How MMO Design Has Improved Bar Trivia

Polygon.com features a look at how (very) different computer game worlds can meet, in the form of game designer Ralph Koster's Kitchen Disasters-style rescue effort to revive a game quite unlike the ones he's famous for designing, like Ultima Online. Bar-trivia provider Buzztime has been putting electronic trivia games into bars for three decades -- and in that time, the number of options available to potential players has jumped. Bar trivia has crept into the domain of things like vinyl-based juke-boxes: not without appeal, but not exactly modern. Koster has tried to apply modern game design paradigms and objectives, and revamped the game: Koster's Jackpot Trivia is now being introduced in a few hundred locations. Buzztime operates in around 4,000 bars and restaurants, but already the new addition has increased game usage by 15 percent. Much of the improvements came from Koster's experiences of making and playing MMOs, and on the MMO's influence on all games. "These days, a lot of the qualities of MMOs are popping up on everything from social media to systems that sit outside and on top of games, like everything around Xbox Live and Steam," he says. The re-vamp means, for Buzztime, better matching of opponents, as part of an overall redesign of incentives and risks: players have also gotten finer-grained control over their plays, by being able to assign weight to their answers: that means they can guess with less penalty when answers are tough, or take advantage of confidence in knowledge about a category in which they're strong.

Comments

Re:What MMO design?

[hairyfeet]

Actually leveling is fine if done correctly so that the user can see and feel they are making progress towards their goal without it being grindtastic. Same goes for real money and paying for time, as long as it doesn't become pay to win and merely gives you relatively minor enhancements.

For me a perfect example of one that "gets it right" not only in the level progression but also in the FTP with real money purchases realm is one I'm currently enjoying, namely War Thunder. In that game leveling your tank/plane and crew is done by playing well, not only getting kills but actually assisting your teammates and completing the objectives. Can you buy a better crew or premium vehicles? Sure but if you don't actually play well you could throw a million bux at it and still suck ass. The same goes with their "premium vehicles" which are all either 1.- Famous vehicles such as Jimmy Thatch's Buffalo from '39 which performs virtually identical to a regular Buffalo and just has a cool paint scheme, or 2.- rare/prototype vehicles that were tested and rejected during the war or were produced in very small quantities. These vehicles have significant downsides but people like them for the "weirdness" factor. Examples include the American Ascender pusher prop or the Soviet "land battleships" like the T-35 and SMK.

But in WT it doesn't matter if you level your vehicle by playing matches or spending golden eagles, doesn't matter if you buy every premium vehicle in the game or just take the vehicles you get from research, at the end of the day you have to play well, keep your head on a swivel, be aware of where friendly and enemy forces are, and know the strengths and weakness of your plane/tank and that of the enemy or you are just gonna get wrecked. I have seen a tier 1 biplane just demolish a tier 3 BF109 who tried to get in a turning fight with it, watched the reserve tanks you get for free at the start just slaughter premium tanks (in fact the Soviet BTs are quite popular even with seasoned pros for how fast they are) whose drivers obviously thought that it was pay to win, because it all comes down to playing well. The same goes for paying for premium time, it lets you earn more XP and add more stickers to your tank but if you suck? You aren't gonna go anywhere fast.

So I think most if not all that you listed is doable, it just has to be done well. Make the content available to everybody, make real money not be a deciding factor in the game, allow the player to see they are progressing towards their goal,reward playing well, and if you are gonna go with a mix of FTP and subscription do it so both sides are on equal footing play wise.