i love good plot quest, but i hate incoming wall of text quest.
after hard day at work i prefer a simple text quest, remember player has life too. build a game that will give good effect to player life.
I found an excerpt that touches this subject in one of Revival's blog updates:
Complaints of flat progression and boring quests are reflections of the
value of knowledge in those (existing MMO) games: What sets one quest apart from
another is often the narrative and the knowledge it conveys, rather than
its mechanics or the actions you take to complete it and if that
knowledge has no value, then that quest is no different from any other
and everything is flat.
Whatever they are planning, they want to make it very different from how it's done in traditional MMOs.
not eveything in a current mmorpg is bad, some is good, for me i hate something hard in the game, life is already very hard, i want to achieve some win feeling when playing game, but no too easy wins like treasure box every 1 hour of playing and that craps.
andi hate puzzle and finding path/road (tricky road), the simplicity like archeage (arrow where to walk to quest) is good.
gw2 is a good benchmard for a mmorpg, it has structural pvp, im all about #esport mmorpg player...but this just me, i enjoy pvp aspect more than others.
i love how revival have that historical system, not all player can defeat the mvp boss, only a few, but can u guys keep up with new content to compete with revival player base? i think there is no problem with spawning mvp boss, repetitive can be fun if the dungeon made challenging, not spamming 1 fest like gw2 world boss.
The way I understood it from dev posts, Revival won't have passive NPCs standing around with exclamation marks above their hands and sizzling trails leading player characters down the right path to a quest. I doubt that creators of the game will want to have boss monsters respawn over and over again like in MMOs either. The game is supposed to be about how it feels to live in a medieval dark fantasy world with some horror elements in it. NPCs are supposed to have their own lives and goals in the world. Some activities resembling traditional stories or quests could be generated through interaction between player characters and NPCs. Other people might come up with their own adventures in pursuit of some agendas. Designers have already written hundreds of pages about the game but to put it very short, combat, crafting and magic should be a lot deeper, more complex and immersive than in many MMOs. I think the only other game trying to get to that kind of level is Chronicles of Elyria.
@nariusseldon On gold servers they'll charge monthly subscription fees that will be used to pay DM salaries. A lot of people are hoping that it will be $10-20 per month, which is a traditional amount for most pay-to-play MMOs.
Let's say $15. How much are you going to pay a DM? He/she needs to be trained, have good computing skills and probably writing skills, right? So we are talking about $5-6k a month?
So you need 300-400 users per DM. Anything less will be losing money.
Can ONE DM provides enough content to service 300-400 players? I also assume anyone on the gold server will want their money worth and play a lot.
I had exactly the same concern until I realised that they are not quite trying to replicate DM implementation in Neverwinter Nights. They plan to have thousands of players on each server and with your calculations they would be able to afford 2-3 DMs for every 1000 subscribed players on gold servers.
Ombwah, the lead lore designer of Revival and future manager of DM team (they call DMs storytellers or ST there), explained how it will work:
"The ST is organized into "strike groups" that operate as a team
overseeing the agendas of their assigned
factions/groups/cults/whathaveyou in the world. These agendas are set by
a sort of council that we call our "Writer's Room" that is made up of
our lead storytellers from each strike team. This team meets weekly to
plan the events slated for the major world storyline events about 3-4
weeks ahead of the state of the actual live server. These decisions are
informed by the activities and expressed agendas of the player groups on
each server, as well as our observations and ideas about where to psuh
the world next. Events are designed, built, tested and implemented over
that 3 weeks, in a cycle that should keep our content team delivering
and maintaining relevant events.
In addition to these duties,
each team is also assigned alerts that can be as articulate as "if
someone has harvested any X material" to "if someone has taken item XYZ
into their inventory" or "if someone enters this cavern/room/section of
desert." The teams assigned to an individual alert will have defined
protocol for how to handle those events or encounters, and upon
recieving those alerts will be tasked to address them in real time.
These assignments will probably be somewhat regular for the sake of ST
sanity, but at the same time we will shift resources as necessary for
proper focus on player interaction, so the Guard Captain of Crowns Rock
might be handled by one employee one day, and another on a different
day, but on the whole we will strive for consistency in her reactions
and demeanor.
Teams will work across servers as necessary, but in
a perfect world we will be able to grow the team in reponse to demand.,
exact minimum/maximum ST necessary or ideal per-server is yet to be
determined."
@nariusseldon On gold servers they'll charge monthly subscription fees that will be used to pay DM salaries. A lot of people are hoping that it will be $10-20 per month, which is a traditional amount for most pay-to-play MMOs.
Let's say $15. How much are you going to pay a DM? He/she needs to be trained, have good computing skills and probably writing skills, right? So we are talking about $5-6k a month?
So you need 300-400 users per DM. Anything less will be losing money.
Can ONE DM provides enough content to service 300-400 players? I also assume anyone on the gold server will want their money worth and play a lot.
I had exactly the same concern until I realised that they are not quite trying to replicate DM implementation in Neverwinter Nights. They plan to have thousands of players on each server and with your calculations they would be able to afford 2-3 DMs for every 1000 subscribed players on gold servers.
Ombwah, the lead lore designer of Revival and future manager of DM team (they call DMs storytellers or ST there), explained how it will work:
"The ST is organized into "strike groups" that operate as a team
overseeing the agendas of their assigned
factions/groups/cults/whathaveyou in the world. These agendas are set by
a sort of council that we call our "Writer's Room" that is made up of
our lead storytellers from each strike team. This team meets weekly to
plan the events slated for the major world storyline events about 3-4
weeks ahead of the state of the actual live server. These decisions are
informed by the activities and expressed agendas of the player groups on
each server, as well as our observations and ideas about where to psuh
the world next. Events are designed, built, tested and implemented over
that 3 weeks, in a cycle that should keep our content team delivering
and maintaining relevant events.
In addition to these duties,
each team is also assigned alerts that can be as articulate as "if
someone has harvested any X material" to "if someone has taken item XYZ
into their inventory" or "if someone enters this cavern/room/section of
desert." The teams assigned to an individual alert will have defined
protocol for how to handle those events or encounters, and upon
recieving those alerts will be tasked to address them in real time.
These assignments will probably be somewhat regular for the sake of ST
sanity, but at the same time we will shift resources as necessary for
proper focus on player interaction, so the Guard Captain of Crowns Rock
might be handled by one employee one day, and another on a different
day, but on the whole we will strive for consistency in her reactions
and demeanor.
Teams will work across servers as necessary, but in
a perfect world we will be able to grow the team in reponse to demand.,
exact minimum/maximum ST necessary or ideal per-server is yet to be
determined."
It would be interesting to see how well it works. In my experience with tabletop RPGs, just a few players (4-5) can bog the DM down in terms of moving things along. Obviously, with the right software and training, their DM can be a bit more efficient.
I can see that if a DM is getting 10s of alerts, does he have enough bandwidth to respond in real time.
It all sounds nice on paper, but managing teams of DMs, and make everyone work consistently seem to be a great deal of challenge. In fact, even a small game with say 50k players needs 100-150 DMs, and training and organizing that many DMs is going to be tough for a small company.
Plus, this is assuming EVERY penny in that $15 sub is going towards hiring DMs. They also need to pay for continuing developments, servers, and stuff like that. They are not charging more than the usual sub, and i wonder if they can really afford that many DMs.
It would be interesting to see how well it works. In my experience with tabletop RPGs, just a few players (4-5) can bog the DM down in terms of moving things along. Obviously, with the right software and training, their DM can be a bit more efficient.
I can see that if a DM is getting 10s of alerts, does he have enough bandwidth to respond in real time.
It all sounds nice on paper, but managing teams of DMs, and make everyone work consistently seem to be a great deal of challenge. In fact, even a small game with say 50k players needs 100-150 DMs, and training and organizing that many DMs is going to be tough for a small company.
Plus, this is assuming EVERY penny in that $15 sub is going towards hiring DMs. They also need to pay for continuing developments, servers, and stuff like that. They are not charging more than the usual sub, and i wonder if they can really afford that many DMs.
They will rely on other sources of revenue for server upkeep and game development, selling houses, boats and "standing points". It's been confirmed by devs that monthly sub fees will be dedicated entirely to live ST teams.
I suppose there are ways how to equip DMs well to do the task. Their room could be literally next to the server room at company's office and full of hardware and monitors, probably something like a security surveillance room. In one video a lead systems designer said that they want their DM room to be like a bridge of a spaceship.
It should work fine in my opinion as long as the game has interesting gameplay and features even without DMs. My realistic expectation is that DMs will mainly add some extra flavour and mystery or decrease predictability in the game world once in a while. I don't expect much individual interaction between DMs and players in ordinary circumstances because that's only possible on a server with one DM for every 10-20 players.
It should work fine in my opinion as long as the game has interesting gameplay and features even without DMs. My realistic expectation is that DMs will mainly add some extra flavour and mystery or decrease predictability in the game world once in a while. I don't expect much individual interaction between DMs and players in ordinary circumstances because that's only possible on a server with one DM for every 10-20 players.
Whether it will work fine or not depends .. since no one actually has any data on such a business model.
It is entirely possible of outcomes from it works (as you have hypothesized) or it completely failed because of training issues, technology issues, or just that players don't find 1 DM for every 10-20 players compelling enough to sign up for gold.
But again, managing a high touch service is non-trivial for so many reasons (what about a DM offended some players .. do you fire him? What should be the criteria? Do you have a process of resolving complaints?)
I am not saying it is undoable. I am asking if the whole process (the human one, not the software) has been thought through. It is one thing to have a good DM playing with 5 friends, it is completely another matter to manage a team of 100+ DMs offering a paid service.
Seriously, this will not work. I'm speaking of DM'ing since 1979 and playing 16 years of MMO's. I also used to run gaming at SciFi conventions in the late 80's. Most these guys got it right, you would have to hire a huge team of DM's to support a thriving online world. Depending on how popular the game gets and how many servers. But still yet, I can see players waiting around for their "turn" to get a DM to start or continue something in a quest line or event. Imagine 50 players waiting and talking in chat for a DM to get to them. Not a pretty picture. When people play an MMO they are used to going about their quests and crafting at their pace. When they want to do something, they want to walk up to an NPC and click to activate what ever they are working on. Not have to wait for a DM to trigger or dialogue with. Sounds all great but MMO's simply have too many demanding players. Then there is the matter of 3rd shift? AUS and EURO players? Late night players?
When people play an MMO they are used to going about their quests and crafting at their pace. When they want to do something, they want to walk up to an NPC and click to activate what ever they are working on. Not have to wait for a DM to trigger or dialogue with.
You describe characteristics of MMORPG, where the game world revolves around players and not the other way around. Having DMs be part of such an arrangement might theoretically work only with a big horde of DMs, which is financially impossible for a commercial company. Since game worlds are not immersive, evolving, dynamic and interactive by themselves, DMs would have to bear a lot of load to compensate for that in an MMORPG.
Revival will be a MEOW, which stands for Multiplayer Evolving Online World. The focus is on the world and not on the players. The world will function and evolve even without any players in it. Revival devs have said that their central goal is to implement a lot of innovative systems that will make this all happen. Hundreds of small systems interacting with each other to form larger elaborate mechanisms like small gears in a complex clock. However, without a human dimension and for the lack of truely sophisticated artificial intelligence, these systems may eventually be predictable. It's obvious that the main task of human DMs is therefore to add unpredictable variations to the mechanised routines of virtual DM and other systems of MEOW.
When they want to do something, they want to walk up to an NPC and click to activate what ever they are working on.
Here is a tiny bit of more information about the numerous differences between MMORPG and MEOW.
In MMORPG you walk to an NPC and it gives you a quest.
In MEOW quests are generated from the world itself and everybody is both "half-NPC" and "half player character" in a sense. The following example sheds some light on how things work in Revival.
Player A arrives and kills NPC 1. Let's suppose that player A arrived undisguised and NPC 1 was aware of that player character's identity. Player A is tagged "murderer" and NPC 1 "murder victim". Player B and NPC 2 were somewhere nearby and got tagged with "murder witness" tags. NPC 1 must return from the dead like any player character (sent to Animae's realm of the dead and must make its way back to the prime material plane back to living creatures). After NPC 1 returns from the dead, depending on its other tags, its behaviour routines might be altered to include revenge on player A. NPC 1 might attempt to: 1) try to seek revenge itself, 2) try to employ some other NPC or player character to seek revenge or 3) spread information to everyone about the murderer. Player B and NPC 2 bear "witness" tags and might potentially contribute to NPC 1 post-murder agenda (if player A doesn't murder player B and NPC 2 before that).
nariusseldon said: I am not saying it is undoable. I am asking if the whole process (the human one, not the software) has been thought through. It is one thing to have a good DM playing with 5 friends, it is completely another matter to manage a team of 100+ DMs offering a paid service.
So far developers of Revival have seriously impressed everybody in the game's community by providing very well thought-out answers to literally almost every question that people have had for them. Maybe it's not too surprising because those guys have been planning and designing the game for like ten years.
nariusseldon said: I am not saying it is undoable. I am asking if the whole process (the human one, not the software) has been thought through. It is one thing to have a good DM playing with 5 friends, it is completely another matter to manage a team of 100+ DMs offering a paid service.
So far developers of Revival have seriously impressed everybody in the game's community by providing very well thought-out answers to literally almost every question that people have had for them. Maybe it's not too surprising because those guys have been planning and designing the game for like ten years.
I just don't understand why you are attempting to speak as if you aren't employed by Illfonic. It's all just a little shady.
I just don't understand why you are attempting to speak as if you aren't employed by Illfonic. It's all just a little shady.
I think the only person on this website who is not just a gamer but really involved with Illfonic or Revival dev team is @Snipehunter . He and others do post occasionally on other websites about the game but I've seen only one such post here at MMORPG.com.
nariusseldon said: I am not saying it is undoable. I am asking if the whole process (the human one, not the software) has been thought through. It is one thing to have a good DM playing with 5 friends, it is completely another matter to manage a team of 100+ DMs offering a paid service.
So far developers of Revival have seriously impressed everybody in the game's community by providing very well thought-out answers to literally almost every question that people have had for them. Maybe it's not too surprising because those guys have been planning and designing the game for like ten years.
I guess proof is in the pudding. If they in fact produce such a game and become successful, then they will shut all critics up.
Having good answers that sound plausible is quite a step down from actually doing it. And the length of time does not matter. Daikatakana took ages to make and was still a crap game. There are plenty of examples.
I guess proof is in the pudding. If they in fact produce such a game and become successful, then they will shut all critics up.
Having good answers that sound plausible is quite a step down from actually doing it. And the length of time does not matter. Daikatakana took ages to make and was still a crap game. There are plenty of examples.
Yeah, Duke Nukem Forever took ages and was a disappointment too.
It's nice that some game developers are willing to experiment with features deviating from MMO game traditions. There's market for more immersive multiplayer role-playing games because a portion of gamers come from pen-and-paper RPG background. On the other hand, there's also a lot of potential for things to go wrong when developers explore new waters.
We should see what shape the game takes after 2-4 years.
hmm, interesting. I see game mechanics doing most the heavy lifting. I suppose I see live GM's influencing events and sponsoring live events. You just need to be there at the right time to be part of it.
I remember back in the EQ days the live events were maybe once a month, a GM would spawn a powerfull NPC and lay waste to everyone in the noobie zone until the heavy hitters showed up and focused him down. Then got rewarded with a rare drop. So, that was a limited example of what you guys mentioned.
As an active player sticking his nose into everyones and everythings business you would be more rewarded with these kind of GM events than someone just sitting at the crafting wheel all day. At least a player doesn't need to be waiting in a queue to progress his quest for a GM to show up and do his/her thing.
hmm, interesting. I see game mechanics doing most the heavy lifting. I suppose I see live GM's influencing events and sponsoring live events. You just need to be there at the right time to be part of it.
I remember back in the EQ days the live events were maybe once a month, a GM would spawn a powerfull NPC and lay waste to everyone in the noobie zone until the heavy hitters showed up and focused him down. Then got rewarded with a rare drop. So, that was a limited example of what you guys mentioned.
As an active player sticking his nose into everyones and everythings business you would be more rewarded with these kind of GM events than someone just sitting at the crafting wheel all day. At least a player doesn't need to be waiting in a queue to progress his quest for a GM to show up and do his/her thing.
It's only natural that games try to evolve in that dimension being inspired by PnP RPG sources. Some companies were able to equip their games with versatile DM tools (NWN), while others arranged GM involvement as faction leaders in game world storylines (Face of Mankind). That has already happened a very long time ago. The way I see it, Revival is going to experiment with evolution of those features and elements to bring it to a new level. It'll be interesting to see the results.
It's only natural that games try to evolve in that dimension being inspired by PnP RPG sources. Some companies were able to equip their games with versatile DM tools (NWN), while others arranged GM involvement as faction leaders in game world storylines (Face of Mankind). That has already happened a very long time ago. The way I see it, Revival is going to experiment with evolution of those features and elements to bring it to a new level. It'll be interesting to see the results.
I don't think it is natural. Computer RPGs have already diverged a lot from pnp RPGs. I did play some pnp RPG last year, and the feel, and the way to have fun is completely different from CRPG.
I have no problem that Revival is trying something new. In fact, i applaud them. Worse case is that it is not my cup of tea, and I ignore it. But also i am not going to automatically assume that it will be successful. The risk (and they know it) is huge.
It is indeed interesting to see the results both from a technical & service stand-point (can they actually deliver) and also from a business standpoint (if they build it, is anyone going to come?).
A couple of people been wondering why I post lots of info about Revival. The three games I am hyped about are Star Citizen, Chronicles of Elyria and Revival. Erillion takes care of providing info about Star Citizen (learned about SC repair gameplay recently thanks to @Erillion ) and dev journals about Chronicles of Elyria appear every week here (loved dungeons and subterannean building in newest dev journal), whereas no one really reports much about Revival... except Maquaime sometimes, and there isn't even any subforum for the game. So, I just pick up the slack a bit and occasionally write about stuff that is revealed about the game.
That said, yesterday Revival's creative director, Kedhrin Gonzalez, revealed screenshots of 15 renovation kits in the latest dev journal.
Renovation kits are useful for tier 3 houses, tier 4 manses and tier 5 estates. In houses and manses there are one or two upgradeable rooms which can fit a renovation kit each.
Illfonic sell renovation kits for $5 each. Renovation kits are sets of specific objects, items, decorations, building materials and furniture that are used for some specific purpose like crafting, worshipping, gambling, drinking/eating, entertainment, sleeping, security, necromancy and so on.
From what I've learned, items that are part of renovation kits won't be protected or bound in any way to the upgradeable room. Home owner can remove and transfer any furniture or objects, not attached to the floor, walls or ceiling, to other rooms or take them outside the house. Thieves and burglars will be able to do that too.
Renovation kits are supposed to be added to the game client and released to players this winter, maybe this month or in January or February. It will be possible to walk inside the house, apply or remove renovation kits and move objects around, but real functionality will be missing because all the other game systems and features will appear much later.
It's only natural that games try to evolve in that dimension being inspired by PnP RPG sources. Some companies were able to equip their games with versatile DM tools (NWN), while others arranged GM involvement as faction leaders in game world storylines (Face of Mankind). That has already happened a very long time ago. The way I see it, Revival is going to experiment with evolution of those features and elements to bring it to a new level. It'll be interesting to see the results.
I don't think it is natural. Computer RPGs have already diverged a lot from pnp RPGs. I did play some pnp RPG last year, and the feel, and the way to have fun is completely different from CRPG.
I have no problem that Revival is trying something new. In fact, i applaud them. Worse case is that it is not my cup of tea, and I ignore it. But also i am not going to automatically assume that it will be successful. The risk (and they know it) is huge.
It is indeed interesting to see the results both from a technical & service stand-point (can they actually deliver) and also from a business standpoint (if they build it, is anyone going to come?).
Games have become more serious entertainment and perhaps MMO games can
evolve and shift their paradigms like other forms of entertainment have done in the past. During the recent years some indie developers have started their projects keenly aware that many MMOs have been going in one direction and stagnating. Now they want to make games with some new direction by relying on innovation, interesting features of modern games and partial return to old roots. Maybe such projects can't become mainstream but they can fill a niche if it resonates with gamers with the same mentality. Limited budgets, cost and technical trickiness of innovation are all threats to that paradigm shift. There are many reasons to be suspicious of success of such projects, especially if they rely almost completely on crowdfunding. However, some indie developers have begun to invest their own money in the projects, which gives a glimmer of hope that they've done substantial analysis of their chances and have determined that success is possible.
However, some indie developers have begun to invest their own money in the projects, which gives a glimmer of hope that they've done substantial analysis of their chances and have determined that success is possible.
nah .. that is exactly the opposite. If they have a good business case backed up by analysis, they would have been able to raise money, instead of risking their own.
But again, anything we say is guessing. Let's see if they can actually make it happen, or just flop.
You do know that statistics is not on their side, right? Most start-up businesses failed.
Comments
The way I understood it from dev posts, Revival won't have passive NPCs standing around with exclamation marks above their hands and sizzling trails leading player characters down the right path to a quest. I doubt that creators of the game will want to have boss monsters respawn over and over again like in MMOs either. The game is supposed to be about how it feels to live in a medieval dark fantasy world with some horror elements in it. NPCs are supposed to have their own lives and goals in the world. Some activities resembling traditional stories or quests could be generated through interaction between player characters and NPCs. Other people might come up with their own adventures in pursuit of some agendas. Designers have already written hundreds of pages about the game but to put it very short, combat, crafting and magic should be a lot deeper, more complex and immersive than in many MMOs. I think the only other game trying to get to that kind of level is Chronicles of Elyria.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
I had exactly the same concern until I realised that they are not quite trying to replicate DM implementation in Neverwinter Nights. They plan to have thousands of players on each server and with your calculations they would be able to afford 2-3 DMs for every 1000 subscribed players on gold servers.
Ombwah, the lead lore designer of Revival and future manager of DM team (they call DMs storytellers or ST there), explained how it will work:
https://www.revivalgame.com/forum#/discussion/comment/13955
"The ST is organized into "strike groups" that operate as a team overseeing the agendas of their assigned factions/groups/cults/whathaveyou in the world. These agendas are set by a sort of council that we call our "Writer's Room" that is made up of our lead storytellers from each strike team. This team meets weekly to plan the events slated for the major world storyline events about 3-4 weeks ahead of the state of the actual live server. These decisions are informed by the activities and expressed agendas of the player groups on each server, as well as our observations and ideas about where to psuh the world next. Events are designed, built, tested and implemented over that 3 weeks, in a cycle that should keep our content team delivering and maintaining relevant events.
In addition to these duties, each team is also assigned alerts that can be as articulate as "if someone has harvested any X material" to "if someone has taken item XYZ into their inventory" or "if someone enters this cavern/room/section of desert." The teams assigned to an individual alert will have defined protocol for how to handle those events or encounters, and upon recieving those alerts will be tasked to address them in real time. These assignments will probably be somewhat regular for the sake of ST sanity, but at the same time we will shift resources as necessary for proper focus on player interaction, so the Guard Captain of Crowns Rock might be handled by one employee one day, and another on a different day, but on the whole we will strive for consistency in her reactions and demeanor.
Teams will work across servers as necessary, but in a perfect world we will be able to grow the team in reponse to demand., exact minimum/maximum ST necessary or ideal per-server is yet to be determined."
* more info, screenshots and videos here
I can see that if a DM is getting 10s of alerts, does he have enough bandwidth to respond in real time.
It all sounds nice on paper, but managing teams of DMs, and make everyone work consistently seem to be a great deal of challenge. In fact, even a small game with say 50k players needs 100-150 DMs, and training and organizing that many DMs is going to be tough for a small company.
Plus, this is assuming EVERY penny in that $15 sub is going towards hiring DMs. They also need to pay for continuing developments, servers, and stuff like that. They are not charging more than the usual sub, and i wonder if they can really afford that many DMs.
They will rely on other sources of revenue for server upkeep and game development, selling houses, boats and "standing points". It's been confirmed by devs that monthly sub fees will be dedicated entirely to live ST teams.
I suppose there are ways how to equip DMs well to do the task. Their room could be literally next to the server room at company's office and full of hardware and monitors, probably something like a security surveillance room. In one video a lead systems designer said that they want their DM room to be like a bridge of a spaceship.
It should work fine in my opinion as long as the game has interesting gameplay and features even without DMs. My realistic expectation is that DMs will mainly add some extra flavour and mystery or decrease predictability in the game world once in a while. I don't expect much individual interaction between DMs and players in ordinary circumstances because that's only possible on a server with one DM for every 10-20 players.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
It is entirely possible of outcomes from it works (as you have hypothesized) or it completely failed because of training issues, technology issues, or just that players don't find 1 DM for every 10-20 players compelling enough to sign up for gold.
But again, managing a high touch service is non-trivial for so many reasons (what about a DM offended some players .. do you fire him? What should be the criteria? Do you have a process of resolving complaints?)
I am not saying it is undoable. I am asking if the whole process (the human one, not the software) has been thought through. It is one thing to have a good DM playing with 5 friends, it is completely another matter to manage a team of 100+ DMs offering a paid service.
You describe characteristics of MMORPG, where the game world revolves around players and not the other way around. Having DMs be part of such an arrangement might theoretically work only with a big horde of DMs, which is financially impossible for a commercial company. Since game worlds are not immersive, evolving, dynamic and interactive by themselves, DMs would have to bear a lot of load to compensate for that in an MMORPG.
Revival will be a MEOW, which stands for Multiplayer Evolving Online World. The focus is on the world and not on the players. The world will function and evolve even without any players in it. Revival devs have said that their central goal is to implement a lot of innovative systems that will make this all happen. Hundreds of small systems interacting with each other to form larger elaborate mechanisms like small gears in a complex clock. However, without a human dimension and for the lack of truely sophisticated artificial intelligence, these systems may eventually be predictable. It's obvious that the main task of human DMs is therefore to add unpredictable variations to the mechanised routines of virtual DM and other systems of MEOW.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Here is a tiny bit of more information about the numerous differences between MMORPG and MEOW.
In MMORPG you walk to an NPC and it gives you a quest.
In MEOW quests are generated from the world itself and everybody is both "half-NPC" and "half player character" in a sense. The following example sheds some light on how things work in Revival.
Player A arrives and kills NPC 1. Let's suppose that player A arrived undisguised and NPC 1 was aware of that player character's identity. Player A is tagged "murderer" and NPC 1 "murder victim". Player B and NPC 2 were somewhere nearby and got tagged with "murder witness" tags. NPC 1 must return from the dead like any player character (sent to Animae's realm of the dead and must make its way back to the prime material plane back to living creatures). After NPC 1 returns from the dead, depending on its other tags, its behaviour routines might be altered to include revenge on player A. NPC 1 might attempt to: 1) try to seek revenge itself, 2) try to employ some other NPC or player character to seek revenge or 3) spread information to everyone about the murderer. Player B and NPC 2 bear "witness" tags and might potentially contribute to NPC 1 post-murder agenda (if player A doesn't murder player B and NPC 2 before that).
* more info, screenshots and videos here
So far developers of Revival have seriously impressed everybody in the game's community by providing very well thought-out answers to literally almost every question that people have had for them. Maybe it's not too surprising because those guys have been planning and designing the game for like ten years.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Having good answers that sound plausible is quite a step down from actually doing it. And the length of time does not matter. Daikatakana took ages to make and was still a crap game. There are plenty of examples.
Yeah, Duke Nukem Forever took ages and was a disappointment too.
It's nice that some game developers are willing to experiment with features deviating from MMO game traditions. There's market for more immersive multiplayer role-playing games because a portion of gamers come from pen-and-paper RPG background. On the other hand, there's also a lot of potential for things to go wrong when developers explore new waters.
We should see what shape the game takes after 2-4 years.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
hmm, interesting. I see game mechanics doing most the heavy lifting. I suppose I see live GM's influencing events and sponsoring live events. You just need to be there at the right time to be part of it.
I remember back in the EQ days the live events were maybe once a month, a GM would spawn a powerfull NPC and lay waste to everyone in the noobie zone until the heavy hitters showed up and focused him down. Then got rewarded with a rare drop. So, that was a limited example of what you guys mentioned.
As an active player sticking his nose into everyones and everythings business you would be more rewarded with these kind of GM events than someone just sitting at the crafting wheel all day. At least a player doesn't need to be waiting in a queue to progress his quest for a GM to show up and do his/her thing.
It's only natural that games try to evolve in that dimension being inspired by PnP RPG sources. Some companies were able to equip their games with versatile DM tools (NWN), while others arranged GM involvement as faction leaders in game world storylines (Face of Mankind). That has already happened a very long time ago. The way I see it, Revival is going to experiment with evolution of those features and elements to bring it to a new level. It'll be interesting to see the results.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
I have no problem that Revival is trying something new. In fact, i applaud them. Worse case is that it is not my cup of tea, and I ignore it. But also i am not going to automatically assume that it will be successful. The risk (and they know it) is huge.
It is indeed interesting to see the results both from a technical & service stand-point (can they actually deliver) and also from a business standpoint (if they build it, is anyone going to come?).
That said, yesterday Revival's creative director, Kedhrin Gonzalez, revealed screenshots of 15 renovation kits in the latest dev journal.
Renovation kits are useful for tier 3 houses, tier 4 manses and tier 5 estates. In houses and manses there are one or two upgradeable rooms which can fit a renovation kit each.
Illfonic sell renovation kits for $5 each. Renovation kits are sets of specific objects, items, decorations, building materials and furniture that are used for some specific purpose like crafting, worshipping, gambling, drinking/eating, entertainment, sleeping, security, necromancy and so on.
From what I've learned, items that are part of renovation kits won't be protected or bound in any way to the upgradeable room. Home owner can remove and transfer any furniture or objects, not attached to the floor, walls or ceiling, to other rooms or take them outside the house. Thieves and burglars will be able to do that too.
Renovation kits are supposed to be added to the game client and released to players this winter, maybe this month or in January or February. It will be possible to walk inside the house, apply or remove renovation kits and move objects around, but real functionality will be missing because all the other game systems and features will appear much later.
Bar
Bedroom
Craft Room
Forge
Kitchen
Drawing Room
Library
Map Room
Ritual Room - Elder Gods
Ritual Room - Great Old Ones
Ritual Room - Outer Gods
Parlour
Crypt
Vault
Lab
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Games have become more serious entertainment and perhaps MMO games can evolve and shift their paradigms like other forms of entertainment have done in the past. During the recent years some indie developers have started their projects keenly aware that many MMOs have been going in one direction and stagnating. Now they want to make games with some new direction by relying on innovation, interesting features of modern games and partial return to old roots. Maybe such projects can't become mainstream but they can fill a niche if it resonates with gamers with the same mentality. Limited budgets, cost and technical trickiness of innovation are all threats to that paradigm shift. There are many reasons to be suspicious of success of such projects, especially if they rely almost completely on crowdfunding. However, some indie developers have begun to invest their own money in the projects, which gives a glimmer of hope that they've done substantial analysis of their chances and have determined that success is possible.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
* more info, screenshots and videos here