Raph Koster was a guest on a livestream on Monsters & Explosion's Twitch channel in which he comments on the state of his upcoming MMORPG, Playable Worlds.
My expectations are low. Nothing against Raph but it's just what I expect from the MMO genera these days, underwhelming everything. As an MMO gamer when it comes to MMORPGs the only right choices you have are to either play WoW, ESO or FFXIV. A few folks still play LOTRO, and maybe a bit of GW2, but mostly vets play nothing at all and spend their days complaining about it.
All there is left is to argue about what an MMORPG truly is on forums full of bored Gen-Xrs and boomers.
I still miss Star Wars Galaxies that game truly felt like you lived in that world doing whatever you wanted. I miss my house/shop, making Armor for my clients and decorating when I got something new to display, Now it’s log on do to do daily quest or raid because everything else is just a time sync, Crafting is a joke in WOW so only thing to really do is raid and so tired of that train.
Well it's Raph and that means someone more open minded and thoughtful than most at the helm. It's interesting that he's going for all-inclusive instead of niche.
I found this quote to especially interesting:
"I think a lot of the folks making games-as-a-service now kind of took some of the wrong lessons [from old MMOs]," Koster says. "They looked at things and said, 'It's about engagement.'
But engagement, the sense of wanting to check back regularly, should be driven by the player's interest. Engagement is there in order to lead you to retention. When we were designing those games back then, we weren't thinking in terms of, 'How do we get people to come back daily in order to increase our [day 2] or [day 7] return rate,' which is sort of the metrics-driven way of thinking of things. We didn't approach it that way. We were always thinking, 'We need this person to come back next month.'
"And that drives a different mindset. It puts you in the mindset that we're building long-term relationships here. We're not trying to drive necessarily constant activity. We want to drive something where a relationship of trust is built with the player. We don't need them to log in every day. What we want them to do is to feel attached and care about our fictional universe and want to come back all the time."
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
So we went from announcing game releases, to announcing 18 month ETA's for game releases, and now we have announcements a year in advance for the announcements about games?
Well at least we got a review for the Switch version of a single player MMORPG on here today. That's pretty much the state of the genre.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
HE wants a community involved design process...hmmm have we ever heard that before.
How is he building an engine if he plans on the design LATER based on feedback?
If i was to ask him right now a few questions this early,they would be HOW much time did you spend planning each individual system.
So that would be Combat,crafting,grouping,classes,Mobs,resistances/buffs/debuffs,zones,levels,quests,how is content gaited etc etc.So yeah he had better of spent a VERY long time planning this out,just winging it will never produce a good game.
My favorite question now...is your game going to be a world game from level 1>infinity or will it be like the rest and 3 months in it is just another instance raiding game?
There lies another important question,is this mostly instances or does it live up to the MMO billing,does it have all the RPG elements,like a place to live,food ,drink,food,weather,fame/favor etc etc.
So yeah this is why often trying to discuss games in a forum or anywhere is nearly impossible.Yo udon't build a game just because you feel you can,you build one because you have some really good ideas and planned it out thoroughly.Personally,unless this guy has some very large investors,he cannot pull off a AAA game but is already laying the foundation of what is to come,PRETENDING the community is involved to stir up player doantions.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Its getting so ridicilous now that we are hyped for information of a idea of mmo that is pre pre concepting stage. Meaning even if they do somehow get funding and all it will take up to 10 years for now for that MMO to be released. Thats 2030
I still miss Star Wars Galaxies that game truly felt like you lived in that world doing whatever you wanted. I miss my house/shop, making Armor for my clients and decorating when I got something new to display, Now it’s log on do to do daily quest or raid because everything else is just a time sync, Crafting is a joke in WOW so only thing to really do is raid and so tired of that train.
Strange, I was playing Star Wars Galaxies last night.
In Retail WoW crafting may be a joke since it has no purpose, it only exists so it can be advertised the game has crafting, but in Vanilla, the crafting makes a lot more sense since it has some purpose, although not as robust as SWG.
On one WoW server called Turtle WoW, there are even custom professions like Gardening and Survival added that expand the game even further.
https://turtle-wow.org/
In roughly three weeks I will be sharing my thoughts on Raph sharing this information in advance of the actual announcement of the announcemet of an idea of a game.
I know you guys are hyped so I might write a piece before these three weeks exploring the idea of my thoughts on Raph sharing his information in advance of the actual announcement of the announcement of an idea of a game. This might take some time and effort and perhaps some money so I might run a Kickstarter to get things going.
Stay tuned, stay hyped.
/Cheers, Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
I still miss Star Wars Galaxies that game truly felt like you lived in that world doing whatever you wanted. I miss my house/shop, making Armor for my clients and decorating when I got something new to display, Now it’s log on do to do daily quest or raid because everything else is just a time sync, Crafting is a joke in WOW so only thing to really do is raid and so tired of that train.
It's alive and well, not only that, it's getting new content all the time. Coming up with the iso's is easy, just search around or if you have the og's disks you're golden. Been playing for over two years now, it's fine if you're worried about scams or anything of the sort.
My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022
Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)
Eh, I'm not fussed over how long it'll take... Considering we live in the age of Kickstarters that take forever to launch...
I'm still curious to see what he'll do with it though.
Something tells me it's going to be a game that looks like something from Y2K though. So it probably won't be for me anyway.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
I still miss Star Wars Galaxies that game truly felt like you lived in that world doing whatever you wanted. I miss my house/shop, making Armor for my clients and decorating when I got something new to display, Now it’s log on do to do daily quest or raid because everything else is just a time sync, Crafting is a joke in WOW so only thing to really do is raid and so tired of that train.
Same, though unless someone comes up with some mind wipe technology and a time machine it's impossible to relive that experience the way we did at the time. The emulators are fun for a short time, kinda like visiting a museum. I just have hard time staying long because I've been there done that. Legends has new content, though it's NGE, and NGE is one of the reasons I left SWG. So I have this weird internal battle going on over whether I should like it or not. Not worth it lol.
Comments
My expectations are low. Nothing against Raph but it's just what I expect from the MMO genera these days, underwhelming everything. As an MMO gamer when it comes to MMORPGs the only right choices you have are to either play WoW, ESO or FFXIV. A few folks still play LOTRO, and maybe a bit of GW2, but mostly vets play nothing at all and spend their days complaining about it.
All there is left is to argue about what an MMORPG truly is on forums full of bored Gen-Xrs and boomers.
I found this quote to especially interesting:
But engagement, the sense of wanting to check back regularly, should be driven by the player's interest. Engagement is there in order to lead you to retention. When we were designing those games back then, we weren't thinking in terms of, 'How do we get people to come back daily in order to increase our [day 2] or [day 7] return rate,' which is sort of the metrics-driven way of thinking of things. We didn't approach it that way. We were always thinking, 'We need this person to come back next month.'
"And that drives a different mindset. It puts you in the mindset that we're building long-term relationships here. We're not trying to drive necessarily constant activity. We want to drive something where a relationship of trust is built with the player. We don't need them to log in every day. What we want them to do is to feel attached and care about our fictional universe and want to come back all the time."
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Well at least we got a review for the Switch version of a single player MMORPG on here today. That's pretty much the state of the genre.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
How is he building an engine if he plans on the design LATER based on feedback?
If i was to ask him right now a few questions this early,they would be HOW much time did you spend planning each individual system.
So that would be Combat,crafting,grouping,classes,Mobs,resistances/buffs/debuffs,zones,levels,quests,how is content gaited etc etc.So yeah he had better of spent a VERY long time planning this out,just winging it will never produce a good game.
My favorite question now...is your game going to be a world game from level 1>infinity or will it be like the rest and 3 months in it is just another instance raiding game?
There lies another important question,is this mostly instances or does it live up to the MMO billing,does it have all the RPG elements,like a place to live,food ,drink,food,weather,fame/favor etc etc.
So yeah this is why often trying to discuss games in a forum or anywhere is nearly impossible.Yo udon't build a game just because you feel you can,you build one because you have some really good ideas and planned it out thoroughly.Personally,unless this guy has some very large investors,he cannot pull off a AAA game but is already laying the foundation of what is to come,PRETENDING the community is involved to stir up player doantions.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
https://swglegends.com/
Strange, I was playing Star Wars Galaxies last night. In Retail WoW crafting may be a joke since it has no purpose, it only exists so it can be advertised the game has crafting, but in Vanilla, the crafting makes a lot more sense since it has some purpose, although not as robust as SWG. On one WoW server called Turtle WoW, there are even custom professions like Gardening and Survival added that expand the game even further. https://turtle-wow.org/
I know you guys are hyped so I might write a piece before these three weeks exploring the idea of my thoughts on Raph sharing his information in advance of the actual announcement of the announcement of an idea of a game. This might take some time and effort and perhaps some money so I might run a Kickstarter to get things going.
Stay tuned, stay hyped.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Miss it?
https://swglegends.com/
It's alive and well, not only that, it's getting new content all the time. Coming up with the iso's is easy, just search around or if you have the og's disks you're golden. Been playing for over two years now, it's fine if you're worried about scams or anything of the sort.
Considering we live in the age of Kickstarters that take forever to launch...
I'm still curious to see what he'll do with it though.
Something tells me it's going to be a game that looks like something from Y2K though. So it probably won't be for me anyway.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Same, though unless someone comes up with some mind wipe technology and a time machine it's impossible to relive that experience the way we did at the time. The emulators are fun for a short time, kinda like visiting a museum. I just have hard time staying long because I've been there done that. Legends has new content, though it's NGE, and NGE is one of the reasons I left SWG. So I have this weird internal battle going on over whether I should like it or not. Not worth it lol.