armchair-designer
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The Soapbox: On armchair development
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. A couple of weeks ago I penned a Soapbox that, to put it mildly, elicited passionate responses. While a few people sided with me in my belief that MMO combat is silly and sucky, the cries of the masses drowned us out with variations on "you know nothing, Jon Snow" and "go back to consoles, you inexperienced newb!" Some of the responses got me to thinking about game design in general and about game designers and their cult celebrity status in particular. When you cut through the anonymous insults and keyboard courage, most of my would-be critics were actually right about one thing: I'm not a game "developer." You know what's funny, though? That doesn't make a lick of difference when it comes to the ability to talk intelligently about games and game design.
The Daily Grind: How would you design an expansion?
Everyone differs on his opinion of what makes up a good expansion. For some it's the traditional raised level cap, additional zones, and a new race and/or class. Others clamor for radical additions to gameplay features that haven't been seen in the game before. Size matters, as does quality, but there are those who would sacrifice both to see a quicker expansion release schedule. Today we're going to engage in another one of my fits of community think-tanking. Sure, I could've said "brainstorming," but I like to give our Massively editors nervous eye twitches. In any case, I want you to imagine that you've been given the power and resources to make the dream expansion to your favorite MMO -- within reason, of course. What would this hypothetical expansion look like? How would you design it? Would you fix existing problems as you see them in the game or concentrate on new systems? Would you expand the game horizontally or vertically? Would you add a new class or race you've been dying to play? And most importantly: What would you call it? 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!
