The Storybricks AI system, which is the backbone of EverQuest: Next's Emergent AI.
The following video from GameAIConf shows how Storybricks works through a few simple text based game interactions and is intended for an audience with a background in Game AI. We will be seeing the full scale application of this amazing technology in just a couple weeks at SOE Live when they show it off in the EverQuest: Next voxel world with 3d characters, and this presentation will be intended for players to understand. Go ahead and watch it if you are interested in the details behind the system, then come back for my discussion about what he didn't say here but has elsewhere and some implications of the system. Or just skip the video and I will try to give a summery of how it works.
First off, Storybricks is a Story Telling Engine which is designed to function on any type of game system. They call this being 'Game System Agnostic.' I don't just mean the classic PC vs Console debates either, I mean working for a text based game like shown in the video or a full graphics game, a single player horror or an MMO Shooter, Storybricks doesn't care what system you lay on top of it, it will happily function for any of them.
So what does it mean to be a Story Telling Engine? Basically, it takes the elements the designer has given it and constantly creates the story on the fly with the players choices. The designer need not plot out each new story and create separate content for every choice, they just design the elements and the players actions will cause new stories to unfold around them.
Parts of a Story Brick
In Storybricks these elements are called Universal Story Bricks and are utilized for everything. Every character is their own brick, every dramatic plot element is a brick (in the video he shows Winter from The Game of Thrones as a brick). If it makes sense to do so then organizations (such as the Houses of Capulet and Montague in Romeo & Juliet) can be their own bricks.
Drives
Each brick can have its own Drives, these are the goals and desires that direct any action it has upon anything else. Those familiar with the EQN unvailing probably remember Dave Georgeson talking about making Orcs and 'releasing them into the world.' He mentioned some of their 'drives.' Orcs like roads that are traveled only a little bit. Orcs like to attack travelers. Orcs don't like Guards. Orcs don't like Cities. Orcs don't like getting beat up
Changes
The next part of a Brick defines Changes that it can apply to other bricks. This can be anything from altering a mood, a change in faction reputation, granting traits, applying a buff effect, casting a spell, dealing damage. In our Orc example, there is a brick which constantly polls the game database for how often players travel the roads. If the travel is in the right range then the Road brick becomes attractive to the Orcs. A lone traveler's brick will tell the Orcs to attack.
Parts
Parts seems a little miss named to me, but these define the limits to what the Changes are allowed to apply to. This ensures that each brick works together correctly with all the other bricks in the system.
Exits
Actions which counter the drives of a brick trigger Exits, alternate paths that go to another brick, in some ways they are quite similar to Changes but is quite important for organizing when assembling a series of bricks to make the story. Exits are how you can foil the Orcs plans. Another brick would keep track of how often the Orcs are getting beat up so that the Orcs will leave the area if that gets too frequent. A nearby guard's brick will tell the Orc bricks to leave.
Interactive Stories
Ok, so that's what makes up the bricks of Storybricks, but how does this make an interactive story? Interactive Stories are about making meaningful choices. With so many bricks having conflicting Drives there should be plenty of room for dramatic tension and for opportunity costs. Each time a brick needs to make a choice several bricks with matching Changes and Parts are resented based on the brick's current Drives. Each time a choice is made it means that other choices are not made (which is the foundation of opportunity cost) and that inaction regarding other bricks can effect the choices they make.
Dynamic Ecosystem
Dave Georgeson, director of the EverQuest franchise, likes to refer to the interaction between bricks as a massive network of sumo wrestlers. They all push on each other and even a little difference in one push will have ripple effects through the whole system. Lets say a player doesn't like having the Orcs on that road but they aren't strong enough to kill the orcs themselves. So they go to a town and bribe a guard to travel the road. The Orcs don't like the guard on the road, so they leave. Now there is a 'power vacuum' in the area with the Orcs gone. Panthers come in to hunt the livestock in the area. The farmers are unable to produce food for the city because of the panthers. Time goes by without any of the players noticing (after all, it's a rarely traveled area) and the city doesn't ge their food. The city's food prices go up because of the shortage. NPCs in town are now desperate for aid from players. If the players don't help them they will be vulnerable to attack from other creatures and th town might be destroyed. This is only one of the many unintentional ramifications of the player bribing the guard to say nothing of what happens to the area were the Orcs ended up going.
Structured Stories
At times a designer will want to tell stories that are more structured. This largely comes down to designing the Drives, Changes, Parts (limits), and Exits of the main actor bricks so that they will eventually tell the right story as well as making sure the choice bricks made available are designed to fit those. It is also possible to select how dramatic the choices should be at any given time. This allows for having lulls for the player to recover from the stories climaxes, after all, you can't have the story running at full throttle the whole time or it will burn out the player and cheapen the climactic moments. Pacing is important for all stories, structured or dynamic.
Simplicity
In the video we saw a little bit of the code behind the bricks, and while I could tell you that it is really simple code we all know that most people would be completely unable to do anything if it requires typing things out in code. I know I hate coding myself. Which is why I am glad that in other videos from Storybricks we have seen that they are making a much easier way to make these things, so easy that you don't need to know anything about programming to make it work. Simply move the bricks around, connect them based on their shapes to make what you want and it will write the code to match. I still haven't seen the system for making those bricks and determining their shapes, but we are told that system will be easy to use as well. At the very least, in late April the stated that they had already programmed all of the possible 'basic wants, needs, desires, and emotions' which any characters in EQN would need. These basic drives should be made available to anyone using Storybricks and since it is Game System Agnostic it doesn't matter if you are making something totally different from EQN, these basic drives should still be fully applicable.
This system should revolutionize AI design, changing the face of the industry and the face of interactive storytelling in general. It will open the doors of crafting meaningful stories to a much larger pool of developers without costing a fortune to craft. I see AAA games and Indy games all taking advantage of this, and EQN is, as Dave said, "their show pony." It shouldn't be too much longer till we can start using this system in Landmark since Landmark is the toolset SOE is using to build EQN and they will need to start programming those NPCs soon.
I can't wait to see the presentation of Storybricks in EQN at SOE Live, only two weeks to go. In the future I will discuss in greater detail some of the implications of this system in EverQuest: Next and how it relates to the Four Holy Grails that Dave presented at SOE Live last year.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Three Short EQN Proposals of old.
Today I'm going to go over a couple of my shorter EQ:N Proposals from back before or just after the launch of the Landmark Alpha. First, Tracking by Smell & Sounds
------------------ Tracking by Smell and Sound - An EQN Proposal by Thornbrier
In one of the early panels for the reveal of EQN the topic of having ‘smell vision’ was brought up. Personally, I think something like this could be very practically applied. Among the many tags that items, characters, and places would have are the odor tags. Odor tags would leave in their wake and in the area around them a decaying tag signifying the odor’s passage or presence. A character capable of tracking by smell would then gain an overlay of the area around them which would show various hovering color trails leading off in different directions. It may be necessary for them to narrow down their search as the flood of information would get too confusing to follow. By narrowing it down they could track the smell they believe belongs to their target. Other than their selected smells showing up as smoky trails around them, their vision should remain as it normally is (or with whatever other vision modifier they are using).
The selection window will display the names of all NPC’s they have spoken with who they have been around since gaining the ability to track by smell, along with any odor tags they are currently able to smell, or have recently smelled, including those on their own person (even if stored in a D-pocket, like pulling out a bit of a subject’s clothes for a bloodhound to track).
NOTE: Any items being carried in ‘dimensional pockets’ or some such should not leave an odor trail.
Sound tracking might be a little different, allowing you to choose specific types of sounds the character would be listening for, color coding each of the selected sounds as they wish. These don’t need to all be audible to the player. But whenever these sounds loud enough to reach them they would be given the direction and an indicator for roughly how far away it is. Viable sounds might be chains, wings, footsteps, scratching. speech, the voice of a known character, the sound of heavy armor, swishing fabric, or combat. While not quite as precise as tracking by smell, tracking by sound definitely has its uses.
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Some of this next one has already been confirmed, but I will provide it in the original form.
-------------- NPC Nameplates & Movement
When you first meet someone you don’t know their name, you don’t know what they do, or anything about them. As such, I think it fitting that you not get an NPC’s name and profession stated for you before you’ve ever even met them. Shops and stalls should obviously be labeled, so if you find an NPC in the Blacksmith’s shop working at an anvil it’s a pretty good bet that’s the Blacksmith, you don’t need a label for that. Once you hail them they typically introduce themselves, at which point they should gain a nameplate with as much information about them as has been revealed.
At a stall that acts as a front for a secret organization their identity as part of that organization will only be labeled once your character has found out their affiliation.
When a story progression ‘quest’ tells you to find a specific character they will tell you where you should likely be able to find them and when. At the given time the NPC would show up, unless they’d been delayed, and you could then ask if they were the specific person.
NPCs with ‘quests’ shouldn't have a huge marker saying so. Their actions and words should be used if they are trying to get your attention. Sometimes an NPC might come up to you and say, “Hey, I need your help.” But other times you will need to initiate the conversation to find out if they have something for you to do. Might even need to be wearing the right stuff, have the right reputation, and ask the right questions.
The NPCs should move about on their own schedule. They will have errands to run of their own, need to go home and sleep, or go to work. A blacksmith won’t craft you stuff while she’s at the provisioner or at home. A clandestine character might be unwilling to talk about the heist they want you to perform while they are at their day job. Some characters might live and work in the same place, so they are more likely to perform their duties even if you catch them eating instead of at their crafting station. Some might use magics to sustain them, allowing them to remain vigilent at all times. An NPC’s schedule shouldn't just be based on Day/Night, but also on which day of the week it is, whether or not it is a holiday, the current weather, mobs in the area, and even the current workload and city population (NPC and PC).
With major events NPC’s might even move to other cities, but aside from specific story instances a single NPC should never be in multiple locations at once on the same server. It always annoyed me a little that in WoW I would see Thrall in one place wearing a newer outfit, watching from a specific rock where he always stood, then I return to Orgrimmar and he’s there in his older outfit on the throne, never having left, return to the rock, and he’s still there. Obviously, this was because of the static system, something which would need to be maintained for some specific story points, but this should never be the case in the open world.
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I'd like to think I've gotten better in my writing of these since then. Here's another odd one, I hope we will see aspects of this, but I find it a little unlikely.
------------------- Realm of the Dead
Some games have used Corps Runs through a dead version of the world as the penalty for being defeated. Others cause you to drop all your gear where you died. These games almost never have any discussion, let alone explanation, of why you don't stay dead. Given Norrath's known history of the living dealing with the dead it might make sense to combine these concepts to create something we've never seen in an MMO before.
When you die you show up right were you died, but in a realm of the dead. As long as you stay near your body you are protected from its inhabitants. Some of the various enemies with souls that you and others have killed in the area hang around wanting revenge, others just accept their fate and move on. You can look at the fighting the living are doing near your body, as well as see items on the ground.
The realm you appear in depends on the tier of the class you died playing. Higher tiers have fewer and tougher ghosts as well as shorter distances than the realm of the living. Each time you are defeated while dead it drops you to the tier below. The lowest tier mobs don't actually damage you, rather, they slow you down using states, trips, slow effects, and generally getting in your way in this realm that is already longer distance than the realm of the living.
You must find your way to a PC or NPC capable of resurrecting you. In some places these could be friendly ghosts, but most of those must be befriended or placated before they will help you. Alternatively you could use a soul shard to revive right at your body (or pay SC to get a soul shard for immediate use).
When you die only soulbound items can be carried into the realms of the dead. Everything else will drop at your corps for others to pick up. Items don't automatically bind, and it is impossible to bind an item to yourself. Someone else with the skill and reagents must do it for you (player or NPC) and will likely charge for the service unless it is part of a contract they wish you to fulfill. The same goes for unbinding items from your soul.
Some places are weak points between the realms allowing the dead to spill into our realm, these can also act as doors for the living to enter the realms of the dead without dyeing. Some weak points are stationary, others are mobile. Those who gain power by manipulating the dead love to gain control of such locations as they are far easier to control in our realm. Similarly, these locations also attract those who would see the dead left at peace, or at the least, not used as a weapon against themselves. The recently departed can far more easily be restored to life if they can find their way back to the realm of the living as spirits in the realm of the living are visible to all instead of a limited few with the ability to see through the vails.
When summoned at these places, a necromancers minions tend to be empowered until destroyed.
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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these short glimpses into the writings that started me off to now have this blog.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Size & Weight - An Unlikely EQN Proposal
Sorry I haven't posted recently, I'm currently on a trip to a family reunion and haven't had very good net access on the road or at my previous hotel. Since I have another long day on the road tomorrow I'll start posting a few of my old EQN Proposals and Points to Ponder documents. The following was mostly written right before Landmark Alpha was launched. Given what they have said since I don't think much of this will be in EQ:N, but perhaps some of the ideas will still be usable, or someone might make a game that does use this.
---------- Size & Weight - An EQN Proposal by Thornbrier
I remember in the good old days of playing Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 one of my groups favorite spell sets were the ability to grow and shrink our party members and our enemies. This presented so many possibilities in very few spells, they were an exceptional utility. It also made our racial sizes really matter. I will discuss how a similar system could be implemented in EQN.
Voxel World
Finally having a Voxel World means size should determine how large a hole needs to be for your character to move through it. A massive ogre is going to need to destroy more of the mountain side to progress than a small ratonga. Being a mighty ogre also means that when they dig into the mountain, they take a larger bite than a weak ratonga. And those larger legs on the ogre should also mean they are able to cover more terrain in a flat out run, able to effortlessly vault over low rises that the ratonga must either navigate around or spend time climbing using their excellent climbing claws. The ogre might accidentally run right past their target if they don’t slow down soon enough, but the ratonga would be noticing every detail. Humans, not designed for such a size might need to use a nearby chair to jump up to a table they had just been eating at when their pixie friend plays a joke on them. One method of getting around the ‘slower movement’ might be to acquire speed potions that grant you a set speed regardless of size (note, it is possible to use one that is set slower than your natural speed, so be careful what you drink).
Mass
I’m very glad that the devs have stated that materials will have their own mass and toughness, steel will be harder to break than dirt and will be thrown differently from an explosion, the same should be true of characters. When a force knocks us back light characters should be thrown farther than heavy characters. If my Hurricane Strike throws a human several feet, a pixie should go much farther, while a massive minotaur should barely be moved a foot, and a true giant wouldn't even be phased by the effect. We know these functions exist in the engine, it’s just a matter of attaching the required data to the objects and abilities.
Larger characters should deal more damage with physical attacks and have more hitpoints while they are larger. Spells would not be affected much by their caster’s size. However, some skills are a combination of physical and magic. If a minotaur has a flame stomp the area and damage of the core stomp would shrink or grow with the minotaur’s size, but the fire damage would be unaffected (though, the AoE, starting from the edge of the foot, would end up having a smaller/larger radius).
One thing that all of this means is that those MASSIVE battle bosses don’t need to be programmed to be stronger, they just become stronger by virtue of their size, and their arena being designed to accommodate that size.
Hit Box
A small creature would be harder to hit with non-aoe attacks given their small hitbox. If your ogre is the size of a barn than only the most inept attacker would ever miss. That large hitbox comes in handy for blocking attacks from striking your allies or even just blocking a path. This would generate the ‘active tanking’ rather than ‘taunt tanking’ spoken of for getting rid of the holy trinity.
Detection
Relative sizes should play a vital part in whether or not a creature notices you unless their senses are quite sensitive. No one will miss the giant stomping toward them from far off, but the little froglock hopping through the barbarian camp could easily go unnoticed for quite some time.
Racial Size
Obviously, I’ve been talking about these races as being comparatively different sizes, but how big? In D&D the called it Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Colossal, Gargantuan, but that won't quite fit a voxel world. I would think that when you are choosing character appearance you would set your height in 1x1x1 cube voxels within the range for that race. Pixies might range from 2 to 4 voxels tall. Perhaps Ratonga can range from 4 to 7, humans from 8 to 12, while an ogre would be more like 18 to 23 voxels tall.
Weight
When increasing or decreasing a character’s size keep in mind that double the height is not double the weight, it’s roughly eight times the weight. So, a 6’ tall 180 pound person doubling in height becomes 12’ tall and 1440 pounds.
While this could be fudged for a game world (since large things like the giant golem seen in the announcement video would not be supported by the earth under it) it should still be impactful, maybe four times instead, our 12’ human only becoming 720 pounds. For simplicity sake, I would not recommend altering the weight of items in backpacks. We already suspend disbelief that we can carry the tons of equipment and mats that we do in those dimensional pockets, lets keep it that way.
Terrain
The devs said they are trying to balance the physics, but it is possible in this engine. This includes the structural integrity of the terrain to withstanding weight and damage as well as rolling structures and water dynamics.
Some parts of terrain should care about the weight being applied on it. Perhaps a sheet of ice, a bridge, or a tree branch, these should all break if too much ‘weight’ is registered there.
Creatures might have ‘tremorsense’ allowing them to ‘see’ based on a weight threshold moving on the ground they are on. Similarly some pressure plates might only trigger (both positive and negative) based on having enough weight applied. The characters size and their gear would determine how much their total weight is (though Fae, Pixies, magic carpets, and other perpetual fliers wouldn't be considered to ‘weigh’ pretty much anything).
Changing Sizes
Some spells would be Preparations (ie, out of combat, not on the hot bar). I see these coming in two forms. One is basically permanent until removed by a debuff ability or turning it off out of combat. The other is a triggered removal or activation.
Example: As an Elemental Defender Ratoga (who has also multiclassed to Ritual Weaver) I might cast a ritual that sets me permanently to 20 voxels tall (yeah, a huge rat), and a triggered ritual that sets me to 3 voxels (only a little smaller than my default of 5). Sneaking in while small, as soon as I attack the trigger goes off, dropping my second spell, so I suddenly go from 3 voxels to 20. During the fight I keep using Elemental Defender Combat Arts that temporarily increase my height by 2 voxels each for 15 seconds, stacking only 5 times until I reach the PC maximum of 30 voxels. My physical attacks appear MASSIVE, as large as a PC can get them outside of scripted events, while my magical effects appear tiny by comparison. The enemies, having a spellcaster of their own, do the smart thing and dispel my ritual. Suddenly I shrink to only 15 voxels tall (5 natural + 10 from the Elemental Defender CAs). Given the 15 second limit on each instance of the buff and my low mana regeneration I keep fluctuating between 13 and 19 voxels for the rest of the fight.
Permanent/Long Term size change should be ‘absolute value’, simply setting a party member’s size, whereas temporary changes should be +/- either an amount or a percentage.
Putting it All Together
A character who wants to be rather tanky might cast a growth spell on himself and summon a Vanishing Chest (a chest that can hold your bags for you and gives them back later) which he tells his companions to put all of their bags into or to activate their flight/hover or shrink abilities before a fight because most of the mobs in this next area are blind but have tremorsense and he doesn’t want the enemies to know where anyone but himself is located. Sure the enemies will still throw attacks out where they feel they are getting attacked from, so keep moving as you fight, but it keeps most of the focus on the HUGE fighter in the center of the room that keeps pounding the ground making lots of tremors for them to ‘see.’
This could also be used on enemies, if the enemy is too heavy to throw into the air for your slam attack, shrink it, or maybe their quick movements through the caves holes are making them hard to hit, grow them so they can’t fit in the holes any more. But remember, you are exchanging the advantages/weaknesses of the sizes, not purely ‘debuffing’ them, and the smarter AI should be able to take advantage of the change. Perhaps the enemy is standing over a thin sheet of rock over lava, you could have your team move in to add their weight to the rock to break it, or you could use a Combat Art spell to grow the enemy larger so their own increased weight breaks it, or use some kind of explosive attack to break the sheet at range, but regardless, keep watching out so your own team doesn’t fall in. Because that swarm of small enemies might skitter over the thin rock just fine as long as they stay spread out, but your large Warrior is going to drop right in as soon as he steps out there. Many ways to accomplish the same goal all depending on how you wish to play.
Alternatives
It should also be made clear that being big should not be the only way one can tank. Magic items and class abilities might be used to modify a character's base HP Percentage which would not stack with the Size modified HP Percentage, just using the better of the two. Same thing goes for modifying physical damage, run speed, detectability, jump height, and every other aspect modified by size, except the point of where your character ‘ends’ for self-centered AoEs like a fire aura, (get things that increase the range of the aura instead) and the hitbox for blocking attacks from hitting allies. One some classes this last point will call for a different strategy of tanking, other classes might have the tank putting up shields and barriers rather that don’t change in size with them rather than relying upon their hitbox. I will be proposing two ranged ‘tanks’ who use similar but different mechanics that would not be changed by their size, but using a classic example: a Paladin might raise a pillar of holy light around themselves which stay for a time that cause massive damage to any enemy creature which moves through it and slowly regenerates allies within them. Through the course of the fight they are caging in the enemy with these pillars, and whenever they raise their shield it grants them a 20 voxel high by 15 voxel wide magic barrier that moves in front of them regardless of their own size (if the barrier’s damage is all used it will take time to recharge, but otherwise it recharges each time it is brought back up, so proper timing of when to drop it is key). In this way, even a 1 voxel character could tank using their magic.
---------------
Well, that's the first EQN Proposal from the past with very little edits since way back when. I'll be putting up a few more of these this next week.
---------- Size & Weight - An EQN Proposal by Thornbrier
I remember in the good old days of playing Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 one of my groups favorite spell sets were the ability to grow and shrink our party members and our enemies. This presented so many possibilities in very few spells, they were an exceptional utility. It also made our racial sizes really matter. I will discuss how a similar system could be implemented in EQN.
Voxel World
Finally having a Voxel World means size should determine how large a hole needs to be for your character to move through it. A massive ogre is going to need to destroy more of the mountain side to progress than a small ratonga. Being a mighty ogre also means that when they dig into the mountain, they take a larger bite than a weak ratonga. And those larger legs on the ogre should also mean they are able to cover more terrain in a flat out run, able to effortlessly vault over low rises that the ratonga must either navigate around or spend time climbing using their excellent climbing claws. The ogre might accidentally run right past their target if they don’t slow down soon enough, but the ratonga would be noticing every detail. Humans, not designed for such a size might need to use a nearby chair to jump up to a table they had just been eating at when their pixie friend plays a joke on them. One method of getting around the ‘slower movement’ might be to acquire speed potions that grant you a set speed regardless of size (note, it is possible to use one that is set slower than your natural speed, so be careful what you drink).
Mass
I’m very glad that the devs have stated that materials will have their own mass and toughness, steel will be harder to break than dirt and will be thrown differently from an explosion, the same should be true of characters. When a force knocks us back light characters should be thrown farther than heavy characters. If my Hurricane Strike throws a human several feet, a pixie should go much farther, while a massive minotaur should barely be moved a foot, and a true giant wouldn't even be phased by the effect. We know these functions exist in the engine, it’s just a matter of attaching the required data to the objects and abilities.
Larger characters should deal more damage with physical attacks and have more hitpoints while they are larger. Spells would not be affected much by their caster’s size. However, some skills are a combination of physical and magic. If a minotaur has a flame stomp the area and damage of the core stomp would shrink or grow with the minotaur’s size, but the fire damage would be unaffected (though, the AoE, starting from the edge of the foot, would end up having a smaller/larger radius).
One thing that all of this means is that those MASSIVE battle bosses don’t need to be programmed to be stronger, they just become stronger by virtue of their size, and their arena being designed to accommodate that size.
Hit Box
A small creature would be harder to hit with non-aoe attacks given their small hitbox. If your ogre is the size of a barn than only the most inept attacker would ever miss. That large hitbox comes in handy for blocking attacks from striking your allies or even just blocking a path. This would generate the ‘active tanking’ rather than ‘taunt tanking’ spoken of for getting rid of the holy trinity.
Detection
Relative sizes should play a vital part in whether or not a creature notices you unless their senses are quite sensitive. No one will miss the giant stomping toward them from far off, but the little froglock hopping through the barbarian camp could easily go unnoticed for quite some time.
Racial Size
Obviously, I’ve been talking about these races as being comparatively different sizes, but how big? In D&D the called it Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Colossal, Gargantuan, but that won't quite fit a voxel world. I would think that when you are choosing character appearance you would set your height in 1x1x1 cube voxels within the range for that race. Pixies might range from 2 to 4 voxels tall. Perhaps Ratonga can range from 4 to 7, humans from 8 to 12, while an ogre would be more like 18 to 23 voxels tall.
Weight
When increasing or decreasing a character’s size keep in mind that double the height is not double the weight, it’s roughly eight times the weight. So, a 6’ tall 180 pound person doubling in height becomes 12’ tall and 1440 pounds.
While this could be fudged for a game world (since large things like the giant golem seen in the announcement video would not be supported by the earth under it) it should still be impactful, maybe four times instead, our 12’ human only becoming 720 pounds. For simplicity sake, I would not recommend altering the weight of items in backpacks. We already suspend disbelief that we can carry the tons of equipment and mats that we do in those dimensional pockets, lets keep it that way.
Terrain
The devs said they are trying to balance the physics, but it is possible in this engine. This includes the structural integrity of the terrain to withstanding weight and damage as well as rolling structures and water dynamics.
Some parts of terrain should care about the weight being applied on it. Perhaps a sheet of ice, a bridge, or a tree branch, these should all break if too much ‘weight’ is registered there.
Creatures might have ‘tremorsense’ allowing them to ‘see’ based on a weight threshold moving on the ground they are on. Similarly some pressure plates might only trigger (both positive and negative) based on having enough weight applied. The characters size and their gear would determine how much their total weight is (though Fae, Pixies, magic carpets, and other perpetual fliers wouldn't be considered to ‘weigh’ pretty much anything).
Changing Sizes
Some spells would be Preparations (ie, out of combat, not on the hot bar). I see these coming in two forms. One is basically permanent until removed by a debuff ability or turning it off out of combat. The other is a triggered removal or activation.
Example: As an Elemental Defender Ratoga (who has also multiclassed to Ritual Weaver) I might cast a ritual that sets me permanently to 20 voxels tall (yeah, a huge rat), and a triggered ritual that sets me to 3 voxels (only a little smaller than my default of 5). Sneaking in while small, as soon as I attack the trigger goes off, dropping my second spell, so I suddenly go from 3 voxels to 20. During the fight I keep using Elemental Defender Combat Arts that temporarily increase my height by 2 voxels each for 15 seconds, stacking only 5 times until I reach the PC maximum of 30 voxels. My physical attacks appear MASSIVE, as large as a PC can get them outside of scripted events, while my magical effects appear tiny by comparison. The enemies, having a spellcaster of their own, do the smart thing and dispel my ritual. Suddenly I shrink to only 15 voxels tall (5 natural + 10 from the Elemental Defender CAs). Given the 15 second limit on each instance of the buff and my low mana regeneration I keep fluctuating between 13 and 19 voxels for the rest of the fight.
Permanent/Long Term size change should be ‘absolute value’, simply setting a party member’s size, whereas temporary changes should be +/- either an amount or a percentage.
Putting it All Together
A character who wants to be rather tanky might cast a growth spell on himself and summon a Vanishing Chest (a chest that can hold your bags for you and gives them back later) which he tells his companions to put all of their bags into or to activate their flight/hover or shrink abilities before a fight because most of the mobs in this next area are blind but have tremorsense and he doesn’t want the enemies to know where anyone but himself is located. Sure the enemies will still throw attacks out where they feel they are getting attacked from, so keep moving as you fight, but it keeps most of the focus on the HUGE fighter in the center of the room that keeps pounding the ground making lots of tremors for them to ‘see.’
This could also be used on enemies, if the enemy is too heavy to throw into the air for your slam attack, shrink it, or maybe their quick movements through the caves holes are making them hard to hit, grow them so they can’t fit in the holes any more. But remember, you are exchanging the advantages/weaknesses of the sizes, not purely ‘debuffing’ them, and the smarter AI should be able to take advantage of the change. Perhaps the enemy is standing over a thin sheet of rock over lava, you could have your team move in to add their weight to the rock to break it, or you could use a Combat Art spell to grow the enemy larger so their own increased weight breaks it, or use some kind of explosive attack to break the sheet at range, but regardless, keep watching out so your own team doesn’t fall in. Because that swarm of small enemies might skitter over the thin rock just fine as long as they stay spread out, but your large Warrior is going to drop right in as soon as he steps out there. Many ways to accomplish the same goal all depending on how you wish to play.
Alternatives
It should also be made clear that being big should not be the only way one can tank. Magic items and class abilities might be used to modify a character's base HP Percentage which would not stack with the Size modified HP Percentage, just using the better of the two. Same thing goes for modifying physical damage, run speed, detectability, jump height, and every other aspect modified by size, except the point of where your character ‘ends’ for self-centered AoEs like a fire aura, (get things that increase the range of the aura instead) and the hitbox for blocking attacks from hitting allies. One some classes this last point will call for a different strategy of tanking, other classes might have the tank putting up shields and barriers rather that don’t change in size with them rather than relying upon their hitbox. I will be proposing two ranged ‘tanks’ who use similar but different mechanics that would not be changed by their size, but using a classic example: a Paladin might raise a pillar of holy light around themselves which stay for a time that cause massive damage to any enemy creature which moves through it and slowly regenerates allies within them. Through the course of the fight they are caging in the enemy with these pillars, and whenever they raise their shield it grants them a 20 voxel high by 15 voxel wide magic barrier that moves in front of them regardless of their own size (if the barrier’s damage is all used it will take time to recharge, but otherwise it recharges each time it is brought back up, so proper timing of when to drop it is key). In this way, even a 1 voxel character could tank using their magic.
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Well, that's the first EQN Proposal from the past with very little edits since way back when. I'll be putting up a few more of these this next week.
Monday, July 21, 2014
EverQuest: Next - Combining the Best to make the Best
Lets give a little love to Lucky Saint on youtube who put together this quick summery of some of the great features to look forward to in EverQuest: Next.
I will go into more detail in later posts, but for now let me introduce you to the 4 Holy Grail of EQ:N that back up what Lucky Saint has said here. If you want to see it directly, most of what I present below can be seen in the second half of the Debut footage from last years SOE Live, but other interviews and presentations have cleared up several details as well. This might get rather long, but it is a lot shorter than hunting down all those interviews to get every detail (I've spent the last few weeks doing just that).
Grail 1: Changing the Core Game
A vast and robust system of Multi-Classing with over 40 classes at launch to explore and find in the world (starting with one of 8 when you make your character). The more classes you find the more you can customize your character to choose how you want to play. This is quite cool, though... multi-classing has been done before with many different methods. Other aspects explored below really drive home this Grail for me. Though, I would also point out here, a major change is getting rid of Levels.
There will be 5 Tiers that represent a players skill with their class's abilities and mechanics, not just 'how much xp you farmed' on that class. There will be several different measures for determining when you have mastered an aspect of a class and you will then be rewarded with different tools to learn and experiment with, but these tools won't be more powerful. Seeing a Tier 5 warrior fight a Tier 1 warrior won't mean the T1 just dies at a single swing. If the T1 is a better player and knows their opponent well they will win, the T5 just has more options available to them for how they want to build their character. If they planned the fight ahead of time the T5 will have an advantage in already knowing what build the T1 will have (same as any T1 warrior) and can specialize their design to face that using the wider variety of tools available to them.
By having all content be relevant to even max characters the designers don't have to split their focus between 'leveling content' and 'end game content' like they currently do. That will mean more content for everyone.
Grail 2: Destructibility
"We wanted to be able to blow up anything, anytime, anywhere." By building the entire world out of voxels (think of 3d pixels) which means that this world can be easily built and destroyed. The possibilities here are just.... so awesome. The world is not going to be limited to the surface either, several layers of chasms below, earth quacks will change the subterranean landscape, you will be able to dig down into the world to find different content, you can actually tear down the enemies walls or destroy a bridge as they cross it. With the ability to destroy and build and shift the world this also means never ending exploration potential. Complete destructibility opens up so much possible game play we have never seen before.
Grail 3: A Life of Consequence
Everything you do in game the game will remember, and the new Emergent AI will have everything respond to your history. Instead of programming monsters (mobs) to always show up at one place and attack you forever they will be programmed with likes, dislikes, desires, wants, physical needs, "and then release them into the world." The mobs and other Non-Player Characters (NPCs) will all have their own little lives continuing even when you aren't around. "Merchants don't like the dark, so they go home." And shady merchants don't like being seen by guards, so the dark of night is their friend. If you fight the goblins hard enough they might leave the forest, or their king might decide to rally an army to attack your city.
With your actions each NPC and mob will like what you do or dislike what you do and will react accordingly. You can even establish relationships with NPCs. Perhaps you visit Angy the baker every day and smile. Angy likes that you bring her a smile every day and eventually asks if you will help her get things she needs for better baking in exchange for free pastries. This is a deal that not everyone has and not everyone can get. It's not unbalancing, but it is personal, and everyone can establish different relationships with different NPCs. Angy's husband, the blacksmith, might not like 'your flirting' with her and decides to charge you more for his services, and unless you ask about his surly attitude toward you, you probably won't ever know why.
The Emergent AI is being programmed by an awesome company called Storybricks which makes dynamic scripting much easier. No longer will you need to be a programmer to be able to design an NPC or mob, you can just take the various 'bricks' and assemble them for a given NPC or mob and those bricks will automatically reference all relevant code and tags in the world and on the players. Even more awesome is that if the NPC encounters a situation that its current bricks can't handle then the system will compare the current bricks with the bricks available and the situation and will then select a new brick to add to the NPC, forever making that a part of the NPC for future interactions. SELF LEARNING NPCs! This is the part which has some people claiming that 'Storybricks is programming the system that will become Skynet and start sending Terminator robots to kill us all.'
Suffice it to say, this totally changes the face of MMO's forever. Mobs and NPCs will learn and adapt to your strategies. The old Tank & Spank and the Trinity of MMOs just won't work anymore.
Grail 4: Permanent Change
Another application of the Storybricks Emergent AI will be major events called Rallying Calls which will cause large scale permanent change. This could be the building or destruction of a city, a major war, huge natural disasters, all kinds of huge events. How players handle these on each server, or how/when they accidentally trigger a Rallying Call's progression steps will make every server a unique world. Cities on one server might not exist on another. If you were to play for a few years then roll up a new character it will literally be impossible to have the same gaming experience, the entire world would have changed.
Players will have so much personal history and stories to tell of how, "I was here, on the front lines when this city was built. That was before the goblin invasion, and before the red dragon attack, and that was before the civil war. Yeah, this city has grown a lot in the years I've been defending it. A lot of NPCs here I really care about. Though, I wasn't able to save Angy the baker, the dragon.... I couldn't save her." It is these types of personal stories and experiences that really help a game feel vibrant and personal for years to come. EQ:N is being designed to last for decades, not just to grab your money and run.
But That's Not All!
These are the Four Holy Grails of EverQuest: Next. While developing the tools to build this they decided to create Landmark. Landmark is a separate game in which they will give us all of the tools needed to make EQ:N and let us a) build any type of game we want (unless it is 'obscene') and b) help build EQ:N with the devs. Already we have been designing the architecture of the Dark Elves and are currently working on the Kerran architecture. Right now we can only build structures, but eventually we will have Storybricks as well so we can program NPCs and mobs the way we want to. But I'm now getting a lot deeper than I should for this post. More on that stuff another time.
I will go into more detail in later posts, but for now let me introduce you to the 4 Holy Grail of EQ:N that back up what Lucky Saint has said here. If you want to see it directly, most of what I present below can be seen in the second half of the Debut footage from last years SOE Live, but other interviews and presentations have cleared up several details as well. This might get rather long, but it is a lot shorter than hunting down all those interviews to get every detail (I've spent the last few weeks doing just that).
Grail 1: Changing the Core Game
A vast and robust system of Multi-Classing with over 40 classes at launch to explore and find in the world (starting with one of 8 when you make your character). The more classes you find the more you can customize your character to choose how you want to play. This is quite cool, though... multi-classing has been done before with many different methods. Other aspects explored below really drive home this Grail for me. Though, I would also point out here, a major change is getting rid of Levels.
There will be 5 Tiers that represent a players skill with their class's abilities and mechanics, not just 'how much xp you farmed' on that class. There will be several different measures for determining when you have mastered an aspect of a class and you will then be rewarded with different tools to learn and experiment with, but these tools won't be more powerful. Seeing a Tier 5 warrior fight a Tier 1 warrior won't mean the T1 just dies at a single swing. If the T1 is a better player and knows their opponent well they will win, the T5 just has more options available to them for how they want to build their character. If they planned the fight ahead of time the T5 will have an advantage in already knowing what build the T1 will have (same as any T1 warrior) and can specialize their design to face that using the wider variety of tools available to them.
By having all content be relevant to even max characters the designers don't have to split their focus between 'leveling content' and 'end game content' like they currently do. That will mean more content for everyone.
Grail 2: Destructibility
"We wanted to be able to blow up anything, anytime, anywhere." By building the entire world out of voxels (think of 3d pixels) which means that this world can be easily built and destroyed. The possibilities here are just.... so awesome. The world is not going to be limited to the surface either, several layers of chasms below, earth quacks will change the subterranean landscape, you will be able to dig down into the world to find different content, you can actually tear down the enemies walls or destroy a bridge as they cross it. With the ability to destroy and build and shift the world this also means never ending exploration potential. Complete destructibility opens up so much possible game play we have never seen before.
Grail 3: A Life of Consequence
Everything you do in game the game will remember, and the new Emergent AI will have everything respond to your history. Instead of programming monsters (mobs) to always show up at one place and attack you forever they will be programmed with likes, dislikes, desires, wants, physical needs, "and then release them into the world." The mobs and other Non-Player Characters (NPCs) will all have their own little lives continuing even when you aren't around. "Merchants don't like the dark, so they go home." And shady merchants don't like being seen by guards, so the dark of night is their friend. If you fight the goblins hard enough they might leave the forest, or their king might decide to rally an army to attack your city.
With your actions each NPC and mob will like what you do or dislike what you do and will react accordingly. You can even establish relationships with NPCs. Perhaps you visit Angy the baker every day and smile. Angy likes that you bring her a smile every day and eventually asks if you will help her get things she needs for better baking in exchange for free pastries. This is a deal that not everyone has and not everyone can get. It's not unbalancing, but it is personal, and everyone can establish different relationships with different NPCs. Angy's husband, the blacksmith, might not like 'your flirting' with her and decides to charge you more for his services, and unless you ask about his surly attitude toward you, you probably won't ever know why.
The Emergent AI is being programmed by an awesome company called Storybricks which makes dynamic scripting much easier. No longer will you need to be a programmer to be able to design an NPC or mob, you can just take the various 'bricks' and assemble them for a given NPC or mob and those bricks will automatically reference all relevant code and tags in the world and on the players. Even more awesome is that if the NPC encounters a situation that its current bricks can't handle then the system will compare the current bricks with the bricks available and the situation and will then select a new brick to add to the NPC, forever making that a part of the NPC for future interactions. SELF LEARNING NPCs! This is the part which has some people claiming that 'Storybricks is programming the system that will become Skynet and start sending Terminator robots to kill us all.'
Suffice it to say, this totally changes the face of MMO's forever. Mobs and NPCs will learn and adapt to your strategies. The old Tank & Spank and the Trinity of MMOs just won't work anymore.
Grail 4: Permanent Change
Another application of the Storybricks Emergent AI will be major events called Rallying Calls which will cause large scale permanent change. This could be the building or destruction of a city, a major war, huge natural disasters, all kinds of huge events. How players handle these on each server, or how/when they accidentally trigger a Rallying Call's progression steps will make every server a unique world. Cities on one server might not exist on another. If you were to play for a few years then roll up a new character it will literally be impossible to have the same gaming experience, the entire world would have changed.
Players will have so much personal history and stories to tell of how, "I was here, on the front lines when this city was built. That was before the goblin invasion, and before the red dragon attack, and that was before the civil war. Yeah, this city has grown a lot in the years I've been defending it. A lot of NPCs here I really care about. Though, I wasn't able to save Angy the baker, the dragon.... I couldn't save her." It is these types of personal stories and experiences that really help a game feel vibrant and personal for years to come. EQ:N is being designed to last for decades, not just to grab your money and run.
But That's Not All!
These are the Four Holy Grails of EverQuest: Next. While developing the tools to build this they decided to create Landmark. Landmark is a separate game in which they will give us all of the tools needed to make EQ:N and let us a) build any type of game we want (unless it is 'obscene') and b) help build EQ:N with the devs. Already we have been designing the architecture of the Dark Elves and are currently working on the Kerran architecture. Right now we can only build structures, but eventually we will have Storybricks as well so we can program NPCs and mobs the way we want to. But I'm now getting a lot deeper than I should for this post. More on that stuff another time.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Game Design: God of Light
Well, wouldn't you know it. Just as I start up this blog and plan to do a huge series of things for Landmark & Ever Quest: Next my computer up and dies on me. So I've gotten a tablet for school and I realized that I'm not limited to talking about PC games. I've been watching a LOT of Extra Credits and I've got a post planned for that later, but for now I've been playing some android games. There's a lot of crap out there, but I'd like to take a moment to shine some light (lame pun intended) on one game doing it well and talk about why.
God of Light by Playmous is available on the Play Store for android devices and iOS devices. This is a gorgeous game showing that android games can have good graphics, the sound track is lovely and calming, but neither of these elements is what makes God of Light so great in my books.
Exploration
This is the first physics puzzle game I've ever seen that incorporates exploration of the map as an integral mechanic. I've seen a few where it was a passive result, such as some levels of Angry Birds. Here the core mechanic of spreading light reveals the map and awakens more parts of the level for you to use. You don't know how it all works right off, you have to discover step by step what the level has to offer you in terms of tools.
Learning Curve
God of Light presents the player with a solid learning curve, teaching the tools needed in a smooth progression while providing the experience of accomplishment when you've figured it out. It never punishes you for getting it wrong, but if you take the easiest route you won't get the top rewards and you will know you could have done better.
Non-Combat
Like most physics games God of Light is a non-combat game. In the first several levels I have found no hint of aggression or violence, no enemies in your way. The lights went out, it is your job to spread the light and reawaken the universe. Simple, elegant, totally unobjectionable. Nice to see well made games with such a message of peace and harmony.
Monetization
This is a free to play game and lovely games like this are not cheap to produce. I'll get into my views of a post-capitalism world in later entries, but for now, game developers need to make money to keep making games that we love. But they don't have to be jerks about it. God of Light does this quite well, and this is where I really want to point out what they have done.
Part of the Mechanics
The monetization is not tacked on as some separate entity, it is an integrated part of the structure of the game. The currency is fire flies. You can find one fire fly in each level if you explore around for it. You can purchase 30 for $0.99, 70 for $1.99, 120 for $2.99, or 300 for $3.99. You can use a fire fly in game at any time to illuminate portions of the map and show you 'the way' to solve a puzzle, sort of. At lower levels it tells you exactly what must be done, at higher levels it only tells you what the end state is, not what you need to do to get there. It only lasts a while, so use that illumination wisely. Fire flies are also spent to unlock additional levels. Or you can just purchase the Demo Unlock Access for $1.99 to open the levels.
Not Selling Power
The physics puzzle genre has no real way of 'selling power' anyway, so I can't really applaud them for 'not selling power'. But know that selling power is a BAD IDEA for any game unless it is completely solo without even a 'leader board' to compare scores. Some may argue that being able to use fire flies to reveal the level is 'power' since you can get through the level faster and get a better score. I would remind two things here, 1) fire flies can be earned in game, and 2) you can repeat a level you have beaten to get a better score by doing it faster from memory now that you know what you need to do. In this case, using a fire fly will actually slow you down.
In-Game Ads
Ads in free games were inevitable, it is a carry over of the television ads providing us free tv shows to watch, which itself came from radio spots. However, you don't need to beat your customers over the head with ads. Hulu has been learning that showing 1 ad at a time is far more effective than showing a string of three or four all together. It is less annoying, keeping that annoyance from carrying over to taint the viewers opinion of both Hulu and the product/service being advertized. God of Light has taken this two steps further, making ads effectively optional and rewarding players who choose to participate rather than punishing those who do not.
In God of Light, at the end of each level you are presented with the option to watch a sponsors video, which typically lasts around 20 seconds, for a few fire flies or to skip it and just move on to the next level right away. It is entirely your choice, no pressure. This is one of the first games where I am enjoying going through the ads, not because they are great ads, but because it was entirely my choice for when I want to participate and get the extra reward. These rewards are 'worth it' without being over powering. It is the equivalent of finding the fire flies in a couple more levels.
It is important that we recognize when developers are doing it well, not just yelling when they get it wrong. This encourages more producers to follow in the good models, balancing the monetizing so it does not piss off your players. No players means no income. This needs to be a partnership, not a battle.
Playmous, I applaud you for how you have handled God of Light. Well done, and thank you.
God of Light by Playmous is available on the Play Store for android devices and iOS devices. This is a gorgeous game showing that android games can have good graphics, the sound track is lovely and calming, but neither of these elements is what makes God of Light so great in my books.
Exploration
This is the first physics puzzle game I've ever seen that incorporates exploration of the map as an integral mechanic. I've seen a few where it was a passive result, such as some levels of Angry Birds. Here the core mechanic of spreading light reveals the map and awakens more parts of the level for you to use. You don't know how it all works right off, you have to discover step by step what the level has to offer you in terms of tools.
Learning Curve
God of Light presents the player with a solid learning curve, teaching the tools needed in a smooth progression while providing the experience of accomplishment when you've figured it out. It never punishes you for getting it wrong, but if you take the easiest route you won't get the top rewards and you will know you could have done better.
Non-Combat
Like most physics games God of Light is a non-combat game. In the first several levels I have found no hint of aggression or violence, no enemies in your way. The lights went out, it is your job to spread the light and reawaken the universe. Simple, elegant, totally unobjectionable. Nice to see well made games with such a message of peace and harmony.
Monetization
This is a free to play game and lovely games like this are not cheap to produce. I'll get into my views of a post-capitalism world in later entries, but for now, game developers need to make money to keep making games that we love. But they don't have to be jerks about it. God of Light does this quite well, and this is where I really want to point out what they have done.
Part of the Mechanics
The monetization is not tacked on as some separate entity, it is an integrated part of the structure of the game. The currency is fire flies. You can find one fire fly in each level if you explore around for it. You can purchase 30 for $0.99, 70 for $1.99, 120 for $2.99, or 300 for $3.99. You can use a fire fly in game at any time to illuminate portions of the map and show you 'the way' to solve a puzzle, sort of. At lower levels it tells you exactly what must be done, at higher levels it only tells you what the end state is, not what you need to do to get there. It only lasts a while, so use that illumination wisely. Fire flies are also spent to unlock additional levels. Or you can just purchase the Demo Unlock Access for $1.99 to open the levels.
Not Selling Power
The physics puzzle genre has no real way of 'selling power' anyway, so I can't really applaud them for 'not selling power'. But know that selling power is a BAD IDEA for any game unless it is completely solo without even a 'leader board' to compare scores. Some may argue that being able to use fire flies to reveal the level is 'power' since you can get through the level faster and get a better score. I would remind two things here, 1) fire flies can be earned in game, and 2) you can repeat a level you have beaten to get a better score by doing it faster from memory now that you know what you need to do. In this case, using a fire fly will actually slow you down.
In-Game Ads
Ads in free games were inevitable, it is a carry over of the television ads providing us free tv shows to watch, which itself came from radio spots. However, you don't need to beat your customers over the head with ads. Hulu has been learning that showing 1 ad at a time is far more effective than showing a string of three or four all together. It is less annoying, keeping that annoyance from carrying over to taint the viewers opinion of both Hulu and the product/service being advertized. God of Light has taken this two steps further, making ads effectively optional and rewarding players who choose to participate rather than punishing those who do not.
In God of Light, at the end of each level you are presented with the option to watch a sponsors video, which typically lasts around 20 seconds, for a few fire flies or to skip it and just move on to the next level right away. It is entirely your choice, no pressure. This is one of the first games where I am enjoying going through the ads, not because they are great ads, but because it was entirely my choice for when I want to participate and get the extra reward. These rewards are 'worth it' without being over powering. It is the equivalent of finding the fire flies in a couple more levels.
It is important that we recognize when developers are doing it well, not just yelling when they get it wrong. This encourages more producers to follow in the good models, balancing the monetizing so it does not piss off your players. No players means no income. This needs to be a partnership, not a battle.
Playmous, I applaud you for how you have handled God of Light. Well done, and thank you.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Sociology In Gaming
LockSixTime has been doing an amazing Countdown to SOE Live talking about the various features of EverQuest: Next that we do know about. While I disagree with him at points they are really wonderful. On the latest one he briefly talks about the importance of Sociology In Gaming. Go ahead and listen to it (the video footage is unrelated), then come back.
Some of you might know that I am a student of sociology and I have previously done research on the Sociology Of Gaming, but this is quite a novel consideration. Not only looking at the social aspects of gamers getting together, but modeling the NPCs to behave in truly social ways to draw players into a more immersive experience and, potentially, teaching them something about real people around them as they think about how their choices in game effect what NPCs will do in response.
While not limited to gamers by any stretch, there is quite a stereotype of immature gamers who never learn social skills. The main skill that these people (players or not) fail to learn is Empathy, or as we call it, Sociological Imagination. Most people learn this skill to some degree as they grow up and hear about the lives of people they care about, they start to realize that not everyone thinks like they do and other peoples lives are different than theirs giving them a different perspective. Classic literature also helps people learn this, and it looks like the Emergent AI developed by Storybrick will allow major games to have the technology to not only tell wonderful stories, but also engage players in Social Imagination.
There are a few games that build Sociological Imaginatin well, but most of them are Indi titles that don't reach a very large audience and tend to be fizzles in a pan, barely appearing on the market before being forgotten about. EverQuest: Next on the other hand is an AAA quality game by a major production studio with a track record of continuing successful MMORPGs, some of which have revolutionized the industry like this one aims to, and the only major MMOFPS (though, FireFall will be giving them some competition in that market very shortly).
Some of you might know that I am a student of sociology and I have previously done research on the Sociology Of Gaming, but this is quite a novel consideration. Not only looking at the social aspects of gamers getting together, but modeling the NPCs to behave in truly social ways to draw players into a more immersive experience and, potentially, teaching them something about real people around them as they think about how their choices in game effect what NPCs will do in response.
While not limited to gamers by any stretch, there is quite a stereotype of immature gamers who never learn social skills. The main skill that these people (players or not) fail to learn is Empathy, or as we call it, Sociological Imagination. Most people learn this skill to some degree as they grow up and hear about the lives of people they care about, they start to realize that not everyone thinks like they do and other peoples lives are different than theirs giving them a different perspective. Classic literature also helps people learn this, and it looks like the Emergent AI developed by Storybrick will allow major games to have the technology to not only tell wonderful stories, but also engage players in Social Imagination.
There are a few games that build Sociological Imaginatin well, but most of them are Indi titles that don't reach a very large audience and tend to be fizzles in a pan, barely appearing on the market before being forgotten about. EverQuest: Next on the other hand is an AAA quality game by a major production studio with a track record of continuing successful MMORPGs, some of which have revolutionized the industry like this one aims to, and the only major MMOFPS (though, FireFall will be giving them some competition in that market very shortly).
Welcome to World Builder Thorn
Hello, World Builder Thorn here, I've been writing things all over the net regarding various games and project and it was recently recommended that I create a blog to share my ideas and link to these rather than directly to shared google docs, which I have been doing. While I'm at it, I would also like to highlight other reviewers and content developers in the field.
So, what should you expect to see on this blog?
First and Foremost you will see my thoughts on video games and literature; the creation of, the culture around, and the playing/reading of. Culture... yes. I am a student of Sociology, so cultural analysis is very important to me and it is a very major part of how I look at all things in life. Which leads to another portion of this blog, social change. I will be talking about social change as we see it in literature, TV and movies, social media, and yes, video games.
At present I am working on two major projects and you will likely hear a lot about them for some time.
EverQuest: Next & Landmark
These games by Sony Online Entertainment are so unique and interesting and I am involved in the largest development team in history trying to build them. I am a Trailblazer member in the Closed Beta of Landmark at the moment. I am not much of a builder yet, but I'm trying to learn. Expect a small flood of posts regarding these games as I have been creating documents for them for several months. While I won't be attending, SOE Live is not very far off, so I've been scouring over every interview and scrap of information I can to see what the devs have said is coming, either on purpose or by accident.
Xamesh & The Galactic Commonwealth
This is a very large social change writing project I have been working on for the past several years. It is mostly presented in the form of vignettes (very short stories covering one event or encounter) that are knitted together to form a much larger story of the entire world and events. It will touch on all kinds of social issues while hopefully remaining fun at every step.
Some content discussed will be things that are not typically 'allowed' to be discussed, however, I will avoid treating these topics flippantly. Everything on this blog should be either SFW or require clicking through to the NSFW content. I will try to tag my posts appropriately so you can skip content you don't want to view.
So, what should you expect to see on this blog?
First and Foremost you will see my thoughts on video games and literature; the creation of, the culture around, and the playing/reading of. Culture... yes. I am a student of Sociology, so cultural analysis is very important to me and it is a very major part of how I look at all things in life. Which leads to another portion of this blog, social change. I will be talking about social change as we see it in literature, TV and movies, social media, and yes, video games.
At present I am working on two major projects and you will likely hear a lot about them for some time.
EverQuest: Next & Landmark
These games by Sony Online Entertainment are so unique and interesting and I am involved in the largest development team in history trying to build them. I am a Trailblazer member in the Closed Beta of Landmark at the moment. I am not much of a builder yet, but I'm trying to learn. Expect a small flood of posts regarding these games as I have been creating documents for them for several months. While I won't be attending, SOE Live is not very far off, so I've been scouring over every interview and scrap of information I can to see what the devs have said is coming, either on purpose or by accident.
Xamesh & The Galactic Commonwealth
This is a very large social change writing project I have been working on for the past several years. It is mostly presented in the form of vignettes (very short stories covering one event or encounter) that are knitted together to form a much larger story of the entire world and events. It will touch on all kinds of social issues while hopefully remaining fun at every step.
Some content discussed will be things that are not typically 'allowed' to be discussed, however, I will avoid treating these topics flippantly. Everything on this blog should be either SFW or require clicking through to the NSFW content. I will try to tag my posts appropriately so you can skip content you don't want to view.
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