/Inspect - How Far We Have Come

Amathe · February 2019

When I started playing mmorpgs, it was considered rude to inspect another player's gear using /inspect without asking them first. And if you did /inspect, it shouldn't be a routine thing.

Now people inspect all the time. They can even go to websites and look up every jot and tittle of your stats.

And in some games everyone gets reduced to a gear score. You are, to many people, the number of your gear score.

I personally am not pleased with this evolution.

We seem to have lost some things that I valued, back when they existed. Privacy. Etiquette. Character and reputation over numerical quantification.

These days if you voice any objection to being inspected, people will laugh at you. So I get that's not a "thing" anymore. I just miss what we sacrificed to get here.

ChildoftheShadows · February 2019

To me this is one of the small things that added up in old school MMOs to create a personal connection to your character. They weren't inspecting a character, they were inspecting you.

alkarionlog · February 2019

Amathe said:

When I started playing mmorpgs, it was considered rude to inspect another player's gear using /inspect without asking them first. And if you did /inspect, it shouldn't be a routine thing.

Now people inspect all the time. They can even go to websites and look up every jot and tittle of your stats.

And in some games everyone gets reduced to a gear score. You are, to many people, the number of your gear score.

I personally am not pleased with this evolution.

We seem to have lost some things that I valued, back when they existed. Privacy. Etiquette. Character and reputation over numerical quantification.

These days if you voice any objection to being inspected, people will laugh at you. So I get that's not a "thing" anymore. I just miss what we sacrificed to get here.

it was? I remeber we did a lot of inspect to check what he is using so we could compare with what we was using and see if it had anything better

Cryomatrix · February 2019

I'd inspect with impunity and i'd be honored if someone inspected my character. They must be curious of what I have, so they check it.

In PoE, I ask to see people's gear all the time.

Scot · February 2019

It is better to encourage players to understand what their own avatar's capabilities are than to use a numeric check. That way they learn where they need to go and what they need to do.

ChildoftheShadows · February 2019

Cryomatrix said:

I'd inspect with impunity and i'd be honored if someone inspected my character. They must be curious of what I have, so they check it.

In PoE, I ask to see people's gear all the time.

But you ask

EponyxDamor · February 2019

Man, I forgot about /inspect along with /consider. We really have come a long way.

Shaigh · February 2019

Given how much information you can get looking up actual people online its fairly tame to inspect a character inside a game. If there is something you should truly worry about its privacy in your regular life.

Mendel · February 2019

Amathe said:

When I started playing mmorpgs, it was considered rude to inspect another player's gear using /inspect without asking them first. And if you did /inspect, it shouldn't be a routine thing.

Now people inspect all the time. They can even go to websites and look up every jot and tittle of your stats.

And in some games everyone gets reduced to a gear score. You are, to many people, the number of your gear score.

I personally am not pleased with this evolution.

We seem to have lost some things that I valued, back when they existed. Privacy. Etiquette. Character and reputation over numerical quantification.

These days if you voice any objection to being inspected, people will laugh at you. So I get that's not a "thing" anymore. I just miss what we sacrificed to get here.

That is definitely true; it used to be taboo to /inspect someone without permission.

But, at that time, the character graphics were very limited, pretty bland, actually. A character holding a different looking sword was unique, and uniqueness prompted a breach of etiquette. The 'I gotta see' reflex overtook the 'I should ask' instincts. As new models, items and even coloring schemes came out, there was even more to look at. There was so much that being polite and respectful took too much time, you actually had to interact with the other person, who might simply not respond.

"Politeness and respect" might be admirable traits, but "curiosity and impatience" is the smart way to bet if you plan to make money at it.

----------

On a completely different, but tangential tract, how many people actually read the character backstory you carefully typed in? (Another feature long since abandoned and forgotten). Unless you were in a heavy RP-focused guild, probably not many.

sunandshadow · February 2019

Personally I love being able to inspect costumes, and I've found it quite frustrating that I can't inspect NPCs to see what they are wearing. I don't play games where you are your gear score though.

Sephiroso · February 2019

ChildoftheShadows said:

Cryomatrix said:

I'd inspect with impunity and i'd be honored if someone inspected my character. They must be curious of what I have, so they check it.

In PoE, I ask to see people's gear all the time.

But you ask

He asks because he has to. You cannot inspect a players gear in game. They have to link it to you via chat. He could however copy the character name and paste it into poe's website and if they're public see it that way. But that takes you out of the game for what could be a simple curiosity question.

Caffynated · February 2019

1999 was a different world. Now everyone posts their entire life online seeking approval and upcummies. Our governments, phone companies and social media apps monitor everything we do now that smart phones are an extension of our bodies with their cameras and microphones always on.

The idea of privacy is dead.

Mendel · February 2019

Caffynated said:

1999 was a different world. Now everyone posts their entire life online seeking approval and upcummies. Our governments, phone companies and social media apps monitor everything we do now that smart phones are an extension of our bodies with their cameras and microphones always on.

The idea of privacy is dead.

This is one reason I do not own a smart phone.

Amathe · February 2019

Mendel said:

This is one reason I do not own a smart phone.

Interesting. I remember being scolded by my wife as we waited together in a car dealership. "I'm bored," I complained. "Just sit and play with your phone like everybody else," she said.

cheyane · February 2019

In Everquest I always asked before I inspected. It was considered rude not to ask and simply inspect someone. The game etiquette was strictly observed. This was early in Everquest's life cycle.

Lokero · February 2019

It was considered rude in EQ largely because it sent you a spam message every time someone clicked on you and looked at your gear. If it didn't do that, I seriously doubt it would ever have been a noticeable issue that people bothered to create an etiquette for.

It was pretty annoying to see:

"Randomguy001 is inspecting you" x15

... as you moved around doing stuff. This also wouldn't have been an issue, but, there was a range limitation on those inspect windows. If you ran five feet away, it would close that person's inspection, and they would run up and click you again -- thus, the spam.

Therefore, you asked them, and they would sit still and let you look at them, rather than you chasing them down and spam clicking them like some weird pet on follow.

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

When I started playing MMORPGs, /inspect didn't exist. When we saw another player with a cool look, we asked him for info so we could get it too. Communication.

I think, ideally, it should be a middle ground. There should be no automatic way to inspect every stat and detail of people's gear. I think the mystery and individuality is an important part of gear in these games.

However, I think there should also always be a way to show your character window to friends/people who request it, if you choose to. It's just a huge time-saver to be able to show your character window, rather than typing everything out.

That said, things like GearScore can rightly be torched to ash, because that crap was ridiculous and awful. Measuring people's worth by their gear was, and always will be, a sign of either bad players or bad game design.

I can't even count how often myself, and others I saw, heavily outperformed people with much better gear.

Palebane · February 2019

Vanity has always been a big part of the genre, but I feel like it’s kind of taken over as the main form of payment in many game genres these days including (and possibly because of) mmorpgs. Players today seem almost insulted if not inspected, lol.

AlBQuirky · March 2019

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

When I started playing MMORPGs, /inspect didn't exist. When we saw another player with a cool look, we asked him for info so we could get it too. Communication.

Exactly! In today's society (a mere 22 years later), etiquette has gone out the window, especially in online gaming.

I recall seeing other characters in different gear (seeing my first Epic Bard sword) usually prompted and interaction with another player, such as, "Awesome looking sword! What is it and how'd you get it?" Common courtesy replaced for "streamlining."

PS: In my day, we all walked 10 miles to school uphill both ways in terrible blizzards

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