Marketplace Fix

Sony recently rolled out a new dimension to Everquest 1 and Everquest 2 called the Marketplace. If you read below in one of my later posts, you will discover that I think they did a poor job at this service.

The basic premise for the service is that you pay more money than your traditional monthly subscription fee to gain some new dimension to the game.  In theory that sounds very interesting.  There are many people who have extra dollars (there are still a few out there) that would like to pimp or accentuate their characters.

The problem lies in what they offer as products.  Lets be clear, if you are going to get into the business of selling vanity items, you need to be able to sell them.  You cannot pussy foot around and dance the line of of some lofty moral barrier.  With this in mind, I have the following suggestions for Sony and their Marketplace:

SEX:  Hell it sells so why not use it.  All sorts of pimped out accessories could be lobbed into this category.  From furniture in the apartment (heart shaped bed and groove lamps), to very skimpy costumes (have you ever looked at a female drow) to the ostentatious love slave that will do things in private with the character.

Drugs:  Buy drugs that accelerate the characters physical and mental prowess — put a downside on it (I was thinking that the character could not be played for a week after use — or that the screen is extremely blurry for the next 6 hours). Drugs sell as well as sex, if marketed correctly.  Make the feeling of on the drug tempting, and it will sell.

Violence: Oh ya baby, who can turn down a nice splat of blood and gore.  Sell animations of your character disemboweling their mobs.  Good old fashion, over the top, gruesome violence.  I know my troll berserker would go in for this.  On top of the various hideous combat maneuvers have it where the toon can keep morbid pieces of his fallen victims — heads, ears, heart, nose!?!

Emotes:  One of the best little secrets in the game are the Emotes that a character can perform, but like everything else in the game they are watered down. Sell Emotes that really accentuates your character’s feelings from wanted lust, to delirious excitement, to cocky and fervor insults!

There are so many ways to sell the Marketplace that it should have been a rousing success, but being timid in this day and age usually puts you out of business, or at the least being highly ridiculed.  As far as I can tell, the latter is already rampant on the internet.  Turn the tables, Sony, and let the players receive what they really want — some good old fashion XXX!

Time vs. Money

One of the largest outcries from people that play Everquest 2 or for that matter any MMO, is that people shouldn’t be able to buy (with real world currency) favors, abilities, or items. It seems OK if the purchases are purely aesthetic but if it actually gives you an edge in the game, many find it rebellious.

I would like to offer the suggestion, however that not everyone has endless hours to put into the game. These people — like mothers, fathers, working people, players that have other hobbies, shouldn’t be penalized because they cannot play the 12 hours a day needed to get the good gear. The game should accommodate all players. If someone wants to buy platinum or a real nice item for cash, they should have the ability to do it. In the end, its all about making the customer happy. Just like in the real world, vendors charge differently for the same product based on the needs of the consumer.

I for one would like an avenue where I could make microtransations to buy rares or a cool operating weapon. Again, I am not like 12-year old Billy who can play 16 hours a day or out of work Ralph who surrenders all bodily functions to the game. I however shouldn’t be penalized or have a stigmata upon me because I wish to enjoy the same facets of the game.

What are your thoughts!?!

New Old Friends

This year I spent some time looking up old friends.  People that I have not said hello to in more than twenty years, and for the most part I have been so insanely successful I cannot believe it.  Its so good to talk to the people of your youth and to see how their lives played out.  Each one of us has had such an exciting life when you look back at all the triumphs, tribulations, and travels we have taken.

My first success came in the early spring when after twenty years I found my old room mate from ICU — the International Christian University, in Mitaka Japan.  In 1987 I moved to Japan for a year long study of their language and culture. Boy! I was so naive back then and fresh out of the pumpkin patch.   I moved in with this guy named Naoki and him and I hit it right off.  He was the complete opposite of me — world travelled, wild, crazy, had the girls all over him — in contrast to myself who never travelled and was about as wild as a wall flower, and only dreamed of girls. I found him on the internet again doing searches for names and places we both had in common. It was the song “Voices Carry” (Amy Mann was the singer) that finally clinched it for me.  It was great talking to him again — fantastic that he is married, with a new little boy, living in Los Angeles.

I also met up with a ton of old school mates from when I went to Comstock Park High School, in Comstock Park Michigan.  I have such fond memories of High School, but I would do so many different things if I could do it all over again.

One new, old friend was a guy named Chris.  I have to admit, that in high school I was a bit afraid of you.  I am not sure exactly why, but I always walked around you on eggshells.  I don’t ever once remember you being disrespectful or mean to me, so perhaps it was just that we never got to know each other so much.  I am glad that him and I are chatting back and forth.  It sounds like he has had a wild ride through live, serving his country in the Navy and travelling to such far flung locales.  He is now living in Hawaii — oh I dream of living there. Dude, you are living my dream!!

I also got in contact with a girl named Vicki from High School.  I admit that I was always so timid around her — perhaps smitten would be a better word.  I often remember trying so desperately to think of something to say to her and when the opportunity came up, I would just blather meaningless words from my mouth.  That was one thing I would change if I could go back 25 years in to the past — hindsight is 20/20 they say, but I would be so much more active and engaging.  I am happy to say that we are now chatting nicely and continue, almost on a daily basis, conversations through email and Facebook.  We can’t really change what has happened — a shame it isn’t like a computer game where you can just go back to an older save and try different things.

Its just amazing how powerful the internet is in making contact with people.  I am still searching the world for people that I have not found yet, hoping they are still out there with family and friends having a good time.  I hope one day to track down Dilak Scott, David Marra, Jeff Dee, Robert Knapp, and a slew of new old friends!

Troy

Everquest II Marketplace Flop

I predicted more than two years ago that Sony would enter the microtransaction market.  In essence a microtransaction is an exchange of real world dollars for digital aesthetic materials in a virtual economy — I guess it could be for a tangible (or valueable) item as well, but that opens up another whole argument.  Two years ago I told my audience on Voyages of Vanguard that Sony should offer cool animations in a microtransaction — that is, as you play the game and perform actions, instead of the tired animated graphics the player could swap out a more impressive move for lets say 99 cents.

Sony finally took heed and has a new addition to their game lineup called Marketplace.  For 1 dollar you get 100 Sony Buck or whatever they call it — with their initial offerings I think it should be more inline with their typical treasure drops and give you bags of shit (for those who don’t play EQ2 one of the common treasure drops is truly bags of shit — which sells nicely on the market while fabled magical gear languish for months without buyers) — but I transgress again.

So, you have this 100 coins or buck, or whatever, for 1 dollar and you can trade these imaginary coinage for items and gear in the game.  All sounds cool, but here is where they foolishly drop the ball.  Sony in the infinite wisdom offers 2 items to all the players of Everquest II to select from, and those two sets of items are woefully horrible in appearance.

Imagine a game with two hundred thousand players and then offer two items, even if they were incredible cool, and wonder what will happen.  I guess in some morbid way, I am glad that they aren’t cool looking.  It would be a circus of 50,000 players (1 out of 4 for example) running around with the same item — foolish almost to the point of hysterical.  Luckily for the players, Sony screwed this up and no one will be buying the awful looking gear. Here is a clue — if you have hundreds of thousands of players, you need to offer at least hundreds of items.

One of the biggest draw backs to EQ2 is the lousy graphics engine when it comes to character modeling.  I have been told by a ex-producer of the game that the only way to change that is to have a total revamp of the engine, something Sony is remiss to do because, Hey, it costs money.  It’s not that Everquest 2 can’t have cool models, but it requires tremendous effort on their part to release new models.  Basically they have to do the art for each race and gender, and their is allot of races in the game of EQ2.

Instead of really grabbing the horse by the reins and exploding out of the gate, they just meander down the racetrack. Two sets of horrible gear!  Is that what you want to show your consumers with a new product line?

To be fair they do have some potions and some worthless pets for the apartment, but there is nothing here for someone to go, “Wow! I want that!! I must have that!”  It’s tired….It’s boring.

Where are the cool weapons?  Where is the gear with particle effects attached to them?  Where is the unique looking mounts?   Where is the new spell effects? Where is the new sweet animated combat attack maneuvers? Where are the insanely funny emotes that kids would beg for? Where are pets that actually do something?  Where are the conjuror and necros new pet models?

These are the things you need to have in the marketplace! If you cannot offer such new art assets then do not release your product.

I should also mention that two two lousy offerings that are available costs 10 dollars (minus a buck and half if you use the free money they give you) to acquire such dreck!

Sony, you have a good idea here but wake up.  Did you do any market testing?  If so, fire the art director and producer of this project and fire the marketing people behind this debacle.  There are tons of good talent out there and these fools don’t know up from down.

Sad.

Troy

New Year’s Goals

Ya know its not that far off and soon we’ll be scratching off 2008 on our checks and shaking our heads as we scribble 2009.  Just the other day I wrote 2005 on a check, then stopped and looked at it funny and thought to myself, ‘is it 2005?’

Doh!

Since we are nearing the end of 2008, I reflect back on all that I have done.  It started out as a shakey year with many troubles: including a bad bout with pneumonia and moving to a new job.  I really thought that 2008 was not going to be very good.

Towards the end, however, I now look back and beam a fond smile at the cool things that I did.

One event that was really cool was hanging out with Brent and the guys from Virginworld at the San Francisco Game Developers Conference back in February. God! That was so much fun, and I really learned so much about gaming. I also got to see San Fransico — what a nice place.

I also look back on all the tribulations of my new job, but in the end I am really beginning to enjoy IT and find it so refreshing.  I am not out of the woods yet.  This next year I have to learn a program called Vantage from Epicor systems and that is going to be tough.

I also finally finished my novel.  It was a new story, not one of the pile of bits and pieces that have layed on my desk for the last twenty years.  A brand new story called “Amish Johnson and the Pegasus Chamber”. Its a science fiction tale of a young boy growing up and discovering who he is.  I am now looking for a publisher or agent.

I also finished three short stories and have been working on finding a place to publish them.  In the end, if I cannot find a home for my spooky tales I will offer them to my cohort of friends, family, and surfers who come to my humble little writing nook, the Emerald Tablet.

We also had the Summer Olympics, although I didn’t do anything with it. I still enjoyed watching the games.

I had a great time with friends playing games this year. My cousin and I spend each monday night playing Diablo, Civilization IV, or other similar multiplayer game.  I also have good friends online and have spend many nights in far flung worlds of Hyboria, Norrath, and other such places.

This year I also did allot of podcasting, though I sadly drifted off in the last six months.  I hope to remedy that in 2009.

I hope everyone else had a good year.  I would love to hear your stories of struggle and success with comments.

Thanks,

Troy

Lotto Let Down

I play on the Kithicor server in Everquest II and for as long as I can remember no one has ever won the Goblin Gambler lotto, until now.  It was up to over 4,500 platinum coins.  Over the last several years I have spent huge gobs on money in the hopes of winning it.

Sadly, my dream has been smashed.  At one point, I did hit 5 out of the 6 numbers and won a measly 50 gold or something.  Now, all of my hopes are dashed.  The pot has been reset to something tiny like 10 platinum and I will not want to play again for a long time.

Its like the real world. Funny thing is even 10 platinum is allot of money to my guys in the game. But you don’t play at 10 plat no more than you play when the super lotto is at a 1 million dollars.  There is a psyche about winning 100 million dollars that is not there at a palty 1,000,000 dollars.

So here I sit depressed on a Sunday night, with my dreams dashed.  Knowing that my guys in Everquest II will enjoy the same fate as me, living on a meager sum of money scraped together each week — Always with the dream of hitting it big one day!

Has anyone tried the Tabletop D&D

I was told awhile ago that Wizards of the Coast was going to release a version of D&D that allowed the DM to create a visceral (a tangile visual) world where players could come into and play the game, experiencing more of the pen and paper side of RPGs than MMOs?

I was told that one could download a program that has simple world creation tools and that you could set up a server to host modules that can be mastered just like the normal game.  I was thinking that this would be a cool idea since many of my friends now live all across the country and the world.

It would be so interesting to play D&D again with my friends, allowing them to generate characters and then play through the dungeons I created.  I have toyed around with Neverwinter Nights, but that is not strictly a Mastering game, though I guess you could take over the various creatures and lead the players abit.

What I am looking for is a true translation of the game into a world where I can host a server and run players through the world.  It needn’t be real time nor gorgeous graphics, but it should allow me to play the game exactly as I want to play it (no overriding stifling rules about magic items, the cost of spells and items, and handing out specific allotments of xp).

I would love to hear from people that have played the newest version of AD&D and know if what I am talking about exists?

Everquest 2 Drain

Let me state up front that I am having such a wonderful time back into Everquest II again.  I have three sets of guys (I two box in the game) and am eagerly waiting each night where I can play several hours with each set.

The problem is, of course, that I have no time for anything else.  I don’t know how some people can play the game and do anything other than keep themselves clean and be “forced” into going to work.  I am like the person who just can’t have 1 beer or 1 glass of wine, but rather will drink the case or bottle dry — is there some other point than to consume it all?  I think perhaps you can see my dilemma now more clearly.

Like with most things in life, I don’t see the glass half empty or half full, but rather how can I pour half more into it or drain the last half.

As with Everquest II I am thinking about it constantly.  Each of my characters are running through my mind at work, driving back and forth, and even while I numbly eat my supper — all the while thinking of them.  It is both an incredible feeling but also a very scary one.

I have no put a limit to my Everquest II fun.  As of February 15th I am ending my accounts, no matter where I am in the game or how I am doing.  I imagine that I might be able to play for a bit longer, seeing how the subscriptions work, but after that I will be done for another 3 to 6 months.

Then I can return to my writing — my goal is to write another novel this year and four short stories. I am still looking for a publisher on my first story, and will need to spend allot more time searching and editing it here soon.

There may be some people saying, “just write and just play the game — have some self-control for goodness!”

Sadly, I must admit I have none!

Troy