Tobold’s post got me thinking a bit. Keep in mind this really has nothing to do with anything Tobold said, just that his post brought me into this line of thinking so I figured I’d point it out. No need to use it to point out what he is or is not actually saying. Now then, let’s get on to the point of my post.
Convergence is near, at least if EA is to be believed. Though I’m sure some people have plenty to say about that, I’ll refrain from anything else relating to EA in this post and instead discuss what they were saying. This idea is not really anything new, but I did glean a few interesting tidbits I wanted to share with everyone. But, let me preface this all by saying that I’m not so sure we’ll be seeing what he is talking about quite as soon as he believes. I’m not sure the money is there to make it worthwhile for the big companies no matter how good it may be from the viewpoint of the consumers.
As I mentioned before I think it is important to take a few minutes and go over the methodology of the Arc world design I mentioned a few day ago. Somewhere along the way I think I wasn’t perfectly clear in relating that this idea is fundamental to the world design of the game, not necessarily in game feature/system design. However, as I also noted, features should be derived from your world design, they are interwoven and ignoring that would cause a lot of inconsistencies.
Yesterday we got off on a tangent. I blame no one for this, unless they happen to be PE for being newsworthy yesterday. Aside from that though, I blame no one. I’ll speak no more of that subject though, unless I do, in which case you’ll know that this statement was a lie. Back to talking about “Arcs” and “Paths” today though.
As you all remember, I’m sure, I had a post on Tuesday which discussed another aspect of designing an MMO. Let’s delve a little bit deeper into those arcs I mentioned and find out exactly what I’m talking about (and I’ll be honest, as of right now I’m not even sure if I know, but I’m going to run with it anyway.)
A while back I mentioned what it takes to make a perfect game…or at least a perfect MMO. Well, I guess in truth I only gave a part of the story. While all those elements together would create a great game (and, on top of that, be something we haven’t seen before) they would not make a “perfect” MMO.
In fact, all these elements, even executed perfectly would still not be the perfect MMO. There is more to the story than that. All those paths represent only one possible arc a player can take. There is much more to consider here, each with its own branching paths and problems which need to be addressed.
I probably should have talked about this earlier, but I didn’t for a few reasons. First because I didn’t exactly know how I felt, and second because I wasn’t sure what was worth mentioning. I think, now, I’ve finally got it figured out. Of course, if you haven’t been keeping up on the TR news, than I’ll be explaining everything to you for the first time so let’s get that out of the way first.
Step 1 of this post is to read some of the latest information, I’ll summarize it later, but I highly suggest you go ahead and read the whole thing. Take a look here and here for what I am talking about (or what I am going to be talking about, as it may be.) Now that we have the foundation all set, time to get on to my part of the writing.
What do you need to know? That’s an important question. How much matters to you every second? Less than what you are displayed every second you have the game on probably. Do you need to know when your party is all at full health? Do you need to know when you are at full health? Do you need to know when you are at 95% health? Do you need to see your entire array of skills while out of combat? Do you need a bar for crafting available all the time, even when you can’t do any crafting?
It was a bit of a rant yesterday and I changed what should have been one argument and through in a couple others so that my main point didn’t really stand out. This morning though I made a few comments over at Darren’s site to really specify what I meant. I’ll quote the important bit here.
I don’t think anyone really does “get it” yet, and that’s my biggest concern. I say, you say it, we all end up saying it whenever we hear a developer make a logical statement like this…”Oh, they ‘get it’” but if they have to say it then they already don’t because it isn’t a byproduct of any work they do, it is a thought process that they have to specifically undertake.
Why is it that I get the feeling these developers, every meeting, have to repeat the phrase “Quality is good” so they get it through their heads? They just repeat it constantly so they won’t forget…because it isn’t deeply entrenched in everything they do. And that is the entire problem, as I mentioned before. Quality requires a dedicated thought process when it should be second nature.
That’s my real argument. Brent made a comment on yesterday’s post which said this:
Good observation. One never hears film directors talk about their products in the way you describe - because it should be obvious that they’re trying to make a good film, right?
That’s basically exactly what I wanted to say, I was just far too frustrated by what I’d been reading recently to not type it all out as a rant.
Let me put it this way. Assume you are going to get a house built. You hire some construction company to do this work for you and when the work starts you hear the supervisor constantly yelling at his men to “do a good job” and to “do quality work.” How does that affect your confidence? If it was me I’d be searching for someone else to do the work…immediately. Obviously there is a problem. They should be doing quality work because it is their job. Any work they do should be “quality” work. No one should have to tell them to make sure they keep the walls straight or to securely screw in the drywall. It needs to be second nature. And if we wouldn’t accept anything less than quality in other industries why should we in the game industry? Why should we praise those who go out and tell others how important quality work is when in any other field that would be tantamount to us immediately searching for more qualified people to do the job?
I’m getting tired of reading about AGDC. Actually, that isn’t entirely true. I’m getting tired of reading about how developers are “getting it” whenever they say something out loud that any asshole without his head shoved deeply into his anal cavity could figure out. Lectures given to others in the industry should never, ever, have to mention quality and how it is important to put out a good product. That is so beyond horribly idiotic that coming up with an acceptable way to phrase it and maintain my comfortable “T” rating is impossible. No shit you shouldn’t put out a steaming pile. This just in, people like shit that works well.
When the hell did they not get this memo in their life? If you aren’t going to do quality work then just stay the hell home and leave someone who is talented and dedicated enough to do it right. No one, ever, should have to be told not to do a crappy job and expect others to pay for it. That’s ludicrous, and I refuse to accept it any more. Someone needs to be stabbed in the throat the next time they start spewing this garbage.
I think I’ve honestly figured out the problem with the entire gaming industry in just these past few days reading this coverage. They are a bunch of assholes and do not know what they are doing from the very top levels. Project management must not exist at all because each successive game seems to be more unfinished than the last with even less direction. There is no thought to future content before anything is released, because it would just be a sin to actually be able to know what you should be doing from month to month.
It is not acceptable to say that the genre is still in its infancy. It is not acceptable to say that X, Y and/or Z feature will not make it in for release because there isn’t enough time. Wrong. You aren’t going to give it the time it needs. Stop twisting words around to not make you look like an incompetent loser and just say it. Our shit is broken, please play anyway.
Yes, I realize I’ve switched topics here a few times but I can’t help it. My point is this; if you need to explain to people that making a quality product is important to you than you have already failed. I would much prefer not to hear about how important you think quality is because anyone who hasn’t already taken this lesson to heart deserves to fail miserably and never get near another game design again.
/rant off
It seems like Darren is trying to stir up trouble asking if bloggers are considered press. Here’s the best way of saying it. Sometimes, yes. Not every blog or blogger is press but some most definitely are. It seems Darren’s definition is that press reports facts and news. If so we have a lot fewer press outlets than people are claiming. Blatant lies, half-truths and ignoring facts seem to be a regular part of the news media’s agenda. Newspapers, magazines, television, etc. all ignore things each and every day that the majority of people feel are important to “journalistic integrity.”
The “A” in this case is for asinine. As seen here. For those who read my blog regularly you probably notice that probably 4 out of 5 times I highlight something another person wrote it is to agree, or to generally agree and throw a different spin on it. This is different. This time I disagree, and I plan to rant about it. As in all things an opinion is an opinion and it doesn’t have to be liked but I certainly mean no disrespect by what I am about to write.
So, given that my story from yesterday had a pretty good reception I wanted to go ahead and tell another little tale today, this time of the stupidity of EB Games/Gamestop, but unfortunately I want to see how it resolves itself first, if possible. Let’s just say I have a feeling the end result will be me leaving aforementioned store with nothing, and said store will also be out a customer who has spent thousands of dollars in their store before.
I also wanted to comment on what one of the commenters from the story yesterday said about why someone (in this case me) didn’t say something to the father. I’ll get into this a little bit more tomorrow as well, but suffice it to say I’ve had a bad experience doing just that and I won’t bother with it anymore. It’s not my job to raise other people’s kids, so they can raise their little delinquents and I’ll keep trying not to be a complete asshat.
I’m going on a week-long trip on Friday. I mention that to explain the story I’m about to tell. This trip I’m taking, some would call it a vacation, involves me being in a car for about 14 hours. For those of you who have driven this far before you know that it is important to have something to do or at least have a healthy supply of sleeping pills. I’m out of sleeping pills. Instead I decided to go to the mall and pick myself up a Nintendo DS (sidetrack: screw every “next-gen” system, I’m having more fun with this thing than any other system I’ve played recently) and some games. I’m a masochist as should be obvious by the fact that I ventured into EB Games. To understand how horrible Gamestop/EB Games is you should probably imagine yourself in prison. Your cell-mate in this prison is the Devil himself.
There is a great read that I completely missed when it was first posted. Probably because, like so many other blogs I never got a chance to add it to my blogroll before I completely forgot.
The blog is written by Dana Baldwin, the Senior Producer for WWII Online (note to self: you need to try this game out). I bring this up only to point out that this person is (if you’ll excuse the pun) on the front lines.
I’ll quote the part that I found particularly interesting.
I made a post earlier about the/my “Perfect” MMO. As promised I’m going into a bit more depth, but rather than do it all at once and only add a little bit of information I’ve decided I’ll do pieces individually to get the full flavor of what I’m talking about. We’ll be starting this as a regular feature coming up soon.
In the morning you woke up and immediately started buying and selling on the market. Later in the afternoon your sell-through rate plummeted as competitor products hit the market at half your price. And tonight you're going to slay a dragon.
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MMO Gaming Author(s)
» Brandon
