What’s in a Game?

I talk about a lot of stuff without really filtering it. I kind of rely on Belghast to yell at me if a post devolves into jargon, but he’s been listening to me blather for so long that I think he’s developed an immunity. Someone commented recently that I didn’t consider most of the implementations of player housing to involve “gameplay”, and seemed quite upset about it. I thought I might share some of how I view games from a building-them perspective.

Gameplay and Feedback Loops

The word “gameplay” means a lot of things to a lot of people, but it has a fairly specific and reasonably well-defined meaning. Like a lot of things within the industry, it isn’t universally agreed on, so any attempt I make at pinning down a definition is tricky. I’ll need to draw the camera out a little bit.

To define gameplay, I need to touch on something called a “feedback loop”. Simply put, a feedback loop is what you, the player, are doing in any given three-to-ten-second window of time while in the game. It’s the smallest amount of time in which action can occur and you both experience the primary mechanics of the game and make decisions on how to use said mechanics.

In Mario, your feedback loops are jumping between platforms, or onto enemies. In Street Fighter, it’s an exchange of blows, or a combo, or a special move. In racing games, it’s the various inputs that make up actually driving the car. You can boil a game down to the most basic concepts, stuff like “when at edge of platform, press A to jump”, and that’s a feedback loop. Feedback loops are the building blocks of game design; and in almost every game they involve either movement or combat, because they’re the easiest things to abstract into button presses and build upon from there. Oversimplified, feedback loops are “when you are pressing buttons”.

Gameplay, then, is feedback loops strung together. It is the time when the player is actively involved in the game using the most developed mechanics available within the system (usually movement or combat or both).

What About The Rest of the Game?

My definition of gameplay above is pretty restrictive. Depending on the game, it excludes huge swathes of the overall time you spend, and often there’s overlap between gameplay and things that aren’t. Designers have a term for that: “experience”. The experience of a game is everything from the art, the music, sitting around roleplaying in chat, taking screenshots, watching cutscenes, fighting enemies, wandering around… everything. The term “player experience” is bandied about a lot, and there’s a lot of back and forth about how certain things things are presented, how the game communicates what the player is supposed to do (“messaging”), how the UI helps or hinders, and how that all interacts with gameplay.

When I mentioned that player housing didn’t involve gameplay, what I meant was that few player housing systems to date have involved the basic feedback loops that exist in the game. They are, without a doubt, a core (and dearly loved) part of the experience, but they aren’t gameplay.

To draw a bit of contrast, compare Minecraft to EQ2, in terms of housing. Minecraft has its basic feedback loops built around obtaining and processing material, as well as placing it in the world to fit your whims. Housing in Minecraft is centered around these feedback loops; it is gameplay. Belghast’s immediate excitement about a player housing system used a Minecraft reference, and the spark that came through when he mentioned it is precisely what I’m talking about when I say that player housing should involve gameplay.

Gameplay versus Experience

The sad reality of game design is that on every project, on every game that gets released, some features are cut, and some content doesn’t make it, and some things that might have been awesome die before seeing the light of day. It’s called “scoping”, and it’s insanely difficult to do. Sometimes these decisions are easy and popular. “Oh, we don’t have the art budget to have 30 player races, and so we’ll only have 8? Okay.” Somteimes they’re easy but unpopular. “Designing and balancing 25 unique classes is completely infeasible, so we’re cutting down to 10, and of the 15 that got cut were the favorites of half the staff? Ouch, but it has to be done.”

Mostly, though, the decisions are hard. Do you ship with 10 classes, or 6 well-balanced ones? Do you ship with 30 zones, some of which might not be complete or even have much if any content in them, or do you ship with 15 and try to make sure that every single one is fully complete? Do you craft a lot of side content for explorer-type players, or do you include less content but put more development time into it so that the experience is richer?

Almost always, these decisions will have gameplay as the dividing line. If it involves gameplay, it’s a lot less likely to get cut than something that doesn’t. The reason for this is that gameplay is the thing that absorbs the most programming time, the most tech, the most art, animation, worldbuilding, etc, and it’s the thing that engages players.

In the case of player housing, in order for it to justify its massive resource expense, it’s going to need to be inextricably linked to gameplay, so that the housing system doesn’t end up on the “easy and (un)popular” chopping block, when push comes to shove.

You know, kind of like Minecraft.

Player Housing (How? Why?)

I’ll get to part 2 of Ugly Truths in Gaming at some point, but I recently got into a discussion with some friends about the kinds of things they want to see in MMOs.

Top of the list, as always, was player housing. I have such a love-hate relationship with the concept. On the one hand, some people LOVE it. It’s their own personal in-game space that they can make their own and get that little extra bit of immersion going. People love it, and get super invested, goes the argument, so why not put it in? Everyone loves it, right?

Why Not Every Game Has Houses

Player housing is hard. Yes, I know other games have done it, yes I know it’s possible, but honestly no one has done it *right*, and it’s incredibly resource-intensive. I’ll get to the part of that sentence that makes most people angry in a moment. First, a little bit of tech:

In order to implement even the most basic player housing, you need a few things. First, you need the ability to create instances. Sure, Star Wars Galaxies, Shadowbane, and Ultima Online didn’t do this. I would point to the vast amounts of empty space (or ridiculous overcrowding) in both of those games, and comment that city planners exist for a reason, and players simply slam houses down wherever if given the opportunity, which is not something you actually want. Instancing, in this day and age, is not that difficult, except that for player housing you need to have a very specific instance saved per player. Not terrible, but it’s notable that that kind of data (i.e. saved instance data) doesn’t generally hang around more than a day or a week in most games, for things like raid lockouts.

You also need a complete in-game interface for placing the stuff that goes in the house. This is an entirely separate interface from any other part of the game, requires you to be able to dynamically generate collision and pathing information (so that your pet doesn’t walk through the chair you just placed, and neither can you), and needs an entire items database for things that you can display, how they work, how to orient them, and how they behave once they’re placed.

Then you need art, visuals for all of the stuff that goes in the house, that has to be tested with all of the other things that could go in the house to make sure there aren’t any unintended things that happen when they’re placed (like, for example, a little seam that makes you fall through the world). This usually involves thousands of objects, many of which are custom-made just for the player houses.

What Do I Get For All Of This?

The above is not an insurmountable amount of resources. A development team dedicated to putting in player housing can reasonably implement it, if they so desire. Unfortunately, one of the big things that comes up in design discussions when picking what things to add is “what are we giving up to get this?”

In the case of player housing, it can be something like “large group (raid) content”, or “PvP”, or “four to six full zones”, or “three player classes” or “crafting”. None of these are small things, so if you’re going to give one of them up for player housing, you’d better make sure that your return is more awesome than whatever you’re giving up.

I mentioned above that no one has done player housing right. What I mean by that is that no one has designed a model for player housing that makes it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s worth the trade-off. The pitfalls are as numerous as the benefits; player housing splits people up into little private instances, making cities feel empty, they’re huge resource hogs, only some percentage of players even care, and that number is smaller than feature X that would otherwise be removed.

The biggest one, and the one that I have the hardest time with, is that there’s no actual gameplay involved with player housing. You have this extra system for houses that is only used there, only used for decoration, and then you look around it or show it off to other people.

Housing That Matters

I don’t think it’s a hopeless cause, though. The system just needs to be designed to be more than just a dollhouse to show off one’s fancy décor. A house should be something that adds tangible value to your character, rather than simply a money and time sink. Imagine a game where part of it is colonizing new, uncharted lands. You need to forge out into the wilderness and make your home there. The instanced neighborhoods in LOTRO would be great for this, either little pockets in a larger landmass or little islands or both, but instead of simply a row of houses, there would be hostile mobs, resource nodes, everything a “real” zone has.

You could get hooks into the crafting, raiding, and questing systems as well, as you actually build your house and clear out hostile mobs from your territory. As you develop your land, you worry less and less about mobs coming and wrecking shop and more about the most efficient means with which to harvest valuable materials from your area. If you’re working collaboratively with several different players, you can clear an area faster and develop more quickly. Possibly, if you’re a devoted crafter, you hire other players to help you clear out the baddies while you craft what you need for the house. Dragon inhabiting your island? Get some raiders to take it down for you, and in return they get a nice place to hang out.

In The End

I think the biggest issue with player housing is that it needs serious evaluation from the design side. There simply hasn’t been a compelling design that’s been more than a little added bonus to the game rather than a fully-featured system, and it’s incredibly difficult to justify that kind of resource expense without a solid design plan and without appeal to a wide range of players.

Hopefully we’ll see a design that simply blows everyone away, for the industry as a whole to latch onto and build upon.

On Server Transfers

I want to send out my apologies for lack of updates this week.  I had been on a pretty religious schedule of posting at least some new content five days a week.  If you followed the last post you know my world has been pretty rocked by the recent events in my neck of the woods.  My time has been spent in the evenings either worrying about incoming Tornados or alternatively mourning their devastation.

Quite honestly, with everything going on, it just didn’t feel right be be blogging about video games.  Joplin as I said earlier has for all intents and purposes been removed from the map.  The series have Tornados that hit Tuesday night left plenty of its own carnage, leaving a 3 year old boy missing, presumably sucked up by the storm.  This morning they mentioned on the news that this storm system has produced around 80 distinct Tornados over the last week.

The “Big News”

All that said, life just has not felt normal.  The concern and worry has left its toll, and frankly I am pretty worn out and just plain “fried” at this point.  However for the rest of the world, namely the rift playing public the “Big News” has been the announcement of free server transfers.  I realize I am well behind the new cycle on this one, and most of the blogging community has weighed in one way or another on it.  However this has been in the back of my mind while we have dealt with all our issues.

For those living under a rock, or dodging Tornados like myself… the original announcement can be found here.

RIFT™ TO OFFER FREE CHARACTER TRANSFERS

Gather your friends in RIFT and play anywhere, any time

When the next major RIFT™ update hits early this summer, subscribers will be treated to a surprise – free character transfers. Trion Worlds announced today that with RIFT 1.3, players will have the ability to move to select servers in their territory once each week, taking all items, achievements, and titles with them. Additionally, guild leaders will be able to move their guild’s level and experience.
“MMOs are all about playing with your friends no matter which server they’re on, and that’s why we’re offering this as a free service to our subscribers,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer. “RIFT is both a game and a service, and adding free server transfers is just one more way we can make this the best possible MMO experience available.”
Whether you want to play with friends, check out a new server, or avoid queue times on highly populated servers, you’ll be free to move about Telara. As a part of this grand experiment, there will initially be no limits on the number of times you can transfer your characters or guild.
Character transfers will remain a free service for the foreseeable future, and could become a permanent addition to the RIFT experience. Subscribers will be able to perform the transfers inside of the game itself once the patch is live.
For More Information – Read the FAQ

 

Then a few days later they followed up with an FAQ outlining all of the changes (post here).

Hi all,
As announced, Free Character Transfers will be released in RIFT Update 1.3. These Free Character Transfers will be available to players on select shards via a new in-game feature. We are pleased to be able to offer this service to our players and hope you find it to be a great way to further enrich your experience and connect with others, we have provided a brief FAQ outlining this new feature below.
We’ll continue to release additional details as we get closer to the release of 1.3 and we encourage you to ask any questions you might have, we’ll do our best to answer all we can – thanks!
What are Free Character Transfers?

  • Free Character Transfers will allow you to move your characters to select shards through an easy to use, in-game feature.

How often can I transfer my character?

  • We’re allowing one free transfer, per character, to a select shard every 7 days. Please note this is subject to change while we continue to develop and test the new service.

What do you mean “select shards”?

  • We want the shard you select to provide the best experience possible. It is important that there remains a balance between Guardian and Defiant players and to that available shards do not become too over populated or unbalanced. For this reason you will only be able to move to specific shards we’ve selected to accept new transfers, please note the shards available for transfer may change over time.

Can I move from a PvP shard to a PvE shard or vice-versa?

  • Of course! The rule set of your current shard will not prevent you from moving to a shard of a different type. So PvP, RP, PvE, or RPPvP to your heart’s content – Just remember, you’re subject to the rules of your new home! (For example, non-consensual PvP on PvP shards and stricter naming policies on RP shards.)

What about my stuff?

  • We’ll have specific details later, but have no fear! You’ll be able to take your items, currencies, achievements, titles, pets, collections, and heck, maybe even the kitchen sink!

Can I transfer from a North American Shard to a European Shard?

  • Not right now, currently transfers will be restricted to select shards in your territory.

I’m a guild leader, can I transfer my guild?

  • Absolutely, we know you and your members work hard to level your guild and make it your own. We’ll announce more details about this feature closer to its release, stay tuned!

Will these transfers always be free for everyone?

  • For the forseeable future – yes! They could even become a permanent addition to the RIFT experience. This is very much an experiment we want to try and we feel this feature will add a unique way to play RIFT unlike other MMO’s. We’ll see how it goes and keep an eye out for any issues that arise.

So, when will 1.3 be released?

  • 1.3 is the next major installment for RIFT and will arrive early this summer. Keep an eye on www.riftgame.com and here on the forums for more details as we get closer to its release!

Updated – 05/23/11 @ 12:13PM PDT
What if my character or guild’s name is already taken on the shard I want to transfer to?

  • You’ll be warned in the event of a naming conflict, should you decide to continue with the transfer you will be forced to re-name your character or guild before playing.

Will I be able to change my characters faction (from Defiant to Guardian for example) when I transfer or transfer my Character to another active account?

  • Not at this time, while these options are something we might look into in the future they will not be available for the initial release of the Free Character Transfer feature.

Wide Variety of Responses

I have seen everything from elation and praise, heralding Trion as the saviors of game kind, to frustration that we will have to wait for this feature at all.  The cynics have seen this as a clever way of skirting the need to merge under populated servers, by allowing players to jump to new servers on their own.  I guess I can see all of the points, but tend to take my own view.

What I see that stands out is the fact that a server transfer system is being put in place, to allow players to move more freely between server communities.  In fact based on the information, they will be able to do this once per week, which can let you hop servers to play with friends and then return to the main server at will.  The most impressive thing about all of this is the fact that Trion will not be charging for this feature.

Syncaine over at Hardcore Casual however thinks we should re-evaluate our expectations.

Listen, if you are cheering because Trion has decided not to punch you in the face (charged transfers), you need to reevaluate your expectations. You pay that $15 for a reason, and it’s not (unless we are talking SOE) just to keep the servers online. Free transfers are, to me, about as special as a monthly content patch. It (should be) expected.

I understand the cynical view of the actions but honestly…  to me Trion has been giving us far better support than I have received playing any other game.  If you are thinking, I have not played many games then…  let me point you over to my gameography page.  While this may be the level of customer support we as gamers should expect, and I agree with this point, it is nothing we have ever received in the past.

One thing Trion has done, that no company to this point has done for me at least is make me feel like I am being heard.  After getting to know a handful of people in the company either through twitter, or the community outreach programs, I feel that they honest to god drink their own Kool-Aid.  I feel like they actually care about us, and care about our happiness.

Here is an example of an interaction between Assistant Community Manager Erick “Zann” Adams, and Rilgon a gaming blogger.  Shows the level of care these individuals take.

Rilgon: @3rickZann So did you guys find the Fountain of Awesome or something? Like I don’t get how you are routinely so awesome.
Erick Adams: @Rilgon No, but they put something in the office water that compels us to try and make our players happy. :p
Rilgon: @3rickZann It shows. 🙂

I guess I just have a hard time being cynical when I see this and other things on a regular basis.  There seems to be an Esprit de corps in this group that I have not seen in a video game company in a long time.  Blizzard definitely used to be that kind of “by gamers, for gamers” shop but since the activision merger they have changed in many ways. 

I regularly bought the pay per view Blizzcast feed, and I have to say the way they treated players this previous year shows the level of disdain (pretty much anytime Alex Afrasiabi spoke) they seem to have for us the gamers these days.  So while we as the gamers, should be expecting more from game companies, I am definitely going to support the ones out there that are doing it.

Brilliant Marketing Move

What makes this a massively brilliant marketing move, and extremely unique is not the fact that they are giving us server transfers, it is the fact they are doing so without a fee attached.  Basically Blizzard got us used to the concept of paying a premium convenience tax for getting things like this in the past.  Each new feature that gets added seems to get an increased fee, and players have been willing to pay up.  I’ve transferred characters, and race and faction changed them as well.

If you are playing World of Warcraft you are well aware of the number of premium fees associated with their monthly subscription based game.

  • Remote Access – $2.99/month
  • Name Change – $10.00
  • Cosmetic Pet – $10.00
  • Appearance Change – $15.00
  • Character Transfer – $25.00
  • Race Change – $25.00
  • Cosmetic Mount – $25.00
  • Faction Change – $30.00
  • Guild Move – ??
  • RealID Grouping – ??

Every company that has implemented a similar on demand service structure has followed suit.  So Trion could have easily put server transfers in place and dinged us with a money grab to do so.  However the most important thing as a take away is the fact that they didn’t.  While we don’t know for certain how the “selected shards” portion will work out, this definitely seems far more wide reaching than when a company in the past has offered free transfers off higher population realms to lower ones.

Most obviously the big difference is the fact that they have stated this would be an event that was throttled on a once per week basis.  This will let players test out a community and be able to move again if it just is not a solid fit.  Being the community minded player I am, normally I would be afraid of such a free form server move system.  At the end of the day this places the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the players on a given server to make something that players do not want to leave.  I feel sure that Shadefallen is an amazing server, and the community we have is such that it itself will glue players to our shard.

The Real Logic Behind It All

It was stated by Willhelm at The Ancient Gaming Noob that this may be a way for Trion to allow players to handle server mergers on their own.

Meanwhile, here is Trion Worlds, with Rift a couple of months old now.  I have to wonder if they are being clever about dealing with a contraction of population, if the initial rush has peaked and they now have more servers running that are really viable.

Announcing server mergers is always viewed as bad news.

If this really is the reasoning behind the addition I still applaud it as a great idea.  Personally I have tried to avoid the Rift forums, other than the patch notes and Shadefallen server forums.  However from what I hear, there is much gnashing of teeth going on about under populated servers.  Personally I have not encountered this, Shadefallen has remained a vibrant server since release, and if Rift Status is to be believed our numbers seem to have remained extremely flat.  We have not experienced queues since the first weeks of launch, but there have always been more than enough people online at any given time to get something done.

I think players are going to complain no matter what, and the forums always give you a snapshot of the people who are most angry in any game.  However I imagine the same people who complained about, and refused to play on a server with any queue time are now the ones complaining about there not being enough people around.  At launch queue times are the sign of a healthy server, and purposefully going off on a low population server will mean in the long run not being able to do certain things in an MMO. 

Low population servers are always slow to grow, because the majority of the experienced playerbase generally avoid those servers for that reason.  I played on a high population server in WoW, and quite frankly it spoils you.  During wrath you could trip in Dalaran and manage to fall into a PUG raid that could clear half of Icecrown.  If you thought of an item, you could search the auction house and find plenty for sale.  So to go from that, to trying to roll on servers where friends ended up with dismal economies and no pug culture to speak of, was a shock to the system.

So if Trion is giving players a way to abandon sinking ships, then Bravo.  Forced server mergers always end up disrupting a community far more than voluntary moves.  Players have a fresh start without abandoning the work they have already done.  Knowing that your decision isn’t set in stone, will allow players to try different server communities until they find a niche that really fits their play style. 

On Argent Dawn, there were many times we were offered free transfers to cull the herd.  If I knew I could have transferred back without charge, I might have considered taking them up on the offer during those 3000 player queues.  Problem is, these were a one way ticket off, trading a known evil for completely unknown ones.  In most cases, for the players that jumped ship, they ended up transferring right back, as the grass was not in fact greener on the other side of the fence.

My Overall Take

This is getting to be a really really long post, so I will try and wrap things up.  Basically I see this as a good move for the community.  Trion is once again giving some excellent support to the players, and in doing so giving us the freedom to spread out and find the server that works best for us.  The ground breaking news is the fact they are giving this to us for free.  While this will diminish some servers, it will cause others like Shadefallen to band together and build something worth staying for.  I think overall, this will be a major positive for all players.

Bel Gets Real: Finger of God (Updated)

I’m taking a bit out from the normal game posts to throw up something very important, and very near and dear to my heart.  Yesterday we were sitting at home, completely oblivious to these events until my wife started seeing some messages come through on Twitter.  It had been such a lovely day in the Tulsa area, that I never even thought that Tornados might have been a brewing.  They apparently were, and just across the Missouri state line Joplin was completely devastated.

joplin

This one hits really close to home for me.  Joplin is one of two towns that I would move to in a heartbeat if given the chance.  The town has an amazingly cool vibe, and before these events had 6 amazing used book stores we would frequent.  In fact we were there just two weeks ago, when we took my wife’s mother shopping for Mothers Day.  So when I sit back and realize that we have bags in the kitchen that we never unpacked, from stores that simply no longer exist is pretty hard to take.

Our first panic moment was trying to get hold of my Wife’s mother.  She lives near Joplin just on the other side of the Oklahoma line, and the town has always been her major shopping destination for when she needs to run errands.  When we couldn’t reach her on the cell phone, we began to fear the worst.  Luckily she had travelled to Tulsa Sunday, and was also blissfully oblivious to the nightmare happening just across the state line.

I’ve lived in “Tornado Alley” my entire life, and I have seen the devastation they bring on numerous occasions.  While in the past I have known the towns they have hit here in Oklahoma, I’ve never had a really close personal attachment.  This one hurts so much, because I know this town so well.  The town had so much personality, packed into a compact area.  I am really hoping that everything bounces back and the new Joplin is an even better place.

Here is the thing, it is going to take a lot of work to get there and the groups are going to need help.  As a result I am devoting this post to getting out information for how folks in the surrounding area can help.  When stumbling around for the support numbers I came across a post on a political blog (The Source), something I would never normally read.

You can donate to the State of Missouri’s Red Cross Fund for Tornado and Flood Relief, or you can call 800-427-4626.

Those with medical skills looking to volunteer in Joplin are being asked by the Missouri Emergency Management Agency to visit showmeresponse.org to sign up.

From the Missouri Department of Public Safety:

A list of major non-profits that operate regularly in Missouri can be found by visiting the National Donations Management Network Web site. At the site you can donate directly to your preferred charitable organization by clicking on the organization’s name. In addition to making financial donations, you may donate products and services, or lend equipment to relief efforts. For more details or to make a donation, click the link above or call (800) 427-4626.

Additional information about donating or volunteer opportunities is available from 211 Missouri, which can be reached by dialing 211, or (800) 427-4626. This information is also available at the 211 Missouri Web site.

Click here to donate to long term recovery efforts in Missouri. Often it takes a long time, months and even years, for communities and individuals to recover from a disaster. Your donation can make a difference.

Thank you, and please keep the people of Joplin in your prayers

Here locally in Tulsa, donations are being collected at:

Catoosa Police Department
208 S. Cherokee St.
Catoosa, OK 74015
8:00 am til 5:00 pm (or when trailer is full)

Owasso Keller Williams Realty
12150 E 96th St N
Owasso, OK 74055
donations will be transferred Tuesday morning.

I know this post is well out of the ordinary but I felt like considering the scale of local tragedy caused by the Tornado, I wanted to get the word out somehow.  I promise to return to normal posts shortly.

Edit: 5/24/2011

I am leaving this post as the top post for another day.  Above is an image that photographer Aaron Fuhrman took of the main area of devastation in Joplin.  The above image is pulled from google streetview to contrast the total devastation below.  You can see other pictures of Joplin on his flikr photostream.

I realize it is unusual for a gaming blog to be posting this kind of stuff, but like I said in the above post, this one really hits close to home.  Honestly it might hit closer than that.  Right now we are glued to the television as another supercell is heading our way.  The storm has already produced 3 tornados and appears to be on target to hit our town.  Here is hoping it skips over us like it has so many times in the past.

I want to personally thank everyone who has donated already.  I noticed there were several click-throughs to the Red cross link in the post above.  There has been a massive out pouring local.  I ended up taking a load of stuff to the Keller Williams drop point and was just taken aback by the volume of donations.  As I drove across town today I saw either the Tulsa or Jenks firefighters collecting donations as well.

Anyways thanks for understanding as I give this cause a little bit more screentime.