Haven't blogged in a while, as I've been busy with work and stuff.
There hasn't been anything really that interesting to talk about really.
(still haven't gotten back to replying to comments yet)
It's all been, really uneventful to say the least.
Read a blog post on massively the other day about sex in gaming, or rather boobs in gaming.
I couldn't be any more indifferent if I tried.
I don't really care whether characters in game are boobilishous, or whether marketing using girls in skimpy outfits in order to sell more copies. I don't care, nor does that angle of advertising affect me so.
I know they work on other men, but advertisement just doesn't work on me, plain and simple.
I don't watch TV, because ad's drove me nuts rather then anything else.
I guess it's because I have no desires, or rather no desires anybody else can fulfill.
Yeah, I like T'n'A as much as the next guy, but give me some credit.
I'm in it for the gameplay and social interactions, and that's it.
If your mechanics suck, then I don't care if you have the hottest bootstrap pair of titties the world has ever seen, I'm not buying.
Hench, I saw a video of Soal & Blade shortly after reading this blog...... and it seems to have more in common with Dead or Alive then an MMO.
Tits and Ass all the way with this game. Which begs the question, how shallow minded do these people think I am?
From what I could tell of the gameplay, it looks fake and superifical, like all the implants in this game. It seemed so..... scripted..... idk, weak sauce.
And also, with all the over abundance of T'n'A in this game, it just rubs me the wrong way.
I don't go to MMO's for this kind of thing. If I want porn, I get porn. If I want a game, I want a game. No need to mix the two.
Esp if it will piss off female gamers. I'd rather not hit that beehive, thankyou.
Besides that, did comment on a blog post over at Kill Ten Rats, on soloing.
Where I agree with what Ravious said, go check it out.
Might blog later in the week, depends on how busy I am.
~Yoh
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
A Formal Deconstruction of Levels
Levels.
Consider by most MMO players to be a lynch-pin of the genre, or at the very least a perfectly working game mechanic.
But is it really?
I say no. Why? Because I never stop hearing complaints about it, that's why.
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and read a fair bit of gaming blogs. And I can tell you, some of the most common complaints stem from levels.
Can't play together with your friend because your at different levels?
Tough, sucks to be you.
Got your arse handed to you at a starter zone because of some ganking dipshit at max level?
Get used to it, your in for one heck of a ride.
Been brutally murdered by NPC mobs that were a couple of levels higher then you?
Get a ticket and stand in line.
Some people say it's a symptom due to the actions players take, and that levels aren't to blame.
I call bullshit. Because when you break the problem down, levels are entirely to blame.
I'm going to crack open levels and see what makes them tick, and as a result find just what, and where the problems lay.
The Level Equation
Ok, how do levels work.
Sounds fairly obvious. Kill things, finish quests and gain XP, which in turn grants you a level after a certain amount. Then rinse and repeat. As a result you become gradually more powerful.
But to find the root of the problem, we have to dig a little deeper.
It basically works like this:
Time --> Kills/Quests --> XP --> Levels --> Power
Or in short, Time = Power.
You see, the very point of levels is as a progression system.
And this progression system increases your overall power relative to each level you have obtained.
Which in turn allows you to take on stronger enemies, quests, and the like. In essence, gives you access to more advanced content.
So, business as usual then.
So why is that a problem? You might ask.
Because when it comes to social interactions between players, it becomes a barrier, preventing players from sharing the same content, or competing on a fair and balanced playing field.
As to how this is the case, lets move on to the next section.
The Breakdown
Now it's one thing know there is a problem, and another thing entirely to elaborate why there is a problem.
This is my attempt.
As I see it, there are two main problems with levels as a progression system in MMORPG's.
1) It becomes a barrier between players sharing content, and competing fairly.
2) It's association with grind when in conjunction with other mechanics.
Please keep in mind that levels do in fact do many things right, of which I am keenly aware of.
The consistent reward for effort is among the best out there for progression systems.
This however doesn't remove the fact that it still has problems.
So lets tackle the first one first. (duh)
How do levels become a social barrier?
First as I mentioned earlier, as you gain levels you gain power, and with that power you gain access to more content.
And it is this sharding of content relative to levels (ie, time spent) which causes the first part of our problem.
If Player A is at level 10,
and Player B is at level 20,
both players cannot share the same content.
And as such, cannot play together. (regardless whether they want to or not)
Because Player A cannot scale up to player B's content, because their too weak.
Player B can scale down, but then they are no longer sharing content, but rather Player B is doing the content for Player A, as Player B is far too strong for said content.
How do you resolve this problem? You can't.
Unless there is another mechanic built in to allow the higher level players to dumb down, so that they can play with lower level players, then your totally screwed.
But even then, that only solves half the problem. (well, not even that)
And that's only sharing content.
In terms of competition, the problem is much the same.
Because Time = Power, whoever spends the most time, becomes the strongest by default.
And the larger the divide between levels becomes, the more apparent this becomes, until it is no longer a contest anymore, but rather a slaughter.
Again, if Player A is at level 10,
and Player B is at level 20,
then there is not a hope in hell of Player A beating Player B,
regardless who is more skillful or knowledgeable.
Now this can be mitigated by the level cap, this however does little to nothing balance competition when there are variating levels between players.
(unless everybody competing are at the same level or level range. ie, look at Guild Wars)
Anybody that values fairness and balance can appreciate why this is a problem.
The metric for success in competition shouldn't be time, money, or gear, but rather personal skill. Because by winning via skill alone, you not only reward thous truly deserving of it, but make the act of winning far more valuable.
It's not winning if everyone and their dog can do it.
And surprisingly enough, were only half way there...... oh joy!
.... I'll try to keep this part shorter.
How do levels cause grind?
Grind being the act of any repetitive, and monotonous activities.
And in the case of levels, it's comes as a result of it's interactions with other mechanics, and in the absence of content.
Say you have to level from level 1 to level 20 without a single quest in the lot.
All you would have is killing the same mobs, often being different creatures but all fighting, and dying the same way.
I'm sure anybody would agree that would be a grind.
But what if it was to level 30, or 40, 60, 80, 120.... so on, and so on.
The greater the gap, the greater the grind. Most people would give up around level 30 or so of this crap.
But what is worse, is that the nature of levels is of a exponential cost requirement.
Each requiring more and more XP, and thus time. (and usually diminished returns)
So how can this be resolved? Easy. Break up the repetitiveness of it, with quests, social interactions, and other events.
However, the problem here is that quests are often very similar, and thus prone to repetitiveness. (hench quest grind)
Forcing social interactions (such as forced grouping), is always a disastrous idea.
And events tend to be few and far between.
By in large, the higher the level cap is, the more likely it is that you will repeat similar content.
(this is not always the case thou)
Now normally this isn't so much a problem, on your first way through.
But when your on your 4th or 5th time through or more, the act of leveling can get very old indeed. (esp so if the level cap is high)
But what can cause you to go through the leveling process all over again?
Classes.
Another mechanic that is usually in close proximity to levels.
Classes in essence attempt to define your role, what you do within game, often in quite a strict sense at that. But what if you want to try some else out? What if your bored of your mage, priest, or warrior?
Tough, you really have little other option then to re-roll, and run the whole gamut all over again.
(or take a break)
Now some people really don't mind doing this, as a new class offers different experiences.
And the first dozen times it may be. But the problem is, that if you've played a class once in one game, then you've played it in every other game as well.
It's only a matter of time before this new experience, is not longer new experience.
In time this too becomes a grind. And all because you wanted to do something a little different.
What an awfully cumbersome way of doing things.
So much for keeping that part 'short'.
In the last part I'll go over what can be done to resolve some of these problems.
Problem Salving
As I've shown, the key problem is levels equating progression with Time = Power.
However, progression doesn't not necessitate an increase in power.
All you need is 'a' gradual increase of some kind.
And it starts with what your measuring success and separating content with.
If that measuring stick is say, skill, rather then power. Then you can avoid most of the problems, and build a more cohesive community as a result.
If I beat someone because I knew how to use a particular skill better the them, and the fight was balanced to begin with, then it was a fair fight. They might beat me next time. We each are able to learn from our mistakes, improve ourselves as a result, and thus we progress.
If I beat a mob or boss monster, simply because I knew what it was going to do, before it did it and avoided it, then me and a buddy of mine can still enjoy the same content even if they don't know.
A couple of good examples are Guild Wars and EVE Online.
In Guild Wars, the level cap was not only low (lvl 20 cap), but also didn't directly increase your power. Instead you gained attribute points that you used to power up skills, which could then be withdrawn and used again elsewhere.
And due to the amount you got, and the nature of their skill system, you do a lot with very little.
Once you hit level cap, which was very easy to do, everyone was on even ground, both in competition and collaboration. What separated who won, and who eats a dirt sandwich, was none other then knowing what to use, and how to use it.
Progression by in large came down to collecting all the various skills, and learning the best way to use them. (on top of which you had a lot of ascetic progression, that didn't impact your performance)
While EVE Online, also has an interesting (yet exceedingly boring) skill system of it's own.
Instead you spend real-time to gain skill points in any particular skill you wanted.
In short, you got good at what you wanted to.
This is good because it is non-linear, and it also does away with the need for classes.
But what is most important, is that gaining these skills will have a minimal impact on power, but rather give you more options to work with. (skills give you access to other ships and equipment)
So as a result, it doesn't really matter how many skill points you have, it only matters what your doing and how you are doing it. (ie, it didn't matter if you have 50 million skill points, if your in a frigate..... your still in a frecken frigate)
Interestingly enough, because you can have one character do any given number of rolls, you can stick with one single character, and thus avoid any repetitiveness with re-rolling.
Wrapping Up
As such, it is possible to have progression without it causing problems with the social interactions of the player base. Nor does it have to be repetitive either. As you can have situation where you only need one character, and yet can do any job or roll you want to do at any given time.
Can levels be work in such a way to avoid all these problems? Sure, look at Guild Wars.
(although it still suffered from some repetitiveness of re-rolling)
But is that likely given it's history? No, not really, no.
I think the best solution is to build around a preferably new progression system, that not only avoids these kind of problems by being skill based, but also retains all the good parts of levels.
(ie, the consistent reward to effort thing.)
Of course, there isn't really anything you can do about the games in which it has already been implemented in. Once it's there, it's there for good.
But the first step in avoiding these problems in the future, it to know their even there to begin with.
Which brings us to the end of this..... colossally huge blog post.
Not exactly light reading.
But I hope it helps to some degree in understanding just what and where the problems of levels in MMORPG's are.
Given my track record for clearly explaining things, not a hope in hell I'm sure.
PS: I may very well in the future come back to edit this post, and try to make it shorter and more understandable. It's just too long......
~Yoh
Consider by most MMO players to be a lynch-pin of the genre, or at the very least a perfectly working game mechanic.
But is it really?
I say no. Why? Because I never stop hearing complaints about it, that's why.
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and read a fair bit of gaming blogs. And I can tell you, some of the most common complaints stem from levels.
Can't play together with your friend because your at different levels?
Tough, sucks to be you.
Got your arse handed to you at a starter zone because of some ganking dipshit at max level?
Get used to it, your in for one heck of a ride.
Been brutally murdered by NPC mobs that were a couple of levels higher then you?
Get a ticket and stand in line.
Some people say it's a symptom due to the actions players take, and that levels aren't to blame.
I call bullshit. Because when you break the problem down, levels are entirely to blame.
I'm going to crack open levels and see what makes them tick, and as a result find just what, and where the problems lay.
The Level Equation
Ok, how do levels work.
Sounds fairly obvious. Kill things, finish quests and gain XP, which in turn grants you a level after a certain amount. Then rinse and repeat. As a result you become gradually more powerful.
But to find the root of the problem, we have to dig a little deeper.
It basically works like this:
Time --> Kills/Quests --> XP --> Levels --> Power
Or in short, Time = Power.
You see, the very point of levels is as a progression system.
And this progression system increases your overall power relative to each level you have obtained.
Which in turn allows you to take on stronger enemies, quests, and the like. In essence, gives you access to more advanced content.
So, business as usual then.
So why is that a problem? You might ask.
Because when it comes to social interactions between players, it becomes a barrier, preventing players from sharing the same content, or competing on a fair and balanced playing field.
As to how this is the case, lets move on to the next section.
The Breakdown
Now it's one thing know there is a problem, and another thing entirely to elaborate why there is a problem.
This is my attempt.
As I see it, there are two main problems with levels as a progression system in MMORPG's.
1) It becomes a barrier between players sharing content, and competing fairly.
2) It's association with grind when in conjunction with other mechanics.
Please keep in mind that levels do in fact do many things right, of which I am keenly aware of.
The consistent reward for effort is among the best out there for progression systems.
This however doesn't remove the fact that it still has problems.
So lets tackle the first one first. (duh)
How do levels become a social barrier?
First as I mentioned earlier, as you gain levels you gain power, and with that power you gain access to more content.
And it is this sharding of content relative to levels (ie, time spent) which causes the first part of our problem.
If Player A is at level 10,
and Player B is at level 20,
both players cannot share the same content.
And as such, cannot play together. (regardless whether they want to or not)
Because Player A cannot scale up to player B's content, because their too weak.
Player B can scale down, but then they are no longer sharing content, but rather Player B is doing the content for Player A, as Player B is far too strong for said content.
How do you resolve this problem? You can't.
Unless there is another mechanic built in to allow the higher level players to dumb down, so that they can play with lower level players, then your totally screwed.
But even then, that only solves half the problem. (well, not even that)
And that's only sharing content.
In terms of competition, the problem is much the same.
Because Time = Power, whoever spends the most time, becomes the strongest by default.
And the larger the divide between levels becomes, the more apparent this becomes, until it is no longer a contest anymore, but rather a slaughter.
Again, if Player A is at level 10,
and Player B is at level 20,
then there is not a hope in hell of Player A beating Player B,
regardless who is more skillful or knowledgeable.
Now this can be mitigated by the level cap, this however does little to nothing balance competition when there are variating levels between players.
(unless everybody competing are at the same level or level range. ie, look at Guild Wars)
Anybody that values fairness and balance can appreciate why this is a problem.
The metric for success in competition shouldn't be time, money, or gear, but rather personal skill. Because by winning via skill alone, you not only reward thous truly deserving of it, but make the act of winning far more valuable.
It's not winning if everyone and their dog can do it.
And surprisingly enough, were only half way there...... oh joy!
.... I'll try to keep this part shorter.
How do levels cause grind?
Grind being the act of any repetitive, and monotonous activities.
And in the case of levels, it's comes as a result of it's interactions with other mechanics, and in the absence of content.
Say you have to level from level 1 to level 20 without a single quest in the lot.
All you would have is killing the same mobs, often being different creatures but all fighting, and dying the same way.
I'm sure anybody would agree that would be a grind.
But what if it was to level 30, or 40, 60, 80, 120.... so on, and so on.
The greater the gap, the greater the grind. Most people would give up around level 30 or so of this crap.
But what is worse, is that the nature of levels is of a exponential cost requirement.
Each requiring more and more XP, and thus time. (and usually diminished returns)
So how can this be resolved? Easy. Break up the repetitiveness of it, with quests, social interactions, and other events.
However, the problem here is that quests are often very similar, and thus prone to repetitiveness. (hench quest grind)
Forcing social interactions (such as forced grouping), is always a disastrous idea.
And events tend to be few and far between.
By in large, the higher the level cap is, the more likely it is that you will repeat similar content.
(this is not always the case thou)
Now normally this isn't so much a problem, on your first way through.
But when your on your 4th or 5th time through or more, the act of leveling can get very old indeed. (esp so if the level cap is high)
But what can cause you to go through the leveling process all over again?
Classes.
Another mechanic that is usually in close proximity to levels.
Classes in essence attempt to define your role, what you do within game, often in quite a strict sense at that. But what if you want to try some else out? What if your bored of your mage, priest, or warrior?
Tough, you really have little other option then to re-roll, and run the whole gamut all over again.
(or take a break)
Now some people really don't mind doing this, as a new class offers different experiences.
And the first dozen times it may be. But the problem is, that if you've played a class once in one game, then you've played it in every other game as well.
It's only a matter of time before this new experience, is not longer new experience.
In time this too becomes a grind. And all because you wanted to do something a little different.
What an awfully cumbersome way of doing things.
So much for keeping that part 'short'.
In the last part I'll go over what can be done to resolve some of these problems.
Problem Salving
As I've shown, the key problem is levels equating progression with Time = Power.
However, progression doesn't not necessitate an increase in power.
All you need is 'a' gradual increase of some kind.
And it starts with what your measuring success and separating content with.
If that measuring stick is say, skill, rather then power. Then you can avoid most of the problems, and build a more cohesive community as a result.
If I beat someone because I knew how to use a particular skill better the them, and the fight was balanced to begin with, then it was a fair fight. They might beat me next time. We each are able to learn from our mistakes, improve ourselves as a result, and thus we progress.
If I beat a mob or boss monster, simply because I knew what it was going to do, before it did it and avoided it, then me and a buddy of mine can still enjoy the same content even if they don't know.
A couple of good examples are Guild Wars and EVE Online.
In Guild Wars, the level cap was not only low (lvl 20 cap), but also didn't directly increase your power. Instead you gained attribute points that you used to power up skills, which could then be withdrawn and used again elsewhere.
And due to the amount you got, and the nature of their skill system, you do a lot with very little.
Once you hit level cap, which was very easy to do, everyone was on even ground, both in competition and collaboration. What separated who won, and who eats a dirt sandwich, was none other then knowing what to use, and how to use it.
Progression by in large came down to collecting all the various skills, and learning the best way to use them. (on top of which you had a lot of ascetic progression, that didn't impact your performance)
While EVE Online, also has an interesting (yet exceedingly boring) skill system of it's own.
Instead you spend real-time to gain skill points in any particular skill you wanted.
In short, you got good at what you wanted to.
This is good because it is non-linear, and it also does away with the need for classes.
But what is most important, is that gaining these skills will have a minimal impact on power, but rather give you more options to work with. (skills give you access to other ships and equipment)
So as a result, it doesn't really matter how many skill points you have, it only matters what your doing and how you are doing it. (ie, it didn't matter if you have 50 million skill points, if your in a frigate..... your still in a frecken frigate)
Interestingly enough, because you can have one character do any given number of rolls, you can stick with one single character, and thus avoid any repetitiveness with re-rolling.
Wrapping Up
As such, it is possible to have progression without it causing problems with the social interactions of the player base. Nor does it have to be repetitive either. As you can have situation where you only need one character, and yet can do any job or roll you want to do at any given time.
Can levels be work in such a way to avoid all these problems? Sure, look at Guild Wars.
(although it still suffered from some repetitiveness of re-rolling)
But is that likely given it's history? No, not really, no.
I think the best solution is to build around a preferably new progression system, that not only avoids these kind of problems by being skill based, but also retains all the good parts of levels.
(ie, the consistent reward to effort thing.)
Of course, there isn't really anything you can do about the games in which it has already been implemented in. Once it's there, it's there for good.
But the first step in avoiding these problems in the future, it to know their even there to begin with.
Which brings us to the end of this..... colossally huge blog post.
Not exactly light reading.
But I hope it helps to some degree in understanding just what and where the problems of levels in MMORPG's are.
Given my track record for clearly explaining things, not a hope in hell I'm sure.
PS: I may very well in the future come back to edit this post, and try to make it shorter and more understandable. It's just too long......
~Yoh
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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
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
Monday, August 17, 2009
Pay 2 Play - from left field?
After yesterdays blog, and after a comment on Virgin Worlds, it came to my attention that Global Agenda is also using a P2P business model.
This kind of snuck up on me, because thats two recent upcoming MMO's that are utilizing this system. And I got to say it sounds bloody wonderful!
As you can tell, I'm in favor of this type of business model.
As to why, well it goes back to my Guild Wars days, which also used an interesting business model - initial box cost only = free to play.
And what they were going for was flexibility, where you could pick the game up, drop it, and pick it up again without losing money over it.
And while RMT free to play mimic this, they take it out on gameplay as a result. (see last blog post)
But this wasn't the case with GW. They had all the stability of any subscription MMO, but had far greater flexibility for they players. (however they ended up having other problems as a result)
And what is great about P2P, is that it takes all that flexibility and stability, and yet gives the developers the financial returns they need to run and develop the game. Win win.
(it also allows them to avoid the same traps GW fell into)
However, the developers will likely not get as much money from this alone, which is why it should, and seems is (in the case of GA and Aion), supplemented by an additional revenue stream. Namely either initial box/download cost, or RMT. (not done in the same manner as RTM centric games thou)
I would go for the latter, as box/download cost makes the game less accessible.
I'm not above paying for a game, but I want to play it on my own terms, and not lose money should I decide to put it down for a week. And this business model exemplifies that.
Nice going Global Agenda and Aion. Way to stay on the ball.
Now it's down to the quality of the products. (sry Aion, you failed my test)
~Yoh
This kind of snuck up on me, because thats two recent upcoming MMO's that are utilizing this system. And I got to say it sounds bloody wonderful!
As you can tell, I'm in favor of this type of business model.
As to why, well it goes back to my Guild Wars days, which also used an interesting business model - initial box cost only = free to play.
And what they were going for was flexibility, where you could pick the game up, drop it, and pick it up again without losing money over it.
And while RMT free to play mimic this, they take it out on gameplay as a result. (see last blog post)
But this wasn't the case with GW. They had all the stability of any subscription MMO, but had far greater flexibility for they players. (however they ended up having other problems as a result)
And what is great about P2P, is that it takes all that flexibility and stability, and yet gives the developers the financial returns they need to run and develop the game. Win win.
(it also allows them to avoid the same traps GW fell into)
However, the developers will likely not get as much money from this alone, which is why it should, and seems is (in the case of GA and Aion), supplemented by an additional revenue stream. Namely either initial box/download cost, or RMT. (not done in the same manner as RTM centric games thou)
I would go for the latter, as box/download cost makes the game less accessible.
I'm not above paying for a game, but I want to play it on my own terms, and not lose money should I decide to put it down for a week. And this business model exemplifies that.
Nice going Global Agenda and Aion. Way to stay on the ball.
Now it's down to the quality of the products. (sry Aion, you failed my test)
~Yoh
Sunday, August 16, 2009
RMT in the Future of MMORPG's
After a comment by BeauTurkey on the Massively Speaking podcast, episode 64, it provoked me to write something on my views of RTM now, and in the future are.
BeauTurkey is in favor of RTM's, as they have gained some ground in MMO's over the last couple of years, and are becoming more accepted. (why they were looked down in the first place I can't get my head 'round)
RTM are they way of the future, in essence is what he advocates. I don't agree.
Is there money in it? Counter intuitively, yes it seems.
Does 'free to play' bring in people? Clearly no argument there.
Can an RMT model game be a big budget AAA MMO? I don't see any reason why not.
So where is my point of contention? It has to do with gameplay.
The RMT model centers around being free to play, and getting you to spend money on their online store for 'stuff'. Now this doesn't necessarily mean content, but it does almost always involve ascetic items.
So how do you get people to by your online stuff? Easy, make things either difficult or dull for them, or both, in order to gently force their hand. Of course you can pander to their sense of greed, but that doesn't work on everybody.
Runes of Magic for example: Considered a full fledge MMO by most people.
Traveling in this game can be a pain in the arse at times. While you can teleport to major cities, you still spend an awful lot of time running around.
And of course the game has mount to make things 'easier', if your willing to fork up 10$ that is.
.... Not exactly what I would call micro, but ok.
Then there is the gear, which for the most part if fairly generic. Some if it is nice thou, don't get me wrong. But should you dare want to customize it, hahahahaaa.... no. Fork up please.
And on and on it goes. Either fork up, or things are going to feel like cardboard for you.
It feels like they are always holding back on you, doesn't it?
Well as you can tell, this way of running a MMO doesn't jive well with me.
I say full throttle. Either do it and go all the way, or don't. Don't hold back.
I want my customized gear, I want every scrap of content at the get go, I want to feel like the game isn't playing favorites by who has the deepest wallet.
Now that isn't to say RMT doesn't have a place. Sure it does. Just not as the main means of payment.
Otherwise it the game just feels second best.
I see the future of RMT working as a great supplement to subscription-like models, such as the P2P model Aion is currently implementing (massive kudos btw), as it is far more flexible and overall cheaper then the run-of-the-mill subs. This way the game can go full throttle, and have extras over and above as nice little bits and pieces, sort of like how Guild Wars handled it.
But the first step to getting people to use RMT, besides getting them into the game, is getting them to ENJOY the game. And that doesn't really work when you water down the game, and almost go so far as to coerce them into it.
Just my take on it.
~Yoh
BeauTurkey is in favor of RTM's, as they have gained some ground in MMO's over the last couple of years, and are becoming more accepted. (why they were looked down in the first place I can't get my head 'round)
RTM are they way of the future, in essence is what he advocates. I don't agree.
Is there money in it? Counter intuitively, yes it seems.
Does 'free to play' bring in people? Clearly no argument there.
Can an RMT model game be a big budget AAA MMO? I don't see any reason why not.
So where is my point of contention? It has to do with gameplay.
The RMT model centers around being free to play, and getting you to spend money on their online store for 'stuff'. Now this doesn't necessarily mean content, but it does almost always involve ascetic items.
So how do you get people to by your online stuff? Easy, make things either difficult or dull for them, or both, in order to gently force their hand. Of course you can pander to their sense of greed, but that doesn't work on everybody.
Runes of Magic for example: Considered a full fledge MMO by most people.
Traveling in this game can be a pain in the arse at times. While you can teleport to major cities, you still spend an awful lot of time running around.
And of course the game has mount to make things 'easier', if your willing to fork up 10$ that is.
.... Not exactly what I would call micro, but ok.
Then there is the gear, which for the most part if fairly generic. Some if it is nice thou, don't get me wrong. But should you dare want to customize it, hahahahaaa.... no. Fork up please.
And on and on it goes. Either fork up, or things are going to feel like cardboard for you.
It feels like they are always holding back on you, doesn't it?
Well as you can tell, this way of running a MMO doesn't jive well with me.
I say full throttle. Either do it and go all the way, or don't. Don't hold back.
I want my customized gear, I want every scrap of content at the get go, I want to feel like the game isn't playing favorites by who has the deepest wallet.
Now that isn't to say RMT doesn't have a place. Sure it does. Just not as the main means of payment.
Otherwise it the game just feels second best.
I see the future of RMT working as a great supplement to subscription-like models, such as the P2P model Aion is currently implementing (massive kudos btw), as it is far more flexible and overall cheaper then the run-of-the-mill subs. This way the game can go full throttle, and have extras over and above as nice little bits and pieces, sort of like how Guild Wars handled it.
But the first step to getting people to use RMT, besides getting them into the game, is getting them to ENJOY the game. And that doesn't really work when you water down the game, and almost go so far as to coerce them into it.
Just my take on it.
~Yoh
A quick Update
Well, I haven't posted a blog post in a few days, but then I might not do much blogging on the weekends anyways, as I prefer to spend my time elsewhere.
Not much going on. Mostly spending my time working on my art, trying to figure out Corel Painter 11, as it is no walk in the park. Getting there thou.
Made my first picture in it the other day, just a sketch that I did with a single brush, but ok non the less.
Based on Koakuma, from the Touhou series, which as I find is quite the internet phenomena.
I'm only really been playing Touhoumon, a rom hack of pokemon: fire red.
And as you could guess, it's replaced all the pokemon with Touhou characters, as there is and insane number of them.
Reasonably fun.
Nothing all that interesting going on otherwise. I think I'll listen to some podcasts today, and maybe today or tomorrow watch that Second Skin doco people are on about, and give my commentary on it I suppose.
Whatever.
Well, I've got art to do.
~Yoh
Not much going on. Mostly spending my time working on my art, trying to figure out Corel Painter 11, as it is no walk in the park. Getting there thou.
Made my first picture in it the other day, just a sketch that I did with a single brush, but ok non the less.
Based on Koakuma, from the Touhou series, which as I find is quite the internet phenomena.
I'm only really been playing Touhoumon, a rom hack of pokemon: fire red.
And as you could guess, it's replaced all the pokemon with Touhou characters, as there is and insane number of them.
Reasonably fun.
Nothing all that interesting going on otherwise. I think I'll listen to some podcasts today, and maybe today or tomorrow watch that Second Skin doco people are on about, and give my commentary on it I suppose.
Whatever.
Well, I've got art to do.
~Yoh
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