Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Types of Stimulation in MMORPG's.
Tengwar
Member Posts: 20
[Prenote : TLDR = Hooked on Phonics didnt work for you.]
My MMO 'career' spans about 12 years, starting with The Realm and Merdian 59 ; I have seen many things.
Lemme try to break this down for you with some examples.
_____________________________
Skill Challenge - Single Player : Mega Man --- You have to time your jumps and shots correctly.
Stimulation in failure : You get angry and put down the controller, take a break, then come back which usually results in victory. This is a positive stimulation.
______________________________________________________________________________
Patience Challenge - Single Player : Breeding Chocobos in FF7 --- Feeding it the right greens, eventually, after waiting X or Y long, You get a Gold Chocobo.
Stimulation : Take note that getting a Gold Chocobo is alot like getting keyed : it opens up more options for fun in the game. "Failure" isnt as strong of a variable as it would be in a skill challenge ; that is why this can also be a positive form of stimulation.
______________________________________________________________________________
Skill Challenge - MMO : Knowing your class, knowing which buttons to push and when. PvP tends to fall in this category, it applies to raiding too, but because the social managment aspect is so prominently favored, this detracts from the Skill Challenge of MMOs leading more into Patience / Social Dependency type challenge (getting your ducks in a row) in anything more than a 5 man group and even there too.
Stimulation : [Context - PvP] -- Usually, in PvP, if your getting womped by an uber geared player.. much like the stimulation of the Single Player Skill Challenge : it makes you want to put down the keyboard for a minute, take a break, and try again, usually by seeking out weaker players, inciting revenge or more thinly spread PvP situations. -- again it can be a form of positive stimulation
_______________________________________________________________________________
Patience Challenge - MMO : Hoo boy.. this is where it gets "fun" -- These are ALL examples of a patience based challenges.
"DKP" and or Player-enforced loot distribution systems
Respawns
Slot-machine drops. (running a dungeon until your piece drops)
Farming Motes (requires infinite patience)
Waiting for group members to arrive to a dungeon.
Taking 20 mins to get prepared and organized.
Trying to get into an uber-guild for the sake of advancement (Enjoy getting them Starbucks, Errandboy.)
"Auto-pilot" combat systems (hack... hack.... hack... I win)
Material Timers (Spellcloths, Mooncloths, Transmutes)
Outrageous Material Requirements
PvP Honor point system, waiting for gear
Are you noticing the big picture here? What do all of these have in common? THEY ALL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE
Ahhhhh so they must be good right? Skill does not attain the rewards, patience does. And thats part of the challenge and a skill in itself right?!?!?
But what kind of stimulation do they provide?
The worst kind of stimulation. The kind of stimulation that doesnt exactly have a release valve like the others do. In the human psyche, it leads to a "bottling-it-up" type of stimulation. Plus : These units of frustration are introduced in small increments, they erode away at your patience.
This is why people are comparing WoW to EQ. Because its drawing the exact same sort of stimulation via the challenges provided, and its not a good type of stimulation either.
Developers should really take this kind of thing into account simply for the idea that these mistakes in the genre of MMO's are what made games like EQ ; old news.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Kurgan. He is the strongest of all the immortals. He's the *perfect* warrior. If he wins the Prize, mortal man would suffer an eternity of darkness. -- How do you fight such a savage? -- With heart, faith and skill. In the end there can be only one.
Comments
I thought this thread was going to generalise all MMOs, especially under the "Patience Challenge - MMO", but it turned out it was just about WoW...
But I have to agree with you somewhat (if I've understood your post). There's no skill in just waiting longer than anyone else, and when you do (lets say get that honour reward item), there's actually no joy in it whatsoever, because you didn't really do anything outstanding to get it.
Maybe I've misunderstood the whole post, but nice effort
I'll admit, the focus of the post is WoW heavy but I only use it to give everyone a photo frame of what I am talking about simply because I feel many MMO gamers have played and tried WoW and I would relate with more people by using a WoW focus, I am terribly sorry to have been misleading.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Kurgan. He is the strongest of all the immortals. He's the *perfect* warrior. If he wins the Prize, mortal man would suffer an eternity of darkness. -- How do you fight such a savage? -- With heart, faith and skill. In the end there can be only one.
So your point is, WoW is dying. Welcome to yesterday
bright white flashes, strobe lights, pulsating lights ---->epileptic siezure
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished