While
reading the chapters in Taylor’s “Play Between Worlds” which mainly discusses
the game “EverQuest”, I was surprised at how similar her description of how
EverQuest works is to how Final Fantasy XIV works. Both games seem to have very similar ways of
operating. My observations of how the FFXIV world operates come from my
limited, yet intense experience in the game over the past three weeks. As in Taylor’s observation of EverQuest,
FFXIV seems to have two different types of players, the casual players and the
power gamers. The casual players are
content to focus on exploring the worlds in a slower pace and taking part in
more of the social aspects, not being as focused on achievements, whereas the
power players are much more focused on achieving goals and XP. I first noticed this during my very first
days when I was trying to work my way around, but was having trouble figuring out
certain aspects of the game. I noticed that
even though I’d come across a lot of different players in the game, they rarely
stopped to do anything but talk to the next NPC who would give them the next quest. Hanging out at an Atherite, I saw many people
pop in and out very quickly without so much as a “hello”.
I
learned a lot about myself as a player while playing FFXIV. First of all, as I mentioned in my game logs, I found playing with others much more enjoyable than playing my indy game by myself. Another thing that stood out to me was how my
attitude towards the game changed once I found out that I had to complete up to
a certain level by last Wednesday in order to compete in the dungeons. Prior to that point, I was blissfully doing
sidequests, trying to learn how not to walk into walls, etc. Once I found out I still had like 18 quests to do
in 2 days, I went into hyper power-gamer-like mode. I ignored everything that wasn’t a main story
quest. No longer did I do any fates,
sidequests or random exploring. I also
hardly read any of the dialog in the cutscenes, Instead, I clicked through them quickly and
didn’t pay much attention to what was happening with the story. I was focused only on getting to the levels I
needed to get to. I had fun doing the
quests, but I did notice a huge change in how much I enjoyed it when I became
the other kind of player. I am looking
forward to now having a more relaxed experience in the game.
The
parameters of the game make it so you do not need to have the company of others
to play and to challenge yourself. I
enjoyed doing the quests and reading the story levels, even when no one I knew
was online. Roaming around alone, I felt
less pressure to perform, and it was fun just to experiment with different
facets of the game. There were times,
however, that I would have liked the company of others. I like the fact that you could play at any
time, without having to be part of a team, which is different from some
real-life games.
Specifically
in my case, my success REALLY relied on interplay and exchanges with
others. The mechanics of the game were
very hard for me to master and I found myself often on the receiving end of
deadly blows. Having classmates around that
could help me “revive” was very helpful!
I also benefitted from the experiences of others and frequently was able
to ask questions of them. Later, when I
was very much concentrating on getting to the levels I need to get to in order
to play with the class online for the dungeons, I took to randomly asking
strangers to help me. I was pleasantly surprised at how many were willing to
cover me while I fought and therefore helped me be successful. I feel that part of this willingness was the
fact that I was “marked” as a newbie with a little sprout icon by my avatar. I am wondering how this will play out in the
future, now that I am part of the “rank and file”.
In
“A Play Between Worlds”, Taylor talks about some changes in the game of
EverQuest that caused some of the interpersonal aspects of the game to be
eliminated, such as the systems of “porting”.
With porting, it used to be that Wizards and Druids would be the only
ones who could port other characters, but the game was changed to allow
self-porting and the creation of a centralized transportation hub with NPC
porters. This took away the need for
characters to interact with Druids and Wizards in order to get ported. In Final Fantasy XIV, one can use Atherites
to transport, so I imagine it is a similar system to that of EverQuest. You don’t need to rely on others to get
around. Still, when a classmate offered to
“teleport” me within the game, I happily accepted this.
Taylor writes, "In a
game like Everquest where the social aspects of the game drive its success and
some of the pleasure derived from playing it, the relationship between design
and culture, and the importance of understanding the ways those intersections
feed into the game, cannot be understated" (65). I interpret this to mean that you cannot
simply be a solo player in this game.
Sure you can travel independently for the most part, but there are many
aspects of the game that require interaction with other players. The game is designed to make you interact for
some quests that involve dungeons , guildhests, or to defeat the more powerful
monsters.. Also, once you fully buy in
to the social aspects of the game such as joining guilds, etc., then the game
becomes more and more addictive. It is addictive not only because it is fun,
but also because you begin to feel a certain level of loyalty to your guild and
you play so as not to let them down.
No comments:
Post a Comment