Gameplay vs crashing, when to call it quits?

Posted on November 16, 2007 by SynCaine

If a game is giving you technical difficulties, be it low FPS, distortion, texture errors, freezing or crashing, at what point do you just get fed up and quit?

That’s my current dilemma with NWN2, as I’m deep into chapter 3 of the original campaign, loving the gameplay and story. The problem is the technical difficulties have increased, at times making the game unplayable as shortly as 15 minutes after a restart. At other times, randomly, I can get a good hour or so in without noticing anything funny happening. The game itself is a blast, and would rate very high in my top games if it ran without a single issue.

So at what point do the technical issues become so great that they overwhelm a great game and make you quit? I’m already resigned to waiting on a new graphics card before I start the MotB expansion campaign, even though I currently have a card that should be more than capable (7900GTX). I’m hoping that it’s just something random with NWN2 and my card, and that a new one will make all the issues go away.

I quit LoTRO a while back because of similar issues, even though at the time the gameplay was still very enjoyable. Quitting LoTRO was a bit easier because I knew I would go back, and I knew that when I do go back, it will be a better game than I left it thanks to all the content updates and patches.

I’m trying to finish up NWN2 because I’m deep into the story (which is great) and if I stop now I’ll likely forget most of it when I come back. So my decision, in terms of NWN2, is made, I’ll just tough it out. How many of you have ever had something similar, where you wanted to love a game, but technical issues forced you to quit and move on to something else, either for the time being or permanently?

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, NWN2 | 4 Comments

PoTBS stress test, let me in!

Posted on November 15, 2007 by SynCaine

Just a quick note today; Pirates has another stress test open, but currently it’s only available to Fileplanet subscribers, which does not include me. Hopefully that changes soon, as PoTBS is a game I would like to try, but it’s not a game I am sold on yet, nor would I buy the box at release without playing a trial.

Posted in Pirates of the Burning Sea | 3 Comments

Challenge thoughts and a bit of a wrap-up.

Posted on November 14, 2007 by SynCaine

I’m very pleased with the results of my little MMO design challenge below, with a lot of great responses. Thanks to everyone who posted, even the trolls, because we all know trolls need love too.

First the major issues that I agree on.

Non-consensual PvP: While to me this is actually a plus in many MMOs if done right, I understand why some people might simply not want ANYTHING to do with PvP, or allow any player to impact their gameplay unless they themselves allow it. I can respect that, but I would also say they should give it a shot, going into it with a thicker skin and set a timeframe to ‘tough it out’. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much some good PvP can add to a game, and the experience/stories you come away with.

Barrier of Entry: It’s a known fact that EVE can be extremely overwhelming when you first fire it up. Unless you get into the right chat channel or do some research yourself, it’s very easy to have no clue what you are doing and quickly give up. You almost have to go into it with the mind frame that you are going to tough it out for a month, and only then do an evaluation, which is not fair to ask of people. That’s one of the major downsides of giving your players so many options, they might accidentally pick an option they are not ready for and it could lead to a negative experience.

Lack of short term ‘fun’: This is the big one, and the hardest to break down. I think EVE has been home to the greatest events in MMO history, period. The Guiding Hand Social Club event, the first Titan kill, the massive wars, the Alliance tournaments, and countless other events are far and away the pinnacles of what it means to play an MMO. I doubt anyone involved in such events will ever forget them, or the rush that they surely had during them. That said, there was no doubt countless hours spent doing the ‘less fun’ stuff to make this all happen. The mining, the scouting, the planning; all the less glamorous aspects that need to happen behind the scenes to make everything come together.

This all leads me to this statement, and depending on how you take it will likely determine if EVE is the game for you; EVE is more fun out of game than in game.

What I mean by this is that looking forward to what is going to happen in EVE, be it personal goals, Corp goals, or Alliance ones, is often more motivation to play than whatever you happen to do that day. Part of the fun in a mining Op is knowing that down the line it will have a great impact on the Corp, that it will lead you forward and raise your power level with those around you. The actual mining Op itself is not reason enough to do it, it’s not ‘fun’ enough on its own to fly out and mine those asteroids.

I think the difference with EVE is that the scope is so much greater than other MMOs that you get a lot more of the low because the high is so much higher. A raiding guild needs to farm mats for pots/enchants, but that aspect of the game is much smaller than it is in EVE. At the same time, downing a boss with a raid is a smaller accomplishment than launching a Titan, or putting up a POS.

What draws me to EVE is that potential, that possibility of launching that Titan. I know exactly what I can get out of WoW, I know I can level up and gear up and take down Illidan. And that would be cool, no doubt. But for me, it would not be nearly as cool as seeing my Corp move out to 0.0 and have a major impact out there, or to have us become an economic powerhouse and control parts of the market in EVE. It’s those goals that make even the dull tasks of EVE enjoyable, because I know in the end the high will be that much better.

Posted in EVE Online, MILK Corp, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

Throwing down the gauntlet, the great MMO challenge!

Posted on November 13, 2007 by SynCaine

I’ve noticed a strange trend while reading the various blogs I read daily. The basic of it is this: any time an author brings up a complaint or shortcoming in an MMO, in my mind EVE comes up as the game that has the solution, or a way around that particular issue. It’s gotten to the point where I simply feel bad posting a reply because I feel like a broken record, talking about a game the majority of players have not played.

So instead, here on this blog, I’ll throw out a challenge to the community as a whole: Bring up an issue you have had with an MMO, and I’ll relate it to EVE and explain how EVE solves that issue.

The complaints can be anything; design, combat, graphics, economy, crafting, PvP, whatever. Just post below and I’ll do my best to explain how EVE handles the issue, and we will see if it indeed is an optimal solution or if game x handles it better.

Just to kick things off, here is my list of features that set EVE apart from the MMO crowd in a positive way.

  1. One giant world: Since EVE is not sharded, anything that happens in EVE happens on ‘your’ server, and might have an impact on you. Anytime you talk about a major event, you no longer have to wonder what server it happened on, you know it happened in the same world you play in. The 4 year history of EVE is very clear, everything has happened in one world, visible to all. No more ‘world first vs server first’ stuff here. The greatest guilds (Corps in EVE) all compete in the same world, no longer do you wonder if ‘power guild x’ could beat ‘power guild y’ if only they played on the same server.
  2. Endless growth: There is no level cap in EVE, nor is it possible to ‘max out’ your character. Regardless of how long or how often you have played, there is ALWAYS something you can do to gain more power/influence, and in significant ways, not just extra fluff. These gains are also permanent. At no point will the game change to make your progress obsolete. CCP (the developer) won’t release an expansion that raises the level cap and makes all that raid gear you spent a year acquiring now replaceable my solo quest greens.
  3. Caters to both hardcore and casual players: Since all characters gain skill points at all times, regardless if you are log on or off, casual players who play a few hours a week can keep up in skill points with someone who plays 60 hours a week. At the same time, those that play 60 hours have lots of avenues to gain additional power, be it with PvP in 0.0, running lots of missions to gain standing/money, or do heavy mining/production to gain a market advantage. These players will make faster gains economically, but in terms of skill points, they won’t outpace the casual player heavily.
  4. All game styles are supported: While the core of EVE is 0.0 PvP, all aspects of the game are not only viable, but critical. Without the mining and production Corps, 0.0 pilots would have a much tougher time buying ships and fittings to use in the latest fleet operation. Without the trade experts flying ships and fittings to low supply markets, the entire world would be forced to fly to one central hub to purchase goods. EVE gives you the option to never touch crafting, but unlike most MMOs, it also gives you the option to never touch combat, and be equally successful. Since skill points are not based on how many mobs you kill, or how many quests you complete, it is very possible to rise to great power without ever firing a single shot in EVE.

There are countless other examples, both large and small, but like I said above, I would really prefer if visitors posted their common complaints about MMOs, and hopefully that will lead the discussion further.

An important note in closing, I’m not saying EVE is the most ‘fun’ MMO, as that is very debatable. My point here is not to convince you to drop everything and play EVE, but rather that EVE has solved many of the common complaints in MMOs with its design. It’s very far from perfect, otherwise it would have more than 200k subscribers, and I myself am frustrated by a few aspects. That aside, it is the game that always springs to my mind when I noticed issues in MMOs, hence the idea.

Now get posting people!

Posted in Combat Systems, EVE Online, MMO design | 61 Comments

A Rohk’in good time (ha, so lame)

Posted on November 12, 2007 by SynCaine

Life in EVE has been good lately. The top highlight being I finally purchased a Rohk battleship, and it’s a beauty. Currently I have it fit with six 350mm turrets and two t2 150mm turrets. The 350mm work great vs cruiser and battleship targets, while the 150mm along with my drones take out any troublesome frigates. It also has an active shield tank, using a named xl recharger along with a recharge booster. Once my skills catch up those will be replaced with t2 fittings. Speaking of t2, I just finished training to fit a t2 tracking enhancer and two t2 magnetic field stabilizers, giving the Rohk a very decent damage boost.

Overall the Rohk laughs at all level 3 missions, easily cutting through everything without any issue in keeping its shields up. As a very nice side bonus, I recently completed a ten part storyline sequence, ‘A Case of Kidnap’ I believe, and ended up with three hardwires at the end. Since none were very useful to me, I flew over to my favorite market and checked the prices. To my surprise two of them sold for around 25 million ISK each, with the third going for 20 million; a very, very nice payout indeed. The sale of all three instantly boosted my previously decimated wallet back up, allowing my to buy the above mentioned fittings along with paying back the 25 million I owed to an Alliance mate (Thanks again RJ).

Feeling brave, I decided to accept a level 4 mission to see how the Rohk would hold up. The first one I drew ended up being nice and easy (forget the name now), so after completing it I went for another. Sadly I drew Massive Assault, one of the tougher missions in EVE. Since our Corp’s main mission runners are on break right now, I had little chance in getting that one done, so I declined and asked for another. I drew Vengeance, another very tough mission. So that’s currently sitting in the Journal, unlikely to be attempted anytime soon. No way in hell am I risking my new toy only to have it scrambled and trashed in a mission.

Lastly, my main pilot is quickly approaching 5 million skill points, and I’m looking forward to making a breakdown post once I hit that mark, should be fairly interesting. As much as I’ve tried to stick to combat skills, I have strayed once in a while into other areas, and I’m curious exactly how many points have been placed in other areas.

Posted in EVE Online | 5 Comments

Analyzing the magic formula.

Posted on November 9, 2007 by SynCaine

Reading Keen and Graev, an interesting topic was brought up about MMO difficulty and how perhaps WoW has set a standard for ‘easy’ gameplay. It’s a good read, and raises some interesting points.

While WoW certainly has set a standard for a ‘mass market’ megahit, I don’t think it represents the only way to go about making a successful MMO. Plenty of titles make money for their developer without having 9 million subscriptions, and I think time will show that plenty of titles will be huge failures trying to emulate the WoW formula, costing developers millions.

While it’s safe to assume the ‘mass market’ does indeed favor easy to play games (see WoW, the Wii, and countless other examples), the overall gaming community accepts a wide range of games.

EVE Online is perhaps the least user friendly MMO out, with a barrier of entry amazingly high, such that even seasoned MMO veterans are often unable to get over the hump and really dig in to enjoy it. For a new playing it’s very overwhelming in its complexity, and little is done to reduce this. In later stages, the game is very unforgiving, with the harsh life that is 0.0 space, the complexities of the virtual market, and the multitude of running scams. And yet EVE continues to grow years after release, without a single pay expansion and no shelf presence in stores. To me this is a clear indication that there IS a market for players who enjoy a little cutthroat complexity in their MMOs. Their might not be 9 million of them, but there is enough to keep a company like CCP going, and going strong at that.

Lineage, while not a huge success here, is a massive hit in the Asia market. Lineage might be the exact opposite of WoW, in how it handles leveling (it’s a MASSIVE grind), and how it handles PvP (being the key focus, unlike WoW where it’s an afterthought). Its success again shows that different formulas work, and can be successful.

An unlikely example is Auto Assault, a MMO failure that has recently closed its doors. Auto Assault tried something different, and that ended up not working out. However, since it was done on a relatively moderate budget, it did not cause a financial crisis for its developer netDevil, who is still developing games now. Had Auto Assault had a WoW-like budget, and still failed, it is very unlikely netDevil and NCsoft (the publisher) would have been able to recover as quickly as they did, and we would all be reading a Darren ‘I hate the industry’ post right now. (Get a new SUWT out already man!)

All of this brings me back to the original point; that just because WoW has shown that ‘easy’ is one possible success formula, it is not the ONLY way to make a great MMO. What the MMO world has shown is that you need to release a game with focus, one that sets a goal and follows through. If your ‘vision’ is a good one (say hi to Brad when you see him on the bus everyone), people will see it and follow, as long as you deliver a solid stable product. I would have used a word starting with ‘P’ and ending with ‘olish’, but that would just add fuel to the fire.

If your ‘vision’ is from some suit who glanced at WoW and said “make me that”, you might be in trouble, and if you have a huge budget behind that mistake, you might just drag down a whole slew of people with you.

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 5 Comments

Playing catch-up.

Posted on November 9, 2007 by SynCaine

Having been under the weather for the week, I just recently got caught up on my daily blog reading, and it seems a missed a few news items, although none of them ‘official’ or really earth shattering. Seems we have an Elderscrolls MMO to look forward to, and some City of Heroes buyout news broke.

The Elderscrolls news is only interesting in that many people thought Oblivion could easily be made into an MMO given it’s setting and overall gameplay, and if I recall correctly there were rumors of an unofficial mod to make that happen (which I don’t think actually did, or we would have heard about it I would think). Outside of that however, I’m not sure how the Elderscrolls would really separate itself from the already establish worlds of the MMO community. To me it’s a fairly standard setting, just done really well as a single player experience. It’s something to look forward to though, if nothing else, although I’m sure it’s a long ways off to even speculate much about it.

The NCsoft/CoH news I’m indifferent about, considering I’ve only played CoH for a few days, and it never really hooked me. It did seem like a decent enough game however. As for NCsoft, they have clearly established themselves as a very solid name in the MMO world, with some very hit and miss titles. That said, I think any move to further grow MMO’s as a whole is good, and NCsoft has released titles at are outside of the cookie-cutter mold. Lineage is PvP based, Auto Assault was car based, Guild Wars had its whole ‘no subscription’ thing before it became more standard, etc.

Posted in Site update | Comments Off on Playing catch-up.

Time to move on, sorry EQ2, but I just don’t get it.

Posted on November 6, 2007 by SynCaine

I think my days in EQ2 are quickly coming to an end. As much as I wanted to force myself to get a character to at least level 30 in order to give it a ‘fair shot’, I don’t think I’m going to make it. Simply put, I never feel the desire to log into EQ2. I would much rather log into EVE, Mythos, play NWN2, hell even mess around with Civ4 or Puzzle Quest before I would actually pick to log into EQ2. It’s just simply not that fun for me.

I’ve made more than enough posts about the graphics of EQ2, so I’ll go beyond that here. Never has a MMO felt more like ‘whack a mole’ to me than EQ2. Either it’s the slow combat, the game’s preference for you to fight one mob at a time, or just the somewhat formula-like combat, it never feels epic or fun. And before everyone points out it gets more epic at level x, should the game not pull you in from the start? Why should you have to go through x hours of poor gameplay to get to the ‘good stuff’? And what’s to say the fabled ‘good stuff’ is even there, maybe it’s just like the level 20 content, with a few more icons in your hotbar?

Part of every EQ2 defense I read about is how much the game has improved since launch, how it’s so much more user friendly now, how so many features are streamlined and more intuitive now. I’m sure that’s true, but to me, the game is still not near the level that WoW or even LoTRO have reached. For example, each level up you get new skills/spells automatically, which seems nice at first, and they get added to your hot bar when you ding, unless of course your hotbar is full, then all you get is a quick note near the top of the screen and it goes into your skill book, which itself has a rather poor interface. Add in that the icons for spells are rather awful, and finding your new toys becomes a tedious exercise of flipping through your spell book. At least in WoW, when you went to buy skills you knew exactly what you were getting ahead of time, allowing you to judge right away if a skill is useful or not to you. EQ2 just assumes you want everything by placing it in your hotbar. It’s not exactly game breaking, but it’s an example of one of the small things EQ2 does that adds up to the frustration of playing it. Leveling up should be a good thing, not something that causes you to pause whatever you are doing and shuffle through a spell book, or rearrange your hot bar because the game just placed some useless spells for you.

EQ2 also has one of the least immersive worlds in any MMO I have played, and it goes beyond the fact that everything is zoned. The zoning is bad enough, but what makes this even worse is that each zone is a huge change in style from the other, with no smooth transition. A dark forest becomes a savanna instantly, and when you first load up the new zone, it’s downright shocking. I makes traveling feel like jumping from one portal to the next, each one dumping you off in a new world, completely unrelated to the one before it. Usually I would overlook something like this, as I never put much stock in immersion before, but when it’s so blatant, it really does detract from the experience. At no point did EQ2 pull me in and make me care about what’s happening outside of the immediate area of the quest giver. The problems that plague one quest hub are completely unrelated to the next hub, and you are left to jump from one to the other without any transition or care. LoTRO does a great job with this, with its book quests and overall feel that the entire world is at war. Even WoW connects each area with a few quests, and gives you the impression that NPC’s are aware that they are not the only ones in the world, and that they know about town x or troubled spot y. EQ2 reminds me of the old console games where you would beat a level, and the next one would be set in a completely different setting. Back then going from an inner city level to the jungle and then to outer space seemed fine, but in EQ2 it just feels wrong.

There are other things that don’t feel right about EQ2 to me as well, but it just all adds up to a gaming experience that is not fun, at least for me. Clearly enough people play EQ2 to keep it going, and it works for them. I must say that I am disappointed however; as I went into EQ2 with a lot of expectations based on all the praise it has received, particularly from the blogging community. All of the factors that people pointed out as being highlights I don’t really see, and they seem to somehow be able to overlook all the things I had issue with. Odd really, but I guess it’s a good example of how different gamer’s tastes can be.

Posted in Combat Systems, Console Gaming, EQ2, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 24 Comments

Sick day

Posted on November 5, 2007 by SynCaine

Flu is going around, and has gotten me today, so only a short post before I head back to bed. Dedication people, dedication!

I got the full version of Puzzle Quest over the weekend, great game. Simple, easy to pick up and play for a bit, and most importantly, fun. Now if I could only get the multiplayer to work…

I’m also 20 million ISK away from buying a Rohk, and with the payout of a mining Op we had this weekend still coming, I should have it shortly. That should make running level 3 missions a breeze, and I can start thinking about soloing level 4s.

 BTW, nice hack job by the refs in the Pats/Colts game. One of the single worst jobs of officiating I’ve seen in a long time. 9-0 is 9-0 though, so all good for now.

Posted in EVE Online, MILK Corp | 4 Comments

It’s Warhammer rant time, gather round kids!

Posted on November 2, 2007 by SynCaine

Continuing with the Warhammer talk today, there has been some disturbing news of late. First off the big news is that the game is delayed until Q2 of 2008. While not exactly unexpected, it does raise some questions, and resurfaces certain rumors about what exactly is happening to Warhammer. Next up was the disappointing monthly news letter, which contained nothing new and likely raised concerns that the game is not shaping up as expected more than anything. When you have nothing new that you want to share with your fans, odds are things are not that great in WAR land. Lastly, from the podcast released, we see that city siege combat seems to be limited to 50v50 battles.

Since it’s been somewhat slow on the gaming front for me (although I did hit chapter 3 in NWN2, and the game still has me captivated), I’m going to go into rant mode and spread some doom and gloom about Warhammer, purely based on the limited amount of knowledge we have and my previous experiences with MMO delays and releases.

The delay, combined with the closing of beta, and the embarrassing newsletter, all indicate to me that WAR was not shaping up as well as expected. A month or so ago Mythic stated that WAR was NOT being changed to make it more WoW like, but they also stated that WAR would hit its Q1 release date. The 50v50 cap on the top end of the PvP scale, if true, is nothing short of WoW’s BG’s with a higher cap. Fixed participant combat is not RvR like we had in DAoC, and if WAR does indeed release with a cap on PvP combat, all expectations of it being a great PvP game can be thrown out the window. Games like DAoC, Lineage, and EVE have shown that mass PvP battles are not only possible, but might be the biggest rush an MMO can give a player if done right.

To cap the number of combatants, and instance your PvP, is taking the easy way out. Instead of finding a way to balance the sides and solve the issue of lag when huge numbers of players gather, you instead decide to short change your players and insult them with instances carebear combat. I’m sorry, but that’s what it is. In WoW, no one really cares if you win or lose a BG, since everyone gets a cookie at the end, and you just queue up again. Whether you get three cookies or one is the only motivation to even attempt to win, and as WoW has shows, for many people that’s not enough, and they are more than happy to zone in and fish than fight.

Before WoW, the Warcraft world was all about the epic battle between Humans and Orcs, and later the Burning Legion. It was harsh, tragic, and at all times the war raged. Now the Warcraft world is about cute emotes, collecting pets, and glowy weapons; where in the end everyone wins and it’s hugs all around.

The Warhammer lore has also always been about constant combat, constant strife. It’s even less cuddly than pre-WoW lore was, often times being much darker. If Warhammer Online is released, and we get carebear land 2.0, it will be one of the greatest bastardizations of lore in gaming history. All along we have read and watched podcasts about how ‘awesome’ Warhammer will be, about how it’s ‘all about war’. Perhaps what cool guy in white shades indoors meant when he said ‘all about war’ was ‘queue up, put on your fluffy dress, and have some huggies fun in a set piece battle, rainbows for everyone at the end!’

Does anyone find it odd that a game so heavily based on PvP, we are constantly being reminded about the great PvE content WAR will have? While unfair, this really reminds me of pre-release Shadowbane, the last game that was to be the great savior of PvP. (I hate you SB for not delivering, damn you!!) Months before the first release date, all news of SB revolved around its PvP features, which on paper all sounded amazing. Yet as we got closer to release, the focus shifted from PvP to PvE news. The rest, as most of us know, is history.

Going further, most leaked information from the beta has been negative. The overall response has been ‘it’s got a lot of good stuff, but overall it’s just… not fun’. ‘Not fun’ is a large problem for a game. ‘Not fun’ was also a major problem with Shadowbane. Great feature set on paper, great team focused on delivering what fans of PvP wanted, yet at release… not fun.

Rant off. I know the above is very likely complete off base, and for all I know, Mythic might be putting on the final coat of polish to the greatest game of all time. That said, it would not shock me if come Q2 2008, I go back and re-read the above and call myself a genius. We shall see I guess, but what great momentum WAR had seems to be turning around, and we are hearing more and more about its rumored problems.

To quote Bob Ryan here “let us hope that the rumors… are not true”. And major bonus points for anyone who can tell me what he was talking about when he said that.

BTW, Patriots 52, Colts 21. More ‘running up the score’ talk come Monday.

Posted in MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 8 Comments