March 2003
- MMORPG/MMOG P2P design Steven J. Owens
- Dinner, Conference and BBQ J C Lawrence
- Dinner, Conference and BBQ J C Lawrence
- Wow, Jessica's working on Ac2? Chris
- Small Worlds, GDC talk Koster, Raph
- Small Worlds, GDC talk Peter Tyson
- Better Game Design through Data Mining, MDC talk David Kennerly
- MUD-Dev conference and dinner report J C Lawrence
- MUD-Dev conference and dinner report J C Lawrence
- MUD-Dev conference and dinner report Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- Fighting Lag Elia Morling
- Fighting Lag Nicolai Hansen
- Fighting Lag Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Fighting Lag Ian Macintosh
- Fighting Lag Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Fighting Lag Travis Nixon
- Fighting Lag Nicolai Hansen
- Fighting Lag Vladimir Vukicevic
- Fighting Lag Jo Dillon
- Fighting Lag Mike Shaver
- Fighting Lag Bruce Mitchener
- Fighting Lag Brian Hook
- Fighting Lag Paul Schwanz
- Fighting Lag Elia Morling
- Fighting Lag Ian Macintosh
- Fighting Lag ceo
- Fighting Lag arch stanton
- Fighting Lag Tom Hubina
- Fighting Lag Steven J. Owens
- Fighting Lag Amanda Walker
- A Founding Father Forgotten Scott Miller
- A Founding Father Forgotten Travis Casey
- A Founding Father Forgotten Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- A Founding Father Forgotten Travis Casey
- A Founding Father Forgotten Adam Dray
- A Founding Father Forgotten Travis Casey
- A Founding Father Forgotten Adam Dray
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Tresca
- A Founding Father Forgotten Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- A Founding Father Forgotten John Robert Arras
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Tresca
- A Founding Father Forgotten Matt Mihaly
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Chui
- A Founding Father Forgotten Matt Mihaly
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Tresca
- A Founding Father Forgotten Sean Kelly
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Tresca
- A Founding Father Forgotten Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- A Founding Father Forgotten Michael Tresca
- A Founding Father Forgotten Paul Schwanz
- A Founding Father Forgotten John Robert Arras
- A Founding Father Forgotten Thomas Tomiczek
- A Founding Father Forgotten Paul Schwanz
- A Founding Father Forgotten Ryan Arthur
- A Founding Father Forgotten Threshold RPG
- A Founding Father Forgotten David Kennerly
Paul Schwanz wrote:
> I'd sooner closely mimic what I imagine to be real regarding
> advancing or gaining power, recieving wounds, and wearing
> protective armor in a virtual fantasy world.
If making a virtual fantasy world is the only goal of the design, I
whole-heartedly agree. A virtual fantasy world could have a lot
better inspirations than Dungeons & Dragons.
> OK, but why create a fantasy MMORPG that closely mimics levels,
> hit points, armor class, etc. in the first place?
If the goal also includes entertaining others in the short-term
future, here's some devil's advocacy, to make the decision to
experiment a more informed one.
Even if one assumes there is no design reason, there is a production
reason. Using a well-tested system cuts at least a couple man-years
off the budget, which translates into over $100,000. For example,
in Baldur's Gate I postmortem in an older Game Developer issue,
BioWare cited that using D&D hacked and slashed QA time. They said
that despite all the dirty exceptions in D&D, as a whole system it
was already well-balanced.
If you count most players as playtesters, D&D 3rd edition has well
over a million man-hours of QA. If you're going to make something
different, it might as well be something better. In that case,
you've got to beat what a million man-hours of testing proved. This
is a factor--albeit not a design factor--a production factor.
Back to building of a virtual fantasy world, I whole-heartedly
agree. D&D is a poor model of a fantasy world. However, D&D (where
one of the letters stands for a fantastic monster) isn't sold as a
simulation (even of a fantasy world), so I judge it's entertainment
suitability instead.
I don't think I want a virtual fantasy world. Yesterday when
friends and I played D&D for ten hours I was happy when the DM
lightened up on the rules and play sped up.
On designing entertainment, there is a psychological fitness to some
of the elements, such as levels. For example, levels appear in
hobby groups, corporations, military forces, governments, and
religions. Humans, and perhaps other primates, level.
It's devil's advocacy. I experiment often. I break many rules, at
least in the lab. Even if it is a good rule, I won't believe it
until I witness it broken. And I don't consider any of D&D rules to
be THE rules.
I have less than whole-hearted support for Dungeons & Dragons. It
is the Windows of RPGs. It is dirty, ad hoc, viciously guarded, and
possesses the vast majority of the market share for dubious reasons.
During the 90s I avoided it.
I began to play 3rd edition out of respect for the property I
mentioned above, it's extremely well-tested and stable. Despite
that some of the bricks are made of shit, the shack still stands.
D&D is not like Magic: The Gathering, which is an elegant emergent
system that is also damn fun. The downside to Magic is the
requirement to have to continually buy new cards to compete; or be
such a master of economics as to always trade lesser value cards for
greater value cards. When considering MagicTG, It's hard to believe
an argument that online games are a *source* of addiction. Some
humans are sensitive to obsession; it may show up as a MagicTG
addiction, online game, or something completely unrelated to
entertainment. There ought to be a requiem for that meme.
And a requiem for the meme that a market won't support
player-vs-player. MagicTG is in a lot of ways PvP fantasy Nomic.
Magic: The Gathering has outsold D&D.
David - A Founding Father Forgotten eck@wizards.com
- A Founding Father Forgotten Ben Hoyt
- A Founding Father Forgotten Paul Schwanz
- A Founding Father Forgotten Bad Mojo
- A Founding Father Forgotten Matt Mihaly
- MDC and talk John Robert Arras
- More on Small Worlds Koster, Raph
- More on Small Worlds Ted L. Chen
- More on Small Worlds Lee Sheldon
- More on Small Worlds Jeff Cole
- More on Small Worlds Boyle, Paul
- More on Small Worlds - Simulation of behviours in populations ceo
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Daniel James
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Diamonds
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Chris Holko
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers szii@sziisoft.com
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Rudy Fink
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Threshold RPG
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Damion Schubert
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Chris
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Lee Sheldon
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Baar - Lord of the Seven Suns
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Christopher Allen
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Scott Jennings
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Threshold RPG
- BIZ: MMP subscriber numbers Lee Sheldon
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Developmen t Series) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Developmen t Series) Jeremy Noetzelman
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Develo pment Series) Koster, Raph
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Development Series) Jessica Mulligan
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Development Series) Damion Schubert
- Massively Multiplayer Game Development (Game Developmen t Series) Ted Milker
- Winnable MMO apollyon
- Winnable MMO Edward Glowacki
- Winnable MMO Vincent Archer
- Winnable MMO kat-Zygfryd
- Winnable MMO Miroslav Silovic
- Winnable MMO eric
- Winnable MMO John Robert Arras
- Winnable MMO Diamonds
- Winnable MMO Threshold RPG
- Winnable MMO Vincent Archer
- Winnable MMO Diamonds
- Winnable MMO Chris Nielsen
- Winnable MMO Sara Jensen
- Winnable MMO Chris Holko
- Winnable MMO Chris Mancil
- Winnable MMO szii@sziisoft.com
- Winnable MMO Mike Shaver
- Winnable MMO Threshold RPG
- Winnable MMO shren
- Winnable MMO Threshold RPG
- Winnable MMO Matt Mihaly
- Winnable MMO Talies the Wanderer
- Winnable MMO Steven J. Owens
- Winnable MMO John Buehler
- Winnable MMO Larry Dunlap
- Winnable MMO Jonathon Duerig
- Winnable MMO ceo