The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Beta Testers

Anyone on this board into beta testing MMORPGs. I sign up for all of 'em that I can. I beta'd Everquest and EQ Online Adventures. Hopefully I get into WoW Beta.

It's kinda funny how many of the people only sign up to "get ahead" in the game. I actually like looking for bugs and stuff heh.

VB 6 is my life
Monday, February 2, 2004

I was a MUD addict for about six months. Everquest was designed in many ways to look like a MUD, so we have a common frame of reference.

MUDs are designed so that you play for more than four hours at a time. One class actually benefited increasingly as you stayed on longer, thus encouraging 8+ hour stays. This same class took at least thirty minutes to "get going."

It also helps if you log in once a day, to check item auctions and such.

Everquest (et al) rely on the same principle, only they receive a monthly subscription fee. With either of the above, the game is engineered so you spend a LOT of time in-game.

So. I don't agree with MMORPG's in a general sense. I think they're damaging to people's lives like marijuana is said to be--no huge ill effects, but given enough time you'll turn into a loser. With the (traditional) non-persistent RPG's, you'd play it until you reached the goal--beating the game. Then you'd quit. With the online RPG's, you're encouraged to play all the time--after all, you don't want to fall too far behind (insert_name), who is leveling up faster than you. You can spend your entire weekend playing the game, and weeknights, and for some of us, that happens.

For a sobering look at a study done specifically about Everquest, check out this survey:
http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/addiction.html - there are some startling things in there, some things you may not have thought about.

Pete
PS--So no, I'm not beta-testing anything presently.

pds
Monday, February 2, 2004

I see Everquest as Darwin in action. And I know I have an addictive personality, so my wife is under orders not to buy it for me. :-)

Philo

Philo
Monday, February 2, 2004

I've never played an MMORPG or a MUD, but as a teenager I was known to spend quite a bit of time obsessing over a riddle in one of the Zork games.

The closest I've ever come to an MMORPG is http://lotgd.net/referral.php?r=mercutio * which I click through sometimes if I'm bored and at the computer. This game doesn't have much in the way of plot or strategy, but gives me something in the background to click on while I'm waiting on something else.

Luckily, you're limited to about 10 "turns" every 12 hours (game day) so even if the game was a plot, you can't play for more than an hour or so at a time (and that hour implies that I'm doing other things at the same time and just clicking every once in a while while waiting for a response on something else I'm doing).

But the whole thing is in Beta, so I guess I am beta testing an MMORPG.

* This is a PHP port of an old BBS Door game Legend of the Red Dragon or LoRD, the source is available on http://sourceforge.net/projects/lotgd, and yes that link gives me a referral credit, which gives me some game benefits if you sign up and reach 4th level.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 2, 2004

> even if the game was a plot

should read "even if the game had a plot"

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 2, 2004

>And I know I have an addictive personality, so my wife is under orders not to buy it for me. :-)

You sound like me.

Sunday afternoons: drive to the local humongous computer store with the intention of buying a game so my husband and I can network the day away.
Get to the store, look at the games, realise I would play and play and play and….
Leave the store with money safely in wallet…

Aussie Chick
Monday, February 2, 2004

I remember LORD. Alongside Planets: The Exploration Of Space, it was one of the more amusing doors out there.

I actually still have my registration codes for them sitting around somewhere.

As far as MMORPGs go, I know better than to play them, in much the same way I know better than to go into casinos or join poker games. They would completely ruin my life.

Caliban Tiresias Darklock
Monday, February 2, 2004

"As far as MMORPGs go, I know better than to play them, in much the same way I know better than to go into casinos or join poker games. They would completely ruin my life."

Im in the same boaT. every once in a very long while I allow myself a day or two on the latest, but _never_ on my computer and never for long...

I can no longer afford to waste that kind of time....

FullNameRequired
Monday, February 2, 2004

I used to be addicted to EQ and it was destroying my life. I would play it up to 20 hrs a day. It was all I could think about. I would buy spells on ebay. My work suffered. I'd come in late or not at all. They even sent me for drug counseling -- I told them I had a heroin addiction because I was too ashamed to admit I was wasting time on a stupid computer game. My girlfriend left me. I got a new girlfriend who was a crystal addict. My apartment stank of dog shit, vomit and chemicals. I couldn't find clean clothes to wear and would steal clothes from complex's laundry room. I only ate junk food and my skin turned pasty and my hair fell out in clumps. I was fired from my job stocking shelves at the Wal Mart. With no money except social security for an 'addiction disabilty' (the 'heroin'), I could no longer afford to pay for my EQ fees. Finally I said enough is enough. But I knew that I had to have the prestige from being considered a 'magical wizard' with incredible powers.

That's when I found Joel on Software. I started in with casual remarks about important IT projects I'd managed and no one called me on it! People were impressed with my experience. When people would ask technical questions, I would google for the answers and do a cut and paste. Everyone was fooled, they thanked me for the good advise. I started to learn the stock answers and lingo enough from the other posters that before long I didn't have to google anymore. "You should have done a requirements analysis." I would advise or "Everyone knows that LOC is a useless metric! Top developers take lines away!" I would hint at my ten times greater than normal productivity. Finally I started a blog with my ideas about technology and recounting fictional experiences consulting with clients. I started to get email! People asked me if I would consider accepting a gig consulting for them, or settling down with a permanent employer for the right price. This scared me a lot initially but finally I decided it wuld be the ultimate test of what we in this world (there are many) call "Extreme Roleplaying" or "X-Questing". I forged a degree in Photoshop and made up some transcripts. I wrote impressive job histories with well-known but defunct dot-coms and I even included a couple of verifyable numbers of old bosses, which were numbers of old friends I met while everquesting, prepared to give me the ultimate tech recommendation.

No longer do I work at Wal Mart stocking shelves. Now i am a high powered project manager at a Fortune 50 company. And I owe it all to Joel on Software! Thanks guys!