It took a frustrating conversation with a rather reactionary friend about 4e digital tools that got me to recognize a few of my own personal shinys: dice, character sheets, and miniatures.
Don’t get me wrong, shinys are not necessarily bad things. Often there are perfectly good reasons why they inhabit the spaces they do, and they do have the benefit of creating investment in a game. In the next few weeks I’m going to make my case for dice, character sheets, and miniatures, but with an eye toward possible replacements.
During the development of 4e we were always on the lookout for new tools, or using old tools in new ways. Power cards, effect markers, and the entire digital suite of tools are the products of those efforts. We were always walking on the tightrope of preserving the feel of D&D and revolutionizing the tools (or being able to afford to revolutionize the tools). And while I am pleased as punch to have access to the Dungeons & Dragons Character Builder and the Adventure Tools (I’m a subscriber, and if you like these tools, you should be too), and I’m eagerly starting to use Masterplan (I’ve donated money, and if you like this program, you should too) I still don’t think we’ve really scratched the surface yet.
The problem is D&D (and many other RPGs) creates a fevered fan base, grasping to their shinys with a death grip. It’s been like that since the beginning. If you can, find yourself some early issues of Dragon magazine. The Out on a Limb reads like a rough draft of the internet.
Any dramatic changes in the game and some vocal members will rally the troops and let out a long-winded internet WTF both loudly and often. It’s just bound to happen. You have too many of them, then things get cluttered. By why does this happen? That investement thing. It’s a powerful hold. It’s something every game wants.
I recently quit FarmVille. I know, I know, I just lost some RPG-nerd cred just admiting I played it, but hear me out. Unless you’re living on the 15th level of Undermountain you know that the game industry is just abuzz with the gold rush of Facebook games (probably about a year too late). Hell, Jesse Schell made a topic of conversation at DICE 2010 (or rather the talked about what comes after it) and you can bet your collection of polyhedrals that you’ll see a bunch of games based on gaining points through the performing or reporting of life activity in the next year. Don’t believe me? One of my friends is so addicted to Yelp that he’s got top visits for half the restaurants in downtown Renton (and we have a good number of restaurants and pubs), and he eats like a rabbit. Trust me, he’s a forerunner. If you thought those little FarmVille updates were as annoying as hell, wait six months. You’ll know when you’re buddy’s taking a crap and how many points he gets for the “constitutional”.
It was hard for me to finally quit FarmVille. I was over 30th level. I had ivy-covered bastions guarding my farm, and a small number of special objects. Every morning I would get up, check my e-mail, and go farming. I did this for well over a month. I had a bunch of coins, I was adamantly against pay for cash (a secondary, harder-won currency for the game), but I’ll admit that I considered it once or twice in moments of weakness. I had become invested. Even as each morning’s routine was getting longer, and the game was becoming more and more annoying, I felt I had spent too much time to let it go. I had grown comfortable with the game. I fell into the logical trap of, “if my time is important, this game must be important based on the time I put into it.” Silly gamer.
But I did it. I pushed a button and nuked my farm. And it felt good…god help me, it felt really good. And then I had a profound sense of loss. Nothing like a million voices crying out in terror and then silenced sort of way, but in a character dying sort of way or a campaign ending sort of way. You know I wouldn’t admit it if it weren’t true.
How is FarmVille the same as any edition of D&D (or any RPG)? In its structure tends to keep you playing because of the time you put into it. It’s relatively friendly to beginners (read ‘just roll this’), and still challenging (read ‘uncertain’) to experts. WoW, Magic the Gathering, many miniatures games, and even some of the more successful indy board games share these traits. So does chess, poker, and the entirety of the city of Las Vegas. It’s the kind of structure that can cost a Bulgarian official his job. The kind of structure that makes you accept Tunnels & Trolls as the benchmark on what RPGs you stock.
How I felt during my last few days of playing FarmVille.
These games have investment momentum. The longer a player plays the less likely that player lays the game to rest. As for FarmVille, after a few levels, it becomes terribly dull. There’s a reason why few people want to be farmers anymore. But there were weeks between the time that I realized I was no longer enjoying FarmVille and the moment I actually nuked the site from orbit. Do I think FarmVille is a bad game? It’s hard to argue with success, even when that success is ultimately based on a proliferation and manipulation on obvious shinys. How about this — FarmVille is an MMORPG without all that annoying adventure and fun. It’s an elysian fields of shinys where dreams of one-upmanship and groovy barns haunt your dreams.
So how come there are so many people playing it? People like shiny and will put up with bad games that only provide an abundance of them. If FarmVille is any indication, more people like shinys more than they like games.
But I’ll get into that next time.
MTF
I am guilty of having played Mafia Wars. I pushed over the level 250. I stopped a week ago, after wondering what I was getting from this game. The answer was a big : not a thing.
It is a solitary experience, not that all of them are bad, but a game? Alone? And it was not the fact that some of your mafia members were people I actually knew that was going to change the fact that I was playing alone.
Plus the fact that in order to progress fast and steadily, you had to spend real money. I have never spend a dimeto buy virtual GP. Ever. And I don’t think I ever will. This is for me as for casino games : I hate to bet real stuff over pure randomness. And I am not comfortable with throwing a bucket of dice to decide the outcome of whatever I may want to do, be it climbing a slicky wall or throwing bolts at some pesky heretics.
But what really made me quit was the fact that I was basically pushing buttons in order to get a reward. Ever heard of a pavlovian reaction? Every day, more than once, check the energy gauge. Don’t forget to send energy packs to friends, so that they can send one back. Push the “do mission” button, push the “collect money” button, push the “fight” button, push the “spend your points” button, and so on… And what was the reward? A new and shiny level ! Heck, that was just the reason why I quit WoW : dull and lame, do the same everyday, repeating quests-raids-crafts.
I mean, life can be quite boring at times, with its own share of repetitions. I don’t quite see the point of doing just the same in games. Moreover without company.
Wow, FarmVille. Glad I turned off the notifications from all games like it. I had the same experience with Pirates, it just became a grind. And you had to recruit more people into your crew to advance.
I tried farmville and mafia wars myself when I started being on facebook, but I quickly stopped after one week or so. The main reason for me is that I found these games too much of a time sink and not rewarding enough in their game play. I have been hooked on WOW for around 2 years, and I am currently playing a lot of EVE online, including using my real money to buy plexes and get ISK (their virtual currency for this game). I stopped playing WoW when they released overpowered new classes in their extension, throwing away the balance of the existing ones to satisfy the power lust of a broader mass and get everyone and their sister to become a death knight, leading to boredom for me. So as i am prone to fall under the lure of games, why don’t I do it for farmwille? I think first and foremost games that only reward time spent for simplistic mechanic and pretty pixels on my screen do not cut it for me, but I also think that my subconscious is fighting against games that are too easily played during the course of the day… When i am playing games, which still is often, I am in playing game mode, and I do not like to switch off and on of that mode too quickly so the model of the facebook games really do not work too well for me because they are by nature calling me out during the other modes I have to be in during a day (like working mode or being with my family mode…).