thewindof's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends View]
Friday, March 20th, 2009
| Time |
Event |
| 10:48a |
In-Depth: BioWare's Vogel On The Power Of Speech In Games Rich Vogel, who serves as co-director of the BioWare Austin studio developing The Old Republic for Electronic Arts and LucasArts, spoke at a recent South by Southwest panel about the differences between layered communications in text and speech.
The good thing about virtual worlds as opposed to real life, says Vogel, is that virtual worlds actually free up introverted people to talk to others. This was something he saw during the early day of Ultima Online.
"The barriers are lifted there for those kinds of people," Vogel says of players who were handicapped, or simply nervous around other people, and are suddenly able to communicate without their normal difficulties. When it comes to talking to people you don’t know, "you find that text is much more appropriate than speech. Another thing I’ve learned," Vogel continues, is that people trust you more when you’re using voice instead of text. "When you hear someone…you get a much better feel for that person."
Vogel says that most MMO players use voice chat to give combat directions. But he also says that he thinks it’s good for the game to have downtime between combat. "It gives you social time."
As a manager, he discusses the difference between sending an email to someone on his team, instead of going down the hall and talking to that person. Talking is filled with emotion, whereas text is very sterile. "It makes me think about things. It slows them down, instead of emotionalizing them." Vogel notes. And the same is true for players.
"Giving people place to go where they have common interests," predicts Vogel, is going to be a big trend in future. "MMOs are just one way to do that." He adds that virtual worlds, which don’t give people common goals, will lose users, "because they get bored and leave."
"World of Warcraft has 12 million people playing because it’s a fun space to be in, and they’re motivated to be there." Virtual worlds, by contrast, he says: "To me, that’s where the others have failed, [by] not providing that..."
Vogel remains skeptical about user-generated content, saying "We rely on others to entertain us." Citing BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights series, well-known of letting players create their own levels, he states that only 2 percent to 3 percent of users provide content that’s really good. While it’s good that people are making the content, it doesn’t reach a critical mass – simply because people are not good at entertaining themselves."
After the panel discussion, Vogel answered some exclusive Gamasutra questions that give further insights into his view of social networks, and what console and online game developers can do to take advantage of a changing world…
Is Facebook going to kill World of Warcraft?
RV: No, I don’t think Facebook’s going to kill World of Warcraft. Because, I think, social networking has it’s own architecture set up for just that one thing. World of Warcraft’s a game. Social things happen in that game, but it’s a secondary thing, it’s not a primary thing in that game. It’s not the mechanic of that game.
It’s an experience designed specifically for a purpose. Where Facebook is an open app.
Are we going to see MMO developers have to adjust the type of game they make, or are they going to continue to make closed, immersive worlds that are very steeped in a specific fiction?
RV: I think closed immersive worlds attract people. A lot of people like direction. There’s a lot of people that like directed content. Because it immerses you when it’s directed. It pulls you in, gives you a story, gives you something to follow: people like that.
Now, what will happen, is they’ll have more social architecture built into MMOs then you’ve ever had before.
How will that look?
RV: How would that look? So, example... you may be able to chat with someone real-time on your iPhone. Or organize a place to meet [through] an iPhone app.
So even though it’s an immersive world, it’s become and more accessible? You can immerse yourself in the world, from anywhere?
RV: From anywhere. And that’s what I think’s going to happen. Web 2.0 applications on community sites forming are happening now, and will continue to happen. Applications, especially for the new iPhone, will happen.
You can find out where you friend is and what server he’s on, and talk to him. Or maybe even…help your friends out during trouble. If they need money, any assistance with the quest, you can go online and do that in real-time.
Will Wright famously remarked that he wanted to make Spore a single-player MMO. Do you think we’ll see more of that on the single-player side and the console side?
RV: More games are online connected. And my opinion is, it’s the future, and anyone that doesn’t go there will be dinosaurs in five years. Because what’s happening is, in the retail market, because of used game sales and other things, velocity of game sales drops dramatically after the first three weeks of launch. It’s a cliff.
Downloadable content keeps games fresh. So you’re going to see more and more single-player games going into downloadable content, or episodic content, or whatever you want to call it.
Are traditional developers working in the industry today equipped to make these products? What should they start doing to prepare?
RV: That’s the problem, right? You have to become not a box company, but service oriented, a community-building oriented company. Communities are very important. And they help things grow virally. People are going to have to change.
How do you change your thinking as an industry, or as a team?
RV: Quit worrying about copy protection, and start worry about how you get the content fresh on a game with downloadable content…but it means having a live team. It means your game doesn’t stop when you ship it, anymore. That’s a model switch that people have to get to.
So all games will become ongoing?
RV: Yeah, I think it’s happening now. If you don’t, you die, right? You see it, used games are going to kill you. That’s why the top 5 -- not the top five percent, or ten percent, or twenty percent of games are making money anymore -- just the top five are making money.
Could Blizzard add broad social networking elements, or let people get into the game on different platforms in different ways, would that increase the number of players?
RV: Yeah, absolutely. It’s about accessibility. It’s really an elasticity question. It’s about what people are willing to pay for, and what they get. It’s all about ‘is it a value proposition?’ If it’s a value proposition, people are going to buy it.
So the games that succeed in the future will offer the most connected elasticity?
RV: I’d say the future for single-player games as well as online games is value propositions. So if you offer the ability, and it’s accessible by many different ways, and you offer the ability for people to connect easily and get into your game, and they like it and they enjoy it, and they want to give that someone else, and you make that as easy as possible: then it will grow. | | 10:51a |
Hands On: Demigod's Addictive Strategy Gameplay Apes Warcraft When Gas Powered Games' new PC strategy game Demigod is released next month, WarCraft fans are going to find the gameplay pleasantly familiar. Though I wouldn't go so far as to say it blatantly rips off the popular WarCraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, the similarities make it impossible to discuss Demigod without mentioning its inspiration. Not only does Demigod mimic the concept of using heroic avatars to lead armies (calling them "demigods" instead of "heroes"), the overall feel of combat and gameplay in the newer game is so inherently similar to its predecessor as to be instantly recognizable to those gamers who have experienced both. The big question now is if Demigod's graphical upgrade and handful of gameplay changes can prove enough of a draw for gamers when its primary competition is a free add-on download. I've played the beta version of its multiplayer mode extensively, and found it to be an addictive experience. Gas Powered Games is no stranger to mimicking Blizzard's games; it is most famous for Dungeon Siege, a 2002 PC release that directly mimicked Diablo. Like that earlier effort, Demigod is an obvious attempt to build on the intensely addictive, deceptively simple gameplay found in Defense of the Ancients using contemporary graphics and a handful of gameplay tweaks. Gameplay in Demigod is a cross between real-time strategy and action role-playing. In other words, it's a cross between Diablo and WarCraft. You control one of eight demigods, each of whom is equipped with several customizable combat powers. By killing enemies you gain experience, which goes towards adding new abilities to your demigod. Though each of the available skill trees has a vast number of options to choose from, and each character's tree is unique, the key to success seems to be focusing on the character and branch that best complements your playing style. Instead of roaming a vast world all by your lonesome, Demigod pits you (and friends) against an equal force on symmetrical maps, dubbed "Arenas." The goal in each level is to push your foes back while taking control of certain strategic objectives. Taking wow gold mines, for instance, allows your local portals to pump out minions more rapidly. These minions serve as the equivalent of an army in a more traditional strategy game, with one big caveat: You don't have direct control over them. Instead of clicking on a squad and sending them to a certain point, you simply move your demigod and all of his or her devotees will trail behind, ready to attack anything in your path. Before playing the game, this was one of my biggest concerns. Anything less than fantastic programming would send your pals running in random directions, instead of towards the appropriate melee. The good news is that either Gas Powered Games' attention to detail or the simplicity of each Arena ensures that the computer-controlled masses almost always do their job. I did count two instances when my posse ran off to some remote location, but considering that I've been playing the beta for almost three days straight, that's a very small number of glitches. Unfortunately, the beta I've been playing does not feature Demigod's single-player mode. Defense of the Ancients was very successful solely as a competitive multiplayer game, and though Demigod replicates this well, I really would like to see what sort of interactive story it has crafted. Gas Powered Games has, at least, crafted a rich, vibrant world, particularly in relation to the demigods themselves. Each demigod has an attractive, interesting aesthetic design that suits its role. The Rook (pictured top), for instance, is a classic "tank" style character best suited to wading into combat and smashing foes up close and personal. His appearance, a gigantic stone golem with catapults built into his shoulders, makes that very clear. My personal favorite character, The Unclean Beast, looks like an cross between a panther, a bear, a wolf and a corpse. It specializes in poisoning its foes and sucking the life from the living. In a game where players are urged to bond with a single demigod, it's imperative that each character be interesting. In that regard Demigod excels. It speaks greatly to Gas Powered Games' ability to craft a solid game that despite all its derivative elements, I'm still excited for Demigod's April release. If you're going to lift from someone else's game, you could certainly do much worse than one of Blizzard's. Even this pre-release version handily demonstrates that its developers recognize what made the source material so successful. As much as I've stressed the similarities between Demigod and DoTA, it would be just as easy to make a comparison between this game and chess. Each game of Demigod is one giant, hyperspeed version of chess — you encounter an enemy, they counter your attack, you learn to counter theirs, and so on until one of you loses ground. It's quite easy to learn. But the huge number of skills and characters means the best players will have spent literally months of their lives learning the intricacies of the system. Hardcore Defense of the Ancients fans may not see the need to jump ship for Demigod, but anyone who missed that Warcraft mod would be wise to check this out. | | 11:04a |
When Gas Powered Games' new PC strategy game Demigod is released next month, WarCraft fans are going Aside from slaying monsters and engaging in epic quests, Anthropology graduate student Caroline Whippey sees similarities between the mythical characters in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft and the lives of its 11.5-million player base Whippey has played games – including online gaming in recent years - her entire life so it wasn’t a stretch when she decided to focus on the industry for her master’s degree. It was in November 2006, while Whippey was in her final year of undergrad, when she was introduced to the World of Warcraft and she was instantly hooked. Finding little academic literature on the subject, she decided to use her anthropology background to examine how players bring their values, perceptions and experiences to the game when they are playing or interacting with others. More specifically, her research focuses on race, ethnicity and multinationalism, sexuality and gender. “Absolutely people bring their values and perceptions of real life into the game and it affects how they interact,” she says. In the game, players must choose which side to belong to – the Alliance or the Horde – which are battling each other for control of the world. Users can participate in a player versus player server, which allows them to fight players of the opposite faction, or player versus the environment server. They can also form guilds or groups of people with common interests, and have virtual conversations with other players. In this world of fantasy, Whippey says a player’s real-life personality can play a significant role in how they play the game. “Most people that I have spoken with or worked with, don’t play another persona. They have their character but they don’t necessarily role play with that. Most people, I find, there is a part of themselves that comes across very clearly.” With online players hailing from all corners of the world, cultural differences sometimes make their way into the game. “People do make negative comments geared to race,” she says, adding racial slurs have been used in general chat channels accessible by all players. “Usually at least one person will comment and say, ‘hey, that’s offensive.’” Similarly, the term ‘gay’ has been used in a derogatory sense by players during online conversations. Whippey says some players apply gender-based stereotypes to the male and female fictional characters. “I had a couple of women tell me they preferred for their gender to be anonymous or play male characters because if people knew they were female, they would treat them like they didn’t have as much skill ... that whole ‘girls aren’t as good at gaming’ thing.” Players can target others by attacking a lower level or vulnerable character, which is called ‘ganking’ and because death isn’t permanent in the World of Warcraft, some players ‘camp’ out over the body of a fallen character to kill them when they come back to life. “That’s a process of harassment, it can get very annoying,” she says. “If you are choosing to be in that environment (player versus player) it is a part of the game play.” Most social norms that exist in real life translate to the game and regulate what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. But, Whippey says there are no significant consequences to breaking these rules other than for other players to rebuff them. Players can feel a sense of bravado and act in a way that would otherwise be socially unacceptable because their true identity remains hidden behind their character. “Part is anonymity because you are playing a character, that’s what people see and they don’t connect whoever is behind the screen to the character. There is no way to know who is playing that person.” For some players, such as those with physical disabilities, anonymity can be empowering. “Although there is some negativity, there are some positives about a virtual community and people being able to interact. It does cross geographical distances. It is a world where you are judged by what you say and do, not your physical appearance.” As the World of Warcraft continues to expand, Whippey sees her research interests growing with it. She has applied to a PhD program, during which she hopes to further examine the gaming industry. In spite of the similarities with real life, in the end, World of Warcraft “is a game,” she says. “It’s fun and I love it.” World of Warcraft Known as WoW. Falls within a classification called massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Developed by California-based Blizzard Entertainment. The game, which follows three previous games from the same series, was released in late 2004 and is the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers. |
|