Pretends to be Dumb; the average geek

I'm ba-ack!

I know, I know. Its been an obscene amount of time since the last update, but I don't have any good reason.

I wrote some mini-essays for things. Please take those and forgive me for not updating:

GRIEFING

I just finished reading an issue of Escapist Magazine (www.theescapistmagazine.com) that dealt with the topic of griefers. The topic was thoroughly analyzed and explored throughout the article, but it leaves one with the question, "What do you do about it?"

The magazine suggested in one article that players who grief could be red-flagged, making them targets for vigilantes. However, I think we can do better than that. I remember the first time I played Elder Scrolls III, I went into a shop and tried stealing stuff. I was declared a bad guy and suddenly everyone wanted to kill me. This leads me to the idea that a similar system could be adopted in MMORPGs where you have a griefer rating and people can mark you as a griefer. Once the rating becomes high enough, you might be declared WANTED and perhaps even, a bounty could be placed on your head. People could gain a lot from hunting you down for being a griefer. As your griefer rating increased, your bounty could possibly increase too. The justice system wouldn't have to break game and could even possibly become a large part of the game.

The most obvious problem I can see with this system though is that griefers might exploit this system and start randomly calling other people griefers with no real reason. To combat this, perhaps, a griefer would have to select from a list which type of griefing was done to them. Then the game could check and see if it was impossible for that to happen. (i.e. A player says a griefer has camped him. The game could check to see if there was ever a PVP encounter with them at all and who won to decide if that is valid.) Naturally, such a system would not be perfect but it could weed out some of the wrongful griefing claims.

Another problem that might not be such a big deal is that a group of players could exploit it for actual benefit. One player in a group might start griefing the other players with the intention of putting a bounty on his head. Then another player in the group could kill him and share the benefits with the other player. I don't really think this matters much, but it is something some people would want to consider.

-----

VALUE

A topic that always came to mind to me when I played games was value. I don't like it when I pay $50 for a game only to find that I couldn't get more than an hour into it due to insurmountable difficulty. When I pay full price for a game, I expect to be allowed to see all of the game regardless of my skill. It seems unfair that when I pay $50 for a game, I am only privy to 10% of the game.

I think this is a problem with MMORPGs too. MMORPGs are more expensive than normal games because there is the additional subscription fee beyond the initial price of the purchase.

But MMORPGs also do a lot to lock off people of lower skill. I've heard people mention it within this mailing list even. They talk about locking off content to lower level players as a way to help prevent quest vandalism and such. But it seems unfair as they're paying the same price as everyone else.

But I've hared some MMORPGs don't really start until you're at level XX (Usually 20). What if someone doesn't get to level 20 in the first month and then decides to quit? That person will have invested $65 into something that they didn't get to enjoy.

So I wonder now, do other people see this as a problem? Some games are designed around the idea of avoiding this type of thing (CoH and WoW) but why should some games require work before you can start enjoying them. That just isn't cool.

Do other people have anything to say on the subject?

-----

And also, bunches of stuff happened. For instance, I got a little doggy. Her name is Daisy. She is the sweetest little dachsund I've ever encountered. She's also totally bipolar. She is either hyper and she acts like a squishee with legs or she is sleepy and just wants to curl up in my arms or my lap or wherever she is. I love the little pup.

Also, recently, I went to Costa Rica for vacation. Nothing of interest happened. I just stayed at the resort and ate food. Most of the food was mediocre. I also stayed in my room alot playing Quake III on my laptop.

Then even more recently, I went to a Latin Convention with my school. It was... pretty boring. But in the end, I had fun. At the imrpomptu art thing, I drew a cool picture and also I met a cool person named Michelle. Then I just hung out with her for the rest of the day. We watched a lot of Homestarrunner. I love that website. (www.homestarrunner.com)

And tommorrow is Thangsgiving. I'm going to have two feasts because I am just that incredibly lucky. I know this is incredibly arrogant, but there are times that if I were not me, I'd envy me.

Personally, I find that type of arrogance to be funny when properly used for comedy. But thats a subject for another time. Perhaps, tomorrow! Also, I mark an end to gimmicks. They were impedimentious (I hope thats a word) to my ability to blog.

posted by the magnificent Cy "Brazanthr" Parker @ 11:10 PM

Bow down to my awesome-ness for I am nifty!