Category: MMO Design (Page 23 of 36)

Uru Live Returns!

May 20, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Not too long after the announcement that Shadowbane will survive in a new form comes word that another Ubi.com title, Uru Live, will be making a comeback, finally seeing the light of day as a GameTap downloadable product. (Another link). Continue reading

Lawsuit over in-game item sales

May 15, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Finally, it begins.

Marc Woebegone, known in the real word as Marc Bragg, has filed suit in the local district justice court in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a small town located 25 miles west of Philadelphia, PA. Bragg purchased virtual land, known in Second Life as “sims,” using real US currency. Bragg learned of a way to purchase virtual land significantly below market values, and invested thousands of US dollars purchasing land in an attempt to resell this land at a profit. Bragg claims that employees of Linden Research, Inc., the company who creates, manages and maintains this online world, allowed the auction to be created, and after Bragg paid US dollars for the land, terminated Bragg’s account, without explanation, without citing any violation of community policy, and have since refused offer a credit or a refund. Bragg’s calls to customer service and Linden Lab’s legal counsel have gone unanswered. Bragg’s final option? Seek relief in a real world court.

Build an Experience, not a Genre

May 9, 2006 / Damion Schubert

The Rampant Coyote posted a good article that talks about escaping the genre, and actually getting to the root of what your game should be about. Needless to say, we’ve been talking a lot about genres and licenses here in the office as we try to figure out what we’re doing next, and one thing that comes up a lot is actually ensuring that the game feels like it’s theme.

Earth and Beyond and Eve were both space shooters. E&B tried to be Everquest in space. Eve was more true to what the idea behind a space trading game should be. Guess which one is still around? Continue reading

Sony Takes McQuaid Back

May 8, 2006 / Damion Schubert

This weekend, in a surprise announcement made near the close of business Friday (therefore guarunteeing the community guys had a hellish weekend), it was announced that Sigil was divorcing itself from Microsoft, and working their way into a ‘copublishing’ agreement with Sony.

The Vanguard faithful are upset primarily about SOE’s involvement in the deal. This is unsurprising, given that Vanguard’s community has basically been built by promising a version of Everquest true to its original vision (read: before being sullied by the hands of the unwashed heathens that currently run it). This positioning by Sigil is, in fact, what was so surprising about the change in bedfellows. Continue reading

PVP’s Sting

May 5, 2006 / Damion Schubert

It’s fascinating to watch the people in the previous thread talk about how World of Warcraft’s PVP has no ’sting’ or consequence to it. This, to me, shows a profound failure to understand what it’s like to… well, not be very good. The penalty for a PK death in most games with ‘light’ penalties is more painful than most care to admit.

Time. Time spent running back to your corpse is time spent doing an extremely boring activity — excascerbated by seething.
Pride. “You may feel a slight sting. That’s pride fucking with you.” Losing is a shameful act. Losing repeatedly is even more so. This is lost on people who are used to winning.
Experience Disruption. Is it safe to go back to where you were adventuring? Heck, is it safe to get back to your corpse? Do we have to reassemble our raid group now that the priest was forced to quit?
Social Disruption. I’ve been part of two guilds that effectively came unravelled when they hit the 30s in WoW, where they felt they couldn’t complete a quest without being ganked 3 times. When those guildmates started to leave, my attention in the game started to unravel as well – PvP’s sting reached someone who wasn’t the one being ganked!

Re: The Death of PVP

May 4, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Rubenfield’s Law – Just because someone does something completely wrong doesn’t mean that it can never be done right.

Interesting tidbit for those who fear that PVP is dead: Here’s the World of Warcraft server count:

Normal: 60 servers
PVP: 77 servers
RP: 10 servers
RPPVP: 4 servers

Original comments thread is here.

That Instancing Can O’ Worms

May 3, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Perception is a funny thing.

I’ve been a loud voice claiming that instancing isn’t the silver bullet that some designers claim it is. And I’ve felt pretty lonely.

Dan Rubenfield’s claim is that instancing is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox, and that it currently isn’t being used very well. Reading from his post on the matter, he seems to think he’s in the minority on this, too.

I know, I know.. You’re thinking “But instancing ruin’s MMO’s. Just look at .(sic)”

Those games sucked because those games sucked. They fucked up multiple levels of development. It wasn’t the addition or segmentation of their world that made it less than inspiring, or less interesting than it should.

The ironic part is that I agree with where he’s going, if not the finer points. Still, one is left to wonder which games he was referring to. City of Heroes was an extraoridinarily tight little MMO. Instancing served it well most of the time, but was a tad overdone in my opinion. Guild Wars leveraged instancing heavily to provide many of the benefits he referred to in his post, but provided a world that didn’t feel like a world (which wasn’t enough to stop it from selling a million boxes or so).

And of course, despite the fact that WoW is touted as being an argument against instancing by some, most of WoW’s high level content is instanced. 30% of level 60 players raid per month, presumably in instances. I’ve stated before that I believe that instancing in WoW is used at about the appropriate degree. I still think that.

The real power of instancing is the controlled adventure. You can ensure that every variable in an adventure is in the control of the world designer. You don’t have to worry about another group running ahead and unlocking all the doors. You can have the terrain be altered by player actions. You can ensure fairness.

The real danger of instancing is silence¹. Instancing hurt CoH and GW the most when you were in an instance alone, and all of the cross-chatter on your chat channels slowed down. When you play a game that is purportedly a ‘massively multiplayer game’ and your chat channel is barren as a tomb, the sense of isolation is devastating and the irony is inescapable. Ensure that instancing is done intelligently, and that the game still feels like a social space, and instancing can deeply improve the world you provide.

Using instancing doesn’t require balls, just brains.

¹ I talk about this in greater length in my Vegas talk, for anyone who isn’t bored with that yet.

Original comments thread is here.

Tabula Rasa Brings teh Pretty

May 2, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Speaking of NCSoft, this here TR movie sure is pretty. I especially like how the game is bright and colorful – dark and grim are all too common ways to take sci-fi, and while it’s great for Battlestar Galactica, it doesn’t bode as well if you’re trying to adhere to the corner bar theory.

Of course, a movie doesn’t convey what the gameplay will be like. The game is described as a mix between RPG and shooter – the key will be on where, exactly, the fulcrum of that balance is. I wish I could get to E3 to put my hands on it.

Tabula Rasa Interview

May 2, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Last week’s Escapist has an interesting interview with Robert and Richard Garriott, which can be used to extrapolate the direction that NCSoft is pursuing. The revelation that’ll make the kiddies talk is that Richard likes to buy online gold (this is perhaps unsurprising, as Richard is the definitive example of a game player who has more money than time).

[Richard said], “I buy virtual gold all the time,” he says, adding, “I have no problem with it. I’m a supporter. I understand that my position on this is different from our sole corporate perspective. But anyway, I participate in it.”

Majestic Sued For Making Crappy Life Crappier

April 19, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Spotted on the blog of my favorite lawyer, someone wants to sue Electronic Arts over Majestic. Apparently, the game scared her into having multiple heart attacks.

Your company described your “game” Majestic which was said to be a “persuasive gaming harness” built around fictional characters in an “interactive suspense thriller” borrows from The X-Files, War Games, and Michael Douglas’ movie The Game as it entwines players in a dark conspiracy on the Web, then tracks them down in real life, outside the anonymous safety of a Web browser.” It certainly wasn’t contained to the safety of the Web Browser as you are still continuing to experience even now.