Greetings friends,
So for those who know me away from the Internet, you'll know that the past few weeks I've been heavily focused on following the delivery of Dark Souls the Board Game within the U.K.
This is largely because I was someone who backed the game, but also because I've spent the last 12 or so months loving the Souls videogames, even playing the original Demon's Souls on my PS3.
One of the things I have seen recently is how a large number of people view house rules.
Now this is interesting to me, because what one person considers totally 'normal' is apparently not to other people, and I like to explore the hows and whys, because after all, we can only see the world through our own eyes and experiences, so trying to understand from the views of others can be of great benefit.
***
My stance is really simple.
I love house rules.
I do not think there is a single game I have played where I haven't House Ruled at least one thing.
It's just how I game, I find something I like, and I try to make it better.
Sometimes these additional rules make the game less enjoyable, but more often than not, it becomes more enjoyable.
Others do not share this opinion.
Over on the Dark Souls Board Game Facebook Group, I have seen countless people who say such comments as "the designers developed the game, we should therefore play it as it was intended".
I can see where they are coming from, but if a different/additional rule will either make the game more enjoyable (or in some cases, turn a not-enjoyable game, into one you do enjoy) then what harm is there?
I know for the past few months I have been going over the Dark Souls rulebook and changing rules for my own play, some of which are done to make sense to me such as the rule about death of a single player resetting the encounter. Another rule I have changed is about losing 'sparks' or lives when you voluntarily reset the encounters. For me this change gives players control over how long they play, and if they want to spend an entire evening grinding the same room repeatedly in order to max their stats and get the best gear, then they can do so, after all in the video games you can pretty much do the same things in order to get higher levels. It isn't without tradeoff, what you gain from additional currency, you lose in time.
These are my rules, and after playing some games over the weekend, I can honestly say that they have already made my experiences more enjoyable.
So then, with that in mind, surely if I, and in this example, the others I am playing with, have more fun, then that is a great thing? It is win/win, right?
Not according to some...
***
I remember a number of years ago, when the company Wyrd moved Malifaux from edition 1.5 to 2.0, there was a similar discussion right there about this exact sort of thing.
From what I remember going back, there were maybe 3 or 4 camps of public speaking players. You had those who jumped on board with the new edition, you had those who were adverse to any change at all, then you had those in the middle who wanted to pick and choose from either edition, and of course you had those who didn't give a crap.
I remember I was in the camp who wanted to pick and choose rules, to stick with what we liked from 1.5, and add what we liked from 2.0 (pre-measuring for example). I even remember a certain someone who tried to rally those of us who thought similar under a banner before being required to shut down proceedings, and it was these actions which lead him and I to become friends, so that's pretty cool in a way...
I remember at the time, there we so many who hated the idea of house rules, who said quite adamantly that unless the developers have declared it to be a hard rule, that it didn't count and shouldn't be followed.
Others of course gave reasons that made more sense to me, such as tournaments. The argument meant that tournaments needed to follow official rules so that anyone who attended knew straight off the bat what rules to follow.
This does make sense to me, but then there is the discussion of 'Comp', something I understand became popular during the Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) days. The idea was simple, when you signed up to an event you were also given (nowerdays via a digital download) a set of custom rules, such as points adjustment for models, banned/restricted models, and of course adjusted rulesets.
The idea was straight forward, that it was the responsibility for every player to familiarise themselves with these custom rules, just like it was their responsibility to familiarise themselves with how many points they were allowed to take, or where the venue for the event would be.
***
Ok, so I have given my argument for why house rules are 'good' in my opinion, but why are they important? Why should they be encouraged rather than discouraged?
Well, for me, from a cognitive view point, it's for two reasons.
For starters, no game design team is infallible. They/we make mistakes. Lots of them, a lot of the time. Things are made overpowered, and underpowered, must take, unplayable, unfun, nonsensical, and of course, ill thought out.
A game designer can not test for everything, and even if there is a mass market open beta, there will still be only a select number of combinations that will be tested, compared to the almost limitless combination when the project is set loose in the wild.
In some cases these house rules, or 'comps' will make the game more balanced for their select meta. In other cases, they will add whole new ideas that you and your team had never imagined, and just because they are different, that doesn't make them wrong.
If anything, I would say that game designers should not only actively encourage house ruling, but they should get waist deep in those house rules themselves, experience what is new and different for themselves.
***
Who knows? Maybe I'm just talking out of my arse.
What I do know, if I had a game that was selling like hot cakes, I would be actively encouraging the player base to try new things, and when they do, to share them with us...
And who knows, maybe people would then find those house rules being added into the next revision of the ruleset?
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Tuesday 2 May 2017
Temperature Management - A game idea set in the First Law: Override universe
Greetings friends!
So yesterday while going on brief walk in an attempt to get a little fitter (read: need to get a lot fitter) I had an idea, something that I have been thinking about for a while on the severe back burner, but which finally clicked into place.
We are talking about a game idea for a First Law: Override spin off with a strong theme around temperature management.
Sounds a little crazy I know, but hear me out!
***
From a fluff stand point: We have the 5 main regions on Honos, The Deadzone, The Badlands, the Midlands, New Brasilia, and the Frozen North.
Out of these regions, most fluff, and therefore gameplay focuses on the middle 3, The Badlands, the Midlands, and New Brasilia. The Deadzone and Frozen North are too inhospitable for people to travel around freely.
But what about a game that not only takes these ideas and plays with them?
The Frozen North, called so because it's biodome has yet to terraform the already frozen landscape from its massive ice block, but it has made the air breathable.
As part of the fluff, there is a massive amount of resources in the Frozen North, from raw materials such as minerals and fossil fuels, to research data including ancient alien artefacts.
In other words, exactly the sort of place the Honos Mining Corporation (HMC) would be interested in laying claim to...
What the HMC don't know however, the Frozen North used to be home to more than just ancient aliens and fossilised trees, as the region is now the resting place for numerous slumbering hives of monstrous bug like alien creatures!
This is the game idea that I've had swimming around for a while, I wasn't sure exactly the pretence, or who you're characters were, but this weekend it all slipped into place (I wouldn't be surprised if playing the new Dark Souls Board Game had something to do with it).
So the game is set in HMC mine RA-795 which has been recently abandoned, reports received reveal that they left in a hurry after digging too deep and releasing a long dormant threat.
RA-795 is positioned right in the centre of the Frozen North, meaning you can't travel it without external heating sources, originating from either powerful but unwieldy heat lamps, or the more lightweight, but less powerful, thermosuits.
Each organisation from Override is there, each presenting an agent of their own to try and capture information, but of course one important factor is that the organisations don't want to look like they are sending an aggressive force, and so are instead sending single units to work cooperatively and establish their goals, meaning you will have team goals, but also individual goals, some of these will be to retrieve research data, others will be to hamper others from achieving their goals (after all, the Trydan never play fair).
So we are talking about a game that is typically a dungeon crawler, only the differences here is that it is focused more on dynamic, thematic situations, all the while having the team very much aware of the encroaching cold and darkness.
Imagine if you will a temperature chart. When someone is in a safe room, under a heat lamp, their temperature is in the blue. We like blue, blue is good.
But that character, let's call them Jones... so Jones leaves the safe room and steps into the cold. They are walking along at a nice pace, the floor is well lit, so their thermo suit has kicked in, but is ticking into the green. Green is fine, not as great as blue, but it's fine.
But wait, the area ahead is dark, so on come Jones' inbuilt Suit lights, this drains the thermo suit even more, this knocks the suit down to the orange. Oh dear, Orange isn't looking so good.
Jones reaches the next safe room, but it's not powered on, Jones needs to power it up which is not good, the noise of the generator starting is sure going to attract anything and everything in the area... so Jones bunkers down and prepares to hold the area while the generator powers up...
Only problem, the thermo Suit has a routine kinetic charger built in, Jones is no now longer walking, but crouched down behind cover waiting for a wave of bugs to come crashing in, so the Thermo Suit has less power... now it moves into the red....
Red is really bad, Jones can't hold out for long in the red as the suit's power supply is pushed to the limits, Jones jogs on the spot to try and get the charger working, but it bearly blinks beyond red...
Then the wave of aliens arrive, with claws and teeth they leap at Jones. Jones' rifle fires off shots and the aliens fall to the floor, but not before one of them tears a small hole in Jones' Thermo Suit.
Instantly the cold air rushes into the suit, while thermo fluid pours out of the opening, the suit struggles, but it can't retain the internal pressure, it drops to Black and Jones can feel their body beginning to seize up from the cold.
Jones' health begins to plummet, the cold cloying at skin and bone. Within Jones' inventory there is a patch which is applied across the hole and restores it to a low level red scale.
The power turns on, the heat lamps activate, and light fills the room, and Jones' suit can reduce it's stress. It returns to Orange. Jones knows that a replacement suit will need to be sourced, or else with the slightest further damage, it will give up and death will be inevitable.
Jones sets out to explore what is left of the mine level, hoping to find a supply cupboard, outside the safe room it is dark, but Jones keeps the suit lights turned off, the suit can't take that sort of strain anymore.
Ahead there is a deep rumble and growl, Jones readies the rifle, but without the suit lights it is impossible to see more than a few feet in front.
A large alien creature prowls into view, it pounces and lands on top of Jones, it's claws tearing up the front of the suit.
The cold rushes in, Jones freezes in an instant, and is dragged off by the creature to be eaten later...
***
This is the pretence for the game, and it's only loose at the moment, with little back it up in terms of actual gameplay, and I'm unsure when I'll be able to expand on it, but it seems to me to be something that could be fun.
To date I've got the following characters planned, because unlike a normal game of Override, this game would have preset characters:
UEF Soldier: Comes with a high powered rifle, and deployable auto turret.
HMC Security: Equipped with a prototype Thermo Suit, better survivability, but less damage output.
Wraith Assassin: Melee combatant with a focus on dodging and movement.
Trydan Hitman: General overall combatant, great against single targets, but easily overrun.
Red Claw Warrior: Melee focus, tough to take down but inferior Thermo tech.
Regime Warrior: Toughly armoured, but slow moving.
Raider Combo: A 2 player combo, one plays a hacking Ghost with great abilities at interfacing with facility tech, the other with a custom combat mech, great for combat by unable to interface.
Working together, there is little these characters can't deal with, alone however they have massive weaknesses.
***
And that's it.
Sound good? Sound bad?
Let me know your thoughts.
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So yesterday while going on brief walk in an attempt to get a little fitter (read: need to get a lot fitter) I had an idea, something that I have been thinking about for a while on the severe back burner, but which finally clicked into place.
We are talking about a game idea for a First Law: Override spin off with a strong theme around temperature management.
Sounds a little crazy I know, but hear me out!
***
From a fluff stand point: We have the 5 main regions on Honos, The Deadzone, The Badlands, the Midlands, New Brasilia, and the Frozen North.
Out of these regions, most fluff, and therefore gameplay focuses on the middle 3, The Badlands, the Midlands, and New Brasilia. The Deadzone and Frozen North are too inhospitable for people to travel around freely.
But what about a game that not only takes these ideas and plays with them?
The Frozen North, called so because it's biodome has yet to terraform the already frozen landscape from its massive ice block, but it has made the air breathable.
As part of the fluff, there is a massive amount of resources in the Frozen North, from raw materials such as minerals and fossil fuels, to research data including ancient alien artefacts.
In other words, exactly the sort of place the Honos Mining Corporation (HMC) would be interested in laying claim to...
What the HMC don't know however, the Frozen North used to be home to more than just ancient aliens and fossilised trees, as the region is now the resting place for numerous slumbering hives of monstrous bug like alien creatures!
This is the game idea that I've had swimming around for a while, I wasn't sure exactly the pretence, or who you're characters were, but this weekend it all slipped into place (I wouldn't be surprised if playing the new Dark Souls Board Game had something to do with it).
So the game is set in HMC mine RA-795 which has been recently abandoned, reports received reveal that they left in a hurry after digging too deep and releasing a long dormant threat.
RA-795 is positioned right in the centre of the Frozen North, meaning you can't travel it without external heating sources, originating from either powerful but unwieldy heat lamps, or the more lightweight, but less powerful, thermosuits.
Each organisation from Override is there, each presenting an agent of their own to try and capture information, but of course one important factor is that the organisations don't want to look like they are sending an aggressive force, and so are instead sending single units to work cooperatively and establish their goals, meaning you will have team goals, but also individual goals, some of these will be to retrieve research data, others will be to hamper others from achieving their goals (after all, the Trydan never play fair).
So we are talking about a game that is typically a dungeon crawler, only the differences here is that it is focused more on dynamic, thematic situations, all the while having the team very much aware of the encroaching cold and darkness.
Imagine if you will a temperature chart. When someone is in a safe room, under a heat lamp, their temperature is in the blue. We like blue, blue is good.
But that character, let's call them Jones... so Jones leaves the safe room and steps into the cold. They are walking along at a nice pace, the floor is well lit, so their thermo suit has kicked in, but is ticking into the green. Green is fine, not as great as blue, but it's fine.
But wait, the area ahead is dark, so on come Jones' inbuilt Suit lights, this drains the thermo suit even more, this knocks the suit down to the orange. Oh dear, Orange isn't looking so good.
Jones reaches the next safe room, but it's not powered on, Jones needs to power it up which is not good, the noise of the generator starting is sure going to attract anything and everything in the area... so Jones bunkers down and prepares to hold the area while the generator powers up...
Only problem, the thermo Suit has a routine kinetic charger built in, Jones is no now longer walking, but crouched down behind cover waiting for a wave of bugs to come crashing in, so the Thermo Suit has less power... now it moves into the red....
Red is really bad, Jones can't hold out for long in the red as the suit's power supply is pushed to the limits, Jones jogs on the spot to try and get the charger working, but it bearly blinks beyond red...
Then the wave of aliens arrive, with claws and teeth they leap at Jones. Jones' rifle fires off shots and the aliens fall to the floor, but not before one of them tears a small hole in Jones' Thermo Suit.
Instantly the cold air rushes into the suit, while thermo fluid pours out of the opening, the suit struggles, but it can't retain the internal pressure, it drops to Black and Jones can feel their body beginning to seize up from the cold.
Jones' health begins to plummet, the cold cloying at skin and bone. Within Jones' inventory there is a patch which is applied across the hole and restores it to a low level red scale.
The power turns on, the heat lamps activate, and light fills the room, and Jones' suit can reduce it's stress. It returns to Orange. Jones knows that a replacement suit will need to be sourced, or else with the slightest further damage, it will give up and death will be inevitable.
Jones sets out to explore what is left of the mine level, hoping to find a supply cupboard, outside the safe room it is dark, but Jones keeps the suit lights turned off, the suit can't take that sort of strain anymore.
Ahead there is a deep rumble and growl, Jones readies the rifle, but without the suit lights it is impossible to see more than a few feet in front.
A large alien creature prowls into view, it pounces and lands on top of Jones, it's claws tearing up the front of the suit.
The cold rushes in, Jones freezes in an instant, and is dragged off by the creature to be eaten later...
***
This is the pretence for the game, and it's only loose at the moment, with little back it up in terms of actual gameplay, and I'm unsure when I'll be able to expand on it, but it seems to me to be something that could be fun.
To date I've got the following characters planned, because unlike a normal game of Override, this game would have preset characters:
UEF Soldier: Comes with a high powered rifle, and deployable auto turret.
HMC Security: Equipped with a prototype Thermo Suit, better survivability, but less damage output.
Wraith Assassin: Melee combatant with a focus on dodging and movement.
Trydan Hitman: General overall combatant, great against single targets, but easily overrun.
Red Claw Warrior: Melee focus, tough to take down but inferior Thermo tech.
Regime Warrior: Toughly armoured, but slow moving.
Raider Combo: A 2 player combo, one plays a hacking Ghost with great abilities at interfacing with facility tech, the other with a custom combat mech, great for combat by unable to interface.
Working together, there is little these characters can't deal with, alone however they have massive weaknesses.
***
And that's it.
Sound good? Sound bad?
Let me know your thoughts.
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Thursday 30 March 2017
The Secret World now Secret World Legends
Greetings friends,
So the big news of the week for me is that The Secret World is no more, instead 'rebranded' as Secret World Legends. For an official 'letter' see here.
For those who didn't know, The Secret World (TSW) was an amazingly fun game that was released all the way back in 2012.
It was an MMO, Massively Multiplayer Online game which required you as players to use real world skills such as translation, research, music reading etc, to decode puzzles in the virtual setting of modern day.
You will notice I have been using the past tense of 'was' rather than the current tense of 'is'.
That is because as of yesterday, the parent company FunCom have basically put the game to rest.
In the above linked statement, and it seems a fair few interviews which you can find if you just search for the game, they announced that support for TSW is being stopped, and instead they are releasing a whole new game Secret World Legends (SWL) with updated graphics, revamped combat, streamlined questing, and best of all, it's free!
Or so that is the press release anyway.
If you go to their homepage secretworldlegends.com you will see a trailer for the new game, a trailer which shows off 1 thing, the game's inengine opening cutscene, no combat, no new quest progression, only graphics.
Want to know what is funny? It looks identical to as it used to, I quite literally can not see with my untrained eye, any difference.
But surely not? I mean we were promised updated visuals, and what about all those spin off games they have done, The Park, Hide & Shriek? And of course Conan Exiles? They were all done in Unreal4, surely they have ported this to U4 and it's amazingly stable and multi award winning engine?
Hell no...
I'm serious, it's the same engine that it launched in, back in 2012, only with more stress requirements thrown on top, so now rather than turning texture filtering up to 10, you can turn it up to 11.
Will it be an improvement? Probably, but will it be noticeable? Probably not.
***
For those who have followed my blog for a while, you may be aware of Ghosted Algorithms, my secondary blog which was covering the story of my TSW character. As with many MMO players, I developed a strong affinity with my character in the game, namely because the story was very intriguing.
And what is happening to him? To my brave yet geeky Simon who with his team of Illuminati defeated some of the scariest supernatural threats to the modern world?
He's being left in the old client.
Yup no characters are being progressed over, instead FunCom are trying to sell it as a 'new start' and a chance to play through the fun again.
***
The thing is, and I've been saying this for a while, the team who have been recently working on this game have drastically changed the direction of the game. When me and my friends started playing it, the game's focus was on story and atmosphere, and in the past couple of years, the content they have released rather than being story focused, has instead focused on grind and repetition, transforming a truly wonderful multiplayer experience, into a grindfest more synonymous with a Korean MMO.
In other words they lost the gameplay that made them unique, their USP of you will.
So now, rather than providing new story content, which is what we've been asking for, for over 2 years at this point, they are instead asking us to repeat everything we have already done.
Really?!?
It actually feels unreal that I am typing this. They are literally asking us to replay the same story arcs all over again, meanwhile promising that if we do so, they will provide new story content at some point.
The thing is, they told us the same before, that new story content was coming, and on that promise I maintained my reoccurring subscription to the game for 2 whole years with next to nothing to show for it as the content being released was just grind material that did not interest me or my gaming group.
Yup, that's over £275 sent to Funcom with no return for me.
Seems a bit silly I know, why pay that money to FunCom if you are not going to see a return?
Because I hoped I might see a return.
A very large number of the long playing members of TSW have purchased what is called a 'Lifetime Membership', basically you pay something like £220, and stay a member for the length of the game. No more purchases required. Which as I just covered is roughly equal to less than years of reoccurring subscriptions.
When TSW released, my youngling was less than 1 year old, and I frankly didn't have the disposable cash to throw down £200+ on a lifetime membership, however I did (and do) have the disposable income to send £11.50 a month Funcom's way. To give you an idea, I have over 50 months under my belt. That's over £600 in subscription fees alone! I could have bought 3 lifetime subs with that.
But even when my disposable situation changed and I could afford to buy a lifetime, I still decided not to, why? Because I wanted to see Funcom do well.
I know a thing or two about economics, and I know that £200 per person is not enough to support a company long term, they need a lot more, over a much longer time period, and I wanted to help that become possible.
For years I was promised that TSW's story would continue, and I knew that would only be possible with regular money, so I kept paying hoping to see that return.
Yeah, I know. That's the sort of thing a gullible fool says.
***
Around 3 months ago, I woke up. I had been paying for roughly 2 years with nothing to show for it other than empty promises, so I decided that enough was enough, and cancelled my subscription.
***
Now we get the news about SWL, including the acknowledgment that Lifetime Members will retain their lifetime status in the new game, while people like me, those who have contributed more than 3 times that of a lifetime payment in subscriptions alone (that is not including micro transactions, which probably take the value I have spent over £1,000) have nothing to show for it, other than the 'fun' of repeating the same missions again, only with in-noticeable graphical increases.
***
You see, it is my opinion, rightly or wrongly, that lifetime membership accounts are part of the problem, and a large reason we are here today.
Basically Funcom have been struggling to keep their lights on. This is evidenced by massive layoffs, a change of subscription, a refocus on 'spin off games', and now this 'relaunch'.
Why might this be? Could it be because there are a lot of people who either have free accounts, or lifetime subs, and therefore haven't contributed to the running of Funcom in many, many, years?
Who's fault is this?
Should the blame lay at the feet of the gamers who unlike me either had the disposable income at the time, or decided that it was a better return to make the 1 large payout rather than smaller (but more) payments in the long run?
Of course not!
The blame lays fully at the feet of Funcom for thinking that they would be able to keep everything running at full speed without everyone paying every month.
***
So what would I like?
Do I think that Funcom should give retroactive Lifetime Subscriptions to those who have paid say, double the value of a lifetime account? No, not at all - but it would be nice.
No, what I think Funcom should do, is support the game they pledged to. That means adding new content to TSW, NOT putting it into a limbo where it will eventually die of attrition.
People who want to play through the story we have been waiting (and in my case, paying for) shouldn't have to play through what is basically the same game, yet again, even more so because this new game isn't even launching with the upto date content of the current game.
- Yup, basically any content released over the past 3 or so years is not going to be available at launch.
Funcom are promising that we will see his content released soon after SWL goes live, but they have been promising we would see that content 'soon' for literally two years, so I have no faith in their word whatsoever.
***
You know what I want to do? I want to go onto social media, or even in person, and start shouting at Funcom. To tell them how I feel, and how pretty disgusting this treatment is to those who have supported them, but I know that not only would they not listen, even if they did, they wouldn't care.
Plus that would just make me an asshole for trying...
...so yeah...
Goodnight TSW, you were the best MMO I ever played...
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So the big news of the week for me is that The Secret World is no more, instead 'rebranded' as Secret World Legends. For an official 'letter' see here.
For those who didn't know, The Secret World (TSW) was an amazingly fun game that was released all the way back in 2012.
It was an MMO, Massively Multiplayer Online game which required you as players to use real world skills such as translation, research, music reading etc, to decode puzzles in the virtual setting of modern day.
You will notice I have been using the past tense of 'was' rather than the current tense of 'is'.
That is because as of yesterday, the parent company FunCom have basically put the game to rest.
In the above linked statement, and it seems a fair few interviews which you can find if you just search for the game, they announced that support for TSW is being stopped, and instead they are releasing a whole new game Secret World Legends (SWL) with updated graphics, revamped combat, streamlined questing, and best of all, it's free!
Or so that is the press release anyway.
If you go to their homepage secretworldlegends.com you will see a trailer for the new game, a trailer which shows off 1 thing, the game's inengine opening cutscene, no combat, no new quest progression, only graphics.
Want to know what is funny? It looks identical to as it used to, I quite literally can not see with my untrained eye, any difference.
But surely not? I mean we were promised updated visuals, and what about all those spin off games they have done, The Park, Hide & Shriek? And of course Conan Exiles? They were all done in Unreal4, surely they have ported this to U4 and it's amazingly stable and multi award winning engine?
Hell no...
I'm serious, it's the same engine that it launched in, back in 2012, only with more stress requirements thrown on top, so now rather than turning texture filtering up to 10, you can turn it up to 11.
Will it be an improvement? Probably, but will it be noticeable? Probably not.
***
For those who have followed my blog for a while, you may be aware of Ghosted Algorithms, my secondary blog which was covering the story of my TSW character. As with many MMO players, I developed a strong affinity with my character in the game, namely because the story was very intriguing.
And what is happening to him? To my brave yet geeky Simon who with his team of Illuminati defeated some of the scariest supernatural threats to the modern world?
He's being left in the old client.
Yup no characters are being progressed over, instead FunCom are trying to sell it as a 'new start' and a chance to play through the fun again.
***
The thing is, and I've been saying this for a while, the team who have been recently working on this game have drastically changed the direction of the game. When me and my friends started playing it, the game's focus was on story and atmosphere, and in the past couple of years, the content they have released rather than being story focused, has instead focused on grind and repetition, transforming a truly wonderful multiplayer experience, into a grindfest more synonymous with a Korean MMO.
In other words they lost the gameplay that made them unique, their USP of you will.
So now, rather than providing new story content, which is what we've been asking for, for over 2 years at this point, they are instead asking us to repeat everything we have already done.
Really?!?
It actually feels unreal that I am typing this. They are literally asking us to replay the same story arcs all over again, meanwhile promising that if we do so, they will provide new story content at some point.
The thing is, they told us the same before, that new story content was coming, and on that promise I maintained my reoccurring subscription to the game for 2 whole years with next to nothing to show for it as the content being released was just grind material that did not interest me or my gaming group.
Yup, that's over £275 sent to Funcom with no return for me.
Seems a bit silly I know, why pay that money to FunCom if you are not going to see a return?
Because I hoped I might see a return.
A very large number of the long playing members of TSW have purchased what is called a 'Lifetime Membership', basically you pay something like £220, and stay a member for the length of the game. No more purchases required. Which as I just covered is roughly equal to less than years of reoccurring subscriptions.
When TSW released, my youngling was less than 1 year old, and I frankly didn't have the disposable cash to throw down £200+ on a lifetime membership, however I did (and do) have the disposable income to send £11.50 a month Funcom's way. To give you an idea, I have over 50 months under my belt. That's over £600 in subscription fees alone! I could have bought 3 lifetime subs with that.
But even when my disposable situation changed and I could afford to buy a lifetime, I still decided not to, why? Because I wanted to see Funcom do well.
I know a thing or two about economics, and I know that £200 per person is not enough to support a company long term, they need a lot more, over a much longer time period, and I wanted to help that become possible.
For years I was promised that TSW's story would continue, and I knew that would only be possible with regular money, so I kept paying hoping to see that return.
Yeah, I know. That's the sort of thing a gullible fool says.
***
Around 3 months ago, I woke up. I had been paying for roughly 2 years with nothing to show for it other than empty promises, so I decided that enough was enough, and cancelled my subscription.
***
Now we get the news about SWL, including the acknowledgment that Lifetime Members will retain their lifetime status in the new game, while people like me, those who have contributed more than 3 times that of a lifetime payment in subscriptions alone (that is not including micro transactions, which probably take the value I have spent over £1,000) have nothing to show for it, other than the 'fun' of repeating the same missions again, only with in-noticeable graphical increases.
***
You see, it is my opinion, rightly or wrongly, that lifetime membership accounts are part of the problem, and a large reason we are here today.
Basically Funcom have been struggling to keep their lights on. This is evidenced by massive layoffs, a change of subscription, a refocus on 'spin off games', and now this 'relaunch'.
Why might this be? Could it be because there are a lot of people who either have free accounts, or lifetime subs, and therefore haven't contributed to the running of Funcom in many, many, years?
Who's fault is this?
Should the blame lay at the feet of the gamers who unlike me either had the disposable income at the time, or decided that it was a better return to make the 1 large payout rather than smaller (but more) payments in the long run?
Of course not!
The blame lays fully at the feet of Funcom for thinking that they would be able to keep everything running at full speed without everyone paying every month.
***
So what would I like?
Do I think that Funcom should give retroactive Lifetime Subscriptions to those who have paid say, double the value of a lifetime account? No, not at all - but it would be nice.
No, what I think Funcom should do, is support the game they pledged to. That means adding new content to TSW, NOT putting it into a limbo where it will eventually die of attrition.
People who want to play through the story we have been waiting (and in my case, paying for) shouldn't have to play through what is basically the same game, yet again, even more so because this new game isn't even launching with the upto date content of the current game.
- Yup, basically any content released over the past 3 or so years is not going to be available at launch.
Funcom are promising that we will see his content released soon after SWL goes live, but they have been promising we would see that content 'soon' for literally two years, so I have no faith in their word whatsoever.
***
You know what I want to do? I want to go onto social media, or even in person, and start shouting at Funcom. To tell them how I feel, and how pretty disgusting this treatment is to those who have supported them, but I know that not only would they not listen, even if they did, they wouldn't care.
Plus that would just make me an asshole for trying...
...so yeah...
Goodnight TSW, you were the best MMO I ever played...
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Wednesday 22 February 2017
First Law: Override @ DaffCon2017
Greetings friends!
So I saw something the other day which was like a blow of reality straight to the face, namely these posts on Facebook:
When you read these, what do you see?
Oh yeah, First Law: Override in both the Demo Pit, and a Sunday Tournament...
Well, that was something that I had totally put on the back burner...
I see it now, and I remember discussing all of this before, then the Moonstone KickStarter began, and pushing anything serious with First Law: Override suddenly became an afterthought until we were able to get Moonstone out the door.
***
But there it is, in black letter, on white writing...
***
This has reminded me in a metaphorically painful way that I still have existing commitments, I have pledged my name for Override, a game that I still believe has the potential to be an industry stable. It's theme and setting is both interesting and intriguing, while it's ruleset is engaging while simple.
Quite simply, it is a great game which reminds me just how great it is every time I play it!
So what does this mean friends? Is Lox-San abandoning one of you? If he going to turn his back on the loyal readers of New Fairbank News to devote all his time on Moonstone and thereby cancelling the world first First Law: Override Tournament to give Moonstone his all? If he dropping out of Goblin King Games to put all his drive into Override?
No. No to both of those damnit!
***
You see, dropping either game isn't a possibility for me. At Chez Lox we never say die (we're like Goonies in that way).
Instead I am reminded of the storyline to the Legacy of Kain video games. I flip a coin and on one side we have Override, on the other we have Moonstone...
...but what about the 3rd choice? What about the side of the coin?
It might seem hard, if not impossible, but could it be that we could actually wrangle the impossible?
Could I actually support both games?
If you are a backer to the Moonstone KickStarter, you will almost certainly have read the fortnightly updates, and if you hadn't guessed, these were all written by me, your friendly neighbourhood Dr Loxley. Likewise, you may have heard about a certain world map being devised. This is something that I've been lead on, because after all, my specialty is world building, taking abstract concepts and making them fit.
In other words, I'm in Moonstone up to my neck and I love it. The whimsical fantasy world of Tauber is my world filled with politics, intrigue, and trade, and I'm going to see it through to the end. But Override is also my baby, and I'm not about to let it end up still-borne.
***
So what is the plan?
Well dear reader, I'm glad you asked...
The plan is simple.
I need to research.
I need to find out if there is interest for the World's First, First Law: Override Tournament.
If there is, then it will be run. It will be run, and it will be run well!
As it is scheduled for a Sunday, this means that I can even poach additional players throughout the days prior! And at only 300Nt entry level, we are only talking about 3-4 models to take part! You can't go wrong with that!!
But can it be done at the same time as Moonstone? Well writing a story driven tournament pack will not be easy, especially as August is the planned Wave 1 delivery date for Moonstone, but I am confident it can be done. I can make sure it happens...
But if course if there isn't any interest in an Override Tournament, then of course, maybe it isn't even needed, and for that I need your feedback.
And so dear reader, I beseech you! Are you looking to attend DaffCon this year? If you are, do you want to take part in a tournament? What about a demo stand.
Without feedback, I will be unable to judge the right action to take!
If you are unsure either way, then I would request you head over to WargameVault and download our Open Beta rulebook. It's available there where you can download it for free in a full colour, searchable .pdf complete with full rules, and story fluff!
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So I saw something the other day which was like a blow of reality straight to the face, namely these posts on Facebook:
When you read these, what do you see?
Oh yeah, First Law: Override in both the Demo Pit, and a Sunday Tournament...
Well, that was something that I had totally put on the back burner...
I see it now, and I remember discussing all of this before, then the Moonstone KickStarter began, and pushing anything serious with First Law: Override suddenly became an afterthought until we were able to get Moonstone out the door.
***
But there it is, in black letter, on white writing...
***
This has reminded me in a metaphorically painful way that I still have existing commitments, I have pledged my name for Override, a game that I still believe has the potential to be an industry stable. It's theme and setting is both interesting and intriguing, while it's ruleset is engaging while simple.
Quite simply, it is a great game which reminds me just how great it is every time I play it!
So what does this mean friends? Is Lox-San abandoning one of you? If he going to turn his back on the loyal readers of New Fairbank News to devote all his time on Moonstone and thereby cancelling the world first First Law: Override Tournament to give Moonstone his all? If he dropping out of Goblin King Games to put all his drive into Override?
No. No to both of those damnit!
***
You see, dropping either game isn't a possibility for me. At Chez Lox we never say die (we're like Goonies in that way).
Instead I am reminded of the storyline to the Legacy of Kain video games. I flip a coin and on one side we have Override, on the other we have Moonstone...
...but what about the 3rd choice? What about the side of the coin?
It might seem hard, if not impossible, but could it be that we could actually wrangle the impossible?
Could I actually support both games?
If you are a backer to the Moonstone KickStarter, you will almost certainly have read the fortnightly updates, and if you hadn't guessed, these were all written by me, your friendly neighbourhood Dr Loxley. Likewise, you may have heard about a certain world map being devised. This is something that I've been lead on, because after all, my specialty is world building, taking abstract concepts and making them fit.
In other words, I'm in Moonstone up to my neck and I love it. The whimsical fantasy world of Tauber is my world filled with politics, intrigue, and trade, and I'm going to see it through to the end. But Override is also my baby, and I'm not about to let it end up still-borne.
***
So what is the plan?
Well dear reader, I'm glad you asked...
The plan is simple.
I need to research.
I need to find out if there is interest for the World's First, First Law: Override Tournament.
If there is, then it will be run. It will be run, and it will be run well!
As it is scheduled for a Sunday, this means that I can even poach additional players throughout the days prior! And at only 300Nt entry level, we are only talking about 3-4 models to take part! You can't go wrong with that!!
But can it be done at the same time as Moonstone? Well writing a story driven tournament pack will not be easy, especially as August is the planned Wave 1 delivery date for Moonstone, but I am confident it can be done. I can make sure it happens...
But if course if there isn't any interest in an Override Tournament, then of course, maybe it isn't even needed, and for that I need your feedback.
And so dear reader, I beseech you! Are you looking to attend DaffCon this year? If you are, do you want to take part in a tournament? What about a demo stand.
Without feedback, I will be unable to judge the right action to take!
If you are unsure either way, then I would request you head over to WargameVault and download our Open Beta rulebook. It's available there where you can download it for free in a full colour, searchable .pdf complete with full rules, and story fluff!
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Tuesday 20 December 2016
As Above, So Below: The State of the Internet 2016
Greetings friends,
A lot of people I have seen are counting down the days until the end of 2016. Why is this? For festive fun & jollies? Afraid not.
No, the reason behind the countdown is that people seem to believe that 2017 is going to be better than 2016. That all the insanity of the world will magically vanish.
I'm afraid that those people are wrong.
There is a sickness in the world, a sickness which promises to infect everyone and everything, and it is present everywhere, but more so online than in physical.
***
Just yesterday the website NicheGamer announced that they were changing their terms and conditions, saying that racial slurs were to be banned from use.
This is a good thing, right?
Apparently not for the denizens of this website's commentary.
You see NicheGamer was set up during the massive fallout from the GamerGate summer of 2014. Gaming websites the world over were rallying behind people of questionable opinion and saying that if you supported GamerGate in any way, then you were unwelcome on their sites.
As you know, during the beginning, I was a big supporter of the movement. Finally there were people agreeing with me that the current climate wasn't right, and that pandering to extremists who claim such nonsense as "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem", was not the right way forward.
The problem was that, at the same time, a bunch of total a-holes decided to co-opt the moment, to use it as a platform to either a). Act like a dick, or b). Further their own political agenda. So me, and a tonne of others severed our connections with the movement and carried on independently, wanting nothing to do with the trolls who remained behind.
Enter NicheGamer, who as a founding rule stated they would offer a zero censorship policy. Yup, no matter what you did, as long as you didn't do anything illegal, you would not be censored.
What resulted was a small number of people who would 'insult' people, and 'antagonise' others by calling them racial/sexual/religious slurs.
It was disgusting, truly disgusting. And it was the reason I refused to join their community. But I understood that if you are going to have a zero censorship rule, then this sort of filth is going to exist.
But then they update their terms of service.
Awesome I think! So I create an account and post in reply to the article about the change to the TOS showing my support, and saying that was the one thing that was stopping me from contributing.
Within literal minutes I am beset upon by others claiming I'm in essence a fascist, that their rights to call people whatever they want is part of free speech and that anyone who is in support of this change isn't welcome in their community.
Yup, anyone who welcomed a change, which would result in greater inclusion, a nicer vibe, more contributors and contributions... not welcome.
So I did the best action I could think of.
I deleted my account.
As others might say, I 'cut and ran'. I could see where this was going, and frankly I didn't want to stand around and wait for it to happen.
To these 'people', the freedom to call others a racial slur, was more important than other's feeling welcome in their community. This revealed that even after this change in their TOS, they were still a community that I didn't want any association with.
- And these were the people who were not banned from using slurs.
***
Now I am sure there (might) be some reading this who say, "But Lox, slurs are just words. Who cares about words?"
Let me explain why slurs matter...
When you encounter someone who acts like a dick, then you have every right, no, requirement, to call them on it. To say "you sir are acting like a dick", or an a-hole, or any other insult of that variety. Because you are comparing them to something that describes their behaviour quite well. This is fine.
When someone uses a slur, by calling them something relating to racial/sexual/religious, then the problem is that it goes both ways.
Firstly it is a truly horrible thing to say because you are suggesting that being that race/sexuality/religion, is inherently wrong.
Secondly you are also saying that every person belonging to that race/sexuality/religion, acts like the a-hole you are calling out.
Labelling one person an a-hole is fine, that's a minority of one. It's calling attention to their personal behaviour. But doing so to a mass of people at once is generalisation and not acceptable.
***
So how does this relate to the state of the internet and the world in general?
What about that sickness I mentioned?
Well here we have people who are exactly the same as those who they were set up to confront.
'We' left other websites because 'we' were told that if we didn't con-scribe to their close-writ narrative, then we were the enemy and not welcome there.
Now 'I' am being told that if 'I' don't conscribe to his other close-wrote narrative, then I'm not welcome there either.
The whole thing is what I've been calling snowflakeism.
Snowflakeism is the sickness that is wracking our world both in reality but also online, where, in and out groups are sprouting up everywhere, be it feminism, millennials, liberals, socialists, conservatives, trolls etc. Each group creating their own echo-chamber and being unwilling to even consider discussion from outside.
All this does is make people feel disenfranchised, so then these disenfranchised join together to create their own disenfranchised group, with their own 'safe space' rules, making others feel disenfranchised, who go on to make their own group, and the cycle continues over and over. Each group hating, literally hating, the others, to the extent in liberal circles, the term 'conservative' is used as an insult, and the reverse in conservative circles.
It's tribe war of the ignorant kind, where our focus is less on the exchange of knowledge and information, and more about retaining our ignorance.
***
But how do we deal with this? How do we fix what is currently broken?
Honestly? I don't know. I'm not sure if it can be fixed, or if we just have to wait for the current mentality to burn away.
Some will argue that the answer is freedom. That we need to give people the freedom to be themselves, with free speech, and all that jazz.
Won't work. All that will happen is what is currently happening, with the establishment of echo-chambers encouraged by communities. With true freedom, all we are doing is encouraging people into tribalism and being snowflakes, forsaking others who think differently.
What about control and rules?
Nope! Still won't work. We'll still have tribalism and snowflakes, only this time it'll be based on whoever sets the rules, forcing those who disagree underground.
What about a bit of both?
...who knows?
What I do know is that we mustn't stop calling bullshit. Someone acts like a twat and gets a bad result, call them on it! It's not victim blaming, it's calling a goose, a goose (or a twat, a twat). If someone is making up a story for attention, call them on it!
There are more important things than 'feelings'. There are more important things than 'safe zones' and this bullshit we're being bombarded by, and that's entirely what this is, total bullshit.
But it goes both ways. Calling someone out isn't being a dick, it's challenging. By challenging people we are asking them to back up their claims, and if they run off refusing to do so, then chances are their claims were total bullshit. But that doesn't mean you should be a dick in how you do it.
One of the greatest lessons my father ever taught me, was to always question. It's something that I live by, and I believe it has kept me sane in a rapidly insane world.
So when others say "don't question, believe". I argue the opposite, "don't believe, question".
And on that, largely rambling note, I take my leave.
As always, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
A lot of people I have seen are counting down the days until the end of 2016. Why is this? For festive fun & jollies? Afraid not.
No, the reason behind the countdown is that people seem to believe that 2017 is going to be better than 2016. That all the insanity of the world will magically vanish.
I'm afraid that those people are wrong.
There is a sickness in the world, a sickness which promises to infect everyone and everything, and it is present everywhere, but more so online than in physical.
***
Just yesterday the website NicheGamer announced that they were changing their terms and conditions, saying that racial slurs were to be banned from use.
This is a good thing, right?
Apparently not for the denizens of this website's commentary.
You see NicheGamer was set up during the massive fallout from the GamerGate summer of 2014. Gaming websites the world over were rallying behind people of questionable opinion and saying that if you supported GamerGate in any way, then you were unwelcome on their sites.
As you know, during the beginning, I was a big supporter of the movement. Finally there were people agreeing with me that the current climate wasn't right, and that pandering to extremists who claim such nonsense as "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem", was not the right way forward.
The problem was that, at the same time, a bunch of total a-holes decided to co-opt the moment, to use it as a platform to either a). Act like a dick, or b). Further their own political agenda. So me, and a tonne of others severed our connections with the movement and carried on independently, wanting nothing to do with the trolls who remained behind.
Enter NicheGamer, who as a founding rule stated they would offer a zero censorship policy. Yup, no matter what you did, as long as you didn't do anything illegal, you would not be censored.
What resulted was a small number of people who would 'insult' people, and 'antagonise' others by calling them racial/sexual/religious slurs.
It was disgusting, truly disgusting. And it was the reason I refused to join their community. But I understood that if you are going to have a zero censorship rule, then this sort of filth is going to exist.
But then they update their terms of service.
Awesome I think! So I create an account and post in reply to the article about the change to the TOS showing my support, and saying that was the one thing that was stopping me from contributing.
Within literal minutes I am beset upon by others claiming I'm in essence a fascist, that their rights to call people whatever they want is part of free speech and that anyone who is in support of this change isn't welcome in their community.
Yup, anyone who welcomed a change, which would result in greater inclusion, a nicer vibe, more contributors and contributions... not welcome.
So I did the best action I could think of.
I deleted my account.
As others might say, I 'cut and ran'. I could see where this was going, and frankly I didn't want to stand around and wait for it to happen.
To these 'people', the freedom to call others a racial slur, was more important than other's feeling welcome in their community. This revealed that even after this change in their TOS, they were still a community that I didn't want any association with.
- And these were the people who were not banned from using slurs.
***
Now I am sure there (might) be some reading this who say, "But Lox, slurs are just words. Who cares about words?"
Let me explain why slurs matter...
When you encounter someone who acts like a dick, then you have every right, no, requirement, to call them on it. To say "you sir are acting like a dick", or an a-hole, or any other insult of that variety. Because you are comparing them to something that describes their behaviour quite well. This is fine.
When someone uses a slur, by calling them something relating to racial/sexual/religious, then the problem is that it goes both ways.
Firstly it is a truly horrible thing to say because you are suggesting that being that race/sexuality/religion, is inherently wrong.
Secondly you are also saying that every person belonging to that race/sexuality/religion, acts like the a-hole you are calling out.
Labelling one person an a-hole is fine, that's a minority of one. It's calling attention to their personal behaviour. But doing so to a mass of people at once is generalisation and not acceptable.
***
So how does this relate to the state of the internet and the world in general?
What about that sickness I mentioned?
Well here we have people who are exactly the same as those who they were set up to confront.
'We' left other websites because 'we' were told that if we didn't con-scribe to their close-writ narrative, then we were the enemy and not welcome there.
Now 'I' am being told that if 'I' don't conscribe to his other close-wrote narrative, then I'm not welcome there either.
The whole thing is what I've been calling snowflakeism.
Snowflakeism is the sickness that is wracking our world both in reality but also online, where, in and out groups are sprouting up everywhere, be it feminism, millennials, liberals, socialists, conservatives, trolls etc. Each group creating their own echo-chamber and being unwilling to even consider discussion from outside.
All this does is make people feel disenfranchised, so then these disenfranchised join together to create their own disenfranchised group, with their own 'safe space' rules, making others feel disenfranchised, who go on to make their own group, and the cycle continues over and over. Each group hating, literally hating, the others, to the extent in liberal circles, the term 'conservative' is used as an insult, and the reverse in conservative circles.
It's tribe war of the ignorant kind, where our focus is less on the exchange of knowledge and information, and more about retaining our ignorance.
***
But how do we deal with this? How do we fix what is currently broken?
Honestly? I don't know. I'm not sure if it can be fixed, or if we just have to wait for the current mentality to burn away.
Some will argue that the answer is freedom. That we need to give people the freedom to be themselves, with free speech, and all that jazz.
Won't work. All that will happen is what is currently happening, with the establishment of echo-chambers encouraged by communities. With true freedom, all we are doing is encouraging people into tribalism and being snowflakes, forsaking others who think differently.
What about control and rules?
Nope! Still won't work. We'll still have tribalism and snowflakes, only this time it'll be based on whoever sets the rules, forcing those who disagree underground.
What about a bit of both?
...who knows?
What I do know is that we mustn't stop calling bullshit. Someone acts like a twat and gets a bad result, call them on it! It's not victim blaming, it's calling a goose, a goose (or a twat, a twat). If someone is making up a story for attention, call them on it!
There are more important things than 'feelings'. There are more important things than 'safe zones' and this bullshit we're being bombarded by, and that's entirely what this is, total bullshit.
But it goes both ways. Calling someone out isn't being a dick, it's challenging. By challenging people we are asking them to back up their claims, and if they run off refusing to do so, then chances are their claims were total bullshit. But that doesn't mean you should be a dick in how you do it.
One of the greatest lessons my father ever taught me, was to always question. It's something that I live by, and I believe it has kept me sane in a rapidly insane world.
So when others say "don't question, believe". I argue the opposite, "don't believe, question".
And on that, largely rambling note, I take my leave.
As always, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Thursday 17 November 2016
Never Settle (in game design)
Greetings friends!
Today I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about a few observations of mine regarding game design on the tabletop and my own rule about how and when a rule should exist.
This rule is simple, that every rule should conform to Occam's Razor, and have a narrative explanation.
- Note, this is about a rule, not a core game mechanic, those are different. With those, the most narrative driven and razor sliced rule would be eliminating dice or cards and have models actually do what they're supposed to do. But that is either not possible, or impractical.
Let's look at 2 examples of this from my beloved First Law: Override. Firstly, Hackers and Exo Suits. The former are the super characters of your Force who are almost always the stars of the show who win you the game, but are physically weak to compensate for the super human actions they can perform. The latter, a huge powered suit with the best armour, the best melee weapons, and an arguably best ranged gun. But these two are like oil and water.
They don't mix.
Why?
Well the meta reason is because of balance. You give a hacker an ExoSuit and they become unstoppable. They became unfun.
So out comes the razor and a rule is made to say they can't use them.
But where's the narrative?
That's simple: wetware.
Hackers have a neuronet in their brain that allows them to connect to their hacking deck, and an exo suit moves and reacts thanks to connecting to the user's brain. The two if put together would cause the hacker's wet ware to short circuit and would fry their brain.
Simple! An element of balance retained, and a narrative reason as to why!
Next up: Link-Bots and combat.
A link bot is Override's version of Infinity Remotes, or Malifaux Totems. They are physical extensions of the Hacker's deck, while being hard to kill and fast. But when they had the ability to melee and shoot, they were again unfun and to balance had to cost more in points making them unwieldily for their intended purpose.
Out came the razor, and then it was made that they couldn't be active in any combat (can still be hit or shot, but can do it back) why? Where's the narrative for this?
Again this was simple: First Law Programming! These babies are hard wired to be unable to hurt people!
Straight away we have two rules which were created to maintain the presence of 2 cool pieces of equipment, but keep the balance of the game, all the while having an understandable explanation beyond simply 'balance' or 'reasons'.
***
Now you may be wondering why I have brought this up? What possible motivation could ol' Loxley have for talking about this, his fundamental principal in game design?
Simple, and the reason is the most common reason why I bring up anything... because someone has ground my gears!
In this case we are talking Steamforged Games(SFG).
So a number of days ago SFG put out an announcement about their upcoming game Dark Souls the board game which included the following rule change:
This rule is pretty simple, and it is a valid way of dealing with player death, but where is the narrative? Under what circumstance would cause an entire party to reset and respawn because a single player died?
I have queried with others who agree with this rule as to why, the reasons given are 3 fold.
1). It's like the video game where when the host dies, all 'summoned' players are kicked from the encounter.
2). It was implemented to stop people suicide running, where they would front load their attacks to put out damage and after they are killed, the rest of the party mops up the boss.
3). SFG are professional game designers, therefore I trust them.
Let me give you my take on those 3 points:
1). Yes it is like what happens in the video game when a host dies, but what about when a summoned player dies? Nothing happens, the fight carries on leaving the host and the remaining summons to deal with the boss. Therefore to argue it is 'just like' the game, it is equally valid to argue it is 'not like' the game.
2). We are assuming that either this tactic is a problem, or that the numbers are fixed.
A). Is this actually a problem? People say that the reward for playing Dark Souls is the feeling of achievement when you down a boss. If that feeling is lost due to 'gaming' the system, then surely the only people loosing out are the players? And therefore in future games they will be less likely to do this tactic as they will be getting diminishing returns on their reward.
B). If it is a problem, then that would suggest that actually the numbers are wrong, that front loading your damage is too effective, or that the boss has too little health. To balance this, you don't remove the possibility of it being a tactic, but you make the tactic less viable by making damage output over a long fight better, with spike damage being lower, or stack on more HP to the boss meaning that even if they do this tactic, then the boss will still have too much health left for the 1 or 2 surviving characters to down it.
Notice, I am not adding additional rules, I am suggesting you balance the existing rules of the game. This is how you use the razor for game design. It also follows a narrative in that the players are not being magically transported away for reasons.
3). Just because SFG have made Guild Ball and are an established company, does not mean they are perfect at creating rules. I can name countless games by even more countless companies who have been in business for decades, and yet their rules are not infallible. Blindly trusting that they will produce the perfect ruleset is why we have problems with certain fans of certain Workshop based Games companies which results in frankly untested and terrible rulesets.
In short, what we are looking at here is a game defining rule, which if followed to the letter results in situations that don't make sense, pull the players out of the experience, remove tension while encouraging defeatist attitudes, and is frankly a lazy rule to compensate for a problem that in all fairness will sort itself out in time.
And anyway, if people want to play the game on 'EZ-MOAD' what's wrong with that? Especially when the videogame itself has such a thing by allowing you to summon other players to kill bosses for you!
Anyway, long rant over. Stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Today I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about a few observations of mine regarding game design on the tabletop and my own rule about how and when a rule should exist.
This rule is simple, that every rule should conform to Occam's Razor, and have a narrative explanation.
- Note, this is about a rule, not a core game mechanic, those are different. With those, the most narrative driven and razor sliced rule would be eliminating dice or cards and have models actually do what they're supposed to do. But that is either not possible, or impractical.
Let's look at 2 examples of this from my beloved First Law: Override. Firstly, Hackers and Exo Suits. The former are the super characters of your Force who are almost always the stars of the show who win you the game, but are physically weak to compensate for the super human actions they can perform. The latter, a huge powered suit with the best armour, the best melee weapons, and an arguably best ranged gun. But these two are like oil and water.
They don't mix.
Why?
Well the meta reason is because of balance. You give a hacker an ExoSuit and they become unstoppable. They became unfun.
So out comes the razor and a rule is made to say they can't use them.
But where's the narrative?
That's simple: wetware.
Hackers have a neuronet in their brain that allows them to connect to their hacking deck, and an exo suit moves and reacts thanks to connecting to the user's brain. The two if put together would cause the hacker's wet ware to short circuit and would fry their brain.
Simple! An element of balance retained, and a narrative reason as to why!
Next up: Link-Bots and combat.
A link bot is Override's version of Infinity Remotes, or Malifaux Totems. They are physical extensions of the Hacker's deck, while being hard to kill and fast. But when they had the ability to melee and shoot, they were again unfun and to balance had to cost more in points making them unwieldily for their intended purpose.
Out came the razor, and then it was made that they couldn't be active in any combat (can still be hit or shot, but can do it back) why? Where's the narrative for this?
Again this was simple: First Law Programming! These babies are hard wired to be unable to hurt people!
Straight away we have two rules which were created to maintain the presence of 2 cool pieces of equipment, but keep the balance of the game, all the while having an understandable explanation beyond simply 'balance' or 'reasons'.
***
Now you may be wondering why I have brought this up? What possible motivation could ol' Loxley have for talking about this, his fundamental principal in game design?
Simple, and the reason is the most common reason why I bring up anything... because someone has ground my gears!
In this case we are talking Steamforged Games(SFG).
So a number of days ago SFG put out an announcement about their upcoming game Dark Souls the board game which included the following rule change:
Player Deathsounds pretty simple, but does this comply with the narrative razor ideology?
If any member of a party dies, the ENTIRE party is transported back to the Bonfire to rest, and a Spark is consumed. You still refill and regain everything and all Encounters reset.
This rule is pretty simple, and it is a valid way of dealing with player death, but where is the narrative? Under what circumstance would cause an entire party to reset and respawn because a single player died?
I have queried with others who agree with this rule as to why, the reasons given are 3 fold.
1). It's like the video game where when the host dies, all 'summoned' players are kicked from the encounter.
2). It was implemented to stop people suicide running, where they would front load their attacks to put out damage and after they are killed, the rest of the party mops up the boss.
3). SFG are professional game designers, therefore I trust them.
Let me give you my take on those 3 points:
1). Yes it is like what happens in the video game when a host dies, but what about when a summoned player dies? Nothing happens, the fight carries on leaving the host and the remaining summons to deal with the boss. Therefore to argue it is 'just like' the game, it is equally valid to argue it is 'not like' the game.
2). We are assuming that either this tactic is a problem, or that the numbers are fixed.
A). Is this actually a problem? People say that the reward for playing Dark Souls is the feeling of achievement when you down a boss. If that feeling is lost due to 'gaming' the system, then surely the only people loosing out are the players? And therefore in future games they will be less likely to do this tactic as they will be getting diminishing returns on their reward.
B). If it is a problem, then that would suggest that actually the numbers are wrong, that front loading your damage is too effective, or that the boss has too little health. To balance this, you don't remove the possibility of it being a tactic, but you make the tactic less viable by making damage output over a long fight better, with spike damage being lower, or stack on more HP to the boss meaning that even if they do this tactic, then the boss will still have too much health left for the 1 or 2 surviving characters to down it.
Notice, I am not adding additional rules, I am suggesting you balance the existing rules of the game. This is how you use the razor for game design. It also follows a narrative in that the players are not being magically transported away for reasons.
3). Just because SFG have made Guild Ball and are an established company, does not mean they are perfect at creating rules. I can name countless games by even more countless companies who have been in business for decades, and yet their rules are not infallible. Blindly trusting that they will produce the perfect ruleset is why we have problems with certain fans of certain Workshop based Games companies which results in frankly untested and terrible rulesets.
In short, what we are looking at here is a game defining rule, which if followed to the letter results in situations that don't make sense, pull the players out of the experience, remove tension while encouraging defeatist attitudes, and is frankly a lazy rule to compensate for a problem that in all fairness will sort itself out in time.
And anyway, if people want to play the game on 'EZ-MOAD' what's wrong with that? Especially when the videogame itself has such a thing by allowing you to summon other players to kill bosses for you!
Anyway, long rant over. Stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Monday 7 November 2016
Moonstone - Last Couple of Days
Greetings friends!
My what a rush the past few weeks have been, but the end is in sight!
In just a couple more days time, our (Goblin King Games) Kickstarter will be coming to an end, and we will all be letting out a massive sigh of relief after trying to promote the game, write guest blogs, do interviews (both written and audio), push via twitter, Facebook, and message boards, while also answering questions received.
- And that is on top of our 9-5 jobs and families.
But then no one sensible ever said that running a Kickstarter was easy.
But what an amazing trip it has been! We've unlocked all our stretch goals including an alternative head for Doug (above) and even the Queen of the Fae, a venerable goddess of her people (below).
But we're not done yet!!
With just a few days to go, we still want to push forward, knowing that for ever pound we get we can pump that revenue back into making the game as great as possible including even more art for the deluxe rulebook, and even having the capital to take this onwards onto retail.
Oh yes, before you know it, this game will be filling up stock space at your own Friendly Local Games Store!
But we still need your money in order to reach these goals as soon as possible! It will happen, but with your money we can do so all the more sooner!
So tell me, have you backed?
Yes? Thank you!
No? We'll get your wallet out, hop onto Kickstarter and do so!
Seriously, currently this game is all abuzz, with people literally across the world, in China, Thailand, Germany, USA, Australia, Russia, and of course our little island of the UK all pledging and taking part in test games to see what they think of the rules and providing feedback.
I told you earlier this year that Moonstone was the future of Character Driven Skirmish games, and I meant it!
So you do not want to miss out on your chances to be in on this on the ground floor!
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
My what a rush the past few weeks have been, but the end is in sight!
In just a couple more days time, our (Goblin King Games) Kickstarter will be coming to an end, and we will all be letting out a massive sigh of relief after trying to promote the game, write guest blogs, do interviews (both written and audio), push via twitter, Facebook, and message boards, while also answering questions received.
- And that is on top of our 9-5 jobs and families.
But then no one sensible ever said that running a Kickstarter was easy.
But what an amazing trip it has been! We've unlocked all our stretch goals including an alternative head for Doug (above) and even the Queen of the Fae, a venerable goddess of her people (below).
But we're not done yet!!
With just a few days to go, we still want to push forward, knowing that for ever pound we get we can pump that revenue back into making the game as great as possible including even more art for the deluxe rulebook, and even having the capital to take this onwards onto retail.
Oh yes, before you know it, this game will be filling up stock space at your own Friendly Local Games Store!
But we still need your money in order to reach these goals as soon as possible! It will happen, but with your money we can do so all the more sooner!
So tell me, have you backed?
Yes? Thank you!
No? We'll get your wallet out, hop onto Kickstarter and do so!
Seriously, currently this game is all abuzz, with people literally across the world, in China, Thailand, Germany, USA, Australia, Russia, and of course our little island of the UK all pledging and taking part in test games to see what they think of the rules and providing feedback.
I told you earlier this year that Moonstone was the future of Character Driven Skirmish games, and I meant it!
Let me tell you, the game is quite literally the future of Character Driven Skirmish games!
- Richi, New Fairbank News 25/11/2015
So you do not want to miss out on your chances to be in on this on the ground floor!
Until next time, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
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