The outrage was predictable.
And I saw it coming a mile away.
There is a semantic misconception going on right now that needs to be corrected. It is an issue of language, of new words and old words, and how new vernacular displaces and replaces older more primitive language. This displacement creates the loss of language and this loss creates a condition where we no longer have the vocabulary to describe the thing that we see. This condition is called hypocognition.
On to my point.
The Division is not a PVP game. There is no structured outlet to enable players to opt in to combat on relatively fair and even footing in an area designed to prevent unequal opening positioning. The division doesn’t do that. It makes no attempts to do this. The Division is not a player vs. Player game. If you bought it expecting that you’ve been misled by your own expectations.
I don’t think this misleading was an intentional deception so much as related to language evolving. The word used to describe what the division is has fallen out of common use.
The Division is not a PVP game.
The Division is a PK game.
Player.
Killer.
The Division is designed around the concept of unequal combat. Your back is turned to me – I shoot you in it. You are busy farming – I am busy farming you. You’re fighting mobs – I’m fighting you. You’re alone – I brought friends. You think we’re fighting together as a team – but I’m just waiting for loot to drop for you, so I can take it from you.
This is it. Zero-sum, winner take all, I kill you and I loot you tactical combat. This isn’t a system designed for starting on equal footing, with relatively fair teams.
I knew what the Division was going to be after ten minutes in the Dark Zone in the beta.
It was a PK game. It was a game where my friends and I could hunt other players, loot their corpses, and keep their things.
To that I commend Ubisoft for making it. There hasn’t been a real PK game in years. Over a decade perhaps. The last I remember enjoying so fully was Ultima Online in its earliest days. And that environment was created accidently through the interesting and poorly thought out politics of its developers (they believed in market based solutions to everything including player behavior). It was anarchy. There were very few internally constructed governors or restrictions on anti-social player behavior. It was PK paradise. It was amazing.
The Division has even less restrictions on behavior and Player Killing – your murderer flag goes away after a few minutes. Ubisoft sold has sold The Division as an experience where the social compact breaks down and you fall into a Hobbesian rabbit hole of the war everyone against everyone else where man is wolf to man forever.
And this is a game that actually delivered on its promises. In it society has collapsed, order has collapsed, and it is in the process of reorganizing itself into something new, something different, that may not resemble its origins in the least. It is a world without culture. Yes, there are museums and Broadway posters and advertisements and architecture but they are nothing more than meaningless buildings and wasted paper. I see you standing there, in the middle of that great unraveling thing, your little avatar, trying to play nice and get along in a world that has already ended.
Or you can lash out. There is no meaningful content except other players.
There is no end-game – You are the end game.
I think it’s normal that some people’s feelings are hurt over this.
Ubisoft sold you the end of the world.
Your buyer’s remorse seems natural enough.
And I saw it coming a mile away.
There is a semantic misconception going on right now that needs to be corrected. It is an issue of language, of new words and old words, and how new vernacular displaces and replaces older more primitive language. This displacement creates the loss of language and this loss creates a condition where we no longer have the vocabulary to describe the thing that we see. This condition is called hypocognition.
On to my point.
The Division is not a PVP game. There is no structured outlet to enable players to opt in to combat on relatively fair and even footing in an area designed to prevent unequal opening positioning. The division doesn’t do that. It makes no attempts to do this. The Division is not a player vs. Player game. If you bought it expecting that you’ve been misled by your own expectations.
I don’t think this misleading was an intentional deception so much as related to language evolving. The word used to describe what the division is has fallen out of common use.
The Division is not a PVP game.
The Division is a PK game.
Player.
Killer.
The Division is designed around the concept of unequal combat. Your back is turned to me – I shoot you in it. You are busy farming – I am busy farming you. You’re fighting mobs – I’m fighting you. You’re alone – I brought friends. You think we’re fighting together as a team – but I’m just waiting for loot to drop for you, so I can take it from you.
This is it. Zero-sum, winner take all, I kill you and I loot you tactical combat. This isn’t a system designed for starting on equal footing, with relatively fair teams.
I knew what the Division was going to be after ten minutes in the Dark Zone in the beta.
It was a PK game. It was a game where my friends and I could hunt other players, loot their corpses, and keep their things.
To that I commend Ubisoft for making it. There hasn’t been a real PK game in years. Over a decade perhaps. The last I remember enjoying so fully was Ultima Online in its earliest days. And that environment was created accidently through the interesting and poorly thought out politics of its developers (they believed in market based solutions to everything including player behavior). It was anarchy. There were very few internally constructed governors or restrictions on anti-social player behavior. It was PK paradise. It was amazing.
The Division has even less restrictions on behavior and Player Killing – your murderer flag goes away after a few minutes. Ubisoft sold has sold The Division as an experience where the social compact breaks down and you fall into a Hobbesian rabbit hole of the war everyone against everyone else where man is wolf to man forever.
And this is a game that actually delivered on its promises. In it society has collapsed, order has collapsed, and it is in the process of reorganizing itself into something new, something different, that may not resemble its origins in the least. It is a world without culture. Yes, there are museums and Broadway posters and advertisements and architecture but they are nothing more than meaningless buildings and wasted paper. I see you standing there, in the middle of that great unraveling thing, your little avatar, trying to play nice and get along in a world that has already ended.
Or you can lash out. There is no meaningful content except other players.
There is no end-game – You are the end game.
I think it’s normal that some people’s feelings are hurt over this.
Ubisoft sold you the end of the world.
Your buyer’s remorse seems natural enough.
