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.

Tinfoil Hat

Not that Tinfoil hat though it is related.

The Blizzard Entertainment Real ID idea has caused a major storm. Suffice to say, people are annoyed (or amused).

So my little tinfoil wrapped titbit is a question. Given that Blizzard is held up on a pedestal and shown to be the company to watch when making an MMO, the company to emulate and the ones who set all sorts of trends… they’re obviously capable of judging how people will react to any given idea to a fair degree.

So if they aren’t going back on Real ID, why are they going forward? I don’t think it’s merely to clean up their forums.

All that data, accessible… that has got to be a marketers wet dream.

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.

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.

WTS: 1 Ardy Soul

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve never played a Blizzard or Bioware game. I’ve watched my brother play countless hours of Mass Effect, KOTOR and KOTOR II. He plays WoW. In fact most people I know online either have played WoW, are playing WoW or will at some point.

As far as my gaming calendar goes, there’s City of Heroes next weekend to such a degree I’ll probably be sick of it next monday. There’s Left 4 Dead and if I get the money, a pre-order of Left 4 Dead 2. I’d love to dabble in Aion and have every intention of getting Shannon to test Champions Online just for my own grim amusement.

However Christmas is coming and with it, holidays. I’ll have time to indulge various bits and David (the brother) does keep offering me World of Warcraft. So question to everyone.

Is the never ending draw of Warcraft based in how it is as an MMO or due to fond memories of Warcraft I-III being translated to the big screen as it were? I understand some of the lore but none of the draw. Am I too changed by the games I have played to enjoy WoW or will it be me selling my soul?

So, Ardy play? Y/N.

Coming home

In one of those "I was reading this, which linked to this and then to this" things, I was reading Tobolds blog, got on to Syncaines posts about Darkfall and WoW tourists and Ixobelle.

Also recently my WAR account expired because of a credit card issue. My better half, Shannon, hasn't been playing City of Heroes and cancelled her account a few weeks back and now I'm considering doing the same.

First a commentary on the linked post.
Ixobelle had this to say:

LotRO is probably the only other game I really respect out of the ‘non-WoW’
batch of MMOs I’ve played (but I never subscribed to LotRO, so there you go),
and I have yet to actually even make it to the character creator in Coh/CoV. I
signed up for a trial, and the downloader was so fucking slow that my free trial
ran out before I ever actually got the game installed. Don’t even get me started
on EVE. Hoo boy.

With Syncaine coming back with:

No please, do elaborate on EVE, it would be priceless. Warning though, the game
does not contain NPCs with ! in bright yellow, so right off the bat it’s not as
‘polished’ as WoW. LoTRO thanks you for your respect, all 10 days or less of it.
I am curious though what exactly you are looking for in an MMO if LoTRO was not
WoW-enough for you?

Now personally... I've played all of 5 minutes of WoW. Decided it wasn't for me and left it at that. It was on my brothers account to boot, so it's not like I wasted any money by not properly playing out a month. I've my four year badge in City of Heroes coming this month (would be more but hey, account lapses). I've played a few months of EVE. I have never played Lotro.
While not being as ... adamant as Syncaine, I agree that Ixo really shouldn't have said anything.

You can download the CoH patcher before the trial, and also if it takes you 10 days to download a game, what have you been doing?
EVE has so much to offer, only the fact that I think I couldn't give the game time enough to do it justice keeps me away still.
The comment about LOTRO is just insulting.

It highlights something obvious of course, people like what they like. Some people like Pepsi, others Coke. There's always a George Lazenby fanboy in the corner somewhere.

In the end the thought came down to this. I've played CoH for years, I've made friends there, I've had good times there. But when it came to payday and we did a budget, I resubbed to Warhammer and I'm taking time off City Of Heroes.
It's not just a Pepsi/Coke thing for some people. It's so much more because of what the games are, MMOs.

CoH has great bits. EVE has great bits. LOTRO has great bits. WoW has great bits. WAR has great bits. At the end of the day, what really matters and what really spawns the comments is this. Where at you most at home?

IP (Freely)

Intellectual properties are a wonderful thing.
When you are starting a game, there are many hurdles. Too much exposition and fluff and people will get bored. Too little explanation of the why of your gaming experience and people will find it shallow and unmemorable. So IP's with their already established stories, fans, rules and reasons are great right?

Welllll....I suppose it depends on the medium. Take Star Wars. The movie franchise (love or hate the new ones) is hugely popular. The books are fantastic (YMMV). The games are hit and miss and the MMO .... well all I will say on that is NGE.

Two big IPs are coming to an MMO near you soon (for a given value of soon). Star Trek and Warhammer.

First we'll deal with a question on Star Trek.

Originally when Perpetual were running the game, they had decided to move the setting for the game 25 years beyond the end of Nemesis. This was a fantastic move I think. It put it far enough away so that familiar faces would exsist, but still left expansion room for current books, movies and shows. It also put it just far enough in the future for the lads at Perpetual to make up any damn story they wanted.
So far I have heard nothing, though granted I've not yet looked hard, to suggest Cryptic is retaining that story, making a new one or just plonking every new player in the universe ten minutes after the end of Nemesis.

Warhammer on the other hand is being created with huge input from Games Workshop. They are helping the lads at Mythic pick the classes, the look and feel of the world, even having final say on certain things (as far as I understand it) like the removal of the Dwarven beertractor.

I wonder how far the interaction from Games Workshop can be taken, or the creative control that Paramount may exert on Cryptic. Take the other big Cryptic game, Champions Online. Cryptic can do pretty much anything they want as they now own the IP. What happens in their game setting is now lore and the books that will be released in tandem and after the game launch will reflect that. Cryptic can manipulate that IP any way they want. Mythic cannot however suddenly declare that all Dwarfs adore pink and should ride bunnies and that Chaos really isn't that bad, they just need a /em hug once in a while.

What do you think is best for an MMO? Free reign to manipulate the world anywhich way? Or should the companies have a fluff bible and strict guidelines?

Personally I favour the guidelines. As much as I trust Mythic, the majority of my interest in Warhammer Age of Reckoning isn't the RvR or Living Guilds/Cities or any of that. It's the fact that it is Warhammer. A game and universe that I love and enjoy playing in.

Another universe that I enjoy is the setting for World of Warcraft. I am currently re-reading Richard A. Knaak's War of the Ancients trilogy. It's a good fun read I think.
I however made the mistake of looking over http://wowwiki.com earlier.
Blizzard have not retained a strict control of their world and as such I see chaos creeping in. Print media is not agreeing with the RTS which in turn is different again in ways from the MMO. Sure the little separations are that, little. Sure this happens all the time, look at comic books and the Infinite Crisis idea.

For me though, for my immersion in the game, for my stories that I play out and for my own enjoyment, I am glad there is someone there watching Mythic and helping them keep the corners tidy (or as tidy as they ever are in the Games Workshop, 25 years is alot of backstory). An ordered universe can only make it easier for us to play surely?

That said, maybe WoW needs to release the Crisis of Infinite Azeroths and Cryptic release something that tells us what stars we'll be trekking.

Warning : If you click on the WoW wiki you are subject to the wiki effect (link in title).