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Crowfall details starting, finishing, and resetting by Hunger
The latest development blog from Crowfall establishes a problem. The nature of any sort of permanent game is to fall into stagnation. Eventually, the most powerful players control everything and there's no room for new people to come in. You want room for new people to come in. But you also want to have long-term effects to what takes place in the game rather than just resetting everything as the game approaches a static state. What's to be done? According to the aforementioned development blog, you reset... but by pieces. At the center of Crowfall's design lies a cycle of birth, corruption, and demise. Characters remain, but as they participate in individual campaigns of the game there's space for players to make a lasting impact on the game world. But the continual destruction of each campaign as certain players "win" ensures that there's always space for something new to happen, that no one ever becomes unassailable in every sense. Take a look at the full post for a clearer picture of how the game intends to keep players engaged by periodically wiping the board clear of pieces.
Crowfall's Gordon Walton on how Trammel impacted classic Ultima Online
With Ultima Online's second expansion in 2000 (yes, 2000) came a copy of the world, a facet called Trammel where non-consensual PvP was forbidden. Ever since, the current and former UO community has debated whether this was a brilliant or terrible move. Now we have the word from former Executive Producer Gordon Walton, who discussed Trammel on the Crowfall forums. "I regret some (but not all) of the outcome," Walton began, going on to explain that the rampant PvP was driving away over 70% of new players to UO. The creation of Trammel doubled the playerbase, but he said that it disenfranchised the hardcore PvPers who now had to prey on each other instead of PvEers. "I also learned from my UO experience that it's really hard to change a brand," he wrote. "Inherent in the UO brand was the fact it was a gritty, hard core world of danger. We were not successful in bringing back the (literally) hundreds of thousands of players who had quit due to the unbridled PvP in the world (~5% of former customers came back to try the new UO, but very few of them stayed). We discovered that people didn't just quit UO, they divorced it in a very emotional way. But we did keep more of the new players that came in by a large margin, significantly more than than the PvP players we lost."
Crowfall's Legionnaire is a four-legged powerhouse
Today's a series of firsts for Crowfall reveals. It's the first glimpse of the game's second announced class, the Legionnaire. It's the first look at a character who is other than human -- and is in fact a Centaur. And it's the title's first in-game environment screenshot. Crowfall has also posted a handy FAQ that goes into depth about the character creation process, teases Mac support, and eschews traditional MMO levels as a means of progression.
Raph Koster is collaborating on Crowfall [Updated with video]
So here's a funny story: Yesterday, the Massively writers were shooting the breeze in team chat when the subject of sandbox devs who were not also closet-gankers came up. "When do you think Raph Koster will finally make a new sandbox?" I asked, half kidding and half wistful. "Never," Jef answered. Then we commiserated for a bit. It turns out we were remarkably prescient because that day is... today. ArtCraft, the studio working on the nebulous PvP MMO Crowfall, announced today that Koster, the backbone of sandbox legends Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, has been collaborating with the Crowfall team on the game's design for a year already as a "formal advisor and design consultant." "Raph and I have been working together for about a year on the design architecture for Crowfall," ArtCraft's J. Todd Coleman wrote. "At the heart of this game, we have two core systems: dynamic territorial conquest and a player-driven economy. Marrying these two concepts is the holy grail of MMO development, and Raph is arguably the best person in the world to help us solve this puzzle." Koster gets a blurb of his own in the PR: "There isn't anything on the market like Crowfall, and it has been a long time since some of these design ideas were explored. There's a very specific audience out there waiting for a game like this -- the conflict, the real economy -- that has been looking for new steps beyond the games of ten years ago." Your move, MMO genre.
Crowfall creative director: Game is not for everyone
ArtCraft's head honchos have posted a two-pronged dev update on the Crowfall forums. Executive producer Gordon Walton says that work on the title has been ongoing for six months, and the studio currently employs 17 full-timers. Creative director J. Todd Coleman says that Crowfall is about to cross the 20,000 registered players threshold, which he calls "staggering" and "completely humbling." He also says that beginning tomorrow, the team will be ramping up details and information drops, some of which will lead people to the conclusion that "this isn't the game for them." "This game won't be for everyone, and we're OK with that" Coleman writes. "We've done big, mass-market games before. With Crowfall, we wanted to make something different."
Crowfall teases fealty system, ad/disad mechanics
Upcoming MMO Crowfall is rolling out new teases this week, including some concept art of guild banners and a screenshot of character creation, which suggests an advantage/disadvantage system no doubt intended to tug the heartstrings of former Shadowbane players. But what has our attention is the newly unveiled fealty chart, which definitely whisks Shadowbane or Asheron's Call immediately to mind. "This isn't a guild org chart," Crowfall's J. Todd Coleman cautions. "We support guilds (and guild structures) but we've laid a different system on top of that, which ties player fealty directly to land ownership. More on that system, and how it ties to siege conquest, will be coming soon." Coleman promises "a more substantial update coming later this week." We've included all three images below.
Crowfall says 'play2crush' wasn't meant to mean 'everyone else sucks'
Were you put off by Crowfall's hardcore "play2crush" reveal just before Christmas? You weren't alone. One player told studio ArtCraft that the original announcement "felt a little too political attack ad" -- and he got an official response on the game's new forums. Creative Director J. Todd Coleman explained that Crowfall's controversial introduction wasn't quite meant how it was taken: You know, that original play2crush site wasn't meant to be "everyone else sucks." It was a mea culpa. We're the guys who make these games. The first line was "where did WE go wrong?" "We" didn't mean everyone else, it meant us. It meant me. I wrote that because I feel like I have let you down... by not pushing myself to innovate. It was too easy to pitch "wow in space" or "wow with vampires" or "wow with space vampires." I want to fix that. I want to build something new. The game released its first screenshot and city siege concept art (below) yesterday, exposing a stylized graphical theme and meaty statistics panel. You can sign up for the beta by rolling up an account on the official site right now. The mysterious countdown timer on the front page currently has just over 40 days remaining. [With thanks to Leiloni for bringing the post to our attention.]
Crowfall's first screenshot shows the Knight's character creation
How much can you ascertain from a single screenshot? In the case of Crowfall's first in-game glimpse, perhaps plenty. Creative Director J. Todd Coleman posted Crowfall's first screenshot on the forums today: a snap of the upcoming title's character creation screen. It shows a Knight (one of 12 or more archetypes listed) along with the class' many statistics. These include a few intriguing anomalies such as "warmth conversion" and "life on hit." Coleman said that the numbers are just placeholders for now and that the Knight is "a fully modeled and animated avatar" at this point. He wanted players to get a feel for the Crowfall's art style and interface as well as a hint as to something else: "There is more to this one than meets the eye... the clues are there, for those with a solid design instinct and an eye for detail."
That Play2Crush thing is called Crowfall
Artcraft struck a nerve over Christmas with its cryptic this-industry-sucks reveal that trumpeted some sort of new virtual world. Our announcement post garnered nearly 300 comments, so we figured a few of you would like to know that the title is officially called Crowfall. There's a new site with a countdown timer to the full reveal along with a few paragraphs inciting the community with phrases like "deeper than a virtual amusement park" and "more impactful than a virtual sandbox."
New studio ArtCraft creating MMO with 'real skill, real risk, and real consequence'
Heads up, MMO fans -- there's a new player on the scene. Industry vets J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton have come together to form ArtCraft, a studio that's making a mystery MMO with "real skill, real risk, and real consequences." "We're building something completely different, completely unique. We believe the MMO industry has grown stale. It's time to create something new," Coleman stated. Coleman and Walton have worked on many MMOs, including Shadowbane, Wizard101, Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies, and they say they are building an "all-star" team for this new project. The teaser website for the game asks, "Where did we go wrong?" with the MMO industry and vows to take chances with this new game. There's a countdown timer on the site (62 days as of the writing of this article) and a sign-up for the beta. [Source: ArtCraft press release]
Jeff Hickman hops over to Star Wars: The Old Republic
It might be a case of in-house talent poaching or just a good opportunity for all parties involved, but BioWare has hired Jeff Hickman away from Mythic to be Star Wars: The Old Republic's new Executive Producer of Live Services. The hire was announced at the recent BioWare's Fan Site Summit, according to Ask a Jedi. Hickman was previously the Studio Executive Producer for all of Mythic's MMOs. He'll step into the role left open by Gordon Walton, who left BioWare earlier this year. With both BioWare and Mythic under the same parent company -- Electronic Arts -- it stands to reason that the two studios have a strong network and relationships that could lead to such transfers of personnel. We'll look forward to seeing what Jeff Hickman will bring to TOR as it progresses toward launch!
SWTOR's loss is Playdom's gain -- Gordon Walton
It's always a sad thing to see a developer leave your favorite game, especially when the game has yet to be released like Star Wars: The Old Republic. Last month, Gordon Walton stepped down as General Manager at BioWare Austin to take a job at the social gaming company Playdom. SWTOR media site Darth Hater quoted Community Manager Stephen Reid as saying, "With great thanks and appreciation, we say goodbye to Gordon Walton for helping bring the game to the phenomenal state it is in today [...] It is business as usual at all BioWare studios, where we remain committed to creating, delivering and evolving the most emotionally engaging games in the world." Gordon Walton spoke quite frequently about MMOs as a business. He was not afraid to speak frankly to other developers. You may remember his GDC 2007 quote about "the grind" in most MMOs. He explained that the "object is not to keep people as long as humanly possible, but to provide entertainment. [The players] will do it, but they will hate you." Walton was at BioWare for five years, and we at Massively look forward to seeing his work at Playdom. Good Luck, Gordon! [Thank you Justin for the tip!]
Bioware wants to try 'something different' with their MMO
If you've played even one of BioWare's many wonderful games, then you're well aware of the kind of quality they strive for when they craft them -- especially the stories offered. Well all right, there was that one game called Jade Empire that had some strange story pacing and lackluster combat -- but otherwise Bioware strikes gold nearly every time.So what's their plan for finding the same success with their upcoming MMO venture?
Gordon Walton lays out landscape for indie MMOs
Bioware co-director and consummate MMO veteran Gordon Walton spoke recently at the Indie MMO Game Developers Conference about what it takes to compete in the increasingly dense massively multiplayer space. Among the most salient points that Walton harps on is the need for smaller teams to really be cognizant of both their capabilities their potential audience. By focusing on what your team is good at and on the needs of classifiable and hungry niche market, indie developers can still succeed amidst the shadows of your WoWs and WARs and Hello Kittys.It's a philosophy and potentially fruitful area of exploration that we've heard people like Raph Koster bring up in conversation and others like the guys at NetDevil profess be putting into practice. While there will always be the juggernaut games around which the assembled millions can gather, future growth for this genre only really seems possible in a niche realm. The successes and failures may well be determined by who can avoid the temptations of emulating the big boys in favor of a more reasonable, scaled down project.
