It occurs to me that the Slashdot paradigm (are we still allowed to use that word in general conversation?) would be a great way to handle bug reports. Require some proper format for bug reports and have an open forum webpage where people can post and respond to them. Then have 'moderators' who give positive or negative ratings to the original posts and the responses.
In time, the players who consistently write good bug reports, and those who provide useful feedback, such as alternate ways to reproduce a bug will gain 'karma' and thus their messages will float to the top. If moderators and submitters all had 'karma' ratings, I think you would quickly have a quite useful system.
I honestly believe that most MMORPG's are beyond what would be called 'beta'. Generally, they are in their Release stage. However, their complexity and evolution practically necessitates that there will be bugs. If I like a game, I want to help it work smoother, and as long as the bugs are rare enough that they do not interrupt my gameplay several times an hour, I would be more than happy to assist in their elimination.
An MMORPG released with no bugs will mark a significant date in the history of gaming. I haven't played enough to know, but, after all these years, has Nethack reached bug-free status?
Hmmmm...I'd say it depends on the musical. I mean, if I were say 'Cats' or 'Oklahoma', I'm not sure that would improve my knowledge of note-playing difficulty. Maybe if I were the 'Phantom of the Opera' or even 'The Music Man'. Then I'd probably get it, but not just any musical... gotta be more specific!!!
Personally I'd want to be 'The Wizard of Oz' or even 'Jesus Christ Superstar', except for that whole getting crucified thing or maybe...wait...did you mean something else?
I agree they would most likely do blood/tissue tests first. However, I would hope that even after those succeed, they would never deliberately expose a healthy person to Ebola. Seems to me the point of this test is to make sure the vaccine has no serious side-effects. Once that's proven, use the vaccine on someone who is already infected if you wanna test it's effectiveness!
Too bad I didn't think of this, but I thought it deserved to be here on Slashdot in case you don't read everything:
You mean it doesn't end with Keanu Reeves waking up, turning to Alex Winter and saying "Bill, I just had a most excellent dream!"? Shame.
I think complexity from a game-player standpoint is something that most MMOGs do not suffer from.
While I agree that execution of trade skills needs to be more interesting than 'click-fail-click-fail-click-fail-click-succeed-
skill+1, I don't believe that alone will solve the problem. As many have said, content is what would make these games sufficiently complex to appeal to a larger audience. Here's something I haven't seen suggested before though, which I think might break the pattern of the leveling treadmill:
Significantly reduce the experience gained by accomplishing something in-game once your character has done it. If I've beaten the UberWeasel before, repeating that should be worth much less to my character.
This would significantly reduce 'camping' and encourage exploration to find new areas and quests. This would also feel more realistic. Once I learn the UberWeasel's weakness, the knowledge I gain from exploiting it a second time, should be less. Perhaps many of the game companies avoid this because they realize they don't have enough content to satisfy players if 'repeat camping' were not a useful strategy, but a game which encouraged more exploration and discovery rather than rewarding the treadmill would certainly appeal more to me.
I could take this idea lots of directions too. Continue reducing experience by some small amount for repeats...so maybe 2 or 3 times is worth it, but moving on will before long be more worthwhile. Apply this to quests as well, to discourage repeats there. Some games may have the content there, but many never see it because they are sadly pulled in by the allure of the treadmill.
Summary: New experience should be gained by "new experiences".
I believe the article is wrong about Uru: Ages Beyond Myst being pushed back to 2004. Last I read, it has gone gold and is supposed to be released in November. I saw a pre-order option on Amazon, not that that's an indication of actual release date.
I think one of the key reasons that most MMOGs do not appeal to larger audiences is that, as someone else has said, they require too much time to be enjoyed. When I played EverQuest, if I only spent a few hours a month, my character did not develop enough to where I could explore new areas, see new creatures etc. Consequently, it was not worth the monthly subscription.
However, if one were designed such that the time spent was not as critical for the enjoyment of the game, I would expect it to appeal to a larger audience. I thought The Sims Online would do this, but unfortunately from what I hear, the game wasn't that fun regardless of whether you spent minutes or days playing.
I for one am quite interested to see what URU (Myst Online) will be like, as the description implies there is no sense of being "better" than any other player other than just having explored more and solved more puzzles. Granted that will not appeal to everyone, but it may make it more attractive to players who can only spend a few hours per week.
This doesn't seem like a huge issue to me. I only play a demo to get a feel for the game, to see if the graphics and the gameplay appeal to me. Unless the demo is so riddled with bugs that it is unplayable (in which case I can't imaging why the demo would be released in the first place), I can forgive a few bugs for a chance to sample the game prior to release, just like a beta test. If the game goes GOLD and the bugs are still there with expected patches, that's where players get irked!
Boeing has issued a voluntary recall on several of their airplanes. It seems that they have discovered a high fatality rate if the pilot continues to fly the plane after the 'low fuel' warning!
Ack! You set off a whole list of 'em when you mentioned Addam's Family:
"SHOWTIME!" - multiball starts
"Keep the ball I have a whole bucketful!" - extra ball
"Noooo! Nooooo! NOOOOO!" - telling Thing to give back the ball
And of course the theme which would play and flip the flippers for you on the snaps...dadadadump, flip flip.
I too have often wondered why they don't implement a system which allows you to choose a payment plan that is most economic for your playing style or even just lets you graduate to a different level depending on your play.
For casual ( 10 hours/month) players, $1/hr.
For midrange ( 10-40 hours/month ), $10/month.
For hardcore (40+ hours/month), $20/month.
Naturally, they'd do research to determine ideal numbers, but this would encourage more casual people to play, and give them higher revenue from hard-core players.
Not that this would qualify as a classic trailer, but I just downloaded the trailer for URU: Ages of Myst and found it very impressive, especially considering the text at the beginning, which informs you that the entire trailer was made using the game engine...no pre-rendered images.
Sorry but I think you are seriously misunderstanding Rotundo's post. Yes, he said he wakes up with the urge to earn the most he can, but he also said he wished to provide the best for his son and that no addiction could have greater sway over him than his son, that he has an incredible bond. How does this possibly imply that 'money' and 'toys' are the only things he wishes to give to his child?
To me, his point is that he wishes to be as responsible as possible, even more so, now that he has this new person depending on him.
Be encouraged Captain!
" The factions in World of Warcraft are set. There is no changing fractions, there is no mixed groups. "
If anything has bothered me about previous Blizzard releases, it's been those unpredictable fractions. At last, we can be free of Quarterlings and Third-Orcs!
Sounds like the gaming community may be the driving force to get robotics into the home. Funny...I always thought that robotics was cool enough that things like Aibo etc. would do the trick, but this ought to give it a much bigger push.
I played a game on my Apple II back in the 80's called 'I, Damiano'. Anyone else ever hear of this? Don't even remember how I came across it. As you made choices in the game, a meter measured your good v. evil level, and there were moments where I was never able to determine the 'moral' choice. If memory serves, you had to discover the appropriate times where the evil choice was correct as 'the end justified the means.'
I can't see where the court would rule in favor of the auctioners/eers. However, if it happens, it puts things much closer to a potentially very bad situation.
Say someone has "legally" purchased a $1000USD item. Now something happens to Mythics servers and they have to restore to an earlier time, such that the buyer no longer has the item. If the purchase was 'legal', the buyer might sue Mythic for loss of the item. Granted this is extreme, but it would be one step closer.
Slashdot Mirror
It occurs to me that the Slashdot paradigm (are we still allowed to use that word in general conversation?) would be a great way to handle bug reports. Require some proper format for bug reports and have an open forum webpage where people can post and respond to them. Then have 'moderators' who give positive or negative ratings to the original posts and the responses.
In time, the players who consistently write good bug reports, and those who provide useful feedback, such as alternate ways to reproduce a bug will gain 'karma' and thus their messages will float to the top. If moderators and submitters all had 'karma' ratings, I think you would quickly have a quite useful system.
I honestly believe that most MMORPG's are beyond what would be called 'beta'. Generally, they are in their Release stage. However, their complexity and evolution practically necessitates that there will be bugs. If I like a game, I want to help it work smoother, and as long as the bugs are rare enough that they do not interrupt my gameplay several times an hour, I would be more than happy to assist in their elimination.
An MMORPG released with no bugs will mark a significant date in the history of gaming. I haven't played enough to know, but, after all these years, has Nethack reached bug-free status?
Mr. Kepler: Hey there Earth! I heard you got a new job as a janitor. How's it goin'?
Earth: *sigh* Mmmmm...ok, but my boss always makes me sweep out the same area!
"but if you were a musical..."
... gotta be more specific!!!
Hmmmm...I'd say it depends on the musical. I mean, if I were say 'Cats' or 'Oklahoma', I'm not sure that would improve my knowledge of note-playing difficulty. Maybe if I were the 'Phantom of the Opera' or even 'The Music Man'. Then I'd probably get it, but not just any musical
Personally I'd want to be 'The Wizard of Oz' or even 'Jesus Christ Superstar', except for that whole getting crucified thing or maybe...wait...did you mean something else?
I agree they would most likely do blood/tissue tests first. However, I would hope that even after those succeed, they would never deliberately expose a healthy person to Ebola. Seems to me the point of this test is to make sure the vaccine has no serious side-effects. Once that's proven, use the vaccine on someone who is already infected if you wanna test it's effectiveness!
Too bad I didn't think of this, but I thought it deserved to be here on Slashdot in case you don't read everything: You mean it doesn't end with Keanu Reeves waking up, turning to Alex Winter and saying "Bill, I just had a most excellent dream!"? Shame.
I think complexity from a game-player standpoint is something that most MMOGs do not suffer from. While I agree that execution of trade skills needs to be more interesting than 'click-fail-click-fail-click-fail-click-succeed- skill+1, I don't believe that alone will solve the problem. As many have said, content is what would make these games sufficiently complex to appeal to a larger audience. Here's something I haven't seen suggested before though, which I think might break the pattern of the leveling treadmill:
Significantly reduce the experience gained by accomplishing something in-game once your character has done it. If I've beaten the UberWeasel before, repeating that should be worth much less to my character.
This would significantly reduce 'camping' and encourage exploration to find new areas and quests. This would also feel more realistic. Once I learn the UberWeasel's weakness, the knowledge I gain from exploiting it a second time, should be less. Perhaps many of the game companies avoid this because they realize they don't have enough content to satisfy players if 'repeat camping' were not a useful strategy, but a game which encouraged more exploration and discovery rather than rewarding the treadmill would certainly appeal more to me.
I could take this idea lots of directions too. Continue reducing experience by some small amount for repeats...so maybe 2 or 3 times is worth it, but moving on will before long be more worthwhile. Apply this to quests as well, to discourage repeats there. Some games may have the content there, but many never see it because they are sadly pulled in by the allure of the treadmill.
Summary: New experience should be gained by "new experiences".
I believe the article is wrong about Uru: Ages Beyond Myst being pushed back to 2004. Last I read, it has gone gold and is supposed to be released in November. I saw a pre-order option on Amazon, not that that's an indication of actual release date.
I think one of the key reasons that most MMOGs do not appeal to larger audiences is that, as someone else has said, they require too much time to be enjoyed. When I played EverQuest, if I only spent a few hours a month, my character did not develop enough to where I could explore new areas, see new creatures etc. Consequently, it was not worth the monthly subscription.
However, if one were designed such that the time spent was not as critical for the enjoyment of the game, I would expect it to appeal to a larger audience. I thought The Sims Online would do this, but unfortunately from what I hear, the game wasn't that fun regardless of whether you spent minutes or days playing.
I for one am quite interested to see what URU (Myst Online) will be like, as the description implies there is no sense of being "better" than any other player other than just having explored more and solved more puzzles. Granted that will not appeal to everyone, but it may make it more attractive to players who can only spend a few hours per week.
This doesn't seem like a huge issue to me. I only play a demo to get a feel for the game, to see if the graphics and the gameplay appeal to me. Unless the demo is so riddled with bugs that it is unplayable (in which case I can't imaging why the demo would be released in the first place), I can forgive a few bugs for a chance to sample the game prior to release, just like a beta test. If the game goes GOLD and the bugs are still there with expected patches, that's where players get irked!
This just in!
Boeing has issued a voluntary recall on several of their airplanes. It seems that they have discovered a high fatality rate if the pilot continues to fly the plane after the 'low fuel' warning!
Ack! You set off a whole list of 'em when you mentioned Addam's Family:
"SHOWTIME!" - multiball starts
"Keep the ball I have a whole bucketful!" - extra ball
"Noooo! Nooooo! NOOOOO!" - telling Thing to give back the ball
And of course the theme which would play and flip the flippers for you on the snaps...dadadadump, flip flip.
For casual ( 10 hours/month) players, $1/hr.
For midrange ( 10-40 hours/month ), $10/month.
For hardcore (40+ hours/month), $20/month.
Naturally, they'd do research to determine ideal numbers, but this would encourage more casual people to play, and give them higher revenue from hard-core players.
Not that this would qualify as a classic trailer, but I just downloaded the trailer for URU: Ages of Myst and found it very impressive, especially considering the text at the beginning, which informs you that the entire trailer was made using the game engine...no pre-rendered images.
Sorry but I think you are seriously misunderstanding Rotundo's post. Yes, he said he wakes up with the urge to earn the most he can, but he also said he wished to provide the best for his son and that no addiction could have greater sway over him than his son, that he has an incredible bond. How does this possibly imply that 'money' and 'toys' are the only things he wishes to give to his child? To me, his point is that he wishes to be as responsible as possible, even more so, now that he has this new person depending on him. Be encouraged Captain!
" The factions in World of Warcraft are set. There is no changing fractions, there is no mixed groups. " If anything has bothered me about previous Blizzard releases, it's been those unpredictable fractions. At last, we can be free of Quarterlings and Third-Orcs!
Sounds like the gaming community may be the driving force to get robotics into the home. Funny...I always thought that robotics was cool enough that things like Aibo etc. would do the trick, but this ought to give it a much bigger push.
I played a game on my Apple II back in the 80's called 'I, Damiano'. Anyone else ever hear of this? Don't even remember how I came across it. As you made choices in the game, a meter measured your good v. evil level, and there were moments where I was never able to determine the 'moral' choice. If memory serves, you had to discover the appropriate times where the evil choice was correct as 'the end justified the means.'
I can't see where the court would rule in favor of the auctioners/eers. However, if it happens, it puts things much closer to a potentially very bad situation. Say someone has "legally" purchased a $1000USD item. Now something happens to Mythics servers and they have to restore to an earlier time, such that the buyer no longer has the item. If the purchase was 'legal', the buyer might sue Mythic for loss of the item. Granted this is extreme, but it would be one step closer.