Are you a number cruncher? Maybe you’re a hardcore cruncher, or maybe a cruncher-lite. I think it’s safe to say that most of us at one time or another in MMOs have looked at the numbers - the data - the statistics - the parse logs - trying to glean whether there’s any way to better our build, our equipment, our stats, our raid strategy, and ultimately our power in the game. I know I have from time to time, and I’m not even a math guy!! (sorry dad!).
Well, Hailin over at Gaming Tramps had some thoughts on this very subject. Stop now and read his article - it’s well written and I could identify with it a lot.
He makes a comment toward the end that upon re-upping to EQ2, he logged onto the monk forums to see “if my monk was any good or not.” Upon reading several threads and seeing negative information there, he quickly jumped onto his Warden, ignored the siren call of comparative and/or benchmark data, and just had fun playing the game.
I do agree that over-analyzation of data in MMOs can suck the fun right out of the game for me. Do I have to keep checking forums and calculators to assure myself that I’m on the right track and not heading toward gimp-dom? Where’s the story? Where’s the adventure? Where’s the….one sec guys, I got a new item here and I need to pull up Allakhazam to compare stats….brb.
I’ll admit it - I’ve got some power-gamer in me. There’s a part of me that wants an army of number nerds out there crunching data so that I can get at the end results. There, I’ve said it. I do want the best gear I can get. I don’t want to be gimped. I do want to have successful raid strategies and not spin my wheels for 35 attempts. In short, I want what the data mining, number crunching and statistical analysis can provide - an edge for my character over those who completely (or even somewhat) ignore such data.
So I’m a schizo it seems - I loathe the fact that games have all boiled down to numbers and data, while at the same time recognizing the vaule in doing so and wanting what that data can provide to my character. Could I just jump into a character, never reading a forum, fan site, or guide, and just go for it and hope for the best? Just have fun without worrying what the folks next to me are doing? Could you?
I hope to someday - to get back to a little bit of naivete and innoncence in playing these games - to get lost in a story and become a part of it without breaking out my calculator. Until then, I’m AFK while I go check WoWhead.
Tags: Editorial, MMO Bloggers
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August 27th, 2007 at 10:00 pm - Edit
I am not. I like to meet the base stats (490 def if Tank 1000 AP if Rogue) but other than that I wont be too much into all the extra numbers that people put out when they compare specs and things like that . Thank god for mods like Equip Compare and Ratings Buster that do the math for me
August 28th, 2007 at 12:59 am - Edit
“Could I just jump into a character, never reading a forum, fan site, or guide, and just go for it and hope for the best? Just have fun without worrying what the folks next to me are doing? Could you?”
Not on your life or mine. Imagine my surprise *How I didn’t notice this earlier* that if I moused over an item in Profit UI. It would allow me to look up the item on Ala and various other sites, right in game. Luckily for me I didn’t have anything special to look at, cause like you I would have been all over that. I know as much as I despise the feature I will be using as soon as an item pops where I must know every little thing about. Come to think about it it does it for quests too I think hmm. /runs off to EQ2 to read up on quests from in game. *now isn’t that creepy*
Thanks for the nod Kev.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:08 am - Edit
Weird I had a comment all written up all pretty like and poof it disappeared.
Thanks for the nod Kev and damn I am so in agreement with you.
I found out today that my Profit UI had a built in linker for items and quests (I believe). Get an item you like look it up on Ala all with in EQ2. I hate it and love it all in the same. It’s utter wonderful BS. I will not use it ever. /runs off to Norath to plug into Alakazam.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:41 am - Edit
Of the three games I am playing right now, I only find myself checking stats and percentages on one of them. This is what I would call my “main” game and I play the others more for pleasure than accomplishment. The only way I can fight the urge to min max my characters in these casual games is by staying away from some of the class forums and spending little time in the /ooc channels. It seems the longer the game has been out, the more hard-line and prevalent are the class guides.
More often than not, I spend the first few weeks of every game enjoying the setting and absorbing the story. This to me is the meat and potatoes of the game and if I can’t get into this part of it, I won’t waste my time. The more I like a game and the longer I play it, the greater the chance that I will take the time to learn all about the systems and find out how to make my character better. Its just how it is.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:06 am - Edit
Yep…I just can’t help it I guess. Definitely the game has to be fun and draw me in with it’s graphics, story, design elements, etc. But once I’m hooked by the game, I’ll definitely get to that point where I’ll start to look at data and want to min/max a bit. You want your character to be the “best” he can be. I guess you can get into debates about what is “best”, especially if the designers did a good job of balancing classes, skills, abilities, talents, etc. The best of all possible worlds would be a game where you couldn’t make yourself gimp - that every patch, branching path and skill tree was equally viable, just different (Anyway Games talks about this a bit in his most recent post fyi). But I have yet to see a game truly pull that off - usually a majority of people will agree that a certain build or spec is “best” for the class’s role.