GAMES | Unintended Community Mechanics
On unintended community mechanics writes Milena Krupczyńska, student of the Faculty of New Media Art at PJAIT, Warsaw.
Games (G) is an elective subject that is conducted by Anil Demir within the Faculty of New Media Art of our Academy. The students of the subject discuss various theoretical and controversial topics related to video games and work towards a game studies article of their own throughout the semester. This is one of those articles in question.
Games, that feature online mechanics, encourage players, to share the
gaming experience and form communities. Sometimes, the creativity of the
players, goes beyond, what game developers have envisioned. “Elite
Dangerous” and “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, are prominent
examples of what a tight-knit community, pushing the game mechanics to
the edge.
How much for turnips?
Turnips in “Animal Crossing”, can only be purchased on Sundays,
before 12pm, they last a week before they are spoiled and worthless. However
throughout the week, they can be sold at Nook’s Cranny. The price varies,
creating a reflection, of stock market fluctuations. Every player has a different
price of turnips, therefore online mechanics come in handy if you want to
sell, with a great profit. What Nintendo — the game developer, has not dreamt of, is an online site with announcements, of players offering to allow others, to sell turnips on their island for a fee. Normally, the payment, required, is 10% of income from the sale, but if you have forgotten, to sell at the beginning of the week, you may encounter a queue, of players, interested in conducting a transaction, according to the same announcement as you, then you should expect an enormous fee, assuming, you even make it, before your turnips rot.
Profits and glitches.
While selling turnips is rather harmless, the online community, also
introduced ROM hacks, that allowed the players, to obtain unique objects,
usually not available in the game put present in its code. The “star trees”, are
a result, of using in-game assets, and changing the code, in order to put them,
where they don’t belong. Nintendo officially condemns, messing with the
code, especially, when the game has online features. Expect from “star trees”,
an “illegal fence”, has caused a hot debate in the community. The infamous
fence is only present on Harv’s Island, where players can have photo sessions.
Since it was not available, for the players to use, it's more desirable. This time,
Nintendo, has noticed the issue, and depanelized the fence, by adding it as
a usable object in 2.0 update. While the above-mentioned objects are harmless
decorations, hacked objects can be gifted to players, sometimes permanently
glitching their inventory, so that they cannot be removed, or leading to other
problems.
New horizons.
According to elite-dangerous.fandom.com, Beagle Point has been
established, by commander Kamzel, who has reached it first. The Beagle Point is the farthest reachable system, in Elite Dangerous. Commander Kamzel has
crossed 65,279 light-years alone, but the biggest expedition in the game’s
history was yet to come. The most distant point in the galaxy has tempted
the players, resulting in a series of expeditions, reaching over 13000 participants. During the Distant Worlds expedition, players had an opportunity, to chart a vast area of space, join armed escort, protect the participants, from hostile aliens, aid others, with fuel shortage as Fuel Rats, and even conduct a wedding between commanders, or be a part of a wedding arch, created from starships alone. The trip’s organizer has even been reprimanded, by the developer, not to create, such massive events, as the recommended number of players, in one instance is 32. During the second edition of Distant Worlds expedition, the unofficial route, back to the Sol system, has a mirror, the route, of USS Voyager – from Star Trek: Voyager. The Beagle Point does not only promote communities’ activity, but it also tributes the loyal companion of commander Kamzel — a Beagle dog Jack, who has sadly passed away.
Fuel rats.
Fuel Rats is an organization, that aids the Elite Dangerous players, who
have run out of fuel, and have to means, to refuel by themselves. Fuel
shortage, is a serious issue, in the online mode of the game, as lack of fuel results, in shutting down ships’ systems, including life support. The death of a character in Elite Dangerous, is a serious problem, as the player, then needs to redeem their ship, which can be very costly. In such a case, the Fuel Rats, come to the rescue. According to Fuel Rats’ Wiki, on 22 January of 3307, they reached the 100,000th successful rescue. The success rate of this organization is 96%. Among the most interesting failure cases, there is an incident, involving a cat, jumping onto the rescuer’s keyboard, leading to a crash, that destroyed both the Fuel Rats’ member’s ship and the ship of the person being rescued. The Fuel Rats has come up with an official apology, and an offer to compensate players’ loss somehow.
There’s good and bad everywhere.
Both above-mentioned games have been expanded, by their respective
developers, to either remove the temptation to go beyond, what the developers have intended or included the players’ ideas in the design. For example, the recent ACNH update has introduced eating meals, which players have longed for. Just as in life sometimes people bend the rules, to satisfy their greed, and something they help others, wanting nothing in return.
