Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Rythonn]

Asheron's Call is what comes to mind for me, when I think of episodic content. At one point they destroyed an entire city.

[Campa]

Originally Posted by spentmotiff

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.

Well one problem HZ did has was tailoring the content so all level ranges could participate. Unfortunately when they tried to have things for lower level players higher levels would come in and wipe it out. And it was the same way for the crafting objectives. It was so much more efficient having a higher level crafter do that work that newbs basically got locked out.

This IMO is probably the hardest problem to solve because how do you make an open world event but restrict it to desired level range in a non-artificial way??

[Gaereth]

Originally Posted by spentmotiff

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...

The problem still is....if you start playing the game 3years after initial release you don't experience any story. Its all history unless devs continually go back and retool existing areas so that a new story arises.

Now, thats not such a bad thing because as long as people keep moving forward they will at some point enter into a phase where they can become part of the story. But as was pointed out above if the story is based on progression then the bleeding edge will push that progression and once again most people won't get to participate unless they are right on the front edge. In essence, that becomes exactly like what we have today with the raiders pushing at the wall of 'story' while everyone else slowly catches up.

To truly engage everyone of all levels, at any time, in a story that they can participate in it must truly be a dynamic and changing world. Cities must rise and fall. Good and evil must walk freely and control and lose ground as they go. The starting areas will move based on what happens, etc, etc. Otherwise episodes just end up looking just like our current stable of games after a couple of years unless you at the front edge riding the wave.

It would be very nice if they actually moved to a more dynamic world system, or even a highly scripted world system that changed the face of the world over time. It would be nice to not start a new character 3 years after the game opens and have the game be exactly the same as when you started a character in that spot the first time.

It would be nice.

[Traldan]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

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.....

Very interesting. Obviously, you can't tell us which you're considering, but the better graphics comment brings Vanguard to mind (can't help it!). I applauded Sigil for pursuing a higher standard of graphics than was typical of MMOs, but it backfired and was another reason why Vanguard struggled to find mass appeal.

Oh, and how is Ngruk pronounced, anyway?

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by Gaereth

It would be very nice if they actually moved to a more dynamic world system, or even a highly scripted world system that changed the face of the world over time. It would be nice to not start a new character 3 years after the game opens and have the game be exactly the same as when you started a character in that spot the first time.

It would be nice.

Good points and yes, please for a truly dynamic world. Shit, the MMO genre is either in the 4th or 5th Gen (depending on who you talk to) and, honestly, nothing has been done that is simply groundbreaking, like playing EQ for the first time was for people.

Going from playing UO to playing EQ was jaw-dropping in the differences and improvements in the game world. I remember I spent my first couple of days walking around saying to myself "I can't believe how real and how deep this world is." Compared to going from EQ to EQ2/WoW and while you can see obvious improvements, there were not as jaw dropping as before.

I believe that a changing, dynamic world will be a real good step in that direction and something to differentiate the next crop of fantasy games from the crowd (as AoC and WAR seem to be doing.)

While I'm sure there is room for another fantasy MMO, I can't see any reason from switching from my current level/class based, fixed class roles, leveling treadmill MMO to the next level/class based, fixed class roles, leveling treadmill MMO-with-slightly-better-graphics.

[Campa]

Originally Posted by Gaereth

The problem still is....if you start playing the game 3years after initial release you don't experience any story. Its all history unless devs continually go back and retool existing areas so that a new story arises.

What would be nice is to build instances based off of major storyline events that "replay" these moments in the server's history. A lot like the Caverns of Time from WoW. To me that would make for a great way to explain instances in the world from a lore perspective.

It would be very nice if they actually moved to a more dynamic world system, or even a highly scripted world system that changed the face of the world over time. It would be nice to not start a new character 3 years after the game opens and have the game be exactly the same as when you started a character in that spot the first time.

What I would really love to see is as players move the game to some major ending of a storyline that the game basically "resets". The storyline advances 50-60 years, everyones' characters are now dead, and you start playing as a new generation of your character's family. This would give you the chance to change basically any aspect about your character, Class/Name/Race/etc.. or you can just remain the same if you so chose (though you'd still be a child of your former character).

You would retain your level & gear (or perhaps gear could be converted to points and you spend these points to acquire new gear) and anything else your previous character possessed. Maybe you could even do something like take your previous Lev 60 character and turn that into 2 Lev 35 characters or whatever the amount of XP earned would allow.

With this storyline advancement brings in the content of a new storyline and perhaps some major changes in the world. Former allies are now foes or new enemies have arisen etc..., some refreshing of the older content, and following up on my above suggestion of CoT like instances some new instances that cover the events of the old storyline & anything significant that happened in the in-between years.

[QforQ]

Originally Posted by Traldan

Very interesting. Obviously, you can't tell us which you're considering, but the better graphics comment brings Vanguard to mind (can't help it!). I applauded Sigil for pursuing a higher standard of graphics than was typical of MMOs, but it backfired and was another reason why Vanguard struggled to find mass appeal.

Oh, and how is Ngruk pronounced, anyway?

Well one thing to keep in mind they are targeting release for what..2010-2011? It's a ways off, who knows what cards can do!

But then again, it's good to keep in mind what Sigil did and that Brad was banking on hardware overcoming the crappy performance of Vanguard...which obviously didnt happen.

[Lonin]

The way the graphics comment was phrased, it seems to me that he means better graphics than WoW, but not "cutting edge" graphics, the Sigil approach.

[Traldan]

Originally Posted by Lonin

The way the graphics comment was phrased, it seems to me that he means better graphics than WoW, but not "cutting edge" graphics, the Sigil approach.

Agreed, I interpreted it as such, but wanted to bring up Vanguard as an example of one that went too far.

[Ngruk]

Originally Posted by Traldan

Agreed, I interpreted it as such, but wanted to bring up Vanguard as an example of one that went too far.

Where did I mention graphics?

[darksensei]

It's like Spaceballs:

Just now.

[Froofy-D]

Originally Posted by Lonin

The way the graphics comment was phrased, it seems to me that he means better graphics than WoW, but not "cutting edge" graphics

Reasonable systems specs is the way to go, no question, if you want subscribers. In fact, evidence suggests that higher system specs = less players. For example:

WoW: reasonable system specs, most players by a huge margin. Do I even need to link MMOGCHART.COM here?

Counter Strike 1 - Most players of any online FPS game by a long shot and is based on 1998 technology engine. The only game that even comes close is CS:Source, its sequel which has less players presumably due to system specs:

GameSpy.com - Gimme The Stats!

America's Army is 100% free, based on vastly superior graphic technology (Unreal), yet has virtually no players compared to CS1, which is a free HL1 mod people actually pay for. How can game developers continually release MMOGs with high system specs when it is so obvious that it completely gimps their player base?

[James]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

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

Haha, how do they even pronounce it. I'd feel like a total dork being all like "HEY N...g...ruk!"

[Lonin]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Where did I mention graphics?

We're talking about the original quote.

[CylusSoulreaver]

Marketing would do well to set up a Flash-based "Kick Moorgard in the nuts."

/hugs Moor