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.
.A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work. ~Author Unknown
Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught. ~Author Unknown
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. ~John Buchan
– Ethic
“If you accept buggy games and shady PR, you get the games you deserve.”
I could probably replace a quarter of my posts with that. The message seems not to get through. Then again, it has not gotten through on non-game fronts for a few thousand years, so my hope is misplaced.
: Zubon
A lot of people could be the player’s advocate to the developers in MMOs. Forumites say a lot of things, but the focus is about as good as a room full of overtired, over-caffeinated toddlers. Bloggers write with better focus, but we are full of ourselves. Playtime and sales statistics have extreme focus, but they don’t tell the developers anything human. The best player advocates, I believe, are the often overlooked, often assaulted community managers.
No other subscription-based MMORPG that I am aware of has ever added 4 new careers to its game as part of a regular update/addon/free expansion.
– Mark Jacobs
City of Heroes came out in 2004. They added four new archetypes to the game before Warhammer released. They also never cut them during beta.
: Zubon
Hat tip to The Common Sense Gamer for the quote.
Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games Online today announced that the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be released to retail outlets across North America and Europe on January 30, 2007, for the suggested retail price of US$49.99. A limited edition is also available for a suggested retail price of US$89.99.
Currently in beta, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes features vibrant environments reminiscent of oil paintings, a robust character customization tool and three distinct spheres of advancement in a seamless world without zoning or instancing. The immersive fantasy world is comprised of three massive, uniquely-themed continents for players to discover new creatures, new items and unlimited adventure. Players have complete freedom to roam the world whether flying dragons to islands in the sky or riding swift steeds to exotic lands.
“We are excited about delivering an MMO with immersive gameplay features that bring new depth and fun to the genre,” said Brad McQuaid, CEO, Sigil Games Online. “Vanguard gives players the chance to live in a breathtaking world and try new things such as our diplomacy system and our unique approach to crafting. We’re proud to be delivering this level of great gameplay for years to come.”
“SOE is pleased to be working with Sigil to bring the eagerly anticipated Vanguard to fruition,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment, “Vanguard not only broadens our product portfolio in the online space, but will also be a welcomed addition to our already value packed all-in-one Station Access subscription line-up.”
Still alive.
Update: Good re-review and a free trial.
– Ethic
Since yesterday’s post was inspired by Language Log, I thought I would cite them again on user interfaces.
Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure it out by trial and error. I simply offer this to you as proof number 37 (I have made mention of many such examples in the past: road sign psycholinguistics and so on) of my claim that human/machine interface design today is in a state of total freaking disaster.
He is talking about projectors, ovens, and clock radios, but the discussion is especially relevant to MMOs. We are used to having forty hotkeys along with five chat tabs and a heads-up display that looks like a flight simulator. We forget that this is potentially insane.
I could point out that designers should pay more attention to the interface, that a MMO without UI-mod ability is a broken MMO, or that developers should prepare to adapt mods into the official UI after the players find a way to compensate for designers’ failure to pay attention to the interface. Feel free to take that direction in the comments. Instead, I will just point to WoW, which has more or less followed that cycle but also has a pretty easy interface for new players. The flight simulator display is for the advanced raider who can use forty buttons without thinking about it. The starting UI is simple enough for granny to start beating up wolves and bunnies. If, you know, your grandmother thought it was all right to beat up puppies because some dwarf told her to.
: Zubon
Three people on that Language Log thread cited The Design of Everyday Things by David Norman. I have added that to my (very long) reading list.
Jick’s comment on yesterday’s post meshes well with recent discussion of fairness. Let me introduce you to the Ultimatum Game, a favorite of experimental economics. There is a pot of money; player one allocates it, as much as he likes for himself, the rest for player two; player two chooses to accept this (and they both take their money) or reject it (and both get nothing). That is it.
Simple economic rationality suggests that you take whatever is offered: free money. In practice, people will start turning down free money if it means the person making the offer gets a much larger piece of the pie, with most people bailing in the one-third to one-fifth range. In the vernacular, screw that jerk.
That would be my translation of Jick’s comment as well: screw that jerk who bid $1 over the other The Price is Right player. Just because the rules let you do something does not mean that it is fair. Of course, the English word fair is a horrible mess. English speakers mash a dozen concepts into the word and equivocate madly. Does fairness mean playing by the rules? An equal outcome? An outcome that satisfies the most people? An outcome that rewards people based on their inputs? If asked to pin down a definition, many people will pull another vague term like “equitable,” which has the same problem. Bart Wilson has been trying to work that out.
I am not criticizing Jick’s point. I do not agree with it, because I think competitors in a game environment should do anything within the rules to win, but it is a viable social norm. Are there conditions under which you should not really try to win? Let us explore a few variations on Ultimatum below the break.
If you have been hoping to get your hands on an invite to try out Raph Koster’s Metaplace, go now and enter MPWELCOME as your invite key. Failing that, I have 10 invites to give out so reply if you are interested and I’ll send them out (unless more than 10 request them in which case I will choose randomly).
– Ethic
Last night I bought World of Goo from Steam (it marches on). I had played the demo quite a while ago, and I really enjoyed it. Yet, I decided for some stupid reason to pass. Recently, in a stroke of [marketing] genius 2D Boy released the excellent soundtrack for free! I spent much of yesterday’s work listening to the soundtrack, and after listening to Red Carpet Extend-o-matic for the 100th time, I resolutely decided that I would buy the darn game as soon as I got home.
Guild Wars did a similar [marketing] thing with the Eye of the North Expansion when DirectSong released the soundtrack for sale nearly a month before the games release. I remember discussing what content we would get with the expansion based on the titles of the songs and how each song sounded. As if we weren’t all hyped enough with the imminent release we now had some “content.”
It’s a pretty simple concept. The content is already there for the game. Might as well double dip.Â
–Ravious
the cage of those meticulous ink strokes
On the way back from the conference, I caught the opening of The Price is Right on TV. If you have not seen the game show, the first game is “Guess how much this item is. Whoever is closest without going over advances. If everyone goes over, we do another round of guesses.” They showed a fancy table then asked the four contestants to guess. $2400, $2195, $1200… You, as a gamer, know that the proper answer for #4 is $1201 (or possibly $1). You know this without even knowing the item in question, because unless it is some fantastical table worth more than $2400, the largest ranges available are $1-$1199 and $1201-$2194, and you can get a do-over on $1-$1199. But no, he went with $1900, and the item was $1400.
If you ever wonder about the failure of strategic thinking in your pickup group, remember this man who chose a $295 range over a $994 range that included the $295 range. He had 699 options that were strictly better than the one he chose, in a competition for real money and items, and he went with $1900.
On an unrelated note, I also caught the tail-end of Rachel Ray’s program, which was right before. I never knew that there were commercials for K-Y jelly and cottage cheese. Not together.
: Zubon