Ekim's Gamer View: What is Content?
Michel 'Ekim' Veilleux, 2003-08-08

Earlier this week I was wrapped up in an interesting debate about content. The discussion made me reflect on how I see MMORPGs. Since I myself faulted SWG for lacking content in my own review, and since I repeated this fact numerous times, I kind of felt I was confronted with my own words. Because I was never really affected by this lack of virtual content in SWG, I felt compelled to answer when asked to explain what was meant by this lack of content. I had to think before I answered…

Content for me, content for you

Content takes many forms in a game. It can be things to kill, it can be visual (like particular landscape features), it can be objects, or it can be characters and dialogues. A game without content would be pretty boring since you would be on your own in an empty world doing… nothing. Most content is usually interactive. I say usually because as beautiful as a canyon is, it's not very interactive on its own, yet can still be considered as content. But different kinds of content are more or less important to different kinds of players.

There is a nice test someone can take to determine what type of player he is. The Bartle test was originally designed with MUDs in mind, but still very much applies with today's MMORPGs. You can take the test here, and if you respond truthfully you should have a very good image of what kind of player you are.

Players in general usually fall in one of four categories primarily, with various lesser levels of interest towards other categories as a complement. The categories are: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers. I myself am categorized as a 86% Explorer, 60% Socializer, and 26% Killer and Achiever, which means that I mostly enjoy exploring the world and finding things on my own, role playing and experiencing things that might not have any real impact on the advancement of my character, talking with people and helping them, and I even have a little dark side to myself that enjoys some PvP from time to time.

Know yourself, then others

Knowing yourself is the first step towards understanding what type of content you will enjoy, and will likely look for in a game. As an Explorer, I might not put the same value on a super powerful weapon as someone else. I could think that a map that shows me the location of a really beautiful vista (but largely devoid of wild life) is more valuable than that weapon, while an Achiever would think completely the opposite. Who is wrong? No one is wrong, both players are right according to their own visions. But these two visions conflict radically, and the two players might not enjoy a game on the same level, if one of them even likes it at all.

So, knowing myself, and better understanding other types of players at the same time, I can now evaluate what consists of a lack of content, even though to me that lack will virtually have no effect. After playing SWG for over a month, I cannot honestly say that I find any content lacking as far as I'm concerned. I never once stopped and wondered what I would do next for lack of anything to do. I always have something to do, which denotes content, doesn't it? If there was no content, then I would hopelessly look for things to do. But I don't.

But looking at things from a different angle, I can understand an Achiever who would think differently than I do. An Achiever-type of player would look for places to find the best things to kill at his skill level. He would look for items to loot, he would look for the best paying missions so that he can buy the biggest house, and the best armor, and the best weapon. When he had those things he would move on to the next most challenging opponents and repeat the process until he would finally be at the top of the ladder. At which point he would be bored, of course… Which is what happens to most people who finally hit level 50 in DAoC, if you study it carefully. They would create a new character and start all over again, with much less enthusiasm, while begging the developers to create more high-level content.

So?... What IS content?

So, the whole point of this is that lack of content for one may be a great deal of content to someone else. In reviewing a game it should be kept in mind that different types of players will try the game, but that is a very hard thing to do. When analyzing a particular game, it can be pointed out that it lacks content for some types of players, but that it also has a great deal of it for others. But each and everyone of us must understand one another to accept that. Especially since MMORPGs are very hard to nail down to a particular style of play, and where players constantly contradict themselves…

It's hard to accept that a game we like is considered crap by someone else. But we have to understand that there is more to it than our own taste. Other people have to be considered, as hard as that may be sometimes. The amount of content in a game is very hard to gauge correctly since it can seem inexistent to some, while there's an abundance in the minds of others. So what is content? It's what you enjoy mostly out of any given game, and it's usually not what everyone else tells you.