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MMO MMOnkey: MMOs as Conditioned Learning Engines (Part 1)
The behaviorists were like the orcs of psychology. Limited in vision, arrogant, belligerent and intolerant, they ruled the world of scientific psychology with an iron fist from the 1920s through the 1950s. Many of them were very capable scientists, however, and much of their work, especially in their signature area of learning, has stood the test of time. The behaviorists' biggest mistake lay in insisting that the principles of learning they discovered provided a complete and thorough explanation of what people do and why they do it. They thought they had the whole story. They didn't. They only had part of the story but it was an important part. We don't want to make the same mistake the behaviorists made and think their learning theories fully explain what we see people do in MMOs. But we also don't want to ignore the very powerful effects the principles of learning they discovered are having in every successful MMO on the market because when you get right down to it, games like World of Warcraft couldn't be better conditioning engines if they had been designed by B.F. Skinner himself. Behaviorist learning theory is commonly know as operant conditioning and it is based on the simple idea that actions that are accompanied by good, pleasant, or desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while actions that are accompanied by outcomes that are bad, unpleasant or undesirable are less likely to be repeated. In other words, actions that are rewarded are likely to recur and actions that are punished are not. People didn't need the behaviorists to tell them this; the behaviorists' contributions were to clearly distinguish between different kinds of rewards and punishments and to demonstrate how each had different effects on what people do and how they do it. The behaviorists called the learning procedure that has the largest effect on how we play MMOs positive reinforcement. This type of learning occurs whenever a person does something and gets something they enjoy or value as a result. When people are positively reinforced, they are more likely to repeat or continue the action they were doing when they were rewarded and MMOs shower their players with positive reinforcement. For your own positive reinforcement on this topic, read on.
Why WoW quests suck, and are awesome
Any poster that leads off talking about how Feralas is her favorite zone is a friend of mine. Cuppycake (great name there as well) has an excellent post up about questing in WoW (warning: some NSFW language). On the one hand, WoW quests are repetitive -- most of them are either "kill 10 rats" or "be my FedEx guy" -- and they don't tend to tie in to or have lasting effects on the broader story of the game (the current Shattered Sun story excepted).But on the other hand, it's very fun (Cuppycake uses a different word than "very"). It's a bit hard to put my finger on it, but WoW quests (most of them, anyway) have that little extra something that makes for a very satisfying gaming experience. It's like getting a star in Super Mario Galaxy. A small fragment of lasting achievement is enough to make it feel worth doing to me -- as the post says, an objective is what I need. Give me something to work for and I'll do it, as long as it feels like I'm making progress, and it isn't too slow (I'm not the best at rep grinds).
The evolution of World PvP rewards
Relmstein has a good post up about how Blizzard's world PvP has evolved over time, and what we might expect from Lake Wintergrasp, the PvP zone in Wrath of the Lich King. When world PvP began, it was very much an ad-hoc environment, which lead to a lot of 1v1 battles that eventually escalated when wandering guildies or alts showed up. As Relmstein says, the large majority of battles started with that stealthing noise (that used to inspire chills in the spines of those on PvP servers), and ended with an all-out brawl with no rewards but to get the other guys back.Nowadays, world PvP is much more organized, in the sense that there are specific objectives and goals to go after. The original reward was a zonewide buff (in Silithus and the Plaguelands), but Blizzard eventually morphed this into something more permanent -- in Auchindoin, you fight for a buff that earns you tokens for rewards, and in Halaa, you fight to get the rewards themselves.Which leads Relmstein to suspect that Wintergrasp will have direct rewards of its own, almost equal to the gear you get from endgame dungeons and Arena PvP. He predicts that it will be token-based (not a bad idea, considering all the badge changes Blizzard has put in lately -- in fact, Blizzard might even cut a corner and have Wintergrasp reward players with WotLK's version of badges directly), and that it will be updated with each Arena season, to keep players fighting there. All good ideas -- Blizzard has definitely innovated (successfully or otherwise) in the area of World PvP rewards, and we'll look forward to Wrath to see what they come up with there.
Wii Warm Up: Smash 'achievements'
Whether or not you've gotten the chance to play Smash Bros. Brawl, you've probably heard about the game's achievements challenges and rewards. This system is somewhat similar to earning achievements in Xbox games, although not quite. We really like how Brawl handles challenges, but what do you think? Do the challenges add any depth to the game? And, how do they stack up when compared to achievements on Xbox titles?Also, if you do own the game, have you used any golden hammers yet to unlock any rewards? If so, on what challenges?
CoX 48-month vet reward goes live today
Time sure does fly when you play MMOs. The City of Heroes community team has officially unveiled the 48-month veteran rewards (yes, you read that right, that's four years!) for players who have been around since the beginning. In addition to a "Battle Hardened Badge," long-time players will get their choice of a summoned pet power. They can pick from a Light Fairy, Dark Fairy, Blue Wisp, Red Wisp, Shield Oscillator, Power Oscillator, Shield Drone, or Power Drone. Each kind of pet gives a specific bonus to the player and his team, so be extra careful which one you pick.The existence of these pets was leaked last week (they're already up on the ParagonWiki, for instance), but it was widely believed that they were a hoax. According to players on the test server, the buffs they give can be substantial, and if you get a group of vets together, the group buffs stack. Granted, the pets have awful resistances and barely a drop of HP, but their buffs are strong enough that they seem to be getting the kind of proper reception you would hope to see for a four year veteran reward. The rewards should take effect after the live update this morning.
Forum Post of the Day: Bring back the honor grind!
Believe it or not, there is actually someone out there who wants Blizzard to bring back the old honor system. You remember: the system where you had to slave away for hours and hours (and hours) day after day (after day) in order to get anything epic -- especially the "Grand Marshal" or "High Warlord" epic weapons. Apparently, Pahs thinks that the time sink the old honor system required proved a deeper dedication on the part of the players who went for it. Nowadays, anybody -- even people with jobs(!) -- can just earn up their honor points and spend them like money, when, according to Pahs, such folks should be content to "talk to a few friends and maybe do a BG or two." He says, and I quote: "Why people with real life responsibility's want the same treatment as people who can input more time into the game is beyond me."Yet a surprising number of posters in his thread agree with him, citing the number one problem with the current system: the appearance of AFKers in all the battlegrounds. Naturally, it offends our sense of justice that AFKers can get honor gear for free by having their characters sitting in the battlegrund leeching off of their teammates, while they themselves don't have to put in any effort at all. In the previous system, players would have had to actually kill the enemy and win in order to progress past rank 5 or so. Likewise, the old system's ranks and titles were fun -- people always like to be able to distinguish themselves from others, though whether for a genuine feeling of achievement or some kind of "Better than thou" badge, depends on the individual.But going back to the old honor grind in order to get rid of AFKers would be ridiculous. As Tyren says, the newer system, with arenas and objective-based world PvP in addition to battlegrounds, is a vast improvement. It provides more access and variety to more players, and exchanges time for rewards at a far more reasonable pace. What we see in this case is a classic example of people reminiscing about the "good old days," which were never really that good to begin with, simply because frustrating problems have appeared along with the improvements. As much as we all may hate AFKers and other new problems, it's much better to go forward and find new ways to solve such problems than to go back to such an unbalanced system with far more serious flaws of its own.
Indie game designer calls MMOs "empty," craves something more
If World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online didn't have levels or gear, would you still play? Would you still spend several hours fighting Murlocs or servants of the White Hand if the point was the battle itself, and not the XP and loot rewards? At MIGS 2007, indie game developer Jonathan Blow talked about differentiating between gameplay that hooks players with fun or an emotionally affecting story, and gameplay that hooks players with an addictive rewards system. "MMOs are notorious for having relatively empty gameplay, but keeping players hooked with constant fake rewards. This creates the treadmill," he said. "Rewards are a way of lying to the player so they feel good and continue to play the game ... but I am forced to put forth this question -- would they still play a game if it took out all the scheduled rewards?"Gamasutra wrote up the highlights of Blow's presentation. It's a lengthy article that reaches far beyond MMOs, and is a must-read for people who are serious about gaming. But what's the answer to his MMO question? Does World of Warcraft (or any other game like it) feed a hunger for fun gameplay, or is it just a quick-but-empty fix? We have to tackle that question if the MMO is ever going to move past the grind and become something substantial.
A rewarding Tranquilien grind
There's a good little tip on the forums for anyone starting out a Horde alt (maybe to take advantage of the new leveling changes)-- do your 10-20 grind in Tranquilien. As long as you're thorough, you can pretty easily get exalted with Tranquilien (the rep flows freely), and there are some incredible rewards for doing so. Tranquilien Champion's Cloak is the best you can get, and +7 Stamina inside of level 20 is amazing.Just shows how far Blizzard has come in rewarding up and coming players with the items they need to level faster. You've always been able to get rep from other starting areas, and these rewards have been around since Burning Crusade (so this is only news if you're just now starting another alt). But it's cool to look back on all these changes-- increased rep per quest, a new starting area, and better reputation rewards, and see how they all work together to give lowbie characters lots more fun stuff to play with.
Reputation changes in LotRO will make you feel more loved
Does it sometimes feel like, no matter what you do for somebody to try and impress them, it's hard to get them to notice you? Feeling unappreciated and unloved? Well dry your eyes, because Turbine hears you. Coming soon to Lord of the Rings Online is a revamp that will see reputation rewards added to many existing quests, to allow you to increase your standing with various factions more easily. This is to address the reported difficulty in achieving even the first few levels of reputation with a faction by existing means.If you've already finished a stack of quests and are worried that you'll miss out on this helpful update, this has been thought of too. There will be a once-off reputation reward for all the quests that you have completed in the past that get upgraded with the change. This means that it is safe to continue doing any quests now, knowing that if they end up being changed, you will receive your due compensation. The revamped quest reputation system is expected to be implemented in Book 12 -- until then, you may simply have to hold your head high and face the cold shoulder.
EQ2 4-year veteran rewards revealed
If you're oldschool EverQuest II, and and by that I mean your account is oldschool, then some new rewards are coming your way. We learn from the EverQuest II Players site that four new veteran rewards will be available for those who created their accounts back in EQ2's earliest days.Two of the rewards are standard fare, similar to past years, potions that increase the experience gained for either tradeskilling or adventuring, Draft of the Wise and Draft of the Skilled. You will receive a total of three of each of these. Slightly more exciting is the Treasure Hoard. Placing this pile of loot in your house will result in a 25% discount on your coin rent, which will prove handy for those currently paying an arm and a leg every week.However, the last reward is probably the coolest of them all. Anyone who has visited Nektropos Castle (and if your account is old enough to be eligible for this reward, then you have) will recall the little dolls found there, in particular the one named Billy. Well, now you can transform into a Mystic Moppet Billy yourself. Apart from changing form, your size will also be reduced by 40%. Nothing screams "I'm a veteran!" like running around as a tiny moppet.These tangible rewards are accompanied by a new title to show off -- you will be able to stick "The Zealous" on the end of your name just to make sure that no one mistakes you for a newbie. Not a bad haul when all is said and done. Even the experience potions will come in quite handy with the upcoming Rise of Kunark release.
More drakes! OK, stop drakes.
We're now in Arena season 2, and in theory, those in the top 0.5% of their battlegroups should have received the 310% speed armored nether drakes as a reward for their prowess. However, there seem to have been some...issues with their distribution. According to this thread and the above picture (thanks for the tip, Robodex), the drakes have been making their way to well over the mandated 0.5% on the European realms. Whereas according to several threads in the US forums (still down), people that know they should have received their drakes are not getting them. Blizzard's looking into it:We're currently in the process of investigating instances where the end-of-season rewards may not have been provided to teams that should have received them. As we're still in the process of collecting information and investigating we're unable to comment at this time on what exactly occurred, or if there was indeed an error in how the rewards were provided based on the stated criteria. We'll provide more information as soon as we have a clear and final idea of what the issue is and how it will be addressed if necessary.Do you have an armored nether drake? Are you supposed to?
Arena season 2 vendors are way too popular
The pic above is courtesy of reader Scott, and it shows the aftermath of the chaos around the vendor for the Arena season 2 gear. Everyone is jumping on the servers to check the gear out (if you haven't seen it yet, we linked to what it looked like on the PTR a while back, and WoWWiki looks like it should be updated with live stats fairly soon), and so things are crazy around the vendor in Area 52, especially when PvP fights break out.A couple of players have been complaining about the insanity, so Drysc says on the forums that there are now temporary versions of Krixel, the rewards vendor, appearing in Orgrimmar's Hall of Legends, Stormwind's Champion's Hall, and outside of the Blade's Edge arena. There's no time set as to when the extra vendors will disappear (why wouldn't they have them in all places all the time?), but if you want a firsthand look at what there is to offer, you've got three more places to do it.
Coke runs out of DS, Wii rewards in four days
Coke drinkers love them some Nintendo, it seems. The newest phase of the My Coke Rewards customer loyalty program, which began on April 16, was sold out of all available Nintendo merchandise by April 20, according to the deal-watchers on slickdeals.net.Yes, that means that at least a few people managed to redeem the 3250 reward points needed for a Nintendo DS and the 6250 points for a Wii in less than four days. For those keeping score at home, that translates to 1084 bottles of Coke for the DS or 2084 bottles for the Wii. In four days. Are these people buying drinks for Army battalions or something?Slower drinkers needn't worry, though -- the DS and Wii reappeared on the rewards site yesterday afternoon, meaning that more people can pursue obesity and tooth decay as they pursue their Nintendo system of choice. God bless America.
Drink enough Coke, get Wii for free
If you're looking for another possible avenue for Wii ownership, and you have a very loose definition of "possible," may we suggest the MyCokeRewards store? Coca-Cola has been including codes on their products that correspond to points; these points can be redeemed for items on their website. Thanks to a tip from reader Sam, we can alert you to the fact that they've added Wiis to their selection-- for 6,250 points, which comes out to 625 cases of Coke, or 2084 20-ounce bottles. Better start raiding dumpsters for those reward codes!* We've used MyCokeRewards quite a bit and love it: among our purchases are the custom-printed 20"x28" Katamari Damacy poster seen above, and one Playstation 2 game with free bonus controversy! It's nice to get free merchandise for something we'd be doing anyway-- drinking delicious, chilled beverages.*Wii Fanboy does not encourage the raiding of dumpsters.[Thanks, Sam!]
PTR notes: Welcome to Ogri'la
Along with the Skettis Skyguard, there's another new faction to grind for in 2.1: Ogri'la. In my search for the elusive ogres, I was sent down to the Lower City by a quest giver in Shattrath's Terrace of Light; from there, the next step is to zip up to the Ring of Blood in Blade's Edge and talk to an ogre there. (Side note: the journey was hilarious, as epic flying mounts on the PTR are currently bugged to flutter their wings insanely fast when you fly forward.) I didn't follow through after that, because all the "real" quests to gain reputation with the Ogri'la ogres appear to be 5-man, and the thought of pugging with four other random PTRers was a little daunting.Never fear, though, I did go over to Ogri'la to snap the above shot and check out the rewards, which you can see in the picture after the cut (not composited by me; my pic was much worse). The prices of all the gear are in Apexis Crystals and Apexis Shards, which I assume drop from whatever it is you have to kill to get Ogri'la rep. If it's anything like the Sporeggar, getting the required reputation level is much more difficult than getting the turn-in tokens. Oh, and there's a repair vendor there, which is always pleasant. Ogri'la is located in the west of Blade's Edge, between Forge Camp Terror and Forge Camp Wrath.
Xbox Rewards may be expiring rewards [update 1]
X3F reader Shafnitz sent word that his Microsoft points that he won for completing the Xbox Rewards challenge are expiring. After winning the Old Spice Experience Challenge at level three, Shafnitz won a bunch of stuff including a 200 Microsoft points code. After redeeming the code and going on his merry way, weeks went by and he recently got the urge to take a look at his account online. And, to his surprise, he was smacked in the face with a points expiration notice as seen above. Expiring Microsoft points, who ever heard of that? Well, according to Microsoft's FAQ it states that "purchased points don't expire" but that "any points you get through promotions can have expiration dates. Typically, points expire within thirty days of the date you get them".Update 1: Shafnitz informed us that his expiring points problem was probably due to a contest he won over at the Gamerscore Blog and not from the Xbox Rewards giveaway. Oops on his behalf. So, expiring points from the Xbox Rewards program may not be true, but there are still expiring Microsoft points out there. You've been warned.
Xbox Rewards program giving out the goods
If you've been participating in the Xbox Rewards program then take a look at your account. HHHawk sent word that he received his prizes in code form to redeem on Xbox Live. So, if you've completed the Old Spice Experience Challenge and pressed "I'm Finished", you can redeem whatever goods you were promised. To locate your prize codes, login into the Xbox Rewards website and make your way to the "My Xbox Rewards" section. Then, head to the "My Rewards" section where, if you completed the challenge, you'll find codes for your prizes. We still aren't sure about the physical prizes that the level three players earned, but hopefully someone can shed light onto that situation. Remember, the Old Spice Experience Challenge has been extended until April 22nd, so get to work if you haven't earned your 1500 Gamerscore.Also, we just noticed that the Xbox Rewards website conveniently keeps track of your progress for each challenge. To see how much more Gamerscore you need to complete the Old Spice Experience Challenge, head to the challenge's main page and click the "I'm Finished" button (even though you know you aren't finished). If you haven't earned all 1500 Gamerscore then a window will pop up telling you how much more you need. Nice touch isn't it?[Thanks, HHHawk]
Arena rewards pages
Interested parties have probably already gone up to Area 52 to check out the arena rewards vendor, but this may be a little more convenient. Blizz have posted pages on the arena weapons and armor available for purchase with arena points, and they look pretty sweet (although not as overwhelmingly awesome as the top-rank PvP stuff was pre-BC). One thing that always surprises me a little bit is how much resilience is scattered all over PvP gear. All the sets have +35 resilience as a 2-piece bonus; according to WoWWiki, 39.4 resilience at level 70 gives -1% to be crit and -2% damage done by crits against you. All in all, the priest sets have 156 resilience (other sets, at a glance, look to have similar values), which is a 3.96% lower chance to be crit (and twice that knocked off crit damage against you). More and more, it seems PvP is about crits, both scoring and avoiding them. I guess crits were pretty important before, but this resilience bonanza makes it more obvious.
Xbox Rewards announced
Last week we gave word about a rumor regarding rewards for getting Achievements. Now xbox.com has the full details. Starting on February 12th, U.S. Residents will get the opportunity to get some free swag for increasing their Gamerscore by 1,500 points within a month in the "Old Spice Experience Challenge". Also, to make the deal sweeter for those who already have been actively unlocking Achievements, they have three tiers of prizes, based on your annual Gamerscore increase. Less than 5000 Gamerscore will be Level 1, where you can win Contra, a gamer pic, and a level upgrade. The second tier is for gamers with 5000 to 9999 Gamerscore, and will net the same rewards as Level 1 as well as 100 Microsoft Points. Those of you who have 10,000 annual Gamerscore or more are part of the third and final Level, and can win the aforementioned prizes, as well as an Old Spice T-shirt, 200 total Microsoft Points and a copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2. Not bad for beating one-and-a-half games, especially if you have just over 10,000 Gamerscore. If you're looking for some ideas on how to maximize your efficiency, you don't have to look hard. So, are you going to sign up? And for those of us who can't join due to being geographically impaired, when do you think your locale will be added into the mix?[Thanks, Darksaviour69]
Blizzard announces level 70 PvP weapon rewards
In my continuing quest to explore the PvP side of things, I've often been wondering if I should've been saving my honor for level 70 rewards. I had no idea what kinds of things would be coming out of the BG's for my little orc hunter until now. Blizzard has updated a lot of PvP information today. For each individual battleground, you'll notice the elimination of faction requirements (no more friendly, revered, or exalted rquired), and the changes in pricing from gold to honor points and pvp tokens. For general PvP weapon rewards, the list has been expanded upward to level 70, and includes a lot of new weapons. Check out the new information at the links below:
