Massively

Sharing secrets has always been a part of computer gaming. It's in our blood. Since time immemorial, developers have been putting secrets in games. And it is human nature to share cool things with friends. The web may have expanded the number of people who can interact by a few orders of magnitude and given us a place to store and index our knowledge for others' convenience, but before that there were kids swapping tales of "the minus levels" on the bus, guys discussing proper wave pattern form at the back of the arcade, and BBSes devoted to killing Lord British. Our means have evolved, but the information-swapping has always occurred.

Of course, sometimes you WANT to keep yourself in a box. I am trying to keep myself in a box when it comes to easter eggs and high-level content in WAR, for example, because I want to discover its world for myself. But one thing I've found in doing this is that the new paradigm of spreading information through the internet actually makes it easier to avoid. While finding information has become easier than ever, it is very much an act of FINDING now - you go to a repository like WoWWiki or WARDB and search for what you want, or you go to a forum and ask a question. Less intuitively, this makes it much easier to AVOID finding out things if you don't want to - because instead of having to try real hard not to hear the guys in the next bus seat over spilling the beans about Aeris' death, you can just avoid those websites where people go to find information, skip the messageboard threads that start by someone asking a spoilery question, and avoid Massively posts that discuss things you don't want to know about yet. It's a lot easier to censor your internet browsing than your non-digital written or verbal communication.

That all said, I'm now feeling inspired to go play Ancient Domains of Mystery - a roguelike RPG that is so convoluted (and its data so cleverly obfuscated) that even AFTER datamining it to heck, the players still don't understand everything it can do. I guess there are still SOME mysteries in the world, and I for one am pleased to see it.

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P.S. You tried to get into MUDding by playing a Battletech MUD?!? You poor, poor thing... your mind must have been filleted like a sardine. That's like trying to get started in MMORPGs by fighting one of those FFXI bosses that takes 18 hours to defeat. I don't think I've ever seen a MUD that was more complicated than the Battletech game I once tried.

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I have been playing MMO's for 8 years, and over those 8 years I have seen my favorite genre being dumbed down exponentially.

My first MMO was everquest, and at its prime (before it was destroyed by 15 expansions) it dropped you into the middle of a huge world (even by today standards) with nothing but a sword some food/water and a note. The tutorial only taught you controls and that's all that they told you. You walked around not knowing where to go, or what to do, you had to communicate with other players to find out where to go, how the game worked, and so on, but I have never had more fun in any other game I've ever played.

The problem now days is that they've taken the "RPG" out of MMORPG. What is fun if you aren't even playing as your role?

I could write a 15 page article on what's wrong with MMO's now days. but i wont do that here.

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I think Warhammer has struck a good balance. All of the essential game mechanics are well spelled out. You can simply go from PQ/Quest area to Quest area following the markers and level all the way up to 40 and have a fun time.

But that's only part of the picture.... Lairs, Bestiary Tome Unlocks, and 'pursuit' tome unlocks (which tend to be even more obscure than the Bestiary ones and not tied to a specific monster type) are all there waiting for those who want to get off the beaten path and explore. They game is largely indifferent to helping you figure out what you're supposed to do. They dangle just enough of a hint above your head to let you know something is there.

Doing these tasks won't make your character rich or powerful but it does provide something in game that gives the world a sense of mystery that's been sorely missing from MMOs for quite a while.

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Mmm. With the advent of forums, wikis and other such information sharing sites, the old days of a one-man memory and notebook record are long gone.

Your mention of MUDs brings back nostalgic memories. I first got into this online gaming thing by being a master of knowledge and trivia at the MUD I had chosen to play. In those days, people made minigames out of remembering snippets of informations, and gave prizes to others who knew stuff. A combination of being very exploratory, quick typing skills and a voracious memory netted me a ton of those gifts and a sage reputation.

In barely a few year's time though, there was a growing move towards what I used to term "cyborging" - marriage of mind and computer. The purists who stuck with the human mind and human reflexes to move one's avatar were beginning to lose out to those who used the mud client to help them run around (Zmud for the win!) and even map and record and search through information.

To stay competitive, it was essential to use both. Raw memory and reflexes could net you an edge over those who had to 'look it up' every time. But when that failed or when something could be easier handled by the machine (moving 50-100 rooms in some convuluted but never-changing direction), you turned that task over to its control.

Amusingly, as the world got bigger, and new people replaced old, there was less pride in this knowledge of information. The new minigames were now just about luck and lottery. Randomly teleport around hoping to stumble on something and win. Communist 'fairness' had replaced elitism.

This was about the point where most of the older generation explorers and knowledge hoarders quit, for various reasons mostly to do with boredom - but taking most of our private secrets along with us. That's the nature of elitist knowledge, no?

In my visits back, I've observed the new generation explorers (the few but proud) start to use wikis to store and tabulate the information they collected, and to share with any (the majority?) who wanted to refer to it.

MMOs are even bigger than any MUD can hope to be. There's too much information to be held by any one brain. It's only natural that people will start to cyborg, and turn over information to computers to hold, because that's what these machines do best.

The wiki is an interesting beast. The collaboration allows for a far bigger information store than any one explorer can hope to achieve by themselves. On one hand, this thrills me personally. The knowledge of -everything- is conceivable. On the other, it takes away some of the personal satisfaction in knowing something others don't, and the whole word of mouth interaction is lost. Just google it, is the new refrain.

I think those days of getting and giving respect because this guy -knows- stuff are mostly gone though. You'll need to datamine things or break down combat mechanics and such obscure information, and write guides, in order to get that sort of adulation now.

I like the balance that Warhammer is providing. At last, a game that remembers the explorers. The lion's share of the players don't and won't care about lairs and secret things, but for those that do, they can find it themselves and get the joy of the personal discovery, the pleasure of being first to share it if they are fast and sharp and generous enough, and eventually it'll all get recorded into a wiki to keep for posterity and for usage by the achievers who just want to know where to get the best loot.

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MMOs should tell you enough to enjoy all of the core content.

So, if I didn't know a mount was an option, that would have a serious impact on my WoW gameplay. Knowing that I can get one at level 30, instead of the level 40 I would have been quoted if I tried training for one earlier, also important.

On the other hand, I don't need to be told the deep secrets about some raid, that's something that I can enjoy discovering, because I _know_ that it is there to be discovered.

That clear enough? :)

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