Category: General

[Eternal Lands] Yesterday, people were lining up to tell me that a feature I always wanted in a game already exists in various forms and is slated to be implemented fully this year. Later that day, WorldIV pointed me to a game that has another feature that I have always wanted.

Eternal Lands is a bagatelle of an online game that is in beta and feels like it. It has some interesting ideas, insane lore, and graphics akin to ATitD; I can review what I have seen if there is interest. What excited me is that it has a kill sheet.

Continue reading While I’m Asking for Game Features

Since I played a lot of Warcraft 3 tower defense last week, I got to wondering why MMOs are not like this. The bulk of MMO play is attacking hapless, inoffensive enemies. We are the aggressors. The only things we build are characters and weapons for destroying things. Where is building and defending?

I want PvE enemies who will bring the fight to me. I want to build my own castle, hire NPC archers, and defend the battlements. I want to band together with my friends in defense of our community, not just to go blow up someone else’s community. Give me a little bit of Civilization and SimCity in an MMO. At least that is what I want this week; players are fickle.

Continue reading We Are the Barbarians At the Gates

The topic of conversation in one of my other posts has meandered around to the art of crafting a game instead of the industry of manufacturing (“making”) a game. Julian over at bettergame reposted some pretty in-depth comments originally written a few years ago about the topic as well.

I have suggested (and ranted for years) that the game industry has focused too much on flash (particularly graphics) and neglected substance. Publishers have eschewed adventure games for years now, story is relatively non-existent in nearly every game on the market (a “setting” does not count as story or plot), and the few attempts at creating a rich and evocative game with depth and complexity have usually ended up being overly complicated and confusing.

Story (not setting) is incredibly important to crafting a great game. What do you have without it? Imagine a movie with the most impressive and high-tech graphics and visuals you have ever seen…add in sound and effects so real, you literally feel like you are right in the middle of the action. But what if the movie is simply about two people sitting at a table eating Doritos? Sure, the killer trailer got you to open up your wallet and go to see the movie, but so what? Without story, dialogue, plot, character development, conflict, content, and interaction, you leave the theater with an empty feeling that is easily forgotten.

Continue reading Git a job az a Gayme Diviloper!

I have been thinking about reactivating a few games in order to do a mini-review on any changes that may have occurred. The two games are Auto Assault and Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Oddly enough, both games have offered free reactivation for this weekend (actually Auto Assault is giving 10 days).

Continue reading Reactivation Weekend

Roughly sequential musings from a gathering of friends this weekend:

• It is nice to see people in meatspace. I have never met anyone from my City of Heroes SG, but I still talk to people from Morningthaw (Asheron’s Call).
• My stuff packs nicely if I don’t need to carry everything. Monitor, case, and everything else in a bag. Other people travel light by attaching a handle to the case, having a tiny case specifically for LAN parties, or having a high-end laptop.
• Dell XPS laptops: sexy. A contractor loaned one to a co-worker of mine to show off a web site. A web site. This thing is a high-end gaming machine being used to show off a web site. My computer: utilitarian. Not sexy. Continue reading Thoughts From a LAN Party

Today’s friendly thought for gamers comes from Robin Hanson at the incomparable Overcoming Bias blog:

I was a shy young nerd and thought I was an introvert, but eventually learned that I was reacting to the fact that other people didn’t like to be around me. Once I found people who liked to be around me, I loved to be around them too…

: Zubon

(Warning, late night rant)

I have so many pet peeves about the game industry I should probably start selling a few. Buy a “Peeve™” now for only $19.95. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m going to stick a “Peeve™” in the next RPG I work on and make it one of the most irritating mobs ever. Just watch me.

Anyway, the point of this evening’s rant is a bit of an extension of something I wrote about the importance of names (well, sorta). Ok maybe not so much names as definitions. Arguably the most critical aspect of communication is having a set of words or terms which are well defined and act as a frame of reference. Otherwise when I ask you to “watch out for the truck” you think I am saying “Throw a slimy fish at me”.

In our happy little game industry, evil and radical elements have been striving for years for our downfall. Of course this sort of thing is a constant element in politics, education, and the youthful culture of today. The weapons of choice of these dastardly agents of destruction include obfuscation, misdirection, redefinition, outright lying (the word “leading” in front of “developer” or “game” is used so much my eyes bleed when I see it), and of course “baffling with bullshit” and “dazzling with drama”. The one I want to address today is redefinition.

Continue reading What the hell is an MMORPG?

What does it mean to be an independent studio or “Indie”? Can a volunteer or indie studio make a MMORPG? How do you get a studio funded? Do you really need a publisher?

I get the feeling that many people think that “Indie game development” means a group of people volunteering their time to work for free to work on a game…I think that they are wrong and we need to redefine or at least clarify what it means to be an indie studio…

Continue reading Indie or not Indie?

Which leads to greater character diversity: more options or fewer? There are several moving parts there: the number of choices, the number of options for each choice, the importance of those choices, and the ability to change them. I should note that I will be considering the majority or the people who care; there will always be people in the tails of the bell curve who are trying to make the worst possible choices because of contrariness or a character concept.

The importance factor seems the easiest: the more important a choice is, the less likely there is to be diversity. If something really really matters, there will be one best way to do it or a few best combinations; even if you give me more options for that choice, anything less than the best means gimping the character. Contrarily, if the decision has no practical importance, the distribution will be random, and more options will lead to even greater diversity.

Continue reading More/Fewer Options = Greater Diversity?

Ethic posted recently about the troubled fall of Ars Caelestis in Eve online. I am not going to rehash the details or even summarize it here. You can just click the link and read about it yourself.

Why did this happen? Was it fair play or foul play? I think many people reading and commenting on Ethic’s post are missing something critical and important.

If something happens solely inside of a game, within the context and limitations of the game’s rules, mechanics, and community expectations for what is fair, then fine. But if something in-game is affected by actions out of game, then it is an entirely different situation.

Continue reading Space Drama: Fair or Foul?