I was at my auntie’s house yesterday for the annual Chinese New Year gathering. As I whipped out my iPhone to play some casual games, it immediately drew the attention of my two little nephews. Despite owning a dedicated entertainment device in the form of a Nintendo DS, their gaze was fixated on my iPhone. They persistently pestered me to lend them my phone and I was in a deep dilemma. However, as I thought that it would make for good research by observing their play patterns, I reluctantly handed over my phone to the mischievous kids, not knowing whether my phone would come back in one piece…
Nope, they just can't get it
In my opinion, the mentality of children is the epitome of paidia. Spontaneity and exploration are favored over reasoning and logic as their undeveloped minds attempt to make sense of the world and its various mechanisms in response to interaction. Complex lessons cannot be comprehended. For example, my nephew played a game which involves a fighter jet shooting rockets to blow up mountains below it. In this case, the win condition is based around the understanding of the rocket’s motion i.e. it does not land straight but at an angle relative to the forward velocity of the fighter jet. Being a mere 6 year old boy, he could not grasp the concept and failed miserably for 10 whole minutes. Yet, on the rare occasion which he connects with the rockets, he became visibly excited despite losing in the end. I believe it is because he had discovered a new interaction in the world – a “Eureka!” moment which was made famous by an ancient Greek scholar Archimedes.
Why do people play MMORPGs? Although Singaporeans are predominantly agon (competitive), I believe the motivation stems from the child-like need for exploration and discovery. MMORPG is the perfect environment for paidia to manifest because boundaries can be infinitely expanded, not subjected to real-life limitations. Unlike most console RPGs which have a story ingrained in the system to progress the game, MMORPGs relax conventional rules and grant players the freedom to explore. Cabal Online is no exception and make story quests completely optional, although the player reaps incremental benefits if he chooses to undergo them.
Danger ahead! Stay out!
Unsupervised paidia might potentially be dangerous. Parents chide their children if they try to touch a naked flame. Dangerous situations should be avoided at all costs, even if it means that one might never have the chance to experience the danger. In such scenarios, one has to trust and believe the advice and accounts of victims or closed ones. In the case of video games, a ludic structure must be in place to prevent the player from crossing boundaries if his reckless exploration put him in dangerous situations. In Cabal Online, the enemies are color-coded to indicate their difficulty level. Similarly to techniques employed to educate children, the spectrum of bright colors (red) to dull colors (pale yellow) gives a solid visual cue of the potential risks and dangers. Random equipment drops of the monsters provide hints of the desirable grade of equipment which the player should be wearing in order to survive with ease.
Training Dummy - a premium service which allows player to grind their skills comfortably
An undesirable quality of paidia is when it leads to ludic mutations which take on the form of discovering loopholes in game logic, bugs to exploit and cheats to grant unfair advantage. Who ever can forget the infamous “bunny hop” of Counter-Strike? Or map hacks of Warcraft III’s DoTA? In Cabal Online, character experience and skill experience are two separate entities. The worth of a character is based not on the character level, but on the repertoire of skills. By equipping gear which increases the amount of skill experience earned, augmented by training strategies which exploit the gameplay mechanism, a seemingly lowly Level 30 character might actually possess the power of a Level 100 character which went through normal progression. The developers have not fixed the exploit and it might even be a possible theory that they intended the game to be so. Nevertheless, as an avid gamer who appreciates the wholesomeness of game experience, the flaw pushed me to the brink of quitting the game 2 years ago. The end of the straw came when the game economy crumbled under the pressure of inflation.
Dude, play fair!
Where's the fun in that!?
Are you an advocate of game exploits, be it legal or illegal? Do you think Singaporeans are far too competitive (pushing them toward agon and ludic mutation) instead of purely enjoying the game (pushing them toward paidia and mimicry)?