Blizzard’s marketing department has to be scratching their heads at this one. Penny Arcade is notoriously picky about who gets to advertise on their site, for those that didn’t know. (Link to original article at Penny Arcade for posterity.)
–Ravious
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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.
.Congressional Hearing Tomorrow on Making it a Federal Felony to Swear in Barrens Chat
Details here. The proposed increased penalties for goldsellers would have a 20-year prison maximum, although that is per incident. The penalty for reading this post from your work computer would cap at 3 years in federal prison.
: Zubon
[Rift] Character Transfers and Old Marketing Plays
I don’t know whether Trion Worlds has been holding this ace-up-the-sleeve for the perfect time or whether the serendipitous moment just fell in to their lap, but the result has been very effective. Basically, Rift will give players free server transfers to characters to try and hook up with friends, get away from a busier server, or change to a different rule set. Fans are happy. Cynics are cynical. And, business goes on, much as usual.
Two heavyweight MMO bloggers, looked at it from differing perspectives regarding the marketing approach. Tobold noted that the inclusion of some weasel words could turn this amazing feature into what every other struggling MMO has done at the three-month mark: merge underpopulated servers. Wilhelm at TAGN takes the same premise, but broadens the focus a little to remark on server architectures and Blizzard’s premium service allowing subscribers to do the same thing for a price.
Continue reading [Rift] Character Transfers and Old Marketing Plays
Measuring Non-Playing
I mentioned the LotRO character log, and one of its unexpected uses is becoming aware of one when is really not interested in playing. Hmm, 20 days between quest completions. Based on past performance, I expect to be off MMOs until the fall.
: Zubon
When does Guild Wars 2 launch?
Steampunk Superheroics
Don’t we all support the City of Heroes microtransactions model? They sell “booster packs” of themed costume pieces. The only item of dispute is that they usually include a power that ranges from trivial to pretty cool, and people sometimes object to needing to pay for a pretty cool power.
The latest pack is Steampunk, and the trailer is great fun. At least, I am amused by steampunk antics. When goths discover brown!
: Zubon
[GW2] New World Profession – Engineer
Like I thought, Guild Wars 2 will bring with it a profession iconic of all the change that 250 years brings from the original Guild Wars. Meet the engineer, no not that one. More like this one. This profession might be one of the most complex yet taking the elementalist’s attunement mechanic to a whole new level. What is the engineer? Adaptability, preparation, and control.
Quote of the Day
The most succinct summation of my thoughts on the World of Warcraft player-gouging news:
Since people who actually form their own groups are likely to be the more social players anyway, Blizzard effectively will be going the opposite way from Valve and charging the people who most want and are able to build social networks for their friends.
–Spinks
To get up to speed in one corner Blizzard who wants to charge people to play with friends in different servers, and in the other corner Valve who wants to give more free-benefits to those that are more socially influential. N.B. players are also charged a subscription for accessing Blizzard’s servers; what extras that subscription is paying for any more, I am not sure.
–Ravious
Reflecting on Outcomes
We frequently pick what to do in-game based on the rewards available rather than on what would be most fun. Stumbling on Happiness suggests that this might not be a horrible idea in terms of remembered enjoyment.
The two things you remember most about an experience are the most extreme event and the last one. Take the biggest emotional peak or trough, take your last thoughts, and those will stick with you long after the details have faded. If the best part of a movie is the ending, you will likely remember it fondly, even if an inventory of the moments finds it lacking.
This suggests the game design wisdom of giving out candy at the end of every quest/dungeon. If the experience ends with your receiving a shiny, you will remember it more fondly. (This also argues against making looting take less time, because you want the player to dwell on that shiny moment at the end.) This is an evolutionarily powerful meme that designers do not even need to pursue intentionally; all things being equal, games that give out candy at the end of each unit will be more popular just because human brains place emotional weight on that.
This also suggests the game design folly of risking disappointment. When faced with a loot slot machine, human brains will tend to value the high of winning more than the expected value suggests, but you are still having quite a few people end the dungeon with disappointment. Maybe they will take the boss kill as “ending on a high note,” or they will be happy for the loot roll winner, but that loot roll at the end will not be a high note for most. This suggests the rise of tokenization as a strong meme, because everyone gets a unit of candy.
It should also suggest that the common model of wiping on bosses for days/weeks before passing them is a horrible design. Multiple tries in a night could still mean ending on a win (high note), but every night that ends in a wipe is a raid full of disappointed people, except for those who take solace in “we’re making good progress.” Perhaps this falls under the loot slot machine principle, whereby the occasional wins are valued more than the frequent losses.
: Zubon
[GW2] The LA Effect
ArenaNet released a double-whammy yesterday with an overview of the city of Lion’s Arch in Guild Wars 2 with a video and a developer post on the creation of the new Lion’s Arch. The city starting from Guild Wars has a rich history both in-game and out. Yet, ArenaNet is starting fresh with the a total re-envisioning of one of the most well known cities in Guild Wars. Will it become as powerful a hub of activity as its predecessor was in its own heyday?
Living in the Sci Fi Future, Part VI
Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars
The autonomous driving function has been tested on California freeways. I worked in traffic safety for years, and these cars are what I said were about the only way to reach the “0 fatality” vision/goal that so many of our sibling offices had. I keep citing Rainbows End as the clearest vision of our technological near-future, and Sebastian Thrun’s quote at the end is a feature of the book.
: Zubon
via MR