WildStar: Down to Business

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s been a while in coming, but the news is finally out: WildStar is going with a hybrid subscription model. We’ll pay once for the box (with a free month thrown in), then pay every month for continued access to the game.

The hybrid part comes in through Certificates of Research, Exploration, Destruction and Development, or CREDD. There’s a neat little guide to how this works over on the WildStar official site, but essentially it’s very similar to the PLEX system in EVE Online. Players can buy a CREDD from Carbine for cash, and then sell it in-game on the Commodities Exchange for in-game gold.

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Celebrating the Wrinkles

Posted on by Gazimoff

WildStar already holds my attention as an upcoming MMO. But in among the regular feature updates and videos, there’s a special reason why I’m watching it closely.

It’s the first time in a very long time that I’ve watched a roleplaying community form, share ideas and develop their own character concepts.

The last time was about seven or eight years ago, as some friends and I started planning our characters for World of Warcraft. Of course, back then we didn’t have the benefit of preexisting communities or comprehensive wikis. All we had were some rough ideas sketched out in emails, or discussions over a pint in the local pub.

I mention it now, because WildStar invokes the same feeling. There isn’t a monstrous tome of lore to base characters from. There isn’t a sprawling franchise of games to give us heavy guidance about the world we’re planning on diving into. All we have are a series of edges and outlines on which to put our own imprint.

And that’s incredibly liberating.

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WildStar: The Flying Mount Frenzy

Posted on by Gazimoff

In the main, WildStar’s development is going smoothly. Led by a team of veterans who have worked on almost every MMO released, the Orange County developer hasn’t put a foot wrong. Every decision they’ve made has been warmly welcomed by an incredibly positive community.

Except there’s one decision they’re not sure about: Flying Mounts.

As Jeremy Gaffney explained to me earlier this week, the decision seemed like a no-brainer when they built the world four years ago. Now they’ve had a chance to think about it and gather feedback from the community, there doesn’t seem to be a clear way ahead. Some desperately want flying mounts, while others are dead against them.

But why? And is there a solution that can satisfy both camps?

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On the Shores of Lag

Posted on by Gazimoff

This weekend was jammed solid with choice for MMO gamers. SWTOR had just ushered in the mission chain to gain HK-51 as a companion droid. Trion launched RIFT: Storm Legion earlier this week. Planetside 2 wrapped up its open beta, while City of Steam started theirs. If you’re into online gaming, you were literally spoiled for choice this weekend.

And, of course, Guild Wars 2 started their much-vaunted Lost Shores Event, combining three days of nautical adventure with an open invitation to everyone with a friend already in the game.

It’s also been a weekend of bugs, as if some technophobic Midas has been creeping around server farms globally, disrupting code and torturing servers. No game has been completely error-free, but some have suffered more than others. And when games suffer, the gamers suffer with them.

Take Guild Wars 2 for example. Ignoring the small concern that the team eschew the notion of using public test servers, the Lost Shores event started with a small handful of bugs. Nothing major or crippling, unless you take into account the 24 hour limit to complete this initial phase. Arenanet subsequently relented on this, retaining some of the fixed quests into the second day.

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The Launch Day Blues

Posted on by Gazimoff

When was the last time you saw an MMO launch that went off without a hitch? From login issues preventing access, to major functions being disabled, it seems that almost every modern MMO has a rocky start in life. Even complex online games have been exposed to similar problems, from days of inaccessibility to weeks of poor performance.

But why does it happen? Why do experienced companies who are used to building and maintaining these types of systems continually run into these kinds of problems? Why are they, in many cases, unable to thoroughly test these kinds of systems. And what can be done to make sure that gamers still have a good experience, even if some features are unavailable?

I’m going to try to tackle a handful of these issues, explaining what companies can do, but why they also don’t help cater for every example. And while I have experience of designing massively multi-user systems myself, the usage patterns relating to MMO gaming are somewhat different to an online shop or customer service portal. Don’t start lambasting developers for what I write here, ‘kay?

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Ouya: Yes or No?

Posted on by Gazimoff

If you’ve been tracking the tech news over the past 48 hours, you’ll have seen a new name crop up with increasing regularity: Ouya. Currently in a prototype, the design studio behind the project are raising funds via Kickstarter to bring the concept to living rooms worldwide. Gamers have been overwhelmingly positive in their response – with roughly $3.5 million already pledged in the first 48 hours alone, the console looks almost certain to become a reality.

So what exactly are people buying?

This is not a games console in the traditional sense. Ouya seeks to change the relationship between developer, platform owner and consumer. Instead of having expensive development kits and closely guarded marketplace access, the team behind Ouya are keen to make it as easy as possible for developers to get on to their platform, using pricing and payment models that are right for them. By building their own console, rather than relying on someone else’s platform, the team behind Ouya can control each point in the process.

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Building a Character: Bay Stuggs

Posted on by Gazimoff


I’m a strange breed of MMO player. Even though I love raiding, questing and the occasional spot of PVP, I have been known to dabble in the mysterious arts of roleplaying. It’s a habbit – creating a character in a fictional universe who’s more than just an extension of myself. They become their own thing, take on their own life. I guess it makes me more attached to them as characters.

As a result, I tend to do this for all my new characters, even if I don’t end up roleplaying with them. So when I created a new Bounty Hunter in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I gave him a backstory. Who he is, where he came from, who he knows. That kind of thing. It’s your typical trashy pulp sci-fi, but I thought I’d share it, if only to raise a laugh.

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Extended Hiatus

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s tough to write posts like this, but here goes: Mana Obscura is going on extended hiatus. After two years of having a great time discussing opinions and sharing ideas about MMOs and online gaming, it’s time for me to take an extended break.

The past few months have seen a dramatic change. I’ve gone from a hobbyist blogger to becoming a staff writer at ZAM. I’ll still be writing there every week, so make sure you’re following me on Twitter to stay updated. I’ll also be attending Rezzed in Brighton, Gamescom in Cologne, and Eurogamer Expo in London. Let me know if you’re heading to any of these!

I won’t be shutting Mana Obscura down anytime soon, so all historic posts and archives will remain up. Keep me in your feed readers though, as there’s no telling when I’ll return. This isn’t a goodbye, more of a “back in a bit”.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for more great content to read, you’ll find many fine and stimulating writers in my blogroll.

All the best,

Gaz

Gaming: The Journey to Service Saturation

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’m going to start with a bit of a history lesson.

Back when I was a kid, we used to go to the games store and buy a cassette tape. We’d take it home, play it into the machine, and wait half an hour to play the game we just bought. Sometimes it’d work, sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it would randomly crash, or the last few levels would be impossible. We also had no internet, which meant no patches. We had a tape, to enjoy or not, as we chose.

Today’s gaming industry is radically different. Gamers are spending incredible amounts of time in multi-player games of one form or another. We’re consuming downloadable content to extend the lifespan of games we’ve bought. We’re using networks to interact with each other, from console variants such as Xbox Live, through to publisher or developer related ones such as Steam and Battle.net.

Games are becoming increasingly reliant on this back-end network to deliver significant parts of the experience. While this transition from Gaming as a Product to Gaming as a Service has benefits for both sides, what risks does it pose? How do we critically appraise a game that’s heavily reliant on these service components? What is the importance of reputation? And what happens when this service-based industry reaches saturation point?

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“I’ll Wait Till It’s Free”

Posted on by Gazimoff

When I started playing MMOs, it seemed that the genre was split into two camps. Subscription based games were seen as champions of quality, coupled with legendary customer service. By contrast, free to play games were looked down upon with distain, being games for those who preferred to buy their way to victory instead of earn it the hard way. They also had a tinge of underhandedness, as if developers were looking for increasingly ingenious ways to crack open customer wallets.

Over the last five years, I’d argue that our perceptions have changed. Guild Wars 1 and 2 introduced the “buy the box” model, delivering a high quality game while still using the subscription free microtransaction model. We’ve also seen several MMOs transition from being subscription based to free-to-play and becoming successful as a result. Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online and EverQuest 2 are all positive examples of this change in model.

This year, a new trend emerged. After reading a number of blogs I’ve seen the same phrase repeated again and again. “It’s a great MMO, but I’ll wait until it goes free to play before I play it.” We now expect subscription based games to fail and eventually switch to a free-to-play-model.

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