Great games blog

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated — Samuel Clemens.

So yesterday EA reported that 1.7 million active accounts have been created for Star Wars The Old Republic. They also said that they needed 500K to break even, 1M for a mediocre profit, and it scales into awesomeness after that. The statement was also made that they no longer have to wait for the worst case scenarios.

Still, despite the launch success of SWTOR, there are still heaps of comments about the impending doom of SWTOR.

Hopefully this new info will put those comments to rest. Of course, those commentors that actively wish for the demise of the themepark model will probably continue to make predictions of the death of SWTOR based on wishful thinking, and not the facts. Those are likely to continue for years, flying in the face of the evidence. After all, World of Warcraft has been dying for how many years now?

Still, this doesn’t mean that SWTOR is out of the woods.

Bioware/EA is attempting something new here with the heavy focus on story. I for one hope they succeed, simply because it provides another arrow in the quiver of MMORPG designers if they do. That’s not to say I particularly like the linearity of the SWTOR experience, I’d far more like to see more freedom than an on-rails experience like that gives.  But if SWTOR fails, at such a development cost, that means that story in MMORPGs will be either ignored, or actively repudiated in future AAA MMOs. After all the bean counters these days want a sure thing.

If Bioware is at least somewhat successful, then developers may feel it worth to experiment with story in future games.

The big concern with SWTOR, now, is that players do not renew. The character stories are very linear and once complete, what then? Bioware has put a lot of effort into implementing systems that get players to create alts, simply to keep playing, but I wonder if that is going to backfire. Again I hope not, I’d like to see the game become a great success and draw a new generation of players into the genre.

SWTOR Death Thoughts

Star Wars Galaxies is having, or perhaps has had by this time, its last hurrah.

The servers are shutting down for good, any final in-game events have taken place, and the last players are now out in the cold after turning out the lights.

What to do now?

While many former Galaxies players will be heading for the warmer climes of Star Wars The Old Republic, there is perhaps another option for the SWG die hard… The emulator.

SWGEmu is a project that has been in development since the CU (combat upgrade) happened to SWG. It attempts to recreate the pre-CU experience for those players that hated the changes, and from what I understand there are several servers operating that allow players to use their game client to connect to the emulated servers.

The interesting thing about this is that often an emulator project isn’t started until a game is closing. It then takes years before former players can step back into the game world. Because of the CU, there is an emulator available for SWG immediately.

I find myself wondering if there will be a big influx of players to the SWGEmu servers at this time, or if SWTOR will soak them up.

I’d like your input here. Are you a SWG player? Now that Galaxies has closed are you considering an emulated server, or have you already?

Star Wars Galaxies: Gone, Or Is It?

Happy SWTOR Day.

Congrats to all those who are in for the early, early start. Here’s to a smooth launch and lots of Star Warsy goodness.

SWTOR Day!

Bioware why do you taunt me so?

Having participated in the SWTOR weekend tests, I do think that I would love to play this game, at least running one of classes through the story to the end. But I cannot. Australia is not in the list of launch territories. I even checked with my local EB Games the other day, and they don’t have a date at all for the Star Wars The Old Republic release in Oz.

So it is looking like post February for an Aussie release.

So it is quite vexxing to receive an email from Bioware saying that if I can preorder I can get into the early access. They even provide a preorder link. Of course if I do try to preorder, EA Origin will stop me.

Sigh.

Bioware You Vex Me

A lot of words have been written about SWTOR lately.

The impression I get is that these words have been mostly positive about Star Wars The Old Republic. And, to a certain extent, this is rightfully so. SWTOR is actually a pretty decent game.

I was given the opportunity over the weekend to participate in the final stress test for the game, and spent the greater portion of the weekend doing so. While I enjoyed my time playing it, despite some fairly annoying bugs, I’ve come to the following conclusion about The Old Republic.

It’s good for themepark gamers, bad for role players.

Darkside/Lightside Points

Bioware for some time now in their games have been using a simple alignment system to let players choose to be nasty or nice. This has the effect of altering the game play to some degree by changing the outcomes of some conversations with NPCs, and even altering the path of the game a little, even though the end result is the same.

This works quite nicely in a game like Mass Effect to provide some replayability and allowing different choices on the way through, but whether a player in Mass Effect goes light or dark really has no effect on anything other than romantic choices. But Mass Effect is not a MMORPG.

The big problem here is that Bioware has tied light and darkside gear to this system. If you are playing a darkside Sith or Jedi, when you reach darkside level 1 you can purchase DS1 lightsabres. It’s not clear to me if this equipment is better than what is normally on offer, or awarded from quests, but if it is then this encourages players to choose one path, dark or light, and stick to it.

Why is that a problem, you say.

Well, your choice is removed. If you want to be able to raid later on, you will need the best gear. Even if raiding is not your goal, having decent equipment is still going to be something to be desired.You are going to want to make the ‘right’ choice for your path, not necessarily the right choice for your character.

In other words the current darkside/lightside system encourages min-maxing.

If you are a role player who also wants to be competitive in raiding or grouping, you will have to choose between picking the option that awards the most points or the option that feels right for your character.If you don’t give a care about end-game, sure feel free to make the choices you want.

I did create a character on the weekend that was intended to be unrelentingly evil, and making the dark choices was fun, but even so, the darkside choice didn’t always feel right. That’s why the best bad guys in books, movies, and TV are so interesting, they make interesting choices. The worst bad guys are the ones who bwaa ha ha all the time.

It’s also interesting to note that the Bioware idea of morality was a bit off at times. Some of the light side choices were distinctly on the wrong side of right.

Legacy System

The proposed legacy system dictates that when your character completes the first chapter you choose a unique legacy surname. That is then used for all your future characters on that server.

This build has our first iteration of the Legacy System! At its core the Legacy system is about allowing players to create a family tree of characters. Family is pretty important to the Star Wars universe, with the Skywalker family having one of the most interesting dynamics in movie history. This version is just the foundational components that we will use to build upon in the future. Here are the features of this iteration:

• Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters on that server – so choose carefully!
• Once you have unlocked your Legacy, any and all characters on that server will now contribute to that player’s Legacy Experience Points. Much like normal experience points, when you reach certain Legacy thresholds, you will increase yourLegacy Level.

We already have plans for how we will expand the functionality of the Legacy System in one of our major post-ship patches. This will include being able to shape your Legacy’s family tree, and give you a reward for all those Legacy Levels.

I”m not really certain what the purpose is for this. I’ve seen conjecture that it allows characters on a server to share equipment, or provides some kind of bonus, but from the announcement it isn’t really clear.

Once thing is clear though, once you have a legacy name every character on the same server, no matter what species or allegiance shares the same last name. So your Twi’lek Consular, Human Bounty Hunter, and Chiss Sith Warrior will all have the last name. Nope, no logical problems with that at all. After all different species often share the same cultural background that results in the same last names… Hmmm.

This incredible lack of logic does not even take into account that a player might simply want to create a role play character that is not associated with their other characters. It’s odd to me that Bioware, a company that has grown to greatness on the back of encouraging role play in its games, is almost completely disregarding it in SWTOR.

So, if you are a roleplayer, you are pretty much out of luck.

Companions/Ships

A big part of SWTOR is the companion system. As the player progresses he is awarded companions that he can interact with, do their storyline quests, and even romance. Unfortunately here the role player is also let down.

You see you don’t have a choice.

You are given the companions for your class. You can’t choose from a pool or selection.

Every Sith Warrior is going to run around with that whiney Twi’lek as the first companion. (No wonder I enjoyed shock collaring her so much!) About the best differentiation you can hope for is to change the skin colour.

I remember reading a lot of love for the Jawa companion, Blizz. He’s only available for the Bounty Hunter. So if you love Blizz but can’t stand the BH playstyle, tough. If you want to access Blizz you will have to play a character you don’t like.

Of course you get a choice of which of the companions to take with you on a mission, but even this is limited by your class. A Jedi Knight for example is a tank. A JK player will always take the companion that offers the best support role, a healer for example. Some companions will be useless (does a tank need a tank companion?) Other companions will be indispensible and always chosen.

The same goes for the ship you get. Every character gets a ship which is nice, but the bounty hunter gets one single type of ship while the Jedi Knight gets another.

Now while this doesn’t directly affect a players role playing choices as much as the first two points above, there is an indirect effect in that all players in a class are exactly the same.

No two Jedi are unique. No you are not a precious snowflake in Bioware’s galaxy.

Homogenousity

Okay. Made up word.

I guess everything I wrote above boils down into my biggest criticism of Star Wars The Old Republic.

There is very little room for customisation.

From character creation where there is barely any difference in some of the face styles and other choices (why couldn’t my Republic Zabrak have Darth Maul colourings?) to the rewards for light/dark side choices and companion and ship allocations there is very little chance for customisation.

For the most part players will be constrained to playing Star Wars The Old Republic through a fairly narrow and linear corridor.

Themepark players will love this game, as long as they are not roleplayers too. SWTOR is a masterpiece of themepark design, taking the player along on what appears to be a great story. But that’s about where it stops. It’s a very limited game in some respects, perhaps only having long term playability for raiders and those who enjoy battleground style PvP. There’s no sandpit in this themepark.

While the story that I’ve encountered so far is excellent, it is the Bioware story that is being played, not yours.

That’s why I think that SWTOR will be bad for role players.

How about you, what do you think?

Why Star Wars The Old Republic Is Bad For Role Players

Question: What is Activision CEO Bobby Koticks favorite WoW Race?

Answer: Troll.

As SWTOR is rushing headlong to release, Bobby (I keep typing the name as Booby for some reason, must be freudian) Kotick has commented that he doesn’t think that EA will get much out of Star Wars The Old Republic. Apparently he reckons that Lucas makes sure all these deals come out heavily in his favor.

Well, duh.

Of course Lucas writes deals in his favor. He has one of the biggest IPs in history. He can.

But that doesn’t mean that EA gets nothing from this. They’re big too (are they still the biggest game publisher?) and have some negotiation skills available to them.

Will Bobby’s commentary make the slightest bit of difference to the horde of hungry players eagerly waiting for the 20th of December?

If the Full indicators on the dozens of SWTOR test servers on the weekend are any indication. Not a jot.

With WoW showing some signs of being on the wane, a game like SWTOR that has the potential to grab another couple million WoW subscribers (whether it can hold on to them is another matter) must have Kotick worried. Then there is the Secret World next year, also eagerly anticipated, that could do some damage.

So hence the trolling by Activisions CEO.

Ahh Booby, you’ve done it again!

Ahh Bobby, You’ve Done It Again!

One of the banes of the modern MMORPG is the bot.

They pop up everywhere, but you see them most often where the rewards of a long grind are the greatest. If an extremely rare item drops off a type of NPC in a set location once in a million kills, there are likely to be bots in that area taking the burden of the million kills of the gold farmer on the other end.

For the most part these types of bots are pretty easy to detect. They tend to follow a fairly simple preset pattern, which even to a casual observer doesn’t appear like a human is driving. Humans, though somewhat predictable, tend to be fairly random in how they operate. Even a sophisticated bot will have patterns that appear over time to an observer, revealing their unhumanity. You called call them AI, but really only a very rudimentary form.

I was wondering then, if a MMORPG would be a good place to conduct a competition along the lines of the Loebner Prize. The Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence is a competition where entrants attempt to develop a program that can pass the Turing Test and respond to questioners in a way that they cannot tell if it is a human answering or the AI.

An equivalent test set in a MMORPG environment  would require that the contestant build an AI that would play the game in a manner indistinguishable from a human player. In fact this would be a tougher test than the Loebner prize since that contest only requires a conversation to appear human.

Interestingly, since most human players don’t farm gold in the intense way that the current generation of bots do, then if a contestant bot ended up gold farming in the same way, then it would be instantly recognisable as a bot and lose the contest.

On the other hand with the recent bot banning in Runescape, bot developers may want to create a more human bot to avoid such punishments in the future. They’d be less productive, but more secure. There’s a lot of money in gold farming, are these developments already underway?

It also seems to me that any serious AI R&D would be already be looking at the virtual worlds of MMORPGs to test out their experiments. It’s evolutionary after all, survival of the fittest, and MMORPGs can be pretty cut throat places. If an AI gets recognised as AI players report it and it is banned, killing it off, leaving the ‘fitter’ AI’s to fill its niche.

I wonder if this has already been done. Are we playing with HAL?

Playing With HAL

Even though I was kind of expecting it, a little surprise was waiting in my inbox this morning. It was an invitation to participate in a SWTOR test weekend, of as yet undetermined date.

I was in two minds as to whether I’d bother with it to be honest.

The decision by EA-Bioware to restrict the launch regions means that I won’t be able to play at launch, and the rumors (I know I know) suggest that it may not be until at least February, and maybe closer to April, before the so-called red zones open go green.

As I’ve said before, I have more interest in TSW that SWTOR. If Bioware delays the release too much I’ll probably skip Star Wars completely and join a secret society, and come back to SWTOR in maybe six or twelve months.

So I’ve decided to do the test, the downloader is patching as I type this. I figure it may be the only real chance to get a play of this game anytime soon.

SWTOR Test

A lot of MMORPGs let players create trial accounts, but Machine 22 let you try out their free to play game Star Corsairs without even having to create a trial account first!

This post by indie MMORPG developer Dave Toulouse   gives a bit of detail on the new tutorial mode for Star Corsairs that gets a new player up to speed without needing to come up with yet another password, or at least until you’ve decided to keep playing.

Star Corsairs — No Account Necessary!

After reading this about the Skyrim user interface, amongst other commentary on the issue, I wonder if it is good I don’t have enough time to play it now. Maybe waiting six months until this sort of crap is fixed might not be a bad idea.

You’ve got to wonder how a user interface as bad as that got past usability testing. Was that part of the team on acid?

Skyrim User Interface Designer Checks Into Rehab