In today’s edition of why the internet is mighty, you can contribute: draw this man a giraffe.
: Zubon
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.On the Blogroll: Psychochild
We have a great many sites on our blogroll. Why not take a little time to talk about some of them? Besides, it’s Friday, and you’re either looking to avoid work or need something to read over the weekend. Let’s trawl through our friends’ archives and see what’s interesting.
This week: Psychochild’s Blog, written by Brian Green. He is best known for running Meridian 59, but he has done other things.
Problems with user content? Not new
One of the advantages of being old and decrepit, like I am, is that you remember old inconsequential stuff that may or may not matter (also that you forget important stuff that is necessary now but that’s not the point). There’s an anecdote from way back in the day that deals with the problem of user content. I don’t know if this anecdote is true, but from what little I’ve read around, some of the people involved do validate it.
Goes something like this…
Flash Variations on a Theme: Tower Defense
Consider as a case study three variations on the same type of game:
Each has that familiar gameplay that you know I love: building defenses that blow up armies of mindlessly marching monsters. Each has taken it in a rather different direction. (Each is far longer than the last batch of flash games.)
SWTOR – Guessing at release dates
I love guessing games, and that’s what keeps me thinking about SWTOR (Prounced Sweator according to Yivvits and Mr Bubble). This time I’m guessing at the targeted release date. Developers like to say a game will come out “when it’s done”. After all, that’s what Blizzard says and look how well it worked for them! But I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t have a particular quarter or holiday season targeted at this point. So when is it? Their site updates hold the clues.
You know Bioware has it all planned out. Their online comic book, their revealing of classes, their revealing of planets, and their updates are all ticking down to release time.
Nal Hutta was announced the 2nd Friday in February. Bounty Hunter was announced the 3rd Friday in March. Ord Mantel was announced second Friday in April. Then Trooper was announced the second Friday in May. It alternates between a planet and a class each month.
This is why Smuggler hasn’t been announced officially even though it’s been unofficially announced as a class. We just had trooper announced last month, and they prefer to alternate between planets and class announcements. If anything, with such a fantastic E3 trailer, they could stand to skip this months’ announcement and let people continue to talk about it’s awesomeness till July.
So lets assume they continue to alternate between the remaining 6 classes in their announcement schedule… That gives them 12 months to reveal 6 classes and brings us to E3 2010. At this point, with all classes and planets revealed, it’s time for a playable demo and an announcement of a release date. At this point the team makes a decision, “Can we get this out in time for Christmas?” If things are going well, and the answer is yes, then the closed beta begins to prepare for it’s debut on shelves the day after Thanksgiving: the last Friday of November.
Separate Games in Games
If you’ve played SWG, you know space and ground are separate. There’s a divide there. When you earn space-xp, it doesn’t help you very much on the ground and vise-versa. In Lotro it’s the same story for creep play and freep play. Nothing you do with your elf feels like it has anything to do with your orc.
When I think about all the different kinds of xp to work on in games, such as crafting xp, entertainer xp, and faction/reputation points, I think there’s a similar feeling of separation. It’s like having a large number of games and mini-games smashed into one big game.
On the other hand you could have a world like EVE. In EVE there is no xp per se, just Isk (Money). Whatever you’re working on, you’re working on Isk. Could you imagine if all the fantasy MMOs and Sci-Fi MMOs out there only had the gathering of cash as the sole form of advancement?
Having a lot of different kinds of xp or different games to play in one MMO makes for a lot of variety. On the one hand, doing vastly different activities to advance different things makes for a lot of variety. Sometimes you can be working on two or three things at once (XP / Cash / Quest rewards) and it feels extremely satisfying. On the other hand, if you get really excited about something like PVP or Space-xp, it feels like that’s the only thing that’s in the game. Everything else is just a diversion with rewards that don’t influence your “real” game.
The Horrors of Free Chat
On the free DDO announcement post, a commenter asks, “what exactly does ‘limited chat’ even mean?” Another commenter responds, “Unlimited chat for free in an MMO = GOLDSPAMGOLDSPAMGOLDSPAMGOLDSPAM”
What worries me more is the chat itself, and this is not DDO-specific. I have been toying around with a FTP RMT (free to play, real money transaction) game, and the newbie chat… omg lol u girl? This must be what you WoW players call “Barrens chat” or some such. Every stereotype of online and juvenile idiocy: there it is.
Look, kid, it doesn’t matter if anyone else in the channel is a girl. If someone claims to be, he could be lying. If she really is, she is not going to e-mail pictures of her girl parts to random people in-game. Or maybe she will, but in that case, she probably has already them posted somewhere, so go Google them up.
Look, kid, we get that you like Runescape. Yes, great, best game ever, much better than this one. Shut up. There are lots of good evolutionary psychology reasons why humans shout about how great the tribe is, even when it is completely inappropriate. Convince your simian lower brain functions that this is one of those inappropriate time.
At least the constant guild recruiting spam blocks out most of the pain, and the Chuck Norris jokes cover a bit of the rest.
: Zubon
New DDO Business Model
This is relevant to my interests. I liked Dungeons and Dragons Online enough, but like so many other MMOs, it was just not worth the subscription to me. Now Turbine is offering a new business model that seems to borrow a lot from Wizards101, which is a fantastic thing. My favorite business model is by far the “buy content packs” that Guild Wars, Wizards101, and lifetime Lord of the Rings Online players have. It seems that Turbine will offer “convenience items” as well, but they are quick to premptively reply that the best items come from playing. I am not as happy about “convenience items,” but I see it as a necessary evil when converting a subscription-based game in to a “buy content packs” type of game. Can’t stop progress.
–Ravious
j’ai creusé la terre, j’ai découpé la lune
Guild Wars 2 Concept Art!
The floodgates are starting to leak, but only in the most unusual way. It seems that Kekai Kotaki, the Guild Wars 2 Concept Art Lead, and Daniel Dociu, Art Director, were allowed to use some of the concept art he produced for Guild Wars 2 to advance ArenaNet’s and the artist’s standing in the art world. Not that said artists need said boost… like at all. Regina Buenaobra was kind enough, in her teasing, to confirm that this one was indeed Guild Wars 2 concept art. The two pictures (plus bonus) after the break: Continue reading Guild Wars 2 Concept Art!
Deceived
I’m sure everyone’s seen this by now but just in case you haven’t, here’s the trailer for SWTOR that was released at E3 last week.
No matter what happens next and however good – or bad – SWTOR turns out to be, this not-quite-4-minute gem of a teaser is worth savouring. To this aged, jaded and cynical old reptile, it is everything the lamentable prequels should have been but weren’t.