MMO Magic Tricks

After having one too many deep thoughts about MMO's today, I came to thinking about some of my usual frustrations with MMO, namely their over reliance on compelling mechanics, rather than depth or storytelling.

I thought about how best to explain something like this to the more laid back MMO gamer, who doesn't get all this 'mechanics' mubo jumbo.

This is the analogue I came up with.


Think of it as a person trying to get attention, magic tricks are a rather easy way to impress people who aren't overly familiar with how they work. They can stagger people and give them a much higher opinion of the person doing the magic tricks without really knowing anything about them.

These are your 'run-of-the-mill- MMO's.
But like magic tricks, if you know how their done, or have seen the same tricks being played 4 or 5 times, they become a lot less impressive and get old quick.
Sure there might be the occasional bout of novelty, and some people will remain fooled no matter what, but eventually most will realize that the magician is just hiding the fact that he's just got nothing worthwhile to say.



But take Guild Wars as a different example. It's more like an attractive member of the opposite sex, pretty and charismatic, and willing to engage you in a lengthy conversation.
Sure it may not be as immediately impressive, and the conversation may end up being little more the idle chatter, but at the end of the day you walk away with a much more pleasant experience, that doesn't really diminish with time.

Guild Wars 2 on the other hand is like her charming, sexier, older sister.
Not only has she learned from her mistakes, but is otherwise much more worldly and experienced in life, to make her a much more rounded person.

The conversations are likely to be even more engaging and entertaining, than with that of her sibling. But most importantly, by being such a diverse and entertaining as a person as she is, she really doesn't need to use magic tricks to impress people, listening to her talk is plenty enough.


And maybe, just maybe, after listening so her speak and seeing the attention she brings, the magician might realize that it's time to put away the cards and wand, and just start talking to people.

~Yoh

And now we wait

"Eric Flannum: Unfortunately we aren't speaking about specific game mechanics until sometime early next year.|"

God fucking damn it!


Another interview for Guild War 2 yielded this quote, which effectively means we are not going to hear anything substantial until next year.


The problem with releasing information like this is, by releasing info AFTER you've already put in the hard yards to set the mechanics in stone, if you wind up getting poor feedback, because you may have cocked something up big time along the way, it's already too late by that point to do anything.
(namely with core mechanics)

They're setting themselves up for a fall (in which almost every MMO studio does aswell), and so they better get it right the first time, because in the industry today, there is no forgiveness.


I hope they get it right, for both our sakes.


~Yoh

Pleasant wake up call

Shortly after getting up this morning, and going thru the usual blogs and such, I found something rather nice..... more Guild Wars 2 information.

Good start to the day.


And going by the link, it seems Areanet have a new YouTube account, so I spent a fair bit of time today going over the PAX videos.
Nothing too out of the ordinary, nothing specific, but nice all the same.
It's good to hear a perspective from the inside out for a change.

And after listening to all that, it reaffirmed that I'm on the right track with my art, and willingness to get into the industry.
It can happen.
Just gotta keep at it.


Now if only they would put out something besides lore.... that would be, nice.


~Yoh

Guild Wars 2 - Light my Fire

Well, as I've stated before I had lost interest in this game as it has been 2 years since I had heard anything on it. Consider my flame rekindled.

Arenanet just released a 4 page preview and a 5min trailer.
Way to put up. It seems they've been busy little bees.


Color me impressed.
The trailer itself was quite appeasing. Not only gorgeous in that stylized kind of way Arenanet does, but it actually shows gameplay graphics as well, which are very, very nice. On par with Aion I'd say.

And the preview gave us a glimpse into how it will work. However of course they didn't reveal anything too specific, they did note that it will be more soloable then before, have open world persistence, have a new quest/event system, and possibly improve their skill system.
Oh, and you can jump too. ^^

So, nothing but gold so far.


While I admit that I am still a bit skeptical, as they did state originally that they will look at the level system, and their news about the skill system is a tad troubling.
But it seems they've learned they cocked up a fair bit in Guild Wars, so they may very well make things even better rather then worse.

And they did say they were keeping to the central tenants of GW. So that's reassuring.

Still, their not out of the woods yet, but we can see daylight.


So consider yourself at they top off my 'must buy' list GW2.
Don't disappoint me now.


Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go watch that trailer again.

~Yoh

On my game radar

Ok, what MMO titles on the horizon am I interested in.

Well, first I'm more attracted to skill based or action based games. I don't give a rats ass about hype, or graphics, or any of that other crap they try to sell you.
I'm only interested in how it handles.


1) Guild Wars 2 - As a long time fan of Guild Wars, I'm interested to see how this turns out. However, I have lost most of my interest in this game as it's been 2 freaken years, but whatever.
I think tomorrow they are going to release some more info, so we'll see if they are going to move forwards or backwards.
Given Arenanets history, I expect great things from them.

2) Dust 514 - Sounds epic. While I don't have a PS3 or Xbox360, nor intend on getting one, I'll probably won't be playing this game.
But even still, it's a stellar move by CCP. It's got epic win written all over it.
Still, I reserve judgment until they show the beef.

3) Final Fantasy 14 - At first this sounded like, and looked like a remake of FF11, but it seems to be only skin deep. Much like Guild Wars - Guild Wars 2.
Them losing the level system gain instant gratz with me. However it could also be disastrous, depending on what they put in it's place.
So far it's in alpha, and what little I saw of combat was...... well.... shit.
Good graphics, but that's par for the course these days.

4) Jumpgate: Evolution and Black Prophesy - Now these games I like.
I'm quite into space sims (EVE doesn't count), and they look quite fast paced and fun. Not too sure about some of their mechanics. I think they have a level system.... which of course I dispise, but it depends on how they do it.
Could be very, very good for the industry. Or they could bomb horribly.
It all depends.

5) Champions - Not terribly interested in this game, but it does have some nice features.
The customization looks epic. Looks like you can do just about anything you want.
But in saying that, the combat looks shoty, it still uses levels, and I just don't like superhero games. (never got into comics)
I might play it for a bit, but I don't expect it would hold me in the long run.

6) Aion - At one point it beeped onto my radar, until my bullshit-seeking ground to air missiles blew it out of the sky. It's pretty, has good customizations, and has some mildly good lore.
But the combat, skill system, and damn near everything else is vanilla.
Nothing I haven't seen before.
It looks like any other inventory management game I have ever seen, and I'm just not into that.
Bite me Aion.


And that's really about it.
Not a whole lot interests me atm. Some might do good should they put out, but until then, I reserve judgment. Could be good, could be business as usual.
We shall see.


~Yoh