Comments on: Endgame http://noprisonersnomercy.com/2009/10/endgame/ We're Nuns and we have Rulers! Fri, 04 May 2012 18:34:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jeremy (Jmo) http://noprisonersnomercy.com/2009/10/endgame/comment-page-1/#comment-83 Jeremy (Jmo) Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:55:30 +0000 http://noprisonersnomercy.com/?p=540#comment-83 Great Article Sister! The Leveling game vs. End game debate seems to be the hot topic lately. Not just among bloggers and podcasters, but in the development studios as well. Even though most companies seem to continue the EQ/WoW trend of choose a class and level, there is some innovation coming. While Cryptic's idea of Create your own nemesis does add some flavor to the end game, I really don't feel that they've changed much in the long run. The game that has me excited though, is Final Fantasy 14. From all that I've read so far, while there is a class system of sorts, there is no leveling. Beyond that, they've made it a point to note that they want all classes to fill multiple roles, which in turn will hopefully do away with the much overdone "holy trinity" of class requirements for groups. Innovation is the key to really bringing about some good change in the MMO World, and I hope more companies follow suit. These are also some topics we've talked about on the past couple of episodes of the MMOVoices Podcast (shameless plug =p). I'd actually be really interested in your take on the Holy Trinity issue, and how you feel MMO Devs can help steer us away from that trend as well. Anyway, long winded post aside, keep up the good work! ~Jeremy (Jmo) Great Article Sister!

The Leveling game vs. End game debate seems to be the hot topic lately. Not just among bloggers and podcasters, but in the development studios as well. Even though most companies seem to continue the EQ/WoW trend of choose a class and level, there is some innovation coming. While Cryptic’s idea of Create your own nemesis does add some flavor to the end game, I really don’t feel that they’ve changed much in the long run.

The game that has me excited though, is Final Fantasy 14. From all that I’ve read so far, while there is a class system of sorts, there is no leveling. Beyond that, they’ve made it a point to note that they want all classes to fill multiple roles, which in turn will hopefully do away with the much overdone “holy trinity” of class requirements for groups. Innovation is the key to really bringing about some good change in the MMO World, and I hope more companies follow suit.

These are also some topics we’ve talked about on the past couple of episodes of the MMOVoices Podcast (shameless plug =p). I’d actually be really interested in your take on the Holy Trinity issue, and how you feel MMO Devs can help steer us away from that trend as well. Anyway, long winded post aside, keep up the good work!

~Jeremy (Jmo)

]]> By: Sr. Julie http://noprisonersnomercy.com/2009/10/endgame/comment-page-1/#comment-81 Sr. Julie Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:29:00 +0000 http://noprisonersnomercy.com/?p=540#comment-81 Indeed. A good point and one I missed. Another game that had areas that were "designed on the fly" (so to speak) is Hellgate London. Perhaps, if the trend continues, we will truly see games with no need for an "end game" but content that simply continues. I doubt, however, that the computer could be anywhere close to creative enough to make quests interesting. Julie Indeed. A good point and one I missed. Another game that had areas that were “designed on the fly” (so to speak) is Hellgate London. Perhaps, if the trend continues, we will truly see games with no need for an “end game” but content that simply continues. I doubt, however, that the computer could be anywhere close to creative enough to make quests interesting.

Julie

]]> By: Hirvox http://noprisonersnomercy.com/2009/10/endgame/comment-page-1/#comment-80 Hirvox Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:24:01 +0000 http://noprisonersnomercy.com/?p=540#comment-80 One interesting trend that I've seen is procedural content, which offloads a lot of the mundane work involved in content creation to the computer. For example, currently a game designer creating an area would have to place all terrain features manually: Every single tree in a forest was placed there by a human. But with procedural content, the artist, the designer and the programmer create a piece of code that describes a forest. All the designer has to do is to is to state that a certain piece of lands should contain a forest, and the computer "grows" it for him. Or they could go one step higher and create a piece of code that describes where forests should appear. Left 4 Dead is a game where the entire "endgame" is procedural content: The maps contain no zombies, the Director AI places them and finetunes them on the fly in response to the players' actions. Unfortunately, the ball is dropped at that point. If the designers don't have to do everything themselves, that should leave plenty of time to come up with more interesting plotlines, more thrilling encounters and more devious challenges. But no. At some point, the players also start to think at a higher level, decipher all those elaborate formulas and post their strategies on the appropriate forums. Left 4 Dead's GameFAQ entry is no different from the entry of any static game. One interesting trend that I’ve seen is procedural content, which offloads a lot of the mundane work involved in content creation to the computer. For example, currently a game designer creating an area would have to place all terrain features manually: Every single tree in a forest was placed there by a human. But with procedural content, the artist, the designer and the programmer create a piece of code that describes a forest. All the designer has to do is to is to state that a certain piece of lands should contain a forest, and the computer “grows” it for him. Or they could go one step higher and create a piece of code that describes where forests should appear.

Left 4 Dead is a game where the entire “endgame” is procedural content: The maps contain no zombies, the Director AI places them and finetunes them on the fly in response to the players’ actions. Unfortunately, the ball is dropped at that point. If the designers don’t have to do everything themselves, that should leave plenty of time to come up with more interesting plotlines, more thrilling encounters and more devious challenges. But no. At some point, the players also start to think at a higher level, decipher all those elaborate formulas and post their strategies on the appropriate forums. Left 4 Dead’s GameFAQ entry is no different from the entry of any static game.

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