The Gamer’s Quagmire: 13th Edition
- Jamison DeLorenzo

Gaming, humor, and insanity in harmony

Just earlier today I was thinking about how long it has been since a really stupid gaming article had been written. Some articles fail to make points but are relatively entertaining (something that I seem to strive for a little too often), some articles talk about interesting topics but provide no useful information, some articles are just a bunch of nonsensical yammering (your typical web log), and some articles are just stupid. Behold, the power of the Internet.

Two years ago I encountered an article which made a valiant attempt at being insightful but failed miserably. The title was something very close to “Games Need to Be Fun.” All I could think of was one of Ralph Wiggum’s best quotes – “Fun Toys are Fun.” The article was talking about how games need to focus more on the fun aspect instead of graphics or something else non-substantive. I don’t mean to be nasty when reading articles like that one (okay, that’s a lie), but people need to pay attention to their overall topic so as to avoid sounding like a nitwit.

Normally I do not spend time dissecting articles because it’s pretty tough read for anyone when the accompanying article isn’t linked. Some times I tend to be a little too harsh when sending people’s thoughts through the shredder, so please understand I did not link it to be nice. If you spend time online looking you will probably find the piece this rant is based on.

Today’s metaphorical bread winner (somehow I’d feel compelled to go out and buy a loaf of bread if I didn’t include that adjective) talks about how World of Warcraft fails in showcasing certain values. Having played the game for hours on end the topic was intriguing for two reasons. One was that not many people talk about Warcraft and life values, thus giving hope to some unique and intriguing content. Second was that I had an idea that the article was going to contain a highly negative tone with bias and inconsistent arguments. I may be negative about many different things, but consistency is a strength.

And wouldn’t you know it- I was right about the inconsistency. The article was written from a point of view that I had before playing some online games. What was interesting was that the crux of the main argument, which was that time invested and group dynamics play too big a part in World of Warcraft, was based off a quote from Raph Koster. I don’t know much about the man, but I do know that the first year of Star Wars Galaxies, under his direction, was one of the worse online experiences I’ve ever had. I guess what I’m saying is that if you use him in an argument with me you better have some concrete viewpoints.

Also, you probably shouldn’t use an argument made by a veteran of leading multiple online games to make an argument against online games in general. You can try to narrow down specific points to Warcraft if you work at it, but World of Warcraft does not provide any new online gaming elements or dynamics.

Street Fighter 2, perhaps the most renowned 2D fighter along with Mortal Kombat, was used as a main counter for Warcraft’s teachings in the article. Being a veteran of the game that took Ryu to places most gamers didn’t know existed I knew that I’d be ready to deal with everything I would read. Street Fighter is different from mostly every online game because you do not need to rely on anyone else to beat your opponent. Warcraft forces you to use group dynamics in almost every arena except for duels.

(And for the record, the SF2 food chain is as follows: Ryu, Guile, Ken, Chun Li, Blanka, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Zangief).

Most people in the military will tell you that, despite this Army of One silliness, using group tactics are important for succeeding. Whether you’re in a 10 on 10 skirmish or in a guild you wind up relying on your friends from time to time. Predictably, further comments were made stating that introverts are ignored by online games. Well, duh. If you don’t like working with people all the time an MMOG style game is not for you. Even introverts who carry large close range weapons need help from artillery.

Being a major introvert was an argument I used when stating why I would never play this style of game. Yet here I am knee-deep in an online game. How did I make this amazing transition? I limit the number of people I interact with, trust only a select few, and play a class where I don’t need to rely on other people all the time. Being someone who could almost not be more introverted (as multiple psychological tests have proven) stating that World of Warcraft completely ignores introverts is nothing more than ignorant. Even if I’m in group of 40 people or a guild of over 100 I don’t know or interact with many of them. You don’t need to know everyone- you just need to know your role. Those of you that don’t figure this out will go insane when working in industry… a good lesson for anyone.

A highlighted example discussed the concept of people who are online more should get more rewards and countered it with talking about an expert creating something far superior to a layperson (that may have been dealing with user interface icons… but that’s not the important part here). There are a couple of problems I have with this argument- none of them minor.

People who put more time into certain fields are generally better than others, but luck is always involved in online games. Every site that provides gamers with information on who drops what always talks about “random drops” because, well, it is not set in stone what enemies drop what loot. If that were so the game would be quite boring. Luck is always involved in getting the best stuff in the game. Prime example- a friend of mine has had a level 60 character for 5 months and has yet to find an epic item outside of an instance. I have found 2 with characters under level 50 in about 6 weeks. It is true that he’s quite irritated at this, but it’s not the game’s fault. The law of averages will eventually play out, and in the end it’s not about loot- it’s about fun.

Also, experts are always experts no matter what field you are in. Okay, the talk about a UI expert taking almost no time at all to whip out a streamlined interface is quite true. Now ask somebody who has no graphical abilities to design an interface and give them 2 months on their own to do it. Should the end product be as good? Of course not, so good job at recognizing this.

Luck, believe it or not, is not the only part of the equation in finding good loot in the game. A player must also know where to hunt for it and how to hunt for it. The best World of Warcraft gamers have a system down for building characters, generating income, finding loot, and leveling. Example: I am able to level with no rest XP from level 54 -55 in about 9 hours. Why? I know how to kill efficiently and I know where lots of experience can be had in the game. I’ve done this with two different characters now.

If you want to make comments about skill and then state that more time shouldn’t make you a better player and more powerful is stupid. Coupled with that, no game has ever had multiple classes and have everything completely balanced. This especially holds with Street Fighter 2 because the best Zangief player on the planet will always lose to a mediocre Guile player. Three years of playing that game carved that in stone. And if it takes one player 1000 hours to get to a place where someone in 1 hour got to the person who played less is obviously smarter and a much better tactician. At the highest levels in World of Warcraft tactics are always more powerful than time.

An interesting counterweight is the concept of time invested making you a more powerful character is nothing new to role playing games. In fact, any role playing game ever made where you needed to level a character up over the course of the story enforces that more time invested means a more powerful character. There is an immutable law passed down from the RPG gods that a level 99 character should wallop a level 90 character. If this were not the case then leveling up becomes meaningless.

For special players there’s always an exception, in that a player who is given loot consistently and doesn’t understand good strategy with the character they have will easily lose to a character even 3 levels below them. If you think that someone who invests time to level a character to level 60 doesn’t pick up a few tricks along the way should have some form of reward, such as being more powerful than lower levels, you are working from a Marxist perspective. If Warcraft was a game where character level could be offset by amazing gear then there would be a fundamental problem.

So how do these two opposite influence merge in an online world and make it work? First of all, you have to be smart and cunning to get to level 60, and along the way if you’re smart enough you will find, or even make, better equipment than a lesser player of the same level. And as life does teach many people (and kills who are unable to learn it) the bigger and richer groups almost always win. The medieval times taught this and today’s large companies are another good example of this. If you are unable to function or swim in a guild in an online game you will drown in the real world at a company.
So let me counter every major point made the article.

1) The game does not teach that investing a lot of time in something is worth more than actual skill. If you are unable to utilize everything in your character’s arsenal the amount of time staring at the screen and missing it will not help you become better. In online games where there is some permanence those who choose to work at it and become more experienced by killing thousands of monsters and exploring new areas will become experts. Those who gain more than avatar experience will be the winners.

2) The Honor System in the game is a work of art. This indeed does play off of the time invested because you need succeed at every military rank (we’ll enumerate them as 0 through 14) against your peers in order to advance in these levels. If you win consistently at levels 1-7 but are suddenly unable to advance it is not because people play more than you. You need to not just win but win consistently at the higher levels to get to the highest of Honor levels. If you play 20 hours a day and never win a match it is impossible to make to the highest levels (and I know players that are living proof of this).

3) You need to know how to function in a group. Being an individual in the game is very doable- every class affords the opportunity for a player to not group with anyone else and get up to the highest level. Some classes are easier to solo with than others, but you will always do better if you are able to understand group dynamics and work with other people. Even introverts are able to work with people from time to time, and if you feel that you constantly need to talk with your teammates to succeed you have already lost.

4) Introverts are not marginalized. Introverts can succeed and even gain an amazing reputation on a server populated with tens of thousands of players. Constantly crushing your opponents in group skirmishes, for example, will make people fear you. You may win battles if you work better in a group but there will always be people who fear one particular person in a group battle. Kobe Bryant may be the best individual player on the court, but his team will never be the best.

5) The best guilds do not work in an ivory tower. If you choose to be in a guild that tries to be completely self-reliant and shuns any other guild it is the fault of your leaders and not of the game. Having guilds merge or work together in dungeons or PvP is commonplace with my guild. Not everyone needs to stand in line in a guild and ignore other people. Your guild leader is not Big Brother. Then again, if you think soloing is better than guilds then why bother joining one in the first place?

6) You can explore any area in the game you can figure out how to get to. I’ve been in areas without texture mapping, accidentally duplicated items during the midst of a server crash, been logged on four over 80 hours in a week, found huge shortcuts through dungeons and quests, and identified bugs where the developers worked with me so that my problem was resolved or told that a solution was being worked on. The exact amount of time my account has been suspended during the course my non-contiguous subscription: 0 seconds. And if you don’t like rules feel free to rob a bank with out of date terms of service (or security protocols) and make this same argument to the arresting officers.

Online games may not teach you everything you want or be the style of game that you enjoy, but at the very least you have to give it a chance and see that it does teach things that align with what goes on in the real world. And if it makes you feel any better I still don’t like paying a monthly fee for them.

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