Slashdot Mirror

And here's the most revealing part:

"(Metaplace will launch with this 2D isometric graphics view as standard)"

It's not even an immersive 3D world.

Shannon Appelcline wrote an article about game design issues in survivor: http://www.skotos.net/articles/TTnT_74.shtml which might supply some of that missing analytical detail.
There's also a followup article, much briefer, though: http://www.skotos.net/articles/TTnT_135.phtml

Shannon Appelcline wrote an article about game design issues in survivor: http://www.skotos.net/articles/TTnT_74.shtml which might supply some of that missing analytical detail.
There's also a followup article, much briefer, though: http://www.skotos.net/articles/TTnT_135.phtml

Here's the actual link to Meridian 59".

Here's the actual link to Meridian 59".

An online version of Ticket To Ride is available as part of a trial free month at Skotos -- they also have online versions of Fist of Dragonstones (an auction game), Queen's Necklace (a card game), and Gang of Four (a A**hole variant card game).

You can also play these online if you a supporting RPGnet member.

-- Herder of Cats

SOE currently offers their All Access Pass :

"If you play more than one SOE game, or you want to try the other great SOE games available, SOE All Access opens the SOE game catalog to you.

SOE All Access grants access to all current games published by SOE*, which includes: EverQuest® EverQuest® Macintosh Edition PlanetSide EverQuest® Online Adventures Station Pass access, which includes the popular games Infantry Online, Cosmic Rift and Tanarus

Full access to these games for the low monthly subscription price of $21.99 is a potential savings of more than $18.00 every month over the total cost of the individual subscriptions!"


PlayNC (NCSoft) does not offer such a deal but is a central site for managing your online game subscriptions and I imagine once Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and others are released, we may start to see some special offers from them as well.


Skotos has been offering this type of service for a long time. For one monthly fee you can access and play all 11 of the games that they offer. Only 2 are graphical MMOGs (Meridian 59 and Underlight), but the other games are very good as well.


The largest factor in offering multiple "A list" titles for one monthly fee is offsetting development (and in the case of MMOGs, maintenance) costs and bringing in enough revenue to show a good profit. The bottom line is always a driving factor in any business. However, there is hope. As technology moves forward, we will start to see more and more rapid development of MMOGs of higher quality and consequently we should start to see a wider array of offerings and price points.


I also agree that some sports games should start to appear on the scene. XBox Live will probably be a driving factor to this more than anything. Playing football online against other players is quite fun and should prove to be very popular considering the amount of sports console games sold. Now, as to whether that genre will move to PC is yet to be seen, but as I mentioned before, in SOE's All Access Pass, they combine online console and PC subscriptions into one package. A diverse product line benefits them in this case. More comapnies need to grow in the genre and diversify at the same time, but that takes time and money. Soon though... very soon.

Skotos does this distribution method exactly.

Actually, all of those are second or third generation MMORPGs. Depending on what you consider your first generation. I personally look at MUDs as first generation, and those games defining the second generation. It takes more than a new GUI and a number after the name to make it a new generation. For example, I don't think anyone is going to say AC2 is an improvement on AC. We aren't going see a new generation for a while. We'll need to break away from the cookie cutter fantasy and licensed games first.

For a more detailed look at online gaming history:

Biting the Hand

BTW, something that makes it difficult quantify what belongs in a given generation is the fact that these are living games. The game I am most familiar with, Asheron's Call, would hardly be reconizable by someone who played it when it was first released.

I think, if you look carefully enough, that a number of the articles posted at Slashdot Games aren't from the 'usual' sites, and there's plenty of interesting, alternate views out there.

How about Gamers With Jobs, GamerDad, Insert Credit, DIY Games, Terra Nova, Skotos, Curmudgeon Gamer, and GamesIndustry.biz? That's just off the top of my head.

And, of course the normal response applies - if there are alternate views and intelligent comment that aren't being covered here, then write it up, and send us the link - we'd love to include it.

Amazingly enough a large percentage of the MUDers I run across are from the age group that is supposedly too graphically oriented to play text-based games. The allure of free, fun, and gaming still seems to hold some drawing power after all. Especially considering that word of mouth and the occasional banner on niche sites is the sum total of advertising for the games.

Skotos is another small game company that received notification that they were violating this patent. They can't afford $100,000, much less $10,000.

-- Herder of Cats

...it is a CRIME to simulate sexual contact with someone you believe to be under the age of 18.

Not a ha, ha, I just downloaded the latest Eminem single crime. A mandatory minimum prison sentence/you will be registered as a sex offender crime.
...
On top of that, if [the company] or any employee thereof has any reason to believe that a minor was involved in simulated sexual behaviour and they failed to act immediatly, (this might include reporting the incident to the authorities if one of the persons involved is over 18) then they would be guilty of a CRIME as well and could very well end up getting sued and all sorts of other unpleasentness.

One of the best things about this game is that because of the smaller server sizes (100s rather then 1000s) the community is more solid.

-- Herder of Cats

• The Value of the Random Dungeon - Sam Witt on building blocks for random game environments.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part One - My own thoughts on issues with static content.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Two - Randomness in object recreation.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Three - Replacing randomness with player intervention.

• The Value of the Random Dungeon - Sam Witt on building blocks for random game environments.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part One - My own thoughts on issues with static content.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Two - Randomness in object recreation.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Three - Replacing randomness with player intervention.

• The Value of the Random Dungeon - Sam Witt on building blocks for random game environments.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part One - My own thoughts on issues with static content.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Two - Randomness in object recreation.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Three - Replacing randomness with player intervention.

• The Value of the Random Dungeon - Sam Witt on building blocks for random game environments.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part One - My own thoughts on issues with static content.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Two - Randomness in object recreation.
• The Dynamic Dilemma, Part Three - Replacing randomness with player intervention.

Here's some useful links:

• My Analysis of Settler's Gameplay
• University of Catan website
• Reviews of mostly European Games

I actually have discussed Flying Buffalo in a previous article. This one, part of a series on how to design strategy games, talks about the evolution of web games, and points toward Flying Buffalo and other PBMs as the first step: Strategic Introductions: Web Games

The crux of Dave's objection (as I see it) is that I'm developing a "theory" of virtual worlds that is neither provable nor disprovable, therefore it's not a theory. Well strictly speaking, from a Science standpoint, all theories are not only provable but are actually proven; anything else is merely a falsehood or an hypothesis. Dave is therefore correct: it isn't a formal theory.

However, I wasn't speaking from a Science standpoint, I was speaking from an Art standpoint. I was using the word "theory" in the same way that it's used in "Film Theory" or "Theory of Art". These aren't theories in the scientific sense, but they are in the Comparative Studies sense. The idea is that an individual wishing to understand a work of art subscribes to one or more individual theories (which may or may not be consistent with other theories - or indeed one another) and applies these to "read" the work of art. You choose the theory you subscribe to based on criteria such as its relevance to your interests, the compellingness of its derivation, the degree to which you are convinced by its conclusions, the similarity of its judgments to your own aesthetic sensibilities etc..

There is a lot more there worth reading.

Also, Richard Bartle is also doing a column at Skotos called Notes from the Dawn of Time.

-- Herder of Cats

The crux of Dave's objection (as I see it) is that I'm developing a "theory" of virtual worlds that is neither provable nor disprovable, therefore it's not a theory. Well strictly speaking, from a Science standpoint, all theories are not only provable but are actually proven; anything else is merely a falsehood or an hypothesis. Dave is therefore correct: it isn't a formal theory.

However, I wasn't speaking from a Science standpoint, I was speaking from an Art standpoint. I was using the word "theory" in the same way that it's used in "Film Theory" or "Theory of Art". These aren't theories in the scientific sense, but they are in the Comparative Studies sense. The idea is that an individual wishing to understand a work of art subscribes to one or more individual theories (which may or may not be consistent with other theories - or indeed one another) and applies these to "read" the work of art. You choose the theory you subscribe to based on criteria such as its relevance to your interests, the compellingness of its derivation, the degree to which you are convinced by its conclusions, the similarity of its judgments to your own aesthetic sensibilities etc..

There is a lot more there worth reading.

Also, Richard Bartle is also doing a column at Skotos called Notes from the Dawn of Time.

-- Herder of Cats

The crux of Dave's objection (as I see it) is that I'm developing a "theory" of virtual worlds that is neither provable nor disprovable, therefore it's not a theory. Well strictly speaking, from a Science standpoint, all theories are not only provable but are actually proven; anything else is merely a falsehood or an hypothesis. Dave is therefore correct: it isn't a formal theory.

However, I wasn't speaking from a Science standpoint, I was speaking from an Art standpoint. I was using the word "theory" in the same way that it's used in "Film Theory" or "Theory of Art". These aren't theories in the scientific sense, but they are in the Comparative Studies sense. The idea is that an individual wishing to understand a work of art subscribes to one or more individual theories (which may or may not be consistent with other theories - or indeed one another) and applies these to "read" the work of art. You choose the theory you subscribe to based on criteria such as its relevance to your interests, the compellingness of its derivation, the degree to which you are convinced by its conclusions, the similarity of its judgments to your own aesthetic sensibilities etc..

There is a lot more there worth reading.

Also, Richard Bartle is also doing a column at Skotos called Notes from the Dawn of Time.

-- Herder of Cats

The crux of Dave's objection (as I see it) is that I'm developing a "theory" of virtual worlds that is neither provable nor disprovable, therefore it's not a theory. Well strictly speaking, from a Science standpoint, all theories are not only provable but are actually proven; anything else is merely a falsehood or an hypothesis. Dave is therefore correct: it isn't a formal theory.

However, I wasn't speaking from a Science standpoint, I was speaking from an Art standpoint. I was using the word "theory" in the same way that it's used in "Film Theory" or "Theory of Art". These aren't theories in the scientific sense, but they are in the Comparative Studies sense. The idea is that an individual wishing to understand a work of art subscribes to one or more individual theories (which may or may not be consistent with other theories - or indeed one another) and applies these to "read" the work of art. You choose the theory you subscribe to based on criteria such as its relevance to your interests, the compellingness of its derivation, the degree to which you are convinced by its conclusions, the similarity of its judgments to your own aesthetic sensibilities etc..

There is a lot more there worth reading.

Also, Richard Bartle is also doing a column at Skotos called Notes from the Dawn of Time.

-- Herder of Cats

We publish King Arthur Pendragon and Pendragon Online, games about the myth, history and literature of Arthurian Britain.

Pendragon Online is under development right now.

Consider it a High School to Post-Graduate level historical, literary or scientific research project, Internet drama school, or what have you.

We're drawing from Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur," the French "Vulgate" Lancelot-Grail cycle, and dozens of works of medieval and sub-Roman history form archaeology to culinary delights to religion to zoology.

The game will be a virtual world -- King Arthur's Britain after he's drawn the Sword in the Stone, and married Guenever, yet before he's defeated the Saxons at Badon Hill or founded Camelot.

We'll likely contrast ourselves with "Dark Age of Camelot" in the fact that we have "genuine Arthurian content." The actual Arthurian heros and heroines will be cast -- played by real players who will control their actions and political factions. Morgan le Fay will be her wily self -- but not an enemy of Arthur's at this time.

The game will also cover issues like cultural clashes between Saxons and Britons. While this is a fantasy based on medieval romances, and not truly historical, it will still bring to the player's attention the issues of the historical 6th Century: Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Picts, Irish and Scots all closing in on the Romano-British kingdoms.

Pendragon Online as University

This was an article I wrote up to highlight the essence of the discussion.

We are already at a few dozen staff members -- all of whom pledge to help create this virtual world. That open door to creative control as a coder -- a StoryBuilder of a new world, and to learn again about this history and myth of our real world -- is what our players get for their monthly fee. Not just the ability to log in and camp monsters, which I find sadly Pavlovian and ultimately empty in experiential value.

We'll have our own visceral satisfactions -- knocking your opponent "over their cruppers" (as they call unhorsing an opponent head-over-heels in the joust) -- and we might even split a few skulls down to the teeth as they did in the legends. But the point of the world is not just to rack up body counts and steal everything you can get your hands on.

In Arthur's Britain, honor matters.

-Peter Corless.
Green Knight Publishing
gawaine@greenknight.com
http://www.greenknight.com

Disclosure: I work for Skotos where Rickey's column is published.

As someone from a hard science background, I sympathize with Rickey's desire for testable hypotheses, but I also wonder if this will prohibitively limit the scope of inquiry. It is one thing to know that there is a natural limit on the population density of a PvP server. It is quite another thing to combine that fact, perhaps with numerous other facts gleaned from testable hypotheses, into a cohesive theory of game design that allows you to answer the one million user question: "Is it fun?"

$10.95/month for Meridian 59 on its own.

Go to http://www.skotos.net and you can sign up for a year for $129.95 and save two bucks plus have access to a bunch of other RPG and strategy games, including The Eternal City (MUD), Underlight (another graphical MUD), and several strategy games.

Or you can just sign up on a monthly basis for $2 more than you'd pay for Meridian on its own.

The column tends to be more technically focused then the other columns at Skotos, with topics including issues of mud text parsing, code inheritance and heirarchies in muds, methods of generating quests, etc.

-- Herder of Cats

The column tends to be more technically focused then the other columns at Skotos, with topics including issues of mud text parsing, code inheritance and heirarchies in muds, methods of generating quests, etc.

-- Herder of Cats

MUDS used to attract techies but not casual users, I think, because they were 'difficult' to use. Well, okay, 'difficult' meant 'point telnet to a specific site _and_ port' and 'use a console'. Not big barriers for slashdotters, but kinda big for, say, my mom.

Companies like Skotos (skotos.net) and... hmm... okay, maybe just them, do web-based MUDs. They (plug plug) bought a friend of mine's larp (the Galactic Emperor is Dead) as a recurring/resettable one, and they do some long-term open ones.

The downside, I think, is a lot of MUD fans prefer to be able to create stuff (aka MOOs), not just play, so there may not be a big crossover from old MUD fan to new WebMUD user.

Meanwhile, MUDders I know just moved to IRC and freeform it when no one else is in a given channel. IRC is so flexible, this is kinda a cool evolution, much like the evolution of tabletop RPGing into rules light styles.

The Skotos articles website has quite a few other interesting columns and articles on online game design at www.skotos.net/articles with several new articles going up weekly.

-- Herder of Cats

The Skotos articles website has quite a few other interesting columns and articles on online game design at www.skotos.net/articles with several new articles going up weekly.

-- Herder of Cats

The Skotos articles website has quite a few other interesting columns and articles on online game design at www.skotos.net/articles with several new articles going up weekly.

-- Herder of Cats

After reading some posters comments on Jessica/Richard Mulligan, I found the following site on google:
Bites The Hand

It is her bi-weekly editorial/thoughts on the gamming industry. Skimming over these bring some interesting insight into the industry over the last 20 years.

Well, somebody say something about Ultima Online. I've never played it but every time I read an article about the game online, the focus is always on community: guilds, online weddings(?) etc etc. Never any information about "quests" or killing monsters (just the odd complaint about PKers). Maybe it's just skillful PR by Lord British?

Also, for me role playing didn't necessarily mean pretending to be your character. I always thought that was weird. I was more into accurately describing what my character was doing and staying with his motives. I was never into hopping around and saying "hath" and "thou" every other word.

If only there was a way to combine the rules-enforcement aspects of computer play with the flexibity of table-top play! Supposedly some online games, such as Castle Marrach, by the folks over at Skotos, is trying to accomplish this. I have been too busy playing Diablo2 to find out though. =) Oh well.

Here is an interesting looking article on subject of online games on GameGrene.com.

Well, somebody say something about Ultima Online. I've never played it but every time I read an article about the game online, the focus is always on community: guilds, online weddings(?) etc etc. Never any information about "quests" or killing monsters (just the odd complaint about PKers). Maybe it's just skillful PR by Lord British?

Also, for me role playing didn't necessarily mean pretending to be your character. I always thought that was weird. I was more into accurately describing what my character was doing and staying with his motives. I was never into hopping around and saying "hath" and "thou" every other word.

If only there was a way to combine the rules-enforcement aspects of computer play with the flexibity of table-top play! Supposedly some online games, such as Castle Marrach, by the folks over at Skotos, is trying to accomplish this. I have been too busy playing Diablo2 to find out though. =) Oh well.

Here is an interesting looking article on subject of online games on GameGrene.com.

Please feel free to mail me corrections and additions to the timeline. The vast majority of it was not written by me, it was written by others who submitted material.

Some blanket replies to clarify the intent of the timeline:

Tolkien is listed because he was very influential on the people making those early games (annd still is to this day). To take another example, Lord Dunsany is comparably important in the development of fantasy as a genre, but has not had very discernable influence on online worlds specifically.

The Sega channel probably does deserve to be listed. Please feel free to send details. Note, however, that this timeline is specifically about online worlds (aka muds, MMORPGs, virtual realities, what have you), not about peer to peer gaming except insofar as instances of peer to peer gaming serve as bridges towards online worlds. Hence the absence of things like Case's Ladder or Kali. Heck, Quake is only in there because it brought greater awareness to online worlds in the process of being a big hit.

Lastly, concerning the title... AFAIK, there are only four significant timelines on the history of online worlds on the Net. There's George Reese's, there's The MUDDex's, there's Jessica Mulligan's on Biting the Hand, and there's mine. Of these, George's is centered on LPMuds, The MUDDex centered on MOOs and MUSHes, Jessica's on commercial games, and then there's mine which tries to cover all the above. Plus, George and Jess both contributed to mine. As of right now, there is no more comprehensive source on the Internet--at least, not that's indexed by any search engines. Believe me, I've looked. For a preliminary links list of resources for online world design, I refer you to my list.

The genesis of the timeline was actually as some research to help out Dr Amy Bruckman (MediaMOO, MOOse Crossing) for a Game Developer's Conference panel we were both on. It has been posted regularly to rec.games.mud.* newsgroups and the MUD-Dev mailing list as well. It's very much a community effort, and not based on my personal preferences save for the criteria by which I determine whether or not something is an actually an online world.

I see a lot of posts here in the replies which I intend to scarf up and add to the timeline, though. So thanks to those posters. :) Certainly one area where the timeline is deficient is the entire area of BBS games, so submissions are definitely welcome there.

-Raph Koster

http://www.skotos.net/articles/BTH_21.shtml (Go down to the section titled "I'll See Your Account Bannings And Raise You $7,000").

http://www.unknownplayer.com/archive/02/03/15/442. php

I just honestly think game makers need to look back and reignite the Text Based RPG craze

Judging by their site, Skotos is trying to do just that.

I just honestly think game makers need to look back and reignite the Text Based RPG craze.

Well, I don't know about re-igniting the craze, but there are certainly examples out there of people trying to do just that. See The Eternal City, for example.

Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.

They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".

The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!

-- Herder of Cats

Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.

They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".

The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!

-- Herder of Cats

Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.

They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".

The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!

-- Herder of Cats

Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.

They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".

The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!

-- Herder of Cats

Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.

They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".

The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!

-- Herder of Cats

Check out Skotos, which is trying to be the MMORPG of text-only games. Not quite a MUD, not quite an Infocom game.

Ah, the irony:

The rights to Paranoia were recently licenced by one of the more innovative (text based) commercial mud companies around...

Skotos has the info in this press release.

Also of interest is the text mud The Eternal City www.eternal-city.com, as well as others listed in the MUD-Dev FAQ

Text muds may not be the same, but they're hardly dead... and the best ones are emerging as hybrid graphical/text muds.

Ah, the irony:

The rights to Paranoia were recently licenced by one of the more innovative (text based) commercial mud companies around...

Skotos has the info in this press release.

Also of interest is the text mud The Eternal City www.eternal-city.com, as well as others listed in the MUD-Dev FAQ

Text muds may not be the same, but they're hardly dead... and the best ones are emerging as hybrid graphical/text muds.