The Continuing Mysteries of SWG

Referencing Timothy Burke’s “The Mystery of SWG”.

After a few months playing this game, I have a little more insight into Tim Burke’s commentary on SWG… most of which is going to make it into a diss chapter and later papers, but just some brief comments here:

I have to disagree with his thoughts on user vs. designer-created content, though a lot of my perspective may just have to do with personal preference, or with the game as I’ve played it, which differs from the game as of Burke’s writing, especially in the case of player cities, which came online nearly a month after Burke’s datestamp on “Mystery of SWG”.

The player city I live in is rich with user-generated content, laden with an imagined history true to the game and to the mythos of the Expanded Universe (Wookiees in exile) and active in the player-driven, though developer-overseen, Galactic Civil War. To me, it has a life and a creative energy that a top-down space — the Mos Eisley Cantina, or Jabba’s Palace, or even an “official” Wookiees-in-exile town — could never match.

From Troops to the Jar Jar-free edit of Phantom Menace, fans of Star Wars have appropriated the universe and used its elements to create their own artifacts. At this point in time (that is, our time, not Star Wars’ diegetic time), post-Episode 2, I would argue that Star Wars fans are often more comfortable with their own interpretations than those reflected in “official” artifacts. I think Burke is absolutely right when he says “at least some of your player base comes to you quite legitimately with a very specific mental model of the narratives and experiences they would like to have within that gameworld”, but I draw a very different conclusion… that player base should be given the best possible tools for actuating those narratives and experiences themselves rather than simply having narratives and experiences delivered to them, particularly given the history of “official” narratives not conforming to the very specific mental model that Star Wars fans have.

Again, this reflects some personal opinions, and I can definitely see the opposite point of view. Ideally, a MMOG like SWG is going to strike a balance between embedded and emergent content. I’d just like to advocate for emergent content, even in — maybe especially in — this particular fictional universe.

However, after finally making my way to Novice Bio-Engineer just to face another long crafting tree, I agree with this comment from Burke:

to shunt people into non-persistent activities when they want to have fun, and to insist on making them grind when they want to make a mark on the gameworld, when they want to matter within it, is to indulge in an ultimately self-destructive sense of the genre?s possibilities.

I think crafting and the player-generated economy are great aspects of the game. But the “grinding” required to become viable in this economy as a crafter is tough… especially so because crafting generates a flat wizard interface that sharply removes you from the immersive space of the world. A newb crafter is spending a significant amount of time essentially blocked from the world as a social or exploratory space. After thoroughly enjoying the path to viability through exploration as a scout, I found this kind of alienating, and wanted to automate it rather than undergo it. It seems appropriate to quote Raph Koster’s own game laws:

Macroing, botting, and automation

No matter what you do, someone is going to automate the process of playing your world.

Corollary:

Looking at what parts of your game players tend to automate is a good way to determine which parts of the game are tedious and/or not fun.

This may be a personal thing, though: a Master Creature Handler (exploring, hunting) in the guild now wants to take on Novice Artisan (crafting). Go figure.