Your Next: Growing Pains
If you want to be treated like an adult, start acting like one
This week, I have mostly been quietly raging to myself, as an acute case of the man-flu sapped the energy required to do more.
It’s a funny time to be interested in games. By ‘games’, I don’t just mean the final product that we become the end-user, of course. The whole structure and mechanism around games is suffering from some chronic growing pains, and while wonderful new ideas and possibilities are opening up, teen tantrums seem to be coming along with it.
This time it’s even made its way into the mainstream press, and I see the look people give me when I tell them what I do in my spare time. Then we talk about Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn and I’m forced to smile and politely agree that ‘games don’t really matter, they’re just for kids anyway!’
Understandably, it’s a time of great change; we’ve all been guilty of identifying a little too personally with a commercial product. I can say that with some confidence, knowing this is an MMO crowd.
So we struggle to express our emotions; we make earnest, yet sophomoric, declarations (I’ll be case in point, here) that we know would solve everything if people would just listen. While we may be unsure what it is we want, exactly, we can smell which end of the bull what you’re giving us came out of.
So I’m angry this week; I’m feeling sick, for once I’ve been embarrassed to say I love MMOs and videogames in public and now I check to see what’s been happening and I see WildStar, ArcheAge and Destiny all spoon feeding us crap like we wouldn’t notice.
So forgive me if I take a break this week from talking about how bright our future is while I deal with this.
WildStar has seen the inevitable dip in its user-base and is exploring options for mega-server technology. I’m sorry, but are we expected to believe that Carbine Studios did not expect their numbers to drop after the first few months? I’m sure they’re not stupid, and I don’t think it’s humanly possible to be that arrogant, so they didn’t tell us about their plans. Seems like a pretty smart move, and one that will benefit players, so why not be up front about it?
On the other hand, they’re also claiming they didn’t realize how many players would want to play solo, and that the game is ‘too hardcore’ for many, so they’ll be introducing changes and new features to accomodate.
The plan seems to be to lie to and alienate the players who decided to stick around for the long haul. What a shame. I was really hoping WildStar would pull it out of the bag and be a success story - it’s incredibly well made and the team seem passionate about what they have - but if they carry on like this, I expect they’ll end up yet another casualty of the MMO grinder.
So, on to ArcheAge. I have a lot of love for ArcheAge - despite being bloated and suffering from some kind of chronic indecision, the game pulls it out of the bag at endgame to deliver an extraordinarily refreshing experience. The East Asian design influence is clear, and Trion did a lot to tone down the aspects that would be less than palatable to a ‘Western’ (read, American) audience. There were concerns about the game feeling too grindy, RNG playing too much of a role and the dreaded Pay2Win stamp being applied.
I think it’s fair to say a good job had been done all around; early adopters were happy to pay a large entrance fee to be part of a game that tickled their particular fancy, and there was much rejoicing.
Then, a change was made to some aspects of cash shop items that, while not directly selling numerical power, certainly allowed for a significant advantage. While not wanting to go into too much detail, allow me a short explanation - in ArcheAge many of a a player’s activities are limited by a mechanic called Labour Points, where you spend the points to complete tasks like farming and crafting.
Long story short, Labour Point potions made their way onto the cash shop.This might not seem like a big deal if it were the case in most games, but in ArcheAge it’s huge.
As of Friday morning, this change has been repealed... mostly. All that’s left to ask is, after so carefully removing elements the early adopters were concerned about, were they trying to sneak this back in at the last minute? Surely not, but then, does that mean they think it was okay? I don’t know.
Like I said, this week i am being angry, so let’s enjoy the change of pace together.
Finally, the other game that has rustled my jimmies this week is Destiny. It’s the new great big shiny and I’m sure there are many people who are enjoying it immensely. I will preface this by saying there is nothing wrong with liking something, and I’m glad you’ve found something new to enjoy.
Having said that, you know what really grinds my gears? Games with enormously inflated budgets that are derivative and sterile while doing nothing of note particularly well. Except of course, for their marketing campaigns. We know all about this, being MMO players.
That’s what Destiny is: it’s an MMO. Not in the amazing, limitless possibility of an ‘idea’ way either. In the dry, genre type way of ‘run back and forth between these NPCs because reasons’.
They think if they make a point (in the marketing, of course) that it totally isn’t an MMO at all, it’s this other thing we made up (in a marketing meeting) then players just won’t notice. They hope we won’t notice, instead of trying their very best to make a fun and interesting game.
So I’m angry at various things, not least myself for allowing this column to not be about Landmark or EverQuest Next at all.
Mostly I’m angry at the people in suits who force this spin on us because they think we aren’t mature enough as a group to accept what’s really going on. Or is it that they think we wouldn’t understand at all?
On the other hand, after this last month or so I wouldn’t blame them for thinking that. As a group we aren’t exactly known for our subtlety when it comes to disagreeing with business decisions.
I mean, look at me. I’ve just spent over 1000 words being angry at two games I like and one that I’ll probably never play; that can’t exactly be called rational.
LockSixTime