What’s In a Name?

Who thinks up the names of the resources, items, and recipes in MMOs today? I often think that the process is not much more than reaching into a giant bag with names, randomly selected for each topic.

Perhaps its a large body of head-strung developers with such egos that they cannot create logical names and can only agree on the least desirable label. I can only imagine a table of geniuses sitting around trying to think of a harvestable ores….

“How about Iron?” Everyone jeers and sneers at such a common metal.

“That is so gay” echoes a few. “Its logical, for god’s sake!” stammers others.

“How about something fictional, like Edawnite? We can assign our own statistics, properties…”

“Sit down and shut up, god you can be so inane sometimes” a wickedly sardonic programmer shouts.

“How about aluminum?” a peevish looking accountant stammered softly.

“Great! Awesome!!” the cheers ring out loudly in the room.

“But thats not a naturally occurring metal? It takes great science too create aluminum?”

The crowd bursts out into heckling rabuld laughter, “Players won’t care about that. Heh, they aren’t even smart enough to realize it” a over-weight balding game designer snickers as he packs three ho-ho’s into his cavernous hole called a mouth.

In Everquest 2 you have gold that is worthless, yet coins are traded in that ore. In Vanguard you cannot even harvest gold, but pyrite is a treasured metal — even though gold is highly prized in coins and pyrite can be made into ingots.

Would any true warrior, even at first level, even pick up a tin sword? Would a starving halfling even consider consuming a Stewed Coffee Stuffed Griffon Egg? What would a quest think when he rents a room for the night and finds the bed and furniture made out of Balsa wood?

Do developers even understand the difference in wood, stone, and metal? Do they care that their categorizations are supersilious? Its not even that they are creating imaginary substances, which can be imparted with magical or rare propertise. They use real world substances, that makes no sense in the context they are using, and hope players either just ignore the improbability or are not educated enough to realize the impossiblity of such.

One can debate the fact that being a game or an imaginary world, why should the player care about the names assigned to resources or recipes? I can only answer that if we are not to not expect realistic or arguably logical names for things, why not strip all names and physical relationships from the game, giving attributes letter designations (A, B, C, and D); values for the attributes in vauque conditions (poor, average, good, really good, oh super duper good)! Abilties can be referred to the most common classifications such as combat, magic, and art.

I am unsure how the rest of you view such defamations of item categorizations, but to me its just sloppy. More than likely it was a place name put in during design and was just never changed. I find this affront so evident in Everquest II, and its such a shame because the harvesting and crafting system in the game is easy, fun, and enjoyable to all. With so many logical and valuable materials in the world why did they chose the names that they did?

At tier 3 (fighting giants, nasty gnolls, and all sorts of vile denizens of the Thundering Steppe) in Everquest 2 they have Dandelions as the rare root? Dandelions at least in North America are so common that they are considered a weed — now why would someone use a weed for a rare when there are so many thousands of exotic and wonderful roots and plants to select from?

Sony is not the only ones to blame for such idiocy, with Blizzard and others acting just as careless to this whole Name Game. What’s in a name? To me it lends credibility to the game, a sense of immersion and overall enjoyment.

Where’s The Beef?

Just like the commercial with the blue hair bitty asking, “where’s the Beef?” — I often think, where is a my elf? Just as the old lady looks between the bun and finds no hamburger, I look inside the basic player races in today’s MMOs and wonder what is there?

Each MMO, from Everquest to World of Warcraft, take minimal strides in making racial statistics meaningless and dry. Often a race is defined more by its appearance than any statistical or abilities each have. To some extent, that is a safe and politically correct way to view race. However, many of today’s MMOs do not limit the race selection to a mere shadows of humanity, but to creatures that have no Earth comparison. Can I say, orcs, trolls, elves, minotaurs, mentaurs, and dolphins?

Perhaps another discussion can be started on the thought of why elves, dwarves, and orcs have a distinct appearance and racial quality of only that which is described in the Lord of the Rings. Again, for the sake of this argument I will not contemplate this statement.

Most MMOs generally describe a race with two to six general abilities besides the height, weight, and a general appearance. I believe the developers are apprehensive to develop races further seeing it as just more balancing.

I am so sick and tired of the term Balance — as much as I am of the word polish. Why is there a need to balance a game, and what does that even refer to? Cannot we say that certain races are going to be better than others? Is it not possible that playing an orc will be harder than playing an elf? Do developers really believe that if an elf has better statistics that would determine who plays them? And, even if that is true, that is the experience the player is looking for. Some players examine the rule systems of a game, and select easy played races; while others play races because of what they are and not what they can do. Making races unique, adds value to a game; it brings to the forefront different opportunities to play the game over again — harder, easier, or just plain different.

I would play an orc, goblin, or ogre before playing a halfling, elf, or faerie because thats the personae that I like to play. I would rather have an orc that gains an inspiration bonus with tribal drums than some meek balancing bonus like +1 to lumberjacking. If the elf has more advantage to play than a kobold, so be it; and any mythos or legend would support that creation. Why is it that developers cannot be gods but judges — held to their designs by some code of laws or restrictions.

Consider racial abilities that build races that have unique abilities, powers, and strengths. Develop logical weaknesses into each race, but not ones governed by the ethereal manual of balance. Do not let the concept of balance castrate a race. Developers must understand that abilities create a race, not limit them — that being unique is better than being equal. The psychology of players are not all determined by the best abilities; though no doubt there are many that would chose the most beneficial race — there are an equal number of players that would chose races that are of lesser quality but interesting to play.

One of the things I detest most of all about the current method of differentiating races is the abilities that have short durations. Is the chimpanzee the same as a mountain gorilla or human, except for a 10 second ability to Swing From Trees? Do we all revert to some commonality except for these short bursts of abilities. Is the thing that separates man from the rest of the primates is his 1 minute buff of Inspiration? Did Albert Einstein flick a switch that gave him a 30 second ability to develop the Theory of Relativity, before returning to swinging from a tire and eating bananas.

I am looking forward to a revolution in game theory that allows races to be distinctive. Perhaps one race will be better to play than another, but that won’t stop die hard players from playing them. Orcs that are truly savage, gutteral, and depraved; fighting against elves that are quick witted, highly intelligent, and immortal. Who will win? Who will fight for them? I can only postulate at the numbers of gamers playing each side, but it will be fun and challenging.

A race must be quantified by a series of well defined physical, mental, and judgmental statistical modifications. On top of this, there should be a series of low level skill modifications as well as some distinct non-timed (duration) traits.

For example, each race in the game would need to have their basic player attributes adjusted. This adjustment should not be limited to set values for balancing concerns, but need to be gauged by the overall player race score and how to best determine its position in a scope of  set values determined within the game from highest to lowest values. I suggest assigning a value of 1 to 100 for each race, for each of their statistics, then using a scale map out each of these scores on a grid. Cross-reference this scale to the values of the statistics within the game (these scores may both represent the internal as well as the external values of such statistics) and then re-assign a positive or negative value modification to statistic. Not that this would be fair, albeit a Balanced System, but at least one can analyze the overall values within the system.

Skills need to reflect both the concepts of the race in the world the designers are building, but also the ideology of the race in our culture (be that good or bad). As I said earlier, why must we think all elves in the vein of Lord of the Rings – when ancient legends portray elves in many different ways. When building a racial outline for elves, even though the developers may wish to stray from that concept, they must still utilize real cultural values at least to ground the race or create a first impression. In recent years there have been some attempt to create a counter-cultural movement away from the basic concepts of fantasy races. Each skill in the game must be modified by the race; furthermore, I would suggest using the racial statistics logarithm given above to quantify each skill. Again, its necessary to paint a completely different image of each race to make it distinctive and to codify its existence in the universe.

And finally, each race needs a set of value or special modifications that make them unique amongst other races in the game. I most hate the Vanguard strategy by assigning very short duration buffs that mean or do little, to exemplify and make distinctive differences in race. Abilities must be interesting, useful, but unique. They must paint a portrait of the race — something a gamer can latch on and know that this ability or modification will help or hinder the race in the future. Often games will have a faction score to seperate one race from another; in the most general terms I agree this is a fine way to divide races into different groups, but faction in general is too basic and needs to be enhanced to express more outward physical and mental states of the races.

I would like to see a game where the very basic interaction of the game is changed represented by the race you select. Think how different the player’s experience would be if an orc sees in black and white only? But, perhaps, is not fooled by invisibility or illusion? A player selecting an orc would actually play the game in black and white, but (and here is the kicker) the game must utilize in a very impactful way invisibility and illusions.

How about the Elf can hear and detect sounds at a greater distance than the human. More so, their UI would also have a radar-like map showing the positions of sounds and their decibel values. Players would find the bubble of sounds more distinctive playing the elf, than what a human would be able to detect and they could look at the map to see the exact location and range of sound.

Make food in the game have physical values of nutrition, taste, and longevity. Then turn around and make the dwarf have greater abilities to detect and gain reward from food with the various values. Again, I could see a UI window that would codify and quantify the values assigned to the food. The troll, perhaps, would have a large gamut of consumption, but would gain only the basic nutritional values from it; while the dwarf could detect far better gourmet flavors and appreciate and gain value from food; perhaps the faerie would be limited to a very selective aperture of foods that could be consumed, making food for him a greater concern than that of a ratonga who could eat tin cans as easy as filet mignon.

Basic physical abilities could also be used to seperate one race from another. Values in swiming, climbing, riding of horses, basic melee and missile combat, all could be used to delineate differences within a racial boundary. Developers need to look upon the race with open eyes and assign values that both make sense but also give that race a definite advantage or hinderance in the world. Don’t apply lame or ineffectual bonuses or penalties that make no game difference. Frogloks should swim twice as fast as a halfling, lizardmen need to have physical armor (mitigation perhaps) far greater than gnomes. Ottermen should be able to hold their breath ten times longer than centaurs.

I implore designers to show us the beef when creating the next line in MMO’s races!

Oh Shineys!!

One must wonder why developers overlook the most simplest way to keep the players happy.  I have never met another gamer, who at least, doesn’t consider swapping a highly buffed piece of equipment with something of lesser quality but with more pizazz.

“Oh Shineys!!” is the call from our group of friends when we see a sparkling flash on the ground or even more so when we find something of inferior magical quality but with a cool graphic.  For those that don’t play Everqest 2 they recently added a inventory tab called Appearance that allows you to put items in mirrored slots to the main inventory that allows you to use the appearance of the item but not the statistics.  Thus, you could wear a purple robe with glowing stars on it that has no statistical bonus, and also wear a robe that is drab and dreary but has a ton of stat and ability bonuses — you would look like you were wearing the purple robe, but gain the advantages of the drab robe that is in your real inventory slots.

In Everquest I, a player can tint his armor to a wide variety of colors.  Of all the stories I hear from old players, that is one of the top suggestions they always seem to wish upon.  Everyone loved to tint armor and clothing to different color.  I know, some often complained that huge ogres in pink armor was a distraction, but overall it was a fun experience — one that always brings a scowl or a smile to a player’s face.  I wasn’t one of the players that had pink armor; I had a green suit for my druid, a jet black set of plate for my ogre warrior, and a deep blood red for my beast master.  It was so cool, and I often wonder why today no developer, such as Everquest 2 or Vanguard, haven’t added that feature — its an instant success.  Vanguard is reaching for straws now to build a community, and here is a solid gold feature they could add which can only value the game more.

Another aspect of equipment that seems to be overlooked by the developers is that they think that having a ton of different type of equipment using the same model is better than having a wide variety of model types but having less statistical and abilities attached to it.  I know for myself, beyond Everquest 2 which utitlizes the Appearance tab, that I would prefer cool looking equipment than blah, plain jane gray gear that may have better bonuses.

There are a number of ways to jazz up the equipment: color, art of models, duotone or tritone (2 or 3 colors) equipment, atmospheric effects (sparkles, glow, animations), and to some lesser extent interesting names or history behind the gear.

I am constantly amazed at the shlock that developers create when it comes to the visual appearance of gear. When they can score a victory if they just make it interesting.  Shiney’s go a long way to pleasing a player — don’t overlook the most simplistic ways to appease the base.

Give me Shineys!!

Charlie Brown Effect

A group of adventures had been traveling for hours through a bleak swamp with only the monotony of the buzzing insects to break the quiet of the day. Then suddenly, from a secreted hole, a large troll lunges upon the group. The warrior steps forward, shield and sword ready; the wizard calls forth arcane rituals that open a cacophony of hellish light and energy; the cleric stepping back calls on the lofty lords of heaven to protect his friends. In a matter of seconds, the battle is over. With the cunning of a silver-furred fox, the thief drags a large chest from the secreted hole.

“You know the drill,” shrills the Paladin. “Step up to the box, eyes closed,” he sneers at the thief, “and pull out your loot.”

“Oh wow, I got three scrolls!” The wizard jumps up and down with glee.

“Woots! I got a +2 Sword of Spider slaying.” The leader hugs his new treasure with uncontrollable excitement.

“Mamma! Look at this new set of picks and tools,” the thief dances a merry jig.

The excitement was so contagious that everyone is laughing, singing, and carrying on with unbridled glee. Suddenly the warrior stops and looks over at the cleric.

“What did you get, Dagulas?”

“I got a rock….” The dejected cleric hangs his head in utter despair, smoothing out his ripped robes and looking sadly at his stick with a thorn stuck to its end, his grealy earned club of +2 worm slaying.

The group of adventurers look at each other, then fall to the ground laughing and jeering the poor cleric —

Once again, the Charlie Brown Effect had taken its toll.

I don’t know about all of you, but the pall of the Charlie Brown Effect has been clouding my stay in Everquest, Everquest II, Vanguard, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot — you name the game, and that wretched affliction has followed me there.

I cannot count the number of times I have ended with a rock while everyone else around me has gained a bountiful treasure or a most valuable piece of loot. Constantly in Everquest II my poor warlock would roll a 2, 5, or 7 with the lotto treasure rolls. Hey! I am not saying that I only roll low, on the contrary, I even get 85s, 98s, even the glorious 99, but only after some slob around me rolls a 90, 99, or the ever glorious 100.

My characters are all cursed with this damn bad luck! Even when I finally roll a 100, it will be on an item that I can’t use and that some schlub next to me will ask in group, “Can I have that…thats an upgrade for me?”

What do you do then? Ultimately, you surrender the one item you gained all night, that might have garnered cash on the market. For what? For a sad next loot pick which comes up to be a Rusted Gnomish Gear, Scaly Ochre Zombie Skin, or the most treasured Sack of Tree Nitrite (otherwise known as a bag of shit). I cannot count the number of times I have had to part with the single treasure for the night for some worthless bauble that is even beneath me from selling to the NPC tool that sells Torches, Stale Pond Water, and Six-Week Old Bread. I have also had the opportunity to see a Warlock specific Master spell drop, lose the roll, then meet with utter silence from the group when I ask for it. Plodding and prodding the schlemiel who won the roll only ends with him turning the tables on me and making me look like a miserly greedy SOB.

For the past several years I have sent petition after petition, bug report after bug report on the fallacy that the Lotto system in Everquest 2 is fair, equatable, or to say the least… even random. I have seen it time and time again, one guy in a pickup group winning loot after loot, time after time. Its not fair! Oh, the tragedy of this Charlie Brown Effect is unnerving.

What’s worse is that my cousin just started playing Everquest II and he has earned more platinum than I have in threee years of play. How, you ask, stunnned? On these Legends of Norrath booster packs that he seems to find like leaves on a tree. I kid you not, the guy has found five booster packs and a rare single card. The single earned him 5 platinum alone — I haven’t earned 5 plat in 6 months. Overall he has earned more than 30 platinum — horribly its all cash and all gained within a short order of business (I may have sold that much, but over the coarse of a year?!?).

Of course now the market is saturated on these booster packs so I will now doubt start finding a ton of the crap. He will start finding the Masters, the rare adepts, the unique magical items, and I will end up with a backpack full of worthless Legends of Norrath cards. I can see the writing on the wall.

I have grouped with him too, and its the same. I get the crap loot and he wins all the adepts and magical gear (this low end stuff sells well to transmuters). Then when I finally win something really cool, my packs are stuffed with low end crab meat, deer pelts, and bags of ALA “crap” and he wins by default. Gah! How much more can the Charlie Brown Effect.

Each night it seems like I am in a tragic replaying of Charlie Brown’s Halloween special. At the end of the night, I have a sack of rocks and everyone else brimming packs full of loot and magical trinkets.

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall…

What is wrong with me?  Am I so horribly vein that I require people around me to enjoy a personal experience.  I am a soloer in all my MMOs, but if that is the case then why not play Two Worlds or Oblivion?  But for me those two games are boring, even though they have incredible graphics, awesome rule sets, and tons of combat, magic, and strange loot.

The only thing I can deduce is that I am so vein that I need other people around me to prove that I am having fun?  I know it seems strange, but unless I know there are other people around me — even if I have nothing to do with them other than just seeing them in my local area.

No one can argue that Oblivion, Two Worlds, Arx Fatalis aren’t fantastic games.  I am constantly drawn to single player RPGs, but what is it that only keeps my attention for a couple of weeks?  I like their playstyle, and its so nice knowing that if you need to walk away from the computer, the game will be exactly where you left off.  In a MMO, even though if you play solo, the world is constantly changing around you.

The loot and combat experiences in a single player game is also far more engaging and visceral but again, I am drawn to MMOs.  Why?   Their systems are often dumbed down to the average gamers, the graphics are less appealing, and the overall performance of MMOs are staggeringly lower and laggy.

The only thing I can say, is that I must be so vein, that I step infront of the mirror each day and  say,
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the veinest One of all!”

300

Today’s MMOs are mired in a swamp of systematic problems from overconfident game designers, hyper game producers, companies with unlimited bankrolls, and fans that are inundated with such a variety of games that games fall out of favor as fast as apples fall from a tree. What is needed is not more, but less! We need a community within the game that is organized, demographic, and small. Yes, thats what I said. Small is better — Large is out! I purpose an MMO that hosts no more than 300 people at a time, with an average player population of roughly 6000 players per server.

We have seen with the recent selection of games, that over indulgence of graphics, promises, and PR campaigns can leave gamers feeling dizzy. There has been much discussion on how to keep game in the spotlight and at the top of the playing list for both the average as well as the hardcore gamer. There is nothing more confusing than to wander a world populated by people you have no idea who they are or what they are doing.

When I graduated High School, I had a class of 89 students. I knew all their names, and more, I knew each one as a person and what they liked or disliked. On most, I even knew their brothers and sisters, and where they lived and to many what their parents did for a career. I could walk down the hallway, waving and complimenting every student in my class, and with similar size classes in the other grades, I had a decent chance of knowing almost everyone I ever met.

Today, schools are huge with daunting classes of well over a thousand students per class. Four thousand students in a school, you would be lucky to even remember your own classmates’ names let alone anyone around you.

what does that cause? Its causes isolationism, tight social groups, and clan/gang mentality. This is what is happening in today’s MMOs. Instead of having a vibrant community from which you would more than likely know everyone on the server, or perhaps at least one of their many alternate characters, we are reduced to living in tight social groups, such as a guild, or worse, a small selection of real life friends. Suddenly, the MMO world gets very scary and unfriendly.

In the first MMOs, there was a sense of community because there was a community. Today, its more like trying to set up house in a shopping mall. Everyday someone new walks through your space, and even if you make friends, because the world is so populated, they are often reduced to a tab on your friend’s list, never to be seen again or worse.

I welcome a server population of 6000 players, spread out demographically across the world and through various time zones. With average player base at around 300. As one plays the game, you will suddenly start smiling with the realization that the players around you start looking familiar.

The bustling crowd of characters will be transformed into a group of friends, or at the least, recognizable faces. Instead of blurred names flying about the place, you will have ‘Hey!, Ratook, what’s up?” And not just from friends or guildmates, but from the server at large.

With smaller servers, the chance to become part of the development of the game increases. No more hearing about special events, but now often taking lead rolls or witnessing special GM events.

What does this mean for the game company? More servers, to say the least. Perhaps a hike in the monthly cost from an average of 15 dollars a month, to perhaps 18 dollars a month. I would be willing to pay more knowing that I will know more of the other players.