“The dark theme and name do not suit the show’s content.”

• First the obvious reasoning behind the name: Everybody talkes about MMOs, and everybody considers themselves an expert worthy of a name and brand. Hence, MMO-everything is taken. I kid you not.
• More importantly, the concept of looking at the inner workings of a living industry is very much in line with the idea of cataloguing and studying our dead.
  • I chose this theme and name to illustrate a scientific and analytic approach to the stories that will be covered herein.
  • The communities, technologies, and professionals of this industry are very much the heart, lungs and brains of any MMO. Without analysing what motivates and drives any of these, we potentially lose sight of the whole.
• And lastly, the MMO industry is a dangerous place. Covering titles and technologies that are dead, and finding out what put them there, is something that WILL be covered on this show.

“You need a co-host.”

• If this was a show about sharing the latest press releases and announcements, I would be inclined to agree. Finding commentary and conversation on such topics is easy, and flows best between separate minds.
  • However, as this show is 100% editorial driven, the content is created from the mind of its host. Increasing the number of minds involved would only fragment the content and any opinions contained herein.
• That said, there will occasionally be important industry events which either slip my radar, or about which I know too little to accurately form an editorial opinion.
  • In these circumstances, I intend to invite “correspondents” to join me on air to discuss those particular situations. If you feel as though you would like to become a correspondent, please contact me by posting at jupitercolony.com, or by emailing jeremy@jupiterbroadcasting.com, to start a discussion on what content you would like to present to our audience.

DCUO and SOE outage

• Infographic
• On May 2nd, SOE went dark. Then hundreds of thousands of gamers cried out in frustration, and never went silent.
• It took almost two weeks to get the network, and all of Sony’s games, back up and running and (apparently) secure from further invasion. That outage is estimated to have cost SOE a total of $171 million.
• And this is AFTER a fiscal year that ended in March, which reported an annual loss of $3.2 billion for the company.

What does this rough patch mean for the future of DCUO?

• Nobody at SOE is making any official statements yet, other than to say that DCUO’s population is currently “very good.”
• In the past 3 months, there have been two replacements among the DCUO project’s upper management that were made from within … existing execs taking on extra responsibility instead of promotions, or new hires.
• And this after the project suffered a round of layoffs in April.
• It is likely that subscriptions will see a noteworthy drop due to the outage. Even with the incentives being offered by SOE by way of apology.
  • This comes down to Consumer Confidence, which is fancy way of saying “people don’t like to be jerked around.”
  • SOE has a large overhead, capable of supporting a few rocky patches. Even so, they’ve been known to shut down games (Matrix Online).
• GOOD NEWS: Apparently this outage scared SOE into being more interactive with their customers, and their forums are now ablaze with Dev Posts at regular intervals sharing REAL info instead of SOE’s standard practice of silence and mystery.
  • Let’s hope it lasts.

MegaServers

• Just days before the SOE network outage, it was announced that ALL of the existing DCUO servers would soon be merged into a few instanced networks called “MegaServers.”
• Through the use of “phasing” technology, players will still be participating in areas that will have reasonable populations.
• The benefit of this is to allow all of the back-end queueing for Raids, Duos, Alerts, and PvP to work across ALL players (on a per-platform basis).
• The idea of server mergers has always been seen as a bad thing by the MMO press. It indicates a population decline, and a lack of interest.
  • This MAY be different, as this sounds more like a fundamental tech shift, and not just a run-of-the-mill merger.
  • However, it is still addressing an issue that would not be present if the game had a large and active population of gamers (queue times for instanced content).
• Community outcry of “name collision” issues, and lack of solid responses from SOE, are causing additional schisms and rage among players.

Champions Online – Atari divests itself from Cryptic

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34704/Atari_Drops_Champions_Online_Developer_Cryptic_Studios.php

First, rumor killing:
– Nothing is happening YET. Atari has only announced their INTENT to divest. They have not announced that they are seeking a buyer, nor that any change of staff will occur as a result of this decision.

Atari is making a Bad Choice

• Investing in casual markets
  • Casual / Facebook games do not create brand recognition, fan loyalty or press.
  • As this market continues to mature, games will become more and more complex and impressive until their development budgets rival current standalone titles.
  • Long-term investment in this area will continue to require more and more finances to remain competitive. It is not a quick and cheap money-maker market.
• Profits continue to rise
  • 17.3 million prior year, 7 million this year, next year = ??
  • While actively developing at least one unreleased title – Neverwinter
  • Early indications that Champions Online move to F2P has resulted in huge increase in profits, which only occurred in Q3 of 2010.
• Foundry Tech
  • No other MMO has created such a successful and robust UGC tool, and it is now available to be ported to all titles using the Cryptic Engine: STO, CO and NWO.
  • Giving the power of content creation to users opens up new doors to new types of gamers, and creates a powerful sense of community.
  • Other MMO devs would probably love to get their hands on this technology…

Independence for Cryptic?

• In today’s MMO landscape, no Dev survives alone.
• They all need a publisher, and most publishers end up owning the Dev studio
  • Blizzard was acquired by Activision in 2007
  • Bioware became a part of EA in 2007
  • Turbine, the biggest example of a successful “indie” developer, was purchased by Warner Bros in 2010.
• To date, no major developer has managed to leave its parent publishing company, and survive. In fact, it’s such a risky prospect that studios typically just dissolve rather than even attempt it.

So then, who buys Cryptic?

• I think it’d be a bit presumptuous for me, as a gamer and not a financial analyst, to try and make an educated guess on this one.
• MMORPG.com has a couple good editorials that cover most of the major candidates in this area. Check the show notes for details, as I don’t have much else to add to the discussion at this point.
  • “Who Should Buy Cryptic?” — Western buyers
  • “Cryptic’s Future Unclear” — Eastern buyers
• Fans of Star Trek Online are hoping that the company is acquired by CBS, the IP holder of the Star Trek franchise.
  • Would CBS be interested in entering the online gaming arena? They haven’t yet.

Future of Neverwinter IP?
Possibly the biggest question mark in all of this…

• Atari holds publishing rights on all Dungeons & Dragons products until 2017.
• A lot of money and time already invested in the project, including a co-publishing deal with a line of novels written by R.A. Salvatore, and a deal with Wizards of the Coast for additional tie-ins.
• Unlikely that Atari will let this one go completely.
  • It will either get pulled from Cryptic and given to another studio with Atari maintaining their publishing oversight, or a new deal will be worked out to keep Atari on board in spite of their divestment from the studio.
  • Either option discounts the title from being a bargaining tool in obtaining a new investment partner.

Marvel Universe

F2P

• Attempting to live under the title of “First ever AAA F2P MMO in the West, at time of launch”
  • Color me completely unimpressed.
  • First of all, you can’t CLAIM a title like “Triple-A” without having a product. At this time, with the total lack of game footage, screenshots, timelines for beta/release, or even branding… what is here to lay claim to?
  • This just sounds like empty hype, from a company that has already started disappointing us with overblown hype for their other unlaunched MMO, Jumpgate:Evolution.

No Character Customization
Rank this as my “most worrying” concern for this title.

• On the one hand, it will allow players to jump into game as iconic well-known superheroes from the Marvel franchise.
  • A lot of people will find this appealing, as evidenced by the outstanding sales records for single-player superhero titles like “Ultimate Alliance.”
  • Developers at Secret Identify Studios claim this will make everyone feel more heroic, and “we won’t be merely ‘sidekicks.’”
    • EMPTY CLAIM — CO allows heroes to feel like heroes, and even have their own Nemesis with minions and a base. What sidekick has that?!
• On the other, how many Wolverines and Hulks will be roaming around? Or will each server have only one instance of each? Where’s the “massive” in this MMO, if that’s the case?
  • And how about progression? If you have to unlock the powers of your favorite superheroes, how do you explain them losing their abilities at the start of the story?
• Possibly one of the biggest selling points of superhero MMOs to date, has been character customization. CoX and CO had it in droves, and DCUO’s comparative lack of options brought them a lot of criticism from MMO players and press.
  • This is a technological step backwards, and will only work if this is NOT a true MMO as we’ve come to define it.
  • If this is just another “X-Men Legends” or “Ultimate Alliance” with robust online matchmaking services, then it could work.
  • But any form of persistence, progression and community, will be lost without personalization of your avatar.

Written by Bendis
This has the potential to make me excited.

• Brian Michael Bendis is the godfather of Marvel’s “Ultimate” universe, and creator of some of the most critically acclaimed stories ever to spring from comic books. Including “Avengers Disassembled,” “House of M,” “Civil War,” and “Secret Invasion.”
• He claims to be writing stories for MUO that will portray some of the most iconic moments from each characters’ lore, and re-imagine them into events that players will experience in-game.
• Not much else to say about it, really. Bendis has never really done anything ‘wrong’ (except, arguably, killing off Hawkeye… ) so it’s great news for the story side of the game.
• Between this, and the news that R.A. Salvatore is writing for Cryptic’s “Neverwinter,” it could set a precedence in the industry to bring in more established high-profile writers to flesh out the story of an MMO. Nothing wrong with that at ALL. There’s a reason they are high-profile after all… it’s because they’re AWESOME.

https://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/5187/page/1
https://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/02/the-daily-grind-do-you-think-marvel-universe-is-an-mmo/

—————

Man… this whole episode was a lot of bad news, wasn’t it? And here I was hoping that superheroes were a HAPPY topic of conversation…

Well, maybe next week will turn some of that around…

+ RIFT feedback and discussion
+ 2KGames enters the MMO arena, through a partnership with XLGames (Lineage)
+ Bioware talks Mass Effect MMO

But first up, a quick note on RIFT, and an invitation to join the fledgeling community for this show being hosted at www.jupitercolony.com

I am not an industry professional, but I play one on the internet.
– I have been playing and testing MMOs since 1997.
– Since that time, I have participated in over 30 closed and open betas, and subscribed to more than 20 different MMOs.
– Besides just playing the game, I also take an active role in the community whenever possible. Have also worked as a volunteer CSR on three different active MMOs.
– I have been every genre stereotype, from Trollish Griefer, to No-Nonsense Raid Leader, to Friendly Roleplayer, to Casual Part-timer. I have a good understanding of what motivates different portions of the MMO playerbase.
– As a co-host of a successful MMO-focused podcast (STOked), I have gained a significant amount of insight into the development process of MMOs, as well as numerous industry contacts.
Every story covered on this show will have an angle that addresses the industry in its entirity.
* How a certain feature/attitude (from players and/or developers) will impact the future evolution of the industry.
* What a game’s success or failure indicates about the current state of the industry.

* How lessons of the past are being learned from, or ignored.
WILLS and WILL NOTS:
* WILL:
– Focus on innovation and evolution within the MMO market
– Occasionally include developer interviews and commentary, whenever appropriate
– Maintain a focus on how certain game mechanics or developer attitudes impact their communities.
– Contain exclusively editorial content. Although news and announcements will be shared, they are only here to drive the opinions portrayed.
* WILL NOT:
– Cover every feature announcement and press release for every game in development
– Make a habit of dwelling on the minutiae of game mechnics, except where a thorough explanation becomes necessary in order to explain the larger impact of an innovation
– Play favoritism towards any particular developer or sub-genre.

That last point leads me to my next topic…
ArenaNet

I won’t mince words, I’m a HUGE fan. But, you should be, too. Let me tell you why…

Guild Wars 2: Why You Should Care

There is a video floating around the internet, made by ArenaNet. They call it their MMO manifesto, and within this short video they outline a number of reasons that their next product – Guild Wars 2 – is going to revolutionize the way that MMOs are perceived, and played.

RETHINK EVERYTHING: INNOVATION GALORE
“ArenaNet was founded to innovate.” – Mike O’Brien, President
– Awesome.
– But change for change’s sake is dangerous:
* Auto Assault, Fallen Earth, PlanetSide, even EVE to a certain extent.
* While many people want something new, MILLIONS still play only what is recognizable and easy to understand.
— (RIFT’s similarity to WoW has bred success, while still offering something new)
* ArenaNet is being changed in deliberate ways, to drive community interaction and gameplay immersion. Every innovation is being thoroughly examined for impact.

BE THE HERO: A PERSONAL STORYLINE
– From the moment of character creation, you have a personal story.
* WHO you are, not WHAT you are.
* Branching objectives, evolving story.
* Replayability for alts is incredibly high.
— Social aspects of shared knowledge may suffer.
— Lack of uniform player experiences may cause a rift among players that have grown accustomed to being able to share the same game experience with their friends/guildmates. (Look at sites like WoWHead as an example)

EXPERIENCE A LIVING WORLD: DYNAMIC EVENTS (NO QUESTS)
– Completely removed traditional questing, replaced with Dynamic Event Chains
* You will never be asked to kill 10 wolves, or collect 5 rare flowers.
* You will notice something in the distance, get closer and examine the situation, then choose whether or not to be involved.
— With this change, Exploration has become the POINT of the game, and not an extra pass-time or something that just happens along the way.
* Dynamic Events will have branching objectives – won’t always end the same.
* Scaling AI smart enough to adapt to all different types of involvement, not just population levels.

MAKE A FRIEND: SOCIAL INNOVATIONS
– Concept of the “golden triad” of classes has been eliminated.
* Every class can tank, heal, dps, control. Roles switch based on weaponsets and ability choices.- Automatic sidekicking, driven by environment instead of group mechanics
* No high-level griefers in low-level areas.
* No scaling issues with dynamic events.
* Allows high-level characters to seamlessly enjoy low level content if they choose to.
– Social mini-games in non-combat areas.
* Scorekeeping and leaderboards to encourage friendly competition.
– Mobile apps to keep you connected when not in-game.
* THIS IS HUGE, and an absolute NECESSITY for the next generation of MMOs.
WATCH THE ACTION: ACTIVE COMBAT SYSTEM
– Simplified hotbars, 10 buttons max.
– Cooldowns frequently controlled by fatigue system, which also ties to movement.
* Combat is balanced so that spamming a move is possible, but not recommended. If you use your Fatigue too quickly then you can’t move/dodge and will take more damage. Meaning that standing in place and swinging repeatedly is a recipe for failure.

– Heavy emphasis on movement and positioning.
– Power interactions and environmental effects (fire + arrows)
– Line of sight and collision mechanics

POSTSCRIPT: MMORTICIAN’s THOUGHTS
– If they deliver HALF of this HALF as well as they intend to, it will send ripples through the industry as player expectations will shift dramatically.
– The class system is likely going to undergo many, many tweaks during Beta. I find it unlikely that every class can truly tank, heal and DPS as well as every other, and some may shine in certain areas.
* It is the wont of MMO gamers to min/max in every scenario. If one class excels at a certain thing, then that IS THEIR ROLE, regardless of their ability to perform in other areas.
—————–

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=188836

The concept of evolving storylines is not unique to Guild Wars 2. In fact, it is a cornerstone of one of the most highly-anticipated MMORPGs of the current world: SW:TOR

IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING: The “Fourth Pillar”
Progression, Exploration, Combat, and STORY
– Every class (16 total, so far) will have their own storyline, complete with branching objectives allowing for your individual choices to drive the content that you will experience.
* Each of these stories is said to be as large and fully-featured as a single game.
* Unlike a singleplayer game, there’s no Save/Reload to allow you to explore alternative choices. Experiencing something other than what you choose will require an alt character, or hearing about it second-hand from another player.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Companion Characters
– Companions have factored into every BioWare game. And are also a part of Star Wars (Chewbacca, R2D2, etc).
– Each companion will have their own stories and interests. Players can choose to help, or corrupt them. Companions may even turn on you in some outcomes.
– Companions also act as the crew of your ship, and assist you in crafting items and obtaining resources.

HEAR AND SPEAK: Voice acting
– More lines of voice-acted dialogue than every other BioWare game PUT TOGETHER
– Including YOUR character! Hooray for no more mute leaders.
– This level of voice acting simply cannot happen in any genre other than an MMO. Even in PC Gaming, developers are urged to keep resource usage low, and if they intend to sell a console port then it becomes an absolute NECESSITY to keep resources to a single disc.
* Look at Dragon Age II and the re-use of the same 20 maps over and over. This was done because of voice acting, and limited console resources.

* Since this type of feature can only effectively happen in an MMO, it is my opinion that ALL “Triple-A” class MMOs must strive to include it in the future. It can become a defining characteristic of a genre that frequently lacks a unified identity.
Bioware’s efforts on SWTOR are already catching the eye of prominent players in the MMO industry, including Mike Morhaime – CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. His published point of view is that a successful high budget title under the Star Wars IP can only mean good things for the population level of the MMO industry across-the-board.
While I agree, I doubt he’d be saying the same thing if Bioware was publishing a fantasy RPG that was in direct competition with World of Warcraft.