national-pride
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Storyboard: Archetype discussion - the Partisan
Clarity of purpose is a wonderful thing, made all the more likable by its usual absence. The fact is that most of us have only the vaguest idea of what to do, and we're all making things up as we go. It's the central ripoff discovered when you become an adult. Moral clarity is a joke, and whether you try to save everyone or just focus on saving yourself, it's a morass without any clear purpose for most of us. The partisan puts the lie to that. He might follow a religion, he might follow a nation, he might follow an individual -- but whatever his leader might be, the partisan follows it without fail. He has his moral clarity at all times, even if keeping it might mean sacrificing his own judgment. And it's his view -- his vision of what is right -- that tells him exactly what he wants. So let's look at the partisan, in all of his one-true-path glory.
Battlefield 1943 players upset over lack of Irish identification [Update]
Update: According to an update on SeenIt.co.uk, the gamer who argued for Irish distinction in his Battlefield 1943 profile has been contacted by EA support and was told, "It looks as though the issue you have submitted is more complex than it seemed initially." Irish history, complex? Understatement! Hopefully this means all Irish gamers will be able to fly the colors they desire someday soon. Original Story: Battlefield 1943 players out of Northern Ireland are surprised -- and angry -- that the game's official site fails to display the country's flag on their profile pages. Profiles for gamers in the North are stamped with the good ol' Union Jack, the national flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and labels North Irish players as located in Great Britain. Some of you may cry, "So what?" Well, it's a pride thing -- and it's a law. "If you live in Northern Ireland EA won't allow you to identify yourself as 'Irish' despite the 1998 Belfast agreement saying otherwise," writes the UK entertainment blog, SeenIt.co.uk. According to our history books, the Belfast Agreement allows citizens of Northern Ireland to identify themselves as Irish or British, or both. After attempting to change the country associated with the account, EA tech support told SeenIt changing the region was impossible because Ireland is "not listed distinctively" and is included under Great Britain. Seems like a silly thing for Electronic Arts to put its foot down on, unless it's the first step to easily categorizing the world. Step two? All Canadians listed as hailing from "America's Hat." [Thanks, Martin]
The Daily Grind: National pride?
One of the things that gets some of us about PvP hype are the claims that "you'll be saving your nation/faction/etc!" Tobold, however, joined the "meh" camp the other day with an excellent post about Nationalism in MMORPGs. To give my personal example, if the Scryers and the Aldor in World of Warcraft started going at it in the middle of Shattrath, the only thing that would interest me about any "faction fighting" would be if my side could take control of Scryer's rise in the end. (I hate the drop off the Aldor tier; it means instant death if you miss the elevator.) Beyond that, as long as the bank and flight path NPCs are unharmed, and the portals are still open, I could honestly care less. While some of our staff admit to feeling a connection with the Horde or the Alliance, it almost always seems to come down to the people we know in the end. Tobold posits that this is due to the Dunbar number -- we're just not wired to trust an entire nation worth of people. Also, as he points out, there's always the fact that no matter how bad you trash things, it always respawns eventually; there is just no permanent damage to a site or a "nation" in these battles.Today we thought we'd spin off this concept and ask what your thoughts were on it -- do you think it's possible to really have a game developer get you energized about defending a "nation" or does it also come back to the people you know too? Is it less about defending NPCs/any given location, or is it more about having fun kicking the other side's butt? Do you really care if your city if being attacked when you know that eventually control will be returned to your side? Is there really any such thing as a national pride in MMOs for you?
