mmo-design
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The unintended consequences of MMO design (and cars)
Veteran game designer Damion Schubert put up an interesting post to his personal site discussing some of the unintended consequences of design choices. Just as the seemingly simple decision to allow objects to have collision properties resulted in Ultima Online towers being robbed, design elements in other fields can have unexpected results. Schubert points out the dangers of the Prius as a perfect example of these unexpected results. The fact that the hybrid vehicle is incredibly quiet probably didn't seem like a big deal to the Toyota designers. In fact, they may have seen that as a plus. A plus for everyone except those without sight, of course. The result is that the vehicle's designers are now considering how to add more auditory feedback to the vehicle. Check out the post and the attendant comments for some additional MMO design elements that seem, in 20/20 hindsight, kind of obvious.
The Daily Grind: Quest designing
Well, as anyone who has been around MMOs can tell you, one of the most commonly complained about quest types is the "kill x" quests -- where x is any number, just like back in algebra class. Quest designers have been accused of everything from being unimaginative, to being downright lazy for using this mechanic so frequently in their games. We keep waiting for someone to offer something more. Today we thought we'd ask you what kinds of quests you'd design if you were able to create MMO quests. (And don't be surprised if we pelt you with rotten produce if you answer with the "kill-x" variable.) Would you use more stealthy missions, quests involving retrieving a certain item that you had to fight your way through a bunch of bad guys to get to? Timed? Escorts? What is your ideal quest design?
Building a better MMOusetrap: PPOrnography in games
Quick turn out the lights, shut your door, and unplug the phone... today we're going to talk about boobs. shh shh shh, I know, please keep it down, don't get all worked up, it's really not anything to worry about. I'm not actually going to show you any boobs, just talk about them, or rather about morality, censorship and the like in our favourite type of video games. As I'm sure you're all aware, as informed gaming news readers, you've read the latest load of tripe about our beloved "sex-boxes" and how they are filling us full of sodomisingly good times. Well, I decided to take a look at MMOs under the same plate, but before you fill the comments section with slander, and my inbox with hate, let me just say I think the fellow who wrote the article is a grade-A ass, but he did make me think about a few things.First off, let's look at the ESRB rating that comes on most of our MMO titles, generally they are rated T (for teen!) but have the wonderful disclaimer of "experience may change during online play". Now frankly that's pretty much a carte blanche to do whatever they like, because if they get pulled into court they can just grab their Objection! sign and point at the rating. But I think that for the most part MMO game developers take a lot of strong steps towards keeping the playing environment relatively tame. There certainly aren't any terribly un-graphic alien lesbian love scenes in Paragon City, and last I checked, even though the Mithra are cute little cat ladies, there hasn't been any rampant cases of cross-species hot loving in Vana'diel.I think what I'm trying to get at is, that game developers do in fact keep our online experiences as puritanian as they can (violence aside of course), because they don't really see a need to change their games into online porn. Certainly there are the usual video game metrics of unrealistic body types (for both the women and the men), and the fact that somehow the more armour a female character puts on, the more like a princess leia golden bikini (link is semi-NSFW) it looks. But other than that things are generally tame, that is, until it gets into the hands of the players.
The Daily Grind: Comedy MMOs?
One of the things that came up last night in a round of "what would you like to see" was the concept for a "comedy" MMO. Now I have to admit, I've never really considered that at all, but there are certainly elements of the silly or absurd in some of the games that we already play -- so why not a "comedy" mmo? If you run around in WoW, you'll find many many truly silly things. By way of example, think of the Winterspring Yeti quest, wherein you release a wee tiny mechanical yeti that goes chasing people hither and yon. You can almost hear the Benny Hill music in the background. If you look at different bios in CoX, you'll find many have written some awfully funny (and fun) ones to go with their character concepts. Also, there are things like Lego Universe and even Cartoon Network's FusionFall coming out that really would lend themselves to funny-business. Now, all that said -- our favorite concept we came up with through throwing names around was a Monty Python MMO. You could have PvP/RvR castle sieges involving French Taunting, catapulting cows, and the witty usage of wooden trojan badgers. (The rabbit, after all, not being a so-witty usage.) Epic battles? Take on the Killer Rabbit, or go head-to-head with the motorcycle grannies. If you feel like soloing, you can level up your skills in How Not to be Seen, or practice your Silly Walks! With all that silliness aside, we'd like to ask you -- do you think comedy would work as a major "plot element" beyond just the one-off quest? Would you play an MMO that spent most of the time with tongue firmly in cheek? Are there any other wickedly funny properties that you think might make for a good MMO to play with friends? (Even if just in a java-based browser game like Runescape.)
Could smaller be better?
The great Raph Koster and Anyway Games' Aaron Miller have a little conversation going that inspired an interesting question for me: when it comes to MMOs, could smaller actually be better? Raph started it-- he put forth the idea that most MMOs these days are designed like theme parks-- they're designed to keep you around for as long as possible, with twisting passage ways, lots of checklists, and a certain sense of desperation: "please, please stay and grind. We've got content!" And Aaron continued the thought and suggested an MMO like a bar-- a place that you went to because it was fun to go sometimes, not that you went to because you couldn't leave.And both of these posts point towards the same conclusion: that in a social situation like an MMO, smaller might actually be better. Currently, most games are fascinated with being as big as possible-- a "world" of content to explore, or "millions of players," all in the same space. MMOs have "expansions," and ever larger instances and battlegrounds-- the bigger the world can get, the better the selling point sounds.But should it? Blizzard, the world's most famous MMO maker, has determined in the past year that a group of 40 doesn't work nearly as well as a group of 25, and that doesn't work as well as a group of 10. And as much as players say they want to play with their friends, just how many friends are we talking about?
The Daily Grind: MMOs that didn't click
You know how it goes. You hear about a great idea for an MMO -- perhaps based on a book, movie, or game you loved. You devote time and effort to following forums, reading up on developer notes, and trying to get into the beta. But somehow, the idea translates poorly. Even if it's a good solid MMO, it just doesn't click with you for some reason. Or maybe they looked at the source story/information and then ran screaming in the totally wrong direction with the game's storyline.Personally, such was the case for me with The Matrix Online. I remember chasing every scrap of information I could get about it, watching videos and all of that. I did manage to make it into the beta, and what I saw there both exhilarated me and saddened me. The game was so very cool looking. The ability to decompile items into code and recompile the code bits into other items struck me as being perfect for someone truly aware that they are living in the world of MxO. But despite all the things I loved about it, I just couldn't handle the combat system; I'd describe it as rock-paper-scissors with Bullet Time. I understand they've since reworked it, and I'll probably give it a try again before long knowing how much I love MMOs. Of course, I'd counter with the fact that had they just used a more traditional MMO combat system from the word go, I'd probably never have left in the first place. How about you? Were there any games that you were excited about but just didn't work out for you? What things about them made you step back? What would you change if you could?
As the Worlds Turn: Hey, mom! Look at what I made!
You've toiled. You've trudged great distances. You've sought out the wisdom of the land's greatest craftsmen in pursuit of perfection in your art. Hours of work have culminated into this precise moment. You have finally done it. You have crafted a hat. Not merely any hat: a red hat. You equip it to your character to see how splendid you look in a finely crafted red hat. You quickly put your helmet back on and sell the hat to the nearest vendor for a paltry handful of copper coins. What was the point? The desire to craft is easy to understand. The millions of MMO players out there have many different goals but there is one goal that they often share: the desire to be special and unique. I'm not referring to a warm and fuzzy after-school kind of special, either. I'm talking about the coolest gear, the most impressive weapon and the super rare mount. Crafting systems often lead players to believe that they can make cool gear and look different. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as it sounds.
Develop: Everything you know about MMOs is wrong - apparently
Thomas Bidaux of NCsoft Europe didn't pull any punches with his presentation at the UK's Develop conference. Instead, the MMO giant's director of product development outlined four major ways in which the MMO world will be turned on its head. Or, rather, the 'online' world -- rather than limit himself to MMOs, Thomas talked about online games as a whole.
