I very, very much enjoyed your essay (:D) and that's all I have to say about your writing.
There IS more to say about the subject.
I'd like to see the gaming industry not per se as escapism/hedonism but rather as a healthy form of enjoyment that can stimulate a person in multiple ways to become bigger. Sadly, most of your wife's complaints are justified.
I would like to react solely to the first standpoint, and elaborate on it.
There's two ways to look at this argument: the one way from a story perspective, the other from an enjoyment perspective. In a game both come together, there is usually a story being told. It can be yours (in terms of your character and your decisions) or one of multiple characters.
Ideally every part of the story would be interesting and entertaining, but that is hardly possible unless you play a single-player game. The latter RPG are games built around a background and don't have to take any account of what other people do, because only one will influence events in the story, and that's you.
So in MMORPG we're either stuck with a small portion of good story, a bland story, or a game with excessive attention on story elements that make the rest of the game shallow.
Now we could just forget about story elements altogether and organize a game without a visible framework, e.g. landmark.
This would be the enjoyment perspective; does the game STAY interesting or is it basically - phase 1: enjoying all the shiny new things you just came into - phase 2: doing boring stuff because all the things you enjoyed in phase 2 became repetitive and - phase 3: enjoying the "END GAME" for a short amount of time before tiring of it too..?
Again, ideally the game producer could give a player his own tools to create his own diversion and goals, landmark does this magnificently, but I personally think the game lacks the one thing we just decided to keep out, yep: Story. To keep things interesting there has to be something driving us on, some history, some relevance to what we're doing. In most games this is the classical war between good and evil. In some it goes a lot further and becomes a complex interweaving of social, psychological and philosophical awareness.
Maybe the question game developers need to answer isn't so easy at all, because it's an indirect answer to the one thing that SHOULD concern every living human: the sense or nonsense of existence and what drives us on.
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
I’m an Aerospace Engineer and Game Consultant specializing in accessibility. One cousin lost their left arm, and one has down syndrome. I have poor eyesight. Over the last seven years I have been hired to consult on accessibility in games twice. Both times my recommendations were not implemented. I bring up color blindness in every interview I have, and have been told to quit bring it up. I hate to say this, but the industry doesn’t see a substantial ROI.
As for UPPP, the vast majority of the customer base equipment can’t handle the level of customization that you want. If you have a modern fully equipped rig, congratulations. Most gamers, including the ones that buy games and are spending money in the cash shops, don’t.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
I very, very much enjoyed your essay (:D) and that's all I have to say about your writing.
<snip>
I'd like to see the gaming industry not per se as escapism/hedonism but rather as a healthy form of enjoyment that can stimulate a person in multiple ways to become bigger. Sadly, most of your wife's complaints are justified.
<snip>
Again, ideally the game producer could give a player his own tools to create his own diversion and goals, landmark does this magnificently, but I personally think the game lacks the one thing we just decided to keep out, yep: Story.
- I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Hopefully, there will be another one soon!
- I do believe that MMORPGs can be more than just escapism. In fact, if I had the inclination I would write a book entitled "Everything I Know I Learned from MMORPGs". There are great lessons to be learned from MMOs in being social and persistent as you chase your dreams. I've also made great friends through MMOs and the value of that cannot be understated.
- Landmark is precisely what you describe - tools given to players to create on their own. But it goes beyond building. Story is a huge part of Landmark too. We just don't have it in our hands yet. Storybricks is to a writer what voxels are to a builder. It's only a matter of time before that program is integrated into Landmark and you'll see an explosion of story in Landmark. Not a single, managed, lore-based story but rather infinite variations on classic stories and completely new stories, all produced by guys like you and me.
--------------------------- SOE Community Council Member 2014 Landmark Representative Twitter: @AndriiMMO "Decisions are made by those who show up." - President Josiah Bartlett
Originally posted by Konfess As for UPPP, the vast majority of the customer base equipment can’t handle the level of customization that you want. If you have a modern fully equipped rig, congratulations. Most gamers, including the ones that buy games and are spending money in the cash shops, don’t.
I sincerely hope "UPPP" becomes an acronym that people use in the MMORPG world.
As for the quality of gaming rigs, I think ArcheAge is probably up there in UPPP and there were what a couple million people that went out for the closed betas?
--------------------------- SOE Community Council Member 2014 Landmark Representative Twitter: @AndriiMMO "Decisions are made by those who show up." - President Josiah Bartlett
Yeah tried this with my wife - she said "that's awful".
Oh well I still play Landmark once in a blue moon - combat so far is meh
Not sure what happened recently but my Landmark fps went to crap - used to get 40+ fps, now I'm dropping to 20 near claims (i7, 16GB 770gtx)
Landmark is in a bad need of an optimization pass.
same here. had before 40+ fps and no game is 20 fps:/ guess i need buy new pc when EQN is released.
I tried to go into Landmark again with a 7 day pass and could not believe the fps and performance issue I experienced the other day. It seemed to have gotten worse since earlier beta when I played!
Sadly I left after reducing my settings to medium and still seeing no significant change.
Comments
I very, very much enjoyed your essay (:D) and that's all I have to say about your writing.
There IS more to say about the subject.
I'd like to see the gaming industry not per se as escapism/hedonism but rather as a healthy form of enjoyment that can stimulate a person in multiple ways to become bigger. Sadly, most of your wife's complaints are justified.
I would like to react solely to the first standpoint, and elaborate on it.
There's two ways to look at this argument: the one way from a story perspective, the other from an enjoyment perspective. In a game both come together, there is usually a story being told. It can be yours (in terms of your character and your decisions) or one of multiple characters.
Ideally every part of the story would be interesting and entertaining, but that is hardly possible unless you play a single-player game. The latter RPG are games built around a background and don't have to take any account of what other people do, because only one will influence events in the story, and that's you.
So in MMORPG we're either stuck with a small portion of good story, a bland story, or a game with excessive attention on story elements that make the rest of the game shallow.
Now we could just forget about story elements altogether and organize a game without a visible framework, e.g. landmark.
This would be the enjoyment perspective; does the game STAY interesting or is it basically - phase 1: enjoying all the shiny new things you just came into - phase 2: doing boring stuff because all the things you enjoyed in phase 2 became repetitive and - phase 3: enjoying the "END GAME" for a short amount of time before tiring of it too..?
Again, ideally the game producer could give a player his own tools to create his own diversion and goals, landmark does this magnificently, but I personally think the game lacks the one thing we just decided to keep out, yep: Story. To keep things interesting there has to be something driving us on, some history, some relevance to what we're doing. In most games this is the classical war between good and evil. In some it goes a lot further and becomes a complex interweaving of social, psychological and philosophical awareness.
Maybe the question game developers need to answer isn't so easy at all, because it's an indirect answer to the one thing that SHOULD concern every living human: the sense or nonsense of existence and what drives us on.
Forgive my philosophical rambling, bad habit. :P
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
I’m an Aerospace Engineer and Game Consultant specializing in accessibility. One cousin lost their left arm, and one has down syndrome. I have poor eyesight. Over the last seven years I have been hired to consult on accessibility in games twice. Both times my recommendations were not implemented. I bring up color blindness in every interview I have, and have been told to quit bring it up. I hate to say this, but the industry doesn’t see a substantial ROI.
As for UPPP, the vast majority of the customer base equipment can’t handle the level of customization that you want. If you have a modern fully equipped rig, congratulations. Most gamers, including the ones that buy games and are spending money in the cash shops, don’t.Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
- I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Hopefully, there will be another one soon!
- I do believe that MMORPGs can be more than just escapism. In fact, if I had the inclination I would write a book entitled "Everything I Know I Learned from MMORPGs". There are great lessons to be learned from MMOs in being social and persistent as you chase your dreams. I've also made great friends through MMOs and the value of that cannot be understated.
- Landmark is precisely what you describe - tools given to players to create on their own. But it goes beyond building. Story is a huge part of Landmark too. We just don't have it in our hands yet. Storybricks is to a writer what voxels are to a builder. It's only a matter of time before that program is integrated into Landmark and you'll see an explosion of story in Landmark. Not a single, managed, lore-based story but rather infinite variations on classic stories and completely new stories, all produced by guys like you and me.
---------------------------
SOE Community Council Member 2014
Landmark Representative
Twitter: @AndriiMMO
"Decisions are made by those who show up."
- President Josiah Bartlett
I sincerely hope "UPPP" becomes an acronym that people use in the MMORPG world.
As for the quality of gaming rigs, I think ArcheAge is probably up there in UPPP and there were what a couple million people that went out for the closed betas?
---------------------------
SOE Community Council Member 2014
Landmark Representative
Twitter: @AndriiMMO
"Decisions are made by those who show up."
- President Josiah Bartlett
What...?
Is this even real....? Did I click a "latest replies" link to the forums instead of a feature...?
I tried to go into Landmark again with a 7 day pass and could not believe the fps and performance issue I experienced the other day. It seemed to have gotten worse since earlier beta when I played!
Sadly I left after reducing my settings to medium and still seeing no significant change.