Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sweet sweet level design






I couldn't leave a blog on gaming experiences without without a mention of how wonderful the Half Life 2 mod Minerva is. I'm not joking when I say it felt like a better game than HL2 or the episodes. The level design is just fantastic and the lack of gravity gun or vehicle just oozes the feel of an old school FPS, and doing so exceptionally well. The pace of play is just great too, I just felt sucked in and spat out. Thank you Adam Forster. Loved it.





Also, I finished HL2: Episode 2 the other day. It was better than Episode 1 and more dramatic than HL2. I'm not a believer in spoilers so this was more of the same, with more plot and a citrus squeeze of emotion. Again it was set-piece orientated but dealt with the linking of them well. While I was not driven to purchase Episode 1 after HL2 I am definitely considering Episode 3 as a future purchase.

However, that next privileged slot goes to Left 4 Dead. Damn it's looking better all the time. Roll on November (+X months for Valve readiness).

Safe Journey,

Solar

EDIT: Since this post Adam Forster has been employed by the wondrous Valve, gratz my good man, thoroughly deserved.

Grumblings continue...

Warcraft: Know your enemy






This is a personal response to World of Warcraft (WoW) and the risk of addiction it poses.

Addiction, loosely the need to pursue a behaviour despite the detriment to the self and/or others, is not generally a positive thing. However, its precursor, the ability to focus on a task whilst ignoring distractions, is a necessary tool for learning, development and often success. For any activity there is the risk of a simple interest becoming a consuming addiction. 'Good' business involves cultivating interests to become addictive but, much like a successful parasite, the aim is not to kill the host, only drain it. When a product is dangerous it becomes good business to limit exposure to reduce mortality (with little thought to morbidity). Cigarettes, alcohol, even chocolate, bear warnings that only serve to mitigate abuse not stop it. Games are no different. My aim in this blog is to pin down some of the main features of WoW that make it addictive. Sun Tzu as usual has good advice on this front:

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

Unfortunately I cant help you with yourself but I'll give the enemy a thorough going over.

1. It's accessible. WoW is not difficult to get hold of. You can download the whole game and try it for free (the first one's always free) and, relative to many other current games, it's inexpensive to buy. Luckily the impatient among you have extra protection as the download and/or latest patches can often take 1-2 days to install successfully. There is of course more. Because your account is stored on a separate server you can access it from any machine with the game installed and an internet connection. The evil of this is twofold. Not only does this give 'wowers' the convenience of playing without being linked to a dedicated machine but it can also turn many 'wowers' who travel (those not so afflicted the see no need of course) into viral vectors of the game. It becomes all to easy when visiting friends or family to crack under the desire to continue the adventure by a surreptitious install or the 'look at this' premise. Then once the game is sitting there it could easily make others curious because...

2. It looks like a cartoon. The trouble is that WoW can be as fun to watch as it is to play. The graphics are flamboyant and detailed, the characters and their expressions are emotive, while the world can be equally appealing. This may put off some who crave a more realistic 'iron and blood' experience, but it seems the cartoon nature of the graphics widens appeal in general. Why this is true is open to debate. Perhaps it is easier to suspend disbelief in a cartoon environment or it may tap into certain populations (perhaps the younger and female players) who find it more satisfying for a game. Furthermore, despite the cartoon theme, there is often something 'cool looking' for most people, be it effects, abilities, gear, or the environment. If you don't believe it go and watch a friend and see if you don't feel the pull. If you don't the reason may well be that it looks complicated (so many bags, so many items and buttons) but what you don't know is...

3. It's simple to play. Once you've installed it (or had it installed), set up your account and logged in, the most difficult thing about getting entering your world is choosing your name. Sure you have choices of class, race and features but most first time players will go for looks first anyway. Then after a brief intro of your race your first objective is to work out how to talk to people and kill something. Those unfamiliar with the 'WASD' form of movement and game interfaces (which is incredibly usable by-the-way) may find this a bit tricky but the the hint system is very succinct, getting you familiar with anything new happening (including of moving). Things start light on abilities too, usually with 3 main ones (including attack) and one or two racial ones. Within minutes you'll be 'levelling up', which brings both the feeling and actuality of becoming more powerful. Quests get steadily more complicated to teach you to be creative with your class, while others get taught as you go. This trend continues till around lv10 (~3hrs of play) where you'll be heading to your race's capital city, effectively opening up your character class and the world proper. By level 20 (~8-12hrs of play) I'm expecting you to feel you have a good handle on everything the game offers. Time to get bored as you do one repetitive task to the next right? Unfortunately...

4. It's not that simple. There are complexities in WoW gameplay designed to keep players of every inclination interested. The character's abilities can be tuned by gear (the items you wear and use) which you have to adventure for and a finite number of talent points (which you attribute to your style of play to complement your current abilities). Then there are professions that allow you to gather and craft items to give more abilities. The challenge of improving your character, either in powers or looks also becomes more difficult as you level. Improving your skill with a character is also important, none moreso than in plaver vs. player (PvP) situations. Every 10 levels or so builds in new challenges to manage with your character. If that wasn't enough, reaching the level cap then puts you in the 'endgame' which offers a whole multitude of ways to keep improving with the bar pretty much as high as you want to set it. Depth a' plenty for most avid players. Once this finite content is done however the end should be in sight. Unfortunately...

5. It is endless. With an end you might be able to curb your enthusiasm. What Blizzard kindly do instead is keep adding to the game. Regular patches and hotfixes refine the interface, remove bugs, add seasonal events, put in new quests, new items, new dungeons, new areas, new or altered abilities. And it happens on almost a monthly basis. Surely this is a great thing? Well not for those trying to get closure it isn't. One of the big driving forces for any game is to get to an end, any end to sit back and go, look what I've done, look how I grow. Don't get me wrong, WoW has this in bucket loads. Every achievement in the game is goal based, and there is always some goal your haven't done. Cruelly, the balance of this is just right as well. Getting that item you've been playing for hours for is a closure. But then you want to head off and use it or find another item to complement it. And lets not forget the game expansions... so much extra content, you're never going to finish this one baby. The only real limit is...

6. You pay for it. Surely paying for something works against addiction? Well this is rarely true for anything perceived as good, regardless of it's value. In WoW's case, paying encourages some level of 'getting your money's worth' feeling. Of course you could just subscribe and forget about it but the very fact you pay for something usually encourages you to use it. Arguments in favour of subscription are based on promises of regular support, maintenance and on-going development of a persistent virtual world. Unfortunately even these ultimately result in you playing more often. So at this stumbling point lets say you decide you don't want to pay for it all the time, that should make it easier right? Well not really. Taking a break can be harder than subscribing and playing when you feel like it. First of all you have the end date of your paid use. This may result in playing harder to fit as much in as possible before the end. Second, Blizzard currently give no penalty for 'freezing' your account. Great, I've stopped playing for good but that option to return is always there, when you're ready, no pressure. Parental controls are just another manifestation of this. Worried parents restricting a kids WoW time are just going to nurture an urge to play. And if if they are not exploring the world, gamers have another aspect of play...

7. You can play by not playing. Meta-gaming is what I'm talking about. The game content is huge, the complexity hidden behind interfaces is made as accessible as possible. However, if you want the most out of a game like that you need some help, help of those who've adventured before, a bit of wisdom to save you time. Sure you can ask someone in-game but most will be as clueless as you, or simply not want to waste time with a 'noob'. Thankfully the Information Age provides, in the form of searchable databases, guild websites, guides, maps and more. Players do so much outside of wow, and it's not even limited to working on stuff you can do in game. There is a huge amount of fan art, comics, machinma, cosplay; pretty much any interest can and has been catered for. The worst bit about this meta-gaming is that you can do it over lunch or when you're meant to be working, even daydreaming about what you'll do when you get back online counts. Of course every game that captures someone's interest involves some level of meta-gaming. We're also social creatures whose nature is to talk about things we are interested in, sitting in a forum or even me writing this is a form of meta-gaming. Not that I want to defend WoW on this point but it's not as bad as some of the others. For WoW the main reasons for meta-gaming are to plan what items or abilities you want to hunt down, perhaps discuss a boss encounter or arrange a guild event; you don't need to do it. Others games (I'm thinking EVE or even Urban Dead) often provide their greatest successes by meta-gaming and involve a lot of planning out of game to co-ordinate bursts of intense in-game action. That said, the level of meta-gaming in WoW merely continues to add to the risk of addiction.

These points about WoW raise one question for me, is WoW a bad thing? I've been dry of playing online for almost 3 months and still meta-game to a small extent, always planning to return. I play for the escapism, the fun of exploring and experiencing the game with so many others. But within that multifaceted joy is a draining game, one that will make continuous demands of the player. The risk of the game consuming someone's time to the extent that it their life is affected is very real, those jokes about loosing wives, jobs and homes are not far off the mark in some cases. When that happens however the game stops being fun and begins to become work.

My reaction to that is that I need a life to escape from in the first place. Not that my life is that bad, but games form a welcome relief from the current stresses of the world, not an excuse to ignore them. Finding that balance in most games is easy but Blizzard have made this difficult for all the reasons listed above. Despite that I honestly feel WoW is one of the best games I've ever played. However, anything that good, particularly this good, should be indulged in moderation. Trouble is there is very little way of successfully moderating yourself in WoW if you're having fun. Perhaps the best way to stop it is to burn out, or loose something that means more to you. So to all you still interested I write this as a warning really. The portal to a fantastic game awaits but you should know that it for what it is, a very entertaining enemy.

Safe Journey

Solar

Grumblings continue...