Developing a New Major

mmorpg culture, ch2 from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, by R.V. Kelly 2

something i wondered about – does real life personality affects what kind of game you prefer, and your behaviors in the game , books seems to say mmo’s play with hte magic circle – there are few real world consequences but real world personalities might affect mmo world behavior

culture is very different in mmo’s than real life or single player games, mmorpg’s about daily progress and doing quests experience and profit from taking chances/risks, can take chances without too many risks few real world pay offs, guilds work for betterment of members/guilds in PK worlds more to organize raids and enforce the party line author calls it an all-carrot-no-stick world

lots of details on creating your character – lots of choices – gender, race, profession/class, appearance, skills/abilities (cost you some to acquire and upgrade, different combinations of skills good for quests or commerce – you have to decide, you get points as you use your skills that you can use to buy new stuff or buy new skills or upgrade), have to pick a name (which can be tough for some people, you’re stuck with it so watch the typos

there are player characters (other real people), non-player characters (bots, computer controlled characters that can offer you quests provide info, could be guide/mentor [these would be fun to specialize in - do you go for as human/real as possible and try to fool PCs?]), creatures (source of danger and wealth, they can kill you, if you kill them they often have good treasure you can take)

XP = experience points – you use them to improve your character more XP = higher level character, get XPs for everything you do in some games – using your skills, killing creatures, more difficult task = more XP, other characters can look at your character and see your level (?true of all games, can they see your XP or just your level?), the higher your level, the harder it is to upgrade so takes more and more points/more and more time int he game to reach highest levels

“the ability to take big risks without ever having to suffer big punishments is, by far the most striking feature of MMORPG cultures everywhere.” (p. 28) – take risks without risking your XP or treasures, never going to get set back all the way to zero, no downward mobility, so people rewarded for taking risks (and really not much of a risk since they will never lose it all)

quests = missions, trials,

• people do for different reasons

• want the prize/loot of course
• like the excitement (without the risk)
• bond with other people in the game as you quest together make new friends
• blur the line between game and reality because you’re not reading about adventure, you’re actually doing, influencing the game

• different kinds of quests (can be single part or multi-part, simple or complex/gotta have a gang to do)

• fetch/FedEx/mail run = NPC gives you the task of going somewhere to get something to bring back for which palyer gets XP/money/a special collectable item/title
• slaughter = kill a certain number of creatures (like on south park when they killed all the wild pigs to level up)
• scavenger hunts = gather items from around the world
• treasure = overcome obstacles to retrive something of value from difficult locations
• riddle = you are presented iwth a riddle or word puzzle and you have to choose – get rewarded if you pick right
• marathons/orienteering – follow detailed maps and complex instructions to look for treasure
• lore = get a bit of info about the world each time you finish a subquest, or their actions in the subquest becomes aprt of the game’s official backstory
• title = change your personal history by getting rewarded for subquest success with titles and honorifics to add to your name (military rank, political rank, some people want tons of htem so their name is ornate)

guilds = the reason some people spend hours and hours/months and months in teh game, friends in the game & go on quests together and make ya feel needed and won’t cheat you (mutual aid societies), fight together (biker gangs, mafia dating agency), game friends can be counted on in the game you choose them (not like rl family), and you can ignore them when you want to/need to or when they become a bother (unlike rl family), some guilds are like craftsmans guilds where experienced players help the new guys level up, other guilds are cartels for business characters who are making and selling goods in the game – htey help members get raw materials at low prices and attract buyers willing to pay high prices

there are players who like to steal, brag they’re greedy and decitful – author calls them mercantile warriors , they want to build up tehir treasure but also want to brag about their conquests and good buys (even if htey have to lie about what good loot they got from a creature they killed, try to rip off other players makes other playrs kind of cynical about being cheated and abused (goes back to there being no real punishment for things in teh game so the liars and cheats can do their worse), author tried to find honest people to give money away to and found very few, found even fewer new players who’d say thanks when he gave them free money with out their asking

big section on player killing (PK) – world can be PK/PVP or PVE (player versus environment)

pk – started as a wayt o get FPS action into MMOs (except in FPS everybody is at the same levelso it’s a fair fight but in mmo the new guy has no chance or very little chance of being successfulin a fight), again no repercussions, get clan wars, gang rivalries vengeance quests, bounty hunting, blood quests, shrunken head quests race wars, property destruction, territory disputes – the author makes PK worlds sound awful – he calls them fascists – everybody sticks tohte party line forum posts are mostly chanting and propaganda, no talking or hanging with other clans no exploring because you get attacked outside your home territory lots of trash talking, people take out contracts on other players (makes it sound like there are places on the web where you could see boards with people who have bounties on tehir heads – calls them kill-this-bastard bulletin boards concept called ganking = gang up on and kill, star gankers get big payoffs from clients, people who like PK like the thrill of hte hunt – all the adrenaline, the trash talk, the planning and killing other real people’s avatars, some PKers say they like it because it’s like real life@@??? (hopefully they mean the reward for big risks but kind of a weird response – i’d like to see the data on this),  can’t really be a lone gunman/masterless samurai character in a PK world, PK owrlds not hte majority of worlds of course

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