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EA's Gibeau: SimCity 'plays like an MMO'
Remember when EA announced its SimCity MMO over a year ago? No? We don't either, and that's because the MMO moniker was only recently applied following the title's disasterific launch. Not so, according to EA president Frank Gibeau, though. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, he insisted that the online-only title has always been an MMO and that it's transition from a single-player franchise to an always-on environment has nothing to do with DRM. "I was involved in all the meetings. DRM was never even brought up once. You don't build an MMO because you're thinking of DRM -- you're building a massively multiplayer experience, that's what you're building," Gibeau said. "SimCity started out and felt like an MMO more than anything else and it plays like an MMO." He also posits that DRM is a "failed dead-end strategy" and "not a viable strategy for the gaming business." So why didn't EA market SimCity as an MMO from the beginning? Apparently it just slipped everyone's mind. "I'm disappointed that we didn't do a better job communicating that upfront," Gibeau explains.
The Perfect Ten: MMO mascots
Everyone knows that a good mascot can make a difference between a video game's death and rabid popularity. Mario, Master Chief, Duke Nuke 'Em, Pac-Man, Samus Aran, Pyramid Head -- each one of these mascots isn't merely an aspect of the game, they are the virtual spokesperson (or spokesthing) which represents the game itself. Yet when you think about it, MMOs have had a tougher time producing mascots than other video game genres, partially because unlike other games, you don't play as the mascots, and partially because when you have a cast of thousands of NPCs, picking out one to elevate above the rest is a difficult job. Difficult, that is, but not impossible. Today we're going to look at ten MMO mascots (MMOscots?) that studios have tried to promote as the face of these games, to varying degrees of success.
Alter-Ego: A closer look at Update 2's troublesome trio
One of the best things about playing DC Universe Online, in my opinion, is the great deal of rich history there is for all the characters. There is also the fact that the iconic DC characters aren't just relegated to the shelves of your local comic book store. Even if you're not the biggest comic nerd on the face of the planet, you've undoubtedly seen at least a few of the iconic characters from the DC universe like Superman or Batman in cartoons on television or at the movies. With Update 2 now live in DC Universe Online, three more names have joined the ever-growing list of in-game characters who have crossed from popular culture into the online world. The Penguin and Two-Face are busy scheming over the future of Gotham, while Mister Mxyzptlk has taken to the streets of Metropolis to play his strange tricks. This week, I thought it would be fun to look a little deeper into the origin stories of the troublesome trio, as the same popular culture that makes these three characters recognizable may also cause some confusion when you run up against the in-game versions -- and their current motives. I should also note, lest the continuity fiends jump on me for it, that these origins are sourced directly from the DC Universe site.
Storyboard: The only way out is the way through
I had originally planned to use this week's column to talk about the ways you can develop a roleplaying storyline outside of sitting in your city of choice and chatting, but sometimes plans work out differently. In fact, that was exactly what inspired me to change topics -- sitting and chatting with the head of my linkshell in Final Fantasy XIV about how he'd realized after the fact that the character he created was unintentionally alienating him from RP and that he'd placed a distance between his character and the other members of the shell that wasn't doing him any favors. We chatted about what he could do with the character to try to salvage him to avoid scrapping the character and starting over with a concept better-suited to what he wanted to do. But he's not alone in that position -- what if your character isn't working out after all, but for whatever reason it's not easy to just scrap the character and start over? I've talked a lot about how to prevent your character from going off the rails, but how do you get back on the rails when a restart isn't a good option?
Champions Online powers up with patch notes, state of the game
A superhero's work is never done. To fight on the side of good means that you must be as diligent as evil is persistent, else the dark forces will gain sway and demand that you kneel before Zod. Fortunately, a shining beacon has appeared in the sky, signaling good news for the heroes of Champions Online -- a new patch, an upbeat State of the Game report, and a spiffy referral program. The new "Super Powers Patch," as it's being called (or patch FC.11.201000419.5, if you like to be formal) sports a host of additions and changes to the game. For starters, all characters will be granted a free retcon due to the enormous array of powers tweaks. The melee and supernatural powersets, in particular, have been overhauled to bring them more in line with the strength and flexibility of other types of powers. The patch also brings Unity 2 missions, weapons at the tailor, and teaming improvements. You can read the full patch notes here.
Know Your Lore: Lore 101, Part 2
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. In the last Lore 101 segment, I went over resources -- the novels, manga, comics, source guides, games and everything else that make up the story behind World of Warcraft. It's a lot of material to follow, and the sheer volume of it can be daunting, but there's no better way to sort out the story and what happened to who, when and where, than by following the original sources. While this is all well and good, today's post covers why everything in part one may or may not be... well, invalid. That's right, the novel you just picked up and read through may very well not count in the long run. The comics may not actually apply. A later novel may wipe out the timeline of existing events in one fell swoop, and the information you thought you had a solid grasp on might be invalidated in an instant. And that's perfectly okay. Let's take a look at what makes a story like Warcraft tick.
Breakfast Topic: Loremaster for a day
It's been a pretty alright time to be a lore nerd the past few days. Not only have we had some intriguing spoilers about the new goings on with the gnomes and the trolls, but we've had a look at the Ruby Sanctum, and with it had some hints of whats to come with the Cataclysm. Of course, at the same time, there's frustrations as well. Having had a chance to peek at Stormrage, I can tell you I'm not completely thrilled with the way they chose to advance certain portions of the lore there. I generally give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt on lore and retcons, but there's some stuff in there I just did not like. That brings me to a thought. Let's say Chris "God" Metzen comes up to you on the street. He doesn't need a reason, he's Chris Metzen. He's awesome. And he says to you, he says, "Hey, I heard you like WoW lore. So I'm going to let you make a choice. You take any existing lore thread, and you tell me how to change. I can retcon whatever you want, or I can just make it go forward any way you want. You name it, I'll do it."
The Queue: It's just a game
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today. I might be wrong with this one, but I think World of Warcraft is just a game. I mean, it's something we all do in our spare time, and have fun with, right? And it doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day everything is just pixels on the screen. But maybe I'm off base here, and WoW isn't a game. Maybe it's real. What is real? Is there a spoon? I see dead people. Retadinman asked... "Why are draenei hated so much? The "lorelol" retcon wasn't really that big, but since my main character and posting avatar on the Forums (who are the same) are draenei, I get a lot of hate. Why is this?"
Breakfast Topic: Race Change, your personal retcon
Just about every wall has been broken down now. The only thing left is the ability to change one's class, which probably won't happen anytime... soon®. Yesterday, the highly anticipated Race Change service went live, and I'm sure a lot of players rushed to get their makeover. Take Gregg, for example, who went on and changed his Level 70 Tauren Hunter into a weed-loving Troll. I mean, he's wanted to do that for a while. I know I've been hankering for race change myself, but now that the service is here, I haven't exactly jumped the gun. Why? I said I wanted to turn my Blood Elf Death Knight -- I'm quite happy with just one Sin'dorei -- into an Orc, but now I'm kind of wondering. I still want to change my character's race, I'm just not quite settled on which one to switch to. Race change is kind of like a retcon in the World of Warcraft, more so than name changes or customization of appearance. It's right up there with gender changes. Faction changes are different because it kind of take away your character's entire continuity, and I'm sure a lot of RP'ers made completely different back-stories for faction-changed characters. Race change allows you to have essentially the same character but with a major difference. We asked what race you'd switch to about a month back, but now that the service is here, we're going to ask who's up and done the change? What race did you switch from and what race did you switch to? Tell us why! Personally, I'm just kind of bored with another Blood Elf, and I want one of each race (I know, I should've thought of that to begin with). Lame, right? On the other hand, I'm holding out for that Undead Hunter I've always wanted. Now that World of Warcraft's personal retcon is a paid service, have you taken advantage of it? Have you changed anything else besides your race such as gender or name?
Champions store getting new costumes, character slots and more
New costume pieces, additional character slots, retcons and more are all being added to the Champions Online C-Store this Tuesday. Using this exchange rate chart for Cryptic Points the price of a full retcon is $12.50, which isn't too high considering that a retcon allows a player to completely remake a character from the ground up. Costume pieces seem to cost around three dollars, which seems pretty reasonable considering that the Cyborg Beast and Epic Samurai are both rather impressive looking at that price. Lastly, buying four additional character slots costs the most at 1200 points -- which looks to be about $15 or so.Overall, the pricing is lower than what we expected for costumes. Sure, the points system isn't ideal but generally speaking there's not a lot to be overtly upset about here.
Champions reverts item adjustments, fixes critters. Free retcon included
Champions Online got an update today due to a couple of nagging issues from the previous patch. Particularly, maintain-powers on critters weren't operating properly – that is, "not operating properly" in the "grinding your hero's face into the dirt" kind of way. Additionally, yesterday's patch kind of messed up item-changes as well. As a result all items level 11 or lower have been reverted to their previous state, because apparently the defense values of these items was unaccountably lower than they should have been. Cryptic are handing around free retcons for every character created before 3AM Pacific, 22 September.
Champions Online's Bill Roper talks retcons, powers and more part 2
How will you be dealing with the high price of a substantial retcon? This then means we have to work with ratios of these numbers and address the relationship of economic ratios between synergistic and disparate systems.
Champions Online's Bill Roper talks retcons, powers and more
We've been having a lot of fun with Champions Online here at Massively, but with the launch of any MMO there are always questions of how current issues will be handled and what's coming in the near future. So, we spoke with the game's Design Director Bill Roper on several subjects ranging from powers balancing to the upcoming free content update Blood Moon and the reinforcement system.
Get that free respec you've been dying for in Champions Online
One of the things the Champions Online community has been requesting feverishly is the use of a free respec to change their powers. Many recent changes to the monsters and power abilities in the game have left some characters unable to cope with combat. Today's patch was supposed to add in that free respec option, however something has gone wrong with the patch and the free power retcon was left out....Or was it?Cryptic Daeke has just revealed via twitter that it's not impossible to get your character a free respec today! Visit the powerhouse, open up your retcon screen and type in "/character_usefreerespec" into the chat window, without quotes. A system message should appear and your retcon list will be wiped clean, allowing you to completely revitalize your character from the ground up. Enjoy your new power selection!
Champions Online deploys diverse patch, but free retcon delayed
New super-heroing MMOG, Champions Online, has deployed a sizeable patch early this-morning, though actual implementation of the patch took rather longer than anticipated. The 185MB automatic patch covers everything from UI enhancements and graphics performance, to typos, missions and power-frameworks. Certainly a whole lot of nagging issues are addressed. As a result of the relatively extensive changes to powers, a full, free retcon was planned for characters created prior to 2009-09-10 08:30 UTC. Rather less fortunately, the retcon apparently escaped this-morning's patch. Cryptic is hoping to get it in by tomorrow morning. All in all, we count 158 other documented changes for your respective enjoyment or dismay. Read on for the full list ...
Retcon changes in today's Champions Online patch
Today brought a short emergency maintenance followed up by a small patch to Champions Online. It appears Cryptic held some discussion yesterday on what to do with the state of retcons for players affected by the much more significant launch day patch yesterday. Let's take a look at the results.So here's the biggest improvement: Players can now Retcon as far back as they'd like regardless of level. There's been significant changes to the inner workings of the system, but for details on that we suggest you look for the official explanation.Looking at the the cost of a full level 20 retcon, it still seems a little higher than it should be -- or is it? Unlike pretty much any other MMO, Champions Online doesn't restrict your ability selection based on a class. The problem Cryptic is facing is that if they allow for cheap 'n easy respecs, players may never want to roll a new character, which would kill the replay value of any MMO significantly coupled with the fact that you can also redesign your character as well. Retcon prices will probably still receive tweaks and changes, but when and to what extent is hard to say.
The Daily Grind: How much retcon is too much retcon?
Things are changing in the MMO world. Back in the day, if you rolled a Druid in EverQuest that had all their points in Dexterity, you were stuck with it. You either re-rolled the character altogether, or you were always balancing buffs and looking for things to help increase your utility. And that wasn't even just in EverQuest - that was pretty much all of the early MMOs! Nowadays, if you don't like how your character looks in City of Heroes? Pop by and let the fashion designers make you over. Hate your initial traits from generation in EVE Online? Use your Neural Remap. Decided that fighting for the Alliance no longer does it for you in World of Warcraft? Change over to the Horde and Frost Shock people to death.With all that said, how much change is too much? As someone with a role-player background, when I create a character, I generate them with a certain personality and story in mind. Some things would fit, like changing outfits or hair, sure. But changing races mid-run? That seems strange to me. And while I can totally understand changing sides, I still don't understand changing sides without learning the language of the other side like we used to in EverQuest. It kills the potential back-story fun you can have. (Turning traitor, anyone?) But perhaps I'm just an old pen & paper geek waving her cane around on the lawn again. As such, I come to you - how much retcon for characters is too much? Are we sacrificing story and role-play fun in pursuit of making games easier and easier and easier?
The Five Rs of Character Revitalization
So I've talked recently about life as an RPer, and how we seem to interact with our characters just a bit differently. Sometimes, whether we like it or not, a certain character and their back story just grab hold and won't let go, and we find ourselves coming back again and again, just to see where the story leads. Of course, sometimes the character goes just the opposite way, and no matter what you do, your stories fall flat and you don't feel enthusiastic about logging on. It may be because you can't stand the character's personality anymore, it may be because your normal group of friends has hit an RP rut or even taken a break for a while themselves, it may be a variety of other things. Recently, Anna of Too Many Annas wrote a pretty awesome article about how to refresh a flagging RP character using 5 Rs: Relax and Rest, Reintegrate, Refresh the Character, Retcon, and Reroll/Reskin.What's sort of cool about this list is that you can even apply a lot of the principles to characters in general, even if you're a non-RPer. Anna's covered the RP angle pretty well, so I'll mostly focus on this other angle.
Marvel signs 10-year contract, sees an MMO in its future
After the deal with Cryptic and Microsoft fell through, we weren't too terribly sure we'd ever hear another peep out of Marvel insofar as getting a game into the MMO space. However, it would seem that they've given it some thought - or more likely, thought about all the money that's here to be made - and decided to proceed on getting their own MMO into the market anyway. According to a story from the Wall Street Journal, Marvel has signed a 10-year deal with Gazillion Entertainment (previously NR2B Research, per VentureBeat) that will encompass not only a Marvel Universe online game that will tie into a Cartoon Network series, but also a renewal of the Marvel Universe MMO project for PC and consoles with Gazillion's subsidiary, Gargantuan Studios. Considering that Champions Online is in closed beta already, DC Universe Online is showing some pretty solid previews, and City of Heroes is still chugging along with a devoted player-base, it's going to be an uphill battle from the word go for this Marvel MMO. Sure, there will be comics loyalists who prefer the Marvel universe to the DC universe, but with four superhero MMOs to choose from? Everyone involved should remember that in MMOs, no amount of retconning will help a game that doesn't bring its best from the start. [Via Joystiq]
Retcons, non-combat and superpowered travelling in Champions Online
The first Ask Cryptic for Champions Online in February spends a lot of time clearing up questions concerning travel powers, non-combat features and, well, even more non-combat features. Yeah, this set of questions definitely run the gamut -- but that's how we like 'em!What caught our attention in this one was the reveal of respecs in the game or as Cryptic is calling them, "Retcons" It sounds like we may actually be able to get Retcons on specific power choices in Champions Online. Our reason for thinking this comes from the line saying, "Up to a certain level, retcons are fairly cheap, but the higher the level of your character, the more thorough the retcon, the more expensive." While this could simply be some miscommunication, it does sound like less thorough Retcons will be available to those looking for only a little take-back.Additionally, there's a good amount of discussion on how physics and the balancing of travel powers in combat works as well. Mostly it's concerning the functionary bits on how it'll all work in the game come launch, but if you're interested in that you should definitely check this one out.
