Category: General

General

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Downloadable Content for Offline Games

No one worries about pirated copies of World of Warcraft. The client is useless without the server, so you need only worry about pirate/private servers (I think this idea would effectively lead to licensed private servers). While EA is putting its customers through DRM hell (and itself through PR hell as a result), having an online component clearly helps you make sure that you the developer and you the publisher are getting your cut.

It need not be perfect. A dedicated and competent burglar will get into your house, but if you can deter the stupid and the lazy, you will have solved 90% of the problem. I am going to propose a hybrid online/offline publishing model that seeks to deter copyright infringement by using online content to encourage players to use verified-legitimate copies (by whatever means you verify).

This is mostly enshrining what is already the case for most PC games: have an explicit plan to finish developing content after the game goes gold.

Continue reading Downloadable Content for Offline Games

Anything Worth Doing

is worth doing half-assed. It is a basic principle of efficiency and economy: do no more than necessary. What would be the point of doing more than is necessary? Unless there is some sort of bonus for doing more than clearing the bar, in which case you just have tiers of “necessary,” you are wasting effort. Do you know what another term is for “more than enough”? Too much.

Once you have reached “acceptable,” accept it.

You spend 90% of your time dealing with 10% of the problem (or 80/20 or 95/5 or whatever aphorism you like that conveniently adds to 100%). Learn to ignore that 10%. You can have one thing that is 100% effective or ten things that are 90% effective. Better yet, if the chances for failure are independent, you have a 99% of getting it to work in two tries. You can live with pushing the button twice every now and again. Look how many more buttons you have!

If 100% effectiveness is mission-critical, sure, you must spend all that time and make it work right. If occasionally pushing the button three times is okay, you can accomplish so much more and still have 99.9% acceptability.

: Zubon

CME Kids Holiday Donation Drive

Like a good (wannabe) blogger, I try and follow the major MMO news sites, and I usually watch Ten Ton Hammer pretty closely.  It seems, though, that I completely missed a donation drive they are doing.

Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, as of this post, according to this website, has not paid their employees in 28 days.  They are the developer of the upcoming MMO based on the Stargate IP.  Ten Ton Hammer got in touch with a few working parents at the company, and the staff are doing their best to help these parents put a few presents under the tree for their kids.  It’s only $5, and you can donate here.  On top of that, if Cheyenne Mountain can figure out a way to pay their employees before Christmas, all the donations will go to the Ronald McDonald House, an excellent children’s charity.

The drive ends December 15. Now back to our cynical, yet constructive, regular programming.

Mid-Session Game

EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a recent conference call that the upcoming BioWare MMO is a mid-session game, which are microtransaction based.  This caused quite a wave throughout the MMO news sphere, but EA came back to claim that their CEO is full of misunderstandings. 

I tried to do a Google search on “mid-session game,” and it truly seems to be a lexicographic frankenstein creation of EA used to tell their stockholders things.  Honestly, I find the term not catchy and kind of not descriptive of what they are trying to sell. From my understanding, a mid-session game is a microtransaction game that may also have a nominal buy-the-game fee or small subscription fee.

Mid-session evokes none of that.  I realize that EA might be trying to get away from the stigma attached to the filthy “microtransaction” word, but they can do better.  Mid-session seems to imply some sort of break in a gamer’s playing time.  “It’s mid-session.  Deposit 25 cents to continue playing.”  Even if Riccitiello is in the dark on his own company’s business models, I am excited with the possibility that another game might break away from the $15 flatline.  I honestly was not really interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but now I am.  The only thing I know about the game is Cloud-sword sized lightsabers, but I would pick it up on only that knowledge (and BioWare’s reputation) if it followed some rough equivalency of the Guild Wars business model.

Now “medium session game” makes sense, but that is just following the crowd.  Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft are both becoming “medium session games” where gamers can knock off a few solo quests or do a complete dungeon run in an hour or so.  Warhammer Online let’s players jump in and out (as long as there is ongoing PvP action) in an even shorter time.  So, the amount of play required is not really determinative of whether the game is a subscription-based game or not.  Therefore, EA, with all your money, and lawyers, and English major marketing execs… create a new term.

I hope that whatever alternative business model they do, though, it is right for our (read: my) Western MMO payment schedule culture, and they are not stupid or greedy in adding microtransactions to a game.

–Ravious
And best of all kids, I am liquid.

Never Is, But Always To Be

For those of us fond of allusions, “hope springs eternal” is always a winner. It sounds positive, but it is one of the darkest sentiments you will find. The full quote is:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest

In other words, (vain) hope is all you have; the blessing is never coming, always in the promised future. It gets better: this entire section of the Essay on Man is about how bleak the future is. The lamb frolics in the morning before going to the butcher in the afternoon, licking the hand that raises the knife. This is the kindness of a God who cares no more about the death of a hero or a sparrow, the bursting of a bubble or a world: at least you have fruitless hope and are too ignorant or stupid to see doom coming. This is, by the way, intended as an optimistic argument, because hey, you have that hope, and it will be worse if you ask for more.
Continue reading Never Is, But Always To Be

Ethic Gets Older

It’s birthday time again I see;
Another year’s gone by.
We’re older than we used to be;
The thought could make me cry.
For getting older is not such fun,
When there’s hurting in your back,
And it’s agony if you have to run,
And a pleasure to lie in the sack.
Yes getting older is quite a bore,
But to not get old is worse.
So “Happy Birthday!” let’s shout once more,
And to heck with our ride in the hearse!
– Karl Fuchs

Yes, a pathetic attempt to garner birthday wishes for myself. Sad isn’t it?

– Ethic

A PvP MMO Subscription

I really like Warhammer Online.  Sure, it has its problems, but Mythic seems truly dedicated to the game (unlike some other newer MMOs).  It has some level of PvE, but I have Lord of the Rings Online for PvE.  Public Quests, I hope, will shape the future of MMO PvE content, but Mythic has laid down the charge that its focus is RvR.  So, I really only use the game for MMO PvP.  And, that’s the problem.  I am subscribing to a PvP MMO. Continue reading A PvP MMO Subscription