Sep 19 2011

World of Darkness MMO Q&A – My Reactions

These are some of my thoughts on the bigger announcements made at the Q&A session at The Grand Masquerade 2011.

Related posts:

Permadeath

First, the biggest announcement (in my opinion) was that Final Death (aka permadeath) can happen.  This was a point of strong contention last year — some people absolutely wanted it, some absolutely did not.  I had my own reaction.  CCP stated that the input from last year informed their design decision going forward.

I believe that this can be done in a way that satisfies both people who love and hate the idea of permanent death. They also talked a bit about Humanity’s role in this game, which I think ties in here. So here are some ways I think that permadeath should be able to happen:

  • If two players duel and choose that the loser dies for good. Chris McDonough raised this as a “question” to the audience, and there was resounding applause.
  • If a player physically attacks someone else in Elysium.
  • If a player breaks the Masquerade enough, they are flagged such that someone else can kill them (and possibly even diablerize them if they have that mechanic in game) without being thus flagged themselves, or suffering any other negative consequences.
    • I’d even take it one step further, and say that if you kill someone this sort of Blood Hunt has been declared on, you get some influence/prestige/whatever.

This could be one of the defining elements of this game (and perhaps even the defining element). MMOs these days are about grind, netspeak, and generally everything but roleplaying.  Even on RP servers in WoW, you see very little roleplay.  It’s an afterthought — why waste my time doing something that doesn’t ultimately benefit me (mechanically)?

But the World of Darkness is not about killing the biggest badass dragon. It’s about creating a story, connecting with other characters and having social interactions, unveiling mysteries, and fighting the Beast within. The stated themes are: Power, Danger, Mystery, and Romance. So even if “power” is taken in the traditional MMO sense (which I’m pretty sure it’s not), that’s only a quarter of the game.

So what if we have a method using in-game mechanics to discourage people from doing things which break the feeling of the setting? Then the game will be self-policing, and that is the philosopher’s stone of MMO game design.

And as a note, ideally I’d like to see a carrot as well as the stick (to use the old metaphor) — some mechanical benefit to roleplaying in a way appropriate to the setting.

Sex and Violence

They said this will be an adult game, with nudity, violence, etc. This is awesome.  It just wouldn’t be the World of Darkness without tits and gore and mind-breaking fucked-up shit happening. Of course, they will have to figure out what to do in countries where certain types of sex and violence in games can simply get your game yanked, but they said they have a legal team researching and working on that.

Someone brought up the point that if you allow players to walk around naked, that breaks the game feeling.  In other words, you make it a more adult game by not allowing players to strip naked at will.  Chris’s response to that implied to me that they are well aware of this, and that full nudity would be allowed in havens (and hopefully other appropriate areas), but not necessarily in public.

Hellooooo cybersex havens!

I say that tongue-in-cheek, but sexuality is a huge part of the Vampire mythos, and I actually do think it would be damn cool to being able to lure a mortal (PC) to your haven with p[would be pretty damn cool.

Player-Run Political Structures

The Prince, Primogen, etc. in the cities will be PCs.  This is pretty frackin’ cool. I would expect it, based on EVE’s player-based focus, but it’s still nice to hear it confirmed. This will also be another defining characteristic of this game, I believe. The mechanics behind how one attains and keeps “office,” what it allows you to do, and other such details are yet to be revealed. What are your thoughts — how would you do a vampire political system?

Everyone Starts as a Mortal

Also very cool, in my opinion.  It was not mentioned whether one must necessarily find a PC sire, or if there is an option to be sired by an NPC.  I can see pros and cons to both. It was also stated that you cannot be embraced against your will, which is a good thing.  They did not mention the possibility of playing as a ghoul — I think that would be pretty neat, but really I don’t want them taking their focus away from creating an awesome vampire experience to create a cool vampire-lite experience.


One Server to Rule Them All

Okay, “sever” is a broad term since a server is really made up of many computers these days. But, this will be a semi-sharded game — everyone is in one game universe, but there will be different cities.  However, one can travel between cities, in a manner analogous to character server transfers in other games.  What is not clear is how easy or difficult that will be (though I imagine fairly easy and hopefully free).  It is also not clear whether your character’s name must be globally unique or not.  (Personally, I’d like it so that character names don’t even have to be unique on a given server like with Champions Online, but I somehow doubt that wish will be granted.)

It was also stated that the cities will all be large, but will not be clones of one another.  I imagine that they will be clones content-wise — I mean, dear Cthulhu it would take shit-tons of resources to make different maps for the different cities.  However, it was explicitly stated that cities will be different due to player controlled/originated things.  Taken in the mindset that this is from the same company that created EVE Online, I take this as a pretty big hint as to what could be planned, and I salivate over the possibilities.

External Access Via Web

No details were given, but if CCP is taking a page from Blizzard’s book with their World of Warcraft Remote, that will be pretty awesome. Even better if they make it capable of more things, and make it an included part of the game (as opposed to an add-on service). People are constantly on the move, and since they said that this will be very much like a Vampire LARP, being able to get notifications of events — and react to them — when you’re on the train to work will be a pretty huge thing.

Those are really the high points from the Q&A session. Let’s see what other news comes out in the following days!


Sep 18 2011

Grand Masquerade 2011 – World of Darkness MMO Q&A

The following notes were taken from the World of Darkness Q&A/suggestion panel at the Grand Masquerade 2011, lead by Reynir Harðarson and Chris McDonough.

Also see this post for my thoughts on some of this.

* Wants social interactions to “have some meaning” (perhaps implied mechanical consequences to social interactions?)
   – Yes, that will be a part of it.

* Microtransactions    – wants transparency, wants more info
   – Blame Chris McDonough; will release more info next year.
   – Chris says, “Pay attention to EVE Incarna.”

* Play as mortal from “scratch” vs playing “sleeper”; toggle sort of like pvp for being embrace-able
   – Everyone starts as mortal, but can never be embraced against your will.
   – Vampires can die permanently under some circumstances. (See item toward the bottom.)

* Gaining titles within own real life city, interact with higher-ups from other cities and travel to other cities
   – That’s exactly how it works.

* Have tiered dev system for brand new vs old players?
   – Game is as deep as you want it to be.
   – External access to game through web. (Editor’s note: no specifics were given, but I highly doubt you’ll be able to actually play the game from the web.)
   – You can gain Influence without ever fighting someone.

* Plan for caitiff? “Deck of many things”
   – Caitiff not part of original release, unlikely at this point.

* Day/night cycle?
   – When server goes down that’s when day breaks (in other words, it’s always night)
   – Looked at options like playing own ghoul, but this game is about playing a vampire, so you should be able to play a vampire at any time.

* Dementation suggestion    – screen goes crazy/dark, friend looks like monster
   – There is some stuff like that in the game.
   – Powers will work the same on humans, NPCs, and PCs.

* Majesty    – combat (you can’t attack me) and out of combat (you have selection of options to say)
   – Something like that but [social] PvP is more about breaking down your opponent’s will.

* Filter control to keep scrotemaster griefers out
   – Attacking other players lowers humanity, when goes low enough you are open for others to attack you.
   – As far as trolling, you can ignore someone.
   – “You will have ways of dealing with it through actual gameplay. You will have to behave in this world. But we also need enemies, assholes, someone to hate. But there is a ratio there.”
   – The game will have havens.

* Role-play is secondary in other mmos
   – Lot of game design around this, like political system. See EVE; wanted role-play to emerge naturally. “When your character’s goals align with your goals as a player, then roleplaying is natural.”

* Concerns: pvp, some people want to roleplay without getting fucked with. Guy jumping around in thong. Masquerade enforcement. Malks need extra tlc because of their uniqueness. Age of Conan adult scale-back, don’t want that to happen here last-minute.
   – Have staff lawyer looking into legal implications of adult stuff in all countries. Some countries will just shut you off if you break policies/laws on adult content.
   – It’s about doing it tastefully, not gratuitously.
   – Gotta be careful about giving players ability to be nude. Might be a more adult game without that. Possibly nudity in own haven but not public.
   – More similar to LARP than EVE.
   – PVP is very different than in other games. Both more free and more restrictive. Want the world to feel real; it’s a dangerous place. Have to make friends. If you go out of line we want the community to be able to punish you.

* Will Sabbat vs Camarilla PvP be player driven?
   – More structured than EVE but not as structured as the Masquerade.
   – Power structures are player run, like Princes and Primogen.

* Alternative paths? Like paths of enlightenment?
   – Right now no, but every intent of releasing that in expansions.

* V20 Europe wants game that is adult, with story, unique character that is not a clone (can tell on sight), and will run on lots of hardware.
* Planning on promoting in Europe, like at GamesCon next year?
   – Story is tangential to the game. There won’t be a story that drives the game
   – Unique characters are extremely important in this game design.
   – Reynir: “Does not run on iPad yet.” Mindful of required specs though, like laptop. Will have multiple visual settings/levels, but want it to look good no matter what setting. “It’s going to run on a laptop.”
   * Clarification: Story meaning background.
   – Editor’s note: There was no official answer — it was sort of lost in the shuffle — but I will go ahead and say yes to this.

* Actions should have consequences, including true death
   – True/permanent death can occur.
   – Chris: “Should players be able to duel each other with an option for permadeath?” Loud applause.

* Planning on incorporating other genres?
   – Stick to vampire initially.

* CoH veteran rewards style of opening up other WoD races?
   – Just focusing on vampires now, don’t want to even talk about other character types at this point.

* Overhead names in UI? Way to keep notes if not?
   – There will be an option to have names overhead, but it we be off by default (presumably to make the game more immersive).

* Standard char sheet?
   – Yes, and it looks very similar to the pen and paper RPG.

* Metaplot not solely driven by PCs
   – Yes metaplot, but hard to do that without disempowering players.
   – Again more similar to LARP.
   – Metaplot through expansions.
* This guy apparently absolutely hates PC-driven metaplot. Perhaps this is not the game for him, and he should instead simply read a book.

* Permanent consequences like blow up a building and it stays that way
   – Big in MMO world now. Phased instancing etc. It’s not about the graphics though. It’s about what happens in the world. See EVE as example.
   – Things open up and close down.
   – Reynir doesn’t like phased instancing. “We don’t want the game to lie to you.”

* Will there be a generation system, and cap? Will there be diablerie?
   – This is under heavy discussion now.

* Dynamically generated content? A la Guild Wars, e.g. garou attacking a part of the city, if you don’t defend it then they now have control over it.
   – Yes. And there will be world events.

* Single server?
   – Multiple cities that you can travel between, but all one world. So, sort of a single shard.

* How to determine how one player has praxis of something? Mechanical locking?
   – Yes there is a mechanism, but requires lots of human interaction.

* Different sized cities? Population controlled?
   – Populations can vary, but all cities will be large.
   – There will be differences between each city. Player controlled/originated differences. (Hint, hint.)

* Does your game have NPCs?
   – Yes.

* Justin Achilli asks: If you’re not lying to players, then why have fake people (i.e. NPCs)?
   – Essence of response: STFU, Justin

* Translation? E.g. Latin American?
   – Yes, via a newly developed “Cerberus” system.

* Will there be a system for torpor, like cool-down period?
   – Not in traditional sense. [Torpor] is an excuse for why your PC doesn’t die.


Sep 30 2010

The Grand Masquerade 2010, Day 1

I decided to spend my 30th birthday with the White Wolf/CCP crew at The Grand Masquerade in New Orleans this year. And man was it a blast.  I had planned to do this in one post, but realized that would be a gargantuan post, so I'll do this piecemeal. So…

Day 1: Wednesday

Lauren and I drove down, got stuck behind a wreck on I-10 for over an hour, and checked in to The Roosevelt around 11. The early day was busy with work and I didn't think to eat, so the only meal I had was an Arby's meal around 3pm. This will be important in a little bit.

The hotel was… well, "fucking amazing" doesn't cover it. Opulent, gorgeous, refined, luxurious, and then some. I booked a suite, and I'm damn glad I did — not because the normal rooms are bad (they're also amazing), but the suites are that fucking sweet. Yeah, I just said that. A picture of the foyer is above, and the main bedroom is below.After having been cooped up in the car for so long, I was ready to explore. Lauren, having had to get up at 3am that morning, understandably wanted some sleep.  So, off I went to Bourbon Street alone.

Are you starting to see where that "only ate once that day" might come into play?

So I wander down Bourbon St. and find that it's pretty much exactly as I'd expected: every single establishment is either a bar, a bar with food (for some reason, they seem to think that margaritas and pizza go together as well as peanut butter and chocolate), or a strip club. None seemed to stand out until I saw a place that purported to have the most beers on Bourbon St. So I sat down and had myself an Arrogant Bastard (shut up, just shut up — it's a tasty beer!)… which ended up being $10.50. Leave it to me to find the only expensive alcohol on Bourbon St.

As I was finishing my tres-expensive beer, I got texts from some of the White Wolf crew telling me to join them at karaoke. I had a hard time figuring it out, since most of them were too drunk to correctly relay the name, but eventually figured it out to be the Cat's Meow. So I head that way, already tipsy from my one pint of high-grav beer.

I arrive to what I expect: lots of drunken White Wolf people, having pretty much taken over the place. Craig recommends the Hurricanes, I go get one. It is a $7.50 bucket of rum. Sweet, sweet rum. I take one sip and know this is dangerous. I go do the social butterfly thing, and after talking to Chris McDonough and giving him some completely heterosexual man-hugs, I look over to find my drink… stolen. For the first time in my life, I had my drink stolen. I felt robbed, I felt raped, I felt… okay well seriously I was only slightly annoyed.

"What the fuck?! Son of a…. well fuck it, they're only $7.50."

I should have taken the drink being stolen as a sign to stop. But I was only halfway through it, and I'm not a quitter. So I manned up and got another Huge Bucket of RumTM.  Remember how I said I'd only eaten once?  Yeah.

I don't remember a lot after that, other than stumbling home, buying Lauren a hot dog and having a bite of it myself, and then a few hours worshiping the porcelain goddess. At one point I was seriously wondering if I had alcohol poisoning. But I made it through, and around 5am went into restful slumber. Or to put it another way, I passed the fuck out.

Thus ended Day 1 of my grand adventure in New Orleans.


Sep 28 2010

Why your gripes with the World of Darkness MMO are stupid

This post is in relation to the World of Darkness Online MMO that was recently announced at The Grand Masquerade. I've heard a few gripes that seem to come up a lot in various forms and forums, and I would like to address them here. Most of my thoughts boil down to: stop making assumptions, and have patience.

They aren't adding in X supernatural type, so I'm not going to play this game!
I realize that you don't like vampires, and that hearing whisperings of a WoD MMO made you all giddy with the possible excitement of being able to play a mage/changeling/wraith/whatever in an MMO setting, and that the news that vampires (and mortals) are your only option has filled your vagina with sand. However, if you take a moment to think about it, you will realize how retarded you are for even wanting that. Seriously, you're like a little girl demanding a pony for her birthday — you are ignorant of the logistics involved. Making a game that has multiple supernatural types out of the gate would be a disservice to the game as a whole. As the executive producer Chris McDonough said, they are focused on making the best vampire game that they can, and if that goes well, then maybe they will focus on adding other supernatural types to it, giving each their due attention as well.
 
If they were to make other supernatural types available as PCs out of the gate, then none of the supernatural types would be well-developed, and it would suck for everyone. In other words, if they were to try to give you what you want, then you would not like it. So have some patience, and encourage all of your friends who are into vampires to play the game when it comes out, and if you're lucky they'll add in your favorite supernatural type down the road and make it as cool as vampires.
 
It's not Requiem! / I hate clans! / Masquerade metaplot sucked!
Listen to what was actually said. "Based on" Masquerade. Not "going to be exactly like Masquerade."  Chris McDonough specifically stated that "we are not going to make a replica of anything we've done before. We're going to pull from all of it to make the best MMO that we can."  So stop your baseless speculation and assumptions. You don't know if there will be clans or covenants. You don't know if there will be a Caine myth in the game or not. You don't know if there will be metaplot. You don't know if Malkavians will or will not be in the game. You don't know if there will be a Camarilla and Sabbat. There will certainly be some of these things, yes. Which of these things, however, is still up in the air. And maybe there will be Circle of the Crone, or some of your other favorite elements from Requiem. Relax, wait and see.
 
They're not telling us exactly what the game is going to be like
That's because they don't know yet either. At length, they explained that MMO design is a very iterative process. What the game is like, and the direction it's going in now, might not be anything what the final product ends up being like. And if you think about it from a marketing standpoint, they don't want to blow their load too early. Excitement only lasts so long, and they've said that the game will come out 2012 at the earliest (and possibly after that, going with the Blizzard philosophy of "we'll release it when it's ready to be released, and not before"). Focus on what they have told you, and I think that should be exciting enough. Which leads us to…
 

So what have they said?

The top-level points below have been outright stated (mostly at The Grand Masquerade), sub-points are logical extensions that others have drawn.
  • It will be a player-driven game with lots of social and political elements.
    • Giving power to the players is a double-edged sword. So while they might not have mechanics to stop someone from talking in netspeak and being a douche, other players will presumably have the power to smack that bitch down1.
  • The themes that the game explores will be: Mystery, Romance, Power, Danger.
  • It will be an adult game, that aims to invoke emotion in you.
  • Vampires will be the only supernatural player characters, but stuff from the other games will be present in some form. Also, there will be the option to play a human, though no specifics on that were given.
    •  Other supernaturals will most likely be environmental content, NPCs, that sort of thing.
    •  Humans will likely be ghouls or blood dolls, but maybe we could see some human vampire hunter PCs too.
  • Character customizability and aesthetics will be big in this game. They have even hired a fashion consultant.
  • They want to make the game as accessible as possible, and this is one of their criteria for success. So they want it to be fun for both hardcore and casual gamers.
  • They also want to cater to an array of players by having three ways you can play the game: sandbox (open-ended like EVE), theme park (traditional MMOs like WoW), and coffee shop (social). These playstyles will be interconnected, with each one feeding to and from one of the others.
  • The game will not be combat-intensive, unless you choose to play it that way.
    •  Being the biggest social/political mover and shaker will garner you far more power than being the strongest fighter.
  • Factions and territories will be a big part of the game.
  • The game will have gay clubs.
  • The game will be fully PvP, but that's not to say that you can be attacked anywhere. If you don't want to get attacked, you might want to hang around Elysium a lot.
    • This will probably be like any LARP. If you go down a dark alleyway, you might get jumped by your enemies, or even some random person. On the other hand, if the person jumping you breaks the Masquerade, they're in for trouble.
  • Some Disciplines will not be included because they're impossible to have in an MMO, like Temporis.

There are some other things, mostly other nitty-gritty stuff like they are using Scrum development methodologies, have already spent like 314 man-years (which equals one Shane DeFreest year)  in development, etc. But that's the core of what is publicly known about the game so far.

[1] Few things would make me happier than to see a group of characters going around mercilessly and repeatedly killing any character who acts that way, until such point as that player starts roleplaying, or quits the game.