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Ingame Radio MMORPG Stations. Do you listen to them?

Tom316Tom316 Member Posts: 16
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM

As Lead Designer of Age of Darkness it is part of my job to get a feel for different things people look for in MMORPGs and how well used / recieved they are.

I am trying to get a feel for how wanted such a feature would be. While I know a lot of people like to listen to music while they are playing games. There are even several online radio stations dedicated to different games.

If Age of Darkness had some kind of built in media playing system that allowed you to connect to different internet based gaming radio stations would you use the feature (if it did not lag the game any)?

Also do you think you would tune into a station that was dedicated to bringing you nothing but Age of Darkness in game news, events, recent happenings, in game weather reports, ect. Based around nothing but the Age of Darkness world and its happenings. Possibly even doing stories and such based on events in the world.

And this also applys in general in that if your favorite MMO game had this feature and such a station would you use it and listen to the station? (This is all provided it never lagged your game play in any form)

Comments

  • LeasaLeasa Member Posts: 449

    I would not.  I would consider it as breaking the immersion. 

    BUt thats just me.

     

    Support Bacteria, its the only culture some people have.

  • logangregorlogangregor Member Posts: 1,524


    I might tune into the news--I dont think I would listen to it all the time but I would listen in occasionally.

    As far as the music goes, the people that like to listen to music while there playing are already doing so. Theyve already got there play list set up.

    More importantly having a in game news wouldnt sell me on a game. Stick to the basics first. The rest is just icing--and only icing.

    image

  • Rikimaru_XRikimaru_X Member UncommonPosts: 11,718

    Hear a internet radio station while playing a MMORPG? I'm sorry but no thanks. Now I would hear music while playing.

     

    But that is just me.

    -In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08-
    |
    RISING DRAGOON ~AION US ONLINE LEGION for Elyos

  • ianubisiianubisi Member Posts: 4,201

    Two comments on this:

    1) I never listen to in-game music stations primarily because I a) don't trust other people's taste in music, b) usually want to hear what I want to hear when I want to hear it, and c) often have music off so I can concentrate on other things.

    2) Editorial: this question begs to question the sense of priorities for your development. People play these games for the gameplay, for the skills/classes, for the content, for the challenge, for questing or exploration, and for many other elements that come well before a concern about music. I have no idea where you all are in your design process, so perhaps you are way ahead of schedule and looking for dramatic challenges to keep your team engaged...but the game and its core features are exponentially more important to be thoroughly thought out.

  • Dregard44Dregard44 Member Posts: 103


    Originally posted by ianubisi
    2) Editorial: this question begs to question the sense of priorities for your development. People play these games for the gameplay, for the skills/classes, for the content, for the challenge, for questing or exploration, and for many other elements that come well before a concern about music. I have no idea where you all are in your design process, so perhaps you are way ahead of schedule and looking for dramatic challenges to keep your team engaged...but the game and its core features are exponentially more important to be thoroughly thought out.

    Is it possible that they have different people working on different things? :)

    _____________________________
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  • doobsterdoobster Member Posts: 736

    Wow, the news station is a REALLY good idea, especially for a game with RvR or PvP content, i would LOVE to see something like this.  I wouldnt like to hear a radio station, no.  A built in MP3 player could work though.

  • jamiegilhenjamiegilhen Member Posts: 22

    Originally posted by ianubisi
    2) Editorial: this question begs to question the sense of priorities for your development. People play these games for the gameplay, for the skills/classes, for the content, for the challenge, for questing or exploration, and for many other elements that come well before a concern about music. I have no idea where you all are in your design process, so perhaps you are way ahead of schedule and looking for dramatic challenges to keep your team engaged...but the game and its core features are exponentially more important to be thoroughly thought out.

    This isn't a feature that we'd be building right away; we're simply doing some research into what might work and what we should consider for later on.

    Thanks for your feedback so far,

  • ianubisiianubisi Member Posts: 4,201

    Originally posted by jamiegilhen

    This isn't a feature that we'd be building right away; we're simply doing some research into what might work and what we should consider for later on.

    It's a matter of perception. When you approach a community to ask for its feedback, and your questions focus on ancillary features, don't be surprised if some people ask why you aren't seeking feedback on core gameplay issues. In any case, I've made my point.

  • darquenbladedarquenblade Member Posts: 1,015


    Originally posted by jamiegilhen




    Originally posted by ianubisi
    2) Editorial: this question begs to question the sense of priorities for your development. People play these games for the gameplay, for the skills/classes, for the content, for the challenge, for questing or exploration, and for many other elements that come well before a concern about music. I have no idea where you all are in your design process, so perhaps you are way ahead of schedule and looking for dramatic challenges to keep your team engaged...but the game and its core features are exponentially more important to be thoroughly thought out.

    This isn't a feature that we'd be building right away; we're simply doing some research into what might work and what we should consider for later on.

    Thanks for your feedback so far,

    I find it rather odd that you would be considering a feature like this (even if it is later on), when in another thread you were asking for suggestions on how to foster an environment for roleplaying in your games.

    Good Roleplaying Environment != In-Game Radio Stations

    That's what I think anyhow.

  • JyveTurkeyJyveTurkey Member UncommonPosts: 24

    The idea in itself sounds fantastic to me, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be engaging enough. You would need really talented and dedicated hosts to keep players around to actually want to listen.

    The game news show or whatever you would have it be would be nice, but I don't see how a person could spend more than a few minutes a day talking about the new features of the game, unless you releases a whole bunch of crap daily or something. Perhaps if it was a huge and popular game, coverage of PvP tournaments and other events would be pretty fun to listen to.

    If you allowed for a couple of exceptions in your built-in radio, I think it could work well enough that players will want to use it rather than ignore it. Allow players to easily load their own music into the game, either through some in-game menu or placing the music in a folder in the game directory before launching. Allow the players many option in tuning their in-game media player, like setting up playlist order, renaming songs, etc. If there was something like that I'd use it for that alone just so I don't have to Alt+Tab back to windows to fiddle with Winamp.

    Secondly, the best thing you could do is to allow streaming audio from other websites for a person to listen to. Have a person load a .pls file of the station they want, and have it stream in-game. If you could pull that off, you'd have a keeper.

    Anyways, I hope my comments were helpful, and if you have anything else you wanted feedback on, I'd be more than willing to give my opinions on what the pros and cons would be and how they should work.

    P.S. By the way, where can I find this game you're working on? Nevermind, found it.

  • SiphonsSiphons Member Posts: 445

    I think the idea would be great if it were a sci fi game, but for this game it's silly. ::::29::

    ---------------------------------------
    All you friggin suburban white kid wannabe poobutts that are in love with G-Unit are sad and pathetic. Find your own identity ::::28:: -Anarchyart

  • jamiegilhenjamiegilhen Member Posts: 22

    Ianubisi, point taken, but I just don’t see how the fact that we’re thinking ahead might suggest that our priorities are somehow misplaced.

    Darquenblade, how does an in-game radio station deter in any way from a role-playing environment? Couldn't role players simply turn it off? This is not a role-player only game, and no one ever claimed it was, but nor is it mutually exclusive to those who do not wish to role-play. We'd like to accomadate both.

    This is just a general thought that’s not targeted at anyone, but I’m going to share it:

    It’s strange and alarming to be at the other end of the table; for years I was the one asking the questions, but now I find myself right here, overwhelmed and even feeling defensive about our projects.
    It really gives a neat perspective :)

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