Pithy Insightful Commentary

Actually not.  Its just hard to come up with continuing variations on a “Weekend Update” theme.

WoW

The instance group is on temporary hiatus due to certain vacation plans, so while we are all about 68+, the slog up the final Hillary Step seems to be exactly that.  A slog.

We have been extraordinarily efficient in leveling almost exclusively via instance work once a week and only one other noninstance session each week which, particularly since the 2.3 patch, has allowed us to pretty much remain level appropriate for all instances with our modest play budget.  With the crack like concentrated xp that instance work has generated, its very hard to feel like you’re making any progress by “merely” doing quests.  Even more so when you’re running a group of more than two or three.

As Wilhelm, the Ancient Gaming Noob reported, we lifted our self imposed stay at level rule for our group since we were so close to 70.  Playing mostly with the group twice a week, I hadn’t really noticed how significant the solo bias has crept in.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m pro solo experience but I’m also very pro small group.

A week or so ago, I happened to take a Sunday– ostensibly a non-WoW day– to grind a bit to get over the hump to level 68.  Several of us were still stuck in the last half of 67.  In a matter of a relatively short time, I knocked out some green quests in Terrokar and Shadowmoon to get over the hump.  Others of our group, playing only during our “appointed” group times twice a week have failed to keep pace when doing non-instanced content.

No news here, but for the same amount of time that we play together, we make less progress than had we undertaken the same content for the same amount of time.  Playing with a group of three or four, we simply don’t make as much progress as a solo or group of two.

That’s frustrating.  Instance minimum is five but if I can’t make the same experience (or more) working together with a group for the same amount of play time, something’s borked.

EQ2

So much for WoW.  Mrs. P and I logged into EQ2 for a brief session and managed to level and nearly get another as we scale the teens and try to remember how to play the game.

Diablo

Like so many other bloggers, we took obvious note of Blizzard’s announcement of Diablo III.  Go them.  Despite the gameplay being so NOT MMO, I loved the original and will give them at least $50 as a nostalgia dividend.  If the multi works decently enough, I could see our WoW group trying to explore this game ad nauseum.

Others

Given my state of boredom with the MMO space, I downloaded the Spore creature creator and spent some time playing with that.  Lots of fun and I’m very interested in seeing what the rest looks like.

One of our instance buddies mentioned that he had been looking around for something else and mentioned Sins of a Solar Empire. I started drooling at the possibility of rekindling an RTS night.  Before MMOs, RTS games (C&C, Warcraft, AoE, AoK) ruled our universe for years and Sins seems like a good opportunity to go there again.

Blogosphere

I can’t believe the continuing “conversation” that has grown from Richard Bartle’s off the cuff comments “I’ve played Warhammer.  Its called World of Warcraft.”  or somesuch (I’m too tired to link the quote).  Raph Koster has weighed in and said that MMOs left more features of MUDs behind than they implemented.  A ridiculous quasi-historical discussion ensued on Raph’s site that seems to be racing to discover the Big Bang of the current MMO genre.  Most folks left it at  D&D was a major root influence from which all or most MUDs, MOOs, MUSHs, and later MMOs flowed.

So we owe everything to Gary Gygax’s Chainmail (R.I.P.) or Avalon Hill or Tolkien or Risk or Parchesi.  Meh.   Two questions go unanswered in all this conflated Gas Baggery:  1) Why hasn’t anyone innovated on the basic game mechanics in 50 years and 2) WTF happened to the single most distinctive feature of the table top gaming system that purportedly evolved into MUDs and MMOs:  the Game Master.

Absent the game master, the game is simply a ruleset, generally applied to static content.  No MMO to date has anything even close to the approximation of a real live breathing game master.  Therein lies the next generation my friends.

We can all learn how to kill Van Cleef as a staged, canned encounter.  Its the same whether its a group of 5 alliance mages or a mixed group of hordies or a level 70 warlock and 4 various classed noobs or whatever.  “Van Cleef pay big for your head.”  And you for the box and the subscription.  Make that encounter dynamic based on the level and mix of classes in the encounter– and what they’ve done in the virtual world then to date– and I’ll buy stock in that company.

Non Game

Finally, it warmed my heart to hear that the 73 year old Leonard Cohen stole the show at the Glastonbury Festival.  My faith in humanity may have been restored.

And the first tomato from my garden was harvested and it was good.

P out.

Lost Colonies

Reactive blogger that I am, and bored with all that is MMO at the moment, I decided to take up Tobold’s $50 Million Question, so here goes.  Anyone who’s been reading for while might recognize some of the themes I’ve touched on before.

Name of the game: Lost Colonies (working title)

Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy

Short description of gameplay: 3d space fantasy (sword and planet) universe with action taking place both on planets (cities, zones), spacestations and in interplanetary space.  Several unique aspects– multiple modalities of gameplay from traditional hack to ship based combat to non-combat tycoon activities.  Players and guilds could occupy and control planets, moons, asteroids etc.  Another unique aspect would be a reconceptualizing of the guild system– players could belong to multiple guilds simultaneously and guilds would be able to own and operate property in its own right (more on that below).

Business model: I’ll be boring and say box + low monthly + velvet rope

Backstory

The backstory similar to that of Eve or Battlestar Galactica, DS9 or any number of other sci-fi IPs:  colonists of Earth long ago departed for the far reaches of the galaxy after discovering messages being transmitted from some ancient beacon.  The unravelling of the beacon mystery is the epic storyline that unites all the factions.  Technology being what it was at the time, the colonists departed on what was understood to be a one-way journey, each headed off to the location of a different beacon.

Colonists arrived, adversity ensues, generations pass and each ends up taking their own unique adaptive and evolutionary course based on their unique circumstances.  At the time the game begins, the sundered colonies are spread out over a large but navigable sector of the galaxy far from the now mythical earth.  Each of the colonies has devolved into factions that don’t necessarily get along with each other.  Only in recent generations has each developed to the point where travel and communications among the various colonies has become possible.

Archetypes

Five homeworlds representing the five defacto races each with different archetypal traits as a result of their independent divergent evolution since their departure from earth.  Each of the archetypes would have rock-paper-scissors like strengths and weaknesses:

Colony 1.  Humans 1.0.  First would be basic humans which pretty much survived intact and suffered the least differentiation from their Earth ancestors.  Like the Terrans in Starcraft, they are versatile but equally vulnerable.

Colony 2.  Biological Mutants.  Crash landing on an environmentally unfriendly planet resulted in a massive loss of life and the survival only of those resistant to the initial effects of radiation and environmental hazards.  In order to survive, the mutants became extraordinary genetic engineers and developed ways to influence and select favorable mutations in themselves and organisms in their worlds.  Mutants have unlocked previously unknown abilities of the human mind.

Colony 3.  Cyborgs.  Similar to mutants, they were dealt a different set of cards and evolved to developed and exploit technology and augment themselves to adapt to their circumstances.  Resistance is futile.

Colony 4.  Convicts.  One of the great colonial experiments was to offer commutation of sentences for convicts who volunteered to leave Earth to earn their freedom and a new start on a new world.  Old ways died hard and the convicts usurped their masters to set up a civilization that ran by their rules.  Don’t drop the soap.

Colony 5.  Capitalists.  Similar to the convicts, the capitalists usurped civilian rule to establish an amoral state focused entirely on economic exploitation of space and their neighbors.

Gameplay

Most of the traditional MMO features but with a bit less emphasis on the individual.  Player combat would be somewhat MMO-FPS like– swords, blasters and psi-magic.  Ship combat would be less Eve and more X-Wing fighter.

Character advancement would be largely skill based with strengths and weaknesses of the various archetypes impacting but not limiting the ability to specialize in various areas.  There would be no classes or professions per se– they are in essence one and the same and mastery is attained by deploying skills toward your desired end.  The entire amount of skill points deployable would be limited, so that even though a player could choose to master anything, they would not be able to be a master of everything at once.

Careers could be changed, though not instantaneously.

Players and enterprises (discussed next) could colonize existing planets, moons, asteroids, etc. and build outposts, factories, facilities in space.

Enterprises

For want of a better term, I’ll retread Eve’s Corporations aka Guilds for a player affinity group I’ll call Enterprises.  Enterprises, operate like simplified corporations in our world: they are in effect persistent gameworld entities that can own property in their own right, have their own internal set of governance rules and allow different degrees of individual ownership.The big innovation is that a player is not limited to one enterprise.

Items and structures can be owned by an enterprise outright, not by its members individually, so individuals could set up say a mining processing business by building a structure on a planet, moon, asteroid etc. and set up shop.  In this instance, the facility could actually serve the public (for a fee) if desired.  An enterprise could buy, sell and build assets and the proceeds would be distributed automatically to its members in accordance with their ownership interest.

Each enterprise would have a governance system established at its founding and could only be changed in accordance with its determined ruleset.  Board of governors or single iron fisted executive, you choose.

Since players could participate in multiple enterprises, there are many many opportunities for “orthogonal” gameplay and player collaboration.

PvP, RvR

It has to be there but on the frontiers of civilization.  I think Eve got this right with the concept of security space.  Out in 0.0, its anyone’s game.  In 1.0, its basically carebear PvE.  Players would have individual faction with different “realms” but their actions would contribute toward RvR status.  If the Convicts are raiding a lot of Capitalist shipping, a state of war could result turning each into attackable opponents and KoS to NPCs unless individual faction was high enough to “trade with the enemy”.

Player activities would influence the RvR state– real and economic warfare could result in a “victory state” occurring such that hostilities cease and the benefits of victory persist for some period of time– i.e. favorable exchange rates, prices etc. for the victor and likewise unfavorable tolls and fees for the vanquished.  Likewise, diplomatic and trade activities could result in an Alliance state developing with similar benefits to all of the alliance members.

Finally, the more a faction occupies an area of “neutral” space, it will eventually become that faction’s territory.

Careers

For the solo player, canned career groups or enterprises would be available.  Stay in the Terran Navy for your entire career, join the Capitalist Geological Survey or launch your own enterprise when you’re ready.

Epic Story Line

There are two natural overarching story lines just waiting to be explored– Is Earth real or just a Myth and Who or What is Responsible for the Ancient Beacons?

Velvet Rope

With a space based game, there are no natural limitations to the game space allowing for the easy addition of new worlds.  A velvet rope business model would allow both devs and players to incrementally expand.  Traditional big expansions could be implemented for major content additions, but incremental expansion could drop in new content which players could unlock for a small fee, expanding the playable universe for them.

Alright, this has gotten long enough.  Back to thinking about Diablo III.

Blog Faded

Boy, have I become blog faded.

Simple fact of it is, I’m just not compelled to spout off about anything much going on in the gamespace right now.  Conan is out, I’m not playing it and I really don’t care to read or participate in the Conan Rocks v. Conan Sucks debate, nor the perpetual discussion about polish.

Seriously, the most drama the MMOgosphere seems to be able to drum up is who would win in a steel cage match:  Tobold or Richard Bartle?  See what I mean? Its like the dreaded August in journalism– a non news month.

Blizzard’s super announcement in coming up in a few days, but whatever it is, we wont actually see it for a few years in all likelihood if past is precedent for Blizzard.  Seriously, today’s modern hype machines just wear you out sometimes years in advance of a release.

Warhammer? Meh.

Wrath of the Lich King?  Meh.

I’ve still been playing a number of games.  Our WoW group marches on as we are all on the verge of hitting 70.  We have an extended instance hiatus coming up, so I respecced shadow and am having fun face melting.  That’s rekindled a bit of interest but not any kind of must-play feeling.

I’ve fired up EQ2 again and am making steady progress though I continue to resist writing about EQ2 v. WoW v. everything else.  Covered ground and I’m not likely to provide much entertaining insight.  Suffice it to say, I’m having a decent enough time and the frequency of rewards at the lower levels is enough right now to keep it entertaining.

Work ebbs and flows, so its not like its keeping me from gaming or blogging.  So it feels like maybe a little break or low input period is just what i need.

Mrs. P and I are backfilling various movies and TV series we’ve missed or not seen in proper order courtesy of Netflix.  We thoroughly enjoyed HBO’s Rome and have moved on to Battlestar Galactica since we didn’t get caught up when it first came out, or should I say the new series first came out.  Fortunately or unfortunately, I watched all the originals in the 70’s with Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict and yes, Lorne “Don’t call me Ben Cartwright” Greene.

Also spending a lot of time out in the vegetable garden, biking about and starting and finishing a never ending series of home improvement tasks.  There must be some serious malaise in the MMO world if digging ditches, pouring concrete and building fences in 90 degree (F) heat is a more compelling proposition than sitting down to kill ten rats.

And so, rather than posting for posting’s sake… I let the blog battery recharge a bit.

Its a Group Thing

Been spending a bit more time in post-cataclysm Norrath of late.  Sony Online Entertainments “Legends of Norrath” promotion got Mrs. P and me sucked back in in large part due to Gaff’s urging.  So far, I can’t say I have any regrets.

As I mentioned before, I had bailed out before when EQ2 was the 3d game for me.  3d game means that’s the one I don’t play.

I like to explore and I like to play with a few select friends.  And, from time to time, I enjoy crafting.  All of these takes a fair amount of time.  Exploration is its own reward.

Group play is its own challenge– time wise its no where near as “efficient” as well-studied solo play or  some kind of Machiavellian minmax group play but its infinitely more rewarding.  Of course with current game design, sharing content and experiences with others requires an almost herculean effort.

In games like EQ2 and City of Heroes/Villains, there are mechanism that allow players of different levels to play together, but lets face it, the higher level player is mostly playing with the lowbie as a charitable act.  Chances are they have already experienced the shared content.

Mrs. P and I have been exploring the evil side of Norrath and generally having a good time.  Gaff has about 87 characters on no less than 34 accounts of all races, genders, classes and levels, and is quite adept at multiboxing so I think he’s hoping we stick with things long enough to plug into one of his multi box groups.  We’re actually looking forward to replicating on a much smaller scale some of our WoW group experiences.

As no doubt Wilhelm will report this week, we had a challenging weekend foray with our WoW group.  As Mrs. P and I retired in the wee hours Saturday/Sunday, I prattled on in my usual Monday morning quarterback fashion about the night’s efforts.

While we were not altogether successful in our primary goals, I was reminded of the extremely rarefied space our little band of adventurers occupies.  Three of us have been playing as a regular group since WoW’s release in December 2004.  Four of us have been playing together since about April or May 2005.   The latest incarnation of our group has been playing together since September 2006.

In a few short months our current group will have been at it nearly two extremely casual years.  In WoW terms, we are finally nearing the current level cap (70).  Until last week when we lifted the self-imposed soft level cap, we had managed to stay within about 1/3 of a level of each other after nearly two years of play with wildly divergent play budgets.  Not too bad I’d say.

As Mrs. P and I were doing the post-instance night post-mortem, it occurred yet again to me what an amazing accomplishment we’ve achieved irrespective of the night’s outcome.  One of us had a baby, four of us moved, one about 800 miles in the same time zone, one about 3000 miles two time zones away, one of us a few dozen miles and one of us twice in that period of time.  One of us lived out of a suitcase for more than a year and still managed to make our Saturday night runs and when they moved to their new permanent abode not miss the Saturday night event after the move.

No thanks to any game mechanic, through heroic efforts of self restraint and self auto regulation, we have shared collectively extraordinary experiences.  Indeed the chronicles of the group that Wilhelm has recorded has created that singular heroic fantastical narrative of shared experience that MMOs should strive to provide for their subscribers.

When I look back on it, we have a single shared narrative which should be the essence of the MMO experience IMHO.  If you read Wil’s amusing and insightful reportage of our collective adventures, you are in fact largely seeing all the data points of the collective narrative.  Except for perhaps crafting, there is no other narrative.  What you see is pretty much our five individual and collective stories in the game universe.

As we’re getting a bit more immersed into the EQ2 scene and frankly a bit bored with everything else currently out there, I’m struck by fundamentally different character of the experience we’ve been having in WoW and Tipa and the Nostalgia the Guild folks have been having back in EQ.  I’m hoping we might replicate at least a shred of the same thing in EQ2.

Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety but I’m not seeing any of the current crop of games make this kind of gameplay easier.  The “all solo” MMO is a function of the reality that we all have different play budgets and asynchronous progression is the new norm.  I can’t help but think that we’ve lost something by turning the dial completely to solo and not to provide mechanisms whereby different folks with different play budgets can still play together and create the shared experiences that are the most rarified that MMOs have to offer.

I’m not sure there’s a eureka moment buried here as its late, but I gotta think the devs might have a few better ideas than mine to facilitate this kind of gameplay.  Capping XP generation would be a start, but many more aspects would also need to be managed in order to accommodate different play styles and still support the unique squad-based objective.  Thats different from a guild, that’s different from “i have friends who also play the game”.

Then again, maybe I’m over thinking it.  Maybe all it takes is a group of people committed to coloring within the lines and being selfless enough to recognize that a greater good comes out of self restraint and “staying with the group” as they adventure through a virtual world.  I sure wish a few devs would bend their brains to make it a bit easier for us though…

WoWoW

A friend shot me this link from the Onion.  I guess I missed it on Kotaku the other day.  Now this is a game I’d buy.

Enjoy.