Meridell vs. Darigan: Who Will Win - and Why by scriptfox |  |
MERIDELL - It's the talk of all Neopia. The huge war is upon us, and we all
watch the growing tallies as each side racks up literally millions of points.
With Meridell taking an early--and overwhelming--lead, the proponents of Darigan
are already speculating about future wars after this one is lost.
There is a new twist to the current plot. We have a classic case of more than
one side fighting for the same thing. There is only one orb, and two countries
that want it. You can't divide the orb, so who gets it? One side maintains that
Meridell is the perfect place for it. The other side points out that Darigan
had it first. There are actually a few more questions that need to be asked
about that orb, however. First, who or what originally created it? Where did
Darigan get it? And second, assuming that it has the power to benefit by its
presence, does it also have the power to destroy by its absence? After all,
Neopia itself seems to have been living more or less happily unaware of its
existence for years. And yet, we are to believe that one single year without
the orb turned a totally peace-loving and innocent society into a maniacal collection
of mutants bent on complete and utter destruction. It makes you wonder if there
might not be another (evil) factor that was being held in check by the orb,
which has now been unleashed.
It has been pointed out that Meridell is soft and easy for the picking. If
not now, perhaps it will be at a future time, when peace has had its chance
to lull them into forgetfulness. This assumes that the war will be decided by
peace-loving turnip farmers on one side and fanatical monsters whose sole existence
is revenge on the other. Not so! There is a huge force looming over all of this
that must be taken into account.
Once again, a newly discovered part of Neopia is in danger of a horrible fate.
And, once again, its fate will be decided by the current inhabitants of Neopia.
Here is a huge mercenary army that does not forget the arts of war, but rather
cultivates them on a daily basis in the Battledome. Pets who strengthen, train,
and equip themselves to become the perfect fighting machine, and who need no
outside invasion as an excuse to do so. This massive force is able to conquer
any single nation or invading force that would seek to oppose it.
However, before we conclude that all Meridell must do to maintain its sovereignty
is to offer Neopoints to warriors (or chocolate chias, if rumours filtering
in from some of the Lupe corps are right), it must be pointed out that this
force is now, for the first time in Neopia's history, divided. Although the
vast majority do favour Meridell, approximately one fourth of them are fighting
for Darigan. This deciding factor, which would in the past have been the single
will of the Neopian militia, now hinges on the propaganda of either side as
they seek to influence recruits to join their cause. It's a chance that Dr.
Sloth could only dream of. Why seek to conquer Neopia when you can persuade
them to join you voluntarily?
So what does Darigan have to offer the potential Neopian recruit? The first,
and certainly the strongest, claim is the moral claim of prior ownership of
the orb. This alone is enough to decide many. It might be that the potential
Darigan recruit just likes mutants and the ugly, rotten things that go with
them. Or perhaps they are seeking a thrill. After all, it's boring to fight
on the same old side all the time, so why not try a bit of variety? Maybe they
feel that they're taking it out on the Neopets team by deliberately upsetting
their plot. There are many reasons, but they still apparently haven't been enough.
Millions of Battledome fights have been fought during the past several days.
The leaders are people with pets who have stats in the thousands, and who have
each fought thousands of battles in this war. Lest you think I am joking, look
at the high scores for yourself. I know of at least one person who fought a
thousand battles or more in one night and all I had to do to find that
out was to check the scores before I went to bed and again when I got up in
the morning. With this kind of devotion to the cause, it's obvious that a lot
of people have invested a lot of time and effort into this. They have put most
of their creative abilities on the line, risking it all upon getting their coveted...
what? Trophy? Neopoints? Prizes? Or just the satisfaction of being on the winning
side? Whatever it is, it would appear that the outcome of this war will reflect
the hopes and wishes of the vast number of people that are fighting it.
Wrong. If you think that is the case, you have forgotten one little fact about
this whole thing. While millions of people throw everything but the kitchen
sink into this, what they are really doing is playing a game. And in an interactive
game like this, it is not the participants who decide how it comes out. It is
the Game Master. The people running this game are the ones who decide who wins,
and how. The people playing it are simply the raw material that they use.
A clear indication of this is waves four and five. In both of these waves,
the team who is apparently losing (Darigan) is suddenly fielding much stronger
opponents than the winning team. Not only that, but these later opponents are
worth much more than the earlier waves. So, instead of spending the time to
fight a thousand battles with a petpet, you now get to fight a mere hundred
battles with a batch of zombies for the same end result: one thousand points.
The further waves will continue the trend of higher and higher stakes, with
the contestants being reduced to fewer and fewer people as the opponents get
tougher.
When the opponent for one side has a difficulty of 95, and the opponent for
the other side is sitting at 120, this means that all of the pets who can
defeat the first opponent but not the second have in effect just
had their decision made for them- they must fight for the side with the stronger
opponent. They can refuse, of course, but that means that they are forced out
of the game earlier than the other side's team.
Is this fair? My answer is: who said anything about fair in the first place?
Remember, this is a game in which the rules are being made up as it goes along.
The desired outcome for the Game Master (in this case, the Neopets team) is
to have an exciting game. Neopets wins as a site when its players invest time
(and hopefully money!) in their interest: Neopets. If a war is easily won, and
is seen as being over before it even starts, that leads to lack of interest.
If the outcome becomes "truly uncertain", then you get more and more people
rooting desperately for their side to win.
At this point you may be tempted to holler foul. After all, aren't we supposed
to have an equal fight, with each side having the same resources? The answer,
put bluntly, is no. The purpose here is to have an interesting game. After all,
would you continue to play a game of Monopoly when one player owns three sides
of the board? I thought not.
One big problem in this particular case is that the number of people who can
actually play the "deciding fights" is becoming smaller and smaller each day
as new and tougher waves are released. The next challenge will be how to keep
the interest of all those people who are no longer able to help directly decide
the outcome of this. Why should you care when nothing you do, one way or the
other, is going to change things?
One possible solution is to discuss what would happen to Meridell if they
lost. For instance, all of the graphics would need to be redone to be changed
into the horrible, loathsome monsters that Meridell would now be occupied by.
Very likely the games themselves would be totally redone (as in destroyed and
having new ones created). At this point, the reader might hesitate, thinking
that Neopets would not spend all of these months creating something before destroying
it. But lack of interest has already led to the destruction of one Neopian world,
and there is no reason why another one might not be sacrificed if that is what
it takes to keep people interested.
Perhaps "support roles" can be found, in which activities can help reward
fighters for one side or the other with better weapons, or better healing potions.
"For every one thousand points you score in the medic game, three free healing
potions will be available to the fighters for your chosen side."
Whatever is done, the day will come when this war is over. Darigan is shown
as wanting only to regain what they lost- the orb. And yet, their fanatically
blind desire to regain it and become what they were runs upon a huge problem.
It is like the quest of one swordsman in a popular movie. His father has been
destroyed by the villain, and now his sole goal is to avenge that atrocity.
Towards the end of the movie, he gets his chance. The villain is cowering at
the end of his sword point when he looks up and asks the hero "what do you want
of me?"
The hero pauses only a second before replying, "I want my father back." Oops
Too late. His father is gone, forever beyond the reach of hero or villain. Not
only is he gone now, but also he has been gone for years- lost years that can
never be replaced. The tone of sadness and futile anger in the hero's voice
shows that he now realises that fact. (It didn't save the villain, though, in
case you're wondering.)
What holds true for the movie hero and villain holds true for Meridell and
Darigan. Sure, the orb can be "switched", but the lost years can never be changed.
It might be possible for the twisted mutants of Darigan to once again become
the normal looking Neopians that they once were. But evil, once it has been
let loose, is not so easily undone. The scars and consequences of the actions
on both sides can never be erased, only mitigated over time.
The fact that this has been blithely overlooked shows one of two things: that
Darigan is being set up for a very telling emotional loss if they do win, or
that the Neopets team knows very well that as Game Master they have the power
to declare by fiat that everything is fine again. Sure, it might not be realistic,
but this is Neopets, not real life. If Neopets says that the Darigans don't
have to live with the consequences of their actions, then they don't.
Of course, in real life, we Neopets players do. Oh, and yes, in real life,
the Neopets Web site has to live with the consequences of what their actions
do to their players' numbers and activities on the site. Never, ever, forget
that as you try to decide who will win this war- because, in the end, whoever
wins the war, and how they do, will be decided solely on that fact. If not,
then it will come to back to haunt those who chose to ignore it. |
