Noobing Along in MMOs - Too Easy Can Make It Hard

The real issue is that the game throws you all over the place, speeds you through everything, and never teaches you a damn thing.
via thegrumpyelf.blogspot.sg

While the Grumpy Elf is talking about WoW here, I find it applies just as much to Forsaken World. Levelling has become so fast at low levels, and even faster with 'mentor' stuff that PWE has put in. With 'mentor' stuff, highbies are rewarded for running lowbies through instances and stuff. If you're a real newbie, and if you take advantage of all the mentor things available - you'll probably have real trouble learning to play your class properly and effectively.

This is exacerbated by the fact that most highbies don't actually WANT to mentor. They just want to get their rewards at the end. This is based on the newbies feeling like what they've asked for has been accomplished - and it usually works. The instance gets run, the goals get finished, the newbies get gear. But do the mentors TEACH? Rarely, from what I've seen. Nor do the newbies expect actual imparting of knowledge vs imparting of quest completion and gear. This is no way to learn.

And so, both parties go on their way 'satisfied', but I'd say the real newbies are hardly ever well-served.

FW's instances are decently challenging as far as Dance-Dance-Revolution games go *if attempted at the proper level, with that level of gearing*. They remind me a lot of vanilla WoW, without anything quite as innovative as Dire Maul Coffer Runs. However, mentoring just turns the whole instance setup upside down, since as a newbies, you're basically just standing to the side looking pretty while the high levels gank everything.

If you're a high level and for some reason you've never done this content at the level of er... level and gear it was designed for, you, too - have never learned the skills and the lessons taught in the content.

And some of these skills you're expected to know later on, in level cap dungeons.

It's a vicious cycle. O.o

That being said, the whole mentor thing is wonderful for more experienced players who just want to level alts fast for whatever reason...

For these players, the learning curve is much easier if you've already played one talent tree of a class, no matter how different the talent trees (possible exception, switching from DPS to healing). But if you're totally new to the game... Oh dear.

Yes, spec work is exploitative - but why are these videos and messages always directed at designers?

Getting back in contact with an old friend in Eastern Europe has made me realise some of the things that designers in the UK/US/ANZ and much of Asia take for granted.

To many designers in these areas, yeah, sure, the video above makes perfect sense.

All fine and good until you're already working 2-3 jobs, and you're doing spec work on the side because winning it is like winning a mini lottery for you and the people you love.

I'm not arguing that spec work isn't exploitative - it is. But if you consider an economic situation like the one above... it's much harder to turn around and wave that admonishing finger at designers, saying they shouldn't do spec work. Bad. BAD! And the further tarring of all designers who do spec-work as hacks doesn't help.

Why not, instead, create videos that emphasize that companies should not do this, and that they should always pay a fair rate? Or is that just a dream?

Or to frame it another way, is the answer: Men are men, if you dress provocatively, it's your own fault! ;)

I'm not sure this writer understands the purpose and function of wireframes.

Wouldn't it be nice to create prettier, more detailed versions of wireframes that can include all sorts of fancy icons, buttons and placeholders? With the Layout Lab's Web + Mobile UI PSD Bundle, you can do exactly that. Even better, you can work right in Photoshop.
via mightydeals.com

And in answer? No, no I would not like prettier, more detailed wireframes with fancy icons and whatever else prettified is in there.

Where I'm concerned, as long as information is conveyed clearly, the uglier and more unpolished-looking the better when it comes to wireframes. ._.

Forsaken World: WTB Some Decent Standalone Pants for Girlies

While some folks may like it, I find bard armor to be way too over the top for me. I mean I'm all for bishonen and luxury and flounce but this... this isn't just a matter of too much, it's also too ugly. Lol.

Male Bard High Level Armor:

Thankfully, FW has recently implemented Soul Leaves - bound cash shop currency that autobinds all items you buy to you. Unfortunately, the 'low hanging fruit' in terms of earning that only gives you 80 leaves. Basically, enough for a pair of pants. Or shoes.

Still, for my boy bard, that was wonderful! I was able to turn him into this

 While his shirt is still that particular shade of dirty grey devs like to use as a hint to tell you to COVER IT UP.. he's passable.

Unfortunately, girl bards aren't so lucky.

Female Bard High Level Armor:

Unlike boy bards, who are spoilt for choice when it comes to pants... There are precisely 3 pairs of pants for girls, and the one shown below is the best of the three:

As you can see, compared with the jeans my boy bard is wearing above... they look kinda... unifinished. I mean they're nicely textured and all, but they NEED boots at least in order to look 'finished'. The other two pairs of pants look even worse, and everything else is either a) panties b) skirts that are glorified panties with trains, and c) skirts that are so short they're basically panties.

Now, I have no problem with all these panty-skirt variants. I just wish that girl bards were able to get the same effect as boy bards by spending the same amount of currency. But alas, there's no such option.

This is Charles Carreon's Wife, Tara. Um. Wow.

These phaggotish, conspiratorial, childish, dorkish, baseless, mindless, shameful, dumb, aggressive, jealous, reprobate, obsessed, mad, clueless, shockingly delusional, completely lost and in trouble, bottom-of-the-barrel, short-sighted, dumb-fuck, ranting, Un-American, contemptible, obnoxious, embarrassing, incompetent, bizarre, constipated, bankrupt, hypocritical, stupid, fearful, carnivorous, wolverine, ranting, foaming at the mouth, bullying, lying, paranoid, no-better-than-the-mafia, smeghead, scumbag, cretinous, lazy, delusional, demented, narcissistic, pathological, extortionistic lunatic, thuggish drama-whores, poised on the edge of a precipice, hoisted by their own petard, their holy fucking shitballs burning inside a biplane careening toward the Statue of Liberty, rhinos raping chinchillas dressed up in unicorns' undergarments, who deserve every bad thing that happens to them, having to learn their lessons the hard way, and who I wouldn't even piss on if they were on fire (they believe in name-calling at TechDirt) claim that these types of statements are not actionable because they aren't "false facts," just "satire." Where is the dividing line?
via arstechnica.com

Who's Charles Carreon? The guy who's sueing the Oatmeal, the National Wildlife Federation (American), the American Cancer society, Indiegogo, and at this rate, the Internet.

What? Someone is sueing the Oatmeal?

Yar, and the interwebs care. A lotz.

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/fundraiser_update

Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend | Click to Respawn

So let's get back to the fucking. Fuck fuck fuck. I've waited for this game for over five years now. It was announced in March 2007, and, being an avid Guild Wars fan, I have been really excited for it since day one. Five years. I'm only twenty-five. That's a fifth of my entire life. I felt safe, though. Everything I'd read in the media gushed over every facet of the game, so I knew it would be an amazing, sweep-me-off-my-feet-then-pin-me-down-and-penetrate-me-violently kind of experience. I knew it. Well, my feet remain planted and my asshole decidedly empty.
via clicktorespawn.com

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

...ok sorry, I feel a little less bitter, lonely and betrayed now. ;)

Forsaken World: Psychology + Framing + Virtual Economy = PROFIT!!!!!111!!1

So I've written a couple of posts about Forsaken World's economy. Here's where I explain how currency is gated, and how much things are worth in USD, and here's where where I talk about how PWE has elegantly solved the 'gold faucet' problem that's plagued the genre since MU* days. This post has more details on how the core Pay-2-Win stats are tied to the game's economy and currency.

Since I wrote those posts, PWE has made some brilliant adjustments to the entire game economy that I'm willing to bet a month's salary ;) has boosted their profit appreciably, and possibly massively.

It's also led to this being the first time I've seen a virtual economy model the RL problem where the rich get richer, and the poor, poorer.

Best of all, these adjustments are so Machiavellianly (lol word?) brilliant that, instead of causing players to blame PWE for these changes that benefit the few at the cost of the many, PWE has cleverly framed it so that players blame EACH OTHER. Not PWE. Not the instigators and architects of the changes who stand to gain the most.

People were blaming each other, calling each other greedy, having occasional (it's died down a lot now, 6 months later) rages on World Chat about how avaricious other players were. And not a single time, not in a forum post, not in world chat, not in local chat - NOWHERE have I seen anyone point out why and how PWE is at the heart of this change - not mercenary, greedy players who 'overspend' in the CS and then 'lord it over everyone else'. ;)

Such brilliant framing and manipulation of psychology cannot go unsung!

Sing it here, in all its glorious goldenness, I shall!

 

The Back Story
Before PWE 'tweaked' the economy (about 8 months or so ago), people could only convert a maximum of 5 Mercury Statuettes to gold, per day, per character, via a quest - and (iirc) how many times you could do this was also linked to your level.

For purposes of clarity, I will do a direct conversion from gold to USD. This is NOT how PWE does it, PWE gates you through 4 different currencies, and if you're not from the US, you can count that as 5, because you have to think about it in your own currency as well.

This means that people could only gain a maximum of 25g (US$2.50) a day on average per character via direct gold conversion.

This in turn meant that 'whales' would buy Mercury Statuettes in the hundreds from the cash shop, and then vendor them to other players for anywhere from 3g50s to 4g. The reason for this (if you didn't read / don't remember my previous posts) price range is: If you buy a Mercury Statuette from the Cash Shop (US$0.50) and sell it to a specialised in-game NPC, the NPC will give you 3g (US$0.30). If you do daily quests x 5, you'll get anywhere from 4g80s (US$0.48) to 6g (US$0.60) per Statuette+quest.

Whales were thus buying wholesale, then selling to minnows and plankton, because it was the fastest and most profitable way for them to get a lot of gold within a single day.

Of course, this meant that the only people seriously spending in the Cash Shop were the whales.

The minnows (small spenders, say... US$15 a month...) were only spending the bare minimum, and might not even be spending that much a month, because they had no incentive to do so. Because *in general*, unless they were looking for a large chunk of change NOW for a big purchase - say a mount, or a skill scroll - they could slowly build up their cash via Statuettes bought from the whales. Not much reason to purchase anything from PWE, other than impulse.

The plankton (truly free players) were obviously spending nothing! Because if they were willing to sloooowly increase their cash via Mercury Statuettes bought in-game from whales, and playing longer / smarter / etc... they had absolutely no reason to buy from PWE at all. Patience and buying stuff from whales was always cheaper than buying from PWE. And of course, buying from whales costs no RL cash.

 

The Change
PWE studied the situation, doubtless came up with a much more nuanced analysis than I gave above. They then quietly, strategically, and subtly changed one thing - with a ripple effect that I'm pretty freaking sure boosted their profits immensely.

They made it so people can now convert 25 Mercury Statuettes a day, rather than just 5.

 

The Results
Statue prices shot up from 3g50s to 4g75s minimum. 4g60s you can get... if you find a special whale to do a special deal with.

This was met with an initial massive outcry from the plankton and some minnows... not against PWE, but against the whales. GREEDY WHALES! OMG U PPL! SO GREDY. NO1 WILL BUY UR STATS! OMG! etc etc blah blah. This particular noisy state of affairs lasted for at least 2 months, but now, 10 months later, it's a non-issue.

4g75s. Suck it up, or buy your own from the cash shop.

And not once, not anywhere, in-game or out of it, did I see players blaming PWE, instead of each other, for the price increases. Simply brilliant.

 

But Wai Nuggeet, Wai Brilliant?
Because in one fell swoop, PWE:

Made whales happier by giving them a way to get more personal profit when buying from PWE, thereby giving them even more incentives to buy directly from PWE.

Converted some plankton to minnows.
You see, with this change, and the corresponding hike in prices, it's no longer viable to try to get your cash via Statuette quests if you're a plankton. Minnows with a nice little nest egg (which I was), and whales (should they choose to buy from other whales) weren't all that hard hit by the change.

In truth, both whales and minnows benefited - the changes made it possible for them to trade in bulk. So if you had enough gold on hand (minimum 1Diamond - US$10), you could invest, buy at least 25 statues a day, and either not be affected by the price hikes, or else, get even more back - since more statues can be converted.

If not - then as plankton, you'd be best served by *buying* US$10 worth of statues from PWE as your starting capital. And, you know, it's almost never 'just a this time' after you make that first purchase.

Made sure being a plankton was a lot less attractive, and a minnow a lot more so.
No capital to make the initial purchase, and can only buy one or two Statuettes at a time? Tough luck, suck it up, peasant. ;) Watch 'everyone' getting richer while you get poorer.

Acquired a lot more paying customers, and changed their economy to encourage paying customers from the ground up - without alienating their existing customers, whether plankton, minnows, or whales. There was no community perception of PWE as the greedy one, and certainly no hostility. Some, in fact, widely viewed this move as doing 'everyone' a favour.

 

Ahhh PWE... if you can't grow up to be good, you may as well grow up to be good at being evil. ;)

 

F2P Pricing Models & Preying on Decision Fatigue - NYT via NorthTemple

“Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.”
via northtemple.com

Yes, yes, not all F2P models are evil.

But of those that are (even the amazingly beautiful luscious evil that is PWE's Forsaken World), I suspect a lot of them depend on decision fatigue pushing people to buy impulsively without calculating the costs, whether in-game or in actual cash.

It would also explain why I simply can't understand some of the Auction House prices in Forsaken World - where I've seen people selling stuff for half of what it's worth in actual currency, if you were to convert actual to FW's currency.

...people are tired, impulsive, don't want to do the math (gated through 4 currencies), and they want money NAO. So they buy a high-priced item and undersell it, because they honestly don't know it's worth / are too tired to think through its conversion.

I have personally worked out these numbers for some in-game acquaintances when telling them to buy/sell higher/lower, and they simply don't want to listen. That's too much work! Games should be fun! Let me spend my moneh how I want! Fairynuff.

I don't mean to imply I'm immune to this too. In FW, converting currencies (through all 4 gates) has become second nature for me. But in the other PWE games I've played, decision fatigue from constantly WATCHING myself (can't do this can't do that) contributed hugely to my dropping the titles.

...PWE are like the evil marketing gods the evilmarketingbits of nugget want to grow up to be.