If you happen to live in South Korea, the Diablo 3 you will be able to play will differ in one major aspect from that available for other countries: The South Korean version will have the real-money auction house function removed, because the authorities considered that to be gambling. Basically finding a very valuable item in Diablo 3 is very much a question of luck, and thus you paying Blizzard to be able to play in the hope of getting your money back and more from selling random loot drops could well be considered a form of online gambling.
In the United States and Europe online role-playing games have up to now largely avoided too close a scrutiny of legal questions regarding virtual property. Up to now the argument of the game companies, that players did not own anything in a game, and that everything in a game was just intellectual property belonging to the game company, held up well enough. While people *could* sell their accounts, characters, or virtual items on EBay or other platforms, the practice wasn't all that wide-spread, and in most games it was against the rules.
Diablo III represents a huge step forward in the virtual property debate, as now selling virtual items for real money is not just possible, or permitted, but even encouraged with the game company providing the platform to do so. Thus the day approaches where some judge is going to say to Blizzard that if there are thousands of official transactions in the game where the Sword of Uberness is sold for around $10, and the player can cash out that money, there is no more legal reason to consider the Sword of Uberness (or at least the right to use it) not to be a property of the player. And thus the question whether the randomized way in which the player acquired the Sword of Uberness is a form of gambling is valid. And that is just the tip of the iceberg: If virtual property is recognized as a form of property lots of other laws start to bite as well, from tax laws to concerns about money laundering.
I wonder if Blizzard has thought all that through, or whether they are just starting to discover the implications. If Diablo 3 is gambling in South Korea, then why not in other jurisdictions? As long as the flow of money is strictly from the customer to the company, we can always say that the customer is buying a service, not property. Diablo 3 opens up a potential stream of money in the other direction, towards the customer, and it is unlikely that this won't have legal consequences.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Rift and SWTOR
Trion suddenly felt that their game Rift needed a lot more trial servers, and thus "encourages" the players to move from those 11 servers now designated as trial servers to other servers. Less charitable people call that a server merge, which is generally a sign of decreasing subscriber numbers.
I do believe that part of Rift's success was due to being a new game not totally different from World of Warcraft. And I do believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic is the current destination for people looking for a game that is new, but not totally different from World of Warcraft. Thus I would speculate that declining player numbers in Rift have a lot to do with SWTOR being released. What do you think?
I do believe that part of Rift's success was due to being a new game not totally different from World of Warcraft. And I do believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic is the current destination for people looking for a game that is new, but not totally different from World of Warcraft. Thus I would speculate that declining player numbers in Rift have a lot to do with SWTOR being released. What do you think?
1001 Nights
In the story of the 1001 Nights (or Arabian Nights) the king of Persia decides that all women are unfaithful, and marries a succession of virgins, beheading each one after the wedding night. Scheherazade escapes that fate by telling the king the start of a story each night, so that the king is forced to let her live the next day to hear the end of the story. I can see certain parallels between the fate of Scheherazade and the fate of Star Wars: The Old Republic; right now SWTOR keeps me interested by telling me stories, but I can't help but wonder what will happen once the stories run out. In spite the huge rumored budget of the game, I seriously doubt that SWTOR has stories for 1001 nights. And I guess modern gamers are about as willing as the king of Persia to lop of their previous games' head and replace it with a virgin one.
My main, the trooper, is now level 36 and just started chapter 2 on Balmorra. I already got a bit tired of him, so this weekend I leveled a bounty hunter to level 12. Is it just me, or does the Empire have the better stories? There is a sort of intellectual honesty about the evilness of the Empire, while the Republic comes over as the people who would like to be the good guys, but never really manage. Rumors from PvP players waiting in queues have it that there are far more Empire than Republic players, and I wonder in how far that is related with the quality of the story. My third character is a jedi knight, but I decided to go dark side with him, and see how that works out. The jedi secretly corrupted by the dark side of the force, sounds interesting. Although the "secretly" part is more hypothetical, as he is running around with a "the backstabber" title he picked up on the Esseles.
After 1001 nights the king of Persia decided not to behead Scheherazade, but to stick with her, stories or not. It must be Bioware's hope that the players of Star Wars: The Old Republic go through a similar development: Stay for the stories, then stick around afterwards. Only that the content on offer after the stories run out is rather generic, and it is hard to argue how it is any better than what is on offer in half a dozen other games already. To me it does not appear as if SWTOR has any answers to the fundamental questions and conflicts that the raiding endgame poses in other games. The leveling game in SWTOR is less trivial than in World of Warcraft, but still a game of story-telling and doing quests is not a very good preparation or qualification for an endgame in which many participants expect excellence of execution from the get go, and have very little patience with people who would like to be learning by doing.
My main, the trooper, is now level 36 and just started chapter 2 on Balmorra. I already got a bit tired of him, so this weekend I leveled a bounty hunter to level 12. Is it just me, or does the Empire have the better stories? There is a sort of intellectual honesty about the evilness of the Empire, while the Republic comes over as the people who would like to be the good guys, but never really manage. Rumors from PvP players waiting in queues have it that there are far more Empire than Republic players, and I wonder in how far that is related with the quality of the story. My third character is a jedi knight, but I decided to go dark side with him, and see how that works out. The jedi secretly corrupted by the dark side of the force, sounds interesting. Although the "secretly" part is more hypothetical, as he is running around with a "the backstabber" title he picked up on the Esseles.
After 1001 nights the king of Persia decided not to behead Scheherazade, but to stick with her, stories or not. It must be Bioware's hope that the players of Star Wars: The Old Republic go through a similar development: Stay for the stories, then stick around afterwards. Only that the content on offer after the stories run out is rather generic, and it is hard to argue how it is any better than what is on offer in half a dozen other games already. To me it does not appear as if SWTOR has any answers to the fundamental questions and conflicts that the raiding endgame poses in other games. The leveling game in SWTOR is less trivial than in World of Warcraft, but still a game of story-telling and doing quests is not a very good preparation or qualification for an endgame in which many participants expect excellence of execution from the get go, and have very little patience with people who would like to be learning by doing.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Cheat Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi
Unlockable Character
Bardock
- Clear the Bardock vs Frieza fight in Story Mode
- Defeat Raditz with Goku & Piccolo in Story Mode
All 7 Are Here! (Bronze)
- Obtain 7 Dragon Balls in Story Mode
Battle Rookie (Bronze)
- Battle 1 time on Xbox LIVE
Battle Veteran (Bronze)
- Battle 30 times on Xbox LIVE
Becoming Fashion Aware (Bronze)
- Obtain a Hero costume for the first time
Beginning of a Fantastic Tale (Bronze)
- Win 1 Event Battle in Story Mode
Cell Games Champion (Bronze)
- Win the Cell Games.
Cell Games True Champion (Silver)
- Champion of Cell Games on Hard Difficulty.
Counter Hero (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Intercept 100 times total in real battle.
Defense Learner (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Guard 10 times total in real battle.
Defense Professional (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Guard 100 times total in real battle.
Don't Forget the Basics (Bronze)
- Complete Tutorial until the end.
Evasion Fiend (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Evade 100 times total in real battle.
Evasion Learner (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Evade 10 times total in real battle.
Expert (Bronze)
- Successfully perform Clashes 20 times total in real battle.
Fight Seeker (Bronze)
- Win 50 times in a 1P vs. "Very Strong" CPU battle.
Goodbye, Dragon World (Silver)
- Clear Story Mode for the first time
Great Air Battle! (Bronze)
- Do a Chase Battle in Story Mode for the first time
Growing in Power (Bronze)
- Obtain 500 Hero AP
How Do I Look? (Bronze)
- Obtain a Hero hairstyle for the first time
I Changed the World! (Gold)
- Clear Hero Mode for the first time
I See Right Through You! (Bronze)
- Successfully perform Clashes 100 times total in real battle.
I Still Want To Fight (Bronze)
- Win 5 times in 1P vs. CPU battle.
I Want to Fight Someone Strong! (Bronze)
- Win 30 times in 1P vs. CPU battle.
I'm Going to Change the World! (Bronze)
- Win 1 Event Battle in Hero Mode
Interception Learner (Bronze)
- Perform Defense Reaction-Intercept 10 times total in real battle.
Limit Breaker (Silver)
- Obtain 20000 Hero AP
Master of Moves (Bronze)
- Perform 50 Ultimate Attacks total in real battle.
Master! Please Teach Me! (Bronze)
- Obtain a Hero Master for the first time
Monster on a Full Moon (Bronze)
- Clear a Giant Boss Battle in Story Mode for the first time.
Moves On Parade (Bronze)
- Perform 50 Super Attacks total in real battle.
OVER 9000!!!! (Platinum)
- Obtain all the trophies.
Point Getter (Bronze)
- Obtain 1000 Hero AP
Regular Battle Customer (Bronze)
- Battle 10 times on Xbox LIVE
Skill Master (Silver)
- Collect 20 Skills
Super Attack Collector (Silver)
- Collect 30 Super Attacks
Tapping into Latent Power (20)
- Collect 10 Skills
The Actors are All in Play! (Silver)
- Unlock all characters and forms.
The Martial Artist's Path (Bronze)
- Obtain a Hero Fight Style for the first time
Title Holder (Bronze)
- Collect 5 or more titles.
Title King (Silver)
- Collect 30 or more titles.
Training All Over Again (Bronze)
- Do Training for the first time.
W.Tournament True Champion (Silver)
- Champion of World Tournament on Hard Difficulty.
Which One Shall I Choose? (Bronze)
- Collect 10 Super Attacks
World Domination! (Bronze)
- Fight on all maps.
World Tournament Champion (Bronze)
- Win the World Tournament.
Your Real Training Starts Here (Bronze)
- Clear Hero Mode training for the first time
Rating: 4.5
Say hi to Haris Pilton
In Star Wars: The Old Republic on the bounty hunter / imperial agent starting planet of Hutta is a cantina which is part of Nem'ro the Hutt's palace. In that cantina is a table with two non-player characters facing each other: Hun Duo and Greepo. I wonder which of the two will shoot first.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Boatorious on MMORPG insanity
Quoted for truth: "There is no end to the MMORPG blogs that actively ridicule people who are bad at MMORPG's. As I've said before, the people who are bad at MMORPG's are the only sane ones. Their mistake is treating MMORPG's like any normal, fun game -- you play the game, and you get better at it. Being good in modern MMORPG's requires avoiding fun, which is insane. And I have no interest in insanity."
Azuriel is on fire
Azuriel of In An Age posted a long series of long posts about the correlation between WoW's difficulty and subscription numbers. For some strange reason they appeared in my feedreader all in one day, although the previous ones are months old. You can find the latest one here, and work your way backwards. They are very worth reading.
As a scientist I find it particularly noteworthy how Azuriel demonstrates how you can't just take your pet peeve about World of Warcraft and declare that this is why World of Warcraft lost 2 million subscribers in 2011. Otherwise I'd like to join the crowd and state that it is obviously the fact that WoW allows addons that made WoW lose 2 million subscribers, while SWTOR without addons can't be far from having gained 2 million subscribers. You see how easy it is to propose causality when there isn't one?
Nevertheless I would say that Syncaine's statement "WoW is bleeding accounts because people are finally realizing that being handed everything with minimal effort and no risk is, in actuality, not that much fucking fun over the long run." as quoted by Azuriel contains a grain of truth, only that I believe most people are looking at the wrong part of WoW to find it. Everybody is always discussing raid difficulty, and as Azuriel points out, if raids being too easy killed WoW, the timing is curious, as raiding was harder at the time WoW lost those subscribers than during the previous expansion.
However I did notice that when Blizzard remade the level 1 to 60 game in Cataclysm, they tuned it from being very easy to being absolutely trivial. In contrast I enjoyed the significantly more difficult leveling game of Star Wars: The Old Republic considerably more. So why I wouldn't say it fully explains the loss of subscribers, I do think that the lack of any risk in the leveling game of World of Warcraft since Cataclysm is at least one factor to it.
If you want to know how the difficulty of the raiding endgame affects subscription numbers, I'd advise you to wait 6 months. Right now, Star Wars: The Old Republic is really successful. If that changes abruptly after people hit the level cap, we can make a more accurate statement about how the accessibility of the endgame affects subscription numbers.
As a scientist I find it particularly noteworthy how Azuriel demonstrates how you can't just take your pet peeve about World of Warcraft and declare that this is why World of Warcraft lost 2 million subscribers in 2011. Otherwise I'd like to join the crowd and state that it is obviously the fact that WoW allows addons that made WoW lose 2 million subscribers, while SWTOR without addons can't be far from having gained 2 million subscribers. You see how easy it is to propose causality when there isn't one?
Nevertheless I would say that Syncaine's statement "WoW is bleeding accounts because people are finally realizing that being handed everything with minimal effort and no risk is, in actuality, not that much fucking fun over the long run." as quoted by Azuriel contains a grain of truth, only that I believe most people are looking at the wrong part of WoW to find it. Everybody is always discussing raid difficulty, and as Azuriel points out, if raids being too easy killed WoW, the timing is curious, as raiding was harder at the time WoW lost those subscribers than during the previous expansion.
However I did notice that when Blizzard remade the level 1 to 60 game in Cataclysm, they tuned it from being very easy to being absolutely trivial. In contrast I enjoyed the significantly more difficult leveling game of Star Wars: The Old Republic considerably more. So why I wouldn't say it fully explains the loss of subscribers, I do think that the lack of any risk in the leveling game of World of Warcraft since Cataclysm is at least one factor to it.
If you want to know how the difficulty of the raiding endgame affects subscription numbers, I'd advise you to wait 6 months. Right now, Star Wars: The Old Republic is really successful. If that changes abruptly after people hit the level cap, we can make a more accurate statement about how the accessibility of the endgame affects subscription numbers.
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