Bernie Madoff was a great investor. Used the wrong payment model.

Posted on November 8, 2012 by SynCaine

“I think there will definitely be failures within the next 12 to 24 months. Many who are entering the market right now are doing it as almost a money-grab. But subscription is dead. [Star Wars:] The Old Republic was the biggest possible swing for the fences. There is no longer any argument over whether that can be done.” – Craig Zinkievich, COO of Cryptic Studios

Do you think Craig said/wrote the above with a straight face? And if so, do you think he really believes it? It would take a pretty epic level of stupid, but then this is someone from Crypic, so I’m kinda 50/50 on it.

On the other hand, Craig is right. The ‘argument’ that sub games can be done is indeed over, mostly because it was never an argument to begin with. Pretending WoW, EVE, Rift, etc don’t exist must be nice, but probably not helpful in terms of sanity. Maybe Craig will also consider the argument over once EA shuts SW:TOR down for good. Time for a new ‘6 months’ meme I guess.

“I suspect that if you’d launched Fallout 3 as a free-to-play title rather than paying $60 for the disc it would have had equal or greater success.” – Someone working on games not as successful as Fallout 3.

“Riot Games’ Brandon Beck sees the matter differently. As a co-founder of the company that created League of Legends, Beck is at the top of the West’s biggest free-to-play success story, and perhaps the most compelling example of a free game that rivals the experience of the very best $60 AAA products. However, he stops short of proclaiming a free-to-play Uncharted as inevitable – it’s an easy thing to say, but actually making it work would be a daunting challenge, with higher upfront costs than the typical free-to-play game.”

Great stuff right? The failures in the pack telling the ones who are successful how to do their job. How about instead of making F2P ‘awesome’ games like Star Trek or Champions Online, you make outdated and ‘dead’ model games like Fallout, Skyrim, or Grand Theft Auto? Maybe then you won’t get bought out?

This really hammers home a major problem in the industry today; devs think their shitty game doing poorly is not because they made a shitty game, but because ‘market conditions’ ‘payment model’ ‘timing’ ‘toothfairy’ etc. Try making a good game. I’m pretty sure more than enough people will drop $60 for it. Or if you want, try making a good game that is worth playing longer than a month, and I’m sure people will be willing to pay the measly sum of $15 a month to do it.

Or yea, keep making SW:TOR, Star Trek, Champions, WAR, LotRO, DDO, etc, and keep thinking it’s not the game sucking that’s the problem. The magic future where people pay for crap is coming.

Update: Magic future already came? Zynga made a lot of money selling trash games? Magic future is over now? Zynga is worth a buck? Damn.

So close Craig, so close.

Posted in Combat Systems, DDO, EVE Online, League of Legends, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 23 Comments

The Elder Scrolls MMO is… um… not as bad as SW:TOR?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by SynCaine

9 minute Elder Scrolls Online video.

So first things first, it overall did not come off as horrible as the first info release sounded, and (almost) nothing in the interviews gave off the SW:TOR “We have no clue how to make an MMO, 4th Pillar should work right guyz?” vibe (buy a hotbar!). The emphasis on exploration was a little much, because we all know how exploration really works in MMOs, but again, it’s not 4th Pillar-level early disaster.

The PvP part towards the end looked very Darkfall-ish, which is amusing. Amusing because TESO PvP will suck compared to Darkfall, and because we have a game that’s not out yet attempting to fake (with phasing and zoning and all that) what a game produced in 2002 delivered. The more things change…

The biggest takeaway for me is that, come release day, will we be looking at TESO as the last bad WoW clone (wasn’t that supposed to be SW:TOR? Make it end…), or will we already have moved on. I mean, when the average Massively commentator is asking for something that’s not a WoW-clone, I think we have officially jumped the shark (doesn’t work but go with it), right?

At least they were honest that the game starts at the level cap.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Random, SW:TOR | 5 Comments

GW2 reaches Lineage 1 level of success for a quarter. Grats Anet!

Posted on November 7, 2012 by SynCaine

NCSoft reported their quarterly earnings. The biggest surprise? Lineage 1 and Guild Wars 2 are pretty close in overall sales.

Of course that’s not totally fair, seeing as how GW2 just came out, uses the B2P model, and had a ridiculously huge marketing budget, while Lineage 1 is ancient, a ‘forced-group’ PvP MMO, and likely no one reading this blog has ever really played it (spoiler alert: it was pretty good back in the day). I’m sure in the coming quarters GW2 will continue to kill it, while L1 will finally die, once and for all showing us that an MMO only has a certain life span, and that hardcore PvP MMOs can never work.

/sarcasm off – Pretty surprised by GW2’s performance, considering how front-loaded it is and the amount of money and resources that went into making/marketing it. It will also be interesting to see how steep the drop is next quarter. I can’t imagine NCSoft would be happy with GW1-level success considering the investment made.

Posted in Guild Wars, Mass Media, Rant | 24 Comments

Darkfall:UW – Best Case

Posted on November 6, 2012 by SynCaine

With Darkfall set to release in two weeks, I want to write down my expectations for the game. Today will be a best-case post, while tomorrow I’ll do worst-case. If nothing else, it will be interesting to revisit these post-release and see how Aventurine did and how DF2 ended up.

Best Case

The launch will be smooth from a performance standpoint, as the three years of DF1 experience will have refined the engine and stabilized it. Queues will still occur but won’t be ridiculous (over 1hr) in the first week or so, and player populations will be similar to levels experienced when DF1 launched the EU server. Server stability will be good, with minimal or no crashing. Hacking and exploits will be kept in check like they were in the later years of DF1.

The game will feel like DF1, but refined with the new roles and skills. Progression will still matter, but without obvious “must grind” skills like swimming or running. The early days/weeks will be heavily focused on character development and world explorations, with PvP happening when hunting parties cross naturally rather than along pre-defined PvP routes. The early land grab will be an interesting scramble, and the true value of each holding won’t be known until everything settles down and cities/hamlets/villages are built up.

The game will look similar to DF1 graphically, but with a nice facelift in terms of animations, lighting, sound, and overall feel. Much like DF1 in 2009, it won’t be cutting edge, but it will hold its own and the graphics will get the job done. Agon itself will be a better –designed version of its old self, with more places of interest and fewer barren spots. The three years of watching player behavior in old Agon will result in AV crafting a better, simply more interesting version, retaining the aspects that made the world interesting (magic lifts, high mountains, hidden passes) but removing the troublesome parts (one-entrance cities, imbalanced resource allocation).

The safe zones will allow players new to the DF experience to settle in before jumping into the deep end. Clans that are still forming will have a place to grow and learn. Veteran players will shortly leave these areas for the much richer lands beyond, but a sizable population of players will always occupy the safe zones. This will in turn allow DF2 to retain players better, and more of those new to the experience will be converted into core players rather than being driven off before really seeing what DF is about.

Those core players will have an environment that is busy and politically complex. Empires will rise and fall much like they did in the early EU days. PvP strategies will develop around specific roles, but then get countered by other roles and battle plans. The ‘grind everything’ character will not be the end-goal for everyone, and this will keep PvP interesting.

Crafting will be a refined version of DF1 crafting, with more designed being overall viable. With harvesting and resource placement redone, the DF2 economy will be stronger than anything DF1 saw, and ‘playing the market’ will become a legitimate role.

Finally, AV will have the resources to support DF2 much like they did for the first year or so of DF1, with frequent small updates and bi-annual expansions. This in turn will keep the core players playing while also attracting new ones.

Edit: Eurogamer will review DF2 and give it a 6/10, assigning someone who will actually login before writing it up.

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, Housing, Mass Media, MMO design, PvP | 7 Comments

New Darkfall Q&A

Posted on November 2, 2012 by SynCaine

Paragus from Inquisition has posted a Q&A from Aventurine about Darkfall. It contains a lot of new info, and is well worth reading.

Aventurine has also provided some additional clarification about the new safe zones here.

Overall I like the direction AV is moving DF in, and with release so close at hand, I think I’ll wait until then to really comment on things. Right now the info we have is a little scattered, and I don’t think we will get a full view of all the changes until we see them in action. Breaking down one change in a vacuum has little value IMO.

Posted in Darkfall Online | 3 Comments

MMOs: It’s a hobby

Posted on November 1, 2012 by SynCaine

My previous post sparked some good discussion in the comments, and requires a follow-up post. For additional background, see Victor’s post.

I think what I failed to clarify is perhaps how I expect an MMO player to play, both as a gamer myself and as a guild leader/officer. To really get the most out of the experience, you have to be around ‘enough’, and into the game ‘enough’ to care. ‘Enough’ is tough to nail down into an exact number, but as I previously said it can and sometimes should require a solid block (2-4hrs) of time, along with a minimum of 10 hours a week. If you can’t commit to either, I don’t think you can get the most out of an MMO.

First let’s address the large block of time. If you can’t sometimes pre-plan your life to play for 3 hours on a Sunday night (example), you either need to work on your life balance a bit or MMO gaming just might not work for you. This is not to suggest you need to be on for 3hrs EVERY Sunday, but when giving a weeks’ notice or so, move some stuff around and plan to be online. I honestly don’t think that’s asking too much, and again, if it is, wrong game for you.

The other is general weekly activity. I say 10 hours but really it’s going to depend on how well you use your time, and how active you are outside of playing as well. If you can frequent the forums and contribute that way, and generally attend pre-planned events, you might not need to play as much overall as someone else. But yea, if you can’t login at least 10 hours, I just don’t see how you can keep up and be anything more than some occasional random name online (more so if leveling or some steady progression is ‘required’, like in DF1 and skilling up).

So what kind of game does that leave us with, and what kind of content should we expect?

Most importantly, the game needs content that justifies that 2-4 hour block, such as a city siege, a fleet Op, progression raiding, etc. Combining a few 30min content chunks into one lump does not count, because ultimately what you put into the content is what you get out of it. The whole peaks and valleys vs steady stream thing. Working towards something significant as a group is a core value of the kind of MMO design I value/favor.

Now don’t confuse the need for large-blocks with relying on them exclusively, or removing the bite sized chunks overall. You need those little chunks to fill in the gaps, but that’s exactly what they are, filler, and filler is what it is. It can’t be the focus, and they especially can’t drive development at the expanse of the larger items. GW2 IMO ‘fails’ here because the game is all 30min chunks with no regard for those large pieces. It works well-enough for a casual stroll once in a while (hence no sub fee), but it lacks any substance or purpose outside of killing 30 minutes. And again, if all you are looking for is to kill 30 minutes solo (or alongside other bot-like players), GW2 likely works great for you, but that is so far from what the genre was built on, or how it works in games that do virtual worlds well.

More on this I’m sure, but I’ll stop for now.

Posted in Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Random | 23 Comments

Genre Splitting

Posted on October 30, 2012 by SynCaine

I want to combine some topics and thoughts into what will hopefully be a larger point; it’s crazy that today, games like GW2 and EVE are considered part of the same genre. Allow me to explain.

Shiolle asked the following:

“How much time (in terms of hours/week) would you consider a mandatory investment to properly play EVE or Darkfall (the way you play them)?”

To which I responded:

“20hrs+, with solid 2-3+ regular hour blocks and being able to play during the prime nights (Tues, Thurs, Sunday), while also being able to schedule to play 3-4+ hours for something major like a siege?

Some of it will depend on the player though. If you are self-motivated, you can get away with fewer hours or more random times. If you can’t in a sandbox, you will need to be online when the majority of the clan is, and for INQ that’s EST 8pm-1am.”

With that in mind, consider this post from Syp, where he talks about going back to SW:TOR, but in his considerations never once mentions the multiplayer aspect of the game, or anything outside his own time and planning. I’m not saying he is wrong here, as SW:TOR is an sRPG in all of its key aspects, but just consider that these games are, technically, in the same genre, supposedly drawing from the same pool of players (I don’t buy the whole pool thing, but many do, so let’s pretend for the sake of this post).

Now what if Syp was talking about Darkfall instead of SW:TOR, but had the same approach? First, he would ‘fail’ in terms of getting anything out of DF, as it’s really not a fun game to solo around in casually. But beyond that, imagine if Syp was a guild member, and you were the leader or officer trying to coordinate things. Members like Syp are a nightmare.

They don’t show up enough to be reliable for in-game planning. They aren’t active enough to generally follow the flow and social structure of a guild. And at the same time, they will show up sometimes and can’t be completely written off when considering numbers (less a factor in DF since there are no caps, but even here it matters for PR reasons), but often can’t stick around to fully see something through like a siege. Manning the wall for an hour and then logging during a 3 hour siege is not much help to anyone, player or clan. Plus when they move on after a month, whatever training or setup you have done with them goes poof as well.

And yet, currently, MMO gaming (supposedly) caters to both players; Those with enough time to play MMOs as virtual worlds to be lived in, and those with enough time to just experience a bite of content before logging off. It’s no surprise that games who try to attract both have spectacularly failed overall, while games who aim more towards one or the other can do well. EVE makes no illusion to offering bite sized 30min chunks of content as the main course, while GW2 (post-release) has been clearly designed just for that, with little to no consideration for pre-formed groups or long-term retention.

I think what confuses things further, beyond how companies sometimes attempt to market to everyone, is that many (most?) players also don’t fully consider this divide. We are, quite simply, looking for two completely different experiences, and in order to have those, we require two very different design approaches with very different time requirements, both for that day (30min vs 3hrs) and long term (1 month and done vs 1yr+ stays). As has often been stated, perhaps it’s time for a whole new set of terms when talking about the giant mess that we consider the MMO genre.

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

Xcom: No looking back

Posted on October 29, 2012 by SynCaine

I finished my Classic/Ironman game of Xcom over the weekend, with the final turn of the final battle coming down to making a 90% shot or losing everything. Luckily the 10% did not kick in and I saw the ending, otherwise much rage would have followed.

As I’ve stated before, Xcom is pretty fantastic, especially when “played right” in Classic/Ironman. Just the right mix of difficulty, luck, and rewarding gameplay. Officially it was my 23rd attempt, but many of those were cancelled after the initial battle, due to how important the early days/months are compared to later ones. During my game I actually had a full squad wipe, losing 6 Col, but was able to recover as at that point I had access to SHIVs (which are amazingly strong) and was able to train up a replacement crew in time for the finale.

As for playing on Impossible, I think I’m going to hold off until some DLC is released. I have no doubt that Xcom will see a good bit of DLC, and I’m actually looking forward to it. Already the first announced pack will add more Council missions (an area that could use some variety), and I’m sure more DLC will expand the game further. I’m also hoping the mod scene picks up and some interesting things come from that as well.

I plan to try out multiplayer, which seems to be fairly active. Beyond that, Darkfall should be out in about 20 days, so just need a little more gaming filler until then.

Posted in Random | 3 Comments

Fantastic Xcom review

Posted on October 25, 2012 by SynCaine

In case anyone here has not picked this title up, I’d highly recommend reading this review from Gamespy. I think its very fair and hits all the right points.

For me Classic Ironman mode really has lead to some highs and lows of almost-MMO proportions. Just great great stuff.

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 5 Comments

Save the F2P children

Posted on October 25, 2012 by SynCaine

I think I’m slowly transitioning from hating F2P players to feeling sorry for them, somewhat similar to my changing views of WoW and its players. When WoW really mattered and every dev team was trying to clone it, I felt a serious distaste for WoW post-WotLK and the players supporting it. As WoW has faded not only in success but influence, things like MoP earn more of a sad headshake than any real scorn. F2P is rapidly approaching panda-time for me.

There are of course the clueless ramblings of former MMO bloggers, still worrying about bandwidth costs like its 1999, trying to convince anyone who will listen about the evils of players who actually enjoy playing MMOs for more than a few minutes a week (those same evil players who drive most of the player content in games, like your guild leader, mod maker, video people, etc, but yea, evil), and trying to justify their outdated and dying existence in a genre that either offers them farms or famine (rimshot). That group has, for some time now, been in the MoP-like sentiment category. It’s like visiting your aging grandma and just going along with how wonderful basic cable TV is in variety; knowing that explaining Netflix would only confuse her.

Others, however, I still feel for. Here we have an entire post devoted not to the quality of content, or upcoming additions, or anything even remotely player-driven, but worrying about the nickel-and-dime rate of an ‘update’ to F2P. Trying to justify how selling HOTBARS is maybe OK because… um… you can also buy a cute dress or pet? Or wondering if they play a game with feature X and Y blocked will still be OK enough to bother logging in. You can’t help but feel bad. These are not the things you should be thinking about.

Compare Rift-related posts of late to SW:TOR posts of late and the picture should become crystal clear.

The worst part of it all is the actual cost we are talking about here. People really are considering the value of having additional hotbars for a few bucks over paying the cost of going to lunch once a month. Playing an inferior version of something for 20, 30, 40 hours A MONTH to save $15 bucks is beyond insane. And god help you if you actually really like the game, because now for a lesser product you will be paying MORE than $15 a month to get access to everything. The true ‘sweet spot’ is liking something enough to bother loading it up, but not liking it enough to really care more than that. F2P MMOs are like justifying gaming purgatory, and it’s amazing and yet sad to watch people continue to try.

Aim a little higher people, find a game you actually like, so you can justify that mountain of $15 a month. Or yea, try to convince yourself that a limited inventory or just two hotbars is ‘good enough’.

Posted in MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 25 Comments