January 2009

• [Design] on the game mechanics of open questing Siege)
• • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Rozak
  • • RANT: The Future of Quests Amanda Walker
      On Jan 2, 2009, at 4:10 AM, Mike Rozak wrote:
      > Whatever MMO scenario a player is in, designers need to ask
      > themselves, "Why
      > do players want to do X?" After designers have asked that, they need
      > to
      > design the gameplay and "story" so that players REALLY want to do X.
      > [...]
      > AND, the player's relationship with the old lady draws them
      > emotionally into
      > the world. The player meets the lady's granddaughter, etc. [...]
      
      Which runs into a problem, here in the future: player preconceptions.
      The "Fantasy MMORPG" genre has become so formulaic (because of its
      very success, from EQ to Warhammer Online) that even little UI details
      like keyboard accelerators are becoming standardized across games.
      
      One part of that formula is that quest-givers and reward-givers are
      vending machines. The story can be engaging or not (and some of them
      are surprisingly so), but the mechanics of the leveling/questing grind
      (which we've gone round and round about on mud-dev for years, possibly
      decades :-)) has become part of the genre, as have some others (the
      basic "health/mana" scheme, armor and weapons and "dps", etc.).
      
      > Diku MMORPGs are INCREDIBLY naive / simplistic / childish / immature
      > in
      > their use of player motivation.
      
      Yep--but boy howdy are the popular (as continues to be the basic D&D
      gameplay that Diku was itself based on).
      
      I adore the idea of engaging, immersive virtual worlds without grinds
      as a background for player story construction, but after experiencing
      Second Life (technically fascinating, but so non-linear it's not even
      a game, and which converged on "porn and gambling" thanks to its lack
      of structure), WoW (Fantasy MMO that finally managed to combine casual
      player accessibility with power-gamer achievement rewards), and Guild
      Wars (minimizes leveling grind and downtime, embraces PvP and "sport"
      aspects, plus a long multi-forked back story for people who like that
      sort of thing) has led me to conclude that virtual worlds and MMORPGs
      should be considered separate sorts of thing--the latter were just the
      first large-scale examples of the former, and so far the most popular.
      
      --Amanda
    • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
      • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Amanda Walker
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Sellers
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
        • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
          • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
          • Wikia MUD project Raph Koster
          • • Wikia MUD project Nabil Maynard
            • • Wikia MUD project Raph Koster
            • Wikia MUD project Peter Harkins
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Oxford
        • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
          • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Damion Schubert
            • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Threshold
              • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
              • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Sellers
    • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Sellers
    • • RANT: The Future of Quests Damion Schubert
      • • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Rozak
• [DESIGN] How big is enough? Ian Hess
• • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Mike Rozak
  • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Mike Oxford
    • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Vincent Archer
      • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? szii@sziisoft.com
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Siege)
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Threshold
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? David Johansson
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Roger Durañona Vargas
• Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
• • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jon Mayo
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jeffrey Kesselman
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Chris White
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Mike Oxford
  • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
    • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jeffrey Kesselman
      • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Mike Oxford
        • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
        • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago.matias@gmail.com
• [DESIGN] Clojure? Matt Cruikshank
• • [DESIGN] Clojure? Richard Tew
  • • [DESIGN] Clojure? Matt Cruikshank