Generosity in Online Games

[darkcser]

I've now sunk some 90+ hours into Dungeon Defenders -nearly eclipsing Tribes which I haven't touched for about a week.

This experience paralleled WuXia greatly.

Last night I finally passed from Mythical to Transcendental, an experience that reminded me of Yang Guo's meteoric rise to near Greats level, followed by 16 years of slow, small incremental progress.

I've received help (mana, equips and actual aid on levels) from two itinerant masters on this journey. The first one gave me a 1B mana token after a map which helped me greatly to obtain some nice entry level Mythical items compared to the poor Mythical items that I'd been able to eek out on my own. The second master just gave me a full set of upgraded Mythical armor, and then vanished. I was shocked at how generous they were, how they gave their gifts with little fanfare, and then disappeared into the unknown. Now I suspect that these folks are at the Supreme or Ultimate level so 1 billion mana is a relatively small sum for them. Nevertheless they probably sympathize with new players remembering what it was like to grind through those levels. It warms my heart.

Now I've started giving out Mythical stuff and pets to lower level players in turn. It annoys me at times though when people actively ask for handouts, since I never ask for stuff (but am quite willing to accept stuff if given).

The other thing that surprised me about this game was that I was connecting with people internationally. I had a game with people from Peru and some other far-flung locales (relative to me on the East Coast of US). This was really surprising for me since when I play Tribes it's all East Coast people due to latency reasons.

[spcnet]

I remember someone gave me some magical scroll out of pity because I was standing outside some shop trying to train a pet panther or something to follow me in Ultima Online (old, I know) for hours. That guy transported himself to the shop, went in to buy something, and then left. Hours later, he came back and asked me something like "you're still here?!" and I said I was trying to train this darn thing. He then dropped a whole bunch of stuff on the floor for me, including some spell to train the pet, and then left quickly. I was so thankful as a newbie, haha.

[darkcser]

I remember someone gave me some magical scroll out of pity because I was standing outside some shop trying to train a pet panther or something to follow me in Ultima Online (old, I know) for hours. That guy transported himself to the shop, went in to buy something, and then left. Hours later, he came back and asked me something like "you're still here?!" and I said I was trying to train this darn thing. He then dropped a whole bunch of stuff on the floor for me, including some spell to train the pet, and then left quickly. I was so thankful as a newbie, haha.

I remember buying 5 copies of Ultima Online for a cousin of mine some 10+ years ago. A coworker of mine at that time specialized in making and selling pink dresses in that game because I guess he could obtain a good price on them. The level of immersion sounds great but I'd rather just hit/shoot things in multiplayer... I save the berry-picking and item-crafting for single player.

btw: How did the training work? Did it have a carrot and stick system?

[spcnet]

I remember buying 5 copies of Ultima Online for a cousin of mine some 10+ years ago. A coworker of mine at that time specialized in making and selling pink dresses in that game because I guess he could obtain a good price on them. The level of immersion sounds great but I'd rather just hit/shoot things in multiplayer... I save the berry-picking and item-crafting for single player.

btw: How did the training work? Did it have a carrot and stick system?

Yes, the game is great for its virtual economy too. You could literally set up shop and sell stuff (i.e. bread) that you can attain at the game. I don't remember exactly anymore, but I think training involved a series of typing some commands or hitting some keys on an animal to get it to follow you around once you tame it. But with a spell, you can just cast it on the animal quickly.