Daniel Dociu, concept art god, had a presentation at the recent GDC. Instead of doing bullet point powerpoint slides, he decided to blast a few retinas with some old and new concept art going by at warp speed for the Guild Wars series (including Guild Wars 2 concept art). ArenaNet worked hard to push out a high-quality version of the video so people would be able to stop watching the cam versions. Enjoy!
Author: Ravious
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.Leashed to Marleybone
This weekend saw a lot of Wizard 101 play. Obligatorily, the joy I get from opening a load of presents every time I log on is pretty compulsory. Anyway, I have been zapping away at the O’Leary rats (and cats?) mucking about on the rooftops of Marleybone. Right now, I’ve been getting through the Hyde Park zone. I made it to the last boss of the zone, but he kicked my butt pretty hard. The rest of the zone has kept me lightly on my toes. At level 30, however, I think I might be a tad overleveled. I am not sure.
Unlike the sidewalk safe Wizard City and Krokotopia, Marleybone’s safe areas are not as clearly marked. In Hyde Park the whole zone happens across the rooftops, and the corners of the roofs are pretty safe. However, when moving from rooftop to rooftop I had to be more careful watching mobs. As a veteran MMO player, I am not finding this exercise very hard or tiring. There are plenty of MMOs where I’ve had to visualize agro bubbles in order to quickly move past a throng of mobs. I didn’t find Hyde Park much different. Perhaps as I move in to the next Marleybone zones, they will continue to switch up mob pathing and available safe areas.
I plan on continuing on with the Marleybone story. Grizzleheim remains calling to me in the background. I’ve completed the first content chunk of Grizzleheim (Sv. Pass), and I think I have the Vigrid Roughland zone next. Any tips on a good time to make a waylay to Vigrid Roughland are appreciated.
–Ravious
lookin for the place called Lee Ho Fooks
rand(Kindness)
It’s the end of random week. It was a good one with a guest post on managing community expectations, thoughts on MMO biological conditioning, random raid poop and balls, and I even got to sneak in an article on food. I actually had trouble for the closing post. Should I do a puzzling haiku? How about writing in an errant random matter? I could’ve started an all out attack against other blogs to find my nemesis. It’s Friday after all. All blogger sins are forgiven on this day. I had considered a post on random acts of kindness yesterday afternoon, but Suzina’s latest post cemented the decision. It is nice, after all, to have some synergy on our blogomerate.
LOTRO 3.1 – Constructive Thoughts
I got my snark out of the way. Before I continue, let’s rewind a little bit to the Volume 3, Book 1 Prologue. The Oath of the Rangers starts off with a journey to Rivendell, where I eventually met with Lord Elrond to discuss a letter sent by Lady Galadriel regarding Aragorn’s need for the Rangers. I knew going into this epic quest line that it was going to be a lighter Book entailing traveling about all the old zones. To expand on the content, I was sure that I would be waylaid by tasks as I talked to each Ranger. My hopes were not very high for a meaningful story or new lore, at least, until I got to the new Skirmish set in the Rift.
In the Prologue, Turbine blew me away. They created a kind of montage where Elrond walked with me around his library discussing the whereabouts of the eight Rangers I was to rally. Every few steps Elrond would discuss the whereabouts, demeanor, or skills of the Ranger, and the Ranger would pop into view as if my character was visualising the man we were discussing. I could picture the essence of each zone as Elrond talked. Lothrandir would be just out of the cold wind watching the icy landscape below while northern lights gave color to the snow, and Calenglad would be looking out at the great lake Evendim on a starry night as far off chantings of the broken Angmarim floated from the ruins across the water. The team/person that thought up this scene should be congratulated for far surpassing what could have been a simple laundry list of Rangers to collect.
rand(Developer Droppings)
(I asked Dan Gray if he would want to touch on the subject of random developer updates. He was kind enough to oblige, and here is his great contribution to random week. –Ravious)
In the age of 140 character communication it’s becoming standard practice for developers to tease their audience with sporadic tidbits of information, be that through Twitter, forums, or other mediums. It’s guerrilla warfare tactics in the fight against stagnation, but just how effective are these seemingly random ‘micro-updates’? A sincere effort to maintain a more responsive and fluid relationship, or just the easiest solution to a tricky problem?
To me, any effective communication strategy revolves around the ability to manage expectations. Everything you say or do is weighed against past events, and evidence that you are reneging on a precedent or accepted belief will always upset someone. Recognizing how these expectations are built is crucial, because they have just as much impact on the reaction to a message as the message its self.
Any form of communication will earn you an overwhelmingly positive response in the beginning, simply because it is unexpected. Whether it’s the first developer blog, the first post on a fansite, or the first tweet, the community’s reaction will always be encouraging. It’s comforting to imagine that the strategy will continue producing that positive vibe month after month, but of course it’s never that easy. Keep anything up for too long and you build an expectation around it; the stimulating effect fades as it becomes routine, leaving only disappointment when it’s absent. Thus a guaranteed positive turns into a potential negative, and much of your hard work is undone.
So what is the value of these micro-updates? Their complete lack of schedule and random content makes them an ideal candidate to keep expectations shifting from day to day. Provided you can keep the content varied, interesting, and significant it will keep the audience on their toes, always looking forward – never becoming entirely numb to that buzz.
This form of communication is possibly also more suitable for the younger generations of gamers, famed for their short attention spans. Where a developer blog or Q&A transcript might arouse a bit more interest from your core audience, a brutally paired down message will impact a broader audience with much greater speed – provided there’s an existing positive expectation that ensures peoples immediate attention.
So be wary of letting your micro-updates become a drip feed of banalities, just because they tend not to carry much individual weight. With every update you build an expectation that directly influences the impact of that medium, and how effective it is at keeping your community content and forward looking.
This post was brought to you by Dan Gray, author of BiffTheUnderstudy.com
Volume 3 – Still Not A Hero
(The protagonist, Me, runs in to the cave and meets with Radanir, the Ranger.)
Me: I am so glad I found you. Aragorn, your leader, has need of you in Rohan. You must go there at once.
Radanir: Of course, Aragorn’s will be done. However, there’s some orcs in this here cave.  They are too close to the elf outpost. They must be vanquished.
Me: Okay, let’s kill them quickly so you can make haste to Aragorn’s side.
(Silence passes as Radanir appears unsure how to proceed.)
Radanir: How about this?  I stand here. You go kill the orcs. Don’t worry though, I’ll still stand here until you leave the cave. Then you go tell the elf outpost of our victory.
(Me sighs, accepts his fate, and begins to run in to the cave. Radanir yells at Me as he goes out of sight.)
Radanir: Don’t worry! I’ll tell the others that come in to help you out!
rand(Loot Pinata)
As soon as any MMO player hears the word random applied to the MMO genre, as it has been throughout random week, thoughts of the loot pinata spring to mind. Every time a little dirt weasel falls to the ground a right click tears that sucker open to reveal: a melted candle, a shiny red apple, a handful of copper coins, and a 1 in 1000 chance at a small brown pouch. Now anybody can gain a few levels and slaughter lower level mobs with impunity, but the loot pinata takes on a revered glow when there is one big pinata for 25 people at the end of a 3-hour raid.
Either way, opening up dead mobs like paper mache is an addictive part of vanilla MMO play. One lucky kill or resource node can provide a player with the feeling of elation. This “windfall” granted by the random number gods seemingly puts a spike in the efficiency of time versus reward. Suddenly the lucky player is beating the system (and other players). There is a heavier term MMO lexicographers use to analogize the loot systems found in the big MMOs. Instead of a colorful, lively pinata used at children’s parties across the world, these wordsmiths liken the system to a slot machine. Continue reading rand(Loot Pinata)
rand(Gamer Food)
I love food. For anybody that knows me, I think everything can be analogized to food. Thankfully Ethic keeps me in check here, for without him this would probably be Kill Ten Rats and Grill. Well this is random week, and here is my one random topic thinly veiled as a gamer topic. Gamer food is important for MMO players, especially. We have to maintain strength and energy through long weekend raids. One poorly chosen meal gobbled down during a bio break can lead to some unwanted gastrointestinal problems right in the middle of the boss fight. We need mental stamina from good meals so we can stay out of the poop, in all senses.
rand(Two Step)
Welcome to rand() week at Kill Ten Rats unknowingly sponsored by Leala Turkey of Spouse Aggro fame. For those sane enough not to have scratched much of the surface of spreadsheet programs or number intensive programming, rand() is a random number generator. And this week, I will be talking about randomness, choosing random topics, and generally throwing things to the whim of the all-conquering RNG. Sound boy, proceed to blast into the galaxy. Continue reading rand(Two Step)
Evil Behind the Curtain
The big gaming news this week is easily Activision’s firing of the Infinity Ward heads, and the storytelling lawsuit by the two fired against Activision. Infinity Ward heads the Call of Duty franchise, which is one of the three Activision franchises accounting for a gross proportion of the corporation’s income. World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero being the other two. The plaintiff documents paint a picture of pure corporate greed. It is not just the firings of the two people just prior to when they would be paid a believably significant royalty but also the immediate actions of Activision after the firings in creating a Call of Duty business unit.  Either Activision is going to very nearly slander the plaintiffs in the response or this will all get settled outside of the public eye. My popcorn bowl hopes for the former.
It brings, once again, an interesting dilemma: how important is it that a gamer’s fun is created by a good-willed corporation?