Virtual Reality

EverQuest

Virtual reality is a hot topic in movies, TV and modern fiction. The day when we all plug in and live fantasy lives in a fantasy reality provided by computer simulation. While the total immersion VR which is seen in movies and TV shows does not yet exist, increasingly people are logging on and living in a fantasy world created by materials available through cyberspace. There is more free pornography online than anyone could download in a lifetime, and people pay billions every year for access to what is not free. Online gaming is big, and one of the biggest is EverQuest which provides a fairly advanced virtual reality environment.

It is worth noting that I am not new to the gaming field. I began playing chess when I was around 6 years old. I played a wide variety of games while growing up. This included many of the Avalon Hill war games, many of the bookshelf games like Stocks and Bonds and Acquire, and a large variety of other tabletop games. I read the Lord of the Rings, and eventually played Dungeons and Dragons for several years. The joining forms for EQ ask if the subscriber is a game designer. I answered no to this question when I subscribed because I assumed that it was intended to discover if the subscriber had a commercial or professional interest in EQ. Since I have never made a dime designing games I decided it did not apply to me.

Anyone who has spent that much time gaming becomes at least an amateur game designer. In the tabletop war games this generally shows up in creating your own scenarios or rewriting details of professionally published games where your particular expertise or assumed expertise convinces you they are in error. In D&D for the first several years it existed the GM had to design and build an entire world from the ground up with only general guidance from the books. No early D&D GM could not be a game designer. It was years before the AD&D modules started coming out. During this period I wrote a column in a gaming publication “The Judges Guild Journal” called “Notes from TurtleDragon Castle.” I was paid with credit on products from their company.

The first year or two (1995 or 1996, EverQuest was released in 1999) after I retired from the Army I hooked up with a C++ programmer writing programs for the Excalibur Windows GUI BBS environment. This software was developed by the Excalibur company and was very popular about 5 or 6 years ago. Excalibur seems to have since closed shop but several Excalibur Windows BBS systems are still online and accessible through the internet. I was interested in creating an online game for the Windows environment and my programming partner was interested in creating products for the system. We collaborated for about a year on a programming language written to operate within the BBS system which would allow game designers to create D&D style RPGs using the GUI capabilities of the Excalibur BBS environment. My part of the project was to take the language which Roberto developed and use it to write an entire online RPG with graphics, sound effects, combat simulation, etc. The name of the game I designed was StarSwept Castle. I know that a few people did download it and run it on their BBS’s because I got feedback from them. I hoped to make money selling expansions to the original game environment which was given away free. That never worked out. However, I have designed an entire online world similar in principle and purpose to EQ with similar character classes, selections of monsters, and other basic issues. EQ is so similar to my game in many respects that if I were paranoid I could accuse them of ripping me off. A huge body of common knowledge has developed in the gaming design field over the years and in every instance where EQ features the same principles of design that my game did, I am aware of other games which used the same principles before I wrote my own game design.

Anti-EQ people may assume that this makes me prejudiced in favor of my fellow RPG online gaming people. Pro-EQ people may assume that I am prejudiced against them because I tried and failed to be successful in the field. It does show that I know a little about the field. Prior to writing this book I played no games at all and spent about three years reading as described in the foreword to the book.

While writing this book I ran across a box full of computer games on sale second hand and bought them to relax with. My chiropractor noticed the difference in me in my monthly visit. I had noticeably relaxed since my last visit. I thought about it and decided to go ahead and subscribe to EverQuest. This time when I visited my chiropractor I was more tense than before. I had started having cramps in my feet while sleeping from tension in the game. My chiropractor had a chuckle about this saying that different people showed tension in different ways. EverQuest was not relaxing me, if anything, it was making work on this book seem peaceful and relaxing by contrast.

This shows how emotionally intense the online environment in EverQuest can be. That kind of intensity can be addictive. There are a number of websites devoted to EverQuest and a number of websites devoted to extolling the evils of EverQuest. It is the flagship of addictive online games which destroy peoples lives. Much as “The Anarchist Cookbook” is the flagship of online books which aid terrorism. Well, as noted in the discussion of gun control and the right to keep and bear arms, “The Anarchist Cookbook” cannot be accessed online, despite being the flagship of online handbooks of terrorism. Similarly the hype about EverQuest is exaggerated. Hype is always exaggerated because that is what sells, whether you are selling newspapers, magazines, or political agendas, hype is what sells. http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,48479,00.html is an interesting column on the subject of people condemning EQ.

Up until the invention of the internet, TV got all the bad press that EQ and cyberspace are getting today. The US was becoming a nation of mindless zombie couch potatoes sitting and watching TV endlessly without ever having a thought of their own. Consider how different EQ is from TV. You just sit and passively watch TV. You actively participate in EQ. In TV you never have to make a decision or have a thought. In EQ you have to be constantly on your toes or some monster will kill and eat you or your best friends.

EQ makes demands on people that TV simply does not make. You cannot eat in excess or drink in excess while playing EQ, because when the action goes down you have to be there, both hands on the keyboard moving and fighting and firing off spells. It is tough to find time to grab a quick bite to eat when playing EQ. Leaving the keyboard for long enough to grab a sandwich or even a beer may mean the difference between life and death for your character or others who are counting on you. An EQ player is more likely to be skinny and hyper than fat and slothful.

It is worth introducing some humor into this by referencing an editorial by Daniel E. Koshland which appeared in Science magazine 30 Nov 1990 Vol. 250, 4985.

The editorial is a parody of the general idea of what addiction is.

This definition may sum up most of the hue and cry over EQ being addictive. Family members are jealous because their spouses are playing EQ instead of flattering them. There are also websites for football widows, racing widows, and fishing widows. There was recently a hit country and western song about a man who preferred fishing to spending time at home with his wife. Anything which inspires jealousy is construed as an addiction and morally condemned.

Behaviors boil down to a simple question. Does your brain generate feel good drugs when you do x? If it does then you will tend to want to do x again. If it does not then you will tend to not want to do x again. Everybody who has ever dedicated their life to anything has been an addict. The parody of scientists being addicts referenced above is only one of many. Marriage is a choice of addictions. Men become addicted to their wives for a number of reasons. Sex, food, comfort, etc. Women are traditionally jealous of anything which is likely to get men addicted to something else. Other women top the list, but the job, racing, all sports, all outdoor activities; every time a man chooses to spend time doing something else than spending time with his wife, a large number of women become jealous.

Men are frequently the same way. Recently our guild master in EQ quit to start a family with her husband. There is a balance in relationships. Allowing your partner enough room for their own interests, hopefully finding interests you share in common, or attempting to lock them up and throw away the key. Montaigne is quoted on this issue in the section of this book on Why Marriage was Invented.

When does a strong passion for something stop being a benefit and become a negative. Basketball is physically addictive, weightlifting is physically addictive, even chess playing is physically addictive in a chemical sense. Chess has many of the elements of EverQuest. Most champion chess players are certainly addicts in the sense that EQ players are addicts.

You could not name any world class performer in music, art, science, athletics or any other endeavor who was not an addict to their chosen profession. It takes the kind of passionate commitment which is called addiction to excel at anything. Without that edge other people who have it will defeat you.

There is a continuum here. Addiction which creates greatness to addiction which creates failure, and in the middle a sort of passionate enjoyment of something which does not effect success or failure in daily life much at all. The term addiction is used to condemn all of these points in the continuum as morally wrong regardless of any real results the ‘addiction’ produces. To condemn a behavior because you label it as morally wrong without regard for its real results is religious extremism and fanaticism. Whether it masquerades as science and uses terms like addiction or not.

If people who simply think that other people are spending too much time doing something can call it addiction and get it morally condemned then they can get the state to pass laws to outlaw that something for the poor addicts own good. This is the essence of violation of separation of church and state as discussed in the section of this book on that topic. The words addict and addiction are catchwords of the new religious fundamentalism of the Church of Secular Humanism of the Shining Path of Political Correctness.

Addiction works by emulating the chemical signals that make us feel good. This emulation can be done in two ways. You can introduce an alien substance into the bloodstream which is chemically similar to the natural feel good drugs which our brains and bodies produce. This kind of addiction is what is produced by drugs like cocaine, heroine, marijuana, etc. You can provide a stimulus which causes the body to produce the feel good drugs naturally. This is the kind of addiction which sports, music, intellectual pursuits, social success, reading, fishing, hunting and EQ produce.

Of these two classes of addiction it is likely that for the majority of people the second class, the class of natural highs is healthier than the first class. Thus EQ is healthier than alcohol, nicotine, or MacDonalds. EQ is addictive for exactly the same reasons that basketball either played or watched is addictive. You have the struggle for success, the chance for the agony of defeat or the thrill of victory. There is social interaction with other players, mostly where you depend on each other with your simulated lives at stake.

In order for a virtual reality environment to successfully stimulate the natural generation of feel good chemicals, it has to successfully simulate the kind of stimuli which would have produced these drugs in a state of nature. This means that in order for Virtual reality to work as a substitute for reality it has to successfully emulate reality. Nature shaped us, and our nature shapes the virtual realities which we create. A world filled with beautiful women, huge strong men, spell casting wizards and flame breathing dragons may not seem natural or realistic, but in an emotional stimulus generating way, it has to be or it will fail to be addictive. People will not come back for more. This means that in EverQuest as in other things which successfully touch human nature, there are lessons to be learned.

The use of popular culture in academic institutions as teaching tools is frequently ridiculed. The teaching of Shakespeare in academic institutions is not. Shakespeare is the essence of pop culture. Shakespeare wrote for the common man. His plays are full of dirty jokes, low humor, puns, and characteristically mock minor bureaucrats and authority figures like police. It is possible to quote Shakespeare to illustrate the realities of human nature because he successfully touched human nature. Very few great works of fiction have survived the ages that were not the most popular of pop culture in their time. Homer, the Greek Plays, Virgil, etc. all pop culture. Classical Music, Opera, etc. all pop culture. The best of the pop culture of yesterday becomes the classics of today, and the best of our pop culture today will be the classics of our grandchildren. The best is the best because it manages to resonate strongly with the basics of human nature which do not change from age to age. Really good pop culture has an ageless appeal once you learn enough to understand it. Pop culture effectively reflects human nature, and anything that effectively reflects human nature can be used to teach lessons about human nature. The Temple of Delphi in Ancient Greece had the words “Know Thyself” engraved on its walls. Socrates is accounted among the wisest of men because he followed this dictum and taught others to enquire into themselves. The proper study of mankind is man and pop culture reflects human nature back to us to study.

EverQuest is very successful at doing this. It follows therefore that EQ can be used to teach lessons about human nature. EQ is not intended as a teaching or educational tool, any more than Shakespeare is intended to provide an arsenal of quotes to teach morality and ethics. Role playing is a very powerful educational tool, and a role playing game which touches people enough to keep them coming back for more is inevitably a powerful educational tool. It can be used, regardless of its intended purpose to teach lessons about human nature. EverQuest inadvertently allows for teaching many lessons about life, because it imitates life.

EverQuest is not an easy game. Everything is difficult frequently painfully so. People do come back for more. Yet, if you keep at it, triumph is inevitable. You climb a seemingly endless ladder of ability becoming more and more powerful at every rung. On the other hand, at every rung, the ladder above you becomes more visible and the amount of power you have acquired becomes less impressive. One lesson is that you value what you earn more than what you are given. The difficulty of success makes achievement worth more. The agony of defeat makes the thrill of victory more thrilling. This reflects the fundamental natural law underlying our Constitutional guarantees of Due Process, liberty, the right to property, and Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” there must be a relationship between action and result.

In ancient Sparta, the Spartans would force Helots to become drunk in front of the young Spartans to teach them the evils of alcohol, how it made you behave contemptibly in front of others. Later political philosophers condemned this practice as cruel but thought that such lessons should be taught. EverQuest allows for a simulated drunkenness without using any alcohol. Your graphics get all weird and you stagger around. It is weird, disorienting, and even a bit nauseating to get drunk in EverQuest because of the way the graphics work. It is funny to be at a party and watch everyone else staggering around. It allows a computer simulation of the lesson the Spartans taught their children by forcing Helots to get drunk. It was done for amusement and is fun, but the potential for learning is there. In the game a pc’s attributes decrease the more he drinks. This means that his ability to fight and defend himself also decrease. Drinking and fighting are as suicidal in EQ as drinking and driving are in the real world. EQ can teach the dangers of drinking and then attempting to do other demanding tasks like driving in a simulated environment.

Racism and prejudice are facts of history. They show up in the root literature which inspires the EverQuest world. In “The Lord of the Rings”, Elves and Dwarves did not trust or like each other. Elves had a low opinion of humanity. This is built into EverQuest in a number of ways. Erudines will not serve Frogloks and Dwarves will not serve Erudines. It can be a shocking experience to walk into a store and be refused service because of your race. This is a role playing game and role playing is a powerful teaching tool. This can teach the impact of racism and rejection in a way that textbooks cannot. Young people playing EQ can experience first hand what it feels like to be discriminated against. When their PC’s walk into a bar or store and the clerk will not serve them they can understand how bad discrimination really is, in a personal way that textbooks cannot convey. Blacks will applaud this, but they can also learn the difference between the discrimination their fathers faced and the world they live in today and see how much of the struggle for equal rights has actually been won.

The world of EQ makes it possible to take schoolchildren on a virtual field trip where they can experience a world where racial prejudice exists and they are discriminated against because of their race. It provides a learning opportunity, a teaching method, which only this kind of role playing environment can.

The fundamentals of political correctness have been in our society for a long time. Some of them are implemented in EQ. Gender equality is one of these. Female pc’s in EQ are just as physically strong, or just as intelligent, as male pc’s in the game. A female warrior from Halas is much stronger physically than a male spell caster from Erudine. A female warrior from Halas is much stronger physically than a male warrior from Qeynos. Warriors are always stronger than spell casters. This can produce amusing gender role reversals where the woman is the one rushing into physical combat to protect the physically delicate male spell casters from the flesh rending monsters. Interestingly, despite this absolute real equality between the capabilities of female and male characters in the game, some people maintain that sex based stereotypes still exist in the game. Females are still stereotyped as being less capable physically and mentally and treated as needing guidance and help by the male characters. This despite the fact that many of the female characters in the game are played by men. About 84% of the players are men and there are a lot of female characters. Most players play a female character part of the time.

http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/genderbend.html documents this phenomenon in detail. According to their figures about 48% of the time that you meet a female character in the game that character is played by a male. Different reasons are given for this, the second most common is graphics. Female characters are just more fun to look at than male characters. This would have to be the reason I would pick for making a female character. It is interesting to note that women are more disturbed by men playing women than men are by women playing men. I have observed this effect myself when telling women that the female character I was playing was really a man. It is also worth noting that female players are far more likely than male players to consider EQ to be the best computer game they have ever played. It should be noted that women got significantly more satisfaction than men from killing monsters in the game. See Kipling’s poem, “The Female of the Species” in the section of this book on Black Issues. It is also worth noting that female players are far more likely than male players to feel that there are valuable lessons to be learned from the game. Though the majority of EQ players think it is the best game they have played and believe that it teaches valuable lessons.

Humans are Social Animals. Aristotle called them Political Animals. Social animals band together for survival because they need each other to survive. EverQuest successfully recreates this element of our primitive natural environment. It is very difficult to survive alone in EQ. Discussions of which character types work best as solo characters are posted on various websites about the game. In the game you need other players to team with in a very simple life or death manner. This promotes teamwork and social skills. It forces you to try to be fair and just in dealing with others, because having others willing to work with you is critically important to success in the game. So EQ can promote the development of social skills and understanding the needs of others as well as your own. You may desperately want that loot from the defeated foe for your own expenses. The “Tank” or armored warrior also needs it to buy the best armor he can get. If he doesn’t improve his armor, bigger monsters will rip through him like a tin can and kill you. The Wizard also needs it to buy better spells, if he doesn’t get better spells, you won’t have the firepower to kill the next tougher level monsters and you will die. If they get the feeling that you are a ‘ninja looter’ they will refuse to play with you in the future, and you will die. A certain degree of fairness and thought about what other people need is necessary for good teamwork and good teamwork is essential to success in EQ. Team loyalty develops very strongly in EQ even when you play with a different team every game, as this citation shows.

“Healing Dilemma

EQ can promote understanding of teamwork in other ways because it takes diversity of talent and abilities for a team to succeed. You need a ‘tank’ or specialist in armed combat to hold the monsters at bay. You need spell casters to hit them with firepower to take them down. You need a healer to heal the tank and you when you get injured. A ranger is a wonderful asset to the group because of his ability to assess the area and spot monsters around you. Each class brings its own special abilities to the mix and each contributes in a different way. This can lead to a better more mature understanding of how teams work and how each person contributes differently to a successful operation.

EQ can teach important lessons about realism and realistically assessing goals and taking reasonable measures to achieve them. There is an enormous range of power in EQ, and while there are monsters you can kill there are others that you cannot. EQ provides a tool to help with this assessment. The consider or ‘con’ function gives you a reading on potential targets; green, light blue, dark blue, white, yellow, and red. Theoretically white is an equal fight, red will almost always kill you, and you can generally kill anything dark blue or below. You only get experience points and advance in the game for light blue and above. The tougher the enemy the larger the reward. On one hand, you don’t make progress doing things which are too easy. On the other hand, if you are not realistic and try to fight 3 Dark blue targets at the same time, you die. If you take on a white target and win, you will be so badly injured that a green coming along a few minutes later will kill you. If you start to think you are a god and try taking on red targets you will die. The temptation to go for the ‘big’ kills and make levels quick is very real, and it tends to get you killed with regularity. Since you lose xp after the 11^th level when you get killed, you can end up losing more than you gain with this kind of strategy. Something like get rich quick schemes in real life. This system teaches realistic assessment of goals. It teaches that a lot of little steps gets you to your goal faster and much more reliably than a single big step. It teaches that doing things which are not challenging does not bring any reward because you get no experience points and no advancement for green targets. It also teaches you that the world is not always what it seems. The ‘con’ system is not always reliable and some monsters which ‘con’ blue should be red and you get killed anyway.

A group can change this dynamic considerably. A group can generally take on targets up to yellow. Occasionally with good intel about how strong a red target is, a group can select and kill a few reds one at a time. Red can cover anything from something a couple of levels higher than you to something 20 or 30 levels higher than you. A group can concentrate fire and kill an enemy before it does too much damage allowing you to take on several at once, or kill one and then take on another in a short period of time. All impossible without a combat team you can rely on. This reinforces the other elements of the game which make teamwork essential, but assessment of challenge remains as necessary for a group as for an individual or ‘solo’ player.

‘Pulling’ is a very macho enterprise. One person leaves the group and seeks out a monster. He attacks the monster and gets it to attack him. Then he runs back to the group and stops to fight it. It tends to concentrate its attack on him, while the group concentrates fire on it. This is a standard hunting technique in EverQuest and the competition for the macho position of puller is intense. It is very dangerous to have more than one person trying to pull at the same time. There is always the danger that the puller will accidentally pull multiple monsters. If two people pull at the same time and a group of five or six has to fight 5 or 6 monsters at the same time, someone will die, frequently everyone dies. In addition a large number of monsters seem to be attracted to combat and will come to the sound of battle and attack you. Others just wandering by will suddenly charge and attack, generally the weakest most wounded member of the team, like sharks smelling blood. Add these background risks up and a rivalry between two people to pull can be deadly. The environment can teach important lessons about teamwork, and the importance of having a single leader.

Thus, EQ can provide a role-playing or training environment to teach principles useful in other milieus such as business or the military. There is a tendency to look only at the surface of phenomena such as EQ and not look at their potential as virtual reality environments. The surface of EQ, a world of wizards, goblins, dragons, fair ladies and valiant warriors can mislead people into not examining the system and technology and potential it represents.

EQ as a business resource could provide a very cost effective means of arranging virtual conferences for any organization with members geographically scattered, or even for local organizations where some members need to remain home for some reason, such as child care for example. EQ has a large variety of channels for talking. They range from general channels encompassing an entire zone to group channel holding at most 6 persons. The raid channel allows for large numbers of people to be in communication with each other without being heard by others in the game. A business, or union, or PTA, or any other kind of organization could use EQ as a cheap cost effective means of arranging virtual conferences. The members could log on from almost anywhere in the world, congregate in a given zone and join a group for small conferences or raid for large conferences and discuss their business. Cost would be about 10 dollars per participant per month. It is unlikely that other forms of virtual conferencing are this cost effective. By creating a viable VR environment, EQ has created a resource which can be exploited for any number of potential uses, independent of fantasy combat against monsters. Business owners, military organizations, unions, and other groups interested in providing a cost effective means of meeting and discussing issues, where the members can participate at their convenience from almost anywhere should realize this.

The perspicacious or paranoid reader will have realized that this potential in EQ can be exploited for evil as well as for good. If I were a terrorist mastermind looking for a means of coordinating a global terrorist network, EQ is a perfect tool. I could form a guild in EQ limited to members of my terrorist organization. I would choose key locations in EQ such as Kael Drakkal, Neriak, and other points as code words to represent the US, Washington, etc. Groups in the raid would be terrorist teams. An entire terrorist operation could be planned in detail in an environment where the conversation was typical and not at all unusual. Planning military strikes on targets is what EQ raids are all about. One more such discussion would almost certainly go unnoticed. This is hiding in plain sight.

It gets better or worse though. EQ has an automatic cipher or code system which is easily invoked to make private conversations even more private. EQ simulates a number of different languages. If two people designate a conversation to be in Elvish, or Dwarvish, or Dragon, then other people who do not know that language only receive a randomly garbled string of letters when listening in. Our hypothetical terrorist guild could have all its members become expert in an ancient or rarely used tongue like Gnoll, Combine, or old Erudian, and EQ software might automatically encode all their conversations adding one more layer of operational security. Detecting terrorist operations planned in an EQ style VR environment is a nightmare which modern security authorities must learn to deal with. Everything is dangerous in the hands of dangerous people. This is not a criticism of EQ, merely a discussion of the potential of VR environments. If I can think of using EQ this way, then someone else can as well, and the issue is one that must be addressed. This also raises up the nightmare, to Libertarian minded people, of KGB and CIA agents infiltrating EQ Guilds to look for secret terrorist groups. (Not being one to turn down extra cash for playing a game, if you want to pay me a thousand dollars a month or so to keep an eye out for suspicious things, please contact me.)

EQ can teach lessons about creativity and working to accomplish goals. EQ has a number of quests. These begin with newbie armor quests. In these quests the new player engages in a kind of scavenger hunt to locate a list of ingredients. They then follow detailed instructions to combine the ingredients to produce a final product. When this is achieved the message “You have created something new!” is displayed, and a piece of magical armor appears on the players cursor. The player can then put it on and admire his or her character in the graphic display. Some of the trickier elements of the quests are outlined in the instruction manuals others are not. They are frequently irritating and sometimes doing everything according to the directions does not always seem to work. Once you get it right, though, you get the payoff. Parents should spend a month or two playing an EQ player up through the first ten levels and doing the newbie armor quests so they can provide help and guidance to children. Otherwise I suspect the frustration factor might be a bit too much.

EQ has a wide variety of skills and none of them develop without practice. You only get good at what you work at. This requires a division of time and labor. If you are idle in EQ for some reason or other you can frequently find a skill to develop. If waiting at a dock for a boat you can practice swimming. If sitting waiting for a monster to appear you can practice a foreign language with another character who knows it. You can spend the time making arrows to develop your skill as a fletcher, or many other possible things. (One problem here is sharpening weapons. In EQ you have to go to town and use a forge to use a sharpening stone to sharpen a rusty weapon. This is unrealistic, and it is bad role playing. One of the good role playing elements of EQ is the way in which when game pace slows and players must take a break, the warriors break out their fletching kits and start making arrows. Both because they need arrows to pull monsters, and because they want to build their fletching skills. It adds a kind of reality to the game. It adds to the atmosphere. Similarly there should be sword sharpening kits which can be easily carried and used to sharpen weapon, or possibly the sharpening function could be incorporated in fletching kits instead of forges. Hit and damage bonuses should be temporarily given to sharpened weapons according to the skill of the warrior who did the work, just as in Japan Samurai would take their blades to master craftsmen to have them sharpened.)

This can be used to teach useful time management, the importance of using time wisely, how expertise is developed, the necessity of following directions, and that sometimes, no matter how well you do something stuff just goes wrong and you have to get up and try again. The reward is fairly immediate a message appears in blue letters in the chat windows saying, “You are better at (blank) your skill is now (X)“ so you can see your character improve. This immediate payback is an important element of training environments. It varies from skill to skill with some developing more rapidly than others. All of these are valuable lessons to learn. Many are traditionally taught through mediums like Aesop’s Fables or fairy tales, environments not to different from the fantasy environment of EQ. EQ is not intended as a teaching tool, but it can be used as one.

Like real life EQ provides a variety of different activities and goals, and because of its complexity it provides opportunities for seeking goals not specifically designed into it. A variety of goals and their importance to players is presented at http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/metagame.html. Gaining a level, the most obvious game goal rates highest with players, but crafting a complex trade skill item and completing quests are very close to the same level in importance to players.

EQ provides lessons in economics and budgeting. You make money by working at the job of hunting and killing monsters. You spend money on armor, food, water, supplies, magical spells, etc. This required budgeting and other financial skills.

Players can also sell directly to other players in game. There is a special chat channel for this and various areas see a lot of activity here. Players can learn skills and make things for sale or they can sell the products of their hunting to other players. EQ provides a bazaar in which you can set up a sort of virtual reality store to sell the products which you make or acquire in your adventures. They can also sell their services to help other players get specific items. Enchanters can sell spell buffs, rangers and other trackers can sell their service as trackers, etc. There are lessons to be learned here about how people react to sales offers, competitive pricing, supply and demand, etc.

There is a danger here for people too interested in or addicted to EQ, the tendency to spend real money on imaginary things from the EQ universe. This falls into two categories, game expansions provided by the EQ people themselves, or game items sold by other players. Game expansions are a relatively limited expense and not likely to be significant. Purchasing imaginary goods from the EQ universe with real money from the real world is another matter. Platinum pieces in EQ sell for about 2 cents apiece on the Stromm server section at mysupersales.com. On the Sullon Zek server section they sell for about 350 platinum pieces to the dollar, or less than 1/3^rd of a cent apiece. Since I wrote this the people selling platinum have standardized the price across servers. Not that different from many third world currencies. Other items can be bought for real cash and the prices vary from server to server with availability of items and money. It costs real money to move items from server to server creating a trade barrier between servers. Someone addicted to EQ might spend thousands of dollars buying stuff they had not won legitimately in the game with real money.

Frequently pc’s or avatars as they are called sell for thousands of dollars, and their accumulation of cash and equipment for similar sums on retail outlets like e-bay. If you can afford to spend your money that way, then I suppose that you can. The people buying these characters are probably not the addicts to the game but the wealthy of the real world who see EQ as a diversion and want to use their money to start with a platinum spoon in their mouths. It seems doubtful that a 51st level character played by someone who did not spend the months needed to play up to that level would have the understanding and ability to play a character well. Each character class has a complex set of skills and abilities. At the 20^th level or so, a mage may have almost that many pages of spells in his spell books. Each spell has a specific use, and a specific kind of situation which requires it. Operating a character requires more than just the powers and abilities of the character it requires an acquired expertise in the use and application of those powers and abilities. You cannot buy this kind of expertise, you have to spend the game time to develop it.

A lot of people seem to do this kind of thing. A lot of relatively new characters with pricey magic weapons and armor seem to wander around the game. Mostly they are players with previous experience who had very high level pc’s and carried some advantages from those pc’s to their new characters. There is a temptation to budget a bit of real money to buy plats or magic items so that you can give your pc a boost. This feels dishonest. To buy an advantage in a game instead of earning it feels like cheating, it may be legal, but it is wrong feeling and would detract from the real satisfaction of getting that stuff yourself through your own efforts. It is a little bit like cheating at solitaire, what is the point? People who have played the game awhile and who have already done all the basic stuff probably don’t feel this way. As I reread this it is worth noting that I have two characters above level 51. One of the things that you miss is all the parts of the game you did not experience at a level of play which was appropriate to that area. It is a huge world, and you cannot see it all in one ‘lifetime’. You really need to start characters in different cities and work them up to experience the different areas and zones the way they were meant to be experienced. Buying a high level character, or power leveling a character denies you about 75% of the game experience. If you want to experience the game, you should take your time and bring a new character up from the bottom. There is a lesson here about the cost of short-cuts, and doing things the ‘easy’ way.

None of these possible educational benefits of EQ are intentional. They are a side-effect of the fact that it reflects human nature sufficiently to be a successful form of mass entertainment. Still they exist, lessons can be learned and taught from and with EQ.

There are other benefits to EQ than its possible use in education. It has financial benefits for those on a fixed income. It is an economical form of entertainment. EQ costs less than ten dollars a month if you buy a years subscription, my cable TV subscription which is discounted as part of a package deal costs 29.51 a month including taxes. EQ is roughly one third the cost and far more engrossing because of the very personal involvement.

There are additional costs you have to pay. You need internet access, and if you did not have that before getting EQ you might justly count that expense as part of the cost of EQ. My internet access is through a cable modem, a premium service around 40 dollars a month. Normal internet access is closer to 20 dollars a month. This makes EQ cost about 30 dollars a month or roughly the same as cable and you get internet access as a free bonus with it. That is if you look at internet access as part of the cost of EQ. This makes EQ a very cost effective form of entertainment for people on fixed incomes. People playing EQ can go on safari in many different lands hunting many different kinds of big game, meeting and teaming up with many different people for pennies a day.

There is a financial side effect to EQ that is a direct result of its being engrossing or addictive. The more time you spend playing EQ the less time you have to spend money in the real world. The fewer hours you spend shopping the less money you spend. I began writing my book in January and began playing EQ in July. From January to July I spent three thousand and ninety three dollars more money than I made. From July to August I spent 120 dollars less than I made. I averaged spending 515 dollars more than I made for the six months from January to June, and I spent 120 dollars less than I made in the first month I played EQ. So I spent 635 dollars less the month I played EQ than the other months of the year. I had the money saved up and was not worrying about it during any of that period. When I took a year off to write this book, I had the money in the bank to continue spending at roughly the same level I did while employed full time. The difference is the degree to which EQ absorbed my time and interest and prevented me from making impulse purchases which I could, in a sense, afford, but did not really need. While my case is exceptional because I was budgeted to spend more than I made on a monthly basis, it is probable that most people will see a net savings from playing EQ.

You can go shopping with imaginary money for imaginary things. An irony here is that you can frequently do more with the imaginary things you purchase in EQ than you can with the real things you purchase in the real world for real money. A magical sword in EQ will actually let you do things in EQ and impress or help your friends in EQ. A sword or gun or new pair of shoes purchased in the real world will not accomplish nearly as much most of the time. A great deal of what we spend money on in the real world is about the experience of buying and getting. The satisfaction of actually acquiring new things. How many power tools sit on shelves unused year after year, or pairs of shoes sit in closets after being worn only once or twice. You will find yourself worrying about how to buy imaginary things with imaginary money in EQ rather than worrying about buying a new wardrobe or furniture or car in the real world with real money. Instead of cluttering your house up with boxes and boxes of treasures you have accumulated in flea markets you will be looking for that next magic sword or amulet in EQ.

Making a few hundred (or thousand, or tens of thousands at much higher levels) plats in EQ and going on a shopping spree hunting through the various merchants and pc’s selling stuff, to find bargains is just as much fun as a real shopping spree in the real world, hunting through flea markets for bargains, but you don’t spend real money. The more time you spend doing things like this in EQ the less time you have to spend real money in the real world. (Husbands will now all go out and buy their wives a years subscription to the game.)

EQ could be very useful as a form of budgeting entertainment for people on a fixed income. As a gift for an elderly relative on a fixed income, it might be a very good thing. While a lot of the people playing EQ are kids a fair number are grandmothers and retirees.

EQ is primarily a hunting, combat game. Mostly it is hunting. This can take several forms depending on the character class you play, the area you are in, the goals which you have. Deer blinds and similar setups are popular in real world hunting. Deer and other game animals show up at predicable spots because of terrain or food supply and hunters wait there for them to show. Monsters in EQ spawn at predictable spots and move in manners which can be learned by observation. Much of EQ is spent at a given spawn spot waiting for the monsters to appear. This is much like hunting deer from a blind. You are there with your buddies, you chat back and forth while waiting for the monsters to appear. The EQ system has environmental sounds so you hear insects, wind, rain, the roar and howls of animals in the wilderness around you. Options allow you to change the volume of different sounds, music, combat, and environment. I tend to have the environment or background noise set to a higher than default value because I think it adds a lot to the experience. A big difference is that the monsters in EQ are generally very tough and attack you, frequently they attack you several at once, and it can get very hairy. This is sort of like the anti-hunting peoples suggestion that if deer had guns there would not be so many hunters. In EQ the game animals do have guns or weapons and powers equivalent to the players. Still there are lots of hunters.

There are occasional almost Zen moments in this kind of situation. I was at loose ends not really with any project in mind and another player asked me to help him with some skeletons. The skeletons would spawn regularly at some ruins in Qeynos hills. He was tough enough to take the skeleton he was after, but they frequently spawned two or three at a time. We ended up sitting on the hillside watching the sunset as the sounds of the wilderness engulfed us with the picturesque ruins before us waiting for the skeletons to spawn. I commented that this was as good as it got, sitting with a beer and a bud waiting for the game to appear. Many times the situation in EQ will be extremely tense, but you can seek and find less tense ways to play the game which emphasize other element of the environment.

Many areas of EQ have a very large number of monsters around at any given time. You can travel through the wilderness looking for specific type game or hunting only one kind of animal. You might be seeking a specific kind of snake skin to make armor, or you might be hunting a particular kind of animal which ‘drops’ valuable items which you can sell for money. Hunting can be much like trapping in early America you leave the city or trading post with empty packs and some supplies. You hunt until your packs are full of the most valuable items from the game available and return to the trading post or city to sell and buy more food and water and bandages. In this kind of hunting a ranger is a superb team mate or choice. The scanning function of the ranger makes him a delight in a wilderness situation.

EQ has been around for quite awhile and periodically new adventure areas and wilderness zones are added to its world. There is a very wide range of scenery and situations to adventure in. You can go big game hunting on a different continent every evening hunting different kinds of big game. Frequently new players have a profound ‘wow’ reaction to the variety and color available in the game.

Certain classes get ‘pets’ magically summoned creatures which obey their masters. The Mage class probably has the best pet. While it does not fetch, it can take a variety of commands like attack, guard, sit, back off, etc. Running a Mage can be like hunting with a well trained dog. A fetch command would be a very good thing for pets to have. Other classes get pets which look more traditional, and others get sinister pets. Several classes; warriors, rangers, paladins, and other like classes can learn to use a bow. A bow will not generally kill a monster but it will bring it running to attack whoever shot it. This is much more convenient than running after it.

This resemblance to hunting sports suggests an environmental advantage to EQ. Consider the damage that hordes of tourists do to the wilderness. EQ can simulate much of that experience, the thrill of the chase, the triumph of the kill, the camaraderie of the hunters. The more people hunting in EQ the fewer there may be in the real wilderness. It is cheaper and easier to log on and hunt in EQ than to do so in the real world. Various games like EQ which simulate popular outdoor sports including the teamwork, socializing and camaraderie as EQ does can decrease the load on outdoor recreation and wilderness areas. Games emulating skiing, flying, racing, and other outdoor sports already exist. Integrated into an entire world environment like EQ such games can provide a cost effective alternative to real outdoor sports. This is a great potential benefit of virtual reality recreation like EQ for the environment.

One of the players I play with spent weeks obsessing about getting a horse. She lives on a farm and has a real horse in the real world and she desperately wanted a horse. She spent probably a hundred hours or more fighting ice giants and putting the money away in the bank till she could buy her horse. Once she got it, it was great fun to watch her galloping around the plains of Southern Karana on her horse. EQ already simulates a number of outdoor activities, fishing, riding, hunting. Others could be added. There is no reason why zones which provide skiing, and other sports activities could not be added.

Still, lets say it again. EQ is not a restful, relaxing and peaceful environment. Most of the game is spent in situations where monsters are likely to come out of nowhere and suddenly start killing you or your friends. After a bad day in EQ you are likely to wake up dreaming about suddenly being attacked and killed. I frequently have flashbacks to EQ while watching television. Whenever the situation goes bad on a TV show and the heroes are suddenly fighting for their lives it reminds me of something that happened to me in EQ. It is a good idea to try to relax about the goals of the game and not be too obsessed with ‘winning’.

The entertainment is very engrossing. The tendency to identify with a given character and see that character as yourself is quite strong. This suggests that playing multiple characters and dividing your attention among them is a good idea. Having several different ‘selves’ in the game will tend to prevent your identifying too much with any one of them. The different talents and abilities of each class of pc forces a different approach to the game on each one so every pc develops a personality and history of its own and becomes a different person in the mind of the player. Some must be physically aggressive and seek out physical combat. Others must avoid physical combat and fight from a distance. Others must depend on other skills to succeed. Dividing your attention between multiple pc’s tends to decrease the identification of self with one pc, and thus the tendency to become to fully immersed in the game.

EQ is not a restful, relaxing environment and it is quite powerful psychologically. According to http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/whatabout.html 68.1% of players have had dreams about EQ. Since starting playing the game, virtually all the dreams I can remember deal with EQ. It is an immersive experience. While the graphics are less bloody than possibly a majority of shoot-em-up computer games, it is still a violent game. When a monster is defeated and turns and runs, you have to run it down and kill it. If you don’t, you get no xp, and it will always come back, frequently with buddies to try to kill you. Anything as powerful as an immersive environmental experience like EQ requires a certain degree of thought in dealing with. Entertainment while resonating with human nature can frequently reflect the lowest elements of human nature.

About 62% of EQ players say that they are addicted to the game. Many relate problems similar to other addictions like drug abuse, smoking, and alcohol abuse. Still others feel that it is a good thing in their lives and the enjoy it so what is the big deal.

One issue here is what constitutes the real value of an activity. Does something have intrinsic value on its own, or does only market value exist. Is food worth x amount of money because x amount of work went into producing it, or is food worth x amount of money because that is what other people are willing to pay for it? Is a diamond ring worth x amount of money because it has intrinsic value or is it worth x amount of money because that is what people are willing to pay for it? Food and diamond rings are two very different things. Food is a necessity of life, diamond rings are a luxury. Food has an intrinsic value. If you get less for producing it than you spend in producing it, you will starve. Luxury items are bought with the excess of income over and above what is necessary for life. Necessities have intrinsic value, luxuries have only market value. EQ is an entertainment or luxury product. The things you get in EQ have a value based entirely on what people are willing to pay for them. This can be cost in time and effort in the EQ world, or a cost in real dollars on E-Bay or similar sites. As far as market value goes, an imaginary magical sword from EQ is worth just as much as a diamond ring, a CD, or a trip to the movies, as long as people are willing to pay the price for it. Since hundreds of thousands of people are competing for and willing to pay the price, either in time and effort (work), or in real money on E-Bay for items in EQ, they have as much real value as anything else that disposable income is generally spent on.

The judgment that time spent in EQ is wasted because it is spent in an artificial, imaginary world, achieving artificial imaginary goals is based on the idea that artificial imaginary values are less real than real values. The fact is that the value placed on almost everything in the world is artificial and imaginary. The diamond market is rigged to maintain a high cost of diamonds. All entertainment is sold on the basis of hype and publicity. While there are real things in the real world to seek, strive, and work for, most people spend their time in the ‘real’ world seeking, striving, and working to get things which have only imaginary value.

In Colonial America lobster was so cheap that servants would insist on a clause in their contract that they only be fed lobster x number of days a week. Today, of course, lobster is a luxury food. Do you really think a pair of Nike’s is worth $150.00? If the market value of the clothes you buy, the food you eat, and the car you drive is 90% imaginary hype, and only 10% real, how is it more real than the market value of the things you achieve in EverQuest? For most things in day to day life the value of something is the effort that people are willing to invest to achieve it as reflected by money or time spent achieving it. By this standard, the value of things in EverQuest is just as real as the value of things in the real world.

To some degree, the idea that the value of things in EQ is imaginary while the value of things in the ‘real’ world is real is a hypocritical double standard. For most purposes and practical realities in the world today, the value of something is what other people are willing to pay for it. In this sense, EverQuest is as real as the real world. The existence of EverQuest raises the question of what is reality. If the value that people playing EverQuest place on the things in EverQuest does not give them real value, then how can a pair of Nike’s ever really be worth $150.00. In a very real sense, people have been living in a virtual reality environment ever since developments in early technology like agriculture and increases in population density allowed them to place artificial values on material goods.

EQ as Religion

This is a fundamental principle of religion. The obsession with worldly values is an obsession with false realities. More important are inner peace, ethical treatment of others, personal relationships, etc. The fact is, and it is a fact taught by religious leaders in every land, culture, and time throughout history, that most people spend most of their lives chasing imaginary values not real ones.

Hypocrisy, thou art perfectly embodied in people who spend $7,000.00 for a bottle of wine and say that the victories and triumphs and value of things in EQ are imaginary. EverQuest creates an artificial world in which these real values of personal relationships, achievement, etc. are stressed. In a sense, you could teach a very religious lesson based on games like EverQuest. If it is not worthwhile to lie, cheat, and betray in EQ to get a pile of imaginary platinum pieces or a magic sword, why is it worthwhile in the real world, where the value placed on gold or platinum is just as much in the imagination of the people valuing it. In EverQuest you are in the world, but not really of the world. This is a principle of Christianity that you are in the world but not of the world. The spiritually enlightened might consider the things which develop in EverQuest, loyalty, friendship, teamwork, etc. more real than the things for which people sacrifice these values in the ‘real’ world and the magic swords, and other trinkets of the world no less real than the diamond rings, Nike’s and $7,000.00 dollar bottles of wine in this one.

People playing EQ regularly have made the choice to spend their leisure hours doing something which supplies their emotional needs better than other activities. People have joined communes, religious groups like the Amish, and otherwise chosen lifestyles which abandon the real world for other things throughout history. Why is it noble to give up the rat race for a communal goat farm, and an addiction to give it up for your guild in EQ? These are questions which the existence of virtual reality are beginning to raise for society as a whole. They are not new questions. When it comes to the value which people put on things in their lives, people have been living in a virtual reality environment ever since luxury goods were first invented. The value of status and luxury goods is as much a matter of imagination and social convention as the value of magical swords in EQ. What is garbage in one generation is a jewel beyond price in another.

EQ is not meant as a religious experience. It is meant to be a game, but compare it to Hinduism. There is a similarity between the EverQuest environment and the religious literature of Hinduism because EQ recreates the warrior days of early human history and Hindu religious literature dates back to those earliest days of human history. The greatest embodiment of Hindu religious literature is the Mahabharata. This began as Kshatriyan history in the period when the Kshatriya or warrior caste were the highest caste in India. EQ is essentially a warrior game in which warrior brotherhood and virtues are promoted. This similarity is not accidental. Religion can be looked upon as the first variety of popular entertainment. It has to appeal to the same emotions and feelings as other forms of pop entertainment.

Indeed, literature, poetry, theatre, all our arts of entertainment have their origins in religious ritual and practice. EQ includes a number of different classes as Hindu society includes a number of different castes. It includes magic, and the various types of magic players can use couldcorrespond to different elements of traditional Hindu religion. It is an imaginary world as the real world is merely Maya or illusion in Hindu philosophy. Characters are reborn when they die as reincarnation occurs in Hindu belief. There is a karmic cost associated with errors in behavior. You lose experience, and you lose reputation. In EQ there is a huge assortment of different deities who are worshipped and followed but hidden behind them all is “The Nameless” “This being of ultimate power has no name and is unknown to most of Norrath. It has no image in which to create others, nor does it have a personality as even deities would. It is simply a driving force which causes universes to exist - or not to exist, at its own whim.” This is very similar to concepts in Hinduism and Buddhism about ultimate reality of the Brahman. So EQ recreates an environment similar to that of the Mahabharata, and allows players to experience that environment first hand forcing them to face the same kind of choices and dilemmas which faced the characters in the Mahabharata. This similar experience leads to similar conclusions. A concern for treatment of others, warrior virtue as the first path to other virtues, a recognition of the illusory nature of reality, but still a participation in the cycle of life. A Hindu might consider someone who chooses to be addicted to EQ as opposed to being addicted to the western rat race for material wealth to have made a sounder spiritual choice. The ultimate goal may be to free yourself from addiction to all worldly matters, but first choosing the path which leads to virtuous relations with others and which teaches the illusory nature of material gain, could be considered superior to believing in the reality of Maya or what Westerners call the ‘real’ world.

Taking this line of reasoning to its absurd extreme, one might suggest that older souls, those who have been incarnated many times, would be attracted to EQ as it reflects their accumulated knowledge of Karma and the illusion of Maya. Thus, an ‘addiction’ to EQ rather than an obsession with material success in the ‘real’ world would be the mark or older and more evolved or advanced souls. Younger less evolved souls world remain addicted to the illusion of Maya or the real world. Thus EQ addicts are morally superior to and more spiritually evolved than most Westerners.

This argument is not meant to be taken seriously, though doubtless someone will build a church around it. It is mean to illustrate how iffy moral judgments of how people spend their leisure time are. Whether the real world is real or not, if we get cut in it then we suffer pain, if we get burnt in it then we suffer pain, if we go hungry in it, then we suffer pain. Pain is a bad thing. Ergo some concern for reality is healthy and wise. Still, EQ players who play a lot might want to read the Bhagavad Gita, if not the entire Mahabharata.

In the Future

For good or for ill, the value of something is what people say it is. As more and more people play virtual reality games for entertainment the commonplace acceptance of achievements in those virtual reality environments will become more widespread. It is almost a certainty that 50 or 100 years from now virtual items attained in recognized virtual arenas will be considered as real in their intrinsic value as luxury wines and clothes are today. The legal title to ownership of some virtual item will be as important and contentious as the legal owner of intellectual or physical property today. Very possibly the legal title to various uberquest items won in EQ today will be passed down as prized heirlooms worth millions of dollars in generations to come.

The future of virtual reality probably lies in a more mainstream version of an EQ like environment. A hunting game which recreates more believable and historically accurate hunting environments would be likely to appeal to a larger audience. Think of being able to be an Englishman hunting big game in Africa in the 19^th century, or a time traveler hunting dinosaurs in a virtual Jurassic park. Can’t afford that dream vacation, go hunting big game in any continent on the world for pennies a day.

The combat element of EQ could simulate small combat teams or squads in military campaigns from any time in recorded history. You could fight alongside Alexander, or Caesar, or fight the battle of Gettysburg and afterward listen to Lincoln give his Gettysburg address. History could come alive in a very real way. You could experience Valley Forge and Bunker Hill.

A more adult version of an EQ environment where adventurers can spend their hard earned cash on virtual strip shows or playing strip poker with npcs in bars is a very likely future development. My game Starswept Castle had an adult option like that. In fact this is one of the weakest areas in EQ. The bars, inns, etc. are fairly obviously cardboard facades. EQ needs a better night life environment. Very frequently regular players will log on not really in the mood to kill monsters but still wanting to spend time with their online friends. My bar scene in Starswept Castle, designed with experience of bars around the world, and with a more adult audience in mind is far superior to what EQ offers. Not in terms of graphics or technology but in terms of basic game design.

EQ is a branch of Sony Entertainment. It would be fairly easy for them to incorporate a better nightlife into the game. A place like Shadowhaven would be ideal for an underground music scene where bands and musical groups gave virtual reality performances to publicize their music. Including a music scene in EQ would not make it adult or otherwise make it less morally acceptable to parents. Neriak of course would be perfect for really underground music. All the punks and grunge types would want to be dark elves anyway. Someplace in the Karanas or Commonlands would be a natural venue for C&W music. Either Erudine or the High Elf city of Felwithe with all their marble and fountains would make a good setting for classical music. The technology for downloading music files quickly and efficiently already exists. Each band could have its own graphics just as each player does. Players in EQ could gather in a bar or concert hall and listen to music while they waited for a group to form up and hunt and kill dragons. Waiting around while groups form is a major time consumer in EQ.

Most concerts could be free, in terms of real money, but a cover charge in plats could be charged to help control inflation in the game. Inflation in the game environment is a major problem in RPGs. I included a simulated strip gambling game in my Starswept Castle to help control this. Some concerts in the game could charge a small fee, in real money, of the type currently suggested for downloading MP3 songs, for attendance. The players of course would receive the MP3 songs just as though they had downloaded them from the web.

The addition of a virtual reality bar and concert environment is a natural development of marketing music in this way, and EQ provides a readymade virtual reality world already filled with bars and concert rooms which are currently empty facades. The variety of races, cities, and scenes provide ready made venues appropriate for different kinds of music. This kind of marketing ploy is already being done in TV where credits generally include the name of a new band which provided music for the show and frequently the band is briefly featured in a bar scene in the show. It would do two thing, it would introduce the ‘real’ world of the music scene into EQ, and draw a lot more players into EQ to experience the music.

This idea is a lot of fun. One way of implementing it would be to put another zone in for the concert areas which would be basically safe. This could be implemented in much the same way LDoN was implemented. A second way would be to have the concert outside a barn or something in the Karanas where wandering monsters like the Silver Griffon or a Hill Giant (talk about good ol boys) might come by and interrupt the concert. Or it could start raining and thundering during the show. This would be great for a ‘live’ concert where the artist involved was watching the action on their own computer and could make announcements and comments from the stage. Both would have their benefits and drawbacks and appeal to different audiences.

One thing that is missing in listening to music at home is the concert experience of being surrounded by other people who contribute in their way to the experience. This is something which EQ provides. The presence of other people is possibly the most addictive element of the game. It is their presence, contribution, feelings, and actions which make the game different and unique. The various chat channels in EQ would naturally suit themselves to different levels of grouping during a concert. The various fireworks and pyrotechnics spells available would add a chance for audience participation as audiences in the real world light lighters etc.

EQ has developed a lot of sophisticated mechanisms for allowing people to interact with other people online. As such it is a natural first area for providing things like online sports bars, online casinos, and other online forms of group or mass entertainment. (Many enterprising players use the general chat channels to run online casinos for imaginary money or plats already. Free enterprise at work.) All the necessary mechanism are already implemented and operational in EQ. Group talk allows small groups of 5 or 6 to have private conversations while surrounded by others. The congregation of the avatars of many people in the same VR place allows for accidental friendships with people you never met before. Guild talk allows larger groups to discuss things together. The public chat channels provide the background of many people experiencing the same thing in the same place. Everything needed for VR forms of concerts, sports bars, museums, art displays, already exists in the EQ world. It is just not currently being used for this kind of thing.

Another possibility provided by the EQ VR environment is ‘live’ television coverage of events in the EQ world. EQ provides each player at his computer with the ability to choose different camera angles and even to take screenshots of what he sees. Doom allows players to actually record video clips of the game as it is played. In a ‘live’ concert, a number of avatars could be spotted around the scene taking pictures from different angles, and the events and comments could be recorded and broadcast as part of television specials and shows. A Garth Brooks concert with stage security provided by high level players to handle problems like griffons and giants killing the audience, or the band, could make a very interesting TV show. One of the things is that it would be unscripted. Things like thunder and lightning, hill giants and griffons attacking would just happen. The players and band would just have to react to events as they happened.

It would be an interesting combination of fantasy, virtual reality, and reality television. One area in which such a television show would require a new input would be audio feedback from the audience. The sound of applause, laughter, and other audience reactions would be missing from the live audience as EQ works right now. A series of buttons which allowed the live audience to contribute their chosen reaction to the entertainment, applause, laughter, catcalls, etc. would allow a rise and fall in background noise proportional to the number of people pushing such buttons at different times. A live audience reactions could be achieved. Of course, TV producers might well prefer canned applause and laugh tracks as they do in many variety and comedy shows on TV today. Different news organizations could have their talking heads present and live video feed with commentary could take place in real time. NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox might be well advised to buy some high level avatars on EBay so they can send reporters into EQ to cover such events. In fact, you could do a weekly television variety show like that.

LDoN would be an interesting basis for providing a television episode. In LDoN adventurers gather at the wayfarers camp, form up into groups of six, and go on missions or adventures to fight the growing evil of the undead beneath the earth. The graphics, the game planning, and the mission scenarios are all very good. A reporter might follow a team as it formed, then went through the dungeon. Likewise the arena in Lake Rathetear could provide a virtual reality sports show as players engaged in PvP tournaments. This is news, because it is a developing part of modern life. Hundreds of thousands of people play this game every day from all around the world. It is also an area where ‘news cameras’ can go in and provide a public view of what virtual reality is, and how it works. When you look at it in this light, it is rather startling that something like this has not already been done. Someone in the early days of video games tried to do a sports show about them, but there was nothing exciting about watching people standing at video game consoles hardly moving. VR environments like EQ show the action and make it possible for spectators to watch. There is an opportunity for ESPN type shows in EQ.

Another area in which EQ has failed to address fairly simple marketing issues is that it looks at its players only as gamers and not as people. In the RW (real world), players have different interests. Some are Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and Retirees. Some pre-teen children. Some are single. Some are married. Some work first shift. Others work third shift. EQ has recommended servers for different types of play. It has servers dedicated to PvP play where players who want to can engage in combat against other players. The vast majority of its servers are PvE where players can only use their powers against the simulated monsters. Apparently PvP is not an enormously popular option. It has a newbie server intended to for new players. It has a role playing preferred server. All of these servers cater to a specific gaming audience. It has no servers designed to cater to the real world market differences in its potential market. It should designate some of its servers which see less play time as Seniors recommended servers so that as new players enter the game Seniors who don’t really want to deal with adolescent angst can select a server to suit them. (Obviously I am a cranky old guy.) The baby book generation was the first generation to fall in love with “The Lord of the Rings”.

Similarly there should be a Singles recommended server, or since most of the players are single young men, possibly a married or couple recommended server. Data on the player load time on different servers should be provided so that a prospective player who plays normally at three or four AM can find one where there will be other players online at the same time he is online. A third shift player for people who work odd hours and want to play with other people could be designated. No one would be excluded from any of these recommended servers, but over time, a majority of the players would be of the type who selected that server, because it represented the group they were interested in playing with. EQ has plenty of servers already online, physically located from Germany to California. Changes like this could make EQ more interesting and attractive to people than it is today.

EQ’s competitors who are trying to design games to compete with EQ might want to pay attention here.

Sociopolitical Impacts

Human beings need entertainment. Rome is famous for its bread and circuses, panem et circens. People have been inventing entertainment as long as they have been people. The cost of entertainment is a part of the legitimate cost of living. EQ provides a very cheap easily mass produced form of very engrossing entertainment. You are not a spectator watching the gladiator fight a lion in the arena. You are the gladiator fighting the lion.

The ability of a society to supply the needs of its populace is important to its stability. Entertainment is one of those needs. Cheap easily mass produced engrossing entertainment adds to the potential for stability of society. Virtual reality is a very cost effective substitute for the circuses of Rome. Computer generated monsters cost a whole lot less than lions imported at great cost from Africa. This can be either a good or a bad thing depending on how it is used.

EQ and similar forms of entertainment are here to stay. Increasing numbers of people will spend an increasing amount of their personal time in virtual reality environments. Like all forms of new technology it will bring benefits and introduce new problems. It is likely that the benefits will be greater than the problems.