Who is the best?

Ok…let me go out on a limb here. In fact let me go WAY out on a limb here.

Fallen Earth by Icarus Studios puts more “Virtual” back in the virtual world than any other mmo on the market today – if you dispute me, argue the point. If you don’t believe me, go out there and try the game .

Now while I dangle here on the end of my virtual branch I will begin with a brief explanation for any readers who might be new to our web site, or new to the No Prisoners No Mercy show. When Dr. Richard Bartle was a guest on our show he spoke about the difference between a game world and a virtual world. Now I wouldn’t even consider attempting to speak for Richard Bartle. However, at risk being the reason to recreate the moment in Annie Hall when Woody Allen brings Marshal McLuhan on screen to silence a know-it-all media professor (clip available here ) I will attempt to muddle through.

When I think of the phrase “Game World” the image it engenders is more of a structured adventure. A place where the invisible hand of the developer guides the player along a linear (or relatively so) adventure toward the ultimate goal of reaching what we have all come to know (and sometimes hate) as “End Game.”

A virtual world, on the other hand, is a place where residents of said environment live and operate within what we have come to call a “sandbox” environment.  The examples that always leaps to mind are my first forays into the world of Ultima Online when I asked “What do I do now?” and was greeted with “What do you want to do?”  In other words there is no developer pushing to go do a particular task.  What is more there is more “reality” in the Virtual reality. A more vivid example of my meaning might be found in the conversation I might have had, if I had thought to ask the question below when it arose:

Fallen Earth GM: Hi there, may I help you?

Me: Yes. Where is my recall button?

Fallen Earth GM: Your what?

Me: You know, my hearth stone – the thingy that you click on to automatically return somewhere.

Fallen Earth GM: There is a small problem with that.

Me: Another bug in the game, I knew it.

Fallen Earth GM: No, it’s not that. It’s just that first, this isn’t World of Warcraft and we don’t have “hearth stones” and this isn’t Star Trek so there is no way to teleport anywhere.

Me: So now what?

Fallen Earth GM: Well, you want a return button right?

Me: Yes

Fallen Earth GM: I have one for you.

Me: Great. Where is it?

Fallen Earth GM: You know that little button on the side of the motorcycle you just made?

Me: Yes.

Fallen Earth GM: Press it

Me: O.K. then what?

Fallen Earth GM: Then drive back to where ever you came from. See you have a “return button” after all!

In Fallen Earth there are no disappearing horses. If you get off your horse it stays right where you leave it (See? Aren’t those virtual horses well behaved?) As the Fallen Earth team at Icarus studios has pointed out in a recent tip for players, there are no night elves in Fallen Earth (but there are mutants which is just about the same thing anyway if you miss them – they just aren’t a playable race). However, depending on your outlook on technology, there are “magic wands” (sort of); they come with nice little shells called “12 gauge” and they make really great “magic Missiles”.

I too have asked about player housing when their project manager, Mr. Colin Dwan, was a guest on our show.  Now that I have been playing Fallen Earth for some time I have the perfect answer to my own question.

Auntie Maim: Hey you, out there….the one sitting at the keyboard.

Julie: You mean me?  Aren’t you breaking some sort of rule, or at least concept of reality by talking to me?

Auntie Maim: Ya, so what. Listen I want some player housing – a place to bunk down at night.

Julie: You want player housing?

Auntie Maim: Yes. Please.

Julie: You, being the avatar, should know better than anyone else. This is a post apocalyptic world. See all those ramshackle buildings out there?

Auntie Maim: Ya?

Julie: Pick one.

As I travel through post apocalyptic Arizona, there is always something else to grab and hold my interest. The most interesting thing of all, however, is this: I have never played a game where I have been excited to find garbage by the side of the road, but Fallen Earth is a first. If you play Fallen Earth, believe me, you too will be excited about finding a garbage bag by the side of the road.

THAT GETS MY GOAT!

That gets my goat!

The prevailing thought about forum trolls seems to be to simply ignore them with the hopes that they will simply go away. However, it isn’t always that easy.  Yes, we all know that most of the people in any given mmo community spend their time actually playing the game rather than surfing the forum.  Still, when threads start with phrases like “Is it just me” they can eventually  begin to do some damage. A recent article over at Gamasutra pointed out that if someone leaves your game you have not only lost a customer, you have gained a detractor.  Yet it seems to me that the worst detractors of all are those players who have not quit the game – instead they hang on like some curse that is nearly impossible to get rid of, trying to convince other players that if the troll doesn’t like the game anymore, that it’s just no good. After all, misery doesn’t just love company, it demands it.

What I dearly wish is that the simplest solution of all would occur to those forum trolls who seem bent on tearing down a game that the rest of us still enjoy playing…if you don’t like the game don’t just quit. Instead, go silently away into that good night and creep back under your rock.

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