The World is Random

So Scott and I being the dorks that we are decided to kill some time
teaching ourselves MTG in the hotel lobby.

It was completely obvious that we had no clue what we were doing. A
nice guy with a southern accent and hip salt and pepper hair came to
our rescue and spent about 20 minutes walking us through our first
game. At one point another dude came up and notified him that the van
was ready.

It turns out our MTG savior was the guitarist for the Old 97s, in town
for Bumbershoot. This is so rad! A pseudo-celebrity was our tutor and
he was super nice. What an awesome trip this has been. Seriously.

Hotel Lobby Post PAX08

So... sadly PAX is over, despite my desperate attempts to record my experiences and keep the spirit alive, which I will continue to do until I run out of crap to say.

However, I am currently chilling in the hotel lobby and the dork quotient remains ridiculously high. This joint is rife with tabletop gaming. Tons of mini D&D sessions, MTG players and board games make me feel like the nerd flames are still burning brightly. This makes me happy. :)

Unfortunately, I must sleep or my sleep rhythm will be fucked for the next week. Goodnight.

From Pencil to Pixels: Designing Virtual Worlds Part 2: TTP and the Thermostat Approach.

See Part 1


TTP and the Thermostat Approach

Of course the approach of giving users large amounts of power poses potential risks and monumental challenges in any virtual world. When at least 10% of your base plays as idiots and griefers, you have to expect that they will try to fuck up your game in any way they can imagine. When one of the panel's audience mentions "Sporn" and how user generated content definitely involves a large amount of the lowest common denominator, Dave Williams immediately mentions that his team likes to keep track of TTP: "time to penis" when allowing users free rein over their environment. If they can do it, they will do it. "Always have a griefer on your team" was a sound piece of advice. When you know the worst that can happen, you can prepare for that eventuality. Howver, if player created penises are your biggest concern, you're probably doing pretty well.

When another audience member frets that he expects that any world he creates that allows permanent user change will end a charred universe within hours, Dave's response hints at his engineering background; he recommendes implementing a creation/destruction negative feedback loop. "The more you destroy, the harder it becomes to destroy and the easier it becomes to build afresh." Razing a village? The next one will require twice the army strength. Keep in mind that your universe can be somewhat self-correcting and regulating. You can control some fundamental aspects of the world using ultimate hard and fast rules. Basically, you can't destroy Ironforge. Period.


Don't Make Your Players Bore Themselves Into Quitting


While the next piece of advice from Ed and Dave strays considerably from the previous sections relating to persistance and the delicate balance of flexibility and survivability, it's probably equally important to keep in mind when trying to create engaging, long-lasting, virtual worlds.


Path of least resistance will be the path most often taken. If the grind is the easiest way to max out your level that is what people will do. If there is one path that is super interesting and challenging and involves several story elements, but happens to be 5% less efficient than an epic mindless murloc slaughter which achieves the same endpoint, guess what players will do. Ultimately, this is your fault. As a world builder, creating the balance between effort, engagement and fun is difficult, but should be a high priority. You are competing for a players’ continued time, so if they accomplish their goal, but hate every second of it, they won’t continue playing. You pretty much fail at your ultimate objective, which is to keep people playing.


Soon to be Concluded: From Pencil to Pixels: Designing Virtual Worlds Part 3: Subtle Psychological Encouragement, Player Manipulation and You