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‘The Complex’ is almost a good FMV game
There are countless examples of the real world intruding on art, making something that was fine a day ago a grisly mistake now. The pilot episode of X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which aired six months before 9/11, featured a terrorist plan to fly a plane into the World Trade Center, for instance. And it's likely that The Complex, an interactive movie about dangerous biotechnology, skirts the same issue. After all, nobody wants to fixate on doctors in a life-and-death race against disease when there's a pandemic raging, do they?
Adidas is using augmented reality to sell limited-edition sneakers
It's never been easy to buy limited-edition sneakers, especially for consumers who may not have the same resources as a reseller. This can be anything from automated scripts (aka bots), to an army of people waiting in line outside a store ready to take all the stock. That's why brands such as Nike and Adidas are using technology to try to even the playing field for everyone, be it through random launches on an app or by using experiences based around emerging mediums like augmented reality. On November 3rd and 4th, at ComplexCon in Long Beach, California, Adidas Originals will debut a new AR feature that's going to let attendees buy some of the hottest shoes of the year -- including its Dragon Ball Z collaboration.
The Daily Grind: What MMO systems are too complicated for you?
In my experience, game designers are prone to creating systems in RPGs and MMOs that are, well, antagonistic to the extreme. Maybe they made sense to the dev who had it all mapped out in his or her head, but to the average player, it's only a little more understandable than reading War and Peace in Sanskrit. The customization systems of Final Fantasy VII and VIII always come to mind when I think about this. VII's materia was easy to grok, allowing me to clearly understand what effects I wanted to equip and giving me a path to level them up. Then came VIII's junction system, which allowed scads more customization but was just a jumbled mess of incoherent ideas and a generally bad approach. Don't get me wrong; I don't want a Fisher-Price MMO. I think that the more complex a system is, the clearer the instruction and design needs to be for us to navigate it. So what MMO systems are too complicated for you? How would you make them better? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Strategic resources for everyone!
The past four EVE Online expansions have mostly focused on adding small features and overhauling old game mechanics and content that were beginning to show their age. Crucible delivered dozens of small but highly-requested features and gameplay improvements, and Inferno and Retribution continued with overhauls of several aging PvP systems. Even Odyssey contained mostly small features and revamps, its biggest gameplay features being a new hacking minigame and a streamlined scanning interface. It's been several years since EVE has received a truly massive and game-changing feature like wormholes or a sovereignty revamp, but that may all be about to change! CCP recently announced its intention to start reaching for big ideas again, but this time set over a more realistic timeframe. If everything goes according to plan, the next five years could see the introduction of player-built stargates and true deep space colonisation. I wrote about the potential of this concept last week and looked at some of the big features we'd need to make it a reality, but I didn't really delve into my personal favourite idea for a potential future expansion: New strategic resources and player-created deadspace complexes. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how strategic resources could be used to get even individual players invested in something worth fighting for, and how player-created deadspace dungeons could be a great way to introduce them.
The Daily Grind: How complex is too complex for MMOs?
I'm a huge fan of isometric clickers like Diablo, Torchlight, and Titan Quest, so I admit to being secretly pleased when pseudo-MMOs like Path of Exile were approved for coverage on Massively. In fact, I jumped into Path of Exile this past weekend to give it another spin. And as soon as my new character got her first skill point, I gleefully clicked over to the skill panel, only to be confronted with the game's notorious and glorious SKILL TREE TO END ALL SKILL TREES. It's not even a skill tree. It's a skill maze. A skill constellation. A skill galaxy. The screenshot above isn't even half of what's available. It's overwhelming at level 2 to say the least. I like complexity in character development, but I had forgotten how over-the-top Path of Exile really was, and I had to wonder whether this sort of complexity-dump scares off newcomers to the genre, or indeed, whether it's intended to scare them off, convince them the game is harder-core than they are, or possibly just entrap them with poor early game decisions. Doesn't the skill avalanche just drive gamers to tab out and look up guides, and is that really the best idea for retaining brand-new players? How complex is too complex for MMOs and pseudo-MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Zynga announces Solstice Arena, a social MOBA coming to mobile
Back at GDC earlier this year, I was invited to what I was told was a very limited meeting with Zynga. The company, which of course made its name with social Facebook games and recently has been trying to pivot to mobile platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Most of Zynga's games tend towards the casual (simply because Farmville is the company's biggest hit, and that's where their success lies). But at GDC, they wanted to show me something different. It was a "midcore" game, they said -- a game that had the complexity of a hardcore title, but was accessible enough for iOS' large audience to enjoy and rally around. The game was being put together by a developer named A Bit Lucky, which had already built out a few social titles already, and it was going to be a "multiplayer online battle arena" title -- a MOBA game, very similar to the extremely popular League of Legends. The game they showed me was Solstice Arena, which has just been officially announced by Zynga. Now, the MOBA genre is a tough one to pull off on mobile -- it's traditionally a very PC-centric genre, originally based on real-time strategy, with lots of mouse-specific controls and keys to press. But the MOBA genre has been attempted on iOS before, so it's definitely not impossible to pull off. Zynga's real innovation on Solstice Arena is going to be the game's format: Instead of the traditional five players vs. five players, the team has boiled the game down into 3v3, all fighting on what's essentially one lane. There are still towers to take down and various heroes to fight with, but having just three people on a side means the game is more concentrated, and individual players can make more of a difference. The other big change from traditional MOBA is that Solstice Arena's main mode is timed, so matches are less about the long, dragged out battles than they are about quicker skirmishes. This fits the mobile platform as well: quicker matches are more doable on portable platforms, obviously. While it is a much more complicated game than a lot of Zynga's other offerings, Solstice Arena still makes use of social and freemium elements for sure. In addition to online matchmaking (for both skill and team setup, promises A Bit Lucky), there will be social hooks in the game, and the title will have a metagame in the form of items that can be leveled up outside of matches. There will be an in-app currency, and it'll be used to purchase heroes, buy boosts, and other outside of game elements. Obviously, the developers don't want the game to simply be pay-to-win, but this is Zynga we're talking about. While not everything is figured out just yet, it's not a stretch to predict there will definitely be no shortage of places in the app to spend real money if that's what you choose to do. Still, even in this early stage, Solstice Arena looks like fun. Lots of the abilities are fairly simple -- they're designed to work on a touchscreen, so many of them target an area or a direction rather than a specific target. But there is a nice mix of hero classes, from casters to support, fighters, and assassins. And there are some fun mechanics being developed as well -- acing the other team by killing all of your opponents at the same time is called a "Power Play" and gives your team a temporary boost in power. There are also plenty of items to pick up around the game's field, which confer various individual or team bonuses as they go. Solstice Arena is due out for mobile platforms soon -- Zynga will run a beta first, probably in a market like Canada or New Zealand, and then bring the game out to more App Stores worldwide after that. A Bit Lucky also tells us that soon after that they're hoping to have the game running on both Mac and PC as well, depending of course on the game's reception and what kind of audience the title eventually finds. Solstice Arena is a fairly gutsy move for Zynga -- it's definitely more complicated than what most people expect from the company, and given the success of League of Legends and Dota, Zynga's going after a very specific audience that might not have played their titles before. We'll keep an eye on Solstice Arena as development moves along, and let you know when it's finally available to try for yourself.
Daily iPad App: Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy is a great board game adaptation
Eclipse is one of the most popular board games around right now -- it's a vast, involving epic "4X" game, where those four Xs stand for eXploration, eXpansion, eXploitation (as in mining crops and resources from various planets) and eXtermination (as in finishing off your alien opponents). It was recently announced that Big Daddy's Creations would be adapting the game for iPad, and the iOS version has now arrived on the App Store, available for US$6.99. As a board game, I think Eclipse is terrific -- it's very well-balanced, and all of the various things you can do offer plenty of different strategies to play with. There are three resources (money, science and material) that you can use to exert your influence on various areas of a galaxy, research new technologies for starships or your empire or build up those ships and other various structures to combat your enemies. The game's almost endlessly flexible, in that you can try to win over the game's nine turns in any number of ways. The drawback here, however, is that all of that flexibility and complexity make the game, well, complicated. This is not a casual game by any means, and while the iOS version's interface is fairly good at converting all of the information you need into a visible, touchable form, it's not very good at actually explaining what all of that information is. So when you're confronted by 30-50 icons on screen at the same time and asked to choose one, the game can be overwhelming to say the least. Still, if you like great board games and are up for a challenge, Eclipse is excellent. And if you're already familiar with the board game, then this might end up becoming one of your favorite games on the App Store. My only other complaint is that there's no real "metagame" to it -- winning or losing the various games you play doesn't matter much in the larger picture at all. Still, Eclipse is an incredible adaptation of a brilliant board game, and it comes highly recommended. Even at the price of $6.99, it's one of the best board game apps out there.
Leaderboard: Complexity vs. simplicity
A wise man once said to me, "Now, the world of MMOs don't move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, may not be right for some." That may have also been '80s TV talking, but the point is still valid. When it comes to the wide range of our gaming buffet, we have everything from incredibly complex games that require a Masters-level course to Fisher-Price games with condescending colors and icons just in case we can't read. I appreciate both and everything in between on that spectrum. Complexity certainly does drive people away and present a real obstacle to growing a playerbase, but it also asks folks to step up and learn something instead of be handed welfare epics. Simplicity is relaxing as well because life is complicated enough. Sometimes you just want to see big numbers and things going poof. So take out your imaginary crayons today and draw a line. To the left are complex MMOs and to the right is simplicity in its finest. Don't levy judgment on which is better overall; just tell us where your preferences lie -- to the complex or to the simple? Vote after the jump!
EVE Evolved: Exploration -- The basics
When we talk about EVE Online, it's often about PvP or the latest political intrigue in the sandbox. Less talked about is the game's core PvE gameplay, which for many players is the entire scope of their interests. I've covered a number of great ways to make ISK in previous guides, from my three-part series on trading and extensive four-part guide to research to the similarly thorough three-part guide to mission-running. Most recently I tackled the age-old art of asteroid-belt ratting in nullsec. Another of EVE's most popular PvE pastimes is exploration, where players scan out hidden mission-like sites hoping to strike it rich. Exploration is one of those things that spans players of all skill levels, with new players able to make a useful contribution and group up with older veterans. Within a week of starting the game, new players can be locating hidden complexes, doing battle with the local NPCs and hopefully finding some valuable loot. Although exploration sites use the same deadspace dungeon and combat mechanics as missions, there are a few key differences. While missions can be created at will by going to an agent NPC, exploration sites spawn randomly in space and have to be manually scanned down using probes. In this week's first part of the EVE Evolved guide to exploration, I look at the ships and equipment you'll need, and the scanning techniques typically used to find hidden exploration sites.
Breakfast Topic: Is WoW too complex?
As I said the other day, we've talked about the dumbed-down argument quite a few times before, but I think this is the first time I've ever heard the opposite argument put forth so succinctly: Tadaa asks, over on the forums, "Is WoW getting too complex?" Longtime players will probably say no at first glance -- the game has been streamlined a lot since it first game out, and things that took up much of your time previously (tracking quests, looking up quest targets, dealing with respecs, and finding groups) now have systems built into the game that let you get past them easily. But think of what it would be like to step into Azeroth nowadays -- instead of just a chat channel where you can find groups, there's a whole system with terms like "damage" and "tank" in there. On first glance, it might be tough to figure out. And then there's things like resilience and Replenishment (which some experienced players don't even fully understand), and even things we think of as helpful features (getting pets and currency out of our inventory) can be super confusing for new players: where did that pet go that I just clicked on, or that badge that I just saw looted to me in the combat window?
World of Warcraft is for "hardcore" young male gamers
Yes. That's right. The most accessible MMO is too hardcore for the standard audience, according to Forbes.com and Rob Hutter of the recently unveiled Gazillion Entertainment. In a recent interview with Hutter, he was quoted as saying that the MMO market could expand outside of "targeting the hardcore gamer demographic," using World of Warcraft as his main example.Forbes.com paraphrased him as saying, "...Most people unaccustomed to MMOs might be intimidated by complex games like 'Warcraft,' Hutter says trends in technology suggest the audience for simple, well-designed games will grow quickly. The runaway success of Nintendo's Wii proved virgin gamers will try new titles if they are easy to play, while the boom in social networks like Facebook suggests people of all ages are looking for new ways to interact online, he says."While we understand what he's getting at and can appreciate trying to target gamers outside of the main demographic, we think he might need to pick a better example next time. WoW can be intimidating for first time users, but something must have clicked with the non-hardcore gaming crowd as many of them have stuck around in Azeroth. Unless, of course, all 11 million of the World of Warcraft subscribers have suddenly become hardcore male gaming nerds, and those newbies in our guilds are simply the stuff of illusion.[Via Hardcore Casual]
EVE Evolved: Exploring New Eden
A common theme in popular MMOs today is the idea of exploration. For a surprisingly large number of players, their reason for playing an MMO is to experience new content and explore new lands. Each new MMO or expansion becomes a new country to explore with its own set of features and game mechanics. Limits such as levels, raid progression and quest chains are used to ensure we don't burn through all the game's content too quickly. New Eden:EVE Online is set in the expansive universe of New Eden. This nebular stellar nursery contains thousands of stars, of which approximately 5000 have been explored and added to the game's stargate network. Even though EVE doesn't have level limits, it does have a familiar approach to exploring content. Some content such as difficult complexes (space dungeons) will not be completable solo and other content like level 4 missions will be so difficult as to require large ships with a lot of skills behind them. The majority of the universe, however, is free to explore from day one and there's a lot to explore.In this visual article, I explore some of the stunning content of EVE Online and take a brief look at what the future holds for explorers in New Eden.%Gallery-38200%
Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve
EVE Online is a complex game. There's no doubt about that. That complexity is a large part of the draw, but that doesn't mean learning about the game has to be a daunting experience. With that in mind, Massively has EVE Online in its sights. We've brought solid writers on staff who are quite knowledgeable about the game and are here to give some in-depth info on how EVE is played. CrazyKinux and Crovan of The Drone Bay podcast joined us in April, and since then have provided Massively's readers with some helpful columns. CrazyKinux, aka David Perry, writes the Have Clone, Will Travel column. David's most recent piece, 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers, provides a great overview of some of the third-party programs and resources available to help you plan your skill progression and your ship fittings. But we're also running two more EVE-centric columns at Massively. Read on after the jump to see what else we're bringing to the EVE community, and how we're easing that learning curve.
Mila Kunis loves World of Warcraft
Because how often do we get to post a hot picture of Mila Kunis? Complex magazine interviewed Ms. Kunis, of That 70's Show and Family Guy, for her new movie, and they apparently got wind that she, along with her boyfriend Macaulay Culkin, was a World of Warcraft player, and they decided to quiz her on the specifics. And surprise surprise, she actually knows her stuff. She's tracking the expansion, she knows most of the races, she's down with Leroy Jenkins, and she's at least been to Stormwind and "Dust Home Marsh."She doesn't actually say what character she's playing, obviously, but based on her quiz answers, we'll guess she's Alliance, probably a level 25-30 Human priest. Culkin shows up later in the interview, and he knows a lot more -- Complex jokes that he's "Home Alone", but while there are plenty of those in the game, none of them are level 70 paladins.But pretty sweet. Maybe Blizzard can get wind of this and ask her to bring a more feminine touch to those ads.Thanks, Justin!
