July 2002
- It's About Time Dep... Food Anderson, David
- Player count threshholds (was: Text Muds vs Graphical Muds) Christopher Allen
- Neverwinter Nights (Was: The Future of MMOGs... what's next?) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Neverwinter Nights (Was: The Future of MMOGs... what's next?) Sasha Hart
- Neverwinter Nights (Was: The Future of MMOGs... what's next?) Valerio Santinelli
- Neverwinter Nights (Was: The Future of MMOGs... what's next?) Dave Trump
- Neverwinter Nights (Was: The Future of MMOGs... what's next?) Valerio Santinelli
- The importance of graphics Zach Collins {Siege}
- The importance of graphics brian hook
- The importance of graphics Ted L. Chen
- The importance of graphics eric
From: "Zach Collins (Siege)" <zcollins@seidata.com>
> I was chatting with some friends last night, and we got onto the
> subject of graphics in games. One of them made the claim that
> graphics will make or break a game, while another made a very
> interesting point, that it's the *consistency* of the art
> direction instead of just how pretty everything looks.
> How important is it to have graphics?
Picture...thousand words... Thinking in terms of bandwidth, the eyes
take in the most data. I think its the only thing of
importance. Myst sold millions on that one concept, of course Myst
was more than just a static piece of art on your monitor, but not
much more.
It sets the tone, creates the most immersion, and obviously is much
more agreeable for the mass market. I read books as much as the next
guy, but books, while often give more depth than a movie, force me
to pause my immersive entertainment once every 3-5 minutes when I
turn the page. Another thing of note in relation to much of the MUD
knowledge base, a book doesn't offer much in the way of exploration
and thats a strength of MUDs.
But back to the bandwidth thing, because I can take in more
graphically than text-ually, exploration gets subdued in a grapical
game. Especially when the cursor changes when I mouseover an object
I can manipulate (exploration by numbers, or something). This
follows though, since we are humans and we do live in a world where
visuals serve most of the information gathering needs we have. Are
there any statistics taken from a large population that place people
into those MUD groups, I'm sure some nutty professor has done
something like this. I don't know the terms used to describe or I
would search. I would bet the smallest percentage would be
explorers. Anyway, moving on...
> What level of visual quality (slickness, flashiness) is
> acceptable versus bandwidth or rendering considerations (assume
> that the graphics card has no effect)?
My personal opinion on the subject is "be subtle", I think clean
effects are more immersive than flash. In other words some effects
look cool and neat, but don't particularly add anything to the
experience, and for some actually detract. A popular one that I
really dislike is lens flare, as soon as I see that my brain
interprets the entire image I'm seeing as if it were thru something
that actually has lens flare, my eyes sure don't. So its not me, or
a creature that has eyes in any fashion similar to humans. (This is
pretty lame on other levels as well. A good example Tribes had it,
they also had jetpack suits, but unfortunately on Tribes world
sunglasses don't exist or budgetary concerns prevent the military
from using them, spent it all on jetpacks no doubt.)
Personally I would let the user determine the flashiness of their
fireballs and lightningbolts, of course it would cost more mana if
they want to fill a room up with smoke and particles. I doubt it
would really require that much effort to create a personalize-able
spell effects system, would even be an interesting experiment to see
what users prefer themselves. Giving control the users, oh my,
blasphemy, not my view of course.
> How is visual consistency important, how do you create it, and
> how do you maintain it throughout the life of a project (MMOGs
> being continuously expanded)?
Good art directors/direction, great artists.The more complex your
art the more work it would become to maintain a consistant
vision. Disney no doubt has a large pool of good to great artists,
and they are working with a simple medium, so consistency is
assured. A long term, long life project like a MMOG would require
herculean efforts to gain the same. Or novel methods like sectioning
the world into subgroups where consistency can be easily handled on
a smaller scale (For example DAoC did this by having 3 separate
worlds that were internally consistent, but not nessarily all
together consistent. I would bet the artists were in different
groups too, since the quality varied overall between each world as
well.) This can be seen as a managerial solution.
You could easily think up a variety of situations that are similar
to simplify the art. If the world is very large and there are lot of
art assets you can group them by culture, climate and a variety of
different ways. There are hundreds of varieties of grass, so they
don't need to all look the same, same with trees, as well as human
made objects. Compare ancient european, indian and eastern
architecture. - The importance of graphics Edward Glowacki
- The importance of graphics Matthew D. Fuller
- The importance of graphics Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The importance of graphics Damion Schubert
- The importance of graphics Kwon Ekstrom
- The importance of graphics jolon@kungfudesign.com
- The importance of graphics Matt Mihaly
- The importance of graphics Marc Bowden
- The importance of graphics Koster, Raph
- The importance of graphics VdA
- The importance of graphics Marc Bowden
- The importance of graphics jolon@kungfudesign.com
- The importance of graphics caduvall@glue.umd.edu
- The importance of graphics Matt Mihaly
- The importance of graphics Michael R. Estepp
- Completed Article Series at Skotos Shannon Appelcline
- NWN upping the ante? Or is that too much to ask? Azeraab
- NWN upping the ante? Or is that too much to ask? Matt Chatterley
- Crafting/Creation systems Paul Boyle
- Crafting/Creation systems eric
- Crafting/Creation systems cooper
- Crafting/Creation systems cheesecrow@mail.ru
- Crafting/Creation systems Matt Mihaly
- Crafting/Creation systems Aaron "the mad man" Weeks
- Crafting/Creation systems Peter Tyson
- Crafting/Creation systems Paul Boyle
- Crafting/Creation systems lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- Crafting/Creation systems John Buehler
- Crafting/Creation systems shren
- Crafting/Creation systems Jeff Lindsey
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems John Buehler
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems Dave Rickey
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems Dave Rickey
- Crafting/Creation systems Vincent Archer
- Crafting/Creation systems Matt Mihaly
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems Brandon J. Van Every
- Crafting/Creation systems amanda@alfar.com
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems Kwon Ekstrom
- Crafting/Creation systems John Buehler
- Crafting/Creation systems Damion Schubert
- Crafting/Creation systems John Buehler
- Crafting/Creation systems Dave Rickey
- Crafting/Creation systems Ron Gabbard
- Crafting/Creation systems John Buehler
- Crafting/Creation systems Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s Ron Gabbard
- Mass customization in MM***s Ted L. Chen
- Mass customization in MM***s Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s Ron Gabbard
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Vincent Archer
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Marian Griffith
- Mass customization in MM***s Sasha Hart
- Mass customization in MM***s lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- Mass customization in MM***s Ron Gabbard
- Mass customization in MM***s lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Zach Collins {Siege}
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Marian Griffith
- Mass customization in MM***s Travis Casey
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Amanda Walker
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Marian Griffith
- Mass customization in MM***s John Buehler
- Mass customization in MM***s Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s Ron Gabbard
- Mass customization in MM***s Amanda Walker
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Sasha Hart
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Sasha Hart
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s Matt Mihaly
- Mass customization in MM***s Paul E. Schwanz, II
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s John Robert Arras
- Mass customization in MM***s Koster, Raph
- Mass customization in MM***s Marc LaFleur
- Mass customization in MM***s Koster, Raph
- Mass customization in MM***s Madrona Tree
- Mass customization in MM***s Marc LaFleur
- Mass customization in MM***s Koster, Raph
- Mass customization in MM***s Marc LaFleur
- Mass customization in MM***s Paul Boyle
- Mass customization in MM***s Damion Schubert
- Mass customization in MM***s Michael Tresca
- Mass customization in MM***s Brandon J. Van Every
- Mass customization in MM***s P.David
- NLP tools? Robert Zubek
- Importance of graphic in different stages of gaming Edward Glowacki
- Importance of graphic in different stages of gaming Koster, Raph
- Importance of graphic in different stages of gaming Jeff Lindsey
- Importance of graphic in different stages of gaming Damion Schubert
- Game Convention Development Survey Casbaria
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? Koster, Raph
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? Derek Licciardi
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? shren
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? Matt Mihaly
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? Marian Griffith
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immature? Paul Schwanz
- Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re? Marc LaFleur
- Salon article: "Showdown in cyberspace: Star Wars vs. The Sims" Robert Zubek
- Are gratifiction-based (online) societies doomed to being immature? Jay C.
- A Question on PvP and PK Ron Gabbard
- A Question on PvP and PK Vladimir Cole
- A Question on PvP and PK szii@sziisoft.com
- A Question on PvP and PK eric
- A Question on PvP and PK Paul Boyle
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK Vincent Archer
- A Question on PvP and PK Jeff Lindsey
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK Damion Schubert
- A Question on PvP and PK szii@sziisoft.com
- A Question on PvP and PK Damion Schubert
- A Question on PvP and PK Koster, Raph
- A Question on PvP and PK Derek Licciardi
- A Question on PvP and PK Lars Duening
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK shren
- A Question on PvP and PK Dave Rickey
- A Question on PvP and PK Daniel James
- A Question on PvP and PK Sean Kelly
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK Sean Kelly
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK Ron Gabbard
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK szii@sziisoft.com
- A Question on PvP and PK Lars Duening
- A Question on PvP and PK Koster, Raph
- A Question on PvP and PK Matt Mihaly
- A Question on PvP and PK Zach Collins {Siege}
- A Question on PvP and PK Kwon Ekstrom
- A Question on PvP and PK Ron Gabbard
- A Question on PvP and PK Jeff Lindsey
- A Question on PvP and PK Damion Schubert
- A Question on PvP and PK John Buehler
- A Question on PvP and PK Eli Stevens
- A Question on PvP and PK Ron Gabbard
- A Question on PvP and PK Paul Schwanz
- A Question on PvP and PK Amanda Walker
- A Question on PvP and PK Jeff Lindsey
- A Question on PvP and PK Amanda Walker
- A Question on PvP and PK Sasha Hart
- A Question on PvP and PK apollyon .
- A Question on PvP and PK Sasha Hart
- A Question on PvP and PK ghovs
- A Question on PvP and PK Dave Trump
- A Question on PvP and PK Paul Boyle
- A Question on PvP and PK Damion Schubert
- A Question on PvP and PK Moonvine
- Réf. : Mass customization in MM*** s Yannick.Jean@csst.qc.ca
- Réf. : Mass cus tomization in MM*** s Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Réf. : Mass customization in MM*** s John Buehler
- Réf. : Mass cus tomization in MM*** s Jeff Lindsey
- Réf. : Mass customization in MM*** s John Buehler
- Réf. : Mass customization in MM*** s Damion Schubert
- Réf. : Mass cus tomization in MM*** s Jeff Lindsey
- Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s) shren
- Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s) shren
- Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s) Acius
- Gamasutra plans to feature MMOGs Lars Duening
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Marian Griffith
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Greg Titus
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Sean Kelly
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Greg Titus
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) shren
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Dave Shepherd
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) John Buehler
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Travis Casey
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Jessica Mulligan
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Damion Schubert
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Koster, Raph
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) Christopher Allen
- About Fencing (was: mass customisation) John Bertoglio
- Crafting Systems - preventing recipe decomposition? Adam
- Crafting Systems - preventing recipe decomposition? Sie Ming
- Crafting Systems - preventing recipe decomposition? Jeff Cole
- Crafting Systems - preventing recipe decomposition? Damion Schubert
- Crafting Systems - preventing recipe decomposit ion? Anderson, David
- Gratification-based MUDs luke@rocketship.com
- Rif. : Mass customization in MM*** s Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- EQ in mainstream news again... Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- TECH: Britt A. Green
- Preventing recipe decomposition (why?) Sean Kelly
- Preventing recipe decomposition (why?) Anderson, David
- Preventing recipe decomposition (why?) John Buehler
- Preventing recipe decomposition (why?) Sie Ming
- Preventing recipe decomposition (why?) Derek Licciardi
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore Damion Schubert
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore Sara Jensen
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore John Buehler
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore Matt Mihaly
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore John Buehler
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore Sasha Hart
- Gossip, fiction and tactical lore John Buehler
- java clients Matt Mihaly
- java clients Valerio Santinelli
- java clients Jo Dillon
- java clients Zach Collins {Siege}
- java clients Kwon Ekstrom
- java clients Daniel James
- java clients Jo Dillon
- java clients Colin Coghill
- java clients Brandon J. Van Every
- java clients Matt Mihaly
- java clients Brandon J. Van Every
- java clients Philippe Lalande
- java clients justice@softhome.net
- java clients Matt Mihaly
- java clients Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- java clients Jo Dillon
- java clients David Love
- java clients Jon A. Lambert
- java clients fred@clift.org
- java clients Lars Duening
- java clients Jon A. Lambert
- java clients justice@softhome.net
- java clients David Love
- java clients Travis Casey
- java clients bruce@cubik.org
- java clients Fred Clift
- java clients Jo Dillon
- java clients Karl Bastiman
- java clients David Yazel
- java clients Christopher Kohnert
- java clients ceo
- java clients Christopher Kohnert
- java clients ceo
- java clients Christopher Kohnert
- java clients Daniel James
- java clients ceo
- java clients Matt Mihaly
- java clients ceo
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Jack Britt
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Ammon Lauritzen
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Sasha Hart
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Trickey, Rob
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Travis Casey
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Anderson, David
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Zach Collins {Siege}
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? shren
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Mathieu Castelli
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Travis Casey
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Peter Harkins
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Jack Britt
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Sasha Hart
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Jo Dillon
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Bruce Mitchener
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Sie Ming
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Michelle Elbert
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Paul E. Schwanz, II
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Sean Kelly
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Christopher Allen
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Travis Casey
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Sage
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Travis Casey
- Alternative Hit Point Systems? Michael Tresca
- Creative guy seeking a MUD Brandon J. Van Every
- Creative guy seeking a MUD Frank Crowell
- Creative guy seeking a MUD Sasha Hart
- Creative guy seeking a MUD c_andreev@fmi.uni-sofia.bg
- Creative guy seeking a MUD Brandon J. Van Every
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Koster, Raph
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Matt Mihaly
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Brandon J. Van Every
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Matt Mihaly
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Brandon J. Van Every
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Matt Mihaly
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Michael Tresca
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Brandon J. Van Every
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling Tools Ron Gabbard
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling Tools Matt Mihaly
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Michael Tresca
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Miroslav Silovic
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Matt Mihaly
- "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools Michael Tresca
- Hangul (was Réf. : Mass customization in MM***s) Travis Casey
- remote 56K editing, especially for lpmud? Brandon J. Van Every
- remote 56K editing, especially for lpmud? Lars Duening
- remote 56K editing, especially for lpmud? Marc Bowden
- remote 56K editing, especially for lpmud? Valerio Santinelli
- A question of PvP and PK Adam
- web-based MUD editing tools? Brandon J. Van Every
- web-based MUD editing tools? Kwon Ekstrom
- web-based MUD editing tools? Christopher Allen
- web-based MUD editing tools? Sanvean
- web-based MUD editing tools? John Bertoglio
- web-based MUD editing tools? zifnab@islandsofmyth.org
- Hangul (was Réf. : Mass customization in MM***s) Sean Kelly
- ADMIN: List configuration changes J C Lawrence
- Hangul (was Ref. : Mass customization in MM***s) Jake Song
- Hangul (was Réf. : Mass customization in MM***s) David Kennerly
- Phonetic and Ideographic languages (was Hangul) Nathan F. Yospe
- portable ftpd daemon for lpmud? Brandon J. Van Every
- portable ftpd daemon for lpmud? Lars Duening
- portable ftpd daemon for lpmud? Malcolm Tester
- portable ftpd daemon for lpmud? Brandon J. Van Every
- current portable lpmud code libraries? Brandon J. Van Every
- current portable lpmud code libraries? David Bennett