Sneak Peak at PVP balance design

In case you were not aware Bjorn with GamerFirst has a blog detailing the day to day progress that they are making while reworking the failed IP, APB-Reloaded. A couple off days ago he released a post describing the problems they are having with balancing Player Vs Player combat (APB is all about PVP) because the original release of the game had a very poor system of matching players up.

            He goes on to explain a lot of the mechanics and systems used in gaming to determine who should fight who. Anyways it’s an interesting read if your into how game design works and you can check it out  by clicking the image below.   

Be Careful What You Wish For – Guild Advancement is a Double Edged Sword

When Blizzard first announced the new Guild Advancement system I was giddie with anticipation. I had always championed the concept of rewarding guilds, and those who stay in them, for sticking it out and having a means to take a measure of their accomplishments. I also liked the concept of better tools for guilds as I have always felt that they are an integral part of playing a game like WoW. So why is it now that I look at the new system out of the corner of my eye and a frown on my face?

Been waiting for Years

            WoW for the most part was my introduction to MMORPG game play. Except for a couple of short jaunts into EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft was where I found my love and passion for this game genre. With that in mind also realize that since the beginning of my time in Azeroth I have for the most part been a guild Leader. This is in no way an indication of my excellent leadership abilities or some higher purpose as an organizer, in fact I was sorta thrown into the concept and never aimed at being a community leader.

             When I started playing WoW I joined a guild that my real life brother already had established and because of personal life time issues, was having a hard time of giving it the time it needed. I soon found myself co-leading and then leading this guild. When I joined the guild it was rather small, less than two dozen players, but soon would swell to over a hundread, but after some time and some minor squabbling with original members, I realized that this wasn’t mine and set about the process of forming my own guild.

            I formed my new guild around the same time as Wrath was being announced and most of the members of my present guild came to the new guild with me. We continued to see success and before long our guild sported over 500 toons spanning 300+ accounts. We were well known on our server as thee casual guild that did fun stuff and raided to.

            Ever since that time I have always been waiting for the announcement from Blizzard of something like the guild advancement system. I wanted a better way to enhance the guild experience and promote, what was to me, the coolest guild around. When I received a Beta invite to Cataclysm and heard about the addition of a guild leveling system I was down right excited. But that was then and now things are very, very different. 

A Beginning and End

            Like most guild leaders who have been doing this for some time, real life difficulties and available time forced me to play WoW less and less. Because of this fact my guild suffered in my absence, including one period that spanned several months. The once large guild was now a dwindled entity of its former self, but was still maintained it core group of players. Other factors lessened its size (including the death of WoW casual guilds as a whole) and by the time Cataclysm was announced we were a small collection of veteran members waiting for a new start.

            It was decided by most of us that we needed a new start, so with heavy hearts we ditched our old guild and formed a brand new guild just before the release of Cata. Turns out this was the worst possible time in WoW to form a new guild and I wonder how many guilds have had success that were created around this time frame. We quickly discovered that the system of guild advancement and perks was working as intended, maybe to good. Potential members were hesitant to join an upstart guild for fear of losing the time invested in their present guild. In other words once you were in a guild for a long time the cost for leaving the guild has become to high.

            Now this far into the expansion I wonder if anyone, by there own accord, would choose to leave a well established guild. If you are in a strong guild with a large assortment of perks unlocked, would you leave it now to join a new guild? I have come to find out that not many would. The first question I am often asked by a potential recruit is, “What rank is your guild?” Now this is an appropriate question for someone to ask as it is vital for them to determine a guild’s strength, but it also eliminates you as a potential guild if that number is not high enough. Can you imagine being a new guild with a rank of 1? Talk about a daunting task for a fledgling guild to overcome.

            Before the new advancement system this was never a problem as the reasons for staying with a guild were only superficial and had very little impact on the game itself. Now to walk away from your guild has real consequences to it. The funny thing is I actually like it that way as there should be something to lose and this is exactly what I have always wanted, but the side effect of this is that guild leaders now have a lot to hang over their member’s heads and newer guilds don’t stand a chance. The price for our new guild is that it has ended just as soon as it has started with very few new members and no real chance to catch the guilds that have already started out strong.

What to do

            So now I am the guild leader of a very small guild with very little chance of making it to the bigs. Could I work hard at it and make it work? Absolutely anything is possible, but the question is do I want to? The time, blood, sweat and tears required nowadays to form and grow a guild is a huge amount as opposed to the days before guild advancement and at this stage I wonder if I am committed to sacrificing so much.

            As for the game I do believe that the new guild system will ultimately prove to be a negative influence and be a contributing factor in its decline. Now when a player gets tired of being in their guild or their guild folds, the thought of having to start all over again may prove to be too much and just leaving the game entirely will appear to be a  more appealing option. I believe Blizzard has also noticed some negative effects as recent announcements about a proposed “looking for guild” interface are in the works.

           

In conclusion I have definitely learned a valuable lesson in all this. Just because something sounds great doesn’t mean that it is suited for you or the game you love. I still like the guild advancement system, but I think maybe it’s just a little bit too hardcore for me. While I like the way it keeps people from jumping from guild to guild, I don’t think it should be such a high price to pay for someone if they don’t like where they are. Lastly I hope some changes are made to the system to give newer guilds a chance and not be the nail in the coffin.

Visit Blizzards blog post about this here. Some of the comments being left are very interesting.

SWTOR - Jedi Knight Character Progression

A New update is out, this time around they are detailing the two different path of the Jedi Kight.

The one thing I can say for sure is I like the Armored look for the Jedi. Besides making sense to be better protected in combat, the armor gives you a sense of a true old world Mediveal Knight.

The Reason I still play STO

            As I stated in a previous post I was surprised to still be playing this game beyond my initial 30 day period. I have come to enjoy certain aspects of the game including space combat, Group content and general game play. However none of these reasons are truly behind my continued play time. As a recently promoted Commander in Star Fleet I was handed the keys to the U.S.S. Wrath. A brand new Assault ship and oh is she a beauty.

Say what you will about the game but the ships look awesome and waiting those 10 levels to get your newest one is reason enough to keep playing. Its not the only reason to play, but for this guy right now it is number one.

Story Line Replay

If you play an MMO then the concept of replaying content is old news to you. The problem usually starts when you have rehashed the same content countless times and the story arc starts to annoy you. This is an inevitable reality while playing any game, but with MMORPG where you log in regularly, sooner or later you will run out of new villains to bash or fuzzies to kill and must rehash old material and the “burn out” begins.

Blah Blah Blah

          If you are a WOWer how many times have you watched that damn Octopus get electrified in Thrown of Tides? The fact that they installed an abort button for that one is proof enough that watching the same cut-scene, now matter how entertaining or purposeful, can get annoying and downright tedious. Often in raids or other dungeons that have heavy scripting, I would busy myself with other things until the <Insert baddy Name> stopped his rant and began the battle.

            Take questing for example, if you enjoy a good story in your game you will read the text that is associated with that quest, but what about the second time, or the third time around. How much of that story do you still read? When does reading quest content become required preamble and not entertainment anymore?

            When replaying a portion of a game it is inevitable that the engaging and entertaining story will eventually become nothing more than the stuff in the way you can do without.

World of Warcrafts Negative Influence

            Blizzard did not invent story telling in games nor are they the best at doing it. However when your game is the most widely played MMO of all time, they are often looked at as the trend setters. Game makers have been trying to capture the magic of WOW for some time now and often look to that games model when creating new games.

            World of Warcraft has heavily scripted content and is impacted with good story telling. One only needs to look at the expansions to see this. The stories of Arthas, Deathwing and other notable lead characters are prevalent in the design of the games structure and are integral to completely finishing the provided content. This only becomes an issue when you take the rest of the games design into focus. Repetitive raiding and dungeon running are the norm of max level play time, thus repetitive story telling must also happen.

            There is no denying the over all successes of Blizzards approach, but is it the best way to implement story driven material into a game that requires repeat play?

Say it isn’t so BioWare

          BioWares recent Community Q & A Session about Flashpoint design points to WOWs influence on the upcoming SWTOR. I have always been concerned about BioWares approach to story driven content in their MMO before, but after reading this I am really concerned with this games replay ability. Think back to the Octopus example and now interject SWTORs group conversation mechanic. The abort button is no longer an option because selecting responses to dialog prompts is an integral part of the game.

            So let’s say you have now run X flashpoint 15 times. How annoying will it be to not be able to skip that particular talking scene or the fact that you can not control the pace of the run as you need to stop here and there for the mandatory story injection? The following two Questions from the mentioned Q&A sum up my concerns:

 Q: How do you intend to make replaying Flashpoints interesting (other than using diverse loot tables) in order to encourage group play and to not have Flashpoints deteriorate into "farm areas" typical of other games in the genre? – TheOrigin

A: From a gameplay perspective, we try to keep the combat mechanics dynamic and the pacing strong. We’ve discussed adding elements that differ from one session to the next, but our top priority is offering a diverse array of Flashpoints at launch. As a BioWare fan, I find the stories alone engaging enough to repeat – especially with the multiplayer conversation system.

This one answer alone says a lot about what raiding and end game content will be like in SWTOR. BioWare stories are engaging and entertaining, but I highly doubt they will be the 15^th time around.

Q: Do mobs respawn in a Flashpoint after a certain time, or do they "stay" dead? – MilOuZ

A: Enemies do not respawn in Flashpoints. The story is too tightly focused for respawning enemies to make sense, and it would have undesirable gameplay consequences.

The important part here to me boils down to “The story is too tightly focused”. This alone indicates to me that players will be “led” along a desired path, thus the story is the key to flashpoints more than the gameplay. I might be over stating this point here, but it does leave some concern.

Q: Are Flashpoints linear or can you go multiple routes without ruining the storytelling part? – Flopi

A: Your main objectives in a Flashpoint follow a clear path, except in cases where your story choices modify that path. We use bonus objectives to introduce elements of non-linearity, and we try to place surprises off the beaten path.

            This shows a glimmer of hope here when they refer to elements of non-linear game play. This will help to break up the feeling of “been there, done that”. I just hope they use this feature in big swaths as it is important to replayability especially in a dialog driven game.

Lastly

            Now while I do believe story is important to a games overall entertainment, I have to believe there are ways to make them less rigid and linear. I want to interact and participate in a story arc, not watch it again and again. Maybe BioWares Dialog system is the answer to this riddle and only time will tell, but I am hopeful that they will get this part right.

The dialog system can allow for a different look and feel on successive runs of the same content, but only if they allow it to. If they focus too heavily on the story and not enough on ways to augment it then I am afraid this game will be like so many others. Stick to the same old method and sooner or later people will be listening to music or eating a sandwich instead of playing along.