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Ask City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert
Massively Multiplayer games have grown increasingly popular in the last few
years, and one of the hottest products out there today is NCSoft and Cryptic
Studios' City of Heroes. City of
Heroes is currently hovering around the 180,000 player population mark,
with a European launch for the game coming up fast. The lead designer of the
online super hero game is Jack Emmert, veteran of the video game and
roleplaying game industries. He has written gaming supplements for Deadlands and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, reads
several dozen comics a month, and saves the world on a regular basis. Jack has
kindly agreed to answer questions from Slashdot readers about game design,
massive games, and what it's like to be a superhero, so go
ahead and let em' fly. One question per post, please, but as many questions as
you'd like. We'll forward the best on to Jack to answer and post his responses
when we've got them.
I was curious when City of Villians will be rolled up with City of Heros?
It would be very kewl to be able to choose, at time of character creation, either a Hero or a Villan.
Please let us know if, and when, this should happen.
"I think you know what I'm talkin' about, Mr. President; We're gonna kill us a mummy!" - Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley
Jack, I played COH for a while, and am still very impressed by it. You should be proud of your remarkable achievement of finding the right niche. But after playing a couple months and doing several story arcs, I fell into the level-grind abyss. Things stopped being fun. The distance to my next power was seen in terms of xp, not in terms of heroic adventure.
So, what is going to happen to get me back? How can you significantly reduce the "level grind" (even if it's just the feeling of grinding levels) to get casual players like myself back?
I've been playing CoH (way too much!) since beta, and have really enjoyed it, but I am running into some of the same issues that alot of others are running into, lack of content, lack of purpose, no new powers, nothing but "grind". My question is this: With all of the new MMORPGs coming out (EQ2, WoW etc) this month, what will CoH do to keep my interest (and paying account)? New powers? Anything?
Drinking habits can be dangerous. You can choke on the cloth and the nuns will wonder where their clothes are.
I would love to pay you a monthly fee, but alas, my Powerbook and it's Radeon 9700 are unsupported.
So why no Mac support? Any request to your tech support department is a canned response.
Is it possible to iron your cape? Because I like to look fresh and clean in the game? Thx
(This comes from someone who has never played an MMPORG, as I've got enough subscription-based services to take care of, like electricity, food, web access, and smokes.)
Is Geko still nerfing accuracy? Kidding, kidding.
Real question: Looking back at CoH's development, if there was one thing you wished you did differently, what would it be and why?
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
I've played MMO's, and I haven't been impressed. I think some of the lingo speaks for itself ('grinding'). The last game I got into was Star Wars Galaxies. While technically the game was very nice, and the gameplay was decent, the game became extremely boring after only a few hours of gameplay.
I've also played games like Zelda, Occarina of Time (a classic), and the newer Zelda, Wind Waker. Both games contained a series of puzzles that needed to be solved before allowing the story to progress. It was this sense of achievement that made the games fun to play.
In MMO's, I have no sense of achievement. Obtaining the next skill level doesn't get me anywhere, it only makes me more powerful.
How will MMO's of the future fill this sense of achievement? Or do you see games progressing more towards the "Life simulator", like the Sims?
Not to knock the present CoH comic, but what are the chances of getting some 'name' talent to produce some issues in the CoH universe?
I understand that without some risk, death in a MMORPG would lose alot of the "tension" that game designerns feel that players need in order to stay "hooked". As a player, I can tell you that the exp penalty of dying is usually what ends up getting me to cancel an account. When I see all that debt/exp loss/penalty I start thinking "Why am I wasting my time here? Its a nice day outside..." Even the illusion of "exp debt" that CoH has still amounts to the same thing: total playing time added to make up for dying. Since death is frequently not a player's fault (lag, imbalance, etc...) I can tell you that I am very attracted the the approach that WoW is taking with having no death penalty other than travelling as a ghost back to your corpse. My question is this: What goes into the decision for death penalties? Has anyone actually asked the players if this is what they want?
Drinking habits can be dangerous. You can choke on the cloth and the nuns will wonder where their clothes are.
With several highly anticipated MMOs launching this year and next year (WoW, EQ2, Matrix Online), what is your perception of competition in the MMO industry, has it become too crowded? Do you believe new games can be supported by drawing new players into the genre, or will these games pull mostly from the existing player base?
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But that is true of many other MMORPGs too that lack an "Endgame". From what I can tell Dark Age of Camelot seems to have introduced the concept of an "Endgame" that is different from the regular gameplay, and now people seem to expect it, but its not the norm.
What if anything is the "Endgame" for Everquest? Surely once you have all the stuff and you have all the levels thats pretty much it no?
Arguably the Endgame for City of Heroes will come about with the City of Villains expansion which will introduce PvP play into City of Heroes. It will be a standalone expansion from what I hear, but both games are going to have to have some changes made to allow PvP.
I am playing COH right now, with no PvP, no End game and I am perfectly happy with it. When my main character (currently level 37) reaches 50, they will retire until PvP is implemented. Not everyone anticipates an Endgame as much as some I guess, you see *I ENJOY THE GAME AS IT IS* not for some nebulous endgame concept that has still to be developed, or I wouldn't bother playing it.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
180,000 players is lot of people -- obviously, not all of them are online at the same time. But even so, what's the backend of the game like to handle that number of players?
Do you have redundant servers to handle systems failure? Are they geographically dispersed to avoid "backhoe" cable cuts? What are some of the operational challenges involved with running a Massive Multiplayer game?
Chip H.
I was wondering if City of Heroes ( which I played at a friends house ) can be available on for a Linux x86 based system? I seem to have used up all my money making my 100% Linux compatiabale Athlon 64 and so did not have any money to buy a Microsoft Windows License.
City of Heroes had a fantastic beta, with much communication with the dev team, and a sense that the game was truly moving forward.
However, almost immediately after release, issues regarding aspects of the game that had been widely known, reported, and even confirmed by developers to be working correctly during beta (i.e. Super Speed, Hasten) were quite savagely nerfed. Along with those nerfs was a change to the con system that drastically slowed the pace of advancement in the game.
One expects MMOGs to be in a state of perpetual change, but the severity of the changes made were practically unprecedented in the genre. What changed between beta and release that made those specific issues such a priority and warranted such a drastic change?
Since the official launch, can you think of something that really, really surprised you about the game? Did the players start to do things you didn't expect, or did some game mechanics/results turn out far differently than you thought it would (for better or worse)?
Recently I started a thread on the COH suggestion forums that got a high rating about wanting a new ski area zone after having seen how ice worked in one of the missions I played. I also mentioned in a later post if there was a map editing tool I'd probably make it myself.
Do you think most future MMORPGs are going to stay with the developer-based content model like COH and Everquest, or do you think we'll begin seeing more user-based content such as in Second Life?
Do you think Cryptic will ever release some kind of content editor (aside from the already incredible character creator) to the users?
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
What do you think of the MMOG market as a whole? Over the past few years, we've seen a flood of games released. We've seen sequels to established games - Everquest II, for example. We've seen games based on licenses, such as Star Wars Galaxies. We've seen high-profile titles such as Mythica cancelled. We've seen completely unique ideas, like A Tale in the Desert. Obviously, the market is completely different than it was even a year ago today.
Put simply, what do you think of the market in its current state, and what future do you see for it? Will you be a part of that future? MMy question is simple, but I think we need at least one question that's not related to the game or to Mr. Emmert directly.
What do you think of the MMOG market as a whole? Over the past few years, we've seen a flood of games released. We've seen sequels to established games - Everquest II, for example. We've seen games based on licenses, such as Star Wars Galaxies. We've seen high-profile titles such as Mythica cancelled. We've seen completely unique ideas, like A Tale in the Desert. Obviously, the market is completely different than it was even a year ago today.
Put simply, what do you think of the market in its current state, and what future do you see for it? Will you be a part of that future?
The question might not seem very exciting, but I belive that Mr. Emmert is in a very unique position to answer it...
Goo goo g'joob.
I'm an active COH player and an ex-everquest player. I must first give you kudos for making a really polished, fun game. It's really a great take on the MMORPG.
The game has a bus-load of fun ideas. The badge system is great. The costume system and character creation are amazing. Technically, the game is top notch- great mapmaking, great animation, etc...
One of the best ideas is simplicity. Starting players don't have to worry about complicated inventory systems. They just go out there and start kicking butt. Kicking butt is not to difficult, because the player is quite a bit stronger versus the environment compared to previous MMORPGs.
But that simplicity becomes a drag in the later game. I've got 3 characters approaching the high end (mid 30s) and I'm starting to dislike the slow experience grind, with nothing to look forward to but a new ability every 3 levels.
Missions are fun, but they get a bit formulaic. With one huge exception, they offer uninteresting rewards and have cookie cutter goals. (The exception being the wonderful respec mission)
I'm sure it was a conscious design decision to have no inventory system, no armor, no weapons. And I think that's a great idea, at first. But by the time you're level 30 and you've played the game for a couple of months, you really start to want MORE. The enhancement system doesn't cut it. That's just a trip to the store every 5 levels. I'd like to get a cool piece of (origin specific) armor when I complete a task force.
Even baby steps in this direction would great. A way to distinguish myself (other than aesthetically) from other players would be nice. This could also give origins a chance to actually matter.
So the question in all of this is- why the aversion to traditional RPG elements, even at high levels? Is this going to change?
CoH probably has the most flexible system for designing the visual appearance of a character of all the MMORPG's I've played or tried (beta/free trial, etc.). The Star Wars Galaxies character designer is maybe a little more flexible in certain areas (face, age, and weight), but I think CoH's offers more variety. It usually takes an hour just to play around with how your character will look.
Due to its flexibility, it's not too hard to make characters that look very close to copyrighted comic book characters etc.
How big of a struggle was the content creation process for costume items. For instance, were certain masks rejected by your legal department because they looked too much like Batman's or perhaps Cyclops' visor. Also, has anyone actually calculated the number of combinations of all 5 archetypes and origins?
All MUD-based games are simple skinner boxes in which we are expected to perform repetitive tasks (killing mobs, missions) to get rewards (levels, powers). I played COH for a couple months and appreciated how your team shifted away from the standard MUD model by incorporating missions and large group missions as opposed to relying on just killing mobs which pop-up. Still, its just a variation on the skinner box and there is a lot of MUD-like killing.
Ironically, there is no incentive to "act like a hero" in City of Heroes. Everyone has their role to play, be it tank, healer, hitter, etc. Its very formal and deterministic. Trying to be Spiderman or Superman will get you killed quickly. Can you break this formula and deliver a game in which taking chances produces results? Can you envision a level-less character system? That is to say a game where your cunning, skill, intelligence, patience, tactics etc determine your strength not your level or armor rating? A game where a gunshot kills any level character and only the better players survive regardless if the character is 2 minutes or 2,000 hours old?
not sure if this will get modded up, I'm posting a little late, but anyway...
One idea that has always been interesting to me is a shared world between many online type of games, COV seems to be the first game to do something like this, with two stand alone clients connecting to the same world. Star Wars Galaxies tried to do something similar by allowing many different play styles. My question is this: With many different types of popular online games (first person shooters, RTS, RPGs, as well as more social type games like A Tale in the Desert and The Sims Online), what do you think of the idea of having a single shared world in which multiple types of games take place.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"