War is Hell

It is a little after 10am on Monday the 29th of August. I am saying that upfront because right now there are goings on in The Secret World.

Follow Mithrilendil and The Dark Places on Twitter now if you do not already. Two hours remain to ask the questions.

On topic. I have always wanted to be part of an MMO Community in some real large way. Ever since my first steps in the community around Earth & Beyond I have wanted to get to know the movers and shakers and if at all possible, make my own mark.

However that’s going to take a major effort. There are long established names, loud and proud fans and an entire community between me and the fifteen minutes of fame. Further to that, The Secret World is going to continue using ARGs and social networking. They said in an interview that combat is going to demand more of the player than the average MMO… I think it won’t just be the combat.

This then is the simple choice. Do I play the game and watch it pass me by, be like the masses in EVE for example who just do their day to day starship activities? Or do I take the time, do the research and make the effort to break onto the stage? Do I weave characters around me to hide my intentions from the chaotic Dragon and proud Illuminati? Do I have what I need to engage with a game as I never have before?

Only one way to find out.

I really hope The Secret War isn’t flammable.

No more Intellectuals Please.

IP! Intellectual Properties. If you’re in the business of licensing things, man I bet you love those.

George Lucas has vast armies of people making Star Wars games. Star Trek games come out every so often (and are usually not the best). Movies get adapted to games, games get made from tv shows and there are plenty of properties out there that have been looked at for further video game exploitation.

Given that this will never ever come to pass, I have two requests.

First, no more intellectual properties please. Take a break. Try your hand at something new. Not a universe that lends itself to being turned into an MMO. Not some existing IP that you think could crack the nut that is WoW or emulate its success.

Try new things. Try new worlds. Try making something that no one has ever seen before. Right now there is the trend of taking what someone has done and emulating the crap out of it, as though that process will somehow mystically imbue your title with the same positives and line your pockets. We’ve all seen the huge buckets of money that Minecraft just made. How long until the copies come out, reasoning that a tiny iteration on an established success equals more success?`

Just because something made the splash once, it does not automatically follow that it or any other game directly modelled on it will do the same.

Secondly, as a game company… start lying to us all. I don’t mean lie about features or release dates or content. They’re all very important. Making a good, complete and completed game is vital to you, to your market and to the genre. However…. people are going gaga for or raging at Bioware because of however they currently perceive Star Wars: The Old Republic. People will always look at Mythic a certain way. Reportedly Square Enix lost $26million worth of investment because a player who had the stock didn’t like the latest installment. I personally cannot wait for The Secret World, but there are many who read as far as “Funcom” and stop listening.

So lie to me. Lie to everyone. Spin off subsidiaries and reabsorb them later or drop them if they are unsustainable. Create new companies, new names, new faces and personalities to bring us the next wave of MMOs. Don’t bring us “Bioware presents: Some Game” or “Square Enix FF 75.23”. The same name that sells your games in a single player market brings far too much drama in a massively multiplayer one.

Bring me a new game from a new company and importantly from a new and neutral starting point. Make your success stories on the back of the hard work put into the game rather than on the back of a bought in IP that someone will say you did wrong or on the back of your own reputations which may leave many demanding things that you may not ever be able to deliver.

Would it be difficult to work out who has spun off whom and for what? Probably not. However if the one thing missing from games now days is wonder, leave us wondering and with wonderful things.

Retropreciation

I’ve only told you like 200 times or some such but my first MMO was Earth & Beyond. This is important because it came out in 2002 and I played it on a 56k modem which thankfully was on one of the first packages in Ireland to offer flat rate unlimited off peak internet.

That was my first foray into the massively multiplayer world and fortunately or unfortunately it was a sci-fi space game. I never had the really old school experiences.

Partially, I never had them because I never heard of MMO gaming until poking around Westwoods site for information on Command and Conquer. Partially I never had them because even if I had discovered Dark Age of Camelot or Everquest at the time they were new I wouldn’t have been able to afford the phone bills. Or my parents wouldn’t have if I am honest.

Why am I dragging these back into the light of day? Well someone else has.

Sure I can understand intellectually that some of those old school mechanics died because they were a pain. Or perhaps they were a barrier to higher subscriptions. Maybe they were simply boring and are just looked on fondly because they are old.

Sure I know that if the games of tomorrow were still being cranked out like the games of that many yesterdays there’d be uproar. But still… so much in the gaming blogosphere is hype. Nostalgia is a hype all of its own and I have to say I can appreciate the retro look, the bygone ways and yesteryears feel.

Would I like to give it a spin? Sure. Though I’ll have to settle for fond remembrances from others passed on which in the end condense all those years of gaming to just the best bits.

To Everything There Is A Season

I have never really had experiences with big guilds. I dabble in many many games but my home for the majority of my MMO life has been the Virtue server of City of Heroes.

City of Heroes is a reasonably casual game. You can hop on to either side, grab a random mission from the Police Radio or Newspaper (assuming you don’t have a contact with missions) and hammer it out quickly. Design aspects were taken and further expanded upon in Cryptics Champions Online and to an extent Star Trek Online. As a result of this casual nature, I have never had the experience I hear of with World of Warcraft guilds where courting them is a multiple week long process. I never really had much interaction with many guilds in Warhammer either. The one that I did join which wasn’t just a collection of City Of Heroes friends merely asked that I play with them a lot rather than a little. Given that more often than not I no longer played with friends at that time I had no problem throwing my various alts in.

However recently in City of Heroes old players have come back from the wilds of Champions Online and here is where I get to the point.

There once was a group. I shan’t name it, though anyone who knows me can guess it, so as not to come across as bashing anyone. I had a wonderful time in the group and made many friends. Some of them persist to this day, some of them I have had the fortune of meeting in person. The group was active, had allies, had stories and had fun. With so many people back in those heady days coming and going in City of Heroes there was a vibrance to the Supergroup. People came and people went but the core of what the roleplay group was remained.

As time passes though, so too do people. Eventually the group withered and died. There were brave attempts at restarting it to be sure. There were good ideas and good intentions but in the end, if no one can give the time to the group, the group does not exist. That is the core of my belief regarding Supergroups. Perhaps with hardcore guilds where it takes months to gain entry, where they are a heavy investment in time, money and effort, there is a greater sense of permanence to the guild. Perhaps in those cases it is about the tools and utility of the guild rather than the people. As I said, I don’t know having had no experience. Supergroups though are all about the people. In a casual game with so many coming and going and having so many faces (ahhh altitis, my bane) the time between a group being one you remember fondly and one being filled with strangers who have little link to the original ideals can be quite small.

In the end the casual nature of the game contributed to the death of the group. Some older hands retried it in Champions Online and it seems it has either diverged from the memory of the original or the game itself does not hold the interest of everyone. Why do I say this? Well those same souls are back in Paragon City and trying once more to recreate the group. The name was never the group. The ideals or roleplay reasons for it were never the group. The group was made and immortalised in peoples memories by the people themselves. They’ve moved on, the groups season turned. I just hope that in trying to bring it back again, people do not tarnish their memories (surely rosily coloured by nostalgia at this point) of what they had by the imitations attempted.

They say you can’t cross the same bridge twice because of the water flowing beneath. I suppose you can’t join the same casual dream twice either.

Information Permeation

The Patron Saint of iPhone cannot be without it and in fact wrote a book on it. A close friend of mine makes it sing (not literally, though I’m sure there’s an app) in her hands.

Fallen Earth, EVE, Champions Online and many more all look to include it.

The iPhone is a wonderful device that has an app for practically everything running, in the works or being dreamed up. I’ve seen people tackle tough business with them. I’ve seen people manage social lives across several networks with them. I’ve seen them used for status, used for silly games, used for managing life.

Then I saw this.

It really came home to me then that for all the apps, abilities and adaptability of the iPhone, I hate it.

This isn’t a Mac/PC thing or a Geek vs. Style thing. It’s a simple matter of information permeation. I use Twitter while in the office and at home. This has served me well in making friends, keeping abreast of blogging and in the industry I work. Knowing anything about Twitter while working in Market Research (even if I am the monkey) is gold. I use Trillian at home to tie together two MSN accounts, a Yahoo that I no longer use nearly as much, an AIM that I never really understood why I had and IRC networks. I blog on blogger, I blog on Wordpress (when not lazy) and I have Facebook and other social sites. For all intents and purposes, I am almost always connected.

That all said, I enjoy my commute home where unless someone rings me in a desperate rush, I can read my book and be away from the wired world. I enjoy my lazy weekend mornings where until I turn on the computer, none of you are in my home and the greater world doesn’t exist. I do love the internet and I’ve met many wonderful people online and in person due to it. I do love being able to blog, to search for numbers when I need them and otherwise worship at the altar of Google. I just also like time to myself.

This is in fact less about the iPhone itself, though such a target it is, and more about any device that ties me more to the internet. You could change it to Palm Pré or Google Nexus One or the Droid with the only difference being that my stories are incorrect.

Someone upstairs in work is considering getting a new phone. I’ll be the one who has to set it up, iron out any problems and be ready with a quick tutorial. I dread the day where they hatch the plan of giving me one. Scarybooster wrote a NaNoWriMo book on his iPhone and with the death of his computer it is his digital umbilical keeping him in touch with the wider world and the weight of information flying through the airwaves.

For me, given how I’d be compelled to make the best use of the device for work and home, it’d not be a digital umbilical but a digital noose. Goodbye problem solving or basic memory, hello iPhone and whatever app I’d need for that.

Overactive Imagination

Yesterday Shannon told me she had "badish" news. Turns out she needs a new chair. Nothings wrong with the old one, it's just not good for her back. This only rates as "badish" due to well... money.

"So what?" you may ask. I agree, it's a little detail. However, at the time Shannon took forever to tell me this "badish" news. There were tangents and then quibbles over how bad it really was. I didn't care, I just wanted to know. My mind was coming up with all the horrible scenarios it could. Is it really not bad or is it in fact a whole lot worse than advertised?

Not knowing is the worst thing. When you know what a problem is there at least exists the possibility of planning for it, facing it or running away like a little girl.

Not knowing in an MMO context is also powerful. I didn't know much of Cryptics plans for Star Trek bar that it was Cryptic and my mind ran away with the possibilities. It was also proven right (sadly) in many of them. I don't know a whole lot about The Secret World beyond that I want it and again, my mind is dancing with what may be.

However recently I've noticed fewer games doing that to me, at least in an online context. C&C 4? I'm thrilled. WoW Cataclysm? Meh. Despite what it could mean for the genre. Sword of the Stars 2? Woo! Allods? I haven't a clue what that's all about. Am I getting crankier and more insular as I get older? Am I more concerned about solo or casual experiences where I can do my own thing despite all the friends and connections I've made through MMOs?

Or is it simply there's not enough wonder in the genre at the moment? Of course everyone's taste is different. What has me fascinated by The Secret World may not work for someone else and they'll instead be salivating over FF14. When I first saw online games, they were mysterious things to me. Ireland was way behind the times as far as online connectivity went. These persistent worlds where anything could happen seemed like a little slice of gaming nirvana, Christmas and my birthday all in one package that I'd get every day.
Now though when people are looking at games it seems to either be "This is <X Game> with features lifted from <Y & Z with some poorly done -i>"  or "This is <A Studio>'s 2nd/3rd/4th/5th MMO with <overdone or rather rubbish signature trademark>".

Right now The Secret World is giving me what Warhammer gave me, what Warhammer 40k will give me and what my other games did. It is giving my mind something to run away with. To imagine the vistas that lay before me, even if the reality is somewhat lacking in the end. I will always treasure the run up to Warhammer for the excitement of the time and the bloggers I met.

It may turn out that The Secret World suffers, or has a bad launch (seriously Funcom, prove people wrong this time), or is simply crap. Either way for now I'm 16 again, seeing those unspoiled unknown worlds laid before me and happy with what may be.

Games are Competitions.

A little under 13 months ago I paid a visit to my old Primary school (that's Elementary for most of you). I needed my Confirmation certificate from the Church parish and they share links. During the visit, Shannon and I wandered through the yard and into the school so I could show her where I was educated as a wee boy. On the way back out and over to the Church we were surrounded by boys from 4-12 years old.
Kids were screaming happily, some were chasing one another, others were playing marbles; more still were playing games that I couldn't begin to guess at. It was chaos, but it was happy chaos.
Shannon, as far as I recall, asked me how anyone makes any sense out of the games and what was going on. The only answer I could give was that it makes sense to the kids at the time.

They knew if they were racing and against whom. They knew whatever the latest iterations of schoolyard marbles rules were. They knew the rules of this chasing game, that hide and seek game and of all the other games that were lost on me, having grown up and no longer being the sort of person to play in a schoolyard and the type of person who thought a half hour was an eternity in which to have fun.

That's not entirely true though if I play MMOs. They are the playground I long for when I am working. Not to the exclusion of life of course, but while the schoolyard was a small slice of Heaven when you were in classes, MMOs are my escapism from work.

Why the personal anecdote? Well Seph and I, you may know him or just recognise the name from the previous post, occasionally take part in that great past time of all MMO players. Armchair developer. We toss around ideas and of course, ideal game designs that may or may not ever see the light of day. In doing so I've begun to think about combat and competition.

Take Star Trek for a moment, it appears to be and is reported as having precious little but combat and FedEx missions (with the occasional memory game in lieu of diplomacy). Even so, it launched properly yesterday and likely by the end of the week we'll see it reported that someone has reached the skill/level cap. There'll be those that complain that the Rear Admiral blew through content and lessened the game for themselves by rushing. There'll be those who take any utterance from the cap as gold and proclaim that there are either greener pastures or desolate wastelands awaiting everyone if they get past the next arbitrary level. In the end though, one thing is apparent. He wasn't playing the same game as you. Oh, you may both be in Star Trek, but he was racing while you're playing chasing with Klingons or marbles with supply missions. If the game doesn't lend itself to a schoolyard though, we've a problem.

Most "games" are about competition. Who is the fastest, the strongest, the richest, the most skilled, the most adorned or adored? Healthy competition is good, but of course there will always be cheaters or those who suffer a lack of ability in certain areas. Competition can equate to combat, but it has to be combat in all areas. Financial, physical, social. Sandbox worlds do call back to our childhood where you could race in the yard today and chase or be chased tomorrow. Where the game was what you felt like doing and took pleasure from, even if no one else in the screaming mob was necessarily playing the same game with you or at all. The games we play need to promote the competition in all its forms and be flexible in the rule set.

Further to this, I think GMs should get more chances to interact. If not them, then there should be more dedicated community teams. Someone needs to police the schoolyard and it always falls to volunteer parents where I am. They keep an eye and solve the disputes. The cheating, the fighting, the scraped knee from a fall; all these fall under their remit. GMs should walk amongst us as giants and have a chance to see the community live instead of just deal with our broken moments.

Finally though, we all learn to play our games as children. Maybe some of you now prefer a more cerebral approach to entertainment. Others will enjoy the mindless grind or chaotic nonsensical battle. No matter how you prefer to be entertained, you want to be entertained. The competitions that our games inspire should be nurtured and promoted. When I played Planetside, I played an Infiltration Armour character. I didn't play to win the war for the Vanu every day. I didn't even necessarily follow the flow of the battle most times. I played for the heart pounding excitement of being chased by a Dark lighting MAX and for the thrill of sneaking past fortified placed. I loved to test myself and play with others. No matter the flaws or virtues of the game, I will always love it for that one simple fact.

Winning didn't matter, the rules were my own and sometimes I was the only one playing my game in that massive world at war. What did matter was I got to go to the yard and I got to play.

Intellectual Properly

In my fit of nerd rage previously, Terry made a good comment.

It's box art. It's supposed to get your attention and trigger certain subliminal behavior responses.

As far as Marketing is concerned, fighting and spaceships and explosions with a clean cut looking fellow front and center > 5 balding nobodies of various colors with a collection of head ridges sitting around a table, maybe arguing or having tea or something.

He’s completely correct. If you counted up the episodes of the Original series and the amount of times the Captain Kirked out, you’d get a fairly action packed show. Times changed with Captain Picard who favoured more diplomatic or cerebral solutions. Don’t be fooled though, he could still kick your ass up around your ears. Captain Sisko went his own way and had a war to fight, between Gods and Demons and a proper war with Klingons and Cardassians and Breen and so on. Captain Janeway sadly was portrayed about fifteen thousand different ways per season but had her fair share of ass kicking. Captain Archer went a special crazy for all of season three when someone in Paramount decided that the equation “Sci fi+GRIMDARK=Money” applied to any and all science fictions.

On a related but otherwise totally different point, Jim Butcher has a map (illustrated by Priscilla Spencer) now for his Codex Alera series. This is a good thing. It’s a lovely piece of artwork and helps flesh out the world.

Only it’s backwards. Rather, in my head it is. For some reason I had always held Canea as being to the east rather than the west. Perhaps I didn’t pay enough attention, or perhaps I just preferred it that way. Such is the point that people start abusing canon and doing slashfiction. If anyone knows which way up or around the world goes, it’s the author, not me.

This brings me to a point though. The world of Alera to me goes the opposite direction to what is it. The world of Star Trek to me is about the triumph of humanity and its betterment rather than pew pew laser beams. Yes there are battles and action sequences liberally sprinkled throughout the canon. Heck my favourite Captain is from Peter David’s New Frontier series and Mackenzie Calhoun is a complete Kirk style cowboy Captain.

Ultimately, the intellectual property that is Star Trek has many aspects and for each there are fans. Could any company create a game that would satisfy all or even most parties? Is that even achievable in games based on an IP rather than a completely new world where there isn’t 40 or 50 years of fans idolising different aspects of it?

In the end did I lash out at Star Trek because I don’t feel that Cryptic has done the property properly, or is it because they’ve done it justice, but not in a way that suits my mental image of Star Trek? Only time will tell. I’m going to give it a try of course, how could I not? However if in the end it is all brawn and no brain, “Fire all Phasers” rather than “Open Channel” and gung ho at the expense of thought, it just won’t be Star Trek for me.

I want to boldly go, to seek out new life and new civilisations. Solve their problems, save them from the dangers that plague the universe and work towards a shining ideal first put forward decades ago. I don’t want to spam photons and go for coffee, no matter how much I can customize a race or ship.

Possibly The Worst Idea

My wee mention of Left 4 Dead put me to thinking about things. Of course the thoughts aren’t terribly original but hey Echoes here.

Kyle Horner of Massively put digital pen to paper in March and offered up the idea of a Zombie Apocalypse MMO. Earlier still he mused on a Survival Horror game.

While collecting links for this post, I remembered where Syp talked about permadeath. Permadeath as he points out is a polarising thing. You either hate it or embrace it and rarely fall on either side. Unsurprising really given that a quick look at game wikis proves character death is cheap. In Champions, you take a hit to your effectiveness. In City of Heroes, technological wonders rebuild you on a molecular level as you fall, avoiding all the issues of death (probably also explaining why you can “arrest” with a broadsword to the neck). Aion, you’re immortal. Warhammer, you’re too busy to die. Warcraft, death is helpful if you want to get all the quests. There are so many ways of sidestepping the Reaper explained away by the fluff of the game, usually in the tutorial to boot, that is causes fights when applied to NPCs. Ask people about if Heroes kill or not in the Champions Online or City of Heroes role-playing forums and be ready for a firestorm.

Permadeath is based on a very basic premise though, one that exists in many games and I think could be applied well in MMOs (or it’s a horrible idea as the title of this suggests), specifically the idea that supplies are limited. There is only one of you. There are only so many resurrections available. There is no healer or mediport or other Applied Phlebotinum around to get you on your feet.

So if in fact supplies are limited, shouldn’t that apply across the game world? The Left 4 Dead example, and the idea of the post, is this. You have X amount of ammo, Y amount of friends and Z options. You need to get from A to B and there may not be a handy drop of medical supplies or pills or ammo or anything along the way. You could face hordes of mooks or a handful of specialised problems. Part of the tension comes in the fight, another part comes in the debate. Do I use my pills now or do I wait? Can I afford to unload my weapon like a madman into that mob or should I get my (unlimited) pistol? Will I survive just a little longer, saving that precious med pack for when we really need it?

In a post apocalyptic world or survival game world, supplies should be limited. Give people the ability to patch up friends into walking wounded, give people a weapon they can always use but isn’t exactly going to rock anyone's socks. Give them the tension that comes of the choices, to use what little they have now or try to hold on a little longer.

Like in Kyle's example, the best supplies and remaining scant resources are in the danger zone. You’re not. Maybe such a game would have permadeath, maybe not. Either way there would only be so many people with so much stuff and you’d have to work out how to survive on that. Logistics and tactics become paramount.

Bonus ideas

Two MMO settings where supplies are precious and choices hard. First, Sci-fi setting where humanity (or for extra points humanity are the invaders and you play something else) is on the run from an invading force. Until such time as the story allows it, it would be a game of rearguard actions and ever increasing pressure put on the survivors and their stockpiles. Escape, abandon other guilds to die, try to fight the good fight. Whatever you do, you’ve a game where people need to work together to win, otherwise they die piecemeal.

Second setting, easy one this, Post Epitaph One-Dollhouse verse. The world is clearly in tatters and people have all sorts of dangers rallied against them. Make the escape from a large city a very very long tutorial where you either learn what you need to work with people in refuge or you suffer a fate worse than death. Extra points if the game doesn’t include permadeath in a traditional way and instead offers you the chance to override a Doll. Do you take that option and take someone's body? Or do you do the honourable thing and go out shooting?

 

Either way the idea of limiting supplies could be awful, the one wonderful part of it is it has brought me that much closer to lunchtime. Really really awful. I remember reading about old school Everquest and guilds camping dungeons that they wanted to run. Do you think the world is ready for the ultimate co-op game? Not just an MMO but one where you really do have to shape up yourself as well as work well with others. Then again given the boards of many online games, do you really want to rely on those people for your continued survival? Would you play a game where every med pack is precious and if you don’t join the guys guarding the pharmacy, you may never see another?

I suppose in the end, supplies are limited. People will be patient with current game designs for only so long, many already have lost their patience. I guess my final question is this, would you play in a world where, in the big picture, your side has already lost? All you can do is survive and hope to turn the tide someday.

In The Name Of The Healer..

And the Tank and the Holy DPS did you see how I pwned that mob?!?

That’s right, the holy trinity. The three body system that has the person soaking the damage and keeping aggro, the person keeping everyone up and running and the person who dishes out the hurt. I’m told the Holy Trinity is boring and old fashioned and in need of a shake up. Personally, I’ve not had much experience with it. Even in games that have it, I’ve a tendency to go off and do whatever amused me rather than what I am good at or “meant” for.

The Trinity is being discussed on the Epic Slant Forums but this post is inspired by Luigrein over at Rainbow MMO. He was talking about City of Heroes and how just because your class is a tank, that doesn’t mean levelling one means you know them all. (By the way, I didn’t see your global for ages mate, I’ll tend to that tonight)

I am in total agreement with that. Last night I just got my tenth level 50 character in City of Heroes, this time my Warshade Kashlar. So as of writing this I have a max level on 6 of the 7 Hero ATs and 3 of the 7 Villain ATs. That doesn’t mean I have played everything, even in the ATs that I have supposedly finished. My friend Sephorus for the longest time had a Fire/Fire tank that he insisted was a scrapper with the wrong AT icon. Dinging 50, I was on an Imperious Task Force. We had no dedicated healer and precious little in the way of pure dps. What we did have was a lot of people who played well and had enough utility to carry the day (also lots of control). I have heard of all Kheldian taskforces, all Blaster taskforces, all Defender (broken and wrong:P) taskforces and so on and so forth. The Trinity can be undone through one word. Utility.

I think the hard part is though not everyone wants it gone. Personally I think I might enjoy some time making the healiest healer I can, or tankiest tanker. I might like my niche and I want to be able to indulge that desire wherever I play. Designers though are the ones who you have to convince and I know how.

Get the developers of all the games you love and have a massive Left 4 Dead vs marathon. Zoey is no better than Francis. Louis no less accurate than Bill. Each player is on an even footing and can pick the weapons that suit their style best, can heal with a medkit or patch up briefly with pills. They all can lay down walls of fire or lob a distracting pipe bomb. How the person plays with the tools offered is up to them. There is no dedicated healer, though someone can play that way. There is no dedicated tanker beyond “Hey you’ve slightly more health, you annoy the Witch”. There is no best weapon. You use what you have in a manner that suits yourself. Could that be applied to MMOs en masse? I haven’t a clue, though I will watch the one that recently caught my eye that might.

Levels and classes are a wonderful introduction to online games and teach you how to play in the virtual worlds that so many people love. Sooner or later though, the fun comes from having nothing but a shotgun and a prayer.

Do Games Need More Holidays?

It’s that time of year. I want to say a quick word about tragedies and people.

Ten years ago in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland, there was a tragedy. It hit the family very hard and each year the community comes together to remember it.

Eight years ago, tomorrow, in New York, there was a much larger tragedy. One that is steeped in all sorts of emotions and agendas. It too is still remembered.

Now these two events are completely unrelated. What is universal is that people will come to mourn the events and the lives lost. On one end of the scale we’ve an event so local that if anyone across the entire player base of City of Heroes had heard of it, other than me, I’d be surprised. On the other, there’s an event which brings out all sorts of emotions in all sorts of people and can be called politically charged. (Oh by the way, any comments that make light of it or show any disrespect to the departed will be deleted and the commenter will be shamed to the best of my ability)

I remembered recently an event that took place in Earth & Beyond. There was a particular zone in the Beta Hydri System. Glenn I think it was, or perhaps Grissom. It had several nav buoys you could fly to representing milestones in space travel. When the Columbia Disaster occurred players congregated in this zone to hold a memorial. Afterwards the Devs retconned in a new buoy for the disaster, if memory serves that is. Thus there was a memorial for a tragedy that anyone can relate to.

A lot of MMOs already celebrate Christmas/Generic Winter Holiday, Valentines, Halloween and their own birthday. Should there be a date in an MMOs social calendar for remembering those who we have lost? Is that better handled by the player base than the developers? Or is it too much of an intrusion of the real world that games offer an escape from?

Would you mourn with gamers, connected only by the virtual space you share or is it something best left to people to do in private?

The Cryptic Model

This morning I was talking to my good friend Seph (That's Sephorus or Hey, Bitch! to you). Given that we met in City of Heroes and have become good friends, we tend to talk about the game a fair bit. Of course no conversation about City of Heroes nowadays will stay away from Champions for long.

So I ask, are you happy with the Cryptic Model?

Seph: It's not a game I'd sign up for right this second. There's too many things that I feel need more polish for them to be acceptable. However, there's enough stuff either done well or with the potential to be polished up real damn nicely that, given a bit of time, I'd play it. It's certainly in the category of "when I'm done with City of Heroes". Not something I'd jump ship for, but not something I'm willing to pass up, either.

The emphasis in the above is mine.

Polish, that dastardly term trotted out every time someone compares something to WoW. Does it have the polish of WoW? Did they spend enough time on polish? It isn't as polished as it could be.
This isn't a dig at WoW, but rather at the term. A polished turd is just a shiny turd. A diamond in the rough is just as good as a flawless one, it simply hasn't gotten there yet but you can see the worth.

Anyway that's a divergence, if polish is synonymous with WoW and Blizzard, what then is the Cryptic Model?
I submit that it is more stuff than you could ever possibly use.

Take a look around at what people are saying about Champions, almost universally is the mention of the character creator and for good reason. Cryptic broke ground with the City of Heroes creator and this one has even more crammed into it. Moving
tails, limb sliders, stances, how you want to run, mood, backpacks and more. I know someone who spent literal hours in the creator, saving characters and doing it all again.
If you preorder, you get more options; if you microtransact, more options. If you get the 6 month or lifetime sub, even more options. So many options that they carry over into Star Trek Online where for reasons best known to themselves they're
offering Mirror Universe skins (do not get me started on that, I'm keeping that nerdrage for later).
Every Issue of City of Heroes had yet more options of things to do. Champions will likely have the same. Options upon options upon options. For some, this is nirvana.

However it seems to be the hat for Cryptic. People are complaining about how the game is set up, or performing or how its console dna is showing. Cryptic on the other hand is touting the colour customization (and boy did they learn that lesson well after telling City of Heroes it couldnt be done, which...soon it can be), modular powersets and the flexibility of the creator.

Is the game polished? I couldn't begin to guess. My graphics card is still in Silicon Heaven so everything I see is rough and ugly.

Are they even trying? I can't say for sure, I got lost in their submenus trying to find out.

Polish be damned, they want you to select your eyebrows.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It

...and I feel fine.

Yes this is somewhat related to World of Warcraft : Cataclysm

Coming with the latest WoW expansion is something that I've personally only seen once before. A change of the worlds landscape on a major scale. Previously I saw this with The Bending in Planetside when the plaent Auraxis shoved its bits across the cosmos (and completely removed the Oshur continent in favour of Battle Islands).

That said, and I'm sure its happened more than I've seen, in any healthy game, the world ends on a regular basis. Well... the world as you knew it anyway.

How many shifts does it take though until the world you started in and the world you have now are only vaugely related in your mind? Old hands will always complain about how easy it is to level now, newbies wont know about aspects of certain areas and miss scads of story. Is this a move forward though? In some cases yes. I imagine Cataclysm will cause a wave of alts through the old content as people go to see what has become of what they grew bored of/outleveled. In other cases, I don't know. Champions had me go through two versions of two early zones. While they served as good introductions they're also misleading. The impression I got of Canada bore no relation to what the zone actually is. That sudden spike of awe was invalidated by the world changing so quickly.

Syp has posted over on Bio Break about the difference between convenience and consistency. Making the game easier versus keeping what the game was. Whichever wins out for each game, sooner or later the world changes. Let's just hope in the games you love, it's always a change worth singing about.

The Best of Frenemies.

I love my friends, they're my friends after all. I am sure you yourselves also are rather fond of those you call friend. Then there's acquiantances. They're nice folks, handy in a spot, you're friendly/neighbourly with them but you've rarely had them over for a drink.

I've made many good friends in City of Heroes, I've made many more passing ones as well. The first in a series of blog posts about Champions is dedicated to my frenemies.

I ended up going back to City of Heroes for two simple reasons. I couldn't afford two MMOs at the moment and I wanted to play with Shannon more than the people I rarely saw in WAR. (If ever there is US -> EU Transfers, I'd be back in a heartbeat)
There are of course names I recognise, names I love, names I can barely stand and all the flavours in between. Like a good team player, unless I honestly cannot personally stand someone, I will play with whomever. I will try reign in my exuberance (lemming behaviour) and I will play.

Now some people in City of Heroes, I respect. They're good players, or good roleplayers or simply fun to see on the global channels. However, they are the frenemy. They want to try Champions. They want to up sticks and move onto the new game, and that's perfectly fine. They want people we're both friends with to go with them, also fine. Some people will make the move, others won't bother. There'll be a few who spend time equally across heroic games. The problem is this, they want to recreate what they have here in the new game.

That's why they bother me. Instead of going into a new and virgin territory where all are once again equal before their Mods, they want to bring their baggage with them. Friends they've made, people they've snubbed without realising, the stories that they have worked on and the associated bits and pieces that come with roleplaying.

For some it will work, I will honestly say that the Force powerset in Champions is far more like what I originally envisioned City Of Heroes' Forcefield powerset to be. I could be quite happy playing there, but the character I originally created in CoH will not make the move.

Now for some, there is a sense of identity with their avatar. They may use the same name in each game they go to, and that's fine. My complaint here is the wholesale copy/paste behaviour from one game to another.

City of Heroes has life in it yet. Issue 16 is in closed beta right now and Going Rogue looms in the future. There is freshness wherever you want to make it. For any who are finding it stale at the moment I would ask. Is it stale because you've really done everything in every way with every powerset? Or is it stale because you are beholden to passing friends, people whose names you possibly don't even know but who are not evolving with their virtual space?

Moving all the same faces, places and stories into a new game will not invigorate or freshen them, not for long anyway. In the end, I think, you'll have ruined a fresh start at a new you, a new way to be with your friends and a new way to make more.

When you're given the chance to create anything, create.

Communication Integration.

Recently people have been talking about the social networking sites like they were some sort of new thing that no one has ever seen before. Obviously they aren't but their clout and impact is growing. How many people coloured their avatars green to support the Iranian election dispute? How many Iranians themselves used Twitter to organise protests? How many people heard of the celebrity deaths on Twitter and Facebook first and the news second?

News channels are getting in on the act. Shannon watches Quest Means Business on CNN for some unfathomable reason and the man would have Twitters babies if he could. Sky News has a segment every evening based entirely around the web. Microsoft Earth and Google Earth/Maps/Streetview are being used to pad out news reports with on scene images and graphics for when a reporter hasn't yet hit the scene.

So with this ever growing trend of accepting sites like Twitter and Facebook, why are our virtual worlds not yet integrated?

I feel safe saying that Champions, for whatever reason, has a /tweet command. The only other game with integrated Out Of Game chat that I recall was The Matrix Online. Unsurprising really as it was owned by WB who of course had an AIM integration built in. You could play in Megacity 1 and still chat to people on your AOL friend list.

Now admittedly for some that will break immersion, much like EQ II's /pizza command to bring up a game browser so you could order Pizza Hut to be delivered. For others it could be a great tool, EVE as far as I recall has a built in browser so pilots can keep up on their mail and check databases etc without alt tabbing out and potentially leaving themselves vulnerable.

People talk about word of mouth press and the impact of blogging. Personally I would blog more if I could do it while in my games. If I have a few minutes between tasks and goings on, I am not inclined to log out for an idea I am forming, but if I could hit up Blogger and Wordpress while the Warband/Supergroup/Raid gets together I'd quite like it. How many friends do we all have who just don't get the online gaming thing? Now imagine when you tweet from in the game, alerting your gaming friends to something massive going on and possibly intriguing your other friends.

By all means continue to improve and enhance our virtual worlds. Make them immersive, make them fantastic. Make them somewhere we want to be. More importantly, make them work with the world we live in, the world that should always trump a game when there's something important. I could be sitting quite happily with rose coloured glasses on, but in my opinion when the two worlds don't have to compete, when they gel better, people will enjoy them more. After all, the game is by its very definition, sociable. It should be enabled further.

In the end, first kill bragging rights, free press, word of mouth advertising and positive (possibly) attention focused on your game all for the sake of "/tweet" or "/im". Why pass that up?

Trying a different question

Syp made a post about the validity of solo play, despite him being mostly a grouper. Due to the back and forth in the comments Ysharros had a stab at defending their playstyle of preference. I threw a comment out there myself. Spinks on the other hand has a different view and once again the comments flow, as doother posts.

Here's something I want to ask though.
Grouping is fine for those who group. Reasons have been given ranging from personal achievement, enjoying a metagame, tactical reasons and so on.
Soloing is fine for those who want to. There should be an overlap permitted but both camps seem to have a problem with that.

My question is this. Soloers, what would entice you to group? You have your reasons for not doing so, and that is acceptable. Maybe you don't always feel like it, maybe you dislike the chaos, maybe you have a medical reasons (I've known a few).

When the solo vs group question comes up, inevitably the question posed is "Why would you solo in an MMO?" with the implication to some that soloing is the digital equivalent of leprosy.
How can we make the question "What would get you to group with us?". People don't have to group, people will always still want some alone time, me time, time to do whatever insanity or drudgery catches their fancy. Could you make it enticing to group though, even to a soloer, without necessarily forcing the issue?

On the Group/Solo cost of living.

I group. I solo. I duo. I've staticed. I have raided, taskforced, pugged, warbanded, fleet maneuvered and run around like a headless chicken in an Escher painting.

I understand that an MMO has people. I know that even when I run alone, there are people. I accept that when there are people en masse, I sometimes wish there wasn't. I play what I'd like when I want and do what I can for the mass when I can.

At the end of the day however it depends on my mood. I've seen people who group more than anything not log on when they have a bad mood. Why? So they don't take it out on others. Noble that, but the alternative is you could play your game still and just not play with other people.
I've seen hardcore soloers complain about new group based content essentially locking them out, but guys if any random schmoe could solo the content, we'd all be bored fast.

I think the reason Groupers hate Soloers is the old old old player type, the Tank Mages. Tank Mages either want or have the ability to carry the game on their shoulders. They can solo every boss that ever wiped your team, they don't need heals or dps or (de)buffs as they have them themselves. They don't need you. In social games and online spaces where depending on others is promoted, this can be a bit jarring. Especially if you need the Tank Mage so your group can do things. Not everyone who prefers to play alone is a Tank Mage though, just as how not everyone who only ever groups is a powerleveller.

In City of Heroes, I soloed every Kheldian arc. Why? Well.. as much as I love my friends and as much as I enjoy playing with new people, you lot get in my way when I am playing for the content and fluff. You want to do this mission and get to the next as fast as possible or roleplay something that will slow me down or make the fluff whore in me cry quietly.
In Warhammer, when I am not feeling up to the mania of a Warband or the banter of the guild and groups, I go and solo. I can take my time reading the mission text. I can suicide repeatedly if I so choose. I can play NinjaDwarf and get into places I really probably shouldn't. Nothing in that playstyle is bad. I am not saying you cannot come and mission/quest with me, I just want to take it easy and am not offering you a fast and productive experience.

Am I drain on the Sentinels in Warhammer? I like to think not. Through taxes and tithes, they make money from me. Am I a drain on Luna Arcanum in CoH? They are making prestige off of me. When I am soloing, I am still contributing. I'm not always on the team, but I am engaged in teamwork. Maybe not as obviously as when I am in a group, but it is still happening.

If I don't participate with the group as a whole, I do not expect to get the same preference. A raid or taskforce won't ever hinge on my showing up, nor can I expect them to hold a spot for me when others want to go unless I have given the group time in return. Many of the new soloers do not expect such. They are not asking you to bring them on every raid and leave them alone at all other times. If they are, their solo playstle has nothing to do with them being a leech.

Sometimes, even in the most solitary of moods, people like to know others are near and can be reached if necessary. You can solo and be in an MMO. Just don't take it too far one way or the other. Warhammer, for me, had lost its appeal when I was always soloing. If you have soloers in the guild, maybe they just need a friendly hand extended. If you always run in groups, keep in mind that's not for everyone. One former friend in City of Heroes physically could not cope with 8 man teams and would sooner leave than put themselves through strain and no one would say that they were wrong to.

Finally on the grouping side of the fence.. if you never put yourself outside your guild or outside yourself, consider this. You are missing an experience and you may not make friends you otherwise could. My life is richer, online and off, for having pugged and talked to groups.
There is no one ideal playstyle for an MMO in the same way that there is no one ideal MMO for all us online players. If there was, we'd all be raiding tonight, some in groups, some by themselves and some just sitting by and watching us do it.

Once more with ketchup

Yes I know, I know. I keep talking about food. Maybe lunch hasn't hit the stomach yet.

Bit of a general question open to all.

WoW has become the McDonalds of online gaming: Everyone loves it, I like it,
too.-> But which player can stand burgers over and over?And no, you do not
need to be a "hardcore elite raiders" to get that feeling. By commenter Longasc

Above quote taken from Tobolds Blog

We are not discussing Wow in any way shape or form. This goes back to the sandwich metaphor (and eerily I did make a burger comment...) and shopping around. This also goes back to the idea of lifetime passes to games such as Lotro.

So!

Assuming that WoW is the McDonalds of Online gaming and other games represent other restaurants, how much more would you be willing to pay for a varied menu?

WoW caters to millions, other games also have their own populations. In the end though a vast majority of our online games are made by the same crowd in some fashion.

How much would you pay SOE or NCSoft or Turbine or Mythic or Blizzard or CCP or NetDevil or whomever to have access to several very different games at once? SOE already has the Station Pass, but how much more than our normal monthly fee would you pay for a super pass to let you easily play WAR and WoW and EVE and CoH for example?

Instead of grabbing what they can for their own games, would it be profitable or even sensible for the various names in online games to share their subscriber bases? A Taco Bell sharing a roof with a KFC sort of deal.

Would you buy a Blizzard/NCSoft/Mythic game pass for one month or a year of cross company gaming? If it was affordable, so called WoW tourism aside, how many of Blizzards 11 million would explore further, and how many more would leave other games to go stomp around in Azeroth?

I'd consider it myself. The only limiting factor is time, I can only be in one game at a time unless I get silly... so many games, so many choices.

Let's talk about Sandwiches.

My personal favourite sandwich is "THE Sandwich". It's tuna, eggs, ham, onion, cheese, dash of black pepper and cheese & onion crisps.
Granted, I'll put almost any meal between bread. Ask Shannon.

How does this relate to WAR? Well I am going to close my eyes and pretend it does. Actually the whole sandwich thing comes from a blog I remember reading once, may have been Ixobelles. The idea being that the sandwich shop that offers it all and has the freshest bread and fillings is the best.

That and when I originally started writing this, I was waiting for lunchtime.

Anyway back to the point at hand. PvE is your bread and butter, except I hate butter. PvP we'll call being the spicy/very flavourful fillings. Some like them, others not so much. Despite the original sandwich theory being that the shop that offers better sandwiches than the others is the shop you will always return to, I would like to offer the counter theory that we have not yet made the perfect sandwich.

A sublime medley of tastes and textures, a mix of colours and sounds when you chew. No one has yet made such a sandwich that you can lean over the theoretical counter and say "hold the PvP" and have it remain delicious. Or even "Can I have a wrap instead of bread? Not feeling PvE".

Right now several WAR/MMO bloggers are casting their eyes about and trying new treats. Some are in EVE, others CoH and probably a few in WoW. Vanguard, LOTRO and Champions Beta have all also been mentioned.
If they come back to WAR, of course I'll be pleased, but I am not going to shove my choice of food down their throats. One day we'll get the game that has it all and spells the end of the MMO genre as we know it, one day we'll have the sort of game where hardcore casuals and casual pkers and seat of the pants market junkies can all co-exist without any trouble.

Until then, I wish everyone the best on their travels round the worlds offered by MMOs, I hope they find something filling and enjoyable, I also hope I'll see them again around my way.

In the end though, sometimes when you're in a sandwich shop... all you really want is a Chinese take away.

Alting : Good or Bad?

Alts are commonplace in MMOs. Why else would you have more than one slot per server if people never played more than one character? Sooner or later everyone gets bored. Either they achieve what they set out to do, hit the level cap or some other reason. Sometimes it is as simple as needing a change of scenery and a change of pace.

Personally in Warhammer I have four active alts that I've mentioned herabouts. All Dwarfs as is only proper. In City of Heroes, despite originally being very conservative and loyal to a handful of characters, I ended up filling my 17 server slots on Virtue.

I personally, as mentioned in GirlIRLs meme, prefer to start out slow and only play support when I start a new game. It's how I learn the ropes, the community and if I like the game. Other folks like my good friend Seph love to try everything as soon as they can. Seph had in very short order, some 10 or 15 alts and may well have filled two servers. He wanted to sample the various classes and have them there to play later. That's his perogative.

Now to the meat of the matter. Before the switch from Ostermark to Phoenix Throne my regular play group wasn't regular anymore. Some had left, others couldn't afford the time. C'est la vie. As a result I decided that I would shop around and find myself a nice Guild to try out. Grungi was with me though as when I settled on this course of action, Bitter Rivals had just finished and I hadn't even gotten Aardii past the first PQ in Ekrund when I saw the various guilds vying for new blood.
I ended up joining a fantastic bunch called The Sentinels as well... they were in my PQ group and seemed like good chaps.

Now a part of Sentinel policy is that they wanted to recruit not just your character, but you yourself. All of your characters on the server. At first, I was a little wary as well I had some in the Oathbearers Legacy, a friend group from CoH.
Now though, all my Dwarfs are with them and I've one inactive character remaining in the Oathbearers. They all left so nyah.

This means no matter what I play, when I play I am with them. Whichever alt I feel like being on, I've an active guild to be around. This is in part because when any of them decide they'd like to alt and play something else for a bit, their alts are also there. We're encouraged to be together and it works. Notes on the Guild Roster let you keep track of who is who easily and so far I've not met one bad apple.

Now I don't know any of them personally, I've not yet formed the friendships I did in City of Heroes. In CoH, I'd happily join any group a friend wanted me to and I have come to think that this is a bad thing.
When my account expired, it wasn't just me not being on the global channels. It was several supergroups losing one of their number. Had I been centralised like the Sentinels prefer, well then one group would have only lost one person. You can, except in cases of Dual boxing or that crazy 36 account WoW guy, only be in one place at a time. This causes trouble when you have 17 places to be instead of one or two.

In the end it may all just be a cycle. I may end up filling Phoenix Throne and Vortex to the gills. I may end up have 20 different alts, but I wonder if I will have 20 different places, or by joining guilds like the Sentinels, will I only have one or two?
Either way that time is still in the future of my Warhammer play, I've 40 to get to yet and Vorri has his eye on those Aviator Goggles from the live event. Tonight, you'll find me with the Sentinels, no matter who I happen to be.