As I spoke about in my Lack of Inspiration article, I have been less than inspired by the current market of gaming; specifically the MMO gaming market.  And it appears that I am far from alone in this.  Prof. Venatus recently linked an article to me that I think addresses this exact topic.

The article is over on Wolfshead Online and is titled The Emasculation of MMOs: Part 1 – How Convenience Replaced Risk.  Perhaps it was due to my current state of mind, but the article just pulled me in.  The Wolfshead starts his article with the following analogy:


Twelve starving men sat down at a table. Before them was placed a sumptuous banquet. Then one of the men protested: “I don’t like salt…”. So in order not to offend him the others agreed to remove the salt from the table. Then another man exclaimed: “I detest pepper…”. So in order not to anger him they all consented to remove the pepper from the table. Each remaining man rose in turn rose and protested yet another ingredient until there was nothing left on the table. With nothing left to eat the twelve men died of hunger.

Essentially the article goes on to argue that without a sense of risk the player of an MMO loses the feeling of accomplishment.  Sort of like going out and winning the Tour de France without really having to ride the full 21 days, or winning the Super Bowl without having to play the regular season.

I found the article to be very thought provoking. Read the rest of this entry

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