http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060222/sirlin_01.shtml
This article is about 2 years old, but it gives kind of a rundown on WOW. Since I haven't played it before I did learn a little something, but the author is very anti-WOW so I don't know how true all of it is.
He has two main complaints about WOW; one is that it rewards time spent playing the game over skill. He constantly refers back to Street Fighter; I am pretty sure it is his favorite game ever.
The other is the fact that players get more reward for doing group missions instead of solo ones. The author is an introvert and feels like he must play in a group and this disturbs him. Then he complains a little about the terms of service agreement.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs.cfm?ISAPI_REWRITE_REMAP=JB47394&bhcp=1
This article is a little out there and talks on the idea of internet anonymity. Basically it sounds like a database without your personal information and every internet user gets a number. That number doesn't connect with you personally, but everytime you post or say something on the internet (game or website) it shows that the same person did all of these actions. For example, if I was mean to you on one game but you saw me under another avatar on a different game later, you would still know it was the guy that was mean to you previously. I definitely think it is a little overboard, but the potential for something like this is not out of the question.
3 comments:
That second idea is terrifying! Honestly, the only way I've survived guild politics so far is by having two characters in the same guild that are completely unrelated - so that when the guild officer signs off, nobody bothers the alt character. (If only I could call them Superman and Clark Kent :)
Still, a fascinating idea, given that so much of internet culture depends on anonymity...
The first article seems like a rant more than anything, although it is titled "Soapbox," and I can understand the writer's concerns. It seems like he is telling us how WoW teaches us instead of letting us form our own lessons and values from it (much like how people say video games teach kids to be violent instead of video games offer a means to learn about violence and interpret the violence in their own way).
I also agree that the idea in the second article goes a little overboard. I think something was mentioned in class about having more than one identity--for example, you're a different person with your mother than you are with your drinking buddies (or not). That's two different identities already, and you may not necessarily want your relationship with your mother to blend into your relationship with your buddies. I guess some people might be worried about deceit, like joining a guild with two different characters and letting people assume you are two different people, but I think that's an inherent part of identity. Sure, someone will always abuse it, but tracking people like the article proposes is too much. The writer of the article seems to separate the online identity from the offline identity, but the line between those two identities isn't as clear cut as he might think.
People who aren't addicted to Counter-Strike really need to shut up about WoW and RPGs in general rewarding time spent rather than skills. Like he says, the sort of game he envisions is like SF or CS. It's really tough to compete for a new guy, and most people plateau pretty early. RPGs are abstractions/simulations. XPs are the equivalent to practicing Haydookens. I like playing shooters and fighting games but it's much easier to get 'ganked' than it is on a PvE WoW server. Let me play my games and I'll let you play your games.
He's probably just sad the game that he's innately good at isn't on ESPN2. /ad hominem
As for the second article:
I'd imagine people would just get two globally unique identifiers and continue living their double lives. As usual, security theater inconveniencing the good guys while the bad guys still exploit.
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