May 1, 2008
I saw a few discussion articles recently, touched off by Tobold, about guild members gearing up and then jumping to a guild that’s progressed further. WoW is the example he uses to discuss what’s wrong with loot distribution in game, and how it causes a guild to fracture.
A few things popped out at me, like this quote:
Before WoW, people were leaving guilds most often for reasons of not getting along with other people in the guild. Guild drama and people in a guild getting into fights is as old as guild themselves. But World of Warcraft added a new element: guild hopping for epics. This is due to the fact that if you are among the best equipped characters in your guild, your further progression slows down significantly. The guild as a whole progresses not at the speed of the first raider, but at the speed of the 25th.
I completely disagree with his assertion that guild hopping for loot wasn’t an issue before WoW. Guild hopping for epics/high end gear was common even in the early days of EQ, and I’d assume even before that.
I do agree with his assertion that one person’s epic takes the collective effort of the guild, and it demoralizes everyone to see that person run to greener pastures. But his suggestion of a guild rep faction system is just DKP really, and Potshot’s suggestion of tokens for loot not only sucks the thrill out of raiding, but also reinforces the loot gap between those who have oodles of time and those who don’t.
Putting in a system that basically handcuffs a player to their guild is a bad idea. You can put in a faction system, or even force a player to return epics to the guild bank if they leave, but you can’t force a player to participate and cooperate with a guild that they dont’ want to be a part of. Sure, players will end up staying with their guilds, but they’ll just skip in house raids to join up with higher end raid guilds. All it would do is change the game culture to make outside raiding more common and accepted.
One possible design solution that helps is EQ2’s system, where loot drops are tailored to the raid classes in the instance. So you won’t go through a raid and get 15 pieces of bard gear if you dont’ have a bard in attendance. Assuming that the number of drops is the same, it means you are gearing up much more efficiently, and people are more often seeing loot that they can use.
But what this issue really comes down to is not with game design, but with guild management. One of the main responsibilities of a guild leader is to manage recruitment responsibly. If you are a laid back, casual guild, you don’t send a guild invite to someone who plays 80 hours a week and goes on and on about raiding Top Tier Zone 01. Good front end screening prevents most of the problem. And pro active roster management can take care of the rest. There are usually lots of red flags that pop up when someone is potentially seeking greener pastures. I’ve seen way too many guild hoppers, and I can’t say I was ever shocked when it actually happened. What it comes down to is a case of mismatched playstyles, which is not the fault of the game.
Ironically, I’m working through the very issue of loot distribution right now. We haven’t had any drama - yet - but I can tell that I have to make adjustments to our loot system sooner rather than later. Right now in our guild, we’re getting items that are being upgraded fairly fast, since people are quickly outleveling the gear that we’re getting. But even if it’s just a bag of compost that drops, and people see it being awarded unfairly, that can begin to create distrust - not only among members, but towards leadership, and that distrust can easily spread to other areas besides loot.Tobold finished his entry by saying:
Some system that forces people to select their friends more carefully and encourages them to stick together would do wonders to the social cohesion of WoW.
That system is called responsible and pro active guild management. It’s not flawless, but it’s better than any in game system that could be designed.
And on another note, I’m a bit slow to mention this, but Darren, host of Shut Up We’re Talking, invited me to co-host the show with him, which I gladly accepted. And the most recent show, with Tim from Van Hemlock, and Michael from MMOG Nation, was a blast to be a part of. Talking with those three was a pleasure, and I look forward to being a regular down the road.
Peter from The Addicted Gamer also invited me to be a guest on his next show, which is coming up soon. And last but not least, Troy started up a new show, called Travels with Troy, and he asked me to pop on for a cameo/discussion topic for his next episode. I think I’m getting hooked on this whole podcasting thing….
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (3)
April 16, 2008
Cameron from Random Battle is now writing a regular column for Massively. And one of his first articles was titled “Raid Leaders are Jerks.”
His main point is that many people who lead raids generally have a lack of patience, and resort to cursing, scolding, yelling, and doing a great impersonation of the Minus 50 DKP guy to bring about a successful raid.
He might be right, that there is a disproportionate number of jerky raid leaders. But he seems to think it’s unavoidable, and even necessary, in order to have a successful raiding guild. I could not disagree more.
Raid leaders who constantly yell, swear, belittle, and call out raiders for mistakes are just lazy. I have done a lot of coaching and teaching, and both require the same skill as raid leading. It’s not rocket science here - you have a bunch of people that need to learn to do certain things in order to succeed, and it’s your job to teach them. Where a lot of raid leaders (and teachers and coaches for that matter) fall short is in their ability to teach. If you give instruction, and your team (or class) fails, it’s easy to give the same instructions again in a louder tone, with lots of four letter words. But there’s a good chance that the mistake will be repeated, because what’s really at fault isn’t the player who made the mistake, but the way the instruction was conveyed.
I’ve been leading raids on and off for about 9 years now. (I just did the mental math and freaked myself out). I cut my teeth on Everquest content. The number of raiders we had to manage made it feel like running a small city. We negotiated with other guilds over who was using /shout for their raid channel, who was using /ooc, and who was using /auction. There was no loot window, so we kneeled on the corpse and typed all the stats by hand, hoping desperately that we could lock the corpse long enough to get the item to those who deserved it. And my raid UI was a scrap of paper, comprised of chunks of 6 names, with lots of crossed out marks and arrows going here, there, and everywhere.Raid leading has come a long long way since then. But I never felt the need to yell at a raid, and I’d like to think that I do ok. Here are a few things I’ve learned:
- Prescreening is important! Be upfront immediately with potential members about what your expectations are, what your playtimes are, and what you would require of them. This isn’t dating, so cut to the chase - what does your guild want with the app, and what does the app want from your guild? If it isn’t the same thing, it’s good to know that upfront!
- People will leave! It’s inevitable that you will have some degree of attrition. What you want to do is surround yourself with some loyal gamers who fill the key roles, and then complete the guild raid force with those who can fill your roster and hopefully play needed classes. People do come and go though. Some switch games, some leave gaming altogether, and some end up going to another guild (although you can reduce this- see above). You can’t take it personally, and you need to manage numbers wisely.
- Adjust to the times. Just like with coaching, the playbook constantly changes. And a good raid leader will work hard to make necessary changes. Voice chat is an essential tool for raiding, but it’s something that wasn’t available when I first started raid leading. Same with the raid UI. But adjusting to how content evolves is also important, and this where the teaching part becomes really important. I remember struggling to explain to a NToV raid that when our monks were clearing drakes, we had to center them in Ary’s pit. A little too close to the side walls, and they’d warp and return with several friends. A little too far out, and they’d chain aggro more roamers. For some reason, we could not manage to keep the mob in the middle. So I decided to use a player corpse, positioning it right smack in the middle of the pit, and using that as a marker for where to place the mob. The goal was to make that drake die and land right on top of the corpse. We never had a problem with positioning after that, and it worked so well, I ended up dragging along a dead gnome all the way up to the back of NToV, and using him as our mob marker for all the nameds. Yes, it’s silly, but it worked far better than me screaming “NOT THERE, MOVE THE MOB HERE!”
- Study and prepare, but don’t be afraid to allow for input. This is a sticky one, because as a raid leader, you want the entire raid to understand that you’re in charge, just for the simple fact that dozens of people giving orders will lead to chaos. But raid leaders are so concerned with being usurped that sometimes they ignore helpful input from the raid, because they view it as a threat to their authority. I look over the roster of our guild in EQ2, and I’m looking at years and years of collective gaming and raiding experience. I’d be a fool to ignore that gem of a resource when I’m leading a raid. It is possible to solicit input and still be in charge. What’s important is the end result - that you are making wise decisions and giving clear instructions.
- Keep it moving. This is the one point that I would say is most important during a raid. And it’s also the one that I always feel I need to improve on. I’m happiest when we have the raid moving at a pace where we are killing stuff as fast as we possibly can without wiping. Standing around will almost guarantee that people will make an early exit, cutting short your raid, and jeopardizing raid turnout in the future. Our guild raids only twice a week, and our raid session is only about 2.5 - 3 hours. So when we raid, every minute counts, and nothing aggravates me more than wasted time.
- Tells work wonders! When someone on a raid makes a mistake, I can guarantee you at least one of two things - A) it was an honest mistake and B) they knew right away that they messed up. So calling out someone by name in front of the raid force accomplishes nothing useful. If I see someone on a raid doing something wrong, I send a quick tell. 90% of the time, they admit to messing up, and have already made proper corrections. The other 9% of the time, it’s due to confusion, and once we work to get to the source of the confusion, it’s a quick fix to resolve it. The last 1% is due to blatant carelessness, but with good prescreening (see above) you can avoid inviting these people in the first place. It’s easier to mash your vent button and scream at someone who messed up, but I don’t think it’s as effective in the long run.
Right now, I’m running a guild that has many former “hardcore” players, but we have much more limited playtimes, so we aren’t gunning to elbow in with the most competitive guilds. Overall, though, I’ve had a chance to lead some pretty hardcore guilds, and I’ve had a chance to help run some very laid back guilds. And through it all, I never felt the need to change my approach to raid leading.
Players have a very accurate B.S. detector. I’ve played with leaders who do yell, but make it work because they are well prepared and sincere overall. I’ve played with leaders who are so calm and starchy, they make Mr. Spock look like Dennis Rodman. I try to aim for a focused atmosphere, with a little humor here and there. I’ve seen all styles work, and work well. Success isn’t measured in how big of a jerk you are - it’s measured in preparation, clarity of instruction, and good decision making. If you can do the basics well, you could run a raid singing it in an opera voice, and you’d still be successful.
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (5)
April 9, 2008
My husband showed me this hilarious entry about Lost. I have to say, this guy shows more insight and knowledge about MMOs (or CRPGs as he puts it), than many gaming commentators and experts!
I did some grinding in LOST for a couple of seasons, and he’s right about the show. My favorite quote, though, is his description of MMOs, because it’s so perfect, and it smacks a bit of the whole “Emperor has no clothes” scenario. We’d like to think otherwise, but MMOs are pretty simple:
I love them despite my frequent realizations, while playing, that in-game progress is largely chimeric. When you’re a level 1 squire it may take you two minutes to kill a rat; when you are a level 9 knight you can kill a rat with a single stroke–but you don’t fight rats, you fight ogres, and the time it takes you to kill them is … two minutes. Your environment levels up as you do, such that you are pretty much playing the same game all the time, albeit with cool new equipment and a more impressive sounding rank. The excitement you feel upon leveling fades almost immediately, as you start accumulating experience to reach the next stage.
For the record, at level 74, it took me 2 minutes 34 seconds to kill a young wurm, so he’s using some fuzzy math right there.
But he did idealize the perfect endgame boss - A Giant Ambulatory Sentient Coconut. The Sleeper would have nothing on this guy.
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (0)
April 7, 2008
There are a few important lessons from this article on why WoW is innovative. But it misses the biggest two reasons why WoW pushed the envelope and moved MMOs to the mainstream. Let’s take a look:
1. RELY ON CRITICS
First of all, Blizzard isn’t doing anything different than any other MMO when it comes to criticism from its playerbase, so this isnt’ innovative. But second, they dont’ even rely on critics. I would hope not at least. Do we really want developers catering to the demands of the loudest players? What a huge C-F mess WoW would be if they were.
2. USE YOUR OWN PRODUCT
This isnt’ innovative either. We’ve seen this listed dozens of times - that Blizzard was already an established name with a popular fanbase, and that made it successful. I don’t really buy it personally, because there are plenty of other big names out there that aren’t pulling in a fraction of the players WoW has gained. But it doesnt’ hurt so whatever.
4. GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
This point actually is valuable, but not in the way it’s written. Going back to the drawing board isn’t always a good idea. What’s important is knowing *when* to scrap something. Scrap it too soon, and you end up spinning your wheels at the virtual blackboard. Scrap it too late, and you get the snowball failure effect of Vanguard, which scrapped combat deep into beta, and struggled to piece together a decent system by launch. Age of Conan also had to revamp combat, and launch will prove whether they timed it right or not.
5. DESIGN FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF CUSTOMERS
This is a nice idea, not really innovative though. And I don’t think it’s a lesson that all MMOs should aim for. Sometimes, making a damn good niche game (Eve Online), is much better than trying to be everything to everyone.
8. STATISTICS BOLSTER EXPERIENCE
Looking at raw data to tweak the game isnt’ innovative. All MMOs do this. (They do, don’t they? I hope they do)
10. CREATE A NEW TYPE OF PRODUCT
Not going to spend much time on this one, since it was pointed out a few dozen times right on the link that this point is wrong. WoW isn’t a new type of product. It didn’t create a new type of billing system. This is a point that is so wrong, it almost ruins the credibility of the entire article.
WoW was innovative. It took the fun from MMORPGs like Meridian 59, Ultima Online, and especially Everquest, scrubbed off the nerdiness, dropped the RPG, and made a fun as hell game that people weren’t embarassed to admit playing. They made it cool to play an MMO, by embracing pop culture in their content, by creating a visually fun world that plays on a tin can, and by not taking themselves too seriously.
What especially helped them was their timing. They launched at a time when previously released MMOs were long in the tooth, and fans were ready for a change. Even more important, they are a testament to the fact that a successful launch means everything. They launched around the same time as Everquest 2, but their game was a lot more complete, and much more fun to play. Over the years, Everquest 2 not only smoothed out the roadbumps in their game, but has come up with many more innovative features and creative content than WoW. (If you want to talk about innovation, that’s the place to look). Today, Everquest 2 is, hands down, a better overall game than WoW. But WoW has 10 million subscribers and Everquest 2 is around 200k. Going on pure numbers, Everquest 2 is successful. But Everquest 2’s stumble out of the gate meant they lost out on 10 million potential players. That’s incredible.
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (0)
March 29, 2008
Yep, we’ve all seen this excuse (or maybe given this excuse!) from time to time. A group is taking too long to get started, or a raid is wiping one too many times, or all the gorgons in fear were killed (Yes, you EQ druids were THE worst) and *blip*, someone goes linkdead. Then you get that tell or the post the next day saying, “Sorry about that, my power went out.” Uh-huh.
I used to share a laugh with my best gaming friend, Corka, about how a certain mage we knew would actually run around in circles before he would go “linkdead.” Definitely an A for effort.
And my fellow rangers in EQ Fallen Alliance used to jokingly predict when A) the first wave of raid logouts would occur and B) what the silliest excuse would be. We came up with some good ones too!
But last night, my power really DID go out! Call it an Earth Hour warmup I guess. I was headed over to the NPC to work on the Bristlebane quests, so no biggie for me, but my husband, Mutz, was in a pickup group that was limping along and had barely killed one named the entire evening. Around 11, everything went black, and we heard a *thump*. Turns out, a lightpole out on the main road toppled over (although I’m not sure what exactly caused it). We shared a good laugh about what his group must be thinking about him!
So, not everyone that suddenly goes offline is making it up. Well, everyone else is, but Mutz and I are not!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (4)
March 25, 2008
Forums have become almost as important to many players as the game itself. So with many new games coming out, there is always the debate over whether to have official forums or not. Darren recently wrote a piece about official forums, and there’s a lengthy discussion thread over on the Nerfbat forums that also brought up the question.
I’m coming from an EQ background, where my favorite site was good old p.com, and where the whole notion of fansites became mainstream. Everlore, Mobhunter, Magelo, EQ Atlas, all set a high bar for player contributions, and it really changed how we approach MMOs.Having said that, it’s beyond crazy to release a game without an official forum. And I’d go even further, to say that it’s bad marketing if you don’t have a good official site with solid resource information for new or returning players. Here are a few reasons why:
- Information is lacking on big fansites. There is an occasional game guide here and there, but even still, you often have to wade through tons and tons of crap and ads to get to it. I don’t like to play the revenue click game to get answers to game questions.
- Games change, sometimes drastically. Players need a central place to quickly take in those changes, especially for returning players who have not played in a while. Even if a fansite writes an accurate piece about content or gameplay, they rarely go back and update it to reflect any changes. And we all know that the little game booklet that comes with a CD is outdated the moment the box is opened. So new or returning players are left to spend hours and hours scouring fansites and forums to get answers to their questions. I’m back, now make it easy for me to want to stay dammit!
- There’s a practical, and even crucial, reason for forums. Developers need input from the playerbase. Forums are the best way to get that feedback (bugs, broken content etc), for fast fixes. Vanguard had no official forums at the start, so developers had to rely on feedback from forums like Silky Venom, Vanguard Servers, Ten Ton Hammer, Vanguard Vault, Vanguard Spheres, and a few dozen class sites and international sites. It was impossible for the devs to be able to visit and address feedback from all these sites, which was a problem obviously. But then when they concentrated their efforts on feedback from a couple of sites, they got complaints from all the others, who felt slighted. Having official forums would eliminate the problem, and get bugs fixed even faster.
- Some say that having official forums hurts small sites, but I argue the opposite. Having a central spot where players can see links to community contributions is a no brainer. Lots of official forums have a community news section, where pre-approved players can highlight their creativity. We’re in an age where many are showing their gaming passion through fansites, blogs, videos, songs, artwork, comics, and podcasts. Official sites should want to draw attention to it, and where better than on an official forum, or even the main site itself. That’s free PR for the game, and brings additional attention to the little guys. That’s a Win-Win Situation! (For those of you up to speed on the EQ2 forums, pardon the pun!)
Yes, WoW forums are notorious for their inane, kid drivel. But there are many smaller WoW forums that do very well, so the two are not mutually exclusive. And the official site hits on all points - it has lots of game resources, keeps up to speed with patches and game changes, and highlights plenty of player contributions. The gold lettering on blue marble is almost as recognizable as yellow arches on a red background. There’s a reason for that!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (1)
March 23, 2008
Every game should have an appearance tab like EQ2’s. A big part of why people play MMO’s is having the chance to stand out, and EQ2 really does that better than any game out there right now. I played back in the day, when every single leather wearer sported the same black tunic with grey studs. Today, you have a lot more variety in what you can wear, with tons of options for casual clothing and armor, thanks to the appearance tab. But there’s also a ton of “fluff” that helps someone stand out from the crowd - from fluff pets, to illusions, and even some neat headgear (pumpkin head anyone?) I love being able to keep names off and still recognize a friend as I run by.
Having said that, I guess I was feeling a little nonconformist yesterday. Maybe it was from reading all the stuff on EQ2Flames and the whole “In your face!” vibe over there, not sure. Anyway, I had some fun with the appearance tab and some old banked gear lying around, to see how bad I could look, and I came up with this -
The strange part is that not one of my guildmates said anything about how ridiculous I look. So they’re either very polite, or they assume I’m just two steps shy of insanity and this is par for the course.
….I need to find my Queens’ Carapace. I know I can do better than this!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (3)
March 22, 2008
Oh the drama! When I switched back to EQ2 from Vanguard, I thought to myself, “self - the developer drama from Vanguard is a thing of the past, it’s time to settle back into a game that is nice and mellow. Right?”
WRONG
I am not interested in the details of the EQ2Flames/SoE showdown. SoE, yet again, will walk away with a big old black eye for not being able to keep a tight ship, and those in charge of the nasty threads on EQ2Flames are burning more bridges than Ze Germans in Normandy.
…Although maybe they’re following the career advancement path of another well-known ranter in MMO history.
Developers are not our friends! Seriously, there needs to be more of an air of professionalism than there is right now, across the board.
The only bright side to all the EQ2 drama is that this will pale in comparison to what’s coming out of Eve Online. Council of Stellar Management? Nice title, but the idea isn’t really that new (although the flight to Iceland is a first!)
Seriously, this is a train wreck in the making, because Eve seems to take itself 10 times more seriously than any other MMO out there. So when the drama unfolds (and it will), it will be spectacular. Should be a great study!
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March 4, 2008
It’s been way too long since I wrote about what I’ve been up to, so it’s time for some catch up.
First, I was invited by Darren, from Common Sense Gamer and Shut up We’re Talking, to contribute to his review of Vanguard. I’ve written extensively about the game, did and saw a lot, and experienced both the highs and lows that Vanguard offered, but I never sat down to write a comprehensive review, which was by choice. I always kept holding back because I wanted to write it when I felt the game was finally able to stand on its own two feet. I’m glad Darren asked me to offer up my thoughts, and the entire review is up over at Virginworlds.
I’ve been tagging along on several recent Virginworlds podcasts lately. Adam from Witty Ranter invited me on his show, along with Brenda from West Karana and Leela from Epic Dolls. The show discussion revolved around females and MMOs, and I had a great time talking with all of them. As I mentioned in the show, I really feel that MMOs are about as close to gender utopia as you can get. Since you can’t assume that female avatars are really females, and vice versa, you have to judge someone based purely on things like game skills and communication abilities.
Sure, there are some women (and way too many men!) who use the female avatar to seduce their way to loot. But in my book, that’s no different than people who scam others in trades, or who roll need instead of greed in a group, or go “linkdead” on a raid after they’ve gotten what they needed (Yes, all you druids in EQ who would bail after all the gorgons were dead!). Each of those are examples of people taking advantage of trust. That’s shady gameplay, not a gender issue.
What was most important in the show, though, was Hello Kitty. Need I say more.
Peter from the new podcast “The Addicted Gamer,” recently called me out on his show, asking for some EQ2 screenshots. I never back down from a challenge, so I sent him over some images, which are now up on his site. He’s also invited me on to his show sometime soon, which I look forward to.
I’m also still doing EQual Perspectives with Troy, and our new co-host Bill. Fun stuff as always.
In Everquest 2, I’ve been all over the map. I’ve done a lot of mentoring and grouping with guildmates, and I’m leading some raids on the original content. I will write more about all of that this week. Here are a few screenshots:
I’m a Fae! (Ok not really, I’m just standing in front of Perenelle)
The secret behind what makes those carpets float….
Here’s a garden I made with my soon-to-be four year old daughter, Sara. She picked out a duck to live there, but he didn’t want to be in the picture.
Speaking of gardens, blogs are lot like them, and I’ve been lax in tending to mine. Hopefully that will change, and I’ll be able to devote some more time to it.
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February 27, 2008
There was a little news tidbit about the Copernicus Project from 38 Studios. According to the press release (via Ten Ton Hammer), they have signed on Big World Technology and will use their engine and toolset to create their upcoming game..
What can we infer from this?
- They want to spend time on content and creative design, rather than building up an engine from scratch. Makes sense, if Big World is quality stuff. It’s also a nice little money saver, which is great if they can put the money into all the cool game stuff that we players always pine for and have yet to see in games. This also makes it sound like they are ready to roll up their sleeves and start making the “wouldn’t it be cool if….” into a real game, which is exciting.
- According to a recent Ten Ton Hammer interview, Big World touts itself as providing a very customizable engine, yet one that runs smoothly on lower end systems. It goes without saying that this is important. The only thing is that I hope the game will look fresher and better than current games. The game won’t be released for a few more years, and by then, I think people will be expecting games to look better than the colorful, yet flat, world of a game like WoW (or, heck, even LOTRO). But I guess part of how the game will look falls on those who are creating it.
- They aren’t geared towards Vista or Mac. It does sound like they will be vista compatible eventually though. I am interested to see if it’s console-friendly.
- They have brought in several products as part of their service, including Vivox, which is soon to make its way into SoE games. So it’s probably safe to assume that “Copernicus” will have voice chat upon launch. (I don’t care how fun it is, you will never hear me using the “elven voice” modifier. Orc, maybe, but not elf)
- They claim to be able to do small shards, or large worlds. They also claim to be able to make seamless worlds. Sounds interesting. Eve X 10, in a fantasy setting?
The big question is, how good is Big World? Sure, they were used by a few Asian games, Dark and Light, some unnamed upcoming Sierra game, and Stargate: Worlds (although it sounds like they are actually using the Unreal engine), but they can’t really tie their name to any big hits. It will be interesting to see what 38 Studios can do with it.
One other curious tidbit in there. They trademarked OEE (Online Entertainment Experience). What’s OEE? Sounds like they are trying to make something different from an MMO(G). But then again, the last time I saw that little “tm” was next to The Vision, and we know where that ended up!
Now I have this image of an orc marching around yelling, “You down with O.E.E? (Yeah you know me!)”
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January 27, 2008
But does your guild have a theme song? Uh huh, thought so.
The Revelry and Honor Theme Song
Mirror Site
Kudos to the creative talents of Faeran, Nicilie, and their adorable daughter who stole the show in this song! There are a few “inside” jokes, but plenty that any gamer can relate to, and the chorus is very catchy! Hope you enjoy!
To the Chandelier!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (8)
January 25, 2008
It’s amazing how much importance a newbie experience can have on the success of a game. For argument’s sake, let me make a few stipulations about what the early levels tend to be like in MMOs:
- I define the newbie experience to be levels 1-20.
- It goes fairly fast, which I assume is because it’s intended to be a morale builder. (Lots of dings make people feel good!)
- It’s designed to be soloed, not done in groups. And, in fact, it goes by slower if you do group.
- It’s not very complicated. This is because it’s aimed at giving new players the chance to learn the game mechanics. And of course, it furthers the commonly held notion among high level players that newbies start off with the IQ of a small bunny. (Have you ever seen a small bunny try to play a cleric? Not very pretty)
The newbie experience is the content that game reviewers base their judgements on. It still amazes me how many game writers only experience the early content of the games they write about and promote, but that’s a whole other entry. It’s also the game content that will be most seen by the playerbase, and sometimes they’ll see it multiple times if they roll up alts. It has to have “The Hook,” that reels people in, peaks their interest, and inspires people to stick with it through the mid level grind. So while the raid content of a game tends to be the most complicated and elaborate stuff, it’s the newbie area that needs to be done the best.
I’ve been spending my time lately over in the Sarnak starting area of Timorous Deep, and the more I play there, the more I realize how well they put it together. This is what a newbie area should be! Here’s why:
Lots of eye candy. Starting areas always tend to be sorta bland. There’s a small village with some quest NPCs, a big wide field littered with small rodents, and maybe a small tent with some pint sized bad guys off in the distance (like orcs or murlocs). It’s always flat, simple, and very non-descript. Timorous Deep is way over on the other end of the spectrum, so much so that it’s often mentioned by EQ2 players as one of their favorite zones overall. The music is compelling. The mobs are unique. (I love the Throms!) The environmental sounds, like the echoing songbirds, make you feel like you’re deep in a tropical forest. And the zone has a stunning amount of vertical depth to it. This is something that I will always appreciate about Vanguard’s world, and it needs to be in all future games. You shouldn’t feel like you’re boxed in by zone walls that are not-so-subtly disguised as mountains or thick forests. Also, having to pay attention not only to what’s next to you, but also what’s above you (or in some cases below you), adds a lot of fun to the game.
Easy to find the quests, easy to do the quests, easy to turn in the quests. Some will argue that this is dumbing down the game too much, but if the newbie zone’s primary purpose is to teach the player about the game, they shouldn’t have to waste one extra second trying to fruitlessly run around tracking down NPCs. Being able to quickly find a hard-to-find NPC doesn’t have any bearing on how good of a player you will be in higher levels, so it’s not at all a beneficial game feature. Plus, even if someone finds it quaintly fun to run around talking to newbie NPCs, it loses the fun factor pretty fast the 5th or 10th time you do it with alts.
No Quest junk to lug around and clutter your bags. Often, you’ll get a newbie quest (or 10) that ask you to go kill a certain mob, loot some particular quest item, and turn it in for a reward. The problem is, we’re newbies and we have one bag and about 10 total inventory slots. Space is an issue! The irony is that I recall doing the Island of Refuge in EQ2 “back in the day,” and getting through about 3 quests before I started to get the “Inventory Overflowing!” message. It was impossible to avoid too - even if I looted nothing but the quest items and the rewards, my bags were overfull. Timorous Deep doesn’t have that problem at all, luckily. Most of the quests give you update messages, rather than items. It’s a small thing, but not so small when you have to delete stuff and waste time with inventory management at level 2.
Dynamic and compelling content. I will admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the quest scripts, but I still got a good feel for the storyline, because it was literally going on around me. Usually, in a newbie zone, old man questgiver will ramble on and on about the battle, and how I’m needed to help by killing…..snakes. And my response is usually, click, click, click, click, click, accept. My attitude is, “maybe there’s a battle somewhere, but it’s not in the newbie zone, so maybe I’ll see it when I’m high level or something, but until then, just give me the stupid quests and let me level myself out of here.” Again, I always loved the orc and half elf starter zones in Vanguard because they plunked you right into the middle of chaos, and you ended up spending the first few levels just trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Timorous Deep has some areas that do this nicely too. Walking up the pathway to see the Sarnaks being overrun by Aviaks was really neat. And yes, I stood there a bit too long watching the Sarnaks fire their cannons and turn the birds into exploding puffs of feathers - so cool! Often, turning in a quest not only gives a reward, but triggers a little scene afterwards. Again, it’s small, but to me, there is a big difference in having some npc yap about my effort making a difference, and actually seeing it make a difference.
Timorous Deep is a great newbie zone. I want to reiterate that I don’t feel that all of these game features should necessarily carry though to the higher levels though. And what’s ironic is that the Kunark expansion actually seems to have incorporated a lot of these aspects into the higher level content - specifically the 70-75 content. So, many are soloing their way through the early 70s, getting the great upgrades, and skipping out on grouping and dungeon crawling, especially since dungeons like Karnor’s were way too difficult and not as rewarding enough to be an appealing option.
The newbie experience is totally different from the higher level experience, and I don’t mean in terms of skill. Every new player starts out on his own, learning a new set of game mechanics, the UI, and the nuts and bolts of the game. A well designed newbie zone makes that easy to do, but also wets your appetite for more challenging, and compelling, content later on. Higher level content needs to cater to solo players, but it also needs to provide incentive for groups and guilds to tackle the hardest dungeons and raid mobs. They really are two separate spheres inside a virtual world, and need to be treated as such.
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (4)