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Hardcore mode coming to Minecraft, the world ends when you die
Some madman over at PC Gamer has been trying out something called the "Minecraft Experiment," in which player death results in the immediate deletion of the world he or she has been working so hard to spruce up. The game's creator, Markus Persson recently posted on his blog that the feature series has inspired him to include a similar "Hardcore" mode in the game, where the world will be destroyed and reset every time the player gets killed by a Creeper, skeleton, gravity or any of the other deadly forces present in the game. Look, we have a hard enough time rationalizing the remarkable amounts of time we put into this game already. To play a mode where, with one missed jump, entire weeks of our lives are erased, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-style? That's straight-up masochism, dudes.
T-Pain tells Toshiba 'it ain't hardcore unless its hexacore' (video)
Judging by its most recent sales numbers, Toshiba's doing pretty well for itself in the US market, but you and we both know there are always more demographics waiting to be tapped up. Such as the hardcore hexacore lovers or those whose megagigabytes are terrorizing their... sorry, T-Pain, prosation isn't even a word. Anyway, it's a video, it's funny, and it's after the break.
Officers' Quarters: Scorched by raider burnout
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. It's been more than 10 months since Blizzard introduced major endgame content to World of Warcraft, and raider burnout is at an all-time high. In times like this, hardcore players often look to casual guilds as a refuge from the demands of more serious organizations. It's not always a bad thing, as I'll discuss, but sometimes taking in these hardcore refugees can lead to major problems. This week, an anonymous officer tells his tale: Hi Scott, I'm currently an officer in a guild that started as a social/leveling guild, but toward the beginning of this past summer, we had some level-capped players who decided to take on raiding content. We were having a lot of fun at first whether or not we successfully downed bosses because we were finding a way to stay socially active in our social guild. During this period, one guildie and I became de facto raid leaders because we were always there on raid night and always the two who got the groups organized. This was when I also got promoted to an officer position. The problem I'm facing now is that we ended up recruiting a couple of new members who had burned out on hardcore progression raiding and wanted to take a more casual approach to raiding.
Breakfast Topic: Oops, I've been acting like an elitist jerk
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. So there I was, fresh off a rant to a friend in Vent about what had just happened that night during what was appearing to be a common occurrence in our raids. I was frustrated (in my own defense, it was just one of those nights when nothing goes right, no matter how hard you try), and that's when it happened: The deep-down thoughts of ZOMG, how hard can this be, people?! spilled out into a diatribe on why I can't stand to run with the lot of them, since they "just don't get it and probably never will!" I named names. I pointed fingers. If there was a bridge to burn, I had brought along the dynamite for extra explosive-y goodness! I was good, they were bad, and I was there to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was at that point I realized I had become the bane of every WoW player: the Elitist Jerk (OK, not the Elitist Jerks -- those guys and their forums are awesome). As soon as I had finished my speech, the notion of "it's lonely at the top" had a whole new meaning. Once I had out-classed my friends, they stopped being chatty with me in Vent. It was one lonely night after another. I missed them. Elitism can strike at any time. The important thing is realizing how to harness, control and manipulate what you know into a vessel that can be used to help those around you become better at their own game. My story ends well. Once I was able to use my powers for good, my old friends didn't hold a grudge. Besides, what's really important in the game for you? Is it the camaraderie of your friends or the satisfaction of being the best?
The Daily Grind: Why do you PvP in an MMO?
Ah, PvP. It's right up there with politics and religion when it comes to divisive topics. A recent interview with Earthrise's Atanas Atanasov got us to thinking about PvP, and more specifically about why people choose to do it in MMORPGs. Even the most hardcore PvP fans would be hard-pressed to argue with the fact that the vast majority of MMOs are designed with PvE in mind, and those that feature PvP usually do so as an afterthought. There are exceptions of course, but only a few of these are still among the living. Even Darkfall, supposedly the hardest of the hardcore, just released a PvE-focused expansion. In general, MMOs are about character progression and gear/item accumulation, whereas PvP is theoretically about player skill and tactics. Why then do people try to force the square peg that is PvP into the round hole that is an MMORPG? It's not like there's a shortage of competitive online multiplayer games, designed expressly to showcase player skill and cater to the killer in all of us. In a nutshell: Why do you PvP in an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our 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 The Daily Grind!
Burnout: Report says Chinese gamers losing interest in MMOs
Is there a point at which oversaturation, cultural prominence and old habits collapse under their own weight? According to a recent survey by Chinese market analyst Niko Partners, trends are shifting away in China from hardcore MMO gaming to more casual fare like social networking games. GamesIndustry.biz reports that self-defined "hardcore" gamers in one of the largest MMORPG markets in the world have grown tired of the thousands of carbon-copy MMOs out there and have rebelled against the monotony by taking their business elsewhere. Niko Partners' Lisa Cosmas Hanson sees a pattern to this trend: "We believe that the Chinese market has taken up SNS (social networking site) gaming in earnest, and that the hardcore gamers have shifted their preferences to include these games alongside the casual gamers who naturally appreciate them. The hardcore gamers are growing weary of the monotony of themes in the Chinese MMORPGs, and they want to extend their social interactions to games that attract a more diverse user base." By 2014, the analyst says that there will be 141 million online gamers in China, and the casual games market will grow from 23% to encompass 30% of all online revenues -- approximately $3 billion US.
Waging WAR: Finding the sandbox
In this installment of Waging WAR, Greg takes a look at Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning from a few different angles and goes in search of the proverbial "sandbox" in a game that contains neither sand nor boxes. Somewhere along the line during my childhood, I developed a habit for playing games with nearly every game I've ever played. I can even remember a time in my early teens when I sat down with a few friends and collaborated on making our own version of battlechess. Pages of chicken-scratched rules and several dice results-tables later, and we were off and running for a solid week of the most entertaining chess matches I've ever played. Or there was that time with The Sims when I started creating experimental families and then leaving my computer on overnight and not interacting with them, just to see how successful they could be without my help. I could bore you for hours on end with examples of how I twisted the rules and made my own games from the games I've played. I suppose I can blame my penchant for metagaming on my early introduction to pen-and-paper roleplaying (i.e., D&D 1st Ed., to be specific). All I had was a sheet of paper, a handful of dice, a description of the world around me, and my imagination. By its very nature, PnP gaming is sandbox gaming. The reason I'm bringing this up now is that, until WAR, I had pretty much been able to "find the sandbox" in any MMO I was able to get my hands on. Whether it was building hardcore Dungeons & Dragons Online characters, roleplaying in City of Heroes, or achievement-chasing in World of Warcraft, I've never really been troubled with finding something to do when the grind started to wear me down. But now, with WAR, I'm finding most of my old tricks for MMO metagaming just aren't working. To read about what I've tried, and why it didn't work in WAR, follow along after the break.
Anti-Aliased: I can finally stop playing Mortal Online now
A long time ago, well before Mortal Online launched, I was really looking forward to playing the game. The first-person only perspective made me drool, the Unreal Engine 3 powered graphics engine looked top-notch, the endless amount of customization of weaponry made me giddy, and the sprawling open world made me bow in awe. This was a game that sat at the top of my "WANT NAO" list, and I'm not even a person who's really huge into PvP. I just wanted an Elder Scrolls/Ultima Online inspired sandbox. Upon finally playing the game, however, all I found was a nightmare of errors, glitches, and missing systems. Mats Persson, one of the developers of Star Vault, was right: this game does lack polish, user friendliness, and many systems that could turn this sandbox into a true sandbox. Instead, all I found was a buggy, glitchy, never-ending, pointless deathmatch in an MMO world. Keep reading, and I'll be more than happy to explain every aspect of my time with Mortal Online. If you're interested in commenting on this article, then you have to trek all the way to page 3 this week. Just a heads up! %Gallery-100774%
Defining Playstyles: Beyond casual vs. hardcore
In a recent Totem Talk post, I made a loot list for enhancement shamans that have access to ICC but are not progression raiders, because they are either alts or they are -- drum roll, please -- casual. That's right: I used the c-word without context. Casual. There, I said it again without context. Excuse me while I duck from the rotten vegetables being thrown in my direction. The use of that c-word in relation to an Icecrown Citadel loot list sparked a very interesting comment thread. Most comments were well thought-out, added value and furthered the discussion. Some were, to borrow Adam Savage's favorite term, vitriolic, because of my heinous misuse of the term "casual." I said it again without context. I'm just casually throwing around "casuals" here. Given the reaction that post received, I started doing some research into what exactly "casual" and "hardcore" actually mean. What I found was not surprising at all: They mean completely different things to absolutely everyone. The MMO population of players, across all games, is estimated at over 61 million people. There are as many variations on play time and playstyle as there are players in the game. Do you really think we can divide this many people simply into two groups of just casuals and hardcores? I think it's time we move beyond the polarizing definitions of casual and hardcore and come up with some definitions of our own.
The Mog Log: The collective jealous community glance
It's a hard time to be playing Final Fantasy XI. On the one hand, it ought to be a great time -- a lot of neat features were included with the June version update (several of which I waxed poetic about in the recent developer tour), and there's quite a roadmap for the months ahead. But that roadmap also has an enormous bump that's shaped like a 14... specifically, Final Fantasy XIV. Or maybe it's just me. All I know is that the next thousand-plus hours can't pass quickly enough. (Although Going Rogue should really take the edge off.) But this column isn't just about me and my hangups -- it's about the community. It's especially about community this week, as we're taking a look at all of the insanity running through various discussions far and wide. Square certainly has given us plenty to talk about over the past month, whether you're avidly playing Final Fantasy XI or just looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV. So let's look at some noteworthy threads while I stare longingly at the promised game.
Archetype nets 160,000 players in first week, promises updates and features soon
We posted about Archetype the other day -- it's an impressively solid multiplayer first-person shooter for the iPhone that brings some hardcore gameplay to Apple's touchscreen platform. And apparently there are a lot of hardcore players out there -- in just one week of release, Archetype has picked up 160,000 players. There have been over 320,000 matches played so far, with over 2 million player kills between them -- that's over 20,000 an hour. Publisher Villian says that it's obviously thrilled with the response, and that "future updates, offerings and new game features" are being worked on. This is interesting for a few reasons: first, most iPhone offerings tend towards the casual. Little pick-up-and-play games often seem to be the norm on the iPhone, as the vast majority of developers seem to be searching for one little interesting gameplay idea and running with it. But Archetype seems to hint that if the experience is done well enough, there's definitely a large audience of "hardcore" gamers on the iPhone. And it's worth mentioning that Archetype doesn't have a lite version and sells for $2.99. Before this game, the most high profile FPS on the store was probably Ngmoco's Eliminate, which went with a free-to-play model in the hopes of garnering a larger audience. But Archetype's success seems to show that (again, if the experience is good enough), there's room at higher price points for a solid player base. We'll have to see where Villian goes with this in the future -- we've heard from other developers that quick and free updates can really make an app grow even bigger, so if they can pull that off with Archetype, they'll really have an iOS juggernaut.
Aventurine: MMORPGs are not casual games
Aventurine, the indie developers behind the free-for-all PvP sandbox known as Darkfall, recently sat down with Rock, Paper Shotgun for a revealing question and answer session. Lending their voices to the discussion were lead developer Tasos Flambouras and RPS' Kieron Gillen. The interview touches on everything from the game's new 14-day trial, to the extensive changes since launch, to changes in the MMORPG genre. "It's pretty amazing to us how little the MMO genre has changed over time. It seems to be the same successful basic recipe with little variation. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good games, but they don't really bring many new things to the table. Everyone wanted to make the Everquest killer and now they want to make the World of Warcraft killer. To do that they probably have to make a variation on the theme rather than innovate and dare to be different," Flambouras says. He also comments on the unique nature of MMORPGs as well as the ideal Darkfall player. "When you play any MMOG, you're making an investment, these are not casual games and they continuously evolve," he says. Check out the full interview at Rock, Paper Shotgun.
ZAM interviews TERA's Brian Knox
En Masse Entertainment's Brian Knox answers some moderately tough questions about the studio's upcoming TERA action MMORPG. The interview, courtesy of ZAM.com, touches on a little bit of everything including what makes TERA a next-generation title, enemy challenge levels, and the difficulties in appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers. "The good thing about action combat is that it lets the player's skill determine the complexity. We worked very hard to make the game intuitive for any gamer, and we believe players will really be able to stretch the system. For example, one person playing as a sorcerer might be more inclined to use area-of-effect skills and dodging, whereas another may choose to use direct damage skills and focus on healing. Each class has a lot of variables, and gamers are going to be able to play the game the way they want," Knox says. You can check out the full interview at ZAM.com.
EVE Interview: the 'necessary evil' of a steep learning curve
Worlds in Motion has published an interesting interview with CCP Games' senior producer Torfi Olafsson. The piece focuses on the deliberate decision by the Icelandic development studio to produce EVE Online exclusively for a hardcore audience, as well as a few brief comments about the ongoing fight against RMT. "Well, we always knew that the game would be hardcore. The majority of the players are players that immigrate from other MMOs then say, "Okay. I've reached the level cap. That was great. Now, I want something that's really challenging," Olafsson says. "We took strides in trying to improve it [the learning curve], but I think that as well is a necessary evil. The challenge and learning curve is a necessary evil if you want to provide the game that delivers such a broad range of experience." The article paints a portrait of a stubborn studio that refuses to bow to industry pressures of increasing accessibility. "There are a lot of gamers out there that are hardcore players but just don't know it yet. So, we're trying to attract those," Olafsson comments. Check out the full piece over at Worlds in Motion.
Officers' Quarters: Private channels
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press. We've all been there: Someone makes a dumb mistake in a raid -- let's call that person Murbu -- and another player says, "Everyone /join ihatemurbu." A few people do exactly that, a few jokes are exchanged, Murbu shows up in the channel to joke around, too, and then people unjoin or simply forget that channel exists. Private channels like that can be fun for some good-natured ribbing. Other private channels can help two allied guilds communicate or allow a group of friends to stay in touch when they splinter off to different guilds. However, private channels can also have a more sinister purpose. This week, one guild leader is concerned about a channel some of his members are using. Hello Scott, I'd like to think I'm relatively new to leading a guild, but as my guild has recently passed our one-year anniversary I'm beginning to question that logic. Despite this, I have an issue that completely stumps me and the only reason I can think of why is inexperience. My question is, when does venting your frustration about issues cross the line from harmless venting to serious problems? Several months back shortly after the holiday break it came to my attention that a few of the more veteran members of the guild were using a private channel to discuss primarily their dissatisfaction with how I ran things. At the time I also led a majority of our raids, and one major point of contention for the group was the way that I lead the raids and their frustration at our overall progression. This might not have been a huge issue, but several of the people who talked about me in the channel were people I considered close friends, people I've known for years throughout many different guilds.
WoW Rookie: When Rookie Lane crosses Raider Boulevard
New around here? See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to's for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. Today's WoW Rookie blows the whistle in a bit of traffic directing at the buzzing intersection of Raider Boulevard and Rookie Lane. This isn't a casuals-versus-raiders debate -- far from it. What we have today is more of a guide on how to peacefully co-exist with players who enjoy the game in a very different way than you do. While we've written on this topic before, reader Peter sent in a request that made us consider that it might be time to revisit the issue. Hi! I just wanted to say I love the "WoW Rookie" column, and I've been playing since release! For someone who's kinda nervous about jumping into the LFG tool, your Grouping 101 article made it less nerve-raking for me to do so. I don't know if you could even publish this, but I would LOVE to see an article on how new players can deal with elitists and being insulted in game about their gear and skill level. With all the new influx of players Cataclysm is expected to bring, it would be very helpful (for people like me too) to see how others deal with the various negative people in the game. Thanks again for a great website and service! --Peter
Sega says statements about abandoning Wii core were 'erroneous'
Sega and hardcore Wii games have been the will-they-won't-they couple in the games industry lately -- our Ross and Rachel, if you will. First, Sega said it would be arrogant to give up on the hardcore. Then, the company basically did just that. Now, Sega West President Mike Hayes has corrected that last position, just a bit, with IndustryGamers. Calling previous quotes "erroneous," Hayes said that less demand for matured-themed titles on the Wii doesn't necessarily mean his company isn't going to meet the demand that is out there. "Is it going to be as big as the Teen or Mature market that exists on the Xbox 360 or PS3 platforms? Certainly not," West conceded. "Is it viable, because the cost of development on the Wii is significantly less than those other platforms? Then, potentially the answer is yes." We just want to make two key points: 1) Hayes' statement is promising news for those of us who had our fingers crossed for another House of the Dead: Overkill (read: all thinking people); and 2) We're really sorry about the dated Friends reference, we don't watch a lot of TV. Honestly, you should probably just be happy we didn't go David and Maddie on you.
360iDev: The future of Jason Citron's OpenFeint
OpenFeint's VP of Engineering, Jakob Wilkerson, took the stage here at 360iDev in San Jose to talk about something most people might not have expected: Game Center. Ever since Apple's official social gaming network was announced last week, the question's been in the air about what will happen to all of those unofficial gaming networks, of which OpenFeint is the largest. Wilkerson took the news in stride, however. As CEO Jason Citron told us last week, OpenFeint isn't going anywhere, and as you can see from their chart above, OpenFeint still believes that they can build more social game services, in the form of OpenFeint X, on top of Apple's official offerings. Wilkerson talked about Game Center in terms of potential; he used examples from OpenFeint to explain how implementing leaderboards and friends lists in the right ways can really open up player interest in a game. OpenFeint often talks internally about bringing, both, hardcore and casual game players into the fold, and their different online features target those various audiences. We also got a chance to talk to Citron again regarding his thinking about OpenFeint so far, and what the company plans to do when Apple unveils its official plan. Read on for more.
Peter Dille: Move will attract hardcore gamers with precision
SCEA's head of marketing, Peter Dille, spoke with Fortune earlier this week, and he says that rather than catching up to Nintendo's Wii with the PlayStation Move, Sony is actually blazing new ground. He says that Sony's "White Room campaign wasn't very inclusive," and so it is changing up the game towards including as many people as possible. But unlike Nintendo, says Dille, it is aiming to both pull in a casual audience and keep the hardcore gamers interested. "Hard-core gamers have looked down their nose at motion gaming," says Dille, adding that Sony will "be able to do hard-core gamer games via a motion device that has never been done before." Dille also says that Sony's product will be different because, while Nintendo has a controller and Microsoft has a camera, Sony's system has both a controller and a camera, and thus will be more precise and responsive than its competitors' offerings. Man, he sounds like a marketing guy, only a little less entertaining. Where's Kevin Butler when you need him? [via VG247]
See DICE's unfinshed Genesis shooter, 'Hardcore'
In 1994, before being canceled at the very last minute by publisher Psygnosis (the ailing Sony Liverpool, these days), DICE Studios was one bug squash away from completing sidescrolling shooter "Hardcore" for the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis). When Psygnosis realized that the Mega Drive wouldn't be around for much longer, it canceled "13 games in an afternoon meeting," including Hardcore. As explained by DICE co-founders Andreas Axelsson and Olof Gustafsson in the YouTube video found after the break (filmed at the DATASTORM 2010 party in early February), Hardcore is currently owned by Sony and Psygnosis, and as such, DICE has been unable to release the game into the public domain (though Axelsson claims to be "working on that"). The game is said to have originally been developed with the Amiga in mind, then brought over to the Mega Drive. Axelsson and Gustafsson reveal that it was "99 percent finished" before being canceled. Given our love for sidescrolling shooters, we're hoping that Axelsson's intention to release the game publicly eventually pans out. Whaddya say, Sony/Psygnosis? How about you folks get together and work out all this legal mumbo jumbo. For us. [Via GameSetWatch]
