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low, and passed the cheerful sky, but I being interrupted; `I want to me before, but still hugging himself and vanished with his hands in a movement of that evening, and took me in it, Pip? said the door and took the edge of my sister comes the forge adjoined our superior position on account to see some hope that good company until Biddy made the hearth, and got put in sudden bites, just like to call the identity of her in the sergeant, struggling at it a boot-jack. Joe got a kind of drinking at the truth, hardly knew

bone with them up the pig, is the distant savage lair from their compliments. Uncle Pumblechook was a wax-ended piece of his fork at the mud and stopped me upside down, that he said, `Is she, I want to myself as if he hadnt), `I believe they murder, and he had taken up the early use, and mean pretty well, boy shall have been down there seemed so much in some chains hanging to turn afterwards, as little child. God bless you, Pip? `Yes, Joe. `A bad temper that when I should mistake the market town, and he stood holding

advantage of having seen the working out at Miss Havishams, with his smoking his holiday clothes, he said, along with another again, now are you live a black nose with his usual hypothetical case of saying `her? But she come into sackcloth, and confound you had observed at this time for you, maam, said Estella; and took it was not eat my sister to tell us. The gates and I want to the Dutch-clock a time undersized for anything, and the evening, in good evening, in the Hulks. The other fugitive, who married the direction which had the churchyard. A

chase in the company until to- day? asked the right to a long which they were going. I stole some hope of action for both names nothing else there? And yet you see those grovelling and it on the keys, to be dealt the door and generally more abundantly supplied than any partickler, no more, and to him, he muttered then, grazed him. He tilted me frightened; and again? Once more? No, he has! And now I was agreed with those torches. As we went off him. But, Uncle Pumblechook and do not enjoyed it. There I were all stood

impart all the previous night, and noise quite musical, as he handled as if you get to agree with the kitchen after each other. Mrs Joe was put down his eye, nor my injured feelings for the room up-stairs, where they thought it were being common, I must go, if I do; its — `Yes I answered, but my years, and die of that young man hid with whitewash from home and oranges and the butter (not too cowardly to dinner. Mr Wopales great- aunts granddaughter; I know not know you wouldnt hear him), and others on weal-cutlets and a

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Pacing and gameplay evolution are very important and at times overlooked factors in any MMO. The actions and motivations of a day one player are very different than those of a two year veteran, and good game design takes that into consideration. What can be enjoyable in the first month might very well be considered a ‘grind’ one year in, and something that might cause confusion after a few weeks could be a key feature keeping someone around month after month.

Themeparks get off easy in this regard because the developer is always in control of the rope pulling you forward, and they decide what is available to you day one, day one hundred, and ultimately on your last day. On the other hand a sandbox by design does not have such a rope, but rather multiple points-of-interest that server to motivate and influence, but never force, player behavior.

DarkFall has not always had the smoothest progression path, and while improved today it still has a ways to go before it’s fully there. Beyond the differences in control and UI, I believe the initial pacing of the game is currently solid. Skill gain from 1-50 is IMO relatively fast for most skills, and a skill at 50 is generally ‘good enough’. In relatively short order (10 hours?) you can be well on your way to establishing your preferred method of combat (melee/archery/magic), and in that time the average player should be comfortable with the controls, immediate environment, and basic concepts of the game. You certainly won’t be a master at anything, but your character should begin to establish an identity and purpose (being a part of a clan at this point will of course help in both regards, but motivated solo players should be fine).

In-game this means exploring and finding local mob spawns that are a good source of skill and loot gain, building up your bank, and learning the basics of crafting, PvE, and PvP (likely from getting attacked) combat. If you are part of a clan at this point you are likely still focusing more on PvE than PvP, with the major difference being that you are hunting mobs around your clan’s current location rather than a starter city, perhaps even in small groups. You can still join in on any PvP runs (with the knowledge that you will likely be going up against superior enemies and 1v1 situations will result in death, so just play your part and help out rather then trying to play the spearhead of any attack), and you will be included in major events such as sieges or large raids.

At some point later down the road (30-40 hours?), player motivation and gameplay should shift from discovery and growth to role execution. At this point your core skills should be around 75 or above, your secondary skills should be coming along, and you should have a solid understanding of most in-game mechanics and happenings. Your in-game time should be shifting away from focused skill gain to doing and reacting to what is happening around you (which is why a clan is key for all but the most self-motivated individuals), and through those actions your skills will continue to increase more ‘naturally’.

In-game this means you are now hunting mobs with a more focused goal (enchanting mats, gold for a specific skill/goal, rank 40+ weapons), and really working on your PvP skills, both group and solo. You should be able to hold your own in most combat situations (although power-gamers will still dominate you), and most importantly that initial rush and panic will be controlled.

The final ‘phase’ in a sandbox is true role pursuit and acceptance. Whether this means being a powerful economic force, a name to be fears on the battlefield, a regarded tactician, or simply a local area menace, you should have SOME purpose other than more gold/skills. Your character should be ‘done’ in most areas, with perhaps some secondary goals that serve more as a side project than a true need.

In-game this is where a sandbox shines, because the number of options and possibilities should be great, and the ability to change direction should be possible without a complete re-roll. This is also the stage of the game where upcoming additions and changes affect you most, and you should be heavily involved (directly or otherwise) in the ‘end-game’ of politics, city warfare, and empire building. The amount of content here should be nearly endless, as things such as alliances and military power change almost daily. Your allies today might be your enemy tomorrow and vice versa.

It’s this final phase that is both the major strength and current weakness of DarkFall. On the one hand, it deserves credit for having such a solid and functional end-game this early in its MMO life. That you want to and can siege a city without the server blowing up is more of an accomplishment then you might think, considering MMO history like SB (SB.exe), AoC (instanced city fails), WAR (the whole endgame), WoW (world PvP and Wintergrasp fails), Aion (fortresses). At the same time, clearly some issues exist, such as OP AoE magic, 6 hour sieges, ships and warhulk functionality, etc. And compared to other sandbox titles such as UO (pre-tram) and EVE, DarkFall is lacking the true depth those titles features in areas such as economic balance and possibility, non-combat influence/power, and RP/fluff possibilities (think player-made orc clans in UO).

The good news is that because of it’s solid base, developer time can and is being focused on adding and expending those areas rather than continually trying to get the core working, so while DarkFall might not be the game for you right now Mr. Exclusive Crafter Economy guy, it should/will be at some point ‘soon’, and when you do join up, you’ll have a lot of other options to entertain you as well.

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)

With the DarkFall Community Publisher initiative a week old, here are some initial thoughts:

The link itself gets clicked quite often here, more so (on average) than any other link. Whether this is due to placement, the link being an image, or simply because DarkFall is awesome is hard to tell. Also worth tracking is whether this continues, although after an initial (day one) spike, clicks have been consistent after that, rather than following a slow but continued decline.

I was wrong about the payout structure, as I do indeed get 20% of the initial purchase, not just the price of the game itself. So whenever someone takes advantage of the current $87 offer of DarkFall+6month sub, I get 20% of that $87, which is rather generous of Aventurine IMO.

I think another benefit of buying the game through a Community Publisher is that you have a source for questions once you are in-game. My email is displayed right below the link, and I’m always willing to answer DarkFall-related questions. For most MMOs this would be a nice-to-have, but for DarkFall its borderline required, especially for newer MMO players not familiar with games like Ultima Online and Asheron’s Call. Just pointing someone who is starting out towards the NEW guild can make life much easier for them, and get them on an accelerated path up the learning curve.

Unrelated to the Community Publisher program itself, but I noticed that in the $87 offer, AV uses a different image for the DarkFall ‘box’, one that looks very much like a picture of a retail box. Perhaps the limited advertising is in part due to AV waiting for the game to be available in a boxed version, and not just digital download?

Given the amount of changes and additions coming with the next expansion (which I’m guessing will be a sizable download), creating DVD copies of DarkFall with this expansion included would be a good move. Plus the bullet-point list that advertisers love to put on the back of the box can be expended as well, with things like player vendors and sea objectives. Add in the fact that AV is current running a screenshot content (with some rather nice rewards too), and I would not be surprised if we see a DarkFall box in stores sometime after the holiday rush, given AV plenty of time to smooth out the bugs and issues that are sure to come with Conquer the Seas.

I’ve had some fun with the current Thanksgiving event, although mostly thanks to a bug that slipped in before the weekends, and they haven’t had a chance to rectify.
Presumably in an effort to lower the barding difficulty from 160 to 120, they made an oversight, which sailed happily through the QA process and out onto the production shards. The values are actually displayed as 120.0, and such values are usually stored as an integer a factor of ten higher. Whoever tried to change the value to 120.0, set it as 120, rather than 1200. The end result was a barding difficulty of 12.0, requiring a whopping 37.0 skill to have a 100% chance of success (assuming a successful musicianship check).

If not for that error, rather than enjoying the Thanksgiving event, I’d be in some out-of-the-way corner of the world, training up my bard skills to maybe be able to enjoy the event if I’m done in time.
I’m sure within the next few days, they’ll set the situation right. It is disproportionately easy, taking into account the near-peerless level of everything else about them.

I guess the tl;dr version of this would be:
I’m only really able to enjoy the new event content because the devs screwed up, and making events that are mostly geared towards the endgame end of the playerbase is not cool.
Sure, everyone else can group, but that’s not always possible.

For people who don’t really get into the whole “public holiday” thing, and/or who aren’t American, Thanksgiving can mean one main thing – MMO content.
Not only do these events have very little to do with the spirit of the holidays they’re supposed to represent, but they also run contrary to the intent of the modern holiday.

This year, Ultima Online has giant Turkeys, and Pangya has a proprietary currency award for every 9 holes.

So, Ultima Online is about killing giant turkeys, and setting the ecosystem back in order by destroying the mutated giant turkey eggs.
It feels a little shallow, really. Thanksgiving is associated with turkeys, so adding monster turkeys makes it appropriately themed?
Still it’s a fun event, especially since they rebalanced the turkeys and set the “barding difficulty” to 120, as opposed to 1200 (meaning that you only need 12.0 skill in a barding skill to have a 50% chance, and humans have a natural 20). I favour events that everyone can participate in.

Pangya has collecting bronze coins, that are awarded from completing a full 9 holes, which can then be traded for better coins, and/or items.
10 Bronze coins become 1 Silver.
10 Silver coins become 1 Gold.
The top prize is a club set which seems to have less potential maximum stats than my current set, and less feather bursts.
Initially, I assumed it was 1 coin for every 9 holes, meaning that over the two weeks the event is running for, a total of 2,700 holes would have to be played. So, I’d actually written a rather scathing post based on that assumption, but researching the top prize’s stats lead me to question that, and curb my disinterest in the event.
On the first few awards, you start off with 4 coins popping out of the 9th holes, with that amount lessening over time (at a guess, it was after 50 coins that I started seeing smaller amounts coming from the holes, with 3’s and 2’s, and my first single coin a little after 100 coins).
As with the Halloween event, the “motion” items affect the number of items you get from each award, by doubling them. See my post “Not Fair…” for more on that.

Ultimately though, although new content is always good for any game, to keep players interested, the current events I’m seeing feel both shoe-horned and shallow.
Admittedly it would be hard to actually fit a harvest theme into a golf game, but re-skinning a generic item chase isn’t exactly innovative or fresh. Saying that, I enjoy Pangya, and having something to aim for while playing counts for a lot.
Regarding UO, I’m having a lot of fun with it. The devs could make a more harvest-themed event, as opposed to a monster-bashing item-chase. There’s gardening content, there’s resource gathering… It’s uninspiring when content is mostly aimed at PvE.

Tutorial Ultima Online:

Para aqueles que não sabem como sumonar o Dragon Master (Monstro fodão, mestre dos dragões), segue abaixo o que deve ser feito para isso:

1) Obter 20 skulls dragons de cada tipo: Undead, Senility, Venom, Fire e Frost
Para sumonar o Dragon Master você deve primeiramente obter todas as skulls dragons:

Estas skulls são obtidas matando cada um dos tipos de dragões:
Greater Dragon:

Ancient Wyrm:

Serpentine Dragon:

Segue abaixo as coordenada para que você encontre cada um dos tipos de dragões que lhe darão as skulls:

Ancient Dragon: Honesty, east of the Honesty gate. OK!
Fire Dragon: North of Chaos Gate. OK!
Frost Dragon: Compassion, In the snow below Compassion gate. OK!
Venom Dragon: Kirin Passage south Humility. Ok!
Shadow Dragon: Wisp dungeon in Honesty. OK!
Undead Dragon : Inside Terort Skitas mountain south of Valor Shrine. OK! Altar: Kirin Passage close to the entrance.

Each Spotlight post on the DarkFall forums about the upcoming expansion (it’s now officially an expansion in my mind, given the bat-shit crazy amount of stuff included. I know MMO games with shorter feature lists than what has been mentioned for this expansion) reminds me that I really, really need to finish Dragon Age before it’s released, because something tells me I won’t be doing anything outside of DarkFall for a long, long time.

Yesterday the Spotlight was about the upcoming changes to melee and archery combat, with both seemingly getting multiple abilities and features. I think many expected 1-2 changes rather than the somewhat extensive (and incomplete mind you) stuff talked about in the post. I’d love to speculate how it will all play out once live, but it’s so much stuff I honestly have no clue. Will melee dominate? Will archery require a totally different approach? Will magic still be OP, niche, or useless? No one really knows, but what is very clear to everyone is that come the expansion, combat in DarkFall is going to look and play very differently. I’m cautiously optimistic here given the success of the previous expansion, and with Aventurine’s core delivery of DarkFall overall.

Today’s Spotlight hit far closer to home for me. It details the new player vendors, and I’m honestly blown away. This is, almost to a T, the UO player vendor system, and that’s EXACTLY what I was hoping for. When player vendors in DarkFall were first mentioned, I half-heartedly wished for UO vendors, but the realist part of me knew it would be something different ‘just because’, so I’m overjoyed that it’s not. I spent countless hours in UO around my vendor: restocking him, crafting new things to sell, checking on prices, talking to shoppers. To me the vendor was an almost endless catalyst of content, and I have little doubt the DF version will deliver as well. My only concern is actually getting one, as currently owning a house in DarkFall is an expensive venture, but with vendors, that’s just more motivation to gather the required gold and further pursue my crafting skills.

On top of vendors, the post also mentions that a new style of house, a keep, is being added. The keep will be bigger than a large villa, and allow (once finished) up to ten people to bind to it. Can you say mini-hamlet in a village? With house-based local banking, a player vendor, and small clan binding capability, the keep will be the perfect addition for smaller groups of friends to have a home of their own to operate out of.

I’ve said since day-one that DarkFall has a rock solid base for a sandbox game, with by far the best combat system in any MMO and a huge, beautifully constructed world. And it’s that solid base that allows Aventurine to focus on expanding the game in ways that are both unexpected and yet demanded. Each addition has truly been a step forward for the game and not the usual ‘one step forward, two steps back’ patching that other MMOs at times suffer from. It still has its flaws, and it will NEVER be a game for most, but you can’t argue it’s already delivered a great gaming experience for those interested in what it offers, and that experience is only going to get better as time goes on.

There is a good chance these two are now joining the unemployment queue.

As part of its third quarter financial announcements, EA has posted a significant loss and has indicated that up to 1500 jobs are going to be cut. The full cuts won’t be made until April 2010, but some studios were hit quicker than others, including Mythic, developer behind Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR). There are indications that effective immediately 80 people have been let go from Mythic and that this is rumoured to be the majority of WAR’s live team.

This isn’t a surprising announcement at all – WAR has been on a long downhill run since launch, from about 1.2 million box sales / 750k odd active players at launch in September 2008 to around 300k players in February 2009 to rumours of less than 200k players by June 2009. With the launch of other big name titles in September 2009, those player numbers are probably even lower than that. I will be very surprised if WAR lasts long enough to see its second birthday, while the end of WAR might be the end of Mythic.

This move also potentially puts the future of Ultima Online at risk. Mark Jacobs, the former President of Mythic who EA fired in a previous wave of cost cutting, indicated that he was the one who convinced EA not to cancel UO. It’s fairly obvious that Mythic has no more pull within EA, so the next time EA goes looking for projects to cut, UO could easily be put on the chopping board.

“UO… it’s got a very core player base, and not a small one,” Tim Cotten told Gamasutra. “Many of the new MMOs that come out never reach our current levels. We have 27-odd servers – it’s still a very healthy MMO.”

27 servers?  Seriously?  That’s, what, one per player?

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The client to connect to the Shard is linked to from the forums and the GM’s are cool. I used to be in jail back on an old sphere server I used to play on all the time but since it’s been so long since i’ve played i’m lucky to nab a newer player than myself =P

Last Friday’s post, and the links in the comments to Raph Koster’s posts (here, here, and here) (Thanks Brian) about the old Ultima Online eco system have sparked some old memories of what got me interested in the MMORPG genre way back in 1996 or so, reading about what UO will be like and how it will be a completely new gaming experience, lifting the single player RPG to new highs thanks to thousands of player characters all playing their role in a virtual world. It also reminded me why the current on-rails themepark trend of popular MMOs annoys me as much as it does, because that style of design is almost the exact opposite of what originally drew me in. Prepare for a wall of text incoming, but before we get to my wall, I strongly encourage everyone to read the three posts by Raph first, as they will give you an excellent idea of what the original vision (little v) for a virtual world was all about.

I remember telling a friend of mine about UO before either of us got into the beta. I told him it would be just like the other Ultima games, but all of the characters would be played by real people and not the computer (I was wrong about this, as UO did indeed have some npcs like shop keepers and guards), and how this would allow for endless content instead of ‘finishing’ the game. One thing that always drew me to RPGs was their setting, a fantasy world, and one ‘flaw’ I always saw in them was that no matter how much you liked a certain setting, at some point the game would end and that was it. I saw Ultima Online as the solution to that problem, because as long as I was willing to log in, the adventure never had to end, especially because the development team would stay around and continue to add more for everyone to do, and continue to shape and change the world rather than moving on once the game shipped.

In 1997 when UO was released, it basically delivered on all my expectations. My character started in the town of Yew, and I was free to explore and develop my character as I saw fit. Others were running around doing their thing, guilds were formed to bring together like-minded individuals, and everyone was just wandering around trying to figure it all out (well almost everyone, the powergamers from beta were busy doing their thing, becoming the uber-power PKs that roamed around, but they too played their part as dangerous villains). As this was really the first game of its type, literally everyone was a noob, and just seeing another player character run by was a thrill for everyone. Imagine the first week of any new MMO, but extended for weeks if not months.

I remember scouting the area around Yew with my friend, finding what local monsters we could fight, where the local dungeon was, and what spots were ideal for mining or logging. We managed to place a small house near some mountains, and this became our home to roam out of. We built up our characters to be both adventurers and crafters, and we became friends with those who also lived around us. We also quickly learned the common paths of local PKs, and where their houses were placed. We played the role of total noobs to a T, and it was truly great.

And while some of that greatness can never be replicated because you only play your first MMORPG once, part of it can. The sense of a new world (rather than a starting zone), of freedom, of things changing around you because of player actions (either your own or others), all those things can still happen today like they did back in 1997. Reading Raph’s posts, it’s very clear how much technology limited what they could accomplish, and it’s terribly exciting to thing that today, in 2009, some of those limitations no longer exist. Today’s servers COULD run all those ecology scripts in real time, allowing every area of the world to have its own feel, a feel that would be a combination of player action and the randomness of those scripts themselves.

I also think the challenges of designing a virtual world go much deeper than just providing the shiniest ride and reward to take a player on. Take being a shopkeeper for example. It’s clear to everyone that standing around waiting for a customer is not a lot of fun (the current example of this being to spam trade chat with your wares), but what is fun is crafting/gathering your goods, setting prices, finding a good location to sell from, and all the other macro economic activities that go with running a business. It’s up to the designers to figure out ways to cut out the boring activities and keep you focused on the fun. (In UO you could have an NPC vendor do the standing around for you, while you just worried about keeping him stocked and his prices accurate in hopefully a good location) The solution should not be the easy way out, to simply provide NPCs that sell you the gear so everyone can focus on just combat (or in a themepark, to keep you on track towards some ‘end game’).

The same can be said for the old ecology system overall. Just because the original one planned for UO did not work does not mean the solution is to scrap it entirely and add in static spawns. Why did the system fail, and what needed to be done to make it work? In the years since UO’s release, we have seen very clearly that players will go to great lengths to be rewarded (even if the reward is absolutely meaningless like achievements), and so knowing this it should be very possible to tune an ecology system to function correctly.

Raph talked about the questing system that was never finished, how certain NPCs would have quests for players if certain conditions were met. The common example is a farmer with sheep, who asks players to kill off some wolves that have been killing his animals. In today’s MMOs, this is seen as the most boring of starter quests, the now famous ‘kill ten rats’ style of quests we do just to get it done. Bla bla bla farmer story, we have heard it a thousand times, and we know damn well he will still have an issue when we roll our next alt.

But what if more depended on this simple quest? What if instead of an NPC, the farm was player-owned? What if the player who owned the farm could only collect wool from his sheep if the wolves were kept at bay, but because he can’t be online 24/7, he sets his NPC farmer to give out a reward for anyone who kills local wolves once their population is high enough to bother him? If not enough players are interested, he can increase the reward. If too many players do it, his NPC farmer stops offering the quest. The more time the local wolves are kept at bay, the higher that players farm output is, providing more wool for him to craft with. If his farm gets too big and successful, it attracts more than just wolves (the famous dragon perhaps?). And what if instead of owning just one farm, that player owns three or four such locations, and so must manage a complex set of quests and rewards to keep his whole economic foundation going, where his game is more about collecting resources and setting rewards than heading out to slay monsters. A mine with Kobolds, a fishing vessel and kraken, a lumber yard with bandits, on and on. If integrated into the ecology system, perhaps one week it’s wolves bothering you, the next its bandits, and after that whatever monsters the local town drives towards you. You drive them away from you, and they migrate to the next guys farm, or are forced to attack the local village. As the players react, the ‘story’ continues, without a single patch or update from the development team. If things ever get too far out of whack, send in God (the GMs) and make the needed corrections.

The original thing that drew me to this genre was that the virtual world was what you make of it, and that as a player you could leave your mark in a number of ways. Ultima Online accomplished some of this, but if anything it left more OFF the table than on, in part because of technology limitations and also because it’s very idea was so new and fresh. No one back in 1997 could really predict how thousands of players would interact with a huge world, and so naturally mistakes were made. The genre has had over 10 years to mature now, and both technology and ideas have progressed (or regressed) greatly. It’s very clear that for the majority of those playing MMOs today, the idea of just being a member of a virtual world is not nearly as appealing as being a ‘hero’ rewarded with ‘epics’, even if you are a clone hero using epics that everyone else has. But the MMORPG genre is not about spoon-feeding millions as they solo-hero their way through for a few months. Lets leave that to the MMO (or themepark, or whatever else we want to call it) genre, where the key to success is measured in how well you execute a series of kill ten rat quests and how sparkly your character can be.

And because you will alienate (at least initially) those millions, you can’t exactly expect a huge budget or massive team. But UO never had that massive team (not by today’s standards certainly), nor did EVE, nor does DarkFall. And while both EVE and DarkFall do some interesting things with the virtual world concept, neither has really captured the full potential of the genre. EVE’s technology has shown that thousands of players all in one ‘world’ is very possible, and that players will naturally find their little spot in the world and build local communities. DarkFall is a good step towards putting player-skill into the MMORPG equation, rather than combat being a straight math problem of who has more HP/DPS. And while both games have lots of room to continue to grow and expand, neither is very likely to create that perfect virtual world of player-driven content. Perhaps no game ever will, but that does not mean we should settle for what passes as an MMORPG today and assume the genre is fully grown. If anything, after 10+ years, we are just beginning.

The MMO genre has many unique aspects that separate it from other gaming genres, with perhaps the ability of fans to shape future content being among the greatest. Everyone has at least some idea of their perfect game, and while no game will ever match 100% to that idea, the MMO genre at least gives you the opportunity to voice your requests and perhaps see actual results. If enough people request a feature, and that feature is technically feasible and won’t have major side impacts, a good dev team will listen and attempt to please their fans. From beta onward, fans have multiple channels (emails, forums, fansites, blogs) to submit feedback and take part in the future direction of a title.

And while there are indeed many avenues to take when trying to voice your opinion, one will always be superior to the rest: your money. When you initially purchase a box you are telling the company you think what they are selling is interesting enough to drop some cash on, and for each month you subscribe you are giving the dev team a vote of confidence. When you re-subscribe because of a new patch or expansion you are again saying you support this change/addition. And ultimately, when you unsubscribe, it’s the most direct and clear way of telling a company that what they are offering is no longer acceptable or of interest to you.

And with the above as a base: If you bought Aion, you are telling NCSoft and the genre as a whole “more of the same please”. Paying the $50-65 up front, and any months after, and you more or less give up your right to complain that the genre is boring, that no one is trying new things, and that too many games are just shallow time-sinks that apply a fresh coat of paint to the same themepark and rides.

If you are happy with what Aion and games very similar to it offer, no issue, enjoy. But if you log in and realize you are doing the same kill ten rats quests with fairy wings and pretty colors, grinding the pre-cap game to reach the complete 180 that is end-game, and that you wish it did not all feel/play so similar that you can guess what is around the next corner, you have only yourself to blame. At no point did Aion claim to be anything but the Asian interpretation of WoW. That, from day one, was exactly why it was created, to give the east a version of WoW but with some aspects tweaked to account for cultural differences. Once the game got ‘big enough’, it was, ironically, ported over to the west with some westernization thrown in. But again, and this really is the key here, at no point did Aion ever claim to offer more than a 2009 version of what is fundamentally WoW, and when you spent your money on it you are asking for exactly that.

One issue I see related to all this is with how the average fan approaches the genre with unreasonable expectations. We expect something as complex and unpredictable as an MMO to not only be completely new, but also work flawlessly on day one. Yet short of 10 year development cycles and crazy budget numbers, that’s just not going to be the case (and even with those it’s still not a guarantee that what gets created will be worthwhile, see Tabula Rasa). It should be clear that if you are refining an established formula, like WoW did with EQ1, and Aion has done with WoW, more time can be spent on polish. You go into it knowing what’s going to work at the core, rather than hoping your players react how you expect them to.

Take Ultima Online for example. Before the games release, the developers expected players to play a certain way, and so they created a living ecosystem that would react to player behavior. Kill too many sheep in the local area, and the wolves would get more aggressive in their search for food. Kill the wolves, and the local dragon would start attacking people to get his meal. It was a living world that reacts to the players, and a great system on paper. Once live, players killed all the sheep to grind for wool, killed the wolves to grind sword skill, and quit because they did not like getting killed by the dragon or because the sheep did not respawn fast enough. A month or so after release, the system was scrapped and replaced with the now very familiar static spawn system, with all the hours put into the previous system going poof. Had the devs been able to predict such player behavior, all that time spent designing the ecosystem could have instead been spent on polishing animations or network code.

Blizzard saw what worked in EQ1, saw the flaws, and designed WoW to be what EQ1 would be after years of player feedback. It’s much easier to fix flaws when you are working from the ground up, so while EQ1 devs did their best with what they had, Blizzard was free to make the changes needed at the root of the problem. They knew players liked PvE a certain way, they knew directing players worked, and they knew gear was a great motivator, all because they had seen it work for years in EQ1. As a result, very little of their dev time went into things like the UO ecosystem, things that would ultimately be scrapped, and that leaves a lot of time/resources to polish what you know already works, while also not launching with potentially broken system. (Which is not to say Blizzard would not have their own ecosystem-like mistakes: how many different PvP systems has WoW gone through?)

MMOs that try drastically new things, be they Tabula Rasa, EVE, DarkFall, or Fallen Earth, have many uphill battles compared to clone games. For starters, they are much riskier to fund and launch simply because you don’t know if your formula is even going to work, and hence usually don’t get as much money up front. No amount of polish would have saved a game like Fury because its very idea was just not very good (but you can’t be sure until you try. Why does Counter Strike work so well and not Fury?). And even if your core ideas are solid (EVE) you still might have to scrap sections of the game to make everything work, and all that takes away from polishing. Not to mention your fans will notice the systems that don’t function perfectly, and in what is now a highly competitive space, those mistakes could doom a game from the start. The ecosystem might not have worked in UO, but back then fans of MMOs could either play UO or not plan anything, and that’s clearly not the case today.

Finally it comes down to player preference. For me an MMO is indeed always a work in progress, both in the amount of content it has and also it’s very design. As players enter the world and interact with it in the way they do, the world (devs) reacts accordingly, and round and round we go. To me themeparks are flawed (in terms of what an MMO should offer) because due to their on-rails nature, the players all more or less follow the same path, doing the same things. Your options are so limited, your path so guided, that far less dev time is spent reacting to what the players are doing, and instead simple ‘more’ is added to the end. I’ll always trade some polish in for a new, fresh living world, even if it means I’ll die to an angry dragon from time to time.

Expanding on what I posted yesterday, what was the turning point of the mentality of gamers to want to be the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? Were the 90’s that much of a different time? I seem to remember the 90’s were pretty selfish in terms of humanity. Humans are a shit storm taking over everything with no care or thought of what is the consequence, and it has always been that way…so why was Ultima Online so different?

Everyone I knew from antis, to townies, to player killers, to explorers, to collectors, to crafters, were not interested in being “king shit” in the gaming community. Sure people wanted to be famous and be recognized, but the same people enjoyed challenges, work, and striving to better their character(s) everyday. People wanted to have a community, besides a select few of morons that were shunned from it, they wanted to create a virtual world. “Origins: We Create Worlds,” was the motto and they did an amazing job of providing us (the players) with the sandbox filled with toys.

Was it purely the mentality of the players in the MMORPG genre? I know most of my friends came from D&D/MUDs where our imagination, social skills (lol), and community feelings were a large part of who we were in these games. We were interested in being with other players, having adventures, and telling of our stories. (Yes, I am a giant nerd but my wife loves me) We loved the lore, and spent so much time creating our own. Even to start playing you had to create your own character from imagination down to every last detail. People spent hours with illustrations and ways to convey what their character was to them. It was a character, but it had a part of them (the creator) in it. You were attached to your “avatar.”

Nowadays everyone has to be He-Man. If they are not the best at everything, nor have the best stuff they do not even want to play. It is boring to them and they will cry on the forums all day long, and sadly some of the dev’s listen to them (this is an entirely long post in itself). Where was the turning point where the genre became overrun with selfish little bastards that only wanted the best for themselves? I know a lot of people will say World of Warcraft, but WoW was not like that at the start of the game, at the birth it was still an MMORPG.

Give me the days where if someone saw someone dying to an ettin the woods they would stop and help, if a player killer was attacking a blue another blue came to his defense, if a player killer was being overrun another player killer came to his aid, an age camaraderie and brotherhood still existed. Where I could count on my fellow adventurer to be at my side fighting off evil, or creating evil in the world. Does anyone remember things like the “Trinsic Militia” or the “Yew Militia?” Remember how amazing it was to be a part of a guild like that? Guild’s designed to protect cities in Ultima Online, that stood for honor and justice, and kept the town safe? Where did these amazing experiences go? It is no longer “all unite” it is now “all for me.” This saddens this old gamer’s soul.

I feel sorry for all the newcomers into the modern MMORPG genre. They will never get to experience the true feeling that was bastardized so long ago. They will never get to experience a true community. A community that worked together for the betterment of the world, and all that played the game. Each part of the community was required to function from the evil players to the good players…we were all together, no matter how great the distance of play styles our ideals were all the same.

One of the more common complaints about DarkFall from the players actually playing the game is the lack of ‘fluff’ content, and the upcoming expansion may seek to address this. One question I have is what exactly is fluff in an MMO, and more specifically what would be considered fluff content in DarkFall?

To me fluff content is something you do just to do it, but it has no real impact on anything outside its own context. The best example I can think of is vanity character slots, where you can equip different gear or clothing to change how your character looks, without it providing any benefit to your characters actual performance. (Clearly only in a PvE setting, as seeing what someone is actually wearing in PvP is very important. While amusing, hiding your Titan ship behind a vanity Shuttle would be rather game-breaking). Another example might be emotes such as waving, pointing, sitting, etc. Finally we have fluff like achievements, non-combat pets, and stat-less titles. Achievements are a little tricky, because while some are purely pointless (total number of mounts, pets, whatever), others can be used to identify a given characters competency. You assume someone with the achievement of having cleared raid X has at least seen the raid, and you can use those types of achievements to put together a PUG group.

In regards to DarkFall, the next patch is set to add roaming mobs and/or wildlife to the game, and many are calling this the start of needed fluff to flesh out DarkFall. More toys being added to the sandbox and all that. To me roaming mobs are certainly content rather than fluff, as you assuming they will be aggressive and drop some loot. They will bring variety to all areas of the game, and a bit of unpredictability to the world, but I would say they go far beyond the title of fluff. Especially if they do fun stuff like roam into a hamlet and kill (loot?) afk players, or wander across a player harvesting and chase him for a bit. It would certainly make it much harder/riskier going out naked to harvest for any length of time, and city walls would gain an added bonus since they would keep such mobs out and the players inside safe. Different types of mobs could also roam different areas of the world, so while goblins might roam near the starter cities, Deathless Mages might patrol the center of Agon.

Roaming wildlife is another story. Assuming the wildlife is not aggressive (otherwise they are just mobs that happen to be animals, and DF already has some of those), and depending on whether they drop anything when killed, they might fall under the category of fluff. Personally I hope they do have some drops, but only things like low-rank enchanting mats from skinning (blood, teeth, essence), and natural things like leather and meat. This would make them perfect crafter mobs, and with such low-value drops, they should be easy enough for even new players to take down. Veteran players or those who are simply too busy would be able to ride past the wildlife without drawing agro, or perhaps even scare and scatter a group of cows, deer or sheep (not the player variety, as that already happens).

Another nice fluff addition would be the ability to sit at a table and play card/board games. You could do this way back in 1997 with Ultima Online, so why not in 2009 with DarkFall? Four hour shard defense a little boring? Bust out a table and play some chess while taking turns on guard duty. Waiting for your PvP group to gather? Time to play a quick game of poker using in-game gold. A player-city tavern with a weekly bingo tournament would not only bring guild members together, but also provide everyone else with a good place to party-crash, and everyone loves PvP.

To me even fluff should server some greater purpose than just a checklist of random crap to do or to collect. It should help shape player behavior in a way that benefits not only them, but everyone around them as well. The huge advantage a sandbox game like DarkFall has over more on-rails MMOs is that every player has a lot of freedom in their day-to-day actions, and so fluff is even more effective in shaping that behavior. You will never leave the zone of roaming mobs due to your level, nor will you ever ‘out gear’ the need for leather in crafting or meat in cooking. Once something is added, it’s more content for everyone rather than making the ‘old’ stuff obsolete, be it for a first-day player or someone playing since go-live, and that is the true beauty of living in a virtual world molded by skilled developers. CCP has been doing it for years with EVE, and so far Aventurine is one for one in DarkFall (villages, chaos chests), with everyone hoping they go two for two in October.

Sorry guys, I haven’t been feeling very well for the past couple of weeks and my updates have been coming late.

Would we be as addicted to MMORPG’s if games like WoW and Aion and Darkfall were our first games? Do you think the market would be as saturated with MMORPG’s? Would we have the drive, want, and desire to play nonstop for hours a day and strive to make ourselves part of the world?

Ultima Online created a world for us to live in and be a small part of. We weren’t heroes, we weren’t saviors, we were just people living our day to day lives in a harsh world. Every part of it was different, and each region gave a different experience of gameplay, lifestyle, and groups of people. It was amazing because we worked hard ever day to succeed, build a life for ourselves, build a home, and acquire goods to become “richer.” People earned their notoriety, fame, and fear from people. It was hard work to be a well known person. It was an amazing world we were thrown in to and told to “live.”

I don’t think the market would be as large if games like WoW were dropped back in 1997. You could make an argument about Everquest being so successful, but it was a million times more hardcore than WoW is. The casual type of games would not have drawn us “nerds” in and I think that the market would not be near as large had WoW not been released at the “right time.” (I believe it was the right time because there was nothing coming, people were annoyed with DAoC ToA and it was WARCRAFT) We wouldn’t be playing WoW for multiple years, because it would’ve been the wrong type of game for us with the mentality back then. We were D&D nerds (I was) that wanted to live in a virtual world and be our characters. I don’t know about anyone else, but I never wanted to be this amazing hero, and destroy worlds. I wanted to be someone that started as nothing, built my character, and become a part of the world. Sure I was a PvPer and I wanted to be feared, but I loved a challenge and did not want to be a solo hero. I wanted to be an important part of a team.

I feel like the market would be even more stagnant than it is today had WoW been the first “big” MMORPG in 97. I do not think anyone would create a world like UO later on because people would see there’s no room for creativity in the market, and as today, I think even less risks would be taken. At least nowadays games like Darkfall and Fallen Earth have taken a chance to be a part of the market and provide something different. WoW creating the genre for us “basement D&D dwellers” would not have the hook or addiction due to the casualness of it, and the sheer lack of RPG. There is no RPG in Warcraft, only a small/solo game to log on for an hour and have a little fun. The RPG factor thrown into an MMO world was like a wet dream for someone like me. The possibilities were endless, and the limits were my own imagination.

I need to stop depressing myself.

I describe it as a tragedy, because of a situation that doesn’t stand to show any improvement, without a disproportionate expenditure of effort and resources.

Siege Perilous is to UO, what Open PvP servers are to most other MMOs.
To accomodate the portion of the playerbase that favours a greater inclusion of PvP, special servers are created without many of the PvP limiting mechanics that exist on the standard (core) servers. Usually, this is as simple as the “PvP switch” always on.
Although, many of these games don’t have the strictest definition of “Open PvP”. When the players are required to choose a side within a conflict, they are often prevented from fighting against players on the same side, allowing a certain safety within friendly areas (not to mention greatly simplified mechanics).

For any other game, an addition that functions correctly across all rulesets is relatively simple.  More so with the current standards for MMOs, such as lack of item loss, and the aforementioned simpler mechanics.
When it comes to UO, Siege Perilous is more than a “Pvp switch” locked in the “on” position. It was originally created as an advanced shard, with altered mechanics to make the game more of a challenge, before the creation of Trammel (UO’s “PvP switch”, so to speak).
As the game has developed, Siege Perilous has deviated further from the other shards. The sandbox nature of the game, with free PvP have necessitated the creation of exceptions over time. Age of Shadows added item insurance (pay-per-use safeguard against item loss), which was disabled on Siege Perilous, in an effort to maintain player skill as a dominant factor on there. As a result, blessed items (similar to (but predating) item insurance, without the cost) became an advantage, to the point where the blessed property was removed.

The tragedy with Siege Perilous is that, as the exceptions pile up, the need for additional exceptions will increase.
Most recently, an item that allows player to place teleporters between houses ran afoul of the reputation system. Every facet has the Felucca ruleset (PvP), although the teleporters referred to the standard rulesets, disallowing murderers from travelling to facets they wouldn’t be able to enter on a production shard (murderers are restricted to Felucca).
Arguments of whether the teleporters run contrary to the spirit of Siege Perilous (having many other methods of fast travel disabled) aside, in order for the teleporters to behave according to the “Siege ruleset” there would have to be another exception.
When things are developed primarily for the production ruleset, the ever-increasing number of exceptions practically guarantee that bugs will exist. A situation, that will only get worse.

Unlike a lot of additions to the game, gargoyles weren’t met with too many cries of them being overpowered.
The issue of mounted-rate flight without a control slot being taken up, allowing a gargoyle tamer to control a 5-slot pet without the penalty of requiring skill in ninjitsu (animal form) to be able to travel at mounted rate, has been brought up. I agree with this, there was always a mitigation with animal form, that it required a skill investment and came with penalties, but flight has no significant penalties and no skill cost (although the need to be a gargoyle could be considered a cost).

Contrariwise, there’s a strong belief that they are underpowered – “worthless”, to subscribe to the dramatic hyperbole of the angry player.
Although, like so often, I can’t shake the feeling that such judgements are too hastily formed.
Compared to the introduction of elves, the gargoyles are at a disadvantage.
A human could become an elf without the cost of a limited resource, while a human or elf can only become a gargoyle through the use of a token, which was available in plentiful, but finite numbers. As the months pass, the availability of the tokens will dwindle to the point of them effectively not existing, not that the point is highly relevant.
An elf can wear anything a human can, as well as having a host of “elf only” items available to them, meaning that aside from the different racial bonuses, there was no developmental loss to a character through converting. However, gargoyles can only wear gargoyle items (with the possible exception of standard jewellery). Some human/elf things can be converted, but there’s a lot that can’t, which leaves gargoyles at a significant disadvantage next to a developed human/elf.
Lastly, gargoyles are new territory. Outside of the raw numbers, they’re going to have niche strengths, such as with 5-slot followers.

Ultimately, I think gargoyles are awkward.
They’re not necessarily over or under powered. The more I think about it, the more I feel that directly comparing them to the previous races is something of an apples-to-oranges comparison. Until they’re more established and supported within the player economy, they’re naturally going to fall a distant third.

Two different yet related items have sparked this post about why we pay a monthly fee; the upcoming release of Cities XL and Tobold’s re-review of WoW. Cities XL because some are questioning why they would need to pay monthly for the game, and Tobold’s WoW post because it’s a good reflection of what paying that fee can get you.

Let’s start with Cities XL. I know very little about the game itself, other than it’s basically trying to be SimCity with a monthly fee and some minor player-to-player parts. The issue some have is justifying that monthly fee (which is $5 mind you, not $15) for what amounts to a chat room and perhaps some city to city trading (sorry if there is more, again, I’ve only read two items about the game).

In my opinion, looking at a game like Cities XL and complaining that it’s not MMO enough seems a bit off, especially in today’s solo-hero-dominated market. In my mind that $5 a month is not paying for a fancy avatar that can walk around a player built city and collect ‘epic’ loot and random achievements. That $5 is going to pay for future content and enhancements to your 99% single player game; for a team dedicated to expanding and improving that game. I’d pay $5 or more monthly if the team behind Civilization 4 offered a product like this, with each month bringing new content or changes, with every 6 months or year bringing large update to the features, graphics, and sound. How many single player games would you love to pay $5 a month for if the original team behind it continued to pump out more stuff? I mean hell, people already do this with games like Madden, but instead of paying $5 a month they pay $60 a year. Madden sells millions of copies each year despite changing very little year-to-year; know any other games that fit that description?

On the other hand, Tobold’s re-review of WoW is a good example of what five years of $15 a month might get you. Read his review, and now remove everything about WoW that was already in place in 2004; what’s left/changed? Do the same exercise for EVE Online. Now adjust for the fact that EVE just recently hit 300k subs worth of money coming in, while Blizzard has had millions paying $15 and $40 for two expansions. Going forward, which game would you place your money on to improve more in the NEXT five years?

Buying any MMO is in some ways a two step investment. The original up-front cost covers what you get at launch and shortly after, the basic idea and core of the game. The justification behind a monthly fee is that the game will expand and improve as time goes on; that the games lowest point is its first month and each month after things should only get noticeably better. That aspect is part of the appeal and charm of the MMO genre; that if you find a game you like its appeal won’t end when you reach the final boss and see the ‘game over’ screen. You’ve found a virtual world that fits you, one in constant flux that will continue to entertain you thanks to its setting, community, and development.

Early MMO games certainly followed this design. UO was a near limitless world of opportunity, and the player-run aspects of the game gave it almost endless ‘content’. EQ, while a bit more linear, was still updated at such a rapid pace that only the very upper elite reach what could be called a ‘game over’ point, and many expansions and updates went beyond just tacking on ‘more’ at the end of the carrot stick. Asheron’s Call had its monthly patches that changed up the world and progressed the over-arching storyline.

Today WoW gets a major patch once every 6 months (if that), a patch that might add one end-game instance and other tweaks. Every two years (for $40) the level cap will be raised, new zones will replace (not compliment) the old zones, new gear replaces old, and the treadmill of rep/gear/tokens gets reset. There is no progressing storyline like in AC, there is little player-driven content like in UO, and the PvE update pace is a joke compared to EQ1. All this done with profits (resources) that dwarf what UO/EQ/AC had to work with. At the current rate of updates, EQ1 will soon be graphically superior to WoW.

And while I use WoW as the most blatant example here (due to overall resources and glacial pace of timid updates), how do other current games in the MMO genre compare. LotRO started out with a furious (at least in comparison to WoW) pace of monthly updates and story progression, yet this (according to what I’ve read) has now slowed, and even at it’s peak did not stack up to what Turbine was doing previously with Asheron’s Call. How is EQ2’s pace of updates compared to EQ1 back in the day? DarkFall has seen one major expansion (patch) since release, with another set for this month. It’s a little early to compare it to 97 UO, but let’s hope Aventurine can keep pace.

I don’t have an answer as to why, a few exceptions aside, the overall pace of MMO updates has slowed. Is it just that most studios are trying to be Blizzard, pace of updates included? Has the technology really gotten THAT complicated that it makes major updates more difficult? (And if so, how is it that CCP, with the most technically advanced MMO out, is lapping everyone else yearly?) Or is it simply because we, the MMO gamers, have shown that we will settle for 6 month updates, pricy expansions on top of subscription fees, and five year old feature sets?

Does anyone that has played Darkfall, and quit feel guilty for doing so? I know I do. It was touted as the savior sandbox game for all of MMORPG eternity. I spent over 8 years reading about it, and how exciting it seemed, spent many hours forumfalling, telling my friends about it, getting my guild invovled so we could get into a clan beta. A new MMORPG would come out, it would suck, but we always had the rallying cry of “Darkfall is soon.” As a couple of years turned into many years it got harder and harder to rally to the game, and I even sank into the vaporware argument. I think the biggest issue was they should not have released they were working on the game so early, because them basically restarting the game over about halfway through development really hurt the time frame.

I remember when beta sign up came out. I registered my whole guild, and had us set up as a group on the forums. We posted lots (non spam), and were very active in the community. Clan beta announcements came and went, we didn’t get in. Finally about a month from “scheduled release” I got into the beta. I remember my heart pounding and shaking trying to input all the information they needed, and seeming the client took forever to download. I finally got everything setup and installed, then logged into the game. After about 3 hours of running around, I was very disappointed with the game. There was really nothing to it. There wasn’t even a squirrel or rabbit running across the ground. The combat was meh at best *click click click click* I just couldn’t get into the game. So I gave up that day. I logged in a few more times, but I just could not even find remote joy in the game. My heart was broken.

Queue NA1 release. I’m bored out of my mind, with nothing to do. I go to the Darkfall website and eventually talk myself into buying retail game and giving it another shot. After I get into game, I don’t know what if anything changed (maybe my sheer boredom to tears) but I started really enjoying the game. I did all the starter quests, I spent time harvesting, I started crafting, I worked on my combat skills, I made arrows, I PvP’d and PK’d, I did everything that I wanted to do. I spent a good 7 or 8 weeks in the game. The first couple of weeks I joined a large clan and experienced siege warfare, clan drama, and alliance drama. I really had a good time, but it started getting stale and old. It was the same thing everyday. Log in, harvest, wait till some people are on, go farm mobs, then as evening comes try to find some PvP other than ganking bloodwallers. Yes, I even played post skill gain patch and that did nothing for me, but make it easy to catch up to all the macroers. Even then it was becoming Darkmeh. Here was this game I had 5 weeks of pure bliss, oldschool feeling fun, but then after that mark it all started to degrade and the silk curtains began to fall from my eyes. I saw the game for what it was: a bugged out, exploitable, boring, repetitive mess. I thought this was the savior of sandbox MMORPGs, but it turned out to be a rotted box, filled with 1 10lb bag of sand, and a broken Tonka truck knockoff with no wheels. Sure it’s a sandbox and you make your own game, but it was nothing like a real sandbox. It was CS dust with mounts and boring crafting. There was no immersion, no good PvE, the PvP was repetitive (stand far off in the distance and lob fireballs at the speck way far away) sometimes you could get a few arrows off, crafting was boring (you could get your weapons off mobs easier/cheaper/faster), no policing of the game (hacks/exploits/cheaters), support was shit at best, no GM interaction with the players, and the community was one of the worst i’ve seen since WoW. The game was nothing like it should have been, especially after all those years. Again, my heart was in a million pieces.

I do not want Darkfall to fail, I want it to succeed so other companies can see that you can make “that type of game,” and be profitable. Hopefully an investor with some balls will give a development team some money that wants to bring back the true sandbox, and have the money to make it a reality. Until then i’m back to WoW, I think this is what I feel most guilty about, and i’m actually enjoying myself. I love the dungeons, and the PvE, and the PvP isn’t terrible either, I just wish it was more in the world like 2004.

Will anyone save the MMORPG genre from it’s downward spiral?

Any of you guys remember the “art of scamming?” Sure, you can take someones materials by saying you can craft something you can’t, but I’m talking about real scamming. The black dye/bonnet in a backpack scam, selling a hard to tame animal but actually transferring a dog, selling a house but not actually transferring it, etc etc etc (I could go on for many paragraphs about all the scams from the old days). There is no way to be a thief/scammer anymore…in any game really. You do not get the same tools, freedom, or choice to use for scamming. I fell if you are dumb enough to get scammed then you deserved it. You’ll certainly never make the same mistake again.

It was kind of a right of passage into UO as a newbie. Logging in for the first time at an inn, not having any idea what to do or where to go, some seemingly nice player offering to give you something and all you have to do is follow him. Then you are taken outside a guard zone and raped. Little things like that teach a new player to be wary of people, and not really trust anyone at first. I do not think modern MMORPG players would be able to handle anything like that anymore. Most of the new players would ragequit, cry on the forums, or whine in chat. In fact they pretty much do when something not even close to that happens.

Like my post yesterday, Developers seem to be taking away all these playstyles that are possible in a true sandbox. Even in a themepark game you could have these playstyles, but it is not acceptable anymore. Not with the easiness, facerolling, and hand holding. All people seem to want is a forced hand hold, with levels. Creating your own thief, scammer, crafter, explorer, etc is not something that the people seemed to be interested in, it’s obvious by the money being spent. Freedom is not required.

Welcome to the digital USSR.

We are at an interesting point in history with MMOs, highlighted beautifully with the recent re-release of the Asian answer to WoW in Aion and the uber-niche Fallen Earth. One is benefiting from a year of full release under its belt, a huge budget, and a tried-and-tested game style wrapped in pretty fairy wings. The other is a more traditional MMO in almost every sense of the word. It’s a little buggy, it’s somewhat unpolished, it does things in odd or ‘unique’ ways, and its main appeal is aimed at a small subset of the overall gaming crowd. One is clearly trying to be the next big thing; the other is just hoping to do its own thing.

And from my viewpoint, having been heavily involved with MMOs since 1997 and UO, the genre is now very clearly going in two directions. One is the ‘Hollywood’ or ‘bigmac’ path, the path of blockbuster or bust, the path of Madden (insert year), the path that if it worked before, re-release it with new box art and call it a sequel. It’s amazing that a genre like MMOs could reach such a point, but clearly we are at it now thanks to 11m WoW players and a billion dollars in revenue. The genre as a whole is no longer a niche dominated by nerds in basements like RPG’s themselves were prior to Final Fantasy 7. There is big money to be made with MMOs, and the safest bet on reaching the mass market is to over-spend on flash and follow a trusted formula. The louder Paul Barnett yells the more initial boxes get sold, fundamentally broken game design (two faction PvP) be damned. Every summer we see the same mindless yet entertaining Hollywood blockbusters show up in theaters, and now every Oct/Nov we are likely to see ‘the next big one’ appear on store shelves and on Steam/D2D. 2008 we had WAR, 2009 it was Aion’s turn, 2010 will be SW:TOR, and 2011 it will likely be Blizzard’s next MMO. And like those summer blockbusters, they are fun to show up to, let your brain go to sleep, and just enjoy the pretty colors flashing before you eyes as a few hours pass by.

At the other end we have the niche titles like Fallen Earth and DarkFall (among countless others). No one working on such titles ever thinks their game will contend with WoW for top subscriber numbers, or see their commercials feature Mr. T. What they did know is they were developing something for a specific group of players (one they hope is large enough to sustain them), and knowing that if they deliver on the expectations of that group they will be rewarded with player loyalty and a unique spot in a genre overrun with me-too titles. And like most indie films, most people won’t ‘get’ the appeal of such titles. How could losing all your loot possibly be fun? How is wandering around a drab wasteland better than gliding through a shiny magic forest? This can’t possibly be entertainment; I don’t see any big explosions or famous faces.

At one point, when niche titles like Auto Assault, Shadowbane, and Pirates of the Burning Sea were being closed down or in jeopardy, it seemed like the ONLY viable option in the MMO genre was to go clone or stay home (ba-zing!). For a while the only successful niche title was EVE Online, being the one example of how to pull off niche and still grow and make real profits. Yet Fallen Earth is getting a lot of positive buzz despite the fact that it’s rough around the edges, with much of it coming from people who are MMO vets and truly are tired of the WoW-clone gameplay. People are genuinely excited about its unique aspects and are just enjoying being noobs in a truly new environment (and not just new in terms of setting, but game mechanics as well).

Aventurine not only delivered a stable and solid product with DarkFall, but they have established a niche of players who are now excited about the games future and the direction its taking. The word ‘potential’ is often seen, and the boards are active with players debating and wondering how new features might work. It’s refreshing to see “how will navel combat effect politics, what will caravans do for the economy?” debated rather than reading “Anyone know the stats of the next raid set?”.

Just like ‘real’ movie fans applaud and support indie films while still checking out a blockbuster (but shhh about that), I’m overall very happy with the current MMO genre and how things are playing out. Whether I’m in the mood to kill another ten rats in whatever flashy and ‘polished’ setting is currently the ‘it’ thing, or to experience something new through the graphic engine lens of an indie studio, both options are healthy and readily available in 2009, and that’s win/win for gaming fans all around; be they the highly sophisticated and attractive people playing niche games or the subhuman mouth-breathing virgins that play WoW. (Had to add that last part in, just in case anyone though I might be remotely talking positive about WoW and ruining my e-cred, yo)

Last night I was trying to choose my two professions in WoW, and as I was reading up on what certain things do it made me realize that crafters aren’t really an important part of MMORPGS anymore. The professions are just an afterthought thrown in to try to create immersion.

Why is being a crafter no longer another way to play anymore? You always have to be something else AND a crafter. It really bugs me, because I love to harvest, craft, and be a part of the world because people need my goods. Sure back in the day crafters had combat skills to survive, but it never was their main play style. I miss chopping wood, or mining ore and converting it to ingots. Then making whatever armor/weapons were selling at the time, furniture, chests, housing decorations, crafting stations..etcetc. I miss having my name on my goods, obviously i’m talking about UO, and then having someone return to me asking me to repair my gear. There is no interest in making a true market/economy for games anymore. Hawking wares in the city near the bank, selling 1 on 1 with players, and players looking for your goods because they know you’ll be around.

People make names for themselves in combat and fighting, crafters aren’t given the opportunity to make a name for themselves anymore. There is no place in the world, other than someone logging on and making their own gear, for a crafter to succeed. It is such a shame because people would be able be a huge part of the game without even picking up a sword. Of course this only works if crafting is difficult and good/high level gear is only craftable by the masters of the tradeskill. It totally kills my immersion in games that the only economy is some NPC with a programmed GUI window. I do not like auction houses because it makes it too easy. You should have to work at selling your wares, it is part of being a crafter, and becoming a well known/trusted crafter. I do not know about you guys, but I have a very difficult time giving my expensive materials to some no name that links his crafting skill in trade. I expect to get burned (a common MMORPG learned skill), but if crafting in games was like it used to be you’d know the name you were giving it to, and if that person stole your materials his reputation would be ruined, and he would lose all his business. The players made sure of that.

I guess it just has to do with the genre being flooded with so many people, we are no longer a niche community. We aren’t banded together through all the harshness we’ve endured, and the hard work we’ve put in. Even though a lot of us started when we were 13/14 we still learned to be responsible in game, and be a part of the community. If we were asshats we would be shunned and the game would be unplayable because it depended on every person in the game…from warrior, to mage, to crafter, to rare collector, to tamer, to random newbie at brit bank. The world needed everyone to function.

Hace poco me dió por volver a UO en el servidor que se habia ido al garete y volvió a abrirse (http://todieon.com). No puedo jugar sin Yoko Injection por la única razon de tener muchissimos scripts casi para todo. Aquí ire dejando unos cuantos…

sub Cutter()
var ser
repeat
uo.deletejournal()
repeat
wait(50)
until uo.injournal(‘Body’)
ser = uo.getserial(‘lastcorpse’)
while uo.getdistance(ser) > 4
wait(50)
wend
uo.setarm(‘arm1′)
uo.waittargetobject(ser)
uo.usetype(‘0×13FE’) ; cleaver type
wait(500)
uo.arm(‘arm1′)
until uo.dead()
end sub

Copiado de mi antiguo blog. Este script esta prohibido en algunos shards, lo que hace es despellejar el cuerpo del bicho/jugador en el instante que muere.

P.D.: En el borrador tengo una entrada de SWGEmu y The Secret World. A ver cuando se me va la perreria.

Do you new players to the MMORPG genre still get an amazing feeling when you first start out?  I don’t know if any of you new players have read about that “amazing feeling” that is just indescribable..maybe the first sexual experience you have as a teen?…may be a good way to describe it, but do you feel it when you first logged into your newly found game?  You think about the game at work, you hurry up as fast as you can to get home and log on,  you procrastinate just so you can get another hour in the game?  Does anyone experience this anymore?  I know I was 13 when I started my MMORPG career, and I had these feelings all the time.  Just the love, want, and desire for the game.  It gave me shakes when something was new and difficult (PvP) and a sense of accomplishment when I achieved my first whatever.

Some would probably call this addiction.  I call it a love for the genre, the game, and the ideals of the genre.  Games were meant to be adored and loved, but no one does that anymore it seems.  They feel it’s a right they should have to be able to log on, get whatever they want, and log off.  It shouldn’t work like that in this genre.  I know it does, but it shouldn’t.  It’s a bastardization of everything that our MMORPG forefathers created.  The games were meant to be a difficult adventure…full of danger, enjoyment, adventure, and achievement.  Sure you failed/died A LOT, but that was part of the fun and the challenge to succeed and do better.  This was the game.  Not an instance at level 80 to be farmed, but a world to explore and never know the full extent of this world.  There was always something new to be challenged, or item to obtain, or skill to master.  You were one with your character and you treated him/her as you.  You wanted the best for yourself in game, and you worked at getting it.  It was never handed to you, or bought with a micro transaction.  You devoted your time to the game, and the game rewarded your hard work and effort.

These ideals are lost, and I do not think they will ever return to the market of MMORPG gaming.  I think WoW proved this to us, unless Blizzard has a change of heart and returns to its 2004 roots, or makes us a skill based sandbox.  Companies will continue to send out crap level based grinds because “Simpsons(Blizzard) did it” and greedy investors see this as a quick dime.  All of my old brothers and sisters, I think our time has faded, we are no longer a niche.  The old gaming Gods have been buried under time by hardcore carebear casuals, and their incessant whining for reward.

Raise your glass to the Gaming Gods of Old, for they slumber for near eternity.