The View From Here
I’m sitting in the lobby of a 5-star hotel in Auckland, New Zealand with family and friends drinking coffee and champagne. Auckland is like a cross between Melbourne and Brisbane, which is a bit of a disappointment. I don’t really feel as if I have done more than traveled interstate, rather than 2000km across the Tasman Sea. However, there is a sense of freshness in the air, and innocence in the people that is different to home. Many people say the same thing about Australia, but New Zealand is even more so, which is nice.
Apart from a continual tension between design and production concerns, the game project is flowing fairly smoothly. The tension is not all bad either. As a designer you will always want to include things that enrich the game, not matter how small or big. Production is concerned with assets required, the number of people to produce them, and the time available. The compromises which must occur often have the benefit of culling ideas which weren’t so good anyway.
However, there is another side to the coin. As much as I – with a metropolitan print journalism background – appreciate the necessity and benefit of deadlines, the insinuation that production concerns are somehow ultimately more important than anything else is a troubling one. I haven’t come to terms with the implications of several of production’s unquestioned tenets, and I’m fairly certain they are ultimately bad for the game and for games in general. When we start making creative decisions based upon marketing agendas and how easy things are to represent accurately in Microsoft Project, we have lost our way utterly. That hasn’t happened yet, but we’re skirting worryingly around the edges. I guess it’s part of my job to make sure we never fall over. Mind you, I’d (much) rather deal with the problems of too much organisation, than too little.
Regarding playing games, as opposed to making them, I’m becoming more aware of the importance of community in MMORPGs. WoW has inherited the awful juvenile nastiness of the B.Net crowd, and as a result the game experience is immeasurably reduced over the long term. Blizzard has tried to soften it by enforcing strict rules of conduct ingame and on their forums, but through a mixture of inconsistency and incompetence, they are losing the battle badly.
I’m struck by two questions as a result. The first is: why have Blizzard games attracted and fostered such a consistently acidic community? Like it or not, that is a reflection on their games and their company, and says something about them. The second question has occupied my thinking for several years now: why, when given the cloak of anonymity, do the vast majority of people choose to behave badly? That is a question with deep anthropological implications, and begs some serious thought. But current and future online community managers had better get a handle on it soon, or the internet (and gaming) communities are going to lose all their best people. My experience, sadly, is that they already are.
posted by monty · at 1:39 pm · filed under Uncategorized
You can’t ban players for misuse. The problem with a subscriber game is that means losing profits. Hey pubs chuck people out for being louts. But MMO’s are different. You pay by Credit card, as a consumer you can charge the subscription back as goods not recieved if you are banned. No MATTER what BLIZZARDS terms of use state, their terms mean nothing when it hits Mastercard or Visa rules, they have to take it to a civil court.
I’ve got a friend, who plays WoW, and because he leveled up so quickly, after a whille, when there is nothing better to do. And in order for him to get his moneys worth he just goes online and acts like a retard. Abusing people and what not.
He is regularly banned, but by the time the ban has been enforced and carried out, he has been to sleep, gone to work and come home. All he gets is an email, at that moment he can play again.
They just need to punkbust the games. Punish bad, abusive players. Or are they going to allow bullies. One way to combat it, is by rewarding the people who cut down the retards where they stand. Give the good samaritans (gameplay wise not as in Good V Evil)something, record what happens, and have them rewarded for stopping a retard. Obviously. This could cause collusion. Other then kicking idiots, perhaps imprisoning them within the game, and locking them into some medial task that must be completed before being released, is more what the doctor ordered. Something that stops them from questing. Whilst not taking away the ability to play the game.
I like that idea. They can go to jail and bottle health vials. First offence will be a smaller amount, after several offences, it could take you hours to get out of jail.