September 2007

• Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
• • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Aurel Mihai
  • • [DESIGN] Where massive? John Buehler
    • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Damion Schubert
        On 9/13/07, John Buehler <johnbue@msn.com> wrote:
        >
        >
        > The bottom line to all this is the question of how much of an MMO really
        > needs to be designed to be massive. The background world wants to be. In
        > that background world are the lightweight actions and experiences that the
        > technology can support for thousands of simultaneous players. But when a
        > group of players desires to get together to have some fun, that background
        > world can fade away and more weight can be brought to bear to entertain
        > that
        > group. If we assume that they are like-minded, the game design can also
        > leverage the trust that those players share.
        
        
        As an interesting data point, Guild Wars shipped with a highly instanced
        world view, which they took great advantage of in many of the ways you
        describe: fragile experiences in full control of the story writers and game
        designers to create carefully balanced and controlled instances. Guild
        Wars was quite successful, selling in the low millions.
        
        All this being said, in developing Guild Wars 2, one of the major changes
        that they have talked about making is moving away from instanced content
        in many cases, and towards more traditional MMO-style shared servers.
        A quote:
        
        "One of the major new additions to *Guild Wars
        2<http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/guild-wars-2/>
        * is persistent world areas. The original game was entirely instanced which,
        according to the ArenaNet team, did wonders for their ability to tell a
        story (there's a major event in the middle of the original game that
        completely alters the world forever). "What you lose in an entirely
        instanced game is a lot of social opportunities," Mike O'Brian said.
        "There's a lot to be said for running into the same people over and over
        again. If you run with a pick-up group and you never meet them again, it can
        make a completely instanced game a very lonely experience." While *Guild
        Wars 2* will contain a lot of instanced mission content, it will also sport
        a lot of shared landscape and will also be divided up into different servers
        filled with smaller groups of people in the manner of traditional MMOs"
        -- http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/guild-wars-2/784302p2.html
        
        Instancing is an incredibly powerful design tool, but overuse has a
        real danger to it - a danger of reducing the most powerful and intriguing
        consumer promise of 'massively multiplayer' gameplay - the massively
        multiplayer part.
        
        --d
      • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Aurel Mihai
        • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Richard A. Bartle
          • [DESIGN] Where massive? Damion Schubert
    • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
    • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Roger Hicks
      • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Christopher Lloyd
      • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
      • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
        • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
          • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
            • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore andMMOs) Mike Sellers
              • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Vincent Archer
              • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) John Buehler
• [DESIGN] Character Growth Models (Was: Removing the almighty experience point...) Ian Hess
• • [DESIGN] Character Growth Models (Was: Removing the almighty experience point...) Aurel Mihai
  • • [DESIGN] Character Growth Models (Was: Removing the almighty experience point...) cruise
• [BIZ] Community-building books Mike Rozak
• [MEDIA] Intel Purchases Game Tools Firm Havok Mike Rozak
• • [MEDIA] Intel Purchases Game Tools Firm Havok Jon Mayo
  • • [MEDIA] Intel Purchases Game Tools Firm Havok Peter Keeler
    • • [MEDIA] Intel Purchases Game Tools Firm Havok Mike Rozak
• [DESIGN] Factor of 16 Mike Rozak
• • [DESIGN] Factor of 16 Aurel Mihai
  • [DESIGN] Factor of 16 Michael Hartman
• [DESIGN] Player-generated content cruise
• • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Lachek Butalek
  • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Darryl Woodford
    • [DESIGN] Player-generated content cruise
    • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content John Buehler
      • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content cruise
        • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content John Buehler
          • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Damion Schubert
            • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content John Buehler
            • [DESIGN] Player skill vs. Character Skill [was: Player-generated content] cruise
            • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Vincent Archer
            • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content John Buehler
  • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Caliban Darklock
  • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content cruise
    • • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Tom Hudson
  • [DESIGN] Player-generated content Matt Chatterley
• [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace cruise
• • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Caliban Darklock
  • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Ammon Lauritzen
  • • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace cruise
    • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Bristle
    • • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Shannon Sullivan
      • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Dave Scheffer
      • • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Raph Koster
      • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Morris Cox
  • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Matt Chatterley
  • • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Dana V. Baldwin
    • • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Matt Chatterley
      • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Morris Cox
    • [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace Vincent Archer
• [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs Michael Hartman