Profile: frumbert
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• • General: Could the Firefly MMO make it Into Black

  • The problem with developing such an MMO is preconception. You're developing into a well understood universe. This can work - look at Lord of the Rings Online: There's a world that has been fleshed out to the n-th degree over decades by fans, and then these ideas have been consolidated by a single developer team down to a playable game. But with Firefly there hasn't been the years of development in fleshing out the universe and all its nuance. I think it would be easy to overengineer this game - to dedicate time to building the things we saw in the film or series to a degree that we would recognise them, but forget that people play games based on such preconceived universes in order to explore the aspects of the universe that they haven't yet seen; they want to take the part of the universe that most resonated with them when they saw the film, say, and see into that apects history and find out more about its role in that world. Going back to the LotRO example, this is pretty easy since players have preconceptions about the game play universe - they have an idea of what to expect if they head down into a deep mine under a snow capped mountain range and therefore a game designer is able to simply generate a new "ancient drawven society". People will accept it because they expect it. In Firefly we have no such expectations - we land on a planet and the first thing we see is a horse tied up outside a saloon. So do we assume it's a "western" style world, or do we remember that in the series they also had quad-bikes and laser canons. I think each person who visits the world will come expecting their own preconceived view of the world is how it will be done, and then be disappointed when its not. I think this is the danger of taking on a concept based on what is essentially a small time show.

    The model iteself sounds good on paper. In theory, Multiverse is a great concept. The company handles all the fiddly bits of your business model - the servers, the account management, the update deployments, and so on. This leaves a developer more time to work on the important parts of a game, namely the gameplay. The web site has been touting many up and coming games and provides tools and software kits for developers to try out their plaform. But other than demo games and beta products, where are the fully featured, fully populated, fully finished worlds? Is Firefly being developed for an untested and unused polatform? Going with Multiverse seems to be a big gamble for a game like this, since there's no proven track record on an existing game on the things that can make or break it, such as a well managed support ticketing system, thorough and safe account billing, well managed real-world sale items (if that is your model; and it does seem to be the growth area), server load management, and so on.

    Firefly's engines may fire but this is no guarentee that it will get them off the ground.

  • Posted: 4/18/08 7:21 PM
    General Discussion
• • Stargate Worlds: The Sound of Good

  • a truly great sound designer knows how to use silence to best effect. I hate movies and games that think music and sound has to be clear and ever present and that it it assists to emote each and every situation. It will be interesting to see what kind of route this game takes, since they certainly seem to be touting sound design a fair bit at the moment.

  • Posted: 4/18/08 6:56 PM
    General Discussion
• • General: A Chat about MMOGChart

  • well, if you believe that 46% of all statistics are totally meaningless then this site shows the general trends of subscriptions in games, and not hard data. Nobody's every going to release hard data anyway because they are all scared of what it could do to their credibility. Weird, I reckon.

    I'm interested to see that he's now listing the trands of concurrent online users. The data's too vague to mean anything, but certainly something you could throw under the nose of a marketing manager, investor or hosting provider (e.g. someone so far removed from the real world it's a surprise the even exist) in order to dupe them into giving you more money, better equipment, etc.

    I like the site. I don't use it as a reference, more as a feeling.

  • Posted: 4/14/08 3:19 AM
    General Discussion
• • Those FAQ's are a bit thin ...

  • Originally posted by Summoner2008
    

    Most of your questios are already answered on the official game forums.

    The list you are posting is actual game features, not FAQ, there is a seperate section of FAQ, which also give some answers. For example the offline advancement is not like EVE. Skills in Earthrise are learned online, not offline.

    Oh right, so I have to futz about sifting through fanboi posts and feature requests trying to work out the detailed list of features.

    If these things are answered, then it means they were asked. That means they should be in a freqently asked questions area. And they are not.

    Great example. You could provide more examples by answering the rest of my questions. It could become, what's the word, oh yes, a FAQ.

  • Posted: 3/29/08 6:01 PM
    Earthrise
• • Those FAQ's are a bit thin ...

  • I have questions.

    A unique post-apocalyptic setting where the cloned remnants of mankind battle to survive and rebuild. Yet while humanity may have evolved, human nature remains as treacherous as ever…

    While I'm so totally over "post apocapyse" games (pretty much every sci fi FPS out there is set in a future where some catastrophe has taken place) I'm liking the screens and concept art that I'm seeing to some degree. Just for once I'd like to see a sci-fi world that hasn't fallen apart.

    Highly customizable characters with over 100 different skills, abilities, and tactics. No artificial "class" restrictions get in the way of making the character you want.

    Customisable how? I'm used to fantasy genre classing. I become a mage and learn fireballs and heals and lightning storm spells, then I switch classes to warrior and learn how to melee, then switch to druid so I can learn how to mind control my enemy. And I get to keep those skills I've learned regardless of the class I currently am. Is this what you mean here (just without the official switching of classes)?

    Fast-paced action combat featuring dynamic targeting, customizable power armor, huge mechanized exoskeletons, and hundreds of high-tech weapons.
    

    But I can still target what I actually want, right? What kind of weapons? It's the future, so I'm guessing laser cutting tools for searing through the armour, nanite swarms for infesting the armour and making it dissolve, trip mines for tripping on. Guns are so last century (Unless they are in swords - go final fantasy!).

    Sophisticated Player versus Player (PvP) mechanics that let you fight for the established order, join the revolutionary underground, or carve your own bloody path as an independent criminal.

    So it's PvP only? Can I carve my own bloody path through, say, game world monsters and expect to get anywhere? Or do I have to team up with a bunch of people who are just together so they can loot and level?

    Territorial conquest and defense that matters. In your domain, you create your own rules – or let anarchy reign.

    Great. I like letting anarchy reign.

    Character progression that keeps you advancing in your career even when you’re not logged in.
    An advanced market-based economy with in-game supply and demand based on player activities.

    Nice. Learned this from Eve Online, did you? Any more information on this?

    Deep crafting mechanics that let you design and manufacture unique items from customizable blueprints and raw resources.

    The second mmorpg I played that claimed it had a deep crafting mechanic was Horizons: Empire of Istaria (the first was UO, which was, frankly, insane). And there was a game where almost everything you needed in game was something that another player could make for you. My guild members were crafting freaks so whether I needed a new set of green bronze armour or to complete furnish pergola next to my house with bench seats, then I could just call a meeting and everybody would run to their homes, change into their crafting clothes, grab tools and item instruction lists and go nuts (you could only carry so much at a time). Manufacturing unique items, as it says here, doesn't lead me to think that crafting is going to be big feature of this game. Pity, because I like to make stuff.

  • Posted: 3/29/08 2:52 AM
    Earthrise