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End Game: Progression vs Buffet

So you’re an MMO developer and your players have hit max level. Now what?

We’ve seen a lot of MMORPGs out there, so you would think we’d have seen a lot of different ways to handle end-game by now. But end game across a large number of these games is dominated by instanced dungeons with bosses designed for large groups. The main difference between these games is just how many bosses they have and the order in which you’re allowed to fight them. This blog is about restrictions on how and when you’re allowed to experience end-game.

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Guild Wars 2: Let There Be Light

The week of in-depth articles has begun with the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto.  It’s so hard not to shake your head.  The game sounds too good.  It sounds like there are too many things I have thought about for “my MMO.”  Like partying without partying (Public Quests 2.0) or player synergy:

And like the original GW, in GW2 the creativity doesn’t end with your own character. When you play with others, you’ll find that your abilities can complement theirs, and that you can discover new skill combos and strategies between professions. So if you’re playing an Elementalist, try casting a fire wall, and then see what happens when your friends shoot projectiles through it.

The systems sound great, with the first specific article on the combat systems by Eric Flannum (whose coming was foretold with the great Sacrifice). It is not all donuts and jelly. There is one thing that bothers this ol’ MMO player. “Each time you play through the game, you can experience a different storyline.” So not only are they going toe-to-toe with the storytelling masters BioWare, but they too might be making a storytelling system where players can miss things. I truly hope that they make it closer to Guild Wars Nightfall where players could decide a few paths, but could always go back and pick up the actual benefits from the path not taken. I am going to be sad if they make the story system where it’s better to read ahead and figure out which rewards (i.e., path) I want ahead of time.

I don’t want to end on a bad note though because the whole article sounds great. Environmental weapons (throwing boulders back at Elementals), dynamic world, and the basic design philosophy of a game which is not about “preparing to have fun” sound like a bunch of ingredients I want in an MMO. It’s going to be an exciting next few months, and I hope they don’t slow down the pace until launch.

–Ravious
the unreal is more powerful than the real

Guild Wars RNG Birthday

For every 12 months of age, a character in Guild Wars receives a small token, a miniature.  There are sets for each birthday, up to the current 5 years, and the sets each contain commons (white), uncommons (purples), rares (golds), and really rares (green).  For the first time in 5 years, my main character finally received a birthday miniature that was not a mere common!  I reached in to the shiny 5th birthday box to pull out a miniature Oola! 

I had to share it with someone, so I poked my wife sitting next to me to look at the new shiny.  “The little creature?” she said.  I let that remark hang, while I started loading linguistic bullets in to my Sparklepony .45 regarding her hummingbird pet on that Fairy MMO.  “That’s cool,” she finally shrugged, and I put my metaphorical gun down.

Yet, I am still unsure as to whether I should sell the miniature Oola.  She will never be worth more now than ever again, and I am getting pretty loaded with miniatures likely not destined for the Hall of Monuments.  I am hoping that with the Guild Wars 2 news forthcoming we get the Hall of Monuments guidelines regarding how many miniatures we will have to load up to get whatever prize in Guild Wars 2.  I have a mule just loaded with the tiny toys.

–Ravious
tired of experimenting with silly puppets

Oz Trail of Trials, Part 4 – The Role of Trials

On my last review, on Everquest 2, there were some very valid comments from players of the game today. They made the point that the trial is not all there is to the game, and that I did not experience many aspects that make the game worthwhile. It’s safe to assume that were I to review any game that has been out for over 6 months that I would get people who whole-heartedly support the game and find issue with any negativity. They are not wrong, and yet, neither am I, the reviewer. We all look at games differently, and this is the beauty of a trial – it lets you see if that fit is “right”. However, that said, the trial must be the best show of the game’s mechanics possible. If not, your potential subscribers will have a bad experience and go elsewhere.

Let’s get meta.

Continue reading Oz Trail of Trials, Part 4 – The Role of Trials

Connecting Internal Networks

After wondering why we do not see more companies with multiple MMOs linking their games, I have come to wonder the same thing about Facebook. The leading developers (and many of the next tier) have about a dozen games each, usually clones of each others’ (“No really, our farm is different!). Despite using Facebook as a common platform, the games are almost entirely separate. They frequently even have separate cash shop currencies for their games.

There are exceptions. Cross-advertising is more common, by which I mean not just having “play our other games!” at the top, but placing decorative items in each game that reference the others. PlayFish (EA) has one currency across its games. Digital Chocolate sells you in-game character cards that apply to all their games, so your new hero does whatever is appropriate in all of their games at once; that seems like a great incentive to try more of their games and to spend money on them.

Why not have incentives to try all the games, really get someone entangled? The same company will have a farm and a restaurant and a city and a pet shop and… Why is there no option to send crops from my farm to my restaurant? Why can’t I have my restaurant and pet shop in my city? Why can’t the safari game send pets to the pet shop? If you could link all these games together, you would more or less have an MMO, one that is more crafting- than combat-focused.

Then we just need a way to link Farmville to World of Warcraft, and the world will end.

: Zubon

Microtransactions in Flash Games

A while back, Kongregate added “kreds” so that you could donate to developers and for other potential uses. You now see flash versions of the standard browser games where you can pay for bonuses, more turns, etc. There are some games with a free level with an option to buy the rest; when one had a badge added, that received just a bit of negative feedback.

The game of the week is Bloons Tower Defense 4, which has dived into microtransactions. It added a level grind, which you can pay to skip past. You can pay for a earning twice as much money in-game. You can pay for a variety of bonuses to your towers.

Feel free to discuss what you think of this as a development tactic. If you are one of the developers, please let us know how that is working out for you financially. I just wonder how it goes on a game where everything is done client side. If I want more in-game money, I can edit it in. It is not as though that can be violating the purity of the game or even particularly cheating when the developers will let me pay for the same privilege.

: Zubon

Trail of Trials, Part 3 – Norranthain Nostalgia

For part 3 of my trial adventure, I went to a place I never thought I would go back to – Everquest. I have a bit of a history with Everquest, and swore I’d never give them another dime. After playing EQ2, that oath has not changed, but I did somewhat enjoy my visit to the parallel world of my former stomping grounds.

Now, in fairness, EQ2 is a dated game. It was released in 2004, so comparing it apples to apples to a game like STO is unfair at best. That said however, as the game continues to live in today’s date; my comparison will have to take into consideration that the other games exist. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the review.

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Precision Pulling

I can excuse having the archer pull. The arrow is silent, and orcs yell all the time, so no one notices anything when Grok’thar bellows and goes rushing down the hallway. He’s just like that. The same for when you bean an ogre: he may have been knocked silly, but shuffling about and drooling is normal for him. I can even buy the sniper rifle pull, because I assume a silencer.

My Sonic Defender pulls by screaming. Literally. Her attacks are Scream, Howl, and Shout. The guy five feet away does not notice anything. Once I got Screech, I could stun someone in the middle of a group, scream him to “arrest,” and then start on his friends before they notice. Let’s suspend disbelief a little further: you can focus sound waves similar to the way lasers focus light, so maybe someone nearby would hear nothing from a well-focused sonic attack.

What about the guy with the fireballs? When my Ice Blaster chucks a head-sized block of jagged ice at your friend, do you not even notice its hitting the ground? What if I pull a torso-sized chunk of concrete from the ground and knock someone across the room? “Bob’s running off down that hallway again for no good reason. Grok’thar, did you leave this concrete here?” Does anyone see the pitched battle with grenades and flamethrowers on the other side of the room?

At least my Psychic Blasts make sense for that. Only how does he know where to run when someone punches him in the brain? Maybe only the target can see the psychic bolt coming. City of Heroes has properly recognized that psychic power manifests itself in glowing pinkness.

: Zubon

Guild Wars 5th Anniversary Pre-Party

Yesterday the celebration for the 5th Anniversary of Guild Wars began to start off the week-long celebration.  The festivities ramp up with prized Birthday Cupcakes dropping from mobs at the start, and today the Shing Jea Boardwalk opens up for all those waiting to stand in one of nine rings and drink booze.  Also, some lucky few will get their 5th Birthday gifts today.  I am pretty sure my main guy will be getting his Monday or Tuesday, and after four years of common gifts, he deserves a rare.

I want to call it a pre-party though not only because April 28th is the actual anniversary for Guild Wars but I believe there will be more to come.  The interesting thing is no one really knows for sure.  When the prelude to the 4th Anniversary hit we were given a massive list of content updates.  The current celebration site gives no hint of “and more to come next week!” or anything like that.  At the very least, I thought the War in Kryta might culminate to some point around the 5th Anniversary.  The Community Managers have been tight-lipped with regard to any possible event that might occur next week.

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The Blog Unsubscribing

There are two ways blogs die.  The most common is for the blogger to simply stop posting.  Sure, the activity seemed fun for the first five or so times, but then it felt like work.  There is another way.  A darker way.  It’s when the blogger has decided something important.  Something that changes things.  Suddenly the articles and stories the readers were used to become overshadowed by the other thing. 

In our little arena, if a blogger merely switches games people will unsubscribe but the blog is not dying.  One good example is when Syncaine at Hardcore Casual became a Darkfall crusader.  Post after post was filled with Darkfall ambushes, tactics, and alliances.  I did not unsub from the RSS feed because I love stories coming from sandbox-style MMOs and it is an excellent blog, but I am sure some people (read: WoW tourists, wink, wink) did.  He has since come back around to providing healthy, acidic commentary on other games, but will those that unsub’d come back?  That is the biggest determination I have to make when I unsubscribe from a blog.  Do I ever want to come back?

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