Handy Vandal's Almanac

“Generally speaking, there are three types of bosses that appear in games, the cute-type, abominable-type and fantasy-type.”
– Ying Shi

Multiplayer Online Games Directory recently published an interview with Ying Shi, an illustrator working for ChangYou on such projects as Tian Long Ba Bu (”The most powerful martial arts experience of your MMO life.”)

MPOGD: How many concepts do you go through to get to the right one when developing the characters?

YS: We can use our own ideas to create an image, but if we want the person or player to like what they see, then we need to take some time to think about what it is we want to design. Generally speaking, there are three types of bosses that appear in games, the cute-type, abominable-type and fantasy-type. These are factors to think about when designing and, at the same time, we need to consider the story of the boss life, where does he/she come from, whats the background, the reason the boss is an enemy and how/why they became the way they are.

MPOGD: TLBB is widely known for its authenticity to the book (Tian Long Ba Bu). What key ideas and features did you take from the book in order to create what we see today?

YS: Its important to bear in mind that the game has a genuine ancient Chinese martial arts feel to it and so highlighted areas such as the 9 nine different classes, the cities, the skills etc. are very influential. Weve tried to maintain a genuine feel to the book also, hence why the NPCs are named after characters in the original work of Louis Cha.

- Multiplayer Online Games Directory

For more about the classes:
http://tlbb.eu.changyou.com/gameguide/Classes.shtml

ArenaNet recently posted a design manifesto for Guild Wars 2, their massive multiplayer online role playing game.

Here’s an excerpt concerning a subject near and dear to my heart: the social dynamics of gaming …

MMOs are social games. So why do they sometimes seem to work so hard to punish you for playing with other players? If I’m out hunting and another player walks by, shouldn’t I welcome his help, rather than worrying that he’s going to steal my kills or consume all the mobs I wanted to kill? Or if I want to play with someone, shouldn’t we naturally have the same goals and objectives, rather than discovering that we’re in the same area but working on a different set of quests?

We think of GW2 as the first MMO that actually has a cooperative PvE experience. When I’m out hunting and suddenly there’s a huge explosion over the next hill — the ground is shaking and smoke is pouring into the sky — I’m going to want to investigate, and most other players in the area will too. Or if the sky darkens on a sunny day, and I look up and see a dragon circling overhead preparing to attack, I know I’d better fight or flee, and everyone around me knows that too.

With traditional MMOs you can choose to solo or you can find a good guild or party to play with. With GW2 there’s a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you. I personally spend a big chunk of my time in traditional MMOs soloing, but when I play GW2 I always find myself naturally working with everyone around me to accomplish world objectives, and before long we find ourselves saying, “Hey, there’s a bunch of us here; let’s see if we can take down the swamp boss together,” without ever having bothered to form a party.

Of course GW2 has great support for parties, but they just don’t feel as necessary as they do in other MMOs, because your interests are always aligned with all other nearby players anyway. When someone kills a monster, not just that player’s party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world –- when the bandits are terrorizing a village -– everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.

- ArenaNet

Via Slashdot

In this time of white-out blizzards and severe cabin fever, many of us look for engaging mental getaways that don’t involve braving the frigid outside world. One increasingly popular solution over the past decade has involved diving into a richly-detailed world via the home computer or console system. With the proliferation of high-speed Internet access, whether broadband or DSL, the number of persistent-world or “Massively Multiplayer Online” (MMO) games has absolutely exploded. Some, like the recent “Champions Online” release, rely on the strong reputation of the developers (in this case, Cryptic Studios, makers of the similar and successful City of Heroes/Villains games) or the source franchise (the old-school pencil-and-dice RPG, “Champions”) to create demand and attract subscribers. Others, which may have fewer engaging marketing prospects, or whose initial “buzz” has died down, elect to woo potential customers via the free trial. These companies may miss out on the $40 software purchase price (though some offer only limited content via download), but they know that the real cash cow lies in the monthly subscription.

I’ve played around at a few of these games over the years, some more seriously than others. Eventually, these games lose their lustrous appeal, whether because of lacking content/development or simply because the community of player diminishes or degrades. But what about satisfying the persistent jones for living a double life in a compelling sci-fi/fantasy world? Jumping into a whole new world can be a daunting prospect, especially if one has to make one’s decision based on software boxes on a shelf at Best Buy.

After a little searching, I was able to find a nicely comprehensive list of persistent-world games (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/0), which includes a number of titles still in development. The list is quite handy, in terms of knowing the genre, developers, cost and distribution options for the games, but doesn’t jump that final, crucial hurdle of documenting which games offer free trials. Skimming through the list, though, one can easily enough navigate to the parent sites for each game, where promotional options can be found. For those interested in MMOs, here’s a short list of the games that will let you try before you buy. And at 10-14 days per game, one can pretty easily while away the remaining winter months by exploring life in a multitude of interesting worlds.

For the “sword-and-sorcery” crowd:

• EverQuest II
  http://everquest2.com/freeTrial.vm
• Asheron’s Call
  http://trial.ac.turbine.com
• World of Warcraft
  https://us.battle.net/account/creation/wow/signup/
• Lord of the Rings Online
  https://trial.turbine.com/lotro.php
• Dark Age of Camelot
  http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/trial/
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
  http://vanguard.station.sony.com/isleofdawn/
• Ultima Online
  http://www.uoherald.com/trial/
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
  http://www.ddo.com/playnow

For those whose interest lies with advanced technology, rather than magic, there’s:

• Star Wars Galaxies
  http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/content.vm?id=62963
• EVE Online
  https://secure.eve-online.com/ft/freetrialsignup.aspx?aid=106137
• DarkSpace
  http://www.darkspace.net/index.htm?module=newlogin.php
• StarQuest Online
  http://www.castlethornsoftware.com/SQOweb2/accountregistration.html
• Rise
  http://rise.unistellar.com/welcome.html

As previously mentioned, these are short lists of free trials available to the gaming consumer. Try some out. Find a game that best suits your own personal sense of escapism. That way, when you do decide to buy, in most cases you’ve already got the client software installed and the $30-$50 purchase price you would have spent can be put towards two or three months’ worth of subscription fees.

But maybe that’s just the frugal Scot in me talkin’…

Douglas Rushkoff talks about his participation in the making of Exoriare:

I’ve written and even taught a whole lot about interactive narrative over the years, but rarely have the chance to play with this stuff. So last year, when a Canadian games company rang to see if I’d be interested in collaborating with them on developing stories for a giant, multi-dimensional gaming universe, I jumped. It was like I was being given the chance to live out Jack Kirby’s dream of world-building with Robert Anton Wilson’s vision of multiple and overlapping perspectives.

The early results are finally making it online as the preview of a graphic novel, which spills out into the trailhead of at least one Alternate Reality Game, and also comprises the back story of the coming videogame series. This is a big big universe – a giant war for the future of humanity, of course – with maybe one overall timeline but many different pathways through the material. So people might follow my characters through a series of graphic novels, and learn something about them that they can then use in the games, or an artifact they find in the game might help them decode something in the comics. And even the ARG that people are beginning to play right now – through which they are “finding the others,” and forging coalitions with other gamers in their own parts of the world to solve certain challenges – is a set-up for the bigger game, where these larger groups will be responsible for various aspects of the coming war.

The object of the game right now is for the players to build the “Darknet,” an alternative network through which a global resistance can operate, and people can begin to piece together why NASA scientists are being rounded up and what the hell happened over the skies in Los Angeles.

- Douglas Rushkoff @ Boing Boing

From the Boing Boing comments section:

“Looks absolutely brilliant. I see that Telefilm Canada is on board. Interesting. I never knew they dealt with video game production.”
- BattyMcDougall