From the very first moment, the humans asked me to fight. Â But I have put aside my weapons, and I turned my back on the abbey and walked away. Â This was a very hard decision, because the entire starting area for humans is locked behind that first quest. Â Most of the quests, if I recall correctly, involve fighting anyway. Â As I left, I was given the quest that pointed me to Goldshire, but everything there is too high level, so I decided to spend some time in the inn to earn exp bonus, that way what little I do manage to find will be used to the fullest.
The inn in Goldshire is a wretched hive of scum and villainy… or rather a wretched hive of people who will ERP scum and villainy with you for the right price. Â I was aware of ERP. Â I knew it existed. Â But on other servers you mainly find people hiding in the tram tunnels speaking sex to each other. Â But Goldshire is filled with naked people, or people as naked as the game allows them to get. Â Bare chested men and women in bikinis abound, and calls fill the air looking for people of all sorts. Â What the hell is a “college RP group”? Â Are they teaching people to RP or are they RPing that they are in college?
The following day I decided that perhaps only humans were so demanding of violence and I headed for dwarf town. Â Also, some of the ERP chat was creeping me out. Â From both the dwarves and gnomes, they expected the same violence. Â But like the journey to Goldshire, they provided quests to get to Karanos. Â The night elves would be a little more forgiving… or not. Â The Draenei? Â Ah, yes! Â They wanted me to collecting things (that weren’t in the hands of others) and give out medicine.
At some point along the way, I also managed to get mining and herbalism, and sometimes I even earned experience from using them (I suspect there is some powerleveling code in there because at one point I got 50 exp from a plant, then later after I leveled in the same area I got 54 exp). Â And once I attained level 5 and got sneak, I was able to even take on some more quests that had finally opened up.
So, it seems my early levels will be filled with travel, not exploration (because I know there is a level floor on those, I wouldn’t get any exp visiting higher level zones), but making a rotation of the starting areas, harvesting and questing. Â I’ve made level 7 so far, as it’s actually getting easier.
I also learned I have to be very careful of quests. Â Things that appear to be something I can solo sometimes result in the game giving me a “pet” who will kill things. Â Sadly, Kaens now has a single kill on his stat sheet because of one of these. Â We’ll have to see if I can keep it at one.
Getting back into traditional fantasy MMOs has of course led me to thinking about their flaws and my desire to correct them.
One of the long standing issues with the genre since EverQuest is the holy trinity of design: damage taking, damage prevention/recovery, damage dealing. Â And while games continue to try to include crafting and other non-combat elements, the vast majority of people actually want to kill things, so combat remains, and will remain, at the center of most game design. Â In this trinity mold, you end up with a tank, a healer, and then assorted damage dealing classes. Â Fighting runs the same, tank taunts to control where the damage goes, the healer heals the tank, and everyone else tries their best to make the tank’s job very very difficult.
Right now, tanking is all about hitting taunt abilities to focus the attention of the target on to the player and keep its damage output in one place where it can be measurably tracked and dealt with. Â As games have advanced over the years, taunt abilities have become more varied and interesting, but at their base they are about manipulation of the aggro list (the priority in which an NPC “hates” players) to put the tank at the top.
What I’m considering, and by no means is this a finished idea, but one that needs discussion, so please, discuss, is to replace taunt with a cover system. Â If Monster A is attacking Player B, rather than having Tank X target Monster A and click a taunt ability, saying “Hey stupid! Come get me!” (which always just seemed idiotic to me, from the stance of someone who enjoys role playing in games), you instead have Tank X target (or secondary target, or target of target, or whatever) Player B and click one of his new protection abilities, putting himself between Monster A and Player B and taking the damage.
This appeals most to me because it eliminates taunt, which from a role play and logic standpoint has always been broken.  Why would a monster ever stop beating on the healer just because the invulnerable turtle is calling him names?  Nope.  Healers first, then those pesky damage dealing people who are killing me and lastly I’ll deal with the invulnerable turtle when he’s a little less invulnerable.  On the other hand, the idea of a monster going after the healer and the invulnerable turtle stepping in between them, now that has merit.  Effectively, we are taking away the roll of tank as we know it, and turning him into a healer type who utilizes shield/rune spells, preventing damage but not recovering it.
The main downside I see with this is the creation of the new role of DPS Tank. Â That’s where the player with the highest DPS becomes the defacto tank by virtue of doing the most damage while the healer heals him and the old tank protects him.
Thoughts?
As an aside, this is ironic because over at Big Bear Butt, he recently posted about giving everyone taunt and eliminating healing. Â Which just goes to show that this is a problem with many solutions.
Eric over at Elder Game put up a good post about why skill based systems are bad (or at least, not to be undertaken lightly or by fledgling designers… like me). Â Dig through my archive here and you’ll see me go back and forth on the subject of skills versus classes.
In Eric’s post, he uses EVE as an example, and the game is mentioned in most of the comments there. Â And it got me thinking…
EVE looks like a skill based game. Â It has all the markers of one. Â You have a list of skills and you can train any skill you want, making powerful combinations or gimping yourself by choosing things that don’t work together, as long as you have the prerequisites for that skill. Â But, as I’ve noted on a number of occasions, what I like most about the design of EVE is that ultimately your character matters less than your ship.
In EVE, if you have level 5 in Frigates and level 5 in missiles and a slew of other skills, those don’t matter at all if you are currently flying a mining rig outfitted with only mining lasers. Â Despite being able to choose and learn any skill, EVE is actually a class based game with talent trees. Â Your ship is your class, and the modules you can outfit it with are your talent trees. Â Certain ships are designed for certain types of play. Â You wouldn’t take a giant hauling/mining rig into a dogfight even if you did load it with weapons because the ship isn’t designed for fighting. Â It would be like trying to play a priest as a tank in most MMOs. Â Doable? Â Sure, with the right items, plan and situation, but it isn’t the best option by far.
At best, EVE is a highly templated skill based game, but if you play the game entirely as skill based without ship considerations it quickly becomes unsustainable from a character stand point as you are gaining skills willy nilly that aren’t improving your ability to either a) fly the ship you have better or b) progress you toward flying a different ship that fits your play style better.
Even after reading follow ups by Ysharros and Psychochild and the comments on all three posts, I still think that EVE’s sort of gear controlled skill based system is the way I would go if I were to make my own MMO, largely because I really dislike permanent decisions in games that force me to create alternate character to experience new play styles.  Rift by Trion is attempting to bridge a gap here by allowing archetypes of warrior, rogue, mage and priest to build and maintain several sets of souls (skills, talents, etc) that actually can radically change the way the archetype plays.  If that works, it might open the door for someone to try fantasy version of EVE where you can have any skills you want but are constrained in what matter by what gear you are wearing when you leave town.  And that’s a game I definitely want to play.
Update: Another voice in the wilderness, Rampant Coyote.
Years ago I tried an experiment that I originally titled “Sneaking Sixty” and then after the Burning Crusade released was retitled “Sneaking Seventy“. Â I had to give it up because exploration exp got killed at some point so that you couldn’t walk a low level character into a high level area and get gobs of exp for surviving the journey, and there just weren’t enough quests to get the job done.
However, with the release of Cataclysm (actually I believe it was in one of the patches leading up to it), they’ve added experience to mining and herbalism. Â So, since “Sneaking Eighty-five” sounds less cool that the two previous incarnations and because I’m certain the level cap will continue to increase, I’m reviving this experiment as “Sneakin’ Around”.
On the Moon Guard server, Kaens, a human rogue, will endeavor to make his way through the World of Warcraft without killing anything. Â He’ll ferry documents, deliver messages, fish, mine ore, pick wild flowers and explore the world, all without a weapon in his hand.
Of course, upon logging in, I am faced with a dilemma: the very first quest is to kill things.  So now I must decide, can I just forgo the entire newbie area or will I need someone to “assist” me through a few quests to get me on my way?  The answer… next time.
Over at Horriftic Intentions, brannagar has posted a bit about what he thinks the community wants. Â My first mistake in getting involved in that discussion was that I was sent a link to the post and didn’t pay attention to the fact that the blog is a Rift fanboy site. Â I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense like some people might. Â I just mean that the author is clearly excited for the game, has already taken the stance that Trion (the makers of Rift) knows all (and agrees with him). Â Had I known, I probably would never have commented there at all and instead come straight here to talk about the issues at hand.
Essentially, of the four points he makes, I completely agree with three of them. Â Two, flying mounts and arenas, on the grounds that just because one game (and for most people that one game is WoW) has them that every game should have them. Â The third, the random dungeon finder, because while I’m certain it leads to more progress in games like WoW, I ultimately feel that the implementation destroys community. Â Why bother meeting people and making connections when you can just use the tool, get a group, and then never play with those people again?
The fourth point of his, the one I disagree with, is that some people are asking for an Auto-Face or Stick function for PvP. Â As you can see from the comments once I stuck my nose in and the two of us bantered back and forth, clearly brannagar likes circle strafing. Â I’ve mentioned my views on circle strafing on here before. Â And if you dig around you’ll find a few more times I’ve brought it up, especially where I say that Fallen Earth actually does it well in that you actually move slower while strafing.
Upon reflection, I see that I was actually mistaken. Â There shouldn’t be accuracy and damage penalties for movement. Â Yes, it is more realistic, but it would serve mainly to irritate players. Â Looking back at my old posts, I do think a speed penalty should apply for various reasons, but even so there are much better ways to handle this.
You see, circle strafing has plagued FPS games for a long, long time. Â The solution on the PC where people use a keyboard and mouse was for players to crank up the sensitivity of their mouse so that small twitches left and right would rotate their character through wider arcs more quickly and allow them to keep the strafing player in sight. Â However, when FPS games became more popular on consoles, and especially after the introduction of the double stick controller which allowed for much better circle strafing, asking people to crank up the sensitivity of their controllers actually had an adverse affect on the rest of game play. Â So, FPS games innovated by adding in the ability for players to perform a 180 degree turn with a single button. Â While not completely nullifying circle strafing as a tactic, it allowed the target player a fighting chance to catch their attacker on the flip side.
This is what MMOs need for PvP. Â A 180 degree flip would do wonders to level the playing field as immobile casters have to deal with highly mobile melee characters while still allowing attentive melees to change direction of movement and not giving the immobile players automated assistance.
In the end though, while I’m glad for the outcome in that it let me realize what is really missing from MMO PvP combat, I was also reminded how annoying it is to argue with the faithful. Â It’s possible that brannagar could read this (that’s the downside to linking to things, the authors can find out you are talking about them), and he might even come here to tell me how wrong I am and that a 180 flip would be stupid or game breaking and how Trion is luckily smart enough to never consider putting something like it in. Â And that’s a shame, because I’d much rather discuss how to make PvP fun for everyone without breaking it for anyone, and as it stands, circle strafing makes the game broken for people who can’t defend against it.
And that doesn’t even begin to touch on collision detection and line of sight issues. Â Being able to break a caster’s spell by stepping through the caster is totally broken design, and yet is the way most games work. Â Maybe we’ll cover that in another post.
The wife and I finally decided to return to Azeroth. Â Seeing as how I’d heard such wonderful things about the new starting areas of each of the new races, we rolled up both goblin and worgen pairs and set about experiencing the new world…
Are you from Jersey?
Whadda you lookin' at?
The latest affront, at least to me, is the new goblin race. Â Back in the original game and into the Burning Crusade (after which I stopped playing), goblins were portrayed as sort of the used car salesmen of Azeroth. Â If they were set in the Star Trek universe they’d be the Ferengi. Â With the new starter zone, it appears the goblins originate from the shore — The Jersey Shore. Â Perhaps I missed it in the various updates since I left, but at some point the goblins of Azeroth have turned into guidos. Â And while the actual meat of the story of the volcano on their home island and the escape isn’t bad, the whole thing is laden with bling and silliness to the point of distraction.
To top it off, they committed, what is to me, the ultimate sin in MMOs and that is imposing story on my character. Â One of the strongest elements of an MMO is how I pick a race and a class and I get the bare bones of a back story to tell me something of the home town I’ve chosen and how someone of my class becomes a member of my class and from there I can do anything I want with it. Â But in Kezan, Blizzard tells me who my friends are and my girlfriend (if you are male you get a girlfriend, if you are female you get a boyfriend, so basically they also give the finger to anyone of anything other than heterosexual leanings) and numerous other details. Â Sure, I can choose to ignore it and pretend it never happened, but I suspect that there will be times in the game where I do quests that will call back to my time in the starter zones.
As an added bonus, don’t bother trying to actually play with any other people during your life in Kezan or the escape. Â Being grouped with even just one other person makes the whole thing play bizarrely as you take turns phasing in and out on each other, interacting with NPCs the other can’t see, driving around in your individual cars because you can’t ride together… it really is designed to be a single player experience. Â The only way to enjoy it is to not fight it and accept the fact that Blizzard is telling you, “Welcome to our MMO! We have millions of people playing! Now… please play by yourself for the next few hours.”
A Cat in a Hat, sure… A Dog in a Hat?
Shropshire Slasher.
After both of us being thoroughly annoyed at the lame comedy of the goblins and the incredibly poor multiplayer experience (yeah, we did the whole goblin bit as a duo, which was just stupid) we decided to make some werewolves next, and to go it alone.
The worgen area is not without its puns, but thankfully they are back to the more subtle variety and aren’t beating you with a club screaming “I’m funny! I’m funny! Laugh, dammit! Laugh!!”  It takes a far more serious and somber tone.  It’s a more gripping story, and proof that when Blizzard tries they can write really good stuff… it’s just a shame they don’t try very often and the result of a good solid story like this is that it will stand in stark contrast to the bulk of the game.
Playing alone clearly is how this was designed and it worked very well, even though we were playing the same thing simultaneously the simple act of not being grouped solved all the technical weirdness we experienced on our goblins. Â It isn’t without it’s problems, though. Â One of the two hiccups we experienced was when the game allowed the wife to phase into the same phase I was in during the town attack, after the attack had started. Â She missed most of the action, running through mostly empty streets with no indication of where to go except by me saying things like “I think we turned left there”, only catching up to us as we fought Sylvanas. Â The other hiccup was shortly after when a dozen people started the next quest where we were supposed to follow a worgen to the cathedral, but a number of us couldn’t see him and had to abandon and restart the quest to fix it.
The worgen vehicle missions were also a lot easier to do, especially since they didn’t involve you driving cars on elevated roads using horribly jerky controls.  Overall, it just flowed more smoothly, and most importantly to me they didn’t impose anything on my character that didn’t derive directly from the story.  When I transitioned from starter area to the night elf city, I did so with a nice solid history of how my race came to be where it is with no baggage at all, free to continue my character’s story any way I like. I suppose it also helps that the setting is much more appealing to my sensibilities.  There is a very Jekyll & Hyde, old London feel to the story that suits the whole werewolf bit like a glove.  I rather think I would enjoy playing an entire game in that setting.  But I digress.
Is this the end?
Now, having played through both of the new race starter single player campaigns, I’m fairly certain that I’ll never do it again. Â The advantage to this design is that it is a newbie area that doesn’t diminish as it ages. Â Old design starter areas eventually suffered when players couldn’t complete certain quests due to a lack of people to fight elite mobs. Â The disadvantage here is going to be sameness.
Personally, when I play single player games, I play them once. Â Then, if there are achievements or something to unlock, I might play through a second time, or replace certain segments. Â After that, I’m done, and the game collects dust. Â When I play MMOs and create new characters, I always delighted in fighting quests I hadn’t done before. Â WoW actually helped with that for a while when they sped up leveling but still had eleventy billion little quests, thus causing you to outlevel an area and be forced to abandon quests to take up new, level appropriate ones. Â But now, if I were to make another goblin or worgen, I’m faced with the knowledge that the first few hours of the game will be identical to my previous experience. Â There is only one story for each race, and you have to play it. Â There are no divergent paths, no quests you didn’t see last time, no event you didn’t experience. Â People keep telling me that by making a new player area that doesn’t need other people the game is more “alt friendly”, however from someone who usually makes dozens of alts this new design actually makes me never want to create alts. Â I mean, what’s the point? Â It’s going to be exactly the same.
On the other hand, by creating a single player experience, I suppose Blizzard has made it so that I can memorize the fastest possible path through the starter zones to get to the real game. Â Or perhaps in a future patch they’ll just allow me to skip it and create a level 12 character from the start.
Unfortunately, with the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s reported focus on story, I suspect this sort of shared single player experience is on the upswing. Â I’d much have preferred for Warhammer Online to have done better and set the new standard, where people were grouping (open groups) and PvPing fresh out of character creation. Â Perhaps Rift and its polish level can turn the tide a little toward open socialization and away from solo play.
After skipping a number of Gamer Banters, this month’s topic caught my attention: “What was your favorite game you played this year?”
I played a few games this year that I really enjoyed. Â Among them, Red Dead Redemption and Dead Rising 2 (and Case Zero) and Free Realms and Wizard 101 and a slew of others… but the standout, the one that has to be my favorite game of 2010 is the little indie that could, Minecraft.
The most amazing thing about it is that before and when I picked it up, I was in the LEGO Universe beta feeling like something was missing… and then I found Minecraft and knew what it was: absolute freedom.  As a kid I really loved dumping out the giant box of LEGOs and building stuff, and I had wanted that from LEGO Universe, which ended up having too much traditional MMO in it.  But in Minecraft I could run around and do pretty much anything that I wanted.  Sure, the survival modes of Minecraft are fun, but being able to just run around and create awesome stuff is just incredible.  Check out the map for this server that I play around on.
This post was part of Gamer Banter, a monthly video game discussion coordinated by Terry at Game Couch. If you’re interested in being part of this, please email him for details.
WARNING: This post is going to contain spoilers for both Red Dead Redemption and the Undead Nightmare DLC. Â Continue at your own risk…
I really enjoyed playing Red Dead Redemption. Â The world was really well crafted, and the story of the game was top notch. Â I had issues with the game play, or more specifically the game controls, a few times, but it was minor complaints that were far overshadowed by the awesomeness of the rest. Â The game even threw me for a loop when (and I’ve already warned you about spoilers, but here is a second warning – stop reading if you don’t want spoilers … ) John Marston died saving his family and then the game picked up a few years later with you playing his son. Â One of the biggest complaints I heard about the game from many people is that they didn’t want to play the son, they wanted to keep playing John. Â For me, however, it made playing John special. Â I can only be him for the duration of the game. Â I can’t play him in multi-player, and I can’t play him in the sandbox world that extends after the story is done. Â Despite Jack Marston having a few annoying phrases he seems to repeat endlessly, I don’t mind playing as Jack, trying to carry on his father’s name and keep it clean to honor his memory.
Then along comes Undead Nightmare. Â This DLC is single player and it puts you back into John Marston. Â The story is set after John has gone home to be with his family, but before the government men have him killed. Â A zombie plague has fallen across the land, his wife and son have both been bitten and turned, and John sets off to find a cure. Â Much like the original game, the story here is extremely well done. Â You meet most of the characters from the original game in this new twisted reality and it just works (unless you are the sort of person who simply cannot stand to have zombies in your westerns). Â Once you complete the story and set everything back right, John is back where he needs to be to complete the story, as if this whole thing were a true nightmare and it never happened… well, almost. Â Because they put in challenges that you might not complete before finishing the story, they decided to do like the original game and allow you to continue playing in the sandbox. Â You get a cut scene that explains how a few years later, someone triggers the undead plague again and John Marston rises from the grave, retaining his soul because of a thing you did during the original nightmare. Â This is where the game loses me…
In pretty much all my forays into things dealing with the undead, one bit remains constant: I do not want to be a zombie. Â As much as I love zombies as a setting and zombies as monsters, I despise zombies as main characters. Â And while I found Jack’s whining in the original game to be irritating, Zombie John’s groaning and other noises make me want to play with the sound off. Â I hate it. Â I really, really hate it. Â Zombie John practically ruins the game for me. Â I still want to play, do the challenges and whatnot, but I’d really prefer to not do it as a member of the undead.
Anyway, unlike the original game, which I still mess around with now and then, once I’m done with the last couple challenges I doubt I’ll ever fire up single player Undead Nightmare again. Â Multi-player, on the other hand… I might be playing this forever…
I’ve been playing Minecraft. Â It really is quite a fantastic little game. Â Once the Survival Multi-Player mode gets fixed it will be downright awesome.
Anyhow, as I’ve been playing, I’ve been thinking about how this sort of thing could be done as an MMO.  I’d love to see fully destructible terrain in an MMO, but the issue really is one of containment.  Players will inevitably rub each other the wrong way.  So, consider this…
Take Minecraft. Â Add in the ability to mark a server as “official”, which means that it passes some CRC checking and other verification (to make sure it isn’t running any cheats or hacks) which it passes to a central server (run by Notch). Â Then, allow players, or more accurately server admins, build portals which can be connected to other servers (both servers involved have to create portals to complete the link, both verified by the central server). Â Thus creating a network of Minecraft worlds. Â Throw in some niceties like the ability to set an upper limit to the number of players connected, or even the ability to “white list” accounts allowed to build/destroy (everyone can look, only certain people can change).
Hmm… better yet, perhaps they should not allow this because I might waste entire days, even weeks, just wandering the network admiring people’s creations.
