Unlovely Bones

I saw “The Lovely Bones” last night, and came out of the film with two words running through my head: “deeply unsatisfactory”.

Spoilers will follow – rather a LOT of spoilers – so be warned.  Caveat lector!

Journeys vs Destinations

Or, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Treadmill”.

Ysharros started a discussion that inspired me to ponder the nature and purpose of treadmills in MMOs.  Melmoth posted an article about how players prefer to skip to the end, which inspired me to wonder why games so often focus on the destination instead of the journey itself.  Being the efficient gamer that I am, I found a way to complete both quests discuss both issues at once.

Our story begins ages ago…

What CAN be “new” in MMOs?

During the recent discussion here about “what’s new in MMOs“, evizaer raised an interesting point that I think merits further thought: aren’t all the “innovations” in MMOs really just small iterative steps along a fairly clearly illuminated preexisting path?  That is to say, what truly new ideas could possibly exist in MMOs?

What’s “New” in MMOs?

Psychochild wrote an interesting article about innovation in MMOs that got me to wondering what features implemented in the last few years in mainstream MMOs really are new.  I’m going to throw out some ideas about things that are (relatively) new, and some other things that are merely evolutionary changes rather than revolutionary changes.  This list isn’t exhaustive but does cover some of the better ideas I’ve seen in games that are still on the market.

PC or Mac?

This is frankly hilarious.  It’s also a bit NSFW due to profanity.

Sometimes machines just want to be left alone…

How can online games retain players?

For an online game to succeed, it needs to retain customers.  That’s a simple and obvious truth.  Less simple and obvious though are the methods by which this can be accomplished.

I see four critical design components to retaining customers.  Two more – customer service and appropriate pricing for value – aren’t design components are thus are not in the scope of the discussion here.  I’m going to focus on ongoing novelty, concrete goals, playstyle support, and social ties.

Rumors of my death…

It’s been a very busy month for me.  Just wanted to post a brief explanation of my silence here and a reassurance that I remain both alive and as cantanker… erm… well, full of spirit as ever.

My work has been pretty involving of late; I’ve actually been working evenings and weekends, a bit anyhow, to get some projects back on track and to secure some new patents about which I’m very excited.  I must say I rather enjoy the process of writing and submitting new patents – both from the viewpoint of performing my duty as Vice President of R&D and from a purely selfish perspective of both ego and future career prospects (hey, it’s my name on these bad boys, after all).  At the same time, I’ve been rather busy with a new relationship with a lovely lady, which has absorbed much of my remaining free time.  I also may or may not have been boldly going places where people may or may not have gone before, possibly in a video game or games of some sort that may or may not be online either now or in the future, and if I were doing so, it’s also possible that some sort of agreement not to disclose such facts would prevent me from saying so explicitly.  Whether I would have enjoyed such theoretical pursuits, if I were actually engaging in them, I probably would not be able to say if such a non-disclosure agreement did in fact exist.  I’ve additionally been playing Dragon Age in fits and spurts, which has been enjoyable if never particularly surprising or exciting; it’s basically exactly what I expected from Bioware, and is no doubt a good game, but it also feels much like many other games I’ve played, moreso as I continue.  Finally, I just returned yesterday from a business trip to attend the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where I launched a new product to some excellent reviews, and also enjoyed some great TexMex dining and some very very productive meetings.  Good times.

To sum up: I’m still here, and have a few posts in draft form, but haven’t had much time to post anything lately.  I’ll likely do so soon.  Life is good.  I continue to post comments in other blogs but haven’t produced anything here in 5 weeks or so, which is a long time I admit, thus the assurance to my small but loyal group of readers that content will indeed resume momentar… well, soon anyhow.

Emotions in Games, part 2: Sorrow

Sorrow is a profoundly deep and negative emotion, and is not casually experienced.  Sorrow is our natural reaction to the experience of loss; our recognition that something we cared about will not be part of our future.  Sorrow is also brought about in many cases by our own suffering and that of others, particularly when we feel that suffering will continue – that is, when we lose hope and start to feel despair.

Like Fear, we’re dealing here with an emotion that’s experienced by the percipient – the reader/viewer/player of whatever medium is being experienced – and not by the characters in that medium.  How, then, can percipients be made to feel sorrow?  I’ll approach the subject by dealing separately with suffering and loss, and then I’ll briefly address how sorrow can be part of PvP experiences.

Namárië Endórë!

The only real way we have to meaningfully communicate our feelings with game developers is generally with our wallets.  After long deliberation, I used that simple economic vote to express my feelings about LotRO by canceling both accounts today.

I like a lot of the ideas presented for SoM, especially the skirmish system, which sounds like it could be a lot of fun.  I just haven’t had an interest in playing for the last month and a half though, and I don’t see that changing.  Fundamentally, I remain unhappy with the concept of gear gating (which remains part of the new plan from all I can see; no word to the contrary has been issued), with the disposable legendary items system (which is changing, but is not apparently going to result in less disposable and frankly non-legendary “legendary” items), and with the shoddy state of high level crafting (which used to be both fun and useful, but with the Moria expansion became neither to me; there are some nice recipes but less so than before and they take a LOT more work to get).  The faction grinds are pretty interminable, and I don’t relish getting the Elves of Mirkwood to love even one of my characters, much less several or all.  And finally, as I noted before, the people I played with have changed their approach to the game because of the way the game itself has changed, and now our playstyles don’t mesh very well.

It’s National Novel Writing Month, which I’m 3 days into now with a lot of work ahead of me still.  Dragon Age: Origins is coming out (which I want to play through, and also build modules for), and I still have a lot of fun left to enjoy in Torchlight from the looks of it.  I have a 6- month Champions Online sub and am watching to see how that game develops… I haven’t played it in a while either but might give it another try once they add some more content.  Between all of that and my social life I have more than enough to keep me busy through the end of the year, and though LotRO still has some appeal, it just isn’t enough to motivate me to log in to LotRO anymore.  Perhaps I’ll come back to Middle-earth yet again, perhaps not, but for now I’m wishing it a fond farewell.

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári-lírinen.

Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?

An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met,
ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.
Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!
Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!
Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië!

Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead in lofty halls
beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda
wherein the stars tremble
in the song of her voice, holy and queenly.

Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies
on the foaming waves between us,
and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar!
Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar!
Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!