What is the thing game programmers always say. That they want to make fun and successful games. Something like that. You know, when they apply for their job or write down their life goals. But then they get hired and are told what to do. They do it even though they know it won't be fun or successful. But they have to, because their manager/director/king told them to.
It is just so amazing to me how many games have the potential to be good but are run into the ground. Say for instance Warhammer Online. The game is billed around never ending war. Big PVP battles and never ending fights. That sort of stuff. It sounds like loads of fun!
The director who made the game probably hopped in a couple scenarios and had fun. It is fun.................the first couple times. Which is all he played. And it could continue to be fun..................if there are people queuing up to take part. But is quickly degrade into a grind for experience which they don't see. And the director doesn't realize that people are not having fun because they see good numbers of participants. But if you go to any forum or solicit player feedback, he would hear how unfun his game is.
Warhammer Online has 2 aspects of PVP, Scenarios and Realm vs Realm. Scenarios are downright boring after a while. They rely on too many variables (class types, people queuing up, server population balance, group cohesion) and thus can be considered not fun. When I played some rounds we could not even leave the starting area. We were trapped like new players in a guard zone. Except we had much less freedom. So Scenarios are not a reliable source of PVP.
Then there is RvR combat. You run around taking battlefield objectives and keeps. If no one shows up to defend you just kill monsters. No PVP at all. That can happen a lot. If you do see some defense, it is just a huge choke hold fight. You are trying to break down a door to get inside. Then another door. Then run up some stairs. There is never a big open battle or chance for large engagement. The sides are usually very lopsided.
What is my point here? The point is there is no solid PVP experience in Warhammer Online. They launched with this and have not done anything to correct it. Instead of trying to move the game in a new direction they tweak it. But it never becomes more fun, just more standardized. The people who quit are not going to return because suddenly the Keep Lord does not bug out and kill himself. Or you can no longer use a certain buff on door hit points.
Warhammer, as do every game, needs to have some consistent fun that keeps you wanting to play.
February 23, 2009
February 22, 2009
The Toilet Clashes with the Drapes
Two in a row. Could it be?
What should have been a rather simple and innocent decoration contest has turned into a new source of player complaints and controversy. One winner is now requesting that the UO developers pick another design instead of his own. I don't see how it can get much worse than that.
The main point of contention that I can see is some of the winning designs go a bit further than adding some new shrubs and window dressings. We haven't seen every winner yet (mainly because for some inexplicable reason the winning designs were not posted with the results) but two include a moongate. The winner who is requesting his design be pulled had the moongate along with a stable, archery range, arcane circle, forge, and tailoring amenities. About the only thing missing was an ankh for tithing chilvary.
This contest was obviously a response to how the community team for Asian shards decorate their banks every so often. I have gone and seen those designs and they were nothing like this. They did not repurpose the bank into a replica of Luna. They added some tables, chairs, flowers and maybe a little dock. If it is Christmas they put up some trees and snow. That sort of thing.
The fault here I would place on the person who designed the contest rules. It should have been more strict as to what you can do. After some time a note was added telling participants that multi-story banks would not be allowed. I would really like to see some of those designs. There was probably one that added at least 2, perhaps even 3 new floors. It would have been taller than Lord British's Castle.
There should have been a bullet point that stated you could only add decorations. No additional functions such as moongates or teleporters or forges. There should have even been one encouraging people to keep it light and not stick an item over every tile of the banking area. Perhaps even be a rule where they had the freedom to make alterations on the submitted design.
We'll have to sit back and see where this goes. I would expect a statement about the entire contest situation no later than Tuesday, otherwise the bickering is only going to get worse as more designs are released by the winners.
What should have been a rather simple and innocent decoration contest has turned into a new source of player complaints and controversy. One winner is now requesting that the UO developers pick another design instead of his own. I don't see how it can get much worse than that.
The main point of contention that I can see is some of the winning designs go a bit further than adding some new shrubs and window dressings. We haven't seen every winner yet (mainly because for some inexplicable reason the winning designs were not posted with the results) but two include a moongate. The winner who is requesting his design be pulled had the moongate along with a stable, archery range, arcane circle, forge, and tailoring amenities. About the only thing missing was an ankh for tithing chilvary.
This contest was obviously a response to how the community team for Asian shards decorate their banks every so often. I have gone and seen those designs and they were nothing like this. They did not repurpose the bank into a replica of Luna. They added some tables, chairs, flowers and maybe a little dock. If it is Christmas they put up some trees and snow. That sort of thing.
The fault here I would place on the person who designed the contest rules. It should have been more strict as to what you can do. After some time a note was added telling participants that multi-story banks would not be allowed. I would really like to see some of those designs. There was probably one that added at least 2, perhaps even 3 new floors. It would have been taller than Lord British's Castle.
There should have been a bullet point that stated you could only add decorations. No additional functions such as moongates or teleporters or forges. There should have even been one encouraging people to keep it light and not stick an item over every tile of the banking area. Perhaps even be a rule where they had the freedom to make alterations on the submitted design.
We'll have to sit back and see where this goes. I would expect a statement about the entire contest situation no later than Tuesday, otherwise the bickering is only going to get worse as more designs are released by the winners.
February 21, 2009
Taking the Game out of the Game
Getting back into a posting flow is turning out to be quite difficult for me. You may or may not have noticed this.
Yesterday it was announced on the Stratics U Hall that the rewards at Event Moderator events were being modified. Many avid MMO players would call this a nerf. They would be 100% right.
In the past few weeks there have been complaints on Stratics about the rewards being given out. I didn't say a lot. I am actually thinking about going back and counting how many there were. It has been posted that one of the EM staff said that Stratics complaints were the main reasoning behind the reward distribution change. Since the announcement there have been at least 200 replies commenting on it. It would be interesting to see how many are for and against this change.
The change itself is as follows. No longer are Event Moderators allowed to give a limited amount of an item they choose. Now they have to give the same item out to everyone. The "winners" of the event get a slightly better item with their name and date attached. Isn't that just grand?
Of course it isn't. Let me relate to you all a past event I had the pleasure of participating in. We had to find these Orge Lords who stole some grapes. They were scattered throughout the land. After defeating them we looted the grapes, of which I can say there were certainly not enough for everyone to have. You had the chance to turn in those grapes and get a bottle of Delucia wine. That was the event. If that event ran today either the grapes would not be lootable or the Event Moderator would have to offer them to everyone. But then why would we go retrieve them if there were plenty left over? It kills the entire story of the event.
These changes in the name of fairness are the same as how there is a push in education/sports to make everyone feel the same. No keeping score are that football game! Everyone gets a gold star on their report, even if the paper only has their name on it! No one is going to have their feelings hurt or might be encouraged to try harder next time.
When those Orge Lords invade Trinsic, no need to slay them. Just come back at the end and get your free shiny items with your name on them.
Yesterday it was announced on the Stratics U Hall that the rewards at Event Moderator events were being modified. Many avid MMO players would call this a nerf. They would be 100% right.
In the past few weeks there have been complaints on Stratics about the rewards being given out. I didn't say a lot. I am actually thinking about going back and counting how many there were. It has been posted that one of the EM staff said that Stratics complaints were the main reasoning behind the reward distribution change. Since the announcement there have been at least 200 replies commenting on it. It would be interesting to see how many are for and against this change.
The change itself is as follows. No longer are Event Moderators allowed to give a limited amount of an item they choose. Now they have to give the same item out to everyone. The "winners" of the event get a slightly better item with their name and date attached. Isn't that just grand?
Of course it isn't. Let me relate to you all a past event I had the pleasure of participating in. We had to find these Orge Lords who stole some grapes. They were scattered throughout the land. After defeating them we looted the grapes, of which I can say there were certainly not enough for everyone to have. You had the chance to turn in those grapes and get a bottle of Delucia wine. That was the event. If that event ran today either the grapes would not be lootable or the Event Moderator would have to offer them to everyone. But then why would we go retrieve them if there were plenty left over? It kills the entire story of the event.
These changes in the name of fairness are the same as how there is a push in education/sports to make everyone feel the same. No keeping score are that football game! Everyone gets a gold star on their report, even if the paper only has their name on it! No one is going to have their feelings hurt or might be encouraged to try harder next time.
When those Orge Lords invade Trinsic, no need to slay them. Just come back at the end and get your free shiny items with your name on them.
February 8, 2009
Disbanded Brothers
I know I said I was going to start posting again on the new year. I guess this is just another shining example of how web blogs can be so sporadically updated.
In recent days there has been a lot of talk in the "MMO World" about how a certain alliance of guilds in Eve Online, consisting of thousands of people, was disbanded by a turncoat. I used to play a bit of Eve Online (did I already mention this? I am too lazy to check), so I know a thing or two about the game. There are huge areas of the game you can actually fight to control. That is why you need mega-alliances, to defend your space.
When the alliance was disbanded, control of that space was instantly lost. This might not be a big deal as long as you are not currently taking part in a huge war in which the enemy has been ruthlessly destroying you. Opps, it was. So now there is a huge rush into the enemies former strong hold, burning down down and stealing their assets.
While what happened was completely within the confines of the game and not exploiting a bug, I still think there is something not right here. Eve Online is and always has had an extremely high level of player espionage taking place. The game is even setup to encourage it. But to design the game in such a way that someone can pull something like this off is rather soul crushing to the people who spent years and years building it. There obviously should have been some mechanics in place which do not allow someone to instantly kick guilds out of an alliance and take it all to themselves unless you are the head person in charge (which this person was not).
There is so much interesting stuff lately to muse about.
In recent days there has been a lot of talk in the "MMO World" about how a certain alliance of guilds in Eve Online, consisting of thousands of people, was disbanded by a turncoat. I used to play a bit of Eve Online (did I already mention this? I am too lazy to check), so I know a thing or two about the game. There are huge areas of the game you can actually fight to control. That is why you need mega-alliances, to defend your space.
When the alliance was disbanded, control of that space was instantly lost. This might not be a big deal as long as you are not currently taking part in a huge war in which the enemy has been ruthlessly destroying you. Opps, it was. So now there is a huge rush into the enemies former strong hold, burning down down and stealing their assets.
While what happened was completely within the confines of the game and not exploiting a bug, I still think there is something not right here. Eve Online is and always has had an extremely high level of player espionage taking place. The game is even setup to encourage it. But to design the game in such a way that someone can pull something like this off is rather soul crushing to the people who spent years and years building it. There obviously should have been some mechanics in place which do not allow someone to instantly kick guilds out of an alliance and take it all to themselves unless you are the head person in charge (which this person was not).
There is so much interesting stuff lately to muse about.
December 29, 2008
New Year: New Posts
I plan on restarting this blog on January 1. I got side tracked by my connection issues (which are still happening, blarg). See you then!
December 14, 2008
Corruption, In Eve Online, That's Unlikely!
Two posts in a row, also unlikely!
Eve Online just can't seem to catch a break. It seems every few months another big scandal breaks. It is interesting because the actions of one or a few people can literally affect the entire game population. This is due to the entire universe running on one "server" (actually a giant cluster) or shard in a UO term. So if for example, and this is a complete impossibility, lets say someone was to amass minerals trillions and trillions of isk (the Eve currency) for free. This would be bad.
Oh wait, it did happen. Not only did it happen but it has been going on for 4 years. Not only was it going on for 4 years but it was reported multiple times but apparently those reports were closed without being investigated. Opps!
Some are claiming this is the largest exploitative operation in the history of any MMO. It is probably the most successful, but definitely not the largest seeing how UO developers removed 15 trillion duped gold a couple years ago. UO gold is worth more than Eve isk. Today I see Eve isk selling for 550 million per $35. That would only buy you about 35 million UO gold. And UO gold was worth at least double when the trillions was removed.
Let me give people who don't play Eve Online a better idea of the impact. Lets say every automobile manufacturer had to raise their prices by several thousand dollars per car because the price of raw materials to make steel skyrocketed. Now apply that to every other item that needs the same materials. The people who mine these minerals suddenly found out that instead of a lot left, there was nothing. The rug was pulled out from under them. That is the breadth of this exploit. A huge majority of the minerals on the market were from this exploit because it is so difficult to make them through normal game play. I would not be surprised if the Eve developers had to make changes to make these minerals easier to make because the entire game economy currently depends on it.
Isn't it rather ironic? Here we are in the midst of wall street scandals and a recession. Suddenly the same type of thing breaks out in a MMO. The market of space ship parts is going to get a lot more expensive, in the short term at least.
For this reason, it can be a good idea to split a MMO into several isolated servers. If something like this happens on one then it will only affect a small portion of your player base. UO used to be immune to this type of thing until they implemented character transfers. And what a headache those have been, being a major source of duping since their introduction. World of Warcraft also has character transfers but Blizzard restricts the amount of gold that can be moved. It is almost not even worth the cost. UO lets you transfer over 875 items each time which can translate into 875 million gold checks. Blizzard restricted you to 10,000 gold and I think they just raised the limit to 20,000. Plus you can only transfer a character once per month while UO let you do it without restriction until rather recently.
Putting aside everything said so far, there is even more to talk about. As I mentioned the person who initially discovered this bug actually reported it. That report was closed with a thanks, but nothing was ever done. For whatever reason, this player went on for the next 4 years to benefit from this. Other people have come forward claiming they also reported it over the years but nothing was ever done. In the past, Eve has suffered from some rather corrupt employees. It is possible that they were also trying to benefit from this new found exploit. It took the report getting to the right person this time for something to be done.
The results of this exploit are still coming out. The Eve team has yet to really explain the scope and impact. Going by the number of outraged players on their own official game forum, it is not something they will be able to keep under wraps as I bet they wish to.
Eve Online just can't seem to catch a break. It seems every few months another big scandal breaks. It is interesting because the actions of one or a few people can literally affect the entire game population. This is due to the entire universe running on one "server" (actually a giant cluster) or shard in a UO term. So if for example, and this is a complete impossibility, lets say someone was to amass minerals trillions and trillions of isk (the Eve currency) for free. This would be bad.
Oh wait, it did happen. Not only did it happen but it has been going on for 4 years. Not only was it going on for 4 years but it was reported multiple times but apparently those reports were closed without being investigated. Opps!
Some are claiming this is the largest exploitative operation in the history of any MMO. It is probably the most successful, but definitely not the largest seeing how UO developers removed 15 trillion duped gold a couple years ago. UO gold is worth more than Eve isk. Today I see Eve isk selling for 550 million per $35. That would only buy you about 35 million UO gold. And UO gold was worth at least double when the trillions was removed.
Let me give people who don't play Eve Online a better idea of the impact. Lets say every automobile manufacturer had to raise their prices by several thousand dollars per car because the price of raw materials to make steel skyrocketed. Now apply that to every other item that needs the same materials. The people who mine these minerals suddenly found out that instead of a lot left, there was nothing. The rug was pulled out from under them. That is the breadth of this exploit. A huge majority of the minerals on the market were from this exploit because it is so difficult to make them through normal game play. I would not be surprised if the Eve developers had to make changes to make these minerals easier to make because the entire game economy currently depends on it.
Isn't it rather ironic? Here we are in the midst of wall street scandals and a recession. Suddenly the same type of thing breaks out in a MMO. The market of space ship parts is going to get a lot more expensive, in the short term at least.
For this reason, it can be a good idea to split a MMO into several isolated servers. If something like this happens on one then it will only affect a small portion of your player base. UO used to be immune to this type of thing until they implemented character transfers. And what a headache those have been, being a major source of duping since their introduction. World of Warcraft also has character transfers but Blizzard restricts the amount of gold that can be moved. It is almost not even worth the cost. UO lets you transfer over 875 items each time which can translate into 875 million gold checks. Blizzard restricted you to 10,000 gold and I think they just raised the limit to 20,000. Plus you can only transfer a character once per month while UO let you do it without restriction until rather recently.
Putting aside everything said so far, there is even more to talk about. As I mentioned the person who initially discovered this bug actually reported it. That report was closed with a thanks, but nothing was ever done. For whatever reason, this player went on for the next 4 years to benefit from this. Other people have come forward claiming they also reported it over the years but nothing was ever done. In the past, Eve has suffered from some rather corrupt employees. It is possible that they were also trying to benefit from this new found exploit. It took the report getting to the right person this time for something to be done.
The results of this exploit are still coming out. The Eve team has yet to really explain the scope and impact. Going by the number of outraged players on their own official game forum, it is not something they will be able to keep under wraps as I bet they wish to.
December 13, 2008
Fleshing Out a Concept
I am going to make a post today, damn it.
Even though I no longer play Warhammer Online, I still check out the IGN Warhammer discussion forum. Specifically, I like to see if Mark Jacobs has anything interesting to say. He is after all the one who is in charge of Ultima Online and is not the typical MMO guy in that he posts a lot. But that seems to have died down a bit now that Warhammer isn't the hit people were hoping for. He has stopped posting on the F13 forum from what I can see and has slowed down greatly on IGN. Before I stray too far, I think part of the reason he wants his own Warhammer Forum is so he can have much greater control.
Anyway, on IGN I saw this topic linked to on the Warhammer Alliance forum. From what I gather, most people on IGN think down about Warhammer Alliance, so this is a bit of a surprise and peaks my interest. Inside is a suggestion about how Mythic could fix the Open Realm vs Realm situation. While brief, it outlines perfectly one method that could be used. More importantly it makes perfect sense. So much so that there has been 472 replies and over 15,000 views in just 10 days. The response is overwhelmingly positive.
The design talks about how Mythic is on the wrong track. At every step, the rewards go to the individual person instead of progressing to encompass more people. The first level is killing another player. You get rewarded specifically for that instead of the current design which allows you to gain points through other means. If you can only gain credit for killing players to progress, then there is no way around it. This makes a lot of sense.
Then it moves on to Keeps. Once again Mythic only rewards ~5 players with elite loot no matter how many people took part. The author suggests changing it around completely. Make it so a guild can only level up by owning a Keep. At the moment a guild can level up through many other means and it is automatic. If you can only level by Keep ownership then players are going to want to defend those. Guilds will feel pride and be respected for their high level and accomplishments.
The next stage up is controlling entire areas. There is really no reward for this at the moment. Instead, owning certain areas could reward the controllers. You could have access to special dungeons or quests. The faction that controls them reaps the rewards. It would encourage players to struggle for the zones rather than plow through them for hopes of attacking the other capital city. A much more natural and balanced process.
Finally there is the capital city, which once again focuses on individual rewards as Keeps do. As he put it, "Sieging a Capitol. Just like Zone Control, this should not reward the individual, it should reward your Realm. Having best loot from City Sieges == epic fail."
Sometimes you can't just pick out one thing and try to fix it when the entire concept is flawed. It is quite apparent that major changes need to be made to the oRvR system in Warhammer to make it more engaging and rewarding for players. Mythic has intertwined too many non-PVP aspects into the equation and players are not embarcing it. World of Warcraft started making the same mistake when they added a bunch of boss objectives for Battlegrounds. Players began focusing on the PvM instead of the PvP.
The Faction system in UO had it right when the entire faction was rewarded with war horses and town guards. Unfortunately this became rather insignificant over time, especially after the Age of Shadows expansion. While the recent changes have helped give Factions new life, there needs to be greater incentives for players to want to capture and defend cities.
There is going to be a post tomorrow too.
Even though I no longer play Warhammer Online, I still check out the IGN Warhammer discussion forum. Specifically, I like to see if Mark Jacobs has anything interesting to say. He is after all the one who is in charge of Ultima Online and is not the typical MMO guy in that he posts a lot. But that seems to have died down a bit now that Warhammer isn't the hit people were hoping for. He has stopped posting on the F13 forum from what I can see and has slowed down greatly on IGN. Before I stray too far, I think part of the reason he wants his own Warhammer Forum is so he can have much greater control.
Anyway, on IGN I saw this topic linked to on the Warhammer Alliance forum. From what I gather, most people on IGN think down about Warhammer Alliance, so this is a bit of a surprise and peaks my interest. Inside is a suggestion about how Mythic could fix the Open Realm vs Realm situation. While brief, it outlines perfectly one method that could be used. More importantly it makes perfect sense. So much so that there has been 472 replies and over 15,000 views in just 10 days. The response is overwhelmingly positive.
The design talks about how Mythic is on the wrong track. At every step, the rewards go to the individual person instead of progressing to encompass more people. The first level is killing another player. You get rewarded specifically for that instead of the current design which allows you to gain points through other means. If you can only gain credit for killing players to progress, then there is no way around it. This makes a lot of sense.
Then it moves on to Keeps. Once again Mythic only rewards ~5 players with elite loot no matter how many people took part. The author suggests changing it around completely. Make it so a guild can only level up by owning a Keep. At the moment a guild can level up through many other means and it is automatic. If you can only level by Keep ownership then players are going to want to defend those. Guilds will feel pride and be respected for their high level and accomplishments.
The next stage up is controlling entire areas. There is really no reward for this at the moment. Instead, owning certain areas could reward the controllers. You could have access to special dungeons or quests. The faction that controls them reaps the rewards. It would encourage players to struggle for the zones rather than plow through them for hopes of attacking the other capital city. A much more natural and balanced process.
Finally there is the capital city, which once again focuses on individual rewards as Keeps do. As he put it, "Sieging a Capitol. Just like Zone Control, this should not reward the individual, it should reward your Realm. Having best loot from City Sieges == epic fail."
Sometimes you can't just pick out one thing and try to fix it when the entire concept is flawed. It is quite apparent that major changes need to be made to the oRvR system in Warhammer to make it more engaging and rewarding for players. Mythic has intertwined too many non-PVP aspects into the equation and players are not embarcing it. World of Warcraft started making the same mistake when they added a bunch of boss objectives for Battlegrounds. Players began focusing on the PvM instead of the PvP.
The Faction system in UO had it right when the entire faction was rewarded with war horses and town guards. Unfortunately this became rather insignificant over time, especially after the Age of Shadows expansion. While the recent changes have helped give Factions new life, there needs to be greater incentives for players to want to capture and defend cities.
There is going to be a post tomorrow too.
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