The Cesspit
Submitted by Abalieno on April 23, 2008 - 18:58.
After this I'm done commenting mmorpgs for a while, because as I already explained it only leads to more and more. And I don't intend to waste my time.
I was reading some news about WoW's arena's system. And those news fit exactly the model I anticipated and that I summarized with this lame image:
Now it all looks obvious, but at the time it was pure guesswork as we were five months before the release of the expansion and the PvP revamp. Everything I wrote in that long post was quite correct and I remember on the forums I had to fight a battle because everyone continued to repeat that Blizzard learned from mistakes and that you could save up arena's points, and so, ideally save up enough of them to buy the best rewards.
While I was saying that no, Blizzard didn't learn a damn thing and that no matter what people expect, the arenas system was made by Kalgan for his need of being l33t. And so they were going to add some kind of reset system to make Arena's reward truly l33t, either by resetting your points after each arena season, or by adding rank requirements.
My point: nothing is going to change. They are maintaining the status quo where a small subset of players have access to the best gear, while the majority sits at the bottom of the pyramid. So making the elite stronger, and the noobs noober(?).
And now I read of the two upcoming changes:
1- They are rising rank requirements for arena loot
2- They are stopping powerlevelling
I never participated in a single arena's match, but I'm sad to see I was right. From what I read you can't purchase arena's loot with points, but you also have to maintain a certain rank. EXACTLY LIKE IN THE OLD HONOR SYSTEM.
From Tobold's blog comments:
This will remove most people below 1500 now from the arena, creating a whole new playing field. And arena ratings on honor gear? Ridiculous.
It seems to me like the Arena has turned into what the honor system was at it's launch. Something for the hardcore players. And of course as usual, the casuals will be steamrolled even if they've got a set two seasons below the current.
It seems that with patch 2.4 and this PvP announcement that Blizzard is returning to the WoW 1.0 model of hiding gear and patterns in inaccessible raid dungeons and behind PvP rating/ranking obstacles.
There will always be teams who win against better geared opponents because they outplay them. But this will get harder and harder. Just think about how much damage a S4 warrior will do to a S2 equipped cloth or leather wearer. With an equipment spiral like that, skill matters less and less.
And I'm writing this because I'd really want to see in the face those that FOR MONTHS argued with me. And then make fun of me if I point out to them that once again I was right.
The morale is in the article:
Saving your points (or even your honor) for Season 4 may not be as effective anymore though, if you can't also muster up the ratings to purchase the gear.
Last Kalgan's move to catassing. You know he is l33t. And you know where he's heading with all this.
Then there's the powerlevelling. Every idiot playing a MMO knows that it would be stupid to let a level 1 player group with a level 60 player and gain the level 60 player's experience.
Apparently, considering they are fixing it now, Kalgan didn't think of this:
Together, these rules (which Tom Chilton alluded to but did not reveal in a recent interview) should mean that a person cannot simply ride a high rating team to victory, but will instead need to fight their way up the ladder to gain points regardless of what team they join.
Because before you could group with the l33t and get their points/ranks. Which created the perfect opportunity to offer RMT to be up there for one turn, grab the loot, and leave.
And with this Kalgan made the last move to make arenas exactly the same of the past honor (catass) system.
Congratulations. You are back home.
Old summary:
- The Honor system is pure catass, players complain for two years
- Blizzard gives up and transform Honor points into currency
- But doing that then every player will be able to eventually get the best rewards! *SHOCK!*
- So they nudge back the Honor system in the food chain
- And add on top an Arena system that is more Hardcore than ever and whose rewards dwarf everything that was in the game till that point
Submitted by Abalieno on April 10, 2008 - 19:56.
The only two things I'm curious about Warhammer and that haven't been fully revealed are those at the core of the game:
- RvR character advancement
- How real RvR and instances battlegrounds are interconnected
I was kind of baffled when I read this reply of MJ (no, it's not Mary Jane) on the forums:
Random guy: It is already going to be that way. The king fight isn't only accessible for one group/raid. The instance is simply capped, that is it. But everyone can fight the king when they want to, once per city siege. I am really not sure why people think it is only for one raid/group when Mythic never even said this, nor hinted it.
Mark Jacobs: You are correct. That would be stupidity on a whole new scale. We'll make mistakes over the next 6 or 7 years but none on that scale I hope.
To explain and complete the few informations I already had, Warhammer endgame RvR should be structured in a number of linked maps, probably similar to how the multiplayer worked in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
We should have the capital cities maps at the two extremes of this imaginary segment, and in between a number of transitory maps. So the opposed factions fight to "push" the front line further toward the enemy city. In theory the map where the fighting happens is just one (as only one front line is supposed to exist), and so you move back and forth through these maps only when objectives in that map are won by one of the two factions. Then the front line either moves forward (next map) or backwards (previous map), depending on the point of view.
At a point it will happen that a faction is stronger enough to be able to push this front line/map progression all the way to the enemy capital city. And there, after a number of objectives, the last goal is supposed to be the attack to the king and the conquest of the city.
This is what I knew, assuming it is correct at least as a general scheme. The real question, as said above, is how you make all that work when you have BOTH real RvR (meaning persistence of maps and battles outcomes), AND instanced battlegrounds (meaning lack of persistence and relativity of victories).
If there's real RvR, then a conquered keep is a conquered keep. A truth. But if the RvR is instanced then your efforts aren't absolute and objective, but relative to that instance, then shattered through a number of other instances where other players are playing and obtaining different results.
So the legitimate question: how persistent RvR and instances are supposed to work and relate to each other?
And we came to that answer above from Mark Jacobs that baffled me. He says "you are correct". So: the instance is capped, and everyone can spawn his own instance and go kill "his" king.
This means that the "king encounter" is a group instance, that can happen an unlimited numbers of times, but only once for each player.
You know, kinda like in WoW's PvE, where everyone had his occasion to kill Van Cleef in the Deadmines (minus the farming).
Makes sense? Sure, but while PvE is an experience relative to yourself (personal adventure), the RvR is supposed to be a communal experience. Your realm. Where these fights are fun because they are supposed to be persistent. Fight for something as "concrete" as possible.
If Mark Jacobs confirmed that crucial events like the assault to the capital city are instanced, it means that this kind of RvR is going to work like Guild Wars. Where there's no real war. But the results of a number of instances are charted together, then compared to the global results of the opposite faction, and then the victory mathematically deduced from that comparison. Order won 155 times, Destruction 160, so Destruction wins and the front line moves one map further toward the Order capital.
I called that "projected" PvP. As you aren't fighting for what's in front of you (territory warfare, as in conquest games), but you are fighting to collect "stats" on a chart, and then hope your performance is overall better than a vague idea of "enemy" that also appears on a chart.
I'm sorry but this isn't RvR, as the war between the two factions is detached and filtered. It is just charts compared one to the other. Leader board game. Ladders.
But no RvR in the sense of persistent war and fight for territory.
So virtually identical to the PvP in WoW, and completely different from the RvR of DAoC. Assuming that the whole difference between DAoC and WoW is about the persistence itself.
Which is still a legitimate game. But it isn't what is being advertised. It's no RvR in the sense people expect.
And also leads to a number of problems. For example this kind of "sport PvP" (a definition that matches more closely the game) is by its nature more divisive than inclusive as it encourages the "elite" to despise their own faction as other players who aren't on par with skills and gear become DEAD WEIGHT for the whole faction, as their losses worsen the performance of the whole realm.
The RvR existed to offer a different model. A model where every player contributed. Even if low level and with crap gear, but still better being there than not participating. That's what built the sense of realm in DAoC , that brought everyone together to defend relics, that built the community, cohesion, motivation and longevity of the game. And that put less focus on the personal performance and phat loot.
Which is what Mythic systematically destroyed by promoting 8vs8 gank groups and that made the RvR (keeps and relic warfare) almost irrelevant and just a mild "flavor" on the background. And that consequently destroyed the unique qualities and value the game had, and dig the hole where the game now lies.
Warhammer seems to be a game with a new coat of paint over gameplay that people decided to abandon. Saving what in DAoC didn't work, and burying what worked. We'll see if, after the game's launch, the players will still appreciate the game after having scratched below this new paint coat and discovered the exact same gameplay they decided to quit.
Submitted by Abalieno on March 29, 2008 - 21:33.
A GOA (Mythic european operator) representative trying to explain how their service will be greatly improved for Warhammer:
We have moved our offices to a foreign country to be able to provide the service that we couldn't offer for DAoC due to the labour restrictions in place in France.
Submitted by Abalieno on December 15, 2007 - 04:35.
So we have the first half of the news.
For those who doesn't know he was the live Producer of Everquest 2 and did his job the very best possible from what I've seen. He became producer after launch, so can't be blamed for what happened before, even if I think he was Technical Director before that, so maybe he had some blame on that front. In any case I admired him for his way of dealing and talking with the community. He always answered the critics with moderation and honesty and this is not something that happens rarely, it NEVER happens.
Since I have no need to write presentation letters for colleagues like Lum (wink) why I'm writing this? Simply because I'm curious. I have esteem for him and curious to know where he ends up. I doubt he would have quit the job if he didn't have a backup ready.
I guess we'll read soon the other half of the news. In a press release? Or maybe on his blog.
My guess is Curt Shilling.
Submitted by Abalieno on October 30, 2007 - 03:34.
After almost a year of full-time development, the new version is released.
Lots of stuff probably changed. The most notable new features are the multiple z-axis levels and variable environments.
I was a bit worried about the z-axis levels because they could mess too much an already complicated game, especially because it's simply impossible to present intuitively "height" when you have an ASCII interface. But this new feature doesn't seem too intrusive and once you figure out how it works you can navigate through it easily without feeling baffled. The new environments instead are *awesome*. Instead of having always the same default outdoor layout (and predictable gameplay development), this time the environments depend on where you pick the location for the settlement. So not always you have a cliff face, or a river. But then you also have increasing possibilities, like digging down. It's much more a sandbox now. More freedom and variation. New powerful toys to figure out.
I'm still trying to relearn the whole thing, so I can't comment much more.
Just two short tips:
Shift+< and Shift+> To move through z-axis levels
To dig down: (d)esignate a "downward stairway", go down one level, (d)esignate an "upward stairway" and a dwarf will then appear in the lower level
Now if only I could figure out why I can't use any seed on my farm plot...
Submitted by Abalieno on May 15, 2007 - 05:47.
It's been described in a brutal way:
At approximately 4:30PM today, Sigil employees were told to meet outside. At which point they were terminated. On the spot.
Did they tell them to stand along the wall before they got executed?
Do we have the movie on YouTube?
Only official comment from Nino (FoH's mascot), on the FoH's boards:
I will make an announcement tomorrow regarding my status...
That isn't a denial of the news.
My guess is that SOE cherry-picked some of them and fired the others. They'll probably pretend Vanguard is going to be supported at least to milk it as much as possible before its demise. After all SOE still has Matrix Online active.
In other news SWG team is made by 20 devs.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 3, 2007 - 16:42.
As recent as last week:
We've never been shy about letting the community know approximations of the number of active subscriptions (approaching 170k), trial accounts (about 22k), peak concurrent users (34,420), staff (201), etc. Information like that is normally mentioned on the forums or in news items, so it may be hard to spot. Most of the forum regulars see the numbers and will generally pass the information along to those that ask.
Just the renovation of all the 3D models in EVE (not including the graphics engine) is about 80 people.
EVE is still growing rapidly, we're about 2000 short of 170.000 paying subscribers. Not counting EVE China or trials.
Reaching 160K at christmas, Jan and Feb were slow, now going on 170K. That's paying subscribers.
They seem now bigger than Mythic. But I guess it depends on what you consider "staff".
Of those 201, 150 are working on Eve. The rest? I don't know, but CCP is working on different projects.
And about this specific gripe, they also have something interesting to say:
player: There used to be a time when the only thing CCP thought about, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, every individual at CCP ever thought about was EVE. This was the core group of developers that made EVE, that launched EVE, that imbued EVE with life. This core group of developers is now sundered both in their minds and at thier company.
Oveur: The new MMO is being made in Atlanta to prevent this from happening. A new team is being built there to prevent this from happening.
I drink the Kool-Aid, the fact that the WoD game is being built elsewhere wipes most of my concerns. Good work.
Submitted by Abalieno on May 2, 2007 - 02:18.
Sanya joins Lum and Matt Firor out of the door, and I think it's a good thing (for her, not for Mythic).
Lepidus: Can you talk about the circumstances of your departure?
Sanya Thomas: We mutually agreed to separate.
Mark Jacobs: I'm not going to say anything else on the subject, so please don't ask, sorry.
The fun part is that Lum wrote a pitch letter for her :)
I consider this a HUGE news. Now don't fucking tell me that it was just for personal reasons and things with Mythic were all fine and dandy.
I got the impression that Sanya was a bit of a driving force. Bad for Mythic, but Mythic doesn't deserve anymore good things.
I think it won't take long to discover where she lands. Maybe on Lum's belly? (or maybe that's too far away)
Well, I would, if I were leaving the area. Which I'm not.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 30, 2007 - 15:04.
Kendrick was one of Vanguard original designers and he left Sigil a couple of years ago, so not part of this last diaspora.
Now at Relic, the makers of Warhammer 40k Dawn of War and Company of Heroes:
Start work at Relic on Tuesday provided they let me across the border.
This would fuel the rumor about Relic working on a Warhammer 40k mmorpg, if it wasn't for the fact that someone else has announced it.
That leaves space for some speculation.
--
Instead about latest Vanguard's news, Shild:
So, is there about to be a large influx of resumés floating around the MMORPG industry? Are some of them already flying about?
At this time though, I'm merely reporting what I've... heard. As such, do not consider this confirmation nor a denial.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 30, 2007 - 08:37.
It's all ultimately good news
Maybe. Depending on perspectives. But your credibility isn't that high at present.
I'll make a tighter quote-play than Krones:
SOE is in discussions with Sigil regarding the future of Vanguard and Sigil Games
Vanguard is doing decently but not as well as we hoped
SOE is going to be getting more involved with Sigil and Vanguard - our relationship is going to become even tighter - much tighter
When people start getting burned out of the Warcraft expansion (pardon the pun), we need to make sure that the game is more polished and will play on lower end machines
they think to themselves, "ah well, were I younger and had my life not changed, I'd give it a shot, but I just don't have the time for another EQ with better graphics right now."
there are arguably a lot of people who by mid to end of this year in the MMOG gamespace for whom Vanguard could potentially be very attractive
Yeah, arguably. Pretty much the same number of players who can find SWG attractive post-Raph.
SOE is now, objectively, a dock where MMO ships go wreck. Vanguard, SWG, Matrix Online, Planetside, EQ and, to a lesser extent, EQ2. With the years instead of growing resources, SOE has worn them out.
I still see a 500k+ game, I was just off by a year for a variety of reasons
I don't know, if this was politics the best thing you could do is to admit you were wrong and failed, and resign from a management/lead position to do something that fits you better.
I wouldn't like seeing Brad fired or out this industry. But I'd like to see him stepping down from his position.
You had your chances. And a whole lot of them. Drop ego and pride, step back, and let others have their own as well now.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 23, 2007 - 06:30.
There's a curious article on the Red 5 website fancily describing their revolutionary recruiting strategy.
Aside the way they "dressed" it, that's how I always thought things should work: you go out to hunt and seduce talent, you don't wait it to knock at your door.
Sadly I didn't receive one of those invites ;)
Submitted by Abalieno on March 1, 2007 - 07:18.
What I told you about SOE's business practices and trends?
I saw this looking at other blogs feeds (Cuppycake and Krones). I guess Brad McQuaid pretended the price to raise in order to keep Vanguard vaguely profitable.
The price is now thirty bucks (in Europe add another $5 of taxes) and they even rebill you automatically with the higher fee (effective April 2, 2007).
Firstly they publicize Vanguard and the All-access pass as both part of a very convenient deal, then, I guess, they are successful but so successful to the point that they cannot keep all games and live teams alive with one reasonable monthly fee that has to be split thin.
So it's now thirty bucks. Still cheap? Well, it's almost what you would pay for a FULL brand new game with years of development behind it. And you pay that MONTHLY.
Prediction: this will break either EQ2 or Vanguard, as they are now forcing players to pick one side. As I anticipated, only one will survive.
Next step is obviously rising the single monthly fee. But they just cannot do that before the competition moves the first step ;p
They also gave NCSoft the perfect occasion for a winning stab. Release Dungeon Runners, Exteel and Tabula Rasa and launch their own version of an all-access pass with an accessible monthly fee. If they are going to miss this opportunity then they are just crazy. A victory handed on a silver plate. With their accessible games and variety of styles it even makes sense to play more than one mmorpg.
P.S.
Planetside monthly fee is also going up: $13 -> $15
The player-reported news on VE3D is worth a quote:
After more 3 years of continually dwindling subscriber numbers, corporate mismanagement, a botched expansion, the addition of in-game advertisements, and numerous unpopular gameplay changes, SOE in all their wisdom has decided to increase the subscription rate from $13 to $15, citing investments to improve the game's support and infrastructure. Any long-time player knows the only support they have given is life-support. Barely keeping the game running is their idea of investing in it.
EDIT-
And another quote from Amber:
The short-sightedness of this approach is staggering. In a marketplace that Sony hasn't come close to dominating for well over 5 years, they're behaving like a monopoly with a captive player base.
Submitted by Abalieno on March 1, 2007 - 06:45.
What did I tell you, hm?
I saw this coming miles away. Obviously from THQ.
I read a while ago that Relic (the makers of Company of Heroes and WH40k Dawn of War) was actively hiring for an unannounced MMO project. Link the dots...
Warhammer 40k mmorpg officially announced.
Problem is that the dots were wrong. I thought Relic was the last good game studios left who could make a decent MMO. Instead it's not Relic working on this. It's another FRIGGIN Austin-based studios named Vigil Games.
The team there is led by David Adams, formerly of NCsoft, and is comprised of several MMO veterans from that community. We look forward to making further announcements with more specifics on the game in the coming months.
More incest going on.
From where are these devs leaking? ;)
Submitted by Abalieno on February 26, 2007 - 22:44.
This is about that "Top Secret" project that claims to give you the occasion of your life.
Hey, if I'd be a goon that would be the occasion of my life. Since I don't have the opportunity to work on games following the standard path (as foreigner) this could be the only way to actually try!
"I've always loved the idea that someone, from their bedroom, reveals their passion and talent, then suddenly can have an absolutely stunning career explosion, becoming a famous Game Director with a pre-built fan base. We're going to make it happen!" says David Perry who is a Game Director and Chief Creative Officer for Acclaim Games.
David Perry will be building the new online game from scratch and is offering members of the Acclaim player community a rare opportunity to help him develop this video game in a collaborative effort with some of the industry's best talent. "We will bring in some surprise guests along the way to inspire and mentor the contributors," says Perry.
One lucky winner who shines the most during the development process will be given the top prize. "This is the only chance I know of to jumpstart a directorship career in the video game industry," continues Perry. "Everyone wins. They get to learn how to make professional games, and if they get anything in, they get a real professional credit on their resume." Perry finishes, "But, if they win, well then they get their life changed."
Interestingly, applicants don't need any prior game development experience. In fact, Perry refuses to look at resumes. "We only care about the pure, focused, passionate talent they show up with," he says.
Hey, it IS me. It's about MMO. It's about bedroom game design. It's about offering a lifetime occasion. It's about an opportunity for those who cannot have one. There isn't anyone else in the world who could make a better target!
But I'm not so naive and my first reaction was the same of Stephen Zepp on the F13 thread: a laugh.
I'm mildly curious about how they are going to attempt this. I'm one of those who like to plunge in the community for ideas and feedback, I'm the one who believes that it's an indispensable part of making games. But at the same time you just cannot let the players, as a vague group, build a game. And what game by the way?
You cannot design "on the air", you always need a context. A project must have well outlined goals and purposes, then you can start to gather ideas about a specific system or possible alternatives. The problem working with "the community" is that there's no synthesis. It's pure chaos and without someone directing the process and taking decisions then it's all absolutely useless and superfluous.
Without a set context the ideas would be contradictory and conflicting. Building a game is about having a coherent Vision. Letting a whole community build a game instead equals to a "patchwork". Even assuming the execution is exceptional, you still have a castle of cards lacking solid foundation, principles and goals.
And would be Dave Perry(™) the director that is supposed to make all this happen? Who will tell good ideas from bad ideas? Who will make the calls? Who will evaluate the community work? Since Lum was too modest to brag directly, I'll quote what he linked, last year's Austin rant where he comments one of Dave Perry's ideas, this wonderfully creative guy:
As an example of that last bit, Jennings brought up a new project by Dave Perry and Acclaim that will include in-game classified ads on the screen. They can be turned off, but players won't level up as quickly if they choose to play without them, a point that drew a chorus of boos from the assembled audience. He also suggested facetiously embracing a "wonderland of consumerism," with Coca-Cola-sponsored magic swords, Kobalds corpses that hold Skittles, and a Jet Blue dragon to fly players around.
"When you totally disrespect your consumers like that, I can assure you of one thing: Your project will fail," Jennings said. "And deservedly so."
Jennings ended his rant to a hearty round of applause
Submitted by Abalieno on February 20, 2007 - 04:00.
Fifth article in a series! A couple of weeks ago NCSoft release their quarterly reports about subscription numbers and financial status.
The .zip file with the original pdf document can be downloaded here.
Summary:
- Tabula Rasa close to beta and to be released in second half of 2007.
- Guild Wars skips the "spring" expansion, only one expansion to be released near the end of the year.
- Lineage 2 breaking 100k subs in the western market.
- CoH/CoV falling back to 150k.
- "All pass" service in the works (one monthly fee for all games).
Raw numbers:
Lineage
1,408,170 subs worldwide (+52,200)
11,953 in the US (+2,226)
Lineage II
1,036,303 subs worldwide (-80,624)
105,039 in US + EU (+11,039)
City of Heroes
154,953 subs worldwide (that is US + EU only) (-17,467)
Guild Wars
3,122,000 boxes sold (+675,000)
Lineage is doing pretty well and currently has 400k more than its sequel. This should give a hint to all those mmorpg companies that continue to abandon their games to build stupid sequels that cannot even top the original. I repeat: in this genre sequels are stupid for a long list of reasons, and this is valid even for the "disguised" sequels, not just for those games sharing the exact same name. Anyway, Lineage seems stable or slightly growing everywhere and I also noticed the "personal accounts" are rising. Someone knows how much Koreans pay monthly?
Lineage 2 instead is like Lineage in reverse (sales went up 2% for Lineage and down 2% for Lineage 2), while one is stable but slightly growing, the other is slightly declining and losing subscriptions in a consolidated downward trend. The only point of notice is that the game is becoming successful in the western market and now has more than 100k. I'm impressed. I don't know from where these players are coming (maybe the consequence of NCSoft aggressively countering the "free shards"?) and I DEFINITELY cannot understand what players like in this game. Maybe the lust for PvP make people digest all sort of crap. I wonder what could happen if there was in the market a vaguely decent PvP game.
CoH is losing a sensible number of subscriptions but I saw that coming. The development stalled as the staff was moved to other projects. I read that they released a new patch recently, so the subscriptions may slightly rise in the next quarter, but I doubt this game has an interesting, bright future. As for the binomial DAoC/Warhammer, only one can survive between CoH/CoV and the Marvel-branded title in the works. The game is on a (albeit long) countdown and will likely sink over time as its appeal fades (obviously that's not something they are going to admit).
Consolidated City of Heroes/Villains franchise sales were 5.5 billion Won, down 26% QoQ due to a decrease in user base.
Not much to say about Guild Wars. In the last report I wrote that the Nightfall release made them sell another 500k and reach 3M total, so the number was already updated. It seems holding rather well. The real interesting thing is that they seem to have discarded the plan of one expansion every six months as only one is planned for this year and to be released around the release of Nightfall a year ago (October). I wonder if this is still a viable business choice.
Overall from a superficial glance at other numbers it seems that the only market sensibly growing is the European one (+68%). While the profit for the full year 06 is down a -43% over the 05. Sales are stable, while costs went up (also because of Auto Assault trainwreck).
It's interesting to see their previsions for 2007. They expect Lineage 2 to go up by a 12%, CoH and Guild Wars to lose 15% and between a +969% and +1313% for "other" games. This last number is actually believable and even conservative as they are launching new stuff this year (Aion in Korea and Dungeon Runners and Tabula Rasa in the western market).
For 2007 business goals, NCsoft is anticipating sales to be between 358 billion Won and 367 billion Won, a 6% to 8% increase from the previous year. Operating profit is expected to be between 42 billion Won, with little change YoY and 49 billion Won, a 13% increase year over year. This guidance reflects Tabula Rasa, Aion, and several casual games officially launching within year 2007.
NCsoft’s total investment in product development (Live update cost + new game development cost) grew to approximately 90 billion Won last year from 25 billion Won in 2003. In 2007, this investment is expected to grow to 108billion Won, a 18% increase from the previous year. This strong commitment in product development reflects NCsoft’s strategy to build a strong portfolio of products to keep up with growth in online game market, that is expected to grow 30% a year.
NCsoft has built a development system to introduce at least one blockbuster MMO games and several casual online games a year. To do this, NCsoft spent 64 billion Won for new game development in 2006. This amount will grow to 80 billion Won in 2007.
I hope some of those go to Lum ;)
Tabula Rasa and Aion will officially launch in the second half of 2007, meaning that sales contribution from these products will be limited to some extent. However, games launches have certain costs associated with them, such as the purchase of game servers, the hiring game masters, and marking expenses. For these reasons, profit margin in 2007 could be lower than our mid-term target margin 20%.
In North America & Europe, Exteel, a mech shooter game and Dungeon Runners, a multiplayer action role-playing game, will officially launch in the first half of 2007. These multiplayer games will be free to download and play at the basic levels of gameplay. Additional contents will be available for a fee (in-game item sales and membership packages).
Tabula Rasa, a highly anticipated MMO, will enter a closed beta testing stage soon and will officially launch in the second half of 2007. Also an additional update to the Guild Wars franchise will go live in the second half of 2007.
As I'm against RMT I don't like what they are doing with Exteel and Dungeon Runners. As I wrote in the past I'm willingly to pay for content, but not pay for items or other unjustified smoke and mirrors.
Finally, they also announced an "all pass" monthly subscription working along the lines of SOE one. So you can play all NCSoft games while paying one unified monthly fee, but I guess you still have to purchase the single games and eventual expansions. We'll see if NCSoft will be able to provide a better deal.
Submitted by Abalieno on February 18, 2007 - 12:48.
There was a relevant news about DAoC I originally decided not to comment, but I want to answer on a specific aspect.
The news is that all the stuff you could get from ToA, the used-to-be hardcore PvE stuff that many believe ruined the game till the release of "classic" servers with ToA stuff stripped off the game, well, all this stuff can now be "bought" with bounty points.
The bounty point are some sort of PvP currency, so the bottom line is that previously PvE exclusive stuff is now accessible directly from PvP. I guess everyone welcomes this (LATE) move.
It works like an alternative path but you would lie to yourself if you would think this corresponds to a "choice". Ideally you like PvE and get this stuff from PvE, while if you like PvP you get the same stuff from PvP. Choice is good but the point is that in the practice there's no real choice (if not when things are completely soloable): you have to stick and adapt to what everyone else does.
Then you also have to see what is the conversion ratio. Mythic could even decide to make these items absurdly expensive in order to not make the PvE obsolete. But it would be a very bad move.
So, in practice, I agree with Apache. Mythic "killed" ToA and, yes, they may as well delete the ToA zones. That content is now completely mudflated. It lost its function.
I wanted to reply to this post in particular:
On one hand, the changes look wonderful, until you realize that once again, as always, the benefit here is for the "have's" and the "have not's" are left out in the cold. How so you say? You need an income of RP's from NF to benefit from any of this. How does anything in 1.88 make NF any more attractive for the casual gamer? Being slaughtered by stealth zergs and RR10 8man's isn't many people's idea of fun. Standing around at portal keeps LFG for 2 hours when you only have 2 hours to play is not many people's idea of fun. You can't earn bounty point in the battlegrounds, why not? Last time I checked battlegrounds were realm vs realm combat... So how does the casual gamer actually GET the rps needed for the bounty points? The powergamers reap 100% of the reward here and the casuals get screwed....again.
Until Mythic realizes that the powergamer is not keeping this game afloat, casuals are, the game will continue to experience it's steady bleed off of players. Over time, casuals get sick and tired of being overlooked while powergamers are catered to over and over and over again. up to 25% of the players of this game are the so called uber powergamers which leaves a significant pool of players 75% to further bleed off the population. Mythic needs to figure out where their bread is really buttered before the prime time population for all servers is 2500...
The real problem runs deeper. Problem in DAoC is that there's no influx of new players, so what's left is long time veterans in high ranks and teamspeak.
While in the past the "hardcore" portion was there, but still somewhat balanced by a group less hardcore and welcoming new players and casual groups, the more the game declines, the more those few players who are left are veterans with powerful characters and a strong guild organization.
So here there's both a problem of game design (strong bias and support to the 8vs8 meta-game) and a problem of community (game becoming increasingly niche and driving away new players).
Problem is that all this is the long-term consequence of choices made by Mythic a while ago.
Submitted by Abalieno on February 16, 2007 - 23:43.
Woot! One week without writing, I CAN resist!
Just a few comments about some latest thingies.
--
Warhammer and collision detection. There were some discussions about how it is going to work and I have some pertinent quotes:
Collision is most definitely in and working. It's much easier to "feel" it than to see it, however, because it's not like running into a brick wall when you hit an enemy player. You can "push through" or around them (which is what you'll often see in RvR videos), but it takes time and effort to do so. Think of it like (American) football - where you CAN get past a defender, but it takes fancy footwork or a heckuva push to do so.
There is enemy collision currently. Friendly collision doesn't serve nearly as many purposes and also poses significant risk of abuse in some cases.
--
EDIT (added later).
Some well founded hype in regards to Tabula Rasa. From an interview with Lum's boss:
Instead of like with most MMOs in combat, you highlight a target, then you ignore the target, because he's just going to stand there and whack you—and you are staring at the interface and clicking fireball/fireball/swordswing/healing potion—Tabula Rasa is a game where you're really shooting through the reticle. You're constantly observing what's happening on the screen where you're aiming. It's still a role-playing game in the sense of when you shoot at something, it's based on your equipment and attributes as to who will be injured…but they're not just sitting there hitting you. Your opponent is moving and is aware of, say, if you're behind sand bags, he has a lower probability of hitting you, so he may instead run around to the side, kick you to the ground and start rifle-butting you as required, or however they can find their best position to engage you.
It reminds me what I also wrote a number of times about interfaces and having the battlefield have an impact on the action, without being just a flat box decorated with pretty graphic, but also becoming tactically relevant. The bottom line here, what is really relevant, is to deliver all that consistently with the immersion. Visceral combat, the opposite of convoluted and math-intensive.
There are some parts of this game that sound interesting (like the dynamic PvE "shared" zones), while some parts are less convincing (his examples about the AI aren't so good, even if the overall idea is great).
This other quote goes without commenting, as it was one of my main themes lately:
So, anyway, that's what leads you up to the elder game. In most MMOs, the first decision you make is what class you're going to play, and that's a permanent decision for that character. And once you've started leveling, you can't really go check out the other classes without starting over at Level 1. So what I think often happens…people will focus on one character to get up to peak level. If you have to start all over again, that's what I would call one of the "opportunities to exit."
Tabula Rasa is going to have some features that support my two general principles: "permeable barriers" and "gated content".
we think people will explore a much broader suite of all the content we provide compared to most MMOs.
--
Brad McQuaid claim on Vanguard subs:
I can't get into specifics, but we are well over 100,000 and growing steadily every day.
Which is already above my own expectations. Yet, not really meaningful. The interesting milestone is the three months after, as always and overall trend. My opinion is that Vanguard will peak sooner than similar mmorpgs, so it will grow faster (in relation to its own curve) and then remain steady or decline.
Players are still in their free month, so the only "fact" is that Vanguard is selling.
I also noticed this particular line in the patch notes:
- Updated camel mount speeds to be equal to horses of the same rank
Since different types of mount was also a feature in my "dream mmorpg" I wonder if their implementation is meaningful in Vanguard.
My idea was to have different types of mount, but also make them excused. It would be interesting for example see players use camels in the desert, or other mount types, even equipment, depending on where they go adventuring. It's part of the "immersive" world, that is also a goal in Vanguard. The idea to encourage players using different mounts was to give them different "qualities". So, simple example, a camel would move faster than an horse in the desert (and the horse even risk death), so making players USE different mounts. It was part of my attempt to give the terrain a role, different movement speeds and so on.
So I wonder what's Vanguard implementation here. Are different mounts justified in the game with their own specific role and quality, or are they just a different looking model with a similar movement buff applied to it?
Oh, and there was also an fun comics. It's the immersion and immersive game design.
--
(related to the last EQ expansion and rumored subs numbers)
Predictions.
today's EQ + today's EQ2 < yesterday's EQ
In a year...
today's EQ + today's EQ2 + today's Vanguard < yesterday's EQ
--
EDIT (added later).
My speculations and assumptions on Eve-Online revealed to be accurate (quoting their dev blogs):
So you framed factional warfare?
Yeah, an unfortunate fact of the re-focus, which has been known for some time now, is that the factional part of the factional warfare is on hold. We could do a small start of "factional action", but it wouldn't be the same and expectations are quite high.
You see, one aspect is that warfare has been levitating to a point which we, and we believe you, don't necessary like. We all like player infrastructure, we all like the goals they create, and some of at least like to defend or attack that which we, or others, strive to create. But we don't necessarily like to have to gather fleets in the size of 100's to achieve anything at all, while possibly crashing server nodes - or at least lagging to hell and back.
Weak excuse, as the main goal of Factional Warfare should be, again, the bridge between casual players and the organized player's corporation warfare. It's the EXACT opposite of stacking large fleets to be able to accomplish something. It should be instead about setting goal and a campaign-style progression accessible for EVERYONE.
"Factional Warfare" should be the possibility to "affiliate" to NPC corps and fight in well-defined environments. You may portray it as a vaguely directed PvP structure that opens that layer to everyone, right away. Doing without the ultra-complex layers related to the big corps and their politics. Imagine it as some sort of WoW's BattleGround, made flexible and adaptable, with these BGs and PvP-driven missions that adapt to a world that is being changed.
So we should have WoW's BG accessibility from a side (everyone can jump in, participate and have fun right away) and a flexible, adaptable overall structure that transforms the game world and makes these battles have *consequences*. Shaping and transforming the empire space.
That's the main strength of Eve, used right against its main weakness. Eve's main strength is the overall, dynamic world structure, all its complex and intricate layers. Eve's main weakness is its lack of accessibility for new players or even veterans who didn't find a way to access the layer about corporations warfare and world conquest.
At this point I'm even doubting that my idea of "Factional Warfare" coincides with CCP's idea.
--
Tobold on MEO:
LotRO is going to be the "next big thing", the game you can't possibly miss of 2007.
I laughed.
I've read that MEO is supposedly targeted at bored WoW players, but what I read from the boards is that in the best case playing MEO made people want to resub to WoW. Wonderful achievement there ;)
But that's also the perfect description of MEO: an uninspired and soulless carbon copy of WoW.
Best review from Haemish:
LOTRO is a boring game that's a mishmash of D&D Online with every other diku ever made. It failed my 30-minute MMOG rule.
Margalis also:
I think the "hate" for LOTRO is that it is a WOW clone that is a step below WOW.
I wouldn't say there is hate rather than disinterest.
Don't take me seriously, I've put everything Turbine's in the garbage bin. And I'm pretty sure I'm not going to regret it.
You have to have serious talent to shit on so much potential (meaning Turbine ruining D&D, LotR and even their own IP, AC2). And yeah, you deserve NO RESPECT if when you have a LotR license on your hands and the best thing you can think of is making it a WoW clone. And I don't mean those at Turbine who put their work in the game, I mean those who made the calls. So, again, you deserve no respect.
Turbine, the wither of mmo worlds.
Btw, where's this "great graphic"? Better than Vanguard? Sure, but that's something hardly to be proud of. From what I see it has a LOD worse than Oblivion, with a sharp cut between close and far clip plane. There aren't even LOD transitions, trees seem to go from full detail right into flat bitmap billboards. The far clip plane not only has muddy textures, but these placeholder trees aren't even put on the terrain, they look all flying with their roots in the air. World design is slightly better than Vanguard, but still very lackluster and plain, same for the textures. The graphic looks as bland and uninspired as the game design. A coherent game, I guess.
I don't think MEO is a terrible game that deserves "the hate" or scorn. But, taken for what it is, it is a mediocre game.
--
Comics and games. Common ground. This is a quote from Bryan Hitch about the delay of Civil War, also somewhat pertinent to the game industry:
These days we have the benefit of hindsight and there are precedents. You can't set out to create a classic or a series with longevity but it's getting easier for publishers to spot them as they unfold because the collection market is so large now and one can see what works and what doesn't. A fill-in might potentially stave off an unfortunate delay but hurt the long term property potential and the only reason a company would consider a fill-in necessary would be to avoid a financial hit in the short term not to keep you guys happy. If they are willing to take what must be a massive hit in the pocket, believing in it's long term potential, to allow it's creators to finish the book as intended then that isn't really a bad thing.
If we do things the way they have always been done then we don't develop. It pays to be flexible, I guess and Marvel obviously believe they are doing the best thing in the long game for a product they believe in and one that has already proven more successful than they belived possible.
Comics and games industry are closer than what you may expect. Both have to deal with art from one side and industry from the other. In the form of production, time constraints, deadlines, plans and projections. They involve hundreds of people, each with his own competency.
Both comics and games are an industry built on art, but still industry. Industry and art naturally collide, but that conflict sometimes produces authentic masterpieces.
Submitted by Abalieno on February 8, 2007 - 00:59.
From an interview with Copper:
what we're doing is taking the resources we would devote to an expansion - artists, quests, content, programmers - we're taking those guys and they are all focused on delivering high-level content every two weeks.
When you replace the last bits of game development with "live events" it means it's really over.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 18, 2007 - 17:56.
It was discussed these days that Blizzard didn't offer a digital download of their expansion (I commented this on Brandon's blog).
Well, they are going to. Or at least I read it and I'm sure. It's just that these days I read things and then forget where. So go find the link yourself.
Now. If only they offered it in time for the release I could have spared the ~$60 for taxes+shipment of my US copy.
Yes. $60 for importing, $40 for the actual game.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 16, 2007 - 01:44.
I'm level 4 on my dranei shaman (as I don't have any 60 to go see the outlands on the euro servers) and having fun.
The zone art is awesome and one step higher than classic WoW, while I have some complaints about some minor details and character art (like hairstyles, blood elfs in particular). I also didn't like the running animations, but after playing more I like draenei's animations overall (and voices too!).
The launch here was absolutely smooth, or at least it was from my personal perspective (and I also play on one of those servers branded "full"). The expansion was activated without even requiring downtime, just a relaunch of the client. The server is working without an hint of lag and the starting zones have players without being overcrowded (but it's night here).
I'm speaking way too early, but for now it's a flawless victory. We'll see in the next days.
Tomorrow I'll try to take out some statistics with Census to try to figure out what's the new population cap.
EDIT: When even on FoH you read it was a flawless launch, then maybe it's true. But we still have to see how the population increases in the next days.
P.S.
Notice how the "secret" of WoW's art is all in the colors. Every screenshot and zone seems to have an unique palette. And really close to a painting effect.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 15, 2007 - 13:15.
I'm not 100% sure but I think that the 2.0.5 patch removes from the TOS the point that made illegal playing from outside the US.
I hope it was recognized as a mistake.
If it's true, thanks.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 11, 2007 - 21:05.
Reporting this because they give us relevant infos:
more than 2 million players in North America, more than 1.5 million players in Europe, and more than 3.5 million players in China.
My previous considerations were both right and wrong:
if nothing changes we would see the subscriptions climbing at above 8 million just by the end of September.
If that's true it would be a safe bet saying that the NA subscribers will climb above 2M BEFORE the launch of the expansion. Again, I doubt it. We'll see if I'm wrong but I'm not so sure that the NA subscribers are even above 1.5M. That would disprove the data we have now, though. But that's my suspect.
An average of the two and we are there.
What I can see now is that the growth is still rather constant. This would mean that by the end of 2007 WoW would reach 10M worldwide, but this without counting the effect of the expansion (and the competition, but I don't think there are any real competitors yet).
It's possible that the expansion alone will give the game another 1M in our market (US+EU) easily. That 1/3-1/4 growth is what I would expect. We'll see.
Also interesting to consider that both US and EU market seem to grow at a similar pace. About half a million every year.
August 2005 - 1M in the US
January 2006 - 1M in the EU (with US probably at 1.5)
January 2007 - 2M in the US, 1.5M in the EU
Those being official numbers.
My suspect here is that the growth slowed down during the 2006. But the imminent launch of the expansion already gave these numbers a boost. The 2M in NA would already include some returning players that are getting ready for the expansion launch. So the point is: how many more subscribers, beside those already back, the expansion will bring to the game?
Submitted by Abalieno on January 10, 2007 - 18:46.
If the news of the forced server splits below your ass wasn't enough (my opinion is here), now we have this.
I still remember when Blizzard repeatedly promised to european players official support to play on the american servers. But "only after the european launch".
Then the european launch arrived and Blizzard completely ignored questions about this issue if not repeating that they didn't want european players on the american servers FOR THEIR OWN INTEREST. Because they were worried to provide a quality service and they didn't want us to experience too much lag or receive support in a language we don't understand. How cute.
Giving players the choice of course was above them.
With this last patch in preparation for The Burning Crusade they modified the TOS:
4. Limitations on Your Use of the Service.
A. You may only access the Service from within the territorial boundaries of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Singapore. Any access to your Account, whether by you or anyone else, from any location outside those countries is a breach of this Agreement.
So if you are an european player playing on the american server from today you are considered in the same league of gold farmers, exploiters, cheaters or hackers. You are breaking the terms of service.
Fuck you Blizzard.
One day you won't be anymore "king of the hill" and you'll start to pay one by one for all these fucking stupid choices.
I don't think that treating legit customers as criminals will payback. But till you are in a dominating position then you can afford just everything, even this shit.
P.S.
LOL. Someone remembers that in my proposed LFG tool I had suggested to use an animated demon eye to appear when the LFG flag is active? Well, after this last patch when you are flagged LFG (but only for the auto-join option) an animated demon eye appears near the mini map ;)
No, really.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 8, 2007 - 03:18.
I just found out that Grimwell ("Craig Dalrymple" says Cosmik) is at SOE as the community manager for EQ2. Wow, big grats and good luck.
I like a lot reading these kinds of news because I like to see people succeed or move toward interesting perspectives, so I'll keep registering movements in our community. Now if I was naughty I would link his previous call for independence ;p
His welcome message on EQ2 boards can be found here.
In-context I also relink and quote Lum:
Public relations people are normally great people (they kind of have to be, being that dealing with people is their job and all) but they are at direct cross-purposes from a free flow of information which is necessary if developers are to ever get honest feedback. Which is why the best community relations teams aren’t treated as PR adjuncts, but their own seperate fiefdom, where they act more as ombudsmen then salesmen.
That's quite pertinent, ain't it?
Btw, there was a lot of movement during the past year. Everyone found a good chair to sit on. This is positive, no?
Well, there's Cosmik who's looking for a new job.
Submitted by Abalieno on January 2, 2007 - 04:00.
I swear, way too many unexpected things happened today and it was by far the worst day to stop posting. There's enough material for what I usually write in a whole week. Restraining from writing has NEVER been so hard.
But, come on. At least this: Jeff Freeman works at Spacetime Studios. It's sort of confirmed.
It was the very first thing I thought as he linked the lead designer blog, that by the way has a GREAT piece on server architecture that ties back to all I wrote about server travel, even recently with the "grid" idea for Fallout, communities and the TRUE impact those choices have. With a wonderful conclusion:
My point is to make it clear to other designers that the fundamental server architecture has an impact on the game in a very real, money-in-the-pocket, subscribers-on-the-line kind of way. Most architecture decisions are driven by cost-benefit analysis: what the programmers can do, how much money and time it will take for them to do it, etc. These are important considerations, but considerations generally made without much a consideration of game design. Game designers may accept the programmer recommended path without considering all the implications that structure has for their game.
That is SO true. Glad that at least someone is looking at it from the right perspective. FINALLY.
Anyway, I had this suspect that also Jeff Freeman worked there (or it would be hard to explain how he knew about this new blog), then I noticed that this guy lists Jeff Freeman under "Spacetime Dev Blogs" (listing Lietgardis as well, but I knew that already). Ehehehe....... OWN3D!
So. Senior designer. And, if I'm not wrong, "Lead System Designer"?
Good luck and everything. You seem to have a good team there ;)
P.S.
Who's Brandon Reinhart? I tried googling and got lots of stuff. He even has an IMDB page! Filmography? Lol! He comes too from SOE/SWG and, gosh!, he worked on Duke Nukem Forever!
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