Like many games, D&D Online has crate syndrome. Wizards of the Coast encourages you to bring this to your pen and paper D&D game with the Barrel, Crate, and Sack Generator. Sack up, D&D.
: Zubon
Archive for April, 2007
The industry is stuck in its comfort zone, too. Commenters on yesterday’s post successfully covered most of my thoughts, so I will direct you there. Same thing: we need to experiment and sometimes stumble to learn. Heartless, amongst others, is hoping for that comfort zone to implode:
We really needed a big, AAA title to fail miserably trying to follow the old “release now, fix later” mentality.
Our own Nicodemus is predicting that we are on the upswing of a boom-bust cycle in MMOs, so maybe we will see that creative destruction in action soon.
: Zubon
It took me a minute to figure out why Google was giving us ads about vermin control. “Get Rid of Raccoons”? And then I remembered what site I write for. *smack*
: Zubon
“‘Mice control’?” I’m thinking, “you just move it with your hand. Maybe they’re selling wireless ones…”
You know what your problem is? You’re too good. You have found what you are good at and stuck with it. You are the best tank out there, and you have been tanking for your guild for three games now. Everyone relies on you for that. You leveled a (feral) druid alt, and you tried a mage, but the playstyle is uncomfortably different and you’re not good at it. Why be a lousy mage when you could be a great tank?
You are stuck in your comfort zone. You need to go out there and fail. Try a lot of things. A lot. You will be lousy at most of them and you will do dumb things. But a few of them will really work for you. Maybe you are not such a bad rogue once you stop trying to play the class like a tank. Maybe you could be the best healer ever because you know exactly what the tank needs. Maybe you find that one type of PvP is fun, or you miss racing games, or that small publisher made the best little niche game you have ever seen.
That’s the entire basis a major component of our economy: failure is easy to recover from, but success is rewarding and lasting. That is why your game has a light death penalty: try everything, even dumb things, and you can find something new and fun. And if not, if nothing is better or is even a viable alternative, you are still the best tank on your server. You are accepting that role consciously and knowingly, rather than just clinging to the familiar.
: Zubon
Crap, I don’t have do that, do I? I’ve been playing a mage or a healer since like 1999.
Some conversation about independent MMORPGs has started in my last post, mostly about getting exposure and getting the word out.
So here is my challenge, if you are working on or starting an independent MMORPG, drop me a line. Tell us about what you are working on and what your goals are. Get on the radar. No, I won’t ask you about the super secret stuff you should be keeping under NDA, but I will talk about you.
Be careful if you ask for my opinion though, I’m a mean old ogre and very critical!
So, what are you working on?
PS: I’m interested in non-game virtual worlds, as well as any MMO style projects going on in the academic and “serious games” sectors.
Anyone that keeps up with what I write, or has had a chance to read MMO Evolution, knows that I have mixed feelings about the online game industry. On one hand, I am very annoyed, irritated, angry, and my panties are in a bunch about a lot of the things going on in the industry. On the other hand, I still hold a glimmer of hope that there are passionate and creative people out there that are not satisfied with the status quo, and are striving to make a change.
Continue reading ‘Doom and Gloom…’
I shouldn’t be surprised with a smooth MMO launch, but I still am. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar launched yesterday and from all appearances it was quite trouble free. I have heard some tales of new account registrations being slow, but other than that it seemed to go without many problems at all. The availability of boxes on store shelves might not be as plentiful as one might hope, but I don’t know if that qualifies as a negative.
There was a queue when I logged into Landroval last night, being 14th in line. I was logged in within 3 minutes. I ran around a lot, trying to see how many people were playing. It looked pretty good to me. Plenty of people.
I have not really been playing MMOs much for the past three months. I went on a trip for a week and had lost the urge when I came back. I am reminded of Heavy Metal and You, in which our protagonist gives up smoking for a couple of months then finds himself unable to stand the taste of them. “How did I get started on this?”
One thing is that there is nothing new under the sun. I have already killed that rat twenty thousand times, although sometimes he was named “goblin prowler” or perhaps “rock monster.” Rats, wolves, and giants usually do about the same things, with different models and different number values. It is the problem of procedural content: you may never run out of missions in City of Villains, but eventually you realize that the newspaper only has four or five options, and half of them are pretty much the same. “Guys, do you want to beat up Archon Fontaine, steal the plans from the Council, or beat up Archon Morena?”