’s the same game. VG and LOTRO are both prime examples of “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” They have content for all levels, including raids, but are not geared (pun semi-intended) around a raid-only end-game treadmill.
As for K & G giving up on AoC in a week… why not? Seriously. A week is plenty of time for a game to make its impression. In fact, the first few minutes should do it. The mentality of “you need to play til level X to appreciate Y” only applies to classes. The game itself should grab you — or not — immediately. Hence my utter disappointment with EQ2, it seemed to do everything to push me away with poor impressions of every aspect of the game aside from beautiful music. But I’m not paying $15/month to listen to the EQ2 soundtrack.
I don’t know necessarily that low-level characters (assuming they are being directed by new or casual non-raiding players) look at the raiding character by the mailbox as waggling his e-peen. I remember when I was new to WoW and saw some raiding guys in Ironforge. Damn, that was impressive! If they’re acting like pricks and in fact ARE waggling their e-peens then I’ll make a snap judgment on that player, not all raiders. I’ve raided myself, I love raiding, grouping, you name it… there’s great people out there, and there’s the e-peen-waggling, tea-bagging Halo kids that make me wish MMO’s had servers with age and IQ requirements.
Comment by Scott — May 27, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Our decision was not based merely on a single week of playing. We had time in Open and Closed Beta, as well as time in the PvP weekend.
Although we decided to stop playing after only one week in retail, we were able to get halfway through teh entire PvE leveling process (nearly lvl 40) and experience FFA PvP and Mini-game PvP (admittedly not Siege pvp). We played each class to 20+ and several 30+ because it was necessary to play them that long to get a feel for how they played.
We did not “feel” it in AoC. There was no drive to play. Nothing there was grabbing us and saying “Play me!” or “Spend your money!”. There wasn’t that almost magical feeling you get from a new mmorpg… it was more of this gut twisting feeling .
Hopefully that clears things up. We definitely gave the game a fair shake and it was absolutely not for us.
Comment by Keen — May 27, 2008 @ 11:51 am
great stuff as always jaye.
Comment by lumio — May 27, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
Nice one jaye think you hit the nail on the head with people views on any game with only a limited play amount especially when dealing with MMo’s
Comment by Pixie Styx — May 28, 2008 @ 10:50 am
I think you have to recognize a difference between playing classes up to certain levels in Betas/1 week of retail and playing the Game.
The way that you have it laid out, is equivalent to staying in a hotel in New York for a few weeks, however many hours a day, and then saying that you lived in New York. You didn’t live there, you stayed for a while, saw the big shiny things, and the dark dirty things, but you didn’t really get to know the people (the MMO community) and you didn’t fully experience the game.
I really think that’s what Jaye’s trying to get across here is that there’s far more to a game, usually the community that grows around it, than what can be experienced in a week of retail. I think that is the real reason that people end up going back to the games that did capture them, because they put the time in, they have memories, they have a community, and despite the lack of roleplaying that exists in MMO’s, people actually HAVE a character in games that they put time into, not just having a toon.
Just understand the kind of power that the blogger has, I think the year long commitment is the type of blog that I would pay a lot of attention to in trying to seek a new game, but a lot of people are going to read reviews like this and just take from it, “OMG it was so terrible they quit after a week. The year long commitments, they’re sticking it out, they’re understanding the updates, the changes, and getting to know the community. They’re going to play the game and experience it rather than just renting it.
Corka Roo!
Fastest Gnome in the Woods
Comment by Corka — May 30, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
[...] Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Reviews, Opinion [...]
Pingback by MMO Clerks » Jaye remembers the multiplayer — June 2, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
Jaye remembers the multiplayer
Filed under: Culture , Game mechanics , Reviews , Opinion Raiders, PvPers, explorers, achievers, item
Trackback by Daily MMO Game News — June 2, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
I was going to leave a big ole’ comment, but this box thingy messed up.
I can’t even remember what I was going to say, so I’ll just post something.
I am not jealous of raiders or think that they live in basements.
I never said (even if it was implied) that I think there is a right or wrong way to play.
The OP from that thread that you quoted was saying something bout boredom or lack of content or something (would have to look it up) and I was simply saying:
“No mmo is endless. We all know this. Either go after all the content, or take it easy. There are 5 bags of cheetos. Eat them all in a night, or take your time. No right or wrong bout it, it’s just the way it is.”
A raider that spends 5 or 6 nights, meaning dozens of hours, going to the same dungeon (and the numbers don’t matter, WoW has roughly the same amount as VG) over and over and over then becoming bored has nothing at all in any way shape or form to do with the developer.
And while I agree that raiding takes “skill”, I argue that the amount of skill that raid takes goes down quickly after, say, the 20th time! lol We all know raiders (or have been in a raid) talking on IM’s, Skype, chatting in Vent, writing emails…no raider in any game is doing anything more skillful than me by going back to the same dungeon literally dozens of times.
Just my thought, though.
Now, if this one messes up I will scream. It’s not nice to quote someone then not let them reply!
Comment by Beau Turkey — June 2, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
Obsessive pursuit of anything (raids, PvP, roleplay, crafting, levels, what-have-you) leads to quick mastery and eventual burnout. Why? Finite content. It’s a finite gameworld. You’re just going to run out of game faster.
Still, it’s a totally valid playstyle choice to play fast and get all the good stuff fast – and yes, burnout fast. Move on to the next game fast. Complaining loudly on forums is not going to speed up the content updates any.
I suspect that’s why a lot of non-raiders are not extremely impressed with endgame raiders. Personally, I think the coordination and precision involved with a large raid is fascinating. I don’t think I’d be super keen to do it ad nauseam every night, but if people love doing it, all power to them.
However, the vocal minority who gulp down content and demand a longer treadmill for their playstyle only, are also marginalizing other players’ favored non-raiding playstyles. And -that- grates on people.
As for community, it takes time for a new game’s community to settle in, and for people to get comfortable playing with each other. Makes sense that you won’t see immediate comments on group dynamics or the social aspects of an MMO, unless they have some new innovative system that needs highlighting.
It’s hard to pinpoint community anyway. One might guess that LOTRO players tend to be more laid-back and socializer/roleplay types, but I’m sure there are also large pockets of endgame raid focused groups and PvMPers.
It can also vary across game servers. City of Heroes -tend- to have more leetspeaking, hardcore focused players on Freedom, while the casual hardcore and roleplayers gravitate to Virtue. But that’s just a tendency, you’ll still see a mix everywhere.
And this mixture means that you can have the best group design possible, and still end up with PUGs from hell. How do you comment fairly about a game’s group/class dynamics without at least playing a good period of time with lots of multiple groups?
Comment by Jeromai — June 3, 2008 @ 1:19 am