Monthly Archives: January 2010

Jan 20

Overused – Death

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An MMO’s death penalty is an oft discussed topic. Some games, like Champions Online have such a slight penalty, it might as well not even exist. Technically, Champions has a live bonus instead of a death penalty. Other games like Darkfall, Eve or Final Fantasy XI are known for steeper penalties. (FFXI more-so in its earlier days) Death in Darkfall and Eve means a likely loss of all the items you had on you.  Critics say Death Penalties Are Stupid. That’s a valid, albeit blunt, opinion. Penalty or no, what’s the one thing that all these games have in common? Death.

Why are we so accepting of a mechanic that mirrors such an unnatural process in real life? Repeating death and resurrection is a bizarre mechanic for a medium that, generally, tries to mimic the real world. Why do all the players’ characters get saved by the spirit healer in World of Warcraft and yet truely important individuals like… I just realized where respawns come from.

My point here is that death is a rare thing for an individual to experience in real life, and I think many games would be better off if death were a bit less frequent in-game. I don’t mean to say that MMOs should be so easy, it’s difficult to die. I mean that the games should promote a mentality that dying is bad or rare instead of just something that happens every day. I think running an instance would be a bit more interesting if you could only die once, or if it were a bit more like Left 4 Dead 2 where a bit of teamwork would be required to get someone back.

PreySome games have a more unusual take on death. It’s not an MMO but the FPS Prey had a fun and unique mechanic of resurrection. Tommy, the protagonist, had to fight wraiths to replenish his health and energy. Diablo II was well known for its hardcore mode, where your character could only die once. After that, said character was unplayable. Designing a game with such an philosophy on in-game death would certainly require ground-up planning, but the rewards for such a design concept would include a richer gameplay experience and deeper player-character bond.

Jan 19

Pitfalls and Excellence of Cash Shops

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The topic of RMT (Real Money Trading) and Cash Shops is often an electric issue for gamers and creators alike. With the advent of an increasingly mixed market, in regards to payment methods used, there has been more and more variation. Not long ago, North American and European MMOs generally have relied on a subscription model. Comparatively, the Asian markets are filled with free-to-play titles with cash shops in addition to some subscription based titles. Today, more MMO makers are willing to try something new. Triple-A titles like Dungeons and Dragons Online are an exceptional example of success of the free-to-play model in a western market. Well known games that use a free-to-play model with a cash shop include Silk Road Online and Runes of Magic.

In a typical free-to-play model, players are able to spend real currency on in-game upgrades. These upgrade often range between a simple glow to a weapon more powerful than anything the player could otherwise gain by any other way. Other cash items often include consumable items that will increase the experience, loot reward, or in-game currency reward by a percentage for a limited time. This is all in contrast to the western popular typical subscription model wherein players subscribe by the month or longer for full game access equal to all other subscribers.

Additionally, there are shades of grey often ignored or not considered. Name changes, character transfers, and cosmetic changes are sometimes permitted with a fee. World of Warcraft is one of those games that have RMT, but are not considered to be in the same league of cash shops. Guild Wars has several RMT options, including additional character slots and the unlocking of skills and cosmetic pets. The fact is they do have RMT, and players often do spend money in excess of their monthly subscription for things that improve their experience.

Critics of RMT often contest two main issues. The first issue being a matter of cash shops being an existence of pure greed. The game maker just want to make as much money as possible. That’s true. If you have a problem with the fact that a company wants to make as much money as possible, you have an issue with capitalism. The other issue is more of a matter of game balance, and that is that these items and abilities gained through spending real money make success in-game a matter of having enough cash. This is a sentiment that I can begin to agree with.  A hallmark of an unbalanced cash shop would be when the player feels they need to spend more than they would in a subscription game, just to be competitive or when a player can buy so much in a cash shop they can totally outshine or dominate the non-paying players.

I can’t help but think back to an article from a recent Blog Post Spotlight on Character vs Player rewards. The main point being in comparing in-game rewards that benefit the player vs in-game rewards that benefit the character. To keep a game balanced and fair, RMT should be limited to player rewards. By that I mean, cash shops should, in general, limit themselves to cosmetic changes to the game if the designers want to keep players in the western market happiest.

DDO StoreAn exception to this would be, what I consider an excellent example of a game with a free-to-play/cash shop business model, Dungeons & Dragons Online. Magic items bought in a DDO Store are restricted by level. You can’t buy something in the DDO store that you couldn’t get with a few hours of gameplay. Other things available in the gamestore include common experience/reward increasing potions and unique modules of dungeons and quests. Dungeons & Dragons Online and their DDO Store nail a difficult balance of free-to-play, RMT, and subscription, and they’ve seen great success in it.

Properly designed, a cash shop can bee a boon to both players and developers. There are, however, a lot of people that will completely dismiss the so-called free-to-play model. Games can certainly find success in a heavy microtransaction based environment, but you don’t have to alienate a whole demographic of potential subscribers or break an otherwise balanced game.

Jan 17

Overused – Sticky Targeting

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Overused is a new column where I will point out a device that has been overused in MMOs. These mechanics and gameplay features may be used as a crutch, the status quo, or just plain too much. Overall, they’re used when they don’t have to be, and often shouldn’t be.

Don’t bother trying to dodge that arrow. Zig-Zag all you want, you can’t avoid it. Taking cover from that fireball flying through the air won’t do anything. You’ve been targeted.

There are many reasons for using a targeting system like that, but that doesn’t make that physics-defying arrow any less aggravating. Escape from the sticky target is rarely a possibility once You’ve been clicked on, tabbed to, assisted to, or victimized by “/target”. One moment in line of sight is all that’s needed for projectiles to phase through matter and strike you or send a swarm of pets your way despite your best escape efforts.

It’s a lot easier to create a system that determines valid targets when you don’t have to consider the physics of projectiles in your code; easier and less strenuous to calculate. The alternatives include systems that are more resembling of a first person shooter, and are often considered to be more skill based in gameplay. Personally, I’m a fan of the way Fallen Earth seems to have done it. In a sort of hybrid of the two systems, targets are determined by checking what target is in the crosshairs when the attack is made.

This is all well and good for weapons whose projectiles cover their ground nearly immediately, but what about those slow moving arrows and fireballs? Are the only options for projectiles a sticky targeting system or heavily physics based collision system? I say no. It seems to me that you could determine if a projectile hits or not based on if a target intersects the projectile’s motion vector or arch at the time projectile reaches that same point. The projectile would just be animated along that path, and hit detection becomes a matter of a simple linear or quadratic equation rather than a more complicated physics reaction and collision. There you have accuracy of a shooter combined with the CPU usage of a typical sticky targeting system.

Let me know what you think. Do you like the common tab and sticky targeting in many MMOs? What are your favorite targeting systems used in MMOs?