Pumping Irony

I’m not even sure I’ll be able to formulate this into a cohesive thought with an actual point, but here goes anyway…

I keep the Battlefield 2142 demo installed just in case a friend decides to try the game out with me. My good friend Jostein did just that a few days ago. He’s an Insurgency addict, recently promoted to admin on the popular server he plays on, so coming to 2142 was a bit of a culture shock, just as going to Insurgency is for me. We each complain about the UI in each game, and being able to tell who’s friendly and who’s not in each game. One valid complaint he did have, however, is one I’d never really noticed since I play the real version of 2142: in the demo, there’s almost zero communication and coordination and any sense of “community” is nearly non-existent or at the least filled with the selfish, swearing, bunny-hopping kids we all know and “love.”

I’m not in a 2142 clan, and I can’t say I’m particularly “good” at the game, but while playing the full version I consistently get invited to squads, even when I’m already in one; sometimes I’m invited to clan-only squads. 90% or more of the time in my experiences, the squad leaders are giving orders, the squad is complying to advance the squad’s score for upgrades and the commanders are at least trying to do their job as well. Coordination and communication rule the day there. In the demo, by contrast, it seems to be rare for squads to even form, rarer still for the squad leader to bother doing his job.

FPS demos are (nearly?) always played on separate demo servers so demo players can never interact with “real” players, but allow players to continue playing endlessly. Well, until there are no more demo servers. In the MMO world, the trial period is limited-time but is not (overly) crippled other than the typical spam-prevention method of prohibiting trial players from sending tells or mail.

I can’t help but wonder if an MMO that had its “noob experience” separate from the “real world” like LOTRO does would go over well with an endless trial period; the catch being you can never leave the “noob world,” can never communicate or otherwise interact with players in the rest of that game world. And, if so, would that also create an extremely fractured community like we’re seeing over in 2142, both in terms of the trial vs. full players and of the mentality and attitudes of former trial-only players finally coming over into the full world?

I tried a Half-Life 2 mod today, Zombie Panic: Source which actually turned out to be entertaining, at least in short spurts (of blood).

The idea behind ZPS is the classic zombie outbreak scenario, nothing new there. Unlike many of the zombie mods out there, however, this one is multi-player. Here’s how it works:

When the match starts, you can choose to be human or zombie. If no one chooses zombie, the server will randomly select one player to be the first zombie: the carrier. Humans are armed with random melee weapons such as a club, shovel, even a Logitech keyboard! Humans also have flashlights to get a better view of things, since the game is quite dark. Pistols, rifles and shotguns are available if you can find them, though ammunition is sparse and must be found as well. Explosives also, though I haven’t seen them today. Zombies can only melee with their clawed hands, but they hit very hard. Zombies also have regenerating health which helps keep them “alive” longer. Where humans have their flashlights, the undead have “zombie vision” which is a sort of infrared vision. The more active a human is, the more body heat he gives off and the easier he is to track.

If you noticed above I referred to the first zombie as the “carrier” that’s because once a human is killed, he respawns as a zombie! Despite the humans having ranged weapons, some of which are quite deadly, every match I played today ended in a zombie victory. One dead human means one more zombie to join the ranks and overrun the dwindling human population!

ZPS is fun in its own right if you’re into the small skirmish PvP scene, and the automatic team change from human to zombie is an interesting change of pace.

Personally, I was hoping for a cooperative PvE experience; Dead Rising meets Resident Evil as a Source engine-powered FPS. I envision somewhat larger maps, with multiple goals to achieve in order to win. Zombies continually spawn and march toward the players, hungry for their virtual brains. If another player connects to the server to join the fray, the server will spawn more zombies to keep the difficulty level sustained. Conversely, when a player disconnects either some zombies will despawn or a longer period of time will pass before any further zombie spawns. Something like that… I’m making this up as I write, after all.