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The Mog Log: The two-way community street in Final Fantasy XIV
If there's one thing that hit me after the live letter this weekend, it's that the Final Fantasy XIV community is kind of a mess. I've been working around this game since before it launched, and there have always been weird issues going on with the way the community has worked. Part of this is because the game's community has a weird sort of isolationist streak, as if the online installments of this particular series are the only online games in existence, but part of this is also a matter of dealing with a community team that reports to bosses who aren't speaking the same language as the US playerbase. Community management is a two-way street, and this weekend's antics served to remind me of how many elements of this really need to be addressed. So let's talk about how both the players and the community team can improve our overall culture from both sides.
League of Legends introduces Ranked Restrictions for toxic players
League of Legends is a really popular game, but it also has a pretty noxious community reputation. That's something that's on the forefront of the mind of the Riot Games team, and it's being addressed with the latest patch. Players voted down for negative behavior are already operating under a chat restriction, requiring them to play a certain number of games before they can speak in the game again. Now those players will see another restriction, though: the inability to access ranked play. Rank restricted players will have a certain number of games that they must play before they can return to queueing for ranked matches just like with chat restrictions. Players who are deeply into negative territory and rank restricted at the end of a given competitive season will also be ineligible for receiving special rewards for ranked play, meaning that poor sportsmanship doesn't pay at any level of the game. While there are potential abuses for the system, it's an obvious effort to make the play experience on all levels a more positive one for players.
Why do games prompt cruel behavior?
Games like DayZ and Rust have become a whole genre unto themselves: open-world survival sandboxes that quickly turn into simulations of human cruelty. But why is that, exactly? Why do people in a sandbox devote so much of their energy to tearing one another down with such vigor? A recent article on Wired asks exactly that question, exploring these open-world games and why they tend to provoke such abject cruelty in their participants. The piece comes to no hard and fast conclusions, speaking both from personal experiences and from interviews with other players. One player speculates that the core of it is that these games give you nothing but tools, so players invent their own fun by using other players as content. Another possible explanation is the very nature of catharsis, envisioning dark behaviors whilst knowing that you would never carry them out in the real world. Take a look at the full article if you'd like a deeper look at why players spend so much time in games where anything goes by clubbing others with rocks.
An analysis of the Glitch auction house
Glitch is gone, but it lives on in our hearts, and it makes for a fascinating case study. The game arrived, enraptured, and departed so quickly that a great deal can be extrapolated about the game. A new analysis over on Gamasutra focuses on looking at the game's economy over time, seeing how it kicked off and where it wound up, and uses that to draw conclusions about handling player-run economies in other games as well. The article outlines how Glitch handled currency and items, then notes the market trends and how players interacted with both one another and the economy. It concludes that in addition to monitoring the economy, designers need to keep an eye on the small number of players who serve as major economic drivers and watch them closely. The behaviors of players will also vary over time, meaning that past data have to be checked against more recent data to be relevant. If this is your sort of analysis, by all means, read the article in its entirety.
The Daily Grind: Do you roleplay?
I'm aware, on some level, that not everyone plays an MMO with an eye toward roleplaying. But roleplaying is the key experience I want from a game. A big part of my investment in Final Fantasy XIV has to do with my long-term roleplaying experience with other players, years of friendships and rivalries and bitter feuds and romances that have been extremely moving. I can't really imagine playing a game without roleplaying. But not only is that not universal, it's really the minority. So today I ask you, good readers of Massively: Do you roleplay? Are you generally playing your game of choice with a focus on character motivations, or do you mostly just like the looks and don't fret over things like characterization or whatever? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Why do you play a tall race?
Let me put my capital-b Bias up front and center here: Tall races are awesome. From Draenei to Roegadyn, Norn to Bahmi, I'm always tempted to play a race that towers above the others. My characters in Champions Online and DC Universe Online both tend to be elevated above the crowd, which can occasionally prove problematic when attempting to slip into smaller passageways. Even the shorter characters I play are on the tall side for their races. Why do I do it? A lot of the time I just prefer the overall demeanor of the taller races, compared to smaller races that often come across as overbearing (Guild Wars 2's Asurans) or annoying (World of Warcraft's Gnomes). Aside from that, taller races have an easier time conveying a variety of attitudes from body language, posture, and dress. And I'm relatively tall myself, so there's a touch of familiarity there. There's no shortage of players who take playing diminutive races as a point of pride, but people who play taller races don't have that same sort of community. So today I say stand up, look down, and tell everyone: Why do you play a tall race? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Ship destroyed in EVE Online worth approximately $8,000
It's really hard to get your hands on a Revenant Supercarrier in EVE Online. Darn near impossible, in fact. The ship is worth around 300 billion ISK, coming out to about $8,000 in real currency. The ship is so potent that up until last night, there were thought to be no more than three in the entire game. As of last night, there were two. One of the Revenants was destroyed in a battle between Habitual Euthanasia and Black Legion. Habitual Euthanasia apparently responded to a call for help, fielding the carrier against Black Legion, leading to its destruction. Speculation about whether this was a trap to destroy something valuable or simply a lucky break for the opposing side is being flung around with no conclusive answers. The video recording the destruction is embedded after the cut, although it's zoomed out enough that you cannot enjoy a slow-motion replay of one of the rarest ships in EVE Online going up in flames like a cheap firecracker.
Breakfast Topic: How do other MMO player cultures differ from WoW's?
When Olivia Grace wondered recently how devoted you are to the cult of efficiency, it occurred to me that this odd twist of player culture hasn't necessarily come to pass in other MMOs. I'd have to agree that it seems hard to escape in World of Warcraft. Even though I've given up shooting my WoW main down the barrel of progression raiding, instead spending my time idiosyncratically picking my way through Mists' varied amusements, little bits of the game's mindset of efficiency continue to pluck at my sleeve. As much as I enjoy serendipitous play, if I spend too long aimlessly pecking or erratically hopscotching, I wonder if anyone nearby has begun to suspect that they're questing next to the village idiot. When I play Guild Wars 2, though, those perceptions never even come to mind. I approach GW2 in a much looser, more easygoing fashion -- and it seems to me that the rest of its player community does, too. Sure, some of my groupmates run theorycrafted builds with honed tactics and are laboriously pounding some mind-blowing gear grinds, but there doesn't seem to be a schism between the players who do and those who don't. It's less "how to get to the goal" and more "how to get to that character's goal." My husband plays at a much higher level, yet he concurs. We both find the cult of efficiency to be largely absent from the player culture as a whole. If you play other MMOs besides WoW, how different (if at all) do you find their player cultures to be? How would you describe the communities in the other games you play? Do you fully indulge in those differences, or do you find yourself carrying some portion of their outlook from one into another?
The Daily Grind: How intense are you when you play?
We all play at different intensity levels. It's human nature. Some of us sit down for a night of dungeons in World of Warcraft and we play primarily to have fun, with no more intensity than we would devote to playing Tetris until the screen fills. Other people sit down for a night of dungeons with an intensity level that rivals Olympic champions, screaming for people to keep moving and running through pulls with elegant efficiency. We all vary a bit from day to day, either pushing harder or relaxing more as circumstances dictate, but we also have a level that we wind up defaulting to when we play our games of choice. So how intense are you when you sit down to your favorite game? Are you more laid-back? Serious while avoiding taskmaster status? Driven to succeed at all costs? Or does it depend a lot based on your nightly activities? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: When does friendly turn frustrating?
We all know, from years of experience, that there's a certain community duty to help newer players get acclimated to the game. Or younger players, or... really, anyone. It's in the community's best interests to be friendly and open. But there's always the threat of the player who seems friendly and enjoyable... until you log on again and he whispers you almost instantly. And then the next time. And again. He's always there, latched onto you as if you're the only beacon of kindness in the world, and while you want him to keep playing, you want to play City of Heroes, not City of Helping the Socially Maladjusted. The worst part of these situations, naturally, is that it spoils you on helping former players. It makes the community as a whole more hostile, and even though you still know helping new players is a good thing, it's hard not to be colder. So when have you run into a player whom you wished you hadn't helped out? When has being friendly and open wound up frustrating you to no end? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Embark Beach and Mercenary Heroes coming to Guild Wars
Do you play Guild Wars with nothing to lose and nothing to prove? Then you might wind up dancing with yourself in the newest update to the game, which will add a new system of Mercenary Heroes -- turning other characters on your account into special heroes just for your use. And since this update also gives players the option to have a full party of seven heroes, there's plenty of reason to improve alts and play with them even on other characters. Of course, that's the least of the features packed into the new update, and you may not even need the new heroes with the introduction of the group-focused Embark Beach. Allowing players transport to a multitude of locations and missions, the outpost serves as a waypoint for players to find groups and get right into the action of a mission without any trouble. It's also a hub for services, making it an ideal place for players to congregate and look for any needed assistance. That's not even touching upon the new daily quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon, the changes to the Survivor title track to make it earnable on an existing character even after that character has died, and a new Minion UI feature. In short, Guild Wars players have plenty to dance about in the new update, whether by themselves or with others. %Gallery-9135%
