Self-Indulgence

All tonight I’ve been working to make some final changes to the manuscript’s resource section. While grabbing a random bit of data for that, I saw my name on a slashdot article.

Sweet.

Niftier than that, I was really happy to see that some of the comments below the slashdot fold were becoming more sophisticated. People are starting to get specific bits and pieces of why some types of ‘play’ are more or less healthy than others. Some are also showing a much clearer view of what videogame and MMO worlds are; that is to say that they are experiences and, in some cases, places.

y hai2u website visitars

I haven’t felt particularly inspired this week, but it’s high time I report that the first completed draft of the manuscript went out the door and to my editor this Monday.

I don’t have many good reflections, pieces of advice or other whimsy things to say about the experience thus far. That is, save for the ones I’ve already offered or might soon offer close friends. No idea yet how much it’ll cost, when it will release or where you might pick it up. I’m content to put those things out of my mind, at least for the time being.

What has been on my mind, and I’m not sure why, is a quote from one of the first books to strike at my mind. The variety of strike that sends sparks in a dozen directions. The sparks that bounce chaotically from surface to surface, as though alive. “Consider,” has become, “Imagine.” The word imagine repeats itself over and over inside of my head, in a tone that suggests I should be grinning. Right now, I am.

For the probability of error increases with the scope of the undertaking, and any man who sells his soul to synthesis will be a tragic target for a myriad merry darts of specialist critique. “Consider,” said Ptah-hotep five thousand years ago, “how thou mayest be opposed by an expert in council. It is foolish to speak on every kind of work.”

Imagine.

PAX 2008 and Updates

I haven’t been publishing on the blog in the past two months. It’s part intentional, part schedule. So for major updates:

Shavaun and I plan to submit our manuscript by the end of this month, September.

On Nov. 7th I’ll be presenting a talk as part of a daylong lecture: Pathological Computer Use and Internet Addiction: Description and Treatment, hosted by Portland State University and put together by Dr. Jerald Block, MD.

I have decided not to apply for Fall 2009 entry into PhD programs. Many factors go into this. I want to extend my earnest gratitude – encouragement and commentary from people whose work I respect, no matter how small or brief, kept me going.

Those being out of the way, this last weekend I spent two days at PAX!

This was my first PAX. I originally went to meet longtime e-buddies and local gamer friends, though managed to randomly run into a couple of old highschool friends, games industry friends and even Morgan Romine (Rhoulette) of the girl-gamer team The Frag Dolls, who I’d interviewed a few months back for the book.

Being a hardcore Fallout 1 and 2 fan, it was fairly amazing to see the Fallout 3 display on the expo floor. From what I saw of their demos, there’s a lot that revisits old flavors, a FPS feel to the gameplay and a much more commercial orientation than the games published by Interplay. Though huge games like Oblivion have been released by the new publisher, the Fallout IP captured an almost fanatic fanbase in the late ’90s through Fallout 1, 2 and Fallout Tactics; this is despite having gameplay features considered, even by some of its creators, as “bad, flawed, terrible game design.”

I would describe its charm as off-color, cooky. Which fits me, anyway. 😉

An MMO based on the universe, which has been on the menu for Bethesda Softworks since they acquired the IP, would largely depend on these older, nostalgic gamers in order to carve out a base market. In a sense, I think that Fallout 3 is a proving ground for that type of a project on, to a lesser extent, technical levels and, to a much larger extent, spiritual levels. If they pull it off, a Fallout MMO could be a serious wildcard contender in the battle royale to be the major next-gen MMO.

There were a number of other games being previewed, which was interesting. Wrath of the Lich King seemed to provide more of the same; Blizzard’s strategy of changing little is likely a large contributor to their ongoing success.

Bioware did a world premiere of the Dragon Age toolset. Having played with the Neverwinter Nights toolset, numerous 3-D graphics programs and a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, this program was so impressive. Though the game itself looks to be another chess move forward in their efforts to provide a delicious 3-D RPG experience (from Kotor, to Jade Empire, to Mass Effect and so forth), this back-end toolset to Dragon Age will likely have unprecedented consequences.

I also know that I was incredulous on this blog, after Bioware was absorbed and then city-stated by EA. I said something about having a dream of “wanting to work there,” at least until that acquisition.

That was an idiotic thing to say. After watching the passion and creativity of the developers presenting this toolset, I’ve decided that I would be so lucky to work with people so humorous, thoughtful and sincere.

As a gamer, maybe it’s easy to get disillusioned. It’s easy to think that this culture of misfits, rebels, intellectuals, the reserved, the shy, the forward-thinking, the creative, the secretly nerdy, all of the people who love games, is being taken advantage of. Acquired, as it were, by the same forces that seek to profit in any industry. That the artists weaving experience should be able to find their way around corporate leeches, the professional moneymen that demand the gameplay of guaranteed revenue stream. But then, at the same time, many of these creative minds might simply be learning to build income so as to make the games that matter. Maybe the gamers have always had a stranglehold on the market, what’s made, in how they buy. Maybe this “stifling of the industry” is just a cash cow, a side-along for the masses – so that the hardcore among us can prolong the transfusion of our lifeblood: the unended mystique of gaming innovation.

And now I’m having a good laugh at myself. Oh gamey philosophizing, will you ever get old??

Exploratory Research Study Uncovers Amazing Fact!

Most of the people who know me well know that I love the Weekly World News, harbingers of pivotal cultural phrases, like “Experts say.” E.g., “Experts discover radioactive alleycats inhabiting Martian dumpsters.”

It’s a cool magazine and I just had to get that out of the way.

While I’ll assault those around me with the latest and greatest from the WWN, I’ve kind of been out of sight this last month while I pre-tested and collected data for a long exploratory study. Many of the factors tested were based off of literature review conducted after the M.A. thesis, in the process of writing a book on gaming addictions. The survey covered videogame immersion, socialization, game structures and factors which could influence addiction. Or so-called addiction. In some ways that remains to be seen. The respondents were either current or former World of Warcraft players.

Though most players know that gaming can be a major problem with some people, the link between their problems and addiction is still, in many ways, tenuous. My website has always used the word addiction, but my reasons for that are probably as complicated as the word itself. I overthink things to a degree that would probably give most people the illusion of being trapped in the ball pit.

So the factors being analyzed dealt less with the way we’ve been looking at excess gaming and more about factors like going “between worlds” or encouragement to play gotten by other players. Some of these were potentially pathologic, though most were not.

But before I talk more about it, the free open-source survey app I used: limesurvey, must be hailed as easy to use, dependable and, of course, amazing. I would recommend it without hesitation and nobody’s paying me to say it.

Back on topic, there is a lot of data. Enough to warrant writing “there is a lot of data” rather than using the contraction “there’s a lot of data.” You’d still have the italics, but it would be a completely different feel.

I is drowning in data.

So far it’s been relatively easy to eyeball the statistics. Key factors appear to be (for starters, anyway) the meaning that players attach to in-game relationships, raiding and raid-related communication and the applicability of Internet Addiction Disorder criteria. The most fulfilling and vexing, so far, have been the relationships that seemingly came out of nowhere. So right now I’m working on regressions for some blog bullet-points, the first set of those will be what this data says about our current way of measuring addiction. The plan is to fully analyze those before moving on to a game’s structure and culture, then finally “addiction factors.”

Finally, one last time I’d like to say that no online survey can diagnose addiction. The person who built mine (that would be me) isn’t qualified to diagnose addiction either. Addiction is complicated. The people who diagnose it in individuals pull that insight from more than just quick and quippy questions. If you took the survey and have questions, then emailing through this blog is a great way to get a hold of me. That said, my sincere thanks to any and all who participated. And anyone whose been interested enough to keep reading.

Coverage of New World of Warcraft Sequel

‘Warcraft’ Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing ‘Warcraft’

The Unfourtunate De-Hardening of Warcraft

I’m saddened to report that World of Warcraft has gotten easier.
They’ve always been in flux, the game mechanics. One skill gets tweaked to be more powerful, this talent gets nerfed so that rogues can ceaselessly own warriors, etc. et al. But World of Warcraft is easier today than it was at release, even a few months ago. They even made it easier to level from 1-50, so that people could stock up on higher level characters for the next expansion (right, that’s not what I’m referring to here).

The painful ease of which I speak: certain key mobs (i.e. monsters) are no longer elites. Elite mobs, for those untainted by Warcraft, are those that possessed far more deadly abilities than normal monsters. It was an ingenious game mechanic to add them and far better to have certain key mobs present the player with bigger challenges.

For my upcoming research (more details soon) I’ve, you know, found it necessary to add a few levels onto certain key characters in order to experiment with a new form of sampling. I’ve been incredibly disappointed with mobs that I always looked forward to as a refreshing challenge. Monsters with more deadly powers had to be taken seriously, with preparation and skill. Add to that there was always a, shall we say contingent chance that you’d get torn to pieces. It makes the otherwise mindless grind a bit more thrilling. Gets the blood pumping, yaknow?

This ultimately gets to the heart of where the addiction discussion can crap on games. If developers make commercial decisions that are the least bit influenced by wanting to create something that’s easy to keep healthy, they play with a delicate balance between fun game design that goes in tandem with our real world obligations – or attempts that fall flat. Without any thought to real-world balance, you get something different. Something I’d suggest Warcraft felt in the time of 40-man raiding and Grand Marshal/High Warlord grinds. There’s an incredibly alluring dynamic in the game world – but the toll exacted by preference to that world would, and has, added a new dynamic to the online-space-race that’s finally going to gas up for its pageant.

I know at least four people who just fly around Shattrath when they play. They have this world that they’ve invested in – largely in a time when the raiding spirit was only somewhat plagued by the notion of balance. Now the world firsts are long gone, the essence of raiding that brought in so many people is tired and people are looking for a unique new kind of dynamic within games but interlaced with reality. Raiding has always been on the menu of the hardcore gamer, WoW made its contribution, but whether by the attrition of exhausting addiction or the imbalancing of the WoW raid dynamic, there’s an essential spirit that’s gone missing.

And yet the bonds that hold Warcraft together are only beginning to bend. This online space race, the commercial war of the worlds, will be a lot of things. Interesting is one that I’m betting on, though for more betting see my last post.

Neils’ Big MMO Prediction: EA Bioware Takes All

AoC, Warhammer Online and every other game out there will serve to divvy up player populations for an eventual virtual world takeover under the banner of EA Bioware/Bioware Austin’s under-development MMO.

Bioware has a unique pool of experience and resource with the basic RPG gameplay model

While AoC is currently a hot topic inside WoW, shipping 1 million copies is not the same thing as building up 10 million subscribers, there are myriad factors that haven’t hit tipping point (let alone a point of long term retention) with AoC

Warhammer has 700,000 users signed up and hoping to test closed beta (though for how long they’ve been signed up is another matter). At release Warhammer is going to be ~30% drain on whatever WoW’s population is at the time and 60-80% drain on AoC usage. At least it will be if it has momentum to the tune of 700,000 ready gamers.

That’s a Mage in Westfall, right?

This is very likely why the timing of Warhammer and Warcraft’s release dates has been liquid. Timing is literally going to be everything when it comes to WotLK (Warcraft’s upcoming expansion) and Warhammer Online’s release. I suspect that both Blizzard and EA Mythic are dealing not just with actual delays in production, but a cat-and-mouse game, heavily based on user statistics and strategies in attracting population. There’s just too much money in this for that not to be a top consideration. Having 700,000 users ready for a beta is impressive, but like AoC it teeters on that edge, where the publisher really needs to be a 2150+ rated PvPer if it wants to compete with all the investment that gamers have in WoW. WoW has its detractors as well, though some of these carry over to virtual worlds in general.

From what I gather having played their games and met their people, EA Bioware/Bioware Austin could, in the words of the immortal Tim Gunn, “Make it work.”

Or perceived addiction serves to burn out the entire industry, making this whole experiment in game-like virtual worlds (in the words of my friend Nik) “a flash in the pan.”

“FEAR THE RAVAGER!” Comic ©2008 Jared Norberg, reprinted with permission.

Crom vs. Addictor the Ravager

After a quick conversation about which Azerothian (World of Warcraftian) God was top dog, a friend and I settled on Addictor the Ravager.

Addictor the Ravager! Fear his awesome reach!

Addictor now battles the Pantheon of Age of Conan, which already boasts 400,000 visitors. Honestly I don’t think that’s critical mass. Their pace has to quicken significantly and soon if they hope to capture the long-term income that the linked news piece suggests they need.

A lot goes into grabbing and sustaining MMO player populations, with many hardcore players (to an extent regardless of Crom’s skill in combat) very likely to turn back to WoW come Wrath of the Lich King. I tried going in-depth on one of the big determining factors with the Beating Warcraft at its Own Game article. But there were many, many other enabling factors employed (knowingly or not) by Blizzard when they united the diverse ‘tribes’ of gamers. Many of those moves were long term, not fully utilized by Funcom. At least not with a great deal of the player populations out there.

Then again, did Funcom really want to live forever?

Highway to the Danger Zone, on Google Maps

A quick google maps search of “Highway to the Danger Zone,” actually winds up revealing a small section of interstate, just east of Roswell New Mexico.

Click for a bigger picture

Friendship On-Demand?

So even when I’m taking time away from games, a few times a week I hop onto the different Ventrilo servers where old friends kick back and talk smack. Ventrilo, for the uninitiated, is a mix between a conference call and a chat room. My buddy Cheese and I got to talking about the friendships that you make online and off. He suggested that in games, we have “on-demand relationships.” If you’re not familiar with On-Demand cable, it’s where you use your TV remote to browse between shows that different channels offer up for you to watch at any time.

On-Demand

Part of this conversation had to do with the way offline relationships work. Someone suggested that we don’t always live by the people we’d prefer. As the conversation went, at times people who live in a proximity to one another are obligated to give support during hard times when they might not even like these people. Are these the gesticulations of people who are perceptive, sith masters or just spoiled by WoW?

“ALL I WANTED WAS A CUP OF SUGAR!!!”

Relationships online are with people who we literally pick and choose to socialize with. Does that make them more lovable, or is there a consumptive element? Or is it both? As soon as we’ve gotten our fill of that “on-demand channel,” we can flip channels or just turn them off.

“The force is strong with you. Let’s be friends.”

Obviously gaming empowers new types of connectivity, which some people really take advantage of in finding enjoyable conversation. On the other hand, when we turn off the game or, as I have done, “take a break,” what happens to those relationships? It seems that there’s really no platform that compares to “let’s grab a beer,” or “see ya at church.”

Is it the ‘same as it ever was,’ or are new dynamics in play?