Saturday, May 20, 2006
MMORPG Applications: The Evolution of the Fighting Genre
(Anyone involved in creative thinking has had that experience of pondering some new and fantastic innovation, forgetting about it, then actually seeing it in the marketplace years later. Every kid that played early console games in the late '80s, including me, had the passing thought of "why can't I play my friends down the street?" And of course, thanks to X-Box Live and others, you can. I originally wrote this essay in early 2004. And I'm amazed in just two years how much of this is actually happening. The X-Box Live team should get an award for the work they are doing. And "arcade game memory cards?" Look no further than Tekken 5 and the new Super Mario Kart Arcade game. With that preface out of the way... now we can get on with this now notably dated essay...)
To many, MMORPGs represent the forefront of gaming. From the online medium, to design, to even the unique pricing structure... the game industry will be heavily influenced by the successes and failures of this unique genre of gaming.
The Fighting Game:
Sadly, I was born too late for Bruce Lee and the martial arts movies of the late 70s. For my generation, our martial arts fix came on a smaller screen via the local arcade. We grew up on Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Primal Rage, and Killer Instinct. Our heroes had names like Guile, Kung Lao, and Terry Bogart.
Over time console games brought the action home, as each release allowed for better graphics and gameplay. Today, gamers are hard pressed to find any real differences between the arcade version of Soul Caliber and the home editions (itself a sequel to Soul Edge, which was the Namco rip-off to the earlier Sega Genesis title Eternal Champions).
For a time, the future of fighting games had seemed to be rather linear. Every year brought advances in graphics which allowed each new release to display more beautiful backgrounds, more detailed characters, and more fluid and lifelike animation. It seemed this would continue to be the trend of advancement as the fighting game is, in itself, a pretty basic concept. That was until the MMORPGs. Now all types of gaming genres can grow and evolve by utilizing some of the basic building blocks that make MMORPGs among the most played and profitable titles today.
Ownership:
Online game developers have known for years that ownership is a key factor in keeping players interested to their titles. The more ownership players have over their experience, in general the more loyal they are to the product. It also brings a sense of pride to the player to know that they are playing with something of their own creation, built by their own effort and dedication. In my view, there are three different factors of ownership in online games. One of them, social bonds, can not easily be produced in a fighting game. It can, but in reality, when you add social features to a pure fighting game, it then starts to become more of a RPG-fighting hybrid. With a bit of imagination, the remaining two factors of ownership can be integrated into fighting games to provide a truly unique experience.
A Fighter from your Own Corner:
Fighting games aren't known for outstanding stories. So when the story is lacking, players tend to align themselves with the true focus of any fighting game: the characters. Players new to the game tend to try a few characters with some successes and some failures. Then, driven by the need to be considered skilled by their peers, they tend to pick one character with which to train and advance.
It's entertaining to watch how obsessive some fans are with their favorite fighter. They'll tell you why Siegfried is the most well rounded character in one breath, while explaining detailed reasons why Ryu is better than Ken in the next. All this excitement for characters from someone else's imagination. That in itself is both powerful and significant.
MMORPGs have shown us how much the simple task of character creation can enhance the player experience. We've seen this in its early stages in some console fighting games. But no where to the level achieved in even current online games. Character creation in Star Wars Galaxies is an event in itself, as many players spend a great deal of time choosing between the countless customization options for their characters. City of Heroes boasts a character creation system capable of generating over a million distinctly different characters. In the future, the capacity of character creation systems will only improve. Integrating this one feature into fighting games will do wonders to stimulate player enjoyment and improve replayability.
But we won't just stop with customizing faces, creating fancy fighting costumes, and giving them names. The entire RPG-like creation process should be brought into the fighting arena. After designing a new character, the player can then make choices about statistics and attributes. A simple method would be to use a sliding scale. For example, a player is given 200 points to divide between power, speed, and stamina. This could vary from title to title. One game might have a statistic for energy used in fireballs, another might have a score for how many "power moves" a character can use during a round. Of course, depending on the realism of the title, all this should be somewhat tied to the character model choices made earlier. A giant wrestler shouldn't be able to be really weak, nor should he have the speed of smaller more agile characters.
Next, we bring over another standard stable of online games: professions. Professions in a fighting game are basically a standardized set of special moves. Wrestler, karate-ka, ninja... the possibilities are legion. The more profession choices are included, the more incentive for a player to replay, experiment, and make new characters.
This is a great start. Players can design their own characters from scratch, set parameters, and assign special moves. But that's not all. Like MMORPGs, these choices made at character creation won't be static, the characters themselves will grow and evolve.
Time + Achievement = Addiction
That's an old joke me and my friends used to use where we said that online game developers were in reality evil mad scientists who locked players into their games. The more time a player put into the game, the more their characters advanced. The more their characters advanced, the least willing they were to delete their characters and give up the results of all that effort. Thus, the players were locked into an endless cycle, falling deeper and deeper into the evil grip of the developers.
Of course this isn't true (for the most part anyway), but no one can disagree that advancement and achievement are very powerful forces in online games today.
Our next step is to bring this sense of advancement to the fighting arena. It's not anything new, advancement has always been there. Literally becoming more skilled at playing a character is advancement. Older fighting games even kept score (in a true arcade-like sense), newer games usually keep scores of win totals, etc. These are forms of advancement too.
I dislike the use of levels in MMORPGs for a variety of reasons, but for our purposes, they would work just fine for a fighting game. After character creation, a new level 1 fighter might have access to only a few special moves. Fighting computer opponents in a story-mode or participating in side-games could provide experience points that could be used to increase a character's level. Achieving a new level could provide new special moves or the chance to increase statistics (power, speed, agility, etc.). In this system, instead of overwhelming the player with the complete list of special moves (most of which they'll never be able to do right off), we present them slowly as both the character advances in ability combined with the player's advance in skill.
To obtain true rewards; however, the player would have to bring his carefully crafted fighter onto a higher stage. Emulators have done it for years, but now is the time for mainstream fighting games to enter the online arena. It's not something terribly difficult to do. You could model the entire enterprise after Blizzard's highly successful Battle.net system. Characters would advance and fall in rank based on the who they battle and how much success they have. Frequent tournaments could be held between the best players. It also could become very strategic when good players have more than one skilled character and opponents would have to guess which of their characters might match up the best.
Playing online should also reward players with experience. I call this online experience type, battle points, to differentiate it from regular experience points. They are different simply because it's usually more challenging to play actual live opponents and that difficulty should provide different rewards. Players could spent their accumulated battle points to purchase special enhancements for their characters. Things like the option to create multiple costumes, items that signify rank, level or achievement, as well as the ability to mask character information from others. For a rare treat, players could even purchase entrance to secondary professions for their character, giving them access to special moves originally alien to them.
And the rest...
A few closing notes. Lots of people ask me, how do you balance something like this? My quick answer? You don't. If too many people gravitate to a single combination of professions/special moves, there will be an equal movement of players dedicated to breaking that superiority. It's worked in fighting games of the past and will in the future. Character development should also be left as open as possible. It should be possible to create characters some would consider gimped or ineffective. Some people like challenges, and the only thing more impressive than a skilled player with a well crafted player, is a skilled player finding success with a sub par character.
The basis of this idea is from years ago, long before I came to MMORPGs. I envisioned it as a sort of arcade system. Players would have to purchase memory cards to store their characters. They would play on futuristic arcade cabinets, each connected to each other and the internet, allowing players to challenge the most skilled players anywhere. Don't think players would pay to buy memory cards and then pay to play the game. They already do. Unlike in America, Japan is a mecca for advanced arcade development. Sega's four player Japanese RPG "The Key to Avalon", comes immediately to mind as a arcade title that requires players to first purchase a deck a cards as a prerequisite for play.
However, recent years have seen tremendous console development, the like I could not have imagined in the early 90s. Today, with console internet connections and console hard drives advancing, the ideas presented here are much more likely to happen in a console environment. And this will happen, it's only a matter of time. MMORPGs have not only given fighting games a unique new path for growth, it's given them their only logical path for growth.
The Idea that Changed MMORPGs Forever
"What is that?" cried Pippin suddenly, clutching at Gandalf's cloak. "Look! Fire, red fire! Are there dragons in this land? Look, there is another!"
For answer Gandalf cried aloud to his horse. "On, Shadowfax! We must hasten. Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Din, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan."
There is a single idea that encompasses every online game today. It reaches out to those in newly in development and those long dead. To those whose subscription base reaches to the high scale of half a million and those who maintain a smaller but fiercely loyal group.
So what is this idea? Well, quite simply: it's you. If you have a certain MMORPG that you like to follow, then you are using the idea. If you have ever posted on a MMORPG message board, then you've been exposed to the power of the idea. Even as you sit in your chair and read this article, it is proof to me that the idea is and will continue to be an everlasting force. The idea is that you, as a MMORPG fan, have the power to affect change in MMORPGs and the MMORPG industry as a whole.
Through our individual efforts, the industry continues to grow and mature. People continue to run fan sites and drum up support for their favorite game. Helpful souls continue to answer commonly asked questions on message boards and help players new to the game. People continue to brainstorm new innovative ideas to help MMORPGs become better.
And what of those ideas? I have seen ideas posted on message boards that were imprinted in the minds of those who read it. It flowed from mouth to ear, from friend to friend, colleague to colleague. Faster than anyone predicts, ideas can spread. Until they appear elsewhere, sometimes totally changed, sometimes the same. The power of ideas lies in the fact that, on their own, they can run faster and longer than a single person could take them and travel farther beyond any single person's reach of influence.
So there you have it. Now you know the secret. Only one question remains. How will you use your power?
I can hear the excuses already. "I don't use message boards, and I'm not part of a MMORPG community," some of you are thinking. Reach out to your immediate community. Let your friends know that you play online games and what you like about them. Tell them stories about the entertaining encounters you’ve have in-game. Tell them about how many hundreds of thousands of players around the world play online games. Volunteer to let them watch you play. If they buy the game, then take the time to show them the ropes. This might not seem like much, but in doing this (or if you already do this), you become a great help to the MMORPG industry. One of the most important things the industry needs right now isn’t necessarily revolutionary ideas or outside of the box thinking. One of the fundamental goals of the industry is to gain more players. The more players the current games can recruit, the more the industry grows. And the more money the industry can make, the more likely large publishers/development studios will give a chance to niche games and revolutionary ideas.
MMORPGs currently share many of the same image public image problems as D&D tabletop games. Lots of people even try to hide the fact that they play these types of games from friends and family members. Be pro-active with your enthusiasm and do your best to get your immediate community interested, knowledgeable, and, best-case, playing MMORPGs. The more we will the industry into the mainstream, the better our chances of realizing those MMORPGs of our dreams.
"But I'm not a creative idea guy," you might be saying. Who cares!! Everyone is creative in their own way, but even if you aren't at this moment in time, you can still affect change. Have you ever been reading a MMORPG discussion board when someone posts a well-thought-out one page post about his ideas to improve things? Why don't you reply to their post to say that you liked the idea and to thank them for taking the time to write it. Did that take an ounce of creativity? Nope. But I guarantee you that you will probably make that poster's day. People will climb over themselves to post criticism, critique, or to add their two cents. Hardly anyone ever posts only to say that they enjoyed reading a post and to thank the author. Your post of praise may encourage them to post more ideas, maybe some they had hidden away because they were afraid of what the community would think. With a simple act of giving praise, you have encouraged that poster to do more, and as such, you have brought change to the MMORPG industry.
Or maybe you're saying, "I have lots of ideas, but no one likes them." Again, my response is: Who cares!! You like your ideas, and you think they will make MMORPGs better. Who cares what everyone else thinks. Maybe to you, playing a MMORPG with no-rules open player vs. player and permadeath is your idea of fun. Then ride that idea with pride, regardless of what the naysayers think. There will always be people out there who will throw negativity at every idea that crosses their sight. But there are also those out there who will agree with you. And you can affect true change by attempting to reach those people. Nothing is more sad than those brilliant ideas people have in their heads or hard drives, but are too afraid to reveal to the world because they fear rejection and negative criticism.
You'll be surprised how often I hear: "I have a great idea for the MMORPG I’m designing, but I can't tell you because I’m afraid people will steal it." I can let you know right now, ideas are a dime a dozen. "What," you exclaim? You want to know why I'm putting this huge emphasis on ideas only to then say that they are relatively useless? There is a key difference here that needs to be addressed. Ideas have true value only, and specifically only, when they have motion. When they are moving from one mind to the next, as a mind turns the idea over a few times then changes or retells it to someone else. You see, an idea derives it power not from its uniqueness or genuine brilliance. It generates its power through people. Generating interest, discussion, and most important of all excitement. An amazing idea buried deep within someone's hobby-built 200-page design document, does absolutely nothing for the MMORPG industry when it is lost and forgotten in the back of the author's storage closet.
Now maybe you really do fall in the category of amateur designer who, own his own, is busy creating the next great revolutionary MMORPG. I for one implore you to release your impressive ideas, from your private grasp, in order to generate excitement and growth in the MMORPG industry. I know you want to hold on to your ideas in hope that your personal MMORPG will someday be made and you'll make millions of dollars. That may happen, but it might not (visit Tom Sloper's site for an educated discussion of why it probably will not happen). And what if it doesn't?Your great idea goes nowhere and does nothing for anyone.
Now you know the secret, and hopefully you've run out of excuses. So if you take nothing else from this blog, always remember that you (yes YOU) on an individual level have the power to shape, change, and help the MMORPG industry become better. How and when you use that power is up to you.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Wooden Swords and Battle Scars
This essay can be considered a add-on to the Dual Track Advancement System essay. It’s probably a good idea to read that essay before this one, if you haven't already.
Knowledge and Skill Overview:
A quick recap of some of the concepts from the other essay. In the Dual Track System, advancement is broken into two areas. Skill, which improves through use. And Knowledge, which are abilities, spells, et cetera that are can be obtained in many different ways. With this essay, I want to take a closer look of one aspect of the system: the nature of training vs. actual experience.
Training vs. Experience:
Imagine if a teenager had been taking karate classes for a couple years. In the teenager’s neighborhood, local small time criminals have been causing trouble in the community. Should we send the teenager alone to confront the criminals in order to teach them a lesson and drive them out of the neighborhood? Before making a decision, most people would probably want some more information. How big and strong is the young man? Is his karate teacher well known? Are the karate classes challenging, or does the school promote everyone to black belt regardless of skill? Does the school focus on sparring primarily or technique and forms instead?
Or maybe you might want to know something about the neighborhood thugs. How many are there? Are they armed? With what? Have the thugs assaulted or injured anyone or do they just cause general mischief?
Lots of factors to consider. Now, how about we take the teenager out of the picture. Instead, we want to send Big Anthony to deal with the thugs. Tony, just pushing 45 years of age, is still a large imposing figure. Presently, he is the owner of a local warehouse. But for many years, he himself was a local hooligan not unlike our group of thugs. Tony has been through many dangerous street fights and now is dedicated to keeping the streets of his old neighborhood free from criminals. Would you rather send Big Anthony to deal with the thugs over the teenager? Why?
The capability of a person’s skill comes from a combination of their training and experience. Most people don’t pick the teenager as their champion, because they don’t know how much actual real fight experience he has had. The teenager is skilled, but most would rather bet on Tony’s combination of fighting skill and his fighting experience.
What if the group of thugs weren’t so small time? Instead they were seasoned killers armed with guns. Or instead of a group of thugs, it’s a pack of wild wolves. Or a crack U.S. Army Commando team. Or a lone black bear. In any of those situations, would you pick the teenager or Tony to do the fighting? You’d probably search for someone who has had the correct training and experience to successfully deal with the situation.
A character trained to do something has a certain amount of power and credibility. Likewise, so does someone with a lot of experience. The best characters; however, have a combination of training and a high amount of experience. This is part of the dynamic nature of the Dual Track Advancement System. It’s possible to create many different types of characters, each with a unique set of skills, knowledge, training, and experience.
Specialized Experience:
Recall from the other essay that all forms of knowledge are themselves skills. A fighter that learns a new kick from a trainer has gained the ability to use that new kick. However, the more he uses that kick, the better he becomes at using that specific kick. Likewise, the more he uses any kick, improves his overall kicking ability.
The same went for the alchemist who learned the healing potion. Or the mage who used his fire shard spell improved his fire shard ability, his ability with fire magic, and his skill at using magic in all its forms. All this from just practicing with the fire shard spell.
Now for a truly ambiguous statement: experience itself is a skill that can be
improved. Let’s look at this from the much used example of the novice in the swordsman school. He’s given a wooden sword with which to practice. He spends a lot of his time chatting with his friends at the school, running errands around town for a few spare coins, and, of course, practicing. He works alone on his technique. He also receives instructor training on sword forms. But, perhaps most of all, he likes to spar with his friends and peers. He has gotten really good at sparring with his friends, but he still is only engaging with friendly non-lethal combat. He has never been involved in a real battle where someone has the intent to cause him true violent harm.
This leads us all the way back to the karate teenager and Big Anthony. Most people choose Tony because he has experience in true fights. In the Dual Track System, participation in lethal combat is, in itself, a form of specialized experience. A character can “practice” or “improve” this skill by engaging in lethal forms of combat with actual enemies.
Specialized experience like “lethal combat experience” add modifiers to the skills of the character. True skill and knowledge are the absolute test of what a character can or cannot do, but specialized experience (just like statistics: strength, stamina, dexterity, etc.) can provide extra bonuses and chances for success or failure. To put it another way, specialized experience comes from placing the character in certain situations. Let’s examine a few other types of specialized experience.
What about our young swordsman in training. He’s gaining specialized experience too. Sparring is a form of specialized experience. The more he spars, the more experience he has in sparring overall, regardless of the conditions or the types of weapons used. If he one day, decides to spar with someone using war hammers, he’d be at a huge disadvantage because he doesn’t know anything about war hammers. But he does have a lot of experience in sparring. That might help him a little in the fight.
Staying with our swordsman. All his work is building up another piece of valuable specialized experience. Not so much from the type or conditions of his fights, but from who he fights. He spends all his time fighting other people with swords, humanoid opponents. That is a form of specialized experience too. Most people enrolled in the kingdom’s swordsman schools probably go on to become guards, constables, or even soldiers. All professions where the vast majority of their opponents will probably be humanoid, just the type he is training to fight.
Let’s say you need a skilled deer hunter to bring in a special type of deer meat for you. What do you look for? Someone with lots of archery skill? Someone with lots of skill in tracking and trapping? Or maybe someone who can make a special bait to lure deer to him? All of those are useful skills, but none have anything to do with the task at hand: hunting deer. A skilled deer hunter not only has a lot of those skills, but he also has specialized deer hunting experience. Every new deer he bags improves his ability to understand the nature of deer, and this gives him slight bonuses in doing that activity. Like before, you can track this back upstream as well. Hunting deer gives him experience in hunting that type of animal, but also gives him experience in dealing with animals overall. In this way, regional fisherman probably know a lot of about the fish in their region, but they also have a feel for fish in general. And the holy cleric who slays thousands of zombies, probably has a lot of experience with zombies as well dealing with the overall field of undead.
You might have figured. This can produce a great number of skills to track. Besides a character’s actual skills, now we’re also tracking his skills vs. broad categories of enemies as well as specific enemies. We’re also tracking his skill in doing certain activities (lethal vs. non-lethal combat). The major benefit is a skill system that allows each character to explore a new level of uniqueness. This of course, means an unheard of amount of total skills. Hundreds of trackings could be simultaneously going per character. No player would be able to keep track of all that, and they shouldn’t be asked too. This is another reason I argued so adamantly in the original Dual Track essay to hide the vast majority of numerical feedback from players. In most cases, the player wouldn’t even have a true sense of how much specialized experience a character has attained. But they will feel it’s effects. Especially when moving from one character to a new character.
Being a good fighter is knowing yourself and your capbilities. Being an experienced figher is knowing both yourself and your enemy.
Player Choice and Playstyles
One of the major goals of the Dual Track system is to allow nearly limitless character progression choices for the player. Specialized experience is just another tool for that end. Most games have players working their way up a standardized enemy ladder, but what if a player doesn’t want to do that.
Under the method described here, if a player wants to spend all their time fighting low skilled hill trolls: More power to them. Of course, after awhile, hill trolls will become incredibly easy, and the advancement of the character’s combat skills will dramatically slow. However, specialized experience will continue to climb. He’ll gain more and more experience fighting hill trolls. His knowledge will also grant him bonuses in fighting all other types of trolls as well.
Depending on the developer’s preferences, you could also implement some outward expressions of specialized knowledge achievements. Metals for those with lots of true battle experience. A guild certification from the deer hunter association, etc. It could even tie into the overall quest for knowledge described in the original Dual Track essay. Part of the requirements to enter a dragonslayer’s guild might be to actually have significant experience hunting dragons (and the horns/teeth etc. to prove it).
If a player finds an activity they enjoy, they should have a some benefit for pursuing it. We shouldn’t force players to move on to “bigger challenges” but instead, continue to offer some reward for their everyday adventures and unique choices of development. Specialized experience is one solution for that shift in design.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
The Dual Track Advancement System
The Dual Track system of skill advancement is far from a new idea. Many fans of Old Horizons speculated that the original advancement system was something along a similar idea. To my delight, the idea has been taking hold in MMORPG communities. I surmise, based on recent development newsletters, that the realm Ages of Athira (currently in development) will use a skill system very similar to the one presented here.
So what is the Dual Track system? It is a method of character advancement that incorporates two different factors: Skill and Knowledge. Skill relates to how well a character can use a skill. It's based on repetition and practice. Knowledge is how much the character knows about the skill, or a measure of what they can do with a skill. These terms are a bit ambiguous, but it is this author's hope that they will soon become clear.
The First Track: Skill
Let's take a skill that a fantasy character might use. Archery for instance. If the character wants to improve his archery skill, all he has to do is use it. The more the character uses archery, the better they become. When they first started, maybe they were consistently missing the closest of enemies. Some time later, they actually have the skill to hit targets. Later on, far in the future, maybe they are hitting small rodents from a distance of 200 yards. It's that simple, the more the character practices, the better they become.
Practice alone is not the only factor in how well a character can shoot a bow and arrow. There are other forces at work. In many MMORPGs, these other forces take the form of character statistics. Strength, agility, constitution, stamina; these are all forms of commonly used character statistics. Player-selectable races are sometimes defined (and shallowly if only defined by) statistics. Humans are usually the base, giants/dwarves are usually granted greater strength and stamina. Elves are usually dexterous and agile. The list goes on.
In the dual track system character statistics would have a symbiotic relationship with skill. An archer needs dexterity, balance, strength, along with other qualities. If starting from zero skill, someone who has more of these qualities will probably be a better archer than someone who doesn't... at least in the beginning.
But statistics would also be dependant on the types of skills a character chooses to pursue. If a newbie chooses to use a giant two-handed sword. He'll start off terribly off-balance, with a slow swing, and quickly becomes tired. As he continues to practice, not only will he become better using two-handed swords, but he'll also become stronger and gain more stamina... which directly affects the use of two-handed swords. In terms of our archer, the more they use archery, increasing in dexterity will help them become more accurate while added strength will allow harder shots and/or the use of larger bows with greater draw strengths. The simple act of using a skill will slowly allow the development of those qualities key to achieving greater success.
When discussing skill advancement, the question usually arises: how should players receive advancement feedback as their characters progress in skill? In my view there are three methods: visual recognition, vague feedback, and numerical reports. All three share the common factor, in that increased success is always the best indicator of skill improvement. Players can consciously and subconsciously perceive when their characters, who had trouble killing goblins last week, is having increasingly better luck this week and the next. This is always the primary advancement feedback for players.
Numerical reports are the norm in MMORPGs. Levels, skills, ranks, et cetera; are all presented to players as numerical values. Twenty sword skill is better than the 10 they had last week. They can't compete with the enemy's sword skill of 40, so they avoid the fight. It's all very logical, calculated, and precise. Numerical reports enjoy (and will continue to enjoy) heavy use in MMORPGs because they are the easiest of the aforementioned three methods to implement. Among players, achievers tend to prefer this method since it allows the greatest amount of concrete feedback. There are a significant number of these types of players who enjoy controlling every single aspect of character development.
Numerical reports; however, are frequently blamed for MMORPGs being unimmerseful and lacking in roleplaying. This is because it is very easy for players to glance at the reports and say the results directly into the game world. "I have a skill of 30", "I need 2700 experience to my next feat", and "My newest skill gives me 34 points of damage" might all be sample phrases overheard from players in the average MMORPG. It's not very immersive and true to the virtual world. In truth, I don't blame the players. Most won't go through the trouble of coming up with immersive friendly speech just for the sake of others. This isn't because they are inconsiderate souls or even anti-roleplayers. It's because it's just easier to do the alternative. When in doubt, players will always take the fastest and easiest route to anything.
Vague feedback has been successfully used in many MUDs and is just starting to take a small hold in the minds of developers. Vague feedback is a number of different feedback methods that try their best not to use numbers. Sometimes this is text. For example, a character's skill might have ratings of novice, intermediate, advanced, and master. These would be very broad and vague fields that would only give the player an idea of the skill of the character. Graphical methods such as graphs, charts, and the like could also be used as long as they don't link the data with numbers.
By limiting how accurately a player can gauge the skill of his character, one helps to allow the player to become more immersed in the experiences of the character. The lack of numbers also helps increase roleplaying and community immersion. Naysayers; however, point out that, even with the vagueness, achievement oriented players would continue to pursue skill gains in a powergaming/workman like manner. Some even argue the extremely unlikely scenario that malicious players would hack the game to discover the hidden numbers and then gain an unfair advantage over other players. One could question not only the likelihood of such a scenario, but also the extent of the advantage they would truly gain.
In any event, one can only hope that the MMORPG industry will grow to such a size that there will be room for realms that cater to each end of the player spectrum, those who prefer numerical feedback and those that do not.
Visual recognition is the most advanced of the feedback methods, but also the most difficult to implement. Using visual recognition, the player actually sees the results of skill advancement. They don't see a number, they don't see a chart increase, they simply see it on the character. Overtime, a swordsman might swing his sword faster, harder, and more accurately. His body frame would become leaner and more muscular due to his constant practice. Necromancers and practitioners of dark arts might have their skin color become paler and their facial expressions more sinister as they progress in their chosen field. A wizard might see his fireballs become larger, grow with greater brilliance, and cause greater amounts of destruction. These are all examples of visual recognition, the ultimate form of vague feedback.
The largest hurdle to visual feedback will continue to be technological limitations. Notable advances in graphics are necessary. As well as tremendous leaps forward in physics engines capable of accurately displaying hits, parries, etc. But don't worry, the technology will come. The next hurdle is to simply convincing developers to use it.
Why is visual recognition the most desirable of the feedback methods? For a number of reasons. One, simplicity. The ultimate goal of any advancement system should be to minimize its visibility. In other words, a good advancement system is one that works without the player truly realizing that it is there. Visual recognition takes all the numerical feedback to the background, outside of player view. This allows players to focus more on what the character is doing rather than skill points or experience. The advanced MMORPGs of the future will direct the players' focus to adventures, quests, and spending time with their friends. And while the player is busy having fun... the character is quietly advancing.
Secondly, it is my view that skill systems should continue to become increasingly advanced. The level of advancement they will achieve will reach a point that is far beyond the capacity of the casual gamer to manage. For example, the number of lions a character has fought and the amount of time spent fighting lions might be used to generate a "fighting lions" skill rating (more on this in a future article). It would be incredibly cumbersome to display all this data for every single possible enemy and categories of enemies. So instead of pelting them with endless tables, numbers, and percents; a better solution would be to give players a bare minimum of skill data using a combination vague feedback and visual recognition.
The Second Track: Knowledge
Knowledge is the second track of the system. It is the abilities, techniques, magical spells, recipes, and instructions that a character learns to make better use of their skills. Knowledge works with Skill to create more powerful, well-rounded, and interesting characters.
Imagine if we had two alchemists. A long time ago, the first alchemist learned how to make a healing potion (knowledge) and he spent the past few years becoming really good at alchemy by making those potions (skill). The second alchemist has practiced alchemy as long as the first, but he knows not only the recipe for the healing potion, but also how to make a barley bomb, and the recipe for a fire resistant salve. One could argue that the second alchemist is the better, even though they have equal skill, because the second knows more recipes (i.e. has more knowledge) than the first. (Note: Keep in mind the simplicity of this example. Later in the essay, we'll see that if you needed a top notch healing potion... the first alchemist is probably the best.)
Unlike skill, knowledge should be totally visible to the player. When playing a mage character, the player should know how many spells they have learned and how high up the knowledge ladder they have climbed. The player of a martial artist character should know all the special moves the character can use, et cetera. We do this for two reasons. One, it’s simply information that the player needs to know. It's pretty difficult to play a mage character when the player doesn't know which spells a mage can use. Two, it's a nod to the fact that there are a significant number of achiever oriented players out there. This move balances the earlier decision of hiding most numerical-based skill information.
So, from where does knowledge come? In some applications, it arises simply from practice of the skill. Over time, characters will intuitively figure out some of the more common sense aspects of their skill. Also, some advanced forms of knowledge cannot be taught and must be gained through dedicated practice. For example, a truly advanced psionic ability may be so complicated and individually unique, that the psi-user must learn the technique on her own through disciplined training (i.e. lots of skill advancement).
But the vast majority of knowledge; however, will come from non-player character (NPC) trainers. Trainers will be scattered all around the game world. Lower forms of knowledge may have dozens of trainers, one or two in each major population area. Higher trainers will become increasingly rare and more difficult to access. Some trainers may be "wandering trainers" that require players to ask NPCs and players in order to find them. Some will require players to have a certain level of skill just to be allowed access. For instance, a character might have to pick a extremely difficult lock in order to enter the dwelling of a reclusive lockpicking trainer. In terms of storyline, trainers could be anybody. From the local beggar, tavern thug, or shopkeeper; to generals of armies, kings, and dark lords. The gods themselves may even bestow gifts of knowledge to their most loyal followers.
Each development team will have to make the difficult choice to allow, restrict, or forbid players teaching knowledge to other players. Each case is unique. Forbidding player teaching allows the development team to keep a more accurate grip on player advancement rates. On the flipside, allowing players to teach each other opens up interesting community building and player commerce opportunities. Especially if the mechanism is something a little more substantial than "Click newbie, teach newbie skill X." But player teaching always has the side-effect of player advancement rates rising significantly faster than the most ambitious of projections. (Note: To clarify, for the remainder of the essay, I’m assuming that players cannot teach each other.)
In most cases, skill trainers have requirements characters must meet before they can be trained. These requirements might be demanded by the actual trainers themselves, or as indirect requirements the character must meet before they can have access to the trainer.
They consist of the following:
- Cash
- Quests
- Skill and Statistics
- Racial Faction
- Profession/Organizational Prestige
- Religious Fervor
- Alignment
- Time
Cash: Some trainers are simply teachers for hire. They don't care who they teach as long as the student has the gold to pay for it. This also covers indirect charges a character might pay in order to get access to a trainer: taxes, guild dues, promotion fees, etc. While on the surface, money seems the easiest training hurdle to overcome, this isn't always the case. Elite trainers might charge exorbitant fees just because they know that their knowledge is in low supply. This is an even larger hurdle in a realm without player-to-player teaching.
Quests: As old as RPGs themselves. Help the trainer and they will help you. Trainers might send characters on any number of quests, whose topics range from delivery and escort to high profile theft and assassination. Sometimes the trainer actually has a relevant reason for sending a character on a quest. Other times, the trainer just likes to have the character jump through a few quest hoops in order to test if they are ready to learn the knowledge. And a few trainers are simply disagreeable individuals who enjoy putting characters through as much pain as possible before divulging secret information. Whatever the cause, players will have to complete those quests required of them in order to obtain the knowledge they want for their characters. Whether it is a simple delivery across town for some lower knowledge, or a huge multiple part quest requiring the aid of dozens of players for higher elite knowledge... it's all part of the game the player must play in pursuit of greater knowledge.
Skill and Statistics: This is one of the more basic fundamentals of knowledge learning. You can't walk up to Gromth the Mauler and ask to learn his patented "Berserker Hammer Throw" if your character has never once lifted a hammer and isn't very strong in the least. Gromth will dismiss your character as the skinny weakling that they are and send them on their way. Just about all forms of knowledge will have some sort of skill requirement, low or high. And some will require that characters have certain statistic scores before advancing.
Racial Faction: Using a fantasy stereotype, let’s say that your character wants to learn dwarven mining smithing techniques. If you character is a dwarf, then you're set. Just don't do anything to violently ostracize your character from the dwarf race and you'll be fine. But what if your character is not a dwarf. But instead a human, giant, or elf. Then the character has a lot of work ahead. First, they need to become a friend in the eyes of the dwarves just to be allowed access to dwarven cities. Then, when they do reach the dwarven trainers, it is still an uphill climb because the dwarves would much rather teach other dwarves. They'll probably put other races through much more grief in order to teach them their knowledge. No, of course, you don't have to be friends with dwarves to be a blacksmith. Every race to some extent knows how to smith. But maybe dwarves are viewed as the best, or maybe only dwarves know the specific techniques to fold and shape a special metal.
This is the case for all skills. A character can practice any skill they want without seeking aid outside their own race. But each race has slightly different forms of knowledge, and some have forms of knowledge viewed superior to all the rest. Sometimes cross-race training is easy. Orcs would probably happily teach a goblin without much coercion. Or sometimes it would be next to impossible. A reformed vampire would probably have next to no chance of entering a city of angels to learn their powerful holy magic.
Racial faction is one of the balancing forces of a race selection at character creation. Races like humans are viewed by many players as less than desirable. But humans, in some MMORPGs, are the most neutral of races and have an easier time interacting with a wider variety of characters than any other. Alternatively, if a player chooses a race like a dragon, devil, or undead lich, the character might have lots of power, but loses out because they may have trouble freely moving about world, and next to no chances of interacting with other races.
Professional/Organizational Prestige: Not all characters are content being faceless commoners with neither group nor nation to call their own. Some organizations exist directly for the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge. A Sorcerer's Guild or Witch's Circle might fit this description. Other organizations have far greater goals. Some are out to save the world and protect others. Some want to destroy their enemies or support crime. A few are out for political goals. And most want to create and generate wealth.
Prestige in this groups relate to trainers because in some cases trainers may be directly involved with the organizations. Characters would have to rise in the ranks in order to gain access and permission from the guild trainers from whom they wish to learn. Some trainers might have nothing to do with an organization, but for some reason or another, wants to teach those members. For instance, maybe a retired knight only wishes to help those who are honorable members of the Royal Guard, those whose blade is sworn in defense of king and realm.
Religious Fervor: Slightly related to prestige since some organizations are religious organizations. The difference being that you gain prestige for advancing in the eyes of the organization. Fervor is gained through acts deemed well by the actual deity. Occasionally, characters will come across trainers who will only teach those that they deem extremely pious. In rare cases, the gods themselves may bestow (or remove) gifts of knowledge to their most loyal subjects.
Alignment: Traditional RPGs give us the notion of alignments. Those fields of behavior, morality, and justice that defined by a character's actions. Characters fall somewhere in between good and evil and lawful and chaotic. Lawful good characters are those pillars of purity in the world who break no laws, speak no ills, an wish no harm. Lawful evil characters by comparison do break laws, but in an organized and honorable manner. Though evil, their honorable nature makes them "good guys" in the eyes of many. Just think back to the number of times the "hero" in popular movies and fiction has been a thief, mobster, etc. Similarly chaotic good characters are single-mindedly out to eradicate evil. They are the vigilantes and holy mercenaries of the world, smiting evil no matter where it is found (no matter how many laws broken or innocents killed in order to get to the evil). Similar to the strange nature of lawful evil, chaotic good characters are so bent on their ideas that they are viewed as "bad guys" by many. Lastly, chaotic evil is exactly as it sounds. Demons, devils, and undead minions whose only drive is to snuff out all life and see the world burn before them.
Through their actions, characters will move toward one of the four extremes, or maintain some measure of neutrality. Depending on what they are trying to learn, characters might have to take steps to change their alignment in order to receive training.
Time: The MMORPG Horizons was famous (or infamous) for suggesting the idea of time restrictions. In Horizons, there were many applications of time restrictions, the most well known being the dragon race. In the original design, dragons were the rarest of creatures, and also some of the most powerful. So in order to preserve these qualities, and still keep them a player selectable race, the developers imposed many harsh restrictions and challenges on the dragon race. This was in order to keep them truly rare and allow only the most dedicated players to reach the pinnacle of dragon strength. So time restrictions were added to illustrate a fairly notable concept: Dragons do not grow up over night.
Dragon characters started as mere hatchlings, weak and vulnerable to the many dangers of the world. After a couple weeks, their teeth and claws would harden to the extent that they can begin to defend themselves. In another month, they would gain the ability to breath fire. A few months down the path, and their tiny wings will have developed to the point that they can begin to glide. And so it would go, through the passage of time and skill advancements, dragons would slowly fulfill more of their primal potential.
Real life time is the ultimate pillar of challenge. It cannot be powergamed, powerful friends cannot quicken its passage, and seconds and minutes cannot be bought on e-bay by the thousands. When time restrictions are harsh enough, many players, even the most dedicated powergamers will simply give up and move on to easier skills. This was the reasoning of the original developers of Horizons who predicted that it would take even the most dedicated players 2-3 years to develop a dragon to their maximum frightful potential. (Note: Keep in mind, the was the Horizons design of 2000-2002. The actual Horizons of today is in many ways very different.)
In the Dual Track system, time can be used one of two ways. First, trainers might require a "getting to know" period. No one wants divulge secrets to someone he just met. Perhaps they'll tell the characters to return later after they've gotten to know them a bit. Second, perhaps the trainer will teach the character, but after which the character cannot immediately use the knowledge. This would simulate that a character has to practice the knowledge before actually using it live. Once the allotted time has passed, it will become fully available for the character to use.
Ideally, time restrictions would never be used alone. Trainers that have time restrictions will combine them with other prerequisites like skill work, quests, etc. In the best case scenario, once players have accomplished everything else required by the trainer, then the time requirement will be very close to completion.
Some severely criticize time restrictions as limiting player freedom and punishing powergamers simply because they have the time, energy, and know-how to play the game in the most efficient manner. Let's not ignore the issue, holding back powergamers is exactly the reason time restrictions are proposed. Time restrictions do prohibit players from doing whatever they want, whenever they want. But the skill, experience, and quest systems of every MMORPG do exactly the same thing. One does not simply walk into Everquest and is immediately granted level 400 with whatever powerful items they desire. Developing characters that possess the top 10% of power in MMORPGs takes dedication, desire, and patience. But more than anything else, it requires the will to overcome the challenge of climbing the ladder to be the best. Creating a elite master character in Star Wars Galaxies is truly a challenge for a solo player new to MMORPGs that plays only half a hour a day. The same task is not even remotely a challenge for those skilled gamers who sell "Master SWG Profession in 3 hours" guides on e-bay and playerauctions.
The usage of time restrictions is the last true obstacle developers can use to ensure that challenging tasks are such. That rare features of games remain rare. And that all players, regardless of their gaming background, have this one aspect of the challenge that they must all equally face.
Ideally, any one trainer will require a multitude of all of the above. Lower trainers might just take a bit of cash and teach anyone who shows up. Higher trainers, keepers of the arcane knowledge, will probably require a much higher level of effort and sacrifice on the part of the character.
Now to turn everything on its head. Most of this essay has been concerned with addressing the differences between knowledge and skill. But there is a twist. Knowledge, in fact... are skills. Imagine we have a fire mage character. The mage has three fire spells: Fire Shard (the easiest and weakest), Fire Ball, and Flame Ring. Every time the mage uses his Fire Ball spell, he is increasing his ability to control and use Fire Balls. Whenever he uses any of the three spells, he is increasing his affinity and ability with Fire-based magic. Every time he uses fire magic, he is working on magic in general, increasing his overall magic ability. Remember the two alchemists from earlier? This is why the first was better for healing potions. Because healing potions are all he makes. Even though both alchemists had equal skill with alchemy, the first had more experience preparing his specialty. This is the dynamic nature of the skill system, in which any action may affect a multitude of other skills. It is also in this way that every character is both totally unique, and uniquely powerful.
The Result:
What do we really get out of the Dual Track system? Here are a few interesting side-effects and results.
The Specialist and the Generalist: It's a question as old as skill systems themselves. Does one focus on one skill or set of skills, or instead diversify in a number of skills in order create a more balanced character. Most MMORPGs have severely limited the scope of generalists. Either by prematurely limiting how many skills a character can learn, or by locking them into a single profession for the life of the character.
In the Dual Track system, generalist characters are very powerful for a number of reasons. 1) Their wide variety of skills ensures that they have some use in many situations, and 2) Even if they don't have the most advanced forms of knowledge, they will continue to improve in the skills and knowledge they do have.
Specialists are those rare breed of character that manages to choose only one path to follow as long as it will take them. As reward for their focus, specialists possess far greater potential power than generalists. In exchange, specialists are only truly useful in that one area of expertise. Characters cannot take too many areas to their highest levels of power, the trainers will not allow it. Imagine a character that learns a few air spells. Some characters might use air spells to help in combat, helping with archery and thrown weapons. But what if the air mage wants to move further in his training? Many magic users have a high distain for those who choose to fight with mundane weapons (in their view). Some magic trainers will simply refuse to teach characters who possess too many skills related to physical combat. So maybe the air mage turns his back on his archer life, devoting his time only to magic. At this stage, many air mages like to learn some earth magic to create powerful spells using flying sand. Others learn a bit of fire magic to enhance the deadly potential of their skill with air. Then there are those who choose to continue only with air. This is again, because of the trainers. The higher the knowledge of air, the more likely the trainers will wish that the student focuses only on air magic. In this way, the path of the specialist slowly squeezes out all other avenues, leaving only the one true path.
There are many challenges on the path to being the best. A sort of forced focus is only one of those challenges. In the Dual Track system, true extreme specialists will be very rare. For most, the challenges will be too great, and the temptations to stray from the path, too strong.
Putting achiever-oriented characters through this choice is good for MMORPGs. Those who seek ultimate power will have to sacrifice overall usefulness, acknowledging the fact for all their power, they are in fact useless in many other situations. Those who choose to have it all will have to sacrifice potential future power as well as acknowledging the fact that there will be many situations in which they will need help from others.
Skill Webs: There is this old anecdote about a mailroom worker who had dreams of being successful in the business world. He remarked to all his friends how he was going to climb up the ladder of success. One friend, tired of that particular cliché, quipped "There are lots of ladders in the business world, friend, and which way is up anyway?" The friend responded, "The proper ladder is whichever one on which I lay my hand, and "up" is whichever direction the top of my head happens to be pointing."
Skill trees have been relatively uniform from game to game. There are roots (foundations) which lead up to various branches and up to the top. The process is for the most part direct and linear, start at the bottom, work your way up. Level based systems are even simpler. Start here, then go straight down this path to Level Infinity. Using the Dual Track system, we have a chance to evolve skill trees into something greater. Since every form of knowledge is also a skill, then each piece of knowledge can, in itself, lead to greater forms of knowledge. This is the concept of Skill Webs, where at literally every turn, a player could choose from many potential paths.
Go back to our Fire Mage. What if he stopped his spell learning at Fire Shard, the weakest offensive fire spell. Common player perception probably pushes most players past Fire Shard as quickly as possible, in order to learn the more advanced fire spells. But this player choose to stop at Fire Shard. This really isn't a bad choice since the character's skill at using fire shard will improve through practice. In fact, this character will probably have a much better fire shard than the mages who quickly passed by the spell. More importantly, by diligently practicing fire shard, the character gains the chance to learn other spells based on the same concept like multiple fire shards and fire shard volley (both of which blast many fire shards at a target). These are powerful spells, that the vast majority of fire mages, distracted by future gains, probably won't take the time to research.
One of the main goals of skill webs is to truly shift the responsibility of defining the proper path from the developer to the player. We want players to ask "which way is up?" Potential paths to power will exist in every direction around the player, since every piece of knowledge, in its own way, can lead to greater power. No longer will we tell players where to go or explicitly define "mastery" to them. Each player will find their own path. Again, ensuring that each player is totally unique, and uniquely powerful.
Smoothing the Powergamer Curve: The system helps out the casual gamer a bit. Especially if time caps are used. Let's say two new characters want to learn a special sword feint from a trainer, but the trainer requires X sword skill and has a time restriction of one week. The casual gamer might easily make the X sword skill playing an hour a day, and when the week is up, he's ready to learn the new special move. The powergamer might work the sword skill 24/7, but he still can't learn the special move until the end of the week. The powerplayed character is still better than the casual (of course), but at least he isn't lightyears ahead. And given a casual comparison, based on skill (which is somewhat hidden) and knowledge (which is highly visible), then the two characters don't seem very far apart at all.
Even without time restrictions, the Dual Track system allows for massive skill webs. For every character, so much customization is possible that every player has the chance to be the first or best at their own unique combination of skills.
Two Tracks of Advancement: There is a great benefit to the fact that there are two somewhat related forms of advancement. Most players will try to raise a balanced character with using a mix of knowledge and skill, but that doesn't have to be the case. There might be a player who simply enjoys having his character run around with his sword and kill enemies. He dislikes jumping through the hoops, quests, and non-combat distractions he might be made to pursue for knowledge. So he just avoids it. And that's his choice. His character simply uses his sword and overtime gains more skill, strength, and stamina.
Another player also has a swordsman character, but unlike the first, she dislikes practicing with the sword. She prefers hanging out with his friends and going on quests for more knowledge. Maybe she joined a fencing school, and does only the minimum amount of actual work with the sword to gain more knowledge.
Now what happens if these two characters were to meet in combat? The first is faster, stronger, and has more skill with the sword. The second has a solid technique, more knowledge of how to properly use the sword, and combatively is tactically superior. So who wins? That's not easy to answer, because they are both, in their own ways, powerful users of the sword. This is yet another example of how the Dual Track system gives many choices to the player, many possible paths to take.
There are many potential barriers to everything presented in this essay. Technology must be improved considerably. Developers/publishers must be willing to invest the funds and energy into skill systems of such size and scope that before have never been attempted. Many players must be willing to try something different from everything they have known.
Though the obstacles are many, the MMORPGs of the future will continue to evolve, improve, and advance. It is my hope that someday we'll all have the chance to experience an experience system similar to the Dual Track system presented here. And after playing it, develop those skill systems of the far off future, of whose methods we can neither conceive nor visualize today.
That's it for the Dual Track Advancement System. Feel free to use this essay as you choose. Take the ideas as your own, change others, and form your own opinion of the advancement system you would like to use in your own personal MMORPG. If you like the Dual Track system, be sure to tell others and explain why. If you hate it, then rip it apart and develop your own theories you deem superior. But above all else, continue the flow of ideas. By communicating our ideas, dreams, and passion for MMORPGs to others, we help the industry grow. In this small way, we each do our part to lift up our favorite genre of gaming.
(Also see the follow-up essay to this one: Wooden Swords and Battle Scars)
What I'm up to...
I can still be found as a lurker on the MMORPG Concepts and Design Forum (http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=22584) under the name Arcas. (Arcas with a period). As well as the mmorpg.com boards (http://www.mmorpg.com). The Vanguard boards (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/) very much resemble the old Horizons community in terms of ideas and thought. Even though I do not personally post there, it is an interesting forum to read from time to time.
E3 2006 just ended, so there is a lot of info floating around that requires looking into. The one product that I continue to follow at the moment is Hero's Journey from Simutronics (http://www.play.net/hj/). The Stratics site for Hero's Journey was recently re-released. And you'll find me pretty active on the new HJ Stratics boards (http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/hj/ubbthreads.php).
Sunday, May 14, 2006
About this blog
This information is meant to be used. Please take it, combine it with your ideas, and develop something greater than them both. Change them around and add to them. But most importantly, tell others about your own unique ideas. Great ideas don't make online games better, but communicating ideas to others, generating interest and excitement... that is really what improves the genre.
In my decade of pondering online game design, I have met countless individuals with ideas far greater than any I have or will ever come up with. However, those ideas never went anywhere, because those individuals never told anyone about them. They were too fearful of others stealing their ideas. In contrast, I want you to steal any ideas you find here. The greatest game design idea in the world is utterly useless inside of a 500 page design document that no one knows about. I want to play the games of the future, and as quickly as possible. I don't necessarily need my name on the box.
About Me...
Here's the short version. I'm a guy that loves MMORPGs and discussions relating to their design.
Online games first came to me in early 1995. I was a high school sophomore and an early AOL user, when a friend suggested that I try a game he had found through the service. The title was Gemstone 3, presented on AOL through the Simutronics Corp.
Gemstone 3 (and later another Simutronics title "Dragonrealms") would hold a magical grip over my free time for the remainder of my high school years. After the third or fourth round of punishment from my father (these were the days when AOL was $3/hour), I knew I had found a genre of entertainment that would keep me entranced for many years to come.
I continued to play Gemstone 3 and Dragonrealms off and on throughout my college years (thankfully by this time, Simutronics had left AOL and now charged what would soon become an industry norm -- a flat monthly rate). But I found myself increasingly drawn to the design discussions related to these types of games and how they could be improved.
I found my way into the beta testing phase of one of Simutronics realms: Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes. Later, I managed to become part of the posting communities of a few different MMORPGs in development.
I am extremely grateful and lucky to have spent 2000 and 2001 as part of the Horizons: Empires of Istaria fan community. In those days, Horizons was a truly ambitious product, fueled by creative ideas from both fan and developer.
Unfortunately, Artifact, the company behind Horizons, ran into some inner turmoil during the development. The company founder and driving force behind the project was forced out. The remaining team proceeded to create a much less ambitious game, that was both easier to produce and market. The Horizons released in 2003 was, but a shell of the majestic realm that the Horizons community had believed in only a couple of years prior.
Next, I was part of the Star Wars Galaxies fan community. And I was lucky enough to participate in Sony's Phase 2 and Phase 3 beta of Galaxies.
During the last semester of my undergraduate program, I had the chance to travel to Japan for four months as part of a university study abroad program. Immediately after returning to the US in Jan. 2004, I found out about an open position at Auran Games of Brisbane, Australia for an assistant producer for an MMO title they had in development for the Asian market. For the position, I filled out a detailed questionnaire related to game design, development, and production philosophy. Despite my complete lack of true industry experience, they seemed impressed enough to invite me out to the Game Developer's Conference 2004 in San Jose, CA. Unfortunately for me, even though I was considered one of the top candidates, it turns out that the position was eliminated internally, completely nullifying the need for a new assistant producer.
The trip wasn't a complete lost as, since I was already there, I got the chance to stay at GDC, hear lectures from, and chat with many of the key figures in online game design. I met with some of the guys from NC Soft, and for the first time, I had the chance to play City of Heroes. Ironically enough, right before GDC, I had applied for the City of Heroes beta test. And when I returned home from the trip, a COH beta 2 disk was waiting for me. I played City of Heroes from beta and its release in April 2004 through May 2006.
These days I have returned to the world of academia, where I am in the middle of finishing a masters degree in alternative energy technology.
Finding me on the internet forums:
These days I post on the IGN forums under the name Arcas. (that's Arcas followed by a period). I also spend a good deal of time under the name Arcas on the MMORPG.com forums. There's also a dozen or so other boards I frequent on occasion, but I'm just a reading lurker (keeping up on all the posts and trying to contribute would be way more work than I could handle... in fact it's one of the reasons I started this site...).
Other stuff by me:
I'm to blame for a couple of Star Wars Galaxies guides. The first is a grouping guide that can still be found on Allakhazam's SWG site among other places. The second is a brawling guide that somehow made it onto the net (not by any fault of mine, I only posted it on the forums). A quick
google search should track it down if you're really interested.
I wrote a handful of guides during my time in City of Heroes. Most concerned grouping with other players, teamwork, and coordination.
Of course I have written a great deal of other things, but they were all part of sites that no longer exist or forums that have long been wiped. Maybe some of that will find its way onto this blog in due time.
