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The Guild Counsel: SWTOR is stealing my (character) identity!
Guild leading is often as much about managing personalities as it is about managing the nuts and bolts of the game. In previous columns, we've looked at all sorts of issues that guild leaders have to solve, and at the root of almost all of them is some sort of personality clash. Show me a nice blend of personalities, and I'll show you a happy guild that will stick together for years. What makes guild leading so difficult, though, is that unlike real-life leaders, guild leaders need to manage two identities for every member. There's the real-life identity of the player, and then there's the identity of the in-game character, and they aren't always the same. If you talk to a guild that's met at a guild gathering or convention, one of the things you'll always hear is how a particular member is so different from his in-game character. In game, for example, he might be a rough-around-the-edges general, but in real life he's a quiet teddy bear. MMOs give us the opportunity to be someone completely different from who we are out of game, and even non-roleplayers will sometimes behave differently when they're playing. But Star Wars: The Old Republic has taken away some of our power to construct our own identities in game. In this edition of The Guild Counsel, Let's look at how that's happened and whether it will affect the way we game.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite item-quality system?
Grey, white, green, blue, purple, gold. World of Warcraft may not have invented what's become the standard colors for item quality, but it's surely cemented the hierarchy in gamers' minds. Last week, Raph Koster suggested that these tiers of items are part of the "yuck" that leads to the loss of immersion across the games industry. I think he's right. I miss the days of Ultima Online (which not coincidentally was Koster's baby), when players geared up with basic platemail of invulnerability, chainmail of fortification, and katanas of vanquishing. Halfway through UO's lifespan, that system was gutted in favor of a Diablo-esque item that turned wearables into a numbers game. The charm of my deadly poisoned kryss made by a Grandmaster Blacksmith was gone, replaced by a few dozen stats to juggle. Do you agree with Koster? Are color-coded item tiers a design shortcut that contributes to the loss of immersion in MMOs and other games? What game has your favorite item-quality system? 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!
Leaderboard: Play the game vs. play the system
Recently, MMO guru Raph Koster made some waves by lamenting the loss of immersion as a core game virtue. In a follow-up post to his first one, he clarified that he was speaking about the two different sides of game play and game development: "These are also two ways to play a game. You can come to it as purely a math puzzle to solve, or you can come at it as an experience. And ironically, with all the advances we have made in terms of presentation, it feels like more and more games are less about the experience and more about the acronyms and mechanics." So in today's Leaderboard, we're going to have it out: immersion versus statistics, the love of the game versus the love of the numbers. Do you play MMOs more for the experience of it -- to be immersed in its game world, reveling in the stories, characters, locales, and feel? Or do you find yourself gaming the system more and more, min-maxing to win at the numbers game while seeking the most efficient path through content? Vote after the jump and let your voice be heard!
Raph Koster: Immersion is not a core game virtue
Yeah, you read that right, virtual world fans. One of the more celebrated sandbox MMORPG developers is apparently throwing in the towel when it comes to immersion. Raph Koster wrote what can only be termed a lament on his personal blog today, saying that "immersion does not make a lot of sense in a mobile, interruptable world." Koster characterizes immersion as a style whose time has come and gone, and he concludes that games are no longer for dreamers due to their far-reaching popularity. "I mourn the gradual loss of deep immersion and the trappings of geekery that I love," Koster writes. "I see the ways in which the worlds I once dove into headlong have become incredibly expensive endeavors, movies-with-button-presses far more invested in telling me their story, rather than letting me tell my own." Whether you agree with him or not, it's a sobering read coming from one of the chief creative forces behind Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online.
Raph Koster talks about free-to-play models and whales
The idea of free-to-play business models can prompt a lot of venom from players who are certain that the model, essentially, is a trick. You'll be forced into paying for the game somehow, or you'll be able to pay extra money and walk away with all of the best stuff in the game. Raph Koster has a different view of things from a business standpoint, and he outlines how the free-to-play model works out in practice in a recent blog entry. Koster explains that you wind up with a handful of players who sink a huge amount of money into the game, while most users (upwards of 60%) never pay a dime. The users who do pay that much money, referred to as "whales," are essentially being treated as if they're in a retail store, compared to the more traditional model where you pay $60 for a game only to find out you don't like it. Whatever your views on the model, it's an interesting look at the changing face of monetizing games and is well worth a read.
The Game Archaeologist crosses Meridian 59: A chat with Brian Green (part 2)
Welcome to the second part of our interview with former Meridian 59 developer Brian "Psychochild" Green as he reminisces about running one of the oldest graphical MMOs in history. If you missed the first part, I heartily recommend you catch up on it before continuing further. And now, for the exciting conclusion... The Game Archaeologist: What's one of your favorite stories from your experience running Meridian 59? Brian Green: One time I was at Dave & Busters restaurant one evening after a day at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC). I was chatting with Raph Koster about the conference, when from behind us someone says, "Oh my god, are you Psychochild?!?" Raph, who has always been more high profile than I am, gives a grin and leaves. Turns out they were fans of the game and bought me a drink as thanks.
Enter at Your Own Rift: The casual revolution in RIFT
The Fae Yule world event has arrived in Telara, and there's one part of the event in particular that really captures the holiday feeling. It's not the daily quests but the festive "shinies" that players can harvest around town, like mistletoe and the holiday candle. At first I enjoyed the fun of clicking and getting nice little rewards, but by the third shiny, I was cursing other players who were racing me to the spot and grabbing the goods before I could! Talk about a Black Friday flashback! Twenty minutes later I was in the middle of the most intense, knock-down brawl for shinies that could rival a top-tier PvP Warfront. You wouldn't think that harvesting little festive oddities could be turned into a hardcore game, but that is exactly what I and a few other players ended up doing. And that got me thinking about Jesper Juul's book A Casual Revolution. In it, he looks at how video games have gone back to their roots and reinvented themselves, leading, for example, to the rise of the Wii. His book focused more on console gaming and didn't address MMOs that much, but in this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'd like to look at how his ideas apply to RIFT, particularly with recent changes to the game.
Video series chronicles the evolution of MUDs to MMOs
If you're looking for a reasonably short video primer on the history of MMOs, look no further than a series of clips recently uploaded to YouTube. According to some genre heavyweights, though, you shouldn't take all the info presented at face value. Former sandbox (and current social games) developer Raph Koster weighs in on the clips at his personal blog, and he offers up a laundry list of "oddities, errors, and omissions." MUD pioneer Richard Bartle shows up in Koster's comment thread, and he's even more direct. "I wonder why so few of those who make this kind of documentary actually ask the people they're talking about whether what they're saying about them is factually correct? It's not like we're dead or anything," Bartle muses. Why watch the vids, then? Mainly for the exposure to pre-2004 MMORPGs, according to Koster. The clips are "worth a look, even if only to get a rare glimpse of actual video footage from some of the older games that many folks today don't even know existed," he says. Check out all three installments after the break.
GDC Online 2011: Raph Koster speaks on the gamification of real life
Raph Koster spoke at the recently concluded GDC Online 2011, and if the summary on Gamasutra is any indication, his message was somewhat mixed. Unsurprisingly, the former sandbox maestro (and current social gaming evangelist) had a lot of positive things to say about Facebook. On the other hand, he said that going too far down the accessibility road can lead to "bad art." He also opined that "design is about constraining people," but that games still have the potential for player creativity, and that Facebook has more user-generated content than games or virtual worlds. If you're confused yet, you're not alone, as Koster also mentioned something about wizards, magic circles, and his belief that the world is becoming more game-like (and thus there's no one better to shape it than game developers). "Let's watch out not to let the pointsification and rulesification, quantification, and reductionism that we have always loved about what we do -- let's not let that change who we are," Koster said. Check out his notes and slides from the talk via his blog, linked below.
Hyperspace Beacon: Post mortem
When a company ends a project or when a theatre production ends, the producers and directors will usually do an analysis of the project. They will give a rundown of what performed well and what performed poorly. The idea is to ensure that the next project delivers better results than the previous one. Granted, we will not be able to sit in on the official post mortem meeting for Star Wars Galaxies, but we can do our own analysis of what happened. As I said above, the idea is to take what we learned from the previous project and apply it to the next one. In the eyes of a Star Wars MMO fan, the next project will be Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now to be fair, I already have a series of articles that feature the mistakes SWG made that we don't want to see in The Old Republic, so this time around, I figured it would be best to show off the good things SWG did that should probably be repeated in SWTOR. This is by no means exhaustive, but it's a couple of the big ones in my mind.
Raph Koster on the legacy of Star Wars Galaxies
Amid all the internet commentary sure to be forthcoming over the next few days regarding Star Wars Galaxies and its upcoming swan-song, none of it is really as relevant as the thoughts of the man primarily responsible for designing the original game. Raph Koster offers up a bit of commentary on SWG's demise via his personal website, and despite the brevity, he manages to touch on exactly why the game mattered to so many of us and why it will be sorely missed. "It gave us features that continue to amaze people who don't realize what can be done: Real economies complete with supply chains and wholesalers and shopkeepers, that amazing pet system, the moods and chat bubbles [...], player cities, vehicles, spaceflight," Koster says. It also gave us dancing, and while many progression-focused gamers scoff at SWG's social features, Koster rightly concludes that they may well be the game's legacy since they allowed us to "stop saving the world or killing rats and realize the real scope and potential of the medium." In the end, Koster says that SWG's potential may have overshadowed the final product, but what remained was nonetheless a mold-breaking MMORPG. "I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity. There's a reason people are passionate about it all these years later," he wrote.
The Lawbringer: Avatar rights as expectations
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Last week, I introduced the concept that the denizens of a virtual world may have gained, over time, the right to rights within that virtual world. Raph Koster, the lead developer of Ultima Online, explored the idea over 10 years ago when the MMO genre was in its developmental infancy. These rights synced up with a world where there was a distinction between free-to-play MUDs and for-pay subscription worlds in the U.S. and European markets. Today, the MMO has transformed into a new beast from the close-knit communities of MUDs and the relatively forgiving user base of EverQuest and Ultima Online. The people who made WoW are the contemporaries of Raph Koster and children of the MMO genre that EverQuest cemented as important. How then, in over 10 years, has Koster's declaration of the rights of avatars held up to the incredible growth of the industry and Blizzard's own impressive growth? The short answer: The code of conduct you follow in World of Warcraft is pretty lenient, all things considered. The long answer: Well, there's always a long answer.
The Lawbringer: A prelude to avatar rights
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? The concept of avatar rights is a strange and new concept, only really going back as far as people have demanded rights for their virtual counterparts. In the early days of the MMO genre, players would populate MUDs (multi-user dungeons) or similarly designed constructs online and do pretty much the same things we do today -- hack, slash, chat, and adventure with other users. From MUDs, we got graphical MMOs, and from graphical MMOs, we got the second and third generations of the massively multiplayers we know today. World of Warcraft comes from a rich history of all of the games that came before it, as did the concept of the virtual self. The one thing all of these games have had in common over the years is the avatar. This week's Lawbringer is the first in a multi-part series discussing avatar rights -- where the concept came from, where it's going, and who has the power to set the rules. We're going to talk about the venerable Raph Koster and his avatar rights manifesto, who your avatar is and what is so damn special about him, and some really interesting concepts dealing with what people feel they are owed. Strap in -- this may get crazy.
The Guild Counsel: Teacher by day, guild leader by night
Last week, as I listed my guild leader New Year's resolutions, I made a passing reference to my background as a former teacher. This led to a great question by Massively reader Mike Azariah, who wrote: "I still do teach. Do you find that helping others (especially new players) starts to fall into a lesson?" I've had discussions with other guild leaders in the past, and it always strikes me how often they talk about how the job of guild leader parallels, and often enhances, real-life occupations that involve leadership skills. This week's Guild Counsel will take a closer look at Mike's question of how much the job of teacher relates to guild leadership.
The Game Archaeologist and the NeverEnding Quest: The highlights
To many veteran MMO players, the opening horns of EverQuest's score are enough to trigger vivid memories, violent hallucinations, and an unstoppable desire to leap through the computer screen to return to Norrath. It all depends, of course, on which MMO you first cut your teeth, and while many gamers would claim titles like World of Warcraft as their first, there is a large contingent who will confess that EQ was their first MMO lover. In fact, before WoW came on the scene in 2004, EverQuest was the gold standard of MMOs for a half-decade -- it was insanely popular, perfectly addictive, and absolutely revolutionary. It was a giant that roamed the virtual lands of those days, a giant that continues to forge new grounds well over a decade from its inception. It was 1995 when John Smedley realized the potential for online gaming and roped in Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover to start putting together an online RPG for SOE. What began as a small project ballooned into a crazy endeavor as the growing team created a monster RPG the likes the world had never seen before -- a game that would forever shape the MMO genre. This month, the Game Archaeologist is going after one of the biggest treasures of recorded history as we unearth the secrets to EverQuest's popularity, legacy, and longevity. The first step on our journey is to look at some of the highlights that made EQ what it is today.
The Daily Grind: Who's your dev crush?
In our tiny part of the pop culture world, players seem to be as absolutely fascinated with the people and personalities at work behind their favorite games as they are with the games themselves. These developers are, for all intents and purposes, the celebrities of the MMO world, and as such, are subject to much scrutiny and intense feelings. I've noticed that the mere mention of a famous developer, community manager or industry leader on Massively is often enough to set off a huge string of comments that typically revolve around how we feel about the person rather than what he or she is currently doing. For example: Paul Barnett. Bill Roper. Richard Garriott. Raph Koster. Eliot Lefebvre. Right now, there are dozens of readers who have skipped the remainder of this article to provide a reactionary comment down below. But for the rest of you, I'd like to know: Who is your "dev crush"? Which developer do you follow most closely? Which one do you believe in the most? Who excites you with his or her work? If you had to have just one developer's babies, whose genes would be most welcome in your household? (OK, that last bit is probably too much, but you get the idea.)
There.com is closing
Virtual worlds have had a rocky time in the marketplace. Focusing on user-generated content, it takes a while for enough users to become active and enough market traction to be established for them to start becoming financially viable. Earlier this year marked the shutdown of Metaplace, Raph Koster's entry into the field of virtual worlds. Now another long-running part of the field is closing down, as There.com has just announced the service will be closing on March 9th. A retrospective on the game's history is available on CNET, discussing the world's status as being a competitor for Second Life without ever quite gaining the traction that its bigger cousin managed. While the environment was seen as slightly more kid-and-media friendly due to restrictions on adult-only content, the project had a difficult time turning a profit. After seven years, it's finally overwhelmed the company. The official announcement includes a number of resources for those who have invested money in There.com to regain it prior to the shutdown, with extensive buyback programs and refunds available for all participants. Our condolences to the team on this sad turn of events.
The Virtual Whirl: Virtual worlds must accommodate, adapt and evolve, or die
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're looking at virtual environments (and their subset of virtual worlds) as products and platforms. As their developers and operators seek to grow and mature their markets, they carry the risk of rendering themselves irrelevant to the very customers that they court.
Raph Koster on the future of Metaplace
January first of this year brought about the closing of Metaplace, sad news for everyone involved. Shortly before the announcement was made, Eurogamer had an interview with game designer Raph Koster regarding Metaplace. In the end, they made the decision to release the interview in spite of the closing, as it contained some very good insight into the goals of the staff as well as information about the inner workings. The interview is especially interesting in light of the fact that Metaplace has repeatedly stated that it is not going anywhere, and that we should expect to see more very soon. "Metaplace Inc. isn't about to go away. In fact, we have some pretty exciting plans to announce in the not too distant future," Koster stated. Since we can assume that the basic philosophy and overall goals of the team remain the same, the interview is definitely still relevant for anyone who was a fan of Metaplace. Take a look at the full interview here, and enjoy!
Virtual world toolbox Metaplace closing its doors
Another virtual world reaches the end of its existence, as Raph Koster announced early last week that Metaplace, the online world that was supposed to be the end-all, do-all of such things, is going to close for good on January 1, 2010. It's a common story with MMO startups these days: developer has "revolutionary" idea for user-generated content, gets a bunch of money and support to put it into place, users don't actually vibe with the idea they way they were expected to, and the dev is left having to explain why it didn't work out. Oh, and the people who were actually enjoying the world get stuck without a place to go. Koster says the company has created this Metaplace veterans forum for anyone who enjoyed the service and wants to stay in touch with their contacts there. We'd recommend you head over there to say hi (and talk about what's next), but given that the world is shutting down, odds are you probably weren't playing with it anyway. [Via Massively]
