Everquest Quotes

Three different answers . . . and in the Exegesis he went on wondering and seeking new answers until his final stroke killed him. I loved Phil Dick for his books, and I loved him as a man of genius when we met; through the Exegesis I have come to know him as a philosopher so honest that even Nietzsche would have to admit he did not hesitate to challenge all his own ideas. What pleasure I find in writing about this open-minded, ever-questioning, intensely alive person, after the hours devoted to creeping around dark dogmatic caves with troglodytes like Sagan, Gross and Levitt . . .

If you’ve ever played Destiny, Diablo, or EverQuest, or even games like Call of Duty, you know leveling systems are beyond addicting. You’ll play a game far after it’s stopped being fun simply because there’s the possibility of an increased level, a new achievement, or additional item. That’s why you’ll spend five hours killing rats just to get to the next level, as you’ll then unlock a new sword or spell that gives you a chance to gain . . . yup, another level. These leveling systems are designed specifically with human behavioral psychology in mind. As I told you earlier in the book, our brains love progress, and we love to be rewarded when we make progress. It’s the same psychology behind why we feel good when somebody likes the photos we post to Facebook: we take an action, and we are rewarded for it. What’s going on here? When these activities take place, our brains release dopamine, which makes us feel better and more accomplished. And then we chase that feeling. In fact, our brains can actually create new pathways with each repeated cue and reward. Once we understand this process, it becomes our responsibility to use it for good rather than for evil. Although I don’t play games like EverQuest very often anymore due to the time commitment they require and to my own admitted addiction to these types of games, I am still addicted to progress and leveling up. I just do it in real life now.

Artist and EverQuest veteran Roman Kenney was well-known for being the most creative exploit-finder in the company. When game designers blocked off unplayable zones with killer mobs, Roman figured out ways past them. For instance, he once performed an action that caused his character to dismount from a flying taxi, dropping him from the flightpath into an off-limits, high-level zone below. His hijinks didn’t stop there. After retrieving his corpse (he died from falling damage) in the forbidden area, he found partially implemented vendors who sold weapons that were better than what was available in the newbie zone loot tables. He clicked on the high-level weapons, linking the stats in world-chat, and asked if anyone wanted to buy them. People enthusiastically made offers thinking he had looted them off mobs. He purchased the weapons from the vendor and resold them for a huge profit. The game designers were amused at his ingenuity, even if it sullied the game’s economy, so they quickly removed dismount actions from our flying taxis to prevent further such excursions.