Another post up on Gamasutra from the IMGDC event - and this one I’m simultaneously pleased and saddened by. The article is all about Dr. Richard Bartle’s Sunday Keynote. It was an inspiring, awesome look at the future of the genre. Pleased because they really got the core of his speech from my notes. Saddened because they cut out his awesome Good, Bad, Ugly analogy using movies and muppets! Ah well - just means I can post those notes here. They also cut out his rationale for why the Good would ultimately triumph, which I think is well worth reading about.

If you’d like to check out the full slideshow from the talk, Dr. Bartle has put up his Powerpoint presentation on mud.co.uk.

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My writeup of Gordon Walton’s inspiring IMGDC talk is available on Gamasutra today. There were a couple of events/conversations that made the event totally worth the trip, and this is one of them. He really hit home with great ideas about hunting up new markets and sticking to passion. He particularly got to me when he talked about getting inside people’s heads; it was a way of talking about content creation I hadn’t really heard put quite that way before. I actually helped me to understand why I do what I do a little bit. I’m not sure that makes sense, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t articulate that sentiment well to him when I thanked him after the talk, but there you go.

Massively did a quick writeup of my talk writeup, which is good and awesome as well.

As you probably know, though, w/u’s like that are just a portion of the event - I have a ton more notes that didn’t get drawn on for the piece. I think they’re plenty valid, though, so read on below the cut for the extensive cut material from his talk. Also features probably my favorite quote from all weekend.

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The issue of virtual rights has been raised, first at Kendricke’s blog and then by Grimwell. Kendricke is bouncing off of ideas raised this past weekend at IMGDC, and I really must codify my notes from Dr. Bartle’s fantastic session on government intervention in virtual worlds …

In any case, the bottom line is that having ‘rights’ is more trouble than its worth. I want to make it super clear here that my opinion here isn’t ’siding with the devs’ - it’s a purely selfish notion. Games with ‘rights’ aren’t games anymore. They’re extensions of reality and by definition no longer exist purely for fun. With ‘rights’ comes a legion of unwanted components like tax laws, intellectual property rights, etc, etc, etc … all BS categorically not having anything to do with gaming or fun. I don’t want to have to submit a W2 everytime I join a new gameworld, and then think about my virtual income come tax time.

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The recent discussion in the Warhammer world about whether or not to have forums sounds very familiar. So does the fan reaction, and so does Darren’s response, which is something like “if they step out of line, ban em’.” I realize I have a sort of skewed perception here, but one thing that I think Slashdot does very very right is the whole ‘don’t ban people -ever’ shtick. Instead of banning folks who get out of line, Slash has the tools available to make annoying posters ‘disappear’ from the perspective of readers. Metamoderation of original comments allows readers to have the kind of experience they want. If you want hate, bile, and hilarity, you can read at that level. If you want only useful or insightful comments, you can read at that level.

The problem with banning is that it feeds into the ego of the troll. See, trolls live and die by the amount of attention they garner. They’re attention whores, basically, though most of them are a different breed than the Guild drama queen or the popular kids in school. On the Bartle grid, they get their jollies on the ‘Killer’ part of the map; they play the game (in forums and on websites) mostly as PvP. So, as they see it, getting banned is a good thing. It’s a further ‘injustice’ they can shout to the rooftops, evidence they can hold out that the Man has him beaten down.

I’ve compared trolls in the past to the rampaging advertisements from that classic Simpsons Halloween episode. The only way to truly kill a troll is to stop paying attention to it. Give other readers the tools to block them out, marginalize them, and forget about them. Banning just creates overhead for staff and feeds into the troll’s cycle of pain.

Obviously I probably fall into the category of someone not smart enough to moderate a forum, but that’s just my two cents.

Paul Barnett asks a mighty interesting question over at his MySpace blog:

What game would you unmake? What computer game would you unmake for the betterment of mankind. By ‘unmake’ I mean it never happened, it never got thought about and thus all the nonsense that followed, the games it influenced and so forth never come about.

So be careful with your choice, I mean you may end up killing off entire branches of game development, or are you just terminating a game you dislike, one you wasted too much time on? Would the world be better off if Myst never happened? Do we end up at a better place if Donkey Kong Conga never got made, are we happier as a race if we never got to play Populous? Imagine games without Sim City? Interesting thoughts…

So, what game would you unmake?

This is a hard one for me, because there’s one really obvious answer – the Shadowrun FPS. While I’ve tried to keep my bile and hatred for the game off of this site, my soul still weeps at the misuse of the Shadowrun IP that game represents. If Shadowrun as an FPS was never considered in the first place, what might have sprung up in its place?

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Okay. It all falls into place. Surfer Girl’s latest ‘Wars rumor had me thinking that the new MMOG was going to be based in the timeframe of the liveaction show. Today’s announcement of the full scope of the Clone Wars animated series, though, has it all coming into focus.

Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes audiences on incredible new Star Wars adventures, combining the legendary storytelling of Lucasfilm with an eye-popping, signature animation style. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will open in North American theaters Friday, August 15. International release dates will be announced soon. The theatrical debut of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is only the beginning of all-new Star Wars adventures that continue in the fall when the long-awaited television series premieres on Cartoon Network, followed by airings on TNT. Details regarding international broadcasts will be announced shortly. Star Wars: The Clone Wars showcases an entirely new look and feel to the galaxy far, far away — combining the expansive scope of the Star Wars Saga with state-of-the-art computer-generated animation. Each week, viewers will see a thrilling, 30-minute “mini-movie” created by the talented artists at Lucasfilm Animation.

This is way, waaaay bigger a project than I thought it was. I had assumed the live-action show was the main thrust of their creative campaign, with the Clone series just a way to make side-money. This makes me think it’s t’otherwayround. Looking at the images from the animated series, it’s like looking at a really nice videogame. So why not make it a videogame? The Clone Wars era is actually the *perfect* time to set a game like this. It’s got the appeal of some later era components in the background, while still having plenty of room for Jedi to participate. It’s also right there in the movies, making it more appealing to folks who may have never heard of Knights of the Old Republic.

With her earlier statements taken into account, this paints a fascinating future for the MMO industry. If BioWare’s game really is a fantasy title, what the hell is it? A D&D game that tries to grab mindshare where DDO didn’t? That’s the implication of her statement that their game “has a fantasy setting akin to the company’s previous fantasy role playing games.” A title set in their Dragon Age world maybe?

So, out past the WAR/AoC fight this year, we have highlights like these:

• BioWare’s Fantasy Title
• The Agency
• DC Universe
• The Clone Wars MMO
• StarGate Worlds
• Secret World
• Lego Universe
• World of Darkness

Only one fantasy title! And it’s BioWare! Sniffle. I think I just learned how to love again.

I have to say: I partially hope this is wrong. I want a KOTORO MMOG. But, could I live with this? Heck yeah.

I tend to be an empathic kind of guy. Despite my cynicism and sometimes jaded outlook, I care a lot. Especially about things in the world of MMOs. For example, I am frustrated and saddened by the passing of the Marvel MMOG.  I really wanted to see that DC/CoH/Marvel fight. (Aside: that article is really well written. Go me!) Last year I was made emo by a number of things; Vanguard’s suq, Auto Assault’s closure, Gods and Heroes’ cancellation.

There’s something ongoing in Massive games that just makes me dejected, though, and that’s ‘middle levels’. The levels past the ‘newb experience’ and before the ‘endgame’. IE: The stuff everyone mostly wants to skip. The reason: I love those levels! I think the middle levels are freaking awesome. The problem is that both the developers and the players seem to view them more as speedbumps than anything else. As a result, additions to games tend to heavily weight towards either end of the play experience. New character races introduce new newbie experience, while almost every expansion will add (or prolong) endgame content.

Meanwhile, the middlin’ levels are left lolling about wondering why they got out of bed in the morning.  I want to take a moment to pour out a metaphorical beer for my friends, the middle levels.

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