Merry Prankster Games, by gdunbar
This summer my main goal for “Untitled SENG Project” was upgrading the game engine. The full-featured demo “To The World Tree” (<a href=”http://www.prankster.com/ttwt”>http://www.prankster.com/ttwt</a>) let me see the good parts and bad of the game engine, and before embarking on creating a full-fledged game, I wanted to make the engine upgrades necessary. The four main upgrades were:
<ul><li>Some updates to the special effects. One of these was to render fire using the particle engine, instead of hokey-looking texture flipping; I plan to write a fire tutorial later as part of “RPG Anvil”. Another was to allow texture scrolling on tiles, which is nice for creating flowing rivers, lava, etc. And I updated the look of spell effects for the better.</li>
<li>Simplify the area structure by eliminating walls as a separate object, instead making them a tile type. I blogged about this here: <a href=”http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=503512&reply_id=3291741″>http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=503512&reply_id=3291741</a></li>
<li>Updating the interface. I blogged about this here: <a href=”http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=503512&reply_id=3300458″>http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=503512&reply_id=3300458</a></li>
<li>Upgrading the RPG system. This is the one item that isn’t done yet.</li></ul>
The “To The World Tree” RPG system, aka the SENG system, was mostly a success. You can play with it in the demo (<a href=”http://www.prankster.com/ttwt/”>http://www.prankster.com/ttwt/</a>), or just read the manual if you’re curious (<a href=”http://www.prankster.com/ttwt/manual/ttwt.htm”>http://www.prankster.com/ttwt/manual/ttwt.htm</a>). To sum up, though, SENG is a hybrid class/skill system; the class determines the broad type of character you are playing (fighter, spellcaster, or generalist aka “rogue”), and the skills allow further specialization. All characters can gain all skills, but can’t be as strong in cross-class skills; this is similar to multi-class rules in other RPG systems. For instance a fighter who also gains some healing spells is possible, thematically similar to a Paladin in other systems.
In addition, SENG models an exponential system for combat strength; a character A of five levels greater than a character B is twice as good, regardless of whether A is level 6 and B is level 1, or A is level 35 and B is level 30. “Twice as good” means A can fight two Bs at the same time, to a virtual standstill. This exponential system is extremely handy for balancing the game making it (relatively) easy to balance monsters, items, and spells of different levels, as well as making calculations of experience awards well-defined.
I was very happy with how these two facets of SENG worked in TTWT. But, I also learned some things that definitely need improvement to turn a 3 hour demo into a 40 hour game:
<ul><li>More variety of weapons and fighting styles are needed. In TTWT you could only wield a one-handed weapon. Shields, two-handed weapons, and dual-wield would add a lot of interesting options for characters in a combat-oriented class.</li>
<li>Further, in TTWT, while spellcasters are always getting new spells and abilities, fighters don’t get new interesting things to do. Adding skills that grant new combat abilities or styles, and by association interesting tactical options, is another goal. Things like “Berserk” or “Defensive Stance”, which a character could adopt for a time, are what I’m thinking of here.</li>
<li>I’m pretty happy with how the spellcasting system integrated with the skill system. However, I’m not as happy with the design of spell-acquisition. The spells are sometimes haphazardly associated with the skills; I’d rather be more direct. Instead of a skill “Life Magic” which has some healing spells and some buffing spells (which is how TTWT worked), I want to have, say “Healing Magic” with all healing spells, and “Inspiration Magic”, with all buffing spells.</li>
<li>On a similar note, in TTWT the only way to acquire spells was to acquire and read scrolls, which (to me) seems a very wizardly activity. I’d like to add more religious themed spell acquisition, and perhaps some sort of “innate power” spell acquisition as well. All properly integrated with the skill system as much as possible.</li>
<li>Next is more of a representation issue; in TTWT, a glance at the rules tells you that a level 10 attack against a level 5 defense does 0% to 20% damage. This is much more opaque than a system where a level 10 attack does (say) 0 to 20 hit points damage, and a level 5 defense has 100 hit points. This applies further to attack system as well (see the TTWT manual for more if you’re overly curious). However, with some tweaks, the SENG system can be displayed either way. Mathematically, TTWT was displaying the exponent in an exponential system; displaying the actually value should be much clearer to the player.</li>
<li>Expanding on that point, in TTWT a healing potion is assigned a level, say level 5. For a level 5 character, the potion would heal one amount of damage (10%), but for a level 10 character, the same potion would heal half the amount (5%). This isn’t terrible (it has nice game balance properties), but is very confusing to the player. The same problem exists across the board for all bonuses and modifiers. If we use the value instead of the exponent (for display purposes), it becomes much clearer. In the example above, the healing potion might just heal a fixed 10 hit points, regardless of player level.</li>
<li>In TTWT all characters move and attack at the same speed, and there are no spells or skills that affect speed. Adding variable speed, both innate and through spells and skills, would add greatly to the tactical options for players.</li>
<li>TTWT has 6 basic attributes for a character: Strength, Agility, Durability, Intelligence, Willpower, and Personality. Intelligence, Willpower, and Personality are somewhat undervalued versus the other three; I think I will combine them into just 2 attributes, Intelligence and Personality, for a total of 5.</li>
<li>In TTWT, I had to have negative level monsters and quests for low level characters to battle and achieve. This is displeasing to the eye, so I plan to have player characters start at level 10, eliminating this ugliness.</li></ul>
Those are the main changes I have planned. The RPG engine code should stay fairly similar, though things will look quite a bit different. Some of the changes are pretty far-reaching, but if I do them carefully, I think things will actually get simplified to some degree. In particular I think I may be able to go to a system where monsters don’t need to have skills at all, but can just have their attributes set to the proper levels.
Fortunately in coding TTWT and the SENG engine, I did a pretty good job of keeping the RPG code separate from the other systems (UI, graphics, and application), so the changes will be fairly isolated. But, I do have quite a bit of design and coding work to get this right. I hope to get the design well fleshed out in the few remaining days of summer. Then I go back to work for the fall (gotta pay the bills!), and can resume with the coding in the winter.
Not sure what I’ll blog on next; perhaps the promised RPG Anvil article on particle fire. Until next time! Read more
MMORPG reviews: tricky beasts to get right, eh?
Trembling Hand has a post up relating to games reviews and, more specifically, MMORPG reviews. It uses the Age of Conan debacle as a case study, of sorts, and while that will no doubt swing the ensuing discussion into a rather lengthy exchange of, “Age of Conan is the worst MMO ever made…” and “No, Age of Conan is brilliant and has hidden depths that you just can’t see yet…” which will only end when one of the parties involved decides to get a life, the premise of the article overall is something I’ve thought a lot about, myself.
MMORPGs are inherently dodgy beasts for reviewers. Faced with tight deadlines, especially in the online realm, reviewers are generally unable to play the game for any meaningful length of time before those deadlines require the reviewer to pass judgement upon it and, as Trembling Hand says, suggest whether people should buy it or not. This becomes a real problem when, for example, a game has tarted up enough of its noob levels to give the reviewer a very skewed view of the game’s true face.
It’s my firm belief, for example, that most of the early Age of Conan reviews were written by people who didn’t get past the first 20 levels and the “noob zone” of Tortage. In this zone they saw polished quests, great voice acting and an interesting game world, full of promise. “This game is looking great! It’s loads of fun!” the reviews gushed. And, yeah, based on Levels 1-20, that’s quite fair to say.
Of course, if they’d had the time to push past that area and get beyond, say, Level 30 or 40, the reviews would have undoubtedly started to take on a different tone. The voice acting dries up… the quests break… the game mechanics prove to be increasingly flawed… a wealth of promises from the box are wither broken or non-existent… the endgame is crap… and, most alarmingly of all, THE GAME JUST ISN’T FUN. This is something AoC reviewers should have been ALL OVER, but failed. And therein lies the danger of MMORPG reviews.
I’m sure some of these reviewers played on and, over the months that followed, would have realised that their reviews were WAY too cheery and optimistic. Hell, I would be quite embarassed to have written such glowing reviews when, in the space of three months, the game was revealed to be such a collosally stinking piece of shit. But that’s me. I’m not really into the concept of suggesting people buy something when it’s actually terrible. I guess I have a conscience.
So… who’d be an MMORPG reviewer, eh? On one side, the reviews need to be written fast for a ravenous audience and, on the other, games are sprinkling way too much fairy dust on the lower levels, so the chances of being made to look like a fool within mere months of release are high. You know, free games or not, I don’t envy those guys, not one little bit. I think the best hope for “real” reviews comes from, as always, playing these games ourselves, or having a friend in a beta test who is happy to break an NDA and tell you all about it. Relying on the highly sanitised reality that reviewers are given to deal with will result in rather inaccurate reviews, more often than not.
MMORPG reviews: tricky beasts to get right, eh?
Trembling Hand has a post up relating to games reviews and, more specifically, MMORPG reviews. It uses the Age of Conan debacle as a case study, of sorts, and while that will no doubt swing the ensuing discussion into a rather lengthy exchange of, “Age of Conan is the worst MMO ever made…” and “No, Age of Conan is brilliant and has hidden depths that you just can’t see yet…” which will only end when one of the parties involved decides to get a life, the premise of the article overall is something I’ve thought a lot about, myself.
MMORPGs are inherently dodgy beasts for reviewers. Faced with tight deadlines, especially in the online realm, reviewers are generally unable to play the game for any meaningful length of time before those deadlines require the reviewer to pass judgement upon it and, as Trembling Hand says, suggest whether people should buy it or not. This becomes a real problem when, for example, a game has tarted up enough of its noob levels to give the reviewer a very skewed view of the game’s true face.
It’s my firm belief, for example, that most of the early Age of Conan reviews were written by people who didn’t get past the first 20 levels and the “noob zone” of Tortage. In this zone they saw polished quests, great voice acting and an interesting game world, full of promise. “This game is looking great! It’s louds of fun!” the reviews gushed. And, yeah, based on Levels 1-20, that’s quite fair to say.
Of course, if they’d had the time to push past that area and get beyond, say, Level 30 or 40, the reviews would have undoubtedly started to take on a different tone. The voice acting dries up… the quests break… the game mechanics prove to be increasingly flawed… a wealth of promises from the box are wither broken or non-existent… the endgame is crap… and, most alarmingly of all, THE GAME JUST ISN’T FUN. This is something AoC reviewers should have been ALL OVER, but failed. And therein lies the danger of MMORPG reviews.
I’m sure some of these reviewers played on and, over the months that followed, would have realised that their reviews were WAY too cheery and optimistic. Hell, I would be quite embarassed to have written such glowing reviews when, in the space of three months, the game was revealed to be such a collosally stinking piece of shit. But that’s me. I’m not really into the concept of suggesting people buy something when it’s actually terrible. I guess I have a conscience.
So… who’d be an MMORPG reviewer, eh? On one side, the reviews need to be written fast for a ravenous audience and, on the other, games are sprinkling way too much fairy dust on the lower levels, so the chances of being made to look like a fool within mere months of release are high. You know, free games or not, I don’t envy those guys, not one little bit. I think the best hope for “real” reviews comes from, as always, playing these games ourselves, or having a friend in a beta test who is happy to break an NDA and tell you all about it. Relying on the highly sanitised reality that reviewers are given to deal with will result in rather inaccurate reviews, more often than not.
Naruto Shippuuden Manga 414 Review
The Naruto Shippuuden manga is progressing much faster than Bleach and I’m really excited every week when they upload the scans for the newest episode. They released the latest issues for Naruto and Bleach last Friday and both titles offered really action-packed stories. In last week’s episode, we saw Sasuke’s team getting whooped by the Eight Tailed Beast. In fact, Sasuke’s chest got blown wide open, lol. It ended with the Eight Tailed Beast transforming into his “Beast Form”, ready to strike down Sasuke’s entire team. I personally like Naruto Shippuuden 414 because it brings back the Sasuke we’ve all known when Naruto was just starting. Well, that and all the action. 
More thoughts on this after the jump.
REALITY CHECK: TAILED BEASTS ARE POWERFUL
Akatsuki has been effortlessly hunting down tailed beasts that it looks like they were all weak. Remember how easily they took down Gaara? I know it was a bit underhanded but nevertheless he fell rather quickly. However, in this particular issue we are shown how terribly powerful they can really be. Killerbee, the Eight-Tailed Beast, finally transforms to his beast form to take on Sasuke’s team.
Sasuke’s team was pawned. Jugo, Kairi, Suigetsu, and Sasuke were all floored as the Eight Tailed Beast bulldozed them. If you backtrack, you’ll notice that both Kairi and Jugo gave up part of their own life/chakra to revive and heal Sasuke. This is kinda weird seeing as we were all given the impression that this team wasn’t all that united. Note that in the latter part of the manga, Suigetsu tries to shield the team from a devastating attack and he literally turns into a puddle of water after.
The series of sacrifices reminds Sasuke of the camaraderie that he left in Konoha. The issue ends with Sasuke using the dreaded “Amaterasu” technique against the Eight-tailed Beast before they’re all killed. Sasuke knows that using this technique drains a lot from him, but he still does it because of the bonds that he has formed with his new team.
NARUTO FINALLY GETTING THE SAGE TECHNIQUE?
As Sasuke and his team are busy trying to survive the Eight-Tailed Beast, Naruto is training to learn the sage techniques which Jiraya mastered. In this issue, Naruto finally gets it and is able to lift the gigantic frog statue without too much effort. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out. I’m sure Naruto will be able to master a few techniques before Pain arrives in Konoha - that’s one battle I’d love to see.
Tags: Naruto-Shippuuden-Manga-414
Best Level Up Gaming Blog at the Philippine Blog Awards 2008
I think it’s fair to say that Level Up was one of the pioneers in using blogging as a communication tool for the local online gaming industry. I started Waukster Online almost 2 years ago and I was followed by my colleague, GM Tristan. After that, several other Level Up employees started their own blogs as well. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that when we heard that the Philippine Blog Awards 2008 organizing committee was looking for partners, we immediately jumped at the opportunity. I’m happy to let you guys know that we’re actually giving a gaming blog award at this year’s ceremonies!
Mechanics, prizes, and everything else you need to know after the jump.
The Level Up! Gaming Blog Award is open to:
1. A blog about gaming (console/handheld/online) in general or about Level Up!’s games only.
2. Philippine based Filipino Bloggers onlyJudges:
Mon Macutay
Head - MMORPG, Level Up!Carlo Ople
Head - Casual Game and Advergaming, Level Up!Kevin Codamon
Editor in Chief, Level Up!Judging Criteria
1. Content - 80%
The post itself and all its totality from the headline to the manner and style of writing is considered. Content and how the content was presented is critical. It is the total package, from the headline to the grammar and even to the effective use of images and sound, that is considered. Content for content sake is not enough it must be told in a manner that effectively conveys the idea and leaves an imprint in the readers’ mind.2. Design and Usability - 20%
This refers to aesthetic and usability features of the blog. Not only should it look pretty but it should also be functional and stress free to navigate within. Is it pretty and user-friendly?The nomination period is from August 27 to September 2008. Last day of for submitting nominations is on September 15, 2008.
To nominate blogs, please visit the official Philippine Blog Awards 2008 website.
Philippine Blog Awards 2008 Read more
Waxing lyrical on Raph Koster, MMO superstar
Raph Koster - a name which should be known to any student of the MMORPG genre - is celebrating a whopping 10 years of blogging. Hurrah!
Ten years ago, I started the site to archive some of the things I was telling the UO community and the LegendMUD community, things about the ways in which online communities can self-determine, things about how virtual worlds can serve as bridges, as ways to connect. To talk about how something people see as “mere games” can mean much more.
Raph is one of the people I respect in the MMORPG industry for two main reasons. First, his ideas that MMORPGs can be more than “mere games” (as he even reiterated in that brief statement above), is something I strongly believe. Heck, it’s the #1 cause for me clashing with those I semi-affectionately call “the WoW kids” on various forums around the Net. You know the type - they see MMORPGs as “just another game” and something to be defeated ASAP, just like a single player game. This generally means racing to the level cap; reading the minimal amount of quest information; ignoring everyone they see on their travels (unless they are a guildmate or someone who can help them level); concluding that any game without 24×7 PvP is crap; and having very little time for the great social aspects that MMORPGs can offer. They are half the reason I think MMORPGs are heading in the wrong direction. But I digress, dear reader.
Second, I will always hold an extreme fondess for the two years, or thereabouts, which I spent on the Star Wars Galaxies developer’s forum, where Raph held court like a benevolent king, prior to that game being launched. That was a really magical time where MMORPGs had yet to become mainstream and, even among those who did know about the game, not everyone was interested in talking to the devs about the game (yes, I know, I know, such a situation is almost impossible to conceive in today’s MMORPG market), so I was one of those who logged in every day with thoughts and ideas and generally got to shoot the breeze with Raph and other people involved with the game. I actually recruited a guild from among those posting on that dev forum - figuring them to be the “thinkers” when it came to SWG - and I wasn’t disappointed. That guild still exists (albeit playing a range of games, not just SWG), almost eight years later with a lot of its original members. I can’t see that happening as easily these days.
So here’s to you, Raph Koster, and your 10 years of blogging. Your opinions have never been fully in-step with everyone in the MMORPG community and, as the genre is increasingly dumbed-down, will probably become even less appealing to a lot of people out there. But for those of us who really think about the genre, and see what it’s capable of - beyond being single player games with lots of people logged in simultaneously - you will always be an inspiration.
Here’s to another 10 years of intriguing thoughts!
Waxing lyrical on Raph Koster, MMO superstar
Raph Koster - a name which should be known to any student of the MMORPG genre - is celebrating a whopping 10 years of blogging. Hurrah!
Ten years ago, I started the site to archive some of the things I was telling the UO community and the LegendMUD community, things about the ways in which online communities can self-determine, things about how virtual worlds can serve as bridges, as ways to connect. To talk about how something people see as “mere games” can mean much more.
Raph is one of the people I respect in the MMORPG industry for two main reasons. First, his ideas that MMORPGs can be more than “mere games” (as he even reiterated in that brief statement above), is something I strongly believe. Heck, it’s the #1 cause for me clashing with those I semi-affectionately call “the WoW kids” on various forums around the Net. You know the type - they see MMORPGs as “just another game” and something to be defeated ASAP, just like a single player game. This generally means racing to the level cap; reading the minimal amount of quest information; ignoring everyone they see on their travels (unless they are a guildmate or someone who can help them level); concluding that any game without 24×7 PvP is crap; and having very little time for the great social aspects that MMORPGs can offer. They are half the reason I think MMORPGs are heading in the wrong direction. But I digress, dear reader.
Second, I will always hold an extreme fondess for the two years, or thereabouts, which I spent on the Star Wars Galaxies developer’s forum, where Raph held court like a benevolent king, prior to that game being launched. That was a really magical time where MMORPGs had yet to become mainstream and, even among those who did know about the game, not everyone was interested in talking to the devs about the game (yes, I know, I know, such a situation is almost impossible to conceive in today’s MMORPG market), so I was one of those who logged in every day with thoughts and ideas and generally got to shoot the breeze with Raph and other people involved with the game. I actually recruited a guild from among those posting on that dev forum - figuring them to be the “thinkers” when it came to SWG - and I wasn’t disappointed. That guild still exists (albeit playing a range of games, not just SWG), almost eight years later with a lot of its original members. I can’t see that happening as easily these days.
So here’s to you, Raph Koster, and your 10 years of blogging. Your opinions have never been fully in-step with everyone in the MMORPG community and, as the genre is increasingly dumbed-down, will probably become even less appealing to a lot of people out there. But for those of us who really think about the genre, and see what it’s capable of - beyond being single player games with lots of people logged in simultaneously - you will always be an inspiration.
Here’s to another 10 years of intriguing thoughts!
MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games : AoC experience coming from a AoC end game raider
Author: Kain
Subject: AoC experience coming from a AoC end game raider
Posted: 29 Aug 2008 at 12:33pm
Edited by Kain - Today at 12:34pm
Read moreJournal of dbaumgart, by dbaumgart
<b>CF Tech Demo at PAX</b>
D is heading down to <a href=”http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/”>PAX</a> with a laptop and a super hacked up build of CF to show off the game to whoever is receptive. Look for the blond guy with the laptop and who is not dressed as Megaman and ask to see Clockwork Fantasia, I’m sure you’ll find him.
And it should suffice to say that yesterday was a crazy work day, but even I did not keep going until, well… let’s see what the SVN log says:
Last update time, by team member:
Me : 6:02 pm
J : 10:41 pm
D : 1:35 am
N : 3:55 am
Yes, N is nuts.
(He said something about how I make him seem authoritarian, or something, in my posts, but really it’s just me trying to add non-existent drama to the narrative of game design. N is obviously passionate about his work, but he is a mellow and exceedingly understanding guy in interpersonal dealings, honestly. Would you like to hear stories about N’s firebrand <i>diktats</i> or would you rather hear about how we sort of talked for a minute and he was all “it’d be cool if we could get this done by Friday”. I mean <i>come on</i>.)
Oh, yeah, here’s a shot from the PAX tech demo:
<img src=”http://members.gamedev.net/dbaumgart/2008-08-29/paxdemoshot4clip.jpg”>
Old character art, being revised. And otherwise, as perhaps you can see, N overhauled the lighting and it’s seriously awesome even if the shot show doesn’t show much.
[Insert shot here of overhauled UI here that I'll try to get from N once he wakes up so I bug him about the game not running on my home computer because it's been built specifically for the laptop so now I can't take any screenshots myself to show off the cool stuff that's been done.]
[Insert shot of dialog in action here, same note as above.]
[Possible shot of the PAX tech demo loading screen here once I get an OK from N, 'cause it's cool.]
[Truly, I do forgive N for the lack of good shots. He <i>was</i> up until 4am so I can't blame him for lacking artistic judgment at that hour, in that state.]
I can’t show you a picture of it, but the music for the game is really, really well done. Sure, there are only five and a half minutes of it, but it’s a good five and a half minutes.
<b>Characters</b>
Just fun stuff.
A portrait of Berzelius the monk, grumpy narrator, used in dialog:
<img src=”http://members.gamedev.net/dbaumgart/2008-08-29/berzelius1.jpg”>
The witchdoctor (witchdoctrix?):
<img src=”http://members.gamedev.net/dbaumgart/2008-08-29/witchdoctor-f-sketch1.jpg”>
And a tinkerer wrench attack:
<img src=”http://members.gamedev.net/dbaumgart/2008-08-29/tinkerer_attack.gif”>
I’ll admit now that, incredibly, I managed to avoid taking an anatomy class in art school. Partially I just didn’t want to do it even though it’d be good for me, and partially I was busy taking all kinds of interesting classes like stone lithography, sculpture, and sound art. In the end I have to do anatomy anyway through animation, though as I’ve said before, it can be fudged. And ha, it’s not that any games ever actually pay attention to actual anatomy, considering some of the character design. But I jest! As N, who seems to be surpassing <a href=”http://members.gamedev.net/dcosborn/journal/”>dcosborn</a>* in mentions on my journal here said, games get away with all kinds of crazy crap you wouldn’t believe if you looked closely.
* It’s strange, actually; N and dcosborn both code 3d engines in C for fun… and they look a bit similar, but maybe it’s just the vibe I get from psycho graphics coders, even if dcosborn is a lot quieter than N. I want to put them together in a room and see what happens. Perhaps, like Protoss Templar, they would meld to form a being of pure 3d graphics programming energy. Read more
Age of Conan: A Post Mortem Analysis
Hi, I’m Daedren. You might remember me from other articles such as “The effectiveness of raiding in only a tubesock” and “Erling Ellingson: Age of Conan Dev by day, Transvestite Cyborg by night?”. It’s me, alright, and I’m here, playing the role of the unbearer of bad news. I’m not bearing it, because it’s not even news. This little tidbit of info-mation is that Age of Conan sucks. It’s not the Gigli of the MMO industry, thank God, but that’s only because Ben Affleck turned down his role for voiceovers for King Conan. No, I’m likening Age of Conan to be more of the Alexander of the MMO Industry: Huge expectations, huge budget; huge letdown, gracious cleavage.
This article isn’t for people thinking about maybe playing Age of Conan. It’s not for those still playing Age of Conan - which, admittedly, there still are. It’s not even for the large majority of people who played the game, let it take you home, and then never called you back. This is solely targeted at a select group of people: the people at Funcom who helped make this piece of shit, and other people at other game companies who are also making a MMO. Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Why the hell would Funcom devs read this wordy, highly opinionated article that’s basically beating a dead horse, albeit more thoroughly and hopefully more eloquently than the past beaters?” The answer to that is I’m going to personally e-mail it to every one of them.
Funcom, now lovingly deemed “Failcom” by a good portion of the planet now, dropped an estimated $60M US pesos to produce what ended up being, for the most part, a huge disapointment to nearly everyone that played it. But hey, don’t take it from me, let’s take it from the burly, helmet clad raiders of Funcom themselves:
Erling Ellingson confirms that “subscriber base” is now 415,000 out of the original 800,000
My carefree use of the quotes here are for a reason. The term “subscriber base” seems to need an explanation.
Subscriber base is a fairly loose term which roughly means “People that might still be playing”. You see, they fail to mention that in this 415,000 they’re including anyone that still had their subscription active at the time of the report (15 August 2008). That means if you were unfortunate enough to subscribe for 3 or 6 months at the time you bought the game, you’re included in this number. No one actually knows how many active players they have as they’ve not released any server metrics, with damn good reason.
That means that half of the people that bought Age of Conan jumped ship within the first month of the release. And, if player estimates are correct, the actual player base is more realistically somewhere around 150K or 200K players. 3 months after release. Hell, Dark Age of Camelot and Everquest 1 are pulling those numbers today. Perhaps if Erling was actually honest and forward about the game and its flaws, instead of talking it up like it’s the bees knees, his statements would gain a bit more credibility.
Next, we need to present the financial woes of Funcom and more importantly the CEO of the company:
Funcom CEO sells a pissload of his stocks, punches a baby
One really cool thing about Funcom is that all the execs have really cool viking sounding names like Olav and Gaute (pronounced like Gout). While this might be useful picking up American girls at a bar or scaring the shit out of someone by screaming their name at them, it seemingly means piss all when it comes to making a successful MMO.
Funcom stock dropped to all-time lows recently and the CEO is starting to liquidate. Next thing we know the lead Community Managers will be busted for kiddie porn and their corporate headquarters will mysteriously “catch on fire” - darn, and things were going so swell.
The Analysis
So, what the hell went wrong? Age of Conan does have a few redeeming qualities, that usually come with a price. Let’s list these redeeming qualities, along with it’s price:
Redeeming Quality Price
Nice graphics Shitty client
You see boobies Shitty client
Heads do fly off Shitty client
Good starting area Delusion that the rest of the game will be like that
That takes us to cause of death #1: Poor client performance. Stability was actually better at release than it is now. Very few aren’t victim of the memory leak bug - causing blue screens and CTD’s quite frequently. Nothing like a few CTD’s in a night to keep that immersion level going. The client itself is clearly lacking polish, something World of Warcraft did so splendidly. All the high res graphics and tits in the world don’t mean anything if you can’t keep your customer in the game and seeing these things.
Moving on: promised features. You’ve heard it all before: stuff was on the box that either wasn’t there on release, or, functioning like Jenna Jamesons naughty parts: present but highly suspect.
Feature on the Box Status
DirectX 10 Support Rumored to exist somewhere
Drunken Brawling Needs more polish, like Gaute's Ferrari
Massive 150/150 PVP battles Shitty client feature kicks in well before 300
Siege Battles, Keep Takes Buggy and boring. If only there was an...
An actual PVP System Missing, presumed dead
I’ll stop right there. In all honestly, no one gives a shit what is on the box of a game: who reads that anyway? However, a certain professional level is at least expected from a game company when they promote their product. Where do we draw the line? If the next MMO that hits the market says the box will give you a blowjob once you hit level 30 on your in game character, it had better well live up to its name, no matter how uncomfortable and disturbing that sounds.
Cause of death #2: Missing basic game features
Blah, blah, blah. This is all repeat shit from everywhere else. I’m effectively beating the proverbial horse here. It’s time to move on to a more lucid analysis:
THE GAME IS NOT FUN
I suppose this makes all of theser “Causes of Death” a bit redundant. Objectively speaking, though, why is the game not fun? It’s hard to put a finger on the exact reason, much like it’s hard to explain why eating a plate of dog poo is not fun, other than it’s a plate of shit. Let’s start with this small, chaotic list:
- Instanced zones
- Lack of content past level 20
- Uninnovative questing system (kill 50 what?)
- Poor class balance in PVP
- No PVP System whatsoever
- A simple Rock / Paper / Scissors PVP design
- Horrifically boring dungeon encounters
- Lack of meaningful or interesting end game content
- Itemization that seems like it was designed by a learning impaired doorknob
- Extremely hard to customize your character or look different than anyone else
- Travel system consists of trying to find new ways to kill yourself as quickly as possible
- An economy that is completely broken
- Crafting that is nothing more than a pointless time-sink
- Identical guild cities everywhere that are, you guess it, nothing more than a pointless time-sink
- Lack of creative vision when designing combat system
- Complete lack of ingenuity regarding the spellcaster magic system
- Failure to fix bugs in a timely fashion
- Fixing bugs usually introduces more bugs into the game, which are then ignored for long periods of time
- Focusing on stupid shit like spell names and sound effects when basic features of the game are not yet implemented
- Legendary in-game customer support inspired by Verant and SOE
- Constantly surprising players by showing how little they know about their own game
- Inclusion of game breaking bugs (like gem duping or epic item farming) and then fixing them, oh, a couple weeks later
I know I missed a few. What it boils down to is that Age of Conan just doesn’t provide a unique or meaningful game experience. Characters can level to max level somewhat quickly, yay!, only to be presented with the option of doing absolutely nothing interesting other than leveling yet another character to max level. A certain kudos is in place to Funcom for even failing at the basic treadmill system; for most people, that carrot on the end of the stick (being making another character to keep waiting for the real carrot) didn’t go over to well.
That leads us into cause of death #3: Poor core game design makes the game not fun, nor addicting
Making a MMO that doesn’t encourage players to play more, come back, or feel drawn to the game is like selling crack that doesn’t get people high. I suppose some crackheads might say “but hey, I’m still smoking crack!” - but really, it’s just a sugar cube that you paid 20$ for. In that sense, Age of Conan is a MMORPG without the first “M” or the “RPG”. It’s not Massively, because you’re forced to be separated from the rest of your people either by the horribad instancing or poor zone design. It’s not RPG because you don’t feel like you are, indeed, roleplaying, due to the games limitations. At the end of the day, all we’re really looking at is a “Multiplayer Online *something*” - or, in other words, a glorified chat room with mediocre Showtime-esque nudity that is prone to memory leaks.
I’ve by far passed the normal sane limit word count and thrown any credibility away as not saying whatever the hell is on my mind, so I need to hit one last point. There is one area, I must say, that Funcom has truly outdone itself:
Funcom Devs and Public Relations guys, we salute you!
For being complete tools.
Not all of them, of course. In fact, I bet its safe to say the majority of the Age of Conan team was just doing what they were told. Kind of like the Nazis were doing what they were told when they started cooking people. Intentional Godwin aside, most people of the dev team didn’t have a big picture look at the game, so they can’t be much to blame. However, Funcom has blessed us with a few memorable souls, and by memorable I mean complete assclowns and/or utter douchebags. First, we focus on the man himself. The one, the only, the…
Gaute Godager
This guy had some potential. Though his first name sounds like unsightly gout, his last name had the chance of being epic. It could have been “Go, Danger!” or, more sinisterly, “Go, dagger!”. Now we’re just left with not giving a shit what his name is because he’s not only the “Game Director”, meaning he’s the one ultimately responsible for the state of this game, but also because his PR skills hover somewhere between “ghastly” and “humorously deranged”.
Perhaps his most famous quote is this:
“I enjoy playing WOW, I enjoy playing Lord of the Rings Online. But you know… I’m going to be a bit cheeky now, but if you’ve been to McDonalds for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, sometimes it’s great to just have a great steak and a glass of good wine,” he said.You’re exactly right, Gout. You were a bit cheeky. However, your analogy is a bit flawed. I’ll fix it for you:
“I enjoy playing WOW, I enjoy playing Lord of the Rings Online. But you know… I’m going to be a bit cheeky now, but if you’ve been to McDonalds for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, sometimes it’s great to go into a restaurant, give them 50 bucks, stick around for 3 hours hoping you get food, before finally passing out with a bottle of MadDog 20/20 in your hand and still fucking hungry,” he said.You, sir, are no steak and wine. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. You could be a rancid Salisbury Steak TV dinner, along with a glass of wine that came out of a box, but even that’s pushing it.
Last up, but certainly not least, is the great Erling Ellingson. This guy was pretty much unheard of before a few weeks ago, when he decided to show up at a couple conferences and do some interviews. Instead of handling these interviews like a normal, sane person, he decided to go another route. The route of lies, delusion and outright idiocy.
Don’t believe me? Watch this video with Jon Wood of mmorpg.com - at your own risk. This guy squirms so much when talking you can tell he’s bullshitting even with the sound muted. Here are some highlights:
“The game turned around 100% just before launch. Miracle patch…” “The 1-20 part of the game was intended to be very detailed… When WoW launched, high end content was sparse. We have lots of stuff for players end game…” “The PVP fugitive system, it’s all new stuff that we’re adding in. It’s not stuff that was supposed to be in before launch…” “We’re incredibly happy with the launch of Age of Conan, it was an incredibly successful launch… “(proceeds to self fellatiate) “It’s really few things [that didn’t make it into launch]. It’s not really big features. “The asinine comment about PVP not being a major feature earns a collective cockpunch to Erling on behalf of every player that played AoC hoping for a PVP oriented game. It was its main selling point, and it’s the reason that most people wanted to play the game. Hell, even Erling himself states “This might surprise you, but most people that play AoC play on PVP servers” - no, that doesn’t surprise us. What does surprise us that this “PVP Oriented MMO” doesn’t even have a PVP system. Oh, and when you roll out this magical “PVP Fugitive Patch”, you’ll be taking away yet one more slightly redeeming quality that AoC once had: PVP Freedom.
Now, it’s time for desert. The icing of the cake is brought to you by the collective tools at Funcom who thought that announcing an expansion for Age of Conan was a good idea. Apparently they’re busy listening to Erling rant on about how the game is pure awesome-sauce rather than actually playing their game. Scarily enough, there is now a team of developers working on an expansion to Age of Conan, rather than fixing the fundamental problems the game has. Make it X rated and you might get a substantial player base back.
Conclusion
In summary, the main causes of the death Age of Conan were this:
1. Poor client design and performance
2. Lack of basic features included in the game
3. Unaddictive gameplay, lack of thought put into game design: the game simply isn’t fun.
Worst of all, we have a company and the makers of this game telling us that it is good. These same people will be put on the next MMO. Hell, Gaute might even get the nod to direct Funcom’s next MMO - assuming the company still exists. “Gee, Gaute, you did so well on Age of Conan, here is another 50 Million, go make us another blockbuster like it!” Get your head out of your asses, Funcom: the people that made the decisions on where this game was going need to never be allowed on another MMO project again. But hey, it’s your money, it’s your funeral.
Many people might be thinking “Man, why so fucking hostile?” - and I sympathize with that. I’m not pissed at these guys I’m making fun of, I’m more disappointed. The MMO industry is just peppered with mediocrity now and it’s almost becoming industry standard. Objective journalism is nigh-unheard of at mainstream MMO websites because they don’t want to piss anyone off. Lastly, while what I’ve written here is my opinion, it’s really the collective thoughts from nearly every veteran MMO player that had the misfortune of playing Age of Conan.
Future MMO developers: use this as a lesson learned; things not to do. Above all, do not patronize your players like they don’t know what the hell is going on. Funcom: the game is beyond saving, but try to save some face by actually admitting the games problems, and not tap dancing around the issues like a drunk circus bear. Honesty, though missing from your corporate vocabulary, goes a long way in player retention.
That’s all. Daedren out.
