Tag Archives: Game Design

To Be A WoW Killer

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It comes up shockingly often. Someone or some post talking about such and such being a WoW killer. World of Warcraft is a game with 12 million players. Each of these players pays 13-15 dollars a month to play. Simple math leads us to believe that they make over 150 million dollars every month. It’s probably a bit less than that, but even so, it is a rather large pie that other companies would like to get in on.

Oh how they have tried. Turbine, Sony, Mythic, Cryptic, ArenaNet, NCSoft… They all want a piece of the WoW domination. They have all done fairly well in various aspects, but none have even come close to the level of WoW. The funny thing is, every time a new MMO comes out and every time a new company starts up, there is always someone who says “This is gonna be the WoW killer.” They said it about Guild Wars. They said it about City of Heroes. They said it about Warhammer. They said it about Age of Conan. And while all of these games share a measure of success, they are no where near WoW killers.

Some people point to gameplay. The gameplay needs to be better they say and so hope to kill WoW. The thing is, WoW covers a wide and varied set of gameplay. Don’t like farming dungeons? Do quests. Don’t like questing? Pvp. Don’t like Pvp? Try being an auction house mogul. WoW has nearly everything, and has 10 years worth of polish to it’s gameplay. Gameplay alone will not kill WoW. But it is vital that the game being made looks to WoW to see what has been cut, and what has been added.

Some people point to graphics and beauty. Graphics are important. But if your graphics are so powerful they fry video cards (I am looking at you Champions.) then your player base is cut. There is a reason WoW is designed to run on older machines. There is a reason thy focus on low poly high rez texture models. If it were graphic alone, Aion would be top of the pile.

Some people point to licenses. They say, well Warcraft was an established license. We need that too! To that I respond with Star Wars Galaxies. Not a WoW killer, with a much more recognizable license. True, I don’t think that license was handled well, but it was still far bigger than Warcraft with a much more rabid fanbase.

So how do I think you kill WoW? I don’t know the exact answer. I don’t have the magic potion to throw into your game and make it the WoW Killer. But I might know the question you have to answer:

How do you convince someone who has What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been to stop playing WoW and start playing your game?

Okay, that question is a bit specific, but it gets the point across. How do you convince someone to leave a game they have invested years in to come play yours? What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been is an achievement that takes a full year of WoW playing and determination to get. The reward is a large, beautiful mount that flies faster than all the other mounts in the game. It’s not easy, it’s not for the faint of heart, and it is a great badge of pride once you have it. But it took you a YEAR to get. So why would you leave it moldering on your WoW toons only yo go play another MMO, and have to start over from scratch?!?

I am a lifetime subscriber to Champions Online. I like Champions. I like the art style, I like the skills, I like the fact I don’t need a mount I can just FLY. I love the character creation too. I might even be convinced that visually, Champions is a prettier game. The super hero license appeals to my sense of fantasy. And the gameplay is solid and seems a bit more varied than WoW. But I only played Champions for about 3 weeks. Then I went back to WoW. I had this moment, while trying to get mats to make bigger bags in Champions where I went… I have done this. I have leveled this skill. I have leveled this character. I have done this exact thing before. All I have to do, is log out, and log back into WoW and this problem is solved.

The path of least resistance leads me back to WoW. Where my characters are already max level, have lots of gold, have maxed professions, have purple gear that makes them look awesome, and have the vanity items that makes people whisper me going “Where did you get that?” And even more WoW has my friends, who I don’t have to try to convince to come play another game with me.

Solve that problem, and you have solved how to make a WoW Killer. Of course, while you are solving that, people are earning more cool things, leveling more characters, getting more gear… and generally becoming more entrenched in WoW.

Alan Wake – Day… Something

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So I ranted quite strongly about Alan Wake. And I have not changed my mind. The game is simply too hard in it’s “normal” mode to appeal to novice players.

However, since then, I have seen my husband complete Alan Wake, and even further, gotten the strategy guide to further my own attempts. Knowledge is power, and knowing those four guys are coming up really helps in that I save my flares and shotguns until that point.

I like Alan Wake. It has everything a good game “should” have. An engaging (if not terribly original) story. A hero and characters we as players identify with. Good voice acting with decent writing and good dialog. Great and varied environments. A simple gameplay that is slowly complicated over the course of the game but never gets to the point that it feels like a different game is being played. Wonderful set dressing and side notes about the world and characters. And best of all, “Omg wtf was that? Did you see that? Did I see that? Was that supposed to happen? That was AWESOME.” moments.

Except it is missing one thing. An ending. The game has an ending and quite a stellar one in fact. The opening strains of “Space Oddity” was more than enough to set my heart at ease let me slump back on the couch with a sigh. But then the unthinkable happened. “Alan Wake’s journey in the darkness continues.” As it turns out, in an attempt to get players to hang onto the game, they are putting out DLC this summer to continue the story (and another even later after that). I like DLC, I am a proponent of logical non-greedy DLC. But to so clearly add it to a game that didn’t need it, and in doing so RUIN the ending of a game… I was more than annoyed.

Even if they shipped the game certain they would be creating a sequel, they didn’t need to give the player anymore than “It isn’t a lake, it’s an ocean.” A small breadcrumb that doesn’t break the story or set up the “next week” mentality. This is why we end up with endless numbered sequels and reboots of the same old thing. A game isn’t allowed to just be good and then be done. No we have to milk it for everything it is worth. It isn’t like there aren’t 50 million other horror stories or horror situations we could use this same world, same characters (side ones of course), and same gameplay to explore. No, we have to rehash the story that has already been completed so well.

My favorite part of Alan Wake:

Early in the second chapter Alan is walking down a road alongside a row of cabins, he is looking for a trail to go to a spot to meet the kidnapper. Of course, as an exploration game any good player stops and explores. Inside one of the cabins is a tv set, which switches on when Alan’s flashlight crosses it (as they all do). I had already seen this episode so I turned to explore the cabin while it played as I didn’t want to leave before it was done in case it mattered for the achievement. As I turned something big and dark rushed passed a window. My heart leapt. I gasped and prepared to battle one of the Taken. But as the tv sputtered on, nothing happened. No dark shade came through the door. No creepy voices. No more shadows over the window. So, being the courageous explorer I am, I went outside to explore. Nothing. Nothing around the cabin, inside it, under it, or even on top of it. Nothing. “It must have been a trick of my eyes.” I thought. But always the one to test, I reloaded and made my way back down to the cabin. I double checked the perimeter and then headed inside. Nothing. Flashing the tv I quickly turned back to the window. And the thick shadow washed across it. Once again I ran outside to see nothing. What had it been? What had I seen? What designer in their right MIND would put such a cool little one off so few players would likely NEVER see? Clearly a good one. /salute.

Multiplayer vs. Multiple Players

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To be honest, I am not sure which name applies to which idea. For the sake of simplicity, let’s go with the idea of Multiplayer as the concept people are more familiar with. There are hundreds of examples, but I really want to focus on the concept of multiple players in a family or party type environment. So I choose Rock Band and Katamari Damacy.

The first, Rock Band, is what I would call a multiplayer game. There are a few people, each with a controller, playing the game and the success or failure is based entirely on the group. Each person focuses completely on doing their part, and doing it well. If one person fails, everyone fails. True, Rock Band is an exceptional game, and I have spent many hours singing slightly off tune, or whacking away at a plastic guitar, but when not one of the band members, more often I am relaxed, bored, and probably playing with my phone.

How is this different from Katamari Damacy? (Especially since anyone who has played this game will loudly proclaim, “It doesn’t even HAVE MULTIPLAYER. How can it be a multiplayer game?!?”)

It isn’t. But really, it is. More so than Rock Band or other such games. Why? Because as mesmerizing as the notes floating toward the bottom of the screen are, they really aren’t that interesting when seeing them for the 3rd or 4th time (or 100th). I like Rock Band, but if our band numbers five, Rock Band does not get put in the Xbox.

Katamari Damacy is a weird game in that while one person controls the ball and the game, everyone in the vicinity of the tv gets involved. “Turn that way! No! You’re too small! WHOA did you just pick up a CAR?!?” I once sat at a party where the only entertainment for up to 20 people, over the course of 6 hours, was a single game of Katamari. The controller was passed around a bit, though often passed back to the best player. But instructions, comments, and expletives were shouted with a frequency that rivaled a football game. Despite not holding a controller, or having any control over the game, everyone in the room was a part of it. Everyone got enjoyment and fun from this game, regardless of position or ability to affect the outcome.

Rock Band is a multiplayer game, but not one that allows for multiple (beyond the 4) players. Katamari, while a single player game, appeals to all players and as such ends up being a better party game.

Alan Wake – Day 1

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After watching my husband play Alan Wake for an hour or so I decided I definitely wanted to play this game. The deeply dark and wonderfully creepy atmosphere of the game appealed to my love of horror. The gameplay for Alan Wake is very simplistic: 3rd person action, with a flashlight and a gun. It is extremely linear and very scripted with long and elaborate cutscenes, but really all of this fits the story being told. You have stepped into the role of Alan Wake, a horror writer with writer’s block. Until he goes to backwoods creepy town and all hell breaks loose.

It isn’t about splatter gore or stupid teenagers. It is about deeply paranormal and crazy events that twist the player and character’s minds. One of the better design decisions was to have pages and coffee thermoses as collectible items. These are often hidden in out of the way places. So the game promotes exploration in a tense and eerie setting. One of my other favorite additions was the inclusion of hidden chests, the location often marked by yellow paint that only becomes luminescent when the player’s flashlight moves over it.

I dove into the game with relish, quickly catching up tot he point my husband had played and the surpassing him. And then it happened. As a game designer, one would think I would be “good” at games. And I am. But I suck at twitch games. So I generally play on the easy setting and make sure I am over geared and muddle through as best as possible. Unfortunately this method doesn’t work on every game. Especially games without easy settings.

Alan Wake only has a normal setting. First off, bad designer. You are inherently creating a stepping away point. A stepping away point is when a player gets frustrated with your game and stops playing due to frustration, lack of understanding, annoyance, or boredom. Each time the player does this, there is a greater chance they won’t come back. And then they won’t remember your game. When their friends ask them what they have been playing recently, they will say “Nothing good.”

Second Alan Wake has auto saves. I have nothing against auto saving in general, except when design decides that auto saving means if the player loads back up from that point they load with whatever health, ammo, and such they had when it forced the auto save. Why does this bother me so much? It is far too easy to get a bad save. This happened to me in episode 2 of Alan Wake. I am saved, with 16 bullets. And right after the save I get jumped by 4 guys, who take 3-4 bullets each to kill. I have to play perfectly. And I can’t. I tried 3 times. So I walked away from the game and came on here to rant about it.

I don’t think this is a hard problem to solve. Allow players to save when they choose. Allow players to carry more ammo or health. Always have auto saves load the player with max health and ammo. If design is worried about “exploiting” the auto save, have a punishment for loading. Borderlands does this with a money transaction when you die. Good enough for me.

Three Basic Rules of Level Design

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Having just attended GDC (Game Developers Conference) I feel the rather normal rush of desire to make games and to note down my feelings about making games.

As part of GDC I had a discussion with someone about what is important as a game designer. What are the “rules” of game design that one must always keep in the forefront of your mind. I smiled at the gentleman asking the question as I remembered seeing Jeff Perryman, a professor of level design, leap up and down shouting “Gameplay!” at the top of his lungs.

This was his way of telling us the most important rule of level design, which counts as the most important rule of game design. Games are called such because they are about the play. The special rules and setting we create to play in.
Rule #1: Gameplay is the MOST important part of your game. Period. End of story.

This leads us to rule number 2:
If anyone (producer, artist, programmer, lead) tries to override the gameplay in defense of their specialty, refer to rule number 1. Fight for your gameplay, not art, story, or system. Trust these people to do their jobs and make good decisions, as they should trust you.

Finally, Rule #3: If you are overruled by any of the said above, remember Rule #1. It is still your job to make sure the gameplay is solid, fun, and engaging. Learning to adapt the gameplay to any changes in the game’s art style, limitations of the system, story, etc, and come out on the other side with your gameplay fun and intact. This is truly the challenge of every designer. Anyone can design in a vacuum, but can you design within the constraints, as they change over the course of a project and still have it be a good game?

*The* List Every Game Designer Must Make

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When people find out I am a game designer, the inevitable question will come up: What is your favorite game?

I always pop my eyebrow and ask: What’s your favorite leaf on that tree? Or something similarly snarky that requires them to choose a single item from a huge mass of similar items. It is easy to have a favorite color. There are about 10 basic ones, and you can easily experience them all and they all have a distinct difference from one another. There are over 100 games released every week. And that’s just the ones with publishers! Not to mention all the indie games.

But as a Game Designer, it is my job to play lots of different games and “find the fun.” Once I find the fun I can then figure out why some people find it fun and how to make a game that appeals to those play styles. So I am left with a list of games I love and a list I hate. I am not saying these are the best games ever made (though many of them are considered such by others), but rather these are the games that are ones I look back on and see true genius and a great deal of fun. To simplify matters, I am placing them in order of my discovery.

Kings Quest – To be fair, this should be Kings Quest 2. But it is an excellent series, so lets include them all. My earliest memory is watching my brother play this game on our computer. Late one night I was jolted from my sleep and informed, “I made it through the third door.” I leapt from bed, so go see what was going to happen. My mother, coming home late from work, was quite furious at us for being out of bed. But when my brother quietly stated that he made it through the third door, she joined us at the computer for a bit of late night game completion. Roberta Williams was the designer on this game and I often site her as an influence in my gaming career.

Zork – Zork is a text adventure from the days of green screens and floppy discs. I played Zork endlessly for most of my early years. Not only did it inspire my imagination at an Underground Empire, but I learned a great deal of vocabulary and reading from this game. I actually had an argument with a teacher over xyzzy being a word. I can also recall her shocked face when I called her overly verbose. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Myst – Myst is the game everyone loves to hate. I love Myst. It was the first game I ever beat on my own. At this point I thought, I can play games too, not just my brother. I loved it. The environments, the puzzles, the sheer story that exuded from the setting. I also encountered the books and read those. This crossover of books and games was the first step to my fascination with the meta-game.

Legend of Dragoon – LoD was a Final Fantasy like game on the Playstation. I was never into Final Fantasy, so this game filled that void. I saw the potential in timing based gameplay, learned the best way to “kill” a character in an RPG, and learned that bosses who are wildly overpowered feel like cheaters. I have also beaten this game from beginning to end about 6 times. That includes the insanely difficult side bosses.

Suikoden – Suikoden is a turn based RPG with large scale rock paper scissor battles, with a dash of collecting thrown in. You can have a party of 6 various characters and must recruit 107 characters to your cause. An inspired game, with a heart wrenching story, and this game consumed a great deal of my time. Including going back and replaying the entire thing to save those two idiot characters. You know who I am talking about.

Morrowind – Morrowind is the third Elder Scrolls game and is a perfect example of an RPG fantasy world done well. I purchased Morrowind just after getting a new computer. Then proceeded to play it approximately 4-6 hours a day, more on weekends, for the next 6 months. Also I never beat this game. I literally got completely derailed with stealing *everything* that wasn’t nailed down. I do mean everything. I robbed the rich, the poor, the merchants, the monsters… if I could pick it up, it got picked up and re-located to my “house”, which was really just an empty building I could drop stuff in.

Knights of the Old Republic – Not only was KotoR the latest in a series of excellent RPGs from Bioware, but it was also Star Wars. Annoying female characters aside, I enjoyed the world, the Pazzak and dear God, HK-47… The *best* character of all time. But this game truly made this list because of the writing. I actually cried at one point because a bunch of polygons told me he loved me. Absurd I know, but wow, did it make for a good game.

Symphony of the Night – I never played Castlevania until this game. I have played this game enough to possibly make up for it. Alucard was not only beautiful, but the animation was glorious. The different forms and the sheer genius of just flipping the castle! So awesome. I have been told Super Metroid is essentially the same game, but the theme here is so much more compelling.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – For years this was the only game I had on the N64. I love all Zelda games, but this one holds a special place in my heart for two reasons. 1. It was the first one I beat on my own. 2. I didn’t have a rumble pack. The lesson learned fromSuikoden about beating a game at 100% was instilled far enough. I wanted to get all 100 skull spiders, but I didn’t have the pack. What I did have was awalkthrough guide borrowed from a friend that showed screenshots for those last two locations. Commence bombing like mad in those areas to find the last two spiders. Note to game designers – random bombing is *not* fun.

Eternal Darkness – Eternal Darkness did so many things well. The game intentionally messed with the player, was scary and creepy, and managed to reuse environments in entirely interesting ways. The sanity meter was an excellent addition and I have to say they got me. If you tried to save when you had low sanity, you had a chance to see a message that said “Deleting all saved games.” Ileapt across a coffee table and started ripping everything out of the front of my GameCube. Well played Silicone Knights, well played. The player took on the role of 8-10 different characters, and rehashed the same 4-5 locations, to great effect. You truly felt like you were a part of a struggle for the ages.

World of Warcraft – How can I write about my best loved games and not mention WoW? If I told you what my /played was, you would likely think me quite insane. WoW takes all the best things from RPGs, character classes, lots of skills, epic fights, mad loot and combines that with achievements, collecting, crafting, and socializing. I find that playing WoW is an awful lot like being in a well known club. I go to the coffee shop and I get extra caramel because the guy making my latte plays WoW. I start a new job and nose out the WoWers and next thing I know we are running dungeons over lunch. Millions of people play WoW, and I am one of those. The truly great thing is it gives me a common experience with people I encounter.

Bioshock – Bioshock should more rightly be called System Shock 3. But it is also the first FPS I have ever enjoyed. The designers worked diligently to allow the player to play the game the way they want to play. I set up traps for Big Daddies and take them out easily.

Valkyria Chronicles – I stop playing WoW for 4 days to take the time to beat this unique and yet completely familiar Strategy game. The art style was glorious and the game play was enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the third person view they used for the combat. It was a wonderful way to add a new look to a strategy game.

Plants vs. Zombies – Tower defense with a hint of whimsy and a dash of hilarity. Popcap is good at making easy games that play great and this one is no exception.

Persona 4 – Mix JRPG, with some Pokemon, and a bit of dating sim and you get Persona 4. Which is a terrible explanation. Just go buy it and play it. It’s a terribly unique game.

Sunflowers are my Friends

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Game Designers play games excessively. Always with the small voice in the back of their head trying to quantify the “fun” and identify what is causing it. It is after all, our job to create this, so it helps to seek it out in other examples of our medium. The problem is after a while you get very jaded. More and more you see only the flaws and bugs within a game. You have to work very hard to see the fun. It even becomes easier to watch other people play and see the fun that way as opposed to playing it yourself.

Every once in a while though, a game comes along that is truly stellar. These are the games Designers cling to and play obsessively. They become rabid fans and insanely loyal to the games, the developers, and the mechanics. Just ask someone about the Dreamcast or Skies of Arcadia and watch them suddenly become the most vocal opinionated person you have ever met. Obviously, I feel this way about WoW. I talk about it incessantly and often try to convince people to play it. But even so, WoW is not perfect. I can see the imperfections. There is just so much to the game that I can ignore it.

A game that is perfect though: Plants vs. Zombies. Plants vs. Zombies is a casual game from Popcap, who has already proven with Bejeweled and Zuma, they know how to make addictive casual games. The basic premise of PvZ is that you are in you house and the zombies are coming. You have to plant plants that will fight the zombies. In truth the game play is very simply old school tower defense with the resource being sun and the weapons being plants. But even that simplicity is polished to such a high degree that the game is simply stunning.

Day, night, pool, roof… These are the changes in the terrain that make different plant choices critical. There are always different ways to do the same thing, the true skill coming in knowing how to mix plants that do multiple things for you. Knowing which zombies are weak against what. When is it better to plant versus out right kill a zombie.

The animations are stellar and add to the already adorable art style. The music is quirky and memorable. The art is cute and colorful, making the game feel good in general. The personification and icon-ization of the plants and their damage types is inspired. The player knows what plants and zombies do, because it is clear through the visuals. The hud is simple, and easy to read and use. The objectives are clear and concise. Even the opening levels, completely easy and wonderful for a tutorial.

In addition to all of this, they have a Zen Garden, where you can grow plants and earn money to buy upgrades. I would be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say I come back to the game every day to tend my Zen Garden.

I cannot point to anything in this game that makes it worse. Now a few things could be added to make it better, but the absence is not such that it makes the game worse. I want my Zen Garden to be bigger, even if it is just adding new “pages” that are exactly like the default ones. I want more plants in my Zen Garden. I want the snail on every page. I want *way* more puzzle levels, like five times as many. The endless survival is *awesome* and could be extended with more space to add to the frenetic joy.

I sincerely hope the geniuses behind PvZ are working on a PvZ2. I also strongly recommend this game to everyone, tower defense fan or no.

Paying to Play

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I have odd views on paying for games. It probably spawns from the fact I am a game developer. I make a living creating these games and as such, I see the purchase and acquisition of games a bit differently than most. For example, I don’t buy used games unless the game is no longer availible new. Why? Because I would rather pay 5 dollars more and know my money goes to the developers of the game instead of the suits at Gamestop. I am also aware that games are not made to be art, challenging, for fans, or even for fun, but rather to make money. It is one of the soul crushing truths reinforced time and time again at the Guildhall. You are making a commercial product and its sales directly affect your future with the company.

I am very diligent about making my love and support known for a game with my wallet. I own at least 4 separate copies of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I own 2 copies of KotoR and Morrowind. I own no less than 4 copies of Bioshock. Why would I do this? Various reasons, many are on different consoles, or different versions of the same game. But more importantly, because I want sequels. I want similar gameplay to these games. I want publishers to know that I, as a gamer, am a fan of these games and am perfectly willing to put my money where my mouth is. So when a game comes out I want/like/love I buy it. Immeditialy, and occasionally a few copies to give away. I tell others to support game developers by buying the game.

But this truly only applies to standard games, console and pc, game where you buy the game and you are done. Now we are deeply into the world where Downloadable Content and Premium Content is easily added to games and they ask for additional purchases. In my opinion, DLC and Premium are both good things. Additions to games that I have already purchased and loved, a way of extending my gameplay. Now having said that, I do not expect to pay 1/6th of the cost of a game for 1/12th the content I got with the original game. Also as a developer I have been in meetings where we discuss DLC and people actually say something to the effect of “Let’s hold that really cool thing back and make it DLC.” I usually get into a shouting match with that person. Planning DLC into your game is a good thing. Planning additional levels, items, etc, for your game is good. Gimping your original release to sell DLC – should earn you a place in the special hell. Exclusives are annoying to my collectible side, and DLCcan be used quite effectively to make people like me feel better.

For MMOs a subscription model has become standard. Every 6 months I pony up my 78 dollars to Blizzard for both my accounts. I pay it because I feel the game is worth it. I am also aware that Blizzard as a development studio is *not* pocketing the 150million+ in subs every month, but rather that their publisher, Activision is. Most other MMOs will get my money for a month, maybe two, but after that, it is no longer worth it for me to pay by the month to keep playing. Some complain about the initial game cost (50 dollars) and then having to pay the $15 subscription on top. To be fair, you are paying for the 3-5 year development time, and recouping losses from people who will only play the first month. And you usually get the first month free, so really you are only paying $35 for the game, a bargain in this day and age.

Many people point to the Free-mium model as a great way to make money, and it is. I dislike this model because usually they charge you far *more* than a subscription for much less. And the game is inherently broken into chunks and you have to pay for each chunk or you are missing a large portion of the game. Plus the spoils go to whoever has the most money to throw at the game. Great for making money, but seemly at the cost of your soul.

The brouhaha began Wednesday when Blizzard offered, for the first time, a direct purchase of an in game item from the Blizzard Store, for real money. And suddenly the community began to scream from the top of their lungs. How dare Blizzard add micro transactions to a game we already pay a subscription for! How dare they make us pay for content twice! *grabs pitchfork* Or so they said. I was too busy typing in my credit card number. Then I was too busy /bowing to my newest mini-pet to watch him bow back. The next day I responded to this post on WoWHead with an affirmative Yes, I would buy pets from Blizzard, but only because they didn’t have a I already bought them option.

First, my point of view on Blizzard selling pets independent of the game -> I heartily approve of this instead of the alternatives. Non-combat pets do not add anything to actual gameplay and are just to follow the player around and look cute. All other non-combat pets are acquired through rep grinds, farming, purchase (easy), or the TCG loot cards. First off, I despise grinding reputation to begin with. Being forced to grind a reputation *just* for a pet is irritating. Farming, the repeated running of the same old thing waiting on the RNG to show you some love… well, I hate it even more than rep grinding. At least rep grinding has a hard cap. Mr. Pinchy, Disgusting Oozling, Whelplings, Firefly, and Phoenix, and many others besides, all take killing the same mobs, running the same instances over and over can over again, hoping they drop. Most give you nothing to make up for the time spent either. Some require dungeons you can’t solo. Would I rather farm Magister’s Terrace trying to get my Phoenix or just pay 10 bucks? WHERE DO I GIVE MY INFO?!? TCG cards are a “form” of paying someone else for a Mini-Pet instead of Blizzard. I pay Upper Deck how much to try and get a Hippogryph? And in the end I pay Joe Blow in Ohio 50 bucks for ONE of said mini-pet. The ones Blizzard sells I get on every single character across the account! Yes please.

Now, having said that, I really only feel this way because it is a mini-pet. Mounts, tabards, standard outfits with no stats, and flavor items, all are legit items for Blizzard to sell. They don’t change the game. You aren’t “progressing” any by having these items. If Blizzard tried to sell heirloom gear or tier gear, I would be right there on the third option of “This is the third sign of the apocalypse.” For people who argue and say “I already paid for content” I must point out, you did. And you got a ton of it. In the scheme of things you can get over 100 mini-pets *without* ever buying one. 100. You aren’t getting robbed on content. You have 100 other mini-pets to choose from, many who are cute and lovable just like these guys. Now if they released a dungeon and asked you to pay for it, yeah, I get that as a point of contention, that is gameplay. This is frivolous fluff!

I do think it is interesting that a third of the respondents said they *would* buy mini-pets from the store. If a third of the population of WoW buys said pets, I am sure we can expect this to become a big part of the game. I do get a third of the people saying they wouldn’t. I know people who hate mini-pets. They think they are a waste of space and polys on screen. I also think these are people who steal candy from babies.

Regardless, as always, I voted with my wallet. And thus I get to /bow to my Pandaren and watch my KT zot critters.

Persona 4

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Persona 4 is a third person game developed by Atlus. Notice how I leave out what kind of game it is? Well that’s the best part of Persona 4. It is a weird amalgamation of games. Imagine if an anime movie mated with a dating/friendship sim, then picked up some Pokemon, and threw in some dungeon crawling rpg–ness for good measure. Then you are beginning to scratch the surface of what kind of game Persona 4 is.

You step into the shoes of the main character, a young male going to live with his uncle for a year. There are unexplained things afoot and you become one of the Scooby Gang trying to discover the culprit. The story progresses from there, and for the most part I will try not to spoil it, but needless to say the twists and turns will leave you constantly thinking, just one more day…

The game progression is based on a calendar year. Each action you do takes a block of time in the game and when the time passes, it becomes a new day. Actions are tied to certain times of the day and are usually mutually exclusive. The Early Morning block is usually filled with school, or cut scenes setting up story. The Afternoon Block is your own. You can run around an talk to people, but must decide to either work on your social links or enter the dungeons.

Social Links are exactly what they sound like. They are the rating given to your social connections with other characters in the game. Each major character is associated with a Tarot figure and you have to try to build them up to level 10, the max social link. Fortunately this time is not wasted as the stronger a social link is, the better the bonuses in the dungeon for it are. This is the dating sim part of the game.

Dungeons are worlds of nightmare and shadow you enter to save your friends and combat the darkness creeping into your own world. In dungeons you collect persona, all taken from folklore and myth, then you can blend and level these persona and use them in battle. This is very much the Pokemon part of Persona 4 and is not only complex but endlessly engaging as you get new Persona and out grow old favorites.

I, as a level designer, categorically disagree with procedurally generated play spaces. Too often they create confusion and jogging simulators (where you spend a great deal of time running doing nothing). Persona 4 has a majority of procedurally generated dungeons, and while they are not great, they are better than most. But unlike most games dungeons in Persona 4 seem to be focused on single run experiences. The most effective way to progress is to clear a dungeon in one night then come back and clear all of them in a row when you have quests and need for more persona. The cut scenes and encounters are all setup as if they happen in a single night. The lore of the dream world even supports the random shifts in the layouts and levels of the dungeons. It isn’t great, but it doesn’t impede the gameplay.

The largest fault I can find with Persona 4 is the cultural adaptation. When many of your social link progression matters on choosing the “correct” answer it makes it difficult as an American determining what the correct answer is. Many of the correct choices seemed needlessly harsh or mean to me. Or I will be give three options that all mean the same thing to me. The indication that you chose the correct choice is shown by music notes above your character’s head. It almost enforces the save, then test, and take notes so you can reload and re-do with the best options, gameplay. Which is bad.

Persona 4 is a great step into a strange and unique style of game long popular in Japan, but not as much here in America. There are 3 preceding Personas but all have inherent design problems that were fixed for this game making it quite a bit better and cohesive.

Run away little girl!

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Nothing makes me want to write blog posts more than a badly written blog post. Not to point fingers accusingly, but AJ Glasser at Kotaku wrote the most half-assed article on “scary video games” ever. Two games and a movie does not cover scary video games. And as such AJ doesn’t even cover the original topic of what makes video games scary.

What makes Video Games scary?
In horror movies, books, and stories the most frightening thing is not the evil monster, the blood, or the creepy music. These help of course, but the worst part is: the loss of control. Why are serial killers like the Saw guy so scary? They strip away your control. The translation between movies and video games doesn’t work here though. As a video game player, by definition, you ARE in control. So how does a designer strip away the feeling of control while allowing you the ability to control?

Example 1: Resident Evil
I know, shooting fish in a barrel here. Is it bad this game didn’t even get a *mention* in the Kotaku article? Resident Evil was all manner of a scary game. Ask anyone who has ever played it or just say two words : dogs – window. That’s no even a complete thought and yet everyone who played that game will *shudder* at those two words grouped together. Resident Evil was the huge survival horror game by which all other survival horror games since are measured. You play a group of SWAT equivalents that are sent to investigate this creepy old house with a serious zombie infestation that it turns out was caused by the super secret lab below the creepy house.
Way #1: Resident Evil limits the number of times you can save the game. You have to have a printer ribbon and there are only a few of them in the game. Talk about taking control away from the player. Suddenly every choice becomes critical, every death the possibility of having to re-play half an area. Those ugly pixelated zombies are far more scary already.
Way #2: Camera. Cameras and controls in games are the most re-worked and argued about part of the game design. RE does a great job of having a “user hostile” control scheme and camera. The fixed camera position makes it very hard to see around corners and target those slow lumbering zombies.
Way #3: Atmosphere. Okay this is kind of broad, but roll with it. The creepy music, the black crows flocking and making noise, the wind, the branches, the dark rooms, deep shadows, low drones… It all adds up to a very “hidden” environment. Light areas where you can see everything are far and few in between, so the fear of zombies rarely lets up. If you are afraid of dying, then you fear the places where your knowledge is imperfect.
Way#4: Throw away the rules. This is where those dogs come in. Zombies attack in dark hallways, move slow, and are proceeded by noise. As the player, you *learn* this. It is always true. Until it isn’t. I have a very vivid memory of watching my brother playing this game and entering said hallway. The creepy music fades, the lights are on and bright, you can see all the way to the end. He stopped dead in his tracks as if some second sense said, “It’s a trap!” in an Ackbar voice. He edged forward a step or two several times, reaching the point between the two windows on the right wall. “Huh.” He mumbled and shrugged, finally stepping forward at a normal pace to reach the door at the end of the hall. When two vicious fast moving zombie dogs come bursting in the window in a loud crash of glass and proceeded to turn my brother into kibble. I was suddenly joined by my brother, crouching behind the couch. Scary.

Example 2: Eternal Darkness
Eternal Darkness is a third person action game that places you in the role of different characters throughout history fighting some Lovecraftian Old Gods. Eternal Darkness deals with some pretty standard horror themes. But the game truly revolves around the Sanity Meter. Every time your character encounters something that falls outside the bounds of “real” they lose a bit of their mind. The more mind you lose, the crazier things get. The developers put a great deal of time and energy into creating a ton of “insane” effects. Bugs crawling on the screen, your character’s head exploding, the sound turning up and down. They made the game more about messing with the player than about killing the player. They also discovered the true terror button for gamers. Losing progress is bad, and drives the fear of death in games. But losing save games? One of the insanity effects included telling the player while they were saving that instead it was deleting all saved games on the memory card. I have to be completely honest, I launched myself across the room, over a coffee table and into a pile of games, movies, and controllers to rip all the memory cards out of the front of my Gamecube. Pure heart pounding, sweat drenched terror. And then the game is all like, “Just kidding. Progress saved.” It was the first time I ever had to walk away from a game and go calm down. I feel faint just thinking about it.

Example 3: Silent Hill 2
The Silent Hill series took a good idea RE had and then went nuts with it. Isolation, hidden information, bad camera angles… take all this and add:
Way #1: WTF was THAT? This pretty much defines the enemy development in Silent Hill. If you aren’t asking what that thing was you just fought, they re-worked the enemy until you did.
Way #2: Fog. It seems so simple and logical. Hidden information takes away control, so they take away your ability to cognitively connect a space. Even with the map I would have a hard time finding my way around. The fear the spawns from running into Pyramid Head or one of the mannequins at every disoriented turn.
Way #3: I did what now? As you play the game, you have a radio that gives bursts of static every time an enemy is near. Which is creepy enough. Until you hear over the radio that there is a person on the loose killing people. As you play through the game and hear more bursts you begin to realize that the murder is YOU. All those mannequins… yeah those were people. You were just too effected by Silent Hill to notice.
Way #4: Little Girls are creepy. Enough said.

So what other games have done it too?
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Two words. Shadow Temple. Let’s throw you in a super creepy dungeon and then take away your ability to see. Unless you use this little lens. Which takes away your ability to fight. Well played Mr. Miyamoto, well played. The loss of information along with the loss of defense makes this level exceptionally tense. Not only are there hidden enemies and hidden paths but also somethings that appear to be real aren’t.

Bioshock: Ask anyone who ever accidentally hit a big daddy while fighting a splicer. Big daddy fights are things you plan. You pick a location carefully. You set traps. Then you engage a big daddy. When you don’t plan ahead, you learn you are not in control. Bioshock also loves spawning monster’s behind you, but this really only works because they don’t attack until you turn around. One minute you are playing with a vending machine, the next minute, you got a face full of splicer who was formerly a ninja. Sander Cohen’s insanity with the paper mache splicers is pretty creepy too, because you see them as a part of the scenery then they become a part of the danger. Also note the Creepy Little Girl truth.

Persona 4: Taking control away from the player can be as easy as having the game not make sense. As far as gameplay goes, Persona 4 is a solid rpg/collector/social game but the true quality comes from the story. You finish the game because of the story. The scary thing is though, even in the end, it doesn’t make sense. All those people died, your character went through all that pain, agony, and flaming hoops for what? Some deity’s amusement.

World of Warcraft: Stop nerd raging and lets think about this logically. WoW can be a scary scary game. Creepy Little Girl Truth happens here too, her name is Pamela Redpath and she “lives” in Eastern Plaguelands. Ever been to Karazhan’s hidden crypts? You Tube it. It is an unfinished area of the game hidden under Kara. The sense of creepy is amped by the knowledge you aren’t supposed to be down there, the emptiness, and the names of the locations. If you don’t want to go out of bounds, go to Duskwood, and hang out in the Catacombs under the cemetery. Turn the music down, and the ambient up. Can you hear it? There used to be a great quest in Theramore where this guy asked for a knife to cut up meat. If you went into his yard, there were bloody bits of what *might* have been human. For those like me, who run on auto pilot, falling off a bridge in Thunder Bluff can be a frightful experience. (I managed to get my husband to sprint into the room thinking something bad had happened to me.) Add in a good healthy dose of fear when it comes to dying and every pull can become an exercise in raising goosebumps.

The common way of making someone experience fear revolves around this idea of taking away their control of the situation. Whether that is actual control through user hostile controls and camera or simply hidden information, add this to a creepy atmosphere and you have the beginnings of a video game fright fest.