It’s e-sports, not RMT… Trust us!

Posted on February 26, 2008 by SynCaine

Blizzard has been against micro-transactions for a while now, sticking with the monthly sub model. Unfortunately that only generated 500 million last year, so like any struggling company they had to go to desperate measures and accept the RMT model. Being Blizzard they of course put their own ‘polish’ on it, and instead did away with that silly ‘micro’ part of the model. Why charge a few bucks for something when you can just wrap it all together and charge one price, right?

Blizzard also changed the name of RMT, it’s call e-sports. For only $20 (plus WoW, TBC and the normal monthly fee) Blizzard will power level a character for you, give you unlimited access to all the best epics, and free respecs so you can avoid the pointless grinding. They will also place you on a special RMT… err e-sport server along with the rest of the suckers… err e-sport fans. As a side bonus, you can enter the arena and officially get curb stomped by some E-sport pro group you yourself helped sponsor with your $20 RMT fee. Congrats!

Up next, Blizzard plans to open up a ‘god mode’ server. For only $25, you can get all the e-sport bonuses, plus god mode. Finally you can visit all those pesky ‘group only’ instances and raids and see all the content, without the need to talk or interact with anyone else. All that for only $25! Buy now, supplies are running out!

Posted in PvP, Random, World of Warcraft | 16 Comments

Learn to play in the sandbox correctly noob!

Posted on February 26, 2008 by SynCaine

There are many differences between sandbox and theme park MMOs, but I think one that often gets overlooked, at least by fans, is the one I want to get into today: the ability to play a sandbox MMO ‘wrong’.

Wrong not in the optimal or min/max sense, but wrong in that you are not using the tools available to you to get the most fun out of the game. Theme park games don’t have this problem because they basically force you to play ‘correctly’. You can’t accidently stay in one place too long; the game moves you on. It gives you breadcrumb quests, it grays out the current quests/mobs, and it stops giving you xp/items, all in the effort to get you into the next zone/area it wants you in. That’s not always the case with a sandbox game, and that is one of the hurdles such games face when trying to keep new players.

Say you just started EVE, and you get into combat missions to make money and get new ships while your skills train up. The usual path in EVE for a mission runner is to go from level 1 missions and move up when possible, getting better money/drops as you increase the challenge. But unlike a theme park game, level 1 missions never go ‘gray’ for you, they never stop being available. At no point does the game force you to stop running level 1 missions and makes you run level 2 or 3, so it is entirely possible that a new player will continue to run level 1 missions long past the time he/she should have moved on. It’s also entirely possible they continue to run level 1’s until they get bored and quit, thinking that is all the game has to offer. If they never get into a good Corp or chat channel to learn the rope and move into the more interesting aspects of EVE, their one and only impression of the game will be the constant and easy grind of missions featuring only frigate enemies. They quit and leave with the impression of EVE being a silly and pointless grind. Apply that example to mining solo and it only gets worse. Throw in a bad accidental trip into low-sec and its downhill fast.

The above scenario is not likely to happen in a game like WoW. As soon as enemies and quests get too easy, they go gray and the game moves you into a harder area, on and up until you hit the cap. Death is just one short trip to a graveyard should you stumble off the pre-set path.

Of course the flip side is that WoW also FORCES you to stay in those low level areas. You can’t create a level 1 priest and go raiding Black Temple, or queue up with your buddies in the Arena. Both scenarios ARE possible in EVE, as a day 1 pilot can indeed join his Corp in level 4-5 missions, or jump into a donated frigate fitted to tackle and go on a PvP run. Not only is it possible, but that new pilot will also actually contribute something of value, especially the tackler in PvP.

But back on point, the problem still exists that players COULD play EVE or another sandbox game ‘wrong’. Aside from placing new pilots in rookie chat (a good start, but usually the channel moves too fast to really help) and having a short tutorial, what can be done to help new players out? Is it possible to have the freedom that sandbox players love, while still helping new players out enough to get them to the ‘good stuff’ in the sandbox?

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, World of Warcraft | 11 Comments

Forgotten content in WoW.

Posted on February 25, 2008 by SynCaine

Over the weekend my shaman hit 55 in WoW after finishing up some quests in the Plaguelands, and I noticed just how much of that content is now wasted. Due to the fact that level 58+ greens in Outland are better than 60+ blues in the old world, chasing after select items in the old world once TBC content is within reach seems silly and pointless. Stuff like gathering Argent Dawn tokens to turn in for items, or collection the blue 8 piece armor set from Strath/Scholo/BRS and then upgrading it.

Now granted I accept that as new content is released, it will slowly replace the old stuff, but the amount of detail and effort that went into creating all that content is now lost simply due to overpowered BoE Outland stuff. Why not rebalance the old world 60 instances as an alternative to being forced into Hellfire Peninsula? Instead of grinding quests to 70, why not allow people to grind all those instances and gear up that way, taking those items and having them be viable in Outlands instances. Now you have a full 55-70 path that can be fully completed, if the player wishes, in a group instance environment. The content is already there, you just have to up the stats on the drops and increase a level or two on the mobs, and hello usable viable content.

Places like BRS/Strath/Scholo/DM should be required content pre-outlands, just based on the quality and history of those places alone. Sadly history has little meaning in e-sports, right Bliz?

Posted in MMO design, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Running scared from the WoW monster. We need a hero!

Posted on February 22, 2008 by SynCaine

The first bits of ‘news’ are coming out of GDC, and one very interesting bit I read today comes from a discussion called ‘Future of MMOs’ featuring Cryptic Studios’ Jack Emmert, NCsoft Matt Miller, BioWare’s Ray Muzyka, Nexon’s Min Kim, and finally Blizzard’s Rob Pardo.

While everything said was fairly interesting, the one thing that really struck me was the general fear of WoW. Multiple times someone stated that investors and developers do not want to go up against WoW, but rather find other markets to try and gather customers. Rob had the following to say:

I’m delighted as a business person that nobody wants to make an MMO because Blizzard set the bar too high. But as a game player, I’m disappointed. I wants to see more stuff out there. But you’re not just competing against WoW anymore, you’re competing with WoW + expansions. Direct contrast is hard, because you’re always playing catchup.

I’m sure the guys from EA Mythic would not have been as easily frightened as the rest of the crew up there, and I would have loved for Paul Barnett to be sitting up at the panel and hear his response. Sadly he was not there, so we will never know his reaction.

I also think the fact that WoW has ‘expansions’ (hi you only have one, and will delay the 2nd till xmas) is a plus, but is offset by the fact that you have an aging graphics engine and other general problems that develop with an MMO being up for a long time (mudflation and such)

What I do think is interesting is that this puts more pressure, in a way, on Warhammer Online being successful. If it is, it will show that you can indeed compete with WoW instead of running from it, and that while WoW may have nailed the solo PvE market perfectly, there are many other aspects of MMOs that can be focused on and used to sell a game. I think if WAR fails, and the reason for the failure is WoW more than anything else, it will indeed be a sad time for MMO gaming. Instead of getting more triple A quality games, we will see a slew of micro transaction mini-game crap in every color under the rainbow, each game just hoping to attract enough players to keep the servers up and a bit of money streaming in. In addition, we will continue to see more WoW-like MMOs, just with different shades of neon or pastel filling the screen.

So lets all hope that WAR is a success, the fate of the (mmo) world might depend on it!

Posted in MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 16 Comments

Understanding the casual player

Posted on February 21, 2008 by SynCaine

One of the longest running debates in the MMO world is the casual vs hardcore debate, and one aspect that has always confused me is the usual ‘solution’ you hear from the casual crowd to even the playing field. The most basic problem is that certain content, mainly raiding or high-end PvP, and all the loot/benefits from them, is not accessible by the majority of casual players. Wanting that access, casual players often wish raid-level instances could be 5 manned, or PuG’ed effectively without perfect class balance. You also hear stuff like restraining premade PvP groups to ONLY fight other premades, allowing the casual PuG groups to battle each other. And overall one of the most common things you hear is to make the overall time commitment lower, that grinding rep/consumables/gear takes too long to reach the upper levels of content.

What confuses me is if we assume we make the above changes, what would the actual repercussions be? For starters, the entire hardcore population would instantly burn through the content, because anything that’s PuG-able is going to be a cakewalk for a guild or pre-made. This means that a very vocal minority is now bitching about a lack of content, flooding forums and the like. It also means the overall progression is much faster, where even semi-casual players are reaching ‘maxed out’ status. You either rush development to throw out new content, or you suffer a much higher rate of burn-out.

WoW has shown us exactly what happens when you make anything give a reward regardless; people just stop caring. It’s bad enough when you see it in the BGs, but imagine queueing up for a PuG instance and half your group is afk-droning just to leech whatever little reward you give just for showing up, or are playing while watching TV, going afk constantly and basically playing halfassed. In a guild those players get kicked out and the problem is instantly solved, but in the forgiving world of PuG queueing, players would be stuck constantly dealing with such players. The requirement to field a competent group of 10/25, where people are carrying their weight, is what weeds out the afk players from top guilds, remove that and you remove any need to weed out, basically enabling an even large player base to stop caring.

Another thing that also confuses me is that while casuals ask for content to be less strict in class/time requirement, they still want it to be a challenge. To me this is an impossible task of balancing, because aside from a small group, whatever you do most people will find it either too hard or too easy. The reason ‘too hard’ works for the majority is players can always get better and eventually reach that level of difficulty. This also serves as great motivation to progress your character. The major problem with ‘too easy’ is that once content is conquered, it goes into farm status and ultimately the players move on and forget it. And going back to increase the difficulty would set of a firestorm among players, as you would be basically pushing a group of players backwards, which is never a good thing.

Finally, I often see casuals stating that time does not equal skill, and that if you removed the time barrier, casual and hardcore players could compete on an even playing field, since supposedly then actual ‘skill’ would matter. The flaw in this reasoning is that while certain aspects of raiding are indeed just pure time sinks (raid reset timers, gear check fights, consumable requirements) they go hand in hand with other aspects. Aside from having more time, generally hardcore players also pore over patch notes and class changes, always knowing the optimal skills/setups. In addition, they also huddle in smaller sub-groups in MMOs, generally guilds, and hence are surrounded by like-minded players with dedication, sharing in a wealth of knowledge. If there is a small advantage to be gained, the hardcore will always find it before the casual, and they will exploit that advantage to its fullest. While removing certain time constraints would indeed make things a bit easier for casuals, it would in fact make things MUCH easier for the hardcore crowd, leading to an even greater divide.

My most basic conclusion is that the vocal ‘casual’ players are actually a niche, stuck between the hardcore players that can and the true casuals that don’t care. They are just serious enough to want access to the top levels, but for whatever reason are unable to meet the requirements to access such content. But that’s just my opinion, and hopefully people will share theirs, as the mentality of the ‘vocal casual’ does truly interest me.

Posted in MMO design, PvP, World of Warcraft | 24 Comments

Damn you flu!

Posted on February 20, 2008 by SynCaine

The lack of updates is due to a nasty flu that hit me hard and is just now finally going away.

In actually gaming news… well other than still working my way through The Witcher (still good, not sure about that ‘after chapter 3 falloff’ talk) and hitting level 52 in WoW (I know, special) things have been fairly quiet. Once I’ve completed The Witcher I think I might finally get around to getting The Orange Box (although that has been said before here…) and seeing what this whole cake thing is about. One can only hope that after all that, a more open beta will be up for Warhammer Online, if not actual release.

Oh, and since I hit 51+ in WoW, I was finally able to see the ‘new and improved’ Alterac Valley, and I have to say it’s a bigger joke now than it was before. While the old version required minimal strategy, mostly in the timing of the special NPCs you can use to help out and to break a stalemate, the new version is a straight up grind for 20 minutes and you get your cookie. No strategy, no need to work as a team, just follow the masses and AoE everything in front of you until it ends. There is a reason Blizzard does not allow groups to queue up for AV, and it has very little to do with any kind of ‘queuing issue’. On the other hand, looking for strategy in WoW PvP is a mistake to begin with, so maybe just mindless grinding makes the trouble of getting AV marks a little easier for everyone, allowing everyone to move on to real ‘fun stuff’ like raiding, right?

Posted in PvP, Random, Site update, The Witcher, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Weekend reading, but only for white people.

Posted on February 15, 2008 by SynCaine

Through the magic of the ‘Top Blogs’ list here at WordPress, I found this site. Very well written, and certainly some funny stuff.

Posted in Random | 1 Comment

Will Warhammer be good enough to overcome the inevitable PvP shock?

Posted on February 14, 2008 by SynCaine

The following is based on a few assumptions that are key to understanding my thinking here. Please keep them in mind when reading.

  • Assumption one: Most MMO players have only played WoW.
  • Assumption two: Most MMO players don’t know about MMO gaming outside of WoW.
  • Assumption three: Many WoW players will be looking for another MMO to play.
  • Assumption four: Many of those WoW players will try Warhammer Online.

I’m not looking to debate the above, as that’s not the point of this post. With that out of the way, here is today’s prediction: people will be shocked by the PvP in Warhammer, both in a good and bad way.

Using the above assumptions, we know most people consider PvP to be BG’s and perhaps Arena combat, with some amount of random PvP server zone ganking thrown in. If that is all you know of PvP, you are under the impression that PvP is mostly a queue up, run around in a forced group ignoring general chat, everyone gets a token at the end slugfest. You run to a few combat hotspots and mash your hotbar until either your target dies or you die. You get resurrected and you repeat until the game ends, at which point you queue up and repeat until you have whatever epic you are aiming for. Oversimplified, but I think that basic description covers a large base of the WoW community. I am fully aware of the premades and the PvP guilds, but those are the minority among the general WoW population.

So what’s going to happen when that WoW player base signs up for Warhammer and they find that not only is PvP emphasized far more than they are use to, but that it is also AT LEAST a bit more tactical than the ‘hotbar spam and die’ game they know? While we don’t know all the details of WAR PvP, we can safely say it will be at least a little deeper than WoW’s model, both in terms of actual gameplay types (not just instances BGs) and in terms of character skills and abilities.

My guess is that many will attempt to play it like WoW PvP, and slowly learn that such an approach is ineffective. At the same time a smaller community of PvP experienced gamers will rise up and become the example of PvP execution. Communication and group skills will overshadow the heavy gear influence players have grown accustomed to, and most players will be left with a choice, adapt or quit. What will determine the ratio of the adapt/quit population is exactly how good Warhammer Online is overall. If the game delivers on half the hype surrounding it and is overall a great game, players will find it good enough to shift focus and adapt. On the other hand if Warhammer is just another fantasy MMO, I believe many will find the ‘PvP shock’ too great and move back to WoW.

Posted in Combat Systems, MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 21 Comments

Sandbox or Theme Park?

Posted on February 13, 2008 by SynCaine

During the recent posts about stories in MMOs, the topic of sandbox vs theme park MMOs came up, which got me thinking on which style I prefer and why.

The first MMO that I played heavily was Ultima Online back in 1997. UO was a sandbox style game almost to an extreme. At the time that distinction did not exist, as UO was really the only major MMO out at the time. Once EQ was released the sandbox/theme park separation was born. Since then most MMOs have favored the theme park design, although a few sandbox games have been released and seen success, most notably Asheron’s Call and EVE Online.

UO and AC Darktide still rank highly on my top list of MMOs, and some of my favorite personal MMO moments come from those games. I can still vividly recall my first run-in with Og in AC, or the day I finally purchased a perfectly placed house in UO from another player. That said, WoW is also high on my list, but for very different reasons, chief among them the friends I made during my time as an officer in a raiding guild. The raiding itself was fun enough at the time, but the people I met and continue to game with are what make WoW memorable for me.

Looking at the current MMOs I subscribe to, WoW and EVE, I realize both serve a very different purpose.

WoW is my easy, relaxing game. I can log in and with little effort or thought make progress by grinding out some quests or running an instance while socializing with old friends. It never really produces any “that’s awesome” moments, but I don’t expect it to. It’s a safe and guaranteed good time, the definition of a theme park MMO. Sign up, sit down, and enjoy the pretty sights and sounds of the ride. WoW has nailed this formula, and that in part has lead to its massive success. It SHOULD be used as the prime example of how to make a great theme park game, as it has perfected all the selling points of such a style. While WoW overall is not perfect, it is fairly close when it comes to the casual progression of ones character while providing adequate social options. Gathering a steady group of friends and playing WoW together is some truly enjoyable gaming.

EVE on the other hand is almost the exact opposite. If I don’t log in with a goal or purpose, there is not much to do in EVE. My two accounts are at the point where grinding missions or solo mining do little other than increase my ISK balance slowly, and unless I’m terribly bored or in dire need of ISK, I avoid both. If some PvP Op is going down with my Corp, I jump in when I can. Those are generally hit or miss. We either get some kills, get ourselves killed, or nothing happens. Like everything else in EVE, nothing is guaranteed, and you never know if a small skirmish is going to explode into an all out fleet battle with billions in losses. Same goes for my industrial pilot, most days little happens on the market out of the ordinary. A few missiles sell to small buyers, I buy a few rounds of ammo, etc. But there is always the chance that someone makes a multi-million ISK purchase, or dumps millions of ISK in product into one of my buy orders. Those days require further action, and serious market decisions must be made. A bad call could cost me weeks of work, while a good one could make all that effort worthwhile. The highs and lows of EVE are tremendous, and in between those peaks lies a large amount of steady nothingness.

So which do I prefer? Well both actually. They compliment each other well, in an odd sort of way. Whenever the safe grind of WoW becomes a bit boring or stale, I have EVE waiting for me to offer some unpredictable action, good or bad. Understanding EVE is a game, even the bad can be enjoyable as a learning experience, and when I do hit those highs it makes all the effort to reach them that much more rewarding. But there are days when I simply don’t feel like putting too much effort into my actions, and WoW is a nice fallback to have.

If I did not have the luxury of both and had to choose one, I would have to go with EVE. Not because EVE is inherently more fun or a better game than WoW necessarily, but because it offers more options and freedom. If I get bored of questing or gear grinding in WoW, my options are very limited. If however I get bored of PvP in EVE, I can always fall back and focus on the industrial side of the game, or perhaps jump into Corp management. EVE simply offers more possibilities as a game world over WoW due to its sandbox style, which has always been the main strength of that style.

I think the important thing to realize is that we are lucky to be gaming at a time when both options are available and represented with high quality games. Different people will gravitate towards different styles, depending on each player’s personal preference. I would advise everyone to give both styles a fair try, as many would be surprised to find the enjoyment in both. While the theme park offers instant gratification, the sandbox takes a little time to get into and see the fruits of your efforts. Like many things in life, you often get more satisfaction from a result when you put a greater amount of effort into it, and I believe sandbox games represent this in the MMO space. While many bring up ‘it’s a game, I don’t want to work’, I believe this is selling your gaming experience short. Even in an on-rails game like WoW, you still ‘work’ towards certain goals; be it grinding rep, crafting skill, gathering gear, etc. WoW hides the work in clever ways, but at the end of the day you still put in effort to accomplish a goal. The real difference is that the goal is more clearly defined and the path set in stone, while in a sandbox game you must find your own goals and find your own path.

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 14 Comments

Less can be more; how Warhammer Online could benefit from fewer class options.

Posted on February 12, 2008 by SynCaine

News that Warhammer online might not ship with all classes ready to go at release is making the rounds, which got me thinking about the possible impact that might have on the game. As most know the current system is set up so that each race has four classes, a tank, a healer, melee dps, and ranged dps. My initial reaction was that you can’t possibly remove any of those from certain races as it would cause balance issues in the RvR portion of the game.

Thinking about it a bit more however, I could see how changing the format to only three classes per side could actually be very beneficial. Instead of breaking down dps into range and melee, combining the two would actually solve a few general MMO issues. First off the game would be structured in the ‘holy trinity’ for each side, tank/healer/dps. Add in the fact that we have three races per side, you now give your players three types of tank/healer/dps, with each race being similar with slight differences. Then we toss in the mastery system, which gives each class three paths, and we have a huge range of diversity among our classes without running into the usual ‘hybrid class’ problem. What I mean by that is classes like the hunter in WoW, who is a great solo class due to having a pet as a tank, being able to heal a bit, and having ranged dps. Put the hunter in a group, especially in a raid, and now he is the ugly ducking; his pet is useless, gone is his ability to heal said pet, and his ranged dps is inferior to other classes. That really fun solo class is now unwanted by groups, causing end-game issues.

The mastery system itself could define the type of dps a player would prefer. One tree could be ranged heavy, the other melee, with perhaps a support or utility tree as a third option. With the option to respec, adapting to your groups needs or your currently availably items would be easy enough. Instead of loading up on ranged dps classes because encounter x caters to them, therefore forcing your melee dps classes to sit out, all that you would need to field an ‘optimal’ group is for a few of your players to respect, a much easier solution.

This also brings up another interesting point; do we really NEED that many classes? WoW has 9, and while many claim this is low and limits options, I would argue that it’s too many, creating both guild and encounter balance issues. Going back to the example above, a guild only needs so many hunters, and once you reach that amount you basically exclude all other hunters based on class alone. If instead WoW had only three classes, but then greater diversity in the talent tree system, guilds would have a much easier time getting a balanced group together without alienating it’s members. Too many ranged dps class specced people online tonight? No problem, just have one or two respec for the night and you are all set, no need to exclude anyone or field a weaker group just to keep all members happy.

By also defining the three basic rolls so heavily, you could avoid the general problem with hybrid classes. Using WoW as an example, we know warriors can be tanks, but we also know druids can tank, as can paladins. Now a warrior can’t heal, but a druid and paladin can, so what if you need more healing that night, but your druid really enjoys tanking. You either force him into a healer, or you run a healer short and field a weaker group. By defining the basic rolls from day one, you avoid such issues. You know anyone who plays a tank class in WAR understands that they will be asked to tank in one form or another. Same goes for dps and healing. Their exact method may differ due to the mastery options, but the basic class roll is filled without confusion, letting everyone play their way without creating a problem for guild or group.

Posted in Combat Systems, MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 1 Comment