Monthly Archives: April 2006

Eve-Online – New graphic engine rewritten from scratch

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There’s an interesting new dev blog (that you can read here) with the details about the new graphic features that CCP is planning to implement in Eve later this year. We had already various rumors about a graphic upgrade that was in the work, now we know that there are two distinct, parallel projects: one is to implement new features such as HDR, self-shadowing and normal maps in the current engine while also making some optimizations, the other is to rewrite a new graphic engine from scratch to take advantage of the unique features of the DirectX 10 and Windows Vista.

Some quotes:

If you’re not an EON subscriber, or you haven’t received your copy yet, you may not be aware we’ve announced that we’re working on a number of graphics upgrades to Eve, including a client with a completely new graphics engine designed for DX10 and Windows Vista. The real announcement of all of this is going to happen at E3 but we released a preview, and some pictures of the related remodelling of ships, in EON #3.

Development of the DX10 / Vista graphics engine, is development for the future and it will not stop us from continuing to make improvements on, fixes to and support of the current graphics engine.

I’ve recently been working on reducing the amount of lag caused by warp-in (on all clients). We determined that a significant factor in the lag created when warping into something like a fleet battle was the disk access for loading the ships. The solution I’ve been working on is to finally add preloading in warp and threaded disk IO to Eve. The changes required to do this mean many server and client modules have been altered or extended slightly, which makes it a higher risk change, and means that it’s likely to be slated for the Kali release to ensure it gets adequate testing.

Indeed, most of the work currently is going into making the DX9 Trinity engine support new graphics features that will also be part of the DX10 engine. These features will be optional where they place requirements on hardware above our current requirements. The key distinction being that the current engine is being extended with optional features, while the DX10 version will be a ‘new’ engine designed to take full advantage of the DX10 spec.

The rewrite that we’re doing for DX10 is a huge shift in the basic architecture of the engine, and we need a solid platform to do it on. The current Trinity can and will be optimized and extended, but as a 5 year old engine it’s reaching the end of its lifespan. After all, there is a limit to what you can do with an engine fundamentally plugged into DX8 level functionality. Looking forward, we need an engine that we can push the envelope with for the next 6 or so years, and it needs to be built around the key features of where the technology is going. As far as the features that we’ll be putting in exclusively for Eve Vista, it’s far too early to tell.

For sure they are planning in advance for the longer term and they are completely dedicated to Eve instead of splitting on multiple projects as the majority of the mmorpg companies are doing. My belief is that this attitude will pay back. Eve-Online has a huge potential and I already commented some outstanding features that are planned for Kali and that could bring the game to a new level.

On the new features of the graphic engine I’m still quite skeptical, though. The game looks already amazing and the new textures and HDR could make it even better, but I also hope that they focus on the real problems, like the flickering textures on most of the space stations due to the limits of the z-buffer. It kind of ruins completely the prettiness. Beside this, more than fanciful new graphic features the graphic engine would need a redesign of the *concepts*. See my critiques to the combat system, so that what you see on the screen would resemble more closely to what actually happens in the game.

The graphic isn’t just a dress, it should be more directly tied with the mechanics. Making something pretty is good but the priority should go to make it usable, so that what you see isn’t just a pretty screenshot but a more complete interface with the game world. A vehicle for the interaction. Material that you use instead than just observe passively. In Eve-Online there is already a gap between the 3d world and the interface you use to play and, as I wrote, the two need to be brought together.

Anyway, for now this is the only image released:

To compare with the version currently in the game.

I also noticed that Cosmik mentions at the end of a long post that there is a new company (Vivox) that is planning to offer voice chat support to the current mmorpgs, through some kind of middleware, I guess. Well, Eve-Online could be one of the first games trying this. I remember to have read some rumors about this (but it’s really just about speculations).

As I wrote for DAoC I’m never happy when a mmorpg announces official support for voice chat because it makes it become mandatory as a consequence. Voice chat encourages player’s segregation and is never good for a game, it becomes another accessibility barrier and Eve definitely doesn’t need another. It breaks up the community and discourages the casual play. That said, in Eve the voice chat could even fit prefectly with the setting. Think for example if you got a pop-up while flying in a system saying “incoming transmission”, then by accepting it you would have a dynamic voice channel opened with the guy who wanted to send the message. It could be cool and immersive. Well, at least till the pretty girl you see in the image doesn’t get the voice of a guy.

EQ2 evocates sense of wonder

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The consequence of creating a virtual world and have passionate, dedicated players along many years is that these games acquire a special value. It’s wrong to consider this just as a sense of nostalgia only valid for former players because the charm involves *especially* the new players who can sense a greater complexity and desire “to belong”. To be part of it.

This is similar to the way Tolkien wrote and the appeal of the world he created. The details were never fully declared and explained, instead they were only hinted in the background, leaving you with a desire for more. It gave you the impression that there was something past the book, a sense of continuity. It wasn’t anymore just a story strictly comprised between the first and the last page, but instead a whole world to slowly discover. Without confines.

Aggro Me writes that SOE is planning to remove the strict deadlines for the expansions (regularly every six months), slowing down the releases to give the devs more time to polish the new content and features. While on FoH’s forum there are hints about the possible content of the next expansion, with a return of the gods from the classic world. Planning something big to counter the release of WoW’s expansion.

I believe that these ties between the classic EQ and EQ2 have a great potential and shouldn’t be seen as interesting only for those former players. In the classic EQ I never went past level 20 so I’m a total noob to this world. But I’m interested to know more about the lore and I can definitely share the hype when things from past are evocated. It’s the charm of the discovery of a complex world with its own consistence and the desire to be part of it. This is a big resource for the game that can involve and appeal ALL players. The old players because the game recuperates and valorizes their knowledge and experience, making them feel to “belong” to this world, while for the new players it becomes a greater context, a complex world to slowly discover step by step.

What is fundamental is to offer the accessibility (as always). The developers shouldn’t fear to take advantage and inspiration from the classic EQ and bring back old storylines and zones. This is the very strength of this game and I agree with the players that they aren’t exploiting it as they should. The added value of a zone rebuilt and reinterpreted from the old world would be retained for all players. It is important that this content is designed so that the “narrative” is accessible for those who enter this world for the first time and still don’t know anything about it. This complexity of the lore and ties to the classic world shouldn’t be a special feature only for those players who can “get it”. It shouldn’t be a special “easter egg”, but the true focus of the game. Carefully designed so that it can involve deeply all players.

This potential for the “sense of wonder” is a precious resource that the game has and that should be used as a strength targeted to all kind of players. An unifying theme for the whole game.

I’m looking forward to play this but I hope it will be kept accessible. The developers should plan for different staring points and accessible quest lines that could work as introductions for those who don’t share the knowledge of the dedicated players. This doesn’t mean that everything should be revealed. The mystery is part of the fun of the discovery but it’s important that the game can introduce the new players to the lore and the important storylines and characters.

Summarizing: don’t understimate this feature and think it can only have a niche appeal for a small group of players. Plan its entrance in the game so that all players can have access to it and can benefit of this unique value. Don’t segment and select your playerbase, instead try to “bring people in”, opening different accessibility points to really involve everyone.

For now these are some guesses I collected from FoH:


Early guesses include: Symbol of Veeshan surrounded by that of the Gods symbols.

The text is Wood Elf it reads: The Future of Everquest 2

—
With the very obviously Neriakish symbol though, really tempted to think they might be rebuilding the old city finally – would fit with the plans you always hear NPC’s mumbling about.

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That symbol wasn’t just limited to Neriak. It was a frequent symbol seen in a lot of the original content, mainly in evil parts of cities.

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The helm symbol is Rallos Zek and the swirly one is Innoruuk, don’t remember what the other 3 are.

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The one in the bottom right is Cazic Thule

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Just for completeness, the 9 dots represent Tunare. 3 wavy lines represent Prexus I think. And the other one is the dwarf god, can’t remember his name though.

More guesses:

The symbol in the middle is the symbol for the Dark Elves!!

Anyone remember back a while ago, there was a section on the official EQ live site where you can learn about each race, and each race had a symbol. The symbol for the dark elves was that!

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Vahlen: What you are gazing upon is more than a symbol. Where it was uncovered and who uncovered it could answer a lot, but not everything.

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While most still argue at one point these symbols represented Gods, they are undeniably the symbols that represent the Cities/Races of Norrath. As illustrated from the Firepots in TD, among other places.

The symbol thought to be Veeshan, is clearly also the symbol of Neriak. Sounds like it’s time to reclaim the old cities of Norrath.

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Those symbols look like Prexus, Brell and Tunare in the middle.

Waves, the underground and the candles and the symbol of the 9.

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The meaning of the ancient Teir’Dal symbol of Caerthiel is as follows. The symbol directly in the center is Veeshan. The head of a serpent with the wings of a dragon. The symbol directly left is of Tunare, nine dots that emulate the standing stones seen throughout Norrath. The symbol in the center above that of Veeshan is the symbol of Brell, denoted by the candelabra which is often depicted worn by Brell. The symbol directly to the right of Veeshan is that of Prexus, three lines to denote the waves of the Oceanlord. Surrounding the four symbols is a great circle which depicts the veil erected by the three in their pact to keep the Wurmqueen in check.

The four on the outside from left to right are as follows: Lower left hand corner is Rallos Zek, upper left is Innoruuk, upper right is Cazic Thule, and the lower right is Bertoxxulous…the four horsemen to bring about the end.

The Four Horsemen
There will be four Horsemen to bring about the final days of armageddon, the second war of the gods. First shall ride hate to bring the night. Then shall fear ride to cast its cloak of horror upon the lands. Plague and decay will ride thrice to spread its seed across the lands. The three shall give way to the fourth, and War will embrace the world in an icy wave of doom. The four horsemen shall ride and take their place in what will bring about the final battle for Norrath.

Innoruuk who showed his hand at the Battle of Bloody Kithicor. Cazic Thule when he corrupted the Lesser Faydark and the last unicorn, Equestrielle at the attempted summoning of Tunare’s avatar. The three fold plague of Bertoxxulous upon the Karana Plains. Rallos Zek who sits locked within his Plane of Power, awaiting freedom that he might wreak vengeance for his imprisonment at the last war of the gods. It is said even now in the lower planes where dwells the four can be seen evidence of emissaries and fiends from the realms of all four dark gods gathering their minions for the final hour. Such is at least spoken of within the Plane of Hate where reportedly is now also found a statue of Lanys T’Vyl.

The rumored title for the exp is “Echoes of Faydwer”.

(on March 9, 2006 the trademark ‘EverQuest II Echoes of Faydwer’ was registered by SOE in the US Patent & Trademark office)

Time to auction the cash cow

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I had reported that there was attrition between Blizzard and The9, the chinese operator. Now it seems that the divorce can become more than a rumor:

Blizzard Re-Evaluating World Of WarCraft Chinese Partner

In an intriguingly cryptic press release, World Of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it “is currently actively exploring and discussing cooperation opportunities and further expansion of its business with local potential partners for mainland China”, implying that it may be evaluating other partners than current Chinese distributor The9.

In fact, Blizzard’s statement also indicated that it has invited The9 to negotiate in a bid to distribute the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and to discuss its release in mainland China, which is currently planned for next year.

This article on Gamasutra also mentions the server problems that the chinese operator had. Bad service? Is maybe Blizzard complaining for bad service?

Not really. Those server problems were related to “a large-scale raid involving nearly 1,000 players”. Aka the opeining of the gates of Ahn’Qiraj. One fucking thousand players. Of course the server blew up. That event on Mannoroth crashed the server more than THIRTY TIMES in the span of a few hours, and we had much less that 1k of players in the zone. What is sure is that Blizzard cannot complain with The9 for poor service with a straight face.

In fact the chinese servers and general infrastructure seems much, much more solid that whatever Blizzard has done in the USA.

So it’s really all about the money greed, Blizzard saw the huge success the game had in China and decided that the price The9 paid for the original licence was too low. They upcoming release of the expansion was the perfect occasion and they decided to ask The9 to buy a new, special licence for it. Of course The9 refused, they distribute the game in a different way and the updates have always been offered for free for these kinds of game. Their licence is valid for four years and they were expecting it to include everything. So they opposed to this new request from Blizzard and Blizzard answered threatening them to split the expansion in a standalone product and offer it to someone else.

The result is that Blizzard now decided to put the expansion on auction, so that The9 is now forced to compete with other companies to have the rights to run it. It is very best way to get the most out of a cash cow. Instead of setting a price you can just watch the companies competing against each other. It’s a win-win for Blizzard. WoW has already benefited from a *huge* exposition thanks to The9. More than two millions of players of the total six that the game has worldwide are now in doubt. What will happen to the accounts and the servers if the whole game switches operators? And who “owns” those accounts, Blizzard or The9?

At the end the loss is always of the players. The other option is absurd: in China the standard WoW and “The Burning Crusade” could split in two games ran by two different operators.

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Omg, NOSTALGIA!

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Rise their hands those who remember this fantastic adventure game on the Amiga!

It’s “Another World”, it was released around 1991 when games were still made by a couple of guys closed in a garage (I think it was the very first game to use motion capture and the lone author used his brother for it). This game was (and still is) a masterpiece, at that time the graphic and the animations were unbelievable. It’s an odd mix of a platformer and adventure with a great gameplay that remembers Dragon’s Lair or Space Ace, like a scripted, interactive animated movie. Each “screen” has one “solution” that you have to figure out so that you can continue with the story so it’s all about discovering the tricks and perform them in order and without errors. The reward is a wonderful, cinematic story and mood that grabs you from the very first second.

They don’t make anymore awesome games like this one.

I’m writing this because there’s now a “remastered version” with high-res graphic and ported on Windows.

There is shareware version that you can upgrade to full for just 7 euros (8 dollars or so). The file is just 23Mb and the game plays so absolutely smoothly. The demo is quite short since you have the introduction and the initial screens only, but it DESERVES to be seen. Believe me. No matter if you have played this game or not, you HAVE TO give it a look. It’s pure, blissful nostalgia.

Get the file here!

Btw, I could remember what to do within seconds. It’s a refresh for the memory. Now it’s almost trivial to play but I remember this to be one of the most difficult games EVER. And frightening. I guess we are all getting better at playing games. A constant growth of gaming competence :)

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Patching GALORE!

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I’m a patch whore. So today I’m happy:

– EverQuest 2 patches!
– Civilization 4 patches! + SDK + Pitboss + low-res movies (notes)
– Mount & Blade patches!

EQ2 introduces a new raid zone (“The Lyceum”, but remember that “raid” in EQ2 is equal to 24 people), an overhaul to Permafrost (loot revisions and named mobs) and a new guild recruitment system. By reading the boards it seems that the raid zone is still inaccessible due to a bug, but the devs say it should be solved by tomorrow. The guild recruit system interests me since I’m still without a guild and looking for one but I wish the guild listing was permanent instead of requiring a recruiter to be logged in for the guild to appear on the list. The other changes I cannot comment since I’m still a noob to the game. The only relevant change seem to be about the durability hit on equipment as you die. The new system makes sense but I think it could have been designed better (maybe I’ll comment this in detail later on).

Civ4 finally releases a patch that was expected for the end of January. It’s a little late. The SDK seems extremely powerful and opens up completely the whole game logic and AI routines in the dlls, I think it’s the first time that a game completely opens itself. The patch itself seems good and should address some problems with the memory usage and improve the overall performance in the game. The rest is about fixes to the multiplayer and balance changes. I was waiting for the patch to start playing.

M&B deserves just praises. This is the game that yesterday hooked me for five hours straight. It rarely happens (I have ADD with games) and as I’m done writing this I’m going back to it because it’s excessively fun and addicting now that I figured out how to progress in the game (before I used to level up in the arena and by when I was out I was always outnumbered). The patch adds many minor changes if considered one by one, but they become significant when bundled up. There are new sounds, new graphic here and there with a complete overhaul to the heads, new voice emotes in the battle with the NPCs yelling and taunting and screaming “VICTORY” at the end of an intense fight. I think there were also many balance changes because the game feels much better. The mouse movement was smoothed and I think the collision system was also improved. The hugest changes are about the horses, it’s hard to nail down exactly what is different in the animations, sounds and controls, but for sure now the horses don’t sit in the place when you kill the rider and continue to roam around the map, even ocasionally running over those who get in the way, making the behaviour much more believable.

This game is a masterpiece and the more you play it the more it gets addicting.

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Three steps to make EQ2 crafting more accessible and usable

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I spent some time messing with the crafting lately and it wasn’t too bad. It follows a similar scheme of the rest of the game, with the different crafting professions branching up and specializing (as the former class system) and the souce nodes stratified by level. The first impact is quite chaotic and you get swamped by an high number of recipes and odd things to figure out. As I already commented for other parts of the game, this is both a good and a bad thing. It is bad because the overall design is quite messed up and hard to understand and use, it is good because it hands you many “hooks” and things to discover, making the game involving and addicting. You always have a lot of stuff to look forward to and figure out, so you start to play and continue for many hours without even noticing the time is passing. This is always one of the best qualities for a game.

I don’t know exactly the current state of the crafting. I know that to craft something you have to go through multiple sub-combines, but I heard that the designers want to change this and are moving steps to get rid of this mechanic. I cannot comment these changes because I only know what I’m playing right now and I have to say that I don’t see these sub-combines negatively. I don’t think they are the real problem and I think they also mirror a specific quality of the crafting that should be retained. The idea of crafting something is about the possibility to build smaller pieces and then combine them. I think this is something that makes the crafting feel “right” and I had fun browsing and researching the sub-combines before going to build what I needed. It’s gameplay that “I see fit”, that is appropriate and that I would encourage instead of minimize. A different play-style in a game that recycles many ideas. It needs work to be polished, but it shouldn’t be obliterated. It’s probably the most faithful part of the crafting because the rest is all about gathering resources and then abstracted to an absurd mini-game that still makes little sense to me.

There are also other “issues”, some of which I already commented. I can confirm again that the skill up rate of the gathering skills is completely fucked up. If you outlevel the gathering skills, it will become increasingly harder to catch up and rise them to match your level, while if your gathering skills are close to your current level they grow at nearly every attempt. This makes no sense to me since it would make sense exactly the opposite: the skills slowing down the higher they are, so that in the case you leave something behind you can also quickly catch up instead of harvesting for HOURS in the noob zones in the hope of getting a couple of points. If this is the intended design I really wish someone could explain it to me.

I won’t comment the crafting mini-game because I really don’t know how it works. I’m “using” it, but with very little understanding. The overall “flaw” of the whole system is that more than once I had to look up guides to figure out something. The game does an awful work at explaining things. So without clues you are left with google, out of the game.

These comments just to introduce an idea divided into three steps that I think could improve significantly the crafting system. The goal is to streamline the system. Mostly UI changes so that things work more smoothly, so without gameplay changes. This is another case where is the presentation to be the problem, and not what is presented. These ideas also hook back to what I said about the sub-combines. I still believe they are are an integral part of a crafting system and shouldn’t be removed. The reason is that it’s not the need for the subcombines to be unfun, but the clunky interface that makes these sub-combines counterintuitive and quite annoying. The point is to remove those flaws and retain the value of the crafting system.

Three steps to make EQ2 crafting more accessible and usable

– Step 1
For the basic mats the description of the item should tell clearly the source node from where the material comes and all the zones currently in the games where the material can spawn. For example for “electrum cluster” the description should say that it can be harvested from a “wind swept rock” and a list of the zones where the player can find that source node. Right now if you examine a piece of electrum cluster you just see “NO-VALUE” and nothing else.

– Step 2
When you look in the “recipe book” for a particular item and then “examine” it, the “components” section in the delve window shouldn’t just list the mats names as it does now, but also hotlinks icons next to each component to further delve that particular mat. By left clicking on the hotlink a new window will pop-up with the details about that item. This way if the crafting recipe needs multiple combines you can easily explore back to the original sources you need without being forced to search through the recipe book every single item.

– Step 3
Along with the hotlinks there should be also a checkbox near each component. This checkbox works along a new “components” UI window. Every time you toggle a checkbox next to a component, all the components needed (factoring *all* the previous combines and mats up to that point) will be added to the new crafting window that will then dynamically check what you currently have in the inventory. For each component you’ll see how many you currently have and how many you still need. The component will be colored yellow if it is present but not in a sufficient number to fill the requirements, green if you have enough components for the recipe and red if you have zero units of that particular component.

For example, a “Primitive Elm Chair” requires:
1 Planed Elm
1 Threadbare Padding
1 Elm Dowel
1 sandpaper (vendor)

(items that can be bought from vendors should be tagged *explicitly* so)

Next to each of these mats you’ll see an hotlink and a checkbox. The hotlink can be pressed to open a new window with the detailed informations for that mat, for example if you click on the “Planed Elm” hotlink a new window will pop-up with the description for the “Planed Elm Lumber” which then requires 1 refined elm, 1 chloro resin and 1 sandpaper. Instead if you toggle the checkbox next to the “Planed Elm” you’ll have a new craftring window (also toggable) that will list all the mats (minimum, not counting failures) you need to create the planed elm, including all the sub-recipes. In this case:
0/3 raw elm or 0/2 roots
0/2 liquid (vendor)
0/2 candle (vendor)
0/2 sandpaper (vendor)

Let’s say the player has already in the inventory 1 chloro resin (which comes from: 1 raw elm, 1 candle, 1 liquid), 1 candle and 1 sandpaper. This is how the window will look:
0/2 raw elm or 0/1 roots
0/1 liquid (vendor)
1/1 candle (vendor)
1/2 sandpaper (vendor)

Note that this window doesn’t show the crafted subcomponents, but exclusively the source mats you need up to the item you checked and that you cannot craft. The subcomponents that you can craft and you already have in the inventory are dynamically deducted from the window. The purpose of this window is to tell you exactly all the source mats you need to collect in the various zones before going back to the crafting station and start the crafting chain.

To conclude:
Saying “I hate the ‘reverse engineering’ aspect of crafting” is superficial and of no use. What is relevant is *why* this reverse engineering is felt as annoying. My belief is because it has a bad presentation through the UI. If the crafting is just about “harvesting, final combines and playing the market” it means that the crafting just doesn’t exist on its own. It’s not a case that no game managed to design a good crafting system on its own and all the recent ones are opt-outs. Withdrawals. Imho the crafting can have its own value that isn’t borrowed from sister-systems and this value can be represented in two ways (and not fancy mini-games): research and personalization.

Where is DAoC going?

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No surprises. DAoC follows a quite predictable schedule since it is repeated each year with minimal changes, so we are at the moment of the year when the first details about the upcoming expansion start to be disclosed and the moment when I start to be deluded.

Well, we don’t have much right now:

A note for Camelot fans who cringe at having to read all this: Dark Age of Camelot is great, doing fine, they’re working on an expansion, and they plan on working with you to keep making the game better, more exciting, and more fun to play. There’s a new quest system in the works, a new race and class coming, and most importantly, a new form of RvR gameplay. And their producer said outright, flat out, that Camelot is their flagship product and they plan to keep improving it for years. You guys will have plenty to play for years to come.

Now DAoC is an odd game because each time they announce an expansion you aren’t there starting to marvel and counting days. Instead you just hope they don’t fuck everything up and it’s exactly where my mind goes when I think to “a new form of RvR”. Instanced, I’d add.

I’m not sure my account will survive till the expansion. There are rumors, somewhat confirmed by an in-game survey, that Mythic is thinking about experimenting with voice chat services. If it is going to be a feature for Warhammer they could start to test it in DAoC, probably offering it as a “feature” bundled with the expansion.

As I often wrote I hate the voice chat and DAoC has been one of the very few games where it is not necessary and not even so widespread outside the ganking groups (which I despise as well). You could always say, “so don’t use it”. The point is that when you support it directly, it becomes mandatory for everyone. So you have to swallow it. And this is only the tip of the iceberg since Mythic keeps moving the game in directions I don’t like.

I already log in rarely, and when I do I never manage to get a group. So not only my motivation is very low (and my faith in Mythic below the ground), but I cannot play even when I want. Instanced RvR and voice chat are good enough reasons to quit.

They keep trying something else while what they have already is still crippled despite having still a good potentail. I’d like to see significant changes to the current RvR, not another lame implementation of ideas leeched from WoW.

On the servers the players are decreasing (even if this is the time of the year when every game tends to lose some activity), confirming what I was thinking: it’s not with the class changes that you keep people or attract new players. Class changes and balance tweaks are a “given”. They don’t “add value” to a game nor increase its appeal. Put in a simple way, they are “jumps in the place”. They don’t move forward nor backwards if they don’t go totally wrong. I repeat that DAoC needs to “wake up” its playerbase and start to be more aggressive toward the competition. The game has qualities that need to be brought up, but I think they are destined to remain dormant forever.

A new class? Yawn. A new race? Yawn. A new quest system? *rise eyebrow* It will be surely some automated shit. I bet. With every new expansion they don’t add a new piece. They remove it, and right now DAoC has not much left. PvE is completely dead. RvR is next on the list (and already progressing well).

I think at the core there’s one main issue. Mythic isn’t anymore able to “tune in” with the desire of the players. To suggest them something they want to hear and to play. So the disaffection. This is a broken record for me. But I continue to believe that leeching the “new” Warhammer community is a trick that won’t last long. The problem is at Mythic, it isn’t in DAoC.

Every expansion is a chance and now they are losing the train. But, hey, it was at arm’s range.

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Lack of control is unfun

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Just a quick precisation since I bumped into this article at F13 about the missing rates in combat.

It’s not “missing” to be unfun. If it’s the critical strike to be frequent, the combat will have a similar degree of frustration. A “miss” is an “odd”. These odds are extremely unfun when they become a significant part of the gameplay. In every game.

At the origin of this mechanic there’s the lack of control. In a combat we try to determine the best pattern, try to fight at best. A miss is an odd, something that may happen or not. Something that isn’t under your direct control. If you die in a combat you want to know what you did wrong, and you want to have a possibility to try something different and improve. So that the loss can be turned into a victory. If this cannot happen, the game is dead.

If every combat situation has 50% of possibility to finish in a loss or a victory, the game is frustrating. Because you can just stare and see the dice rolls, hoping they go well. You have no control, you have no responsibility and you have no way to improve. It’s like gambling but even gambling becomes more fun when you have a choice that can influence the outcome.

And this has nothing to do with “players want to be heroes”.

RPGs have always relied by a certain amount on random rolls. The point is to not let the fortuitousness take the lead and make it stay in its role: adding a variance without overflowing player’s choices. The best games are those that you can master with the practice and intuition, those that bring you near to lose all hopes, till when you find the “trick” that makes what you thought impossible, trivial. Those that offer you multiple patterns to experiment so that you can continue to try something instead of giving up.

Permeable barriers.

There’s always the desire to have more “skill” in these games. But “skill” is just a way to obtain a choice. A way to have more control over what happens. A way to manipulate the game’s patterns more “viscerally”. Immersion and free will.

Amusing

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Ahh, the internet:

(ref link)
We believe that we can alter these stereotypes by showing everyone the reality. They will come to the site, most likely, for naked girls. That is actually part of the plan. Our goal at that point is to get them to stay because they see that the models are real people. Upon talking to the models, they actually self-alter their perception.

All of a sudden it’s reality that real girls do play video games.

More amusing than the Fragdolls. Where is Corpnews?

(this post is dedicated to Lum)

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