MMOG Musings

This little sparkly question mark, dubbed “shiny” by players, may not seem like much to an average person, but in the world of Norrath this little speck of light can create turmoil like none seen before it. For those of you who do not play Everquest II, this little sparkle on the ground is a harvestable item that can be examined to start a quest. A scavenger hunt of sorts, to find a group of items. The completion of this quest usually gives a pretty nice reward and a decent hunk of xp to boot.

Why would this cause so much commotion? Well, the items are tradable, and generally one of the items are more rare than the rest, making that one rare worth a ton on the market. Some of these items going for 14 plat, which if you don’t play, is a huge amount of money.

I have seen players ignore the fact that their group members are being attacked, run into mobs that will kill them and then kill their group, steal them from other players that are obviously killing the surrounding mobs to get to it, and then break out in curse fests just to have a shiny. I could almost bet that there have been gm’s involved in fights over these little balls of light.

More often than not, a player is going to harvest a more common collectible than a rare item, so is it worth it? Is it worth getting yourself killed, or possibly your group members? Is it worth cussing out another player and getting a mark on your account after being reported?

Is it possible that there is more to the draw of these little shiny’s than just getting huge chunks of plat if you find that rare item? Perhaps the glow of the sparkling light is so mesmerizing that it causes one to fall into a trance. Perhaps the player after making eye contact with the light becomes some sort of shiny zombie and cannot rest until they have it? I will admit that I am drawn to these myself, even in lower level zones where I know I have completed the quests, and the shiny is most likely not going to be worth anything. Still I cannot place my finger on what it is exactly that draws people to go insane over these little beacons of light.