jeremy-gaffney
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WildStar chronicles closed beta metrics and milestones
Last night, WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney posted up a dev blog recapping the first days of the game's closed beta, which you are likely not in. We feel for you; we're not in either. Who is in? An Aurin by the name of Poptart, who became the first closed beta tester to make her way through character creation and set foot on Nexus. The first player-created UI mod, a friend-finding tool, was also whipped up within 24 hours. (Massively broke the news on how WildStar's modding system will work back in February.) And apparently, the Algoroc zone is a nasty place; it boasts four of the nine mobs most responsible for player death. Gaffney offers up these metrics for humor, but he's actually serious business about data parsing and player feedback even as he wants the early invitees to enjoy themselves: We're tracking almost everything that goes on in the game. Combat timings, level timings, movement, you name it. The players' actions matter to us. Betas aren't always fun per se (there's often a big difference between "playing" and "testing"), so we've tried hard to make sure the game is actually fun even in this, our very first round of external testing. Tester feedback, he says, is funneled to straight to a rapid response team to deal with on a daily and weekly basis. And if testers don't submit that feedback? "One player actually found that some taxi drivers in a fit of generosity would give you money for flying to your destination instead of taking it and spent four hours riding back and forth," Gaffney admits. "We left him with 50 copper of the 14 gold he farmed as thanks for making us laugh."
Everyone's a potential traitor... even you: WildStar's Dominion faction
Last week, we revealed WildStar's Exile faction -- a Firefly-esque group of rebels, pirates, and vagabonds. Today, we're finally able to put our eyeballs on the game's Dominion faction, including three of its four races, plus a newly unveiled class, the Stalker. My instinct was to assume that the Dominion faction was meant to be a parallel to Firefly's Alliance -- space cowboys versus authoritarian aristocrats. But having explored them in more detail, I saw a lot more of Star Wars and Allods Online than I expected, and that's brilliant. Allods also has two factions, the "evil" one of which is a unique blend of Imperial Russian industrial dieselpunk and high-society technocracy. Blend that with Human High Culture propaganda from the Star Wars Extended Universe and maybe a dash of Brazil's dystopian humor and you've got WildStar's Dominion. But don't take just my word for it. Let's have a look at the videos!
The 'biggest game on the planet': WildStar's boundless ambition
Jeremy Gaffney runs on Diet Coke. A lot of it. He's boundless energy, and he's got boundless ambition to match. "We are trying to be the biggest game on the planet," the executive producer of Carbine Studios declared boldly to the handful of people in my WildStar demo in San Francisco last month. But he's clearly no fool: "Our goal is to have the biggest game on the planet, not to have a crappy game that we shove out early." He's at ease when discussing the studio's two-year live plan, PAX East demo (there will be one), and the upcoming business model reveal ("fairly soon"), but even with closed beta coming in the next three months or so and a launch window targeted for the end of 2013, he clings to the mantra he must have learned from fellow NCsoft studio ArenaNet: "It's ready when it's ready." It's not completely ready yet, but I did get a little tour of what is.%Gallery-178086%
Slap a rocket on a pig: WildStar's modding and PGC community
At January's WildStar press event, I had the opportunity to chat with several of Carbine's developers about something near and dear to my heart: modding. During my personal demo, Jeremy Gaffney remarked offhandedly -- twice! -- that people don't really want to play the UI; they want to play the game. I know that he's right about some people, and I'm glad game developers are devoting resources toward designing a seamless blend of UI and gameplay that makes actually healing party members as fun or more fun than playing Grid-style healer whackamole. But whackamole or not, I do want to play the UI. I want to tinker. Fortunately, WildStar intends to accommodate me in a huge way. Read on for the scoop on WildStar's planned modding tools, player councils, and player-generated content.
WildStar Wednesday looks at the state of the game
What is the holiday season all about if not thoughtful introspection? We reflect on our lives and how we've changed and grown, and we look forward to our hopes and dreams for the future. WildStar's Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney recently got into the spirit of the season with a look at the state of the game. Raid playspaces have been getting some attention as the team goes through to make sure that the areas are big enough for the large amounts of people they'll be playing host to. Friends and Family testing has been ramping up in preparation for closed beta tests in 2013, while "small scale" PvP tests of up to 24v24 have been going on. Races and classes that are still under wraps have been getting love and care to make sure they'll be ready for the public eye. Most importantly, the game now has flamethrowers. 2013 looks like it'll be a busy year of testing, announcements, and excitement. Hop on over to the official blog to read the full state of the game.
WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney discusses sandboxes and themeparks
While WildStar has been offering a lot of previews to eager fans, that hasn't stymied player questions. It's been known for some time that the game aims at being a sandpark-style game, midway between themepark and sandbox principles, but what does that mean in execution? Executive producer Jeremy Gaffney penned a piece today responding to player discussion on the topic and explaining how the team at Carbine Studios is trying to offer something for everyone. Gaffney explains that the team wants to ensure that players aren't lost or unsure of what to do next while at the same time not keeping the entire game on rails. The main method of doing this is by having coherent quests and missions coupled with more spontaneous content dependent on the state of the zone -- so while there might always be a quest hub to the north, more dynamic events are roaming to the south that you won't always encounter. Read the full article for more on the game's content layout and the importance of zone-by-zone player feedback.
WildStar's Senior Community Manager focuses on fun
Hot on the heels of yesterday's interview with WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney, we sat down with another Carbine Studios rep: David Bass, the game's new Senior Community Manager. We stopped David from running around the studio like a madman for 15 minutes, forcing him to let us in on the secrets of why WildStar and Carbine Studios are worth watching. Granted, he couldn't tell us everything -- there has to be a bit of mystery, right? But David did reveal his in-depth plans for the WildStar community and what will set this community apart from any other MMO community you've seen.
Massively Exclusive: An interview with WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney
Big releases from the WildStar development team at Carbine Studios seem to be few and far between, which is why the recent footage from early testing was such a breath of fresh air. Aside from showing off some of the game's role-based content for Settlers and Scientists, it also displayed new environments, new combat elements, and the unique graphical flair that attracted fans even before anything had been said about gameplay. We gamers are a curious bunch, though, and seeing a bunch of cool new stuff doesn't stop us from asking questions. Executive producer and design director Jeremy Gaffney recently hosted an AMA session on Reddit, but he was also kind enough to answer a few more questions from us here at Massively about combat flow, racial differentiation, and the usual character roles in MMOs. Take a look past the break at what the game will offer players when it finally goes live... which most WildStar fans agree can't be soon enough.
WildStar aims to be 'anything but WoW'
Carbine Studios Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney took the microphone at a recent Reddit AMA (ask me anything), where he addressed several burning questions that the community had about WildStar. Right off the bat, he was asked what sets this MMO apart from the pack. Gaffney had a laundry list in reply, saying that the largely ex-Blizzard team's motto is, "We just crunched for six years, we want to do anything but WoW." Layered content is a big buzz-phrase for WildStar, and Gaffney attempted to provide an example of the game's flexibility. "You're on a mission to kill alien jungle cats. You see one that's irradiated and start scanning it. Or it's too tough, so you scare some prey away from you into the cats, and they start attacking the prey, and then you jump in when everyone is weakened. They're tough, so you see a huntress and drag them to her to get her cheering on for rep -- you see a second huntress and now you're bouncing between them for double rep rewards." Other AMA topics included polish, microupdates, competing with World of Warcraft, bunny ears, the future of the MMO industry, and a hint at an unannounced race.
WildStar's Bartle-inspired paths offer players unique and shared content [Updated]
Jeremy Gaffney recently opened up on the connection between WildStar's Paths and Richard Bartle's famous breakdown of playstyles. While Gaffney admits that WildStar drew inspiration from Bartle's categories, the team has tuned the four paths -- Explorer, Soldier, Achiever and Builder -- to fit the devs' vision for the game. No matter which path you pick, Gaffney promises that there will be something meaningful for you to be doing at all times. The important part is that the game has a deliberate balance between path-specific activities and universal ones: "What we do is we take 70% of the world, and that's a mix of all the styles, and then about 30%, depending on the zone, swaps over and that's about you and about your path. So, as an Explorer you have your normal mix of stuff, but then an extra chunk on top of it that's all about exploring." People from different paths have many ways, reasons, and incentive to interact as they progress through the zones. Gaffney says that WildStar will "pile on the layers" to keep players involved and active. He also assured fans that all paths will have plenty to do in the endgame so that the journey doesn't come to a crashing halt. [Update: Carbine also released another WildStar Wednesday this afternoon; it features some community discussion all about events in MMOs.]
WildStar Wednesday tackles the sandbox vs. themepark debate
Sandbox or themepark? It's a never-ending debate around these parts of the internet. Carbine Studios knows both sides of the argument all too well, and it shows. Which side of the argument does WildStar fall on, though? If today's WildStar Wednesday dev diary is to be believed, the game straddles the fence between the two. WildStar's Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney points out that "developer-directed game play isn't always at odds with the player-directed experience" and notes that sometimes leaning too heavily in either direction can be detrimental to the overall gameplay. As such, the developers are attempting to hit the sweet spot between sandbox and themepark gameplay. If you're interested in finding out how they plan to do that, head on over to the dev diary at WildStar's official site.
Massively's WildStar interview with Jeremy Gaffney
Now that Gamescom and PAX Prime are fading into memory, the rush of information we received on WildStar has slowed once more. But that certainly hasn't driven the game from anyone's memory, considering the unique visuals and gameplay previewed at both events. There are still a lot of questions to be asked about the game, and as the game is still fairly early in development, a lot of time for those questions to be answered... starting now. Jeremy Gaffney was kind enough to answer several of our questions about WildStar, giving us a look at the time Carbine Studios has spent on developing the game and what sort of gameplay we can expect when the game is available for everyone. Even beyond the already-previewed Path system, there's a great deal of interest for excited fans to see, so take a look past the break for our questions and Mr. Gaffney's answers.
PAX 2011: WildStar panel discusses playing with paths the Bartle way
Before Gamescom, WildStar was nothing more than a title without a hint of what the game would actually promise. But now that the game is being shown off, the combination of a unique aesthetic with a promise of uniquely focal gameplay has gotten a lot of people interested. The visuals, of course, have already been well-displayed by the trailers and preview shots, so this year's panel at PAX 2011 focused instead on the other half of the equation: the paths. The panel began with a brief viewing of the game's cinematic trailer to kick things off, followed by an explanation of the game's core design philosophy. As the team from Carbine Studios (Jeremy Gaffney, Eric DeMilt, and Mike Donatelli) put it, most games are built with a basic set of design assumptions that push players in a fixed direction determined by the designers. WildStar was built from the ground up to let players enjoy the game when they want to, with whomever they want, and most importantly however they want. The paths are the key to that system -- multiple overlaid playstyles that ensure you have your own play experience no matter what class or race you pick.
Massively's guide to Gamescom 2011
If you've never been to Gamescom before, let's simply put it this way: It's big. Really, really big. Forget most any convention you've attended; this is likely to be even bigger. Billing itself as the world's largest games event, Gamescom sees well over a quarter-million fans, journalists and exhibitors crowd into the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to check out hundreds of games and companies. Due to its size and worldwide prominence, Gamescom is a significant event for anyone following the MMO genre (and video games in general). There are plenty of MMO studios gearing up to share first looks, exclusive reveals, detailed Q&A sessions, and exciting hands-on demos for attendees. Naturally, Massively will be paying close attention to all of the news coming out of Gamescom this week. For those attending the convention or merely looking to keep abreast of all of the games, studios, and information forthcoming, we've compiled a guide to the hottest tickets at Gamescom as well as a comprehensive exhibitor list of MMO studios after the break.
Looking for the hit formula: NCsoft's Jeremy Gaffney on creating successful MMOs
Jeremy Gaffney knows MMOs, having spent a great portion of his life working at Turbine and NCsoft, so when he speaks about building successful games, he's not just spitballing -- he's got experience in his back pocket and forward-thinking in the palm of his hand. Speaking with Develop, Gaffney gave clear, practical advice about how MMO studios can pull ahead and succeed in this cutthroat market. Like many gamers, Gaffney is concerned with the growing aversion to risk-taking that studios exhibit as MMO gaming's gone more mainstream. "I worry, for example, that mass market equals mass budget equals risk aversion equals conservative design. The great thing about the early MMOs – games like Asheron's Call, Ultima Online, EverQuest and Lineage – was the fact they experimented; they weren't afraid to take different directions," he says. Even so, Gaffney is excited for the possibilities in the industry, simply because there are so many of them. Whether studios choose to develop for the mainstream or niche, console or mobile markets, using free-to-play or subscription business models, he sees avenues for success in all of them: "The common denominator will always be the gamer. And with gamers comes diversity, especially now." Gaffney's Carbine Studios is hard at work on an as-of-yet unnamed MMO which will be revealed at Gamescom later this month.
NCsoft's Carbine Studios to reveal new MMO at Gamescom
NCSoft announced today that Jeremy Gaffney, Executive Producer of NCSoft's Carbine Studios has confirmed that the studio's latest project is to be revealed next month at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Gaffney has many titles to his name, having worked on Asheron's Call, City of Heroes/Villains, and a number of other online titles. What is this super-secret mystery project? Well, we don't know, otherwise we'd have already told you now, wouldn't we? However, the press release assures us that the reveal "promises to be different from the standard game project announcement," and will take place as doors open at Gamescom. Can't make it to Gamescom? Don't worry, the studio will also be strutting its stuff at PAX Prime this August where Massively will have its own presence to take a look at whatever this new project happens to be. Stay tuned and we'll be sure to let you know exactly what it is the second we know. In the meantime, you can check out Mr. Gaffney's inaugural blog post to get a taste of what the team is aiming for.
NCsoft's Gaffney: Subscriptions more profitable than microtransactions
Jeremy Gaffney may not be a household name to MMO fans, but the Carbine Studios head honcho has been involved in some of the industry's biggest titles as both a developer and an executive. Gaffney helped found Turbine in the Asheron's Call days and also worked on both City of Heroes and Tabula Rasa at NCsoft. In a new interview at GamesIndustry.biz, Gaffney talks at length about his industry experiences as well as several hot-button issues including mobile MMOs, mega-launches, and the free-to-play vs. subscription debate. "There's still a lot of money being made in subscriptions right now. Worldwide there's a lot of money being made in [micro]transactions, but there's probably a bit more money really being made in subscriptions worldwide," he explains. Gaffney also weighs in on the market segmentation brought about by F2P models and whether MMO mega-launches can still be profitable in a post-World of Warcraft world. Read all about it at GamesIndustry.biz.
Star Trek Online pushes its player-generated mission Foundry to live servers
Player-generated content may be the wave of the future. Jeremy Gaffney of Carbine Studios said at PAX East that in 10 years we will see more user-generated content. It seems Cryptic agrees. Executive Producer Dan Stahl proudly announced that Star Trek Online's player-generated content has been pushed to the live server today. The Foundry, as the system is called, will allow players to create missions, test them, and then share those missions with other players. As in similar tools in other games, missions will be tried by players then rated. However, unlike missions in other systems, a Foundry mission will not show up in the player-created mission tab until it has been given its first review. There is a review content button for those who wish to review newly created missions. Stahl does tell us in his post on the official STO forums, "Be warned, with many new players getting their hands on the editor, there may be a lot of 'hello world' missions at first." Cryptic is still going to monitor this feature much like a beta since this is the first time it will be sent out to the general public. The developers will be addressing any issues as soon as possible. However, this is live, so log on to STO and try it out now. Stay tuned to Massively this Thursday as Brandon Felczer gives us an in-depth look at the Foundry in the Captain's Log.
PAX East 2011: The future of MMOs from the mouths of the developers
The PAX East panel that almost made me late for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Meet 'n' Greet was a panel hosted by MMORPG.com and featuring some of the heavy hitters in MMO development for this year. I am certainly glad I did not skip this one. This was the chance for the fans to hear what the future of MMOs will bring from the people who are making them. Let me give you a rundown of the panel members -- and tell me you don't just stand in awe of these guys: (from left to right) Curt Schilling, the founder of 38 Studios; Craig Alexander, the VP of Product Development for Turbine; Jeremy Gaffney, Executive Producer at Carbine Studios; Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer for Trion Worlds; Brian Knox, Senior Producer for En Masse Entertainment; James Ohlen, Creative Director for BioWare; and Colin Johanson, Lead Content Designer for ArenaNet. The opening question really set the stage for the panel. It let us know where the minds of these producers and executives are. The question was simple: Where do you see online games going in the next 10 years? Follow after the cut to find out their thought provoking answers.
