December 2004
- A couple of Wired articles on open-source metaverse and WoW's catering to players Morris Cox
- Too cute Matt Mihaly
- Project Entropia sells the richest land online Zach Collins (Siege)
- ADMIN: We have returned, a bit. J C Lawrence
- Call for Gaming-Related Art and Fiction Sanvean
- MEDIA: MMOs: It's the Economy, Stupid J C Lawrence
- DESIGN: Spreadsheet about activity feedback Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Johan A
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Glen Rosenblatt
Mike Rozak wrote:
> Do players just want weather for eye candy? Or do the MMORPGs and
> reviewers use nighttime and weather as a checkbox item in order to
> differentiate themselves. (Just like some sound cards have 20-bit
> sound, as opposed to 16-bit sound. Not to be cynical, but the
> noisy power supply in a computer only provides 13-14 bits of sound
> no matter how good your DAC.)
This is a great question.
Above all the factors you list for night-time one of the most
important things is that it visually shows the passage of time which
is very important in a "virtual world". Some of the games require
this because things can only be accomplished between certain in-game
hours (a special monster/npc spawns, access to the portal, a one
time per day event occurs, etc), and having a day/night cycle is a
great visual indicator about what time it generally might be. It
also adds to the amount of content they can stuff into a constrained
area. Having one type of monster only spawn during the day and then
in the same location having a second type of monster, each with
different loot tables, essentially "doubles" the content. It also
adds to the immersion to know that you shouldn't go into the
"Haunted Forest" when the sun isn't out because Bad Things will
happen. Last note on this topic, having a torch ala Neverwinter
Nights (their's was the best I saw, other games have implemented
this too) would be great and really add to the realism as well. But
people would be hard-pressed to put down their Superior Shield of
Slamming with +500 hitpoints to wield a torch just to be able to see
5 feet in front of them. This is more then likely (in addition to
25 other reasons I can't think of right now) why games stray away
from this.
As far as weather goes I think it's purely eye candy. Rain will
usually have an effect attached to it that essentially lowers the
farclip making it so you can barely see your hand in front of your
face. Most players I've talked to seem to absolutely hate this, but
it is an immersion thing. If you had an amazon rainforest type of
zone, and it never rained, people would complain about that too.
It's a no-win situation. Snow generally seems to be a little tamer,
until we see some game implement a raging snow storm/blizzard type
of effect, and it makes a zone that has snow on the ground seem that
much more real. Fog of course is absolutely necessary. When you go
into some kind of volcanic area if you didn't have some faint red
fog, it just wouldn't seem real at all, same goes for a bubbly swamp
and green/grey fog.
Regards,
Glen Rosenblatt
Gameloft NY (http://www.gameloft.com)
Client/Server Developer - DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Sporky McBeard
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Koster, Raph
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Douglas Goodall
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Damion Schubert
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Wayne Witzke
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Damion Schubert
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? ceo
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Dana V. Baldwin
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? John Buehler
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Chris Richards
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Alistair Riddoch
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? John Buehler
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Michael Hartman
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? John Buehler
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? olag@ifi.uio.no
- DESIGN: Why do people like weather in MMORPGs? Michael Hartman
- UI scripting gone too far? Derek Licciardi
- UI scripting gone too far? Johan A
- UI scripting gone too far? Damion Schubert
- UI scripting gone too far? Koster, Raph
- MMO Quest: Why they're still lousy Damion Schubert
- MMO Quest: Why they're still lousy Derek Licciardi
- WoW's catering to players (was: A couple of Wired articles on open-source metaverse andWoW's catering to players) Ghilardi Filippo
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Lars Duening
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Richard A. Bartle
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Richard A. Bartle
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games cruise
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games David Johansson
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Richard A. Bartle
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Tom Hunter
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Freeman, Jeff
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Damion Schubert
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Julio Nobrega
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Matthew D. Fuller
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Zach Collins (Siege)
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Eric Random
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Matthew D. Fuller
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Artur Biesiadowski
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games ceo
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Johan A
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games ceo
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Lars Duening
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Johan A
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Lars Duening
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games ceo
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Zach Collins (Siege)
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games ceo
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games olag@ifi.uio.no
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Michael Hartman
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Edward Glowacki
- Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games Jon A. Lambert
- MEDIA: Blizzard - Virtual Trade Tough Nut to Crack J C Lawrence