: Zubon

2012 Predictions is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

I stand by my repeated claim that optimizing the new player experience is of paramount importance. You must grab my attention within five minutes, and you must deliver a satisfying hour or two for my first play session. Without that, any free trial is worthless, and you may even lose some people who have thrown down $50 for a box. This is the part of the game that every single player will see on every single character, and if you cannot do a good job here, I have no hope for the rest of the game. Yes, it is hard to make things interesting while giving the player only a few buttons to play with. Suck it up, we all have hard parts in our jobs. That’s why they pay us.

In retrospect, the original Asheron’s Call tutorial dungeon was truly horrible, only tolerable because these MMO things were just so new and exciting. The Lord of the Rings Online™ does a great job with its introductory instances, basic gameplay while introducing the setting and giving you some big name characters, and you don’t realize it is foreshadowing when an NPC saves the day while you watch. City of Heroes has a weak tutorial (including a “run in a straight line for 20+ seconds” segment), which City of Villains does better. World of Warcraft makes the less common choice of opening in its main game world, with no tutorial instance, but it manages to be dull for every race. Warhammer Online makes the same choice brilliantly by immediately tossing you into a warzone (best: Dwarf versus Greenskin newbie zones). The Champions Online tutorial just feels laboriously long. The Chronicles of Spellborn has a LotRO-style opening that ends well in a big fight with chthonic horror, but the gameplay along the way manages to be tedious even while very short. I remember starting A Tale in the Desert back before there was a tutorial, just drop you in the world and go; easily the most hardcore PvP game (with permadeath!) ever made. Wizard101′s tutorial explains things very well but is painfully slow and impossible to skip or hurry on a second character.

That hurdle overcome, the next question is where the most time is going to be spent in-game. Correct me if your game’s metrics suggest otherwise, but for most MMOs, it seems to be at the level cap. If nothing else, that is where your loud community is: the hardcore, the devoted, the guild community leaders who style themselves opinion-leaders or -makers (and may be). Any sane amount of content will occupy casual players, so giving people something to do at the “end” is how you keep and mollify the hardcore. How you do this well is widely disputed and the main topic of hundreds of blogs, so I will table (American sense) that issue.

World of Warcraft does this part famously well. Even if you do not like the WoW end-game, or the current end-game at any given moment, they have done a great job of recruiting and retaining players by putting an emphasis on late-game dungeons and raids. (Personally, I heard “the game begins at 80″ so many times that it was part of the reason I quit.) City of Heroes does this part famously sparsely, launching without the last ten levels and encouraging altoholism rather than building lots of level 50 content. Years into the title, there are exactly two raids and not a whole lot of level 50 task/strike forces (we try not to count the Shadow Shard content, out of politeness). Warhammer Online seemed to collapse (still does?) horribly at the level cap. Dark Age of Camelot had excellent realm-versus-realm combat but had horrible backlash when it added alternate advancement PvE content at the cap, creating a higher effective (and therefore required for PvP) cap. Back when I played, Asheron’s Call had a soft cap that amounted to an endless late-game. EVE Online has its PvP empire wars, to which Darkfall aspires. The Lord of the Rings Online™ has the ersatz version of the WoW end-game, taking the same approach but with very little content and alternate advancement grinds. It does, however, recycle its old end-games into new late-games better than WoW as the level cap rises.

Next up is the early game. If everyone is going to see that tutorial and new player experience, this is next, where you hope they all continue. It would be #2 on the list were it not for the amount of time your players can spend at the level cap between expansions. It remains very important, especially if it will consume most or all of the average player’s first month. A good start gave you a chance, but this is where you seal the deal and get the player to subscribe past the trial week or free month.

Age of Conan excels here, with near-universal acclaim for the Tortage experience. World of Warcraft varies between races/zones; playing on the Alliance side, I found I did not much like any early zones except for humans, although I recall a fondness for some early undead content. Dark Age of Camelot was good for its time but grindy and punitive in retrospect. City of Heroes/Villains does well except for a few painfully placed missions; maybe some of those are intentional, to make the travel powers that much sweeter. Warhammer Online is exquisite in tier 1, and if you have never played, you can go player tier 1 for free right now as much as you like. This is probably the worst time for EVE Online as players reach the “now what do I do” point. I have not tried the re-done LotRO low-level experience, but I always loved the Shire.

(Cynically, we also note that this is as far as most get in beta. There will be few to judge you on anything past this at release. This makes it a high priority while downgrading the importance of anything that will therefore have a smaller effect on your box sales.)

At this point, importance tapers off until you reach that end-game. Unless there is some modal point where most players end their second and third months, you focus on building the game out linearly. That early hook gives you some momentum through the mid-game. As long as the late-game is not so horrible that it is not worth getting through, players will get through those last few levels to see the glorious level-capped wonders they have heard to much about.

(Cynically, we note that promises to work on this area will carry you a long way. Wherever the population is centered at the end of the first month, just before subscription renewal time, announce you are going to fix that point and the range just beyond it. Repeat at month two. Warhammer Online did this brilliantly with developer letters just before renewal time in the early months. It helps if you can predict this point and really have improvements coming down the line, but developers are notoriously poor at predicting how quickly players consume content.)

You can see a great many games that have already embraced this approach. Part of it is just a natural consequence of sequential development. You worked really hard on the newbie zones in early beta, you worked on the glorious end-game wonders so you could show them off for the press, and then you fill in the middle as you get a chance, ideally trying to keep just ahead of the bulk of testers and/or players.

Some games really do fall down in the mid/late-game, hard enough to start seriously losing players. I love the 30s and 40s in City of Heroes/Villains, when all your powers and slots are finally coming together, but many people find it grindy without the quick progression from the early levels. Warhammer Online was appalling in the mid-tiers at launch, with poor PvE (“and such small portions!”) while the PvP balance problems were becoming apparent as all the powers and talents finally came together.

I’m stopping that thought so we can reflect. The mid to late levels are where you character finishes getting all of its abilities, with that “complete” point varying wildly across games and classes. If your game has horrible balance problems, they may be hidden under new shininess and quick growth, but they will become apparent in the mature levels. This is where the steam runs out for we the gameplay-Explorers. It is also where Achievers can jump ship as advancement slows down. This must disappoint the Killers: the sheep leave just as the wolves get the really fun ways to kill them all.

Zubon, it is sounding a lot like you’re saying that every part is important. And yes, I would love to say that, but experience suggests a few reasons why these later (but not end-game) levels are less important for retaining subscribers.

First, I am suggesting an extreme case of the game imploding. I do not know how many people ever experienced the Age of Conan end-game because the MMO blogosphere sounded like wailing from the fiery pits of Hell as people left Tortage. It is clearly possible to do far too little in that range, but many games get to “decent” at least.

Second, many of the extreme collapses are also end-game failures. They are balance problems or flaws in the fundamental systems that are to sustain players through the rest of the game, and there is no good news to reach after suffering through a near-empty, just-after-release late-game. These problems are not apparent in the early levels or not important enough to care about, while they first become visible in the mid or late levels. The Warhammer Online problems with city sieges compounded issues with the late-game open world RvR (plus a bit more), while the game had the same balance structure as most editions of D&D: just fine early on, when the numbers are small and luck can trump design oddities, but exploding into catastrophe as you multiply those oddities over many levels.

Third, “good enough” works. I would love to say that MMO players have discriminating tastes and high standards, but that is obviously false. We will put up with a lot of crap and flame anyone who suggests that quality and professionalism are below acceptable standards. One thing that Star Wars: The Old Republic has going for it is that at least some of their developers understand that the mass market will not put up with the crap we will, so selling to all those non-MMO addicts will involve improved accessibility and functionality (whether that idea has survived the EA merger is beyond me).

Kvetching aside, think of MMO players in two categories. For newbies, it is all new and exciting. Think back to your cherished memories of early struggles in your first MMO, and realize that you would never put up with EQ-at-launch today. Many of the problems in MMOs are not so bad once, just that we keep hitting the same bugs/grinds/AARGH for years. You will deal with it to see the new shiny when everything is new and shiny. New players are also more likely to play at a sane pace, perhaps try to experience everything on a first character (they don’t realize it is “first” not “my” character yet) before moving on to the next zone, thus giving more development time for that mid-game.

For veterans, we are obviously insane enough to put up with it, and we are already thinking long-run. Hardcore players are going to blast through come Hell or high water, and if the late-game content is weak, that is just more reason to push through to the promised land of Level Cap. You know common workarounds from previous games, you are tapped into the community to get tips on what is bugged and how to circumvent it, and you are already inured from years of suffering in previous MMOs. You have a community to help see you through, a guild of people to talk to, and you are not going to abandon your guild because (a) you like them or (b) you tell yourself you are playing to spend time with these people rather than get the next Ding! pellet.

So for all those reasons, I believe that if you sink the hooks in deeply, your players will probably view their first 40 or 80 hours as an investment rather than a sunk cost, and they will keep pushing on unless the game is truly painful with little promise of improvement. Or they are the much maligned, possibly mythical “tourists” who were never going to stay anyway, so again it does not matter.

Get the first day right: bait. Get the end-game right: long-term storage in the fish tank. Get the early game right: sink the hook. They may wriggle, but you will keep quite a few on the line with even a decent mid- to late-game. Or without the horrible fish metaphor: your early word of mouth gives the game life, and the long-run word of mouth sustains it.

: Zubon

Early, Middle, Late is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

On the other hand, a lot of it comes down to “the niche is even smaller than previously realized.”

On the gripping hand, it is potentially the No True Scotsman fallacy in motion. The PvP game must be “well-executed” (grant the potentially tendentious claim that Darkfall is), which is the most common excuse for why the last five PvP-centric games failed. Players who quit did not really want meaningful PvP, because they cannot take losing to people who are better than them. And hey, both may be completely true in this case, but that becomes an increasingly narrow edge on which to balance as “the niche” gets defined down to an increasingly small population. Many players on that edge will bleed into the Fundamental Attribution Error: if I did not like the game, it was poorly executed; if you did not like that game, it’s because you are a whining loser noskillz carebear. I imagine someone on the Darkfall forums has made a hobby of tracking players’ moving from the second claim to the first as they ragequit.

: Zubon

Meaningful PvP is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Syncaine’s stories about Darkfall over at Hardcore Casual are great because I can feel the risk inherent in his adventures.  He is sure to discuss his choice of equipment which comes a long for some adventure and what stays in his vault, the thought of losing the past two hours worth of farming due to a well-planned gank, and the risk versus reward in ganking that one other person in the dungeon.  Ultimately though losing in PvP just results in lost time.  Equipment can be re-made, money can be re-farmed, and horses can be re-bought.  Still the system seems to work.  A person with tons of time to play Darkfall becomes a tasty trophy for the casual peasants.  The greater skill points and equipment will make it a hard prey to take down, but Darkfall seems to be all about timing and planning.  A careful patient assassin may very well have his day in the sun.

EVE Online stories, I hear, are much the same.  Only replace armor and swords with ships.  A veteran with some super ship might be a pretty tasty target.  They can no longer play stupid.  The happy casuals in their easily replaceable ships.  They had fun with their toys, and died.  A little trading, a little mining, and they are back where they started.  The veterans don’t have toys.  They have flying trophies and badges.  The gigantic ships they operate are not for fun.  They are for purpose.  Just like Darkfall, though, a hardcore PvP will have a ton of options (ships) for different purposes… some yes, will be for throwaway fun.  The elite don’t have to wear a bullseye all the time.

Enter Aion Online, where Werit makes a great post(based off another good post) about the ante in Aion Online’s PvP – Abyss points.  Abyss points are gained through PvP and Abyss PvE and can be used like currency to buy rankings and equipment.   Abyss points can also be lost by dying to an enemy player or NPC in the Abyss.  The “problem” is that the more brass a player is showing, the more elite that PvP’er is, the more Abyss points she will lose when she is killed.  Now, go cry, carebear.  If you were a true PvP’er, you’d stiffen that upper lip and suck less. 

Anyway, people don’t seem to care for the system, but I think it is for the wrong reasons.  It is not that Abyss points can be lost upon death or that a player will lose more Abyss points the “better” they are; the reason is because Aion Online does not have the ante system that Darkfall and EVE Online both have built inherently in their risk/reward system.  In Aion Online, a player cannot choose to go out with less Abyss points on the table.  The players that PvP the most will always have the most to lose.  It would be like being forced to wear your best gear in Darkfall or fly your most expensive ship in EVE Online all the time.  I think the best PvP environments are filled with aggressive people with something to lose (either personally or for their team), and I am not sure that Aion Online’s system will have that.  Turtling and other careful tactics are boring for gameplay in any game.

–Ravious
matrydom of saint me

The PvP Protectionists is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

1.  If a bad review comes out, don’t post about it on your forums.  The added attention will just get people who are already on your forums to read a review that says your game sucks.  The more responses from the developers, the longer the controversy is dragged out.

Aventurine started 3 threads in 3 days in their “news” forum.

2. Make your forum big and flashy and often updated.  It’s the first thing potential new players see.

Aventurine’s web site is lack-luster and rarely updated.  Looking at darkfallonline.com, a user can’t immediately tell if the game has been released or if the game is in beta.

3. Let people buy your game.  If you need more servers, quickly put more up within the first couple days.

If you can find the link to the store, you’ll find it’s offline approximately 23 hours of the day.

4. Don’t create a system where people can lose all their stuff.  It’ll just cause them to quit when they can’t get their corpse or lose something special to them.

Aventurine’s design philosophy is designed around the exact opposite.

Darkfall Team ignores conventional wisdom is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

A long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I was a reviewer. People agreed or disagreed with my opinions, but far and by large everybody thought my reviews were fair and hitting the points that needed to be hit. I liked that, because that’s how I set out to do the reviews – as fair opinion that hits the highs and the lows equally. I did that gig for a little shy of two years, and got to review a few titles, so I’m sure I wasn’t catastrophic at it.

So if Adventurine (or whoever) is looking for a fair review, send me Darkfall. I have no intention of “playing” the game, so you can set me up with a timed account that expires whenever it reaches the number of hours you think it’s appropriate for a fair appreciation of the game. I might form my opinion earlier, or maybe the time expires and I have to make do with what I have (which I doubt). Also, since I have no veiled interest in this game one way or another, that’s probably the best place to be to approach a review. If it’s good, it’s good and if it’s bad it’s bad and no skin off my back in either case. Not planning on “playing it” regardless, since I’m about to start dealing with a house move soon.

All I offer is fair; if I think it’s good, good for you. If you think it’s bad, then eat it, basically. Drop me a line if interested. If not, best of lucks.

One solution to the fiasco is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Darkfall players Protest Eurogamer

Such passion for an MMO is uncommon.  Sure, people will insist the game they play is the best and call anyone who is biased towards a different game a “fanboy”, but for Darkfall fans it seems to go deeper.  An assault on Darkfall is an assault on the playerbase itself.
Maybe it’s because Darkfall is so unique?  No other MMO allows full player-killing and looting of their corpse anymore.  For fans of that kind of gameplay, Darkfall is their last hope.

Darkfall Strikes Back! is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

–Ravious
would you, could you, in the dark?

Journalistic Credentials is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Today’s dose of schadenfreude comes from reading Eurogamer’s review of Darkfall.  Eurogamer isn’t known for being the harshest reviewers in the biz.  Dofus and and Conan both earned 8 out of 10 by their estimation.  Even Pirates of the Burning Sea, which they describe as “broken” and “disjointed”, can get by with six-thumbs-up out of 10.  So how did Darkfall Online fair?  It got just 2 out of 10.

Here’s some quotes from the review that had me laughing:

“Enemies’ AI boils down to running in circles, which is actually surprisingly effective, considering how slow and floaty the controls tend to be.”

“Not even old-school EverQuest – which was actually graphically superior- felt quite as stiflingly slow and ponderous in its levelling curve.”

“It doesn’t even have the basic features that make up even the most lackluster and dull cookie-cutter MMOs”

“Underneath the lack of originality, there’s a hole where the game should be: a loose, incongruous mess of bad controls, horrible user interface, and broken combat system.”

“Even if you were so inclined to take part in this painful experience, it’s rather difficult to actually buy it.”

“It’s the emperor’s new clothes of 2009: such a marvellous game that only an idiot wouldn’t realise the beauty of the gaping holes in its content, its wonky control system, and its seemingly decade-old engine”

Darkfail: Critic Response is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Today, I want to show-case their player base.  This is a post on their forum:

Dirty[JOE]:

Darkfail: The Community is a post from: Kill Ten Rats