by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 28, 2009
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
What's at the heart of the game-jumping common among MMO
gamers these days? Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg stands in for today's
Loading... and shares her perspective on why times such as these remind
her of the restlessness of many gamers during EverQuest's heyday. Are
gamers only in it to win it, or does the dream of an online community
still survive? Read on with Loading... When More is Not
Enough.
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"Biggest Movers today :
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2216"Important
Dates
(Thanks much to Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg for stepping in on Loading
today!)
Recent studies on
href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199409/addiction-whole-new-view">addiction show
that all animals--from birds to rodents to reptiles to humans--share
the same pleasure receptors within their brains. One conclusion is that
were all hardwired to seek more of the same when it comes to those
things that reward us with a pleasurable experience.
But,
conversely, we also seem to be hardwired to grow weary of the same ol
same. I dont have links to any scientific studies to bear this out,
but we humans know it to be true. We see plenty examples of how the
experiences that once brought us pleasure suddenly dont seem as
fulfilling as they were when they were new: drunks can become junkies,
once-loyal spouses can become philanderers, and people with a sweet
tooth can become compulsive overeaters.
You dont have to be
an addict to understand the basic human need for novelty; we gamers
know it all too well. Many, if not most of us, talk fondly of our first
MMO--it was our first high, so to speak. And while it was fun while it
lasted, weve been on the prowl for something to recreate that feeling
of newness, of discovering this pleasurable activity for the first
time, ever since.
Way back in the heyday of my EverQuest years
there was a segment of my guilds population we referred to as The Game
Jumpers. We gave them their own forum on our discussion board, and we
grew accustomed to their comings and goings. When one or more of these
guys vanished from EverQuest for a while, we knew it was because they
were out there experimenting with new MMOGs. And their stories always
played out the same. Game Hoppers X, Y and Z would leave for the
uncharted territory of the latest and greatest new game. Unless the
game completely sucked from the word go (and some of them, of course,
did), they would post glowing reports to the forum trying to woo us to
their new land. But The Game Hoppers always ended up back with the rest
of the guild in EverQuest before long, muttering about how that Big
Flashy New Game showed promise initially, but in the end just didnt
deliver the excitement they were craving. They blamed it on certain
mechanics or a general lack of substance.
It would be unfair to
say that the games since the days of EverQuest and Ultima Online have
lacked substance, though. In many ways, they delivered exactly what
gamers said they wanted--things like more solo-friendly content and
less downtime. And the MMOGs since EQ have introduced mechanics and
tools that we simply dont want to live without these days.
So,
why is it that developers are delivering more and more with each new
MMOG launched, and yet gamers seem less and less satisfied with them?
One quick spin around the Ten Ton Hammer forums reading comments is all
it takes for me to determine that the gamers of 2009 are a restless
lot. We watch intensely as a game ramps up for launch, and we hang our
hopes on a promise that this game could be The One--exactly the game
weve been looking for since we left that one aging game that converted
us to MMO gamers in the first place.
Ill venture my guess.
MMOGs have evolved as theyve become more mainstream to meet the
demands of gamers who have limited time to play and yet still want to
accomplish something each time they do. Its a necessary evolution, and
yet its led us away from the one thing that has given games like EQ
and UO longevity--community.
Lets face it, at the core of
every MMOG is one basic principal: repeat this action--whether it be
questing or killing monsters or cranking out crafted items--and youll
get a reward. Its the same principal underlying the mechanics of
pleasure--do this (eat chocolate, smoke a joint, drink a beer) and
youll feel good for a while. But over time, pleasure-seeking alone
only leads to ennui. You can push the same pleasure buttons over and
over, and yet enjoy the experience less and less.
None of us
wants to return to the dark ages of MMOGs where looking for a group
meant running around with an LFG tag over your head and hawking
yourself and your skills in /ooc. Few of us would be able to play a
MMOG that forced grouping or expected us to endure marathon gaming
sessions in order to accomplish anything. An EQ redo is not the answer
to the restlessness within the MMOG community--you only need to look to
solo- and casual-friendly World of Warcraft and its 12 million
subscribers to know thats true--but building community is. The next
big game for you, and for everyone else, is clearly going to be the
game in which you can engage in those pleasure-inducing activities
repeatedly and yet avoid the inevitable boredom because youre among
friends.
How can developers bring the massively back to
massively multi-player online games? How do you build community around
an innately repetitive game to make that repetition seem much more fun?
I dont pretend to have the answers. Maybe you do. Share your thoughts
and ideas in our Loading... forum.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion:
General Discussion Forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45786">Aion
Open Beta Announced!
Our
editors are deft and quick when it comes to publishing news as it
breaks, but every now and then our readers and community members are so
laser-focused on a game that they beat us to the punch. In this case,
new member purplehayes found evidence of open beta and headstart dates
for Aion on Twitter. Our own volunteer Aion Guru, Sepharious, confirmed
it, and...we're off!
Are you ready for Aion's open beta, headstart and launch? Want to talk
about it with other excited gamers?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45786">Jump
into the action on our forum.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Well it's about damn
time, them slackers!"
- RawGutts
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
New Coverage and Guides At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Features:
WorldGuides:
GoldGiveaways:
FallenHottest Content:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">BlizzConThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg and the Ten Ton Hammer team