Many of you who have listened to me in the past on the Everquest II show on Online Gaming Radio, knew that I was "good" at discovering various theories and ideas the developers have built into their game. The one thing I am known for is successfully guessing different conspiracy "mechanics" that go into the process of building a bigger/better more successful and rewarding title. Today, I would like to reveal to you one of the success stories that I have uncovered and give you a new one that I have been thinking about since our last (heavily edited) podcast recording for the
Monday release.
Conspiracy Theory (Old but still Relevant to WAR) #1When many of you start playing a new MMO you probably turn all other music down, turn some background sound effects off that your computer would normally make at you, and tell the people behind you to quiet down so you can enjoy the full experience. As you play the game you let the music soak in on high volume and you enjoy playing your newly created character. Loot is dropping for you and monsters are behaving for the most part. So far so good! But as you keep playing the game, the music just doesn't satisfy you anymore so you turn it down a few notches. Still, your doing "ok" with your character. Eventually this trend continues and you start to notice (or sometimes not) that your luck in-game may be running out; that you simply aren't getting the same behaviors of the game mechanics as you once were.
Well let me tell you, there is a link (no, not you from Zelda)! I have proven through my own gnomish tinkering (I used to play gnomes) that when you turn your music down, the sound developers become spiteful and punish you for throwing their hard work aside. Through the many tests I have run in Everquest II (and I can only imagine this trend and fate will end up in Warhammer Online), I have shown that for every notch you turn your music down past a certain threshold state (normally half volume since you can't punish players who have loud speakers), your loot decreases in-game and monsters become more challenging and threatening towards you. By the time you get to "mute", it's a whole new game out there. But! you never notice it because your volume goes gradually down as you play and you simply believe it's the game just becoming more challenging as you level higher. This may be true too, however it's even more challenging then it should be.
Others have not not been able to replicate my theory, but I can tell you that it is true. Don't listen to those other disheartening souls out there who simply like to shoot down theories because they think they "hold no water". Psshht. Don't listen!
Conspiracy Theory (More commonly known) #2The last recording of our podcast got my wheels turning about the latest and greatest ways developers are trying to reward, punish, and promote their materials throughout the game. I never noticed it too often in Everquest II (intended to be subliminal), but developers hide easter eggs in the game to not only show off there own likings, but to trick the mind! Now we all know developers always put some easter eggs into every game. Many are just aesthetics and pass us by without realizing what they are. For example, a developer at Sony Online Entertainment put myself and Orlock (formerly Akira and Monte) as two NPC's in an Everquest II newbie/starting zone. No big deal it's just aesthetics and it's cool. On the flip side, is it just aesthetics? This got me thinking, if developers promote community members in the game with subtle things such as NPC names, what else do they put in there for more serious things such as branding?
I believe that developers are really selling us in the end a mind tricking game which promotes all their other materials of the company (and rewards us for coming from the other content). Now, SOE does not need this so much because of their station pass and easy accessibility to their other MMO titles, but EA on the other hand is a different story. They are a powerhouse which are known for rigorous advertising and promotions.
Now this theory is not complete yet and won't be until I can prove it 100% and tweak accordingly, but I believe you will be slammed with advertising in Warhammer Online to play the other EA titles and you won't even know it! Like you could repeatably hit your space bar and then something flashes across your screen saying "Don't break your keyboard!" but the fly in effect is like a hockey puck or something! In no time you'll be playing the EA hockey games and you won't even know how you had the idea to start playing them. Or, you can have come from Ultima Online and perform a certain action in WAR which came natural to you when you played UO and end up gaining special subtle benefits. You don't think they have any connection, nor does it even cross your mind, but it's there!
Again, a developing theory, but I can assure you that whatever I come up with is
Gold.
This puts a whole new definition to the phrase "
mind numbing".
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