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The Daily Grind: Where is your uncanny social valley?
Ravious at Kill Ten Rats took an amusing look at the scale of social interaction in MMOs the other day, outlining the type of interaction vs. the level of fun in a game, and it made us wonder. The type of gameplay preferred varies from person to person, of course. What one person views as the most fun type of play can sound completely boring or annoying to another person, and the same goes for interacting with those in the MMO world around you. So where do you stand? Are you one of those players who leaps headfirst into any PUG, excited at the prospect of meeting new people? Do you prefer your circle of friends, those known elements that won't surprise you, be it good or bad? Or do you eschew company as a rule, preferring to treat the game as a single player game? Click the handy comment link below and let us know what you think!
How consistency softens the grind
"Grind" is on the verge of becoming what "nerf" already is -- a word thrown around so frequently and with such broad possible meaning that it's essentially meaningless. After all, the word now gets used for any part of a game the player finds boring and repetitive, rather than the process of repeating something over and over. It's the latter meaning that Kill Ten Rats discusses with an intersting thesis -- we don't mind a grind so much as we mind one we can't advance without breaks. Using the Guild Wars Wintersday redux as an example, the point is made that the holiday events are a straight-up grind -- but they're a constant one that you can pick up and start with no downtime, then stop whenever you want. Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft have both taken the same approach with Skirmishes and the Dungeon Finder, taking the slow march to being ready for an instance out of the equation. It's an interesting idea, that what we really dislike aren't the grinds but being stuck unable to make much progress in them. If you tend to think that grinds are the worst thing in MMOs today, it might be an opportunity to re-examine that stance.
The lesser of two evils is still evil
There are a lot of choices we face where we don't so much pick a good option as we pick the option that's least negative. Most people would argue that going to work is a better choice than faking illness and calling out, but not really a choice they like. Kill Ten Rats recently posed an interesting question along the same lines: would you rather your game have gold farmers or cheaters? As the full piece argues, gold farmers are the greater evil to the companies running the game -- they aren't paying customers and they're disrupting the playerbase. But the average player is more likely to run into cheaters than gold farmers, and they're more likely to have a direct negative effect upon the experience of the game. Yet teams tend to be more active in pursuing gold farmers (witness Aion's theatrical destruction of them) because cheaters, to the company, are a slightly lesser problem. Obviously, it's not a binary equation, and some games (such as Final Fantasy XI) place both at an equally high target priority. The fundamental question, however, is an excellent one -- cheating jerks, or RMT bots? There's no good option.
The Daily Grind: Characters go around again?
One of the features that's become more and more de rigeur for single-player games is the concept of a "new game plus," a second go-through of the game with all of the abilities and equipment you picked up the first time around. In some cases, you can't even actually play the full game until you've managed to beat it once, at which point you earn a number of rewards that would have been useful to beat the game the first time around. (Insert your own jokes about boss loot here.) Kill Ten Rats recently suggested the idea of allowing a similar mechanic in MMORPGs, borrowing from games such as Torchlight that allow you to retire a character and pass benefits on to a new one. Certainly it has advantages -- we've all had a character or two that's sat at a level too high to be deleted that we don't want to play any longer, and it'd be nice to pass along something useful for the playtime. On the other hand, a forced cycle of leveling followed by retirement followed by another level grind could get tedious quickly. What do you think? Would this sort of feature be an enjoyable way to expand your character stable, or a searingly obnoxious grinding treadmill?
Chasing carrots, and why we do it
A while ago, Kill Ten Rats advocated a rather interesting approach to solving the problem of any tedious grind: cheat. More viable in a single-player game (but still possible if you're willing to use methods of dubious legality), the reasoning was to cut away the reward portion and see if you were enjoying what you were doing on its own merits. Two follow-up posts have been made since then, further extrapolating the question and getting into the way our brains fire in response to anticipation of reward. Grind, of course, is both a dirty word and a quintessential part of any current MMO, which means that we generally aim at games with the most enjoyable grind. But are we focusing on an enjoyable grind, or just one that's not too painful as we head toward the end goal? Is the problem with Aion (to pick a game routinely raked over the coals for its grind) the basic structure, or could the grind become irrelevant if it were just a hair more enjoyable? The very structure of MMOs encourages a certain amount of grinding, and it's interesting to take a look at whether we're doing it because the grind is fun, or just because we've tricked ourselves into thinking it's not all that bad.
Interview with Undead Labs' Jeff Strain
Last month we heard about Jeff Strain's new studio Undead Labs, and his upcoming zombie MMO. In the wake of that exciting announcement, Kill Ten Rats was lucky enough to spend some time with Jeff in an interview. They covered quite a few important questions: fast zombies or slow ones, why it's best to hide in a Costco in the event of a zombie apocalypse, those darn velociraptors, and why so many development companies are in Seattle. Oh, yes, they also talked about gaming. Jeff covered some interesting points on the complexities of console MMO gaming -- the lack of a keyboard seems to be the biggest issue -- as well as how much he loves the term "MMO" (not really). Jeff also gave due respect to World of Warcraft, and even managed to toss in a "shameless plug" for Guild Wars 2. The full interview is well worth your time, and can be found here.
How reputation governs the game
Ravius over at Kill Ten Rats ruminates on the importance of reputation in these very social games that we're playing with each other, and it resonated with me in terms of a few different things going on in World of Warcraft right now. We've talked lots before about ninjas and how that back-and-forth works -- in that case, karma is directly driven by what other people think of you, and of course that's seen more weakly in lots of other places around the game, including guild recruitment, your friends list, and just the general server at large. Ravius talks mostly about the negative reputations we earn, and certainly that's a powerful motivator for a lot of people. But positive reputation is also a strong force in this game -- I'm interested to see how we deal with earning and keeping positive reputation in the new Dungeon Finder and eventually the Battle.net system. Gone may be the days when you build up a good reputation by saying "remember me if you need a good DPS" at the end of a run. It'll be interesting to see what methods we replace that one with.
The roles we play, part 2
The biggest mistake game designers make is substituting in reams of text where immersive gameplay should be. Game designers aren't just responsible for creating balanced and interesting game mechanics that work.
The roles we play
To some people, the term "role-playing" conjures up images of guys with tinfoil swords and shields shouting "Lighting bolt!". Role-playing in MMOs gets a similarly polarised reception, suggesting scenes of people playing pretend and speaking to each other in Shakespearean tone. To those of us that grew up with pen-and-paper role-playing games and single-player RPGs, it might mean the opportunity to play fantastic characters like wizards and rogues. At its core, however, role-playing is something far more subtle and fundamental than we sometimes give it credit for and it underpins the entire MMO genre. In playing an MMO, we are inherently playing roles that the game's developers have created for us. But do most MMO developers really know how to create engaging gameplay for us or are they failing to immerse us in their own chosen roles? In this probative opinion piece, I delve into the roles we play in MMOs and the things developers often do wrong when designing an immersive game experience.
Disguising the grind, part 2
Other quests may require you to kill a named monster but to get to him you have to go through several passageways full of other monsters. The core idea here is pretty solid -- the quest isn't the mundane task of running from A to B or killing some monsters. The quest has another goal entirely and the mundane tasks of travel and killing monsters are challenges to overcome in accomplishing that goal.
Disguising the grind
Believe it or not, grind is an essential part of an MMO and we might be pretty lost without it. Repetitive content is the cornerstone of the MMO genre but it's not all just smacking monsters over the head for hours on end or completing yet another "kill ten rats" quest. The repetitive elements in an MMO give us predictable gameplay in a form we can digest. We don't feel lost when we pick up a quest because it uses similar mechanics to previous quests we've done. From a development standpoint, the amount of time it takes to create new and unique gameplay for an MMO is quite large and it's just not feasible to churn out unique gameplay with every new piece of content. Instead, developers are forced to re-use the same gameplay mechanics over and over again. So if we genuinely appreciate predictable, repetitive gameplay and it's not feasible to do otherwise, why are we always so up-in-arms about the evils of grinding? In this probative opinion piece, I look at why we need repetitive gameplay in MMOs and the various ways developers disguise grind to keep the game entertaining. Update: Link to page 2 fixed. Thanks Brian!
Lore is important
Lore matters. It's often considered to be low on the list of game features, it won't save a game that is otherwise lackluster or missing content, and it can't be the only reason you play a game. But it still matters, and it still has a lot of importance, and Kill Ten Rats has offered a long essay explaining exactly why lore is so important to the games we play and enjoy. Even if you generally don't think of yourself as someone who enjoys lore, it matters to you, and you would notice if it wasn't there. The image above is a dramatization -- which looks more interesting, an elaborate piece of concept art of a character class or a square black box blankly listing attributes? As the essay points out, would you rather be fighting dragons and ogres, or hexagons and trapezoids? There's a very good reason why we need lore in our games and why we don't see any games that don't attempt to provide it, and it's explained here very, very well. Whether or not you consider yourself to be a fan of lore, you owe it to yourself to read the essay, and perhaps re-evaluate the way you see the backstory of the game.
The balance of force in Star Wars: the Old Republic
It might be a slight exaggeration to say that everyone in the world is looking forward to Star Wars: the Old Republic... but only slight. With the latest class reveal, the Imperial Agent is poised to give an excellent sneak-and-snipe playstyle to the Sith side of the game. All well and good... but as Kill Ten Rats notes, how is this game going to get any PvP balance? To the best of everyone's knowledge there's no equivalent ability in the Smuggler's arsenal, the Republic's counterpoint to the Agent, and it's not much of a matchup when one side is invisible and the other side isn't. Overly Positive recently made a few observations regarding the class balance, noting that BioWare seems to be taking an approach a la Warhammer Online -- each class has a loose equivalent on the other side, but they don't result in being direct copies of one another. However, the downside to this approach is that you can easily wind up with one side's class being overpowered in relation to the other. Direct equivalencies leech some of the flavor, but they ensure that the game remains perfectly balanced for both factions. It's a question worth considering and keeping an eye on as the game moves through development -- after all, if a Jedi and a Sith Warrior can't face off in fair combat, it'll be a sad day for many players.
The unbearable lightness of stat boosts
There's nothing quite like spending two hours in a muck-filled dungeon, hacking and slashing your way through countless monsters and creatures best left to the realms of twisted imagination, to receive an ultimate reward: a sword which gives you an extra .25% chance to hit enemies in sunlight. Or an extra .2% damage to any monster you've killed more than four of in a given play session. Or you get an extra 1% health for five seconds every time you correctly spell "exalted." Ravious over on Kill Ten Rats recently posted his thoughts on precisely this phenomenon: the issue that you're looking at a lot of work for, ultimately, almost one percent of a reward. While the post is specifically talking about Lord of the Rings Online, it can easily apply to many other games, and we can all think of rewards that were similarly important and yet less than overwhelming. Part of the reason behind this, of course, is that MMOs need to have a power curve ramp-up without granting everyone too much damage or health or what-have-you, as Ravious dutifully notes. However, there's a point where too much balance becomes too little meaningful impact -- it can be better, at times, to only have one bonus but make it a big one. It's ultimately up to the player which one they prefer, but most of us certainly do seem to prefer having each upgrade be a big one.
Guild Wars 2 blending RTS with PvP
Kill Ten Rats recently picked up some interesting information regarding PvP in Guild Wars 2. Essentially, world PvP will be mimicking the RTS model. Resources such as stone mines can be conquered by players and will deliver stone to catapults by caravan. These deliveries can be intercepted by enemy players unless manned watchtowers are defending your roads and scouts are keeping track of enemy forces. Or, as ArenaNet put it, players can simply look for lost PvPers and smack them around a bit.Complex is the operative word here, as making this system work with large numbers of players will be almost as difficult as making it work with very few. Plus, developers will be dealing with all the regular idiosyncrasies associated with grouping in an MMO such as PUGs, communication and unruly parents demanding for chores or homework to be completed. Even all that considered, we hope they can pull it off so we can reap the fun.If you're looking for more information on Guild Wars 2, check out our recent interview with ArenaNet.
GW2 interview with Jeff Grubb goes deep into lore
If you're a Guild Wars lore-junkie, we have found the perfect Guild Wars 2 interview for you. Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats claims he can talk GW lore for hours and after reading the deep questions he put forth to ArenaNet World Designer and Writer Jeff Grubb, we'll take his word for it.If you're looking for information about instancing, world PvP, and progression rates, this isn't the interview for you. If, however, it makes you giddy that one of either the Bahltek, undeciphered Asuran banner, or giganticus lupicus will be further explained in GW2, then it might be right up your alley. Jeff also drops some hints about the origins of humans, the dragon prophet Glint, the complex relationship between the world of Tyria, the human gods, and dragons, and a number of other things. The anticipation for everything GW2 related is heating up, so stay tuned to Massively as our very own Shawn Schuster will be speaking with someone from ArenaNet soon.
Ah yes, more sprinkles of Guild Wars 2 news
Our friend Ravious at Kill Ten Rats is at it again with some pretty impressive detective work on the current state of Guild Wars 2. To be fair, Ravious is simply gathering the info he finds on the various Guild Wars forums from others who are doing the actual detective work, but it still makes our jobs a whole lot easier. Some of this was already known, some of it is new, but it's all interesting.In his most recent GW2 post, we get word of a forum member named 4thVariety who has been following the trademark licensing and domain registration habits of ArenaNet's trademark lawyer, Mr. Peter J. Willsey. When GW2 was first announced, Mr. Willsey trademarked BlightedEmpires.com, and has since renewed the domain on March 12th of this year. Speculation, of course, centers around the fact that this may or may not be the name of the highly successful game's sequel.
Being a WoW fan doesn't mean you're an MMO fan
Syncaine posted an interesting article on his blog discussing why he thinks there hasn't been much uptake in the majority of MMOs released since World of Warcraft. Basically, he believes that just because you enjoy playing WoW, it doesn't mean you'll enjoy other MMOs.The post goes on to say that there are many more non-MMO gamers than MMO gamers out there who simply can't fathom spending a monthly fee to repeatedly kill ten rats or grind out the perfect PvP character over several months time. They have much more accessible and engaging singleplayer RPGs or FPS games for that, right?The main point he aims to make is that designers should stop chasing non-MMO gamers and focus on those who are already fans. On the other hand, hasn't our genre become a bit pigeon-holed as of late? Isn't the biggest and best part of an MMO the community aspect and not the DIKU-based über-grind? We hope so! Couldn't we maybe expand our acceptance of what MMOs are and challenge the boundaries of what they could be? Maybe that's a viable route toward making those who do not care actually care.
Returning to Azeroth the long way around
Ethic at Kill Ten Rats has a post up about something that a lot of you have probably been through: more and more I'm hearing about people returning to the game. I've been playing ever since I signed up a few years ago, but that's really only because I'm writing about it -- I'm pretty ADD when it comes to games, so left on my own, I probably would have walked away from WoW a long time ago. But Blizzard is really good at bringing players back by tweaking the game in exactly the way they woud like. I feel like if I had left, I would have definitely come back in for a while, if not with Burning Crusade than definitely with Wrath. Of course, Ethic's issues aren't really with deciding to return or not: he's having more issues actually trying to get his old accounts back. There's a laundry list of rules and limits to contend with, between dealing with having or not having the expansions, the limits on the Scroll of Resurrection program and the trial accounts, and dodging all of Blizzard's various limits on how to start and use new accounts to the game. Man -- if I had left and was planning on coming back, and I read Ethic's post, I might not even bother.But quite a few people have come back, and I'd guess that even though there are confusing things about trying to find your way back into the game, a good number of you have done it. I'd like to know, so here's a poll: how many of you have left and come back, and how many times?%Poll-31240%
Guild Wars 2 concept art spotted
Guild Wars has some fantastic concept art. We've mentioned this in the past, particularly in the context of the work of ArenaNet art director Daniel Dociu and concept art lead Kekai Kotaki as seen at Spectrum Fantastic Art. In fact, the last thing we asked was, "Does this give some hints as to what we'll be seeing in Guild Wars 2?" It turns out, it does. In fact, Guild Wars 2 concept art is now appearing in other places as well. Ravious at Kill Ten Rats hunted down more GW2 art by Dociu and Kotaki, as confirmed by ArenaNet's Regina Buenaobra. Check out the post on GW2 concept art by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats, which features some examples of what he's found along with some background on what they may show of the next game's setting, "250 years after the original Guild Wars."
