Thank you, Veterans.

Some things really are worth fighting for.

No, it’s not the Cataclysm, it’s the latest nerdragestorm about Blizzard’s cash cow.  For reference:

Blizzard Introduces Microtransactions (via Tobold)

and

Subscription Game Item Shops are the Third Trammel (via Green Armadillo at PvD)

So now Blizzard is TEH EBIL for taking another step into a larger MMO market, one where not everyone pays their $15 door fee and competes for epics and ego via state-sanctioned grinds.  This is the proverbial “straw” to break some camels’ backs.  (Never mind that the Refer-A-Friend program had a more significant impact on the wallet *and* gameplay.)  Yeah, democracy and the free market certainly suck.  (Must be why Bush and Obama tried to strangle them.  *rimshot*)

As Green Armadillo notes, markets change.  I’d say they mature, but too many gamers think that means boobs and blood.

What gets lost in the hyperbole is that in a mature market, savvy salescritters find ways to cater to all sorts of different customers.  Trammel didn’t destroy the “old school” servers where you had to walk to town uphill both ways with gankers stabbing your squishy bits and stealing your shinies every two steps.  The players voted with their feet and went elsewhere, yes, but those nasty, tricksy old servers were there for those who wanted them.  (Of course, with fewer “sheep” to prey on, wolves started on each other, and it’s never fun for a serial ganker to be on the receiving end.  Boo.  Hoo.)  The choice is still there, but now the market has a better way to get feedback from the players who are paying the bills.  That’s a Good Thing.  (Just like the increased granularity of the microtransaction model is a Good Thing for player-dev feedback design cycles and tight feedback loops.)

In the new, mature MMO market, there will still be subscription-only games.  There will be microtransaction-only games.  There will be hybrids.  There will be companies that offer different models on different servers, while offering the same game.  There will be companies who do a great job and companies who pull jerk moves.  Thing is, you can’t map “microtransaction” to Jerk and “subscription” to “Great” (or vice versa) any more than you can map people by their skin color or political affiliation (it doesn’t stop people from trying, of course).  No, there’s a whole range of business going on out there, and all sorts of Good and Bad game design that may or may not be directly related.

The democratization of the market (maturation, remember) should be embraced.  It fosters an open meritocracy where games can be judged by the content offered their characters, not by the color of their business model.  Customers can make decisions based on what they want to play and what they want to pay, and will have to look past whether a game is on “your team”, whether you’re with the “Hardcore Subbers”, “Casual Carebears”, “Mercenary Micros” or “RMT Raiders”.  Of course, that also asks something of the players.

It means players have to grow up, too.

If you like a game, play it.  If you like it enough, pay the devs for it.  If you don’t like it, leave it alone or vent about it to the world.  Whatever the case, stop letting the Joneses dictate whether or not you’re having fun.

To be sure, I can understand the hurt feelings that come when a game changes direction and goes where you don’t feel welcome any more.  I do have to wonder, though… if we’re constantly paying for these MMO things, always expecting them to use our money to work on the game, can we really expect it to always be the same as it was in the Old Days?

Games change.  People change.  It’s inevitable that some of those changes will not be in harmony.  When those moments of discord come, it’s actually OK to move on… and sometimes, it’s better to do so before you spend more money and emotional investment.  That way lies bitterness and continued resentment, which ultimately does absolutely nothing to the party who is the subject of ire.  Bearing a grudge is a burden on the bearer, not the target.

Witness the occasional blogger who just can’t seem to ignore reasons to hate a game they once loved, or who can’t leave a company alone, always waiting for them to make an error so they can pounce on it.  This is true in all things; the divorcee who gets lost in bashing their former soulmate, the apostate who denounces their former church, the spiteful ex-employee who burns bridges.

Life is change, as Remy of Ratatouille might note, and those who can’t learn to adapt and move with the changes are hurting themselves.  If the wave you’re on doesn’t suit you, find another one.  The ocean doesn’t care.  Life moves on.  Don’t get left behind, crying over changes that you had no control over.  Rather, take control of yourself, and do something else.

Disgaea is packed with a bunch of good ideas.  I’ve logged over 100 hours with the game on my trusty DS (with a sadly defunct R button), and I’m still looking forward to playing more.  The game isn’t perfect, and has a few glaring flaws, but I wanted to point out the things they do well first (so yes, I’ll be writing a few articles on the game).  One of the best facets of the game is the way it handles classes.

Any character can equip any bit of gear.  Each character “class” uses gear a little differently, however.

The ten core statistics (HP, DEF, ATK, etc.) each have their own “inheritance” value.  This inheritance value is a percentile, typically between 50% and 100%.  It dictates how much equipped gear’s stats carry over to the character.  For example, a Mage class character with a 50% HP inheritance value will get a boost of 200 HP from a bit of gear that grants a base boost of 400 HP.  A Sniper character with an inheritance of 110% HIT will predictably get a 220 HIT boost from a bit of gear with a 200 base HIT boost.

As such, classes come with a relatively clear role, as defined by how their inheritances balance out, but the player isn’t locked into arbitrary equipping rules.  It’s perfectly possible to make an Axe wielding Cleric.  It’s not terribly smart, but it’s possible (and random enemies will often have such class/gear mismatches).  It’s all up to the player to choose how they want to approach character progress.

This freeform character control is a great way to handle development.  Classes are still present, but are more like guidelines rather than hardcoded expectations.  If you want your squishy mages to use the most incredible armor and carry pikes into battle, you can do that.  They won’t be as effective on the front lines as a battle hardened Ronin, but they will certainly be more durable than they would be in typical mage robes.

This flexibility is especially useful if mages have already learned all the magic they can and want to branch out.  Everyone can learn almost everything, taught by weapons, so it may well be smart to crosspollinate a bit for situational tactics.  Since you can change gear for free in a fight, you can afford to have several skills “on standby”.

And sometimes, it’s the little things like that that make all the difference in a pitched battle (though, to be fair, there aren’t a lot of those, considering the wide power band and the ability to outlevel pretty much any challenge).  It’s certainly most welcome in a game where tactical choices are what make the game tick.

It’s also possible to “reincarnate” a character as a different class, and if you do it right, they retain memory of what they learned in their previous life.  The level cap is an insane 9999 (not a typo), and since you can effectively level to the cap in each class, things can get extraordinarily grindy for the completionist.  For someone just exploring the system, though, the freedom is excellent.

This might seem a little odd, drawing attention to a book I haven’t read, but I stumbled across this today, and thought a few of you might appreciate it:

Boneshaker

It’s a steampunk zombie tale, set in the Seattle area (northwest U.S.).

And it’s on sale at the moment.

First, the treat:

Halloween Cat

(Yes, it’s actually a sneak preview of the book I’m illustrating for my mother.  Way too much going on, and we wanted to have it done by now, but we’re angling for Christmas completion instead.  Life does that sometimes.)

And then the trick:  A Puzzle Pirates thread from a while back where I show my “tricks of the trade” for how I do this sort of thing.  I’ve linked to this before, I think, but it fits nicely here as well.  One day, I’ll do another one of these for a piece that I’m working on for the book.

Tesh’s Tech and Tricks

Yes, this is a bit late for Halloween, but when you move to a new house and your internet connection gets lost in the aether, schedules tend to go out the window.

I’m not really much of a Halloween sort of guy.  What little I do for Halloween is indulge my kids’ interest and get candy cheap once the holiday is over.  I’ll even hand out candy to the little thugs that stop by if I’m in a good mood.

(OK, I’ve been having great fun with Halloween events in Wizard 101 and Puzzle Pirates, but that’s sort of… not normal.  When I tell neighbors I work on games, I get the standard blank stare and a “that’s nice” when they are actually trying to find a way to discreetly run away and tell their kids to avoid me.)

Anyway, things worked out this year.  I didn’t need to find a role to play for Halloween this year, Ixobelle did it for me:

Plot Refinement: NPC Intros

Mwahahaha!

(Is it terrible that I can actually identify with the “grieving mad doctor” character?)

Tobold linked to an interesting article in The New York Times a couple of days ago, wherein “hardcore” marathon runners are rather dismissive of slower runners:

Hardcord vs. Casual

It’s an interesting take on things, but fundamentally flawed when it comes to gaming.  At least, for some players.

To wit, not everyone cares about the rat race.  (Link to Ysharros’ great article on gaming principles.)

Yes, in an era of Facebook, XBox Achievements and Blizzard’s new battle.net services, where players are competitors first, pride provokes participation, and ego is the raison d’être, the tacit assumption is that the biggest reason for playing is so that others know about it.  This isn’t a surprise, but it is unfortunate.  Gaming becomes less about the game itself, great game design, or even fantastic experiences, and simply becomes a way for nerds to feel like jocks.

This has all sorts of deleterious effects on sociality (the infamous Counterstrike “emotes” being an easy example) and game design (MMOs reveling in the rut of racing rats on treadmills, idiotic “achievements” that detract from gameplay).  To be sure, some of this comes from reflexively being the contemptuous, confrontational CroMagnon cretins we are when internet anonymity facilitates and magnifies stupidity, but more and more, games are built around this impulse.  It’s certainly profitable, but more and more, I find such a trend to be disturbing.

Perhaps there’s no going back to more innocent times when games were things to enjoy, not work at for the equivalent of a part time job that costs you money.  There may not be a way to stuff the Gamer Score Genie back in the bottle.  Pandora’s preening peacocks are noisy, obnoxious beasts, but we’re stuck with them.  I think that it is unfortunate that they have such a significant bully platform, but perhaps that’s just the inevitable result of a society that manages to grow old without growing up.

Still, I’m sitting out this rat race.  I still find much more joy in the journey than I ever would by finishing it before someone else.  I don’t need someone else to feel superior to so that I can have fun in a game.

The “marathon to MMO” analogy works with the business model fairly well, though.  People buy their entry tickets, and start running.  They aren’t charged for each hour they run, or even for each mile they run, and they certainly don’t buy perpetual access to the route.  They buy access to the complete route for a chunk of time, after which said access is summarily cut off.  Is it any wonder why both the elitists and the hosts are troubled when these slower runners don’t play by the same unwritten expectations?  It’s the exact same mentality as those who say that a subscription to an MMO is a “level playing field”.  It certainly is, if you’re only looking at a couple of variables and assuming the rest, blithely ignorant of diverse goals.  (To be fair, there isn’t financial impetus to acknowledge diversity.  “One size fits all” pricing doesn’t have room for that sort of reasoning.)  Slower runners don’t fit the mold, and will always be a problem for the race mentality, even though the administrators are more than happy to take their money.

Of course, such runners would often be better served by not buying into the marathon in the first place, if it’s just a race.  Notably and naturally, I don’t buy into subscription games.  My money would be wasted on such, since the nature of the beast runs contrary to what I want out of a game.  Such oddball souls as I are better served by running at their own pace along the marathon path when it’s open to the public (GASP, Free To Play!), maybe buying lunch along the way (GASP! Freeloaders actually spending money in an environment!).  Importantly, people who feel welcome have a tendency to return the goodwill, even if they aren’t running the race that the elitists define their existence by.  (I cite again Daniel James of Three Rings/Puzzle Pirates fame:  “Money can’t buy you love, but love can bring you money.“  …as a Brit, I wonder if he was influenced by the Fab Four.)

Different strokes for different folks, to be sure, but in the end:

Not everyone is interested in the race.  Some are only interested in the route and the roses along the way.

These people are not “doing it wrong”, they are not misguided souls in need of correction, rehabilitation and scorn, they are not denigrating the sport/game.  If you as a game or marathon provider let them in and take their money, they are your customer.  If you don’t want your experience soiled with their presence, don’t take their money and don’t let them in.

Fortune cookie version for the TL;DR crowd:

“He who dies with the most toys still dies“, “First means nothing without second“, and “It’s hard to smell the roses when you’re running at top speed“

Nothing much this Friday, just a plug for a gaming gem that Good Old Games finally added to its library:

The Incredible Machine (Mega Pack)

If you’ve never played The Incredible Machine, this is a perfect time to pick it up.  This “Mega Pack” is several games in one package, comprising almost all of the Incredible Machine gaming released to date.  For $10, you get these venerable old games in a Windows XP-playable format, free of DRM.  GOG really has the best online game purchasing system, and a great library of fantastic games.  (Come on, Lucasarts, let GOG sell your masterpieces too!)

If you’ve ever had an inkling to play with Rube Goldberg devices or physics based games, TIM stands as a masterwork in the field.  The puzzle part of the game is worth the price alone, but the sandbox is the part that I’ll be introducing my little girl to.  She loves World of Goo, and this should be a blast for her.  (And hey, it’s even educational!)  This, WoG and Crayon Physics are the trifecta that make me happy as a gamer who managed to grow up, hoping to help my little ones find happiness in games.  They don’t make ‘em like this often, and when they do, they really should be applauded.

Just another quick plug.  Life is still busy here, but there’s plenty to read.  Specifically, Ernest Adams’ series of game design articles:

The No Twinkie, Bad Designer! Database

It’s well worth a read.  Sometimes, the best way to avoid making a dumb mistake is knowing what it is.

(If it helps, think of it as one man’s game design version of the tvtropes website.)

“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

Grand Moff Tarkin, the Glare of Doom

(Picture shamelessly copied from the Wookieepedia article on Grand Moff Tarkin.)

Brian “Psychochild” Green thinks modern MMO design lacks adventure. I concur.  I can’t help but think that this is largely due to the developer impulse to control the game experience, rather than let the reins loose a bit and let the players be the content.  It’s wholly understandable, considering just how badly players can screw things up, but realistically, in a medium where audience choice is key to the experience (games), you must let players control the experience to some degree.

There’s no way around it if you’re actually making a game rather than a movie or Skinner box.  Games are interaction, experimentation and play.  We’ve lost that along with the adventure.

MMOs in particular need not spend time and effort trying to make groups of players go through a Pavlovian script, but rather, to leverage the inherent variability and instability that comes when you have people interacting as independent, yet interconnected, agents of change.  That’s part of the promise of these Multiplayer games, after all.

So, Luke, you scrappy little Force user with little more than dreams and prophecy to drive you, stop wasting your time with batches of ten womp rats.  Start flying a borrowed bit of middleware machinery, and craft a plan to demolish the triumphantly technological, carefully controlled Death Star that is modern MMO design.  Some of the clumsy few may die on the way through the trenches (R.I.P. Vanguard), but all it takes is one perfect shot to show that the Empire isn’t invincible.

The freedom of sentients everywhere depend on the actions of a brave few!

Death Star Under Construction

(Picture shamelessly pulled from the Wookieepedia article on the Death Star.)

Disclosure:  I am not in the SWTOR beta, and I don’t think it will be the Force I’m looking for.