laissez-faire
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GDC 2013: Dean Hall on the pillars of DayZ's design
Dean Hall talks about DayZ as a scientist would a Petri dish gone grotesque. He knows perhaps what the game's strengths and appeal might be, knows why it hosts over 1.7 million players. Still, he meets the success with some bemusement, especially considering how notoriously difficult the mod is to install. Now Hall is working with Bohemia Interactive on a standalone DayZ title (to be released, he apologizes, "when it's ready"). In Hall's "Designing DayZ" lecture at GDC this week, the focus was on his philosophy in shaping the game.
The Game Archaeologist spins A Tale in the Desert: A talk with Teppy
I have to say, I have nothing but admiration for lone wolf-style developers who decide to pish-posh giant studio teams and massive budgets and jump into the game-making mosh pit anyway. Andrew "Teppy" Tepper is one of these visionaries who had an idea for a unique MMO and took it to fruition. I mean, most of us come up with "totally tubular" notions for online games, but how many of us make it happen? Outside of a couple of doodles on a Post-It, that is. In our second week covering the fascinating sandbox world of A Tale in the Desert, The Game Archaeologist had the pleasure of sitting down with Teppy to get his perspective on how one man bootstrapped his way into the MMO world. He also dishes on the team's next MMO project, which we'll be talking more about on Massively later this week. So what's it like to create the ultimate sandbox in Egypt of all places? Teppy, take it away!
Buyer beware in the Auction House
After a player complains that they mistakenly paid 75g for wool cloth in the Auction House, Drysc confirms that Blizzard is all about caveat emptor: the auction house market is all about open trade, so if you buy something for the wrong price, it's all on you.This, of course, leaves the system fairly open to rampant fraud -- I know someone on another server who would often buy anything epic on the AH, day in and day out, and inflate the price an extra thousand gold. In many cases, the free market (which I'm pretty sure this is, right economists?) can usually correct itself -- you have to stay on top of a certain market if you plan to dominate it, since if anyone posts a lower price than you, you'll lose out on a sale. But in terms of a fraud -- the original poster in the thread claims that no one would ever have a serious reason to sell wool for 75g -- it's always "be careful what you click." Blizzard isn't completely laissez-faire when it comes to the economy, of course; they control the flow of gold in all kinds of ways. But when it comes to the auction house, you're on your own.
