Friday we attended two fascinating panels that I didn't write about at all. I have pretty much been taking ass loads of notes in my little moleskine and keeping them to myself.
Every panel involves people who know their shit being asked intelligent questions from an informed audience. It rocks and really has been one of the highlights of the show for me. I have learned tons and really haven't talked about it in this little blog project. It's just seemed too daunting to try and boil it down into essay form. Oh well, here goes.
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"From Pencil to Pixels: Designing Virtual Worlds" was led by two bearded friendly looking middle aged dudes who each had impressive resumes involving tabletop role playing/trading card games and had recently jumped over to designing an MMOG for Red 5 Studios. They couldn't really talk about their current project, but they had plenty of critiques and insights into the current market.
Your Actions Matter or "Tools Not Rules"
Ed Stark and Dave Williams from Red 5 wanted to talk about the best thing about MMOs: persistance. You leave, the game goes on. Ultimately, current bohemoths in the MMOG space (like, say WoW) allow players to make temporary changes to the world but doesn't allow them to make fundamental, permanent changes to their world. SWG allowed this to a limited extent with the "create your own house/vendor tent" and "player city" mechanic but this didn't affect the game in any real way. Ed and Dave envision a world were players on a server can decide the direction their story takes; the player base calls the shots, the virtual world just facilitates their actions. User developed content can create truly unique and engaging experiences and will keep people playing longer.
Soon: From Pencil to Pixels: Designing Virtual Worlds Part 2: TTP and the Thermostat Approach.
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1 comment:
You actions matter...
They TOTALLY stole that idea from me! I've been complaining about that since day numero uno about WoW! Ask Eliot! He'll tell you!
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