Month: April 2009

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Right premise, wrong conclusion

WoW’s (former?) head dev Jeff Kaplan gave a nice little chat at the GDC. You can find it easily elsewhere in the world wide net. But I’d like to call attention to the following snippets, on quest texts and the medium:

Kaplan explained the age-old internet phrase, relating it to WoW quests that are simply too wordy.

“World of Warcraft quest designers are limited to 511 characters,” he said. “That’s all that will fit into the data entry. And all you programmers know why it’s not 512.”

Some quest designers ask for more space, Kaplan said, saying, “Why are there only 511 characters? We gotta have more, let’s blow that out.”
But Kaplan would prefer to see WoW quests go in the other direction.

“I actually wish that the number was smaller. I think it’s great to limit people in how much pure text they can force on the player. Because honestly… if you ever want a case study, just watch kids play it, and they’re just mashing the button. They don’t want to read anything.”

And this other little choice gem:

Kaplan prepared the crowd for a rant at this point.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. We’re so fortunate and privileged to work in a medium that is not only an art, but a revolutionary interactive form of entertainment. It’s unfortunate to see so many games try to be what they’re not, including our game at times. Of course we should embrace the concept of story… art, literature, film, song, they’ve all embraced story as well. But they all tell it in their own unique way.

I feel like we need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game. We need to engage our audience by letting them be the hero or the villain or the victim. [Art, film, literature], they’re tools. But we need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are.

“If it makes us feel better, Shakespeare couldn’t 3D model his way out of a paper bag,” concluded Kaplan.

“Basically, and I’m speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it.”

Dear Mr. Jeff Kaplan (Jeff K.? lawls, etc.), if you’re reading this, my humble comment: It’s not about 511 characters or more, and it’s not that people don’t want to read your quest texts because they’re too long. People skip your texts because the quality of the texts stinks. A good writer can work wonders with 511 characters. What I would suggest to you, sir, is not to lower the limit, or raise it. The solution is pretty obvious: Hire better writers. There are tons of good writers out there that produce excellent stuff and are dying to get some work. When you outsource the writing to a programmer, marketing guy, cousin or whatever you’re only doing a disservice to the game.

EASK

I have come to realize that I am an enthusiastic Explorer but often a prickly Achiever. I am most fond of exploring gameplay, rather than being visually stimulated by whatever the new zone is. Most MMOs gate the Explorer content behind Achieving, which works fine at lower levels when things go quickly, and then becomes really annoying as you proceed.

Gating new powers behind levels: fine, good way to let people get used to a few before hitting them with everything. Games average two per level to one every other level, then slow down. Eventually, you might get one every four levels, and that one is an upgraded version of an existing power. Meanwhile, leveling goes from twice a night to every few days. Instead of trying a few toy every thirty minutes to an hour, I am trying a new toy every week or two. That is when a grind can become really annoying.

Continue reading EASK

What’s in a name?

I’m in a quandary.

I am to server transfers what Madonna is to adopting children from Malawi and I find myself in a situation where I’m thinking of going back to the server where a lot of my friends are returning to after having spent the last few weeks and months cajoling them into resubbing. Although we have decided to start from scratch again, I’m not really willing to leave my undead Warlock where he is after finally getting him to 80 and spending a little while making money and getting gear together. I don’t particularly like the server I’m on and I don’t click with the guild I’m currently in but as I’m only a social member, my departure will probably go unnoticed.

The problem I face is this: since I left the server I’m thinking of returning to, someone has taken my character’s name. Not just a someone but a smelly, pointy eared Night Elf Death Knight.

It’s my own fault. I didn’t leave a placeholder character with that name just in case I ever decided to return to that server but, then again, I didn’t think I ever would. I’m sure I’ll probably be able to live with a new name as well because, well, to paraphrase a famous level 80 Bard, “That which we call a warlock by any other name would still devour the souls of his enemeie – unless thou art a gnome in which case thine foes will laugh themselves unto death.” So while I may not be entirely pleased at the thought of having to change his name, I’m more concerned about coming up with a suitable alternative.

This troubles me more than being able to find a PUG competent enough to run Heroic Nexus without wiping.

Alts as Travel Management

The epic quest chain likes to have a central contact who sends you to all corners of Middle-earth. And back. And out and back again. You go from A to B to A to C to B to A to D to A to somewhat near A to A to B to A to… I am getting used to paying large amounts of silver for slow horse rides, now that I am leveling up non-Hunters, but some places do not have stables. Your map back to A has a one-hour cooldown.

I deal with this by having alts. Log on a character, play until you run out of convenient travel options, then move to the next. If my gaming session is long enough, and it often is, I can cycle back to earlier characters to do a few more steps in the quest chain. If I am feeling really ambitious, I can map them all home before work, so they will be there with minty fresh timers when I get home.

Completely destructive of immersion, flow, grouping, and social interaction? Sure, but when the game would otherwise insert a 12-minute travel break (actual time from Rivendell to Echad Dunann on a stable horse), it is not much worse to round that up to an hour and play another character, which might be more fun than waiting on a horse. You can clear dread similarly.

: Zubon

Turbine’s Recent Technical Record

  • Release Volume Two, Book Seven, a content-light patch that breaks, among other things, pet and enemy pathing in several zones, placing some targets in permanent anti-exploit mode.
  • Add a more reliable way to get Second Age legendary items. Between the test and live servers, change the reward table so that it is less reliable.
  • Let players complete a quest 20,000 times per server to unlock a new raid. Never put it on the public test server, open it with broken lockout timers, and shut it down within twelve hours.
  • Release the Spring Festival. Shut down the horse race within twelve hours.
  • Launch a “welcome back weekend” so that more players can see these. Start a log-in queue.
  • Their web sites and other games were unexpectedly down for an extra twenty hours or so, but eh, that happens during a datacenter move.
  • Realease an April Fool’s event. Shut it down within twelve hours.

There are many good things mixed in here, like a pretty zone and a very successful Spring Festival maze. But you do not say, “Most of the links in this chain are adequately strong.”

: Zubon

Update: and now log-in issues, which render the rest moot. Good communication on that issue, though.

Why your game turns me off

Because it might work with other people. But me? I’m old, weathered and sometimes cynical, and I can see right through your paltry deceptions. I’ve seen a lot, and that lot includes people just like you, trying to pull the same stunts you’re pulling. As a developer, of course it’s expected of you to piss off your playerbase. It’s implicit in the unspoken sort of “social contract” between you and your players. But… you’re not supposed to piss them off too much. When you do, you’ve gone to the other end and people are gonna start to, well… you know, not play your game.

You still do make games for people to play them, don’t you? Good. Since we’re on the same page, here’s a few sure fire ways of turning me off your game. Not that you have to cater to me by doing the opposite, of course. To the contrary, feel free to use this as a roadmap to deliberately make sure I won’t play your game. Or at least that I won’t play it with a smile. Up to you.

Continue reading Why your game turns me off

New Garriott MMO in Spaaaaaaace!

With my recent street cred soaring after two interviews with people in the industry, I decided to cold call Richard Garriott to discuss his ticket for another chance to become a space tourist, I mean astronaut, another MMO.  I had to listen for half an hour about his trip in to space, and it did not get interesting until he brought up his contraband story.  Garriott told me how strict the Russians were at space camp (“not like NASA, where Tang flows like wine”), and that he had to smuggle aboard one of his favorite books, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, in a most uncomfortable crevasse.  However, once in space what could they do?  Kick him out? So, one day while he was using the vacu-pooper and reading the book, he saw an old piece of the space station float by out of the spaceship’s window.  This space junk, he said was his revelation to a critical, unoccupied niche in MMO gaming.

I was thoroughly confused by this point as Garriott threw around astronaut lingo like I was one of his comrades, and I asked him how Neuromancer tied in because I was at least semi-familiar with the book.  He cited two of the plot-rearing heroes in the book Aerol and Maelcum.  They lived in peace away from the “system” down below while enjoying their space-rastafarian lifestyle.  He said he was taking much of his basis from EVE’s drug trade gameplay, but instead of a covert-ops-keep-hidden-from-security gameplay, it would be more like sharing the new stuff in your hippy commune.  Garriott booted up the current build.  He said all he had created so far was his avatar (“Da Genahrall”) and the inside of his “tug” (I think he meant spaceship).  Garriott was then silent over the phone for about ten minutes, which was fine because my two year old had just startled in the Witch in Left 4 Dead and we had to deal with that.

Finally breaking the silence, I asked Garriott about further gameplay (namely, if there would be any), and he said that with the first round of capital infusions he was working on creating an AI that could create “righteous dubs” and inedible-art bento boxes.  When that money was gone, he would send some of the bento boxes to the investors in order to gain another capital infusion.  Garriott said the MMO would eventually focus on living in space as a free spirit, scavenging through space debris, playing a complex game of red paper clip, and spending hours floating around listening to “da ‘Mute.”  (I asked him multiple times to repeat this, and I swear this is what he said.)  Eventually, with the successful MMO he would once again buy himself in to space, and leave the new MMO far behind.  The pizza guy finally came, and I quickly wished him well while hanging up the phone.  Time to put another notch on my belt.

–Ravious
dealin’ wi’ th’ darkness, mon

In Further Praise of PUGs

Another virtue of pick-up groups is that many are better than my guild groups. My kinship, while a fun bunch, is not a great late-game guild. We have horrific wipes on bosses that I beat with PUGs the day before, and it can be tiring when half the group needs an explanation for every significant fight. We have a great many level 60s these days, but I doubt we could field a team to raid The Watcher.

One advantage of joining many PUGs is that I learn different ways of approaching fights. I can learn from people who have done it before, and I get experiments with many group types. I am the bee, flitting from PUG to PUG, cross-pollinating before heading back for honey time.

I recall my first guild trip through the Sixteenth Hall. Two people had never been there. Two enjoyed it and ran it frequently. The last member and I ran it frequently with PUGs. The moment that stood out was just before the second boss. For those who have not done it, there are two identical rooms, each with a wheel to turn, each with a large group of elite enemies, each with a bunch of ground objects that spawn more enemies. The guild plan seems to have been sending someone on a suicide run to get each wheel, rezzing afterwards. I did not even ask before starting my standard PUG plan: AE root, the ones immune to root come, we fight them around the corner (away from rooted archers), finish off the rest, and avoid the ground objects when getting the wheel.

This is not to say that I have learned nothing from the guild. They are very good at Skumfil’s hard mode, granted again with a two-suicide plan to make the rest of it easier. But I wonder at times if I might be happier with a group that actually puts things on farm mode.

: Zubon