Ekim's Gamer View: Free your Mind
Ekim, 2003-10-24

I was watching my brand new Matrix Reloaded DVD last weekend, and it struck me how much we can be cry babies sometimes. The Matrix more or less depicts a huge mmorpg based on a virtual reality engine, in which the players (although unaware of it for the most part) are plugged into the game and live out their daily lives in it. It's pretty much the definition of what an mmorpg is at its core. And an mmorpg really is like life too, only we can be anything we want.

Here is where Ekim talks about death… again…

And sure enough, some of us choose to be cry babies, or people who complain a lot and are quick to point fingers. If real life were a big mmorpg, I wonder how these people would fare… Sometimes I take the bus and people step in front of me in the line. Although I can show my discontent, I usually tend to keep my mouth shut because, let's face it, I'm not very imposing physically. But in any major city, even those that are imposing might do better keeping their mouths shut because you just never know what kind of a lunatic you have in front of you, or what kind of a weapon they might be carrying deep in their pockets…

But in games we suddenly lose that feeling of dread because we don't fear repercussions. Now, I know that a few weeks back I said that perma-death isn't a solution, and I still don't believe it (or any other kind of death) to be, not until players mature beyond the point that they have reached today. But the fear of death, temporary as it might be, would still go a long way to shut some people's mouths sometimes, as long as we're in a full PvP game of course. Still, death is not a solution, as many players out there seem to want to believe. In fact, virtual death often brings up many more issues that everyone seems to want to ignore, not the least of which is the lack of respect towards other players.

We live in a world with very different rules than in mmorpgs. When we complain about the guy that just cut in line in front of us, we don't have the luxury of a GM appearing out of thin air besides us to settle the matter (wouldn't it be great though!). And we don't have designers to change the quality of our shoes to make us run faster so that we are balanced with the thugs that outrun us 9 times out of 10.

In fact, when you start playing mmorpgs you have to free your mind of all things related to the real world. And I can safely tell you that not many people actually do, or else we wouldn't hear about the last football game in our neighbourhood Elven city. And although some might argue it, most of us do log on to escape the real world and its hassles, and experience something different. Gaming is an escapism, it shouldn't be virtual reality which belongs to the realm of simulation, in my opinion. So, the last thing I want in my mmorpg is to repeat the episode with the guy cutting me off in line.

Here is where Ekim gets delusional…

But beyond the game and its engine, beyond its developers and designers, beyond all the GMs in the world, there are people, and there's respect. And one unspoken rule that should always be followed by all players is that your own freedom stops where that of others begin. If only half of the mmorpg players observed this rule we would be gaming in utopia! And then death wouldn't matter so much. You'd be able to say that you were outmatched, and congratulate your opponent for a great battle without complaining about everything that didn't work right, or seemed broken that made you lose. There would still be bad guys, and good guys, but there would be respect, and people who understand that everyone else is there to have a good time.

Death in a virtual world should not be an end, and it shouldn't make players fear it but want to avoid it as much as possible. Death should never be a tool, an escape, and it shouldn't be a source of too much frustration. A long and hefty penalty, a cost, a hindrance, sure. The permanent loss of a character you spent hours to mould into what you wanted, no. But virtual death has become the illusion of a solution because of the players that fail to free their minds, and play games like they should be played, without complaining but adapting to their environment with respect for their fellow gamers. Death shouldn't be a solution at all. It should be a tool, a consequence. The solution lies in the players themselves.