On Azeroth's Cataclysm (Or: Truly Evolving MMO Worlds)

This post is not what you might call "topical"... I quit playing WoW shortly after the release of Cataclysm, mostly due to an unfortunate job that had begun consuming all of my free time.

At the time, I remember really being struck by how interesting an experience it was to explore a world I knew so intimately (having played WoW off and on since Beta) and seeing it so completely changed, yet still recognizable. It was so much fun to briefly feel like the world was truly changeable and, well, real. Naturally that wore off the longer I played, and having recently returned to dabble in Azeroth, (I mean, hey, Pandas? I'm so in) the fact that the game world still looks like it did the day after the Cataclysm is really immersion-breaking.

I really hope that in the future, MMOs will explore the idea of a truly evolving world. I remember thinking about all the possibilities when WoW first introduced the phasing system with the release of WotLK, and am still surprised at how sparingly they have used it. I kept expecting a quest where I would help build up a settlement through a long progression of quests. I especially think it would be cool as a nod to Warcraft's origins as an RTS game where you basically build up a settlement from scratch for every single level.

I feel like Blizzard really missed a golden opportunity to showcase their phasing tech; if they had included some quests throughout Cataclysm to help the various areas of the world rebuild, then it would have given players a greater feeling of immersion and investment. In the long run, I think the idea of a truly interactive world environment where things can fall apart and be rebuilt directly through player actions will be the rule, rather than the exception. Such a world would naturally engender a feeling of investment and ownership by the player-base, which in turn would mean sustainable long term profits. Of course, it'll have to be carefully done...

I seem to recall an MMO from many years back that experimented with a truly interactive ecology, where the players' actions could have dire consequences; if you chopped down every single tree then the forest wouldn't regrow, and if you over-hunted a population of NPCs then they could die out. As I recall, every server ended up being a dead world.

Then again, I cannot find any evidence of this by Google sleuthing, so perhaps this was all part of a theoretical discussion or a product of the fevered dreams of an old MMO veteran... In any case, I do think it would be an interesting experiment, so long as it was hard to grief such a setup and the player-base had a means for punishing griefers. (It is a shame that griefing is such a thing, but that's a discussion for another post.)

Regardless, I think WoW is onto something with their phasing system. Here's hoping they expand its use to help further immerse the players in the illusion of a truly living, evolving Azeroth, or at the very least serve as an inspiration to more revolutionary MMOs just over the horizon.

When Video Games Meet Romance

I've been in a few serious relationships in my time, both with girls who got their game on, and girls who never picked up a controller in their life.

Although it is great fun, I'm actually ambivalent about sharing my hobby with a significant other. I have a hard enough time getting my chores done and living a balanced lifestyle when I'm dating a girl who doesn't game, after all. If you think addiction by yourself is bad, imagine having your partner always enabling you to forgo social commitments, chores, work, even hygiene. Obviously, this can lend itself to trouble.

Then again, a close friend has always enjoyed playing MMORPGs and lately has been playing WoW in particular. His wife didn't really understand how he could enjoy the game so much. She was always interrupting him during combat, asking him to do chores in the middle of an instance run, etc. He specifically contrasted this experience to a period of time when I dated a girl who played WoW with me, and constantly lamented how awesome it would be if he could just get his wife into a game with him.

He had a persuasive argument, I must admit; first of all, it would lend understanding of the flow of the game, and theoretically make her more patient with allowing him to finish an instance or not expect his full attention until after a tricky fight was won. Secondly, given the all-consuming nature of MMO culture, it would be a very powerful bond to share between them.

By playing together, enjoying virtual adventures in which they relied on each other to overcome obstacles, he supposed it could actually strengthen their marriage outside of the game. I'm of a mind to agree with his assessment, since I've found that shared hobbies do indeed help build bonds in a relationship.

Well, turns out that after a long and arduous campaign of building her interest in WoW, she finally agreed to give it a go. He hooked her up with a free trial and within a week they needed to upgrade her to a full account; mission accomplished.

I'm truly happy for my friend's success. That said, I'm still not quite sure what I'd prefer out of my next relationship. Bonding over video games is certainly fun, but after spending the past two years being utterly consumed by my job and having countless plans fall through where I was desperate to do something, anything, other than veg out over the weekend... I think I might be ready to enjoy a different shared hobby. Mountain biking, perhaps?

Does anyone have an opinion on the matter? I would love to hear some funny stories resulting from the combination of a passion for gaming and one's love life!

Wife Aggro

So recently I've begun playing World of Warcraft again, and one of the common reasons that people end up having to stop playing before they're good and ready is the dreaded "wife aggro".

Now at the risk of sounding sexist, I've truly never heard of a case wherein the wife is playing and the husband is angry at being neglected. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never seen it.

So, what do you do when you have wife aggro? If you're a lamer, (or care about your marriage,) then you'll log off. But let's explore some alternative choices before we do anything as drastic as leaving your raid early!

1) One word: Chloroform.

2) Work out a barter system. If she leaves you alone on raid nights, take her out to a romantic comedy (or whatever it is she personally would enjoy.)

3) Subtly encourage her to find a boyfriend on-the-side. With you seemingly ignorant of her indiscretions, she'll either be out enjoying herself or home and feeling so guilty that she'll let you play in peace.

4) First of all, it is imperative that you have two WoW-capable computers in your household for this to work. Create a level 1 character, then approach your spouse while she's in a good mood. Ask her for the favor of watching over your character while you run out for a few minutes. Show her the basics, then leave for thirty minutes. Come back home and she ought to be well hooked and ready to have you install WoW on the second computer! And the best part: an X-53 Touring Rocket!

5) Should your wife prove resistant to everything else, then just how compatible are you two anyway? I mean, on the one hand you have a living breathing human of the opposite gender who is apparently attracted to you. On the other hand, you have pixels that, if you sink hours and hours into the game (and get lucky), will start showing purple and give you a sense of achievement. Tough choice, I know...

And that, my friends, is sound advice on how to handle the inevitable "wife aggro" problem. Hopefully Blizzard's working on a patch to address this issue, but until then feel free to bookmark this post.

On Gaming Addiction

I first started hearing about video game addiction back during the early Evercrack days. It was blamed for at least one suicide, for countless divorces, and for several child neglect cases.

I was just a teenager at the time, and since I didn't venture outside of the family computer room very often, I wasn't particularly wise to the ways of the world. I didn't realize that everyone was looking to blame their problems on outside factors, and not on their own dumb-ass choices. What I did know was that the media seemed to be unfairly blaming a video game that had no undue influence over my own life.

I had arrived at the right conclusion by faulty reasoning. The way I saw it, there couldn't be an addiction because I myself had not been addicted. I would eventually learn about how different people do have addictive personalities and can indeed get hooked on video games.

But I was dead right on the media's unfairness. The ratings-mongers saw a sensational story in video game addiction, and they set about demonizing it as a threat against the nation's children! What's so effed about this is how video games are far less addicting than cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, and most illegal drugs.

It just depends on the personality.

I am happily blessed with a personality that allows me to play games that I love for 12 hours a day if I have nothing better to do, but at the same time if I have a social life (which, at this time, I do not) or a job (nothing happening there either) then I could easily control my gaming so that it wouldn't prevent me from having fun, hanging with friends, or getting enough sleep to feel well-rested the next day. (I mean, 100% experience bonus? Totally worth being well-rested!)

Speaking of WoW, I started playing again recently, and it has caused some of my friends (who had also quit) no small amount of strife. A few of them have become worried that they might be lured back as well, and they apparently lack that control which helps regulate how much time one chooses to spend with a particular vice.

How about you? Are you in control of your gaming, or do you have an addictive personality type such that you have to carefully avoid playing games that are "too fun"?

The WoW Standard

I remember a time before every game was designed around four basic quest types: Find X of Y, Kill X of Y, Go to (and possibly deliver X to) Y, or Escort X to Y.

I remember when quest givers didn't have metallic punctuation marks to easily distinguish them. I remember games that didn't rely on a point-based system of three talent trees. I remember an era when every game wasn't based on World of Warcraft.

Their system is good, don't get me wrong. The mechanics are well thought out, and it provides a ton of diversity while remaining very easy and accessible to softcore gamers.

I appreciate that WoW has helped make gaming (and especially MMORPGs) more mainstream. I'm just tired of seeing it copied, often exactly, in so many games that have nothing to do with the WoW franchise.

Let's try to break away from the tired old standard and come up with some innovative new systems instead?