[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[Brian 'Psychochild' Green]

I generally dislike slamming on one game in general, but I found a few
links to this screed on the offical EQ boards.

http://boards.station.sony.com/everquest/Forum2/HTML/032723.html

Some interesting points.  I particularly like the Disney parallel.  Also
interesting that a player recognizes that a game can evolve past the
point you wanted.

I'll put more comments in a later post.

(PS, Sorry if the formatting is off, I cut and pasted from a web page. 
All formatting mistakes are mine.)

----<begin quote>----
Five Part Post in One (Very Long) by Skyrain

Part One: Bullies on the Playground (Long)

This is the first in a series of posts, prompted, but not entirely
limited to, a phenomenon that has appeared on the Rodcet Nife server,
(and other servers, if the posts on the boards are any indication). EQ
is by no means the only place we can observe the behavior, but by its
very nature it is a perfect breeding ground for it. To this writer it is
only the most recent example of fundamental flaws in EQ and how Verant
chooses to address or ignore them.

Who am I? Three weeks ago I played a 52 ranger on Rodcet named Skyrain
Dreamweaver. Now I don't. The fun is gone. There had been a number of
issues that had blunted the fun over the past months, but it is the
following that finally made me realize the stress level was higher than
the fun level, and for the present anyway it looks like that will
remain. Here's what has happened:

EQ is at its core a very simple game with very simple scoring. Players
are judged by their levels and the loot they've acquired. There is
nothing else. There are no real-world rewards offered in the design of
course (Ebay is a whole other discussion), just these measurements of
status in the game world much as salaries and Porsches are used to
measure status in real life. Verant tell us there are others ways to
play the game, and other reasons. This point of view is seemingly blind
to the reality of how the game is played by the majority of the player
base. We'll explore why this has happened in Part Four: Verant's
Adventure in Wonderland.

Verant is faced with a virtual baby boom of high level players. This has
caught them off guard. They expected it to take much longer for people
to reach high levels. They thought there would be enough new players
coming in to smooth the demographics. This hasn't happened. There are
now hundreds of 46+ players on Rodcet, and more achieving that level
every day. Their response has been three-fold. 
1) They added an extra ten levels. 

2) The have added higher-level content from individual quests to new
zones to the Kunark expansion pack (and Vellious is now right around the
corner). 

3) Lastly, they have done everything they can apparently think of to
make achievement in the game harder and harder. Gordon Wrinn has more
than once expressed the Verant philosophy: 

"I do think that players should and can trust that we'll do what we can
in order to ensure that EverQuest remains a game that people want to
play. Afterall, it's been shown that people do no like to play games
that are too easy and where there is no challenge in playing. It's been
shown that there is no feeling of accomplishment that comes, for
instance, in obtaining an item that "everyone" else has, or has
relatively unrestricted access to."

The fact is that the challenge seems to be simply increasing the amount
of experience points needed to level, or forcing players to wait for
hours on end to get a chance at a rare drop. Remember: levels and loot,
that's all there is.

There had been earlier instances of the phenomenon I call "bullies on
the playground," but it was possible for other players to find different
corners of the playground to play in. With the demographic bulge of
players at the top of the xp ladder, this has now changed. 

On Rodcet we have a couple dozen guilds at least who are capable of
doing planes raids, and taking down some of the most powerful mobs on
their own. It was crowded, but apart from the isolated incident, most
guilds were getting their chances at the uber-mobs and the planes
because those that got there first had moved on.

The most recent attempt to add higher level content has been the
addition of the epic quests. Because completion of many (most? all?) of
them required loot from uber-mobs and the planes, players who had their
complete sets of planes armor and uber-weapons needed to return there
for the quests. Now the over-crowding has reached the stage that famous
psych experiment in over-population reached decades ago. The mice are
beginning to eat each other. It used to be individuals screaming over a
stolen kill, or the pre-emption of someone's camp. Now entire groups of
people are up in arms. Take a look at the message boards. Listen in
game.

What has happened is this: the bullies have taken over playground. In my
next post I'll describe how this is manifesting itself. 

Part Two: Am I My Brother's Keeper? (Long)

The guild system in EQ was never implemented quite the way the designers
have intended. More than one has listed publicly some of the additional
things they wanted to do. But in fact guilds have prospered. In the
beginning it was individual hunters who grouped together, found some
whom they liked grouping with more than others, and eventually
formalized these relationships in guilds. This was by design. It helped
foster community, a necessity for the survival of any persistent world. 

For a long time there were very few guilds. You could do a /who all on a
zone, find 35 people (overcrowding as defined in those days!), only one
or two had guild tags. GMs met in game with guild leaders to finalize
each one. Now the situation is reversed. Most players, even low levels
who didn't need to be in a guild in the past, now carry guild tags. In
fact it's somewhat of a stigma for high-level players not to have one.
They are suspect. Maybe they kill steal... maybe they can't play their
characters well enough for anyone to want them...

As the mobs became harder and harder, guilds increased in importance.
Consolidations and takeovers occurred, much like corporations, to
increase guild strength to the point where the highest mobs could
finally be conquered. The uber-guilds were born. These were made up for
the most part of those players who recognized the only signs of status
in the game were levels and loot, and a few others who wanted the
greater strategic and tactical challenges taking down a high-level mob
offered.

And as long as there was enough loot to go around there were few
problems. But the players leveled and multiplied, and soon it was
relatively easy for the uber-guilds to take down a dragon or a god. And
they were doing it so much those people newly arrived at the higher
levels weren't getting their shot. Verant responded by the level cap on
those who could fight dragons. Did it work? That's another discussion.
But there was a recognition at least that something was "unfair" and
needed to be addressed by Verant. Important point to keep in mind: a
precedent was set.

The number of higher-level players continued to increase. Squabbling
over the planes and uber-mobs increased as well. Verant looked at their
options for satisfying players, and rightly surmised that more content
was needed. But here is where they made their newest mistake. They made
it necessary for everybody, even those who had killed the biggest mobs
enough times to feed the biggest great white hunter's ego, to kill them
even more times. To make the quests "harder" they made the drops less
frequent. So the mobs had to be killed even more often. I have heard it
said that Verant may actually limit the number of epic weapons that can
be obtained on any server. True or not, result? People feel an even
greater need to kill those few poor mobs, and kill them now.

And in the rush to compete with all the other higher level guilds, toes
are getting stepped on. More and more. Impassioned and bitter arguments
have sprung up when two groups have collided in their attempt to hunt
the same mob or plane at the same time. 

Some guilds are trying to work through diplomacy to settle
disagreements. Two casual "notification" systems have been attempted:
posts in the EQ Vault Rodcet Nife Forum (a forum that otherwise
resembles the magic marker scrawls on restroom stalls) and a calendar. 

Both are of limited success because the bullies, emboldened by Verant's
hands off policy ("You can't reserve the planes."), simply ignore them.

They have stated that they are going to kill anything they want, when
they want, because they can. Alliances have been formed. Uber alliances
of uber guilds routinely race to kill uber mobs before anyone else has a
chance.

The two systems collide. More alliances are formed in opposition. (Check
the box your game came in. Was any of this listed on the cover? "Have
large groups of roving strangers trample on your good time!" "Try and
create a new reservation system that others will respect!")

More hard feelings grow. The diplomacy at times mirrors the playground
as well. The bullies push people around, demanding they be asked first
before others can attempt the greatest prizes. You want to play on the
swings? You wait until we're done. If enough kids band together maybe
they can beat the bullies to the swings, and their larger numbers as a
group may help protect them!

The bullies have a response to the complaints about them monopolizing
the few high-level hunts: "Why can't we share?" Next we'll examine the
playground concept of sharing. 

Part Three: A Child's Guide to Sharing (Long)

There are two common answers from the playground bullies on Rodcet when
these issues are raised. First we have impassioned defenses for their
right to have fun. They are big and strong. Why should they wait around
for lesser guilds to get their acts together? Why should they stand and
wait, not having fun, while others have fun? Interesting philosophy. I'd
be curious to see how it would play out at Disney World. Oh wait, it
couldn't. Disney governs who goes on which rides when. Even has rules of
conduct for the millions who visit every year. Nevermind, doesn't apply
to EQ I guess.

The other common answer from the bullies is that since there are so many
planes-capable guilds, and so few planes, the only solution is
"sharing." Interesting use of the word. It is of course an attempt to
claim some reasonably high moral ground. "But we want to share! What do
you have against sharing?" But what is it really? It is another bully
tactic. And here is how it works...

Ashley has been playing with her favorite doll. Her friend Brittany
wants to play with it, but Ashley got there first. Brittany is older
than Ashley, so she takes the doll, promising to share after she's had
her turn. The fact is that what Brittany has done is not sharing, but
coercion. Ashley has two choices: to wait her "turn," or to plead her
case to a higher authority, someone "bigger" than Ashley: an adult. But
the damage has been done. Because Brittany could take the doll, she did. 

We see this behavior in children all the time. What do we call them? Ah
yes: Brats.

On a plane sharing means two things: incredible lag, and the larger
guild gets the most pulls. They can recover faster, get more statics,
more loot, etc.

Is there a higher authority in Everquest? No, not really. To their
credit Verant polices certain social aspects of the game: harassment,
racism, and a few others. Of course, if they didn't, they'd risk legal
action. But what about something like disputes over the facilities, the
activities, the fun stuff in the game? The policy is explicitly to NOT
get involved. But wait, didn't we mention they nerfed the level limits
on dragons? Wasn't that a precedent?

Sharing has been institutionalized for adults, because believe it or not
there are adults how never learned all their social lessons properly. At
a tennis club for example you do indeed reserve courts for a set period
of time. And if someone steps on someone else's reservation, they risk
penalties imposed on them. If they refuse to accept the penalties, they
can get kicked out of the club. Even public courts post rules, but there
is an important distinction. Public courts are for the most part free.
Tennis clubs charge dues. You pay for your fun. And part of the
responsibility of the club is to do everything it can to guarantee the
fun for all members. 

Everquest is not free. We pay for our fun. You'd think we'd have a right
to expect those who govern Everquest to take the responsibility to do
everything they can to ensure we have it. What has gone wrong?

Part Four: Verant's Adventures in Wonderland (Long)

The fact is there is a great difference between the game originally
envisioned by the designers, the game I think they truly believe they
-have- designed, and the game their player base is actually playing.

They have trouble coming up with solutions because they don't -seem- to
see the problems. It's no wonder communication between players and
Verant can at times resemble the Mad Hatter's tea party. 

1. In answer to players' complaints about long camps, we're told that's
only one way to play the game. Players will be disappointed if that's
all they do. 

But it's the -only- way to get the best items in the game. Even the epic
quests are simply longer strings of FedEx shipments and camps. And as
was pointed out in my first post there are only two ways to measure
success in the game: levels and loot. High-level players are judged as
much by what they are wearing than any skill they might have at playing
their characters. "Is that a complete suit of thorny vine?! You rock,
bro!" 

GM "events" like Halloween where nothing really happens except every low
level in the zone gets slaughtered until an uber guild moves in and
reaps the drops. I was intrigued by Absor's admission that he likes
being a victim. Bill Troost's defense of the player as victim as part of
the "story-telling was equally illuminating. There's a word for people
who like to be victims. It's called masochism. 

You REALLY think people are paying you their money to be VICTIMS? Not
heroes? But VICTIMS? Ignoring Joe Campbell, Tolkien, every
action/adventure film ever made, all tabletop RPGs and MUDs, Psychology
101, and god knows what else, simply to try and defend an event
structure that had not improved one iota on the Halloween "event" from a
year before? I guess you can't really learn from mistakes, if you don't
see you've made any.

3. The recent comments in response to casual players is a perfect
example of how they fail to recognize the importance of the other game
scoring device: leveling.

I've talked with a great many game designers. To a one all understand
that "waiting" as a game dynamic is a terrible thing to design into your
game. Yet it is at the core of the "challenge" in Everquest. Enforced
boredom (You want that Testament of Veneer? You wait.) brought on by
static camps from the lowest "quest" item to the highest uber-mob is a
fundamental aspect of the design of the game.

How can casual gamers possibly hope to compete for these drops. And who
is Verant to suggest that they're playing the game wrong if they even
expect to?

Yes, EQ HAS turned its back on casual gamers. Of course it has. And of
course they're penalized by the narrowness of what it means to
"advance." The designers have been mesmerized by the hard core gamers,
and their demands for more and more. The baby boomers want their toys.
And EQ has no more ways to respond than make more items available, make
more camps and longer ones.

What the epic quests would do to competition among the higher levels for
the few resources should have been obvious. Gordon Wrinn should not have
been allowed to announce publicly how all the quests were working, and
the long time it took to design each one. How do these things happen?
Here's one possibility: 

How many "designers" does Verant have working on Everquest? At times
they seem to outnumber Q&A. 

I'm reminded of a cartoon an artist friend had posted above his desk. It
showed a classically stereotypical artist complete with pointy beard,
beret, smock, palette and brush, poised before a blank canvas on a
tripod. He is standing at the end of a long table lined with men in
suits. The caption was: Art by Committee. Now, whether EQ is art or not
is not the issue. But the fact is that committees rarely manage to make
ANYTHING great or enduring. The Porsche was not designed by a committee.
"Hamlet" was not written by a committee. Neither was "MULE" for that
matter.

One person can have a vision certainly. Two? Of course: Sid Meir and
Bruce Shelley. But every time you add another pair of eyes the vision
starts to blur. Without a guiding hand to hold all of the threads, and
tie up all of the loose ends, visions unravel. And what started out to
be a sweater looks more like an ever-growing expanse of patchwork.

The epic quests? Each one done by a different individual who apparently
had lost the telephone extension and email of all the others.

One final chapter will plant a signpost at the beginning of a route out
of Wonderland. 

Part Five: Are we having fun yet? (Long)

Is addiction fun? Only part of the time.

What could Verant do about the fundamental problems of EQ, if they could
wake up one morning to a satori, and discover there ARE problems?

Well, they could take the road they have in the past. Deny there's a
problem, then scurry to address it in the next expansion (Trying in
Kunark to reduce those static spawns that are "only one way" to play the
game for example.) Then address it by adding more of the same. Higher
mobs, higher weapons, the need for 50 people to kill one thing instead
of forty, increasing rarity of drops. It is a game after all of levels
and loot, remember? If there were anything else to EQ, their solutions
would address it, wouldn't they?

I repeat: there is a great difference between the game originally
envisioned by the designers, the game I think they truly believe they
-have- designed, and the game their player base is playing.

Until some recognition of that occurs, don't expect anything approaching
a legitimate solution.

Wonder why they demographics are so skewed to the high end? The mantra
we hear chanted in the halls of Verant most often in the face of
criticism is that now there are over 300,000 registered players of EQ.
More than AC or UO, yes. But it's such a drop in the bucket of internet
users, even internet gamers, I'd be embarrassed. And remember how long
ago they announced that first 200,000? And how long it took to get half
of that this time? Do a graph. Would you buy that stock?

The fact is that even the hardcore are getting restless, and there are
promising competitors emerging on the horizon. 

So what are we left with in the meanwhile? More and more loot? More and
more waiting? And at the end a higher end game where the players are
forced to govern themselves like some teeming crucible of democracy
disguised as entertainment.

What about that signpost to a solution? There are two parts:

First, stop being defensive. As hard as that might be. Stop it. Stop
blaming your player base. Gordon Wrinn:
"It's a bit depressing. On one hand we have a ton of players asking for
more GM interaction within the game, more quests, better stories, etc.,
and on the other we have the hecklers who scream any time we make an
attempt to drag them away from their 4 hour stop-watch campfest that
they complain constantly about...
...There are many dynamic quests, and contrary to popular belief they
usually entail something beyond GMs just running out and killing
everyone. If people would take a second before nuking the central
character, maybe they'll find out what it is all about."

There was also a sad quote from one of the "designers" at the recent
launch party. I wish I could find it now, but basically he was insisting
there was a full, rich storyline in Everquest, and that people were
simply failing to uncover it. This is such a page from the amateur
writer's scrapbook, it needs to be mentioned. Successful writing is 1)
inspiration and talent and 2) the ability to present the work to the
audience so that it can experience it. If you fail at number two, one is
meaningless. Stop blaming your audience if they don't get it!

People are simply playing the game you designed. If it isn't the one you
wanted to design, or thought you designed, then change it.

If you truly feel that the calendars and scheduling conflicts are
immersing players even more in the world of Norrath; if you truly feel
the bullies have a right to their fun more than others simply because
they are bigger and stronger; if you truly feel the uber-guilds should
have fun at Halloween events while lower level characters get to play
victims; if this truly -is- the vision, then sit back, and let the good
times roll.

But if you suspect there may be serious problems, and you can get beyond
blaming your customers, start accepting responsibility. Re-examine the
design openly. Trust your players a bit more. If you play black box
management of your player base ("Epic quests are all working." "No
problems with rangers."), when you finally do try to improve something,
you shouldn't be surprised you get more backlash than thanks.

And govern the world you have created. Everquest is not a free public
playground. People pay money to play here. It is not their
responsibility to ensure that all players in the playground have fun. It
is yours.

Believe it or not there is much that I find fine and entertaining and
beautiful about Everquest. I would have not spent the past three weeks
researching and writing this, if I didn't mourn what EQ could have been.
Might be. But it is a flawed gem, and it is fracturing along the fault
lines.

Is Everquest fun?

Not anymore. Not for Skyrain. Not at level 52. So he asked me to write
this to try and express his frustration and sadness. I hope I have in
some small way done him justice.

----<end quote>----

--
"And I now wait / to shake the hand of fate...."  -"Defender", Manowar
     Brian Green, brian at psychochild.org  aka  Psychochild
       |\      _,,,---,,_      *=* Morpheus, my kitten, says "Hi!" *=*
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   "They're not bugs, they're 'place-
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'    holders for code that works.'"
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)         - Andrew Kirmse, Meridian 59 creator
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