Ask in game

“Dear Devs

Games are easier then ever, allowing everyone and their mom to complete them and get access to all kinds of game content. You no longer have to work for your rewards. Flexibility and focus on pleasure is taking away from the real gaming. This is ruining both MY play experience, but also the purity and spirit of computer games as a whole!

Sincerely, the Oldschool Gamers aka the Real Gamers.”

Ok, I am exaggerating here. But, its not far from where the discussion is going. If its complaining about new World of Warcraft players demanding to see all content in game, or players abandoning newer MMOs cause they are not easy enough – there is a underlying idea about games going away from something true. That the development of games to more accessible design is a step away from what MMOs were meant to be, or even games as a whole.I also recently read a game review where the game’s ruthless system that punished any wrong choice, invoked a sense of pureness in the critics eyes and it was only advised to be played by “serious players”.

It’s not like it’s the first time a subculture lash out in frustration as it takes a commercial and mainstream turn. Just using the last couple of years as an example, you could ask any heavy metal fan, hip hoper, skateboarder and goth about who the “real” ones are, and who are just posers and surely get very passionate (though different) answers.

In such, the gamer community is not being any different. This one just really bothers me as is effectively arguing against the very change that could get computer games more publicly accepted, and in such; get our passion for pixels accepted as a valued cultural activity. Or at the least: convince public opinion that gamers are not harmful to our soul or mental and physical well being.

It is not that I am against games that are difficult, or think that games necessarily are better or worse depending on how many time you have to try something in order to succeed. I am arguing against using it as a trait of quality, somehow separate real games and gamers – from the posers and noobs.

On a ending note I would then give a thumbs up to Nintendo with their “New Super Mario Bros. Wii”. In this game you can choose a Super Guide mode, which basically plays the game for you, when you get to that point where you are simply stuck. So, instead of ending the game cause you are stuck, it lets you see the solution being played through and you can move on. It doesn’t reveal hidden bonuses or levels, so the skilled player will still be the only one seeing and experiencing those. And for mainstream games, I think this is a step in the right direction.

Don’t think of it as cheating. Think of it as the golden ticket. A golden ticket to see the end game. After all, most players never play through games, they never get to see the last boss, try the final puzzle, see the lair of their evil nemesis. If it’s meaningless for you to face off against a boss if you didn’t get their entirely by “own hands”, then don’t activate the Super Guide mode. If you want to see how it all ends, for the love of God – please do.

I still have haunting nightmares about what was after that dreadful carpet ride and lava sequence in Aladdin on my SegaMega 16 bit. I’m sure I would have kicked Jafar’s ass if I just could get in range of him…

Get them apples!

The time of raiding being equalled with hardcore is perhaps gone, but there seems to be a scale where casual soloplay is at one end and doing world first is at the other. However, for the parts inbetween its so blurry that its very sweet to see how the one and same guild can hold two entirely seperate meanings.

Just this week I saw an example of how my guild (a casual 25man raidingguild who is muddling its way through hardmodes atm) was both a step up and stepping stone for two different people. With anonymity in mind I will call them Jane and Juliet (yes deliberately choosing female pseudonyms here, as well… why not?).

Jane applied to us earlier this week, and told about how she had been playing with friends for a long time, but were hungry for more. Her previous guild consisted of close friends and were limited to doing only 10 mans, and even that was a bit haphazard. She had after much deliberation decided to take the big step, to join a “proper” raidingguild. She wanted 25 mans, she wanted hardmodes, she wanted fun -and we were it! Accepted for a trial, I was happy to think about moulding this new player into a solid raider that would contribute to our guild. Another pupil to teach the ropes.

Juliet however, left us this week. She had been playing with the guild from the start, was a very active and performance oriented player. As an officer and part of the core she was a key player and someone with strong social ties in the guild. Apparently after much thinking she had decided that she wanted progress more then friendship, and was leaving us to join a more hardcore guild. In her farewell thread she highlighted our sense of community and attiude, and while no offence was taken: implied that we were a nice bunch, but we werent good enough players for her to hang around.

So, both players had to do a weighing of friendship versus progress – or atleast that’s how both decided to frame it, perhaps cause it’s an accepted and expected dilemma we can all relate to – but one left and one joined. For one, my guild was a step towards hardcore raiding – for another it was a casual, friendly place that was holding them back. Its not really about being more or less hardcore, or more or less social. Its not even about finding a better guild to be on top of the pile, about choosing a pile. A sense of accomplishment and achievement is not something the game grants, its something that the player brings.

I am sure that in the guild Juliet is going to, people have left them in order to join more progressed guilds, leaving with a goodbye note saying “your a great bunch of people, but I want more hardcore stuff”.  Either way, I wish both Juliet and Jane the best of luck. Hopefully they both find a pile to rule.

Recently I attended the track Industrial Gaming at a conference here i Trondheim. The idea behind Industrial Gaming is for another industry then the Gaming Industry to benefit from developments that are done in and around computergames.

If you haven’t heard about it before, here is a brief into. As a field its just in it’s very beginning, but could be described in following terms:

• Its  a subset of Serious Gaming
• It want to take advantage of the symbiosis between industrial competence and game developer knowledge
• It seeks to employ technological advancements in the computer game field
• It wishes to use experience and know-how from games to create realistic and entertaining training sessions and a improved work flow.

This is the second time around I have seen Industrial Gaming present itself, and indeed there are some strong links between the Industry (in this case mainly the Oil Industry as it’s organized by Statoil Hydro), and Gaming – links that could benefit both.

First of all, much of the computer hardware used to process data have been driven forward by the development of games – but that could be said about most things done on a computer.  That they focused greatly on the technical side of things wasn’t that surprising, as technical development is alot more tangible then something as vague and ephemeral as “competence”. I commend Industrial Gaming for is trying to see what possibilities computer games can offer outside being a great tool for entertainment, but that is also not new: It’s been well argued that games have much to teach in about f.ex how we learn and how learning could be more rewarding.

What’s more important is that many of the people working with visualization processes in this field have experience from programming games or at the very least: Playing them. The experiences from games can be applied to non-game situation by using game developers knowledge of how to f.ex create good user interfaces, a good workflow and intuitive systems. What boggles me is that so few seems to bother to ask gamers about that?

If one thing has been shown in the history about computer games its’ that gamers often know more about how to improve the game then the developers.

Computergame developers do play games, but its the gamers themselves that sits with the many hours of experience with different systems and interfaces. If you want to know what engages players, ask them! If you want to know what feels intuitive in a UI, ask them! Gamers is a group that have extensive experiences (and usually a very reflected experiences at that) with human computer interactions – extending over several platforms and systems. But, as many times before – so few seem to be willing to recognize this as a type of expertize. I guess that if the gamer community dont, then noone else will…

What would it take for you to aknowledge skills achieved through gaming?

Skill vs gear. Its one of the oldest and most discussed topics amongst WoW players. Its up there with “casual vs hardcore” ™  as one of the favourite things WoW players like to argue about amongst themselves. Its like one of the biggest philosophical questions we ask to each other, who cares about the meaning of life: Is it gear or is it skill that is most important?

Gevlon have over the last week been working on a series of post where he tries to really debunk the issue of gear entirely when it comes to raiding. First, he gets a 10 man group together, gets them all in blues and does Ulduar 10. He then goes to argue how this accomplishment proves that gear is only an amplifier for existing skill, and by not any means a prerequisite of progress. In such it cannot be used as an excuse for failing, ever again. Its easier to gain skill then gear, and the ultimate solution is then to buy your way into trialist spots.

The Greedy Goblins contentious writing style has already been well commented this week by Tobold, but this time I will let myself be provoked. I am bated, cause I have been engaged by this age-old gear vs skill debate. Mostly, cause I am not sure who Gevlon is arguing against.

Who is actually saying that gear matters more then skill? Who is fronting the war of stats and pixels over experience and knowledge? I haven’t seen any.

In over 4 years of playing and studying this game – I have never once heard anyone saying that gear is more important then skill. Gear used as an excuse to exclude/include someone in a group, sure. Gear used as an excuse for lack of progress, sure. Gear used as filter when looking at applications, sure. But, when confronted with it, someone actually saying ” gear > skill ” – no way!  Gevlon seems to be knocking in open doors.

What I have heard alot of, is people complaining about the skill level of others. Complaining cause other players are not approaching the game with the same mentality as they do. Gevlon has neatly labeled everyone who don’t treat the game with an instrumental approach of reaching goals, critical learning and effectiveness as M&S (morons&slackers).

The argument that skill > gear seems more then anything to be a desire to prove to this M&S group (also referred to as casual players or socials) that they are failing at the game because they don’t have the skill set, and gear will not help with that. To Gevlon they are failing cause they don’t read Elitist Jerks, they are failing cause they cant do more then 1500 dps, they are failing cause they are standing in the fire. Its an argument towards as group of players, who simply bring a different set of ideals and values when they engage with the game. An argument for them to play like him.

Its valid enough to encourage and motivate others to approach the game the same way as you, but is that really relevant in the gear vs skill debate? It sounds more like a hardcore vs casual debate to me. After all, the main argument is that if you approach the game in a hardcore way (defined by reading strategies, theorycrafting, min maxing the potential of the character, doing boring tasks like rep or money farm in order to get benefits) you will have the skill necessary to succeed. Gear is after all irrelevant, is it not?

It seems I am only able to be truly active on one written online arena at the time. Lately its been my internal guildforum, however some possible wisom have been shared there – wisdom that might deserve a bigger audience.

There are several things you need in order to get raiding to work well. However, some are quite easy to do  they just tend to be overlooked – even in big theorycrafting threads or impressive compilations of facts. When advising my fellow players on how to tweak their performance (without improving gear or changing rotation), this is what I tell them:

• Mobility is everything. Unless you are planning to fight Patchwerk all day every day, you will be required to move – even if it is only between mobs on a AoE pull. Make sure to put Tuskars Vitality on boots (unless you spec for increased movement speed) so you get where you need to go faster.

• Unless you need to move, dont move. Standing still = the best condition to dps, heal and tank. Spasticated playing might be pro in PvP. In PvE it only makes you perform worse.

• Have startattack macros and chained macros for all central abilities. Doesnt matter if your fingers are fast, macros are the best way around server/interface lag.

For melee: Macro all central abilities to /startattack
f.ex
/cast Sinister Strike
/startattack
This means that if you are low on energy (or rage or whatever you use) you will still start attacking. White damage is also damage.
For casters: If you have abilities that you use after eachother on a regular basis, macro them.
f. ex:
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
/cast Mindblast

• Use cooldowns early and often. They are not there for a rainy day, they are there to be used. Use them straight away, and they will cool down and can be used again. F-ex: Lay on Hands. It gives mana, heals for lots… just whack it on there when you see a tank/healer on less then 40% health. The long CD is there cause its powerful, and things that are powerful are OP and things that are OP should always be used.

• Dying is not ok. Might seem obvious, but its a mentality that too few have. If you need to blow a super-imba-cooldown or use the-most-expensive-consuamable-ever in a situation where you risk going to 0 health – DO IT! Dont hesitate, just blow it. Its better to be alive with a uber ability on CD then beeing dead on the floor. Bamdages, healthpotions, healthstones are your friends. While a healer might heal you, you are guaranteed health if you fix it yourself.

• Use the down periods to think ahead. All fights fluctuate, they will get more intense then they slow down a bit, then change pace again etc. Its swings forth and back. Remember to use the “down” periods in that cycle to assess your own situation. Do you have enough mana? Are you standing in a good spot? You know a phase is incoming where you take dmg? Make sure that you start it on full health. You know of an effect that will force you to move? Have a place spotted out that will be save to move to.

• Be competative and be proud of your achievements. Did you do 6k dps? Make sure the other  dps’ers noticed. Get them fired up and help push them towards doing the same. Farming and boredom will make anyone perform worse, so make sure its always a competition.

After my initial musings on hardcore gaming in WoW, I feel its time to make another attempt. Perhaps one that isn’t so broadly sweeping in random directions.

Lacking a definition – because its hard to define the majority?

Hardcore is one of those words that is used by gamers all the time, but seem to hold quite different meanings depending on who you speak to -something the insightul comments made to my previous post reminded me of. To me, hardcore carries much of the same distinctions as those founds within the powergamer and hacker concepts. In such hardcore is recognized by a instrumental attitude towards the game. It is not enough just to play the game, a hardcore player needs to understand what makes the game react as it does. There is a sense of professionalism, where efficiency and productivity are key elements of how the hardcore gamer structure his/her playtime. Playing the game is not just about experiencing new challenges, its about setting goals and being able to fulfill those goals.

From the hacker and powergamer heritage comes a sense of minority. It is an expert group that has knowledges no one else does, a group that relates to the technology in a different way then the “ordinary user”. The problem when talking about such a definition in a WoW setting, is that it is not necessarily seen as “hardcore”. Knowing what you want from the game, researching select topic to gain expertize about them, then working hard to reach these set goals – is simply playing the game.

Perhaps the exact reason for the “hardcore” concept to hold so many understandings in the WoW community, is because a hardcore approach to the game is not something done simply by a small expert group – it is a way to relate to the game that the majority of players use at some point or another.

Part-time hardcore

One of the exiting aspects of WoW as such a popular game, is that it caters for many types of play. From the raider to the soloquester. Whether the game is truly successful at either is another discussion, but what is interesting is that the approach usually only held for those at the forefront of the game (the expert group, in WoW that is the raider) is being used in various other aspects of the game. Its not unique to WoW, but its large and overly active community makes all these different hardcore approaches visible.

By working with a definition that highlights instrumentality and goal oriented play we find many ways to be hardcore. The goal can be anything from making gold, completing achievements, twinking, to collecting pets or winning arenas. To select an area of the game and getting good at it has become natural within WoW, and thinking of it as hardcore might seem a bit odd. Especially for someone that has “grown up” as a gamer in WoW. So, what does it mean to not play hardcore?

The flipside of hardcore

Playing other MMOs or speaking to other MMO players that you dont play with (after all, hardcore and casual players never seem to get along too well) the hardcore becomes more visible. After all, not all tanks in all games will think in terms of avoidance or threat output. To quote a friend who plays a raiding tank in LOTRO about how he gears: “I have heavy armor, and heavy shield. Thats about it”…

The alternative to hardcore is to just go with the flow of the game, to not really care what is the fastest or best route forward. If the game takes you to X, going to X is valid in itself – even if it means that getting to the next level will take longer. The flipside of hardcore is to indulge in what the game tells, the immersion the game brings -without making any effort to understand its underlying mechanics, without researching (through blogs or databases f.ex) what items will grant a 0,2% increase in dps.  I think Gevlon tend to refer (falsely) to this group as M&S (Morons & Slackers): they don’t know the best way to do things, they only do what they want and dont seem to care that it only brings them a mediocre result. They dont care about beeing on the top of the pile, or think that the top of the pile should be reserved only for someone who needs to spend 5 hours outside the game in order to be successful for 3 hours inside it. They will gladly spend time with someone who slows down progress, just cause they think some company is nice – or cause it doesn’t matter to them that its slower.

In WoW, this attitude towards the game is seen as “noobish” at best. Its not an approach that is revered or really accepted. In WoW: the hardcore attitude is the norm, it is what we expect from other players.

The conflict between hardcore and casual gamers has never really stopped, as I have argued before the divide between hardcore and casual player in WoW got blurred with WOTLK. Now more and more of the playerbase is raiding, epic quality gear is easy to obtain and the average player knows more about the game then ever. It made me wonder: What is it that makes a hardcore gamer now?

When trying to define hardcore I find myself in a mindset of “before and after”, though I am not sure exactly when the before ended and the after started. I do know that the “before” was sometime during vanilla WoW. If I was asked to define a hardcore gamer 2-3 years ago I would have put up the following points:

• A hardcore gamer was someone who raided. Raiding in this context is only referring to 40 man raids, as 10 man pugs were quite regular to places such as Stratholme and Blackrock Depths without getting the tag “raid”. Also these did not provide epic quality gear.
• A hardcore gamer had good gear, including epic quality gear. Since epic items were only available in 40 man raids, this was a easy tell tale sign of who was actually raiding.
• A hardcore gamer knew things about the game. Not only would a hardcore player know what specs were good, they would also know how to solve quests, what items dropped from various bosses and what abilities certain bosses had.

There was also other hints that could tell if someone was hardcore, like having an epic mount, but all in all hardcore gamers were quite easy to pick out from the crowd. Today that isnt quite as easy.If looking at the same traits in today’s playerbase we find that:

• The majority of players have engaged in raiding. Numbers from sites such as WoWJitsu confirms this.
• Epic quality gear is now trivial. It is so easy to obtain it has become a standard.
• Being knowledgeable about the game is expected. If you don’t know what spec is best, what glyphs to use, what enchants are good, where loot drops, how to solve quests etc. you are more likely to be labeled “noob” then “average”. Knowledge is highly revered in WoW. The game will through its design reward players who understand the underlying mechanics (the theorycraft) so to best utilize what abilities they have, but the culture of the game also encourages those who want to learn. Be it how to make money or how to top the damagemeters. This drive has lead to the average knowledge level to be quite high, and concepts like spell coefficient, weapon speed, procbased and diminishing returns are all commonplace in game. Its quite a step away from “What is a talent point?”

Are we dealing with a new kind of hardcore?

Just cause the old definition of hardcore no longer applies, don’t mean that there are no longer a “hardcore” user group. Hardcore players today will still be raiding, have good gear and be knowledgeable players. It simply seems that these traits have been assimilated by such a large proportion of the player base that new traits needs to be picked out.

However, herein lies my (and probably others) problem. Hardcore guilds are quite closed,  and with few exceptions they play with their cards close to the chest. We can theorize about what makes them different, but few of us can actually say if its actually the case.

My research project deals with hardcore gamers, and I am very keen to get in touch with someone who plays in a hardcore guild. I am currently looking for informants to better understand what it means to “be hardcore”. See here for details.

Even though I cant say I have a definition of hardcore gamers that is deducted from actual data, I clearly have a  vision in my head of what it means to be hardcore today:

• A hardcore player is fighting for world-firsts and server-firsts
• A hardcore player is in a top ranked guild in the world
• A hardcore player is taking part in developing strategies (as opposed to reading them on the internet and then copying them)
• A hardcore player puts the game over other commitments
• A hardcore player aims for professionalism in the game

Fighting for world/serverfirsts is to me the most defining feature of what I see as hardcore today. What do you think?

Everyone agrees that cooperation in PvP is key to winning. But, getting a team of Gulch-hippies to cooperate will often seem like herding cats. Everyone is pulling in their own direction and everyone tries to be a general, so how do you turn this around? How do you get a PuG PvP group to cooperate?

Based on a series of different attempts in the Gulch in 10-19 bracket I have compiled a list of tips. I am sure they wont apply to all BGs or grouping situations, but I don’t think they will ever hurt.

Setting the scene: If you want credit, take credit for wins and losses

The Greedy Goblin did some “experiments” in 10-19BGs.He came to the conclusion: When I lost it was cause the rest of my team sucked. When I won it was because I was doing something right. Even though twinking  and Gulch strategies is clearly outside Gevlons field of expertize, I found his attitude resonating with how people speak of PvP and grouping in general. Its always someone elses fault. This is ofcourse, only a partial truth. As pointed out, others failing more then you is simply cause there are more of “them” then you, and in such its statistically more likely that “they” will screw up rather then you.

Facilitating groupplay should not be confused with beeing social or handing out winning games to unskilled players. The fact is simple: Get cooperation to work and you are more likely to win. In such, cooperation is a goal for any group. If you plan on winning, the best way is to make sure your team is all pulling in the same direction. Dont see it as a necessary evil, see it as part of the challenge.

The point is quite simple: To get cooperation, you need to facilitate it. You dont have to lead anything (actually I would recommend you dont try to be another general), you just have to play your part in the team and help others do the same.

For this I will instruct a stereotypical fictional player, lets call him Bob. He has a semi twinked rogue, and he’s had a hard time in BGs. Noone listenes to him when he suggest strategies, he dies alot and he dont have friends to do premades with. He is not a bad player, but he just dont seem to get it quite together. He thinks the BGs are filled with retards, and if they only would listen to him they would win alot more. He’s the kind of player that reads Gevlons post about twinking and goes “Right on man, thats exactly how it is!”.

1) Action speak louder the words

Bob wants to team up so to get support and he tells people in /bg when he is charging – asking for other players to team up. It happens every blue moon that he gets a few players together, but for the most part he is left to his own devices. What Bob is failing to see here is that if he want people to team up with him, he needs to make it easy for them to team up. That means that instead of shouting about how they are on the wrong side of the field, he needs to go to where they are and ensure that they stay alive. Not aiming for killstealing, just tipping the edge in their favour (a stun, debuff, cc goes along way), so that after his teammates are done fighting it will be natural to continue to fight together.

If Bob wanders across the field and yells to people that he needs help, he is ignoring that the other players probably have their hands full. By going to them first, ensuring a win in that skirmish he is communicating quite clearly that he is a team player. Much better then a “FFS team up gais!!!” in /bg. Action does speak louder then words in groups where you have no way of knowing who is worth teaming up with. So when Bob wants to team up for a proper team effort, the first step is for him to team up with someone. Not the other way around.

2) If you want specific, be specific

Bob thinks he can get the flag back by stealthing into the enemy base and hopping the enemy flag carrier (EFC). Stealth is the key word here, so he dont want the rest of the team with him. Another rogue however would make things alot better. Bob then types in /bg “Going 4 flag, one more rogue come”. A few minutes later he finds himself at the EFC quite alone, and is not able to retrieve the flag. Didnt the other rogues read his message in /bg?

The other rogues did read /bg, but they all presumed that it was not about them. Matticus pointed out that this as the bystander effect: the more people are present, the less likely they are to intervene. The other rogues simply thought they had other more important jobs (defending the flag carrier, thinning out midfield or whatever) and thought that someone else would do it. What Bob needs to do is pick out the person he wants to go together with and use the wonderful command /whisper. With that he can coordinate where they should meet, where they will attack, who will attack what etc, but most importantly – he will know if that person has any intentions of coming with him.

3) Inform, dont command.

Bob is starting to come around to my way of thinking, but he is adamant that /bg is there for a reason and it needs to be used. I couldnt agree more, the problem is that /bg is often used in a non productive way and is too often expected to have a clear and visible effect. Bob tells how often he has taken the flag and used /bg chat to say “Flag carrier needs support!!” when he was attacked. Noone answerd, and when the opposing team cought up to him he was dead meat.Why didnt they come to his aid?

Point 1) and 2) aside, when using /bg Bob needs to write things that will help other players do their job well. Information such as “FC going tunnel” or “EFC on roof” or “EFC supported by priest and druid” is useful for other players, it will help them assess their own situation better as well as getting the bigger picture of how the battle is going. After all there is only so much of the field you can see, as well as read out from map and healthbars.

4) Dont presume they are in it to ruin your game

Bob tends to attribute failure to a personal vendetta against him. He will often verbalized in BGs through comments such as “gg on support guys….” or on bad days “FFS!!! WHY DIDNT I GET NY HELING?!!!??”. What Bob is failing to see is that not every move is made by a mastermind, with an ultimate purpose – but its usually for a reason. Just cause that reason wasnt visible to Bob, doesnt mean that it wasnt there. So the healer that was behind him before he charged wasnt there after the charge. Was it to insult Bob or to ruin his charge? Unlikely. Perhaps the healer saw someone else who needed help, perhaps she got attacked, perhaps her giraffe was set on fire IRL and she had to go AFK. Point is, Bob dont know either way and he cant change the past – so he should not get annoyed by it.

Thinking that it is always someone elses fault when things fail will never cause good group play, even though it is the truth. The point is that the scoreboard wont care whos fault it is. Using /bg to take it out on people will only distract the team, and its not worth it.

5) Identify key players, and stick with them

Its an obvious one, and I think even Bob understood this one without too much of an explenation.  If your BG is filled with names you dont know (as trying to remember the names of players you have had succes with will make this alot easier), using the scoreboard + raid frames (healthpool is a good indication) to find key players in the team is important. You dont want to end up supporting the keyboardturning paladin with 250 hp. He is not irrelevant, but probably not the one that is going to win you the game.

Some times Bob might be that key player, some times he wont be. To make it work he needs to understand when he is the one people should follow (and thus wait up for them before charging, talking to a healer to back him up etc), and when he should follow others and willingly sacrifice himself so that they key players can keep on fighting.

After my longwinded comments on Psychochilds post “Punishing Grouping” I realized I should (wo)man up and say what I meant here, possibly in a more coherent way. Reading a bit around on blogs discussing this such as Wolfshead talking about the glorydays of EQ2, Stylish Corpse on why soloing is not to be frowned upon- I do sense a common goal: We all want group play to be fun and rewarding.

However, along the way alot of presumtions are made, presumptions that is steering the discussion a bit of track. Some I have identified are:

1. That grouping happens less today then in earlier MMOs
2. That grouping in itself enhances gameplay
3. That all is needed is better game design

So, lets debunk them one at the time. Or atleast poke them a bit.

1. Grouping is still prevolent in MMOs, however what the groups are for, what kind of interaction is between players when grouping, how long they last etc might not be the same as earlier. The real problem with grouping today seems to rather be that it doesnt fit with the idea of what grouping should be. Or, the many ideas of what grouping is about. It is clear that we are not even talking about the same kind of grouping. Some seem to talk about the decline in grouping as a lack of interaction between random players in the world (aka a lack of easy-to-get-and-enjoyable-PuGs), while others talk about lack of incentives for friends to play together. Even though they are both related to grouping, they might not be caused by the same problem. We no longer warmly greet anyone we come across online (which to be fair was quite normal in the early days of MMOs about 10 years ago), possibly cause we have been told that strangers on the internet are pedophiles and massmurderers. In such, the issues of PuGs might not be solely due to game design, but actually a change in how we conduct ourselves while online. Furhter more, they might have very different solutions. What supports grouping between friends might be at odds with features supporting PuGs. So, what kind of grouping is it we really want more of?
2. Some enjoy soloing, some enjoy grouping. Grouping in it self isnt something that makes a game better, or an encouter more enjoyable. For grouping to have that effect you must like grouping, have a group you want to play with and a challenge that is good to solve as a group. In many ways, good group play is at odds with solo play due to the complexity that is needed for a challenge to be posed to a group. The easy solution is to make games for solo players and games for group players, however that makes noone happy. Solo players like the persistance of MMOs and group players often want to be able to do things on their own. I believe the solution lies in dynamic content, that content will adapt/or can be changed depending on you beeing alone or in a group.
3. Users dont always do what the designers intend them to do. This seems to go double for gamers We find alternate goals, we try things just to see what makes it tick, we try to break the rules. A good design alone wont change how grouping works, it needs to work in tandem with players appreciating this feature and giving it positive meaning. To take one example: The LFG tool in WoW. Its a welldesigned tool. You can set up which dungeon you want to go to, and you can even mark what role you will have (healer, tank, dps). However, many groups are still beeing formed through public channels like they used to before the LFG tool. The idea of the LFG tool was great, however in practice the users didnt use it as the designers intended- and we now see it as a underwhelming feature. In the same vein, a good design idea for how to get players to group – might not actually get them to group.

In the wake of “The Curious Case of the Poorly Behaved Professor” a discussion about social rules vs game rules have emerged. While Myers, the professor in question, still holds up that he was not griefing other players he is perhaps in a minority at this stage. However, as often before,  disagreeing with someone helps sharpen own opinions and understandings. What do I label as griefing?

This is an attempt to outline my understanding of different types of play that doesn’t confirm with established rules (that be game rules, meta rules, social rules or any other kind). It is mostly to put order in my own mind of what these concept holds, and in such not trying to reinvent the wheel, but I would love the opinion on others on this.

• Griefing: Play with the intention and goal of disrupting and lower other players experience. The emphasis is then put on the player doing the griefing, and the meaning that player gives to the game. Everyone will at one point or another have made the game less enjoyable for others (getting to a node first, training some mobs onto another player etc.), but unless it is done willfully and with the purpose of ruining the day for another player- it cannot be termed griefing. Griefing can happen within the rules of the game (referring here to EULAs, the code itself etc), or it can breach these. In such griefing is only about the social rules, the social conventions of the game, it is about knowing the social rules well enough to turn them against other players.
• Trolling: Even though trolling is perhaps best known from forums, blogs, discussiongroups etc, they also exist in game. Compared to griefing, trolling can only happen through communication while griefing is by and large about actions alone. Again, it is the social rules that are in focus. The goal of trolling is to take a stand that will cause disruption and have people waste their time arguing against a false presumption. To know what topics as suited for trolling, a “good troll” will also know the social rules well to know what topics to push.
• Exploiting: Using flaws in the code to gain benefits. The rules that are to be broken (or some will say, just bent a bit) are the rules of the code. Exploiting is about personal benefits, and little about affecting other peoples play. As mentioned, exploits can be used in griefing, but exploits in it self has nothing to do with griefing. In regards to social rules exploiting has a more ambiguous role. Some exploits get house warm, while others are labelled as cheating. A quick example: In WoW was seen as “cosher” to use the “unstuck” feature as a second hearthstone (teleport to home). This feature later got changed, but the way players were using it was a type of exploit. They were taking advantage of a weak point of the code, that it didnt understand if you were really stuck or just wanted a free ride. This example shows how exploits negotiate both social rules as well as game rules, and that individual exploits are given different meaning.
• Hacking: Breaking the rules of the game (both code and EULA) by bringing own rules in form of own code. Frowned upon by other players, I have personally a hard time understanding the players that hack. I often heard people talking about hacking, but in my many hours in MMOs in the last few years I have only witnessed a handful of events where hacking have been involved. All have been in PvP situations, often by using hacks to gain extra speed and in such win the game without giving the opponent a fair chance. Since it is not about getting a fair fight (or even good fight, fair fights are rare in MMOs) I presume the goal is winning over the code, not winning over other players. Based on other accounts of hacker activity, I theorize that meaning comes from being able to break the system, as well as breaking the rules.  Though hacking is generally seen as bad, there are still borderline cases. Some mods/addons give information that would normally not be available in game (a wonderful mod that would play Mortal Combat music if I was targeted in PvP comes to mind), but mods dont seem to undergo the same kind of scrutiny. Unless the game company labels the addon as illegal, it is seen as fair play.

To return to Myers and the case of Twixt, one of his major arguments was that the nature of MMOs was a conformist one. That the social pressure forces all players to game on the same premises, to adopt to similar types of playstyles regardless of intentions from designers and what the gamecode allows for. While I agree about social norms being strong in places such as MMOs, the conclusion I disagree with. By reflecting on different types of disruptive play, its already clear that while social rules are strong they are under constant negotiation. What is seen as “good play” is not given.

EDIT1: After comment from Myers I wish to emphasise that this is indeed only my own thoughts and reflections on the topic. It is not based on any particular type of data, or previous research (though ofcourse influenced by it). As Myers have proved himself, the lines between gamer, blogger and researcher can easily get blurred – and this is perhaps a time when such differences should be made clear. So with that in mind, feel free to treat this as just another piece of random “QQ on teh interwebz” ™, its only a blog