Monthly Archives: January 2006

DAoC moving through a slow but industrious phase

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Mythic is working behind the scenes, away from the spotlights. Pretty much everyone stopped discussing their games, all the attention is now about WoW, the occasional NCSoft exploits and the periodic SOE screwups.

All this seem to have had a positive effect on the game. Some of the original team doesn’t work anymore on DAoC but is shaping up Warhammer. This is also the reason why the “state of the game” letters aren’t anymore written by Mark Jacobs or Matt Firor but shapeshifted into “Producer’s letters” written by Jeff Hickman, who was promoted to that role months ago. They also seem more frequent and straight to the point compared to the old letters that came every six months and were filled with lots of PR fluff and hype.

The last patch in December was a very good one from my point of view and I think was well received by the community (even if I have been out of touch recently, so I may be wrong). The current feeling I have about the development is that things seem way more “paceful” behind the scenes and there’s a more constructive teamwork. Maybe DAoC has lost some of the ambition and push to surprise now that most of the hardcore work is focused on Warhammer but I believe that the new team has done a very good work at prioritizing the issues and steer the game toward a positive, progressive direction.

There isn’t anything that could draw the attention of new customers or amazing features in the work, but all they are doing seems rather solid and well planned. They are working consistently to address some of the most annyoing quirks and problems, making the whole game progressively better. Smaller steps, but with a more constructive attitude, like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper :)

The new patch (1.82) seems to follow this new direction. Build on top of the previous steps and slowly move to address some of the weak points of the game. Right now we have only the notes from the first fragment of this patch since the complete version won’t be pushed on the live servers till the end of February and more notes will be added as they will be finalized. From Sanya’s words:

That patch is scheduled to go live in late February. The patch after that is penciled in for late March or early April. We go to E3 in May, so we can’t usually patch that month. The next patch is penciled in for June.

Why so much interest about the schedule of the next patches? Because the “Class Enhancements” are one of the current main features and the one that gets more interest from the players. Mythic is focusing the work on a few classes for each patch, adding new skills and tweaking the gameplay more radically than what they used to do till now. So the players are mostly interested when “their class” of choice is going to be involved and, since DAoC has so many different classes, the plan will take a while to complete and the great majority of the players will have to wait their turn (and hope the changes are worth this wait).

The previous patch focused on the “heavy tank” classes (Armsman, Warrior and Hero), while this new one scheduled for late February will toy with three hybrids (Friar, Thane and Warden) and three assassins (Infiltrator, Shadowblade and Nightshade). This will bring the total number of class reworked to 9 on a total of 44 classes in the game.

In theory these changes shouldn’t be balanced fixes required to enjoy the game, but more a new round of development to make these classes feel more solid and fun. So the game works and should be already in a good shape to not make the wait too painful. People will never be happy when it comes to the classes and the balance in a PvP game but at least Mythic is working to improve what they think can be improved.

The rest of the patch (the part already revealed) addresses a few other smaller aspects that have actually a pretty large impact. The first is the possibility to finally open guilds and alliances to the players on different servers, which was a much needed fix when you consider that all the servers are now clustered together and that these limits were just annoying barriers for a community that has already its own difficulties due to the ascendancy of WoW.

Another much welcome change is about the mechanics of reactionary styles that I also ranted about somewhere in the previous months (I thought it was on that huge thread on F13 but it seems I’m wrong). I’m so glad that my evade styles should be finally usable. Before the change the speed of my weapon was slower then the time available for a reactionary style to trigger, so these styles simply didn’t exist for me. With the new change the player has three seconds to “react” and the style will register as correct right away, without depending on the speed of the weapon or other odd, unclear factors:

The style does not have to go off during the three second window. The only thing that must happen during the three seconds is you pressing the button.

Fact is that (if it works as expected) this will fix MUCH MORE than what is apparent, because the previous mechanics were really clunky and broken, making most of the styles just not work already in PvE, even less in the chaos of a RvR battle. So this small change is probably going to have a much bigger impact on the mechanics than what most players will expect and it will be interesting to see how things will change.

This is probably the first time that I see Mythic addressing effectively a problem at its core instead of just slapping a bandaid on it, breaking so many other things as a consequence. Instead this new mechanic is more solid, coherent and streamlined and it will fix other quirks in the use of styles. They did a really good work here, making the implementation correspond with good design and finally fixing a fundamental mechanic. I’ll try to find some time to test this to make sure that my expectations are met.

Then we have more bugfixes, some new animations added (another good point. DAoC needs more personality and variations for its generic and reused animations) and a graphic restyle of the Spiritmaster’s pets. All small steps that go in a positive direction, so I don’t have much to criticize.

Plus some tweaks to the newbie experience some of which I didn’t really understand. I’ll note that I really appreciate that Mythic is still trying to polish the game to make it more accessible and I will always support these changes even if most of the players will rant and ask the priority to be put on other parts of the game. But this is also something that Mythic has always done better than everyone else and that I believe is one of their best quality: keep imporving the game on all levels. In the specifics Cotswold (the Albion newbie starting town) and Mularn (Midgard’s one) are getting reorganized as it already happened for Hibernia. And two low level RvR dungeons (up to level 9) are being added to Darkness Falls to introduce new players to PvP.

This last change is the one that I didn’t quite understand because Darkness Falls is usually considered an high level dungeon and you don’t happen to “find” it if you don’t have already a decent knowledge of the game and its mechanics. There’s also the problem that the game has already low level RvR battlegrounds, but they are usually deserted and basically useless in the game. So I suppose that Mythic decided to streamline this part by making it more directly accessible. Probably opening entrances to these two RvR dungeons right by the newbie towns, as opposed to have to travel on the map to reach the border keep where you can port to the battlegrounds. These are all suppositions because the idea didn’t make sense when I first read it.

If my guess is right the idea is a nice one. New players will be able to have a taste of RvR right out of the box and without having to hunt specifically for this possibility, only to find that the battlegrounds are completely deserted. In this case the RvR dungeons will always be useful for some PvE in the case there aren’t other players around.

So the patch is shaping up rather well. The changes seem small but they are going to fix some major problems in the game and will probably have a much stronger impact than how it may appear at a glance. This is also the first part, the patch is supposed to grow and I hope there will be more interesting points beside the already announced work on the classes.

On the Herald a new “Producer’s Letter” appeared, confirming what I already wrote and commented here and what Sanya already anticipated in the Grab Bags.

Nothing in particular to rant about :) They are doing a good work overall.

(and I really have no clue why this took so much space to say nothing at all)

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Doom, doom, doom, doom. (and tinfoil hats)

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It’s been since September that I don’t spread some rumors.

Just yesterday I was writing some comments about WoW’s art on Q23 forums:

I still have the suspect that some of their best artists and animators migrated to some other companies because both the models and the animation of the characters during beta were way more polished and well planned than the updated versions.

But then, it’s just a suspect with no foundation. We’ll see what will happen with the expansion but from the few screenshots I’ve seen I wasn’t really impressed.

And, for a coincidence, this is what I read on FoH’s forums today:

Gamblor:
The exodus cost them most of their artists and the entire animation team. How the hell management allowed a situation to occur that pushed the man responsible for about 50% of the entire game’s animation and most of the other artists to leave for NCSoft is beyond me.

It’s going to be a while for the new art team, if it is even fully assembled, to get their sea legs. Keep in mind that most of Ahn Qiraj’s artwork was done by the previous team. Karazhan too. The expansion will most likely be the first place we see Art Team 2.0’s work as a complete zone.

And more:

Gamblor:
It’s harder to bribe a graphic artist than a programmer. Artsy types don’t typically thrive under a Machiavellian corporate culture. And if you’re good enough to get hired by Blizzard, there are plenty of companies you can get hired by that don’t force you to come into contact with dickheads like GFrazier.

The movie industry has a pretty good lock on most of the 3d artists who are just in it for the money.

Keep in mind this is a company that put their artists on the same work schedule as the programmers in the post launch crunch time, even though the art for BWL and AQ was done before the game launched. In order to be “fair”. If your entire division got their shit done, why the hell would you have to stick around 12 hours a day just because the programmers can’t fix offset teleport hacking (and have yet to fix that, I might add. GG removing chests and quests instead.).

When a Database goes down a normal company doesn’t force the secretaries to stay at their desks until the DBA gets his shit together. Overtime for salaried employees is a pretty good morale killer.

The first things Art Team 2.0 did that the public got to see was the T2 armor (except Bloodfang and Bullwinkle, those were Team 1.0) and look at how much the general populace bitched, and Blizzard’s whiny hurt response when given feedback on it. I’d say the art is still a sore spot in the company given their snotty responses to customer feedback on the matter.

It makes sense if you think how long the expansion is taking to release and how little they’ve shown about it. And how absolutely pretty are the new AQ armor sets (yes, I’m being sarcastic). And what happened to the weather effects?

I wish I had saved a post on the official forums where Tseric went berserk defending Blizzard after the claim that most of they key people left the building.

Fact is that I actually believe these rumors, they’ve been always consistent and even supported by official press releases announcing spawned companies. What’s left of the former Blizzard, then? Artists gone, animators gone and the two lead designers arriving when WoW was already in late development (one arrived in the middle of the final beta).

Yes, WoW is still terribly successful and, imho, it absolutely deserves this success. It is motivated. But it is also the result of solid ideas that were already there LONG ago as the foundation of the game. All I’ve seen recently (the whole PvP system and faction grind come to mind) sucked. PvP and endgame PvE. Exactly what the new team had to figure out, compared to what was already there long ago.

There are two comments from Tobold that I found rather funny:

Blizzard posted a new page outlining all the options you have once you reached level 60. Besides farming faction or raiding, they *do* recommend leveling an alt.

I am looking forward to the Burning Crusade expansion, which basically adds another 10 levels to the fun part of WoW, and pushes the unfun part further back.

So levelling an alt and pushing the unfun further back is all that Blizzard is able to offer? Seems so.

Blizzard is sitting on a success that seems to belong to someone else. They may have the rights to exploit commercially the quality work done by someone else, but they lost the control on that quality now and they are going to pay after they cashed.

The true impact of these changes will only surface entirely in the longer term. When it will be hard to remember about the causes, because we have a so short memory and believe that the name of a company is more important than the people working in it. How so terribly naive.

Dave Rickey is Lost In Space

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Ahaha, I just enjoy too much reading his posts about Eve-Online. It’s the best PR for CCP, they should consider hiring him.

MahrinSkel:
The Goons are way up north, subletting a piece of Syndicate from The Five and pissing off the pirate corps in the area. FIX and [5] are technically hostile, but we have little contact. SA is the result of the Stain Civil War, and that’s probably the root of the current conflict, Catch was ceded to FIX by SE during the civil war and SA wants it back now that it’s over. It put us in a position across their best route from Stain to Empire (although we only had sovereignty over western Catch and not the HED-GP “pipe”, we spent a lot of time camping and patrolling in there), and they probably didn’t like us camping on their oxygen supply.

He is sooo into it ;)

Guild Wars – Strengths and weaknesses

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Just archiving a post I wrote on Q23 with some comments about the limits and strengths of Guild Wars. The main trait is that both strengths and weaknesses have the same origin, so they are the result of compromises that it’s now impossible to undo.

It’s also an indirect answer to some comments on F13.

—

Mark Crump:
Let me rephrase. The art execution is amazing. It’s the style after the world goes to hell I didn’t like. I’m not big on this post-apocalyptic theme.

GW has the actual “advantage” (not really an advantage in some cases) to be “themeless”. This is why they can basically slap in every kind of crazy setting they want.

Even the name of the game (Guild Wars) is intended to put the focus on the system more than the “world”.

It was designed from the very beginning as a “portable” system. So you could not like the setting, but they have all the possibilities to release different expansions to explore much different possibilities.

Which is exactly what they will do. It’s one of the strengths of this game.

That’s also what I wrote when I first “reviewed” the game.

This is a game with a *huge* potential and from what I read about the expansion they are determined to really explore what they can do (some of the ideas are impressive and I hope the execution will be good).

Sadly, there are a few limits about how the game was developed at its roots that basically cut its legs:

– The complete lack of persistence (some already suggested the possibility to open “town portals”, or the possibility to resume the mission if you crash or disconnect, as I did in the previous post)
– Bad controls (bad feeling of movement/animations. characters enrooted on the terrain as in SWG and sliding as on ice. Jerky movements and rubberbanding)
– The labyrinthine structure of all areas (you aren’t really free to move, but you are bound to a course, often in a frustrating way. Most of the world represented graphically is just scenery that you cannot access or relate to)

These only seem superficial concerns but they affect directly the perception of the game. The game feels artificial, clunky and limiting more because of these controls and the basic engineering of the game than the lack of persistence. You pass most of the time bumping against impassable barriers (and rubberbanding wildly) while trying to figure out how to reach a place (or figure out if it’s actually reachable).

WoW feels SO MUCH BETTER, because you can actually explore the world. Which means that you have the control about where you can go. The world is physically there and consistent. Not just graphically. GW feels so much more “on rails” compared to WoW. Bound to an adventure-style scheme where the exploration (as: the player free to define his own patterns of movement and interaction) is severely limited. So the graphical awe of the game is somewhat confined as just a backdrop that could have been so much more consistent and relevant. Making coincide their best resource (the artistic sheer power, the stunning environments and truly visionary look) with their biggest limit (the *use* of those environments, a lack of true, satisfactory exploration). If a “space” is a spatial perception, in GW this spatial perception is always deluded, negated or betrayed.

The point is that they know about these limits. They know that they depend on the basic structure of the game, so they are here to stay. It’s not about “bad” design but about choices that were made at the very beginning on the project and that represent its foundation. Exclusive compromises that needed to be taken obligatorily in a way or another. So the point is about trying to focus on what they actually CAN do, on their resources and advantages. And it seems they are determined to go down that path because the expansion is looking amazing (and I don’t mean just the graphic).

Even if the game leaves that “yes, but” taste. Like if there’s something feeling wrong even if you cannot really put your finger on it.

Guild Wars: Factions – Ohh, shiny

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I logged back in Guild Wars after a LONG time and… wow. Just wow.

The new character selection screen is spiffy, the oriental music in the background charming and I toyed for a while with the character creation to see the two new classes. Ohh, sooooo pretty.

I think I’m going to enjoying playing “dressing up” more than the actual game.

The new “girls” are very, very pretty. We even have the ninja with no boobs. And the mystical ritualist with the mask covering the eyes and belly tattoo ;) I’m truly fascinated.

“Guild Wars: Factions” is the new expansion for the game that will be released only later this year (around June). Despite the press releases we don’t know yet the precise features that will be added.

We know for sure that it will introduce two new character classes: the no-boobs assassins and the “I can’t see shit”, mystical ritualists. But to figure out what’s beyond the other features I had to dig the informations some more. The press release only says: “new regions, professions, skills, missions, and monsters, along with expanded options for both Cooperative and Player-versus-Player (PvP) play, and enhanced features for guilds”. But it doesn’t explain in what these actually consist. A new continent named “Battle Isles” is going to be added, probably both for the new PvE campaign and new PvP stuff.

Between the new features there seem to be a new “PvP” training mode where you’ll have to beat a series of simulated PvP encounters (against AI, so not really PvP) to unblock progressively new challenges. This is really a smart idea because it could improve the accessibility of the game and add some progression that was lacking in the original game.

All high-level PvP has been moved to the Battle Isles, which can be reached using the ship off the coast of Lion’s Arch. On the Battle Isles, you’ll find a new explorable area with Training Arenas, NPCs who can help you test all aspects of your character’s build, updates to existing PvP Arenas, and all-new Zaishen Challenges, where you and your friends can practice against teams of computer AI opponents. All of this content is now organized into a natural progression, so that players can experience the basics of PvP before moving on to advanced challenges.

New computer AI challenges:

* Training Arenas: a series of four maps designed to teach the basics of PvP and Arena Combat. Beat all four maps to unlock the Zaishen Challenge on your account.

* Zaishen Challenge: an Arena where you can play the computer AI team of your choice on the map of your choice. Beat five different computer AI teams to unlock the Zaishen Elite Challenge.

* Zaishen Elite Challenge: the ultimate AI challenge. See how far you can get in a series of random Arena matches against increasingly difficult AI teams.

All this should be available for free right now. Both for current players (just log in) and those who never played the game (go get the preview key). Only till Monday, though. So or you try it now or you’ll have to wait the actual release (even if I’m sure there will be more previews as the launch approaches).

Between the new spiffy things they added while I wasn’t playing there’s a new “observer mode” easily accessible through the menu that lets you watch the biggest PvP encounters in the game. Like a TV where you can follow the activity of the catass guilds. These matches are available only 15 minutes after they start (to prevent cheating) and will remain available for another 15 minutes after they are over, which is sad because it could have been useful to archive some of the battles to study later with some more attention.

Anyway, this observer mode is really interesting. The hugest 8vs8 battles in the bigger arenas are truly crazy. There is a SERIOUS OVERLOAD of shiny effects that would made you insane if you were actually trying to understand what was going on. But it’s a beauty for the eyes. Really, really shiny and charming. The graphic, animations and teamwork during the battles are all great. It’s enjoyable. You have time to appreciate the details. That female ranger animation while shooting with the bow is incredible.

Oh, and for some reason the melee henchmen are now fat.

Two funny quotes from F13:
“Is there a “How to make hawt CG chicks” manual all companies NC Soft publishes have to read? The female art of all of NC Soft’s games is fucking awesome.”

“A goodly porttion of GW’s art staff is female, and women know how to make women look hawt better than guys do. This is also, likely, why the guys are all such rockstar prettyboys.”

Lots of better infos here. MMODIG also gives some coverage.

Btw, the WINNER idea they had about the expansion is this one:

Each new chapter will be a stand-alone game, including Factions.

This means that new players can pick up the game box without worrying about getting the original version as well. Most of us “observers” of the industry were sceptical about GW business model because you would expect that each expansion would sell progressively less. So not so viable in the long term without the subscription fees. But releasing each of these expansions as a standalone game is an interesting decision that could work really well.

And dragons. And a presumed “territorial conquest”:

There’s plenty of new content being added to the game with Factions that Guild Wars fans will undoubtedly want to get a hold of. Some of these are simply concepts while others are more “tangible.” Players will now be able to form alliances between guilds. These allies will be able to visit each others’ guild halls and can gain control of cities and towns on the new continent Cantha by taking part in new alliance missions. These new mission types pit multiple teams up against each other to control resource points. Victors earn faction points which will help determine control of towns and outposts.

Along those lines, Guild Wars now introduces factions. Players and guilds can align with one of two warring factions. At that point, alliances can gain and control territory by taking part in faction battles which are large-scale strategic PvP experiences. The outcome of these large scale battles will also help determine the progress of the war between the rival factions.

Other new game types include challenge missions which are cooperative and have scoring objectives. The game will track and display personal bests and high scores for display in-game. Lastly, elite missions will be available for the most powerful folks in the game. These are the most challenging cooperative areas in Guild Wars yet.

– New battlefields will include fighting on rooftops of a densely packed city, huge temples built on the back of giant tortoises, tunnels carved in the jade sea, and in the elaborate hollows of a petrified forest.

– 55 maps to try and gain control of

– 300 new skills total, 90 of which are new elite skills
– 100 new creatures
– New faces and hairstyles
– New armor, pets, weapons and items

Fuck. I didn’t expect GW to still have something to say. And it seems to have A LOT. I want.

If I got it right the game world will be divided in three parts:
– The old PvE campaign
– The “Battle Isles” that will group all the current and new PvP arenas and training zones
– “Cantha”, the asian-style new area that should contain both the brand new PvE campaign and the “conquest PvP”

The PvP arenas also seem grouped together instead of remaining as separate instances. This means that you should now join a general instance and then the maps will be be cycled instead of repeating the same over and over. It seems a very good idea since it will consolidate the PvP content, making it more varied and bringing the players together.

“Read more” to see a few more screenshots I’ve taken of the two new classes and areas, some other showing the shinies battles and some leftovers in my /screens directory from the previous year.




 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

Five Northmen have grouped together

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Unicorn McGriddle is a genius. This is taken from a thread on Q23 where this guy explains the idea of my “permeable class system” on which my dream mmorpg is based and that I tried to explain at length here.

It explains how I plan to solve some problems of accessibility of the game, and reduce as much as possible the “healer problem”, or, from a broader point of view, the negative, disrupting dependence on other players.

This is also tied to the ideas that originated that thread and that I mirrored here.

This is also probably the best thing you’ll read on this blog this year. It demonstrates that (some of) my ideas are solid. They just need to be shaped up by someone else who could “translate” my ravings into something decipherable. And somewhat succinctly. And not in a awfully boring way.

—
Welcome to Overexplanation Theatre
by Unicorn McGriddle

I think part of the confusion here is an erroneous conflation of the Mage class with the Mage role. Here’s how I’m following HRose’s “fixed classes/flexible roles” concept, illustrated with a simple example paradigm for a hypothetical game:

Roles:
Tanks absorb damage. They engage opponents and prevent them from attacking weaker party members.
Rogues deal melee damage. They are fragile and must fight on the front lines, but dish out the heaviest hits in the game.
Archers deal ranged damage to single targets. They are fragile, but do good damage and get to stay out of the way of combat unless something breaks through the tanks and rogues.
Mages deal ranged damage to multiple targets. They are fragile, but can fight from the rear and are vital for facing large groups of enemies.
Healers deal very little damage, but exist primarily to heal party members. Though weak, they can do their jobs without getting into direct combat most of the time.

Classes:
The Northman: Northmen are savages, barbarians, and bandits. They disdain magic and heavy armor.
The Teeker: Teekers practice telekinesis, creating physical force with the power of their minds.
The Ghost: Ghosts are the partially corporeal spirits of the dead.
The Siren: Sirens are sinister, thin-limbed creatures that look almost human. Their strength is unnatural and their appetite for souls is alarming.
The Experiment: Experiments were created through reckless bio-engineering. They are disgusting but effective.

In a typical MMO, one would expect each class to correspond to a role or compromise between roles. Here, however, each role is an option open to each class…

—
Five Northmen have grouped together. In order to fight their way through the dangerous Lair of the Yoni Ghouls (suggested for levels 25-30), they will need to specialize, each in a different role. They stop by a Northman outpost and grab some new weapons.

Stf-u decides to be the tank, so he gets a spear and a large hide shield. He’ll wade into the thick of things and goad enemies to attack him, keeping them at bay with his long reach and portable cover.

4me2poopon is a bit more daring. He’ll be the rogue. He takes up his instrument of valor, the twohanded axe. He can do some very serious damage with it, but he can expect to be hurt seriously in return. He’ll probably die the most often, assuming Stf-u knows what he’s doing and the Yoni Ghouls don’t break through and start enveloping back-row party members in their treacherous folds.

Beecock, the party leader, will be an archer, picking out key enemies and skewering them with his javelins. Aside from being pretty damaging, a javelin through the body is debilitating, reducing movement and attack speed.

URbraneONdrugz prefers the mage lifestyle. He stocks up on light throwing axes. He’ll chuck them into crowds in large quantities.

GW_Bush, last but not least, will be the healer. He’ll slap bandages on whoever needs them, do some hasty stitching if necessary, and if somebody actually dies, give them a bit of rough chest-pumping and mouth-to-mouth.

Now let’s see what another party is doing inside the Yoni Ghouls’ Lair. These guys are Teekers. The Teeker effects are pretty flashy, since the developers decided telekinesis should be visible and colorful and glowing. It looks cool in screenshots.

Biatch-Noggin, whose name is rumored to have been inspired by advertising agency Chiat-Day, is wearing his Control Circlet as usual. With this thing on, he can have three ghouls at once flailing helplessly as he suspends them in midair.

Farm4gold isn’t really a gold farmer, just a daring young Teek rogue. A Flux Spike allows him to make devastating short-range telekinetic attacks. He is fighting a desperate fight against the ghouls that the tank has not immobilized.

Fuck_tha_EULA is on archer duty, using a Narrow Modulator to focus his will over long distances. The Yoni Ghouls in Biatch-Noggin’s clutches bleed from their orifices as he hammers them like fucking piñatas.

Shitnrotate, our intrepid mage, has a Network Projector. He evens the odds by lashing Farm4gold’s opponents with meshes of glowing force. This weakens and disorients them, and Farm can take them down with a few hits while minimizing the damage to himself with a little fancy footwork and luck.

GW_Bush_SR takes the healer role, using his Ether Controller to protect wounded areas for the time it takes to shunt some lifeforce into them. Even as we watch, he throws the horns or something like them, and a bulky, glowing brace appears on Farm4gold’s wounded arm. After a moment, the wound heals and the brace dissolves. In game terms, armor is temporarily raised, then that buff goes away and the hitpoints come back.

Still struggling through the newb areas are five young Ghosts. They are currently in the Bounce Palace of Fluffy Squirrels (suggested for levels 5-10).

“Fucking cover me,” grumbles TiteBunz in a Teamspeak baritone as his big-titted but diaphonous tank trembles and dissolves into a loose fog for the third time.

“I’m trying,” says AnalExplorer, letting loose with his risky soul-sucking attack. If he pulls it off, he’ll be powerfully healed. If he fails, their foe will have a free shot at him.

“I think we’re gonna wipe,” says Prez_GWBush gloomily as she suffuses TiteBunz with a golden fog of reviving energy. Bunz recommences his/her attack, trying to draw the enemy into a frigid ghostly embrace that will slow and weaken it.

But the Pet Squirrel fights back. It manages a crit on Anal after his attack fails, and he too quivers and dissipates. Bush curses the cooldown timer on her rez.

ONoez, the mage, is of little use here. “I should have hit the rogue shrine,” he says mournfully, and nobody disagrees with him, although technically the game lore calls it a Shrine of Soultheft.

TEH-Hannitizer, the archer, is their last hope. He breathes a silent, fervent prayer, and gambles on Terror Curse, which at his level has only a ten percent success chance on Pet Squirrels.

It bounces. ONoez throws himself in front of the ravening Pet Squirrel to buy the rest more time as TiteBunz drops again, hissing “Shit!” into his microphone. Bush rezzes the Explorer, and Hannitizer tries another Terror Curse. This time it sticks, and the squirrel flees in panic.

AnalExplorer burns an all-too-rare Rosicrucian Resurrection Stone to bring TiteBunz back, and together the party runs for it. Once out of combat, they begin the trek back to the Ghost Shrines so that ONoez can change classes to something more useful. You only fight enemies one at a time in the Bounce Palace anyway. Hannitizer says they ought to go back to the Sewer Warehouse Caverns and grind more Limp Rats. The rest of the party agrees to consider it.

Meanwhile, a party of Sirens is fighting Acorn Bandits in the Fields of Lingam (suggested for levels 10-15). Most people agree that this is where the game really starts to get fun.

YeOldeTymeRP is keeping the bandits occupied as a tank. His spindly avatar would seem lost inside its massive suit of armor if it didn’t move so fluidly. He strikes the bandits around him with his armored fists, for he neither has nor needs a weapon. Their Arrowhead Clubs bounce harmlessly off his platemail. They’ll make fine loot later — most vendors will buy Arrowhead Clubs for 60 to 70 dorito yen.

FukkFakk is operating as a rogue, and there is a certain beauty in watching him shred Acorn Bandits with his razor-edged gauntlets. Unlike OldeTyme, he wears fairly light armor, and a few solid hits on him have him screaming for a medic.

EQsux raises his dartgun to his lips and pegs another bandit, whose eye erupts in a spurt of blood as he clutches it helplessly. Then the curare kicks in.

ALLurBASErBELONG2US, winner of a serverwide annoying name competition, dances through the bandits scattering poisoned caltrops like popcorn. Siren mages don’t attack at range — instead, they must weave through combat like rogues do.

GDubyaBush, the healer, must also be within touch range to work her magic (figuratively speaking). As we watch, she darts close to FukkFakk and licks his wounds lasciviously. They close up. Those wacky Sirens!

Lastly, here’s a bunch of guys who were in the beta — members of ForgotMyCondoms. One of the more powerful guilds, ForgotMyCondoms has gotten several server firsts in their time, such as being the first to complete the Grasping the Lingam’s Secrets quest. These are their mains, Experiments created back when Experiments were stupidly overpowered (post-1.1 but pre-1.3). Let’s take a listen to their Ventrilo chatter as they plumb the depths of Yoni Crater (suggested for levels 90-95).

“What are these things?” says Tikkelmypikkel, activating Fleshroots (which anchors him in one place, but gives him tentacles with which to bind and constrict monsters). “They look familiar,” he adds, as several are caught in his web of pulsing meat.

“They’re reskinned Limp Rats,” guesses ChoggleTime, his avatar’s throat bulging as he vomits a Toxic Bloodgush on one of them. “Remember in the beta, when all the Yoni monsters were rats? I bet these are just placeholders.”

“So lame,” jeers 80087355, using Longarm to send one spiny limb stretching out past Tikkel and Choggle to hit the rat. He impales it, but another rat attacks his arm and he withdraws it in pain. “Oh, so fucking gay! I can’t believe they made Longarm vulnerable to retaliation. Experiment archers SUCK now. I’m totally going to cancel my subscription when this month is up.” He will, of course, do no such thing.

GDubyaPrezBush, who is rumored to have a large number of alts on this server, steps up and heals him without comment, slapping a raw, veiny appendage slobbering with moisture over his damaged arm.

ePeen, their mage, barfs out a cloud of Serial Killer Spores and the remaining rats perish. “This area’s lame, guys. It’s not even finished yet. Let’s go back to the Hysterical Chamber.”

“No, dude,” says 8008, “this may be lame, but think how awesome it’s going to be when we finish it first.”

Ahem. So to recap, this system means that while class has an impact on some nuances of your capabilities, and a major stylistic importance, it never excludes you from a group. Anybody can take the archer role or the healer role or whatever, depending on what’s missing. No more LFG need priest, where are all the priests, oh god why didn’t anybody in the guild think to play a priest. It’s just LFG need five people of roughly similar levels and we can work it out from there.

These particular examples of classes are basically like races — albeit more influential, especially in terms of art and animation. But HRose’s “flexible classes” — even the ones in this example — are perfectly compatible with a more typical race system. Just read it through again and pretend that half of them are elves and have +1 to gay.

Why a Cesspit?

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I decided to interrupt the usual blathering to explain some of the “mysteries” surrounding the name of this site and the nicknames I use here and on the forums. There isn’t anything elaborate or secret and, no, HRose isn’t “horse” mispelled.

The Cesspit: This site is my “repository”, my memory, my virtual workroom. It’s really an idea of space that I then fill with whatever I need and where I pass my time to elaborate ideas and fantasize. The “cesspit” isn’t a negative reference against the mmorpg industry or a “definition of intentions” of a rant site. The term is actually auto-referential. It pertains me and my things. I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those chaotic persons. My room is a mess, but REALLY a mess. It’s really hard for me to make my way to the bed because my room is filled with stuff (mostly paper). It’s actually a nice room and it’s clean (beside some dust) but it’s still a chaos. A chaos that corresponds to a perfect order for me and where I find myself at ease. It’s like me surrounded by my interests and work-in-progress.

So for me the “cesspit” could be translated into “junk”. A bunch of stuff messed together. The images I used on the header of the site are taken from a black&white cheap japanese cyberpunk movie (Tetsuo) that focuses on this idea of junk. If you refresh the site you could see a guy nearly completely covered with scrap metal (or junk) at some point. That’s Tetsuo, the iron man. Which is also a principle: discovering value in what’s considered junk. The reality always need a point of view so that there can be a value. Poetry, in my definition, is a way to rediscover the value in some commonly used words (as opposed to use words that are rarely used). So there’s this sum between the two parts: the cultural interests and cues I receive from the internet, and my point of view. The ideas and revisions.

This is also referred to the possible readers, since this isn’t a private text file on my computer. This place is a collection of junk. Every kind of junk. It follows my interests and my ideas. It’s MEANT to be biased and absolutely subjective. This is why I didn’t want to “buy legitimacy” through a more friendly name. There is no purpose to write for an audience or buy the esteem of someone. I’m not trying to reply a Lum the Mad and create a “point of reference”. This is just a junk deposit. A window to my room. And yes, you can take what you like, if you find something you can use.

HRose: This is the nickname I started to use when I “migrated” to the american mmorpg community. The one I used before opening this site. Originally it was “Hunter Rose”. This is the real name that was then contracted into HRose. It’s a character by Matt Wagner. Maybe you know the mask, “Grendel”. Grendel is a comic book character that is the perfect concept of “alter-ego”. There isn’t just one Grendel, it’s more like a cult, a culture. So each time has its own Grendel. Hunter Rose was the first. The romantic anti-hero. Since I love Matt Wagner, the character and the idea that fits so well with the multiple identities of the online (and non) games, that’s the name I started to use, long ago, pretty much everywhere. Every character I created in the pen&paper games (well, beside “Stephan Scarsdale”, but that’s a story on its own) and computer RPGs had that name. It was contracted into “HRose” when I started playing the Q3A multiplayer, so the “roleplay” name was converted into a “tag” that was more appropriate. And then I started to use it more and more simply to have something recognizeable. Also because not every forum and game allows to set a name and surname.

Abalieno: This is the name I use on this site and it started with the site. The main reason is that HRose was giving bad ideas to people (like “horse” mispelled). Abalieno is a latin world (so my origin) that also fits with my personality. It means “enstrange” and it’s also near the actual english word: alien. It’s that word turned into a verb, to alien. So it has the meaning of “Stranger in a strange land”. Both because I write from somewhere else, in a language that is not my own and because people see me as strange and stranger in the real life. I don’t fit anywhere. I’m like a distorted note in the harmony of reality. I also look a little like Charles Manson when it was arrested, or the cover of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, just younger. Abalieno also means “insanus”, mad, insane. As you can see it’s really appropriate :)

Innsmouth: This is the name I use on this site to reply to the comments. Innsmouth is a city in Lovecraft’s mythology. Lovecraft is another of my old passions. In particular Lovecraft as a person, more than Lovecraft as a writer. The “nickname” was used becase the engine of the site asked to make two separate accounts. So it’s just the site admin, which is still myself. I use it because I’m logged in like that by default and I cannot change my name on the fly, without having to log out and relog as Abalieno. So it’s for practical reasons and the quirks of the engine.

Kadath: This is another city from Lovecraft mythology. I often use this in the mmorpgs, in particular when I play dwarves. I use this because Hunter Rose is usually not possible since most of these games only accept one name with no spaces. And neither “hunter” nor “rose” would be appropriate alone.

That’s it, all the mysteries are revealed :) As you can see it isn’t anything too odd.

To conclude, a note about anonymity. I would have no problem to post under my real name (you could also get my real name by looking up to who this site is registered). If I keep using aliases it’s exactly for the opposite reason: to be recognizeable. On the internet noone knows me under my real name. So I would be more anonymous using it instead of an alias. If I stick with these nicknames it’s because I started to use them along with everyone else and now I’m stuck with the habit.

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SOE Seattle

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An interview with Matt Wilson. This is SOE Seattle. The new development studio that is working on something we don’t know yet. At 90% this is the game with no subscription fee that Smedley hinted in his speech.

I wish we had some more informations about what happens behind the scenes. Only a few minor details trickle out of these rare interviews. I wish I could get to know the industry some more under this aspect.

—

Matt Wilson:
Technically, my first game that shipped was a macro in Word 6.0 called Mindbender. I spent most of my efforts as an engineer working on DirectX with Alex St. John. I got a great education on the technical aspects of gaming, but soon realized it was the content that I loved. I moved to the Internet Gaming Zone and became a producer on the first MMO games Microsoft was involved with (Fighter Ace, Ultracorps, Allegiance, Asheron’s Call…).

After that, I worked on a few single-player games both on PC and Xbox, and got the opportunity to work with Chris Taylor on Dungeon Siege. It was great to work on that project and watch Gas Powered Games grow from a startup to the company they are today – I learned a lot. After Dungeon Siege, I moved on to become the executive producer of Mythica. I worked two years on that project and met a ton of talented people I will never forget.

After Mythica, I left Microsoft and co-founded FireAnt, Inc. with John Smith, Alex Pfaffe, Craig Link and Ed Fries. We focused on bringing our vision of mainstream gaming to the online market. Within a year, we were purchased by Sony Online Entertainment and started up SOE’s Seattle studio.

Matt Wilson:
Keep folks focused on the truly important gameplay elements in the engine, not on paper.

So said the programmer.

I’d say: leave the paper to the designers ;)

About their plans:

In the near future? We hope to unveil an action adventure game that will shake up folks preconceptions about what MMOs can be.

My focus is to bring mainstream gaming to the MMO space.

That means hitting the quality level of the best PC or console game you’ve played with story and community hooks that demonstrate the real power of shared online persistence.

It’s OK to bring something to the market with a different business model, with a non-fantasy setting, with mechanics beyond knocking numbers out of a monster’s head. Groups are trying to do this, but when a game is called an MMO it has a certain reputation that comes with it. It’s time for MMOs to ditch that reputation and just start becoming better games.

If there’s one thing you could change about MMO gaming, it would be?

Cost of development. You have to make a huge bet to build an MMO. That makes it harder to take chances and makes it harder to break away from the established norm.

And a last note:

World of Warcraft is great as well… it showed that MMOs are not just for nerds. Or maybe it showed there are a lot of us out there. ;-)

It reminds me an article from Dave Rickey.