On Combining Industries

An interesting evolution of video games that has been occurring over the past few years is the gradual merging or interplay of the film industry and the video game industry. Movies have been made from video games, but they have been disappointing at best. For many years videos game movies have received poor treatment in the hands of Hollywood. Yet, (thankfully) thing might be beginning to change. Over the past few years there has been a sudden flurry of proposed films based on video game titles, including a film adaptation of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Other upcoming titles include a Bioshock movie, Prince of Persia (which has been picked up by Disney) and Mass Effect.

While video game films have been placed in the hands of some rather incompetent directors, they only mask a much deeper problem in their development. Basically, from what I've read and personal experience in both fields, the problem is that video games and films are produced differently. While this might seem like an obvious conclusion, it's more complicated than it might seem. Video games are much more personal project and are typically produced and developed by a team of workers that have known each other for a long time. The designers are very involved and work alongside producers. When producing a movie, funds come from various donations from private parties and employees are brought together from all over to work on the specific project and disband once everything is complete. The film passes through many hands and departments that don't keep in clear contact with each other.

This difference in structure has caused many video game companies to sign away the rights to their property without understanding how much they are giving away. More recently, developers are more cautious about just who they are giving rights to. Now they are thinking who might best represent their game or stick to the intended genre.

So why have these two industries begun to work more harmoniously? Well. For a long time video games were not respected by mainstream industry. Games were considered a niche market and therefore were left untouched by high risk and high budget films. However, recently movie investors have become more interested by video games rise in the global market. The belief that niche markets will not make great sales has also been weakened by the popularity on films based on classic comic book heroes. They're probably starting to run out of comics and so they are beginning to look towards video games.

I also tend to believe that this success has been largely related to film's increasing dependency on digital effects. Video games are build around virtual worlds and have used cinematic conventions to create better narratives. Films have been relying more strongly on digital rendering and have been approaching game companies for partnerships. The two media are building off each other and are becoming similar. Yet, I find that they will still be distinctly different. The entertaining part of video games is their sense of agency. You are put in control of the action. You make meaningful decisions. Games continue to explore and refine the science of interactivity and player immersion.

On Difficulty

While I'm not sure if this has far reaching consequences or some deep commentary on society, I do find it interesting to what lengths game companies will modify their games in order to satisfy. As I mentioned previously, WoW has been around for several years and I have been playing since launch. This means that I've seen new continents added, downed new bosses and unlocked new features. However, I have also noticed a disappointing trend. The game is becoming easier.

Well. Okay. Parts of the game have become easier. Mostly all of the old content. From the most recently expansion, the level cap was raised to 80, but us veterans remember the days when 60 was the highest attainable level. Since this is an upward form of growth, it is understandable that the designers added new content for levels 60+ since the larger portion of the fanbase was at that level. However, with each expansion, the designers have made the old content portion of the game easier to breeze through. They've employed several strategies including lowering level requirements for items that increase speed, to special experience bonuses if you reactivate your account after inactivity.

I am a little disappointed because while I understand the importance of creating fresh end game content, I think it would be much more interesting if the old game content was modified as well. One of the key elements of an online MMO is a persistent online world. I understand that this creates an element of fairness and security in a virtual environment, but over time it really becomes stagnant. This is why it is fairly easy to get through levels 1-60, but still somewhat difficult from 60-80. However, this does not attract new players to join the game itself. WoW boasts of 12 million subscribers, but they seem to be hitting their limit. They claim to still be recruiting, but at this point it seems like they are just trying really hard to retain their fanbase.

However, there is some hope for the future. World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion Cataclysm intends to do what I believe should have been done a while ago. Basically under the pretense of a great earthen catastrophe, the old world has been irreversibly torn asunder. This means that old familiar territories will be drastically changed and the old flow of the game will be modified to accommodate. I believe that this will once again make the natural progression of the game much smoother and make the entire experience more enjoyable overall.

On Gold Farming

Gold farming. Every MMO player knows of it, not all of them disapprove of it. To be honest, I'm surprised that I haven't spoken about it yet in this blog as it is a very interesting and controversial issue surrounding MMOs. If you stumbled upon this blog by accident and have no idea what gold-farming even is, check this out please. The business of gold farming touches upon questions of ethics, property rights and the general spirit of games.

As a player myself, I understand how much work must often go into obtaining gold in World of Warcraft. While there isn't a fixed rate, it certainly takes several hours a day worth of play to start making a decent amount of gold for yourself. After all that work, there is a certain sense of entitlement. You worked hard, you earned your reward. However, this sort of ideology becomes a bit fuzzy in the virtual world. Who does in fact own digital property? Is it the person who found or created an item or is it the team of designers who made the item? The jury is still out, but for clarification purposes, Blizzard clearly states in the terms of service that Blizzard owns the rights to all their players' accounts. So from a legal standpoint, Blizzard owns all the items and gold that is in game. From this point, real world transactions of virtual world products can be seen as stealing, or at least profiting off the work of another party.

The ethical arguments surrounding gold farming are varied. While it is a stereotype, typically gold farmers are players in China that work several hours a day for fairly low wages. In 2005, Ge Jin, a PhD student from UCSD made a documentary (preview here) that followed several employees of a gold farming business in China. The conditions in which they work are difficult and the hours are long. Yet these people enjoy their jobs. China's booming population requires many jobs and so its citizens are more willing to put up with working conditions that are very uncomfortable.

Another problem with gold farming is the question of source. As noted above, there is a stereotype that all gold farmers are Chinese. Some gold farmers however, are simply hackers. These players come from all over and sell gold that they have stolen from players' accounts. This is usually done by having players who want to buy gold accidentally download a trojan horse virus that siphons some gold from the player. In some of the more extreme cases, they steal everything: gold, items, even the characters, which are then resold. Recently worldofwarcraft.com released a cveaat against going to gold farming sites, explaining to users how gold is often illegitimately taken from other users.

I personally dislike gold farming. Yes, because of some of the above reasons, but also because as a game designer I find that it goes against the very nature of the game. It's turning something fun into a business. I understand that many of us do not have the time to properly gain wealth in WoW or sometimes it's just that tempting to buy that extra 1000g you need for an epic mount, but it just doesn't seem right. The game is so expansive and well crafted that if you play faithfully and truly experience the game, you will be able to get any item you want. Yes, it will require hard work, but that's part of the fun. Buying gold is a shortcut, which is borderline cheating. Sometimes cheats are valuable to the game experience. Designers cannot always plan for everything and occasionally players find ways to exploit the system within the game. This sort of exploitation comes from outside the game and ruins the magic circle.

On Addons

Last time I wrote about players policing themselves and keeping the community running smoothly. This time I would like to talk about another interesting community that has grown around World of Warcraft, namely the modding community. Many games like to keep their source code locked up tight and only allow the game developers to release any modifications to the game. Others prefer to go the opensource route and let the players modify to their hearts content. Both these extremes are often limiting and can sometimes prove detrimental to the game’s success.

World of Warcraft has an interesting middle ground in which the core game mechanics are well protected, but the user interface is left rather open. This decision prompted an explosion of custom addons that can be downloaded and installed by users. The functions of these programs vary from simple interface changes to programs that track demographics or transactions between players. A lot of them are quite complicated. Blizzard does not claim ownership over these addons and has overall been very accepting of what the players create. Occasionally Blizzard steps in if an addon goes against the core essence of the play experience, but on a whole they have been quite accommodating.

I find the growth of these addons to be interesting. As they are player created programs, it is up to the players to make sure that they work efficiently. Therefore, these addons are under constant revision and improvement. Addons that are well scripted gain a following and receive a large quantity of helpful criticism allowing for better revisions and prolonging the life of the addon as a whole. Some of these are so well designed that they have become canon for almost anyone who is at least partially serious about playing the game.

The community improves itself by self revision of its material. This creates a self-sufficient system in which players improve the community by contributing play time. As the addons improve, players spend more and more time playing. This sort of relationship will help keep the innovation within the game going strong.

On Self-Policing Societies

An interesting phenomenon that I have seen occur on several occasions within the World of Warcraft community is the development of a self-policing society. While there are GMs that help regulate the game and police rule breaking players, for the most part their role is observational. The greatest punishment that they can give out is banning a player’s account. However, this punishment can be easily circumvented by purchasing a new account altogether. (It is a bit costly if you have to do it multiple times, but completely doable) So how does one control a society in which the figures of authority cannot punish wrongdoers in any meaningful way? One leaves the burden of judgment on the players themselves.

The key to success in WoW is your reputation. How other players know you will greatly affect how well the server respects you. While you may think that a character can get lost among the thousands of players that log in every day, the server feels a lot smaller than you might think. Once you hit the level cap, you typically bump into the same players quite frequently. Yet, if you have a reputation of being an obnoxious player that ninjas or don’t know how to play, you will be shunned by the community. This results in the ultimate punishment that can be given online, social-death. Once branded with a bad reputation, it can be quite difficult to shake it off.

There was one time that my guild leader left the guild bank unlocked after some weekly maintenance. Typically only the guild leader and his officers have complete access to the guild bank ( I was the third ranking officer after our guild master and her husband, though the ranks had little worth), but he had unlocked it so we could have some other members help reorganize. The next day we logged on and found most of our bank to be empty. A low ranking member had taken almost everything out of the bank and had placed the items up on the public auction. While I do realize that it was our guild leader’s fault for leaving the bank open, it was quite disrespectful for our new member to take our hard earned items for his own gain.

We contacted a GM about the situation and the next day we had all our items back. However, while we waiting, I began chatting in the public channels warning people about this character and his behavior. I found it interesting to find that he had quite a reputation. Many random players that I had never spoken to began messaging about how he had ninja’d them before and that he had several other characters that I should be wary of. It was fascinating how many people had something against him. So even though the GM was the only player that could actually punish him by returning all the stolen items and removing most of his items, the rest of the server took on the role of making his reputation known.

This sort of collective criminal rap sheet is quite effective in making it difficult for disrespectful players to interact and succeed in game. The information spreads virally and like most information on the web, doesn’t ever truly die. (Nothing on the web dies...) The society as a whole determines what is socially acceptable and who should be punished for tramping on the social norms.

On Machinima

Another fascinating byproduct of games is the genre of machinima. While machinima can be created out of almost any game, WoW has drawn users in because of its wide variety of character models and expressions. Since characters are highly customizable in game, it is easy to create an entire cast of actors for a short.

I find machinima an interesting phenomenon because it is a user based artifact. The players themselves utilize the models and environments made by development teams to create their own narratives that don't necessarily remain within the boundaries of the games that they came from. The creators of these videos are not necessarily cinematographers or have any relationship to the film industry. Yet these games allow players a cost effective way to create their own miniature films and express their own ideas.

While many have a stereotypical notion of the MMO gamer looking somewhat like this, this stereotype is (thankfully) eroding. Games are becoming a large part of our society and only recently have they begun to be accepted. This problem of acceptance is also prevalent in other cultures, most notably Japan where the Otaku is still considered a social outcast. (we're really not that bad) The notion of the "geek" or "nerd" (There is a hierarchy, though I forget which is worse than the other) seems to creep into all cultures.

However, in October of 2006, Comedy Central's animated series South Park aired the episode titles Make Love, Not Warcraft. A parody of WoW players and the MMO genre in general. While the episode itself was poking fun at gamers, the episode brought MMOs into the mainstream media. It is difficult to find someone who hasn't at least heard of WoW or can't recognize a screenshot of it. A large portion of this episode was shot using WoW's character models in conjunction with the known style of South Park. This episode was of course shot with Blizzard's permission, unlike most machinima found on the interwebs.

Machinima has an interesting relationship with other forms of pop culture. A WoW version of I'm on a Boat, was recently posted to WoW Moviewatch. The machinima version is surprisingly faithful to the original, showing just how flexible the medium is.

If you have the time, I would recommend reading the wiki on Make Love, Not Warcraft. There is a certain symbiotic relationship between the episode and the game. Both make references to each other. As a player, I find it amusing to find these sorts of relationships between different pop culture trends.

Here are a few videos to watch if you have the time:

Not Just Another Love Story (semi-NSWF)

skullcrusher mountain

I'm on a mount

On Holidays

It's the end of September and do you know what that means? It's time for Brewfest in World of Warcraft. Brewfest is basically the video game equivalent of Octoberfest. Aka. A chance to get intoxicated online. (Without any of the detremental side effects to drinking. :D )

So why do I mention this on my blog? Perhaps because like real holidays, in game holidays inspire social interaction. World of Warcraft has several in game holidays. Some mirror real life holidays. Some are just for fun.

Brewfest offers several specific events for players to participate in. Most of them are solo quests. Players can do beer runs, join clubs and collect tokens to be redeemed for novelty items. However, there are a few events that require multiple players to complete. One such event is Defend the Fest in which players must defend the Brefest tables from the Dark Iron Dwarves. In order to defeat the oncoming dwarves, group of players must drink rapidly and throw the empty cups to defeat them. The dwarves are controlled by the computer and mount an attack every half hour or so. A player cannot defend the encampment alone and must therefore call to nearby players for aid. If the group is successful, each participant is rewarded with tokens.

Receiving the tokens is really the only incentive to complete these quests, but for gamers the promise or rare or unique items is more than enough. A good way to get social prestige is to have something that someone else doesn't. People like collecting things, especially if those things have value to other people as well.

Now. I realize that this is only a trend because the holiday is currently in effect. However, it does allow me to examine the concept of social holiday within a digital setting. WoW celebrates many of the other commercial holidays. (Valentine's Day, Xmas, Halloween, etc) ((Oh. They also did celebrate Pirate Day! Yarg!)) Each holiday offers its own set of games and activities. Some are more group oriented than others, but all of them inspire gaiety and fun with friends. So grab a pint and go get smashed! (Virtually of course. This blog does not support excessive drinking. :P )