A magazine article I wrote about UO

[Eaglestaff]

Its for a magazine about Philipino culture in Los Angeles.

http://www.lapinoymagazine.com/

I'll be doing a column on video games. Its a draft still not submitted I thought Id share or maybe get some ideas.

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Structure of Fun?

by Eaglestaff


It smells like sulfur in here. Alert, nerve-shot and ready for anything, my eyes keep darting over at the door. It'll be any second now. No, I'm just imagining things, got to focus! Just got to focus on the mission. Ever since I was born Ive been training to become the greatest swordsman that has ever lived. Everything has led me up to this point and now its time to meet my destiny head on. I follow the thick sulfur smell deeper into the labyrinth until Ive reached the final cavernous hall leading to the dragons lair. The sulfurous ashy smell is overwhelming. I breathe, visualizing the killing strike. With every step Im becoming more and more saturated by the monsters dreadful aura. I feel my blade piercing through the hard, scaly armor, plunging deep into its foul black heart. Another step and the stench is becoming unbearable. My eyes are tearing up and I cover my mouth with my cloak. I listen as the beasts last gasping breathe of life escapes as it collapses, quaking the ground beneath me. Im dizzy from the stench of burnt flesh and the immense heat filling the cave. I can feel its breathing echoing down the hall; the massive lungs bellowing hot, putrid, steam. Im in luck! The beast lies sleeping. Having just eaten a party of six adventurers and treasure hunters it rests belly up upon a mountain of jewels. The sight of the beast is awesome to behold. I admire its powerful and deadly features as I stealth towards its exposed underbelly. So close now; the gigantic razor sharp talons only paces away from me. I raise my sword and offer a silent prayer to the Gods. Then I see the eye. It's open! The dragon turns its head and opens its giant maw and it says "Windows has experienced a fatal error and needs to close. Please contact Microsoft if the problem persists." I slam my hands on my keyboard and reboot my computer. Hopefully I can log back into Ultima Online before the dragon swallows Eaglestaff the knight.

What is the purpose of a video game? What makes a video game fun? What is the real content of a video game and what is it that we are getting out of the games we play? The real content of a video game isn't the animations and it it isn't in the computer programming code that executes it. The real content of the video game happens in the creative imagination of the player. The player is playing the game because of the stimulation. The real content of the video game occurs when I can actually begin to smell the dragons breath. It occurs when I can feel its aura as I adventure deeper and deeper into its lair. We play games because they stimulate our creativity and allow us to exercise our imaginations. Anything that has a purpose of stimulating the creative imagination is an art form and every art form can have a theory. So what is the structure of this theory? What is the science behind fun? How can we evaluate something that has a purpose of expanding the mind when one person's experience of a (video game) is completely different from another person's experiences. How can we create an experience that is fun, immersive, and stimulating without getting old? In these articles im going to write about video games in general but I want to talk about one very special game that I love. Im going to analyze it and present a theory about why it is fun, stimulating, and immersive.

My favorite game right now is Ultima Online There is no set goal, mission, or objective in UO that is clearly dictated to the player. The player is completely free to create their own adventures and interact with the "world" in any way they want. The game was designed with a philosophy of maximizing the possibilities, not dictating to the player a specific objective of any kind. The (world) is very interactable and immersive and everything can be used for something, there is no "filler" content. The most important aspect to how the player interacts with the "world" is in how a player interacts with other players. In this way it is not the game designer that is creating the content of "game" it is the player's creative imagination who assume a role that they create for themselves by choice and act out on this model. The players themselves are the content of the game. The designer just provides an environment that is very open to interpretation and gives the players complete and total freedom to interpret the "game" as they choose. Its like a sandbox. Someone has more fun with sand when they can build whatever they want to with it. The game just provides the sand and some great tools to work with to shape and mold the forms inspired by the imagination and allow them to create their own art. Ultima Online is a "world" that is very malleable. It is a playground for the imagination. Players have the freedom to interact with one another with little restrictions of any kind which is essentially a free society of imagination. The content is ever fresh and exiting. The possibilities are endless. Before I get into some of the specific aspects of player interaction let me make clear that everything that I will describe is in the context to a "role playing computer game" that happens completely in cyberspace and not in real life in any way. When I use the term "players" I am referring to the player's video animated "character" that he controls on the computer monitor and that is who is "in the game". The game is a simulated virtual cyber society. There are social dynamics that mimic real life patterns of behavior such as the tendency of "players" to band together and organize into groups for protection, to maximize profits, or maybe just because that player likes the company. There is a simulated player run free market economy and a simulated online cyber government that is of the players, by the players, and for the players which creates the "laws" of this "world". The players trade virtual resources such as weapons or magical ingredients for spell casting between each other based on whatever "path" they are walking in the game. One player might be a miner and he digs for ore in the "mines" and then refines it into iron that can be used to create weapons and metal goods. He can then sell that iron to a character who is a blacksmith and use the money to hire protection from thieves and bandits who would rob or assault him while he is mining and carrying precious materials on him. He might hire the warrior from the dragon's lair who is capable of protecting him. After all the miner is just a miner. He isn't skilled in combat and he's any easy target for players that would try and rob (him) or harm (him). The three of them might work out a deal where the warrior protects the miner who in turn can now safely mine for the iron and sell it to the blacksmith who can create higher quality weapons and armor for the warrior. This is just one example of how the game provides an environment for players to assume a role and act out on this role thus creating the real substance of the "world". You are the game. You are the "universe". The players create the content with their imaginations. The job of the game designer is to facilitate the "player" with tools that the creative imagination is stimulated to work with.

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

Where's the part where you get pked by a guy name TacoBiggerNigger, from the honorable guild of Face Rape.

[Eaglestaff]

Where's the part where you get pked by a guy name TacoBiggerNigger, from the honorable guild of Face Rape.

I thought that I had eluded to the TacoBigTiggers amoung us in the part about mining. And a shout out to Face Cake might fall on deaf ears.

[MatronDeWinter]

Oh god

Face Rape [FR]

Guild Master: The Glorious Ernest Borgnine, Grandmaster Scholar
Website: None
Guild Type Standard
Members: 15
Active Wars: 0
Charter: No charter has been declared.

Members Online?
Bill Duke
Carl Weathers
Dr.Fiend
The Glorious Ernest Borgnine, Grandmaster Scholar
James Caan
Jigga Bot
Kneegrow
Laurence Mason
LION SLICER
Poonergeist
Savage Henry
Steel Hammer
TacoBiggerNigger
Toby
William Atherton

Seriously??

Nice article.

[Eaglestaff]

Im scrapping the whole article I have a better idea for a format of a monthly collumn that Im exited about. The full article may go in but not right now. Editor says its too long but she wants to add colorful pictures of the gameplay to catch the eye. My new idea is soemthing more along the lines of an ongoing story telling / player fiction. Like tall tales of in game adventures that go along with a screenshot. Sort of like in the first paragraph of the original article but with a less subjective perspective. Rich with imagery but also focusing on game mechanics. Not so much as a critical analysis of game mechanics just demonstration of them in story form. Not solely RP based player fiction but something geared towards the uninitiated.

Also, Im going to add that it is free to play and direct interest to UOSecondage.com

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

Im scrapping the whole article I have a better idea for a format of a monthly collumn that Im exited about. The full article may go in but not right now. Editor says its too long but she wants to add colorful pictures of the gameplay to catch the eye. My new idea is soemthing more along the lines of an ongoing story telling / player fiction. Like tall tales of in game adventures that go along with a screenshot. Sort of like in the first paragraph of the original article but with a less subjective perspective. Rich with imagery but also focusing on game mechanics. Not so much as a critical analysis of game mechanics just demonstration of them in story form. Not solely RP based player fiction but something geared towards the uninitiated.

Let me start you off....


I log into Ultima Online I see Black Smiths crafting swords, I smell bakers cooking bread, OH NO IT'S MC Shitstain, AND HIS COOKY SIDEKICK, cockslapper OH NO THEY'VE PARALYZED ME, OH SHIT IM OUT OF TRAPPED POUCHES THERE IS NO GOD!!! OH WHYYY WHY DID I EVER LOG INTO THIS HORRIFIC GAME WHATEVER YOU DO JUST STAY AWAY FROM ULTIMA ONLINE SAVE YOURSELFS!!!!*Vas Ort Flam* *Corp Por....You Are Dead......oOo...An Corp......Thanks a lot! Want to be Friends? *Corp Por*...You Are Dead......





Lol that would probably grab some attention

[DoRk]

Let me start you off....


I log into Ultima Online I see Black Smiths crafting swords, I smell bakers cooking bread, OH NO IT'S MC Shitstain, AND HIS COOKY SIDEKICK, cockslapper OH NO THEY'VE PARALYZED ME, OH SHIT IM OUT OF TRAPPED POUCHES THERE IS NO GOD!!! OH WHYYY WHY DID I EVER LOG INTO THIS HORRIFIC GAME WHATEVER YOU DO JUST STAY AWAY FROM ULTIMA ONLINE SAVE YOURSELFS!!!!*Vas Ort Flam* *Corp Por....You Are Dead......oOo...An Corp......Thanks a lot! Want to be Friends? *Corp Por*...You Are Dead......

lol. That made me laugh quite hard.