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 ;)

10 Reasons To Make An MMOPG

After listening to the presentation about why NOT to make an MMOPG, one would feel depressed I guess, but then being a marketer, one of the earlier lessons we learned was how it turn weakness or threats into strength and opportunities, as is the case with this situation. Though these sound like serious disadvantages, hidden gems and silver linings are concealed within!

Q1) Too many are being built?
A1) True, so the trick is to build an MMOPG that provides a unique, different experience, yet still provide he fun factor. I.e Lord of the Ring has been "complimented" as being a good copy of World of War Craft, due to similar gameplay mechanics, plus there is a whole slew of fantasy based MMOPGs like runescape, Everquest, Ultima Online etc. yet we see games like Second Life (a litertal virtual life in the modern world), The sims online, Hellsgate ( An FPS/action based MMORPG compared to the more "stats" based MMORPGs", Guild Wars, which uses a unique payment model (buy the game, play for free for life), and Maple Story (bucking the trend by going back to 2D, using cute sprites), who have all gathered millions of players despite the alleged crowded market, and you see the solution.

No matter how crowded it gets, if you stand out and people like it, its not a problem.

Q2) Mastery of many disciplines
A2) Again it is not a problem, but as it helps identify what the priorities are. Yes needing so many resource can be a money pit, but it forces companies to identify really where they should really spend their resource, and make an effort to put the most manpower/money/resources in that direction. Other than backend which is really the most important to ensure a smooth experience for the players, do you want to focus on graphics? sound? cutscenes? physics? Are all of these REALLY necessary to make the game good? i.e. Maple Story has NO cutscenes, simple music and sound effects, no physics, and apparently not much is spent on story writing based don what I played so far, yet it allegedly has 20 million players playing it world wide..... all because they chose to focus on making their graphics cute.

Even if making a game requires many disciplines, knowing what to actually spend the cash on makes it more attainable.

Q3) Huge team required
A3) This is not necessarily true. For example, according to a recent article in PCG about why Star Craft II is taking so long to come out, the core team behind Blizzard's Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft consists of 39 key people ONLY. The rest of the resources are really hired hands, contracted staff or maybe even interns, carefully directed by the core team to accomplish their brilliant games.

Huge teams MAY be required, but it is not compulsory, and even when it is, as long as one can control it properly, is not a problem as long as the group dynamics are good.

Q4) Getting Credit Cards from customers is hard
A4) This is easily accomplished by providing customers an easy form of alternate payments. I.e. if they do not want their bank account directly linked to the game company, get them to use 3rd party payment solutions like paypal which also offers re-curing transactions. Making payments very simple or easy can make renewals almost as hassle free as having their credit card details directly, i.e. sending messages (email or ingame) to remind them their subscription is coming up, and give them some slight bonuses for renewal. Or even if "top up cards" are used, ensure that distribution is wide enough. Maple cards in Singapore for example are sold in all 7-eleven outlets, comic connection stores, and lan shops, and even various hobby stores islandwide, making the task of getting the card simple.

Even without credit cards, one can still make money off gamers.

Q5) Counter productive to Packaged goods mentality
A5) One may say that its so troublesome to provide frequent content compared to retail standalone games, but then reversely, you only get ONE instance of income, when the game is initially sold! With online games, one keeps paying for monthly subscriptions, or even micro transactions to enhance game play. And it works. In fact standalone games via XboxLive are starting to offer new content for their games via microtransactions, the most well-known being Oblivion with new game quests and features, and even sportsgames with more teams and play fields.

If your game is good, and the content is worth paying for, people will pay. Again and again and again!

Q6) Everything you know about the online game is wrong, RPGs are the worst way to make online games
A6) Theoratically it sounds fair, since RPGs are meant to provide players with a sense of importance and the internet removes any true sense of discovery.... but people LIKE to play it that way! Look at war craft, which seemingly breaks every rule (homogeneous characters at high levels, no true secrets due to active forums, hard to make an impact among millions of players worldwide) yet people are STILL playing.

Maybe this IS the correct world to roleplay. After all, roleplaying is to act out a role. Just as in real life when the player is but a cog in the big scheme of things and may not be very significant, it might be brought into the game as well, yet in the game we are able to accomplish MUCH more. So what if we are not the sole saviours of the world? we are happy with what we are doing.

Q7) Internet sucks as a content provider
A7) If that is the case, as mentioned in Q3, it is important to prioritize the efforts of the game development, in this case making sure the game runs as smoothly as possible on ANY connection, and to have a good customer support and PR in case of the still inevitable hiccups.

Technical wise, Guild Wars is fully 3D, with many graphical eye candy and can still support a relatively lag-free experience through a 56K modem through instanced events. The game development considered this issue big enough to build the the gameplay around it, and I feel they made the right decision. Also by trying to proactively help players when problems STILL occur lets your other services stand out as well.

Q8) Customer service is hard
A8) Police the environment, keep track of customer feedback, integrate new features where possible to keep customers happy. Just like in any service industry, these concepts can be similarly applied to keep customers happy. Of course with millions of potential customers worldwide it is impossible to keep EVERYONE happy, but with active participation in the forums and engaging players in dialogue, one knows a good general direction to go to make most people happy. And happy customers are paying customers.

Q9) Legal issues abound
A9) This is the same with every game and in fact product, but sometimes bad publicity is still publicity. Look at GTA/Rockstar studios. In fact even though they get used/complained by watch groups frequently (In fact Manhunt 2 faces a ban or at least an adult rating in most countries), they are still going strong, and this increased publicity makes people stand up and take note of them! When Jack Thompson raises a furor in the media about those violent games, he might as well have given them a free advertisement slot in all the news networks at the same time!

Q10) Too much money to launch and build:
A10) Thats where publishers are for. To bankroll the initial costs. In fact publishers (for now) still seem to think MMORPOGs are the holy grail, so getting them to bankroll an MMORPG could be easier if they like your idea, compared if you pitched the same concept as a single player game. Thats why the pitch to the publishers is so important. The resources to launch and build ARE available, if you have a good, feasible, attractive idea to back it up with.

There are many more possible points, like wanting to build a totally new different world because I know it CAN be done, and wanting to really re-vitalize the MMOPG scene in a new direction, but these 10 counterpoints to the supposed pitfalls show that getting an MMOPG in the market is not as bad ass it sounds. In fact, it looks rosy, IF you play the cards right.

Return To Maple Story Part Deux

In my last trip to Victoria Island, I already made the choice to become a warrior by heading to the warrior town of perion to confirm my choice as a warrior. Basically you just need to be level 10 and have a minimum of 35 in the strength attribute (since I pumped all stats points upon leveling into Strength, I have more than enough), and talk to the chief, and voila! you're a warrior!

After that, I basically spent 3 days in Maple trying to recreate my previous feat, getting to level 30 within 24 hours. Its not as easy as I remembered. Either because the maps are now more crowded (The server I joined is no longer the latest server, as it was when I joined, 2 more have been added on top of it, s0 its actually a "mid-age" server. Either that, or I'm not longer as enthusiastic as I was in the past. The thing is, a majority of Maple's quests are basically "fetch" quests, or "kill X number of monsters" type quests.... which already bored me the 1st time round, and is worst now as I am simply not as used to being so depowered. It IS a fresh experience using a new character and starting afresh, but seriously, these types of quests have no replayability....

Another fault which I strongly felt this time round, is the serious lack of a back story to drive one forward. Unlike the other MMORPGs I played like Guild Wars and even Granado Espada, there really IS no story to Maple..... beyond the small stories tieing all the fetch quests together (I need to feed my dog, fetch me 800 fishes.......) Maybe in trying to make Maple a light affair playable by all ages, they have in fact made it TOO light......

Anyways, 2 nights ago, I finally saw the dreaded scene again.... empty maps with no monsters, until I saw one zooming past me towards the sky. Hackers are loose again.... Apparently this one is using a hack to warp himself/herself to a nigh location unreachable with normal means, and then "vacuuming" all the monsters in the map towards his location. I guess Maple being a 2-d game with so many variables hosted on the client side makes such hacks easier to accomplish. I took a screenshot and pasted it in the official forums, but with no way to identify the hacker (he/she is REALLY in an unreachable/unseeable location), it was merely a futile gesture, just informing any moderators who swing by to take special note of that map....

I initially wanted to make it to level 30 by my own new efforts, but by level 25, serious boredom set in.....I really hate fetch quests now, and getting enough loot to finance my character's equipment upgrades is getting taxing for me, even though that amount would be peanuts with my old high level character. In the end, I gave up and twinked my new character, transferring a small part of my fortune (1 million mesos) from my level 119 to my level 25. With this, I immediately went on a major shopping spree in the player marketplace, and became a force to be reckoned with, breezing to level 29 in 1 quarter of the time I needed if I had done so on my own efforts.

Now, its the major decision time..... at level 30, all classes get to pick a 2nd level job to specialize in a more narrow field. In the case of the warrior, I can choose to be a fighter ((specializing in swords and axes, becoming a crusader in level 70, Hero in level 120), Page (specializing in swords and maces, becoming a knight in level 70 and paladin in level 120), or a spearman (specializing in polearms and spears, becoming a dragon knight in level 70 and dark knight in level 120). Having taken the spearman path the previous round, I decided to try the fighter-crusader-hero path, who specializes in 1-on-one combat (compared to the spearman path I took before). Then its yet another "kill x number of fireboars" quest to get enough special items to make myself eligible for the class upgrade..... man I hate these quests.

At least this time round, there are more "faqs" on the internet with better questing solutions and "character build" advice, so I am on my way to being a decent fighter.....though generic. Thats another thing about Maple. There are usually only a 2-3 ways to build a character and with only 10 end-game classes to go around, and everyone following the same advice given to all these tried and proven builds, every one ends up doing the same things.... just at different paces. ... and at the rate I am loosing enthusiasm I think I may just stop totally. Note: When there is nothing to hold your attention beyond "getting to the next level", few casual players will stick around long.

What is Fun?

What exactly is fun? Especially in the terms of gameplay? Instead of the typical approach of going to dictionary.com and looking at the usual definitions, I will instead do the opposite.

What is NOT fun? Apparently the opposite of "fun" is "boring". And what is "boring"? Its "dull, repetitive or tedious".

And so if we again reverse this, the opposite of "dull, repetitive and tedious" is "intelligent, dynamic and exciting". My definition of Fun.

A fun game is Intelligent, Dynamic and Exciting.

So what does that mean in games? In this case I will use one of my favorite games, an arcade fighting game called "Marvel Vs Capcom 2" as well as various examples.

Intelligent
For a game to be fun, the player must feel challenged. It does not matter whether the player is playing against another player or against the AI, he must use different ways to deal with the situation. One way this problem is dealt with is to use good AI. But AI is fixed (for now), so it is still possible to exploit predictable AI to win games. And once players stick with this method to win games, it gets dull very fast.

One way Capcom deals with this is to have damage scaling. Even if players find some way to repeatedly deal damage continuously in an unbreakable "combo", the system scales down the damage gradually until by the 20th combo hit, each move is probably doing 1 pixel of damage, whereas if a player mixes up his moves and varies his attacks, he ends up dealing more damage and winning the match faster.

Of course, since the game is a 2-player vs game as well, a human opponent can provide varied levels of challenges that normal AI cannot provide. Unless the opponent uses the same tactics again and again, or certain characters use game breaking moves that every player tends to copy, players usually play differently. In fact, another fighting game, Virtual Fighter 2, actually analyzed the play style of the participants in a few major championships and incorporated the playstyles as unique AI profiles, hence emulating the human vs human experience.
But even when human players vs human players are involved, the fact that the game itself is flexible enought allows the different players the ability to use different tactics tailored to different situations, shows that the game makers have taken intelligent gameplay by human opponents into account, via attempting to balance the different characters and skills. Games seldom feel onesided even when "top tier characters" are matched against" bottom tier characters", when the players' skill levels are comparable. That is why people keep coming back as well, trying one strategy after another, with different characters, regardless of whether it be against AI or human opponents. The game's intelligent design in turn allows the player's intelligence to shine through in the game play.

Another method to ensure that games remain intelligent is for programmers to "nerf" (remove/depower) certain overpowered/overexploited/unbalanced moves, though that is possible for only PC games (online and singpleplayer) via patches or online updates. Half-life2 supposedly analyzes the performances on different maps to allow programmers to adjust the maps for better gameplay. Even for cabinet arcade games like Marvel Vs Capcom 2, the original versions will undergo modifications after initial playtesting with actual players, to tweak some gameplay elements for a more challenging experience.

With better AI, and in the future perhaps ones that can learn from their mistakes, it may soon be possible for intelligent games to remain challenging by themselves without human intervention.

Dynamic
How does one make sure an arcade game remains dynamic? Marvel vs capcom does it in the old proven way, by giving players an over-abundant number of options to play with. The game has 56 characters, and players have to pick teams composed of 3 different characters to use, while during actual gameplay the players are able to call the "sidelined" characters to "assist" them with one of 3 unique attacks.

Doing the maths, that means there are:

56 X 55 X 54 = 166,320 team combinations

and 56X3 x 55X3 x 54x3 = 4,490,640 possible "assisted" attacks!

Of course, realistically, not all characters and "assist" moves get used, as some are clearly more useful/powerful than others, but the options are still there. In fact 7 years after the initial release, this game is still being played in arcades, as players bored with using their usual teams experiment with new team combinations, and in gamefaqs.com, it remains the most heavily discussed game in the forums. 7 years after its initial release, people are STILL picking the game apart. If you can't change the game content, make sure it already has so much to begin with that it does not need new content to keep it fresh.

Exciting
Keeping a game exciting is a difficult balance. Players must have their skills challenged to get their adrenaline pumping, yet it must not be overpoweringly so that they lose immediately, or so easy that they breeze through the game TOO easily. But with millions of players around the world, all with varying skill levels, how does Marvel Vs Capcom keep the players coming back, regardless of their skill levels?

They use an old trick that computer computer games have been using since the days of packman. Progressive difficulty and challenges.

It may not be obvious, but the 1st stage of Marvel Vs Capcom is actually easier than the rest of the 6 stages. This allows expert players to get warmed up, while providing just sufficient challenge for even newbie players to make it past the 1st stage with normal attacks or even button mashing. But it is done very subtly, in fact few people will notice it, unless they leave their characters stationery during the beginning of the stages and notice that the AI opponents in the 1st stage attack less aggressively. (Most people never notice this because they attack right off the buzzer).

This way, even newbies want to give the game another try even though they lost at the end round, because they have already proven themselves capable of beating the 1st round AI opponents (not knowing that the AI threw the match). Whereas the seasoned players will get progressively challenged level after level up till the boss battle. This way, the game remains exciting for players of all skill ranges. The progressive difficulty trick is an art Capcom has mastered since the days of Street fighter 1....

So come again: what is Fun in a game? Basically the game has to be intelligent, dynamic, and and challenging. This will not only make the initial experience enjoyable, but also make subsequent experiences welcome. In fact, the replay factor in the game is very high. As a player, I think Marvel vs Capcom 2 has done a good job on this, as 7 years down the road, I still walk into the arcades for the occasional game.

PS: Initially, the XBox version of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was slated for online gameplay, which would have made the game even more exciting, dynamic and "intelligent" by having ACTUAL players instead of console AI..... but that idea, though originally announced, was scrapped...

No news on Age of Conan, So I revisited Maple again.... And Its pretty much as I remembered it. Hackers still around, People fighting over maps.... but I digress.

Creating a Character basically starts with chosing a basic"look" (just hair and color of cloths), and "rolling" some stats to be distributed over 4 attributes: Strength (Raw damage dealth and ability to wear certain armor), Wisdom (mana recharge rate and maximum cap), Dexterity (accuracy and ability to dodge) and Luck (change of dealing maximum damage).


Starting Over:
I re-rolled a "Fighter" class character to start playing again, it being the character I am most familiar with. Actually "Rolling" a fighter is misleading. What I did instead was rolled a character with the highest Strength attribute possible. In Maple, each class performs best by maximizing one of the 4 attributes, "Strength" in the case of the fighter. After this, I am sent to the tutorial island of Maple Island, where I spend the 1st few levels completing 5 quests (ranging from delivery to collection to kill X number of a particular creature). Earning levels in the 1st 30 levels is quite fast, so I breeze through the tutorial section at level 10, and am given "permission" to get to the main island of Victoria Island.