Psychochild's Blog

A quote I particularly like is attributed to William R. Inge: There are two kinds of fools: One says, "This is old therefore it is good." The other one says, "This is new therefore it is better."

I can't help but think about this quote often in the game industry as new fashions are introduced. There tend to be two camps: one that clings to the old ways while fearing the new, and one that rushes to the new claiming it will wipe away the old. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, but the game industry sure does like its extremes.

So, with this in mind, I want to take a look at social games and metrics-based game design, two more recent fashions to hit the game industry.
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So far I have not posted about the whole RealID issue. It's one of those things that by the time I had something insightful to say about it, it had already been said in the outpouring of commentary about the issue. I was active in leaving comments on different sites, so it's not like I didn't have an opinion.

But, I think it's interesting to take another look at the issue from another point of view. RealID is all about this whole social networking thing. How does this intersect with gaming culture, a subset of geek culture? And how does this relate to introverts which traditionally make up a significant part of those cultures?
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There's been some discussion about death penalties lately, and I figured it was a good opportunity to discuss some issues with death penalties in MMOs, and penalties in games in general from a game design point of view. So, let's take a look at this topic and see how many flamewars we can fan!
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I wrote an article in two parts for the Game Design Aspect of the Month blog. This month's theme was "Multiplayer Economies", something I happen to know a thing or two about! :)

Anyway, go take a look at the article:

http://gamedesignaspect.blogspot.com/2010/06/faking-economy-part-i.html
http://gamedesignaspect.blogspot.com/2010/06/faking-economy-part-ii.html

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One of the reasons I really enjoy offline (board and card) games is because they offer a lot of great opportunities for game design. There's nothing quite like chewing over a game's mechanics while playing with friends. It's a fun exercise to think about how to turn an interesting board game mechanic into something that would work for the design of an online game.

Offline games are also a great opportunity to tweak the rules to try to make them better. Perhaps you want to make a game harder, or easier, or just want a different experience after playing the game for the hundredth time with friends. If you can find a group willing to experiment, offline games are a great opportunity to practice game design and talk it over with other interested people.

Let me talk about some of the variant rules I've been playing with in games.
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A post over at the Rampant Coyote sparked a discussion where Jay Barnson (the blog author) posted the following in a comment:

We talk about “Show, don’t tell.” An important principle in linear entertainment. But could “invite” be a more critical principle still for interactive media? Are modern games so focused on “showing” that they fail to “invite” the player to engage their imagination and contribute to the story? Are the games, effectively, treating the player like a passive audience and saying, “Sit down, shut up, watch this cool presentation and I’ll tell you when to press the buttons to make it do nifty stuff.”

A startling amount of insight about some of the problems I see in modern design. Read on for a few more thoughts.
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Inspired by Wolfshead's latest rant, I wanted to take a look at game community. The article got me thinking about what really makes a good community. Not that I'm a good community manager, but I sure do have opinions!

That's why you're here, right? So, let's take a look at the factors that affect the quality of a community from a developer's point of view.
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One of my favorite indie MMO developers, Dave "Over00" Toulouse, wrote a great post about his experiences with Golemizer. He gives a brutally honest assessment of how his work went on the game and his current state. If you're thinking about developing your own MMO, especially if you're going to try it alone, this is a must-read.

I thought I'd share some of my perspective and experience as well.
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As my current contract comes to a close, I'm starting to consider what I want to work on. I have an idea, and I think I'd like to have someone chip in.

This may not exactly be a "ZOMG break into games!" opportunity, but it is a good chance to work with someone who might say nice things about you to other game developers. :)

Let me be up front here: this is a bootstrapped project, so there's no pay currently. You'll get paid when I get paid on the project. Read on for a bit more information and qualifications I'm looking for.
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I'm giving a presentation at the LOGIN confernence next week in Seattle on the topic of "Indie Obstacles".

Drop me a line if you'll be in the area and want to meet up. I also highly recommend the conference if you're interested in game development and want to network with other interesting people.

Read on for more information on the panel I'll be on.
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