I want to start this post with an anecdote  (Side here, I often misuse words.  The first word I put there was antidote.  Thank God I don’t do this for a living.. writing that is).   Yesterday my son, whose 13, gathered up 5 of his friends from around the neighborhood, they all gathered up various pieces of airsoft arenal, and staged an “airsoft” war, with our block being the battlefield.  It was awesome to watch from a game designer standpoint.  At one point I told them they had 30 minutes left to play, and they promptly spent the next 20 arguing over team break up and weapon distribution.  Which just goes to show you the hardest part of designing team deathmatch is still the damn matchmaking.  But I digress.  My daughter and her friend were dying to play.  They set up chairs outside in the bone chilling cold just to watch, and soon enough were out running in and amongst the guys even though they’d been given no weapons.

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So right now the gaming press intranet is fairly groaning under the weight of GDC coverage.  There have been updates from all of the major sites, and complete transcripts and recaps from just about every panel, as well as press releases and interviews and coverage of all of the major announcements.  So I’m not even going to attempt to provide any of that sort of coverage, because you’ll find much more of it in other places and done by people far more qualified than I.  I do, however, want to add some of my personal insight and comments on a few of the panels I did attend, and even on some I didn’t. 

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So one of the things that’s making the MMO news rounds this week is the announcement of a new Marvel MMO.  And it certainly has the fan boys salivating at the thought of finally playing in a virtual world populated by and involved with their favorite franchises such as the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four.  Now, I am absolutely a self proclaimed Marvel fan boy.  One look at the  extraordinary number of busts and comics lying around my office will confirm that.  And of course, I’m a huge MMO junkie.  So why am I not excited?  Why does this announcement instill in me nothing but doubt and confusion?  Well here’s why.

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So by now, most everyone knows that Ensemble Studios was at one time working on an MMO.  The concept art was leaked out all over the net last year, and eventually we confirmed not only the MMO but all of our internal projects when we let the last guy from Gamasutra tour our offices.  While I wasn’t one of the original four that started the prototype, I was one of the earliest programmers brought on to help ramp the project up.  And for two years, from early 2005 to late 2007, I worked on that MMO, which was codenamed Titan.  Interesting tidbit — the project was originally codenamed Orion.  But news that we were working on an MMO called Orion was leaked to the internet.  To help dissuay the leak, we changed the project’s codename from Orion to Titan.  Though the project never saw the light of day, during the years we worked on it, we did an extraordinary amount of work.  And out of those efforts everyone involved took away some important lessons.  I plan to do a few of these types of posts, and share some of the things I learned while myself and a team of people worked to figure out how to build the perfect WoW killer. 

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So somewhere, there was a conversation that went something along these lines..

 
“Okay.. so we need a game tie in for the Watchmen launch.”
“I thought we had one — The End is Nigh..”
“Yeah let’s not talk about that.  Something new.  What’s the hottest thing out there right now.”
“Well.. everyone’s big into virtual worlds and social networks.  You know, MMOs..”
“Yes!  A Watchmen MMO!  Now.. what’s the best console?”
“Well actually the iPhone is the hottest gadget out there.  It’s practically taking over the world.”
“Excellent! So MMO, iPhone, and Watchmen!  Make it happen!”
“Um, who do we get to develop it?”
“Doesn’t matter.  Just do it.  And have it done by March 3rd!”
“Um sir?  What about a design.. you know.. classes.. skills.. quests..”
“Fuck that shit.  We dont’ have time for that. Give them a character, allow them to fight, and allow them to talk.  That’s all an MMO is anyway.”
“Um.. but..”
“Now GO!  And OH be sure it uses cloud technology!”
“What’s cloud technology?”
“No fucking clue.  But my twitter guy says it’s all the rage.  Do it!”
“Um right!”
“And PATENT that shit!”
“Yes sir!”

 
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