Kill Ten Rats

Fix the major bugs that are found. Test for both bugs and balance. I suppose these both could be filed under “listen to your testers.” It is fine to release live with some known minor bugs; there is a trade-off between delaying content and making a more perfect union. We know that we will need to fix some things after the patch.

I know that changing something by 20% is just a minor tweak to the code, but it makes a pretty big difference if you do so after the new content has been out for several weeks, and it looks bad when players were pointing the problem out on your test boards since the day it hit the test server.

Continue reading How To Use the Test Server

Hi there, I’m Oz. No peeking behind the curtain – it’s laundry day and I’m really not dressed as fancy as I’d like. All I had left was a “Daytona Beach” t-shirt and some cutoff shorts, and it’s not a pretty sight. Tomorrow I’ll wear a suit and we can have some face time. Alrighty then? Good.

Continue reading The Land of Oz

Developers have learned that it is easier to loosen up than to tighten up. If you implement something too good or strong and then weaken it, players will cry “NERF!” forever. Therefore, developers implement things a bit weak or with rewards a bit low then dial it up. That way, you get thanks for new content followed by accolades for giving the players a gift, as opposed to complaints about how the FOTM is too overpowered followed by complaints about how they nerf everything.

Continue reading Training Your Players to Whine

Hey all. I’m Fat. Yes, blink, rub your eyes, shake your head, do whatever you need to do to ensure that you did, indeed, read that name right.

I’m nothing more than your average MMO player. I’ve been enjoying various MMOs for the last three years. My start came from Anarchy Online when a friend introduced me to it three years ago. I instantly fell in love with the game. Even though it has its problems – much akin to any MMO out there – I have been unable to escape its grasp for no longer than a handful of months at a time. No matter how much I try to rid myself of it, I always end up going back there.

Continue reading Enter Fat

We all know why you play online games: you want to get laid. No pickup line works quite the way “my Shaman has his epic mount” does. I sometimes lie and claim to have a level 60 Priest so I can meet women in bars. It’s true: everyone is looking for high level Priests.

: Zubon

Three of the KTR staff are leaving us for greener pastures and I’d like to wish them well on their quest. They are also welcome back at any time down the road should they desire to pick up the KTR flag again.

Safe travels to lufia22, ringthree and Zxyrox! I have enjoyed working with you guys and please stay in touch. Again, if you ever want to return just let me know.

Their contributions will not be forgotten.

– Ethic

To me, the question of people spending real life money on in-game things has been this: why are people paying not to play your game? What is your wrong with your game such that people would rather spend time at work than put in the hours in-game to accomplish whatever they are buying?

Pause for a moment and consider what an indict of a game RMT is: someone will pay hundreds of real life dollars to skip large chunks of your content. If this were just an eccentric few with odd tastes, that would be one thing, but there are thousands and thousands of accounts involved.

Continue reading RMT and the Grind

Epicurus teaches us that desire is suffering. The nature of any desire is a sort of pain that we seek to resolve. We are conscious of lacking something, whether that be air, food, or a level-capped character. In filling that need, we receive pleasure. We can also achieve pleasure by contemplating past pleasures, notably being pleased about the desires that are fulfilled.

When you buy a new game/level-treadmill, you are buying both a new desire and a way to fulfill it. Before you started playing, you had no need of a level 60 Shaman. Once you started playing, you felt the need to level. Now you have a level-capped character with perfect raiding gear, and you can contemplate how leet you are. When that contemplation loses its satisfaction, you can always create a new level 1, a new source of desire to level, a new pool to fill.

Continue reading Epicurus on the Level Grind

Please forgive a somewhat stream of consciousness philosophical discussion.

Over at my book blog, I have posted a review of Permutation City, a book that seems to be out of print. I will assume you haven’t read it, and I will avoid spoilers in case you want to find a copy. For what it’s worth, I rated it “3: worth reading once (check it out from a library).”

The main focus of the book is on uploads, or “Copies” as they are called there. You upload a scanned copy of your brain onto a computer, thereby having a backup in case you die. When you fire up your Copy, there is a version of you that exists on a computer. I want to focus on a single thing, the character of Peer and how he goes about being happy, since it applies to what we talk about here. Peer joyously instantiates the purest form of the grind.

Continue reading Setting Your Own Goals