MechScape Post #29 - 19 September 2009, Editorial: Competitiveness in MMORPGs and Real Life Options

[mike470]

Issue #29 - 19 September 2009

Competitiveness in MMORPGs and Real Life
Written by Simba

My name is Simba, and I’m the writer of the following article on the topic of how competitiveness may affect the gameplay of MechScape, and how it might work.

Competitiveness. We’re all familiar with it, and to some extent or other, we all experience and feel it in the online games we play, at school, at work, and in a whole multitude of other places. But why do we feel the competitive drive? How can it affect both us and those around us?

We feel competitive because of our instincts and how we evolved, most scientists believe. A lack of competitive desire in times gone by would have no doubt resulted in food being lost, mates being lost, territories and homes being lost. It’s not simply a human concept – just consider all the animals living around you. Most people with two or more pets will know that often one of the pets ends up trying to take more than its fair share of the food – happily muscling out the more submissive pets in its goal. It’s not merely an animal phenomenon however; even trees and plants compete for light and nutrients to survive.

Humans with very competitive instincts and a genuine desire and drive to succeed often do better in life than those who are not so blessed. Those who compete are more likely to catch their boss’ eye to receive a promotion, or are more likely to score higher on tests than their classmates. From this we can see that competitiveness is clearly a very important factor in real life. But what about when we move from the real world to online gaming?

Some of my very earliest RuneScape memories are competitive ones. I remember having a competition with a friend I had back then to get 85 mining. And in the same vein (of ore, maybe? tongue.gif ), I remember all of the people at the East Varrock mine that I had to compete against for those three or four measly iron rocks – if I couldn’t click quickly enough, I wasn’t getting the ore. I also remember looking at the high scores and seeing Tks at the top, feeling a great desire to be there myself. I’m very competitive by nature, and RuneScape would certainly not be an exception to that for me.

There’s a slight problem there though when it comes to MechScape. Jagex have confirmed that MechScape’s players will not be able to level up – something I’ve never seen before in an MMORPG, and I have played dozens of them at some point or other. But what will that mean for a player’s competitive urges when it comes to MechScape? They will no longer be able to level up and progress through high scores to become the best.

Personally, as soon as I found this out, my heart sunk. I wouldn’t be able to level up and grind to become the best? What a disappointment. But maybe not all hope is lost. I fully trust and expect Jagex to provide at least something for the competitive players amongst us – but what exactly I’m not quite sure. A gold/money high score table could be provided, but this would go against Jagex’s morals according to the latest question and answer article published (10th September 2009). It seems incredibly unlikely though that Jagex would not provide some sort of means for you to compare yourself to other players; if they didn’t, the game simply would be a lot less appealing to those of us who like to play with a solid, competitive goal in our minds such as “reaching the top 100”. Sure, there are perhaps a few players who feel no competitive urge whatsoever, but this would definitely be the minority group. Even if it’s just for friendly competition and fun between friends, pretty much everyone I know likes to compete in some way or other.

A small part of me however is hoping that MechScape turns out to be friendlier and less competitive. Being too competitive can have a detrimental effect on those around us – just think of all the people mining rune ore under the Heroes’ Guild. Two measly rocks per world shared between tens of miners hopping between worlds at any one given time. You could liken it to people scrapping for food in a nuclear winter. Not only is this a negative situation objectively (too many players for too few rocks), but players don’t help by cursing and getting angry at the others who are mining with them. Some of the worst swearing I’ve ever seen in RuneScape has taken place because “he stole my ore!” and similar nonsense.

Around two weeks ago I began playing another game called Amaranthine. Amaranthine is a simple, text-based game with a very small active player base (maybe 500-1,000 players) but the community is fantastic. Never before in my entire life have I come across a group of people so wonderful as these. Amaranthine has full support for clans; you can share houses and farms, there are guild storerooms, dedicated forums for every guild, and a few other nice features. What struck me as strange was that when I first logged on and asked the typical “Hey, I’m new, where should I start?” question, I wasn’t thrown down as I would have been in RuneScape or most other MMORPGs. A lady began to send me private messages and eventually invited me to join her clan. Another person gave me a lot of free equipment to get me started.

I was shocked at what was going on at first when I joined her clan. The fisherman was fishing purely so the cook had food to cook. The cook was cooking simply so the fighter had food to eat during combat. The fighter was donating all of his loot to the guild storage to be used by other people in other skills. Everyone was helping each other out, and the atmosphere was brilliant. There was no selfishness at all. No one was competing against each other or being uncaring in any way. Even between clans people were being very friendly and helping each other out – my clan leader actually tends to the farms of another clan as well as some of our farms.

I stopped for a moment just to consider what was going on, then my thoughts turned back to RuneScape and MechScape. If people were to take the approach of Amaranthine’s players and apply it in RuneScape and MechScape, the games would be a much nicer and happier place to be in for the most part. In a perfect world…

So what have I learnt from my journey so far? I feel that competitiveness is not an essential aspect of life in an ideal world, but this is only the case if everyone is willing to be completely fair, to share, and to help each other out. As soon as people start to become selfish and hurting others simply to advance their own goals, society breaks down and we lose the serenity of a game, a website, or a world without these problems. Would this not be a better place? What do you think?

I’ll leave with a few lines of a poem I wrote that was recently published:

Human nature,
Animal instinct,
The single desire to survive,
Transcend it.

I hope that you have found this article thought provoking and interesting to read. Thank you very much for your time.

MechScape and Community News


Henrique Olifiers' New Job
Henrique Olifiers is no longer listed as working for Jagex in the official credits. He mentions a new job in a tweet but it is unclear whether this is for a new company or a research role at Jagex alluded to elsewhere.
(Read more)

Previous Issues:
MechScape Post #28: Jagex's Technology Capabilities
MechScape Post #27: A Mech Called Murrie
MechScape Post #26: Solo Play Versus Team Play In MechScape
MechScape Post #25: MechScape and the 4X Genre
MechScape Post #24: MechScape and its future competition
MechScape Post #23: Jagex's use of Social Networking Sites
MechScape Post #22: Basics of the Four Playable Species
MechScape Post #21: The Mecherican Dream
MechScape Post #20: Desert City Art Review and New Beginnings Review
MechScape Post #19: Cultural Differences: How they might affect MechScape
MechScape Post #18: The Economy of an MMORPG



Footnotes
Contributors: Ren (Content Research Team); Max, mike470, Simba (Writing & Editing Team).
Disclaimer: The views expressed by members of staff do not necessarily represent the view of MechScape World.

[Dracul]

was a good read, good job simba, and i agree with the competitiveness.

Though, i think ultimately, how humans interact with eachother in a game all depends on the nature of a game.

[Flatypus]

I think that the game's players will be similar to how they were in Amaranthine for you at first, but depending on the game's setup, that kind of attitude towards other players could disappear after a certain amount of players join. I think we did see some kind of hi-score system though. Remember that screenshot of a person right-clicking on somebody in the Stellar Dawn game mode? It said "Rank: __" instead of level. That could be Jagex's way of showing how experienced a player is.

[TechnoBulldog]

Interesting... Enjoyed reading this! We can hope that they MS community will be as friendly as the game you described was (by the way, I might be trying it...). Even though there will not be grinding, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of competition still. I do look forward to it, as I am somewhat competitive.

[Spam]

Im having mixed feelings about competiviness. It gives you somthing to strive for, but then again it causes many enimies of eachother and you want everyone to not hate eachother right? But i am just tired of their "soons" i just want a straight beta date. Or at least a few in game pics to get me exited.

[Trunkzta]

I hope it doesn't reach WoW in the level of competitiveness. Then the game would become more of a i must do this instead of actually enjoying it.

[Pliigi]

Great article. It will be very interesting to see if Jagex can make a competitive game without skills.

[ReXgor]

Very good post. I never really thought of it that way.

It's like saying... Why do you play RuneScape?

I mean it's not exactly extremely fun at least in my opinion... The most common reasons are

#1. To be the top on the high scores

or

#2. Boredom

If you think about it, RuneScape has no fun elements at all. I think it lacks a lot of it. If you think about it every skill is very boring people just do it for the in-game cash. Then once they get the in-game cash they spend it on a useless rare item and show it off, or they go buy items to help them continue train.

RuneScape lacks npc to player content. If you don't know what I mean continue reading below...

Do you remember when JaGex released Varrock's makeover? I loved the npc to player interaction that went on there. I loved the newspaper in Varrock, and I think it'd be great if JaGex actually updated. Another thing was the cowering dogs. They'd follow you, you could click on them, they'd run off... I mean simple small stuff...

One thing I really enjoyed also were the gnomecopters. Great way to have some quick adventures around RuneScape, and showed the free players what RuneScape was like. I remember being a free player and always being so curious of what all the member content looked like and what it was like.

Another thing I found quite enjoyable were the signposts positioned all over RuneScape. They'd tell you how basic statistics such as how many times the guards near varrock castle were pickpocketed that day. Once again small and enjoyable.

Another thing that would be good is if we could lie down in the grass or sit at benches.

How about if in varrock local barbarians could raid the varrock store at a random time every week... The fellow players would help defeat them, and maybe instead of losing in case you got owned by a barbarian what if you just fainted and would get back up? After the barbarians would be defeated, the shop owner could pay each player an amount of coins based on there damage ratio. Say 10 coins to every 1 damage made.


In another words trying to make RuneScape into a virtual hangout and adventure...

I remember being a noob and just getting the path from Lumbridge and just following it curiously. I also rememember the sweet music I heard as soon as I began playing. I'll never forget the character customization, and walking outside of the house I was in... I'll never forget ending up in Lumbridge and seeing people chop a tree near the lumbridge store. RuneScape looked so massive and amazing. They were good days...

It'd be great if instead of MechScape being you other average "click to advance" MMO and maybe becoming something funner.

This post has been edited by ReXgor: Sep 20 2009, 11:20 PM

[EddieFebruary]

Interesting article. Perhaps we will end up competing over who can become the most co-operative...

[Orbie]

Very interesting article. What you found in Amarathine is common in smaller games, such as that. A small community tends to be extremely friendly and welcoming to newcomers, whereas larger communities - like RuneScape or WoW - tend towards the opposite. In a mostly text based game I've discovered called the Kingdom of Loathing, I've had much the same experience. Whenever I ask a question about how to defeat a Boss or solve a puzzle, I'm immediately bombarded with helpful items and buffs.

It makes me warm and fuzzy inside =3. I like to have the balance of an epic, impersonal game like RS and a small, personal game like KoL. It keeps me happy.

[Partisan]

In a small community, we have what we call tribalism, where everybody knows everybody....who's the leader, who's the right-hand, who's the cook, fisherman, village idiot, etc. etc. be an asshole and everyone will know it ---> get 100% of people on the game to hate you ----> Shitty game experience. So it's natural for anyone that picks up the game to blend in or die

[PlasmaBall1]

Where can I find this "Amaranthine" game?