March 2007

• [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
• • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Morris Cox
  • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Michael Hartman
  • • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
    • • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Michael Hartman
  • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Mike Rozak
  • • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
    • • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Damion Schubert
      • • [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
• [NEWS] Trident Games Prepares New Online Game Using Skotos Engine Shannon Appelcline
• [TECH] MMOG Design List Weston Fryatt
• • [TECH] MMOG Design List Lachek Butalek
  • • [TECH] MMOG Design List Adam Martin
  • [TECH] MMOG Design List Mike Rozak
  • • [TECH] MMOG Design List Weston Fryatt
  • [TECH] MMOG Design List Hyrup, Darrin
  • [TECH] MMOG Design List Morgan Ramsay
• [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work mud-dev-list@jaruzel.com
• • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Lachek Butalek
  • • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Sean Howard
    • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work David Johansson
    • • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Lachek Butalek
      • • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work David Johansson
  • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Keith Dunwoody
  • • [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Sean Howard
• [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
• • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Caliban Darklock
  • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Lachek Butalek
    • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
    • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Caliban Darklock
  • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
  • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Craig Huber
    • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
      • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Craig Huber
        • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: Arantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Dave Scheffer
          • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
    • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
    • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
    • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
      • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
        • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
          • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Damion Schubert
          • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Tess Snider
            • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
              • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Adam Martin
                • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
              • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Mike Rozak
              • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
                • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
              • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
              • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Acius
              • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
        • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Mike Rozak
        • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Chris Richards
          • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
            • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Ling Lo
              • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
            • [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
            • • [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study Mike Sellers
              • • [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
                • • [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
            • [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names cruise
            • • [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names John Buehler
              • [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names Johnicholas Hines
              • [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names Lachek Butalek
          • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
          • • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Adam Martin
        • [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jon Leonard
  • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
  • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
    • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
      • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
        • • [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
• [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Michael Hartman
• • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jean, Yannick
  • • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Michael Hartman
    • • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Damion Schubert
      • • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jeffrey Kesselman
        • • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) cruise
          • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Michael Hartman
          • • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jeffrey Kesselman
      • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] cruise
      • • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] John Buehler
        • • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Sean Howard
        • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Michael Hartman
        • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Jeffrey Kesselman
        • • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] cruise
          • • Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Jeffrey Kesselman
    • [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jeffrey Kesselman
• [DESIGN] Turn Around Time On Experimentation (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
• • [DESIGN] Turn Around Time On Experimentation (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
• [ANNOUNCE] What Makes A Next-Gen Game? Morgan Ramsay
• • [ANNOUNCE] What Makes A Next-Gen Game? Lachek Butalek
• [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Mike Rozak
• • [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction John Buehler
    Mike Rozak writes:
    
    > For while, I've been saying, "The NPCs are the game!".
    
    A bit strongly worded but I agree with this sentiment. It may be a foregone
    conclusion for most here that an environment with advanced NPCs would
    provide considerable entertainment. They may simply ignore the notion in
    the short term because such a thing won't be built for a while.
    
    Me, I'd like a bit less money spent on graphics and a bit more on NPC AI.
    
    > In this article I will explain what (I think) "multiplayer interactive
    > fiction" (MIF) is, and how it differs from other game genres.
    
    I scanned it quickly. My takeaway was that the focus was on the ability to
    socialize with NPCs, relying on the application of stuff like AI to make
    that happen. As a sidelight, there was a separation of "NPCs" from
    "quasi-NPCs".
    
    1. NPCs are NPCs. Some are dumber and some are smarter. Games don't use
    dumb NPCs because they want to. They use them because that's all that can
    be done today. You can be sure that Unreal Tournament would have
    socializing, smart NPCs if they could make them. They'd taunt eloquently,
    solve problems in more interesting and challenging ways, and make fine
    additions to teams short of players. In other words, creating a notion of
    quasi-NPCs seems counterproductive to me. An NPC capable of being smart is
    always better than one that can only be dumb, all else being the same.
    
    2. Socialization is fine as an ultimate goal of NPC sophistication.
    However, when I think of the next iteration in smarter NPCs, I think of
    non-verbal interactions. I have never cared for reading the text that games
    crank out. It invariably implies things that the game cannot follow through
    on. So I assume that the next iteration will involve depictions of whatever
    it is that characters CAN follow through on. Body language seems possible
    (waving arms, turning away, laughter, hugs, etc), along with iconic
    depictions of other things too subtle to depict at scale (facial features).
    Characters could use "mumblespeak" when talking, allowing a certain degree
    of tone and volume to communicate the character's emotional state. Perhaps
    the cartoon depiction of the Tazmanian Devil is the right example here. We
    always knew what Taz was up to, even if he didn't speak. Hearts hover when
    he's in love, loud yelling and jumping up and down when he's angry, and a
    blathering stream of syllables when communicating.
    
    I mention the second point because I got a bit distracted from the message
    by the examples that talk about things that simply won't happen for a while.
    I'm more interested in the message of the importance of the role that NPCs
    have in setting up the context and fiction of the entertainment. No matter
    how advanced they are.
    
    Hand in hand with the idea of the prominence of NPCs is the idea of
    experiences that focus on groups instead of trying to herd thousands of
    players through shared content. In the group context, the NPCs can
    outnumber the players and provide the context. In the massive context, the
    NPCs are overwhelmed by the antics of the omnipresent players, leaving the
    game context to the players.
    
    With sophisticated enough behavior for NPCs, an environment dominated by
    NPCs can be very entertaining. Lacking that behavior software, the NPCs
    don't entertain, and having other players around is essential. Even if the
    context they produce is similar to that of a high school cafeteria.
    
    Those vision statements are fun to write, though :)
    
    JB
  • [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Paolo Piselli
  • • [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Mike Rozak
• [BIZ] Austin Game Conference Contacts? Jeffrey Kesselman
• • [BIZ] Austin Game Conference Contacts? Daniel James
• [MEDIA] A good, hour-long news segment about Second Life Mike Rozak
• Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Adam Martin
• • Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Adam Martin
  • • Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Hudson, Thomas C.
    • • Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Jeffrey Kesselman
  • Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Kerry Fraser-Robinson
  • Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Jeffrey Kesselman
• [Announce] CircumReality - A grahical MUD (kind of) develoment toolkit Mike Rozak
• Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Hudson, Thomas C.
• • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
  • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Shannon Sullivan
    • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
      • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
    • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Dana V. Baldwin
    • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
      • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Peter Keeler
        • • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
        • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Dana V. Baldwin
    • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Tess Snider
  • Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguardreviews and rants) Richard A. Bartle