Jim Skamarakas

In EQ2, prior to a long series of crafting changes, there was an excellent concept called interdependence. It favored the alchemists too much, and the sweeping fixes went too far to eliminate any interdependence at all. But game concepts and changes are neither here nor there for this post.

What happened was some good things. When I was leveling up, people would send me tells offering to give me a stack of raw materials and the fuel to make parts they needed. Some offered a tip, or a flat rate, or just the materials so that I could level up in crafting at no out of pocket costs, just my time. I liked the system. Well after the first month of launch, as happens in MMO’s, people drop off. And it became harder to find people. So in our guild I made the above offer - 1000 FREE Carbonite studs.

All the crafters in the guild had to to was let us know who needed the studs and you could have them for free. Now every crafter in the guild was asked to contribute what they could to help with the project, be it the finished studs, bars of carbonite, or the tempers to make the pieces. And no crafters were asked to donate raw carbonite. A great guild project.

MMO’s are supposed to be massive. What current MMO has a project in it that requires major player efforts to achieve a task? Horizons blew it with their build a bridge to the land of housing. First the game sucked at that time, second people working on the bridge thought they had a certain inalienable right by their creator to the resources on the other side of the bridge. Because people get greedy in MMO’s. It is part of the culture. And limited resources, such as a finite number of housing slots or a dungeon that can only be done once to get the uber weapon, all show bad design choices.

Why would a game company hire a developer to create a quest for the month of January, let’s call it “Ice Caverns of hackhackhairballcoughtinmythroat” or any other clever made up game lore name. So as a game company owner or manager, you hire this person, set them to working on this great dungeon, and when they are done, it is launched to the player community. A few stalwarts stay up around the cloak the day after the patch goes live, and finish this new content. And TA DA - they have the hairball of might and glory - the only one on the server. No one else wants to go into your Ice Cavern again. There is no reason. The ultimate reward is gone. For everyone else going, the risk is the same, or maybe lesser. The big bad nasty in the last room who coughed up that hairball with their dying breath is gone also. All in keeping with the story line.

So developer works, patch goes live, quest is over for your entire community, and given delays in paychecks by 2 weeks, your developer gets paid. Hardly a sound business decision. Yet game companies do these things in the name of competition for the uber object djur. Even simple tasks, like enchanting in World of Warcraft allow people to come together and gather materials for both common and rare spells. Need a bag, lets all go hunt in the dungeon were things soon to die all drop mage weave. Need an essence of air? Gather the gang, and off we go. Want a spaceship in EVE Online? Go hunting till you can afford it, or go mining for days on end. But better yet, get a gang together of miners, haulers and guards and go to dangerous places, mine for hours not days, and help that person build their ship.

Why do we not see more projects that yes while able to be done solo, would take weeks to months, but when done together are achievable. Yet someone who takes up the cause a few days after the patch comes out still can go through the adventure, the pains and the fun. In short, why does every meeting in an MMO’s office not have the following question asked: “Your current project, how many months from now will players still be doing it, using it, or talking about it positively?” Rather then asking “Will it be uber?”

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Categories: gaming
Tags: gaming