Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Big W Powah!]

Originally Posted by karuden

Not going to waste the electrons trying to explain facts to morons. Just chew on this ....3D means X, Y, Z axis. Just what is the depth of the 2D pixelated image on the screen in front of you? Oh that is right it has no depth from front to back of the image, hence IT IS NOT 3D!!!

You can NOT perceive depth from one monocular vantage point. If you don't understand the concept then I suggest you do some learning and less mouthing off.

Heeeey fucknut!

One's mind can "perceive" depth due to optical illusions. When we see an item drawn in artifical 3d, our mind automatically assigns a certain bit of depth to it.

Thus we are given the illusions of perceiving depth. Thus we can judge "distance" in a video game.

We can also walk in familiar areas with one eye closed because ones mind automatically assigns a certain depth, due to knowledge of the area.



kk, now shut the fuck up please.

[Soygen]

I bet watching karudan playing any 3D game would be pretty funny. Falling off cliffs, running straight through the front window of the enemy base, trying to throw a grenade over a mountain. God this 3dz sucks!!!

Quit arguing semantics. Of course it is not truly 3d on a fucking flat display. However, our brain uses more than just binocular vision to determine how far or close something is.

[foddon]

Originally Posted by karuden

Not going to waste the electrons trying to explain facts to morons. Just chew on this ....3D means X, Y, Z axis. Just what is the depth of the 2D pixelated image on the screen in front of you? Oh that is right it has no depth from front to back of the image, hence IT IS NOT 3D!!!

You can NOT perceive depth from one monocular vantage point. If you don't understand the concept then I suggest you do some learning and less mouthing off.

Wait a minute! You mean there's not an actual 3d world inside my monitor when I play these games?? Alert the presses... we've been had.

[Traldan]

Originally Posted by foddon

Wait a minute! You mean there's not an actual 3d world inside my monitor when I play these games?? Alert the presses... we've been had.

They set us up the bomb

[Froofy-D]

Karuden has to be trolling, nobody can be that stupid. Can they? But just in case, if you can't percieve depth in 2d, then why:

- can you tell what is farther away in photographs?
- can you determine depth from an image on a mirror?
- can you distinguish depth in movies and even cartoons?

BTW, isn't the image projected onto your retina by your eye lenses essentially 2D?

[Cadrid]

New article on Curt & co.'s upcoming title here.

Interesting tidbits:

Originally Posted by The Article

But Close said 38 Studios plans on bringing something new to the table, namely a complex, structured story that will drive the game. "There are two types of MMO players right now: grinders and community players that enjoy the social aspect of playing with their friends," Close said. "But what about a good story, one that is developed over time and keeps players coming back for more?"

Originally Posted by The Article

"We are going to use an episodic model," Close said, "but it won't be exactly like the current episodic model. The games will be longer, deeper. Once one chapter of the story reaches critical mass, a new chapter will be released."

and

Originally Posted by The Article

As for the visual design of the top secret title, Close said 38 Studios plans to have more advanced graphics and animation for its game than what it traditionally seen in some of the more popular MMOs today.

[Lonin]

Time to read more into the info than I should!

So, better graphics than WoW, but not 1 billion polygons better I'd assume, or he'd have said something like that. If that's the case, that's a good route to take IMO.

The "episodic model" thing sounds really intriguing. The way he worded it, it actually sounds like a EQ progression server model. Once a certain point in the storyline is reached, a new chapter is released. Sounds really cool to me.

Cue Curt or one of the Guards to come and destroy my dreams.

[Ngruk]

"There are two types of MMO players right now: grinders and community players that enjoy the social aspect of playing with their friends," Close said. "But what about a good story, one that is developed over time and keeps players coming back for more?"

And to add to that "But what about a good story that hits numerous types of players and play styles in an engaging and meaningful way?"

That's where we are, and where we are heading. There are certainly more than two types of players but for simplicity they can be lumped into those two groups for the sake of this comment.

[Lenardo]

hey Ngruk, have you decided on a engine yet? and if not, have you looked at "tech5" by ID?

just curious because just from perusing what they are saying- in my opinion- would be very good for a mmo to use, also you could release said game on pc ,mac ,360 and ps3 with supposedly- zero- code changes.

as a side note, if someone was say at Fenway and yelled "HEY Ngruk" as you lean over the rail on the dugout, would you turn around and look to see who yelled it? (i almost did that a few weeks ago Guy i get tickets from has tickets 5 rows behind the dugout...as an aside, - my son was with wally on the dugout roof during the 7th inning stretch during that game-and got his name on the scoreboard for his birthday- also got a foul ball (beckett was pitching))

[spentmotiff]

Reading that makes me think about the storyline in early Horizons days. Yes, I know, Horizons.

They had a pretty cool storyline about a war against the undead that progressed as you played and would dump some pretty cool events on the players. The storyline unlocked new races to play (as you liberated them from the undead) and new towns would open as well. Before the company who originally owned Horizons went under (Artifact, I think) every 2 weeks or so a new "chapter" would open with all sorts of events and changes to the game world.

In my opinion, if you are going to make a strictly PvE game, a progressing storyline that involves players is the way to go.

[Campa]

Originally Posted by spentmotiff

Reading that makes me think about the storyline in early Horizons days. Yes, I know, Horizons.

They had a pretty cool storyline about a war against the undead that progressed as you played and would dump some pretty cool events on the players. The storyline unlocked new races to play (as you liberated them from the undead) and new towns would open as well. Before the company who originally owned Horizons went under (Artifact, I think) every 2 weeks or so a new "chapter" would open with all sorts of events and changes to the game world.

In my opinion, if you are going to make a strictly PvE game, a progressing storyline that involves players is the way to go.

Yes please.

It is pretty sad that even in its sad state the neutered version of Horizons back on '03 at least still managed to do some of the dynamic content they talked up so much but yet 4 years later none of the major MMOs have progressed the tech much if at all.

[Ngruk]

Originally Posted by Lenardo

hey Ngruk, have you decided on a engine yet? and if not, have you looked at "tech5" by ID?

just curious because just from perusing what they are saying- in my opinion- would be very good for a mmo to use, also you could release said game on pc ,mac ,360 and ps3 with supposedly- zero- code changes.

as a side note, if someone was say at Fenway and yelled "HEY Ngruk" as you lean over the rail on the dugout, would you turn around and look to see who yelled it? (i almost did that a few weeks ago Guy i get tickets from has tickets 5 rows behind the dugout...as an aside, - my son was with wally on the dugout roof during the 7th inning stretch during that game-and got his name on the scoreboard for his birthday- also got a foul ball (beckett was pitching))

Engine eval is one of the steps we are smack dab in the middle of. We've done extensive work with pretty much everyone we have heard about that has something that could work for us, and are on a second and in some cases third round of evals with those same companies. It's a monumental decision to be made and we are covering and recovering our tracks in every case. What we end up creating is all based on what path we choose to take.

Ya, I have already heard "Hey Ngruk" at just about every park in the AL and NL.....

[Drtyrm]

Could someone with some experience with Asheron's Call explain the episodic content in that game? Just as a starting point for me to try and understand what 38Studios may do similar/different.

Did they just implement new quests? New hubs? Update old hubs? New art assets?

[Old Man Potter]

The challenge with a story based MMO is ensuring that *everyone* gets to experience it and feel impacted by it. Typically in MMO's like WoW, only a tiny minority of players get to experience the stories and main protagonists first-hand. Of course I'm speaking about the pampered raiders. It's paradoxical that the people that care the least about the lore get to experience it the most. Not to mention that aproximately 5-10% of the playerbase gets 90% of dev resources allocated to their playstyle.

Another challenge for MMO's in the future is to let the players somehow shape the storyline. Currently MMO's devs/writers drive the storyline in most major MMO's -- not the players. The player is essentially playing a game on rails where the storyline unfolds whether they like it or not. Players are mere bystanders to the real events and story arcs that are all predetermined on some whiteboard in southern California.

All the player can really do to impact the world is to level up and get more gear. This explains why MMO's of late have become all about the accumulation of gear and not about the other things that used to make RPG's so special: role-playing, exploration, etc.

Things only change in an MMO world if the devs decide it should change via new expansions and occasional content injections. Players truly crave being able to make their mark on the world. They want to impact the worlds they inhabit. MMO devs need to start removing the shackles from players and give them meaningful ways to do this. MMO companies need to be much more ambitious if they are to drive this genre forward beyond the current state of making yet another EQ clone. 38 Studios at least is going in the right direction.

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by Old Man Potter

The challenge with a story based MMO is ensuring that *everyone* gets to experience it and feel impacted it. Typically in MMO's like WoW, only a tiny minority of players get to experience the stories and main protagonists first-hand. Of course I'm speaking about the pampered raiders. It's paradoxical that the people that care the least about the lore get to experience it the most. Not to mention that aproximately 5-10% of the playerbase gets 90% of dev resources allocated to their playstyle.

Another challenge for MMO's in the future is to let the players somehow shape the storyline. Currently MMO's devs/writers drive the storyline in most major MMO's -- not the players. The player is essentially playing a game on rails where the storyline unfolds whether they like it or not. Players are mere bystanders to the real events and story arcs that are all predetermined on some whiteboard in southern California.

All the player can really do to impact the world is to level up and get more gear. This explains why MMO's of late have become all about the accumulation of gear and not about the other things that used to make RPG's so special: role-playing, exploration, etc.

Things only change in an MMO world if the devs decide it should change via new expansions and occasional content injections. Players truly crave being able to make their mark on the world. They want to impact the worlds they inhavit. MMO devs need to start removing the shackles from players and give them meaningful ways to do this. MMO companies need to be much more ambitious if they are to drive this genre forward beyond the current state of making yet another EQ clone. 38 Studios at least is going in the right direction.

Good point and why I mentioned Horizons. They did this really, really well and made sure that if you wanted to participate in the event, you could.

For example, in the event where you saved (unlocked) the Elven Town from the Undead, you first had to repair these siege weapons to lay siege to the town. Crafters needed to bring mats and load them into the Siege Weapons to repair them, and the Horizons devs did it right where you needed mats and components from all Crafting schools. However, there were these higher level mobs around the Siege Weapons that the adventurers had to constantly clear to allow the Crafters to come in and rebuild the siege weapons without getting slaughtered. Real good times and real sense of accomplishment when it was finished...

...and that's not even mentioning the fact that the undead were pissy about losing their town and released a plagued villager who would spread the plague around from person to person. The plague would lower your stats and slowly drain your life until you did the quest to get the cure. The best part was that the plague was actually passed from player to player based on promiximity...it was awesome to see the tells go up in General when people found a player spreading the plague. Cool, cool stuff...