On The Virtual Rights of Avatars, Part I - Avatars are Not Free and Equal

October 13, 2014, 11:50 pm

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part VII - The Gaming Dilemma

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part VI - All Quiet on the Western Front

14 years ago Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design, lead designer of Ultima Onlineand creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, penned an article called Declaring the Rights of Avatars. In this article he conducted a thought experiment in which he created an avatar's Bill of Rights, using the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man as his template. In this experiment he penned an alternative version in which he substituted avatar for citizen, and imbued avatars with a host of rights approximating the human rights articulated in the original bill. This bill states that "avatars are created free and equal"; that such avatars have inalienable rights to "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression"; institutes habeas corpus; protects freedom of speech and assembly; and so on.

My intent in this article is to criticise the bedrock of this virtual bill, namely the concept that all avatars are created free and equal. I would also like to question the wisdom of becoming a virtual citizen, and argue that it is better to remain as a player/consumer rather than to adopt a social contract as envisioned by such a Bill of Rights. Koster's essay was brought to my attention by an article penned by Doone of XP Chronicles, who uses Koster's name as an authority in order to promulgate his own version of an avatar Bill of Rights both on his blog and on the NBI Couch Podtatoes podcast. After reading both articles carefully, however, it is clear that their arguments are substantially different from each other. While Koster ultimately comes to the conclusion that an avatar's Bill of Rights is untenable and incoherent, Doone embraces it wholeheartedly and without reservation. Koster writes:

But there's also some other folks who think that this exercise is plain dangerous. As an example, let me take a co-worker of mine to whom I showed an early draft. He pointed out that virtual world servers run on somebody's hardware. And that most declarations of rights give rights over personal property. By declaring that avatars have rights, we're abrogating that administrator's right to personal property.

Others point out that it's superfluous. After all, if virtual worlds are just extensions of the real world, then surely all the rights we already have apply?

What about if the virtual space in question is a game? Doesn't it, by its nature, obviate some of these rights?

And the biggie: what if you don't accept the basic premises in the prefatory paragraphs?

I, for one, do not accept the basic premises outlined in this virtual bill, and in the course of this article, I hope to show you why.

Human Rights versus Avatar Rights

I was interested in reading Doone's article because I was hoping for a systemic rebuttal of all the objections raised by Koster and the developers he had interviewed for his paper. After all, 14 years have passed and even Koster leaves open the possibility that changing circumstances could invalidate his initial conclusion:

I'm not seriously proposing that we declare the right of avatars. The doc is, as has been shown, riddled with gotchas and logical holes. It's a hypothetical exercise.

For now.

Instead, Doone's argument completely ignores all of these objection (his sole reference to these objections is a single line saying that “the idea seemed far-fetched at the time”), and adopts a humanistic argument as a means of justifying an avatar Bill of Rights. This is what Koster does, too, but unlike Doone, he realises that this proposition is highly problematic. Doone argues that we are people behind avatars, that avatars haveimplications on our physical well-being, and that emotions are real. In short, he is using our universal humanity as a basis for fundamental rights in the virtual world much in the same way the authors of the Declaration of Man used it as a basis for fundamental rights in the real world.

Avatars are Contingent on Developers

This idea is misconceived in my view, due to the fundamental differences between the nature of avatars and our “meatbag” selves, as well as the differences between virtual space and the real world we live in. An obligation of rights, as set out in Koster and Doone's document, isn't simply a code of conduct. It re-conceptualises avatars as citizens in a synthetic world, with rights and responsibilities. I find it difficult to accept the underlying premise behind an avatar Bill of Rights, namely that “avatars are created free and equal.” If each of us were entitled to make one (and only one) avatar to represent ourselves in onevirtual world this Bill might have more substance, because it would more closely reflect the existing conditions which frame human rights in the real world. Human rights are a powerful idea because the axioms underpinning them are universal – we are all the same species, we only have one life, and we live it together in this world. Avatars, on the other hand, are numerous, disposable, have different justifications for being, are created across multiple worlds, and their existence is contingent on the continuing operation of the servers which house their data. Ask the avatars of Warhammer Online, City of Heroes and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes where their rights went. Into the ether when their MMOs were shuttered, that's where. Avatars cannot exist outside the imaginary world which brings them into being, and these imaginary worlds in turn are dependent upon real life considerations such as continued server operation and support from “meatbag” space. Our mundane real life selves, on the other hand, exist beyond the boundaries of these virtual worlds, which is all the more reason why any discussion on player rights should ground themselves in our status as players/consumers, rather than in our avatars.

Avatars are Contingent on Players

Avatars are also contingent on a far more fundamental sense in that they require our focused attention to achieve things in the game world. Avatars require animus, a driving spirit to give them agency and purpose. Without our real selves our avatars are puppets without puppeteers, as useless as marionettes with their strings cut. It is the work that we do in real life which imbues our avatars with value. Left to his own devices, my paladin in WoW would sit next to the mail box in Stormwind until the server collapsed around him, inert, mute, and utterly useless. By contrast my body is always inhabited by my consciousness. There is a continuity and singularity in my experiences which avatars don't have, which is another reason why we should privilege player rights over avatar rights, and why human rights are important while avatar rights are not. Given the disproportionate time I spend between not just alts of the same game, but also between avatars in other games, I find it hard to take seriously the notion that all avatars are created free and equal. If we look at avatars this way it can be argued that avatars are just a series of sock puppets which require a puppeteer to give them motive and motion. Why give them rights at all? The common sense approach is to bestow rights on the motivating force behind the puppets, namely the puppeteer him/herself.

The Price of Virtual Citizenship

Koster recognised the contingent nature of avatars in his original paper, and in fact incorporates this idea into his version of an avatar Bill of Rights. He states:

Article 3 (Koster): The principle of all sovereignty in a virtual space resides in the unalterable fact that somewhere there resides an individual who controls the hardware on which the virtual space is running, and the software with which it is created, and the database which makes up its existence. However, the body populace has the right to know and demand the enforcement of the standards by which this individual uses this power over the community, as authority must proceed from the community.

Contrast this with Doone's summary, which completely omits any reference to the contingent nature of avatars:

Article 3 (Doone): Authority of the virtual community must proceed from the community; server admins shouldn't see themselves as gods or tyrants.

On what basis can we argue that authority must proceed solely from the community? After all, there wouldn't be a virtual community if developers didn't spend money and time to create these virtual worlds. Presumably developers are humans, too, and enjoy the same rights and privileges that players have. On what basis can we impose on their rights? Because we're people? Developers are people too, so don't these two ideas cancel each other out? On what basis do we privilege the player's humanity over the developer's humanity? After all, they risk more in terms of time and money invested – check out this article on the trials and tribulations of an independent developer for an inside look at the costs associated with game development. On the other hand, no one disputes a gamer's right to pick and choose the games they want to play. It smacks of entitlement to impose further obligations on developers while maintaining the freedom of players to move from game to game with impunity. Active citizenship in the real world is not limited to rights, but also encompasses the related notion of responsibility. I cannot see how we can impose further obligations on developers without imposing a correlating duty on the players themselves. If a developer acts in good faith and upholds the rights outlined in this Bill, does this create an obligation on players to maintain their subscription in a game? What if I don't like the game anymore? Can I just leave? Surely that makes a mockery of the notion that I am a virtual citizen with rights, since I can just leave anytime I want? Can I have rights without responsibility? I certainly don't think so.

There's also the problem of transience and obsolescence. It makes no sense to create a social contract in a game I'm only going to play for a few days, discard, and then never play again. It is an inevitable fact of life that games grow old and obsolete. Do developers have an obligation to maintain dying, unprofitable and unpopular games by virtue of player's rights? More importantly, should players be obliged to support an ageing game because they are virtual citizens? Are we willing to relinquish our freedom to pick and choose what game we want to play in exchange for a social contract envisioned by an avatar Bill of Rights? The issue of Free to Play games also adds an interesting twist to the idea of equality. Should players who pay to play (and therefore help support the infrastructure of the game) be given proportionally more rights? Consider this:

Article 13 (Koster): A common contribution may, at the discretion of the individual who maintains the hardware, the software, and the data that make up the virtual space, be required in order to maintain the existence of avatars who enforce the code of conduct and to maintain the hardware and the software and the continued existence of the virtual space.

Why should non-paying players be given the same rights as paying subscribers who arguably do more to keep the servers running and the game alive?

Do We Want A Social Contract?

A social contract is a weighty thing, and it requires concessions from both sides. The question then becomes whether or not both sides are willing. If there is one thing that is clear from the developers interviewed in Koster's paper, it is that developers DO NOT want to cede any ground at all, and if they do so, it is usually because they are compelled to by outside factors such as economics, politics and law. More fundamentally, however, I do not see any kind of wide-spread grass roots movement on the part of gamers to create a type of social contract envisioned by this virtual Bill of Rights. I certainly don't want to become a citizen in a virtual world because I want to preserve my status as a player/consumer. Simply put, I have more power as a consumer than I would have as a virtual citizen. There is a reason why we privilege players over the developers but this reason is not rooted in human rights. It is rooted in the capitalist relationship between buyer and seller, producer and consumer, and developer and player. Human rights in the real world are precious and worth fighting for, simply for the reason that real people cannot choose to log out of their lives (except as a tragic and wasteful final act of dissolution), and the world they are trapped in is the only one they have. Gamers have the luxury of picking and choosing their worlds, and as one developer pointed out in Koster's essay, “the one real right they incontrovertibly have is the right to log off.” Out of this truism flows a tremendous amount of power. Developers cannot make you play a game against your will, and in fact, compete with one another for your time and money.

If we choose to remain as players and consumers we maintain a number of advantages while remaining under the protection of the rights we already have in the real world. We stay beholden to no developer, we remain unshackled, unfettered and completely free to migrate from game to game. A consumer has more power than a citizen – we are completely free to walk away from oppressive, totalitarian regimes with impunity. Article 3 in Doone's declaration states that “developers cannot be gods or tyrants.” Is it possible to be a god or tyrant when your subjects can just say “kiss my ass” and walk away? If a citizen under the regimes of Pol Pot, Stalin, or Kim Jong Il tried to say the same thing, they would have ended up in a mass grave with a bullet to the back of the head. More fundamentally, however, games remain a domain of expression, and their variety and scope are not limited by a universal document which, depending on the severity of its terms, may preclude certain types of gameplay or virtual worlds.

Freedom of Choice

Some people find certain types of gameplay unpalatable to their tastes, and many times appeals to universal principles are actually just thinly disguised attacks on specific types of games. Doone calls all EVE players sociopaths, has a binary “you are either with me or against me” outlook (i.e. you're a cynic if you don't look at games the way Doone does, and if you're not socially active in the spheres Doone considers important then you are part of the problem), and despises open world PvP. My own approach is more to let the players decide what they want to play, and let market forces and player tastes govern the virtual worlds we inhabit. The results might not pan out according to your own preferences (i.e. the most popular game in the world is a PvP MOBA with a reputation, deserved or otherwise, for toxicity), but isn't that democracy and freedom of expression at work? I can't stand Justin Bieber, but I don't begrudge people who like him and his brand of crappy music. Whatever happened Voltaire's 17^thcentury maxim, “I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?” Couldn't we expand this maxim to include games, and come up with a re-purposed statement of freedom of expression which reads, “I don't agree with what you play, but I will defend to the death your right to play it?” As long as I don't hurt anyone else, and consume my own brand of poison with other consenting adults, then you have no right (there's that word again) to tell me what to play, or how to play, or who to play with. Even trolling is protected by the tenets of free speech, even if it is idiotic, ignorant and devoid of any redeeming qualities. The price of freedom is having to put up with morons and slackers, as Gevlon would put it. If you think having to put up with dissenting, contradictory and inflammatory opinions are the sole province of the Internet, you are dead wrong. Politicians, lawyers, scientists, journalists, philosophers and the like have been trolling each other since time immemorial. Two time British Prime Minister Disraeli once said of his opponent Gladstone (himself a four time British Prime Minister): “The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: if Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.” It's a little more verbose than the common Internet epithet “die in a fire”, but this kind of discourse has been going on since the birth of democracy and free speech, and society has not yet crumbled into a heap because of it.

A Universal Bill for a Multiplicity of Worlds?

Virtual space at this point is not a unified realm sitting parallel to reality, but rather a series of fragmented spaces governed by wildly different norms. The cultural norms governing A Tale in the Desert are completely different from those that are commonly found in EVE Online and Darkfall. There are a multitude of possible virtual worlds out there, and they vary widely in scope, setting and expectations. Why then, would we try to impose a universal document on a multiplicity of worlds, each with their own norms and justifications for existence? A corollary of our right to log off is our right to choose the virtual worlds which appeal to us, and the people we associate with. There are no real impediments to people creating the kind of communities within virtual spaces which promulgate a world view in accordance with their own. Every modern MMO offers a variety of social tools such as guilds, friends lists, ignore lists, reporting systems and specialised PvE/PvP/RP servers to allow players to develop communities according to their tastes. This doesn't mean however, that these kinds of communities should be adopted universally across virtual spaces, because it would actually serve to limit the scope of the virtual multiverse. I always prefer to err on the side of freedom of expression, and I fear that a universal document may be anathema to this.

I can understand the argument for codes of conduct tailored to specific worlds, and which incorporate both the player and the developer in its clauses. This is, in fact, what happens in the real world. Human rights as we know them evolved in very specific circumstances, namely in the backdrop of our shared humanity and the singular nature of the world we occupy. There are so many fundamental differences between the real and the virtual that a basic importation of rights from real to virtual doesn't always make sense. I'm pretty sure the sanctions placed on murder would be relaxed in real life if all of us just respawned at a shrine point whenever we died, while the ancient prescription of "Thou shalt not kill" would seem ridiculous in Destiny, Titanfall or Planetside 2. A better way is to approach each world on a case by case basis, and hammer out a negotiated settlement which pleases the majority on both sides. Once again, the prescient Koster incorporates this into his own bill:

Article 6 (Koster): The code of conduct is the expression of the general will of the community and the will of the individual who maintains the hardware and software that makes up the virtual space.

Contrast this to Doone's version:

Article 6 (Doone): The code of conduct is the will of the community.

Once again Doone completely omits developers in his “summary”. For someone who trumpets human rights he is awfully quick to trample on the rights of developers by writing them out of his version of the Bill. Doone makes two mistakes when citing Koster. The first is completely writing developers out of his version of an avatar Bill of Rights. While Koster's version sounds like a reasonably inclusive document, Doone's just reads as a statement of player entitlement. The second mistake he makes is that he believes that Koster was in earnest when proposing an avatar Bill of Rights. What Koster is arguing is that following a code of conduct based on the principles similar to those espoused in avatar bill of rights is good business for developers because they “are solid administrative principles in terms of practical effect”. Koster writes that "having a clear code of conduct for both players and admins has been shown to make running the space go smoother overall."He is not arguing for an avatar Bill of Rights per se, nor is he advocating player rights at the expense of the developers, something which seems to have sailed over Doone's head when he quotes the article. Koster writes that “the real point of a document like this would be to see how many admins would sign, not how many players”, and concludes that “I'm not seriously proposing that we declare the rights of avatars” because the concept is “riddled with gotchas and logical holes”. As a developer Koster knows that players are an entitled bunch, and his concern is on how to convince developers on his side of the fence to adopt a set of principles, which in his view, make good business sense. It amuses me to see Koster's foresight in predicting that "I don't doubt that there's some folks out there right now seizing on this as an important document" without actually understanding what Koster is actually trying to achieve. Doone does just that, picking out the bits he liked, then using Koster's name as an authority for his own version of avatar rights without ever addressing any of the objections raised by Koster himself, or actually understanding what Koster was trying to do.

Player Rights, not Avatar Rights

I'm not arguing that players don't have rights. They certainly do, and in the future when I have the time and inclination I would like to look at the source of these rights and their application in virtual spaces. I don't disagree with Doone when he says that there are real people behind avatars, and yes, people have feelings and they can be hurt during the process of online interactions. I just wanted to focus on one of the “gotchas and logical holes” Koster refers to, namely the proposition that all avatars are created free and equal. They are not, and any argument which depends on this axiom fails to understand the fundamentally contingent nature of avatars and the virtual worlds which they inhabit. There may come a time where the proposition may not be so far fetched, and that will be the day when our online activities are pooled under the auspices of one easily identifiable avatar which is linked irrevocably to our personal identity outside virtual space. This is another argument entirely, but even in this scenario it seems more efficient just to extend rights and protection from our "meatbag" selves into virtual reality, rather than doubling up and creating a redundant set of rights for our avatar as well. Avatars, in their most common incarnation in games to date, aren't free – they are contingent on both the player and developer and the continued running of the servers which house their data. Nor are they equal – we allocate our time between our avatars differently, and even in the same game not all avatars are treated equally. The cost of maintaining an avatar also varies from game to game, as evidenced by the differing pay models of F2P and subscription. I'm not against the idea of a type of social contract, specific to each game and tailored to the demographics which inhabit that particular universe. What I am against however, is a universal contract based on a maxim which fails to take into account the multiplicity inherent in virtual worlds, and the fundamentally contingent nature of avatars themselves.

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part VII - The Gaming Dilemma

June 25, 2015, 7:18 am

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part VIII - A Return to Morrowind

≪ Previous: On The Virtual Rights of Avatars, Part I - Avatars are Not Free and Equal

I am well and truly back in TESO, having logged in now basically every night for the last two to three weeks for varying durations of time. At the bare minimum I train my mount, update my crafting queues, collect the materials harvested by my NPC hirelings and then log off. If I have more time to spare I either resume questing or try to find some PvP in Cyrodiil. Questing is done either in Cyrodiil in the daily quest hubs, or in the quest hubs located in the PvE zones. Doing dailies is the most efficient way of earning experience for me, because I know the quests and locations by heart. The city of Bruma is a particularly bountiful source of Veteran points - the quests objectives are all close by and can be ground out in an hour or less for about 100,000 points of experience. It takes 1 million Veteran points to advance each rank, so a one hour session in Bruma earns me about a tenth of what I need to level up.

Yuri Hatakeyama back in her homeland, in the Redguard capital of Sentinel in the Alik'r Desert.

Ten hours for one rank, which means 60 more hours before I hit the level cap. I must be insane. The downside of doing dailies is that I am acutely aware that I am grinding, and I have to adjust my environment accordingly. I put on some music, or play a video in the background to try and mollify the nagging voice in my head saying that I AM WASTING MY LIFE. To what end? To get to the level cap of a game that is dying by inches around me. Albion Online is in alpha - I could be playing that instead. Or finishing Dragon Age: Inquisition. Or hitting the gym. Or studying Japanese. I'm thinking of starting a Japanese blog so I can practice my written kanji and kana. Games have a non-trivial cost associated with them. The 30 hours I sunk into Wasteland 2 represent six weeks of training three times a week, enough time to make palpable gains in weight reduction, muscle tone, improving resting heart rate and lowering blood pressure. 30 hours of Japanese study is 1/10th of the time required to pass the intermediate stage of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which estimates the time required at 300 hours. 30 hours is a DIY garage or shed, or the time required to completely repave the surrounds of your house, and perhaps build a balcony or an extension. 30 more hours spent with family or loved ones could be the difference between being at peace when someone passes, or harbouring regrets to your dying day.

Fortunately I'm older now and hopefully more mature, which means gaming comes last in the list of priorities. I don't game unless I've ticked off my must-do items - work, training, study, and relationships all come first before I can sit down and enter the virtual. Guilt-free play is the goal - being able to enjoy something unproductive and unrelated to work without feeling like you should have been doing something else. I feel that I achieve that most days now, but the wretched question that inevitably pops up is deciding in what kind of play I will indulge in. Is all play equal? I've already decided that these next two hours will be a write-off in terms of productivity. Since it's a write-off anyway, does it matter if you spend these two hours making the Sisyphusian climb to the level cap in a dying game, or use it to try out something new?

It comes down to fun then, perhaps the most amorphous and singularly useless term in the lexicon of gaming. Fun for some is a pejorative - Gevlon uses it to describes the aimlessness of "socials", and their failure to set concrete objectives and goals. For others, fun sometimes seem to represent a failure of language - when prompted as to why they do what they do in games some people's mouths gape open like fish out of water and they shrug helplessly, then meekly say, "Because it's fun?" And then there are others for which fun is a mantra, a self-explaining and self-contained word of POWER which requires no further unpacking or elaboration. You ask these types of people why they do what they do, and they look at you as if you were some kind of half-wit and reply, "Because it's fun (you bloody idiot)."

This party ain't no fun at all.

When you say something is fun I have no idea what you are talking about, unless I happen to find the same thing fun, too. I might have a general idea of what you mean, but there are times when I am completely baffled by what people consider "fun". I'm sure it applies the other way, too.

So I've decided that I will only spend time in TESO in activities which are "fun". But for someone like me, earning that little bit of experience towards the level cap can be "fun" - it tells me that within the context of the game I have achieved something, even if it is unproductive by the standards of the world outside the virtual. In other words I take time off from work in order to play in order to work in play because I find it "fun". Circles within circles, metas within metas. The Russian doll, the recurring image in a hall of mirrors, the self-referential observing eye that springs from the universe and becomes aware of its own existence.

"What the hell do you mean you're not having fun?"

For me the answer to the gaming dilemma - the question of whether or not games are worth the opportunity cost they bear - has always been to share the experience with others. No time spent in the company of those you care about is wasted. But beyond this simple truth I must also admit to a certain kinship with the hundreds and thousands of strangers who play the same types of games that I do. We all like making sand castles and kicking them over, and in the process we weave narratives for ourselves portraying ourselves as heroes or villains in a way we could never do within the strictures of our real life personas. We can be cruel and vicious and petty - but we are all kindred souls, even if this fact is lost in the scramble for standing. We share a common vocabulary. It might be at each other's expense, but we understand each other's concept of "fun".

Enough navel gazing - it's time to grind some more levels and perhaps try to find some PvP. I think I will try Albion Online when it comes out on alpha next week, because it sounds like "fun" to me. Open world PvP and full loot rules will ensure that this game will only appeal to a niche market. But I like these types of games - I like playing around in mock wars and being surrounded by folk who feel the same way. Perhaps now though, should I come across someone in this game there might be a short pause as I behold this stranger from the far corners of the Internet, and reflect on the fact that despite our differences, it is our shared conception of "fun" that has brought us together in this virtual space. I will look into the eyes of my enemy and contemplate the distant kinship which binds us together, before finally kicking them in the groin, stabbing them in the back and stealing their stuff.

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part VIII - A Return to Morrowind

June 29, 2015, 6:04 am

≫ Next: TESO, Wildstar and Archeage Walk Into A Bar

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part VII - The Gaming Dilemma

OK, I'm having fun again.

At the foot of Ash Mountain. In a different time, in a different era, (and on a different platform) my younger self stood before a similar volcano and dreamed of heroic deeds.

Funnily enough a large part of this is because the Daggerfall Covenant is getting so badly trounced in my current campaign of Thornblade that power levelling to VR14 wouldn't achieve anything anyway. Even if I was the baddest TESO player alive with the best gear, pro skills, superhuman twitch reflexes and zero latency sitting on the level cap - and I'm none of those things - it wouldn't make a whit of difference. There are not enough Covenant left in this campaign to stop the yellow juggernaut. I've also noticed that I am climbing the Emperor leaderboard while NOT playing, which means that the people ahead of me are abandoning the campaign for greener pastures and thereby increasing my rank. I was wrong about all the other campaigns being dead, incidentally - the other 30 day Azura's Star campaign is fiercely contested with each faction making a spirited showing. I just picked a dud, apparently. Still, it seems universally acknowledged that DC is the weakest of the three factions across all the campaigns, and the pitiful state of DC is best illustrated by the fact that <Vehemence>, a prominent EP guild, is re-rerolling DC in order to stop the rot and restore balance to the Force.

A comparison of activity within the five North American campaigns during US peak time. This sample was taken Friday evening US time (26 June 2015), and it shows that all the campaigns with the exception of Thornblade are still active and well-populated.

Another comparison, this time this sample was taken on Saturday evening US time (27 June 2015).

With the pressure to level off my shoulders I can stop fixating on attaining VR14, and stop to smell the roses. Questing has become bearable, even fun again, thanks largely in part to the fact that I've finally completed the Altmeri Dominion and opened up the Ebonheart quest hubs. Morrowind is my favourite Elders Scrolls title followed closely by Skyrim, and so the opportunity to explore the lands which I had become intimately familiar with in single player titles was something that appealed to me greatly. I could have wept with joy when I first entered the Stonefalls zone and saw the netches floating amongst the giant mushrooms and the guar grazing peacefully in the fields of Morrowind. I paused to take a selfie with an unimpressed Ordinator guard near the Temple of the Tribunal, delved deep into a kwama mine amongst the kwama warriors and the scribs, battled some nix-hounds and alit, and stood stock still in an ash storm beneath the shadow of a great volcano. Ash Mountain dominates the geography of Stonefalls, and its brooding presence took me back (or forward?) to another time, where a younger man with an X-Box walked the footsteps of the Nerevarine, united a people, and set them free from the false worship of the Tribunal.

Who would have thought that I'd be so happy to see a floating jellyfish?

I played Morrowind over a decade ago, and it was my entry point into the world of the Elder Scrolls. I spent hours in that game, with just me and my controller, wandering the island of Vvardenfell, learning its history and culture and listening to the beautifully atmospheric ambient music composed by Jeremy Soule. I have played the subsequent titles of Oblivion and Skyrim, and even though they represented advances in technology and virtual storytelling, Morrowind will always still be my first love. It didn't have voice overs or Radiant AI, but it did its world-building the old-fashioned way - through reams and reams of written text, and through exploration of the world around me. I don't know exactly when the lore of the game "took" with me - when I first started the game all I was interested in was building my character's power. Back in the day jumping improved your Athletics skill, which meant that everywhere I went I was doing my best Mario impersonation, leaping, skipping and bounding with every step. It paid off in the end - once my Athletics was 100 I was dashing across the roof tops of Balmora like Batman, clearing alleys and streets in a single bound. Then I found out about flying, and that culminated with my avatar learning, crafting, and finally imbibing a stack of flight potions and taking wing a la Superman. Do you know that there is cloud cover in Morrowind, and once you break through you will find yourself floating above a fluffy sea of white, with the sun your only companion in the skies? Then there are potions of underwater breathing, and the expeditions into the coastal waters around Vvanderfell. I would use the Aquaman reference, except for the fact that I think he is the laughing stock of the DC Universe. Nice power, Aquaman. I wish I could breath underwater and talk to fish. Not.

Guar roam and play in the fields of Morrowind.

The lore did get to me, in the end. Reading was a great inconvenience at first, but gradually as I explored the story seeped into my consciousness. Environment has a language all of its own, as does music and ambience, and my initial reluctance soon gave way to a yielding acceptance of the virtual world around me. I knew I was hooked when I found myself hoarding books and stashing them in my avatar's home in Balmora. I still remember my home in Morrowind - an unassuming dwelling stuffed to the rafters with books, weapons and armour of all shapes, makes, and sizes. There were repositories for gems, food and potions, and the various alcoholic beverages of the game were stacked in order on one of the shelves. My library eventually encompassed all the tomes within the game - I can recall ransacking the Great Library in Vivec City for a particularly obscure and rare work to complete the collection.

Riding through am ash storm takes me back to the hours I spent in Vvardenfell.

The depth of the lore in Morrowind is demonstrated by two things. The first is the inclusion by the game makers of an obscure and terrible disease called porphyric haemophilia, otherwise known as vampirism. The early stages of this affliction is easily remedied by a simple cantrip or a common potion, but the cure for the fully developed version of this malady can only be found through diligent research and study. Pursuing this course will open up a hidden world of nightwalkers, with their own societies, safe houses and lore, all of which is completely optional and unrelated to the main game. The second is the fact that the texts within the game are not unified and cohesive, but are contradictory, conflicting and divergent, thus opening up the possibilities for subversive readings and alternative interpretations of traditional texts. In fact the search for truth is the game's leitmotif - the received wisdom of Tribunal doctrine is gradually, inexorably and irrevocably revealed as a lie, and you are instrumental in unravelling the central mystery behind the façade.

Swapping stories with an Ordinator. They don't appear impressed.

Morrowind would seem terribly dated now by today's standards, and the magic which captivated me would leave the current generation cold and unmoved. That is the job of the newer versions of the story, and that is why Oblivion and Skyrim follow the same tropes, albeit with better graphics, better AI and voice acting. The Hero of Kvatch and the dovakhiin are cut from the same mold, but for me Morrowind was my personal doorway to the world of the Elder Scrolls. If it worked for me with Morrowind, then it can also work for thousands of Elder Scroll neophytes stepping into this universe for the first time with subsequent titles bearing the Elder Scrolls brand. This is also the source of much of the anger directed at TESO - the fear that the MMO would fail in what some have come to see as the series' sacred duty to induct new believers into the Elder Scrolls universe.

No other MMO does ambience like TESO. The rumble of thunder, the patter of rain and the crackling of lightning along with the stunning vistas can transport you to another world. Where the hell is everyone else though?

In a way TESO was put in a no win quandary - they were forced to create a game whose central trope was to make the player believe that they were the hero of the age in a setting inimical to that convention. Massive multiplayer games are notoriously good at reminding us that we are not special - there is always someone better geared or more skilled, or has more time and money to devote to the game. Such an environment is anathema to the fundamental tenet of the Elder Scrolls. In trying to reconcile this dichotomy Zenimax has created one of best single player MMOs in the market - a megashard world in which the player quests mostly on their own. The problem with single player MMOs is that they are competing with sleeker, specialised single player titles like The Witcher, Dragon Age and single player Elder Scrolls titles who can devote their whole budget to customising their experience without having to worry about pesky things like server load, lag spikes and other players.

Arriving at the Temple of the Tribunal in Mournhold, the capital of Morrowind.

None of that matters to me anymore. Freed from the strident demands of levelling I can ease my foot off the accelerator, and let the environment of TESO take me back to one of the seminal computer role-playing game experiences of my life. For me it is a chance to see the lands of the Dunmer again - to meet the various members of the great houses of Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Indoril and Dres once more. To meet the Ashlanders again, who hold faith to their older and more primal Daedric gods and whose stalwart stoicism will be vindicated in the future. To see the Ordinators maintain the faith. And most importantly, to see the Almsivi - the Tribunal itself, the living gods of the Dunmer - to see them once more, in happier times before the onset of apathy, ennui, indifference and madness. In TESO the Tribunal are still at the height of their power - Dagoth Ur, previously thought slain at the hands of Nerevar, will not reappear to challenge Vivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia for another 300 years (2E 882). The events of Morrowind do not took place until the end of the Third Age (3E 427) seven centuries after the period in which TESO is set (2E 582). Given the meditations on the paradox of time in Elder Scrolls lore, it seems fitting that the older me is experiencing the younger era of Morrowind now, while the younger me walked the footsteps of the Nerevarine 700 years later in the future over a decade ago. Arriving at the capital of Mournhold again after visiting this city 13 years ago in Tribunal, I felt the thrill of coming home to a place familiar but different. I know that nothing the developers have wrought here will ever compare to the wild flights of fancy engendered in my mind by the simple words used to such great world-building effect in Morrowind. But it is a real place to me, as real as any I have walked on with my own two feet, and it makes me happy to visit it one more time outside the halls of my own memory.

↧

TESO, Wildstar and Archeage Walk Into A Bar

September 12, 2014, 9:29 am

≫ Next: On The Virtual Rights of Avatars, Part I - Avatars are Not Free and Equal

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part VIII - A Return to Morrowind

In the red corner, Wildstar.

In the blue, The Elder Scrolls Online, commonly abbreviated as either TESO or ESO.

Two up and coming subscriber-based MMOs with aspirations of greatness. Or at least, a decent market share. The former is banking on a zany sci-fi aesthetic, a telegraph combat system, player housing and an appeal to old school attunement raiding as its foundations for victory. The latter is riding on the coattails of a beloved IP and comes on the heels of one of the most popular single-player games of all time. Skyrim was voted by Australia as its most popular game in a recent poll conducted by ABC's Good Game television series, and TESO has attempted to leverage this popularity to attract subscribers to it, with mixed results.

The Champion.

At ringside sits the champion, a massive panda puffing on a fat cigar. His greatness is unquestioned by all, regardless of whether they love him or loathe him. He'll be in the Hall of Fame one day, and his records (12 million at his peak, and over 7 million currently) may never be broken. But for now he is taking a respite from training, and watching these two contenders slug it out in the ring before him. He is unimpressed with either – his contempt for his competitors is evident by his long lay-off, and his refusal to release his new expansion until November this year, more than two years after Mists of Pandaria. He knew new contenders were coming in the interim – he just didn't care. But now he is back, and if you look closely enough, you can see his fur giving way to green skin and rippling muscle. Warlords of Draenoris coming.

Final Fantasy 14.

If you scan the ringside a few more prominent figures emerge into focus from the smoky, raucous gloom. Final Fantasy 14 is dressed in classical Japanese “cool” - a mixture of denim, leather, fur and dark shades. His crazy hair style belies the gaunt face and the glittering eyes – he is a respected fighter, having garnered more than two million subscribers in his early career. His mixed heritage – Western and Japanese subscribers on PCs and consoles – give him an exotic look. Behind him sits an older woman of Scandinavian descent in a form fitting bodysuit adorned with tech. Cold blue eyes peer out behind a face streaked with implants and silver geodes, and combined with her reputation for hostility, ensures that no one comes near her without an explicit invitation. EVE Online is old, formidable, and unique. Her 500,000 followers come from all walks of life, but it is her acolytes in null sec that garner the most attention from the press and the outside world with their massive, record-breaking bloc wars. Her attention is not directed at the fight, but with two up and coming amateurs sitting across the ring from her. Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous will be making their pro debuts next year, and she will be their chief rival.

EVE Online.

There are others too, not belonging to the subscriber-school of fighting, who have chosen to grace ringside with their presence. Guild Wars 2, Marvel Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online stand clustered together in the aisle, laughing loudly at some shared joke, while The Secret World sits with his back to the wall in the far recesses of the stands, eyes never still. These F2P fighters, free agents without recurring monthly payments, were once derided as has-beens, over-the-hill fighters trying to hold onto their glory days, no better than hawkers and used car salesmen in their frantic attempts to peddle off whatever content they had left. No longer. Star Wars: The Old Republic looks hale and whole in a simple brown and white cloak commonly worn by the Jedi. Described as one of the greatest failures in MMO history, her clear brown eyes show only calm and detachment. She made a spectacular debut, racing to over 1 million subscribers in the first three days of her release. This was followed by a more spectacular fall from grace, a transition to a hybrid F2P model, and predictions about her eventual demise. She has shocked them all by her resilience and heart. Since switching to F2P she has recouped her costs, and generates a steady income stream for her manager, Electronic Arts. But the stigma remains, and the fight tonight, while not necessarily meaning the end for either TESO or Wildstar, is in many ways one for prestige. Critics of both fighters have harangued loudly about their eventual demise to F2P. Only time will tell if these critics were right.

SWTOR.

But back to the fight.

The two contenders pace in their respective corners and receive their last minute instructions as the ringside announcer finishes the last vestiges of pre-fight pageantry. There is a moment's silence for the fallen – Warhammer Onlineand Vanguard are honoured and remembered - and then the fighters are introduced to tumultuous acclaim. The referee gives them their final instructions, and then steps back.

TESO came out swinging first, having been released on 4 April. Almost immediately it was sent reeling back under a storm of criticism. Scorn and derision were piled on the title, and the knees buckled and bent, but did not fall. Forbeswent ahead and predicted that it would be “the biggest video game disaster of 2014.” The Errant Penman wrote A Farewell to TESO, a beautifully written elegy to the the game TESO never became. Review after review lashed it, bloodied its face, gashed its skin, and broke its nose. Comparisons to the great Skyriminvariably led to damning reviews. Worse still, it became apparent to all at ringside that TESO was not fight ready. Crashes, bugs and glitches marred its performance. People who were willing to try the game left in disgust. TESO also debut with an ill-conceived Imperial edition, locking an entire race behind a paywall and giving its critics more ammunition to crucify the title.

TESO.

Wildstar came out two months after TESO on 3 June. In contrast to TESO it received glowing reviews and accolades from the blogsphere. In many ways it was the Chosen One – the anointed successor, the greatest thing since sliced bread, the game which would re-invent a tiring, ailing genre. Just as TESO was made a pariah Wildstar was embraced and loved and elevated by the blogsphere. Most games would envy the critical reception Wildstar received upon release.

In fighting however, it's not what the critics say, but what the fighters do that matters.

TESO gave its subscribers five extra days of free time as an apology for its extremely rough release. It moved its maintenance days from Tuesday and Friday to Monday and Thursday so that Oceanic players could play the game on Friday evenings. It migrated its European servers from the US to Europe in order to reduce the latency of European players. It clamped down hard on the gold sellers which plagued its release, so much so that they have virtually disappeared from Tamriel. It consolidated the various PvP campaigns in order to minimise the effect of Emperor-farming, a deplorable practice which essentially stripped the title of any meaning. It pre-loaded weapon swapping animations to give more responsiveness to combat. And the quick and efficient responses to customer tickets have impressed both me and my gaming circle, and have done much to offset our initial disappointment at the shoddy state of the game upon release. Iteration by iteration, TESO is getting its feet back under it. Staggered and wobbled in the first round, it is beginning to fight back. In June it had over 750,000 subscribers, which made it third behind WoW and Final Fantasy 14.

Wildstar, on the other hand, is living and dying by its decision to make old school raiding the centrepiece of its endgame. For all the critical claim it has garnered, it has managed to scrape together a paltry 450,000 subscribers in the first month of its life. And now the news that Carbine is consolidating their servers ALREADY, barely three months after their release. If MMOs truly were fighters, then Wildstaris what we would call a front-runner – dangerous early, but prone to gassing out and withering away in the later rounds.

Wildstar.

The most disappointing thing has been the lack of heart shown by Wildstar's early supporters. As Wildstar falters, and new, younger fighters appear on the horizon, these fair-weather supporters are abandoning the bandwagon in droves, citing a general ennui with MMOs as a genre as an excuse for turning their back on their chosen champion. In a time where Wildstar needs more subs than ever, they are cancelling, quitting, and showing their true colours. Like a swarm of locusts they are already gathering around Archeage, ready to pick it apart and consume it before moving on to their next meal. The remaining hold-outs, those who genuinely love the game and continue to support it regardless of its faltering popularity, have my respect. I know how they feel.

So Wildstar battles on, increasingly bereft of friends, his movements growing less graceful and more laboured as the fight moves into the middle rounds. But TESO doesn't look that hearty either. In its last update TESO had to make a plea for more players on the public test server, and the number of PvP campaigns do not seem to reflect a population measuring over three quarters of a million players. Furthermore, the news that Zenimax has laid off a number of its staff bodes ominously for the future of the game. Wildstar might go to F2P earlier than TESO, but that would be cold comfort if TESO tumbles soon after.

At ringside, a gossamer of emotion flickers across SWTOR's face. She has seen and experienced this all before, and perhaps her thoughts are with both fighters as they struggle to establish themselves. Then again they are her opponents and rivals, and there is little room for sentiment in their profession. Final Fantasy 14 remains alert and attentive, carefully watching TESO. As number two and number three on the rankings, they will jealously guard their positions in anticipation for an inevitable clash. As for the champion, the great panda has already turned away from the fight and is chatting amiably with his cousins Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. He doesn't care who wins – neither of the fighters are a threat to him. But several rows back, another fighter watches the fight with an intensity belied by her fair complexion and youthful looks. Archeage boasts a Korean heritage, a claim of sandbox based play, open world PvP, and a player-driven economy reminiscent of EVE. She will make her professional debut next week. Unlike the two fighters slugging it out in the ring, however, she has eschewed the subscriber path, and will begin her career as a F2P fighter. New age, or old guard? Will the disciples of F2P triumph, or do the fighters of old school subscription still have a part to play in this sport of ours?

Archeage.

As for me, sitting in the stands far from the action, my money remains firmly on TESO outlasting Wildstar as a subscription-based title. I don't even like TESO that much – the only part I really like is the Alliance War, and that was a style pioneered by one of the early greats of the bare knuckle era, Dark Age of Camelot. The rest I have seen before, albeit without the voice acting and with worse graphics. But nothing would please me more than to see TESO prosper and do well, especially after all the scorn, derision and criticism that was heaped upon it during its release. Every month it remains non-F2P is another month which illustrates how wrong many of these learned commentators are, and how worthless their opinion is when it comes to the trends which rule the MMO market. My opinion is equally worthless, but nonetheless I did make the prediction in March that TESO would not go F2P in a year's time, and thus I feel obliged to put my money where my mouth is by remaining a subscriber. The introduction of the Imperial City, a possible Arena mode as well as a future justice system to enable open world PvP are future features which interest a player of my own peculiar tastes. The transition to consoles in December may also give the game a much needed shot in the arm. Final Fantasy 14 has shown that there is a market for MMOs in consoles. Perhaps TESO can parlay this and leverage it to create a sustainable base from which to build upon. As a supporter and subscriber of the game, I can only hope.

↧

On The Virtual Rights of Avatars, Part I - Avatars are Not Free and Equal

October 13, 2014, 11:50 pm

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part V - A Brief Interlude

≪ Previous: TESO, Wildstar and Archeage Walk Into A Bar

Others point out that it's superfluous. After all, if virtual worlds are just extensions of the real world, then surely all the rights we already have apply?

What about if the virtual space in question is a game? Doesn't it, by its nature, obviate some of these rights?

And the biggie: what if you don't accept the basic premises in the prefatory paragraphs?

I, for one, do not accept the basic premises outlined in this virtual bill, and in the course of this article, I hope to show you why.

Human Rights versus Avatar Rights

I'm not seriously proposing that we declare the right of avatars. The doc is, as has been shown, riddled with gotchas and logical holes. It's a hypothetical exercise.

For now.

Avatars are Contingent on Developers

Avatars are Contingent on Players

The Price of Virtual Citizenship

Koster recognised the contingent nature of avatars in his original paper, and in fact incorporates this idea into his version of an avatar Bill of Rights. He states:

Contrast this with Doone's summary, which completely omits any reference to the contingent nature of avatars:

Article 3 (Doone): Authority of the virtual community must proceed from the community; server admins shouldn't see themselves as gods or tyrants.

Freedom of Choice

A Universal Bill for a Multiplicity of Worlds?

Contrast this to Doone's version:

Article 6 (Doone): The code of conduct is the will of the community.

Player Rights, not Avatar Rights

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part V - A Brief Interlude

October 26, 2014, 12:45 am

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part IX - The Redguard

≪ Previous: On The Virtual Rights of Avatars, Part I - Avatars are Not Free and Equal

Much has changed since I last wrote about TESO. I lack the discipline to churn out regular blog posts, preferring to play rather than write about games, and when I actually do write, I end up creating massive, turgid and long-winded posts about issues which seem trivial in hindsight. Ah well, no one is forcing anyone to read this, so I will just potter along and write about things which interest me. Once an idea gets in my skull it festers in the back of my head, and only the act of publishing it liberates my mind from the fixation. It's quite a relief to get a post published and to forget about it.

The Siren Call of Archeage

I have been sorely tempted by the lures of Archeage. It has many features which interests someone of my background. One of the recurring themes of this blog is the quest for meaningful open world PvP, and AA appears to be one of the few titles that have incentivized it correctly and given it purpose beyond meaningless griefing. A game has to be doing something right if it is able to attract both self-defined "carebears" such as Aywren of Clean Casuals Gaming, and hardcore PvPers like Syncaine of Hardcore Casual. On the other hand, the horror stories about the prevalence of bots and hackers, Trion's unwillingness or inability to deal with them, and the controversy regarding the use of a rootkit program called HackShield are all red flags which dampen my interest in the game. I've already taken the plunge and joined Syncaine's guild on the Ollo server, but have yet to actually play the game online with my new guild. My AA avatar is in her 20's, and is a neophyte in all things AA related, so I don't expect to go on any roams with the guild for at least a couple more weeks. It's actually quite fun to be a stranger in a strange land - to not know the landscape intimately, to be unable to comprehend the meaning of the abbreviations in zone chat, or to know the potential strengths or weaknesses of my character's build. My avatar has simply been questing, following the bread crumbs like Hansel and Gretel in the big bad woods, except that the big bad woods so far have been non-PvP zones and have been quite uneventful, peaceful areas. I'm sure a rude shock awaits once she enters the contested zones, but it is something I am looking forward to. For now my avatar Hatakeyama is learning how to plant flowers and trying to wrap my head around how the crafting system works. No guides used as of yet - that will come once someone flattens me in PvP - but she is learning as she goes. At the moment of writing she has planted a bunch of lilies behind a non-descript barn, and is hoping that the flowers will still be around when she logs on later this evening. It is a joy to be able to interact with the world, and to see the mark of player agency everywhere, from the player-owned and tended fields, the vast melange of houses and the occasional convoy that come rumbling along the dirt roads. TESO is a far more beautiful game - look at these amazing screenshots of the in-game engine - but its beauty is akin to that of painting locked away behind a glass case, pristine but forever beyond alteration. AA is a rough work in progress, but more importantly it is a communal effort, and one that springs from the players themselves.

Single Player Diversions

I'm still subscribed to TESO, but my avatar has stalled at Veteran Rank (VR) 6 (out of a possible 14), and levelling her to cap via questing is a concept that fills me with horror and trepidation. I'm pretty much with J3w3l of Healing the Masses on this one - I think I'd prefer to eat broken glass rather than do another quest, regardless of how nicely the graphics are rendered and how well the voice acting is performed. Instead I play around with my Templar alt, and occasionally do some PvP in Cyrodiil on my main. I am now very much out of touch with the situation within the PvP campaigns. The only time I play TESO is when I can organise a time when I can play with Rykester and Sally Mander, and those times are becoming fewer and far between due to Rykester's ongoing studies and Sally's new baby girl. Nowadays I am devoting much more time to activities outside gaming, and the time I do spend in gaming is spent on single player titles such as Civilisation V, Hearthstone and Wasteland 2. I finally beat Civ 5 on the hardest difficulty setting, and have no plans to ever return to it outside of multiplayer games. Unfortunately Beyond Earth is on the cusp of release, and I fear that this will be another title which will consume much of my leisure time. I started playing Hearthstone in August when I went back to Australia for holiday, and this title has scratched an itch for competitive play which WoW Arena and Rated BGs used to fill. I would like to become good at Hearthstone, and try to attain Legendary rank, much like Matticus in World of Matticus has done. This requires practice and study, however, and it might be something that is beyond me anyway. For now, though, Hearthstone is like Arena without the movement and the twitch requirements, and I am thoroughly enjoying learning and playing the game.

State of the Campaigns in TESO

The PvP landscape in TESO has changed significantly since Part IV of this series. For one, the original ten 90-day campaigns in Cyrodiil have been compressed into five - a non-VR five day campaign, a VR only five day campaign, two 7 day campaigns, and an open 30 day campaign. Another alteration occurred in September, when the Veteran campaign of Bow of Shadows was replaced by another open 30 day campaign (Azura's Star). I've relocated my toons to Thornblade, the first of the two possible open 30 day campaigns, and any subsequent posts about Cyrodiil will take place here. The rough chronology of the campaigns I have been involved with since the April release are as follows:

i) 90 Day Campaign (Wabbajack April-July 2014) - the first, and best campaign in my humble opinion, and I will always have fond memories of the great war in Wabbajack. The story of this campaign can be found here;

ii) Truncated 90 Day Campaign (Wabbajack July-August 2014) - this expired early when the campaigns were compressed into their present day versions;

iii) 30 Day Campaign (Thornblade August 2014) - won by the Altmeri Dominion;

iv) 30 Day Campaign (Thornblade September 2014) - won by the Altmeri Dominion;

v) 30 Day Campaign (Thornblade October 2014) - scheduled to end in just over a week, but it is CLOSE - any of the three factions can still win it.

In addition to the consolidation of the campaigns Zenimax has instituted a 50,000 AP minimum to be eligible for the rank of Emperor, as well as a 3 day lockout when switching campaigns. The horse has bolted however, as the title of Emperor is completely meaningless now given the prevalence of Emperor farming in the weeks prior to the implementation of patch 1.3. The only Emperors I have respect for are the ones I have seen on a regular basis on the other side, and who have been crowned legitimately in CONTESTED campaigns. Zenimax has also begun awarding items for players in top 10% of the leaderboards (top 2% get a gold item, 2-10% get a purple) in patch 1.4. Previously all you received from the campaigns was gold, the sum total of which was determined by your activity and how well your Alliance did in the campaign. Now being active in the campaign has more tangible inducements, and given the balance changes I see this as an overall positive. And finally in the upcoming 1.5 patch campaign buffs will be localised to the campaign you are physically in. There will no longer be instances where players set their home campaign to one where their faction is dominant, and then guest into other campaigns using the buffs they have in their home campaign. The reign of the Dominion Emperor-Farmers will finally be over - if people want buffs they have to earn it in the campaign they are fighting in.

Overall there have been a vast plethora of changes in TESO, and all for the better. Patch 1.5 promises to add a whole host of quality of life changes. Dungeon scaling is on the cards, Veteran Points will be abolished, and the experience requirement to go up levels has been reduced. Thank the Divines for that. Better facial animations will also be implemented in 1.5, which goes to show where the developer's hearts are in this game - they love their aesthetic, and will spend countless resources improving the lighting, particle effects, and now facial animations over the things I myself would be prioritising - the Imperial City and the justice system all come into mind. For me, however, the best thing Zenimax has done to date is the minor miracle they have wrought on Thornblade. Somehow the three factions are almost completely balanced, as by evidenced by the evolution of the campaign score below.

Even now in the last week of the campaign the result is poised on a razor's edge, as any of the three factions can still win:

Unfortunately the balance in Thornblade is in sharp contrast to the one sided dominance of EP in Azura's Star, the other 30 day campaign. This probably goes to show that these types of factional balance are always in unstable equilibrium, and hitting the sweet spot is more a case of luck than anything else. I just accept that asymmetry is part of these type of open world games and deal with it. If I want balance I play instanced games like WoW Arena, Starcraft 2, or League of Legends.

An Interlude

I plan to remain a TESO subscriber for the foreseeable future, but my attentions will be diverted to AA for the next few weeks. It's too late for me to return to the current Thornblade campaign and be in the hunt for top 2-10% of the leaderboards until the campaign restarts in November. I am really looking forward to the opening of the continent of Auroria in AA, because this is when we will see guilds claim castles and territory and engage in some real large scale skirmishes ala Cyrodiil in TESO. I look forward to seeing which guilds become the top dogs, and who their rivals will be. MMOs are blank canvases on which players can create their own stories, and while AA has its share of challenges to overcome, the battle over Auroria and dominion of the high seas is a player-generated story this old role-player can get into.

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part IX - The Redguard

August 6, 2015, 12:43 am

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part X - The Templar

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part V - A Brief Interlude

TESO is not a game conducive to alts. For one, the grind to level cap - currently VR14 at the time of writing, and soon to be expanded to VR16 with the arrival of the Imperial City DLC - is a mammoth task akin to scaling the peaks of K2 or Mount Everest, something more suited to younger folk with lots of free time on their hands. Secondly, there is no content a main character is not privy to regardless of what faction they start as. Irrespective of whether you begin your journey as Covenant, Dominion or Pact, you will be able to experience every faction's single player storylines, as well as all the dungeons, raids and PvP the game has to offer. Think of the single player storyline as an stage play with three acts, with the nature of the first act being determined by your faction. The first act allows you to play through the story of your faction, and it culminates with the battle to reclaim your soul and defeat Molag Bag. The second and third acts, however, allow you to experience the tale of the other factions, in essence reliving the march to the final confrontation with Molag Bal, except without the confrontation (because you've already defeated him in Act I) and in full awareness that you are doing so in a lucid dream or fugue state. For all you know you are passed out at a bar somewhere after having too many celebratory drinks because you just saved the world. Hard to muster up heroic gusto in that scenario.

Yuri Hatakeyama my main - on the left, wearing her healing gear; on the right, wearing medium armour and armed with a bow and great sword.

Alts still play a vital role in providing inventory space and providing a crafting toon who is able to spend valuable skill points on crafting instead of combat abilities. Another incentive for creating alts is to be able to play with different class skills, although this comes with the caveat of a massive levelling requirement. There are four classes in TESO, each with their own unique class skills. These class skills do not preclude any of the classes from fulfilling any of the classical trinity roles however, and all classes have equal access to all the other skills in the game. This means that all classes can be effective tanks, DPS or healers, and largely obviates the need to create specialised trinity alts. I use all eight of my character slots in TESO nonetheless - six of them are banking alts, each tasked with holding a specific category of objects. The other two slots house my main and my crafting alt, and it is through their eyes that I experience the world of Tamriel.

Hatakeyama travelling in Eastmarch, in the lands of the Ebonheart Pact.

Yuri Hatakeyama is my main - this persona has travelled through many virtual worlds, the last of note being Archeage - and she is a Redguard Nightblade. Her home base is in Sentinel, the capital of the Redguard, and this is where I return to between adventures to sell, store, transfer or disenchant items when encumbered. I don't have to use Sentinel as my home base - Shornhelm in Rivenspire is better laid out in my opinion - but it is fitting in terms of lore, and I love the look of Redguard architecture and the lonely ambience of the Alik'r desert. TESO gets full marks from me with the job they did in fleshing out the Redguards and expanding their background in terms of story and environment. Now they are no longer an abstract race of athletic Africans/Egyptians in the character creation screens of Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim, but a real people of Tamriel with their own history, their own king (I've met him!), and their own places in the Elder Scrolls world. I loved wandering the zones of Stros M'kai and Alik'r, visiting the Valley of Blades with Sai Sahan in the main quest, and look forward to adventuring in Craglorn when the time comes.

Wearing medium armour and wielding a great sword, Hatakeyama prepares to engage a lesser Daedra blocking her path.

I'm not really sure why I decided to roll a character on the Daggerfall Covenant, especially given that I loved Morrowind, and liked Skyrim very much. Part of it stems from the wish to expand my knowledge of the Elder Scrolls world - I already know much about the Dunmer, the Imperials and the Nords because of their respective stand-alone titles, so much so that any deviations from the pre-conceptions formed within my head are met with much pooh-poohing and indignation. "The Dunmer would never do that - what the hell are the developers thinking?" Nonetheless, it seemed more interesting to see how the less prominent races were depicted in Zenimax's vision of Tamriel. I have to say that I found the Dominion quests very disappointing in this regard - the Altmer, Bosmer and Khajit never emerged as distinct cultures for me, although my experience may have been unfairly coloured by the strident and all-consuming desire to level which overrode all other considerations at that time. Once I relaxed and decided to enjoy the journey I became more open to the experience and started to see the quests, mobs and locales as more than just experience point values.

Deep in a delve Hatakeyama stumbles onto some ancient Ayleid ruins.

Another reason why I chose the Covenant was also due to the fact that I always love playing the underdog, and I could see that the vast majority of players would naturally gravitate towards the Pact. My wish to play the underdog has been granted in full, incidentally - the Covenant was absolutely thrashed by the Dominion in July once again. The only consolation for me was that the Covenant was triumphant in Azura's Star, the other 30 day campaign. I'm happy for my comrades-in-blue, but I have no plans to desert Thornblade as I intend to turn my avatar into a fully fledged ganker in the Imperial City once the DLC drops in late August. The more targets the better.

Hatakeyama's current build and gear.

For now my Redguard Nightblade is running a magicka based build in heavy armour. Her weapons are a two-handed mace and a restoration staff, and her load-out and skill selection are designed primarily for survival and longevity. Her WoW equivalent would be a holy paladin, with perhaps a tad more offensive power plus the ability to escape and evade with the use of Dark Cloak. She is very robust - with food and battle buffs she is rocking almost 30k health in Cyrodiil. She is also wearing five pieces of Whitestrake's Retribution, which means that once her health drops below 30% she gains a 9k shield at VR12, for a total effective health pool of about 40k. This gives me lots of time to react. If you want to PvP in Cyrodiil you need at least 20k health, otherwise a player could eviscerate you in 3-4 seconds when they jump you. The way I think about it is that 4k health represents roughly one second of life against a single player. So if I'm fighting someone one on one I can use four abilities before I have to heal up or vanish, and less if I'm facing more opponents. It's not a perfect guide, but it has served me well so far.

Metal is bad when you're freezing to death in one of Skyrim's enchanted caverns.

In PvE she is perfectly capable of soloing all veteran content designed for multiple players (excluding instanced dungeons and raids) because of her survivability, healing output and Dark Cloak. This makes it easier for me to complete dolmens, world bosses, delves, and public dungeons without the aid of other people, because let's face it, in the instanced versions of Dominion and Pact lands, people are in short supply. In instanced dungeons my DPS is sub-par because her build is not optimised for doing damage, but she can play support and off-heal, and provided that there are no burn timer mechanics in play, we will eventually win because the boss won't be able to kill us.

Solving a puzzle deep within a Dwemer ruin.

In this fashion Hatakeyama has been slowly and methodically clearing all the content in Pact lands, and she is now halfway through VR12 as she makes her way through the Rift, the final zone in Ebonheart. Once she completes the Rift she will have done all the single player content in the original game, which is actually quite a staggering amount. I just don't like the central conceit of the Caldwell quests - the idea that we are in a dream facilitated by Meridia's magic seems like such a cop-out, and it diminishes the experience. After the Rift she will either have to complete quests in Cyrodiil, run dungeons repeatedly for the Undaunted faction, or enter Craglorn, the first expansion for TESO. She won't be wanting for content, which is a good thing and probably makes TESO good value for money as a buy-to-play title. The ultimate goal, of course, is to hit VR14 before the DLC drops - for all my talk on lore and enjoying the experience I am still a min-maxer at heart, and I want to enter the Imperial City to as close as an even footing as possible before the fun starts.

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part X - The Templar

August 9, 2015, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Letters from Tamriel, Part XI - Saviour of Nirn

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part IX - The Redguard

It's a sad indictment of my state of mind that even though I am aware that TESO is not a game conducive to alts, I am still levelling up two, perhaps three characters at once. Part of it is a type of rebellion against what is expected of me - common sense dictates that the optimal path is to level one character to VR14 first. By levelling alts I am saying that I will engage the game on my own terms, which is the opposite of what I have always done. In my WoW days, I would always level one character first and completely kit them out in full PvP gear before moving onto another. In TESO I am subverting that habit, and embracing a different play style. Either that, or I'm just not right in the head.

Theodorius in traditional Imperial heavy armour, surveying the rooftops of Sentinel like a Roman legionnaire visiting Egypt in ancient times.

My crafting alt is Theodorius Gaius Aurelius, and as evidenced by the name, he is an Imperial Templar. Theodorius has also wandered through many a virtual world, although his incarnation in TESO is darker than his usual manifestation. He is an artefact of my childhood, and also my WoW main - in WoW the people that play with me know me and address me as Theo. Because most of his skill points are tied up in crafting, Theodorius has had to use a very tightly focused build with no room for experimentation. He uses the archetype of the WoW retribution paladin, or the Warhammer Online warrior-priest - clad in heavy armour and wielding a greatsword he stacks magicka in order to be able to heal while being in the thick of the fray at the same time. In low level dungeons this build allows him to tank and heal himself at the same time. He is only level 42 so I can't speak to the efficacy of this build at veteran level, but I am having great fun at playing multiple roles in lower dungeons, alternatively tanking, healing or dpsing as needed. Because his stamina is low he can't sustain long periods of dps, but can alternate it with healing while his stamina recovers. I also have the option of using offensive magicka abilities, but I have the feeling that I might blow out my magicka pool if I use it for both offence and healing. My current build allows me to alternate between using stamina and magicka based abilities at a constant rate without having too much "dead time" where I am only swinging the greatsword. Having self-heals is also important for a Templar because unlike Nightblades (who can vanish) and Sorcerers (who can blink away rapidly), Templars are committed to a fight once they are out of stealth.

Wandering the desert of Alik'r evokes echoes of Lawrence of Arabia.

Hatakeyama and Theodorius have manifested themselves over and over in many of the worlds I have visited, and their significance varies from minute to minute, from play session to play session. Most of the time they are just extensions of myself, tools which I use to extend my will into the virtual. Other times they take on a life of their own - in much the same way an author finds their characters doing things they never expected, I find myself in situations in which what I want conflicts with what my characters want. Having two avatars means you can make alternative choices during the second playthrough of the game, and to see what would have happened if you had taken the road less travelled by. In my first playthrough Hatakeyama was given the choice of saving a mage, or condemning her to madness in the Shivering Isles in return for power in the form of two skill points. There was no way Hatakeyama would ever have accepted such a Faustian bargain however, and she gave up the skill points in order to save the mage. On the second playthrough Theodorius was offered the same deal, and I was resolved to take it for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to see how the story would pan out on the alternate path, and secondly, Theodorius' skill points were at a premium due his status as a crafting alt. To my astonishment however, I found Theodorius rebelling - there was no way that this avatar, based on a childhood toy that was my constant source of comfort and safety as a little boy, would ever sell someone down the river like that. For the life of me I could not make him take the evil choice, and had to save the mage. Again. A make-believe mage, no less. Although given that Theodorius is a make-believe entity as well it does seem to follow a certain twisted logic.

Theodorius and Lelle in real life. My sister and I jointly owned these toys as kids, imbued them with distinct personalities, and we would switch roles interchangeably. When we became adults the personalities we had invented as children transitioned into virtual space seamlessly and Theodorius became a demented, mischievous and impudent ret paladin, while Lelle became a happy, content and non-confrontational resto druid. These toys are now the property of my niece, and hopefully they will provide her with the same level of security they gave me as a little kid.

A similar episode occurred quite a long time ago, eight years or maybe more, when my sister and I were levelling in WoW in Desolace and trying to complete the centaur quests in the zone. This questline called for you to choose sides, and once committed, you basically went on a campaign of genocide to wipe out the other tribe. We started killing, and after a few deaths, we both looked at each other and thought, Lelle and Theodorius wouldn't do this. I don't know why we suddenly had pangs of conscience after killing thousands of mobs up to this point - perhaps the centaurs had a particularly strong emote when they died - but it seemed we drew the line at killing neutral mobs which did not attack us on sight. What makes this entire episode so daft is that Theodorius or Lelle would have no qualms about killing an enemy player in PvP. Between my sister and I we have played thousands of Arenas and Rated BGs combined and accumulated over 200,000 player kills over a decade of WoW. So why the squeamishness?

Theodorius, in TESO on the left; and Theodorius, in WoW on the right. Theodorius considers himself a badass...

The key difference for me is that a human player just gets back up and shakes it off at the graveyard, while an NPC is condemned forever in the halls of Oblivion. Humans are meta creatures that transcend the virtual universe, while NPCs are bound and circumscribed by the boundaries of their creators. Human players are like the Daedra in TESO lore - they cannot be killed, only temporarily banished back to Oblivion. NPCs on the other hand, are trapped in the world states we shape by our choices. So while I can be ruthless to the other Daedra who have come to these worlds by their own volition, I have much more sympathy for the artificial inhabitants of the virtual. At least, Theodorius does. Theodorius and I are separate beings - he would never be wantonly cruel, only mischievous to a certain point, but essentially good-hearted. I, on the other hand, have been known to be cruel, vicious, petty and cowardly, as befits my status as a Daedra. If hell is other people, as Sartre once said in his play No Exit, and as people around here are fond of saying, then we are all demons. Daedra is a more fitting word, because demons conjure up images of hellfire and brimstone and unbridled malevolence. Daedra, on the other hand, can be compassionate, benevolent and good - Azura in particular comes to mind. There are other Daedra who may not be as benevolent as the Lady of Dawn and Dusk, but are nonetheless devoted to ideals which are not necessarily evil - Meridia stands for life, Malacath is the patron of the spurned and ostracised, and Jyggalag upholds logical order and deduction. Even Sanguine just wants to have a good time, and Sheogorath, well, he's just insane through no fault of his own.

...but in reality he's just a goofball. Here he is in WoW, taking a selfie while waiting for an Arena queue to pop.

Of course the analogy fails once we retreat back to reality, where we are subject to all forms of infirmity and weakness, and our mortality holds sway. But when it comes to the virtual I think the comparison holds - we are essentially Daedra travelling between virtual worlds. If we are the Daedra then the developers are the Aedra, who sacrifice their powers - their time, money and effort - to bring these virtual worlds into being. That is the key difference between Aedra and Daedra in TESO lore - through their sacrifice the Aedra can engage in the divine act of creation, while Daedra can only mimic, copy and criticise. Quite apt really.

Reviewing the troops with King Fahara'jad.

What then, does that make our avatars? The best answer I can think of is a negative one, which is simply that I am not my avatar. It's amazing how virtuality empowers and disempowers at the same time. In some ways I am free to re-create my identity online in a manner I see fit - in other ways I don't have the same range of options I would have in the flesh and blood world. Avatars can also take on a life their own, making decisions in much the same way characters in texts begin to do based on their background and internal logic. Finally, avatars are always in a state of flux - they can be hand puppets one day, and then reincarnations of our happiest childhood memories or sad reminders of loved ones lost the next. In a way virtuality mirrors our own search for identity in the real world - the main difference is that there is much more pressure in the real world to maintain a cohesive and continuous idea of who you are from your friends, colleagues and loved ones. If I started acting "out of character" these people would think I was either sick or insane.

Theodorius in full Sith mode.

In virtual worlds the pressure is much more diffuse and ephemeral. Some of the pressure comes from the role I have chosen to play - being an Imperial and a Templar comes with a whole series of connotations as to how I'm supposed to play the character, and the world of the Elder Scrolls also applies a gentle ambient pressure as to how the character would act in this setting. I chose to create Theodorius Gaius Aurelius because he has accompanied me all my life, but he's not just a mischievous stuffed bear I once owned. He's also me, with my predilection for min-maxing and PvP. On top of that he's also a two-handed wielding Imperial Templar in a time where the Imperials have been discredited and lumped with the Daedra-worshipping Worm Cult. The way he looks affects the way I play him - he looks like a Sith lord in his current get-up, which makes me want to play him as ruthless and cruel. Apparently there is too much of the childhood bear in him, thought, as I can't get him to sacrifice a make-believe mage for the life of me. When my sister and I stumbled on a cave of bears in TESO we were completely bamboozled, and it took the intervention of my brother-in-law who said, "Guys, we're not really killing them, OK? We're just knocking them unconscious - we're just putting them to sleep for a little bit. Zero health means unconscious, OK?" Even now I still avoid bear NPCs, and will run away rather than killing them. It's ridiculous.

I love Sentinel. Apparently, Theo does, too.

In short, the Templar known as Theodorius Gaius Aurelius is me and also not me. He is free in a way that I am not, but also bound in a way I am not. He is a manifestation of my will in the virtual, but can rebel and do things contrary to what I want. My avatar is me, but also not me, and it is doing my head in thinking about this. I'll just accept it, go with the flow, and let Theodorius wander the world of TESO on his own terms.

↧

Letters from Tamriel, Part XI - Saviour of Nirn

September 18, 2015, 6:30 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part I - X-Com Revisited

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part X - The Templar

I am a saviour of Nirn.

Not "the" saviour of Nirn, mind you - merely "a" saviour of Nirn. There is quite a few of us running around - you can tell by the title when you mouse over another player. I set my sights on this goal after completely finally finishing all the questing content in the game. Daggerfall, then Aldmeri, and finally Ebonheart zones have all been completed, and all that is left is to clear all the world bosses, systematically gather up all the skyshards, and wipe out the dolmens in each zone. The latter achievement is the one that awards the title of "Saviour of Nirn", and I managed to finish this by clearing all the dolmens in Cyrodiil. When I found that my avatar could solo the dolmens in heavy armour and tanking spec I incorporated dolmen hunting in my experience gathering activities, and after sixteen months my TESO avatar has finally hit the level cap.

Hatakeyama pauses outside the Fungal Grotto, attracted to the place by the weird blue mushrooms.

Well, not for long. The Imperial City DLC added another two more VR levels, so my stay at the pinnacle of levelling was embarrassingly short-lived - a total of two days at the end of August. A strange thing happened as I got closer to the level cap - I started slowing down, exploring, and taking my time. Halfway through August I was half an experience bar away from dinging to level cap, and it took me the rest of August to reach it. My second sojourn in TESO has unearthed a sea change in my playstyle. If we go by Bartle archetypes I would be classified as a "killer" first and foremost, given the type of games I play and my proclivities in-game. I still intensely dislike this label by the way, because it is more Bartle showing his play style bias rather a true reflection of the mindset of many people who play PvP. For good or ill however it is here to stay, even if it does mean that anyone in the world who plays sport or any form of competitive activity involving other people is now a "killer" in Bartle-speak.

Killer or not, I have been branching out into the other quadrants of the Bartle typology. My time in TESO can best be described as fitting the achiever or explorer archetype, which is something which has not been true in WoW for some time. I find myself poking around in nooks and crannies and running around the edges of the map and looking to see what lies inside old ruins, towers and burnt-out farm houses. Archeage was more rewarding for me in this respect, because the players were able to terra form the world to a limited degree, and it was always interesting to stumble onto an illicit player-created plantation hidden in the hills. In TESO I can only find things constructed by the developers in the initial act of creation - there is no way for players to leave their mark in the world. The only way we know other people have been in TESO is to either see their avatars, or to pass in their wake as they tear through a bunch of mobs. In Cyrodiil your hackles rise when you enter a delve and notice that there are no mobs about. This means that another player has been here quite recently, and it becomes a question of whether they are friendly or hostile and you prepare accordingly. Apart from this temporary sign, the world of TESO, much like that of WoW, does not change and remains largely immutable. The world of Archeage was so much more alive because even if I didn't see other players I would see signs of their passing, and the artefacts they left in their wake. I miss the player villages and farms, the illegal plots in the hills, the random plants and animals left all over the world, the crazy makeshift forests created by players with too much time and virtual money on their hands, and even the bloodstains left in the wake of perpetrated crimes. The closest TESO has to this is the Alliance War in Cyrodiil, in which the keeps remain in the possession of the Alliance which took them until they are taken in turn. Cyrodiil is safely walled away from the rest of Tamriel, however, and there is no integration of economy, territory and PvP as there is in Archeage and EVE. TESO is the most beautiful MMO I have played to date, but in terms of a living, breathing gaming world Archeage and EVE still far surpass it.

Riding away from a completed dolmen in Cyrodiil.

There are upsides to walling away your creation from the grubby inhabitants of your virtual world. For all my hymns to player-created content it must be noted that not all player-created content is equal. You would never find a forest fashioned in the shape of a giant penis in TESO, for example, but sooner or later someone will probably create one on one of the servers in Archeage. Nonetheless I still prefer bottom-up rather than top-down content in MMOs, because I foolishly believe that MMOs should still be about being massively multiplayer. I love top-down content, too, but I prefer to imbibe it in my single-player experiences, where the author-developer can complete the illusion and cater exclusively to me. Morrowind made me believe that I was the Nerevarine, and it did it in a manner that inspired me, moved me, and made me BELIEVE. Mass Effect did the same, as did Skyrim to a lesser extent. As MMOs go, however, TESO comes the closest to emulating the single player experience.

I've long come to the conclusion that achievements in games mean absolutely nothing at all. I was so obsessed about chasing rating in WoW thinking that it meant something, and now I look back at it and I wonder why the hell I bothered. I still respect people who do well at games and work at it to become better - it's the same kind of accolade I give to people who are good at their chosen fields, whether that be in games, music, sports or their profession. I've ceased to try to impose my own playstyle on other folk, however - I used to align with the Gevlon/Sirlin philosophy that if you play a game you should play to win, but now I hang my hat in the "fun" camp. The power gaming philosophy made sense to me because basically what David Sirlin espouses is just a virtual variation of the old aphorism that if you're going to do something you should do it as well as you can. Unless you make money playing games, however then games are an intrinsically driven activity conducted in our free time. No one has the right to tell you what to do in your free time, and games are not a necessary adjunct of living, and may in fact be detrimental to it. So I guess if milling around uselessly around the bridge in Arathi Basin is your idea of fun, then I guess more power to you. It might not be the most efficient way of winning, but hey, maybe you don't want to win. You might be practicing your DPS rotations. You might be teaching your five year old how to play WoW. It may even be possible that you think that this is the optimal strategy for this map, in which case you must excuse me while I headbutt my desk in disbelief.

Hatakeyama chances upon an ancient Argonian pyramid deep in the swamps.

So when it comes to achievements I guess I don't want to talk too disparagingly of them, because their ubiquity suggests that there is a fair chunk of people out there who find completing them rewarding and fun. I've talked about fun before, and how hard it is to quantify this term. Fun might just be something that is self-defining - that is, if people do it, and spend time on it, then that activity is fun. There is no why - if you spend time on it, then it is fun. Gevlon spends his time on making virtual currency and financing a war against the Goons, which means that activity is fun for him. Bhagpuss spends his time poking around the corners of the map in MMOs, which means that activity is fun for him. Izlain pushes rating on the ladder in League of Legends, which means that activity is fun for him. I cleared every dolmen in the lands of Tamriel to get the Saviour of Nirn title, which means that activity was fun for me.

Wait...what? Really? I don't recall being overwhelmingly ebullient or shouting with glee everytime a dolmen collapsed under my solo onslaught. Is that what my definition of fun shrunk to - a minute sense of satisfaction at having ticked off an inconsequential goal within a make-believe world? Being the Saviour of Nirn in TESO represents no narrative triumph, no grand unfolding of a make-believe world, and no gradual unravelling of a central mystery. It's just a tick in a checklist of things to do, as routine as clearing your mail or updating your crafting queues. Is this what I've settled for? Why do I play games? To paraphrase Hannibal Lecter - what needs do I serve by playing?

Deep within a delve Hatakeyama comes across a troll feasting on the bones of its latest victim.

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan) is the best answer that academia has got, and like Bartle's typology, I find it simultaneously helpful and frustratingly obtuse. It's helpful in that it gives me a common vocabulary with which to engage other people in dialogue. At the same time it is frustrating because it does nothing to illuminate the roiling, seething mass of impulses, needs, desires, hopes and fears which churn away beneath my skull. Intrinsically driven behaviour is explained in terms of competence, relatedness and autonomy. The first relates to our desire to master things and become proficient in their use; the second pertains to the human need to connect and establish meaningful relationships; and the third is linked to the human desire to be the master of our own fates. Why pursue these achievements in-game? If we integrate Bartle, Deci and Ryan, we might come up with a hypothesis that my desire for human contact leads me to play MMOs, and I pursue achievements and titles in order to advance my social standing within the in-game hierarchy. Pushing rating, optimising builds, and beating other players reinforces my sense of agency, tells me that I am in control of my destiny, and soothes that part of my brain that craves mastery. Funnily enough, the desire for competence explains the ennui we experience between games that Azuriel talks about in this post - it is deflating and disempowering to realise that all the effort expended to accumulate in-game achievements amounted to nothing in the end once the game was finished. It is a microcosm of the existential fear that the sum of all human achievements may amount to nothing in the face of a vast, indifferent, and uncaring universe.

Revisiting the Aldmeri Dominion Hatakeyama is struck by the beauty of the locale, which was something she missed in her initial travels because of her mad rush to level.

That fear is unfounded, because it fails to take into consideration the ability of humans to impose meaning on the world around them. Just because science says we are insignificant motes of cosmic dust doesn't make us so. Meaning and purpose can be derived from anywhere - from the serenity of true self-knowledge, the laughter of your children, the warm eyes of someone you love, in the satisfaction of a job well done, and in the act of creation. Looking inward can be as fruitful as looking outward. As William Blake says:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

I'm just trying to figure out where games belong in this scheme of things. I know that I love stories, both as a passive recipient and as an active participant. I don't have bouts of existential angst when reading books or watching movies. It's only with games. I loved Mass Effect because I became wrapped up in the story, and wanted to follow the branches to their final conclusion. I loved my first Wabbajack campaign in TESO because I became part of the story - the various groups fighting in that inaugural campaign collectively told a story in which I was an active participant. I don't know what story I am telling when I putter around from dolmen to dolmen in TESO, except perhaps something that might be entitled, "How To Waste Time In Front of A Monitor For No Good Reason At All."

↧

The Long War, Part I - X-Com Revisited

September 27, 2015, 10:31 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part II - The Origins of X-Com

≪ Previous: Letters from Tamriel, Part XI - Saviour of Nirn

The sequel to X-Com is scheduled for release in February 2016, and as a long time fan of both the original DOS titles and the reboot released a few years ago I have to admit to being very excited about this news. It's still shy of being a half a year away though, and as a preamble to release I thought I'd dust off the X-Com reboot and give it another go. For those unfamiliar to X-Com, it is a squad level tactical turn based game in which the united governments of Earth try to stave off an alien invasion. It has won a stack of awards, and is one of my favourite games of all time. My second ever blog post was on X-Com, and I have played the snot out of this game, beating it on Impossible difficulty on Ironman. Yes, I'm a masochist at heart, but hey, it's my own play time and preference, and I like the added sense of danger for my brave band of virtual soldiers.

Rather than starting a new vanilla game from scratch, I decided to mix things up and try out the Long War mod. For those already familiar with vanilla X-Com (X-Com: The Enemy Within plus the two DLCs, Operations Slingshot and Progeny) X-Com: The Long War is a community made mod which completely overhauls the X-Com experience, and turns an already great game into something truly, truly epic. I've done two dry runs, playing games until May (the game begins in March 2016) and there are significant differences. For one, my troops in my test run are still wearing default gear. In vanilla my squaddies would already be rocking carapace armour, laser rifles and accompanied by a Mech or two to boot in the equivalent time period. The Long War is exactly that - a gruelling campaign in which normal vanilla tactics of satellite spam and tech rush to beam weapons do not apply. Building satellites and workshops does not increase the number of scientists and engineers on your team - these personnel have to be earned as rewards via abduction missions, Council missions, and as rewards for doing the various Council nations favours of one kind or another. Government requests come in thick and fast in this version of X-Com, but you have to balance those requests with the needs of your research and engineering team, as well as the overall strategic picture. And the rewards can appear meagre - one or two scientists or engineers per completed request. Satellite spam is not longer a feasible strategy because it hits the bottleneck of not having enough engineers. Instead your coverage of the world appears to grow at a constant rate, and your funding is spent on research or augmenting your squad's survivability instead. Another big change is that you can win back countries which leave X-Com by detecting the location of enemy bases and taking them out. This makes the battle for Earth's survival more of a see-sawing affair in which the beleaguered defenders always have a chance, rather than an attempt to play a "perfect" game in order to minimize irretrievable errors. The game only ends when the last country left on the planet falls to the aliens.

The opening screen for the Long War. Each country has a special starting bonus - in the case of Japan I could have chosen extra thermal vents, augmented SHIVs and MECs, or one maximum level soldier. I chose the latter, and coupled with the Commander's Choice perk (which allows me to choose my soldier's specializations), opted to make him a sniper.

The Long War isn't just vanilla set on Marathon mode, however. You start with 40 soldiers in your barracks, and your initial squad size is already set at six, with the option to eventually expand to eight. Your default gear, while still poor compared to laser and plasma weapons, is composed of an impressive variety of goodies. Rifles come in two different flavours depending on your playstyle, and touting a SMG gives you less firepower but +3 to movement, making them ideal for scouts and recon units. You have AP grenades, HE grenades, and flashbang grenades, all of which are crucial to survival if you consider that your soldiers are going to have to wear this gear for three months or more. Soldiers are divided into eight different classes now. Snipers are either vanilla snipers or scouts. Heavies have been split into gunners and rocketeers. The assault class can either be traditional assault troops, or infantry whose base ability is to fire twice in one turn if they don't move. Support classes become medics or engineers. Engineers are important because damage from explosives has been randomized - grenades and rockets were so reliable in vanilla X-Com because they were accurate and dealt out constant damage. In the Long War structures may stay intact, grenades may fail to kill aliens and rockets can go embarrassingly off course more often. If you want to blow up the environment the way it was done in vanilla X-Com you're going to have to train up some engineers. Engineers specialize in demolishing structures and lobbing grenades, and their perks and talents are tooled to this to task.

The biggest change to squad composition is the introduction of fatigue. After each mission your soldiers will require 3-4 days of rest, which means there is a need for a B squad, and perhaps even a C squad when alien activity goes through the roof. No longer is your team The Avengers - they will need to take some R&R between missions. In vanilla once you had trained up your squad of six there was no real need to ever replace any of them except in cases of fatalities, making the rest of the soldiers in your base largely redundant. The Long War requires you to build a deep and wide cadre of soldiers to deal with the fires which pop up all over the world. In emergencies a fatigued soldier can be called up for duty, but the penalty is that once they return to base they will become exhausted, and have to rest twice as long to recover. During this time they will not be eligible for missions.

The air war has also been re-tuned from vanilla. Fighters now have pilots associated with them who level up with kills, making them another precious (and all too vulnerable) human resource. In my second run through it took me three months to shoot down one stinking scout-class UFO. My squads were able to handle the threats once on the ground, but in the air it was an altogether different story. The UFOs were just too bloody fast for my interceptors, who had mere seconds to land two missiles on them. Interceptors can adopt aggressive, defensive or balanced postures during interception which increases their hit percentages, but also makes them more vulnerable in return. This is not a good thing for terrestrial craft squaring off against alien technology. My very first interception was against a battleship-class UFO, and the pilot was recalled immediately upon coming face to face with that behemoth. All we could do was disengage, and watch as the UFO flew over Japan and China with impunity. Repair times are dramatically longer, and it is not enough to field a pair of interceptors any longer. Four seems to be the bare minimum per continent, and even that can be grounded for weeks after a bad interception.

The leader of the X-Com forces on the ground, Master Sergeant Takeda Shingen. Rank names have been overhauled to fall in line with US convention. Non-coms range from Private First Class with the highest non-commissioned rank maxing out at Master Sergeant. Non-coms can be promoted to officers (Lieutenant and beyond) with the addition of the Officer Training School.

All of this is just scratching the surface of the differences implemented in the Long War. I'm sure there will be many more surprises to come, some welcome and a few quite unwelcome. Also, in honour of a series done by Jeromai over at Why I Game, I'm going to name soldiers who attain a high enough rank after the bloggers around this particular corner of the Internet. I followed Jeromai's series quite keenly and was quite sad to see it peter out. I never did find out whether his intrepid band of bloggers did save the world in the end, or whether they all died screaming in a hail of enemy plasma fire. With this series I'm hoping to chronicle the story all the way to the bitter end, even if it does end in tears. I'll be playing on Classic difficulty on Ironman, which means no saves or reloads - just a straight up war story in which there will be blunders, misplays and permanent casualties. Without the element of risk however, I would just be going through the motions - it's the possibility of dying which makes virtual heroism possible in roleplaying games. I love rogue-likes and permadeath as a game feature for this reason, and I think the way X-Com incorporates these features without making them game-ending is the chief reason why the classic and the reboot have been so loved by gamers like myself.

↧

The Long War, Part II - The Origins of X-Com

September 29, 2015, 2:38 am

≫ Next: The Long War, Part III - Japan

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part I - X-Com Revisited

First Contact

In October 2015 SETI observers at the University of Berkley in California were astonished to pick up radio transmissions emanating from space. Fearing some kind of prank they ran diagnostics on all their systems and systematically ruled out all other possible sources until the only remaining possibility was that of extra-terrestrial transmission. What was staggering to the observers was that the source of the radio signals appeared to be coming from within the solar system. Initial attempts to triangulate the source placed it in orbit around Mars. The possibility that it was a malfunctioning satellite was mooted, and a call was placed to NASA requesting information as to the status of the three American satellites known to be orbit around the red planet. Similar calls were placed to the European Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organisation, both of whom had satellites around Mars. NASA was initially very truculent to reveal details, but the scientists at SETI soon learned a grim truth - in the very same period all three satellites operated and supervised by the space agency (the Odyssey, the Orbiter and the MAVEN) had gone dark. The Europeans declined to comment on the status of their satellite, but the Indians confirmed that they, too, had lost contact with the Mangalyaan. What mystified observers was that the signals had remained hitherto undetected prior to their acquisition from Mars. As chief scientist Dale Andersen at the SETI Institute said, "It's like a burglar sneaking into your house undetected, only to have them go to the kitchen, pick up a pot and a pan, and then bang them together to get your attention."

What was unknown to the civilian space agencies was that military forces worldwide had also been tracking numerous contacts in the sky over the last few months. These contacts moved at tremendous speed and possessed amazing manoeuvring capabilities, far beyond anything possessed by terrestrial craft. Dozens of sorties from different air forces all over the world had been scrambled in an attempt to interdict the UFOs, but thus far to no avail. Attempts to bring down the UFOs failed utterly. Radar guided and heat seeking weapons simply failed to lock on, and flak guns were largely ineffectual due to the speed and manoeuvrability of the UFOs. This was followed shortly by a spate of UFO sighting worldwide. These reports were first discounted but soon grew in number and frequency. The advent of social media at the turn of the century meant that news could spread faster and wider than had been traditionally possible with TV and print media, and soon Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram were flooded with images of mysterious unidentified craft. Many UFO sightings have been reported throughout human history, but it was only recently that so many sightings have been reported so frequently by so many witnesses at the same time.

The BBC's footage of the incident over Tel Aviv, in which two Israeli F-15s were "buzzed" by an UFO before it climbed out of sight.

By December 2015 the staggering amount of UFO sightings world-wide could no longer be discounted as an elaborate hoax. The BBC was the first credible source which aired footage showing what was unquestionably a vehicle of extra-terrestrial origin streaking with impunity in the skies over Tel Aviv. The UFO was pursued by a pair of F-15s which appeared to be closing on the target, before it abruptly changed direction and flew straight at the pursuing fighters. It passed between the intercepting jets and climbed to beyond visual range at incredible speed.

Deadlock in the Security Council

The real crisis which precipitated global action was the attack on the satellite networks encircling the planet. One by one the satellites around the world went dark and ceased functioning, wreaking havoc on global communications. In January 2016 an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was convened, with the agenda of establishing a global response force to deal with the extra-terrestrial threat. The meeting was beset with difficulties. US and Russian antagonism was approaching Cold War levels due to Russia's continuing use of their veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council were the US, the UK, France, China and Russia, and each of these nations, representing the victors of the Second World War, had the power to veto any substantive resolutions in the UN regardless of the level of international support. Russia had already blocked four resolutions on Syria and one resolution on the Ukraine, and had made it abundantly clear that they were quite prepared to do so ad infinitum in order to protect her interests in these regions. Worse still, the Russians did not perceive the UFO threat as legitimate. For some reason the skies above Russia had remained clear of UFO traffic and her satellites left undisturbed, which led many in the country to believe that at best, it was some kind of global hoax and at worst, some kind of Western ruse to create an international force which could intervene in the Ukrainian civil war. The fact that Russian air space remained inviolate aroused the suspicions of NATO and contributed to the brinkmanship in the UN meetings. Angry accusations were levelled at the Russians about the deployment of some kind of new orbital EMP weapon, and it was only through a last minute dialogue between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin that a crisis was averted. Putin agreed to abstain from the vote in return for the lifting of the sanctions placed on Russia as as a result of the war in the Ukraine. This was a shrewd piece of realpolitik from the Russian President, as he was able to leverage a non-issue in Russia into the removal of the sanctions which had been crippling the Russian economy.

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in last minute negotiations prior to the Security Council vote to establish a global agency to investigate the proliferation of UFO phenomenon around the world.

What signalled the death knell for the Security Council resolution was not Russian intransigence, but France's decision to exercise her veto power. Despite immense diplomatic pressure from the US and the UK, France stubbornly refused to budge, citing lack of credible evidence as a basis for such a task force. French Permanent Representative to the UN Francois Delattre was apologetic and clearly uncomfortable. He was unable to explain his government's sudden change in position, having made assurances to the contrary to his American and British colleagues several weeks earlier. This was the first time that France had exercised her veto power in the 21st century, which made it all the more puzzling at the time. Later events, however, would bring to light the sinister forces which were manipulating French policy behind the scenes. In the early months of 2016 however, such considerations were beyond the imagination of most policy makers. The resolution was defeated by the French veto, despite polling 13-1 with Russia abstaining.

The General Assembly Rallies

Despite this setback the impetus for a global response to the world-wide UFO phenomenon remained unchecked. The most strident advocate for the creation of the task force was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had very strong personal reasons for doing so. On 19 October 2014 his son Ban Woo Hyun had disappeared along with 27 other South Koreans in a widely publicised abduction case near Busan, South Korea. Woo Hyun and the other Koreans in his party had ascended Jangsan Mountain overlooking the city to investigate an unexplained light phenomena near the peak, and had disappeared without a trace. Despite a national investigation no signs of the missing have ever been found. Although no direct evidence was available there was a clear correlation between the appearance of UFOs in the sky and the subsequent disappearance of people within the vicinity. This pattern was to be repeated all over the world in the months to come, but because of the sporadic nature of these events and the lack of firm evidence, world reaction would remain muted and sceptical for the immediate period.

UFO sighting over Busan, South Korea on 19 October 2014. taken from Jangsan Mountain. On the evening of the same day 28 people, including son of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon disappeared without a trace.

The problem facing Ban was determining how to create an international unit capable of using force across national lines without the assistance of the Security Council. According to Article 2(4) of the UN Security Charter the use of force was only authorized in two situations - either in self-defence, or through the approval of the Security Council. Since the resolution in the Security Council had already been defeated by the French and Russian vetoes, it appeared that the UN had been effectively defanged. Nonetheless there had been precedents in which the UN had acted without the approval of the Security Council. In 1991 in Kosova and in Yugoslavia NATO forces had bombed a series of targets and justified their intervention on humanitarian grounds. Ban had a more creative solution. Having grown up in the shadow of the Korean War and the ensuing stand-off between North and South Korea, he invoked United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377 and called for an emergency special session of the General Assembly. This particular resolution was created by the US in the 1950s as a way of defeating Soviet intransigence in the UN when China invaded North Korea during the Cold War. Like modern day Russia, the Soviets had wielded their veto power as a means of frustrating and defeating UN initiatives which were not in their interest. Also known as the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, Resolution 377 states that in any cases where the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity amongst its five permanent members, fails to act as required to maintain international peace and security, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue any recommendations it deems necessary in order to restore international peace and security.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon addressing the General Assembly for the need to establish an international response team to investigate the UFO phenomenon.

The vote was put forward to the General Assembly in February 2016, and it passed by an overwhelming majority, more than surpassing the two-thirds required for the resolution to pass. The General Assembly recommended the creation of a global task force to investigate the UFO phenomenon. It was essentially a fact-finding mission with a UN mandate to cross state lines and act within national borders, but it also incorporated a security detail to safeguard the well-being of the researchers. What mystified observers during the process was France's continued flip flopping in the UN. Having defeated the Security Council vote she now voted FOR the resolution in the General Assembly, much to the disgust of the US and the UK. No one was aware that several members of the French cabinet had been compromised by the visitors, and that this was the real reason behind the schizophrenic decisions emerging from the country. Nonetheless, she offered funding and soldiers to the cause which Ban reluctantly accepted. Russia as well, perennially suspicious of UN motives, contributed a cadre of troops and technical staff ostensibly to, in the words of President Vladimir Putin, "contribute to international efforts in maintaining world peace." No one doubted, however, that the main function of the Russian contingent would be to monitor the movements of the new task force. All members of the Russian security detail were officers in the Federal Security Service, Russia's espionage and counter-terrorism agency. Unlike other espionage agencies like the CIA and MI6, however, the Federal Security Service are members of the Russian armed forces, which made them eligible to serve in UN peace keeping missions. Ban, in the interests of harmony, raised no objections to their inclusion. He had accomplished his objective. Through his efforts the agency known as X-Com was born, although it would not be known under that name until much later.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia wishing two Federal Security Service members good luck before they deploy with X-Com.

It must be remembered that at X-Com's inception the visitors had not overtly acted against any nations of the world. If the visitors had limited their activities to streaking over the skies, it is unlikely that any kind of global response would have been initiated. The destruction of the satellite network, however, constituted a massive provocation which demanded an immediate response. Satellites are the pickets of the global age, and their destruction by other nations, much less by extra-terrestrials, are tantamount to an act of war. While the details were kept hidden from the general public, the impotence of the world's air forces and the systematic destruction of key satellites were immensely worrying to the high commands of the US, the UK and China and their allies. The US in particular, didn't need the troops or equipment offered by the UN. What was vitally important for them was the access and legitimacy conferred by the UN resolution, and consequently they lobbied hard behind the scenes to make sure that it passed. But no one in the UN, much less the US would have imagined that the creation of X-Com would be vindicated in spectacular fashion in the months and years ahead.

Disclaimer: In case the bits about the UFOs didn't give it away - this work is FICTION!!!

↧

The Long War, Part III - Japan

October 2, 2015, 2:10 am

≫ Next: The Long War, Part IV - First Contact

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part II - The Origins of X-Com

Establishing a Base of Operations

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan was the first to volunteer his country as a possible base of operations for the new task force. Japan had a modern and well-equipped military and she was a long standing ally of the US. The US was reluctant to take on more global responsibility, given that her volunteer armies had been heavily committed to Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. She was also confident in going it alone when it came to dealing with the extra-terrestrial threat - she had world's most advanced military, and she was still the world's pre-eminent superpower despite the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia. Nonetheless she was not opposed to lending assistance to an international effort, and with Japan at the head of such an endeavour she could be sure that she would retain considerable influence over the course of affairs.

Japan in the early 21st century was a country stagnating under two decades of recession and afflicted with a low birth rate and an ageing population. She was also being threatened by the rise of China as an economic and military superpower - China had recently overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy, and the two nations' continued dispute over the Senkaku Islands continued to dominate headlines on both sides. Both nations have a long and fractious history and the issue of Japanese war guilt was also an ongoing impediment to better relations. Japan's tech and automobile companies, once at the forefront of innovation in the 80's and 90's, had been eclipsed by silicon valley giants like Apple, Google and Tesla. Prime Minister Abe had also inadvertently rekindled the pacifist movement in Japan after taking steps to circumvent Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The US written Japanese Constitution, created by General Douglas McArthur and his staff at the end of the Second World War, specifically prohibits the use of military force in any respect except self-defence. In July 2014 the Abe cabinet passed a bill which allowed for a looser definition of the article, giving Japanese forces permission to participate in military actions in order to defend their allies abroad. This was met with tremendous opposition from both in and out of Japan - overseas the move was met with harsh criticism, particularly from China and North Korea. Domestically there were massive demonstrations the likes not seen in Japan for some time, and opposition members and academics geared up to challenge the legality of Abe's bill in the Supreme Court of Japan.

US, Australian and Japanese forces conduct joint exercises in Kyushu, Japan.

Abe saw the X-Com Initiative as a chance to illustrate the wisdom of a more flexible interpretation of Article 9, and to re-assert Japan's position as a major player on the world stage. Japan is the second largest funder of the UN, and over the years has lobbied intensely for a permanent seat on the Security Council. Despite her pacifist constitution the Japanese Self Defence Force (JSDF) was a well-equipped and capable military force, with long standing ties with the US and Australia. Japan has also contributed logistical support to the UN on numerous occasions, and was no stranger to multi-lateral operations. There were numerous US bases in Japan, particularly in the Ryukyu island chain in the south-west of Japan, which allowed for immediate commencement of operations between Japanese, American and Australian forces. More importantly however, she also had state of the art research and satellite launch facilities at Tanegashima off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. The first priority of the fledgling program was the re-establishment of satellite coverage of the skies, and great efforts were being made to create passive stealth satellites which had minimal radar profiles. The proposed plan was to launch satellites from two locations. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would handle launches from Tanegashima, while Elon Musk's privately owned SpaceX would be contracted to handle launches from Vanderberg Air Force Base in the US. Incidentally, this was where the name X-Com was coined. In a multi-agency meeting between NASA, JAXA and SpaceX one of the proposals being considered was the name of the UN program. Musk, prior to founding SpaceX and Tesla, had made his fortune by co-founding PayPal. Before PayPal Musk had created one of the first online banking services called X.Com in December 1999. When asked what the agency should be called he replied, "Why don't we call it X-Com?" The name stuck, and the term X-Com would become a blanket term to encompass the satellite program, the air interception program headed by the US and Japan, the research and development program which would be run by JAXA in Tanegashima, and the military force which were originally tasked to provide security for the forensic and recovery teams.

Mustering the Troops

Japan received the go-ahead to commence X-Com operations at the end of February 2016, and soon personnel and equipment were being transported to Ryukyu Islands from various nations across the globe. Japanese Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) General Kiyofumi Iwata was appointed as force commander by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Force commanders are customarily high ranking officers picked from the nation that bear the heaviest burden of the mission, and given that Japan would be providing the bases and the majority of the supporting infrastructure it was only logical that a Japanese officer be given overall command. The bulk of the research team would come from Germany, who after Japan, was the third biggest funder of the UN. The team would be headed jointly by German astrobiologist Moira Vahlan and American engineer Raymond Chen, while the actual ground missions would be directed from command (later to be known as Central by X-Com operators) by Colonel David Bradford of the US Army.

JGSDF General Kiyofumi Iwata, appointed as force commander of the X-Com task force, here pictured with Australian Army Chief Lieutenant General Angus Campbell.

There were, however, serious delays in the build up of manpower and material. The UN does not have a standing reserve - instead, international coalitions are assembled on a per resolution basis. This meant that every multi-national task force had to be assembled from scratch, an incredibly inefficient and time-wasting exercise which had to be repeated every time the UN made a resolution. Fortunately for the X-Com project US, Japanese and Australian forces were already cooperating in Japan and could begin work immediately while the remainder of the international coalition arrived in dribs and drabs. The Russian contingent was the first to arrive on the scene, and wasted no time poking around the US facilities on Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, which was the site of X-Com's first military deployment. They soon found their movements heavily curtailed by grim-faced Marines, and the decision was made to relocate the X-Com task force to their own facilities on Tanegashima as soon as possible.

Dr. Moira Vahlen and Chief Engineer Raymond Chen confer on the layout of the new X-Com base in Tanegashima.

The base at Tanegashima thus became the central hub for X-Com activities for both R&D and military purposes. Facilities were extremely roughshod at the outset, and often improvised. Troop quality was also uneven - special forces commandoes rubbed shoulders with regular infantry and support personnel who did not have specific combat training. All operators purportedly had to be able to speak English, and air assault experience was specified as mandatory. Despite this pre-requisite Bradford found soldiers arriving at the base who had never been in a helicopter, much less be able to fast-rope down one. As a UN force it also incorporated women in combat roles, something which some of the soldiers were not accustomed to. There was also friction between members of the coalition - the Ukrainian civil war had flared into life once more, and the Russians soon found themselves at odds with the Ukrainians and Belarusians serving on the task force. The Chinese were treated with total suspicion by the Japanese, and the disdain was mutual. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, however, Bradford immediately implemented a strict training regimen and instituted a new hierarchy within X-Com which disregarded ranks held by the soldiers in their respective countries. From now on rank in the new unit would be earned by their performance within the unit. Bradford also conducted selections to determine his squad compositions and to see which of his soldiers could be trusted to conduct operations in a cooperative and efficient manner. The primary goal of the new X-Com project was simple - barring any communications from the visitors, X-Com was to shoot down an enemy craft, and recover the remains for analysis. Bradford was determined that his dysfunctional team of international soldiers would be ready for that eventuality.

↧

The Long War, Part IV - First Contact

October 7, 2015, 8:08 am

≫ Next: The Long War, Part V - Opening Moves

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part III - Japan

X-Com Selections

X-Com selections were completed by the end of February 2016, and Colonel Bradford's strike team was finally beginning to take shape. Out of the 6,000 soldiers from the UN brigade Bradford selected a cadre of about 40 troops to make up the X-Com strike force. The selections were a gruelling battery of tests which gauged marksmanship, conditioning, mental toughness and tactical awareness. They were also non-gender specific and disregarded the soldier's qualifications and previous experience. As far as Bradford was concerned, as long as the soldier passed selections it didn't matter who they were, where they came from or what they did prior to joining the unit. Selection turned out quite a few surprises, weeding out soldiers with impressive resumes on paper and including some unlikely candidates. What was most astonishing was the number of women who were able to meet the minimum criteria. Contrary to representation by popular media most special force soldiers are not muscle bound strongmen, but tough, wiry and rugged individuals characterised more by their endurance, tenacity and willpower, and several female soldiers from units around the world seized this opportunity to prove that they had these qualities.

Female commandoes from Pakistan arrive at X-Com headquarters. X-Com, being under the auspices of the UN, allowed both men and women to serve in combat operations.

Every soldier that passed selection was awarded the default X-Com rank of Private First Class (PFC). Bradford organised the strike force into four squads, and selected capable JSDF soldiers to lead them. Assigning Japanese soldiers as squad leaders was a political necessity but fortunately for Bradford he had outstanding candidates. Everyone respected PFC Takeda because of his outstanding marksmanship and calmly capable manner. PFC Hara was a traditional drill sergeant in manner and speech, but unfortunately his English was somewhat limited, which meant that his tirades meant to discipline often ended up being unintentionally comical. PFC Ishikawa spoke excellent English, but was dour, grim and rarely smiled. He was more or less accepted even if his squad mates found it difficult to warm to him.

The only problem for Bradford was PFC Sato, the fourth designated squad leader. Sato was the son of a prominent Japanese politician who yielded concessions to Prime Minister Abe on the proviso that his son receive a command position. Sato was the smallest man in the strike force, not particularly fit, and his marksmanship barely enough to qualify. To his credit it must be noted that Sato never lobbied for the position, but was railroaded into it by filial duty. Nonetheless his appointment strongly reeked of nepotism, and the Chinese members of the squad (PFC Chong and PFC Piao) wasted no opportunity expressing this opinion to anyone and everyone.

Female members of the Palestinian Presidential Guard about to take part in X-Com selections.

Selections revealed some outstanding soldiers. After Takeda the best marksmen in the unit were Russia's Kurnakov and Zhukova, Ukraine's Ermakova and Australia's Shearer. A nasty and vicious rivalry erupted between Zhukova and Ermakova, based partly on the civil war now raging with renewed viciousness in the Ukraine. Both women exchanged harsh words which escalated into violence, and had to be pulled apart. Kurnakov and Shearer, on the other hand, forged an friendly rivalry on the shooting range and in the izakayas (Japanese bars) around Tanegashima. The best athlete in the strike force was Dutchman PFC Van den Heuvel, followed closely by PFC Phillips of Australia and PFC Sandoval of Venezuela. Overall Bradford was pleased with the quality of soldiers in his force, although he still harbored doubts about whether they would be able put aside national differences and work together in unison.

Operation Final Shield, Osaka, Japan (Mission 1)

X-Com's first deployment was in Osaka, Japan. On 2 March 2016 terrified residents called 119 (Japan's emergency contact number) and reported what appeared to be a UFO landing in the rice fields just off the Chugoku Highway west of Osaka. Eager to justify the existence of X-Com, Prime Minister Abe immediately ordered the strike force into the area. The UH-60JA Blackhawks arrived at around 6 am JST, but were informed by Central that the UFO had already departed. Continuing calls to 119 suggested, however, that there were still unknown non-human beings moving around in the area. Deploying his international squad for the first time as squad leader, Takeda went into the area to secure the location for the research team. Upon arriving at the freeway the team made first contact with the aliens - a historic event under normal circumstances, but marred by the fact the aliens tried to kill them on sight.

The very first X-Com deployment in Osaka, Japan.

"They were not interested in talking," recalled Takeda. "Garcia wanted to negotiate, and she went forward with a white flag and no weapons. Suddenly she was being shot at by their beam weapons. She was lucky not to have been killed." According to Takeda, the squad came under fire by alien plasma weapons - beam weapons which fired green pulses of energy which cut through kevlar and armour plating like "a hot knife through butter.""Lucky for us they weren't very good shots," said Takeda. "We fired back, and our bullets and grenades worked just fine. This was a relief for us because we didn't know if our weapons would be effective against the visitors. We knew nothing about them - it was terrifying going up against an enemy unknown."

The firefight was over quickly, and the squad was able to get a closer view of their adversaries for the first time. They were underwhelmed by what they saw - short, gray humanoid creatures, shorter than an average person, but with overdeveloped craniums and almost vestigial limbs. "They looked just like the typical aliens you saw in drawings and movies," stated China's PFC Piao. "Makes you think that all those people that said they'd been abducted by aliens might have been telling the truth all this time." The squad also drew tremendous confidence from the results of the first contact. "In the air they had us beaten," Piao added. "But if they bled and died like humans on the ground then we had a chance."

PFC Piao and PFC Chong during X-Com selections. Both soldiers were members of China's People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces, and passed selections with flying colours.

The operation was characterised by a curious incident which afflicted both PFC Oliveira and PFC Gerard. Both operatives panicked and cowered under fire, and this lapse was explained by their combat inexperience. During debriefing however they insisted that during the battle they had abruptly seen visions in their heads which terrified them and rendered them incapable of acting. Oliveira said, "I felt like a 10 year old again, and my step-father was coming up the stairs with his belt in his hand. It was a really strong memory, and it just overwhelmed my mind for a few seconds."

Operation Final Shield. PFC Garcia (pictured) signals the all-clear to Central.

Despite this curious incident the squad suffered no KIAs, although PFC Sato was badly burned by plasma fire during the engagement. Plasma fire cut through almost anything, but it also instantly cauterized any wound, which meant the operator could continue fighting as long as the wound was not fatal. Sato also corroborated Oliveira and Gerard's story about experiencing a compulsion to run and hide, although in his case he ignored it. "It happened twice during the fight - I just remembered the death of my mother, and the memory made me almost fall to my knees and cry. It felt just like how it had felt when I first heard the news, but I just shut it out of my mind as best as I could. After a few moments the feeling disappeared." While Sato was able to shake off the strange vision he admitted that the distraction almost proved fatal. "Just after the feeling subsided I was shot by one of the aliens."

Piao had a more scathing version of events. "Sato pushed too far forward and was shot because he was reckless and stupid," Piao remarked, not mincing her words. "I don't believe that nonsense about visions. He's just making excuses."

Despite the apparent friction between squad members the strike force performed efficiently and competently in their first operation as a team. The research and logistics team were able to bag up the alien bodies and collect whatever alien artefacts they could find. Alien weapons appeared to self-destruct after the death of the wielder, collapsing into a heap of disparate fragments which were later carefully collected by the forensics team and brought back to Central. Bradford was extremely pleased by his squad's performance, but he was under no illusions about the enormity of the struggle ahead. This was an important victory to be sure, but the war had only just begun.

X-Com researchers do a preliminary autopsy on the cadavers of the invaders.

↧

The Long War, Part V - Opening Moves

October 10, 2015, 11:44 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part VI - France

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part IV - First Contact

The Unfriendly Skies

The biggest concern for X-Com was the alien's undisputed mastery of the skies. Many analysts wondered why the aliens didn't just bomb the planet into submission. Earth had no answer for the mysterious mechanics which powered UFO flight, which allowed the visitors to travel at tremendous speeds with unrivalled manoeuvrability in both air and outer space. The only chance humans had of shooting down a UFO was when it deigned to leave orbit and travel in the atmosphere. Infrared (heatseeking) and radar guided systems seemed to fail utterly for reasons unknown. The most successful guidance system was image recognition, in which onboard computers memorized the image of the UFO and tracked it visually. The visitors could still outrun or outmanoeuvre the weapon, however, and even possessed some kind of countermeasure which fired plasma bolts at the incoming missile, destroying it before it could hit the target. In the rare cases of reported hits, it appeared that the alien spacecraft were also robust enough to shake off a direct hit by a missile. It was a mystery to researchers as to how the visitors could cope with the tremendous G-forces generated by their manoeuvres. The turns, dives and ascents performed by the UFOs would immediately render a human unconscious through "redout" or "greyout" effects. This was especially puzzling given the apparent frailty of the visitors. Preliminary analysis of the sectoid cadavers indicated that they were physically weaker than humans and possessed a cardiovascular system which made them vulnerable to G-force effects. Dr. Shen surmised that the aliens had some kind of dampening field operating within their craft which shielded the occupants from gravity effects - if this was true it might also explain the secret of their propulsion system, which did not appear to conform to Newtonian laws. UFOs displayed no wings, no rotors, or jet exhausts - the laws of inertia and conservation of momentum did not appear to apply to them.

The F-35 Lightning II, Earth's most advanced multi-role fighter craft at the onset of the alien invasion.

Despite the aliens' formidable advantage X-Com was determined to re-establish satellite coverage over the world, starting with the skies over their base of operations. X-Com launched its first satellite, designated XS-1, on 28 February 2016 from Tanegashima. It incorporated stealth technology to minimize its radar profile, and had a propulsion system which allowed it to change its position in orbit. More automated spacecraft than satellite, it was designed to scan then displace in order to stop the aliens from locating its position and destroying it. To engage the alien craft X-Com fielded a specialised squadron of fighters composed primarily of heavily modified F-35 "Lightning" jets. These planes represented the pinnacle of human aeronautic design to date, and they were tasked with the daunting task of bringing down the UFOs. One of the most impressive pieces of equipment at X-Com's disposal was the Skyranger SR-1 VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) air assault aircraft. It combined the speed of the Cessna Citation X (the world's fastest civilian business aircraft) and the almost unlimited landing capabilities of traditional air assault helicopters with the range of long haul cargo aircraft like the Boeing C-17 Globemaster. Developed by Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries and still in the prototype stage, it allowed X-Com to deploy virtually anywhere in the world within 12 hours at the latest.

Operation Purple Empire, Asyut, Egypt (Mission 2)

The first operational flight of the Skyranger took it to Asyut, Egypt, where local security forces were engaged in an ongoing battle with aliens in the streets. X-Com were given clearance by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who boasted to UN Secretary-General Ban that the situation was well in hand. Egyptian TV showed several soldiers brandishing a dead sectoid aloft with glee while firing their weapons in the air. Other footage showed dead aliens being dragged bodily on the streets by furious civilians chanting "Allahu akbar (God is great)!" Nonetheless X-Com force commander Iwata still requested permission to conduct mop-up operations to acquire alien artefacts and bodies for research, and el-Sisi was only happy to comply on the proviso that Egypt be placed on the priority list for satellite coverage.

X-Com operatives boarding the SR-1 Skyranger, the longest ranged air assault VTOL aircraft in the world.

The strike force was once again led by Takeda (now promoted to Master Sergeant) with Garcia as his 2IC (second in command), and they led a strong squad filled with X-Com's best soldiers. Kurnokov, Zhukova and Shearer were the best marksmen on the team, and Bradford wanted them blooded as soon as possible. The team arrived in Asyat on 7 March 2016 to find the city in uproar, with jubilant crowds chanting in the streets. Egyptian security forces had driven the aliens to a perimeter around an ancient Egyptian necropolis but had halted under orders from President el-Sisi. Much to the disgust of locals X-Com were given authority to take over operations, and Takeda immediately led his squad into the maze of tombs before the overzealous Egyptians changed their mind. Garcia once again advocated an attempt at communicating with the aliens, and was given permission by Takeda. Advancing cautiously from tomb to tomb, keenly aware of how she had been fired upon in Osaka during the first contact event, Garcia addressed the sectoids and waved a white flag from behind the safety of a large tomb. A hail of plasma fire was her response, and Germany's Scholz laconically quipped, "It appears that they don't want to negotiate." Singapore's Sheng replied, "Maybe a white flag means fuck you in alien."

Once engaged Kurnokov wasted no time in demonstrating his deadly prowess with his firearm. His very first shot killed a sectoid outright, and he dropped another shortly afterwards. Zhukova was cool, calm and efficient, working her way through the tombstones into a position where she could hurl her AP grenades at the sectoids firing from heavy cover. Takeda on the extreme left flank dropped one sectoid after another with measured fire from his DMR (designated marksman's rifle) while in the middle China's Chong and Singapore's Sheng kept up a fusillade of fire which kept the visitors' heads down. The visitors were soon overwhelmed, and the battle was over. As per Osaka, X-Com forensic teams immediately began bagging the cadavers and collecting whatever fragments they could find.

MSGT Takeda at the conclusion of the firefight which took the life of Australian SAS soldier Dylan Shearer.

The team suffered one casualty, however. Australian Dylan Shearer was hit by sectoid fire early in the battle and panicked. While cowering behind some light cover another sectoid fired at him, and despite being hunkered down behind a tombstone the plasma bolt penetrated the obstruction and instantly killed him. Shearer was an outstanding marksman, second only to the legendary Takeda and Kurnokov's equal. He was also the first casualty of the X-Com project.

Battle of Japan

Shearer's next of kin were dutifully notified, and his body sent back to his family in Melbourne, Australia. His death was a sobering reminder to the rest of the squad of the stakes involved. Up to this point X-Com had had an air of unreality surrounding it. Having seen the aliens firsthand, however, and losing one of their own solidified the idea that X-Com was a legitimate task force with a real purpose and a real enemy. Global UFO activity was reaching unprecedented levels, especially over the nations of Australia, Egypt and France, and these countries made repeated requests to be given satellite coverage. Security forces in all over the world were learning that the sectoids were weak and vulnerable to terrestrial weapons, however, and the general public's apprehension was giving way to belligerency. There was fierce debate on many forums as to the best way to deal with the visitors, and the scenes of alien bodies being dragged through the streets affected people in different ways. Some were jubilant; some were upset at the "inhumane" treatment of sentient beings; others feared reprisal. "If they're anything like us," said Ukraine's Ermakova. "They're going to want revenge."

The first UFO ever tracked by X-Com's satellite XS-1. This contact destroyed a squadron of JASDF fighters sent to intercept it.

On 8 March 2016, barely 24 hours after the deployment in Egypt, satellite XS-1 picked up a large contact moving through Japanese air space. It was the largest contact ever tracked, and several Japanese Air Self Defence Forces (JASDF) F-15s were scrambled in pursuit. General Iwata and Colonel Bradford watched grimly from Central as jet after jet was shot down by the contact. The mood in Central darkened as JASDF Patriot batteries launched their surface to air missiles (SAM) ineffectively at the UFO. The aliens appeared to have the ability to manipulate their radar signature - radar waves propagated at UFOs were either absorbed or came back subtly modified which wrought havoc on missile guidance systems. This led to the even deeper mystery as to how ground based or satellite based radar could pick up UFOs at all. "If their ships are capable of absorbing radar waves and not registering on our arrays," queried Dr. Shen. "Why don't they just stay in stealth all the time?" Hypotheses ranged from power requirements which limited the use of such countermeasures to small bursts, to more malevolent theories from the troops themselves. "They're toying with us," Squad Leader Hara said grimly. "Like a cat playing with a mouse. They don't see us as dangerous, so they are just playing with us for their own amusement."

With the failure of Japan's air force General Iwata was forced to decide whether to scramble the specialised F-35s at X-Com's disposal. He decided against it, judging the risk to the craft and pilot to be too great. To their astonishment the UFO descended to a location west of Osaka, Japan - the exact same place where X-Com had made first contact only one week prior. Iwata ordered the Skyranger scrambled immediately, and a squad led by Hara was ordered to try and assault the UFO on the ground. The UFO did not stay long enough for this to happen - it took off again prior to the arrival of the Skyranger. As with last week, however, reports on the ground indicated that the aliens were out in force on the ground, apparently searching for something.

Operation Swift Hymn, Osaka, Japan (Mission 3)

Hara's eight man squad contained five soldiers who were present at first contact (Hara, Masango, Gerard, Piao and Oliveira). Gerard and Oliveira were still wary because of the strange visions which afflicted them in their first mission, but the remainder were quietly confident of their ability to handle the aliens on the ground. The aliens sequestered themselves in a large office supply warehouse and Hara wasted no time assaulting the building. Unlike Takeda and Garcia, Hara felt that negotiations were a waste of time. "If they wanted to talk to us they have the means to easily do so," Hara stated. "Which means they don't." The X-Com team was able to overwhelm the aliens with textbook infantry tactics - Hara, Oliveira and rookies Heuvel and Abbate established a base of fire to pin down the sectoids while Gerard and Masango enveloped around the left flank. Piao and Ukrainian Ermakova did the same on the right flank, and caught in a murderous crossfire the sectoids were routed and killed. The mystery of why they had come to this location again remained unsolved, however. All X-Com were able to find huddling in the store room of the building were seven civilians - four terrified office workers, the building's custodian, and a mother and her daughter who fled to the building when the aliens arrived.

Dutchman Heuvel deploys into combat for the first time.

Despite a thorough search of the area X-Com researchers were unable to determine what brought the aliens to this part of Japan for the second time. While speaking to the civilians, however, Hara was interested to learn that the mother and child had also been at the sight of the first contact. Chiharu Kimura and her daughter Nanami cowered in their vehicle when sectoids landed near the Chugoku Highway a week ago. The sectoids were moving methodically down the highway searching the vehicles, and the Kimuras were only saved by the intervention of X-Com operators. Hara thought it a great coincidence and thought nothing of it. He would not realise until much later that he had found what the aliens were looking for.

↧

The Long War, Part VI - France

October 12, 2015, 11:21 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part VII - Global Unrest

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part V - Opening Moves

Victory in the Air

On 10 March 2016 satellite XS-1 picked up another UFO travelling at low speed over Osaka. This was the third UFO sighted in the same location in the space of two weeks. This particular UFO was the more common scout ship variant sighted frequently all around the world, and after intense discussions with the heads of the JASDF General Iwata decided to risk an air interception. Flight Officer "Q-Tip" Murphy and Flight Officer "Monk" Kanamin were scrambled to engage the enemy craft. Both were piloting extensively modified F-35s representing the cutting edge of aeronautical design, and they were soon in range of the enemy bogey. After several fruitless attempts to contact the UFO Kanamin was given permission to fire, and he launched two missiles, both of which merely ignored the target and crashed into the ground. Undeterred, he piloted his fighter closer to the slow moving UFO and fired at it with his 20mm Vulcan cannon. The UFO was apparently taken by surprise, and it took off in a fast but erratic course north across the Japanese countryside. Kanamin had apparently scored a critical hit, because the UFO eventually descended to the ground in the fields north of Kyoto and came to a halt.

Central erupts as X-Com F-35s score a kill for the very first time.

Operation Stone Heat, Osaka, Japan (Mission 4)

Jubilation erupted in Central as the first air victory over the aliens was celebrated by X-Com personnel. A recon flight over the crashed UFO indicated that it was still largely intact, and Bradford wasted no time in organising a recovery squad. With both Takeda and Hara resting from their exertions in Egypt and Osaka respectively, it fell to Ishikawa to lead the team departing for Kyoto. The dour Ishikawa was not well-liked, and his squad was composed of neophytes going into combat for the very first time. The only soldier with combat experience in the squad was China's Chong, who had recovered enough from his Egyptian sortie to go back out in the field. There was no love lost between Ishikawa and Chong, but Chong's sense of duty plus his ambition to become an X-Com squad leader overrode his disdain for Ishikawa. As for Ishikawa he projected the aura of man who cared nothing for what other people thought of him. He was focused, impersonal and expected everyone to be the same.

The UFO crash-landed in a deserted field north-west of Kyoto, and the Skyranger touched down a short distance away. This was the team's first UFO assault, and Ishikawa ensured that the area around the UFO was first cleared of aliens before attempting to breach the vessel. This mission also marked the appearance of floating mechanical drones which flew through the air without any apparent means of support, apparently propelled by the same mechanism which drove the UFOs. The drones appeared harmless, until one of them shot Australian PFC Phillips with a bolt of energy which nearly killed her. After that incident the squad took no further chances, and shot down every drone they saw. France's PFC Roche proved adept at shooting down the flying targets, accounting for two of them. The rest of the squad fared less poorly - the drones were small and fast, and it required a steady hand and a keen eye to maintain a bead on them. The most notable event of the UFO assault was an encounter with an hitherto un-encountered alien which the troops dubbed as the outsider. The troops struggled to describe this fast, dangerous and resilient foe. Even footage from personal cameras mounted on the soldier's helmets revealed scant details - an alien being, humanoid in appearance, clad in some kind of metallic-looking armour but radiating light and energy from within. Upon death, the light disappeared, and the armour collapsed in a heap of parts. Careful inspection of the parts revealed nothing beneath them - no corpse or body or any form of remains. Gunfire was partially effective in ripping apart the armour which gave this alien its shape and cohesion, but it appeared that the outsider regenerated damage rapidly. Only sustained damage over a short period of time sufficed to disrupt whatever being animated that suit of armour - if left to its own devices the armour would visibly regenerate and repair damage done to it.

The remains of an outsider's armour.

"Malakhov, Kohler and I stormed into the UFO and saw this thing," Chong later stated. "We riddled it with bullets - there was no blood, but we could see our bullets leaving holes in its armour. The thing sprinted out of the UFO and ran into the woods. It was fast, faster than a human, and it didn't seem to be scared of being shot. Malakhov ran after it to finish it off while Kohler and I made sure the UFO was clear. The next thing we hear is Malakhov calling for back-up, and so we run outside. We saw the outsider, and our bullet holes were gone. It was suppressing Malakhov and just walking up to him, as easy you like, no fear, while shooting at him. We blasted the thing to pieces with our guns, tearing off bits of its armour and puncturing it full of holes. At some point our damage must have overloaded its ability to regenerate, because suddenly the light died out and the armour collapsed into a heap."

One final incident of note involved Irish rookie PFC MacMahon. He reported experiencing something similar to what Oliveira and Gerard experienced in Osaka. "I'm afraid of spiders," the red-bearded Irishman admitted. "And at one point in the fight I saw a bloody massive spider, bigger than my hand, on the log I was taking cover behind. It scared the beejesus out of me. I stopped shooting and scrambled away, but moments later when I looked back, the thing was gone. At first I thought it had just scuttled away, but I saw the same damned spider later when we were closer to the UFO. I thought, this thing can't be real, and closed my eyes - when I opened them again the spider was gone."

X-Com's first UFO capture.

The downed UFO was a gold mine for the research team, and great efforts were expended in recovering and returning the alien craft safely to Tanegashima. This windfall was soon to be followed by grim news on the world stage, however. France had been flip flopping in its support of the X-Com project, at first blocking it in the Security Council before voting for it in the General Assembly. She had been part of the big 16 - the 16 countries which provided the highest levels of funding and logistical support to the X-Com project. On 11 March 2016, however, France withdrew its support of the X-Com project, ceased all funding, and formally requested for the return of their personnel and equipment.

Unrest in France

The withdrawal of France drew tremendous criticism from both home and abroad. Media outlets were outspokenly contemptuous of President Francoise Hollande, who was already suffering from low approval ratings. He had been given the nickname "Monsieur Flanby" when he assumed power in 2012, and France's recent antics baffled and outraged members of his party. Media representatives found their access to Elysee Palace severely restricted however, and the President and the Prime Minister became very reclusive and insular, refusing to appear in front of the media and communicating only through statements issued through intermediaries. The President's withdrawal from public life became so acute that France's leading newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur published a giant headline which read, "Where In France is Monsieur Flanby?"

French members of the X-Com unit were ordered to return to France immediately after the French withdrawal. The French contingent was quite small, consisting of less than 100 soldiers and support personnel, and they were shipped back to France in three flights on the 16th, the 18th and the 20th of March. Roche, the only member of the French team to pass selections into the strike force, was supposed to take the final flight on the 20th. Prior to her departure she tried to get in contact with the members of her contingent who had departed earlier, but was unable to raise any of them. Mystified by this development she contacted the NATO Bretigny-sur-Orge Air Base in France to confirm their arrival, and was told that the flights had been rerouted to Grenoble. Her attempts to contact Grenoble Air Base were in vain, and further attempts to obtain contact details were met with confusion. "As far as I am aware," one operator told her. "Grenoble Air Base was closed down years ago."

Becoming alarmed she shared her concerns with her commanding officer Major Jacques Davout, and he wasted no time in contacting his superiors in France. Upon concluding his phone call he told Roche that they had been ordered to return to France immediately. "The directive comes all the way from the President," Davout told Roche. "They'll explain when we get there. Some kind of big operation against the aliens." This did not assuage Roche. A single child from a single parent she contacted her mother, and quizzed her on the conditions at home. Her mother told her that all was well, although "conspiracy theories" abounded. Stories of giant alien space craft touching down in the countryside and squads of tall, gaunt thin men guarding the Elysee Palace made the rounds on tabloids and across pub tables. "It's all rubbish," her mother assured her. "People are just nervous, that's all."

France withdraws from the X-Com project.

Operation Lost Chantry. Coverntry, UK (Mission 5)

In the meantime, X-Com forces were deployed to halt abduction attempts by the visitors in the UK. SCO19 (England's equivalent to SWAT) and British SAS commandos responded to six reports during the month of March, and on 20 March 2016 made a formal request for X-Com intervention. Like in Egypt, human armed forces were more than a match for the aliens on the ground, and X-Com's intervention was more a courtesy and compliance with the UN resolution than any real need.

The remains of PFC Scholz where she was gunned down by sectoids. LCPL MacMahon crouches behind a nearby car for cover. Moments later he would also be shot trying to assist Scholz, but would survive.

The Skyranger touched down in Coventry near a petrol station occupied by sectoids, and Takeda moved his squad in to secure the petrol station. Takeda divided his team into two groups - the first group, led by himself, would clear the trucks and vehicles in the parking lot, while the second would assault the station. A vicious firefight ensued in the station which claimed the life of PFC Scholz. Dashing across a garage she was gunned down by a sectoid lurking in overwatch. Medic MacMahon, who deployed on the last mission, was almost killed trying to get to Scholz. He was bodily restrained by Chong who shouted at him, "She's gone." Chong then had an episode similar to that experienced by Oliveira, Gerard and MacMahon - he did not elaborate in debriefing, but recalled that he felt a very deep compulsion to run and hide suddenly take hold of him. Instead of running he charged the sectoids, and became engaged in vicious short range exchange over a car. The sectoids died, and the station was clear.

LCPL Chong engages a sectoid at almost point blank range.

On route back to Tanegashima the Skyranger stopped in Germany to deliver the body of PFC Scholz back to German authorities. She was the second casualty under Takeda's command, and he took her death hard. From hereon in Takeda's deployments would be characterised by extreme caution and an unwillingness to take risks. Chong, as per usual, wasted no time in blaming Takeda for her death, and continued to lobby for non-Japanese squad leaders. Takeda, for his part, was quiet and circumspect. "I should not have divided my squad," he stated later. "If we were all together perhaps she would not have felt compelled to take such risks."

LCPL Abbate at the aftermath of Operation Lost Chant, in which PFC Scholz lost her life.

The Skyranger made one more stop before returning to Tanegashima. On its return flight the aircraft made a clandestine stop in the Ardennes with the quiet approval of the German government, and Roche was inserted just a few clicks from the French border. As a soldier she was obligated to return to France as per her superiors' orders, but rather than return with the rest of the French contingent she would take a different route home. Her commanding officer, Jacques Davout, would cover for her, and ensure that for all intents and purposes she would be listed as "returned" for bureaucratic purposes. Between her, Davout and Colonel Bradford, they concocted a scheme by which X-Com could gather information without going through official channels. She was given a powerful radio transmitter which could transmit signals to a bay tower in Germany. The signal would then be relayed to Central via fibre optic cables which stretched across the European and Asian continent. While the rest of her countrymen were boarding transport planes from Tanegashima, she was determined to walk across the border, make her way to the air base at Grenoble, and ascertain what exactly was going on.

↧

The Long War, Part VII - Global Unrest

October 20, 2015, 9:30 pm

≫ Next: A Belated Happy New Year

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part VI - France

Counter-measures

X-Com had no way of ascertaining the size and scope of the alien threat. Telescopic observation seemed to point to Mars as the aliens' base of operations - astronomers tracked the aliens coming and going from Mars with their instruments, but thus far could not determine the aliens' precise strength and numbers. The aliens kept the bulk of their fleet hidden behind the far side of Mars, but what was most troubling were photographs taken by the Hubble Telescope which suggested more and more alien craft were arriving from deep space. While public concern had abated somewhat by the aliens' pathetic showing on the ground to date, military commands all over the world knew that the aliens had not yet shown their full strength. They were extremely concerned at the prospect of the aliens deploying nuclear weapons or their advanced equivalent. If the aliens wanted to nuke the Earth from orbit, there was nothing anyone could do about it. The fact that they had not suggested that they were after something else.

These mechanical pods were launched from the UFOs and immediately released a gas that could solidify into a sticky, web-like substance which immobilised luckless humans in the vicinity.

Occupation and conquest were mooted as possible reasons, but the conduct of the aliens did not appear to corroborate this hypothesis. An equivalent terrestrial campaign would entail fighters establishing air superiority, followed by a bombing campaign which would take out radar installations, air fields and supporting infrastructure. Armour and infantry would then move in to capture strategic positions and destroy enemy resistance with air support. The aliens did none of these things. They clearly had air superiority, but left ground radar installations and air fields - both high value strategic targets in conventional warfare - unmolested. Their ground incursions were pathetically inept, and the sectoid themselves were no match for well-trained human infantry. The one thing that humans knew for certain was that the enemy abducted people wherever they landed. The aliens went about this in two ways. The first involved landing squads of aliens who acted as grab teams. In this situation the aliens only made off with a few individuals before departing. The other way entailed launching mechanical pods from the UFO which emitted some kind of green substance that incapacitated and immobilised humans nearby. The captives would then picked up by a complement of drones who carried the immobilised humans back to their craft. There were also unconfirmed reports of humans willingly boarding alien craft of their own accord, but this was dismissed as preposterous.

While the aliens evaded or punished any attempts at air interception they seemed to let their ground troops fend for themselves. They never lent air support to their ground missions, and if a ground team was wiped out the UFO simply didn't return. Sectoids never seemed to exhibit distress when one of their number went down. and they were mostly silent on the battlefield. Their mode of communication remained a mystery. In all the time the aliens had been present not once had they attempted to establish communications or respond to human overtures. This fact alone confirmed for most that their intentions were malevolent.

Civilians trying desperately to escape the tendrils of the alien abduction pods.

In response to the abductions civilians armed themselves and barricaded their homes, and neighbourhood watches were established which disseminated UFO sightings much like tornado warnings in the American Midwest. Security forces in every nation created rapid response groups similar to X-Com which could then be deployed to anywhere in the country at short notice. Having taken tremendous losses, air forces all over the world ceased trying to shoot down the UFOs. Only the modified F-35s fielded by the US and X-Com seemed to have a chance at shooting down the enemy craft, and even then a squadron of US F-35s was badly mauled when trying to engage a large UFO off the east coast of America. Now standard procedure was to shadow the UFOs while air assault troops waited on stand-by. Once the landing site was determined the air assault forces would deploy to engage the sectoids on the ground. This measure was hugely successful in the months of March and April 2016, and the number of abductions dropped dramatically.

Second Kill

On 23 March 2016 satellite XS-1 detected two UFOs in the vicinity of Osaka, Japan. This would take the total number of UFOs sighted in this area to five. Prior to the Osaka incident researchers had assumed that the aliens were content to take whatever humans they could find, but the single-minded focus on Osaka seemed to indicate otherwise. The aliens were clearly looking for something. Once again General Iwata ordered the F-35s scrambled, and soon "Monk" Kanamin and "Grounder" Tanner were streaking through the air in pursuit of UFO-3, while "Lazer" Gibson and "Q-Tip" Murphy chased after UFO-4. UFO-3 was another scout class UFO, but it put up more of a fight than its previous compatriot. Both F-35s did not fire their missiles, but instead throttled in to engage at gun range. When they closed in the UFO began to jink and juke in an unpredictable manner while returning fire with plasma bolts discharged from its hull. Kanamin was able to land several hits with his 20mm cannon, but was also hit in return. He was forced to disengage and return to base. Tanner pressed the attack, raking the UFO with cannon fire as it pursued the fleeing Kanamin. Much to his delight the UFO began to spiral downwards, and once again Central was filled with overjoyed men and women as it crashed into the ground north of Osaka.

The mood in Central soon sobered, however, when UFO-4 proved to be a much more formidable adversary. UFO-4 was significantly bigger than UFO-3, but that did not seem to compromise its speed and agility. Gibson and Murphy could not get a bead on the UFO, and it in turn displayed excellent ACM (air combat manoeuvring) skills, placing itself behind both pilots on separate occasions. Its plasma guns pounded the F-35s, and both pilots had to withdraw with their craft heavily damaged. Satellite tracking showed the UFO land and disgorge a squad of aliens at Nagai Stadium in downtown Osaka before pulling away skyward once more. Soon 119 was filled with frantic calls by civilians, but one stood out in particular and was flagged for further analysis by listening post monitors. It was a call by Chiharu Kimura, the Japanese woman who was present at the first contact event and at the firefight in Osaka two weeks earlier. Kimura was terrified that the aliens were fixated on abducting her and her daughter, and based on the events of the last month, the X-Com researchers were inclined to agree with her.

Operation Black Moon, Osaka, Japan (Mission 6)

Faced with two fires Bradford decided to deploy a squad with the Skyranger to secure the downed UFO, while another squad would be deployed via UH-60JA Blackhawks to assist Japanese security forces repel the landing at Nagai Stadium. The recovery mission would be led again by the dour Ishikawa. Ishikawa's authoritarian style was perfectly suited to the Japanese chain of command, whose society inculcated respect for authority figures from a young age, and whose relationships are characterised by sempai (senior) and kohai (junior) dialectics. In the context of the strike force it was extremely jarring, however. Most elite units in the world displayed the same characteristics of egalitarian bottom-up planning as seen in the American Delta Force and the British and Australian SAS. The rationale behind this was that as the armed force's elite they could be trusted with the responsibility of planning the minutiae of each mission. Objectives would be given to them from their superiors, and the operators themselves would then work out the details of the mission. They eschewed uniforms, standards of appearance, and traditional trapping of rank in return for maintaining elite standards of soldiering and the willingness to put themselves in harm's way at a moment's notice. This was the kind of environment Colonel Bradford wanted to foster in his international strike force, and Ishikawa's traditional style of command definitely clashed with this philosophy. Nonetheless Bradford still had political considerations to juggle, and for now the directive from General Iwata and Prime Minister Abe of Japan was that squads must be led by Japanese soldiers. He still had two widely respected squad leaders in Takeda and Hara. Takeda was very cautious and conservative, but commanded unanimous respect through his excellent marksmanship, which was the best in the unit. Hara was loud and aggressive in both conduct and demeanour, but also possessed a sense of humour and a willingness to embrace the vagaries of his position. Rather than shrinking from the titters and grins brought about by his poor English he embraced it, becoming more bombastic and taking every opportunity to add newly acquired pieces of vocabulary to his tirades. His squad's planning sessions were open to input and alteration. This was in sharp contrast to Ishikawa's, who came to meetings thoroughly prepared but was unwilling to bend on any detail.

Russian Zhukova calls in the all clear after putting down the outsider pilot.

Nonetheless Ishikawa was the only man who had commanded a UFO assault to date, which made him the sole expert on the strike force. Bradford tasked him with securing the UFO, and an assault force was hastily thrown together. The Skyranger dropped the team close to the crash site, but immediately came under fire from sectoids entrenched behind heavy cover. Singapore gunner Sheng was badly wounded by plasma fire, and Dutchman Heuvel was also hit while trying to advance under heavy fire. Heuvel's collapse almost triggered a rout - Kurnakov, Zhukova and Della momentarily panicked and began falling back. Ishikawa, the veteran Oliveira and Falcon all kept their heads, however, and staved off a possible collapse by maintaining suppressing fire on the advancing sectoids. Ishikawa's accuracy with his marksman's rifle took a deadly toll, and Falcon's cover fire allowed Oliveira to run to the fallen Heuvel and administer first aid. The remainder of the squad rallied, returned fire, and killed the remaining sectoids. With the surrounding area clear X-Com then assaulted the UFO itself. This was Ishikawa's second UFO assault, and he implemented tactics gleaned from the lessons learnt in the first encounter. He surrounded the UFO and posted operators on every exit point before breaching the craft. Ishikawa knew that a single operator did not have the stopping power to put down an outsider, and therefore he posted them in pairs at the exits. Once preparations were completed, Ishikawa breached the craft with Falcon. As expected the outsider ignored suppression fire and immediately made a beeline for the nearest exit. This time, however, it ran into the combined fire of Russians Kurnokov and Zhukova, who riddled the outsider with gunfire and put it down.

↧

A Belated Happy New Year

January 19, 2016, 4:38 pm

≫ Next: Tales from the Blizzard, Part II - Skill and Randomness in Hearthstone and StarCraft

≪ Previous: The Long War, Part VII - Global Unrest

I'm back.

Not being the most prolific blogger at the best of times, I made a resolution last year to post twice a month as an exercise in self-discipline. When I hit that magic "24" post mark in October last year I abruptly stopped posting, thinking to myself, "Well, mission accomplished" for the year. Actually, in truth I also burned myself out writing reams and reams of fan fiction for no good reason at all, other than a vague recollection that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I found out to my horror that an average Long War game in X-Com can take over 200 missions to complete, and I was chugging out one post per mission in a naïve and quixotic quest to chronicle my games. Going at my current run rate it would have taken me another eight years to finish documenting the games, assuming that I won the campaign, of course.

Hell, no.

Being the person I am, of course, I refused to acknowledge that I had bitten off much, much more than I could chew. Rather than being rational and saying "bollocks to this" I deluded myself into thinking that I was taking time off to mull over plot points and somehow fit existing current events into the preposterous framework of an alien invasion, and as a result my blogging came to a fizzing, sputtering halt. I gave myself until February 2016 - the release date of the X-Com sequel - to finish my foray into fan fiction. Another delusion, and one that would have been easily identified by anyone other than myself. It's amazing the myopia that descends upon us when it comes to self-reflection. Our perception can be razor sharp when it comes to others, but turn that mirror onto ourselves and the reflection becomes deformed and diffused, kind of like those fun house mirrors from the carnivals of old. Or perhaps it's just me?

I've freed myself of the temporary madness of my incursion into fan fiction, hence this post. I like writing for the sake of writing, and like most skills I know that it is a perishable one which will deteriorate and atrophy from lack of use. I'm going to finish the X-Com yarn I'm spinning because I like it, derivative and hackneyed as it is. It's almost as fun to write about my virtual soldiers as it is to play with them in the game, and so I will keep chugging on. But it won't be at the expense of other writings and other topics. I'm shooting for 36 posts this year, at an average run rate of three posts per month. My output has steadily grown over the years - 10 posts in 2013, 18 in 2014 and 24 in 2015. I don't ever want to get to Blaugust levels of output, where people are churning out stuff just for the sake of making a daily quota. I suspect a number between 24 and 36 will be the happy medium for me, but I won't find out until I try, however, so hence the experiment.

2016 is now here, and with it comes the promise of new and exciting worlds to experience. The games I'm looking forward to this year are X-Com 2, the new Deus Ex and the new Mass Effect. On the MMO front I'm looking forward to Camelot Unchained and Crowfall. I'm being pressured to purchase a PS4 and play Destiny with some mates back in Oz, so I guess that could technically qualify as an MMO. I suspect I will spend a lot of time in Crowfall however, and I'm thinking of joining Scree's guild Obsidian when the game approaches launch date. That's of course if Scree is willing to have me, given that we've had spats over TESO in the past. I don't play WoW or TESO anymore, because the people I played both games with have moved on from MMOs. Irony of ironies, I'm not a Killer under the Bartle typology of gamer types despite all my posturing and huffing and puffing in posts long past. It turns out I'm a Socializer after all, and if I can't PvP with my friends and family then I simply won't play. There are better things to do. Ironically in the absence of MMOs I have returned to judo after an absence of almost a decade, and am re-discovering the simple joy in being thrown around and being lain on by fat, overweight Japanese men with bad breath. I've also started aikido out of curiosity and am juggling the two martial arts in my schedule, which leaves precious little time for gaming. I'm still an avid reader of gaming blogs, always finding time in my day to go to my favourite sites, skim the titles, and click on the ones that seem interesting. I'll always be a gamer, and even though my activity in this field is at an all time low it will always be an enduring love of mine. One spark is all that it'll take to rekindle it, and then I can see myself hunching over the keyboard until the wee hours of the morning playing some title whose combination of gameplay, story and audio visual elements have entrapped in me in that familiar, comfortable and sometimes self-destructive embrace.

↧

Tales from the Blizzard, Part II - Skill and Randomness in Hearthstone and StarCraft

February 7, 2016, 8:24 pm

≫ Next: X-Com Returns

≪ Previous: A Belated Happy New Year

Blizzcon is my favourite e-sports event, primarily because it is the annual apex of the e-sports I most avidly follow, notably StarCraft 2 and WoW Arena. Hearthstone can now also be added to that list, although after seeing that titanic battle between former champions SoS (Blizzcon 2013) and Life (Blizzcon 2014) in the Starcraft 2 grand final the gameplay in HS seems a little shallow by comparison. It was amazing watching Life play in first person mode, and to see how fast he was issuing commands, moving his cursor, swapping from screen to screen and multi-tasking - it was like watching a computer rather than a human at play. At the highest level watching a SC2 professional at play is akin to watching a piano grandmaster performing a symphony. The skill required to manage both micro and macro levels of play is simply amazing to watch. This is the reason why I consider StarCraft 2 to be the apex of e-sports, and why I consider the professionals who play it to be the best of their field.

The final chapter of the SC2 trilogy - Legacy of the Void.

For me, the StarCraft and Hearthstone tournaments starkly illustrated the dichotomy between a purely skill-based game (StarCraft 2) and a game which incorporates randomness as an intrinsic part of its gameplay (Hearthstone). Nothing that happens in StarCraft 2 is random. Units won't go anywhere unless ordered to by human agency. When I play StarCraft 2 I lose because I either screwed up (failure of skill on my part) or my opponent outplayed me (they outskilled me) through better micro (fine unit control, number of actions per minute, twitch, etc.), macro (build order, base layout, tech choices, etc.) or strategy (scouting, initial strategy, counter-strategy, adaptation, improvisation, etc.). There is no RNG here. The factors which determine winning or losing are completely deterministic, either by my actions or by opponents.

Hearthstone by comparison, has randomness in its heart. I can play a hand of Hearthstone optimally and still lose from a freakish RNG result. You can play SC optimally and still lose, too, but the key difference is that the reason why you lost is that your opponent out-skilled you, not because they pulled a Mal'Ganis card out of their ass (1 in 15 chance) after playing a Bane of Doom card and making themselves immune to your killing blow. HS is not completely random - player agency is present in deck creation and play order, and this is where the skill in HS lies. Initial hand, draw order, and random effects from cards all lie in the domain of RNG, however, and something about losing thanks to RNG, especially when you know you have been playing well, just drives me up the wall. HS's random elements doesn't mean it lacks skill - the best players of Hearthstone apply probability and statistics to be successful in the game. This is also why they have to play a large number of games, in order to even out the randomness which can dramatically tilt the result of single matches.

Currently sitting at rank 8. My win rate is over 55% using a combination of Fatigue Druid, Aggro Druid and Dragon Priest, but I would still need to play around 450 games to get to Legendary in one month. That's 15 games a day, winning 8-9 of them. 15 games times 15 minutes (average time for a game for me) equals 3 hours and 45 minutes daily.

HS is just not deterministic the way StarCraft 2 is, and its inherent randomness probably means that no HS world champion will ever claim multiple titles in the same way SoS did in this year's Blizzcon championship. Skill based games are more predictable than random games. Both Life and SoS are previous StarCraft 2 Blizzcon champions, but last year's Hearthstone champion Firebat failed to even qualify for the regionals in 2015. This would not be from lack of skill on his part - it's because the random elements of the game make repeated outcomes (winning a tournament) dependent on variables beyond a player's control. The fact that the same group of HS players regularly appear at the top of the ladder shows that there is a discrete skill set which governs success in HS. The fact that the very top guys keep changing, however, seems to suggest that the RNG dominates the game - to put it another way, skill only takes you so far, and the rest is dependent on luck. The top 8 Hearthstone finalists of Blizzcon in 2015 are completely different to the top 8 finalists of Blizzcon in 2014. By contrast, four StarCraft 2 quarterfinalists in 2014 (Life, Classic, herO and Innovation) returned in 2015 and the eventual champion in 2015 (SoS) was the Blizzcon champion in 2013.

Otsuka is the 2015 HS champion and he deserves props for that achievement. In addition to being able to play the odds you also have to be a determined grinder, and if you're rocking a 55% win rate it is estimated that you would need to play around 400-500 games to attain Legendary rank. After that Otsuka would have had to win the tournaments to qualify for Blizzcon, then win the actual Blizzcon championships itself. There's a famous saying in boxing that you aren't really the champion until you defend your title, however, and I think it applies equally well to HS. If we see repeat players appearing in the top 8 of Blizzcon next year it will go a long way in legitimizing HS as a skill-based e-sport rather than a crap shoot at the highest level. There's a reason why Korean and Chinese players interviewed at Blizzcon look down their noses at HS as a game - they don't rate it as a game of skill, especially in comparison to MOBAs and SC2. This is also probably the reason why Blizzard is trying to "balance" the game by splitting it into two different formats. If Otsuka or Firebat, or any of the top 8 of 2014 and 2015 come back however, for Blizzcon 2016 - well, there might be something to the game after all. Poker and Magic The Gathering have both had repeat world champions, and the success of these repeat champions is incontestable proof that there is more to these games than just drawing cards. Time will tell if someone can do the same for Hearthstone.

↧

X-Com Returns

February 22, 2016, 5:24 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part VIII - The Phony War

≪ Previous: Tales from the Blizzard, Part II - Skill and Randomness in Hearthstone and StarCraft

You might have guessed that I'm a big fan of X-Com from my inaugural posts here, and my stalled attempt at fan fiction here. The sequel has rekindled my deep love of this series, which started way back in 1994 when the original was released. The X-Com and Jagged Alliance series are formative and influential titles in my gaming life, and it comes as no surprise that the release of X-Com sequel was eagerly anticipated by yours truly.

Bradford is back. X-Com 2 opens with a daring rescue of the "Commander" from the clutches of the aliens. Here he is accompanied by Richard Tygan, the new head of research for the resistance movement.

The last weekend was spent in a kind of X-Com torpor, and it concluded on Sunday evening with me finally completing the game on Veteran difficulty. I'd intended to complete it without reloading, but that went out the window when my entire squad was decimated and I realised that I would have to reallocate an extra day to rebuild my squad. These days more than others I have been trying to balance the efficient use of my time with the obsessive compulsive part of myself which insists on "pure" play throughs on Ironman. The older, more pragmatic side of myself won over the younger, stupider side, and I continued my play through all the way to the end of the game.

Now that the fire of obsession has burnt itself out I can start a new campaign and play at my leisure. I don't need to know the story any more - playing on the weekend was akin to reading a novel, in which I turn pages over quickly to try to see what would happen at the end of the story. In the case of X-Com I would hurry through mission after mission just to see how my tech choices played out, what new technologies were offered, what new alien types my squad would face, and how the narrative would unfold. The sacrifice for this speed run was the role playing part of X-Com, which for me is the hook that keeps me coming back to the game. If your soldiers can't die then they are no longer mortal beings who risk all mission after mission - they're just tools to allow you to complete the game. The result of this was that I was being reckless and stupid in most missions, because hey, my grunts are immortal and I can always reload. Contrast this with my current Long War campaign which is being played on Ironman - every mission is fraught with danger and anticipation, and I am extremely careful when moving my guys. And when someone dies, it really, really stings.

The new head of engineering, An-Yi Shen, takes over the mantle of her father's work.

X-Com 2 is more of the same X-Com, just set 20 years in the future and incorporating more bells and whistles and polish. There have been three modern iterations of the X-Com template. The first is X-Com reboot and its expansion, The Enemy Within, along with the assorted DLCs that came with that title. The second iteration is the fan-made mod called The Long War, which took the original games plus expansions, and made it into a fully fledged war simulator. I still haven't completed The Long War, but that is because I am also concurrently making a fan fiction piece about it and my ability to write about it drastically lags behind my ability to go into gaming trances that consume my life. The latest iteration of X-Com is the sequel released this month. It sticks to the tried and true elements of the series - a strategic overlay over a squad-level turn based game complemented by a tech tree and a linear storyline. The four soldier archetypes have been given an overhaul and there are more customisation options than ever, including the ability to select the soldier's attitude, gender and nationality. Maps are now partially procedurally generated and the missions are more varied than ever. There are a new host of aliens armed with abilities both old and new - it was a nasty shock to be mind controlled in an early mission by the sequel's version of the humble sectoid. Base building is simpler and more straightforward than the original, which required a modicum of planning in order to maximize the adjacency bonuses of the various structures. The only building which has an adjacency bonus in the new game is the workshop, which should be placed smack bang in the middle of your base for obvious reasons.

Gameplay wise X-Com 2 has expanded on the Concealed mechanic introduced in The Enemy Within DLC, extending this ability to the whole squad in specific missions. This allows the player to set up creative ambushes, and really sells the "resistance" theme of the game. Time limits on missions add an element of pressure not commonly seen in the original. Where the game excels at are the little touches that make your soldiers come alive. As I stated earlier, the game has always been about my intrepid band of soldiers, which is also why I really liked the Jagged Alliance series and its quirky cast of mercenaries. The ability to carry your wounded squadmates and mobile extraction zones are great additions to the story-telling possibilities in-game. Soldiers left behind can be rescued in subsequent missions. Gravely wounded soldiers stagger and collapse once back at base, having given their all - they put their head in their hands when they fail, and smile with satisfaction on the flight home when they succeed. In cases where they succeed but lose a soldier they hold themselves erect with grim pride, proud to have succeeded while simultaneously mourning their fallen comrade. You can see them socializing in the bar, working out in the training centre, or recovering in the infirmary, and you can pick out the soldiers you have customized. In fact the main menu screen shows one of your elite soldiers standing in the shadows, preparing to make a move against ADVENT forces. While X-Com 2 eschews the fatigue system which makes training up multiple squads necessary in the Long War, it still has a Shaken mechanic akin to that of virtual PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Soldiers who are shaken have their Will reduced to 0, making them extremely brittle and prone to panicking. Their voices change from brash and gung-ho to nervous and worried. They can, however, fight their way back by performing well in subsequent missions. Think of Corporal Hudson from Aliens, who went on a mission cock-sure and arrogant, had his nerve broken by the turn of events ("Game over, man, game over!"), but found his courage again and went out swinging in the end.

X-Com depicts one of your soldiers in the main loading screen, adding to the sense of "ownership" one has of the game. Here Sergeant "Bhagpuss" Taylor lurks in the shadows, hiding from ADVENT patrols.

I love these little touches. If it were up to me, I'd turn this game into a kind of military Sims, where soldiers can interact with other base staff, build friendships, fall in love, grow to despise someone, and so on. Humanity against an existential threat strikes a powerful chord with me, and I've always liked games, movies and TV shows based around these themes. Call me idealist, but when the chips are down I'd like to think that people can put their differences aside and work together in the face of annihilation. Or maybe they can't, and we're all fucked. X-Com lets me play out this scenario with a customizable cast of characters who are all too mortal. Permadeath has never been as effective or meaningful as a narrative tool in gaming as it has been used in X-Com. The plaques of the fallen on the wall, along with the customized epithets, allows for a role-playing experience beyond what is normally offered in fantasy games which take healing and resurrection as par for the course. These fallen are true heroes, as far as they can be in a virtual space, and they gave their lives for the cause.

↧

The Long War, Part VIII - The Phony War

March 7, 2016, 9:51 pm

≫ Next: The Long War, Part IX - Ogbomosho

≪ Previous: X-Com Returns

Previous: The Long War, Part VII - Global Unrest

April, 2016

By the beginning of April, X-Com could claim to have successfully completed nine missions. In addition to their successes to date, X-Com were also able to shoot down two more scout class UFOs (UFO-6 and UFO-7), and conduct salvage and recovery missions at the crash sites. X-Com were also able to stop abductions in progress in Shanghai, China. Anti-abduction missions were essentially counter-terrorism operations, and Colonel Bradford had plenty of operators with ample experience and training in this field within the ranks. The fact that the Chinese allowed X-Com to intervene within their borders surprised everyone, although the request was made with the caveat that Chinese operatives "Dacheng" Nguyen and "Xanziee" Tsang were included in the mission. Bradford was more than happy to comply, and the mission was completed without a hitch. As a gesture of good will, Bradford offered to turn over all recovered artefacts to the Chinese government, an act which won him some favour in Beijing, and some headshaking in Tokyo.

X-Com's March 2016 evaluation from the Council of 16. France withdrew on 11 March 2016, barely two months after X-Com was created.

The strike force had suffered two casualties, but was beginning to display unit cohesion and camaraderie after eight weeks together. Morale was high despite the aliens' total air superiority, and the squad leaders (with the exception of "Tora" Sato) appointed by Colonel Bradford were beginning to become comfortable in their roles. Researchers and engineers had access to enough alien cadavers, materials and tech for a lifetime of study, and governments and corporations with security clearance were beginning to realize the wealth of R&D potential the fledgling international organization had at its disposal. Requests began to pour in from various corners of the world, much to the dismay of head researcher Moira Vahlen, who counselled Bradford to hold onto the artefacts for the time being. Finally, X-Com was able to launch a second satellite from Tanegashima, greatly increasing X-Com's coverage of the skies over Asia. Overall it was a very encouraging start for the fledgling organisation.

X-Com operators relaxing in the mess hall. From left to right: Japan's "Tenshi" Hatakeyama; Israel's "Kitty Boom" Biton; and "Milady" Edwards from the UK.

The world did not stand idly by as X-Com racked up these modest victories. The major powers conducted anti-alien programmes of their own, some of which were very public and transparent. Others were more clandestine, but they, too, enjoyed a similar level of success, if not more, than X-Com did in its early incarnation. Generally speaking special force units in their respective countries were far superior to X-Com's ad hoc and polyglot units, even if X-Com had some outstanding individuals in its ranks. X-Com did possess the advantage of combat experience against the extra-terrestrials, as they were pitted against the visitors on a weekly basis. Squaddies disseminated information among themselves as to the capabilities of the various aliens encountered by the task force, and constantly drilled, trained and developed tactics to combat them. Sectoids, while physically frail and inept soldiers, were treated warily due to the accounts told by "Bhagpuss" Taylor, "Mesmer" Levin and "Syp" Muyumba about the visions and sensations they could somehow induce. Outsiders were respected foes, and the sight of one was usually enough to summon as much firepower as X-Com could bring to bear due to their durability and regenerative capacity. Drones were annoying and difficult to hit, but packed a vicious short-range attack which could seriously injure, even kill - the sight of drones in the air prompted a blizzard of automatic weapons fire from the ground in every deployment.

World opinion was deeply divided as to how to best respond to the alien presence. The destruction of Earth's satellite network in November 2015 initially engulfed the globe in mass hysteria, as commentators predicted the imminent end of mankind. Air transit almost ground to a halt - the skies, so long a repository of human longing and ambition, became menacing and hostile. Hoarding and the acquisition of firearms became common place. Crackpots and lunatics of all stripes emerged from their lairs and circulated wild theories, some of which started to gain traction in the highly charged atmosphere of the closing days of 2015. By April 2016, however, humanity was returning to a sense of normalcy. The non-appearance of doomsday weapons or conquering hordes of extra-terrestrials took the edge of the terror experienced by most in the early days, and this soon gave way to acceptance and even derision. Late night show hosts and comedians began taking pot shots at the aliens, turning the sectoids into bumbling comic figures lost in space. Some people simply chose to ignore the UFO phenomenon. For many people, the presence of the aliens were limited to strange lights in the sky shown on national TV, and occasional stories circulating of abductions, visitations and little grey men. Faced with little more than stories on media, most people simply ignored them and went about their lives without a second thought.

X-Com's operations were also as clandestine as they could possibly be, even if the organization was the world's worst kept secret given its global mandate. As far as the world knew, Resolution 70 of the General Assembly only advocated the creation of an international task force dedicated to the research and investigation of the UFO phenomenon. The general public did not know that a consortium of 16 nations had agreed to the creation of such a task force, nor did they know that the task force was armed and funded by the US with the latest air interceptors at its disposal. Most people did not know that X-Com had a mixed brigade of about 6,000 UN soldiers along with its researchers and techs, nor that this brigade had been whittled down even further into a small elite strike force of about 50 soldiers. Even X-Com did not foresee that their security force would essentially become a counter-terrorist unit, but the aliens' hardiness and propensity to defend their crashed craft propelled the military arm of X-Com further and further into prominence. For the general public, the word X-Com conjured up an image of researchers and scientists in lab coats peering into telescopes and analysing UFO remains. They would have been right - but it was only part of the story.

Nigeria

On 7 April 2016 X-Com forces were called in to assist UN Major-General Peter Van Doorn in Nigeria. Doorn and his UN brigade were part of MINUSCA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission) and were en route to the Central African Republic to take up their posts when a UFO sighting forced them to make an unscheduled stop at Ilorin Airport in Nigeria. While waiting for clearance to continue their journey Doorn learned that the UFO had landed on the outskirts of the city of Ogbomosho, some 43 km to the south west of the airport. Nigerian army units went to the scene and surrounded the UFO. Soon afterwards confused reports on TV, radio and Internet gave conflicting accounts of a massive firefight in the area. Three hours later Nigerian government officials reached out to the UN for humanitarian assistance, citing that they were under attack by a sizeable force of aliens and had suffered casualties running in the thousands. Doorn and his brigade were ordered to the scene, and the UN peace keepers, combined with newly arrived members of the Nigerian army, raced to the town in commandeered vehicles to render whatever assistance they could. X-Com's presence was also formally requested by the Nigerian authorities. It was hoped that X-Com's experience in fighting the extra-terrestrials would prove invaluable in the developing crisis.

The crisis in Ogbomosho marked a turning point in the war against the aliens.

X-Com's Skyrangers were the fastest transport aircraft in the world, and they could cover the 13,000 km distance from Tanegashima to Ogbomosho in under 7 hours at a cruising speed of Mach 1.8 (approximately 1,900 km/h). The Skyranger was an amazing feat of engineering for its time. Kawasaki Heavy Industries had created a VTOL aircraft with a minimal radar profile capable of travelling at supersonic speeds. Engineers at Kawasaki had eliminated the sonic boom through the use of finely-tuned aerodynamics, fulfilling the promise of silent supersonic flight embodied in earlier prototypes like the SAI Quiet Supersonic Transport.

By April the Skyranger fleet had been expanded to three, and Colonel Bradford didn't hesitate in deploying all of them to Nigeria. Two Skyrangers would carry an eight soldier squad apiece, and a third would carry "Missy Mojo" Fitzgerald and the newest toy from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle (SHIV). The SHIV was a remote controlled heavy weapons platform making its operational debut. Japan still led the world in the field of robotics, and the SHIV was the logical consequence of the growing trend towards increased automation in the military. From bomb disposal robots to unmanned drones, humanity had been relying more and more on machines to fight their wars. The SHIV was the latest manifestation of this trend, and it was called "Thunder" by its Australian operator, Missy Mojo, in honour of the hard rock band AC/DC.

The two squads were led by "Okami" Takeda, with "Tora" Sato as his second-in-command. Okami's squad consisted of the Indians ("Noisy" Tendulkar, "Kurn" Jaiteley and "Jaedia" Dagur), the two Israelis ("Mesmer" Levin and "Kitty Boom" Biton) and Russian "Jeromai" Kurnakov. The final member of Okami's squad was Nigerian "Syp" Mayumba, who would act as translator and liaison. Tora's squad was composed of four Spanish speaking soldiers ("Rohan" Navarro, "Murf" Cervantes, "Chestnut" Jiminez and "Eldaeriel" Fonseca), one Australian ("Jewel" Phillips), one American ("Izlain" Favre) and Nigerian "Apple Cider" Agyapong, who would also function as translator and liaison for Tora's squad. The diminutive Tora still remained unpopular despite a successful UFO crash recovery mission earlier in the month, so Bradford took care to surround him with dependable soldiers. Izlain was fluent in Japanese, and he was fast becoming the liaison officer between the Japanese officers and the rest of the squad.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries' SHIV (Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle) made its debut in X-Com's first operation in Nigeria. It was remotely operated by a human controller and could theoretically be used from X-Com HQ in Tanegashima, but in practice was usually controlled by a soldier safely ensconced in the Skyranger.

The soldiers were roused, kitted out, and on board the Skyranger within an hour of the call from the UN. Several soldiers were concerned as to the nature of Nigeria's distress call. The sectoids they had encountered so far seemed incapable of inflicting the type of damage that had been wrought in Ogbomosho. The lack of concrete intelligence on the ground meant that they would be going in blind, and while they received assurances that they would receive more information as the events developed, it did not assuage the soldiers. They had no way of knowing that their fears were to be proven well-founded - the events in Nigeria would mark the beginning of a new phase in the war against the aliens.

Next: The Long War, Part IX - Ogbomosho

↧