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The Mafia Everquest Connection 154

Posted by simoniker from the bada-bing dept.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the 2003 Melbourne Digital Arts And Culture Conference site, where a large selection of new academic papers about videogaming have been disseminated online. This includes The Sopranos Meets Everquest - Social Networking In Massively Multiplayer Online Games (PDF file), which discusses why "instead of having Gandalf as a role model, [Everquest players] would be better off trying to think as Tony Soprano, a present day mafia boss in New Jersey from the American TV show The Sopranos."
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The Mafia Everquest Connection More

The Mafia Everquest Connection

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  • Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:5, Funny)

    by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:40PM (#6090863) Homepage Journal
    "academic papers
    about videogaming"

    Dream job, or make-work project?

    • Re:Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:55PM (#6090941) Journal
      Like it or loathe it, videogaming is fast becoming an important everyday pastime for the masses, much like television. Strangely, it is still perceived as being something for the in-crowd, something that only nerds so. Television = mainstream, games = nerdy. At any party, when asked if I have watched the latest installment of Big Brother on TV last night, and I tell them that "no, I do not watch TV", I am met with blank stares of disbelief. But if someone asks if they have played some game or another, everyone (including the gamers) will most likely stare at the asker and wonder how on earth he can be so insensitive as to bring up a topic like that at a party.

      If you had read a headline about academic papers being written about viewing habits or other TV-related stuff, you'd probably have shrugged and moved on.

      • Re:Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:5, Funny)

        by SkArcher ( 676201 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:12PM (#6091022) Journal
        Strange, at the last party I was at gamers outnumbered non-gamers. We ended up having a big arguement/conversation about what makes a good MMPORPG, with people who had played everything from UO right up to one who is beta testing Star Wars Galaxies.

        The non-gamers got exiled to the kitchen, and were talking about Big Brother :) stereotypes, huh?

      • Re:Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by bethanie ( 675210 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:32PM (#6091089) Journal
        I'm not so sure that gaming is becoming totally mainstream -- I just think that geeks (who will admit to gaming) from all walks of life are starting to come out of the closet, as it were.

        Face it, /.ers -- we don't hold a monopoly on geekiness! (But somehow we seem to gravitate towards this site...) Just because some guy DOESN'T spend his days immersed in writing arcane code and his nights hacking his TiVo [slashdot.org] does not DISqualify him as a geek.

        Geeks go to law school [slashdot.org], they write papers like this one, and sometimes, they're just stay-at-home moms [slashdot.org] with a penchant for mental stimulation that can't be gained from hours spent passively absorbing the pablum that is network television (Sopranos not included under that label, of course).

        One final note: I think we should question Jared's [slashdot.org] status as a true "geek" if was actually at a party -- especially one where there were people who watch television and tried to carry on actual "conversations"! Personally, I think he's just trying to come off as a cool guy or something. Or maybe he's just the perfect example to prove my point!?! *grin*

        ....Bethanie....
        • Depends on your definition of 'geek'.

          Personally, I go for the 'anyone who's interested in one or more subjects to know some obscure arcana about it' instead of the 'anyone who does things with computers' definition.

          Dunno which one gives a larger population of geeks, though :)

      • Academic papers (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Doctor Cat ( 676482 )
        I think the most interesting academic writings and research on online worlds are coming from Nick Yee [nickyee.com], who has studied demographics and patterns of interaction in games like Everquest and from Dr. Edward Castronova [fullerton.edu], who has a PhD in economics and has done work on figuring out the exchange rates between virtual currencies and real world ones, calculating the "GNP" of online worlds, etc. The links above go to collections of some of their writings.

        Of course some of the best writings on the subject (not from

      • Although watching big brother and playing computer games probably are.

        Whether or not you watch TV, or whether or not you use a computer, are not as notable as what you use them FOR. If you told me you don't watch TV, I'd think you were an idiot, because there are some very good things on TV (History Channel? Law and Order? The Sopranos?) There's nothing to say that using a TV as a tool to knowlege/arts is any better or worse than using a museum or theater.

        Plenty of people use computers for lots of act

    • Re:Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      " "academic papers
      about videogaming"

      Dream job, or make-work project?"

      Next thing you know, they are going to start claiming that playing video games can be beneficial to people.

      Oh wait.

    • Re:Good Lord, what is the world doing? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      According to statistics cited in Martin-Campbell Kelly's just published history of the software industry From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog (MIT 2003), $10 billion was spent on games in 2001 in the US alone (as compared to $8.3 billion that same year on films). Why shouldn't this be a topic of critical intellectual inquiry? For what it's worth, academic game studies go back to at least 1995, with several papers in Steven G. Jones's Cybersociety anthology.
    • I believe this isn't the first time silly papers have been written. I can illustrate better using quotations. Let the source remain unknown.

      [@ e] Shan, they play EQ all day long, they figure why not write their dissertation on it.
      [@ Shanoyu] That's a possibility.
      [@ e] Some guy at UCSB apparently spent all his time at the beach smoking out, so his dissertation wound up as a documenting of a "freeform community art project", i.e. some walls covered in graffiti.
      [@ e] He even used m

    • The world is learning! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DoctorFrog ( 556179 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @06:20PM (#6091805)
      I'm neither a player nor a professional sociologist, but I found the paper insightful as well as absolutely fascinating.

      Any zone in which people interact is fodder for sociological analysis, and online gaming is particularly interesting because there is a level of abstraction built into the interaction (although, as the paper points out, it isn't completely isolated from "RL" relationships).

      I'd look for more of these as time goes by; the creation of a virtual world comes close to addressing one of the major deficits of the 'social sciences', the inability to (ethically) set up an experiment to test a theory. It's limited, of course, since the players

      1) are products of an existing culture,

      2) are self-selected, and

      3) are not subject to the same limitations in virtuality as in corporeality.

      Nevertheless, this is an arena in which sociological concepts can in a limited fashion actually be tried out. I think we'll learn a surprising amount from it, and hopefully it will even have practical use if we go on to create new societies in space.

      • What I find even more interesting and usefull is that you can have near absolutely accurate data sets to play with; stuff can get logged a whole lot more accurately online than in (m)any other psych study.
    • Dream job, or make-work project?



      The 90s may be over, but some people are living the dream. Rock on, Mikael and T.L., rock on.

  • What's the difference between Government... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:41PM (#6090872)
    And the mafia? One's legal, and one is illegal.

    They both operate using force and attempt to gain as much power for themselves as possible (in response to the ability of the populace to fight back against them). Well, Everquest lacks a real government, so as a result, mafia becomes the rule.
    • EQ has a government, it is an absent Tyrant who has delegated his power to a group of mercenaries called GM's, who answer only to the inscrutable master and have the absolute power over every facet of existence. They also have much better things to do, so as long as the train keeps rolling they allow the prison to run itself so to speak. If the rabble interfere with the motion, they crack down without mercy :)
    • > And the mafia?

      Easy one. As the ancients used to say, ``The only difference between a king & bandits is justice."

      And as a more recent writer once stated, ``whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

      [Rant follows]
      I am more than sick

    • What's the difference?

      The maffia just steals your money and sends you on your way. The government proceeds to berate you at length about the supposed virtue of the act.

      The maffia generally don't care what you do in the privacy of your own home/business whatever, as long as you pay up. The government not only wants to steal your money, but also to micromanage every aspect of your life.

      If you pay the maffia for protection and someone trashes your club, you'll get compensation and they'll hunt the bastar

  • This just in... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chosen_my_foot ( 677867 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:41PM (#6090877)
    People who play video games can make friends? How can this be?

    I've learned from experience playing MUDs that in this type of game, just like life, it's not what you know, it's who you know that gets you ahead. From items to money, there's nothing that a high experienced friend can't get you.

    Good to see the academics are catching up.
    • Just like life, it's not what you know, it's who you know that gets you ahead. From items to money, there's nothing that a high experienced friend can't get you.

      That's the best one-sentence description of online Diablo II I've ever read.

  • better still: (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Nihilanth ( 470467 ) <chaoswave2&aol,com> on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:45PM (#6090895)
    i think a better role-model than a mafia boss would be the main character of Office Space. When you're trapped in a repetative and mundane experience, the players i look up to are ones that find creative solutions to the boredom wraught by blind farming of capital and experience.

  • Violence is easier (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:49PM (#6090913)
    both to practice, and to program. It takes maturity to come up with a better solution. This isn't to say that violence has no place, I am only saying it's much easier to be violent than it is to be compassionate. Also easier to reward experience points based on killing than on non-killing.
    • If you, the parent, are actually registered here, please PM me, I'd love to add you to my friends list and discuss this further. *sigh*, so many times I agree completely with an AC and I wish I could discuss this further in private...

  • Hmmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JayBlalock ( 635935 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:50PM (#6090916)
    So the more experienced users should be shaking down newbies for gold if they don't want to get spammed? Form a gang and charge local businesses a tithe as "insurance"? Basically do everything possible to make sure all wealth flows to the top and the little guy has nothing? I thought games were supposed to give us a break from reality...
    • Um,

      I hear that sort of thing already happens. Guilds camping monster spawn locations, chasing off anyone who comes near a precious point and otherwise hoarding the wealth to themselves or social affiliate.

      Experience and coinage are the wealth and monsters are the local resources.

      Control the resources, control the community...
    • Real people still play them... You want a break from reality, play a game that isn't multiplayer. Otherwise, the flaws and evils of humanity will dog your every step through even the most virtual of worlds.

  • How long until we see an actual mafia MMORPG? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dark Nexus ( 172808 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:51PM (#6090922)
    Really, there are a lot fo similarities in how people act in MMORPGs to how mafia members are portrayed in TV and movies.

    But really, most of the similar attributes seem to be GOOD things. Loyalty to guild/friends, word-of-mouth as to who can/can't be trusted.

    I mean, I didn't really see any mafia similarities mentioned that are particularily BAD.

    No extortion, blackmail, etc.

    Though I'm sure it could happen to someone who's far too attached to their characters, I doubt it could ever be as widespread as these other "symptoms".

  • I only skimmed the paper so far (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drdale ( 677421 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:54PM (#6090932)
    But I wasn't convinced by the analogy. Based on the sopranos, anyway, the mafia seems to have an ethos of servitude to---producing for---the higher ups, and I didn't see enough proof that the same is true of EQ guilds.

    • Re:I only skimmed the paper so far (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mahrin Skel ( 543633 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:41PM (#6091114)
      Two illustrative points:

      1) Most "Uberguilds" have a "raid points" system, the more raids you go on, the more points you get, and the more chances you have of getting some of the better items.

      2) In at least one guild, the officers were smuggling the proceeds of raids off of the server (through character transfers that SOE will perform for a fee) and selling them on eBay, the cash getting split among those in on the scam. Interestingly, even after finding out they were being used, most of the members chose to stay with the guild.

      --Dave

    • You're right to an extent, but the "servitude" you describe in the mafia has the effect of producing for the individual as well. Not only that, but it doesn't just produce for the top guy (Tony Soprano in the current context) but others down the line as well. For example, Christopher kicks up to Paulie who kicks up to Tony (who might then have to share with other top guys, like in New York, but that's another layer of its own) - thus, Christopher is producing for the group as a whole much like an individu

  • in game networking or just unloading junk (Score:5, Informative)

    by Blue23 ( 197186 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:55PM (#6090942) Homepage
    I read the paper, and it's got a bunch of points. I'll say that from a bunch of MUDs I used to play you would see the same behavior. But besides just who you know, it's also lots of being in the right place at the right time. I've had characters given cool stuff by high level people all the time. Part of it was so they could be seen as cool by the noob, and part of it was that the super cool item you just got is worthless junk at their level.

    Lots of folks get good reps for just helping out noobs or on corpse runs, and you know that that rep stayed around and if they ever needed help they got it, as well as preferental grouping.

    You want to be treated nice - play a female healer of some sort - groups will court you, random people will give you things. People will go on quests just to get items for you.

    If you want a lone hero vs. the world, play on your home machine. If social gaming is really your style, then MMRPGs have a lot to be said for them. And in any social group, you get the mix of folks -- some will help, some will only help themselves. If you watch your friend's back, that's not mafia, that just taking care of those who take care of you.

    ==Blue(23)

  • That poor little looter... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bluemeep ( 669505 ) <bluemeep@@@gmail...com> on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:58PM (#6090950) Homepage
    "While Phrank had quick benefit from this loot/linkdeath scam, a not uncommon one, the question is if he knew the larger repercussions from this kind of action. Needless to say, none of the members is ever likely to invite Phrank into a group again except perhaps for the chance to punish him. Several members took the time to inform their guildmates that this character was not to be trusted."

    And now not only does that guild know, so does everybody that's read the paper through Slashdot. If he hasn't deleted that character by now, I'd say he's about to!

  • Yeezus. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Freston Youseff ( 628628 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @02:59PM (#6090953) Homepage Journal
    I can't even imagine the combination of smells in that conference room: horrible body odor from the Everquest people mixed with the excessive stink of aftershave that the Sopranos guineas wear. I predict a big rumble taking place, namely the Everquest people sucking fist and nursing head wounds.
    • > horrible body odor from the Everquest people mixed

      Oh Jesus, Lord in Heaven. I loathe going to pick up my 12 year old at Warhammer 30,000 down at the local hobby store on Saturdays. The raw, unbridled stench in that back playroom is incomparable.

      Yes, you guys. I'm talking to you! The room is, for the most part, filled with high school and college age young, stinking men. One of those rooms Dogbert would hang out outside to study chronic cases of social retardation -- so severe they are unaware of
      • At least your kid is 12...the target market for toys like Warhammer. It's suitable for him at his age. The other ones don't have an excuse, other than arrested development.

  • Badda... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ctve ( 635102 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:03PM (#6090969)
    Ping?

  • After killing your level 9 Dwarf (Score:3, Funny)

    by PS-SCUD ( 601089 ) <peternormanscott&yahoo,com> on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:10PM (#6091007) Journal
    It's nothing personal, just business. Capish?

  • prediction (Score:2, Funny)

    by TrippTDF ( 513419 )
    Sony online's next release: EverSoprano, where you get to swear, shoot guns and get into legal disputes with HBO.

  • The Possibilities (Score:5, Funny)

    by Malicious ( 567158 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:13PM (#6091029)
    With the recent Shadow Bane hack, prompting legal battles in virtual worlds, it would be incredibly funny to see Extortion, and Murder charges coming from higher level characters, threatening or pkilling lower lever characters.

    Q: Whadda you in for?
    A: Virtual Murder 1.

  • That's it for Humanity, we're going to destroy ourselves very soon.

  • Organized crime and diseases (Score:3, Funny)

    by martissimo ( 515886 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:29PM (#6091074)
    Dargon "I only wanted to have an alt for awhile he is a STD"
    TL "A what darg?"
    Dargon "A STD super twinked dwarf"

    Tony needs to keep his ring of ladies a lil cleaner, STD's are no laughing matter ;)

  • Mob/clique behavior (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GreatDave ( 620927 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:31PM (#6091086)

    My two cents (more like five dollars):

    The behavior you see in many online RPGs, in which "familial associations" form between groups of players, is basically similar to the formation of cliques in high and middle (US) schools. The only difference is that the cliques have weapons, magic, booty and lots of XP; the sum of these is what determines the worth of a person in the online world, just as "fashion" and "who you know" are the determinants of self-worth in cliques IRL.

    In fact, if you take some steps back and look at the most infamous mobs, could it not be argued that they are simply cliques with guns that join together to commit crime and bribe those in power?

    And then there's the issue of newbie hazing, which is analogous to cliques blackballing those who are not members of the "in" crowd, again quite similar to what happens when the mob gains control over a city and "elects" its officials. Online RPGs, especially and notoriously Everquest, are extremely culpable in this regard. Newbies who do not join a guild or other crowd of "in", upper-level characters will find themselves ostracized and devoured by trolls (not necessarily the Slashdot variety).

    The issue of newbie hazing wasn't really touched on by the paper, but I argue that it is a huge problem and that it is not just limited to online RPGs, but also many websites with "experience" systems. Everything2 [everything2.com] specifically comes to mind but I'm sure there are many other examples of sites where an attempt by a newbie to contribute to the community at large will be rejected because the newbie doesn't have the right connections nor the XP to stand on their own. What about Slashdot? The karma system works because trolls are controlled and a newbie can stand on their own, and the only real privelege granted by "experience" is a +1 karma bonus to initial posts. Newbies can do everything those with "Excellent" karma can do and the moderation system cares a lot more about the age of an account than its karma. Again, contrast with Everything2, and with Everquest.

    So, I argue that the points the paper makes are quite valid outside the world of Everquest and are applicable to many, many online and offline environments. (Apologies to Everythingers who might be rubbed the wrong way by the above comments, but I have seen with my own eyes that Everything and Everquest have an awful lot in common from the newbie's perspective.)

    • Nah, it's easy for an e2 newbie to get the right connections. The problem with e2 is that the level of hate that users hold for one another end up being grudges that never, ever, ever fade.

  • Hmm.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by c3rb ( 655107 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:35PM (#6091094)
    Gandalf...Gandolfini...

    Coincidence? I think not.
  • Can some explain this 'bada-bing' catchphrase and why it is thought to be associated with Americans of Italian extraction or the Mafia? Do real mobsters go around saying it? Does it mean anything?

  • Mafia or Fraternity? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bigboote66 ( 166717 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:37PM (#6091103)
    As appealing as it may be to glue two pop-cultural phenomenons together, the connections to fictionalized mafia and EQ seem pretty tenuous.

    For one thing, there isn't the zero-sum game of the Mafia - the power brokerage involved in EQ doesn't seem to benefit from betrayal, or "keeping your enemies closer" aspect that we see in that thing of theirs. There isn't the "money flows up, shit flows down" ethic, and you don't have to worry about entanglements with a more powerful outside authority (FBI).

    Most of the examples given in the article examining the social networking could just as easily be seen as an excuse to have an adventure ("Someone's dead! Let's go rescue him."). You get to play the hero in a very specific mini-myth.

    The larger & more formalized groupings in the game resemble fraternities a lot more than the mafia - a bunch of people who glom together who share a common outlook on life & a desire to party together. Piss off the alpha members of said community and you'll be shunned, not whacked. Heck, with all those "virtual weddings" you hear about, can "virtual date rape" be that far off?

    -BbT
    • and you don't have to worry about entanglements with a more powerful outside authority (FBI).

      Wizards.

      You might also note that an example of short-term benefit from betrayal was mentioned in the paper (Phrank's running off with the forest ring), along with the longer-term consequences.

      Neither milieu (EQ or Mafia) could accurately be described as a zero-sum game within its own context.

  • What a Load of... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quaoar ( 614366 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @03:46PM (#6091140)
    Don't you remember what happens in Return of the King? When Gandalf cuts off Frodo's head and hands, and hurls him into Mt. Doom?

  • The analogy would be tighter to a PK game (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Durindana ( 442090 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @04:15PM (#6091289)
    I'm not sure how well the mafia connection holds up, frankly; I'd like to see a lot more information and analysis about the parallels between the two than the hand-waving "just as the Mafia developed because of its environment." Still an interesting read, especially since I've never played EQ.

    But I have played Shadowbane (though I don't anymore), and I think they might really have something if they looked at a game, like SB, where player-killing is virtually unrestricted and where all expectations point to a social-interaction model versus a lone-wolf model.

    Their example of a player ripping off the group by logging out pales next to some of the experiences I had on SB: an assassin backstabbing from stealth to kill and rob players ten levels lower, for example. Then griefed players grouping together to track and kill that sucker across the entire game world (as we did once). Add in the ever-present guild scene in that game, in which certain leading individuals are known to literally every player on the server, and you get a lot closer to northern New jersey.
    • The same thing, basically.. unrestricted player-kill.

      If you killed in town, the town guards would go hostile on you.

      If you killed in an area the Order guild chose to be policing, you would end up with them after you.

      If you killed someone, you would have their friends after you....

      The trick, of course, to PK, is those who run the game ensuring there is balance.. as you said, if a high level doing socially unacceptable things like killing noobs causes him to end up chased around teh entire game by a mob f
  • ... Fat Tony from the Simpsons myself.
  • The communities on MMORPGs are all about tweaking. No originality.

    Anarchy run amok.

  • Haha, exactly. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dsanfte ( 443781 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @04:36PM (#6091361) Journal
    Yes, you would do well to compare the actions of EQ guilds to the mafia and Tony Soprano. Their motives, while differing in context, are unavoidably similar. Power, wealth, and social status.

    The ultimate goal of any EQ guild is to get ahead of all other EQ guilds, acquire the best loot and items, and block the progression of any other guilds by killing important MOBs before any other guild can get their members online.

    The only way to exercise power on a "blue" server (non-pvp) in EQ is to grief other players within the confines of the game rules. This means that blocking the progression of other players is a very enjoyable pasttime. It's the only way you can hurt them. Watching other guilds complain because they are stuck unable to progress in the game for weeks or months is very entertaining, and addicting. Many, many guilds do this, and relish the opportunity. And Verant/SoE does nothing to dissuade or stop it, unless you pay an extra $30/mo in subscription fees, in which case they put you on the "Legends" server, and force the other guilds to give you a chance.

    To be a mafia, you really should be dabbling in illegal activities. This is true in EQ to an extent. The only rule that Verant/SoE consistently enforces on end-game guilds is the no-exploit rule: "You can't take advantage of flaws in the game design to kill something more easily or more quickly than Verant/SoE wants you to."

    As a matter of fact, this rule is broken very often in the name of getting ahead of the competition. Nearly every EQ guild exploits something: if not MOB pathing, then a spell that's too powerful, a quirk in the Feign Death ability, etc. It's the way the game is played. Some might argue that the game is so flawed that it's impossible NOT to use an exploit now and then in the course of playing an honest game.

    Anyway, for further reading, you can check out this article on EQ I wrote way back in December. It goes into some of the problems with the game that lead to a mafia mentality taking over the social structure, and the apathy of the development company. A few of the comments were pretty good, also.

    http://slashdot.org/articles/02/12/27/1748252.shtm l?tid=127 [slashdot.org]

    • Re:Haha, exactly. (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is in response to the no-exploit rule.

      One of the burrs in Verant's ass for a very long time was a non-detectable program that sniffed the Everquest network traffic and pulled useful information out and displayed it to the user in Linux. The name was ShowEQ and there is created a sorta rift between those with an almost omnipotent knowledge of all monsters in the current area and those that were confined by the game client and had to use whatever the game gave them.

      The presence of this program gave wa

  • Old news, heres real news (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CrazyJim0 ( 324487 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @04:49PM (#6091403)
    Even though Everquest breeds gangsters, it treats its playerbase like shit. This is a bad idea because the inevitable result is someone's going to take it out of fantasy to real life. There are many players who play Everquest as if it is their life, so its not that big of a stretch.

  • Do As Your Told Or... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Caraig ( 186934 ) on Sunday June 01, 2003 @05:35PM (#6091603)
    you're gonna sleep wit' da krakens!
  • A comment on this thread [slashdot.org] got me thinking about a Mafia based MMPORPG. On the surface, it might not seem like a good idea (in days of yore, TSR's Gangbusters RPG was always an also-ran), but if you gave it a twist it might just fly.

    Specifically, I was thinking about the MMPORPG described in Todd McAulty's great story The Haunting of Cold Harbour [blackgate.com]. Basically, think of the Mafia with Ghouls, Vampires, and some cyborgs thrown in (and, no, it's not a straight Buffy rip off). I quit EQ last year to better co

  • While I am glad that gaming is getting some attention from academic types with loads of extra grant money lying around just waiting to be put to some good use for the betterment of mankind, it saddens me that this paper is written so poorly. Nobody that is not already familiar with online gaming would be able to make heads or tails of the material. Entire concepts go unexplained. Observations made are shallow, and poorly introduced with little attention to style. I have written (and published) enough APA an
  • "Nice dark horde you got 'er Sauron." "Yeah, very nice" "Yeah, be a shame if some'int happened to it?" "Yeah, real shame" CRASH. TINKLE. "Ohh. I'm so sorry." "Yeah sorry guv, my brother's so clumsy, he didn't mean to break your ring." "Yeah, real sorry."
  • Can't believe I chose this one time to RTFA...! (Minor LoTR/Sopranos spoilerage here btw).

    First, what the hell is it? Its not science; theres no method, no data, no design. Its not anything sociological/philosophical either, theres no perspective informing it that I can uncover. So really is just someones opinions. Why should we be interested in them then? I assume we are supposed to accept validity by the authority imbued by academic credentials. Analysis is signally lacking here; its reads rather like "

    • I'm going to get in here before anyone else. Argh!!!! Nooooo!!!! I can't believe it. Yes, OK, I was the last person to explain the connection between music and hearing here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=65787&cid=6064 297 C'mon, you get my drift though!? ...inserts shotgun into mouth. ...depresses trigger.
  • I'm having difficulty seeing how Tony Soprano is much worse than Gandalf. You know, if you look at LotR objectively, what Gandalf is all about is White Power and anti-democracy. He worked tirelessly to maintain the hegemony and genetic purity of a small core of oligarchical monarchists with a fundamentalst religious outlook that believed the Gods had given them eminent domain over Middle Earth. They seem to have been fighting a viscious war of ethnic cleansing and land grabs against all the southern and eas

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