Side note: what is the clear sign that you like blogging and going to continue? If you have an idea you want to write about and then you look at the schedule of pre-written posts and say, "Oh, which one to delay for this". Thanks to EVE, I'm in this position now, having more than a week of posts in various states of preparation. But I must write this now. I'm already overdue.
From the title you might figured that this post is about the hate campaign against Jennifer Hepler. I did not considered it an interesting topic first, as "sexist idiots being sexists idiots" doesn't sound interesting.
Thanks to the noise they made, the idea of Ms Hepler reached me, for good as it's probably one of the best I've ever heard. It tells that you shall be able to skip combat in MMOs. Of course it should be implemented the very same way as skipping dialogs or skipping reading the license agreement: just because you skipped, it applies to you. So if I encounter a bunch of boars and choose to skip combat, I can see my combat log running with extreme speed and soon I see bunch of dead boars or a dead character on the screen.
Why would anyone be bothered by such change? What is the source of hate against the creator of the idea? I mean I don't care if someone skips reading the hilarious text of the EVE mission to transport homeless to somewhere else, out of sight. The hate and despise that the mission agent (questgiver) expresses towards the bums is perfectly written and clearly touching me. I am not running some curier mission for standing, I'm saving a a space station from the worst plight: the M&S. But if you skip it and care nothing but that few 10K ISK and 0.02 standing, I'm fine with you. I don't think you are a cheater or unorthy of rewards.
Why combat is not already skippable and be ran by auto-calculation? Why is the huge rejection against it? I mean sexist idiots are usually being sexist idiots but something has clearly kicked the beehive this time. Considering that Ms Hepler was a female game developer for years without such outrage, it must be the idea itself.
The reason lies in the hate against Strand of Ancients, it lies on the bridge of Arathi Basin and the middle of Eye of the Storm. Literally, in the form of skeletons. The optimal strategy on these maps is using vehicles, defending or capturing objectives. Yet serious part of the players clearly ignore it and initiate rather pointless PvP combat in some uninteresting area, or in EoS, to capture the flag that has near-zero outcome of the battle. These people are ready to lose in order to get into combat. For some reason this combat thing is extremely important to them. Why?
Combat is an obvious way of showing off superiority. When I win (and I dare to write "I" and not "we") Alterac Valley by directing people to the proper places and delaying the capture of Dun Baldar bunkers and flag by several minutes, my superiority is rather impersonal and theoretical. If you clearly understand what is going on in AV and you saw me calling the objectives and defending the bridge head, then you could come to the conclusion: "yes, that guy won it for us, in a sense that if we'd replace him with a random, it would have much-much bigger effect on the outcome than replacing anyone else". I'm a thinking person and I'm very happy with this definition. I am happy even if no one bothers to or capable of recognizing my performance.
If you bash someones face, you clearly and simply shown superiority over that person to him and the spectators. If some peer would be watching your monitor, he would come to the conclusion without doubt that you are superior player than your opponent, while - unless he is proficient with AV strategy - he will most likely say "he chatted a lot and AFK-ed mostly next to the bridge" watching my play.
The idea of skipping combat threatens these simple people of losing their simple and straightforward measure of worth. They would have to accept something more subtle and complicated measuring system that may or may not be possible for them, but what matters most: make gaming unable to display elite status to peers. I mean xXnubpwnzorXx is able to learn the signaling value of toplists, titles and reward mounts but his buddies clearly don't without explanation. Explaining them that "I got this dragon for killing the hardest of enemies" is more complicated and less convincing than simply killing an opponent right front of them.
The non-existence of peers makes it just worse. The social person always show off to peers, even if they are not present. The "I must wear make-up, to feel good about myself" is a simple example of showing off to non-present peers. The thinking behind it is "what would they say if they'd see me". Peers who are there are giving feedback, even with a smile or gesture. If a guy is standing next to me, I can explain him how AV works and can see the moment on his face when he understands why was I right there were I was. But if he is not there, you must go for overkill. You need a display that cannot be questioned.
These creatures wanted to devastate the "skipping combat" idea (and not the author of it), because they are social so want to impress peers and because they can't explain anything to peers since they don't have any: they are sitting behind a computer screen. Alone.
The PuG update: remember that you can join our cross server BWD HM run!
From the title you might figured that this post is about the hate campaign against Jennifer Hepler. I did not considered it an interesting topic first, as "sexist idiots being sexists idiots" doesn't sound interesting.
Thanks to the noise they made, the idea of Ms Hepler reached me, for good as it's probably one of the best I've ever heard. It tells that you shall be able to skip combat in MMOs. Of course it should be implemented the very same way as skipping dialogs or skipping reading the license agreement: just because you skipped, it applies to you. So if I encounter a bunch of boars and choose to skip combat, I can see my combat log running with extreme speed and soon I see bunch of dead boars or a dead character on the screen.
Why would anyone be bothered by such change? What is the source of hate against the creator of the idea? I mean I don't care if someone skips reading the hilarious text of the EVE mission to transport homeless to somewhere else, out of sight. The hate and despise that the mission agent (questgiver) expresses towards the bums is perfectly written and clearly touching me. I am not running some curier mission for standing, I'm saving a a space station from the worst plight: the M&S. But if you skip it and care nothing but that few 10K ISK and 0.02 standing, I'm fine with you. I don't think you are a cheater or unorthy of rewards.
Why combat is not already skippable and be ran by auto-calculation? Why is the huge rejection against it? I mean sexist idiots are usually being sexist idiots but something has clearly kicked the beehive this time. Considering that Ms Hepler was a female game developer for years without such outrage, it must be the idea itself.
The reason lies in the hate against Strand of Ancients, it lies on the bridge of Arathi Basin and the middle of Eye of the Storm. Literally, in the form of skeletons. The optimal strategy on these maps is using vehicles, defending or capturing objectives. Yet serious part of the players clearly ignore it and initiate rather pointless PvP combat in some uninteresting area, or in EoS, to capture the flag that has near-zero outcome of the battle. These people are ready to lose in order to get into combat. For some reason this combat thing is extremely important to them. Why?
Combat is an obvious way of showing off superiority. When I win (and I dare to write "I" and not "we") Alterac Valley by directing people to the proper places and delaying the capture of Dun Baldar bunkers and flag by several minutes, my superiority is rather impersonal and theoretical. If you clearly understand what is going on in AV and you saw me calling the objectives and defending the bridge head, then you could come to the conclusion: "yes, that guy won it for us, in a sense that if we'd replace him with a random, it would have much-much bigger effect on the outcome than replacing anyone else". I'm a thinking person and I'm very happy with this definition. I am happy even if no one bothers to or capable of recognizing my performance.
If you bash someones face, you clearly and simply shown superiority over that person to him and the spectators. If some peer would be watching your monitor, he would come to the conclusion without doubt that you are superior player than your opponent, while - unless he is proficient with AV strategy - he will most likely say "he chatted a lot and AFK-ed mostly next to the bridge" watching my play.
The idea of skipping combat threatens these simple people of losing their simple and straightforward measure of worth. They would have to accept something more subtle and complicated measuring system that may or may not be possible for them, but what matters most: make gaming unable to display elite status to peers. I mean xXnubpwnzorXx is able to learn the signaling value of toplists, titles and reward mounts but his buddies clearly don't without explanation. Explaining them that "I got this dragon for killing the hardest of enemies" is more complicated and less convincing than simply killing an opponent right front of them.
The non-existence of peers makes it just worse. The social person always show off to peers, even if they are not present. The "I must wear make-up, to feel good about myself" is a simple example of showing off to non-present peers. The thinking behind it is "what would they say if they'd see me". Peers who are there are giving feedback, even with a smile or gesture. If a guy is standing next to me, I can explain him how AV works and can see the moment on his face when he understands why was I right there were I was. But if he is not there, you must go for overkill. You need a display that cannot be questioned.
These creatures wanted to devastate the "skipping combat" idea (and not the author of it), because they are social so want to impress peers and because they can't explain anything to peers since they don't have any: they are sitting behind a computer screen. Alone.
The PuG update: remember that you can join our cross server BWD HM run!
0 comments:
Post a Comment