Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Freelance web and mobile development
I know this blog has kind of gone by the wayside. I have been quite busy doing web and mobile development. In fact, I just re-launched my website Freelance web and mobile development using the Flex Framework Please check it out and if you need a site and/or mobile app built, I might be your man.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Dynamic Content
I'm going to talk a bit about Dynamic Content, but I'm going to keep it fairly "big picture" for now. I'll discuss specific content and their pros and cons in different posts.
The dungeons were infinitely repeatable quests that you could do at almost any level, and each time you did one, it would be different than any other time before. You could pick from a handful of locations, adventure types, and difficulties, and a brand new instance of the dungeon would be generated somewhat randomly for your group. It made for a pretty dynamic experience - each time you ran one of these dungeons, the layout would be different, the monsters would be spawned in different places, there were sometimes loot chests, sometimes rare mob types mixed in. Each time you completed one of these adventures, you'd gain different points depending on the type of dungeon it was, that you could spend to purchase some nice rewards.
Alternate Advancement was a new way to customize and advance your character beyond the regular levels. Any character at or above a respectable level could start directing some or all of the experience they earned while playing towards AA points. Once you built up some of these, you could start spending them to unlock new abilities, increase your stats, or improve your character in some other way. This gave players another reason to 'grind' (ie. play the game), while customizing their character somewhat.
MMOs have generally moved away from these kinds of systems recently, and I'm not sure why. The typical MMO advancement system uses levels, and the typical content system uses quests. The result of this is that any one character that you make has a fairly limited amount of content that they can run through. Once you have completed all the quests and reached the level cap, there's not much more you can do. There's usually some "end-game" content, and I'll get into my opinions on that kind of content in another post, but simply noting that it's usually pretty static content aswell should suffice for now.
A big problem comes when the content takes more time for the developers to build than it does for the players to play through it. Every time World of Warcraft (WoW) releases an expansion, the hard-core players all reach the new level cap within a few days, and they've completed all the new dungeons and whatever other content was added, within a week, maybe two. How long did it take for Blizzard to make that content? Oh, probably atleast 6 months. Obviously that's an issue.
What needs to be done? Developers should start thinking about making more dynamic content that is replayable many times before it gets boring. Here are a few ways this can be done:
1. Randomness. Instancing can allow random dungeon layouts as I've already mentioned, but this can be taken farther and outside instances. Monsters with random spawn points and pathing is another good one.
2. Repeatable. If a player likes a certain dungeon or quest, let them run through it more than once. There's no point in limiting the life-span of your content if the players are having fun.
3. Scalable. Why lock your player out of experiencing half your game's content just because they leveled up while doing the other half? Content that doesn't get played is a waste. Scaling difficulty to the player (and their group) is important too since it's no longer fun if there's no challenge in it at higher levels.
4. Player-driven. This is a pretty big one. It's mostly about giving your players the right tools. Player vs. Player combat never gets dull since it's different every fight, by nature. Let the player build their own environment and content - customizable houses, player-made quests, etc. A properly built crafting system with supporting economy systems can almost be a game on it's own.
5. Customization. Most players will customize the look of their characters to some degree, and some will spend a significant amount of time on it, giving more ways to do so is great. Other ways players can typically customize their characters are with talent points to pick out new abilities or modifications to existing ones. Swapping out skills, trying out new tactics, different stat distributions, different gear, anything. It all extends the life of your game.
There are so many ways these kinds of things can be done. Game designers just have to learn to think outside the box of static, level-based quests, and mix it up a bit.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Why play MMOs?
Why do people play MMOs?
As an escape from reality? Sure, but you can get the same thing from any game, or any form of entertainment, really. So why play an MMO when you can play the latest FPS or any other genre? Well, it's a Massively Multiplayer Online game, so it makes sense that it's the social factor that brings people in. Being able to play with your friends, join a guild, group up and achieve things even with random strangers.
You can get some of this from a typical FPS. You play with and against other people, you can talk to them, it's a community. Usually this is done in fairly small groups and not typically with the same people every time. When you exit the game, that's it. Others might be playing the game still, but their game doesn't affect you, so the next time you log in, the game continues right from where you left off. For an FPS, this is all great, but they're designed to give you fast-paced, upredictable combat, because that's what they are.
The second thing that typically defines an MMO (although there are some exceptions) is that it has a Persistent World. When you log off, unlike in an FPS, the server doesn't shut down until you load the game back up. The world continues it's existence, time passes, things might happen while you're away. When you finally do log back in, you're logging right back into the same world you were in before, except things may have changed since you were gone.
So that's an MMO. A Social Persistent World. Is that what brings people to play these games? I think so, atleast initially. The chance to do things with your friends, meet new people, form guilds and other groups. Experience the world that the designers have created and explore it, make an impact on it, affect the lives of the game's characters (both NPCs and PCs).
Here's the kicker - I think most current MMOs fail at both of these.
They don't provide sufficient tools to allow a strong community to develop. They create the world, throw in 'content', package it and sell it. Sure, they give you the ability to talk to each other, team up, etc. similar to how an FPS does, but that's it. These systems have been available since the first MMOs and are available in games like FPSs which aren't as focused on the community as an MMO should be.
Most MMOs also don't capitalize on the power of a Persistent World. They put in quests, like saving a farmer's daughter from the evil troll down the road, and every character that's ever made, from the game's initial release until the company goes under and shuts down their servers, will get that same quest. What is that woman doing to get herself captured by a troll a couple million times or more over the lifespan of that game? Admittedly, if the quest can only be completed once by a single player, you'd run out of quests pretty quickly. Developers can only create a finite amount of content, even if development continues after the game is launched, players will complete any content faster than it can be developed.
What can be done about these?
Some recent MMOs have taken great strides towards solving these issues. Guild systems have been improved, allowing players to develop their guild beyond just a name above their head. A couple examples are Warhammer Online's "Living Guilds" system that allows your guild to level up, and Age of Conan's guild cities and keeps that provide a guild-wide investment and encourage guild events like keep sieges.
Some games are implementing player-made content. Second Life is the king of this, and some other games such as City of Heroes are implementing player-made quests.
Lots more needs to be done though. These games need to focus more on providing tools to the players that encourage them to be social and to support their communities. They also need to rethink the way they provide content to their players. Is the quest-based MMO ideal? or should dynamic, replayable, or player-made content systems be designed? Obviously I have some ideas, but this post is already getting long so I'll make new posts for each of them later.
As an escape from reality? Sure, but you can get the same thing from any game, or any form of entertainment, really. So why play an MMO when you can play the latest FPS or any other genre? Well, it's a Massively Multiplayer Online game, so it makes sense that it's the social factor that brings people in. Being able to play with your friends, join a guild, group up and achieve things even with random strangers.
You can get some of this from a typical FPS. You play with and against other people, you can talk to them, it's a community. Usually this is done in fairly small groups and not typically with the same people every time. When you exit the game, that's it. Others might be playing the game still, but their game doesn't affect you, so the next time you log in, the game continues right from where you left off. For an FPS, this is all great, but they're designed to give you fast-paced, upredictable combat, because that's what they are.
The second thing that typically defines an MMO (although there are some exceptions) is that it has a Persistent World. When you log off, unlike in an FPS, the server doesn't shut down until you load the game back up. The world continues it's existence, time passes, things might happen while you're away. When you finally do log back in, you're logging right back into the same world you were in before, except things may have changed since you were gone.
So that's an MMO. A Social Persistent World. Is that what brings people to play these games? I think so, atleast initially. The chance to do things with your friends, meet new people, form guilds and other groups. Experience the world that the designers have created and explore it, make an impact on it, affect the lives of the game's characters (both NPCs and PCs).
Here's the kicker - I think most current MMOs fail at both of these.
They don't provide sufficient tools to allow a strong community to develop. They create the world, throw in 'content', package it and sell it. Sure, they give you the ability to talk to each other, team up, etc. similar to how an FPS does, but that's it. These systems have been available since the first MMOs and are available in games like FPSs which aren't as focused on the community as an MMO should be.
Most MMOs also don't capitalize on the power of a Persistent World. They put in quests, like saving a farmer's daughter from the evil troll down the road, and every character that's ever made, from the game's initial release until the company goes under and shuts down their servers, will get that same quest. What is that woman doing to get herself captured by a troll a couple million times or more over the lifespan of that game? Admittedly, if the quest can only be completed once by a single player, you'd run out of quests pretty quickly. Developers can only create a finite amount of content, even if development continues after the game is launched, players will complete any content faster than it can be developed.
What can be done about these?
Some recent MMOs have taken great strides towards solving these issues. Guild systems have been improved, allowing players to develop their guild beyond just a name above their head. A couple examples are Warhammer Online's "Living Guilds" system that allows your guild to level up, and Age of Conan's guild cities and keeps that provide a guild-wide investment and encourage guild events like keep sieges.
Some games are implementing player-made content. Second Life is the king of this, and some other games such as City of Heroes are implementing player-made quests.
Lots more needs to be done though. These games need to focus more on providing tools to the players that encourage them to be social and to support their communities. They also need to rethink the way they provide content to their players. Is the quest-based MMO ideal? or should dynamic, replayable, or player-made content systems be designed? Obviously I have some ideas, but this post is already getting long so I'll make new posts for each of them later.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Overview
This blog is going to be about everything that makes up a persistant world game. It will, of course, be my opinions - on past, present, and upcoming implementations of these game systems. I realize that as hard as I could try to keep this blog an objective view, I would fail. So instead, I won't try to make it objective. Instead, I will voice my opinions on how things work in the MMOs I see, and what I think they should do instead - or rather, what I'd do - to make the ultimate MMO.
Typically, games can be broken up into a bunch of 'systems' that work together to create the overall gaming experience. Some broad examples are Combat systems, Economic systems, and Social systems. These can have different scope, and some can be broken up into smaller sub-systems. A Crafting system would be a part of the game's overall Economic system, for example. I'll try to make each post about either a specific, small system, or how a few systems interact to create a larger one.
So why start this blog? Frankly, this is a place where I can freely brainstorm and express my thoughts. Over the past couple of years, I've been taking steps to enter the gaming industry professionally, and as I've done this, I've found I've become more and more opinionated when it comes to game systems. I've always dissected games that I've played into their various systems, formulas and algorithms (I'm weird like that), but now I'm looking at it more from a business standpoint. Every game implements things differently and each have differing success. The great ones manage to get a strong set of systems working together, but of course, none have gotten them all perfect - yet. As I mentioned above, it's all opinion. There is no perfect game for everyone. There won't ever be. There can't be. What one person likes, another person hates. There's no way to please everyone. So once again, it's all just in my opinion. That said, as an aspiring game designer with ideas of my own, I am going to try to create something that I believe will be fun. From a business standpoint, it has to appeal to as many people as possible.
While I may end up giving specific details about systems I have in mind, these aren't for any specific project. I don't currently have an MMO planned that will be using anything I talk about here. If you like my ideas and would love to play a game with everything I describe, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you won't see me putting any of this into any games in the near future. Whatever I post here is obviously public domain. If you happen to be making a game yourself, by all means, use my stuff. Just let me know, so I can play it! Or even consider hiring me. You can find my portfolio at http://www.matthewchowns.com I'm always looking for new opportunities.
Feel free to give some feedback on my ideas too, I'd love to see what people think.
Typically, games can be broken up into a bunch of 'systems' that work together to create the overall gaming experience. Some broad examples are Combat systems, Economic systems, and Social systems. These can have different scope, and some can be broken up into smaller sub-systems. A Crafting system would be a part of the game's overall Economic system, for example. I'll try to make each post about either a specific, small system, or how a few systems interact to create a larger one.
So why start this blog? Frankly, this is a place where I can freely brainstorm and express my thoughts. Over the past couple of years, I've been taking steps to enter the gaming industry professionally, and as I've done this, I've found I've become more and more opinionated when it comes to game systems. I've always dissected games that I've played into their various systems, formulas and algorithms (I'm weird like that), but now I'm looking at it more from a business standpoint. Every game implements things differently and each have differing success. The great ones manage to get a strong set of systems working together, but of course, none have gotten them all perfect - yet. As I mentioned above, it's all opinion. There is no perfect game for everyone. There won't ever be. There can't be. What one person likes, another person hates. There's no way to please everyone. So once again, it's all just in my opinion. That said, as an aspiring game designer with ideas of my own, I am going to try to create something that I believe will be fun. From a business standpoint, it has to appeal to as many people as possible.
While I may end up giving specific details about systems I have in mind, these aren't for any specific project. I don't currently have an MMO planned that will be using anything I talk about here. If you like my ideas and would love to play a game with everything I describe, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you won't see me putting any of this into any games in the near future. Whatever I post here is obviously public domain. If you happen to be making a game yourself, by all means, use my stuff. Just let me know, so I can play it! Or even consider hiring me. You can find my portfolio at http://www.matthewchowns.com I'm always looking for new opportunities.
Feel free to give some feedback on my ideas too, I'd love to see what people think.
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