If I were independently wealthy, I’ve decided I’d just putter around, going to gaming conferences and reporting on MMOGs here at the site for fun. Because ehh … I really, really like doing it.

Luckily, Gamasutra has people they pay to do that, and has two write ups from recent events:

• Virtual Worlds 2007, held at the end of March. Those inexperienced with 3D social environments like Second Life struggled to learn about the potential in virtual worlds while others heralded its future impact, noting that the millennium generation had effortlessly transitioned into digital avatars. Along with allusions to Neal Stephenson’s book, Snow Crash and The Matrix, debates raged about appropriate metrics for return on investment, whether marketers should target the avatar, the alter ego, or the person behind the avatar, and the educational aspects of virtual worlds.
• Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming Infrastructure. On April 19, 2007, a conference of game developers, IT entrepreneurs, internet security experts, telecom executives, and technology investors gathered in San Francisco to take part in Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming, a day long event in which the complex issues surrounding the online gaming market were discussed.
  

Do you read Ole’ Bald Angus? I know you do.

Just in case you don’t, though, I wanted to point out his series of recent posts on SWG. Because … oh, the ‘day’.

• Classic - I made me a wanna-be-boba ’cause that’s “okay to play” for some reason in this Star Wars Game Where Everybody Hates Jedi But Still Plays One heh. Yah I don’t wanna upset all the jedi standing around the star port trying to sell me stuff by making another jedi but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna be a moisture farmer just to make those self-hating dweebs less unhappy ahaha.
• Just Blame Raph - I always blame Raph for everything, y’know, just ’cause I saw another guy doing it a long time ago and it looked like it was really fun (AHAHA), but sometimes I think he actually deserves it.
• The Dramamine Twitch - And a lot of space guys can’t stand the ground game, I mean, I personally thank the gods there are dudes willing to waddle through all that eyebrow lag in their underpants to dig in the mud and harvest resources and build us ships and ship parts, ’cause that’s the frickin’ tortures of the damned in my book, those ship-builder guys are freakin’ heroic heh.
• Beautiful Snowflakes - Pets are coming back to SWG, complete with a bunch of machines and stuff I’m never gonna figure out heh. And they’re adding some kinda player-created-quest thingie, and even in the worst-case-scenario that’s still interesting on a purely scientific-curiosity level.
• Player Vs. Everything - Yah, I called it Players Versus Houses, PvH. And I thought it’d be the perfect moment to unfurl the firepower of a fully armed and operational AT-AT, towering over the smoldering ruins of all that urban blight like an ancient god of lawnmowers.
• SWG Guid To the Dark Side - Yah, and so you get stuck in a way where you can’t proceed through the rest of the Legacy Quest, and you can’t delete the quest and restart it or fix it by logging out or anything, and apparently the CSRs can’t help you with it, and its been that way since December of last year (it was broke in other ways before that heh). And the solution is to delete your character and start over and make sure you are at least level ten before you leave the tutorial, you dummass newb.
• Fresh Off the SWG Forums - Nostalgia-laiden videos for old players. Give it a watch.

A few comments on my experiences in Lord of the Rings Online. But first, I want to point something out. On January 12th of this year, I was very sure of myself. Like Abeilano, I was sure that LOTRO was nothing more than a cheap knock-off of WoW with a hobbit-skin cover. By the 17th, during an argument with my comrade in the Cesspit, I found myself reconsidering my opinion. At the end of the month I had already apologized for an ill-given ‘award’. Last week, my will caved. Today, though I still have the sneaking suspicion I’m never going to see much of the world Turbine hath wrought, I stand before you apologetic, impressed, and excited. I don’t have a crystal ball, but Turbine finally might have a hit on their hands. Who knows? Maybe one day DDO will be what I want it to be too.

Let’s get the comparisons out of the way first. Is it ‘as good’ as WoW? Maybe. Will it hit WoW numbers? Who knows? Is it as polished as WoW? Yes, but I also think it’s less ambitious. It’s certainly smaller. Will it make Tolkien fans happy? I think that’s a definite yes. Will it make LOTR movie fans happy? Not as much, but it’s hard to stand beneath the party tree and not imagine that dragon firework exploding in the sky above you. (Note to Turbine: If you let me attend Bilbo Baggins’ 111th birthday I could die a happy man. I don’t care if it has to be instanced, I’ll show up.) Is 15 level enough to have seen the whole game? Hell no, but it was enough to convince me that you’ll at least have a couple of fun months with this game.

What I Love About LOTRO:

• The Bags. It might seem like a little thing, but having your full inventory just available from the get go is so liberating. I haven’t seen anyone else mention this per se, and it’s surprised the crap out of me. I can’t even imagine how much time I’ve spent getting alts their bigger-slotted bags in WoW.
• The Titles. Again, a little thing, but the fact that they’ve woven the backstory into the game in a way that’s not represented by a reputation grind is fabulous. I know I would have worked harder at those stupid Firbolgs if they’d given me a neat title at the end of the road. Granted, you see some guys walking around with 1024 pixel wide titles, but that’s just part of the fun.
• The Classes. Sorry dr00ds. I just have never gotten behind classes that screw up the four legs of the D&D table. If I can’t look at a class in a fantasy MMOG and know whether it’s a Tank, Nuke, Healer, or Skills-monkey, I probably won’t play it. My primary character in WoW was a Paladin, and look where that got me.
• The Healers. Easily one of the things I’m most looking forward to with Warhammer Online, but true to a lesser extent in LOTRO as well. Healers don’t *have* to be in the back row steering clear of the fight. Thank everything.
• The Graphics. I still like WoW’s look better, but man is it hard not to be impressed. I’ll refer you to Foton’s Flickr Set if you have any questions.

What I Like About LOTRO:

• The Lore. I’m like, a 2nd level Tolkien nerd. I know everything from the movies and have read some of the books outside the core four. That said, I think the lore in the game is ‘good enough’. Some little stuff bugged me, but I think it’s on the whole going to please the nit-pickers.
• The Combat. It’s ehh, better than ‘the same. damn. thing. as. every. other. game.‘, but not by much. Just enough to keep me amused this month.
• The Crafting. I like that they’ve broken the mold a little bit with crafts like farming and scrollmaking and such. Otherwise nothing super out-of-the-box.
• The Quests. While most of them are the ‘whack the foozle’ or FedEx variety, they know how to dress them up. I really like the post quests. Being a mailman is fun, somehow.

What I See Being a Problem For LOTRO:

• The World of Warcraft. “Oh yeah! Those guys are still out there? What’s that, there’s another expansion coming? I better get back to raiding Karazahn! Yoink!”
• The Music Is Wrong. I’m just picking something to pick on, but there are enough differences between the movies and the game world that some mass-market folks are going to be put off. It remains to be seen how much of an issue this is, but I think their (admirable) adherence to the lore and lack of a license with New Line may keep them from the critical mass they want.
• The Management. I have to pick a little bit. AC and DDO have been … middling? I guess is the right word? And, as Mr. Jacobs pointed out last month, the only Massive games which have died did so because their publishers gave up on them. That’s a spot on their permanent record.
• The UI. Oh. Oh god. Oh please make it stop.

It may seem to you like I put most of the core of the game under ‘like’, some fluff under ‘love, and some serious problems at the bottom. You’d be right. I didn’t shell out $199 for a lifetime membership because I don’t think I’m ever going to play the game that much. By biting the bullet when I did I can stick to the $9.99 membership and get my jollies at a lower cost. Maybe someday my regular MMOG group will move to LOTRO; then I might reconsider. For the time being, though, I’ll be enjoying my hobbit-time as a Minstrel on the realm of Meneldor. Send me a ping if you need healing for a group.

While I’d like to once again register my belief that honesty is something to be lauded … I’m going to step back and agree that Brad McQuaid’s commentary hasn’t helped at all.

A press release totally unconnected to Massive games actually convinced me of this. The release that changed my mind was a recent missive from Palladium Books. Palladium is a publisher of table-top roleplaying games, and is helmed by a gent named Kevin Siembada. I dunno if things have changed since I followed tabletop closely, but back in the day he was regarded as a right proper ass. My nose wrinkled like I was smelling something foul as I read his dripping message to Palladium customers:

My goal and the goal shared by every Palladium staff member, as well as our freelance artists and writers, is to create some of the most dynamic, exciting and fun role-playing games and sourcebooks on the market. Not just for our own survival, but for the survival and advancement of the role-playing game hobby. We are disappointed by the low number of RPG products being released by other game companies. All of us at Palladium Books know role-playing games have a bright future, and we aim to prove it. In addition to RPG sourcebooks and games, you will soon see an offering of three, new T-shirts, Rifts Postage Stamps, the John Zeleznik Art Book, and a new product line I think is fun, different and something you and ALL fans of sci-fi and fantasy artwork will enjoy. I’m sure some of our detractors will shake their heads, but we think it’s something people will enjoy and use.

I read this, I recalled Siembada’s asinine plea to fans to keep the company afloat (which obviously worked, unfortunately), and I can’t help but think of Brad’s comments to the Vanguard fanbase. Yech. They’re honest, yes, but as with Siembada’s drooling exhortation to buy more of their crap to ‘advance the role-playing game hobby’, they’re essentially penitent excuses laid at the feet of the gamers who are subsidizing Sigil’s existence. “We really really tried. We tried so hard. I know it’s not as good as it could have been. Also: please keep giving us money!”

Moreover, and this is what has been weighing on me, they’re far too little too late. Yes, money was tight. Developing a game on your own often is. Yes, SOE forced them to launch sooner than they were ready. That happens when you let an older boy play with your toys - they might get broken. The bottom line here is that McQuaid and Co. had FIVE FUCKING YEARS to make this game. The official press release wasn’t until 2004, but Sigil has been around since January of 2002. They’ve had that long to get with the times, make changes, realize they were making a horrible mistake, or at least … you know … fix the bugs. The stink is rising from the shambling carcass that is Saga of Heroes, and already the vultures are beginning to take strips of flesh:

Kageru: Meanwhile I have no idea what happened with the game coding. The code seems to already have reached an unmaintainable state where bugs just can’t be fixed. I can’t imagine how else the act of forming a group, or not falling through the world, can still be so flawed. Meanwhile the rate of introduction for new bugs is scarily high.

I honestly can’t see the game holding enough subscriptions to fund the development it needs to be decent.

That, of course, is now the question: Will SOE buy Vanguard from Sigil? There has been lots of discussion on the subject of just what went wrong, and folks are on both sides of the fence. Is it worth saving? Is there any player interest? What does Brad think? (You’ll note he’s been fairly quiet on this particular front.)

My two cents: No, it’s not worth saving. But yes, if SOE can swing it they almost certainly will.

The reason it’s not worth saving? When I talked about throwing a MMOG and no one coming back in Summer of last year, I was talking about Auto Assault. From everything I’ve heard, even though there’s no one (really) interested in playing it … the people who *are* playing it are having a blast. It’s very different, it’s a little hard to understand, but they went out there and they tried something really different. And they fell on their faces. Which happens sometimes. Just like Pauly Shore - at least they tried. Vanguard, on the other hand, is a five-years-in-the-making retread of a game released in 1999 that isn’t even as good as the original game. Yeah, you can make ships and fly cool mounts etc. etc, but the metric shit-ton of content SOE has crammed into EQ over the years makes those extra features look like chump change. The diplomacy game is really neat. I’ll totally give them that. But em … what else is there to get excited about? LOTRO’s got Hobbitses and fancy titles … and you’re offering me a glorified card game?

Now, all that said, SOE is definitely going to buy it if they can. The reason: Because they can. They’ve already got their foot in the door by publishing the thing, and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Vanguard would probably be pretty cheap to pick up right now. Poor dealings with Microsoft in the past and awful subscriptions rates in the here-and-now have to be making it hard for those guys to be making payroll let alone focusing on future development. So SOE slips some cash in a few pockets and bingo-bango: a 95% complete Massive game that just needs a few months of work to get the kinks ironed out.

Yes, it’s a lot like their two flagship products. Yes, it’s leaving a really bad taste in the mouths of gamers right now. Yes, people are going to yell at them and call them mean and nasty names for ‘butting in’ to ‘Brad’s sacred realm’. All those are good reasons not to. But, as I’ve tried to point out in the past, at the end of the day the Massive industry is a business. From a business standpoint, there’s a wounded competitor lying at their feet. You pick him up, dust him off, and soon enough he’s working for you. Why let the guy die when you can turn misfortune into an opportunity for profit?

(I’m mentally picturing Ferengi rubbing their lobes right now, so consider that as you mentally say the word ::profit::)

All this is just conjecture of course, but why not? Hell, it’s SOE’s money to throw away, not mine. At this point I wouldn’t invest in Vanguard with um … a twelve foot pole.

You tell me, though: What’s a real and honestly good reason for Sony Online Entertainment not to purchase Vanguard?

So, as a sort of desultory gesture, I started pawing through Massive Online Gamer Issue 6. I paid for it, after all, might as well read it. It’s got that Blood Elf Paladin chick on the cover, and I figured it was going to be another clusterfuck of mediocre WoW-based articles. Sure enough, the thing is chock full of gold farming tips, suggestions on how to play a mage, dungeon clearing strats, and a pair of one-page faction-specific quest guides. It’s all very meh. However! On the front cover of the mag it does say ‘Warhammer Exclusive’, and (much to my surprise) they weren’t kidding.

Around page 12, they’ve got the start of a six-page spread on the game primarily consisting of interviews with Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett. Paul’s interview is, as far as I can tell, the first info of substance they’ve released about the Dark Elf/High Elf pairing in Warhammer Online. Even then, it’s mostly background stuff. No design info was yet ready for print during the interview.

• High Elves (HE) are very posh, Dark Elves (DE) are posh drug users. HEs tend to take the longer view, while DEs have a lot of immediate gratification issues.
• Repetition of the goal for every class/race combination to be a unique experience. A high degree of replayability.
• Discussion again of the ‘every character will look different’ mantra, with emphasis that a class’s armor is themed to that character. IE: As Black Orcs level they’ll look ‘more and more armored and more and more blacky.’
• Best quote from the interview, esp. considering MOG’s ‘Skittle of the Month at the back of the magazine: “You’ll be wearing stuff that’s appropriate to what you do. We don’t like rainbow coloured characters … that’s rubbish.”
• The statement again that players will able to do all-PVP if they want, or all-PVE if they want. The assumption is that somewhere in the middle will be where most folks end up.
• Reconfirmation that NPCs will fill out PvP events if there aren’t enough player characters, though it’s obvious they’re still tweaking things.
• Great statement on the Public Quest system: “The public quests are one of those things that passes my genius test. My genius test is simple: if you see something, and upon seeing it you go ‘my god, that’s blindingly obvious,’ and yet you had never seen it up until that moment, then whatever it is that you’ve just seen was probably genius. Public quests will change the face of MMOs forever.

The interview with Jeff Hickman rehashes some older stuff, with the emphasis of the discussion on the previously-discussed Empire/Chaos conflict. He does clarify what Public Quests are, and that’s really interesting to hear about.

• Chaos Theme: Crazy Nutters. Empire Theme: Medieval Germany hanging on by its fingernails as it declines.
• Jeff’s preferred class will probably either be the pirate-y Witch Hunter, or one of the as-yet-unannounced Dark Elf classes.
• An interesting comment on the challenge of building classes. He cites the Goblin Shaman as a tough nut to crack, because it was their first healer. Their emphasis is going to be on healers, up in front, slogging away with the lads rather than in the back out of the line of fire. There was a lot of balance to get there, and they’ve found it to be easier with every healer since then. The Goblin Shaman is likely to be my first-rolled character, so that’s really interesting to hear.
• They had to cut waaay back on classes; their initial plan was for like 72. So, in comparison, the 24 they’re going to have seems quite reasonable.
• Not much on the Maruaders, other than they’re the mutate-y combat monsters of Chaos horde. Still a work in progress.
• The Guild system gets touched on briefly: the short of it is, ‘just like Dark Age of Camelot, but better.’ There’s some talk of veteran players leaving a guild having a negative impact on the guild as a whole. The implication is that keeping people in your guild long-term is a priority. Five bucks says that doesn’t make it in for launch.
• Public Quests: Quests that everyone in a given area is working on at the same time. A low level one mentioned is ‘kill 25 mercs’; when there are 25 people in the area that’s only one a piece. Makes for group bonding over a larger area. Eventually intended to last about half an hour to an hour, and could have massive end-goals. Something like ‘kill 100 orcs’ or ‘collect 300 barrels’. Good way to simulate a war, with every one just throwing themselves at the baddies to stem the tide.
• Some more clarification about collision. Only happens in RvR. If a baddie is hedging you out, whack em’. If a friend is, you can ’squirt’ past them. Mostly, though, Jeff recommends killing the offender. This is WAR!
• Crafting will ‘not be about orcs picking daisies.’ No details, sounds like it’s still a WIP.
• Death penalty is not going to involve a lot of money; from comments it sounds like the goal is actually to downplay the role of cash money in the economy. This may be one of the elements mentioned in the press phone call about inhibiting RMT. If money isn’t that important the market will be less lucrative on third-party sites.
• “When is Beta?” Jeff says late spring or summer, and they’re hoping to release this winter. My money is on Beta this fall, launch early next year. They’ve got too much still in the ‘we don’t know what is going on’ phase for launch to be that soon.

The final page of the spread is a discussion of the scenarios the article author was able to check out at an event this past January, with a bunch of other press types. (sniffle) First-person and a little flighty, suffice it to say the author had a good time.

Other than the reinforcement that I don’t think they’re going to make it out this year, it was actually six pages of interesting information. Really looking forward to this game. Like, a lot.

Update: WAR launch officially moved back. Nice to be right about something for once. ;)

Gamestop reports on a talk that Alice Taylor (a very fine person indeed) gave at the Women in Games event in Wales. Aside from public services games like Food Force (or maybe Lost and Found?), Alice mentioned that the media giant will be dipping into Massively Multiplayer gaming.

Specifically, it is working on a number of “top-secret” game projects which will be announced over the coming months. These include a series of games for education, a massively multiplayer online title for a new program by the Teletubbies creators, radio and TV show tie-ins, and “some independent ideas.  This past week, BBC Worldwide vice president of digital content Alice Taylor was a presenter at the fourth Women In Games Conference at the University of Wales. There, she told attendees that gaming is one of the areas where the BBC could become more relevant to younger generations, and keep up with “the radical shift in media consumption.” Taylor stated that “public service money comes from the people and should be spent on the form of content most relevant to them.”

Last week, I jumped into a Skype chat with some of the fine folks at Perpetual and we … ahem … attempted to have a conversation about their upcoming squad-based Massive game Gods and Heroes. Despite my recording setup working 100% fine just the night before, we had nothing but problems the day of. Thankfully the understanding team at Perpetual and the persistence of media liason Dana Jongewaard has resulted in what I think is a fairly interesting email interview.

Again, I went ‘big picture’ with questions. Below, Art Director Mike Hines, Game Systems Designer Travis George, and Community Manager Chris Launius hold forth on various game elements like setting, combat animations, the squad system, and the value of releasing with focused gameplay. I think that some of the team answers shed light on elements of the game I’ve been a bit murky on to this point, and I know that the folks over there seem to have a good sense of humor.

We also focused a lot of attention on our interactive—we refer to them as “paired”—moves, which allow the player to actually animate in conjunction with the enemy, allowing for much more dramatic and visceral animations. Centaurs can throw you in the air and impale you with a spear or you can grapple with an enemy Samnite gladiator and take him down with a number of different wrestling moves. There is a reason it’s called Greco-Roman wrestling!

Read on, and be enlightened.

Read more