By the way...

Everything's amazing.

Sitting in a chair in the sky

There's no such thing as "getting settled".

In a crazy turn of events, I've joined the DC Universe Online team as a designer. Yes, a designer. Cue George Takei.

I've joined a team of remarkably knowledgeable and passionate people. My only hope is to learn enough to contribute in some small way.

For now, I remain a humble sponge.

A good reason to suck at updating

Since my last update, I've attended another amazing GDC, moved to Austin, started a QA job with SOE and eaten about 48 Volcano Tacos (yes, they're back).

So yeah, I've been busy. Hope to start writing here again soon once I get settled.

Procrastination Prototypes

Here I am programming when I should be finishing up homework and getting ready for GDC.

Oh well. Just a quick prototype of an idea that woke me up at 5am:

Scribble Defense
-Draw to block bullets
-Mouse-over enemies to shoot missiles

Difficulty scales with score, so if you can get past 3000 points, you're better than me (or your browser is running it slower than 30 fps).

Okay, back to work.

I choose you Brett Favre!

Fantasy Football is Pokemon for men.

Yeah, think about it.

Subscription Driven RMT in MMOs

RMT (Real Money Trade) and microtransactions are extremely controversial topics in the MMO space (at least in the West). I would argue that both sides of the debate have valid points; however, I think there's room to compromise. Here's a system inspired by Eve Online's PLEX.

Everyone loves buzzwords, so I'm dubbing this:
Subscription Driven RMT.

The basic idea is players can buy a special in-game item, we'll call it a Gem of Longevity, for about the price of a normal month subscription. This item can be freely traded amongst players and sold normally on the Auction House. At any time, the player can "use" the gem in their inventory to gain a month worth of free time on their account.

To make this system worth it from a business standpoint, I would recommend that the Gems cost a bit more than a normal subscription. For most games, this would be around $16 (a dollar more than a normal subscription).

What this allows:

For players on the hardcore side of the spectrum:

• Can "buy" their subscription with in-game currency
  
• Those with extra time on their hands can realistically play for free

For players on the casual side of the spectrum:

• Can buy a Gem of Longevity for real life money and sell it for in-game currency
  
• Those with limited playtime can still progress at a competitive rate

Things to Note:

• In-game currency is not created, it is merely transfered between players
  
• The in-game value of the Gem is directly controlled by supply and demand
  
• Subscriptions are still being bought at the same rate, only the purchaser is changing
• With in-game Auction House fees, there's a small money sink (always a good thing)

Community Relations Tips:

• This is a *service*
• In-game value is controlled by supply and demand, developers have NO control over it
• Players will never be required to take part in this service (it's a SERVICE, it's there to help players)
• Safe and secure way to trade with other players
• Service, service, service

System Extensions

There's a broad range of possible extensions to this system. All depend heavily on the type of MMO in question and what design goals it may have.

Gem Splitting

A Gem of Longevity can be split into smaller parts. These parts can be sold and bought normally. At any time, a Gem can be reformed (if enough parts are present).

Example:

1x Gem of Longevity --splits into--> 4x Quartergem of Longevity
1x Quartergem of Longevity --splits into--> 4x Fragmentgem of Longevity

If you've been keeping score, that means the real life value of each item is:
1x Gem of Longevity ($16.00)
1x Quartergem of Longevity ($4.00)
1x Fragmentgem of Longevity ($1.00)

These smaller gem parts should also be purchasable with real-life money (or at least the Quartergem should). This allows players to participate in the system in more manageable bite-sized parts.

Splitting the gems into smaller pieces also opens the system up to even more possibilities.

Power Gems

Special items can be purchased with the smaller parts of a Gem. Note: None of these should ever give a special advantage over other players.

Power Gem of Training

• Bought from NPC vendor for 1x Fragmentgem of Longevity
  
• Equipable by max level characters
  
• When experience would normally be gained (either from a quest or a monster kill), a portion of it goes into the Power Gem
  
• Charging a gem takes a moderate amount of time (but can be equiped anywhere, including a raid or instance)
• When a Power Gem is fully charged, it becomes a Charged Gem of Training
  
• Can be traded normally

Charged Gem of Training

• Can be consumed by a non-max level character
  
• When consumed, the player receives a double experience buff
  
• Double experience lasts up to a predetermined amount of experience (scaled by level)
  
• Character must still work for their experience, they only receive the limited buff (they don't automatically receive the experience stored in the gem)
  

Power Gems can only be charged by max level characters.  This means that these items would only be usable after players start hitting the level cap.  If a level cap is increased (such as through an expansion) currently charged gems should only work up to the previous level cap (new charged gems can be created at the new max level).

The purpose of such a system is to allow players to level at a faster pace, but still requires the time investment of leveling a character.  A player might have an alt they wish to level up or a friend that joined the game late.  Traditionally, a year (or so) after launch, most of the player base has hit the max level.  Older content can sometimes be totally deserted.  Most new content is made specifically for higher level characters.  This helps cut down on the large level gap that can be seen in aged MMOs.

Players need not spend real-life money on these gems.  Again, because they are tradable, players can easily buy them for in-game currency.

Dual Currency

It might even be possible to develop a dual currency model (depending on the type of MMO). Many others have suggested and even implemented such a system.

Conclusion

Subscription Driven RMT has potential to bridge the gap between the two sides of the RMT controversy by offering both a valuable service.  The basic system is simple enough to work on its own, but there are also many additional opportunities for extending the service for players and providing additional revenue to the developer.

I'd really like to hear some feedback on this (such as what types of problems the system might encounter, or what issues players would have).

Real Life vs Virtual

Role of government in real life:
Catering to the majority while protecting the minority.

Role of developers of virtual worlds:
Catering to the majority while protecting against the minority.


These are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

MMO Community Enhancement

It is done.

trentish.com/community.html

Or as done as it can be at this point.

So what is "it"?

I'd say it's 50% compilation, 50% white paper, 50% proposal; which if my calculations are correct, adds up to 150% pure awesome.

I started this project for a few reasons. First, I love this stuff. I enjoy analyzing MMOs as much as I like playing them. I also learned a ton through doing the research for this. In fact, I'd say the second main reason I did this was for completely selfish reasons. I hope that someone somewhere gets some benefit out of it, but really, it was rewarding enough on its own to make it worth it to me.

I don't pretend to know everything and I'll be the first to tell you I have so much more to learn, but I hope I've at least managed to present some good ideas.

I welcome any and all feedback.

Time Soars

Has it really been a year already?

That would seem a ridiculous prospect, if not for everything that has happened. My desire to break into this industry has only intensified since then. I awake in the mornings with thoughts of game development grandeur and fall asleep to tomorrow's aspirations. I continue to strive to learn as much as there is to learn here on the outside.

My excitement has grown even more recently. I feel as if my debut is just around the corner. I'm ready now. Ready to take that entry-level step.

I'll probably look back next year on such words and see the naivety dripping off of them, as we are apt to do after a year's worth of personal growth. But I suppose that's the nature of growing older.

In March, I'm going to the Game Developers Conference as a Conference Associate once again. This time I return wiser and ready. My goal is to find an entry-level position or internship inside of the industry proper.

I'm hoping for entry-level production position, but those are rare enough as it is even without the current economic downturn. I'm more than willing to take a QA job or something in customer service. I'd prefer something relating to MMOs, but I'm not burning my bridges. At this point, I just need to break in and start showing people what I'm made of.

So there we are. One year down, with many on the horizon.

Happy Birthday blog.
Happy Birthday me.

Bagpipes and the Undead

I don't know if I would consider myself a follower of the genre, but I've always had a soft spot for Celtic music. There's not many things that can consistently have the effect of instantly taking me to a different place. I often wonder why this is.

Is it because I am of Celtic decent?
Is it merely from the knowledge of my heritage?
Is a susceptibility buried somewhere, hidden away in my DNA?
Or is it ingrained into us as humans, as beings, children of emotion and sensation?

Do others see as I do? Floating on the notes of a soft bagpipe, the swaying grassy plains of the highland stretched out beyond, standing atop a craggy cliff in a land I've never been to, chilled by a salty sea breeze from the western surf. Do others see it?

Maybe I need to stop watching Braveheart at 4:00 in the morning.

In reality, the right music can have the deepest of effects on us, even if it shouldn't. Take some footage of someone chopping vegetables, put a Clint Mansell score over it, and you'll somehow find yourself empathizing with the plight of the common celery. This of course leads to the dilution of great works. When everyone and their dog uses Lux Aeterna, it begins to lose its effect.

Blanketing your creation with great music will only lead to ineffectiveness through repetition. Successfully coupling the auditory high points with the visual ones is a vital part of creating those all important "neck-shiver" moments. This of course becomes exponentially more difficult when the medium is nonlinear.

Which, of course, brings us to games. (Oh don't pretend like you weren't expecting that transition. I can segue to the industry from eating pancakes with your Grandmother at a Japanese IHOP.)

Linear singleplayer games have an easier time with this. Not only are they generally shorter, but because they follow a set path, designers have a better idea of where to put music cues. They have somewhat more control over what the player is experiencing. Of course, they still can suffer from being too repetitive, depending on the length of the game and how much music is available.

Spore used a generative music system. It seemed to work well for that type of game. The music was always recognizable, but it still felt mostly fresh.

Unfortunately, music in multiplayer games generally gets shut off by players after awhile. It just gets too repetitive after multiple play sessions. Also, for the most part, the music is played at random times or might even be on repeat.*

*(Related note about Red Alert 3: I love you EALA, but dear god, looping music hurts me in the face. Also, there's a reason we love Frank Klepacki; give him more to do.)

Valve's Left 4 Dead has attempted to remedy this. As Tim Larkin explains in the audio commentary, "We took several steps to keep the music interesting enough that the players would be inclined to keep it on as they play. We keep it changing so it won't become tedious; to this end, we created a music director that runs alongside the AI director, tracking the player's experience rather than their emotional state. We keep the music appropriate to each player's situation and highly personalized. The music engine in Left 4 Dead has a complete client-side, multi-track system per player that is completely unique to that player and can even be monitored by the spectators. Since some of the fun of Left 4 Dead is watching your friends when you're dead, we thought it was important to hear their personal soundtrack as well. This feature is unique to Left 4 Dead."

From personal experience, turning off the music in L4D is a very bad idea. The gameplay cues (such as when a Witch or Tank is nearby, or a zombie horde is incoming) you get through the music are very important. And honestly, even after playing it awhile (read: too much), I have no desire to turn it off. In my eyes, they succeeded.

So what about MMOs? Is it possible to have effective music that lasts?

A few people over at Slipgate Ironworks (John Romero's startup) are trying to do just that. They're developing what they call a "Generative Adaptive Music System" for their MMO. Rather than only having a set soundtrack, music is generated on the spot. Different zones might have different instruments or "feels" associated with them. As Jim Hedges explains in the article, "We don't want the music to tell the player how to feel -- we want to create a sound canvas that hopefully supports how the player is feeling." It's hard to know how successful it will be until we hear it in action, but it sounds very innovative.

These sorts of systems are trying to bring us to the next step in music. They're striving to not just be generative, but adaptive. That is, matching the high points in the music with the high points in gameplay. The music adapts to what is on the screen.

I think this is where the future lies. Luckily, there's a large trend in the industry to make gameplay itself more adaptive. By watching what our player is doing, as well what challenge level our player seems to be at, we can cater to them better. The more we can keep track of this and act accordingly, the better our players will be immersed and achieve a flow-like state. Hopefully, music can be a part of this trend.

The next logical step, of course, is in a few years when we might even have access to what our players are actually feeling. That's a blog post for another time, but my neck is shivering just thinking about it.