Massive games by the Numb3rs: MMOGs on prime-time TV

Discussion of a prime-time television show is probably not something you'll see in this space often. But today, it's highly appropriate. Last night's episode of the CBS series Numb3rs featured a plot that any reader of this site can relate to. The show stars Rob Morrow as an FBI agent and David Krumholtz as his math professor sibling. Krumholtz's character is regularly involved with federal cases, where he makes use of mathematics to solve real-life problems. It sounds like a gimmick and, to be honest, in some episodes it is. Generally the skilled acting and competent writing keeps the show interesting.

This week's episode centered around a Massively Multiplayer Online Game and the Alternate Reality spinoff that accompanied it. The killer-of-the-week was competing with other groups for a $1 million cash prize, and used lethal methods to dissuade others from playing. The show heavily featured MMOG jargon, the realities of online play, and the kinds of people who play these games. It actually did a fairly respectful job of it too, and I thought it might be worthwhile to offer a mini-review of the episode.

If you're curious about the episode, "Primacy", ARGNet has a few words on the show from the perspective of an Alternate Reality gamer. For more on the math used in the episode, including combinatorics and evolutionary algorithms, a site dedicated to running the numbers on Numb3rs has you covered. And, of course, if you'd like to actually watch the episode you can do so for free on CBS's Innertube service.

Read on for my thoughts on this intriguing episode of Numb3rs.

Overall, the episode treated Massive games and their players very well. Julie Hebert, the writer, obviously is either a gamer herself or did extensive homework. The game is called, like the episode, Primacy. In the show it was developed by a company called Wolftracks (possibly a nod of the head to Wolfpack Studios), who is in turn headed by a gent calling himself "Binky" (which may in turn be a nod of the head to Chris "Binky" Launius, Star Trek Online's Community Manager and former CM for Gods and Heroes). Binky refers to the game as having a playerbase about five and half million players strong, alluding to the popularity of games like World of Warcraft. The Alternate Reality portion of the game is more modest, boasting between five and six thousand players.

The use of gamer jargon, words like "camping" or "griefing", is used appropriately at one point in the episode and generally represents a positive view towards the hobby. Most of the characters are not gamers by any stretch of the imagination, and their knowledge of this sphere is maintained by Krumholtz's character's girlfriend. Played by Navi Rawat, the character Amita has apparently been playing Massive games since her undergrad days ... to the surprise of her boyfriend. Amita describes the world of online gaming succinctly, and without any sort of negative modifiers. She's played for years, she's not embarrassed by it, and none of the other characters treat her strangely because of her choice of hobby.

In fact, probably the best element of the show was the attempt to portray MMOG players as 'regular' people. Players brought in for questioning into the death of another gamer include an elderly woman, a guy who looks like an auto mechanic, and a stock broker. They may have laid it on a little thick at times, but the lonely nerdy kid is not the 'typical' player as portrayed by this episode. Though, he is portrayed as one of the better players.

There are a few odd elements, but they're hardly worth mentioning. The 'development studio' the show visits at one point looks like a cross between a frat house and a 70's social club; hardly the places of real business that game companies actually are. There are a few vague assertions that online griefing could cross over into real world violence, but this theory isn't born out by the episode's plot. In all, the 'bad guy' is portrayed as an obsessed man taken to extremes by his passions. The show's portrayal of the criminal mind didn't vary from the poker players, drug addicts, and religious fanatics that have played the villain in previous shows.

Really, this episode's biggest affront to the sensibilities of any online gamer has to be that the game serving five million people looked just terrible. It appeared to be some sort of weak-sauce fighting/superhero game, and 'playing' seemed to consist of endlessly running walking animations across the screen. Hmm ... of course, we do a lot of walking in Massive games. Maybe that's a more accurate representation of our hobby than I would have liked.