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World of Warcraft as evolutionary model
This must be the time of year for zany social theories about videogames. First, we heard that World of Warcraft might quality as being a religion. Then we heard that it might make for better citizens. And now, in an essay over at Gamasutra on the event of Charles Darwin's birthday, Noah Falstein suggests that games like World of Warcraft are actually models for evolution -- as we level up with experience points, our characters get stronger and more evolved, and we feel comfortable with that because that's exactly what we see happening in the world around us.Technically, of course, you can't model Darwin's theory of evolution with a single character -- evolution isn't about one individual getting better, it's about a process of natural selection in a species over a period of time. To really model evolution, you'd have to play hundreds of alts, and quit them each time you ran into a problem, leaving you with just a few characters that worked really well. Wait -- maybe some of you are already doing that.But Falstein makes good points in saying that certain elements of what Darwin described as evolution have shown up in game design as well -- the idea of specialization for certain character classes, tribal and national allegiances, and even the idea of memes (which are certainly widespread in WoW -- anyone ever heard of Chuck Norris or Leroy Jenkins?) are all drawn from Darwin's thinking and definitely embodied in the game we play.
Cutting down the noise in online situations
Technically, the idea that Randall Munroe (author of XKCD, one of the funniest and definitely the geekiest of the comics on the web) had wasn't really about MMOs, but I think there is an application to the communities that we're all gaming in. His problem was that, whenever a community reaches a certain number of people, connections weaken, and it becomes an ever-increasing struggle of signal versus noise. And while his interest in that problem has to do with the IRC channel associated with the comic, it will surely sound familiar to those of us who've spent any amount of time in an online gaming environment.So what's his plan to fix things? His theory is that a lack of meaningful communication is directly tied to the originality of the statements contained therein-- ie. get rid of the Chuck Norris comments and the older-than-dirt memes and jokes, and you'll have meaningful communication. So he created a script to sit in the channel (#xkcd-signal on irc.foonetic.net) with logs of the past two years of chatting, and if you say anything that's already been said, you'll get muted.
Leeroy Jenkins: 'Well, you know, I was hungry.'
No infamy is more enduring than that spawned by the internet and its eternal memory. The name "Leeroy Jenkins" (loudly pronounced "Leeeeeeerooooy Jehnnnkinnnss") should be recognizable to World of Warcraft players and certain Jeopardy! viewers as the man who hurled caution to the wind with enough force to destabilize his raiding party and ultimately bring about its complete annihilation. If you're wondering just what sort of man that is and what motivated his behavior (hint: reheated chicken plays an important role), you'd best watch Veronica Belmont's video interview with him at Blizzcon.It turns out that, well, Leeroy's just zis guy, you know? You may be surprised or disappointed by Ben's pleasant mannerisms, and instead choose to ignore the reality in favor of a more fantastic and entertaining mental image. It's alright, we're still imagining Veronica Belmont to be a high school detective who whips vampires to death over the weekends.
"You guys suck at this game"
We've all heard the "50 DKP minus" guy (it's become nothing less than a WoW classic), but imagine if all of that took place inside a chat channel, and you've got this (a lot of the text is not safe for work, if you aren't supposed to read cursewords at work) A more stunning display of angry raidleading I have never seen. This guy has more ways to say "you suck" then there are to actually wipe a raid.And that's why it's so great. I think my favorites are "this is MC level sh*t," and "I don't care how you did it in your guild-- your guild sucked, that's why you're in my guild." Seriously, almost everything on this page is comedy gold: "Just pull and let god sort it out." Dives was funny, but I think Sebudai is my new favorite raidleader.
