The Hornets' Nest

I seriously did not expect the hue and cry over my weekend posts. Many people delivered impassioned arguments about why there is such a thing as pay-to-win—or at least pay-to-make-someone-else-lose—and the ability to change classes is the Devil's doctrine. I'll make a few more comments and then let you guys duke it out in the comments if you so choose. You probably won't like what I have say.

Trivial Pursuits

That's what I think is really behind the cry of P2W. The awareness that the game is trivializing something I like to do.
~Arcadius

Arcadius has a point, and I certainly have railed against games that trivialize my preferred playstyle myself. The truth is that the way I play is trivial, and the way you play is trivial. and the way sports fans watch football all weekend is also trivial—to anyone not involved in it. While I thoroughly believe that recreation and hobbies are important for health and other benefits, the specific way people spend their leisure time is trivial to everyone else. Because the rest of us don't care. The only person in the debate that managed to express anything close to a legitimate argument was Balkoth regarding his top-end raid group. And sorry to say, but he provided his own evidence as to why top end raiders are just as trivial a market segment as any other special interest group in MMOs.

The funny thing is, the insta-90s are coming, is it that hard to imagine the opportunity to skip right to raid-ready status (for a fee)? No one—at least at Blizzard—is talking about selling top-end gear for RL cash.

Is Nothing Sacred?

Meanwhile, what Syl calls the Last Bastion of Character Restriction is showing early signs of crumbling. Allod's has started offering the chance to switch character class (for a fee). Upon hearing that some of us approve, the naysayers said nay.

Now a while back, when they introduced the ability to change race, faction, etc., I remember the folks at Blizzard saying basically that changing class was beyond their technical capability. I don't know if that is really the case any longer, if a bit complicated. Of course, the conversation seems to have shifted over at Syl's blog, from what I understood to be a fairly permanent change in class, to a more fluid, switch at will kind of class swapping, akin to the weapon swapping of TSW, or the multiple professions of FFXIV.

As a “player,” I'm primarily the facilitator and observer of my characters. They tell me what they want to do and I help them to do it. It needs to be consistent with their worldview from a perspective that stands within the culture of the virtual world in which they exist. (This is not role-playing, by the way).
~Bhagpuss, over on Syl's post.

Only for a certain definition of role-playing, Sir Bhagpuss. I have never heard anyone express their relationship to their characters this way before. Syl countered by declaring that she is her character, it is an avatar, and better to be able to multi-class than to hop alts on a whim. I am somewhere between, I personally love my alts, but I wonder if I would have developed into an altoholic if not for certain game mechanics in WoW, namely classes and rested XP.

Don't get me wrong, I would love for there to be a valid in-game reasoning for such a change. I came up with head-canon for why my Shadow Priest switched to Discipline, even though the in-game reasoning was flimsy at best, and instantaneous.

Over on his own blog, Klepsacovic expounds on why he doesn't think class swapping is a good idea, but much like the anti-P2W crowd, he decides that his personal feelings should dictate what is or is not available to the rest of us. I responded thus:

I'm with you, changing classes doesn't make sense for us. I couldn't imagine Rowanblaze as anything other than a Human Priest. I bet changing the race or faction of Kelpsacovic doesn't make any sense to you either. But the option is available for those players who are interested in changing faction or race. This would be the same thing. An option. A reformed warlock who took some time out to study the arcane. A warrior who felt the call of the light—or the shadow—set down the sword and board for vestments and staff. And aren't deathknights, at least from a lore perspective, converted from many other classes? There are plenty of RP justifications for changing class. If other players have the option to change the class of their character, how does that really, honestly, affect you?

In the end, players may rage all they want on the forum and the blogs, but if the game companies see an unfulfilled demand that they can monetize, you can bet they will do so.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Social Mobility, or, No Class

The MMO Gypsy has a post up about instant class switching—specifically in WoW, I think. I'm not sure from her tone whether Syl thinks it would be a good idea or not. She refers to an earlier post by Tesh regarding a move by the folks behind Allods to implement such a class switching scheme, though it seems extremely limited. [Late Breaking EDIT: Kleps has a counterpoint to Syl's post (and this one).]

When Blizzard first introduced dual specs, I didn't like the idea. I thought it was catering to PvPers who wanted to have their cake and eat the PvE Raid, too. But once it was implemented, I went ahead and got it for two of my characters, with varying degrees of success. All too often at the time, switching specs also meant different gear stats became important. For instance, spell crit was very important for my Disco Priest because of various crit procs. Switching to Holy meant spell haste was more important. But I didn't have the time or interest to develop another set of gear. I suspect hybrid classes like Druid and Paladins had it even worse.

Once I started playing Star Trek Online, the cry for dual specs came out once again, or at least multiple skill tree options. I advocated for the specialization of characters, though I was not averse to the relative ease of respec'ing. Part of my argument was a reference to Blizzard's approach to specialization.

But just because the Elephant and its predecessors forced specialization on players doesn't mean it was written in stone from on high. This blog is, if anything, a record of how my opinions have changed over the past few years. No need to cling to foolish consistencies. More recently, I railed against class/race restrictions in the upcoming Wildstar. SWTOR's class/race restrictions chafed a bit before that. I welcomed WoW's expansion of class/race combinations, and the fact that Blizzard came up with reasons for it within the lore.

Rift, while maintaining the four RPG archetypes(Callings), allows for instant switching of Souls and roles. With the upcoming expansion—maybe sooner—every Calling will have Souls to fill every role.

And finally we come to my current games. EverQuest II, a relic of the golden age of MMOs still has classes, but having just introduced paid-for 85s, what's to stop SOE from allowing complete class switcheroos, for a price? EverQuest Next promises to do away with designated Tanks, if not Healers. I have no idea what Zenimax has in mind for The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Secret World is a classless game. A character can develop the skills for any weapon in the game, and their abilities and role are tied to the weapon instead of the character. For all intents and purposes a player can "switch classes" at any time. Gear, in the form of talismans, is still specialized, and I carry multiple sets in order to be effective in the various roles. The standard way to unlock the skills and abilities is by applying XP earned through playing, but boosts are available in the cash shop. Is that any different than the proposal to level up a character as one class, then pay to switch?

I wrote a while back about character backstories and how class could play into that. Of course, it may not be essential, since my characters' backstories in TSW involve professions only peripherally related to their preferred weapons. At the same time, the RP community in TSW is as robust as any I've seen in a game; perhaps better than most.

The goal of every MMO developer is to maximize the number of people paying to play their game, regardless of their business model. Separating players from their friends for whatever reason is antithetical to that goal. If the group has too many of one class/role and not enough of another, why not make it reasonably easy to change the character imbalance without changing the player composition?

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If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

What Is Pay to Win?

Tobold wrote the other day about the Pay to Win Scale. And while he handily skewers the use of P2W as an excuse, I kind of wonder where the idea comes from in the context of PvE centric MMOs. I conducted a survey about cash shops a while back that included the option of high-level items, and most respondents wouldn't just not buy the stuff, they wouldn't play games that included such items.

In a PvP scenario, this attitude might make slightly more sense, but it runs up against the time vs. money vs. skill conundrum. As Tobold pointed out, players of sufficient skill often have little need for P2W items. And people with P2W items often don't have the skills they need to actually prevail.

In a PvE scenario, particularly in the case of persistent-world MMOs, what is the win condition? Complete Best-in-Slot gear? That will be reset with the next patch, if not the next expansion. Bragging rights? Only a select few even care what you're wearing. All the gear in the world won't help you learn not to stand in the poo.

At the time I conducted that poll, I agreed with the sentiment against such things. But now, I've decided I don't really care. A game that's won is a game that's over. Since MMOs are never really "over" (even if they get shut down), then they can't really be won. Therefore, why should I care if someone wants to spend their money on some awesome sword of awesomeness. How does it affect the way I play my game?

Without a true win condition, how can you have Pay-to-Win? It is more often than not pay-to-catch-up. Take shortcuts like an instant high-level character so people can play with their friends or skip content that caused them to leave the game before. Does it hurt you if someone else didn't "pay their dues"? Does it somehow cheapen the time you've spent getting there? Psst, I have a secret: You're not a world-class MMO player. If you are, I am shocked that you're reading this blog, and I'm guessing you don't really care if someone bought themselves an über character. Because, frankly, they'll never be as good a player as you.

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If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Beyond the Veil Is Back!

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, the BtV crew reunited last night in our first episode of the new year, the 73rd of the show. We have outlasted some heavy hitters with quite a bit of financial backing, perhaps because this is a labor of love for a game that deserves it. None of us are going to get rich playing and talking about The Secret World, well, monetarily at least.

But more than any other MMO I have played, TSW is about community. Players regularly organize to assist each other in taking down epic world bosses, some of whom require coordination just to summon into the world. Top players work with relative newbies (and not just their friends) to guide them through the most difficult content in the game. I have never seen a game where the top devs interact so directly with the players. Perhaps it is the position I am in as a member of a talk show, but folks like Tilty, Joel Bylos, Sezmra, and Scrivnomancer are frequently seen in game. When was the last time you saw the lead writer or lead designer walking around the player hubs or playing a fan created mission/quest in WoW or SWTOR?

And Beyond the Veil is about community, a group of people who were gathered together by Xander Hayes and Antida Ayel to share our experience and enthusiasm for the game. They both do so much; and while I feel I contribute, I feel sometimes that I have let them down as my ADDled, yet perfectionist, mind flits from one interest to another, leaving half-done projects in my wake. I can tell you already that Xander would deny that I have ever let him down; but that feeling remains.

So here's to another exciting year for Beyond the Veil. I'll link last night's show as soon as I am aware it's been posted.

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If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Tokenism

If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements.
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Well, I've procrastinated enough this morning, and my extra hour for writing has frittered down to less than half. Unlike Belghast, I don't suffer from insomnia (normally a good thing), so I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I was up and dressed and when down to the dining area to get breakfast fairly early. Amusingly, I even saw a coworker who had clearly just tumbled out of bed to grab some coffee. Unfortunately, none of that has really brought me any closer to a topic.

Bad Luck Tokens

Belghast brought up a topic near to my gamer's heart this morning: the vagaries of RNG as a method for getting gear. He and a friend came up with the idea for "Bad Luck Tokens" that players might receive if they don't get any drops in a dungeon or raid. Accumulating several of these tokens would enable the player to buy gear from a special vendor, maybe not Best-in-Slot, but certainly noteworthy. I immediately thought of the various tiers of tokens folks get for heroics every day in WoW (or at least they did during WotLK).

Balkoth and I had a lively discussion a few months ago about this very topic, and ended up basically agreeing to disagree. You may guess what side of the argument I was on. While RNG has its place, the laws of probability will always leave a certain number of players out in the cold, so to speak. But too many people fail to realize it, because many more players eventually get the desired item—or something better that comes out in the next patch.

Anyway, gotta run. There are computer networks to put together today. I hope everyone has a good one.