With the whole discussion about SWG, a few recurring comments were resurrected. Which gives me an occasion to nail down the heart of the issue from my point of view and link it with both the critique to OOC-design and the problems of the interfaces and people’s expectations. Starting from my critique to Richard Bartle and concluding with the medium and its future possibilities.

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Megyn:
No man, lack of jumping is a serious problem. To this day whenever I get asked about guildwars or SWG: “You can’t jump” is the only answer I can come up with. A 3d game that you can’t jump in. Fuck dude, you could jump in side scrollers.

But the problem is beyond that. The lack of jumping isn’t the problem, it’s the symptom.

The observation about the side scroller is perfect, a comparison with a MUD would fit even better. The perception of the space is one of those unique strength of this medium (as 3D game environment). People NEED this because the perception of the space is strongly deep-rooted in the expectations we have about games. And these games must provide patterns we can racognize and feel at ease with (and not just formal system abstractions) or we would just underutilize the potential of the genre, as Raph would say.

Now the problem of the jump doesn’t exist on it’s own, but it’s the sign that the game is “nerfing” a fundamental element. If this was math we would deal with a postulate. Something we cannot argue about and that we cannot disrespect.

Just notice this: both in GW and SWG the players don’t complain just about the jump, but about the jump as “symptom” of the perception of the space.

In fact: in SWG what is annoying is the impossibility to move through even a minimal barrier, while in GW is the impossibility to move where you want and always feeling “trapped” in a labyrinth that continuously tries to stop you from going where you’d like to.

So the problem isn’t because “people like to jump”. But because people expect to use this action as a “creative” pattern to solve a situation. While the game itsef *forces* another solution that isn’t felt as direct, intuitive and natural.

It’s not so different from how people get pissed off at the “monster closet” in FPS. The designers force patterns that the players refuses to accept.

Merusk:
The lack of any kind of functional jumping in a 3-d world is stupid beyond all measure. It reduces the world to nothing more than a side-scroller. “OOps.. twig in the way, have to go around.”