Posted By Fozzik on December 12, 2011
There was a quote from Curt Schilling over on the 38 Watch boards. He mentioned a sentiment that is very common in the genre… players don’t know what they want. I agree in part…the MMORPG as a game is extremely complex and it’s really impossible to fully understand what it takes to build one without actually doing it. Players know when they like a game or don’t like it…but it’s often much too complex or too many variables to really articulate WHY. It’s like falling in love…when a game is right, we just know it.
In another way, I disagree with the idea that players don’t know what they want. There are plenty of people who take part in the MMORPG community at large who have played and been a part of enough of these games to at least recognize the elements, or design philosophy, that make up the games they enjoy. Players really shouldn’t have to specifically lay out each individual system in an MMORPG and how they fit together in order to give developers a sense of what they want… the details, the innovation and fresh thinking and creativity, is what we pay developers to do. They are the professionals. I can’t tell you exactly how a computer-assisted suspension works…but I CAN tell you that I want a car that really grips the road because it’s more fun to drive.
So, in that vein, I thought I would jot down some of the things that I want. This is by no means a complete list of every detail of my perfect game…it’s just a bit of brainstorming I did this morning to try and make a point…I DO know what I want. Maybe I don’t know exactly how a developer can get there…there are pretty much an infinite number of paths to the goals that I’m laying out…but this is what I’m looking for in a new MMORPG.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: 38 Studios, Content, Copernicus, Game Development, MMORPG's
Posted By Fozzik on November 28, 2011
I’ve tested the game, so I should come and admit I was wrong. Sort of.
I played for about 24 hours or so over the three-day weekend. I went from confirming the game was actually worse than what I expected (i.e. utter crap) in the first few hours, to deciding by the end of the weekend that I will probably buy it and play it for a month or two.
How did my experience manage to change my mind? It didn’t start well…
First thing…I was extremely surprised at the lack of polish and low production quality. This is one area where I was expecting to find absolutely nothing to complain about. BioWare is taking a single-player RPG (which by all accounts they do extremely well) and mashing it together with the WoW formula for modern MMORPGs (a formula which has been done dozens or even hundreds of times and clearly has had time to get the kinks worked out). With their massive budget, the long development time, and the above givens…I was expecting this game to be rock solid in terms of quality and finish.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: BioWare, Content, Game Development, MMORPG's, SW:TOR
Posted By Fozzik on September 5, 2011
Several years ago, during the development of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, I was a fairly dedicated member of Sigil Games’ burgeoning community. When they announced a writing contest, with the winner getting an early beta spot and getting their story added into the game, I jumped at the chance. It had to be 1500 words maximum, and a general fantasy story that didn’t use any specific lore or names from the game. I was quite honored and surprised when I ended up winning…my story was chosen by my peers, and then selected from a group of finalists by the developers. It was an awesome day. I very rarely win anything, and I couldn’t have been more excited.
I did get to join the beta test early – I was one of the first outside people let in during the friends and family portion of the beta. It actually turned out to be an early alpha when compared to other games, but that’s neither here nor there. What happened with Vanguard is a fairly well-known cautionary tale in the industry these days. Everyone has their own ideas and understanding about what happened, so I won’t go into that here. I honestly don’t know whether my story ever made it into the game…things fell apart and I never got to see. Part of winning the contest was the stipulation that rights to my story would be turned over to Sigil Games…but again, I don’t really know what became of that because the company fell apart.
At any rate, I was digging around in old backup files for a totally different reason, and found the story tucked away. I thought I’d share it here, in case anyone wants to read a little super-short fiction written by little old me. I was incredibly proud of what I wrote, and I don’t want it to disappear just because the game didn’t end up working out the way we all hoped it would. Read on…
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Posted By Fozzik on August 25, 2011
I figured I’d lay down some thoughts on everything we’ve learned about Guild Wars 2 PvP in the last couple weeks. My perspective is unique, or at least uncommon, since I’m very unlikely to ever take part in PvP in any form. I’ve just never been a PvP guy, for many reasons, but I can still appreciate good game design wherever it shows up. Also, as a full-on PvE enthusiast, I can very much appreciate the genius in some of the decisions ArenaNet made about their PvP.
For starters, the most simple change that ArenaNet made is also one of the most significant. They completely separated the PvP and PvE. This might not sound like it’s all that different, but a quick scan of the MMORPG landscape over the last 10 years will show that it’s actually much more common to get the PvE and PvP all mixed together, or at least stepping on each other’s toes.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Audience, Content, Game Development, Guild Wars 2
Posted By Fozzik on May 26, 2011
For anyone who didn’t spot the trend during Rift alpha / beta testing, it’s getting more and more obvious as time goes on. The “first impressions” reviews around the community are seeming ever more out of place as the months pass since Rift’s release.
MMORPG.com Article
Penny Arcade Article
Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats was pointing out the advertising on Penny Arcade…and how it was amusing that WoW ads would show up on a page with a positive Rift review. I think Blizzard is about as worried about Rift as an aircraft carrier is about dolphin turds.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Computer industry, Game Development, MMORPG's, Rift, Trion Worlds
Posted By Fozzik on May 12, 2011
After the most recent couple blog posts over at the Guild Wars 2 site regarding the city of Lion’s Arch, I’ve been thinking again about the stark contrasts between the design approaches in various games. When I’m ranting about the reasons I think Rift is a bad game, the concept of “world” vs. “game” is something I very often try to describe.
I think the description of the approach to designing cities in Guild Wars 2 (and the videos giving us a feel for the finished product), compared to the “cities” we experience in Rift, is a perfect illustration of the distinction.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Game Development, Guild Wars 2, MMORPG's, Rift
Posted By Fozzik on May 4, 2011
I’m feeling a little out of place. I got used to having the hardware forums on Silky Venom as a place I could always go and geek out about computer hardware. It was a comfortable little group of folks who all enjoyed hardware the same way I did, and understood the itch I get to build computers and keep up on the latest information.
With the gaming hardware industry (actually PC hardware in general) slowing to a crawl in terms of meaningful advances in performance, and with games being programmed to be more and more efficient and parallel…a computer you got 3-4 years ago probably still plays the newest games really well. There aren’t really any advances in resolution or monitor technology (other than the multi-monitor setups that pretty much nobody spends the money to deal with), so you’re running the games today at those same 1680×1050 or 1920×1200 resolutions and color depths that you were 6-7 years ago. BORING.
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Category: Hardware |
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Tags: Computer industry, Hardware
Posted By Fozzik on April 7, 2011
In the Rift thread on the GuildWars2Guru message board, the discussion has devolved for the umpteenth time, this time into one of the classic MMORPG arguments. What constitutes “fun” and “grind”?
I find these arguments especially annoying. Words like “fun” and “grind” are massively overused in this genre, in many different ways by different people, and wrapped up in so much nuance and personal perspective that they are almost meaningless outside of our own heads. They are subjective terms defined using subjective terms…and then argued as fact in an unending cyclical battle over whether any or all games in the genre are in fact fun, a grind, both, or neither.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Community, Computer industry, Content, Game Development
Posted By Fozzik on March 29, 2011
Reading some recent interviews from PAX East this year, I started to get a sinking feeling about GW2. I’ve learned a ton about the game in the last few months, and out of all the available information, there’s really only one thing that worries me.
Based on the idea of removing the grind…of allowing players consistent and quick advancement through the levels…and on the idea of providing dynamic events as the primary content in the game, I get the sense that the amount of content that’s going to be required is pretty massive. Providing players with the ability to play any content at any time through level scaling and side-kicking… providing all the activities and events to take part in within cities and the personal story…it’s mind-boggling the amount of things they are going to need to provide just to get the game off the ground. I’m worried that this, plus their mentality of offering something quick and easy for the all-important casual player, is going to lead to a game that is much too short for an MMORPG enthusiast who enjoys long-term play.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Community, Game Development, Guild Wars 2
Posted By Fozzik on March 24, 2011
There are any number of things I dislike about Rift that I can describe, but there were also many sort of derivative only-show-up-in-practice things that I disliked subconsciously and couldn’t really put into words. Saying things like “I don’t feel like this or that system works all that well in practice, despite how cool it seems on paper” really doesn’t provide the specifics for someone to analyze why I don’t like it. I’ve had a hard time in that regard, and I know a lot of people think I’m just irrationally hating on the game.
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Category: MMORPG's |
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Tags: Content, Rift
