Voting Responsibly

This is actually a fuller fleshing out of the article I wrote on the train yesterday. Had more time to gather my thoughts and think deeper.

Right now we see messages such as "voting for Change" and "voting wisely" being totted around, when they are actually euphemisms for "vote for the alternative party". But are we really putting much thought into our votes? Yes we may see change, but is it necessary for the better? Makes you wonder why they don't outright say "vote for a better future" or something to that effect.

I previously raised the issue of a unlikely but possible worse case scenario where Tin Pei Ling ends up being appointed to one of the major offices by the Prime Minister's office at the end of this election. Let me review the line of though leading to this possibility.

1. Alternative Parties and representatives are expected to get more seats in GE 2011, though the PAP is still expected to have the highest percentage overall.
2. The possibility that incumbent appointed ministers lay lose their appointments due to not meeting the 1st criteria of being elected. (Appointments can only be given to elected MPs).
3. The Prime Minister's office will have less options to appoint MPs due to the reduced pool size of elected candidates (they can only be selected from the majority party).

The Appointment of Ministers

The first point is very straight forward if ground sentiments are to be believed. The 2nd point needs further elaboration. Elected MPs are those that win the election through the voting process of GE 2011. Appointed Ministers, like Ministers of Finance, or Ministers of Foreign Affairs, are selected by the Prime Minister's office, presumably as these people are viewed as the best available candidate to hold the post. These appointed office are usually grouped into 2 tiers, the actual "head" minister, and a more minor post, usually called "second minister of" so and so ministry. Barring capability, another criteria deciding what post the minister gets also depends on experience. The more senior MPs are eligible for one "head" minister appointment, i.e. George Yeo, or may hold 2 minor posts i.e. Lim Hwee Hua who is second minister for Finance and second minister for Transport. The less experienced MPs will usually hold just one minor post, sort of an understudy for bigger roles ahead. One criteria for eligibility though is that they must first be an elected MP, be it via voting or a walkover.

Its the 3rd point that many voters should actually be considering when they think about their votes. Lets talk numbers first.

Opportunity Costs and Requirements of Smooth Transitions

When an incumbent minister gets voted out, it is not just that one position (or 2 if the person holds 2 minor posts) that gets affected; that figure must be doubled. One also needs to consider the opportunity costs of replacing that minister. The one eventually picked to fill up the vacated post might have originally been under consideration to fill up another post. This is especially true if replacement plans are in place for out-going appointed ministers.

Then we have to consider the capability factor. This is where some alternative party supporters might contradict themselves without themselves being aware of it. Much "credit" is being "given" to individual appointed ministers for doing a bad job in a particular sector. Yet they think that the "machinery" can be kept running smoothly once these ministers are out, since the infrastructure is in place to keep things going smoothly. 2 scenarios they fail to consider is that maybe the infrastructure is good because the problematic appointed ministers did in fact do a good job setting it up and keeping it in good condition to be handed over. Or, there really could be something inherently wrong with the system, whereupon it would not be able to function smoothly without proper guidance. Of course this is not a universal truth. Just some things to consider. The main point is that the choice of suitable replacements may be further limited due to the more capable people having lost their election.

Evaluating the Candidate Separate From The Party

Of course, one may blame the PAP for having such a weak field of candidates in the first place. But is that really the case? It would only be true if the capability of the candidate was the only criteria in the voting process, where stronger candidates still get voted for, and the weaker candidates do not. However, looking at the current social media scape, we can easily see that there seems to be a growing number of people who will simply vote for the alternative party just because they do not trust in the system any more, and want to voice their displeasure, or they feel that the need for alternative voices out-prioritizes everything else. What they fail to consider is that if that is the way they intend to vote, they run the risk of disqualifying the more capable candidates from office, the same ones that are supposed to keep the country functioning smoothly while they introduce their alternative voices. Ideology may well triumph over practical concerns.

The Problem with the "Continue to Contribute Even Without Appointment" Suggestion

One suggestion fielded by alternative party supporters in the event of the more capable appointed ministers being voted out is that they can always continue to contribute in a non-office capacity. What they failed to consider is that it is not always possible. The best example of this is in the case of trade, finance or foreign affairs ministers negotiating with their foreign counterparts. If we send in a less experience minister, we will be at a disadvantage. If we send in a "proxy" representative (the out-of-office ministers now working as negotiators), the foreign counterparts will view that as a sign of dis-respect. Note that even MM Lee does not step in as a proxy for PM Lee, even though MM Lee is instantly recognizable and (though some may disagree) respected. Can you imagine the next ASEAN or some other major world world conference where every country fields their Foreign Affairs (or equivalent) ministers, and we are the only ones to send in someone who holds a different/smaller office?

Voting Responsibly VS Voting for Change

Note that I am in no way proposing blind support for the PAP. I am just cautioning against blind support for ideologies such as "change for the sake of change" and cheapening your vote by treating it as a thumbs up/thumbs down button. Our votes are very valuable. If you truly think one particular candidate is better than the other, vote for him/her. If we see a weaker candidates who deserve to lose, vote him/her out. I agree that we need alternative voices, but we also need to have retain the ability to appoint ministers who are capable of operating the machine and keeping the country going while we affect changes. That's how transition periods are, be it company or a country. Blindly voting out the more or decently capable (or less incompetent) ministers means that even if we do get better representation in parliament, it would be at a now real risk of the an unstable government and inefficient ministries due to less qualified ministers in office.

Do you really want Tin Pei Ling as an appointed minister?

Of course, one may argue that the way out of this "rut" is to vote the PAP out of power totally..... Or maybe just Marine Parade. And I hope this does not count as fear mongering. Maybe I just worry too much.


PS: These opinions are the author's own and through deep consideration, uninfluenced by state media (due to self imposed self-censorship since mid April). Author was unable to escape the influence of social media however due to facebook.....

Do we want to see Tin Pei Ling as appointed minister after GE 2011?

Not talking about elected minister position, but the big roles appointed by the Prime Minister's offfice. Okay I am just stating the unlikely worst case scenario, but think about it. Only elected MPs who have won their ward elections can appointed by the Prime Minister's office. Which means, if an appointed MP loses the election, the appointment is now open and a replacement must be selected from the remaining ones who did win the ward election. Its already projected that the alternative parties are most likely going to clinch more seats this election while still leaving the PAP as the majority party, meaning that the chance of incumbent ministers losing their appointments is real.

There are few GRCs where multiple offices are on the table. I.e Aljunied is one of few with technically 3 offices up for grabs. Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2nd Minister of Finance and 2nd Minister of Transportation. If the ward is lost, the PAP ends up with fewer eligible candidates to fill up the newly vacated positions, since appointments can only come from the ruling party. The implications are worrying.

Alternative voices in Parliment is important, but so is keeping the machine running while improvements are being made. To be fair, we must admit that some MPs ARE better at their jobs than others, and these should be retained even as we move towards a parliment with more alternative voices. But if one were to vote without considering the merits of the individual candidates, i.e. For ideology's sake, voting to voice one's displeasure, or deciding to voting out an experienced and more credible appointed minister just to get one of the better alternative voices in, we are diluting the pool of people from which the operational appointed ministers can be selected. If the PAP does lose many appointed ministers, we would really end up in a situation when the PAP would have to appoint less credible, capable, or proven ministers to office since the better ones lost as a result of mass protest votes Would you want Lee Bee Wah as your Foreign minister to be be able to handle herself in cross discussions with overseas politicians? Or Tin Pei Ling as home affairs minister?

Or we can evaluate the individual candidates, voting to keep the better ones and remove the worse ones.

After all, if we admit that we do not want to change the ruling party now, we would want to make sure that those that are left are the better ones, not just the left over ones. Or we can just not care and cast our votes impulsively.

Vote wisely indeed.

PS: I draw this line of thought from my own device, not from reading any state media or social media site. As I mentioned, I have not exposed myself state or social media to remain impartial. I really hope I was not the only one who has thought that far.

Random Musings during GE 2011

"The uncertainties of change vs the change of uncertainties..."

~ Catknight, April 30, 2011

"I keep hearing "Vote Wisely" when they expect me to just vote opposition without thought or debate. Or to "Vote for Change" when the change affects me much more personally than it does them. If my vote is really that important to your cause, then give me the benefit of the doubt, the ground to question, the freedom to choose and the respect my vote deserves"

~ Catknight, April 27, 2011

"Opinion remains divided, but the State of Denial has been voted both the best and worst place to live"

~ Catknight, April 27, 2011

HOW TO WIN AN ELECTION USING SHADOW POLITICS

Politics have always been known as a dirty game. But dirt is obvious, hence the term gutter politics. Shadow politics is more interesting, where all the machinizations take place away from public eye. First, a disclaimer. I am neither a political science student nor really involved in the political scene, I just love to read a lot and put my overactive imagination to writing stories. Election time usually spurs my ideas towards the political genre though, and I am just theorizing of potential strategies that the PAP or the Opposition can use to swing the votes heavily in their favour, or give themselves a big advantage. These may sound like plots from some Jeffrey Archer novel, but then again thats the whole point :)

How PAP can swing the Election in their Favour:

For them to do that, other than reducing discontent, they must eliminate their second strongest threat, that of the viable opposition given by the fielding of strong candidates. This year we are seeing some strong new faces, and therein lies the potential weakness. The advantages of these new candidates have already been mentioned much, but so has the pitfalls, mainly the uncertainty over their dedication.

What happens if one of these new opposition faces pulls out at the last minute before polling day?

In one swift, stroke the confidence in all the new opposition faces would be shaken, especially if this was one of the big names being mentioned. Unlike PAP's new faces who were "groomed and selected", these new aspirants were independently motivated to run, and all apparently in the last minute fashion. Of course, there might be many reasons to cause a candidate to pull out, but I'll group it simply to coercion, pressure, self-realization, conflict of interest with party direction, and the mole theory. But I'll only do an analysis of the mole theory, where an opposition candidate has been sent in as a by the PAP, and in this case, I'll just list the 4 most prominent names among yhe new faces.

WP's Chen Show Mao. He may seem like their greatest catch and appears really sincere and enthusiastic, but consider this, he has almost nothing to lose if he pulls out. He still has a stable job overseas to go back to, his family are not here. He faces no local stigma or backlash if he goes back overseas, in fact its a plus point to his employers showing his dedication to his job over his political aspirations.

SDP's DR Ang Yong Guan. Maybe just the fact that he is in SDP despite his obvious qualifications is enough to ring a bell, as he could have aimed for a more credible party. There's always been conspiracy theories about SDP, that Dr Chee was supposedly paid to make the opposition look bad (i.e. how he can still fly around despite technically being bankrupt), and James Gomez (okay there are some really absentminded people out there, but for a "smart" political candidate to make a similar/related mistake 2 times in a row....)

SDP's Tan Jee Say. Granted he sounds credibly sincere, but if he was really that close to Goh Chok Tong (and the PAP) there is a possibility that he still is. Most unlikely of the four mentioned here though, as the link to PAP is too obvious and pointed out as a ploy.

NSP's Nicole Seah. She's only 24, and may just state the need for time to study the political scene longer so that she can be at her most useful knowledge and experience wise when she chooses to run a later date. A weak excuse, but still a worthy anD valid one. Or attribute the change of heart to the fickleness of youth.

In either case, there can be many possible reasons for even ONE new face to pull out at the last minute, the damage would have been done. One of the wards would be short of one campaigner (maybe leading to an outright walkover, unless they had a backup), and any contests which includes a new face would be burdened by the uncertainty of commitment. The recent abandonment of Tanjong Pagar by the SDA already shows signs of it, as one of the reasons given was a sudden lack of manpower resource. A masterstroke indeed. But please don't automatically assume that if a withdrawal does happen, that it means the mole theory is true. Again I reiterate that I am not discrediting any of the candidates, this articles is about possibilities, not probabilities, its just a possible scenario that I have thought about as the conditions allow for it.

How the opposition swing the Election in their Favour:

The opposition parties have not portrayed as one big threat to the PAP, having the numbers, but are not united. A while back it was stated that even if the opposition wins all the wards they contest in, any opposition party individually still not be big enough of a majority to overtake the PAP's percentage. Of course this has changed as it was later announced that all wards may be contested (thought even later on SDA pulled out plus there could be a repeat of forms not being properly submitted means its not the case). As WPalso mentioned, they are not ready to take over yet.

What if all the opposition parties unite as one and PAP does not have the time to respond?

Imagine the situation of the day the forms for the candidate were submitted. The PAP is worried about losing seats yet confident that they will remain the ruling party. Complacency has set (further?) in. Then it is realised that all the candidates from the different opposition party were running under one single party. Since the law require the party to register before hand it would have to be under one of the existing parties. (Would be more intriguing if a whole new unknown appears, maybe the People's Coalition Party. Perhaps when I turn it into a full fledge story I can "tweak" the laws a bit). All the A-listers from the different parties are now a united force to be reckoned with. A brand new party manifesto appears, an amalgamation of all the best ideas from the different manifestos. On top of that, the previously unveiled manifestos were "purposely" weak in different areas but strong in others to purposely mislead the PAP into thinking that non of the opposition's individual manifestos are credible on the whole on its own.

This would be a complicated operation though, with many obstacles and possible pitfalls.

There needs to be a strong personality in charge. A unifying figure with enough charisma and commanding presence to convince and rally all the opposition parties under him/her. This person may already be in the limelight, but may not shown political aspirations, or maybe some other criteria exists that lets this person not be viewed as a credible threat and slip under the PAP's radar. (Again, would be interesting if it turns out to be an existing PAP member).

The plan must be executed in secrecy though, which means that only the top level, maybe just the chairman of the individual opposition parties are in the know. To fool the enemy, one must first fool your own people. Again, these individual chairmen must themselves have charisma and the respect of the party members so that even in the event of this announcement (no one else in the party knows about this covert operation) they will still remain loyal to the party as everyone is needed to run.

It would also be easier to have existing members than suddenly unveil new faces as that would be too great of a shock to the public. Again, timing is an issue. The individual party members must be informed ahead of time so that they do not show TOO much surprise at the turn of events, as this negative image of apparent chaos can be played up strongly.

Another possible problem is the displeasure felt by the voters for being fooled as well. This is where the strong personalities and charismas of the leaders come in, as well as how much more discontented the people are to overlook this need to be so covert. This would be the second greatest hindrance to the plan.

One major possible problem is the restructuring that will occur (i.e. there is now only one vice-chairman for one party). Those who were "demoted" may be disgruntled and pull out in protest. Its up to the individual leaders to identify these people and deal with them accordingly (either let them into the circle, mark them - especially the controversial ones - as expendable, or know that they will accept the decision for the greater good etc).

This ploy can also only be used once, for obvious reasons. Therefore the opposition party must time this trick to be used when it has the highest possibility of succeeding, all factors considered.

However, consider the possible results:. In one blitz, the PAP is now faced with one singular opposition that poses a credible threat to their retaining majority control over the parliment seats, without a proper strategy to deal with it. After all, their strategies up to that point have been to deal with the different parties, not one united one. In this case, the new united opposition party would have the advantage as they would have prepared for the publicity and questions that would ensue with the announcement. Unless the PAP already has a comprehensive back-up plan (no doubt they have foreseen the possibility) and all their MPs have been prepped to can are capable of dealing with this new scenario, they are at a severe disadvantage.

Now how to turn it into an interesting FICTIONAL novel....

In depth Analysis of Guild Wars level design as an MMOG

Guild Wars is the game I have spent the most amount of ENJOYABLE time in. Sure, I logged more hours on Maple Story, but the chore of grinding really hits home when I stated playing Guildwars which was so different in many ways, to the extent that even though I bought all 3 “campaigns” I never really finished playing any one of them to the end because I keep getting distracted by the many things I could do in game! But I digress, on to the analysis.

Guild Wars may look similar to the many fantasy based MMOGs in the market, but it stands out as being the only one that actually offers unlimited free-to play time, requiring users to only buy the original boxed installation copy. In terms of revenue, it also supports micro transactions, allowing players to purchase more “character slots” as well as skill sets unique to other episodes (not available to the actual campaignd depending on which box one buys).

Originally, it was slated to have new campaigns coming out every 6 months. Beginning with Guild Wars: Prophecy, which introduced the medieval fantasy based continent of Tyria, and offering 6 initial character classes (Warrior, Monk, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger and Elementalist; the 2nd episode introduced the Chinese/Japanese based continent of Cantha, with 2 new classes (assassin and ritualist) as well as a some new skills to the original classes, while the 3rd episode introduced the African savannah based lands of Elona, more skills for the base classes, and again introduced 2 new classes, the paragon and the Dervish, as well as recruitable characters called heroes who can be leveled up and customized via equipping and skill sets. Each campaign is playable standalone, though most players have commented that 1st stand out for the being the most balanced, the 3rd for bringing the heroes system into the mix, which the second was quite weak in comparison (though it offered a strong storyline as usual).

Guild Wars places players in a PVE environment with optional PVP elements. Being called Guild Wars, the PVP element is useful for climbing ranking ladders and earning points towards equipment upgrades not normally availably through PVE only playthroughs. Game play is done through “instances”, where each player’s character (together with any other human controlled players they have partied with) and their hired henchmen are placed in their own unique “instance” of the map. This is a “closed” run of the map where no other players may enter, though players can leave, and “world”-wide broadcasted messages can still be seen on screen. By doing this, most of the resources are actually carried out on the client side, resulting in minimal lag as well as of course less cost to the servers (after all it is effectively free to play after purchase).

Back to analysis, I shall do a run through using the first “episode”, Guild Wars: Prophecies, as I have clocked the most number of hours in this.

The Game Begins:
Unlike Granado Espada and Maple Story, Guild Wars starts off with an action packed intro movie showcasing a battle between a group of 6 humans (each representing one of the 6 available classes) huge Char (The main protagonist race in the game) many would consider this superficial, but the abilities shown in the movie gives players a good feel of how each indiviual class works within the group dynamics.

Birth
Character creation starts with deciding on a class, gender, name and features. Creation here is quite customizable. Although other than when setting the character’s height, it does not use a slider concept used in some of the newer games which allow players to customize appearances. However, the options available are still staggering. Selecting a class opens up its own set of customizable variable features include hair style, hair color, eyes, facial features, skin tone, eyes, basic armor type and armor color, with 6 options in each variable to choose from. There are literally tens of thousands of combinations one can end up with, even before equipping the various types of armor and equipment one will receive during gameplay! And that’s just looks alone.

When the game really starts, the player is introduced as a new recruit for the Ascalon army, a border city alone a "Great Wall" that is keeping the Charr at bay. He is then given some initial quests which gradually introduce the game mechanics. One good thing about Guild Wars is the way it writes he quests to introduce the main history and gameplay mechanics. For example, one of the quests require you to party with another player. But instead of just forcing you to ask some random player to join you to complete the quest, you and your partnerhave to activate 2 switches at the same time, impossible with one player but effortless for 2 persons.

After a short series of quests, a BIG EVENT occurs, which has a cutscene showign the Charr launching a megical attack that turns the once beautiful land of Tyria into an apocalyptic landscape. This cutscene effectively ends the tutorial chapter and brings you into the thick of the story.

And get this. YOU'RE in the cutscene (at least your avatar is).

The player is actively involved in every cutscene that brings the campaign from the 1st chapter to the last as he helps lead the survivors from a paradise to a wasteland towards a new land and time of hope. He is there when the heroic prince of the people dies, and he is among the group that brings back the ultimate weapon with which to keep the Charr at bay. This is how Guild Wars effectively makes the character feel important. By combining the story-telling mechanics of a single player game, the player feels very involved as he/she HELPS carry the story forward. Its an illusion (since every other player has the same experience), but done very well.

Exploration and Growth
In terms of exploration, Guild Wars's use of strong story telling is a great plot device to introduce and bring players to various new places in the world. For example, from charging deep within eneme territory to secure a great weapon, to being exiled from the kingdom, to seeking a new home for the survivors, the player is easily introduced to 3 different locales within the space of 1 large quest.

Of course, special note has to be made of how the players chose their secondary class, to compliment their primary class which was chosen at the start of the game. Before deciding on their seconday class, players are actually given quests by each of the class trainers, related to the class them self (i.e. the monk asks you to protect another character with the monk's signature healing skills). Whats great is, you are actually given these skills temporarily during these quests, so you get to try out how these combination works. Unlike other MMORPGs where a class selection is usually permanent, and youdon't get to try the skills out before selction, you are now able to make a choice AFTER trying it out.

Another important expect of exploration is finding good class and skill combinations that work well. One thing about Guild Wars is that although each character access 2 class skill sets (a primary and seconday class), they are only allowed to bring to 8 skills into play at any one time. Finding what skills work best in the situations they face is a greate part of the game, as different situations require different skillsets. simply swapping a few skills can turn your character from an offensive monster to a defensive character into an important supportive character for the whole team. Infact, getting to the level cap is easy. Most of the game is about experimenting and finding good skill combinations.

Challenge
As mentioned, the game is mostly about finding great skill combos in order to lead you towards the next phase in the game. Almost evey challenge can be tackeld, provided the right skillset is equipend, and the player actually knows what he is doing.

Another thing to note about Guild Wars is that there are no potions or pots to help characters recover, so managing one's health and energy levels is very important, as different skillsets use energy at different rates and being diffensive/offensive oriented affects your health/mana recharge rates.

This makes Guild Wars a very intellectual game, where brute force does not win the day.... unless you are tasked with being the "tank" in the team;) The player is constantly thinking, planning and timing his next move. It gets even more interesting when he hire's henchmen, or when using the 3rd campaign's requitable heroes. With so many options to play with, there is never a truly boring moment in the game.

Resolution and Continuation

Interestingly, the level-cap of the game is only at level 20, meaning that getting to the highest level is actually easy. And other the completion of the main storylines, what keeps the player playing? The lure lies in the skills.

As mentioned, some skills can be acquired during the questlines. Many, however, especially the most powerful ones, have to be "captured" from enemies. and even after you capture the skills, there is again the fun experience how finding how these new skills combine with your existing skills.

Later on in the game, you are also able to actuall change your secondary class upon completion of a certain quest. This is seldom seen in other MMOPGs as the game usually requires you to start from scratch to try anotehr quest, but the creators of Guild Wars probably this is a potential drop off point, as some players would feel frustrated about having to level up their characters and complete all the quests from scratch, but it fits in well with their focus on skill acquisition. After all, even though they might have switched classes, they still have to gather all the skills for this new class from scratch! So its win win for all!

Assessment
I feel that this game is one of the better MMOPGs in the market; it is definitely the best I've played so far. By gradually leading the player through the intro parts of the game gently, then using a strong narrative style borrowed from Single Player games to drive the player forward, and encouraging team play as humans definitely fight and coordinate smarter than AI henchmen, it is designed for both a solo and MMOPG experience, not forcing players into joining up yet leaving the option open for them.

Critique on level designs in MMOPGs

More so than other games, most MMOPGs, especially those with recurring subscription, must be designed such as to attract players to return again and again. That is where most of their revenue is from. This is true even for F2P or free to play games. No coincidentally, a good game can also be critiqued according to the 3 definitions of fun I previously gave: Intelligient, Dynamic and Exciting, plus also in addition, since I am using MMORPGs as examples, a motivation for players to continue to roleplay their virtual lives.

I will be using the 4 stages of how stories are built up in superhero comics: Birth, Exploration and Growth, Challenge and Resolution, instead of the usually 4-Act structure used in story writing.

Birth is the creation and Introduction of the original character, world and story.

Exploration and Growth is the process whereby the player explores or builds up the character’s ability, and also where more of the world is discovered.
Challenge, or conflict, is where the player pits the game character against the various challenges, and ultimately the big boss or foozle

Resolution and continuation is what happens after the different Challenges/conflicts

For this case study, I will use 3 MMOGs which I play, Maple Story, Granado Espada and Guild Wars to analyze how successful they have been in this 4-act structure of comic books, and how they way they implemented it affected the fun factor in the game.

+++ Maple Story +++
Brief Description: You are a lone character making your way around the world of the cartoony 2D world of Maple Story and its various continents. You select a basic character, level up, improve your stats and earn money to upgrade equipment, level up, make money and upgrade equipment, etc…… Along the way, you are given quests and can join guilds to build up some community spirit (usually in the collect/kill X numbers of Y), or go to some place to talk with a certain persons, though the story lines behind these quests are very simple…. i.e. I want to make a coat, help me collect 200 pelts….

Birth:
A simple process, Upon the start of the game, you pick a hair style and color of the clothes of your basic character, select between a knife or axe for the 1st weapon, then roll the stats of your basic avatar. No introduction to what is happening in the world or why you are there. You are just THERE….

Exploration:
The whole thing about this game is to build up the character via leveling and upgrading equipments in order to tackle tougher areas and monsters for greater experience and rewards, which allows you to upgrade and level even more…. Repeat as often as you like. The thing is there is actually not much variety or discovery in the process. With only 4 classes which splits into 10 at the end of the spectrum (11 if you count “class-less” as one class), and only a set variety of skill and equipment for each class, there is only so many (actually few) ways you can develop your character. In terms of skill specialization, there are only a few so called “good” ways to customize your character, and it is recommended to stick with these, as the monsters are so predictable. The only variety is cosmetic in that one can access “cash-shops” to purchase “skins” to change the look of your character and weapons.

Challenge
If there is any challenge in this game, it is that it is an ultimate test in patience. Grinding is the only way to level up, and rarely is any strategy involved, though had-eye coordination is a good asset. Most monsters can be killed if you are high leveled enough, and you are occasionally rewarded with a cool item and decent experience points, but that is it. There is no reason for you give at all to kill a particular mob except for the fact that it is just there, and you know it may drop something useful for you. These challenges do not help in any plot development (erm, what plot?), and the only good thing is that killing high level monsters usually give you bragging rights to boast in front of the newer players.

Resolution and continuation
MMORPGS are built in such a way that there is no clear resolution so that people keep playing. But Maple Story takes it to the extreme by not even giving you much milestones to measure any challenges (other than the plot quests that allow you to reah new destinations or level up your class). You just keep playing and leveling……

Assessment:
Playing Maple Story is just like visiting a fun fair, you’re just there for simple thrills and challenging yourself to take the scary rides, but after that initial kick, there is usually not much to keep players in the game except the community. But if the gameplay is lackluster, the community will leave eventually (i.e. in my most recent visit to the game 6 months after I left, ! was the only 1 of 2 persons left out of a 100 strong guild of previously active players). But yet its player numbers are in the millions. I can only attribute that to the fact that it is free to play and people actually have multiple accounts (usually as mule storage), and that the numbers include many inactive players as well, since beyond adding the occasional new territory catered to lower-mid leveled characters, there is nothing much to keep the higher level players playing. As an MMOPG it encourages “cliques”, where oyu are either part of a group, or you get bullied by another group when you accidentally offend someone…. Not exactly healthy community spirit.

Intelligent: Low: AI is pure rush and attack, and quests are simple. The game is really tailored for kids and above.
Dynamic: Low/Normal Other than the colorful worlds and monsters, and the cosmetic purchaseables, everything else is pure grind.
Exciting: One time only. Good for a first runthrough to high level, and that’s if you are patient enough. There is no story to keep you in the game…

+++ Granado Espada +++
This PVP/PVE (you can select one type of server or another) game is pretty interesting. Very nice pseudo realistic graphics! Using a re-imagining of the discovery of the Americas in a slightly fantasy backdrop, you play as a pioneering family tasked with exploring the new world. You are initially limited to creating a stock character out of 5 available classes, being able to choose your name and gender. The unique thing is that you will eventually “recruit” more NPCs as playable characters, and can bring and control up to 3 characters into the game. If you think of it, your “character” in this game is this three-person” group, so the lack of variety is not as bad as it sounds.

Although there are only 5 classes, skills are based on books, and any class can learn every single skill-book available to their class, giving them access to potentially 20 to 50+ skills at any one time. That’s a whole lot of skills and variety! (provided you have the patience to train all the skills up). The only limitation is that skills are only available depending on the weapon equipped, so if you have the “cash”, you’re in for a lot of variety. Plus since you are using 3 characters at one time, that gives you a high number of combinations and skills to work with.

One unique thing about the game is that it allows its own form of “botting”, where players can set their characters to automatic attack mode to kill all hostiles nearby indefinitely. Its still grinding, but at least you don’t have to babysit everyone while you do it!

Birth
As mentioned, you start with creating one standard stock class character (no visual or stats customization at all), then are sent through a brief tutorial to get the basic controls right. You’ll soon be able to use the full 3-person grouping, and start following more quests to explore the world

Exploration and Growth
So many skills to pick from, so little time and money to work with! Although taken by themselves the individual characters may seem boring, the three person group dynamics really bring out the skill exploration and growth of your characters into prominence. I.e. using your fighter to “provoke” all nearby enemies to attacking him, then using your wizard to cast “sleep” on all the lured enemies to render them helpless, then use your marksman to take them all down since they are now lined up properly for him. In fact, other than exploring the beautifully rendered world, a great part of the game is in trying out and finding good attack combinations, whether it be for PVP or PVE purposes.

Another thing about the game is that exploration never feels forced, as the storylines and quests are really well written so that you WANT to complete the quests to see what happens. For example, a father wants to build a “automaton” of his daughter to remember her after her death, and you have to find the parts in a particular dungeon. Other games simply say “go find me X number of Y”, but this game packages it in good story writing, and so players will follow quests to see what happens. Indirectly, it also leads players to explore the places they have to explore to accomplish their tasks, so they can return at their own leisure knowing what to expect.

Challenge
This game rewards smart players. A good part of the game is finding good team and skill combinations to take down the enemies, and the quests are no pushover. There are a number of inevitable fetch quests, but also some multiple stage quests of increasing difficult that serves to develop the quest storyline. Another problem is that some high level players have a bad habit of playing nasty pranks by releasing or summoning high leveled enemies in low level areas just to watch the ensuing slaughter……

Resolution and Continuation
The quests are well written and some are truly epic, sometimes I feel sad that the quests are over because I have to get back to the main game, because there is just not much background story that makes me stay interested…. In fact, I feel that the quests have gotten more attention than building a world that players would want to explore. One can already travel to most parts of the “world” at the beginning of the game (whether you survive is another matter), so exploration is somehow less exciting. Does that mean game/storywise it is bad? No, because I end up looking forward to leveling up my character to take on the next epic quest!

Assessment
Granado Espada does have potential as a long lasting game, with its strong stories and interesting gameplay. However, only the gameplay will help it keep the players in the game, as once you know the stories, replaying them becomes a chore. Stories rarely stay interesting beyond the first telling, and there is no over-arching big storyline quest ion the world (an inherent problem with most MMOGs), but the first run through will give most players a good time. The problem is that it is Free to Play for now, meaning most players would have already gone through most of the quests by the time it goes pay to play, so it might have some negative effects.

However, gameplay wise the game come in Aces. The three player system adds more strategy and than variety than most games, and experimentation with skill and character combinations is a good part of the game. With new skills being tweaked and new strategies still being found all the time (the game still being relatively young), and players wanting to experiment and customise skills to their own liking, the gameplay factor definitely ensures high replay value.

As an MMOG however it seems to fail from what I have seen, as players can easily complete quests themselves without much outside assistance. Faction/Colony quests are basically ways to gain reputation and slight bonuses, but have no far-reaching game effects. Although groups/guilds have access to special quests, I foresee players will likely solo all the way as far as they can, then only join a guild when they get bored.

Intelligent: - Very, especially in encouraging players to experiment with different elements of game play. Strong intelligent storylines as well,
Dynamic: - Not bad, the higher level monsters definitely behave differently from the lower level ones, not just in endurance and looks, and new areas and quests are still being released occasionally.
Exciting: - Yes, with the three player system, you know that a solution to tackling an area/enemy/boss is there, you just have to find it. With so many ways to take down large numbers of enemies, and having been in big battles battling 40+ enemies at a single go (and zooming in to see the action up close), the adrenaline is definitely pumped!

Next….. Guild Wars. This will deserve an entry all by itself, as I go into an indepth study of how its game level design makes it what I think is one of the best designed MMOGs I have ever played.

Giving a fresh twist to MMORPGs

With so many MMORPGs that are in the market, most bringing their own new unique innovations ot the table, coming up with new ideas to make the game stand out in the market in the good way may seem challenging, but not impossible. Here are but some new things MMORPGs could introduce to make it stand out.

1) Change the world
Have actual day cycles and weather systems, not just aesthetics, but with actual effect on game play.

For example, stealth classes are more powerful in the night time, and weaker in day time. Some seemingly overpowered classes such as liches and vampires would work similarly as well, except they only function during night time, but with highly enhanced capabilities. Even elemental spell effects can be affected by the weather, such as fire spells fizzling during wet weathers, whereas ice spells get more powerful.

And to make it more interesting, the day cycles to not follow realtime 24 hour cicles, but change every half an hour, so players have to change the way they play accordingly. In addition, there would be random occurances of freak weathers, further bringing a more dynamic environment into play.

2) Have a strong political system within the game.
Guilds or any formed group of players are able to hold internal elections to make someone the leader. These "guild leaders", in addition, will compete against each other in a wider scale to become leaders in the land, with bonus abilities while they are in office. It sounds like a popularity contest, but behind it is the simple reason that players who are active in the game and help other players are more likely to get votes than players who grief others and give them a hard time in the game.

3) Make PVP more unique than just being able to kill others.
Instead of just dying, maybe a random equiped item gets transferred to the killer. However, when the killer has too many kills under his belt, a bounty gets placed on him. Now other players are led to try to kill the original killer are able to collect a bounty, maybe a set number of items, and if they are unable toi "pay up" someone else can pay in loot, or perhaps be forced to undertake special quests to wipe thei name of the list of troublemakers.

The punishments are greater, but so are the rewards.

This is a role playing game, so we are effectively telling the players: this is a game you can roleplay the way you like it; if you want to kill, do it! But there are consequences.

4) Most importantly, Make Players feel IMPORTANT!
Its easy to do this in a single player game when the plaeyer is usually the lone hero/heroine trying to save the world from some big evil, but how would you do it for a MMOG? Otehr than level ranking systems win/loss tracking boards, I've even 2 games do it so far.

Guild Wars have created a hybrid of a single player game and an MMOG, by having a big overarching storyline that the player moves along while exploring the world. This way, the player actualyl FEELS like he/she matters, even tough everyone shares the same experience. I will elaborate on this in a further blog entry.

Another game currently in development has an alchemy system that actually allows the first players to create a unique item that has never been created before, to name it. Anyone else who re-creates that formula/item will have that named item in his inventory. I.e. by using a weird combination of metals and minerals I created a sword which the systme tells me is the 1st one created and I can name it (which I call "Zhanzhao's Glory"). Anyone else who re-creates this sword using the combination I used will end up with a "Zhanzhao's Glory" in their inventory! So if a person creates an item that is so useful that it is used by many people, glory is his/hers! Of course this may turn the game into one big alchemists guild, but thats another story ;)