Aim For The Heart: February 2010

Why do you allow your forum users to tell your other paying customers, "If you don't like it, go play GameX instead," whenever another player complains about a feature (whether the complaint is justified or not)? Do you really think Blizzard needs that $15/month more than you do? Is it your intent to allow your more rude players to send paying customers onto other MMOs, until all that's left are fanboys who lick your boots and tell you how great you are? Because I promise you, it's hard to make rent and pay server fees with only a few hundred players paying you $15/month.

The rudest gaming forums I consistently come across are those for MMOs, and the more niche the game, the more rude the forum users. Suggestions that might make the game less confusing are met with diatribes about lazy gamers wanting an "I win" button. Comparing the MMO with another are met with sneers and the aforementioned demand the customer take their money elsewhere. Complaints about bugs are met with, "Quit QQing. It's not affecting gameplay."

Here's a shocking revelation: MMOs require customers. They require a minimum number of customers at that, assuming you want to pay your programmers and content designers and network administrators, not to mention making your rent and electricity.

Stop allowing the bullies to dominate your boards. Insist on a certain measure of respect among your players. Not every player is going to /ragequit when they get fed up. Sometimes, they'll simply unsubscribe.

Out of all the MMOs I've subscribed to, DDO is the one subscription I let lapse the quickest (2 months). I started wondering why that is. It's not because the game isn't D&D enough. It's probably the closest an MMO could actually come and still be fun. It's because the game lacks time and money sinks. By skipping those, the dearth of quest content becomes even more apparent. Every new character is going to do every single quest as every other character.

Most MMOs aren't like that. Take, for example, Lord of the Rings Online. It's impossible for a new character to do all the quests without some of them turning gray (meaning the quest gives only the bare minimum of XPs and the mobs probably don't give any). There are simply too many quests for any one character to do. Add in things like crafting, deeds (which are rewards you get for accomplishing certain activities (like killing 200 orcs in a certain area)), PvP, and non-instantaneous travel, and you have ways to waste time that don't including questing to the very end of the game.

It may sound like a bad thing from a player's perspective, but it's really not. It fleshes it out, gives you something else to do when you don't want to do quests, and provides you with enough content you're more likely to roll up alts. And most importantly for the developers, keeps you paying $15/month.

It also lacks enough money sinks. It's absolutely vital to pull money away from characters in order to control the in-game economy. Without sufficient sinks, inflation spirals out of control. DDO gives way too many magic items and doesn't provide enough stuff to waste your money on. For example, LOTRO has housing, purchasable mounts, PvP, and travel. The post-apocalyptic game we're playing now, Fallen Earth, has blackjack and slots, and I think I read they're going to work in more item decay. You also have to provide feed for your mount or gas for your vehicle. In EVE Online, ship destruction is real and permanent. You have to pay monthly rent for hangar access, and almost everything in the game is crafted, so you spend money all the time buying mats for creating everything you use.

DDO doesn't have anything except repair bills. They have a crafting system, but it's extremely rudimentary. You can't pay to unlock new bank inventory. You don't have to pay for travel. There's no housing, no mounts. My warforged monk7 has over 150,000 gp and nothing to spend money on except more questing stuff.

I don't hate DDO. I spent the Turbine points I got as a subscriber to unlock both the warforged race and the monk class as a free-to-play player. I'm sure I'll go back to the game. But after trying out so many other MMOs, I'm starting to see what they need to do to really stand up to the other MMOs out there.

First, I'm not a personal trainer, kinesiologist, or expert in fitness in any way. I'm simply someone who hated exercise for many years and managed to get started exercising and keep it going.

A big mistake many people make when they decide to workout is that they're so eager to see results they begin their routine all gung ho. They hit the gym like a maniac, doing long cardio sessions, more weights than they really should. Of course, their body lets them know how it feels about that, and they can barely move for a week. But a couple weeks pass and hey, it's not so bad. It feels like you're getting better. Your muscles are all nice and hard. You can see some definition.

And then something happens around the four week mark, give or take. It suddenly gets really hard. You feel like you can't do anything like they were doing at first. It's demotivating, unless you realize what's happening. Your muscles are suddenly all, "Hey, this is for real! This guy means it. Damn, I guess I better stop playing around and do something." That's when the real muscle building takes place. It really will get easier if you don't give up. But most people do, by this time. Exercise is taking time out of their schedule. It's hard. It's boring. They can think of a million things they'd rather be doing. So one missed day becomes two. Two becomes three. Next thing they know, they haven't been to the gym in a few weeks. And then they can't remember the last time they went.

Most exercise routines are created by fitness experts. The thing about fitness experts is, they like to exercise. That's why they got into the field. When they design starter routines, they're thinking like people who really enjoy working out. But what if you're like me, and you hated it? Couldn't stand getting sweaty. Couldn't stand muscle burn?

You get into the habit slowly.

Here's what worked for me, and it's what I recommend to people who hate exercise: fifteen minutes, five days a week. That's it. For fifteen minutes, five days a week, work out. Fifteen minutes is less than an episode of The Simpsons. This isn't going to give you the body of a runway model. It isn't going to prepare you for a marathon. Forget about looking like Dianna Agron or Mark Salling (Quinn and Puck from Glee). Bodies like that require both good genetics and very strict diet and exercise. (Seriously, it means taking your eating habits and your workout routine to a whole new level. Here's a CNN.com article on one man's journey to obtain six-pack abs).

Fifteen minutes is an amount of time everyone can fit into their schedule. It helps make exercise a habit, and right now, that's what you're going for.

Now, after a month, bump your time up to twenty. It's only another five minutes, and you've already carved out fifteen. A month later, bump that up to twenty-five. Another month, thirty. If you want to stop there, fine. Thirty minutes, five days a week is good, and look, you've been working out for four months now! The fitness experts will try to get you to one hour a day, but again, they like to work out. You're just trying not to give up.

One last thing: make yourself work out to your schedule no matter what, barring illness or injury. "I just don't feel like it," is no excuse. Neither is, "I don't have the time." Make the time. Cut out a TV show (or watch it while you exercise). Get up thirty minutes earlier, if you're an early morning person. (I'd rather cut off my toes than work out in the morning). But always, always fit that workout into your schedule, until it's so ingrained you can't imagine not doing it.

And now fourteen years later? I still don't really like working out, not the way you'd think. It still takes time from my schedule I'd rather spend doing other things (about four hours a week). But I love the results. I love that I can try harder, more intense things and not fail horrible, because of the endurance I've built up. I love when I occasionally hit a runner's high. It's as intoxicating as it sounds. I love knowing a six-block walk is nothing but a bit of time, or that I could run a 5K with little difficulty (notice I didn't say I could win a 5K; I'd be lucky not to come in last).

If you make exercise a part of your daily life, I guarantee it'll pay off in the long run.