Blogger.com, you seemed to not suck so much. But when I wanted things like my posts to show the publish date for the publish date, and not the date I started writing it, I gave up. Besides, wordpress is what I use most of the time.
So, I'm moving on. http://guilded.wordpress.com/
And for those of you lazy enough to read my RSS feed, http://guilded.wordpress.com/feed/
Monday, February 9, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Things I'll try to remember when I am making an MMORPG.
This is a list of things I want to see an existing or new MMORPG address. Some of these are totally pie-in-the-sky ideas and I know they aren't easy to do. That's ok, because having an idea and trying to do something creative is very valuable. More valuable than just rehashing the same old stuff.
No server shards. This might well be up there in fantasy land, but I don't want to have to re-roll, or pay to transfer a character in order to play with my friends. I don't want to have to coordinate friends playing on my server. My character data can't be more than a couple kilobytes in size, so there's no reason it can't really exist on every shard at one time.
No crafting. Don't even bother. Unless you are making Barbie Dress Maker, being a seamstress should not be how I spend time in the game. Sewing, farming, fishing, and making armor are all things boring people in town do. Don't make me do it.
Levels aren't mandatory. I know, I know, everyone is doing it. But don't limit yourself. Think about other games out there and how they handle character growth. Levels aren't inherently evil, but you don't have to just make me grind out eighty of them to let me grow my character. Honestly, I have other things to do.
Have a vision and don't lose it as you grow. Think about combat and how you want it to flow. Is it fast and brutal? Is it slow and methodical? Is it somewhere in between? If you can visualize how you want the game to feel and play, you can keep true to that vision. This, in turn, means the people who like that vision will want to play your game, and they'll keep playing as long as you don't suddenly get amnesia and forget what made people fall in love with your game.
Be better at theory-crafting than your players. Do I need to elaborate on that?
Don't hide your game from me. That is, let me in on the secrets so I can play the game as well as I want to. Don't make me have to reverse engineer your game to be good at it. I don't want to "discover" your game. I want to play it.
Don't make me run places. Seriously. I understand that you want your world to seem HUGE and EPIC. But holding down the "w" key or using auto-run is not fun times. You should also be sure that no one ever has to run back to a previous town for five minutes to just finish a quest. That's really frustrating.
Graphics should be good and consistent, but they don't need to be amazing. I know the flash makes good screen shots and makes people go "ooohh" and "aahhhh". But after three months, when people have turned everything down so they can deal with twenty five people on their screen casting crazy stuff, it won't matter so much. Better to spend that time adding depth and color to the world, instead of shadows and bump-mapped surfaces.
Do you want player opinions? Make your game client gather the data. I would rather answer questionnaires in the game every month than know that your number one source of player input is a bunch of jerks posting in all caps in the forums. I think I die a little bit inside every time I visit forums these days.
Gear isn't character growth. It can be important, but it should always be secondary to skill and character ability.
If your game is about grouping up with people, I want to see options and features. If your concept of a guild is a banner over a character's head and a chat channel, you're doing it wrong.
I think that's it for now. Sometimes a good list is a good venting.
No server shards. This might well be up there in fantasy land, but I don't want to have to re-roll, or pay to transfer a character in order to play with my friends. I don't want to have to coordinate friends playing on my server. My character data can't be more than a couple kilobytes in size, so there's no reason it can't really exist on every shard at one time.
No crafting. Don't even bother. Unless you are making Barbie Dress Maker, being a seamstress should not be how I spend time in the game. Sewing, farming, fishing, and making armor are all things boring people in town do. Don't make me do it.
Levels aren't mandatory. I know, I know, everyone is doing it. But don't limit yourself. Think about other games out there and how they handle character growth. Levels aren't inherently evil, but you don't have to just make me grind out eighty of them to let me grow my character. Honestly, I have other things to do.
Have a vision and don't lose it as you grow. Think about combat and how you want it to flow. Is it fast and brutal? Is it slow and methodical? Is it somewhere in between? If you can visualize how you want the game to feel and play, you can keep true to that vision. This, in turn, means the people who like that vision will want to play your game, and they'll keep playing as long as you don't suddenly get amnesia and forget what made people fall in love with your game.
Be better at theory-crafting than your players. Do I need to elaborate on that?
Don't hide your game from me. That is, let me in on the secrets so I can play the game as well as I want to. Don't make me have to reverse engineer your game to be good at it. I don't want to "discover" your game. I want to play it.
Don't make me run places. Seriously. I understand that you want your world to seem HUGE and EPIC. But holding down the "w" key or using auto-run is not fun times. You should also be sure that no one ever has to run back to a previous town for five minutes to just finish a quest. That's really frustrating.
Graphics should be good and consistent, but they don't need to be amazing. I know the flash makes good screen shots and makes people go "ooohh" and "aahhhh". But after three months, when people have turned everything down so they can deal with twenty five people on their screen casting crazy stuff, it won't matter so much. Better to spend that time adding depth and color to the world, instead of shadows and bump-mapped surfaces.
Do you want player opinions? Make your game client gather the data. I would rather answer questionnaires in the game every month than know that your number one source of player input is a bunch of jerks posting in all caps in the forums. I think I die a little bit inside every time I visit forums these days.
Gear isn't character growth. It can be important, but it should always be secondary to skill and character ability.
If your game is about grouping up with people, I want to see options and features. If your concept of a guild is a banner over a character's head and a chat channel, you're doing it wrong.
I think that's it for now. Sometimes a good list is a good venting.
Does it even matter?
Recently, many blogs I read have been making some comments about Warhammer Online subscription rates.
And, I have to ask why this matters. EVE Online, which I consider to be a great MMO with a vibrant and active community doesn't even have 250,000 subscribers according to MMOGCHART. Those charts also say Planetside never had more than 60,000 subscribers, and I sure had a lot of fun playing Planetside for a couple years. If you subscribe to the monkeysphere theory, anything over maybe 500 people is just not going to matter to you as an MMO player.
There are, really, only two ways the numbers can influence the game. One is psychological, and the other is an indirect quality of the game. People might abandon the game under the concept that the game is not reaching it's intended 500,000 subscribers. Or that the game isn't as succesful as World of Warcraft. The more realistic impact is that the game is that the drop in subscribers based on estimates means a cut in services and support from Mythic.
In the end, though, I don't think that the difference between 300,000 and 500,000 will matter when it comes to the game. If it's fun, play it. If it's not, don't.
And, I have to ask why this matters. EVE Online, which I consider to be a great MMO with a vibrant and active community doesn't even have 250,000 subscribers according to MMOGCHART. Those charts also say Planetside never had more than 60,000 subscribers, and I sure had a lot of fun playing Planetside for a couple years. If you subscribe to the monkeysphere theory, anything over maybe 500 people is just not going to matter to you as an MMO player.
There are, really, only two ways the numbers can influence the game. One is psychological, and the other is an indirect quality of the game. People might abandon the game under the concept that the game is not reaching it's intended 500,000 subscribers. Or that the game isn't as succesful as World of Warcraft. The more realistic impact is that the game is that the drop in subscribers based on estimates means a cut in services and support from Mythic.
In the end, though, I don't think that the difference between 300,000 and 500,000 will matter when it comes to the game. If it's fun, play it. If it's not, don't.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Stupid guild, be more funny!
A few weeks ago, when I rolled a new character on the Dark Crag server, I joined a guild. The guild seems active, but I never see anyone online. I just think my play times don't overlap with anyone else in the guild. Bummer. I will probably leave that guild and keep looking.
I tried to focus on questing again, when I realized how crappy it is to not know if a quest is too high level to complete. I also see how dumb it is that scenario quest givers are only at war camps. So, while you are questing, if you do scenarios, get used to running back to a war camp every time you complete a scenario quest. I shouldn't let it surprise me so much that the most basic concepts of game-play seem to escape the developer of the game. As if there was almost no play testing, or the play testing was conducted by developers themselves.
Those little things become a big problem. Bigger than something like keep defense. I understand how important keep defense is. I know it's important that the keep game in T4 be really solid and fun from either side of the castle wall. But, before people can get there, they need to not be faced with a small problem 10 or 12 times each time they play. If I have to run around more than I spend time having fun, it's going to break my will to ever see the T4 keep game.
I tried to focus on questing again, when I realized how crappy it is to not know if a quest is too high level to complete. I also see how dumb it is that scenario quest givers are only at war camps. So, while you are questing, if you do scenarios, get used to running back to a war camp every time you complete a scenario quest. I shouldn't let it surprise me so much that the most basic concepts of game-play seem to escape the developer of the game. As if there was almost no play testing, or the play testing was conducted by developers themselves.
Those little things become a big problem. Bigger than something like keep defense. I understand how important keep defense is. I know it's important that the keep game in T4 be really solid and fun from either side of the castle wall. But, before people can get there, they need to not be faced with a small problem 10 or 12 times each time they play. If I have to run around more than I spend time having fun, it's going to break my will to ever see the T4 keep game.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Runhammer Online
Run. Run is everywhere.
When you start a new character in Warhammer Online, you do quests and maybe some scenarios. The quests move you along in the world and you level up. The scenarios never disrupt your location in the world. But, then, at some point you will find yourself at a war-camp, and you will find the first flight point. If you decide to press on with questing, you will not enter the dry desert of limited travel. After your first war-camp area, it's going to be about ten levels or more worth of travel and questing to reach the next war-camp/flight point. During this questing desert, you're going to do a lot of running.
This is my breaking point. And my current goal in the game. I have never gotten a character past this drought. I can't seem to get through T2 without losing interest, starting an alt, or just giving up. Many times I feel scenario'd out, there's nothing really hopping in Open RvR, and I look at my quests and the 10 minute run and it just breaks my spirit. I can't hop on a bird to the place where I left off. Why not?
When you start a new character in Warhammer Online, you do quests and maybe some scenarios. The quests move you along in the world and you level up. The scenarios never disrupt your location in the world. But, then, at some point you will find yourself at a war-camp, and you will find the first flight point. If you decide to press on with questing, you will not enter the dry desert of limited travel. After your first war-camp area, it's going to be about ten levels or more worth of travel and questing to reach the next war-camp/flight point. During this questing desert, you're going to do a lot of running.
This is my breaking point. And my current goal in the game. I have never gotten a character past this drought. I can't seem to get through T2 without losing interest, starting an alt, or just giving up. Many times I feel scenario'd out, there's nothing really hopping in Open RvR, and I look at my quests and the 10 minute run and it just breaks my spirit. I can't hop on a bird to the place where I left off. Why not?
Friday, January 23, 2009
The 3.0.8 WoW Patch
I played more WAR than anything this week. Mostly because WoW had been patched and it made the game unplayable for the past few nights. On top of that, I had to figure out if my spec was going to be different and re-spend my talent points.
I'm enjoying the Chosen class I am playing in WAR recently. Being a tank has some real advantages. Especially if you can find a good healer and keep the baddies off them. Some real synergy there for sure.
I still have not found a good guild. The Dark Crag server has a real active community on it, and I have not yet had a night where something wasn't going on. But, the guilds I have tried out so far seem kinda meh. Maybe it's just because I am not max level yet.
I'm enjoying the Chosen class I am playing in WAR recently. Being a tank has some real advantages. Especially if you can find a good healer and keep the baddies off them. Some real synergy there for sure.
I still have not found a good guild. The Dark Crag server has a real active community on it, and I have not yet had a night where something wasn't going on. But, the guilds I have tried out so far seem kinda meh. Maybe it's just because I am not max level yet.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Why does this bother me so?
I was really hopeful that the new expansion for World of Warcraft would clear up the problems I had with equipment. But, like most things, those hopes have slowly faded as I see more and more of the end game.
One of the fundamental basics of game design is to help players not gimp themselves. If a melee player doesn't know his hit cap (which is very very hard to find out based on the game alone), he can easily get too much and gimp himself. The "fix" is to have lots of third party forums, articles, spreadsheets, and simulators to help people try to even understand their gear choices.
Though, if you think about it, the game also doesn't show you how well you do outside of living or dying. Mix in random effects that can kill players for "challenge" and you have a perfectly obscured system that has no measurable method of knowing how well you are doing or how to become better.
I challenge any raiding group in WoW to raid under these conditions.
One of the fundamental basics of game design is to help players not gimp themselves. If a melee player doesn't know his hit cap (which is very very hard to find out based on the game alone), he can easily get too much and gimp himself. The "fix" is to have lots of third party forums, articles, spreadsheets, and simulators to help people try to even understand their gear choices.
Though, if you think about it, the game also doesn't show you how well you do outside of living or dying. Mix in random effects that can kill players for "challenge" and you have a perfectly obscured system that has no measurable method of knowing how well you are doing or how to become better.
I challenge any raiding group in WoW to raid under these conditions.
- No mods. That means no threat meters, no decursive, no DPS meters, nothing.
- Each piece of gear that drops has to be worn by someone as you make progress through the content. Obviously, harder content means better gear.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Community
I need the good community. Not so much for WoW, but for WAR. Warhammer Online is all about the PvP and you need a good sized, active community to really enjoy it. So far, I have not found a great guild. They all seem to have ten or more inactive players and maybe three or four active players. Even if they are in an alliance, the alliance is a graveyard channel.
I suppose WAR doesn't need much community. Open groups and scenarios take care of finding a group. And that's half the effort. Granted, those people can suck and make life frustrating. It means every group is only as good as it's average player. Guilds can practice, establish better communications and build expectations on performance. Guilds can offer consistancy to the RvR in WAR. And that's what I want.
I suppose WAR doesn't need much community. Open groups and scenarios take care of finding a group. And that's half the effort. Granted, those people can suck and make life frustrating. It means every group is only as good as it's average player. Guilds can practice, establish better communications and build expectations on performance. Guilds can offer consistancy to the RvR in WAR. And that's what I want.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Dark Crag
I rolled up a new Warhammer class on the Dark Crag server. I had read that the server was popping and I knew of a guild on the server. So, why not give it a shot? The 500 person queue on my WoW server was a subtle hint.
I can't comment on the guild much yet, but the server it totally crammed with crazy action. I did "join all" for tier one scenarios and I got into all three scenarios and they had plenty of people in them on both sides. I even did quite a bit of tier one open RvR. That's pretty impressive for WAR.
I can't comment on the guild much yet, but the server it totally crammed with crazy action. I did "join all" for tier one scenarios and I got into all three scenarios and they had plenty of people in them on both sides. I even did quite a bit of tier one open RvR. That's pretty impressive for WAR.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
It's frustrating
I went on vacation over the holidays and now that I am back, it seems like WoW has queues out the butt. When I see 400 people waiting ahead of me, I usually crank up Warhammer.
Maybe I need a new server, but Warhammer seems to consists of me joining a warband, going into some open RvR, and then watching the warband hem and haw about how hard it is to take keeps and how we should just pack up and go somewhere else. Really inspiring and fun stuff there. And when I get tired of that, I go play Rock Band 2.
And my stupid XBox 360 died on me. Four days after the warranty expired.
I guess I could play EVE ... *shudder*
Maybe I need a new server, but Warhammer seems to consists of me joining a warband, going into some open RvR, and then watching the warband hem and haw about how hard it is to take keeps and how we should just pack up and go somewhere else. Really inspiring and fun stuff there. And when I get tired of that, I go play Rock Band 2.
And my stupid XBox 360 died on me. Four days after the warranty expired.
I guess I could play EVE ... *shudder*
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Warhammer?
Last night I popped into Warhammer Online for a little bit. It's still fun, and there seems to be more open RvR going on. That's good. I doubt I'll ever go back and level up like I do in WoW, though. Maybe if RvR becomes a seriously viable method to level, I will play more Warhammer.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Hardcore Minority
Tobold recently made a blog entry about the waning influence of the "hardcore" player in WoW. I find myself moving back and forth about his opinions on the game, but this point I agree with. And, the people who feel that WoW has changed, or gone soft, probably are the people who need to move on. Given the choice between millions of people leaving because the game is too hard or having less than a million people leave because it's too easy, I know where Blizzard will go. That's a lot of money to give up to remain the "hardcore" king of MMOs.
Even if you think that most of the more casual players only play WoW because of the percieved uber-leetness of the raiding, that bar has moved. Now more people will be in the raiding dungeons, killing bosses, instead of reading about hardcore raiding guilds doing it and hoping they could one day make the cut and be in there, also. That will surely keep people playing longer, and consuming more content.
While I'm not really happy about the achievement system, it does provide a way to give the serious raiders challenges beyond just clearing a raid instance. It's not the same as having been in a small group of people to even see the inside of Black Temple, for example, but even the most accomplished Diablo II player didn't see any content I didn't see. They just beat the game on a much more difficult level than I had the time or skill to do. Hooray for both of us.
I welcome our new, kindler, gentler World of Warcraft.
Even if you think that most of the more casual players only play WoW because of the percieved uber-leetness of the raiding, that bar has moved. Now more people will be in the raiding dungeons, killing bosses, instead of reading about hardcore raiding guilds doing it and hoping they could one day make the cut and be in there, also. That will surely keep people playing longer, and consuming more content.
While I'm not really happy about the achievement system, it does provide a way to give the serious raiders challenges beyond just clearing a raid instance. It's not the same as having been in a small group of people to even see the inside of Black Temple, for example, but even the most accomplished Diablo II player didn't see any content I didn't see. They just beat the game on a much more difficult level than I had the time or skill to do. Hooray for both of us.
I welcome our new, kindler, gentler World of Warcraft.
Friday, December 12, 2008
More Wraths
I hit level seventy nine in Blizzard's latest World of Warcraft expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King.
Blizzard has done some really hard thinking about what it means to level in their game. Quests are easier, quicker, and seem to hand out more rewards. When you think about that in terms of a skinner box style of leveling, it's a departure from the norm. Typically, as you get higher in levels and are more invested, the rewards come more infrequently to the amount of work put in. I would say that Wrath does the opposite. Less work, more fun. That's a good sign.
The more Blizzard does to reinforce the idea that time poured into something does not denote worth, the better the game will get for the majority of players.
Blizzard has done some really hard thinking about what it means to level in their game. Quests are easier, quicker, and seem to hand out more rewards. When you think about that in terms of a skinner box style of leveling, it's a departure from the norm. Typically, as you get higher in levels and are more invested, the rewards come more infrequently to the amount of work put in. I would say that Wrath does the opposite. Less work, more fun. That's a good sign.
The more Blizzard does to reinforce the idea that time poured into something does not denote worth, the better the game will get for the majority of players.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Wilderness
I have been musing over the concept of travel in MMORPGs. I have two competing desires in any game I play. I want to be able to meet with friends and get anywhere I need at anytime, but I also want to have my character be able to live outside a town for a long time while being self sustainable and living off the land.
In my mind's eye, the fantasy setting almost demands that the adventuring character be able to walk out of a town and subsist for weeks on end without seeing a vendor or blacksmith. Creating your own arrows, making your own food, all take on a new importance when a town is not just a click away. Are you really a seasoned adventurer if you can just fly to town and sleep in a real bed and buy all your provisions? Imagine a world where striking out to rescue someone means stepping out into a world without a safety net. You can't just stop half-way there, fly to town, buy some more arrows, then fly back out. But, then, if you can fly, why wouldn't you just fly over the area and look for the missing individual.
But, like oil and water, these two ideas will probably never cross paths. Who wants to play a game where it takes days to cross an expanse? Especially when you want to play with your friend on the other side of the world today and not next Friday. Access is important to people, and limiting access is bad. Even when it destroys the sense of being in the wild and being a grizzled adventurer.
In my mind's eye, the fantasy setting almost demands that the adventuring character be able to walk out of a town and subsist for weeks on end without seeing a vendor or blacksmith. Creating your own arrows, making your own food, all take on a new importance when a town is not just a click away. Are you really a seasoned adventurer if you can just fly to town and sleep in a real bed and buy all your provisions? Imagine a world where striking out to rescue someone means stepping out into a world without a safety net. You can't just stop half-way there, fly to town, buy some more arrows, then fly back out. But, then, if you can fly, why wouldn't you just fly over the area and look for the missing individual.
But, like oil and water, these two ideas will probably never cross paths. Who wants to play a game where it takes days to cross an expanse? Especially when you want to play with your friend on the other side of the world today and not next Friday. Access is important to people, and limiting access is bad. Even when it destroys the sense of being in the wild and being a grizzled adventurer.
That's it for now
I have more ideas and concept for how to go to the "next level" in an MMORPG, but they are still unformed and ill-formed. Mostly having to do with proper game mechanics and building a combat system that works and scales. Is that too much to ask for?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Social Networks
I've gone over some mechanics, and I think I will go back to them in another post, but I felt the need to go over some ideas about how people interact in an ideal MMORPG. This is something that's very important to me and I think it's probably the most important concept in any MMO. People will overlook any mechanical, design, or art issues with a game if their friends are playing it and they are having fun playing with their friends. I know that I am not a fan of medieval games, but I played DAoC and World of Warcraft because of the people I played with.
WoW has the most hamfisted and poor approach to social networking of any game I have played. There are no alliances. You are either a member of a guild, or you are not. You are either playing with a group of people, or you are not. The meager options available cajole people into choosing between a guild with friends, or a guild designed to raid. A guild (and a player) can not serve to masters (or sets of friends). DAoC had alliances which helped quite a bit. People could join a guild of friends, and join an alliance with a larger goal that leveraged different guilds with different goals into a single unit. Warhammer Online is aiming for this by everything I have seen of it. But, even with alliances, does it really represent how people play the game? How they interact? Does a person really have to be limited to a single set of friends?
WoW has the most hamfisted and poor approach to social networking of any game I have played. There are no alliances. You are either a member of a guild, or you are not. You are either playing with a group of people, or you are not. The meager options available cajole people into choosing between a guild with friends, or a guild designed to raid. A guild (and a player) can not serve to masters (or sets of friends). DAoC had alliances which helped quite a bit. People could join a guild of friends, and join an alliance with a larger goal that leveraged different guilds with different goals into a single unit. Warhammer Online is aiming for this by everything I have seen of it. But, even with alliances, does it really represent how people play the game? How they interact? Does a person really have to be limited to a single set of friends?
One of the largest issues to repair with modern MMORPG's is to help quantify and advertise guilds to people. Unless someone can provide me with sound reasoning otherwise, I am pretty certain that most people playing WoW, for example, do not join a guild. And if they do, it's a leveling guild and they have no idea what a guild will help them with, or what the guild expects from them. So, why not take the concept of joining a guild and making it part of the game experience for everyone? EVE Online does a good job of this since you must belong to a "guild" and all new characters start in an NPC guild. Right off the bat, people are exposed to a guild channel and it's pro's and cons. This means people are developing an idea of what they want in a guild. Even if it helps teach them what they do not want, it's getting them prepared and to think about it. So, expose players to the idea of a guild right off the bat, and get them thinking about it as a part of the game ... which it is. If your game requires getting five or more people together to kill bosses, you owe it to your players to help get them in touch with a group of people who have the same mindset on how to play the game you have provided.
Another idea that I think would be a huge positive is in-game guild advertising. Give guilds chances to recruit in the game in a way that isn't just someone spamming a "looking for guild" channel. Players should be able to walk their character into a major city, stroll over to the guild recruiting office, and see lists of guilds that explain what their guild is about, who they are, and what kind of people they would love to have join their group. This would also provide a good place for people to see what guilds are doing in the game. Are they raiding? Are they leveling? Are they the biggest guild on the server? Or maybe a small guild of friends? This place should let people fill out guild applications and see if they are accepted or rejected for membership. Why force guilds to fabricate all of this outside of your game, with their own time and money? This provides something that helps builds communities and gets more people into the "guild game". Let's face it, /ginvite is not a good basis for guild building.
I'm not convinced this is the best solution, but I propose a system where a person can join multiple guilds. People are not members of only one social group. Many people join multiple groups of people in their weekly lives to have fun or accomplish goals. The same applies for people who are playing MMORPGs. An individual could be a member of a social guild with their friends who play rarely, and a member of a serious raiding guild, and a member of a PvP defense guild, etc, etc. The idea here is to get people to build communities beyond just their most important needs. No more leaving your friends because you want to raid seriously. Now you can operate in both circles and not be relegated to isolating yourself from your old guilds chat. This would also go a long way into absolving the nightmare of people changing their game goals. Guilds can be designed to suit a wider range of demands. Short term guilds for defeating content. Long term guilds for social interactions. It could be complicated for people to operate with three or four guild chats going, but is it better to have more options than shoehorn everyone into the confining single guild system? No one would have to join multiple guilds.
Overall, without matching the in-game tools to how people socialize in the game, nothing but strife will be the result.
Overall, without matching the in-game tools to how people socialize in the game, nothing but strife will be the result.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Gearing Up!
Gear
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain
Every MMO I have played involves getting armor, rings, trinkets, etc and using them. Even EVE Online, at some level, is about getting equipment with certain attributes and using them.
1) Where it comes from.
In World of Warcraft, most of the best gear comes from one of three places. PvP, raiding, and crafting. Other games have variations on this, but it's basically the same concept. But, I won't deny that my biggest gripes about how gear is handled are based on how WoW does it.
Random drops from boss encounters while raiding have got to go. Besides being frustrating, it means that getting a specific piece of equipment requires you to do some pretty crummy things. Do you really want to entice people to run into a dungeon or raid instance over and over just in the hopes of getting some good gear? That's not even a viable model for an adventuring hero to outfit themselves. Should it take nine or twenty four other people for a player to get a nice piece of armor? I don't think so. And then there is the player competition this creates. When there is only one and many people want it, they often will fight with their own guild mates for it. Guilds fabricate entire systems outside the game to manage this loot distribution system. That's asinine!
I like the idea of collecting badges or tokens from killed enemies to trade in for armor and equipment. That's an awesome idea. I don't mind people playing PvP to amass points so they can do the same. Again, great idea. But the random loot drop idea is just creating more effort and work for everyone.
2) How it looks (stats/aesthetics) when you first get it.
Armor often comes in a lot of flavors. Many of the standard fantasy tropes apply to MMO games. Priests wear cloth, rogues wear leather, warrior wear plate, and so on. And, in every game, different types of characters share similar armor types. In WoW, for example, shaman and hunters both wear mail armor, and paladins and warriors wear plate armor. And when the gear comes with magical properties on it, it creates arguments and confusion over which item is best used by different classes. And add into the mix that paladins can be healers, tanks, and dps, so you end up with all three kinds of plate. Some of which is useless to others. This means that itemization of gear is incredibly complicated for the developer and for the player. Again, we see there are lots of systems and web sites dedicated to helping people wade through the tons of equipment to find what is best for them. I say that's broken.
So, let's take the magical component of the armor, and toss it down into section three below and just talk about armor and equipment and what it should be. Armor should be armor, and nothing more. It should protect you from physical damage (armor value), an armor type (plate, cloth, etc.), and a visual appearance. It needs nothing else. This makes picking your armor very simple and lets you prioritize appearance higher without sacrificing some innate boost to your specific class capability.
Net result? Your armor is selected based on protection and appearance.
3) How it can be made better.
Now that I ripped all the juicy stuff that people long for in their gear, what ever will we do? Apply the benefits, stats, and buffs to the gear based on what class we are and what role we are. Just like my crafting post before this, the land should have some enchanters of varying levels of skill who can sell to adventurers enchantments. These are scrolls that let people apply benefits to their armor to suit their class and role demands. One side effect is that your armor is not upgraded by replacement, but by actually replacing only the enchantment. Your look and armor values can stay the same, but you can increase your power with access to new enchantments via the vendors. These could also be purchased and stored so you can hang on to ones you like.
You might say that we've just moved the problem around, but that doesn't have to be true. There's a chance that these enchantments could become insanely numerous and complicated. But if there is a mathematical system that underlies the entire class system to help quantify the net effect of every stats on characters theoretical performance, then a formula can exist to create similarly powered enchants and balance them properly. Keeping the number of enchants small is now a viable option and new armor designs don't force the creation of a new set of stats for the gear. There's no reason to create enchants for variation, only for power increases and class/role customization.
4) How does it get replaced?
Your armor is replaced if you find or purchase armor with more protection, or a better look that you like.
Your enchantments are replaced if you find or purcahse an enchatment that is better. Or, if you change your role and need enchants that cater differently to that role.
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain
Every MMO I have played involves getting armor, rings, trinkets, etc and using them. Even EVE Online, at some level, is about getting equipment with certain attributes and using them.
1) Where it comes from.
In World of Warcraft, most of the best gear comes from one of three places. PvP, raiding, and crafting. Other games have variations on this, but it's basically the same concept. But, I won't deny that my biggest gripes about how gear is handled are based on how WoW does it.
Random drops from boss encounters while raiding have got to go. Besides being frustrating, it means that getting a specific piece of equipment requires you to do some pretty crummy things. Do you really want to entice people to run into a dungeon or raid instance over and over just in the hopes of getting some good gear? That's not even a viable model for an adventuring hero to outfit themselves. Should it take nine or twenty four other people for a player to get a nice piece of armor? I don't think so. And then there is the player competition this creates. When there is only one and many people want it, they often will fight with their own guild mates for it. Guilds fabricate entire systems outside the game to manage this loot distribution system. That's asinine!
I like the idea of collecting badges or tokens from killed enemies to trade in for armor and equipment. That's an awesome idea. I don't mind people playing PvP to amass points so they can do the same. Again, great idea. But the random loot drop idea is just creating more effort and work for everyone.
2) How it looks (stats/aesthetics) when you first get it.
Armor often comes in a lot of flavors. Many of the standard fantasy tropes apply to MMO games. Priests wear cloth, rogues wear leather, warrior wear plate, and so on. And, in every game, different types of characters share similar armor types. In WoW, for example, shaman and hunters both wear mail armor, and paladins and warriors wear plate armor. And when the gear comes with magical properties on it, it creates arguments and confusion over which item is best used by different classes. And add into the mix that paladins can be healers, tanks, and dps, so you end up with all three kinds of plate. Some of which is useless to others. This means that itemization of gear is incredibly complicated for the developer and for the player. Again, we see there are lots of systems and web sites dedicated to helping people wade through the tons of equipment to find what is best for them. I say that's broken.
So, let's take the magical component of the armor, and toss it down into section three below and just talk about armor and equipment and what it should be. Armor should be armor, and nothing more. It should protect you from physical damage (armor value), an armor type (plate, cloth, etc.), and a visual appearance. It needs nothing else. This makes picking your armor very simple and lets you prioritize appearance higher without sacrificing some innate boost to your specific class capability.
Net result? Your armor is selected based on protection and appearance.
3) How it can be made better.
Now that I ripped all the juicy stuff that people long for in their gear, what ever will we do? Apply the benefits, stats, and buffs to the gear based on what class we are and what role we are. Just like my crafting post before this, the land should have some enchanters of varying levels of skill who can sell to adventurers enchantments. These are scrolls that let people apply benefits to their armor to suit their class and role demands. One side effect is that your armor is not upgraded by replacement, but by actually replacing only the enchantment. Your look and armor values can stay the same, but you can increase your power with access to new enchantments via the vendors. These could also be purchased and stored so you can hang on to ones you like.
You might say that we've just moved the problem around, but that doesn't have to be true. There's a chance that these enchantments could become insanely numerous and complicated. But if there is a mathematical system that underlies the entire class system to help quantify the net effect of every stats on characters theoretical performance, then a formula can exist to create similarly powered enchants and balance them properly. Keeping the number of enchants small is now a viable option and new armor designs don't force the creation of a new set of stats for the gear. There's no reason to create enchants for variation, only for power increases and class/role customization.
4) How does it get replaced?
Your armor is replaced if you find or purchase armor with more protection, or a better look that you like.
Your enchantments are replaced if you find or purcahse an enchatment that is better. Or, if you change your role and need enchants that cater differently to that role.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Crafting
Crafting ... seriously? You're going to start with crafting?
Yes. Yes I am.
I feel that crafting was probably the first step off the path for many MMO style games that led to a confusing, unfocused game. In DAoC, I felt that crafting was just something to keep people occupied while they were not grinding levels or playing RvR. Basically, something to keep people in the game when they were not playing the game! And to those of you who love crafting in MMO's, I'm going to recommend something you probably won't want to hear. I mean this in the nicest way possible. Go find a crafting game or make stuff in real life. If your idea of fun is sitting in one spot and doing something that other people feel is a chore, you can go play EVE Online. It's like the best crafting game I have ever played. EVER.
In my vision of an MMO game, the character I play is not a merchant. They are not a haberdasher, or a sword smith, or an alchemist, or a pet store owner. They are an adventurer, or a hero, or a villian. A real do-er in the world that needs things done. Aside from gathering skills, my game would have no crafting or tradeskills per-se. This lack of crafting solves one issue right away. You don't need to feel obligated to grind up a profession to make gear, or to make items you feel you need. No more need to find a blacksmith to make belt buckles to grind your leatherworking up. No one will tell you to grind up your tailoring to get some armor that is the best in the game. It's a liberating idea.
But, how am I going to get cool things? Like nice armor, potions, gizmos and whiz-bang inventions? Here is what I think can provide a realistic, customizable, system to get people these same things. Merchants. Imagine heading into town and going to the local armor smith and commissioning some armor. This merchant offers some discounts if you can provide some of the raw materials, but he can also take raw cash. You get to select from many different looks and options, but you can make the same armor that looks different. Potions and other items can be purchased from merchants, not unlike how you buy arrows in WoW today. It just makes sense that people would specialize like this. Hero's go out and "hero" and the people who are artisans stay in cities and make quality products for money and materials. You could even have tiers of crafters who offer ranges of quality items. The best armor crafter in the world could be pricey, but manufacturer the most ornate and powerful armor in the game. I don't know, maybe he lives in some out of the way place. It's a free world.
In the end, I like this idea because it solves a few problems. It removes the idea of balancing tradeskill items with items you might get from killing bosses. People would not feel obligated to grind a tradeskill up just to get some high end gear easily. People can collect resources to offset costs of new armor, and they can get armor that suits them that looks the way they want. It also creates a world where every priest you meet isn't a master artisan tailor. This design adds some depth to the world and makes NPCs seem less like vending machines and more like craftsmen.
Yes. Yes I am.
I feel that crafting was probably the first step off the path for many MMO style games that led to a confusing, unfocused game. In DAoC, I felt that crafting was just something to keep people occupied while they were not grinding levels or playing RvR. Basically, something to keep people in the game when they were not playing the game! And to those of you who love crafting in MMO's, I'm going to recommend something you probably won't want to hear. I mean this in the nicest way possible. Go find a crafting game or make stuff in real life. If your idea of fun is sitting in one spot and doing something that other people feel is a chore, you can go play EVE Online. It's like the best crafting game I have ever played. EVER.
In my vision of an MMO game, the character I play is not a merchant. They are not a haberdasher, or a sword smith, or an alchemist, or a pet store owner. They are an adventurer, or a hero, or a villian. A real do-er in the world that needs things done. Aside from gathering skills, my game would have no crafting or tradeskills per-se. This lack of crafting solves one issue right away. You don't need to feel obligated to grind up a profession to make gear, or to make items you feel you need. No more need to find a blacksmith to make belt buckles to grind your leatherworking up. No one will tell you to grind up your tailoring to get some armor that is the best in the game. It's a liberating idea.
But, how am I going to get cool things? Like nice armor, potions, gizmos and whiz-bang inventions? Here is what I think can provide a realistic, customizable, system to get people these same things. Merchants. Imagine heading into town and going to the local armor smith and commissioning some armor. This merchant offers some discounts if you can provide some of the raw materials, but he can also take raw cash. You get to select from many different looks and options, but you can make the same armor that looks different. Potions and other items can be purchased from merchants, not unlike how you buy arrows in WoW today. It just makes sense that people would specialize like this. Hero's go out and "hero" and the people who are artisans stay in cities and make quality products for money and materials. You could even have tiers of crafters who offer ranges of quality items. The best armor crafter in the world could be pricey, but manufacturer the most ornate and powerful armor in the game. I don't know, maybe he lives in some out of the way place. It's a free world.
In the end, I like this idea because it solves a few problems. It removes the idea of balancing tradeskill items with items you might get from killing bosses. People would not feel obligated to grind a tradeskill up just to get some high end gear easily. People can collect resources to offset costs of new armor, and they can get armor that suits them that looks the way they want. It also creates a world where every priest you meet isn't a master artisan tailor. This design adds some depth to the world and makes NPCs seem less like vending machines and more like craftsmen.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Crazy Ideas for an MMORPG
I have played a few MMORPGs and, as such, have some crazy ideas. I feel like I should write some of them down. Maybe someone will appreciate how crazy these ideas really are. I plan to post them on the blog in a series that will go into each one at a summary level.
A few of these ideas are really centered around the idea of a game being enjoyable to play, without being a huge smattering of little parts that all suck. Purity is something I have posted on in the past, and I like the idea of a game being direct and the players not being able to argue over the purpose of playing. Can you honestly imagine four people playing Monopoly, each with a different idea of what "winning" is? I can't.
Commence the crazy.
A few of these ideas are really centered around the idea of a game being enjoyable to play, without being a huge smattering of little parts that all suck. Purity is something I have posted on in the past, and I like the idea of a game being direct and the players not being able to argue over the purpose of playing. Can you honestly imagine four people playing Monopoly, each with a different idea of what "winning" is? I can't.
Commence the crazy.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanks
I complain a lot on this blog, but I am also seriously thankful. And since this is where I spout my gibberish about the MMO gaming world, I'll post my thanks about the same topic.
Thanks to those guys who cram in hours of work getting the games I play out the door. Thanks for fixing so many bugs. For those that try their best to keep me entertained, thank you. Thanks for the great artwork, voice acting, quest text, model design, web pages, forums, etc. There's a lot of people working hard around the clock to keep games like World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, EVE Online, and many more, up and running. Thanks. Server jockeys, managers, QA testers, community managers, thank you.
As a sysadmin, I know that these games I play are hard to make work flawlessly. And rarely do you guys get credit for the hours upon hours where there are no problems. Every time I log in and things just work, it's a testament to your efforts.
Thank you.
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