Game Persistence & Content Recycling, and Why We Need It

To bring you up to speed, in MMOs, the ‘worlds’ are said to be persistent. What this means is that whether you are logged in or not, things are happening. Other people are logging in game and moving around, resources are spawning and being mined, enemies are being destroyed even when you don’t have the game running. In a single player game, nothing happens until you load it up. For example, in Skyrim, nobody moves around, the time doesn’t tick and the world stays still while the game is off. In Elder Scrolls Online, the game is still going on even though you aren’t playing it. That’s persistence.

Next is content recycling. What this means is that when you beat an enemy, or mine a resource node, or complete a daily quest, you can do that all over again. The enemy will respawn, the resource node will come back and the daily quest will be back for you to take again tomorrow. MMOs and some games do this so you have something to do when you don’t have any immediate goals, or a way for you to level up towards the next bit of content you want to do. This isn’t always fun, and often associated with grinding (repeating a task towards a reward), but it’s something to do in a game you want to keep playing and can’t continue on to the next step of your quest or task yet.

Now, to the heart of this post. There are many complaints and dream games where people don’t want to go through recycled content, but most, if not all, MMOs have you go through it. If you played a MMO then this might sound familiar, “Man, I’m tired of doing these dailies.” Or “Wouldn’t it be cool if when I beat the dungeon boss, that was it. He never spawns again.” Both of these are issues on recycled content.

Now most of you will probably already know this, but content takes time to make. It has to be thought out, planned, programmed, tested, fixed and balanced out in order to bring it to you, the player. Some content tends to cut corners, which is why some of it is buggy, easy or hard, gives too much/too little reward, etc. But the main story is usually pretty balanced out and works most of the time as intended. What this boils down to, is that there is no way a studio can push out enough content to keep you satisfied all the time. So they come up with ways to keep you entertained and busy while still playing their game, hence daily quests and recycled/repeated content.

To get to the persistence part of this post, the game has other players playing the game along with you. Unlike a single player or cooperative player game, MMOs allow other people to play in your world and can be on different quests, or even the same quest but on different sections. That means it would be unlikely for them to offer up a unique quest to one player and not give it to all players because the developers cannot create enough quests for each of us to have our own individual quests.

The current design and model of MMOs do not allow for non-recycled content, but that’s not to say it can’t be done. I am inferring to player generated content and computer generated content. Now player generated content has the same issues as studio generated content, in that there just isn’t enough being created to give us all unique, non-recycled experiences while playing, however computers can generate this all day long every day. The issue with computer generated content is that it lacks special touches and human experience because how early in development computer generated content is.

Landmark seems to be pushing the boundaries the most right now with player and computer generated content where the computer generates the landscape with some added touches by the studio and then the players pulls from that and adds to it with their own final touches and human expression. There is a lot of potential there, but the game is still in a beta state according to Daybreak Studios (formerly SOE). They have a ways to go and more tools to build for this, though. There are other games in development that are also trying to build on these two concepts. Crowfall for one, and Trove as another. Trove however is released to the public to play now if you wish to hop in.

As for the future of MMOs, it’s hard to say. My two cents are that player and computer generated content will become more of the standard and what MMOs should be heading towards. As for now, we need recycled content because we want to keep playing our favorite MMO, else we need to come to peace with the fact that sometimes we need to stop for a while and/or come back with a fresh perspective when new content is released. That’s what makes MMOs so great, because they are persistent worlds that have content added to them over time, unlike a single player game where it’s pushed out and that’s pretty much it, except for the occasional DLC that might come afterwards.

Mechanic Blueprint - Character Creators

Mechanics are important to me, if you haven't already seen from my previous posts. I believe they are what separate games from every other form of media. In this post, I want to do some theory crafting and share some ideas I have on mechanics. Since I like to focus on MMOs, let's begin with the mechanic that is one of the most important parts and the first one you use.

Character Creation

Character creators are some of the most important, and yet sometimes overlooked, mechanic you use when starting out in an MMO. They let you create your avatar, the character that will represent you in the game world. A good character creator will root the player into the world, allow them to accept what the game tells them to believe is true. A poor creator will leave a rift between the player and the world because they couldn't connect with their avatar.

Do you take this Avatar to be your lawful representation?

A good character creator starts off with plenty of choices. That's not all though, they give you these choices in waves, start you off with a small selection, followed by another selection based off the last choice. To start off with, what race do I want to play. This can range from types of humans that differ between regions, to the exotic, between humans, orcs or even lizard men. After your race selection, it should provide the obvious choice between genders, if that exists for the race chosen. Beyond that, I should be seeing a top level selection of choices that provide me quick and profound ways to alter their look.

Some may stop me here and go, "But wait, Mr. Tyranny. I like to delve into the minutiae and pick everything down to the pore pattern on my skin". This is where I go, "Stop interrupting me, imagination. It's rude and the reader doesn't have time for me to argue with myself, but you're right!".

People, like myself, like getting into the nitty gritty of micromanaging the character's look like a beauty pageant mother, but I understand others just want to get started and throw the mirror out the window. These people are of course playing how they want, and that is rule #1 for me. That is why I say it should only show the top level choices first.

Secondly, these choices help you get into the ball park of where you'd like to take your character's look. Once you are there, that's when we get into the sliders. This is where the magic happens. Sliders let you get to the lower levels of character creation. They let you tweak your nose a half centimeter to the left and change your finger length to be slightly stubby.

I do

These are the basics that make a good character creator. Something simple that allows a lot of depth. Some games that do this well are Star Trek Online and Champions Online for their sliders, and EverQuest, both 1 and 2, and Guild Wars 2 for their race selection. It's understandable that you wouldn't want to spend a lot of resources in making the character creator, but let me implore you to consider that if the player can't connect with their avatar, it makes it harder for them to want to stick in the world.

My Personal Flair

Now it's easy to copy someone else's idea, but now it's time to add my own little flair to the mix. I think it would be pretty neat to have a character selection where you're looking into a room or even walking around and you see a bunch of randomly generated characters sitting, talking with each other, etc. While you are looking, you can select one of these characters that you like the most, or wait for some to leave and new ones to enter and then make your selection and use that as your starting template in the character creator.

So character creators are important in establishing your connection to the game world. These shouldn't be rushed and have some thought put into it, otherwise you risk the player not really caring and becoming less immersed.

Give it a try? Star Trek Online

Should I give Star Trek Online a try?

That all depends. With it being free to play, it won't cost anything to try it, but you may be wondering if its even worth your time.

I started Star Trek Online (STO) a couple months back. The last time I played was from release to 6 months after, so I have a huge gap of missed time. So far, I'm impressed with what I'm seeing.

What is there to like about STO?

Honestly, if you want to play this for Star Trek, you'll be happy. If you want to play this for story, it has its ups and downs. If you want to play this for exploration, you'll be happy here too. Now, if you want to play this for PvP, it's pretty light, and if you want to play this for unlocking everything, that will be very costly. There are a lot of special ships restricted to real money transactions (RMT), which is known as the in game store, and/or long game grinds, which means repeated tasks to earn up to a reward. The big but here is if you're happy with the core ships that are most common in the Star Trek universe, then you will be fine.

But I don't like game stores.

You can play for free forever. "Expansion" packs aren't for access, you can go to all the places, play (almost) all the races. Those packs are basically like large discounted store item packs, stuff you can ignore. When you start the game, you aren't greeted with a store page or anything. As a matter of fact, I almost forget there is even a store sometimes, except when lockboxes drop, and I usually just delete those. You're given a fair amount of inventory and bank space that is local to each character, and you have a reasonable amount of shared bank space. You don't need to make a lot of credits to play casually, and you can probably ignore the alternate dilithium currency unless you want to buy extra ships over the free one you get each 10 levels until 40.

What issues should I be aware of?

The free ships are built well enough to take you through the game, as long as you are casual. If you like to be best of the best, then you'll be hit by the store.

The biggest short coming would be the respec stuff. I know enough of the game to create my character without needing to respec, but for completely new people, that may hit you, but they are pretty cheap for real cash, or you'll have to grind out the dilithium and exchange that for the cash shop currency.

So, should I give Star Trek Online a try?

I think you should. It's a fun game that's casual friendly, lots of stuff to do solo or in groups, and it gives you a great sense of living as the captain of a ship in the Star Trek universe.

Hope that helps you decide whether to try it or not.

LLAP

LLAP

If you're not sure what that stands for, it means "Live long and prosper". It's a saying the late Leonard Nimoy said as his character Spock on the tv show Star Trek. It was his catch phrase when he was wishing someone farewell.

It became more than just a catch phrase for a imaginary character on a cancelled tv show, it became a house hold phrase. Mr. Nimoy adopted it in regular use, much like he uses in his twitter stream. It's been plastered everywhere, on mugs, t-shirts, posters, and just about any other material possession you can think of.

The phrase itself is a simple one. Live long and prosper. It means to live a long life and may you be successful in anything that you do. Leonard Nimoy was the personification of this phrase. He lived a full life and accomplished a lot. As of now, he passed on.

His character Spock would say that he simply stopped being. There's no scientific proof in an afterlife and his character is grounded in the evident and provable. Religiously, his spirit moved on to meet his maker. Philosophically, you exists as long as you are remembered.

I think Neil Degrasse Tyson put it best. The simple fact that you existed in this universe, the memory of time will remember you forever. What that means is subjectively up to the reader, but I take it as the immortality we all seek. I exist here and now, I made changes in this universe and that is enough for me to know the universe will remember me forever.

So to Leonard Nimoy, an actor, a director, a poet, a philosopher, a teacher and a father, where ever you are now, you are mourned, missed and respected by many, and by myself as well.

From one of your fans, may your memory live long and prosper.

LLAP

Why mechanics matter to me

Why are mechanics important to me?

Mechanics are the bones of the game, they make up the structure that supports everything in the game.

Mechanics are the muscles that give the game its strength.

Mechanics are the heart and soul of how you interact with that world.

Suffice it to say, mechanics are the key that makes a game a unique form of entertainment. Music, movies and television are all one sided, only giving you an on rails experience that is the exact same each time you replay it. Games are different.

Mechanics open up a two way communication between you and the media. It shows you a world, you control how that world tells you its story. Entertainment has been trying to do this for years, for example the “choose your own adventure” stories. I think the first one of those I read was an Animorph book. Do you remember Animorphs?

The two way communication is the Holy Grail when it comes to sharing experiences because no two people think alike.

This is why mechanics are important to me.

Star Trek Online - Combat - Mechanic Breakdown

Hello all, and welcome to my first mechanic breakdown. I’m going to discuss Star Trek Online’s combat mechanic. I've also included the video I did on it, for those who like a more personal feel.

How I’ll break this down will be in separate categories. Challenge, curiosity, control, cooperation, competitiveness and recognition. Each category, I believe, breaks down a mechanic in their most raw parts, each of which I’d like to discuss how they work.

So let’s get down to business and start breaking down Star Trek Online’s combat mechanic.

Challenge

Does the mechanic challenge your skills and knowledge, and for how long? Easy to learn, hard to master?

The combat mechanics are pretty simple to use. Press the button and they do the action they say they do. You have abilities that help your damage, heal you, increase defense, hinder your opponent, or a combination of those. The challenge isn’t gaining the abilities, as most of the skills in this game are very easy to get from a small in game credit amount. The challenge is mostly knowing what to do with them because there are a lot of abilities and little space to put them in. Some abilities are even redundant because you may not have room for it under science, but you may have room under your engineering. In the end I feel that the combat is challenging if you wish to get more in-depth with it, otherwise it’s pretty easy to pick up and use in most casual uses once you get the hang of it.

Curiosity

Does the mechanic make you want to learn it? How much is there to learn? Does it spark interest?

The level of depth and complexity of the mechanic does entice me to want to learn it. There’s a lot of unknown at the beginning. You’re given a small sample of what you can use when you start, between a single skill based off your class and some officers that has the ability to use their first skill slot. I feel this is a good setup to let you know what to work towards.

Control

How much of the mechanic do you have control over? Does the system let you do what you want, or are you following what the game wants you to do?

Recent combat changes give you the ability to train multiple skills on a single bridge officer. You can change them out when you need to switch out your abilities. In space combat, your personal skills are based on your class, while the rest of your abilities are determined by your bridge officers. Your given the decisions what skills to train your officers, and which ship to use. Each ship has a unique setup of the number of slots for each bridge officer class and how many tiers worth of skills they can use. You’re given full control over what officers are set to use on your ship, but you’re limited to a number of officers to use.

On ground, you’re given the use of personal skills that you can change out, depending on your kit and what you put in the kit, the class skills given to you at certain levels, and you bridge officer skills. Like the ships, your kits have a limited number of slots to put skills in and they are designed for two categories of skills. Some of the later kits have universal slots, but still limited to a number of them. This limits your control.

The amount of control you have is pretty high, but there are places it limits you. I feel these limits aren’t arbitrary and smartly done to create the need to come up with strategies. You are limited to the number of skills you have access to, and they are split among different categories space combat and ground.

Cooperation

Can you and another player use the mechanic together? How easy/hard is it to, if possible?

When you group up with another player, the enemies won’t scale in difficulty. I think this is because you can scale certain instance difficulties manually, and most quests are already balanced out for your bridge officers to take the place of other players. The missions themselves are set to give you a certain amount of officers to use for each mission, however the limit doesn’t prevent you from having a full group of players instead. Since the game is balanced on you using bridge officers, the difficulty does go down when using real players instead.

Like most MMOs, when you group with other players, you are taking on inherit problems as well, like down time waiting on AFK players, or waiting for players to reach their destination to start. These are minor due to systems put in place for players to be able to port to the start using in game credits. And depending on the difficulty of the quest you’re on, and how ok the group is on this subject, you can continue on while leaving the AFK member behind.

Grouping is also limited by faction. Klingon faction can only group with Klingons, Federation faction can only group with Feds and the Romulan faction can group with whomever they side with after 10.

Competitiveness

Can you use this mechanic on another player? How easy/hard is it to, if possible?

PvP combat is pretty much the same as it is in PvE. Some builds work better, but my overall sense is that the skills still work the same on a player as they do on the computer. In my small stint of playing some PvP, I found it to be more challenging than against the computer, go figure. The fights took longer to do because the opponent had better defense and could properly heal themselves and maneuver around my attacks.

Recognition

Does the system reward you for using this mechanic? Can you show other players your use of the mechanic? Do you feel rewarded for using the mechanic?

You’re rewarded with experience and item drops and continuing on the quests. These are minor to me since the item drops are pretty few because there are no vendor trash rewards, the experience alone won’t get you leveled quickly, and combat during quests are almost expected in an MMO environment, although being a Star Trek IP, I would think you would be rewarded more for avoiding a fight. In the end, I think the biggest reward you get from the combat system is more intrinsic. I enjoy the feeling of besting the opponent, even a computer. To see your opponent blow up and you’re still sailing, in a way.

Wrap-up

To recap, I believe the combat can be challenging, depending on how deep you want to delve into the mechanic. It does a good job getting you started and makes you want to learn the mechanic more. You have a lot of control over the mechanic with some limitations that are well done. You can group with others to fight within your faction, but it does loose some of the challenge in casual parts of the game. There’s PvP, it’s fun and challenging and it doesn’t get in the way of playing this game fully PvE. The physical reward is ok, but you won’t get much out of it.

In the end, I find the combat enjoyable. It’s fun and doesn’t get stale since you can easily change and try out new builds.

If you have any thoughts on this mechanic, please let me know. I look forward to any more discussion on this breakdown.

Post and they shall come

Hello, everyone. Tyrannodorkus here, and welcome to my blog. I hope to use this space to talk more about games and to complement my YouTube videos. Since this is my inaugural blog post, I wish to take this time to get a little bit about myself out.

I've been playing games since I was little, around 4 I believe. My first game system was the Nintendo, and along with it, the Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt.

My favorite game is Final Fantasy 7. I know, couldn't I have picked a more popular/over rated title? No, I say, for there is no better game than this! Actually, 7 had plenty of faults, but it came during a very impressionable time for me, when my mother moved my brother and I a few states over, separating us from our friends, family and dad. So this game had some themes I could connect with.

Favorite movie is Spaceballs. I'm a huge comedy junky, especially for some of the older comedies.

Last, but not least, I really don't care for long walks on the beach. They keep me away from technology for too long, plus I need to get back to my last quest, "Take a long walk on a beach".

That should just about do it for my first blog. I hope you enjoyed it and looking forward to bringing you more from the mind of a dork.

- Mr. Tyranny