Taking the M out of MMO.

November 2nd, 2009

Massively Multiplayer Online

Which M, do you ask?  The M for Massive.

Massive can and should be interpreted in more than one way.  You and I both think that Massive refers to the amount of players in a single game.  I believe somewhere within the last year or two the definition of Massive in MMO has changed and none of us even noticed.

Today Massive refers more to the amount of MMO genre games and less about the amount of players actively playing each of these games.  I’ve lost count a long time ago, but we’ve seen dozens if not hundreds of self-proclaimed MMO’s being released during the last couple of years (just take a look at the Google Ad on the right side of your browser, there’s a good chance it’s showing you a new MMO you’ve never heard about).

We all know the major names in the MMO business, WOW, EQ2, DAOC, EQ1, UO, AC, etc (notice I go backward in the MMO timeline?).  Going forward we see the same amount of players suddenly spread thin across exponentially more MMO titles.  Popularity and subscription base has generally increased throughout the previous MMO time-line up until we reach WOW.  Thanks to the success of these MMO’s we have seen a dramatic increase in new MMOs, albeit with less innovation, game-play, features, and marketable content.  Yes, it’s true that the most recent and very successful MMO’s (WOW being a good example here) have reached a wider audience, drawing in those who would have otherwise never touched a computer game.  This helps level the playing field between amount of available players and amount of available MMOs, but once we reach the top of the growth potential for new MMO players we start seeing a decline in players per MMO.

What’s next on the horizon for MMOs?  A decline in quality is already present.  Soon it’ll be time for something new.  The fact that we are still stuck with the majority of MMOs focused on the Fantasy genre has me curious.  I’m sure there’s plenty of room for some innovation here, more sci-fi, more First-Person MMO, etc.  And of course let’s not forget the otherwise widely untapped market of Game Console based MMOs.

I believe a lot of this explosive growth in MMOs is what is causing many of them to end up in the trash binn after only a year of two of live game-play.  I could name a few that have ended up in the same bin, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, etc.  Both innovative ideas and neither successful enough to stay afloat.

It’s quite possible the reason we see a lot of free-to-play MMOs with attached real-money item shops (free to play, but you have to spend real money on the items to get the good gear, for example), is because gamers are more reluctant to spend a monthly fee on a MMO that may or may not be there in a year.  It’s almost like the MMO genre bit the hand that fed them and is having to expand on their ideas to get players to even try out their games.  The explosive increase in sub-par MMOs resulted in less trust in the gaming community, which lead to lower subscriptions, which lead to item shops/item malls, which lead to player unrest, which lead to……?

Where do you think the MMO genre is going next?  Less quality and more quantity?  Innovation?  Multi-platform?

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Games | 3 Comments »

The Decline in Quality Game Development.

October 26th, 2009

I need to start off by reminding you that I am 28 years old.  This means I was born in 1981 and starting really getting into games (mostly computer games) around 1989 and the early 90’s, before the internet was widely used.  I’ve been hard at it ever since.

I’ve been noticing a growing horrible trend.  It may be a bit too late to talk about it now seeing as how this is old news to some, frustrating news to others, and has always been normal every-day stuff for the rest.  I’m talking about lazy game development.

The latest AAA title release from developers Gearbox and publishers 2k games is what has finally pushed me over the edge and prompted me to begin this blog entry.  The game Borderlands has been out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for almost a week now, but is plagued with bugs, many of them game breakers.  Just take a look over at the official forums to see what I’m talking about.

What has me up in arms here is actually 2 related topics.

First off, game developers are lazy.  Back before the internet was used for games we would see official released, completed and packaged games for both the oldest of consoles and the earliest of computers.  You may not think about it, but back then developers didn’t have the luxury of  patching their games.  There was no quick internet download patch, the game consoles were not connected 24/7 to the internet.  What you got was what you got, finished product, nothing else to download, nothing else to patch.

But, today we have the internet connected to everything from our computer, console, TV, and cellphones.  What has this done to quality game development?  It’s caused it to go the way of the lazy.  Taking a look at Borderlands, we see the plague of bugs around their fully released AAA game and we as consumers are just expecting them to patch up the bugs in a soon to be released patch (or patches).

Why do we expect this?  Because this is the current trend in game development.  Develop a game, spend less on testing, more on marketing, expect the release day customers to buy and freely test our games without them even knowing it.  They post up on our forums with their bug findings, we fix the bugs in a couple of patches a week or three later, problem solved.

Meanwhile the retail customers are stuck with a game that in many cases is full of game breaking bugs and playability issues that should have easily been fixed with proper in-house testing.

Shame on you lazy game developers!

Why do we put up with this?

This brings me on the 2nd related topic.  Taking a look at the forums of many of these bug ridden games we see that many of the customers expect to have a few bugs in their newly purchased game.  What’s worse is if you complain about the bugs these same customers (who bought and own the same game you have) spout off nonsense about how you should be patient and wait for the game developers to release the patch, since the game is ‘just brand new’.

Wait a minute?  I am expected to wait for a patch to fix bugs that already show up in a game that is already released before I can play the game as intended?  What happened to testing the game before releasing?  And why do these customers find this to be normal and actually expect the games to be released full of bugs?  What happened to expecting quality from a product you buy?

At what point did consumers start believing new and broken is worth full retail price or simply worth buying at all?  Why do I get castrated on a game forum by my fellow game enthusiats when I post up about how I think it’s absurd that I have to wait for a patch on my brand new game?  Why are they selling themselves short, expecting less out of their retail purchase than I do?

And I refer you back to the first topic, lazy developers and taking the quick and easy route rather than the responsible route.

Bring back the quality!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Games | No Comments »

Education is our past (previously referred to as “Education is our Future!”)

October 26th, 2009

Here it is. This is in regards to yet another news article regarding traffic in my  area (Seattle, Washington).

This will be a short rant.

I’ve long since concluded that our government, at least at the state level is  continuing to put Education behind everything else.

Rather than do what I believe is necessary to really solve the root of the issue (the  actual cause of traffic) the Seattle mayor is going to do what most all government  officials do, throw more money at a problem and hope it prolongs it long enough that  they don’t have to deal with it until the next Mayor is elected.

What’s the real cause of traffic? You and Me! Yep, it’s the drivers on the road. From  what I can tell it’s mostly uneducated drivers that cause a lot of traffic, from  following too closely (causing accidents), merging onto the freeway at 30mph rather  than at 60mph. Simply going too fast in general or going too slow in the passing  lane, not to mention not moving over (out of the way) of faster traffic. All of this  and more causes traffic jams and results in unwarranted accidents.

I strongly believe that a healthy dose of driver education could fix a majority of  these issues. On top of that, I firmly believe that we should have stricter licensing  tests and more required classes, as well as yearly or bi-yearly (as an example)  testing which would hopefully be more rigorous than a simple eye exam.

One argument I’ve had to combat against after posting up my ideas on my local news  station website is, “Our country isn’t ready for mass transit, people NEED to drive  to get places and there isn’t enough public transportation in place to harbor those  who wouldn’t be able to get a license or who lose a license well early in their  lives.”

Yes, a valid argument. However, thanks to this great country we live in a majority of  our economy is based on Supply and Demand. This means that if there was suddenly a  high demand for public transportation (helping the elderly who lost their licenses  get to places like the grocery store on a weekly basis, for example) then the supply  of these services would also rise. Thus making that argument a moot point. Actually,  that might help the economy as well, creating more jobs.

Well, there’s my short rant on education is our past. We keep putting education  behind us and hope that throwing a few hundred million dollars at problems will fix  the issues. I don’t believe this is the right way to go. I think spending just a  fraction of that amount of money on driver education would go much further and save  many more lives (less accidents, more responsible drivers, etc).

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Daily Life | 3 Comments »

I’ve discovered the secret of time and space travel.

June 19th, 2009

Dreams have a weird way of describing the answers to life’s questions.

In this dream I found out the secret of time travel.  I forget the specifics of the dream’s story, but what I do remember is that I was able to time travel.  I’ll just get right to the point, in order to travel from one point to another instantly through space (space as in distance, not outer space), you have to lose time yourself.  Also, the greater the distance you instantly travel the more time you lose.  So, if you wanted to travel a great distance you would lose your memories a certain distance back in your life at the same time.

It’s kind of a weird concept to think about.  The farther you travel the more your forget of your past.  But, it’s not that you just forget your past, that part of your past is actually erased, albeit only as it affects you.  So, if you had a conversation with your best friend 2 weeks ago, after time travel it would be as if that conversation never happened, but your friend would still have a memory of it.

Hopefully some of that made sense.

Tags:
Posted in Dreams | 2 Comments »

Sliding….

January 21st, 2009

Here’s one to add to my Dream category.  I had this dream 2 nights ago.

The parts that I remember begin with me at my Mom’s house.  Normally in dreams of familiar homes the places are actually not quite the same as in real life (such as bigger rooms, different outside than it’s suppose to be, etc), but in this case the house, inside and out, was exactly like it’s suppose to be.

In this dream I know my Mom was there, a few other people were there in the kitchen as well, but I don’t know who they were.  Eventually two people from my work showed up.

Well, I remember leaning up against the kitchen wall, just a couple steps away from the hallway.  Out of nowhere I get an extremely strong sensation that everything in the house is sort of ’sliding’ to the right.  It’s almost like an earthquake that shakes rather than rumbles, but this wasn’t a back-and-forth shake, it was just a one-way shake, to the right.  Pictures on the wall and anything hanging were all swaying to the side, just like as if someone had tipped the house to the side.  I ended up sliding out of the kitchen and into the hallway, stopping against the balcony.  I remember my Mom sort of slid with me and just as it stopped she grabbed my face (with two hands, as if to see if someone was ok) and was talking to me, but for some reason my hearing was gone.? I could barely hear her, as if she was talking from a really really long ways away; everything was silent and sort of hollow sounding.

The people in the kitchen also sort of slid around and everyone was confused for a bit.  Right as the sliding stopped 2 people from my work walked up the stairs, taking the route as if they had come through the garage.  So, for a moment I thought maybe the garage door had caused the sliding, but then it happend once again.  Everything started sliding again.  This time when it stopped everyone was scared.  I remember walking to the living-room and noticing the 4 large floor-to-ceiling windows were cracked in many places.  I then walked to the back corner room and looked outside, because some of the people that were in the kitchen ended up going outside to take a look around.  It was evening time so it was dark or sort of at the end of the twilight stages of the sun setting.  There were 2 people in the backyard and we were watching them from the 2nd floor corner bedroom, when suddenly something out of nowhere jumped on them, as if it was attacking them.  The figure was mostly a shadow, it came from out of sight, around the corner of the house.  Mostly I remember it as a dark shadowy figure.

That’s where my dream ended or at least that’s all I remember of it.  The sensation of sliding was the focal point of the dream though and I remember being really scared and confused by it.  The hearing loss and hollow sounds made things seem disoriented.

I have no idea what this dream meant.

Tags: ,
Posted in Dreams | 3 Comments »

Hopped off the bus

January 20th, 2009

After many years of moving forward blindly, I’ve decided to firmly plant my feet on the world wide web.? www.sharkonland.com will finally contain all the silly things that go on inside my head.? If you’ve ever wondered what Landshark thinks about, well now you get to find out.

If you just happen to be visiting here on my grand opening then feel free to check out the about landshark page on the right and then maybe, just maybe my blogs will feel more relevant.

I hope to add a blog here almost daily, if at the very least weekly.

Tags: ,
Posted in Daily Life | 3 Comments »