Sins of the Empire

By Darien Kane

Empire. Such a fancy title. Lately, we have been noticing an increasing concern of gaming companies to enrich empire managing. The reasons for this are abundant: to erect an empire seems to be the only viable option to a player that has eradicated the entire lich population of an ecosystem. Furthermore, nation building can be quite a stimulating activity, considering it promotes underdeveloped nuances of player/player cooperation.

Developers have attempted to create an empire-friendly environment in MMOGs for a while now. The opinions on whether these attempts attained success or not vary as much as the number of frustrated would-be kings in UO, AC and EQ together. That's understandable, after all, the study of building societies is not an easy one. But fortunately, Earth's ancient civilizations do as great subjects for research material. Therefore, in order to accomplish such a lofty goal in MMOGs, one must first refer to RL civilizations and to the factors that enabled their respective ascensions. Lets delve into the large-scale dynamics of Earth's greatest empires, and see how we can transport its pattern to virtual worlds.

Scientists Thuman and Bennet have highlighted "prerequisites for survival," needs that must be met in order for a society to continue. They are:

- Every society must be able to answer the basic biological needs of its members: food, drink, shelter, and medical care.

Probably the most important of all, this prerequisite entails a number of flaws in current MMOGs that simply make realistic empire managing impossible. First off, the true importance of a society depends on its efficiency when supplying members with necessities; however, when characters don't need to eat or drink, this importance disappears… and they might as well live as hermits in the woods (as in fact most characters of current MMOGs do). Therefore, here we have the first sin that stands in the way of a truly meaningful social projects: lack of biological necessities.

Shelter has been poorly addressed so far. The human(oid) body is fragile; hence the tendency to band together and try to defeat the harsh conditions that nature presents. If the body is invulnerable to environmental hazards, there is simply no need for shelter. There is no actual need to housing, thus rendering habitation complexes - villages - completely useless… merely a nifty thing to do when you want to pretend your character needs a place to live. Based on these premises, the second sin that must be corrected for the ultimate social experience to succeed is: invulnerability to environmental hazards.

Medical care has the potential to enable an amazing experience if implemented correctly. As most of us have been told, an issue of great importance in the Middle Ages was proper sanitation. People that, for one reason or the other, lived outside the civilized areas were found to be much more vulnerable to diseases and other afflictions - often having a very short life span. Poorly treated wounds, reckless nutrition, and a generally mediocre lifestyle were a considerable drawback from living away from the cities.. unless, of course, you mastered the proper skills. In the towns, on the other hand, doctors hired by the State were usually able to stop plagues and ensure an average level of health to the population. This depth of health care has never been seen in any MMOG to date, digging another hole in path to meaningful empire building: shallow implementation of health problems and care.

- Every society must provide for the production and distribution of goods and services (perhaps through a division of labor, rules concerning property and trade, or ideas about the role of work).

Once the need for biological necessities is acknowledged, actual ways of producing and transporting food is the next step. While this area has been reasonably covered in previous games, industrial scale food production requires a new level of variety and complexity. First off, resources MUST be limited in order to create an atmosphere of purposeful industrialization; where clever handling of resources is rewarded with profit/abundance. Unlimited resources end up creating a messy grab-and-go feast, with no concern for rationing, refining or careful evaluation of use. This leads to the wasteful situation of present MMOGs, where even the best administrative techniques and wise management have absolutely no importance in the outcome of one's business. And by detracting from the fun and challenge of creating a workable economy (not to mention that limited resources are just the perfect reason for guild wars and political conflicts), this trait can be considered one of the worst sins of modern MMOG design: unlimited resources.

Natural resources MUST be distributed in a geographically plausible way throughout the world. Disposition of these resources on the map carries a great deal of relevancy when defining commercial relationships between towns - trade. I cannot stress that enough. The importance of trade for a cooperative state of affairs is nothing less than crucial. No region should be rich in more than a couple of types of resources. For instance, a mountain range would have plenty of minerals, but lacking fertility. A plain, on the other hand, tends to have fertile soil, to the cost of raw materials such as wood… which in turn in abundant in a forest, where it is very difficult to grow crops. Understand: this kind of balance is the closest you can get to a genuine feudal economy without going back in time and ruling one yourself. It will define the very strengths and weaknesses of your settlement when it grows. When combined with the previous solutions proposed so far, it makes city building an exciting game by itself. Another sin: unrealistic disposition of resources.

Division of labor is a very teamwork-friendly concept, and it fits nicely into most MMOG contexts. But in order for any improvement to appear, the need for it must arise first. So its to the best interest of developers to make sure that every raw material has several steps of refinement before it becomes usable. The more stages of refinement - and the more skills are necessary to complete the process - better cooperation between the characters can be achieved. Its providential to understand that the purpose of a society lies solely on how much easier it makes for people to survive. If most items and supplies can be easily crafted by one single character, what is the need for cooperation that leads to a society? None. Which points out one more defect in some systems of the present time: simplistic processes of refinement/ crafting.

-Every society must provide for the training (education, apprenticeship, passing on of values) of an individual so that he or she can become a functioning adult in the society.

First off, clearer differences between old and new characters can only bring good things. This would better depict their youth and highlight the rewards of experience at the same time. The best way to accomplish such a goal is to actually give new characters more vulnerable attributes - a young body, blurred senses, etc... In late MMOGs, new characters evolve in an impressively fast rate, often reaching highly developed stages prematurely… thus quickly skipping the fun stages of learning and exploring. By making clear how vulnerable new characters are, a developer can increase the need for training and veteran/newbie interaction. This usually makes the learning stage of a player much more fun, while it also puts a definite physical discrepancy between 1-week-old players and 2-year-old veterans: clearer differences between old and new players.

The consequence of the feature suggested above is naturally an efficient way of passing knowledge. There are several means of teaching that transcend common skill-transfering lectures. One of them is the sometimes implemented 'party experience', where young players can team with veterans and gain experience from observation. It is of utmost importance for a successful empire-building-oriented game that functional ways of teaching are implemented, for preparation is the core of any social model. Without ways of introducing new characters to common knowledge and making them productive members of the society, any would-be empire is doomed to perish after the first generation dies. So the flaw here is: lack of fully methodical and varied ways of passing knowledge.

-Every society must provide for the maintenance of internal and external order (laws, courts, police, wars, diplomacy).

Understand this: human nature is chaotic. Our primary tendency is self-destruction. The challenge when building societies in RL is to overcome that tendency; therefore, it is just fair to expect the same in the virtual environment where the bad side of human nature is so much more evident. Now, one could read this and think: 'Well, so far MMOGs have been doing a good job in this sense, with flagging, reputation and all.' To these people I say: nothing could be farther from the truth. See, the very concept of law and order is subject to free interpretation. Different societies have completely different ideals of justice itself; forcing one inflexible system upon all the players is basically the worse approach one could possibly choose. Building an empire is about freedom to disagree, its about the ultimate in customization. If people cant have the liberty to choose what to believe in, we shall never get even close to a glimpse of roleplaying game. That said, the imperfection here is clearly: imposition of arbitrary legal systems and policing.

-Every society must provide meaning and motivation to its members.

This last prerequisite is more important than it may seem. No societal activity is possible unless people are motivated to participate. Why do we get up in the morning? How do we see ourselves in relation to other members of society? Why do we follow a society's rules? Without a sense of meaning and motivation, people will become apathetic. If this happens, a society may be threatened with decline. Given the subjective nature of this prerequisite, I will leave my accusations to your own interpretation this time.

Well, ladies and gentlemen… here ends my analysis, and with it, our little virtual retrospective. Unfortunately, the conclusion is the same for both: when it comes to building an empire, the MMOG industry is a foul spectacle of incoherence, a true mockery of reason and logic. But in a sunny morning in a near future, one mysterious company will stand up and announce a game of untold respect for human intelligence; the holy grail of online roleplaying. That morning, players will chant praises in one single voice, acknowledging the MMOG of all MMOGs. But until then, we count the days in front of the computer, shooting mongbats in the dark and helplessly watching as the bastions of creativity repeat the same errors all over again. Failing to realize that all these mistakes of other times are simply… the sins of the empire.

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