player-politics
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The Daily Grind: Are player councils a good idea?
Turbine recently announced a new Player Council for Dungeons and Dragons Online. The company previously put together a similar panel for Lord of the Rings Online, but thus far we've not heard much in the way of initiatives or results. Back in the day, Star Wars: Galaxies had its own version of player representation that never seemed to actually accomplish anything. EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management has been meeting for years now, and it's probably the most impactful of the ones listed here, though whether that's due to the actual CSM or the fact that EVE is one of the few MMOs permanently affected by player action is up for debate. The question I'm coming to is this: Do you think player councils are a good idea? Would you like to serve on one? Why or why not? 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!
New video highlights the political system of TERA
News about TERA has been somewhat sparse of late, but the game continues along the road to a release on US shores. Until then, you can get your excitement up a bit more with the latest preview video of the game showing off the nuances of the game's political system. It might not seem like the sort of engrossing gameplay that would fit with a more action-oriented MMO, but the process of players getting into office and enacting changes looks fascinating. As the video outlines, players can win their office through direct battle with other candidates or via popular vote, depending on which method suits each individual. Once in office, players will have a variety of powers -- taxes can be raised or lowered, important NPCs can be added or removed, town features can be edited, and a player can make a lasting impact on the game world for good or bad. Check out the video embedded just after the break, especially if you've already got your campaign pins ready to go.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite MMO political system?
Politics is a nebulous word when it comes to MMORPGs. Relatively few companies market the "political" aspects of their games, mainly because these aspects are player-driven. There are a few exceptions, and though En Masse is getting a lot of press for the TERA political system that it unveiled at this year's E3, it's not a new idea. Games as diverse as ArchLord, RF Online, and Aika have toyed around with the idea, and Star Wars Galaxies even offered a Politician profession and light-duty mayoral tasks related to the game's player cities. For today's Daily Grind, we'd like to know your take on MMORPG political gameplay. Do you prefer completely free-form player-created content such as that found in Darkfall, EVE Online, and Perpetuum, or would you rather see a mixture of hard-coded mechanics and player interaction similar to what En Masse is hyping for TERA? 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!
TERA European community test kicks off, political system detailed
Blue Hole Studio's TERA has officially kicked off its European testing phase, according to this morning's press release from Frogster. The German gaming company is publishing TERA in Europe, and has sent out 1,500 invites to "the most dedicated and hardcore fans from the TERA community." The special testing event will run for four days, and Frogster says similar events are scheduled for the "very near future." Frogster also drops a few hints regarding the game's political system, noting that it's intended to be endgame content and that elected rulers will access exclusive mounts, impose taxes, and manipulate NPC villagers. The system involves something called policy points which are acquired via questing, and Vanarchs (the term for players that ascend to the position of regional ruler) must determine how and where to spend them.
GDC 2011: World of Tanks' clan wars showcase player and developer passion
MMO devs rarely play their own games, right? That's the conventional player wisdom, anyway, and it's commonly found on forums, guild chats, and vent channels after a particularly painful nerf. Apparently the devs at Wargaming.net didn't get that memo, though, as our GDC sit-down with Victor Kislyi illustrated. Kislyi is the driving force behind World of Tanks, the World War II-based action MMO currently shattering industry concurrent user records as its Russian beta steamrolls the free-to-play competition. Not only does Kislyi play his own game, but he plays (and discusses) it with such passion that you can't help but root for the scrappy title and the team from Belarus that is bringing it to life. Join us after the cut to see what Kislyi had to say about the upcoming clan wars implementation as well as player politics.
Has EVE's most powerful alliance fallen?
Band of Brothers (renamed KenZoku) was once the most powerful alliance in EVE Online with a stated goal, even here at Massively, to control all of the game's New Eden galaxy. Now, KenZoku has reportedly left the contested, lawless frontier of 0.0 space after months of resisting the combined forces of rival alliances. One of EVE's in-game journalists, Interstellar Correspondent ISD Clarity Brown, reports from the site of KenZoku's last holdout: "GoonSwarm and their allies deployed a camp on KenZoku's sole remaining outpost last night. A joint force of pilots from Pandemic Legion, GoonSwarm, Morsus Mihi, Razor Alliance and KIA deployed 27 titans around the station in a show of force and gave a demonstration of the sheer power embodied in such a gang." Titans are the game's most expensive weapons of mass destruction, massive ships capable of unleashing 'Doomsday' area-of-effect attacks that melt fleets caught in the blast. To unleash 27 Doomsday blasts at once is... quite a sight, as the video footage demonstrates.
EVE's 3rd Council of Stellar Management elections underway
The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) in EVE Online is perhaps the best implementation of governance in the virtual space achieved thus far among the numerous MMOs and virtual worlds, although this concept in the industry is rare. The basic idea behind the CSM is that as the horizons of EVE Online and its subscriber numbers expand, there are many different playstyles to be found in the game. The CSM acts as the voice of the playerbase, advising CCP Games on how best to change or develop the game to suit player interests in a far more direct way than the requisite 'nerf this' or 'boost that' threads on the official forums. The Council of Stellar Management delegates aren't selected by CCP but are elected by the players themselves, which is the subject of the latest dev blog from CCP Xhagen (aka Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson).EVE Online's 3rd Council of Stellar Management elections are underway. CCP Xhagen's dev blog enumerates some of the CSM's main achievements to date, hopefully providing more incentive for players to vote. (Voter turnout has been lower than hoped, with only 8.6% of the playerbase getting involved, as of the 2nd election.) Massively has covered this idea of player governance in the past through interviews with CCP developers involved with this initiative, but Xhagen's dev blog and its links to EVElopedia provides greater detail into how the CSM operates. The polls close on May 26th, so if you're an EVE Online player, remember to make your vote count.
GDC09: User generated stories in shardless worlds
Massively checked out an interesting session at GDC 2009 titled "User Generated Story: The Promise of Unsharded Worlds" by James Portnow, CEO and Creative Director of Divide by Zero. His talk was part of the Worlds in Motion Summit, and focused on how single worlds and their shared space can also give rise to shared stories. Portnow discussed ways that game designers can encourage and enable players to tell their own stories within the virtual space. *** The storylines we've seen thus far in MMOs aren't yet tapping the potential of massively multiplayer online games, Portnow relates, largely because they're not capitalizing on an MMOs greatest asset -- its players. Portnow says, "We haven't achieved stories that really rely upon the core of our media, the playerbase that a MMO environment environment gives us. We haven't achieved player-driven stories really directed by players themselves. And lastly we haven't achieved meaningful stories."Why do people skip the quest text? It's because they have no stake in it. Unlike the experience they get from single player games, their actions don't affect the the world they play in. Story, then, doesn't add to immersion and thus players don't feel engaged by quests. The solution then is to unshard worlds and give agency back to the players, with real choices, real consequences, and less restrictions. %Gallery-48460%
EVE Online PvP Tournament champ on tactics and player-politics
EVE Online is a game where there are essentially two tiers to guilds, corporations and groups of corporations that join together to form larger and more powerful alliances. Given how integral alliance warfare is to gameplay, EVE Online's annual Alliance PvP Tournament is a major event each year, watched by thousands of New Eden's pilots. The sixth annual Alliance PvP Tournament for EVE Online was one of the most exciting to date. Combatants employed clever ship setups and tactics, the commentary was excellent, and there was even a bit of drama thrown into the mix in the form of a player assassination during the tournament. In the end it was the Pandemic Legion alliance that reigned supreme and a permanent monument to their victory has been set up in the Amamake solar system, where the Pandemic Legion corporation Sniggerdly started out as pirates. EVE Tribune writer Miyamoto Isoruku recently had a chance to interview the leader of Pandemic Legion, Shamis Orzoz. They discuss a wide range of topics, ranging from the tactics used in Alliance PvP Tournament VI to Orzoz's views on player-politics and the state of alliance warfare in New Eden. For more on how Pandemic Legion took the crown as EVE's top alliance in the tournament, have a look at "The Champions: An Interview with Shamis Orzoz" at EVE Tribune.
Call for candidates in EVE Online's player-elected Council of Stellar Management
Lost in the blitz of info about the Apocrypha expansion for EVE Online was the fact that CCP Games announced a call for candidates for the 3rd Council of Stellar Management (CSM). The CSM is a council of representatives of the playerbase, elected by the players themselves, who work with CCP Games to ensure that the development pipeline reflects the interests of the subscribers. Being a CSM delegate can be both time-consuming and stressful, as past and present reps Jade Constantine and LaVista Vista have told us. Still, it offers players a chance at helping to shape the game they love, something which few other MMO developers would ever allow. Already on the CSM's radar for the next group of delegates is reworking (lawless) 0.0 space and its entrenched system of sovereignty, which is no small task.
