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.

On Procrastination

For those of you who know me well, you're already aware that I tend to have a slight problem with putting things off. Case in point: I actually composed a draft on this topic back in 2010! Haha, and that was 100% unintentional. (Full disclosure: I thought it would be funny to put it off for a few posts in a row, but I fully intended to post about it at some point that month.) At least for the past couple of years, I had a pretty dang good excuse: an all-consuming job.

There's probably gonna be quite a few more mentions of how much I hated my old job. Despite how much it took from me, though, I will say that I think I learned a lot. For starters, I never knew that I was truly capable of hard work. I always fancied myself somewhat lazy, and while it is not strictly untrue to say I don't aspire to working hard for the rest of my life, I now carry the self-assurance that when necessary, this ol' boy can man up and get shit done.

Honestly, I even have a sense of understanding when people say they thrive off of hard work. During those rare times when the stars aligned, and my work actually translated directly into results, it felt amazing to see what three back to back 14 hour workdays could accomplish. It felt so good to work hard and get things accomplished, and if I was working in a field that I was passionate about then I really think I could happily do so indefinitely.

I was not passionate about my last job. Combined with the fact that my hard work rarely had anything to do with the metrics my performance was rated on, that job sapped at my very soul. When a 12 hour workday is normal, you quickly lose interest in your hobbies. It got to the point that I felt like my whole life was on hold; I was procrastinating about living my life, just to strive daily for a job I didn't like while earning a salary that wasn't phenomenal.

I now have a new perspective on life, and how quickly it can pass us by. I literally lost two years in what feels like the blink of an eye, and have very little to show for it. But my days of putting off the enjoyment of living? I'm done procrastinating. Time to live my life to the fullest once more!

On Pre-order Bonuses

Ah, yes, the pre-order bonus. There was a time when you'd get something tangible when you pre-ordered AAA titles. I still wear my Quake 4 t-shirt when I'm just going to be gaming at home, despite how raggedy it has become. I still have some old school video game maps that I pin on the wall decoration. Yessir, those relics are from the good ol' days.

That time has now passed. Instead, generally speaking, we get some sort of in-game advantage when we pre-order. It might be platform/vendor dependent, or it might be left up to our choice. The thing that remains consistent is that we no longer are offered any costly tangibles.

Why produce something physically, when you can just add some extra digital content to your game? And so we have a new era of pre-order bonuses, almost exclusively digital in nature. Companies have come up with various strategies to drive up pre-release sales, so let's examine some:

Going the item route really irritates me; too often it feels like it pollutes the intended experience of starting a new character, and these items tend to be decently powerful. Nothing quite like a game where it takes a quarter of a play-through before you find an upgrade to your starting weapon.

A slightly different bonus is to include extra content. Bonus missions, bonus maps, additional characters (or civilizations, in the case of Civ 5), maybe a different color for everyone's default armor. It ranges from "do people really pay extra for this?" when it is merely graphical skins, to a sort of slow-burning anger that I have to jump through hoops to make sure I get the "complete" game.

And of course, these "exclusive" preorder bonuses are never exclusive. They're just ready-made DLC, all they need is to be aged; wait six months and then presto, you have extra profit-flow.

I understand where it all comes from, at least in a vague sense. I know that the projections for overall demand (and profits) are all based on pre-orders, so they do whatever they can to hype the game and lure people in to an early commitment.

That said, I really think that the smartest way to do that is one I often see utilized by Steam; namely, to offer a 10% discount if you pay in full before the game is released. A slightly risky move, you might say, but then again you're free to wait until the game comes out and first impressions are generated. Meanwhile, someone who is a diehard fan and will buy the game regardless of its reviews can get a slight reward for their loyalty, and none of us have to deal with bullshit DLC.

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!

A Brave New World

Time flies. More than two years of my life have gone by quickly, with little of note occurring. Holidays were short and often skipped entirely as my job consumed all. The pay wasn't bad, unless you consider the hours worked and the stress of being on call 24/7/365.

I guess that's why I quit. Friday was my last day, and now I am enjoying the freedom that has escaped me the past few years. Despite my best efforts, I could never find the time, energy, or inspiration to work on any of my hobbies while employed at this last job.

I was feeling pretty trapped since I was working too hard to do a proper job hunt, but I decided to reach out to my old employers in Japan... things moved pretty fast, and now I'm waiting for my visa to be processed. I'll be back in Osaka by early 2013, and I couldn't be happier.

I have never been more motivated to embrace the many hobbies and projects I've always wanted to do "when I have the time". For the next year or two, I aim to ensure that I have plenty of time!

For now, though, I'm just gonna enjoy soaking up that sweet, sweet freedom.

Our trail-worn hero climbs back into the dusty saddle

Amazingly, we are quickly closing in on a year since my last post! Ten months later, and oh how far I have traveled...

(I mean that figuratively and literally, by the way.)

So here I sit in Triangle, Virginia. I'm living in a shitty apartment now, but I will say with pride that I got a real steal on rent! The plan is to use the money I'm saving to buy nice things; when I get a better apartment later on, I can bring all my nice things with me!

I really love Washington, DC. When I applied within my company for a transfer to the DC office, I fully expected to be living within the district. (Inside the beltway, as they say.) Turns out I'm stuck in the wilds of Northern Virginia. And don't get me wrong, this isn't a short metro ride across the DC line or anything... no, I've got all the NoVA traffic, and none of the benefits. And for the record, I'm nowhere near a metro-line.

I basically live as close as you can to Q-town without being on base, and I guess I expected it to be a bit more developed. In many aspects, the circumstances of my new life are exactly what I thought I was leaving behind. Still, this is just a stepping stone on my road, and I actually think my compass has settled on a new bearing.

Like I said, I really love DC.

In any case, I'm gonna try to get back into the habit of posting fairly regularly. At this point, I'm gonna keep my goals modest since my work-life has actually gotten a bit more demanding since my transfer. (Didn't expect that!) Hoping to get a new post up once a week from here on out.

Play some vidya games for me, eh?

Writer's Block?

I've long desired to write. Ever since I was little, I dabbled in fiction and poetry and the like. Turns out I'm god-awful at poetry, but I can come up with some decent story-telling when the mood strikes me.

And that is the problem. The mood generally strikes me when I'm busy working... far away from a computer, with no time to even jot down ideas. (Interesting note: did you know that people once wrote things down on paper? How bizarre!) By the time I get home, my ideas no longer inspire me, or I've forgotten them, or I'm too tired to think straight and just go to bed only to repeat the miserable cycle!

But I don't actually consider it writer's block, mind, because I'm certainly not a writer. Not yet. I need to be writing stuff before I can call myself a writer!

Yet when the desire is there, and the free time is available, I always find myself staring at a blank word document. What gives!?