Eve Offline. Did you see what I did there?
by sweep
The rewards we obtain from videogames are as varied as the games themselves. Mostly people play games as a test, and passing that test gives them a sense of achievement - the numerous achievement systems currently in operation are testament to this. The most challenging achievements require the highest amount of skill to complete - and the reward is all the greater as a result, the bragging rig...
The rewards we obtain from videogames are as varied as the games themselves.
Mostly people play games as a test, and passing that test gives them a sense of achievement - the numerous achievement systems currently in operation are testament to this. The most challenging achievements require the highest amount of skill to complete - and the reward is all the greater as a result, the bragging rights are relative to the difficulty of the challenge. So if we want to be geeky about it (we do) we can display this as a graph:
The more time you spend playing a game, the better the understanding of the game you have. Someone who plays Street Fighter 4 for 10 hours will be better than someone who plays for 2 hours. One would hope. Unfortunately not all games seem to stick to this pattern. Take Eve Online for example. The Graph for Eve would look like this:
The leveling process in Eve is such that anyone with enough time on their hands can level their character's skills indefinitely without actually playing the game. You can't increase your leveling speed by being a better player, and there is no sense of reward for simply waiting for the research time to complete. The game is therefore a hollow entity in which there is no sense of measured skill. The player is not graded on his abilities as a pilot, more on his availability to select skills from a menu and allow them to complete over a set period of time regardless of potential ability. As an MMO which charges you for the amount of time you can access it's content, the idea of such an indirect leveling process does not really sit right with me - especially when I don't even need to be logged into the fucking game to do so. It boils down to: the advancements of the player are directly affected by the amount of time he has been playing, but not by an increase in skill relative to that time. You can "play" the game for 3 months, upgrade all your skills to the max, and STILL be a fucking shit Eve player. 
To be fair the abilities of a pilot rely on his preparedness for each encounter, having the appropriate gear for the task at hand - which is governed by the skills he/she has learned. Having that appropriate gear there seems very little variation in the outcome of each mission. Considering the point-and-click nature of the game it doesn't really leave much room in which the player can express themselves as an individual. So yeah. Numbers.
In my search for a consistent sense of reward in my MMO's - i.e. a system in which I gained more understanding and become more skilled as a player relative to the time I put into the game (see graph 1) - I had a strange urge for Champions Online. I loaded up the game only to find their entire website down for maintenance and no way to renew my subscription. The urge passed. You missed your chance, Cryptic. IN OTHER NEWS
I continue to play Modern Warfare 2. I completely fucked up Wallacethegreat in a 1 VS 1 match where the end score was 12 kills to me and only 2 to him. I even nabbed him with an Airstrike, which was pretty impressive I thought...Working my way slowly through Mirrors Edge. I'm currently at a section which requires me to run through a room full of heavily armed guards and is absolutely zero fun. I load up the game, remember what mission i'm stuck on, close down the game. However there are parts which are completely fucking exhilarating and i'm going to persevere to make sure I appreciate them all fully. Being chased is fucking wonderful...
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep