Nice article! Not entirely original in content, but very original in delivery. Made me LOL. More like this please!
That said, you do tend to focus on a couple of the larger beefs I have with the MMO industry as a whole, and the shells the designers have created around themselves. Seems like a couple of these could be solved by thinking outside the box - that is, NOT thinking like a game designer/developer when approaching specific problems. For instance, regarding skill-based systems, why on God's green Earth do developers implement skill-based systems and then even TRY to balance them for 1 on 1 PvP? Why do that to yourself and your player base? If the game is designed around that (like Tekken or Street Fighter) then fine, but as an example, in the case of SWG pre-CU (because now the game is thoroughly irrelevant), people were complaining of imbalanced skill sets between combat classes. Big deal. The premise was Star WARS, meaning large group battles. Yeah they still screwed it up with Combat Medics which were true nukes, but that was easy to solve with a couple well-placed nerfs.
Bottom line, if fighters can always beat wizards which can always beat clerics which can always beat fighters, how is that different from group roles (which I find equally abhorrent, but we'll never escape from because it's far too cheap to implement)? Why should you balance so any two classes always always always have an exactly equal chance? That seems entirely too politically liberal.
Class balance.... because everything and everyone should be the same cause we have to please everyone....
The state that MMO's are in today is because everyone thinks they know what and how a game should be made and cry because this is not the case.
While an MMO might start out good, once people start complaining and developers start to change it so that those complaining get what they want is when the game starts going down the toilet. I am not saying don't listen to your playerbase, I am saying don't give them every single thing they want because even if you do they will find something else to cry about the following day.
Another article about how players are jerks and developers need to be treated better. Do we forget so easily that we give them money for the games on top of paying to keep playing it? If they want us to cut them some slack then make the games cheaper.
Another article about how players are jerks and developers need to be treated better. Do we forget so easily that we give them money for the games on top of paying to keep playing it? If they want us to cut them some slack then make the games cheaper.
Who said anything about the players being jerks? Oh, the players did. Devs didn't worry about how feature X could be abused until someone did abuse and another person whined.
I have been playing since the days of Gemstone III and have seen examples of your griefer mentality in almost every game I have played.
I remember in UO a guy that somehow hacked an insta kill command. He was without a doubt the king of all griefers. Same game, two guys would block a pass and kill you as you tried to get past.
Then there was the guy in WoW who had a speed hack in Warsong Gulch. He capped the flag 3 times in under a minute, lol.
Insightful, humorous... and managed to address or at least acknowledge just about every aspect of the typical MMO community at large.
Love the bit about grinding non-stop 'til you pass out to "beat the game", only to complain about a lack of content. How many times I've pointed out the behavior to people who were doing just that... trying to 'beat the game' at the expense of ignoring most of the content along the way.... then blaming the developers for it.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I just lost IQ points reading this dribble, there are so many holes you could shoot a shotgun at it from 50 feet away and not notice any new ones and not to mention the obvious but unless the servers arent on earth, they arent hundreds of thousands of miles away its impossible.
I also am waiting for your contribution to this great article : come on, dont be shy, share your godlike knowledge. What are those holes, comment them and propose suggestions, we're all listening, oooooo sensei...
I move to submit Shannon as God of MMORPG.COM articles.
Honestly, this is the best article i've read on this site in the better part of 6 months. She detailed exactly what i've been trying to say about skill based games and why they really don't work except for a very specific subset of the MMO playerbase. She talked about tons of design elements that people bitch about game companies doing or not doing.
It just amazes me, because if most of the playerbase had any ability towards reasoned thinking, they would have been able to figure a lot of this out themselves. Of course then you have the people who you can show the utter truth of a situation to, and they still will say "i dont care, make it happen or i will continue whining!"
Anyways, kudos to Shannon.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
But its no excuse for not implementing basic features that are long known in their effects into a new game.
That is why experience is so much worth - you know what will happen and you can early on steer a feature around to much misuse.
You know when to ignore your Testplayers / PLayerbase and when to listen.
Its your Job...
PS: Yeah, never tell them to be ignored, flat out lie about...^^
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
Honestly, devs should stick to their guns more. Don't listen to the whiners.
The people that will play the game, will play the game. If they do not like it, they are free to GTFO. Find something you like.
Drop the balance crap. Make every skill set dependent on another skill set for survival, and you will not have 200k of the same elite skill set running around.
2) Some of it was kindof... for lack of a better word... silly. (Not the funny kind of silly. More like the "...what? Um...okay..." silly.
3) This quote "Stradden: 'Missed the hyperbole, did you?
I'm also curious what "holes" you see here, being that you are, I would assume, an expert in video game development.'"
is rather unprofessional. I agree there are a few holes in there, and not everyone is going to like this article for realistic reasons. We as humans need to realize that our written work may not be perfect for various reasons.
I see holes as well. Quite a few. Some insignificant, some face-palming. Overall it's a great article (whoever write it and proof-read it did a great job). It is fun and silly (the funny kind) which is another big plus. But at times it provides poor examples. Very poor examples. "Poor enough" where it will lead some readers to question the author's point's validity.
I will provide three examples or "holes" and my response.
The first "hole":
"Take barrels. What does a barrel look like in this world? Are there--should there be--more than one style? If so, does each race/side/whatever have its own unique barrels?"
As an indie game developer, I find this example face-palming. Without a big budget, there is no need or possibility to include more than just one barrel. And that's only if that barrel has a use! It slightly frustrates me as a developer that big-shot (or any serious developer) would ask this question about barrels when there is so much more attention needed in every other aspect of a video game. What a waste of time! As an anticipated reader of this potentially informative and intelligent article, I am disappointed that there was not a better example that would actually apply to me and give me better foresight into the REAL questions developers ask which actually have relevance even to the small or young future-developer who may be extremely interested in this article.
The second "hole"
Player Complaining about Insiginificant Issues. Honestly...who cares? If a player complains about something as (pardon my french) stupid as "Why am I not allowed to Dual Wield two Shields offensively?" then any intelligent developer should quickly sigh and remind themselves not to waste their time reading full-sentences from children. It's common sense that if you equip two defensive weapons that you will be gimped. The fact the system allows it is cool enough for most people to say "It's that cool! Of course, no one would want to but the fact is you CAN!"
Or if a player complains about something as insignificant as "Why aren't there more bookshelves in this room!?" their voice is so tiny why even waste your time? In essence, the examples provided about players complaining consist mostly of what would account to trolls and children spouting irrelevant complaints that have nothing to do with what really matters: the game.
It is NOT that these players don't make good points. Libraries should have bookshelves. If there's a possibility to dual-wield shields it WOULD be cool to use them efficiently. But developers do not have time for this sort of drivel. There are far, far, FAR more important details and aspects of video games which need attention instead. As a PLAYER, I am always frustrated to the point of quitting MMORPG's because of Developer's focus on petty minor features while they ignore the massive gaping hole which is bleeding their subs. Something as simple as "Stop overpowered [Ability 12] from killing players in 2 hits when combat is supposed to last for 100 hits!" Not "barely overpowered" abilities in WoW. No, I mean GAME-STOPPING, GAME-BREAKING overpowered abilities like Champions Online was plagued with at launch.
I am not talking about "my opinion" as to what the developers should work on. I am speaking of what the majority of (quitting) players overwhelmingly agree upon is the major downfall of the game. Whether that is extremely poor performance (Vanguard) or game-breaking bugs, exploits, or unbalanced powers. I am not talking about Trammel/Felucca or PRE -CU SWG. At least those developers tried something to fix the major problems. Unlike some developers who ignore the real problems who the MAJORITY of players scream about. Not barrels. Not bookshelves. Not dual-wielding asinine items.
The third "hole" would be:
"So I can just invite them into my group by telling them I want to give them some gold, then lock up their computers spamming heals."
At this point, someone usually has their hands wrapped around his throat."
Which of course is my fault, as I guess I missed the joke in this one. It was funny, but at the same time I wonder if developers really do sit around tables being more than just trouble-shooters-- if they actually make massive game-changes based around stuff as simple as the fact the above example is ridiculous.
I guess I missed the joke because it isn't a logical jump to assume that both spamming particle effects AND/OR sounds will lock up a computer. Sounds often don't, and are simply just not played :P But even if they both *somehow* did, sometimes it's more important to focus on other aspects than a very, very, very abstract example of an ultimate reality that players WILL be able to annoy others. That is actually what make the games fun! The fact the developers have solved it ENOUGH to where a player has to lie, deceive, and invite someone into a group with trickery is enough to deter most of the problems. Afterall, most players will learn to /disband the moment someone starts spamming that ability. Players will get warned, reported, or banned. And after many months of focusing on REAL issues, this will probably eventually be resolved in a very, very, very small patch.
Thumbs up for the Dwarf Fortress nod. First reference of the year.
Finally a good article on mmorpg. Very well done.
In regards to the "easy to use" (including intuitive), there is a thing called developer eyes. You know what it's suppose to do, you wrote the code or fiddled with the results for a while so you believe it is obvious. This is a reason why it's important to include in your early alpha tests people who are not familiar with your type of games. It gives you important feedback from an outsiders point of view.
The early design phase is the most fun in my experience. But everyone wants to go to the party, but nobody wants to clean up afterwards. It's not just games that experience changes in the approach to a problem. Sometimes a few trial and errors can be done to see how the performance in the real world work out.
Balance is a tricky thing thing. There is a poster on mmorpg.com, wjrasmussen, who lives near me, who talks about it. It's easy to add a number of different weapons to a game and then create a new skill for each of +10% dps. In an open skill system, how do you balance a +10% DPS vs a skill to increase movement speed? What about synergy (2+2=5)?
One thing I hope everyone who comes to forums demanding features from devs should see from this article is how limited resources are and the fact you have budgets and schedules to meet. Something that sounds easy doesn't always work or even fit into the rest of the system.
Finally, I hope Shannon take the time to write a few more articles for mmmorpg.com. We need it!
sure, these kind of scenario's might have happened around the time of Ultima online, but ffs, give us a break dude, Succesfull and unsucesfull MMO's have been coming and going for decades now. You really expect us to beleive that they go through all these primative dumb questions and answers?
Humans learn from experience, maybe students studying the subject might find this interesting, but look at Tera online, they have Devs on there from nearly every mmo ever made, lol. I think by now they understand whats wanted and whats not.
Great peice ancient history Doc, but give it to daniel jackson, we're interested in modern and future days. I dont buy any of this.
Great Article, makes you realise sometimes we as gamers can be a bit to rash, and forgetful of the big picture. BUT, it seems to me that all these problems the developers are facing, they may have brought the majority upon themselves. If they made games they loved or thought would be fun and made them for gamers, not been greedy and making them for the masses casuals and the unwashed. Instead of catering for anyone and everyone, do it for those that matter, gamers. The more you try to please the less pleased people will be. It really struck me that most of these problems would be solved by heading back to how they made games in the old days. When the jerkwads ect were not as prevelant, because community and reputation meant something. just a thought.
I just lost IQ points reading this dribble, there are so many holes you could shoot a shotgun at it from 50 feet away and not notice any new ones and not to mention the obvious but unless the servers arent on earth, they arent hundreds of thousands of miles away its impossible.
Except He said hundreds or thousands of miles away.
This was an entertaining read. *smiles*, With all due respect, I think you are ok but this article was complete pile of deception on your part. I hardly believe you spent any real time in the game development industry. Its too much based on generalizations and opinions. There are no facts here, just hypotheticals and opinions.
Your blog entry reminds me of my first two weeks when I took a course called "Software Engineering" which explains all of this and your elaboration, makes me wonder if you are starting a CS major and trying to show off what you've learned.
Game companies spend their time deciding what to do, and the idea today is that everyone wants their own MMO since they can generate money from monthly subscription fees. Everyone wants to cash in on Blizzard's success.
I remember running my own MMORPG Private Server and modded it across several systems. 8000 Registered, 2000 who usually played simultaneously. If I was commercial, and charged $15 a month, I would generate the following results on just 8000 players
8000 players x 15 dollars = $120,000/month (monthly fee Generation)
120K x 12 = 1.44 million generated/yearly
8000 players x 50 (cost of a new game) = $400,000
I was running the server with 1000x more exp and 500% drop rate. People loved it more than official servers due to the fact I only required $400 a month for connection maintanance, system mantainance and paying electric bills. By a donation system, I was always able to get $600 - $700. I always took care of people and ran a team in-server. People loved that it wasn't a grind fest and in a short time their characters reach a point where they can "JUST PLAY"...
Now Imagine millions! The idea is not to let them have fun but to believe they are having fun and that fun comes from "HARD WORK" and burning time away, spanning months and people call that being HARDCORE..
MMORPGs are great in private server where its not about syphoning money from you, but in official servers to most games...They have been horrible. The exception is Guild Wars where the team that made it did not design it around a monthly subscription model allowing people to "Just Play."
You want to talk about the design process....For the last 10 years, MMORPGs have had the same Four to Five types of NPC quests rehashed in a 1000 different ways. Almost any game you play at the end of the day, it always comes back to one of these quests where your character is just a window into the world and as a character is just an emptyshell.
A lot of people use "Divide and Conquer" Logic in problem solving and it is one of the most effective things. I am not ranting on about the "military strategy" of getting factions to attack one another and then your faction destroys the one remaning. No, I mean "Divide and Conquer" logic.
Divide and Conquer means to solve a large problem by breaking the problem down into two or more smaller version of the same problem. It is a fundamental part of logic theory and design. I know people will argue amongs each other but in a room filled with programmers working on making games, Divide and Conquer has been used in many places to solve LARGE problems....Not just computer sciences.
Information itself and its organization and distribution is a DIVIDE AND CONQUER problem
Comments
Nice article! Not entirely original in content, but very original in delivery. Made me LOL. More like this please!
That said, you do tend to focus on a couple of the larger beefs I have with the MMO industry as a whole, and the shells the designers have created around themselves. Seems like a couple of these could be solved by thinking outside the box - that is, NOT thinking like a game designer/developer when approaching specific problems. For instance, regarding skill-based systems, why on God's green Earth do developers implement skill-based systems and then even TRY to balance them for 1 on 1 PvP? Why do that to yourself and your player base? If the game is designed around that (like Tekken or Street Fighter) then fine, but as an example, in the case of SWG pre-CU (because now the game is thoroughly irrelevant), people were complaining of imbalanced skill sets between combat classes. Big deal. The premise was Star WARS, meaning large group battles. Yeah they still screwed it up with Combat Medics which were true nukes, but that was easy to solve with a couple well-placed nerfs.
Bottom line, if fighters can always beat wizards which can always beat clerics which can always beat fighters, how is that different from group roles (which I find equally abhorrent, but we'll never escape from because it's far too cheap to implement)? Why should you balance so any two classes always always always have an exactly equal chance? That seems entirely too politically liberal.
There's a sucker born every minute. - P.T. Barnum
Perhaps it is time to start offloading some of the development to players?
There are a lot of people out there who love to build worlds but don't have the funds to hire a studio to implement their imagination.
Class balance.... because everything and everyone should be the same cause we have to please everyone....
The state that MMO's are in today is because everyone thinks they know what and how a game should be made and cry because this is not the case.
While an MMO might start out good, once people start complaining and developers start to change it so that those complaining get what they want is when the game starts going down the toilet. I am not saying don't listen to your playerbase, I am saying don't give them every single thing they want because even if you do they will find something else to cry about the following day.
Awesome post! I learned a lot too.
Another article about how players are jerks and developers need to be treated better. Do we forget so easily that we give them money for the games on top of paying to keep playing it? If they want us to cut them some slack then make the games cheaper.
Who said anything about the players being jerks? Oh, the players did. Devs didn't worry about how feature X could be abused until someone did abuse and another person whined.
What a great read! So funny and so true!
I have been playing since the days of Gemstone III and have seen examples of your griefer mentality in almost every game I have played.
I remember in UO a guy that somehow hacked an insta kill command. He was without a doubt the king of all griefers. Same game, two guys would block a pass and kill you as you tried to get past.
Then there was the guy in WoW who had a speed hack in Warsong Gulch. He capped the flag 3 times in under a minute, lol.
Excellent article.
Insightful, humorous... and managed to address or at least acknowledge just about every aspect of the typical MMO community at large.
Love the bit about grinding non-stop 'til you pass out to "beat the game", only to complain about a lack of content. How many times I've pointed out the behavior to people who were doing just that... trying to 'beat the game' at the expense of ignoring most of the content along the way.... then blaming the developers for it.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I also am waiting for your contribution to this great article : come on, dont be shy, share your godlike knowledge. What are those holes, comment them and propose suggestions, we're all listening, oooooo sensei...
Excellent article, i enjoyed reading it, and very informative. Thank you.
I move to submit Shannon as God of MMORPG.COM articles.
Honestly, this is the best article i've read on this site in the better part of 6 months. She detailed exactly what i've been trying to say about skill based games and why they really don't work except for a very specific subset of the MMO playerbase. She talked about tons of design elements that people bitch about game companies doing or not doing.
It just amazes me, because if most of the playerbase had any ability towards reasoned thinking, they would have been able to figure a lot of this out themselves. Of course then you have the people who you can show the utter truth of a situation to, and they still will say "i dont care, make it happen or i will continue whining!"
Anyways, kudos to Shannon.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Loved it!
Intelligent and witty. Excellent read. Keep up the good work!
He/She?..really? Take half a second to read a Bio. Enjoyed the article. Give this guy more assignments.
Yeah, good to read and full of truth.
But its no excuse for not implementing basic features that are long known in their effects into a new game.
That is why experience is so much worth - you know what will happen and you can early on steer a feature around to much misuse.
You know when to ignore your Testplayers / PLayerbase and when to listen.
Its your Job...
PS: Yeah, never tell them to be ignored, flat out lie about...^^
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
Honestly, devs should stick to their guns more. Don't listen to the whiners.
The people that will play the game, will play the game. If they do not like it, they are free to GTFO. Find something you like.
Drop the balance crap. Make every skill set dependent on another skill set for survival, and you will not have 200k of the same elite skill set running around.
Make it a player world, not a world with players.
1) I liked the Article.
2) Some of it was kindof... for lack of a better word... silly. (Not the funny kind of silly. More like the "...what? Um...okay..." silly.
3) This quote "Stradden: 'Missed the hyperbole, did you?
I'm also curious what "holes" you see here, being that you are, I would assume, an expert in video game development.'"
is rather unprofessional. I agree there are a few holes in there, and not everyone is going to like this article for realistic reasons. We as humans need to realize that our written work may not be perfect for various reasons.
I see holes as well. Quite a few. Some insignificant, some face-palming. Overall it's a great article (whoever write it and proof-read it did a great job). It is fun and silly (the funny kind) which is another big plus. But at times it provides poor examples. Very poor examples. "Poor enough" where it will lead some readers to question the author's point's validity.
I will provide three examples or "holes" and my response.
The first "hole":
"Take barrels. What does a barrel look like in this world? Are there--should there be--more than one style? If so, does each race/side/whatever have its own unique barrels?"
As an indie game developer, I find this example face-palming. Without a big budget, there is no need or possibility to include more than just one barrel. And that's only if that barrel has a use! It slightly frustrates me as a developer that big-shot (or any serious developer) would ask this question about barrels when there is so much more attention needed in every other aspect of a video game. What a waste of time! As an anticipated reader of this potentially informative and intelligent article, I am disappointed that there was not a better example that would actually apply to me and give me better foresight into the REAL questions developers ask which actually have relevance even to the small or young future-developer who may be extremely interested in this article.
The second "hole"
Player Complaining about Insiginificant Issues. Honestly...who cares? If a player complains about something as (pardon my french) stupid as "Why am I not allowed to Dual Wield two Shields offensively?" then any intelligent developer should quickly sigh and remind themselves not to waste their time reading full-sentences from children. It's common sense that if you equip two defensive weapons that you will be gimped. The fact the system allows it is cool enough for most people to say "It's that cool! Of course, no one would want to but the fact is you CAN!"
Or if a player complains about something as insignificant as "Why aren't there more bookshelves in this room!?" their voice is so tiny why even waste your time? In essence, the examples provided about players complaining consist mostly of what would account to trolls and children spouting irrelevant complaints that have nothing to do with what really matters: the game.
It is NOT that these players don't make good points. Libraries should have bookshelves. If there's a possibility to dual-wield shields it WOULD be cool to use them efficiently. But developers do not have time for this sort of drivel. There are far, far, FAR more important details and aspects of video games which need attention instead. As a PLAYER, I am always frustrated to the point of quitting MMORPG's because of Developer's focus on petty minor features while they ignore the massive gaping hole which is bleeding their subs. Something as simple as "Stop overpowered [Ability 12] from killing players in 2 hits when combat is supposed to last for 100 hits!" Not "barely overpowered" abilities in WoW. No, I mean GAME-STOPPING, GAME-BREAKING overpowered abilities like Champions Online was plagued with at launch.
I am not talking about "my opinion" as to what the developers should work on. I am speaking of what the majority of (quitting) players overwhelmingly agree upon is the major downfall of the game. Whether that is extremely poor performance (Vanguard) or game-breaking bugs, exploits, or unbalanced powers. I am not talking about Trammel/Felucca or PRE -CU SWG. At least those developers tried something to fix the major problems. Unlike some developers who ignore the real problems who the MAJORITY of players scream about. Not barrels. Not bookshelves. Not dual-wielding asinine items.
The third "hole" would be:
"So I can just invite them into my group by telling them I want to give them some gold, then lock up their computers spamming heals."
At this point, someone usually has their hands wrapped around his throat."
Which of course is my fault, as I guess I missed the joke in this one. It was funny, but at the same time I wonder if developers really do sit around tables being more than just trouble-shooters-- if they actually make massive game-changes based around stuff as simple as the fact the above example is ridiculous.
I guess I missed the joke because it isn't a logical jump to assume that both spamming particle effects AND/OR sounds will lock up a computer. Sounds often don't, and are simply just not played :P But even if they both *somehow* did, sometimes it's more important to focus on other aspects than a very, very, very abstract example of an ultimate reality that players WILL be able to annoy others. That is actually what make the games fun! The fact the developers have solved it ENOUGH to where a player has to lie, deceive, and invite someone into a group with trickery is enough to deter most of the problems. Afterall, most players will learn to /disband the moment someone starts spamming that ability. Players will get warned, reported, or banned. And after many months of focusing on REAL issues, this will probably eventually be resolved in a very, very, very small patch.
Excellent article! This should be required reading for all gamers.
I am a jerk!
Thumbs up for the Dwarf Fortress nod. First reference of the year.
Finally a good article on mmorpg. Very well done.
In regards to the "easy to use" (including intuitive), there is a thing called developer eyes. You know what it's suppose to do, you wrote the code or fiddled with the results for a while so you believe it is obvious. This is a reason why it's important to include in your early alpha tests people who are not familiar with your type of games. It gives you important feedback from an outsiders point of view.
The early design phase is the most fun in my experience. But everyone wants to go to the party, but nobody wants to clean up afterwards. It's not just games that experience changes in the approach to a problem. Sometimes a few trial and errors can be done to see how the performance in the real world work out.
Balance is a tricky thing thing. There is a poster on mmorpg.com, wjrasmussen, who lives near me, who talks about it. It's easy to add a number of different weapons to a game and then create a new skill for each of +10% dps. In an open skill system, how do you balance a +10% DPS vs a skill to increase movement speed? What about synergy (2+2=5)?
One thing I hope everyone who comes to forums demanding features from devs should see from this article is how limited resources are and the fact you have budgets and schedules to meet. Something that sounds easy doesn't always work or even fit into the rest of the system.
Finally, I hope Shannon take the time to write a few more articles for mmmorpg.com. We need it!
Absolutely love this article really fun reading it.
What a load of bollox if you ask me.
sure, these kind of scenario's might have happened around the time of Ultima online, but ffs, give us a break dude, Succesfull and unsucesfull MMO's have been coming and going for decades now. You really expect us to beleive that they go through all these primative dumb questions and answers?
Humans learn from experience, maybe students studying the subject might find this interesting, but look at Tera online, they have Devs on there from nearly every mmo ever made, lol. I think by now they understand whats wanted and whats not.
Great peice ancient history Doc, but give it to daniel jackson, we're interested in modern and future days. I dont buy any of this.
Great Article, makes you realise sometimes we as gamers can be a bit to rash, and forgetful of the big picture. BUT, it seems to me that all these problems the developers are facing, they may have brought the majority upon themselves. If they made games they loved or thought would be fun and made them for gamers, not been greedy and making them for the masses casuals and the unwashed. Instead of catering for anyone and everyone, do it for those that matter, gamers. The more you try to please the less pleased people will be. It really struck me that most of these problems would be solved by heading back to how they made games in the old days. When the jerkwads ect were not as prevelant, because community and reputation meant something. just a thought.
This, was the god of all blogs! THe mother of all articles!
Very interesting read and good points!
Except He said hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Very good article.
This was an entertaining read. *smiles*, With all due respect, I think you are ok but this article was complete pile of deception on your part. I hardly believe you spent any real time in the game development industry. Its too much based on generalizations and opinions. There are no facts here, just hypotheticals and opinions.
Your blog entry reminds me of my first two weeks when I took a course called "Software Engineering" which explains all of this and your elaboration, makes me wonder if you are starting a CS major and trying to show off what you've learned.
Game companies spend their time deciding what to do, and the idea today is that everyone wants their own MMO since they can generate money from monthly subscription fees. Everyone wants to cash in on Blizzard's success.
I remember running my own MMORPG Private Server and modded it across several systems. 8000 Registered, 2000 who usually played simultaneously. If I was commercial, and charged $15 a month, I would generate the following results on just 8000 players
8000 players x 15 dollars = $120,000/month (monthly fee Generation)
120K x 12 = 1.44 million generated/yearly
8000 players x 50 (cost of a new game) = $400,000
I was running the server with 1000x more exp and 500% drop rate. People loved it more than official servers due to the fact I only required $400 a month for connection maintanance, system mantainance and paying electric bills. By a donation system, I was always able to get $600 - $700. I always took care of people and ran a team in-server. People loved that it wasn't a grind fest and in a short time their characters reach a point where they can "JUST PLAY"...
Now Imagine millions! The idea is not to let them have fun but to believe they are having fun and that fun comes from "HARD WORK" and burning time away, spanning months and people call that being HARDCORE..
MMORPGs are great in private server where its not about syphoning money from you, but in official servers to most games...They have been horrible. The exception is Guild Wars where the team that made it did not design it around a monthly subscription model allowing people to "Just Play."
You want to talk about the design process....For the last 10 years, MMORPGs have had the same Four to Five types of NPC quests rehashed in a 1000 different ways. Almost any game you play at the end of the day, it always comes back to one of these quests where your character is just a window into the world and as a character is just an emptyshell.
A lot of people use "Divide and Conquer" Logic in problem solving and it is one of the most effective things. I am not ranting on about the "military strategy" of getting factions to attack one another and then your faction destroys the one remaning. No, I mean "Divide and Conquer" logic.
Divide and Conquer means to solve a large problem by breaking the problem down into two or more smaller version of the same problem. It is a fundamental part of logic theory and design. I know people will argue amongs each other but in a room filled with programmers working on making games, Divide and Conquer has been used in many places to solve LARGE problems....Not just computer sciences.
Information itself and its organization and distribution is a DIVIDE AND CONQUER problem