I Am Called Many Things...

"Galrahn" was the bad guy everyone loved to hate, but he was always an overrated character in every game I played after UO. The tactic out of game was for "Galrahn" to attack the honor of those who had it, and belittle the pride and accomplishment of those who thrived on such emotions. The strategy was to be the guy everyone loved to hate. My clan admitted to being inferior, intentionally setting low expectations, and yet we always found unique ways of besting those who claimed to be the best regular enough to be their arch enemies, mostly because we would remind them how those enemies were defeated and humiliated by us "newbies."

MysticSky was a Spellsinger. With the best equipment possible in the game she was also armed with talented friends who epitomized the concept of teammates, people who possessed extraordinary skills, and she manipulated her world to her advantage. There was no reason why she was successful other than the organizational capabilities and excellent cooperative nature of my clan. We also had tools available that no one else did, we had a reputation with everyone that worked to our advantage, and the Chinese farmers (Chinese gamers who get paid to collect game items to be sold to other players for cash) loved us, worked with us, and in some cases worked for us. Our name was chosen to mock our enemies, we used a red handicap symbol as our badge of mockery until that was removed by the sensitivity police, and no level of offense against the enemy was "too far" from our perspective. Generating a human reaction was the strategy. We called ourselves "Non Factors" although everyone in each alliance knew we were the deciding factor in competition. To highlight my role, Galrahn would sign his messages "Minister of Propaganda, I Am Called Many Things..."

With battlefields of hundreds on each side, we consistently stood out as the decisive force in deciding victory in game play, and the reason why the alliance we would be apart of dominated the castles. Galrahn's role in the clan was the Propaganda Minister, but names are part of deception. I had an economic earning role for the clan, and we were widely known and respected as the richest clan on our server. It was my job to make sure the enemy did exactly what we wanted them to do, so we could capitalize economically on it. MysticSky's role was that of a killer, and she was very good at it. In effect, our entire clan would talk trash, yet Galrahn was the good cop among the Army of bad trash talking cops. It was said on more than one occasion that Galrahn was the only person who could insult you and make you believe the insult was true. In a world of competition, that is a high compliment.

I always played a woman character when I played the role of evil. Women who have played in virtual worlds know why. To be sexy is to be seductive, and to be seductive is to be distracting, and to be distracting is to take the advantage.

For two weeks Galrahn would spend time insulting the honor of the most honorable, attacking the pride and courage of the most proud and most courageous competitors of the game, not for spite, but rather as strategy. At the end of the two weeks there would be a castle raid, essentially a bi-weekly event where virtually every player in the game logs on to attack a castle. I would position a weak character in the highest possible areas of traffic, wearing clothes that gave the impression Galrahn was extremely strong (deception is an art), and I would talk my game. The strategy was simple, hiding behind the next curve or over the hill would be my clan, and sure enough dozens and dozens of volunteers would run up and take a swipe at loudmouth Galrahn. Galrahn was intentionally weak, so Galrahn would always die.

Two seconds later there would be a slaughter of the person who murdered Galrahn. The mechanics of the game made murders legal targets for the killing. Upon death the murderer would almost always drop their expensive armor or weapons, and my clan would collect the profit. We would continue this exercise for hours, luring the next "Galrahn hater" to their impending doom, simply because the ego of a PvP virtual world gamer is larger than an aircraft carrier. We exploited the mechanics of the game and the tendencies of human beings for profit, and we made great money. We did something like this everyday for 2 years. Almost all of the time people would know they were being lured into a trap, and yet by exploiting the human element, we never had trouble being effective. Some of us made a fortune. You see, the person who just lost their rare mace was now on the market for a mace, and we would have that rare item for sale in town within minutes. They would buy it, or someone else would, and we would sell the adena (currency) we made from our endeavors to a Real Money Traders (RMT) for dollars.

It would get to the point I would leave a message telling our enemies not to do something (for example not to bother a group of outcast Chinese farmers in a specific area) on Saturday morning, go out for long beer lunch, and come home to find out our enemies had been doing exactly what we told them not to do all day long. It never occurred to any of them they were doing exactly what we wanted them to do. So by late Saturday night, we would approach these outcast Chinese farmers, sympathize with their bad day, help them out, and turn them into allies. The enemy entered the day with the expectation we were friends with those they were killing, but it was thanks to their killing we had new friends by nightfall. To be evil in a virtual world is to exploit human behavior for your own gains, it really is that simple.

If you have read this far and don't understand what I'm talking about, it means you have a social life. If you have read this far and kind of get it, it means you understand what it means to live in a virtual world and have a second life. The attention span of human beings is limited, the real world is sometimes too real, and for some the virtual world becomes a real world governed by the mechanics of any specific game. The media is falling over itself observing the phenomenon of virtual worlds, observing the money, and pondering the possibilities. There is value in virtual worlds, but it is often overblown.

Here is a tip from someone who paid for Law School (my wifes) in part because of virtual gaming. The most successful studies observe human behavior (that link is a great read!), the most successful gamers treat it as a job, and the most successful players in any game push the development of the AI by exploiting its limitations. If virtual worlds is your career, you rarely play the game as intended, if at all, it is the sacrifice of success in gaming.

If one is evil, it doesn't mean you don't find friends, after all, you collectively share your evil reputation, and you become dependent upon one another. The dependency requirements for evil characters, when it is shared among good people, builds absolute trust and a requirement for teamwork to be successful. Do you see the human elements? There is tremendous value for the individuals involved when all aspects of a clan require loyalty to one another. Groups online are often built on lesser substance, and those gamers tend to find betrayal in such communities.

Virtual worlds are evolving, but understanding that evolution means understanding the past and the present, as to not get confused by what is real and what is virtual. Second-Life is not the beginning of something new, it is a new way to do something. Real Money Trading (RMT) in virtual worlds used to be the root of all evil in gaming, some of my old friends were pioneers in a way of life that a rare few thrived among, and the vast majority hated. Today integrated RMT and acceptance of RMT is a sign of maturity and progress.

The evolution will continue, but expectations of the future value are too high. The popularity of virtual world gaming by the masses is nothing more than the evolution of the hobby industry, though it is being sold as something more. When the final tally is taken, for the vast majority of gamers virtual world productivity is the absence of physical world productivity. That reality will always be a limitation.

Hat Tip: Lex and Thomas Barnett, each with their own observations of game theory and virtual worlds.