griefing
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Garriott shares Ultima Online anecdotes for 15th anniversary
It's been a week of remembrances for past and present members of the Ultima Online dev team. The title's 15th anniversary has offered ample opportunity for stories from the early days, the latest of which come courtesy of Lord British himself (and no, it's not the one about his in-game death). Richard Garriott tells of his run-in with a player thief bent on ruining the game experience for a new player. It's an amusing anecdote that illustrates how UO's early incarnation led to plenty of unexpected gameplay scenarios. "After [the incident], I began to think more carefully about the rules we ourselves put in the game, and the inevitable play styles that would come of it," Garriott writes.
CCP analyzes EVE's Jita player event
If you warped into EVE Online's Jita merchant hub last week, chances are you didn't make it out alive. If you were plying your trade elsewhere in New Eden, the much-hyped "Burn Jita" campaign likely didn't even register on your radar. It registered on CCP's, though, as shown by the company's latest EVE-focused dev blog. As per usual, there are a bunch of pretty graphs and plenty of tech-speak. There's also some verbiage related to TiDi (time dilation), which is CCP's way of dealing with massive concentrations of players in its single-shard universe. It's worth noting that since the devs had advance warning of this particular player-run event, they were able to beef up EVE's server infrastructure to handle the increased load. You can read all the technical details on the game's official website.
Some Assembly Required: Salem dev talks permadeath, griefing, and skill-based gameplay
Hello, sandbox faithful, and welcome to a special interview edition of Some Assembly Required. We recently had a chance to pitch some questions to the team behind Seatribe's upcoming Salem title, and creative director Björn Johannessen was kind enough to answer them. Salem is being advertised by publisher Paradox as "the crafting MMO," but it's also rife with throw-back mechanics including a huge amount of player freedom and a permadeath/punishment system similar to the one in Johannessen's Haven & Hearth.
Big faction changes coming to Fallen Earth
Big changes are coming to Fallen Earth's faction system, and the latest GamersFirst dev diary has the details. Lead designer Marie "Aro Sei" Croall says that the devs "want to make sure it is clear to all players who they are fighting for and who they are against." The current faction dynamics can be confusing, she explains, and GamersFirst feels that Fallen Earth's learning curve can be smoothed out "without dumbing it down." To do so, shoulder factions are being removed, and wastelanders will need to pick a faction and remain loyal to it in order to earn points. Missions may be accepted from three factions, but only the primary faction will determine PvP objectives, missions, and faction channels. Finally, the devs are removing factional friendly fire except in cases of clan wars, bloodsports, or dueling gameplay. Croall says this is intended to curb same-faction griefing, and ultimately contribute to "a less jarring PvP experience in Fallen Earth."
The Game Archaeologist moves into Lucasfilm's Habitat: Part 2
Last week on the exciting cosmic adventures of the Game Archaeologist, we uncovered the ancient civilization of Lucasfilm's Habitat, one of the early predecessors to graphical MMOs. While we talked about how it came to be and pondered just how much money we'd waste if game companies were still charging by the minute, we didn't have the time or space to cover the community and events that formed around this experimental project. That day has come. Prepare your bladder for imminent release! Giving a bunch of players tools to do every which thing in the game and turning them loose without strict regulation might seem like a recipe for an instant sewage pit of a game today, but our cultured, classy behaviors weren't quite trained into us in 1986. When players first set eyes on Habitat, they weren't thinking of min-maxing, kill-stealing, or raid progression; they were trying to make sense of a virtual world using the only frame of reference they had to date: their own lives. Out of a melting pot of ideas and objects came fascinating stories from one of the earliest MMO proto-ancestors of the modern era. Get your '80s on as we head back... to the future!
Wings Over Atreia: Rant powers activate!
So there I was, with another topic planned and article well on its way to completion when fate intervened and thrust a new subject upon me. And not in a happy-Fed-Ex-guy-handing-it-over kinda way either, but a growling, grumbling, grit-my-teeth-and-try-not-to-speak-in-asterisks (%#$**!) kind of way. Oh yes, this is a topic of great rantiness for me. I freely admit that I rarely reach the heights of true frustration within Aion (not counting launch queues where I simply chose to stop logging in altogether), especially to the point of actually tossing aside another column to express and share said frustrations with you. But now, you have a second opportunity to witness my small yet developing rant lobe -- placed, I believe, somewhere behind the occipital lobe judging by the fact that when it revs up people tend to see red. And the truth of it is, I am going to derive great pleasure from venting about this topic. So what has me so fired up right now? The venerable AP harvesting grounds of the truly lazy: AFK Dredgions. Queue up then enter past the break for a discourse on the evils of this practice and what NCsoft should do about it.
The Daily Grind: Is free-for-all PvP a dealbreaker?
Games like EVE Online, Darkfall, and Mortal Online sell themselves on the premise of being wild and lawless. Like in the Wild West of ages past, anyone can kill you at any time. Of course, also like in the Wild West, this reputation bears only some resemblance to reality, as you're relatively unlikely to be consistently ganked and robbed by someone for no reason. But the fact that it's possible makes a lot of players decide that it's just not worth the hassle. The threat of losing everything to malicious player actions is more powerful than the real rarity of the event. Obviously, some players embrace the possibility as part of the charm of an open-world game. But it's possible to have a game with broad player options without the constant threat of cruelty, and there's a reason a lot of Ultima Online players happily opted out of being hunted by other players. Is open PvP the sort of thing that makes you write off a game no matter what other features it might have? 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 Soapbox: Why we grief - a therapy session
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Welcome to the Massively Psychiatric Center for Gamers, Griefers, and Greater Internet F-wads (link NSFW). I'm Dr. Reahard, and while I'm most definitely an armchair psychologist, psychiatrist, and MMOlogist, pay no attention to any of that. I'm more than qualified to help you determine whether or not you're a bleep (sorry, a griefer). So please, have a seat, make yourself comfortable, and let's talk about you. Tell me about yourself. Do you relish that feeling of power you get when messing with another human being? Is there a certain sense of being alive, a rush if you will, that only comes around when you bleep with another person? Does said bleeping happen exclusively in video games where your actions carry no perceivable repercussions? Are you secretly frustrated with a banal and disturbingly meaningless white-collar existence? Does releasing your inner bleep in a (theoretically) anonymous online environment scratch the itches made manifest by a minivan, 2.3 kids, and the otherwise inescapable confines of suburbia?
The Daily Grind: What's the worst you've ever been griefed?
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when griefers come for you? My grandmother warned me of a time when online hooligans would invade the sanctity of my gaming space and do anything they could to ruin my fun. Some feel that griefing is a legitimate type of play that gives them great satisfaction. I feel that griefers should be carefully rounded up, tagged, and shipped to a small desert island where they can smack each other over the head with coconuts and leave the rest of us in peace. Just about everybody's been griefed in an MMO at one point or another, whether by an overly antagonistic camper, a con artist who swindled you out of in-game gold, or that node stealer who stalked you and swooped in to grab the ore that was rightfully yours while you tangled with a nearby tiger. Today we want to hear your testimony of a time when another player actively tried to spoil your fun. What's the worst you've ever been griefed in an MMO? 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!
EVE's Hulkageddon IV event begins today
Once or twice per year, EVE Online players across the world are gripped by the desire to destroy everything in sight. During the nine-day Hulkageddon bloodbath, players compete to destroy as many mining ships as possible. A variety of prizes are then handed out to individuals and corporations with the most kills or for special achievements completed during the event. The event was first organised by pirate Helicity Boson back in 2009, and so far it has been responsible for the destruction of several hundred billion ISK worth of Hulks and other mining ships. The event has come under fire for promoting griefing, as the primary method of gaining kills is the use of suicide attacks in high-security space. Hulkageddon supporters argue that it's a perfectly legitimate way to play the game, and EVE's sandbox-style game design and rules do permit it. Whether you like it or hate it, Hulkageddon has become a regular EVE tradition. To avoid a grim fate, miners should probably take a break between February 19th and February 28th. Head over to the official forum thread for full details of the impending carnage and the prize fund available for participants.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Trouble with PvP
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and fun break. For my first article of 2011, I want to talk more about PvP. I've spoken about PvP before, but I want to look specifically at player-killer protection and the ability to instantly change PK status. There was also the slight change to a short-term criminal or hero status since Runes of Magic started. A lot of time has passed since Runewaker made the changes, but I still remember them. Long gone are the days of a forced 10-minute cooldown on PK status and no protection bubble. I'm not a huge PvPer myself, but I wanted to explain a little more about the changes and the way I felt about the system then vs. now. I think it would also be relevant to bring up how the overall system works -- or claims to work. If you're interested in what PvP was like in the early days of RoM and would like to voice your opinion on it, click past the break.
Behind the Mask: It feels so good to be bad
Playing bad guys in an MMO is one of those features mostly unique to the superhero genre. In other games, there are factions and these factions are vaguely good or bad, but it's kind of rare to see players clamor about playing an evil faction as much as they do in superhero games. One of the reasons behind the lack of true villain factions in most games is that the hero factions in other MMOs are a touch more grey than the good guy factions in a superhero game. In World of Warcraft, both the Alliance and the Horde have their faults; the Alliance are stuck-up bigots and the Horde are ruthless and somewhat bloodthirsty. In Aion, the light and dark factions tread equally on the thin blue line that separates good and evil (although it's somewhat less obvious as an Elyos). One of my biggest grievances with getting into Champions Online was the lack of playable villain content at launch. I was unwilling to test drive City of Heroes at all until villains were playable, and over half of the characters I've made in Champions are bad guys. Even my non-villains aren't heroes (at least not in character). I have a certain infatuation with being a bad guy.
Hulkageddon III ends with an estimated 288 billion ISK in damage
Much to the dismay of miners everywhere, EVE Online's infamous Hulkageddon event made a return earlier this month. In this irregularly-scheduled fan-run event, ruthless pilots compete to kill as many mining barges as possible within a short period of time. While some kills are found in wormhole space and nullsec as part of a standard PvP roaming squad, most tend to be the result of suicide attacks carried out in high security space. As most miners stay in highsec, this is where most of the targets for the Hulkageddon are found. Opponents of the event argue that it causes unnecessary hardship for ordinary EVE players who enjoy mining. The event's organiser, infamous pirate Helicity Boson, responds to critics with her belief that it's a perfectly valid way to play the game. In an exclusive interview with Massively before the event began, she suggested that any pilot paying attention could see the suicide attacks coming and would have plenty of time to escape. A significant portion of mining barge kills during the Hulkageddon are also believed to be macro-miners, adding another dimension to this already controversial issue. The latest Hulkageddon ran from the 9th of July to the 18th, ending with an estimated 288 billion ISK worth of mining ships destroyed. To put that figure into perspective, it would cost you over $16,550 US Dollars to buy that much ISK legitimately by purchasing game time codes and selling them in-game for ISK. The prize-giving for the event was recently conducted, with a single ruthless player by the name of "Phil MacMannon" taking the vast majority of the prizes. With the event concluded, miners can finally breathe a sigh of relief and get back to eating every asteroid in sight.
Next Red Dead Redemption title update hunts down cheaters
And not just any cheaters, but no good, dirty cheaters. According to a post over on Rockstar Games' site, the next title update to Red Dead Redemption will bring with it "measures to counter hacking and cheating" on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Furthermore, a handful of "anti-grief" features will be added to the game's Free Roam online mode. Apparently, cowpokes enduring repeated harassment from other online players will be given the choice to jump to another point (of their choosing) on the map. The culprits doing all the griefing will get branded as such after six consecutive kills, earning them a Most Wanted status and wrangling the game's NPCs against the offender. Rockstar also promises to continue monitoring online play for those doing bad deeds after said title update goes live "within the next month," but then, isn't the existence of outlaws an inescapable reality of the Old West?
Wings Over Atreia: A whole new world, sorta
Mergers have come and gone in Aion; the fabric of existence was ripped asunder, then rewoven. In North America, five new worlds now sit where once there were fourteen, and eight replace eighteen in Europe. Using the mergers as a springboard for their apocalyptic rants, naysayers cried out that the end of Aion was nigh, fervently waving their assertions and jeering at current players. NCsoft, on the other hand, quietly offered promises of a better world, catering to the desires of players for more conflict. To my knowledge, there were no Daevas flinging themselves from the spires of Pandaemonium or Sanctum, nor did any economy crumble and collapse. Fatalities were nil -- well, not counting any local qooqoo sacrifices made in the name of server harmony and stability. So, here we are now at "doomsday plus five." How did things fare? Let's glide past the cut and take a look at the aftermath.
Lost Pages of Taborea: PvP culture
Even though I'm not a very competitive player, I sometimes like having the additional options found in PvP servers. In fact, my main character has been on one since Runes of Magic's open beta, and I've come to really appreciate the fun that can be had on it. Simply being a spectator of all the random and exciting fights has been enough to outweigh the annoyance of being a target for more than a few gankings. RoM's fully open PvP system makes for an interesting cultural perspective in which the players create the equilibrium of peace and conflict. It may be surprising -- or not -- given the somewhat harsh rules, but life on a PvP server is a fairly peaceful experience. This week I take a look at the past and present of RoM's PvP system. What are some of the system's implementations? How have players adjusted to self-govern? Why isn't there rampant chaos? It's an interesting learning experience if you're new to RoM or you've never played on a PvP server, but it's also a great retrospective for you veterans to get involved with.
The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, the middle years
This week, we cover the second installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (or check out part one, if you missed it). From 2005, there's an impossible amount of material to cover, but there are some interesting stories lurking among it all. Join us as we work our way through some of the interesting highlights from 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Blood Sport: Griefers in arena
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening music: Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams. An awesome '80s song -- who can dispute this claim? Last week: We talked about some fun things to do in arena while Wrath of the Lich King and the old world are still with us. This week: All of us have had that random guy in a battleground get under our skin. Maybe he's proclaiming how terrible he thinks you are over /battleground chat, or he's an annoying jerk in some other way. Griefers are a part of the game, and they're here to stay. Nothing excites them more than making others miserable. Maybe you are a far better person than I, but I tend to wish ill towards these individuals. There are lots of ways to exact revenge upon griefers or rivals, particularly in arenas. Justice can be fun -- very fun. Some people, however, take it too far or make it menacing. Revenge is fine; trying to make someone quit the game or use RL money for a server transfer (for instance) is not. I mention the latter because I knew a guy who recruited someone from the #2 arena team three days before season 7 ended. They never invited him to the team, thus assuring themselves #1 gladiator because they had no competition. That goes beyond creating a rivalry into the realm of downright douchebaggery. While I suppose what he did is completely legal, I don't know a lot of people who want to transfer over to play with him after what he pulled. His ex-partners actually play with the guy that he recruited instead of him. Poetic justice, I suppose.
Breakfast Topic: Who could be a new world boss in Cataclysm?
One thing that was missing from the Wrath expansion, conspicuously or not, was a world boss on par with those such as Kazzak and the Emerald Dragons. For better or for worse, Blizzard completely removed them from the game, reserving the massive figures towering over the landscape for instanced quests or dungeons. Blizzard touched a bit on why they've not used world bosses in Wrath in the recent Twitter developer chat. They observed that there are issues with the bosses that have prevented them from feeling comfortable making more world bosses, such as issues with groups racing to bosses, or the ability of people outside raid groups to deliberately mess up boss attempts. On the other side of the coin, though, they did imply that they like world bosses, and will probably implement more in Cataclysm if and when they can find a satisfactory work-around for the problems.
Professor griefs City of Heroes, writes report on response
When you try to imagine the real-life personas behind online gaming scoundrels, you probably wouldn't picture the wizened face of a collegiate scholar as the responsible party. However, griefing seems to be the cup of tea of Loyola University media professor David Myers -- he's been bothering folks for a while now with his mauve-tinted crimefighter in City of Heroes as part of a behavioral study on the people controlling the game's power-endowed inhabitants.The study's findings are predictably grim: players' reactions to Myers' (or rather, his character Twixt's) dirty fighting styles have been pretty volatile, ranging from character defamation, cursing, rumor-mongering and even death threats. That seems a little overboard -- if only four kids from a small-town in Colorado could have teamed up to teach him a lesson the old fashioned way.
