There have been a number of interesting news tidbits to come out in the past few weeks related to the MMO industry, but two have really caught my eye. And the reason is that, they are essentially the same announcement, but perceived by the community and industry as a whole as completely opposite. What am I talking about about? Well you’ll have to read on a bit.
There’s been a fairly large what-to-do this week about some comments made by Ryan Barker, during a recent interview, about how supposedly there WILL be an MMO that will once and for all crush World of Warcraft, and it will be on Facebook! Now, the thing is, first, this isn’t what Mr. Barker said at all. But that’s how it was presented by the press. And more than anything else, this is a stellar example of press proliferation of what is essentially a misquote, or at the least, misrepresentation. But the only thing people are seeing over and over again is the tweet or the caption: Facebook MMO could crush World of Warcraft! And it’s got a lot of people up in arms, because many of them, like myself, loathe Facebook games. And love MMO’s. So I thought I might try to offer up my take on what was said and what was meant, and maybe convince people to put down their pitchforks for just a moment.
So as you know by now, I tend to shy away from the overly covered topics in my blog and try to hit on those things that I think are perhaps overlooked, or underrated, or at least underdiscussed. I could talk about Turbine’s making DDO free to play, which is certainly interesting, at the least. Or Sony’s poor judgement in community manager’s these days. Or the rampant rumor about Cryptic making an NWN MMO (which, btw, I don’t believe) . But I’m actually more interested in discussing something else. And that is the Book 8 content for new players that Turbine is releasing for Lord of the Rings Online. Okay, so actually not so much the content itself, which you can read about in great detail here, but what it means.
So let me begin by sayin I’m taking a break in this post from designer discussions to wax nostalgic on an old friend. In case you missed it, yesterday Sony announced that they are soon closing the doors on The Matrix Online. And I have to say, it’s left me with a bit of meloncholy. So this post is my fairwell to the MMO, and to the character I created there. It wasn’t a great MMO, we know that. But it had some great bits to it. And for me, it will always hold a dear spot in my heart because of the people I met there. MxO was one of the few times where I came into the world and played it without knowing anyone else beforehand that was playing. And though I usually am one to solo, everything about this game screamed community, and hanging around a club one night, I picked up on some of the roleplaying there, and decided to join in. I’m no stranger to roleplaying — hell I ran a vampire roleplaying community for five years that existed solely within the pervue of IRC chat rooms. When I created my character though, I had no intention of roleplaying, so natch, I created a female. But back in those days, MxO was going the way of the original SWG, so you could only have one character per server. So I found myself in the rather interesting position of roleplaying a female character. I am one to rarely shirk from a challenge, so I ran with it. In the end, because of the stories I wrote for her, the personality I created for her, and the people I played around with her, she became one of my absolutely most beloved avatars.
So as some of you know (and if you don’t, then why don’t you!) I’ve embarked upon the journey of creating a company, which in turn is creating a world. And hopefully, you can see in the first five seconds of looking at Windstorm Studios’ site, that the world we’re creating is not going to be in your typical high fantasy setting. And we’re in good company. Right now there are more MMO’s coming out in a non-typical fantasy setting than ever before. With games like Jumpgate Evolution, Champions Online, The Agency, and overly wordy Star Wars: The Old Republic looming on the horizon, players will soon have more selections than ever when deciding on the type of world they want to visit. But why has it taken this long? And why do we still see games being released every year set in that traditional fantasy setting? Well, it’s mostly because fantasy gives you so much for free, from a design standpoint, and doesn’t present nearly as much of a challenge as designing your game in a contemporary or futuristic setting does.
So it’s Monday, and last week a veritable shitstorm was kicked up betweeen a games review site and an MMO developer, because of an incredily low review score. I’m sure most of you have already followed the drama in its entirety, but if you haven’t, well you can see the original review here, Darkfall developer Tasos’ original reply, Eurogamer’s blogged reply to the reply, and then Tasos reply to Eurgamer’s reply. Heheh. Yeah. Hey if nothing else I like to perform a public service. 
Now, first, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the original discussion itself, except for this: I’ve worked in the game industry for the past fifteen years. Bad reviews get written all the time. You may think think they’re justified, or you may think they’re shit. But regardless of what you think, if you have a beef with a review, this is what happens. The producer of the title picks up the phone and calls the Editor-in-Chief at the review site, and says What the fuck? And they hash it out over the phone or over drinks at the local bar or whatever. But professional developers don’t air their dirty laundry out on the their public fucking forums, unless they’re just looking for publicity. Which apparently is exactly what Aventurine wanted, and what they got. And then you sure as hell don’t respond in a public blog. Both sides of this issue have acted more like zombie forum fan boys, and less like professionals, than they should have. While the drama has certainly been entertaining, the fact of the matter is the vast majority of us should never have heard about any of it.
So Free Realms launched yesterday. Okay technically they were supposed to launch on Tuesday, but in a brilliant move to avoid launch day crushes, they simply kept their launch portal firmly closed all day and waited until the wee hours before midnight and then launched. And yes, I’m being snarky I’m sure that wasn’t their actual attention but in retrospect it actually did roll out rather quietly and successfully a day after their announced launch day, which has me wondering…
As I mentioned back in December, 2009 looks to be a year with a lot of promise in the MMO space. And here we are in April and we’re already seeing some of that promise fulfilled. Chronicles of Spellborn finally launched here in the US, Champions Online has issued a launch date (and it’s soon!) and Free Realms has been in open beta and is launching tomorrow. And with so many MMO’s right on the cusp of launching, most everyone I know in the MMO space has been bouncing around one beta or another. It’s been difficult to sit on the sidelines during all this, enduring what is esentially a self-imposed exile, but from what I’ve read recently, I’m still glad to have stuck by the decision I made some time ago to stop participating in MMO betas. Here’s why.
This thought hit me the other day as I was surfing the LOTRO forums. I thought about it awhile, and then like many thoughts of mine, it just went away. Later though, something else prompted the thought again, and I put the question out to twitter. I think it would be kind of irresponsible of me to pose a question and not offer at least a few of my own thoughts, so here goes.
You too can be a Content Designer! You too can create compelling stories, lace them intricate and subtle subtext, fill them with engaging characters.. and have no one read them!
Okay, so the above is me waxing a bit cynical, but the truth is my hat goes off to NCSoft West (now Paragon Studios) for even attempting such a bold endeavor in the space of an MMO. For some time now, there has been a growing movement in game design and that movement says that user-generated content is king! At Ensemble when we were working on Titan we had long and drawn out debates over the subject of user generated content. Because while almost everyone agrees it’s something you want.. the extent to which you want it and what exactly you allow your users to do with it are matters of heated debate. Ultimately, we found that it really boiled down to two questions: One — Can we do it? and then two: Should we do it? After spending a half dozen hours or so (okay perhaps more) in CoH’s new system, and spending a fair amount of time sampling some of the wares out of that system, I think I can safely say Paragon Studios has answered at least one of those questions.
