Interaction In Online Worlds

The unique aspect of online gaming is the possibility and sometimes inevitability of people interaction with other people. However a growing trend in popular and some would call 'theme park' online games has been that you can effectively and sometimes you are even encouraged to grind through level after level on your own before are deemed worthy of actual team oriented activities that your friends and team mates from your guild participate in.

In a way that's a slight improvement on the punishing worlds of old where even a lowly and deceivingly cute bunny could obliterate you if you fought it alone. Back then it was in your best interest to group up and venture out into the lands or spend countless hours trying to level on one type of monster, and countless hours is putting it mildly. But somewhere in that transition from severely harsh environments to swimmingly pleasant we've lost touch with our communities, in some player's minds we've given rise to the solo player and little by little pushing aside content that requires grouping.

Myself I have felt that too and it's funny that this sentiment would come from me because after playing FF11 I hated grouping for a while and was always unhappy when I felt a game pushed me into them. Lord of The Rings Online was frustrating for this as you couldn't advance the main story line if you ignored the grouping instances. But after a few years and trying out games I normally never would due to my increasingly dissatisfaction with any new MMO (I know I have not been alone here...^_^) I am missing the interaction with people that I used to get when I was forced to group. Some of those games I'd never would have bought are Age of Conan and Aion, and now I'm even thinking of trying out Darkfall. Those three games have player vs player game play and I am not someone who enjoys fighting others. But what I did find is that PvP whether you love the thrill of it or hate it because it breaks your immersion does make you interact with others. In Age of Conan it's in your face type of PvP where it can happen most of anywhere at any time and most of the interaction you get is kill or be killed, unless you rolled on the role playing server in which case you may get a warning to stay off the road or pay toll, or prepare to die!

In Aion it's a little different because PvP zones are more controlled, so you don't really have to fear for your life at all times, you also get a friendly warning whenever a rift from or to the other side opens and you should be on the look out. What is fun about the Aion community is people look out for each other, if someone spots the enemy in your area they can show everyone in the chat channel with a link to the location on the map where they were spotted. If you happen to be unfortunate and die often if you wait someone is bound to resurrect you. Maybe it helps elemental stones of resurrection are fairly cheap. But I am enjoying this level of interaction in the game right now, I even like it when I spot an Asmodian and nearly have a heart attack and run the other way before they see me.. XD I guess what I am getting at is while PvP can sometimes have it's negatives is does have the side effect of bringing people together.

Which makes me think there has to be other ways of making people talk to each other or at least interact on some level and perhaps break the ice of being impersonal. The one thing I really hate about grouping up for certain missions is that people get so used to them they start acting like robots; go here go there, boom boom, we're done, thanks all, disband. I miss emoting like a jackass and actually talking to my group partners, how are you supposed to make new friends if you treat this like a business transaction? Now I starting to derail so maybe I'll cut it short here and ask; what do you think devs should do to encourage player interaction?

2 weeks until Dragon Age and Bioware lavishes fans with goodies

And some of these goodies raises questions, at least to me it does. First off is the release of the stand alone character creator, if you've been awaiting this title with growing appetite you must check it out and download it via Atomicgamer or fileplanet.

Even if you're not awaiting the game when is creating a character not fun? :D Okay so you can check out some of my ladies if you click on the portrait it shows an inventory view with equipment just like in Eq2 players and other MMO network sites.

The network site itself is rather nice, it's in beta so there's a few awkward navigation problems and minor bugs but overall I'm enjoying going through it, reminds me of the Aion site now except it's released earlier and may have a chance to get things fixed up before release unlike Aion's site.... *cough*

What's odd is why would Bioware go through all the trouble of making a social network site for one game? Or will they add future games to it as well? Is it in preparation of what they will also do for Star Wars: The Old Republic? I mean it's not even a multiplayer game, what's the point of player groups and friend lists? I guess if you are a modder that would come in handy and maybe that's the whole reason behind it. However I have this nagging feeling there's more to it then that. Hmmm.

But back to the character creation tool, I have a bit of problem with the character models, which is not shocking as it seems that's all I like to harp on about apparently, *grin*, but REALLY does Bioware and Bethesda not understand anatomy? I'll admit Bethesda did better with Fallout 3 then with the madness that was the character models of Oblivion (ape men and women ftw?!) but I somehow expected a bit more from Bioware considering Mass Effect's awesome models, well awesome except for female Shepard's giraffe neck.. Dragon Age's bodies are wooden and stiff in the back and torso area, the abdomen is too large and thick. It's like you're still wearing full armor but with a bad skin texture on top.. It's really odd. In contrast the faces are really great and there's variety, you can create any type of character of almost any skin color and any age.

I've already heard one modder say they are almost ready to extract the head meshes from the game to make new hairstyles, now please someone tell me they've got the body mesh extracted and are reworking the poor thing! ;) For now though I'll just content myself in wearing clothing and armor that covers the entire body with no skin showing the abdomen. Dragon Age does have some rather nice pieces if screenshots and videos are anything to go by.

In the defense of fanboyism

I don't get paid to blog, I blog and comment on blogs because I want to and when I want to do something I speak from myself not from a more clinical and objective approach, because I don't get paid to blog.

I touched on this before on how I wish people who were paid for reviews and critiques would actually make the professional transition to a more objective approach. But I am not one of those people, I blog. I don't have any credence to be a journalist in any way. Should there be some sort of writing standards in games? Absolutely.

But that is that discussion not this one. What prompts this is that I said a certain new mmo to me doesn't have any flaws, because in my book if devs deliver exactly what they said they would and drum roll please, works as intended, then it's not 'flawed'. So then it's total perfection in every way right? Probably not.

It's an mmo there's always room to grow, there's always a few things that can use tweaking and expanding on, always and always. Otherwise trust me I wouldn't be into these games as much as I am. To me that is the beauty of this genre is that it is generally always in a state of flux, of change. Things that are missing now we hope will be added on later and if so far the developers have not failed in delivering what they promised there's probably not much reason to think they'll stop there, unless they stop delivering in which case we won't be so content any longer. In an undertaking like an mmo often the promise of eventual change or addition is just as good as having it tomorrow.

A perfect gem can be the most beautiful thing to most people, but not to you because it comes in the wrong shade, maybe there's even a very tiny speck of impurity in the stone that if noticed would diminish it in someone's eyes, but if to you it's perfect then it is. To argue whether it's REALLY perfect or not is a waste of time, or a very scholarly pursuit, and to argue whether the cut couldn't have been done better by someone else is another. It's done. An mmo is even cooler then a gem though, because as I was saying before, it can evolve.

To finish here's my list of stuff about my game of choice, Aion, that I don't like at the moment;

1. Spammers and bots. They are a drag.
2. Not being able to swim underwater but taking damage instead as you walk perfectly straight into the water. Kill immersion much? (in development but not coming any day soon)
3. Personal housing, so far what's coming is legion (guild) based only, I could be wrong... (I kinda hope I am)

And that's about it, I can't comment on low level dungeons because I tend to skip those anyway but more of those sure would be nice, more quests we need chunks added in and more fun fluff in general which probably won't come for some time because mid levels and end game is NCsoft's priority at the moment I believe.

And for those who still think I'm being too soft on Aion, just you WAIT until Final Fantasy 14 comes out! Oh the horror! It's going to be a love fest in my corner for some time. ;)

FF14 Tokyo Game Show Tidbits

So this is a little bit late but I just read this on Eorzeapedia and found some rather very interesting news for this game and like before I'll just quickly enumerate them and guys don't like trip all over yourself while reading this you PvE lovers you! ('cause I did!)


Gameplay

- Group skillchains are being worked on, they will differ from the ones in FFXI and there may be a possibility of solo skillchains.
- Grouping dynamics won't be as rigid; you won't need a full 6 man party all the time, they want to make it work so that if you have 2 people that's ok and if you have 3 people or more that's ok too.
- FF14 is more about the difference in levels between you and what you are fighting and not between you and other players. What does this mean? Mentoring?
- Certain enemies will pull as a full group... Better make sure what you pull comes alone or you have a party with you.

You and the world

- At this point the team is trying to make Ff14 an open world, yes someone is trying to make, I'll say it again, an OPEN world. Yay?! This means you can just walk in and out of towns seamlessly, they may also allow people to fight in towns and bring in mobs.... I personally don't see this working out.
- Classes are being rounded out, they've stated they want crafts people to be just as legitimate players as anyone else. For example equipment degrades over time, so you'll need to buy more or employ someone to repair them. Return to the old school, I think I'm loving it. :)
- Additional classes will be added to the game through free updates and NOT as part of paid expansions, there will be paid expansions though.
- Switching your abilities will make classes more flexible; if you want to be an attacking warrior you can, if your party needs you to be a tank you can change those abilities around so that you can do that too.
- Furnishings were mentioned as an example for what you can craft in passing... I bother to mention this because if there's furniture, there's housing!!!!!!!!!!!

Specs and Graphics

- Right now the game will probably launch with Direct X 9 and not 10.
- The game will be developed for Windows first with support for multi cores and ported to the consoles, not the other way around.
- Beta may be shorter then expected, they will start with a smaller number of volunteers world wide and work their way up from about 10 thousand testers to 80 until they hit open beta, which is said to be a FREE open beta.
- There's a guesstimation of a release of summer 2010 but SE is careful to say that will depend on tester feedback.
- RMT (the gold farming kind) will be dealt with from the beginning so they don't have to play catch up as with FFXI; you'll be able to use security tokens and one time passwords as well.

And that's pretty much it for this interview, to me this sounds more and more like my perfect game hopefully they can add everything they want to and I'm heartened that Square is willing to go against the grain a little and bring back features from UO and such. It goes without saying I'm looking forwards to hear more this winter!