Kill Ten Rats

Xiao-Li Meng writes about the trade-off between efficiency and robustness (bottom of page 208, left side). A solution that works all the time is likely to be inefficient. You can greatly optimize it by making a few assumptions, but then it only works when those assumptions hold. His example is finding a parked car. If you have ever forgotten where you parked at a mall, you know the problem. The robust solution is always to park in the same spot (or very near it), and the way you guarantee that spot is available is to pick the worst one. No one is competing for the back of the lot or the furthest point in the parking structure. You could park at the spot closest to your destination, but that will vary with not only your destination but also lot crowding, who just left, etc.

In our games, we refer to mobs’ having an AI, but we mean that in a very broad sense of AI. They have a few basic behavioral commands and the equivalent of a few buttons to push. Really fancy fights involve unvarying, scripted dances. A few even inspire to pre-planned reactions to certain events, but let’s not tax the system too much.

This is far from an artificial general intelligence that could hold a conversation, but it usually works just fine. The goblin is not expected to do much: close and stab. There are some details about its aggro range and its use of the standard aggro system, but there is no depth, and it really does not matter for the 10 seconds the goblin will be alive. More complex encounters maintain their fidelity by limiting the variables: they fight in limited arenas with closed doors, reset conditions, and things like rage timers to sweep up problems.

Take a step or two outside the assumed parameters, however, and the simple AI has no idea how to vary its behavior. It sphexishly follows its programming even if that programming works against its ostensible goals. You can kite enemies right past your perfectly safe allies. They get caught on rocks or try to run laps on buildings instead of making an ankle-high hop. You can turn their powers against them, and they will not stop following a script that has become suicidal.

I occasionally wonder how Deep Blue or one of the other chess supercomputers would react to blatant cheating. Replace one of your pawns with a rook mid-game or take two moves in a row. A human player will smack you and tell you to stop being an idiot. Does the computer even have the parameters to deal with that? I would expect an error and refusal to continue.

: Zubon
H/T to Andrew Gelman for the Xiao-Li Meng link.

The trailer for Guild Wars 2 has all been but confirmed for release tomorrow (August 20) in Cologne at noon (6 AM EST).  In lieu of this momentous occasion, I wanted to share my five favorite CG MMO trailers.  Feel free to share your favorites and most disliked below.  In no particular order:

Tabula Rasa – Even though the game is no longer living, I really enjoyed the Tabula Rasa trailer.  It was well produced, and the tidbits of story was just enough to understand the background conflict.  The scenes showing the conquering of the world and the human refugees were great in giving a feeling of loss.  The point that Earth was gone was well made.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – The original World of Warcraft trailer was great, and Blizzard took it one step further with the Burning Crusade trailer.  It set up the main conflict for entering the Outlands, it presented the two new races, it had a bit of nostalgia, a bit of humor, and a big badass at the end.  I had long stopped playing World of Warcraft, but the trailer got me excited.  The following Frozen Throne trailer failed to do this for me.  It felt like the “one” scene was stretched thin.

Star Wars The Old Republic – This one was an easy choice.  Even parsing out the superb use of Star Wars lore, the set up and cinematography are top notch.  The combat choreography is well done with the focus where it should be in the huge lightsaber battle.  I do have one complaint.  Both major combatants should have died with the way that final blow was struck.  It gave the Sith a feeling of plot immunity, which further lead to a feeling of the bad guys are cooler.  I think that the good guys deserved a few more “cool” scenes.

Guild Wars Factions – The first Guild Wars trailer was about average, but when the second Guild Wars campaign was coming, ArenaNet outdid themselves with this trailer.  It had a very evocative Asian feel without falling into the horrible Asian tropes (see the Lineage 2 trailer for those), and I loved the use of beads to signify blood.  The Jade Wind was also great, but I wished it also showed the “freezing” of the Jade Sea.  It sucked that Guild Wars Nightfall did not have its own trailer after the outstanding Factions one.

Warhammer Online – This is likely my favorite MMO CG trailer, and possibly my favorite CG trailer.  It showcases a lot of the classes and their conflict with each other.  It gives the good guys some “cool” facetime, and the whole trailer keeps a steady pace.  There are also a lot of small details like the dwarf deciding he needs a drink during the battle or the demon’s necklace warping reality.  My one criticism is that the pacing is almost too steady.  It does not give the frenetic feeling of a battle.  It’s a minor nitpick, though, in a great trailer.

–Ravious
ze Zacred Siegfried Oas

Almost any MMO with an economy has an auction house these days (A Tale in the Desert excepted, for special reasons). Are we to the point yet when buy orders become standard? That seems like something the next set of games needs. A few of the current-generation games have learned the basic lesson that the economy functions more smoothly when you have parity between buying and selling. EVE Online is the best example; steal their economic tools. If that seems like too much for you, look at the City of Heroes consignment house, which is a simplified version of the same thing. Yes, City of Heroes, the game with no equipment as such and where crafting was added years into it, has a better economic system than your game.

: Zubon

It’s a serious question. What do you think? Seems the custom for the last few years has been to open beta this and that, but I’m old enough to remember it didn’t always use to be like this, and open betas were very, very rare.

The question is twofold; there’s the technical angle and the promotional angle. So, on the technical side, are open betas “better” than closed ones? Do you get better results? I know you naturally get more results, but are they better? Do open betas improve or polish the product better than closed ones?

Then publicity, of course. Yes it’s nice to get many people interested in the game before it starts selling, but do they achieve anything that good marketing  (or, hell, even a short demo) can’t do?

Maybe it’s just me and I’m nostalgic like that, but it seems to me in the times of closed betas it wasn’t that we were churning out clunkers (or, rather, we didn’t churn out any more clunkers than we’re churning out now), and people heard about games, got in contact with games and played these games just fine without the need for early access to anything, really.

P.S.: Am I the only human being left that doesn’t give a damn about early open betas, lifetime subs, microtransactions, pay for zone, F2P, refer a friend deals, exclusive items, pre-ordering, collector editions and other aberrations? I can’t be.