Jonathan Northwood

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Jonathan’s addiction to the social aspects of gaming began over thirty years ago, and shows no sign of lessening. He currently self-medicates through judicious use of missions and street sweeping in both the Rogue Isles and Paragon City. When not tied to the keyboard, he can be found writing short stories and novels, enjoying anime, brushing up on his cooking skills, or looking for the Next Big Game™.

Articles by Jonathan Northwood

Exteel: Boomrocker is a go
Heaviest of Exteel's early-era Mechanaughts, the Boomrocker is also one of the best support models available for pilots who can afford the armor and upkeep. Admittedly, it's slower and heavier than newer models, but it's also sturdier, and has a greater capacity for heat regulation. Additionally, the head is equipped with dual Mechanaught Processing Units (MPUs), so you can purchase and equip two skills at the same time.Weighing in at 54K credits, the price tag is not minor, but it's also not prohibitive. And when you consider its classification as a Heavy, when the Trooper is classified as a Medium, it's a fairly sweet deal for the dosh. Yes, it's a support unit, but when you consider how much damage it can deal in close-quarters fighting, support can also equate to kicking opposing Mechanaught butt.Now, a word of warning: we've already mentioned that it's not the fastest bird off the blocks, and it doesn't have the highest mobility. If you do get into a fight where you wind up on the front lines instead of supporting your troops, conserve your energy and reroute it to weapons and shields: don't try to boost or jump unless you can't avoid it, because the Boomrocker is just an eensy bit of a pig when it comes to sucking down the juice. Still, between the armor and the weaponry you're packing, the tradeoff in protection and penetration should more than make up for the occasional sphincter-loosening worry when the your team observes the solid biowaste impacting the rotary impellers.%Gallery-26174%
PDXMMO: get ready to party
Do you enjoy online gaming? Well, who doesn't, really? Do you like the idea of being surrounded by like-minded folks who're playing World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Age of Conan in as obsessive a fashion as you? Think you have the Bawls to play for three days solid? Want to hook up with friends -- and trash-talk a few enemies along the way -- in order to share the MMO love? If so, get ready to visit Portland, Oregon, because PDXMMO v. 1.0 is finally here. You'll need to create a PDXLAN forum account in order to register for PDXMMO, but you'd better hurry: seating is limited to 80, and 20 seats are already claimed.From 6 p.m. Friday, 18 July, through 3 p.m. Monday, 21 July, the Portland Airport Holiday Inn Ballroom is being converted into an MMO-only space. For USD $60.00 -- or, if you prefer, just about the price of a tank of gas -- you'll get: Internet connectivity via Comcast Cable (... by way of PDXLAN staffer Notoes) 3 Days of Non-stop MMOs Admission to PDXLAN Schedued Contests Admission to the PDXLAN Raffle (2 Tickets) 1/3 of a 8 foot round table for you and your computer 600W for your tower and space for your 24" or less LCD / 21" or less CRT Admission to the World of Warcraft 1 person Free For All Tournament So get your vacation requests in at work, stock up on the caffeine tabs and beef jerkey, and get ready to party. PDX is ready for you. Here's the question, though: are you ready for PDXMMO?
Lineage II: behind the gates of the Steel Citadel
Here at Massively, we've always striven to provide you with as much information as we're able to gather about our favorite games. Well, we were lucky enough to catch up with Tim Tan -- North American Producer for NCsoft's Lineage II property -- and had the chance to discuss with him his views on Lineage II itself, the Hellbound expansion, and his feelings about the game's fourth anniversary. With him was Jessica "Alyra" Folsom, Community Manager for Lineage II, so we took the opportunity to pick her brain, as well.For those unaware of the excitement, Hellbound went live on 23 April, the same day the Lineage II team launched Luna, their brand-new European server. Tie both of those events in with the fourth anniversary of their title, and you can see why Tim's so excited about the success of this labor of love. Okay, labor of love, and a lot of coding. Closing the last link in the chain of the First Throne saga, Hellbound brings into existence the horrors and triumphs foreshadowed in earlier installments.
CoH Podcast available via iTunes
Although we here at Massively have our own podcast, and even though we've showcased other podcasts in the past, we missed one important offering in our MMOG podcast roundup last year. The CoH Podcast -- ably presided over by Chooch and Viv -- is a wonderful roundup of CoX news and events. A tasteful plate of information and opinion served up in under an hour, the CoH Podcast informs and amuses, and it's available via iTunes. Currently on Episode 21, they've been providing their own spin around the streets of the City since October 2007.Feel free to browse their listener forums, look over their screen captures, or simply subscribe to one of the better podcasts streaming across the web. When you're done listening, they welcome feedback. And if you want to speak with them directly, feel free to give them a call ... their telephone number is on the main page of the site. Don't worry, though: I have it on the best authority that the number doesn't spell bubkiss.
The clothing makes the alt
Robot arms, monster legs, helmets, wings, ears, antennae and whiskers, all swaddled in tuxedo jackets paired with boxing shorts, stiletto heels and barbed-wire wrapped waists. And that's all on one character. Ah, the joys and perils of the City of Heroes/City of Villains costume creator. As Alec Meer notes, "The character editor, especially in the expanded form it takes these days, offers a vast array of possibilities." The important thing to remember is to be ... judicious ... in your development. Feel free to create eye-searing combinations, but don't be afraid to be subtle, either. Just let your vision take flight, and don't focus on trying to re-create extant heroes.
We're all in the Red King's dream
In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Alice is told by Tweedledee that she only exists as part of the Red King's dreams. "And if he left off dreaming about you," Tweedledee ponders, "where do you suppose you'd be?" As Carroll illustrates, the concept of self-referential realities is not new. Whether discussing the potential pitfalls of a book-based time-travelling plotline that ties a protagonist into the role of being their own grandparent, or focusing attention on the weltanschauung that supports reincarnation and clan-line prophecies, humans seem to have a need to write themselves into the story wherever they can, compartmentalizing fact, fiction, and speculation.
VEAT Video Analysis - a villain's perspective
We, the Chosen Ones within the ranks of Arachnos, have managed to smuggle out a copy of a debriefing video Longbow is providing to "heroes". Realistically, it wasn't that difficult: the briefing was held by heroes, and they apparently didn't realize that an open meeting room in the Rikti War Zone -- an area where heroes and villains both share space, hello? -- is likely not the best place to discuss "secret" information. I had the somewhat dubious pleasure of dropping into shadow to listen to Major Tasker advise the cannon fodder horde of strong and valiant warriors that he was "here to brief you on the capabilities of your sworn enemies, the soldiers of Arachnos." As he notes, "we expect large numbers of new Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows in the coming weeks." Doesn't it make your skin tingle with antici ... pation?I suppose to be fair to Longbow -- although who really wants to be? -- the intel they were able to gather is reasonably solid. I've been able to verify the whispers I heard ... whispers that said Chosen Ones who reach a high enough Threat Level are able to induct new members into the fold as either Wolf Spiders or Blood Widows. Luckily for us, Lord Recluse has been satisfied enough with the Chosen Ones that the Spider class is no longer limited to males, and the Widow class is now open to them. Fraternization's not a problem, from what I understand: just be aware that the rumors of Widows eating their mates isn't limited solely to the animal kingdom. %Gallery-20749%
Microtransactions, the NCcoin of the realm
With all of the discussion about in-game advertisements going on, I thought I'd bring your attention to something else NCsoft is using to provide additional services in-game. Now whether you believe Exteel is a MMO or not, it's the flagship for NCsoft's micro-transaction model using NCcoin, and it's a great way to see if the model's going to work before potential roll-out to other titles. "But Jon," you might ask, "what is NCcoin?" Well, let me 'splain.NCcoin is a dollar-per-penny in-game transaction process that allows you to purchase in-game equipment, upgrades and enhancements using real-world coinage. Unlike gold farming schemes, however, this isn't a third party asking you to spend $59.99 for 60 million influence. NCcoin is currently available in 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 denominations, and for that you pay $1, $5, $10 or $20, respectively. According to NCsoft NA president Chris Chung, "NCsoft's goal is to bring more and more people into the online gaming market, and part of achieving that goal is to continue to diversify how customers can pay and play."
DAoC's grab bag - thy questions are answered
The movers and shakers behind Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot enjoy answering questions posed by their customers, and usually address a handful during each Friday's Grab Bag session. One question a number of individuals has posed is how one goes about getting a second account. According to the Bearded Wonder, "Download the 14-day trial version. Sign up for an account via that method, using the trial disc cd-key and then you have the game up to the Catacombs client." He went on to say that, "If you want to enable additional expansions for the second account, you can do so, and we encourage it!" Questions ranged far and wide, and discussed equippage rights, seige engines, enchantments, crafting, and more. For example, does Greater Onslaught Mythirian have to be equipped by the siege driver, or can it be equipped by a secondary rider and still provide the move increase of 6? The answer: it must be equipped by the driver, specifically. Speaking of specifics, some people have noted that Pendragon and Normal frequently download the same files, and they rapidly grew weary of the ongoing duplication. the Bearded Wonder again strode to the rescue with the suggestion of using separate game installations for Live and Test. In addition to the questions -- all of which are available on last Friday's Grab Bag page -- there were a number of announcements, as well. On 25/26 April, the players of Gaheris (PvE) will host the first of three weekend events. DAoC version 1.94 is being worked on, and they hope to have it up on Pendragon soonish. On 10 May, a number of the DAoC team will be in Bethesda, Maryland, for a Camelot Road Trip, and they're requesting an RSVP if you're planning on attending. And, finally, they're giving qualified players the opportunity to apply for a PvE Ruleset, Thane, Wizard, or Bonedancer Team Lead position.
NCsoft answers your questions about in-game advertising
As promised, we have a full transcript from The Cape's podcast covering in-game advertising. Be warned: at 44 minutes of speech, the transcript is huge. To make it easier to digest, we've split the transcript into 7 discrete sections. So that it's easier to follow, the DJs have their speech in black text, while Matt "Positron" Miller shines with the heroic green glow of his alt's Radiation powers. Brian Clayton -- NCsoft NorCal's Studio Manager -- is a cool blue presence, and Lighthouse isn't only a Red Name, he's got red speech. So, without further ado, here you go: the full transcript of Friday's interview.
CoX In-game Ads: The bandwidth/revenue equation
DJ Shecky: Do you guys have an idea yet of what sort of bandwidth consumption this is all going to wind up taking?Brian: So we're still running tests, but everything we've seen so far is that it's negligible. You really cannot see the difference. We've run tests on dial-up connections, we've run them on DSL connections, cable modems, and so right now, everything looks really positive, but again, that's where the opt-out comes in handy, that if -- in some rare circumstance -- there is some sort of bandwidth hit, they can opt-out, but I really do not forsee that being a problem whatsoever.DJ Shecky: Templar, I'm sure you have another question for them.DJ Templar: Yeah. If we could get back to the community-generated content for a sec, Tony V. from Infinity posted on our forums to ask about if it would be possible for you to go into some more detail about how it will be used compared to the revenue-generating content, if there is going to be like a set amount of space set aside for community content, or if it's going to vary depending upon demand from actual paid content, and whether you guys have worked on any ratios, or how that's going to work.Positron: Well, as far as I know, we haven't actually set any sort of ratios for that ... all of the community-generated stuff. We definitely want to put it in the rotation of the ads that are presented to the players, but I don't know what the ratio of what it's going to be is.Brian: And I expect actually that ratio will be changing. Depending on where our official ad pipeline is at, at times you'll see a lot more community stuff being run, and other times you'll probably see more paid for being run, but you'll always see community ads being run in some capacity.DJ Templar: Okay. Are the existing in-game ads -- the Chris Jenkins, the City of Gyros, and that sort of thing -- are those going to be going away if you're opted into the new initiative?Positron: No, they'll be put in the rotation with everything else.DJ Templar: Oh, okay. One of the questions that I've been asked a lot -- especially with regard to the community content -- is "oh my God, how much is this going to cost?" Is there going to be a different price structure for player content as opposed to corporate content, or is that a yet-to-be-determined sort of thing?Brian: So we're still working all these things out. My intention is not to charge from a community perspective for those sorts of things. But I can certainly see where people want to post anniversaries or things like that, and certainly you need a barrier to entry to do some things like that. We'll look at it, but certainly the intention here with in-game advertising is we'll make some revenue here from the advertisers, we'll put it directly into the development team to further improve the product, and all the community fun things that we have planned will just sort of be additive fun things at the end of the day.Lighthouse: And I think one other thing to mention with anything that's coming in through the community is going to go through the same review process that the regular ads are going to be going through the team here and making sure that everybody has buyoff that this is an immersive thing that looks good in the game, it's appropriate for what we want to have out there on these billboards, so it'll always fit.DJ Shecky: How often will the ads be rotating? If you zone out, and then zone back in two minutes later, are they going to be different? Or if you turn around, are you going to see a different ad? Or are two people going to look at the same billboard and see two different ads?Positron: I'm actually not exactly sure on how that works. I can grab a programmer here in a minute -- probably in the next break -- and get you a better answer on that one. But I believe it's served per-client, so different clients will possibly see different ads, and we also ... Double Fusion makes sure that you don't see the same ad over and over and over and over again, so there will be a variety so you won't just see the same single ad on every billboard in the zone.DJ Templar: Speaking about revenue, the initial announcement states that all the all the revenue generated by ad sales in this program go towards City of Heroes development, City of Villains development, and there's been some people that say "well sure it is, it's being used for all sorts of that we have no way of knowing." So if you could, just reiterate for us where this money is going and how it's being used.Brian: I'd be happy to. So, we certainly don't want ads in our game for the sake of just having ads, right? And so it was very important that we were able to sort of work with the executive management within NCsoft to ensure that every dollar that is coming from in-game advertising be contributed directly back to the development team. And what I like about this is that this is really one of the few -- maybe the only -- opportunity for players to directly contribute to the development team's budget without actually having to open their wallet. And so, if we do everything right, and we implement things in a way that is seamless and immersive and additive to the overall feel of our current zones, then I think this is going to be a big win for the community and for the dev team, and we're going to have a lot more resources to work with, hopefully, and bring you guys cooler and more content.Positron: Yeah, I would love to do like I did with the wedding pack and be able to point out features that the advertising revenue has bought you guys. And we'll see exactly how that is going to work out in the future.DJ Templar: I think there was something on the forums about how revenue from the wedding pack helped make the VEATs a reality. Is that accurate?Positron: Accurately, what happened was we had originally scheduled them for Issue 13, but because of the wedding pack sales, we were able to fast-track them, and put some more resources into them, and get them into Issue 12. Breaking down the revenue equation ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: How to make 'em, where to see 'em
DJ Shecky: Alright. And as a followup to that, I had a couple of people -- namely one of our other DJs -- had come up with the thought of "is there going to be a separate little piece of software that's going to be installed for targeting the advertisements?"Brian: There is an SDK installed, but it's not gathering any personal info. It's really just there to serve the ads, to cache the ads, so that it has little to no impact on the bandwidth that's being used, and that's really all that package does.DJ Shecky: Excellent. Templar, why don't you go ahead and ask your questions.DJ Templar: Kind of in line with the data collection question, how is this being tracked in terms of ... is it literally like a billboard in real life, where someone who pays for space really doesn't have a clear idea of how many people who're seeing it, or is there going to be something in place that indicates how much traffic, like nearby traffic, a particular advertisement gets?Brian: Well certainly it's handled differently by different advertisers, and with different products. Certainly, in the MMO space, we have a few more advantages to sort-of real-time track who's viewing billboards than we do in offline packages, so we will look at how much of the ad is shown on a screen, how long it's looked at, those sorts of things. But again, that's sort of looked at as an aggregate number, not necessarily on a per-customer number.DJ Templar: Okay. Shecky, what do you have?DJ Shecky: Alright. I've seen this mentioned on just about every forum on the City of Heroes site, and on our own forums, and that's with the idea of player advertisements for player supergroups and etcetera. What's the cost going to be, and how would people go about sending you guys doing it ... how would they get their ads placed onto these billboards?Positron: So the players will be able to make their own ads and send them to us, and in the beta test we're going to be using a lot of player-generated ads that we get. And then, as we move out of beta and move into the live stuff, we'll most likely have contests where players can submit ads, so we'll definitely pick winners from that and get their stuff. And I believe on our forums is a link to the size and color limitations that we have for the advertisements.DJ Templar: Yeah, I saw that.Lighthouse: On the player submissions form, there's the details, the specifications and the ratios for the pieces that can be submitted, as well as the submission address to send them in.DJ Templar: I've been trying my best to follow the main thread on the official boards discussing this announcement, and one of the issues that's been brought up is ... if it starts with the in-game billboards, where might it go from there? And some people have mentioned the slippery slope concept that this is simply the beginning of a much greater ad presence in the game. What sort of plans are there to expand beyond using current billboards?Brian: I wish I knew the answer to that question. The truth is that we're just looking at swapping out the current ad placements -- our fictitious ad placements with real-world ads -- certainly we could look at other opportunities and find other interesting ways to make the game a little more fun through advertising, but really that's not where our heads are right now. We want to take step 1, we want to look at how this is received by the community. We want to make sure that we can make good, and that we can ensure this is immersive, and not intrusive, and I think once we have a stable platform for that, we'll open up some ideas to the community to what else they might be interested in. But right now, the model that's proven is just flat-texture billboards working in online immersive worlds, and that's where we'll start. I certainly am very open to the fact that that concern would be out there within the community, but I hope that we're continuning to build trust with the community in the fact that we're really up front with our business initiatives. When we comment about features that are going into the game they actually do make it into the game. A lot of times that may be received as not giving out enough information, but we really want to be up-front with our community, be as honest and transparent as we possibly can, and hopefully continue to win their trust and confidence in the way that we want to grow the game.Positron: I think that our players have a valid concern with where we're going to go with this, but they also should look to us to ... trust us, because we want to make the game immersive, and not exploitive. We don't want the players to be bombarded by ads every which way they turn. We want it to be a nice experience for them, not a turn-off.Brian: And I should also say that going forward, we expect that anything that we implement with advertising revenue attached to it we fully expect to be an opt-in or an opt-out situation. So players will have the ability to pick and choose what level they want to participate in with these initatives.DJ Templar: Would any game content be linked to any of the advertisements, in the sense that -- if they did opt out of seeing the ads -- they would miss out on any part of the game experience?Positron: No. We don't have any plans for that.DJ Templar: Okay. What about the zones that lack billboards? I think ... I'm pretty sure that Croatoa, for instance, doesn't have any billboards, but I could be wrong. Is that simply going to be an ad-free zone, or are there going to be some modifications made to accomodate, or how is that going to work?Positron: Initially it's going to be an ad-free zone, but we'll see how things are going, and if the players seem to like the way the ads are working, and it's not really immersion-breaking, and they're working for players, then we can start adding some billboards in logical places in the zones that don't have them.DJ Shecky: Something I saw a lot of people mentioning throughout the day today is on the opting out. There were a lot of questions about opting out, from whether you can opt out and opt in at will -- say you want to try them, then you decide you don't want them, then you decide you do want them -- are you going to be able to switch in and out with that, and when you do opt out, does it just prevent the ads from being seen, or does it stop everything from downloading to the actual game client?Brian: So the current plan right now is to let people opt-in and opt-out at will. And if you're not opted in for the in-game advertising, you'll currently see the same fictitious billboards that you currently experience in the game.Lighthouse: And I can comment further on that. I was talking with our tech lead about that and actually answered this question on our forums earlier today, in that when you opt out, it actually is bypassing all of the ... the game client is not using the Double Fusion code and technology, so ... really, and they're very conscious about bandwidth and performance usages, so from that standpoint, there wouldn't be any extra bandwidth going on, because it's not even going through that code path. Balancing CoS increases with QoS needs ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: The wrapup
DJ Shecky: I think this is a good spot for us to collect our thoughts, and go over and make sure that we've covered all these questions before we start to wrap things up. What about you guys?Brian: Sure.Lighthouse: Sounds good.DJ Shecky: Gentlemen, I think we were going to give everyone a thirty-second wrapup time. Is that right, Templar?DJ Templar: Yeah, that sounds about right.Brian: I'll do my best to only take thirty seconds. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to put us on the air and talk direct with the community and be able to answer their questions. One thing we did want to confirm with everybody is that this is definitely a post-Issue 12 launch. We'll do some testing in the closed and open beta of Issue 12, but our intentions are to go live sometime this summer with the in-game ads. And I just really want to thank our community for continuing to support us, and trust us. And we're doing our best to continue to grow the development and resources to better support their game and improve the game, and we're just real excited about the future of City of Heroes, and all the things we have planned. And we look forward to the next few months where we'll be able to disclose a whole lot more about those plans.Positron: I'm happy with everything we've done today. I'm glad we had an opportunity to talk with you guys, and answer these questions directly that the players have had. I'm also happy with the way this has been received on the forums. I was kind of steeling myself for today, because I was really unsure of how the majority of the community was going to react. Because we have tried to make this such a friendly addition to the game -- allowing players to opt-out if they just do not want to see any ads -- we wanted to make sure that message was clear. And it was apparent from what we saw on the boards that yes, we did make that message clear, and that yes, we are going to reinvest all of this money straight back into the game, and that a lot of players are actually in favor of this addition.Lighthouse: And I think also looking at the piece that was really well-recieved was making sure that this really is immersive and adds something to the game. At the end of the day, City of Heroes and Paragon City, and sections of the Rogue Isles, they're cities. And I think we're working hard to make this come off right, and make it a fun addition to the game that people will look back and enjoy and kind of go, "why were we so worried about that? This is kind of fun!" At least that's our hope, and we're working hard to pull that off. And as Brian said, to maintain your trust and your support in the game that you all enjoy and that we love to make.DJ Templar: Well again, I want to thank all of you guys for coming out, and I hope this went a long way to clear up some of the lingering questions there have been about today's announcement. And I expect the discussions will continue on the forums for quite a while longer.DJ Shecky: Positron, Brian, Lighthouse, thank you all very much for doing this, and doing it with us. We'd love to have you back any time that you guys want to make any sort of announcements, or if you just even want to say hi.Brian: We absolutely enjoyed it. Thank you for having us.Positron: Yes, this was awesome. Thanks.Lighthouse: And we know that people are really looking forward to Issue 12 information, but there's still a lot more things to talk about with Issue 12. And thanks again to The Cape, and DJ Shecky and DJ Templar for having us on today. - - - So there you go: a full transcript of The Cape's interview with NCsoft. As we get more information about in-game advertising -- whether directly from NCsoft, through a third party, or via Issue 12 -- we'll let you know. Until then, thanks for reading Massively. Now go out there and kick some spandex-clad butt!
CoX In-game Ads: Selective placement, self-promotion
DJ Shecky: Somebody posted this one up on the Cape forums. Obviously there's a limited amount of places that ads can be placed in the Rogue Isles, etcetera. Are you going to be adding in more billboards? For instance, one of our DJs actually mentioned in our private chat, and I saw mentioned it out on the board, Steel Canyon you can see with a lot more billboards put in it, whereas some place like Croatoa doesn't really have space for billboards, etcetera. Is there an idea to go ahead and make more ad space?Positron: As we see how the revenues coming in from this, if we need to add more ad space, we will add billboard space, but we will only add it in logical places. It's not like you're going to be right in front of City Hall, on either side of the entrance door will be 90 foot high billboards. That's not going to happen. We may add billboards to the tram stations, because there currently is no real advertising space in the tram area, so if we're going to add stuff, it's going to be in a logical place, and it's not going to be obtrusive. The whole thing with the ads is immersive and unobtrusive.DJ Templar: As far as the ad placement goes, are we going to see ads displayed during the loading and splash screen?Brian: We have no plans to do that right now.DJ Templar: Okay. And also, kind of along the lines of placement -- and this kind of dovetails into the immersion aspect, as well -- City of Villains, the Rogue Isles, is in some places, a very dilapidated, rather dingy, darker feel, and it was designed deliberately so, so it has more of a decay going on in the environment, and some people are wondering, "well, this is also supposed to be like a dictatorial zone, this isn't really a place of freedom and expression and that sort of thing." What kind of adjustments are going to be made as far as the placement of certain ads to retain that overall feel of the Rogue Isles?Positron: So I know that Ken Morse, our Art Director, really has strong feelings on this, in that he wants the ads to match the zone that they're in. And if we need to dirty up an ad texture in order for it to match an area, that's something that we will bring to the advertiser and say, "you want to advertise, but we need to do this to your ad. Are you okay with that?" We don't want a nice big bright ad in run-down parts of Mercy. That breaks immersion, it becomes obtrusive, it goes outside the realm of what we're trying to do.DJ Templar: This is kind of an aside, but are you going to allow currency sales and gold farming companies to advertise?Positron: I have sign-off on the ads, as does Ken, as does Brian, and Ross, and I say no to any sort of real-money transaction companies right off the bat.Brian: I agree.DJ Templar: We'd asked some technical issues, and I believed it was Matt -- if I'm not mistaken -- who went to hunt down a programmer there to get some answers. And I think it was about some texture-related things, as well as how frequently or how often the ads would refresh. Were you able to get some answers on that?Positron: Yeah. Basically, the answer to the texture question was correct that I gave. It does affect the ads, so if you lower your texture quality, you will see lower quality texture on the ads, so you don't need to worry about performance hit because of that. The other question was who sees what and when, and whether players will see different ads, different players. Since it's all client-side, yes ... depending on how we're serving the ads, it is possible that players will see different ads in the same ad space on different computers. It's all being served by the Double Fusion servers, and so they just basically make sure you're seeing a fresh ad, and getting you that. And we do load the ads on zone loads, so once an ad is an ad, it's an ad for the entire time that you're in the zone. But upon rezoning -- you know, going into the mission, exiting out, reloading the zone -- it may change.Lighthouse: One thing to kind of add on that in talking with the tech guys earlier, we were talking about bandwidth issues and performance issues, anybody who's listening to what Matt was just saying might think "oh, I'm going to have to do more stuff when I'm loading in a zone." One thing to reiterate is that the textures of the ad are cached on your machine, so you're not going to have to reload them, per se, or use more bandwidth, or download them.DJ Templar: I think you said that if people are opted out, then that download does not occur, period. Is that correct?Positron: Correct.Lighthouse: Yeah.DJ Shecky: Okay. We actually got a question in here, and I'm going to paraphrase it so it makes a little bit more sense for the general public. We know that we've got a large user base, especially age-wise. Some of the older people might own their own business, etcetera. Would they be contacting you guys, or Double Fusion, if they wanted to actually opt-in their companies, their actual, physical companies, for marketing in-game.Brian: Double Fusion handles all of that, and I believe that, in the press release, their contact info is right on that press release, so they can talk to them directly and see if they can work something out with them. Quis custodiat ipsos custodes Who's keeping an eye on the content? ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: Opting in for reinvestment
DJ Templar: Gotcha. One of the pastimes with some of the people on the forums has been taking the monthly fee that each person pays, the current total subscriber count that's been reported, multiply that, and say "okay, NCsoft has got (x) amount of money. Why on Earth do they need more?"Brian: So more money equals more reinvestment, right? For anybody that's taken any Business 101, you take a set percentage of what your revenue is and you reinvest it into the product. The great thing about in-game advertising is we're not just taking that percentage and putting it back into the product, we're taking the entirety of what in-game advertising generates and putting it directly back into the dev team. And that's why it's such a huge win. So of all the math that you work out, I would say that most companies probably only put 15 or so percent, but NCsoft invests well above that into all their products, and to have 100% of the in-game advertising come back into the development team is really a huge win.DJ Shecky: We'll go along that same line. First off, if we opt out, do you guys lose that ad revenue entirely?Brian: We absolutely do. But at the end of the day, it's more important for us to have our players have an experience that they enjoy and they're comfortable with. And if that means that they don't like the way that we've implemented in-game advertising, more power to them. They should feel comfortable to turn that off. And for those that are comfortable with it, like I said, it'll be a win for all of us, and we'll be able to grow the game more quickly and reinvest in the game more quickly. And I'm really not trying to make anyone feel guilty. This is their decision: we're 100% comfortable. We're not going to encourage customers to do this in-game advertising. This is just a decision that they need to make on their own. And like I said, if we do this right, I feel that we're going to bring a little more life to the city, and make the world feel a little more dynamic than it currently does.Positron: And I think that reiterates our statement on why we want to do it. Obviously, if we do this really well, and the ads are immersive and add to the gameplay experience, then people don't have that reason to turn it off, so that onus is back on us to make it work out really well for everybody involved.DJ Shecky: Excellent. And also, somewhat along the same lines, when you see the ads -- and if you put your mouse over them -- are they going to be clickable, or is it just an ad that's just going to be there and static, or is it going to pop up a web address for you to go and visit that company's product?Positron: No, the ads are not clickable. We're only measuring impressions, which is the view time, and how much of the ad you're seeing.Lighthouse: So that ads should work just like they do now, it's a texture: you'll see it as you go flying on by, and it won't have any ... if you're teleporting, or something, and you click on an ad, it's going to act just like it would now, and not change any of your mouse functionality or anything like that.DJ Shecky: Alright. One more followup on that same sort of thought. Knowing that it's going to be a viewable item. I know myself that I've got a number of friends that have to lower the actual graphics settings, and a lot of the ads turn out rather blurry, and we can't tell what they are, etcetera. Until I got a new card, I didn't know what half the billboards said in there. Nowadays I get a good chuckle out of them. How is that going to affect everything if somebody opts in?Positron: I'm not exactly sure. Again, I can grab a programmer on that one. But I believe we do the same sort of draw distance thing, so if it's beyond a certain distance, and it's an illegible ad, then it basically doesn't count.DJ Shecky: Okay. That makes sense to me. Templar?DJ Templar: Speaking of the opting in and opting out, right now it's basically up to the player to decide whether they want to see them or not. And this actually did come up in the forum discussions today. Is there going to come a point where -- if the program is so successful -- that you're going to say, "you know what, the vast majority of players are opted in, there's really no need to have this toggle anymore, so we're just going to make this the default, and there won't be any more option."Positron: I've always been a proponent of the opt-out feature. I really strongly feel the opt-out feature needs to be there for our players to have the experience that they want. And this feature is not just for us, it's for our players, as well. They want an immersive game, we can give them ads. If they don't want advertising -- and there's a lot of players out there who just refuse to cater to advertisers -- that is what this feature is for. We don't want to lose them as a player.DJ Templar: Okay, so the opt-in feature is going to remain, regardless of how successful the program is?Brian: Yeah, that's correct. And I think Matt and I on that question were both looking at each other because we both 100% agree that this always should be an opt-in opportunity. And we're very comfortable with that from a business perspective.Lighthouse: I was going to jump on there to reiterate what Brian and Positron are saying there, that in the original statements -- if you go back and read through what we were talking about in the text stuff -- that's part of the reason why this took the time that it did, was to find the partner that would allow us to do the opt-in/opt-out solution, so that's a pretty central piece in the whole thing in making it optional. And when you hear it from them that it's not going away, you can feel good that it's not going away. Who changes the marquees in Dark Astoria? ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: Content control
DJ Templar: One of the concerns that some people have whenever advertisers have a financial stake into a particular company or a particular venture is how much control they can exercise with their wallet, basically. And some people on the forums have expressed concerns that, in a way, we would be giving some of these advertisers power over the game. That if there was some particular content that they didn't like, or if they objected to something, that they would be able to basically wield their stick and affect change in the game world. And I was just wondering how you guys would address that if advertisers did object to a particular piece of game content.Brian: No. They have no say in any of these ads. And, frankly, if they're not happy with the way something is performing, we're happy to work with them -- they are a partner in this opportunity -- but at the end of the game, the most important thing is immersion. And I think you'll just hear that over and over again, and you guys will see it once we get all this plugged into the game and you can see it for real. But in no way can they have any impact on our players' game experience, or really the overall immersion and feel of the game.Lighthouse: And I think, just to pile on with that, there is also the creative control, and what's going in to the game, because I've seen that question tied in here, as well. And I think to reiterate what Brian is saying, they're not going to be ... no advertiser is going to be saying "oh, well, you can't put Psi Blasters in, why would you ever do that?" So no worries on that side.DJ Templar: Speaking of advertisers, you did mention that -- because City of Heroes/City of Villains carries a Teen Rating by the ESRB -- certain more mature advertisers such as tobacco companies and alcohol and that sort of thing wouldn't be included. Do you have -- I know this is early days, yet -- but do you have any ideas about what sort of companies you would be especially interested in having in the game, or is that not something that you guys have really touched on yet?Positron: It's not really something that we've touched on yet. We want to see what advertisers are brought to us by Double Fusion, so that we can basically choose what's going into the game.Brian: As far as preference, I'm less worried about the preference about the actual advertisers than I am about the content that they provide us to show in the game. Again, our focus is making sure we don't break immersion, and that we really support the look and feel that we currently have going on in the game.DJ Templar: So -- and this is certainly speculation at this point -- is it conceivable to see advertisements for movies, or even for other games, for other computer games?Brian: So again, we control that content. I don't have interest, really, in promoting any games outside of the NCsoft family, but certainly we would consider movies and some of those opportunities. I can go down the list: cars, automobiles, beverages, you know, those sorts of things. We'll see what we're presented with, and I think -- when we get a good sense of the types of advertisers that are interested -- we'll be more than open in sharing with the community the options that we're looking at. And, of course, they'll see them in-game, and we'll learn sort of through who's opting in and who's opting out what's working and what's not. But like I said, I think is pretty much a situation of either you're not bothered by in-game ads, or you are. And ... I have enough confidence in Matt, and Ken, and the team here to really ensure that we're keeping to the integrity of what City of Heroes has been up to this point. And we're not going to do anything to push people from the creative perspective into opting out. This is just really a personal preference, and we're happy to allow our customers to make this decision.DJ Shecky: We know that it's going to opt-out, that we have to go in and turn off the option. Is this going to be ... I'm assuming, initially, it's going to be on a per-character basis. And if it is, is there going to be any way down the line to make it on a per-account basis.Positron: So one of the Quality of Life features that we're trying to get in for Issue 12 is to give you the ability to save all of your preferences locally, onto your hard drive, and then reload them per-character. And, of course, your opt-in/opt-out would be one of those preferences. We're trying very hard to make sure that this makes it into Issue 12, but I can't guarantee anything. So there, I gave you my little Issue 12 tidbit.Lighthouse: So I'm writing that down as "future promises we must keep."Brian: Whoops!Lighthouse: But of course Matt already has that.Lighthouse: There was a question earlier that we were talking about, during the break, about animated ads. Whether or not they were static or ... yeah.DJ Templar: Yeah, is there going to be a possiblity of having animated ads: either in the form of rotating billboards that you see nowadays, or even, say, something along the lines of a movie marquee, or something like that?Positron: So initially we're just going to do the static image ads, and the animated texture stuff is actually very difficult for us to do. Not going to say impossible, and I'm not going to say that it's worth it or not for us to do. It's something we're going to look at in the future if we need to go there. Do the developers have any final thoughts? Stay tuned ==>>
The Cape envelops in-game advertising
Yesterday, The Cape Radio -- specifically DJs Templar and Shecky -- took the time to interview Brian Clayton, the General Manager of NCsoft NorCal studio, Matt "Positron" Miller, the Senior Lead Designer for City of Heroes, and Lighthouse, City of Heroes' Community Relations Manager. While the podcast is available immediately on The Cape's web site, we'll also have a transcript of the session available for you tomorrow. To whet your interest, however, here are some important takeaways from yesterday's session: current bandwidth testing -- on dial-up, DSL, and cable modem -- indicate that performance impact with in-game advertisements enabled will range from minimal to none any data collected to share with the advertiser to determine the viability of the revenue stream will be in the aggregate, and will not include personally-identifying data the goal is to have player-generate ads included in the lineup at no charge, but that model may change in the future, and it may have some caveats, such as one-off advertisements for anniversaries and such full details for submitting player-generated material are available on the official forums players will be able to opt-in and opt-out at will, and at any time if you opt out, you'll see the current static ads; however, if you opt-in, the current static ads will still be part of the lineup, cycling through along with all other player-generated and revenue-generating ads 100% of ad-generated revenue is currently earmarked for development of future content NCsoft remains committed to making the advertising a seamless part of the experience, and is looking to enhance the immersive nature of the game rather than negatively impact it
CoX Issue 12 to enter closed beta
Starting next week, NCsoft's City of Heroes and City of Villains will be entering closed beta for Issue 12:Midnight Hour. This does mean that the Test Server will be unavailable for standard use; however, if you're interested in testing out the new Character Creator, the server will allow you to log in and try out the application. Unfortunately, unless you're part of the closed beta, you won't be able to play with the character you create. One other item of note: the Real Numbers feature is being disabled in character creator for the closed beta, as they're still working on refining the new powers. Still, this should give you a feel for the application, and for how it may look during both open beta and the final release. And, as usual, if you have any questions, concerns, or issues to be raised, please feel free to bring them up in the official forums.
New character creator for CoX Issue 12
As more news comes in about NCsoft's latest free expansion to the CoX universe -- Issue 12: "Midnight Hour" -- we're getting more and more excited. The latest tidbit to come down the pipeline is that the Character Creator will gain expanded functionality tied to the Real Numbers system, allowing players to see not only the numbers behind their chosen powers at creation, but how those numbers will scale up as the character progresses in level. As well, it's going to feature costume set drop-downs instead of forcing players to choose from individual lists of Hats, Gloves, Boots, and Upper/Lower Body selections. For full details on how these changes will affect character creation, check out Lighthouse's Feature Update on the official forums, and feel free to register any questions or concerns.
City looking to hang new fan art
Are you an artist, architect or illustrator? Do you enjoy playing with ink and pencils, either digitally or in real life? If so, CoX Community Relations Manager Lighthouse would like to extend you an offer. Prepare your best work -- whether it's your alt, your Supergroup, or your favorite signature hero -- and send it to NCsoft via the Fan Submission web page. Once it's in hand, they'll consider it for publication on either the City of Heroes web site or the City of Heroes fanzine. And, as always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to make them known on the discussion board.