TigerDirect was my vendor of choice, too. Admittedly, I don't do a ton of online business - but over the past four years I've probably made a dozen purchases with them for around $100 a pop. I never had a complaint until the TV (described above) - they always delivered quickly and their prices tend to be really solid. And while they did ultimately replace the TV, it required me spending dozens of hours on the phone with over the course of four or five weeks, and a LOT of self-contradiction on their end. It got to a point where I didn't trust anything they told me on the phone (as it was liable to change in the very next conversation), and they unequivocally refused to correspond with me via email (though I imagine they would if I were spending 3K a month with them).
Bad enough experience to sour me after several years of solid service. I'll be avoiding them.
Nathan
Bought from Tigerdirect a 52" Samsung LCD TV for $2200 (that includes shipping). TV arrived quickly, but it had one of those vertical blue lines on it. I called and arranged to have it returned (this arrangement cost about four and a half hours of business hour phone time). They scheduled a pickup with their freighting company, YellowTruck. Because I live downtown in a major city, Yellowtruck sent a 'small' truck to pick it up. When it arrived, it turned out to be a run-down and unmarked pickup truck. I requested the driver's license and called the local depot to verify the truck was legit. I also recorded every aspect of the exchange, just in case. I've never done anything like that before - this truck (and driver) made me that uncomfortable.
TV arrived at TigerDirects warehouse a week later, but with a 'warning' on it. The new TV couldn't ship until this 'warning' was resolved, however TigerDirect refused to elaborate on the situation. I was also not permitted to cancel my order, and the 30-day warranty, I later found out, was reset to the return receipt date and could not be extended from that point under any circumstances. In other words, I was to get one return and tough luck if it wasn't a good one.
After two weeks of daily phone calls and emails, I finally found out that the 'warning' was the result of the box having arrived back at TigerDirect empty (no TV). I was disconnected shortly thereafter, and when I called back the next representative I reached refused to verify what the 'warning' was and assured me that they would contact me once everything was resolved.
At that point, I switched from cell to Skype and began recording all my conversations with TigerDirect.
Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. After asserting some pressure on YellowTruck ("look guys, we've already determined that the driver was one of your guys, and I have video of your unmarked truck taking my EXTREMELY heavy box away"), I heard from TigerDirect that my new TV had shipped, and it arrived four days later fully functional. However it took a solid four weeks of anxiety and annoyance to get there, and I suspect I only found out the true meaning of 'warning' because a rep had screwed up by reading a portion of my file that wasn't supposed to be provided to the customer (and what the heck would have happened if he hadn't?). No two representatives ever told me the same thing about anything, and it was impossible to get back to previous reps even with extension numbers. Finally, TigerDirect absolutely refuses to correspond via email.
What is holding this type of game back from more universal success?
I'd argue 'nothing.' My god, what would we consider universal success? I think the top selling video games sell in the order of eight million copies (pretty sure there are around 25 that have done so (including Goldeneye) and around half of those are packaged games like Mario, Sonic and Tetris). Doesn't World of Warcraft have something like seven million subscribers? What degree of success does it take to qualify as universal?
Imagine... World of Warcraft... when a player gains a level, it only lasts until the player logs off.
Easy... you'd have ten thousand people leaving their computers on for months at a time.
My term to describe these games, then, is Persistent Entity Game, or PEG.
I accept it. Anything's better than MMORPG. And while the definition of this acronym, PEG, is essentially indistinguishable from RPG, I foresee the eventual designation of a lascivious action verb for this acronym... to peg. I approve.
Eventually, some developer will create a PEG that fuses enjoyable advancement of a persistent entity with a game that is also fun in the traditional sense.
This is an explicit expression of my precise sentiment on the subject. DDO was reasonably fun and I was enthralled with EQ for a year and a half, but I'd characterize neither as consistently fun, per se. The attraction, as the author points out, is in the persistent entity aspect.
With apologies to the pen-and-paper role-players out there, this type of gameplay [die rolling whackfests~N] is not particularly compelling to the mass market.
Yup. Outside of strictly turn-based game play, it's a quaint, awkward mechanism. And I f*cking love dice. Improvements have been made with respect to this (DDO is a reasonable hybrid, as is Oblivion), but neither of them really feel like action games - they're PEGs with klugy swordplay, more closely akin to Diablo than Zelda. And I firmly believe that the game I want is one that marries robust PEG-style development with kinetic, Z-Axis combat. Perhaps even a style similar to a toned down Tekken.
Listen to me, I sound like Comic Book Guy.
There is a reason that no one has tried to make a single-player game with "MMO" mechanics: few people would be interested.
I disagree. The Elder Scroll series is up to episode four. Though they do feel a bit like deserted MMOs...
We see evidence supporting this hypothesis in Everquest II and Vanguard's crafting systems, where the designers have "improved" crafting by copying the arduous math-based, meter-centric mechanics used in the adventuring department.
I remember a time, not long after Verant released the transparent GUI patch in EQ, when I sat on the beach in Ro for like 90 minutes, crafting arrows. It was a nice experience... once in a while I'd get up and rescue someone from that rotten Dark Elf, but mostly I just sat there making arrows and watching the sun set (three times). I didn't even talk to anyone. It was right around the time it was starting to feel like work to log in (though I played for another 10 or 12 months after that), but it ended up being one of my more memorable sessions. Which really illustrates the subtle point of this article - stagnant sentimentality is the lifeblood of all RPGs.
...games should give players who take on tougher or more unpredictable challenges... better rewards...
Unpredictability is the key. As long as there're static encounters, there'll be grinding. If it's surmountable, it won't matter how difficult you make it - any fixed scenario with a decent reward will be farmed. Even for the possibility of a decent reward... 1 in 10, 1 in 100, you name it.
When players zip through the advancement system as quickly as possible, it hurts both the player and the developer. The player does not get to enjoy the ga
I didn't play Test Drive Unlimited, but I played a lot of Chromehounds and I certainly wouldn't characterize that as an MMO. Take away the scale of the game and you've got a vanilla FPS with lumpy terrain and customizable characters.
The same goes for Huxley. It's got a versus mode virtually identical to the one in the N64 Perfect Dark, where a human player can control stock enemies and try to prevent the player from completing a level. Other than a relatively nonlinear environment to explore, the game has no meaningful MMO characteristics.
They're different animals, to be sure. I started out on consoles and had a heck of a time getting used to NOT being able to keep tabs. Certainly, it's a less realistic mode of play... I just viewed it as a particular gameplay element within the game.
My friends and I actually rigged up four TVs, all running the same av feed from an N64, facing away from one another and each 3/4s covered with cardboard (it was the trashiest setup in video game history) so that we could play with 'solo' screens. I'm a big fan of Halo, Half-Life and Gears of War today, but I still say Goldeneye plays better when you can see your opponents' screens.
I generally dislike radar in FPS's, too. I just think splitscreen in Goldeneye works for some reason.
Nathan
You beat me to it, Lemental. Warlords changed the way I thought about games, and was a quantam leap forward at the time. I put Goldeneye in the same category.
Did Doom have a co-op mode? Capture the flag, that sort of thing? I always think of it as a free-for-all type of game.
Nathan
Slashdot Mirror
This article consists of two elements:
1) Interesting title
2) 14-paragraph advertisement for freaking Galaga.
Nathan
TigerDirect was my vendor of choice, too. Admittedly, I don't do a ton of online business - but over the past four years I've probably made a dozen purchases with them for around $100 a pop. I never had a complaint until the TV (described above) - they always delivered quickly and their prices tend to be really solid. And while they did ultimately replace the TV, it required me spending dozens of hours on the phone with over the course of four or five weeks, and a LOT of self-contradiction on their end. It got to a point where I didn't trust anything they told me on the phone (as it was liable to change in the very next conversation), and they unequivocally refused to correspond with me via email (though I imagine they would if I were spending 3K a month with them). Bad enough experience to sour me after several years of solid service. I'll be avoiding them. Nathan
Reposting under proper account name :)
Bought from Tigerdirect a 52" Samsung LCD TV for $2200 (that includes shipping). TV arrived quickly, but it had one of those vertical blue lines on it. I called and arranged to have it returned (this arrangement cost about four and a half hours of business hour phone time). They scheduled a pickup with their freighting company, YellowTruck. Because I live downtown in a major city, Yellowtruck sent a 'small' truck to pick it up. When it arrived, it turned out to be a run-down and unmarked pickup truck. I requested the driver's license and called the local depot to verify the truck was legit. I also recorded every aspect of the exchange, just in case. I've never done anything like that before - this truck (and driver) made me that uncomfortable.
TV arrived at TigerDirects warehouse a week later, but with a 'warning' on it. The new TV couldn't ship until this 'warning' was resolved, however TigerDirect refused to elaborate on the situation. I was also not permitted to cancel my order, and the 30-day warranty, I later found out, was reset to the return receipt date and could not be extended from that point under any circumstances. In other words, I was to get one return and tough luck if it wasn't a good one.
After two weeks of daily phone calls and emails, I finally found out that the 'warning' was the result of the box having arrived back at TigerDirect empty (no TV). I was disconnected shortly thereafter, and when I called back the next representative I reached refused to verify what the 'warning' was and assured me that they would contact me once everything was resolved.
At that point, I switched from cell to Skype and began recording all my conversations with TigerDirect.
Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. After asserting some pressure on YellowTruck ("look guys, we've already determined that the driver was one of your guys, and I have video of your unmarked truck taking my EXTREMELY heavy box away"), I heard from TigerDirect that my new TV had shipped, and it arrived four days later fully functional. However it took a solid four weeks of anxiety and annoyance to get there, and I suspect I only found out the true meaning of 'warning' because a rep had screwed up by reading a portion of my file that wasn't supposed to be provided to the customer (and what the heck would have happened if he hadn't?). No two representatives ever told me the same thing about anything, and it was impossible to get back to previous reps even with extension numbers. Finally, TigerDirect absolutely refuses to correspond via email.
I won't be dealing with them any more.
Nathan
What is holding this type of game back from more universal success? I'd argue 'nothing.' My god, what would we consider universal success? I think the top selling video games sell in the order of eight million copies (pretty sure there are around 25 that have done so (including Goldeneye) and around half of those are packaged games like Mario, Sonic and Tetris). Doesn't World of Warcraft have something like seven million subscribers? What degree of success does it take to qualify as universal?
Imagine... World of Warcraft... when a player gains a level, it only lasts until the player logs off. Easy... you'd have ten thousand people leaving their computers on for months at a time.
My term to describe these games, then, is Persistent Entity Game, or PEG. I accept it. Anything's better than MMORPG. And while the definition of this acronym, PEG, is essentially indistinguishable from RPG, I foresee the eventual designation of a lascivious action verb for this acronym... to peg. I approve.
Eventually, some developer will create a PEG that fuses enjoyable advancement of a persistent entity with a game that is also fun in the traditional sense. This is an explicit expression of my precise sentiment on the subject. DDO was reasonably fun and I was enthralled with EQ for a year and a half, but I'd characterize neither as consistently fun, per se. The attraction, as the author points out, is in the persistent entity aspect.
With apologies to the pen-and-paper role-players out there, this type of gameplay [die rolling whackfests~N] is not particularly compelling to the mass market. Yup. Outside of strictly turn-based game play, it's a quaint, awkward mechanism. And I f*cking love dice. Improvements have been made with respect to this (DDO is a reasonable hybrid, as is Oblivion), but neither of them really feel like action games - they're PEGs with klugy swordplay, more closely akin to Diablo than Zelda. And I firmly believe that the game I want is one that marries robust PEG-style development with kinetic, Z-Axis combat. Perhaps even a style similar to a toned down Tekken.
Listen to me, I sound like Comic Book Guy.
There is a reason that no one has tried to make a single-player game with "MMO" mechanics: few people would be interested. I disagree. The Elder Scroll series is up to episode four. Though they do feel a bit like deserted MMOs...
We see evidence supporting this hypothesis in Everquest II and Vanguard's crafting systems, where the designers have "improved" crafting by copying the arduous math-based, meter-centric mechanics used in the adventuring department. I remember a time, not long after Verant released the transparent GUI patch in EQ, when I sat on the beach in Ro for like 90 minutes, crafting arrows. It was a nice experience... once in a while I'd get up and rescue someone from that rotten Dark Elf, but mostly I just sat there making arrows and watching the sun set (three times). I didn't even talk to anyone. It was right around the time it was starting to feel like work to log in (though I played for another 10 or 12 months after that), but it ended up being one of my more memorable sessions. Which really illustrates the subtle point of this article - stagnant sentimentality is the lifeblood of all RPGs.
When players zip through the advancement system as quickly as possible, it hurts both the player and the developer. The player does not get to enjoy the ga
I didn't play Test Drive Unlimited, but I played a lot of Chromehounds and I certainly wouldn't characterize that as an MMO. Take away the scale of the game and you've got a vanilla FPS with lumpy terrain and customizable characters. The same goes for Huxley. It's got a versus mode virtually identical to the one in the N64 Perfect Dark, where a human player can control stock enemies and try to prevent the player from completing a level. Other than a relatively nonlinear environment to explore, the game has no meaningful MMO characteristics.
They're different animals, to be sure. I started out on consoles and had a heck of a time getting used to NOT being able to keep tabs. Certainly, it's a less realistic mode of play... I just viewed it as a particular gameplay element within the game. My friends and I actually rigged up four TVs, all running the same av feed from an N64, facing away from one another and each 3/4s covered with cardboard (it was the trashiest setup in video game history) so that we could play with 'solo' screens. I'm a big fan of Halo, Half-Life and Gears of War today, but I still say Goldeneye plays better when you can see your opponents' screens. I generally dislike radar in FPS's, too. I just think splitscreen in Goldeneye works for some reason. Nathan
You beat me to it, Lemental. Warlords changed the way I thought about games, and was a quantam leap forward at the time. I put Goldeneye in the same category. Did Doom have a co-op mode? Capture the flag, that sort of thing? I always think of it as a free-for-all type of game. Nathan