richard-bartle
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun discovers that WoW is a "dirty word"
Today we return to a debate that simply will not die. Gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- a very smart blog that is a combination of progressive and traditionalist, if that makes any sense at all -- felt the need to defend itself after it previewed Warhammer Online and made numerous comparisons to World of Warcraft. It even inserted a WoW screenshot as a joke.If you've been following this debate (which already reached a raging napalmic inferno of internet vitriol when Richard Bartle compared the games in an interview with us) then you know that RPS was just asking for trouble. And trouble it got, in the order of more than 200 comments.The latest development: RPS blogger Alec Meer wrote a personal, diplomatic, and even impassioned post in which he attempted both to defend the comparison and to defend WAR in the face of said comparison. He also tried to explain why the connection infuriates WAR fans so much. The money quote: "Telling a WAR player that his game is similar to WoW is like telling a goth that he's emo." Needless to say, it's worth a read. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Richard Bartle laments poor state of game education in the UK
Richard Bartle -- the man who co-invented MUDs at the University of Essex in 1978 -- described the poor state of game-related academic study and education when speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival a few days ago.Bartle made a distinction between games-focused training (the acquisition of skills by instruction) and games-focused education (the development of understanding through learning). He said that the United Kingdom's colleges are short on education, even though training is available at some universities.He noted that symptoms of this problem are already apparent: the academic community, such as it is, has been unable to agree (or even engage in cohesive discourse) about the reasons men and women often play as characters of a different sex than their own in MMOs.
The Daily Grind: What's your Bartle quotient?
The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology has long been a staple of the MUD and MMORPG community. We've ever mentioned it here a couple of times.The Bartle Test (developed by -- you guessed it -- Richard Bartle) is a series of questions the answers to which result in the test-taker's Bartle Quotient. In your Bartle Quotient, you're told how closely you identify with each of four types of MMO gamer pychologies -- Achiever, Explorer, Killer, and Socializer. The final figure is a ranking -- from most dominant to least dominant -- of those types in your own gaming personality. For example, this blogger is an ESKA.The test has been criticized over the years as an innacurate or insufficient measurement, but it's remained popular nonetheless. Take the test, and tell us where you stand. Do you feel it's accurate? If not, where did it go wrong?
The Daily Grind: What MMOG would you kill off?
Yesterday we asked what deceased MMOG do you miss the most. Let's flip that question around and make it somewhat evil. It could be before the MMOG ever launched essentially erasing it and making it unknown or sometime after it launched. Any MMOG is fair game. What about the reasons for your conclusion. Maybe you played it for hundreds of days on end and that caused a rift in your awesome social life. Perhaps it's the fact that your buddies left you behind and you want to enact revenge to get your old group back. There has to be one MMOG that you don't like, find annoying, whatever the reason. Or maybe you wouldn't pull the plug on any MMOG. That's okay too. Let's know, and be sure to explain your reasoning for doing so other than "I hate that game" or "I don't care." Example: Richard Bartle would sacrifice World of Warcraft because at one time or still believes the demise would benefit independent MMORPG developers. Please keep the nerd rage at a minimum when explaining why you chose that particular MMOG.
Behind the Curtain: Gone for good?
I've been thinking recently about loss. Having been incredibly lucky with my own brush with the possibility of losing my World of Warcraft characters, I got to thinking. Not only about what I would have done if things hadn't worked out for me, but about how loss works in MMOs today.Last week, Gabriel wrote a fantastic column about item decay in games past, present and future. I've been playing Diablo 2 again lately, for obvious reasons, and I had found myself thinking on the similarities and differences between the durability system in Diablo and WoW. I've said before that my MMO career started with Star Wars Galaxies, so I don't have the long-term experience many of the other writers here at Massively do. I've never had to worry about making corpse runs in Everquest, or had to concern myself with losing my items in Ultima Online. While Galaxies did have item decay, it wasn't set to a punishing degree – items did wear out eventually, but at a reasonable rate. When an item eventually gave out, you crafted yourself a replacement, or you picked one up from another player. By doing so, you knew you were contributing to the economy, so if you tried hard you could convince yourself that you were actually helping the game.
Koster: MMOs removed more features from MUDs than they added
Areae president, MetaPlace developer, and all-around-MMO-authority Raph Koster wrote up a blog post about the influence of MUDs on today's graphical MMOs. The post is part of the broader, cross-blog discussion that began with our interview with Richard Bartle last week. You can read Koster's post in that context if you really want to, but it's interesting on its own.He started out by saying which MUDs influenced the developers of which early MMOs. For example, LP MUDs had an impact on Ultima Online. Then he named a handful of the best innovations of the modern MMO -- "advanced raiding," instances, improvements to combat via spaciality, etc. After saying all those positive things though, he dropped a bit of a bomb, saying that despite all that, "MMOs have removed more features from MUD gameplay than they have added, when you look at the games in aggregate."Oh noes! Are the Warhammer Online fans fuming yet? Well, they shouldn't be. "Failure to evolve more radically isn't a flaw," said Koster. He finished up by positing that all the current MMOs "are already Old Guard," and that "the mudder crew is already the Older Guard. So in a sense this is kind of like an argument between art rockers and disco musicians."
Richard Bartle vs Tobold
Massively's interview with Richard Bartle from last week has caused several tidal waves of opinion over the now-infamous line, "I've already played Warhammer. It was called World of Warcraft." by the father of the genre. MMO bloggers are coming out of the woodwork to give their own opinions on what this means, and how much they agree or disagree with Bartle's statement. Bartle himself has expanded upon that line several times, including an interesting exchange between himself and Tobold over at Tobold's blog.Whether you agree or disagree with Bartle's statement, the fact is, it has become big news this week. This recent exchange shows that Bartle isn't afraid to make his opinion known, and sees it as something that shouldn't be weighed more heavily than that of the common gamer.
Richard Bartle expands on earlier remarks stated in Massively interview [updated]
In this interview conducted by Michael Zenke, Richard Bartle discussed how to improve World of Warcraft and about MMOGs in general. One comment in particular overshadowed the whole interview: "I've already played Warhammer. It was called World of Warcraft." The comment thread on both Massively and WoW Insider was met with heavy criticism towards what many considered a myopic statement. It didn't stop there; the blogosphere has been running rampant with rambunctious commentary about his remarks all weekend long. This isn't the first time that Bartle has come under scrutiny for one of his outspoken comments. Last year, when asked what he would do if he could control any MMOG Bartle proclaimed he would shut down World of Warcraft. His reasoning behind it was so that other unknown virtual worlds would have the chance to thrive and push new boundaries in the massive genre. One sacrifice for a thousand, but it's definitely something to ponder as the cost of MMO development continues to skyrocket towards the 100 million dollar mark. Big-budget MMOs are less likely to take risks and follow a winning formula. No matter what you think of Richard Bartle, we only felt that it was fair that we share his follow-up comments that may help discern his perspective as a game designer. More on Bartle's controversial statement which may not be as shocking as one might think, in his own words after the jump.
Exemplary conduct: WoW expansion adds over 80 new emotes
There have been some leaks from the "friends & family" alpha test for World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Our sister site WoW Insider has kept up with some of the finer details from the leak, but one recent bit of info got us thinking.The info: WotLK will add over 80 new emotes to WoW players' social repertoire. That's awesome, but it leads us to ask a question: why don't social emotes get more attention in the MMO genre? In general, things like that are sporadically tacked on as small bonuses, if they get added at all. Developers don't make them a big priority. We understand the reasons; gameplay always comes first, right?Well, maybe not always. MMOs are unique in gaming because of their social and community aspects. Emote animations play a part in social interactions. Maybe developers should think about more than just raid mechanics. Maybe they should consider devoting resources to expanding social interaction features. You don't have to be a Bartle Socializer to appreciate emotes, do you?[Via WoW Insider]
Exclusive: Richard Bartle on how he'd make World of Warcraft better
Or: The Grandfather of MUDs talks the Mother of all MMOsEarlier in the year this blogger had the chance to attend the Independent MMO Game Developer's Conference, the second annual event held in Minneapolis, MN. A number of luminaries in the field made an appearance, such as Scott Hartsman (former Senior Producer for EverQuest 2) and Brian Green (best known for his work on Meridian 59). Also in attendance was Dr. Richard Bartle, the much-admired co-developer of the original MUD1 online environment. Along with Roy Trubshaw, Mr. Bartle essentially pioneered the field of MUDs. As these games gave rise to MMOs as we know them today, we would most likely not be enjoying the Massively.com website without his efforts.Join us as we sit down for a conversation about the big kid on the block: World of Warcraft. Some time ago Dr. Bartle made the crack that he'd "shut down" Blizzard game in an effort to improve the industry. Though he was only making an elaborately illustrative joke at the time, he's gotten a lot of flack for it. Today we have the other side of that coin: what Blizzard could honestly do to make the game even better. Click on through below the cut for Dr. Richard Bartle's view on Karazahn, playing MMOs as a player, and his overall view on the near future of the genre's darlings.
Richard Bartle grudgingly plays World of Warcraft
Richard Bartle hasn't necessarily been super kind to Blizzard's game in the past, but our sister site Massively recently sat down with the legendary MMO developer to set the record straight. In an interview from the Indie GDC from earlier this year, Mr. Bartle speaks candidly about his job as a consultant to MMO companies, and while he says that he has leveled three characters to 70 to see what all the fuss was about, he's not that interested in playing World of Warcraft -- he'd rather make his own games.He does have good recommendations for what he'd tell Blizzard to change, though: first things first, he wants to see an official "WTB" mechanism for the Auction House, where you can offer a price not only for what you want to sell, but for what you want to buy as well. He'd also fix the LFG system (and who wouldn't, really? has it ever worked?), and he says that Karazhan was a great example of a mistake -- by putting such a rough, guild-killing instance first in line for progression, Blizzard really put the hurt on players (especially solo players -- he says Karazhan is impossible to PuG) heading into the endgame.Finally, he's excited for "Lich Kingdom" as he calls it, but not really happy about it: "The only reason that I played up to level 70 was credentials," he says, "and when Lich Kingdom comes out, I shall have to requalify myself." We can't say he doesn't have a point -- as popular as WoW is, competition always makes a marketplace better, and up to this point, WoW hasn't had any competition at all, leaving its faults glaring to an expert developer like Bartle.
MMO customer 'Bill of Rights'
Here comes the familiar discussion of player rights once again, but this time in a different form. Warhammer Online blog WAAAGH! has a post discussing the possible virtues of an MMO customer "Bill of Rights" as it were. Our immediate thoughts were of Richard Bartle's presentation discussing the good, bad and ugly futures of massively multiplayer online worlds. If you skim through Bartle's presentation, you'll come across the future involving player "rights" pretty quickly. Otherwise known as the lawyer future, possibly one of the scariest suggestions we've ever heard for our beloved MMOs.Granted, some of those predictions are quite out there. Paying income tax on the money you earn in-game is a pretty big leap, but it all starts out with players pointing to EULAs (End User License Agreements) as unfair. If we start demanding more rights within our online worlds we run the risk of having to walk a very thin tightrope that could lead to a lot of headaches later on. Don't get us wrong, we're all for companies treating their player-base better, but a virtual coup d'état is the last thing any of us should want.
Take a test, get your Bartle profile
Yeah we used that "test" word, but hear us out! These are the fun kinds of tests that you can take in your downtime or at work when you just feel like slacking off -- you know, when the boss isn't looking. These particular tests are for the online gaming and MMO players out there, which makes them especially interesting for us here at Massively. Whether or not you consider personality tests to carry any real weight, this one is easily one of the better tests we've encountered in the worthwhile department. Plus, it has cool little graphical characters at the end of it!Whether you're a PvPer, PvEer or even an everything-er you'll find out something interesting about yourself from the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology. Even the WAAAGH! blog seemed to be able to relate their scores to what excites them most about EA Mythic's forthcoming Warhammer Online. We're not saying the test will give a definitive answer about what type of player you are, but it does get fairly close. In our case, almost creepily-so.
Bartle to old guard: "We've already won"
In a wonderful, feel-good-story-of-the-year type of article, Richard Bartle, the father of online gaming, has written a laudable rant in the Guardian, essentially informing the old school haters that they're officially obsolete. You know the ones -- every reporter making a quick buck off of the party line that videogames are dangerous to our psyches; every politician riding the easy ticket of attacking our hobby in the name of protecting the children; every concerned parental activist group calling for the heads of the developers who worked on our chosen pastime -- Bartle has given them notice. In his delightfully-worded article, Bartle reminds us all that these witch hunts are generational: previously, it was television; before that, the enemy was rock 'n' roll, comic books, even the novel. People fear what they don't understand, and aggression is what they employ to mask that fear. Every previous generation seeks to destroy the entertainment of the new generation, and for our age, it's the videogame that's under fire. Bartle understands this and quite calmly uses this knowledge to signal an end to the previous generation's influence. Yet he doesn't just condemn, he also offers a way out.
Bartle talks good, bad and ugly futures
Evoking the name of Dr. Richard Bartle probably causes different reactions in different people, but the important thing isn't whether or not you know the man. What's important is that you check out this series of slides from his discussion at IMGDC about the three possible futures MMOs could be facing. We're expecially fond of how he ties in different classic movies, which end up giving each of the three futures the perfect names, "The good, the bad and the ugly" along with adding in some Muppets and Blondie for good measure.Our take on the three different futures is that we generally agree with Dr. Bartle's projections on how things would pan out -- that includes which one he thinks will actually come to pass. So go check it out, we promise that it's a very worth-while read if you've got any interest in how things could most likely play out.
Richard Bartle at Metanomics
Richard Bartle dips in and out of Second Life. He likens it as going to London. He might not be there for months, and then multiple times in a week. To him, Second Life is a place, much like many others. Bartle was in that place on 11 March, as a part of the Metanomics series, hosted by professor Robert J Bloomfield. Bartle often regarded as the father of the first MUD. In a sense he's the progenitor of all existing virtual worlds, both those based on games and those that are game-free.
Those men aren't *all* chicks
The recent announcement of research results into cross-gender play in Massive games has prompted some criticism from MMO industry heavyweights. We mentioned in our original post on the study that there was a disparity between the research done and the coverage of that research in the resulting Inquirer article. Veteran designer Richard Bartle has the best analysis of the journalism surrounding the article; his disassembly of the Guardian article about the report is extremely thorough. Jeff Freeman (of the Mythical blog) follows up with further discussion of the original paper - noting that it can barely be described as research. Sarah Jensen Schubert, in a comment on Raph Koster's blog, summarizes Freeman's frustration well: "They surveyed 119 self-selected participants, largely recruited from the Allakhazam off-topic forums. I think it's crap." As a closing thought, Ryan Shwayder's 'rant' on this subject is worth reading as well. He takes a humorous look at some of the suppositions made by hand-wringing journalists and his own playstyle.What do you make of all this? We've previously explored cross gender play among the readers of this site, but it's worth revisiting in the face of all this misinformation. How prevalently do you see this behavior in your gaming - and why do you do it?
Richard Bartle, Jessica Mulligan impart industry wisdom
There are few (if any) names more prestigious in the culture of online games development than those of Richard Bartle and Jessica Mulligan. Bartle was one of the original creators of MUDs (out of which MMORPGs were born), and is a leading theorist on the subject. Mulligan is also an experienced developer and consultant in the field. Both of them spoke at the 2007 EVE Online Fanfest, and Ten Ton Hammer pulled them aside for an interview.It would be impossible to list here all the interesting points they made in the two-page interview, of course, but topics worth highlighting included investor behavior and the problems the American industry faces with regards to finding and utilizing creative talent. If you're interested in the business side of the industry, it's worth a read.Both Bartle and Mulligan had a lot of praise for CCP and EVE Online. For example, Mulligan essentially said the future belongs to games like EVE that take chances and serve a medium-sized, more niche-like player-base, and Bartle suggested that CCP's next game could do very well.
Paper explains EVE's quasi-democratic council in extreme detail
If you had any doubt at all that EVE Online is the thinking man's MMO, you won't any longer. CCP has released a 20 page paper in PDF format describing the new Council of Stellar Management, and you know you're in for something good when the paper starts off with the social theories of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.This is one of the times when it's particularly clear just how bizarre and interesting it is to be writing about virtual societies. This is the stuff of cyberpunk novels and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. CCP has produced something like the first draft of a constitution (with notes) for a representative government, with references to John Locke's social contract theory and everything else you'd expect from such a document. No doubt EVE's scheming political players are already looking through the document for loopholes and potential abuses. It may not be long before EVE players are having debates about campaign finance reform and separation of powers.Richard Bartle doesn't think this will work. Whether it works or not, though, it'll be damned interesting. At the very least, it will be more fodder for discussion relating to Hardcore Casual's EVE Challenge.[Via MMORPG]
Dofus embraces permadeath with new hardcore servers
Richard Bartle once said, "Do you want permadeath or pedophilia? Both seem equally attractive to most players." In other words, permanent death in MMORPGs is pretty much unheard of, and most people who hear the idea are horrified that it should even be suggested. A few MUDs have it, but in the graphical world, there's almost no such thing. The original Lord of the Rings MMO that was developed by Sierra and eventually canceled was going to have it. That's the closest we've gotten to mainstream MMO permadeath.The developers of Dofus, then, are either completely insane or just very daring. They've announced plans to open up "hardcore" servers in December. On hardcore servers, player characters will receive significantly more experience and gain new items and abilities much faster than on normal servers. But when they die, that's it. They've passed on. They are no more. They have ceased to be. Bereft of life, they rest in peace. They've joined the bleeding choir invisible. They are, in their entireties, ex-Dofus toons.At various stages in an age-old debate, proponents have suggested that if executed in the right way in a certain kind of game, permadeath could enrich the online gaming experience. Battles would be more intense and PvP would be more meaningful, for example. Will you play on Dofus' hardcore servers, or is permadeath an affront to everything you believe in?
