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| MMORPG's a discussion on aesthetic, etc | | |
 |  137864 | Nov 21, 2005 3:13am | Here we go!
You don't need to do anything, I'd like you to post and help, share etc but with this one you can just watch. I'll go over every MMORPG
(massively multiplayer online roleplaying game or persistent online world)
Form, shape, sound, atmosphere, mood created by all of these, interactivity, fun, depth, richness etc...
I'm into worlds and game development, so I see with the eyes of a developer and a player, I won't try and sound like a developer for the sake of it, might bore poeople.
************
RUNESCAPE
runescape.com [runescape.com]
What is it:
A java game online, massive, no real download needed, simple to play, and you save your progress and can fight other and rescue damsels, fight dragons and orcs etc...
Earlier it was:
Ugly, but simple, 2d graphics and not the good kind but passable. 3D landscape 2D models. Today it's 3D 3rd person with a point and click interface and attack system, intuitive.
Why it succeeded (they make good money, I'd estimate $500,000):
This is a simple one, it wasn't story...noooooo
it wasn't graphics...noooooooooooooo
it wasn't the rich and diverse quests ;-) noooooo
it wasn't the massive number of interesting skills.
Why did it do so well vs some other smallscale games at the time?
Simple:
it was simple, you clicked and bam you had an account, you entered in your details and started the tutorial island which meant you knew what to do, then you were unleashed on the main game and started collecting food to heal with and clicking on monsters which you walked up to and starting fighting with, they dropped loot which you clicked on and it was added to your pack.
*simple
to play and understand
*clean
(it worked, and professionally)
*FREE (they hooked you with the free version which was massive and let you fight other players and explore half the map)
*Distance,
the map appeared massive because of your slow walking speed
*Advancement/achievement
you went up levels and could train in whatever you wanted and it was easy, click, collect loot, click wait collect loot
*easy to login and play anywhere,
you could play on any computer, it was Java and didn't and doesn't today need to be downloaded
(yes it does but it's not really counted becuase it's tiny and it's a java object in your temp internet files believe)
So that's why it worked, also because people played it, it seemed to matter more, the fact that you could easily tell which were the good items-easy to know a high level veteran player because of armour. Simple advancemt, you knew where you stood in the pecking order.
*Real money
the currency (most are worth something)
was at one time worth $4US per 100k coins even though you got them fre from monsters it saved people time to buy the money on ebay etc... same with mostly all mmorpg's, so some people played it for a living.
Player vs player combat was easy to do
but hard to master and pretty scary because you lost real money when someone killed you (if you had a full suit of rune armour on you would have lost about $20US back in the day, not worht so much now but that's how much I beleive a full set sold for long ago)
As a world it was nothing special just executed in a brilliant way-no frills, clean, fun, functional but lacking in depth...
It's probably the best game I've ever seen that's done in Java (The prog language).
A game as simple as runescape would be very doable for 1 person or a small team, you could even copy it and just write better dialogue and tweak a few things so it's all nice and legal and if you'r marketing was good (quality not quantity) you could become as successful in a shorter amount of time.
Taking the knowledge about why it was so successful it's clear to see that you just need to have quests, cheezy dialogue is ok and you can get away with writing whatever is in your head and making up stories, infact there are random name and story/character generators out there (search google) that could automate all the content for you.
Then just have some animated gif's that have monster sounding names, something familiar, make them drop things.
Simplicity was it's selling point, it was easy. It was free.
Other things work, just for the market they trageted they delievered what it wanted. It was all about your level and items, you didn't need to be skillful to be good, opposite to what I liked but a lot of people liked that.
Anything to add bout how it was put together and about the world of Runescape before we more on? |
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Sponsor |  Dudymas | Jan 25, 2006 10:33pm | For me... I always saw MMORPG's, even before they even had that name, as something of a terrible addiction. The second I heard the concept of having a truly independent avatar on a game amongst other people, I knew it was bad news... at least for me. I know for others, it's the best thing that ever happened to them. Why have I decided against them?
Because I know that I would slowly stop living in the real world. Once again, I know that others don't do that, but I just know I would. I find it hard enough to not daydream in lecture. The blackboard becomes a totally different world to me... and so does my paper... and so do the faces of those around me. I daydream horribly all the time because I'm caught up in my own imagination very easily. I tried DnD and the same sort of thing started to haunt me. If you can't stop thinking of it after you leave it, and it starts to keep you from living normally, it's probably not good for you (obvious exceptions acknowledged... ie. dream jobs, your true love, and passions that drive you to do more with your life). I can easily listen to a song and redraw my world around me. If I listen to boards of canada, everything begins to float into a light snow of daydreams, and I feel warmth and a slow breeze making me so slippery that thoughts just roll off my skin like water off the back of a duck.
It takes almost nothing to make me daydream. I do just like dr. Suess if I see a little speck... I daydream of the world upon it's surface, or imagine it's a tiny hole to another universe. I get lost in thought of single words, and many times my songs begin with just playing a single note... over... and over... and over for several minutes. One song I composed, I had some of the patterns playing for even a whole hour while I did other stuff... because every time I heard the pattern, it sounded different. It tickled a different part of my brain. It invoked another memory.
For me... I just couldn't begin to tell you how hard it is to keep from hugging people and talking to them for hours... and I love for people to tell me stories over and over again. I just don't understand how it works, but my imagination is super strong...
and a MMORPG would probably absorb it all in a violent, yet invisible manner.
I get enough of an RPG out of living life, and it's MM enough for me if I only know one friend (or, in my case, I only see my group of friends once a week... and even if it was once a year, I could go on even that).
*shrug* I just... wonder how people can play these games and not totally forget the rest of the world. |
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| | | 137864 | Feb 17, 2006 12:07pm | How people can play and not forget the rest of the world?
I rember constant dopamine rushes throughout the day at even the though of going back and 'playing'
(like it's some kind of a game? they call it 'playing').
Only after slapping myself very hard whenever I thought about it did i break the addiction...and that was for a singleplayer rpg.
I currently play EVE online (100k players worldwide).
What is healthy?
it's different for everyone,
I know that if I get more than 2 weekends in a row spent with friends I get worn out, I need lot's of time to think/draw/lie on the lawn looking at the clouds/running my online auction business.
For some people having 3 weekends alone to themselves would be unhealthy for others it refreshes them.
It all depends on what you want to do and what your needs are,
I'm sure that most of us agree that people have different needs and wants.
I'm an introvert with extremely well developed social skills, find it easy to get a cute/intelligent girlfriend as well...have yet to find one that plays mmorpg's, it's actually quite a bonus becuase we could spend more time together during the week online.
I make friends easily and love to talk...but still need to be alone a lot or be around people that only talk when they have something really good to talk about.
I love people, absolutely love them but I don't need to be around them, it's not a requirement for me to be happy, email and talking to my ingame friends give me great satisfaction quite similar in taste to the emotions I feel when talking to friends.
My perfect healthy life:
*playing a mmorpg with friends 5 hours per day during the week.
*seeing friends every few weeks
*enjoying my girlfriend's company every 2nd weekend
*earning enough money to travel around the world with my laptop/notebook (a portable computer)
and working for 3 hours per day like I do now on my online auction business.
*Work on animated films with friends in our spare time & develop some independent games.
*Work on longterm goals
For some this lifestlyle would not make them happy, my lifestyle is nearly there, as soon as I finish my animation course it will be very close to what I want.
The fact that we exist...
let's dicuss this little firecracker of a fact.
Assuming that we will die...(if technology doesn't make us live past 500)
within a short amount of time, even if we have indefinite lifespans eventually someday we will die from a stray blackhole or a carcrash etc..
why was it important to have that job and get more money?
why was it important to spend so much time with friends?
why were earthly accomplishments the only thing we thought about?
If we can't take possessions with us when we die (We agree on this?)
then how is an online game where you strive to get posessions and friends any different ultimately than 'real' life?
They are more fun in some ways, real life also has it's advantages but one is not better than the other, movies/books/games/socialising are generally what people live for if not to work and get money to spend on entertainment....
Eventually we find a balance of activities to get the maximum enjoyment from life/satisfaction.
If there is something after we die, which I have actual evidence for if only statistical
(% chance of breaking lock on front passenger door then being in a crash the next day but surviving because I couldn't sit in the front pass seat...the roof was crushed right to the front pass seat in a very deadly way...evidence of soemthing funny going on, hopefully relating to an afterlife of some sort)
then what we do now is up to us and won't affect what happens after we die, assuming we do no evil depending on your spiritual beliefs.
You could hardly call gaming or reading a book a sin.
(which by the way I beleive is spawned by an ancient masochistic tendency within ancient cultures/ a blame society).
If you want to do something do it,
if you don't then don't, it's a great way to live, I make sure that what I do has at least a nautral effect on others...I naturally want to help others of course, and do frequently.
My main point is that it's normal/healthy to do whatever makes you happy which is massively different for everyone.
A friend of mine lives for soccer and works to support himself while he plays, this is healthy for him but had I not the empathy I now possess I would try and convince him to live differently...to be more like me, to think more like me and eat the food I eat ;-)
I get lot's of exercise while playing mmorpg's, taking a 10min break every hour to do pushups or lift weights/ go for a quick run.
I enjoy the real world,
I enjoy the virtual worls that make me happy in different ways, I enjoy the world of film, the world of being with friends.
For some people the real world isn't as healthy as the other ones, why are we so obsessed with inventing new worlds?
Take away the 'non real' and the 'real world' would be a horrible place to live for a lot of people.
*******
Activities:
*Anything physical
*romance
*talking with friends
*work
*running a business
*striving to achieve possessions
*reading NewScientist to see the latest tech innovations.
*Looking at beautiful things/touching/tasting food etc the senses
******
The above things are what I believe the real world to basically be, and nothing else. If there's anything I've missed then I can add it later.
If soemone did only tjose thigns they would be completely living in the 'real world'.
Anytime you are inside your head, you are not in the 'real world', you are inside the world that is your thoughts. Anytime you think about something that is not immediately infront of you and tangible you are in a virtual world, the past/future etc... thinking of what will happen next year is vitual because it has little foundation in the physical.
For some living only in the real world would be great,
for others quite unhealthy. Everyone has their own real vs unreal ratio that is the perfect healthy lifestyle for them. Some unreal activities have more impact on the real, roleplaying games increase empathy (mass tests), shooting games do not. Movies can teach us about how the 'real world' works, I learned from movies that people actually tip employees....a form of democratic rating that encourages employees to provide better service.
Mine is something like:
30% real
70% unreal (Thinking, books, movies, games, real world games like soccer aren't very real either)
What is this 'real' that people flippantly refer to as if it's meaning is obvious and there is a strong and actual line between 'real' and 'unreal'?
It's factually inside our heads, all of it. You experience sight, touch inside your head, can easily be simulated (when we dream).
Anything that exists is 'real'.
What's your "real" vs "unreal" ratio? |
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