I initially thought that this was a terrible mistake in WoW (which does indeed tie the in-game time to real time). But because nighttime light levels in WoW are still generally quite acceptable, I quickly decided that it didn’t *have* to be a terrible mistake.

But then I started fishing … and found out that a number of the fishing results tables (what fish you get in different areas) are also tied to the day/night cycle — which means that I had to set my alarm to get a decent catch of stonescale eel for my alchemy potions. *sigh*

Of course, day/night content is another topic all together — and one I know is on our list to talk about at some point.

In general I think you’re right, though: it’s always possible to get good nighttime effects without punishing the player. And you can even avoid the “everything goes purple” WoW effect if you want to…

Koal – True for old-timers, but first time MMO players love those details, and I don’t think we have any evidence to show they’re disappointed about them later on. I’ve watched plenty of new MMO players spend a very long time in character customization. They actually use scars and tattoos to help define the character in their mind and give them a personality, so even though it’s hidden later, the player still knows it’s there.

As I play more and more MMO’s, I find myself caring less about ALL of character-generation. Just get me in the game, already! So if I was making an MMO aimed at veteran MMO players, I’d be okay with skimping on the up-front char-gen options.

Except players aren’t stupid. They see those fancy detail options the first time they make a character and quickly realize that the details they chose are completely invisible. Those who don’t just skip past all your fancy options then get a little pissed off when they realize they just spent 30 minutes fiddling with sliders and decorations that completely disappear the minute the character actually steps into the game. So, your team wasted how many man hours developing something that has now caused players aggravation and disappointment and added no value at all to your game?

Still, I suspect in many cases its the designers crying for darker night. I’d think the artists would want their art to be visible and its misguided designers who think blackest night makes the game scarier or more dangerous or increases consequences or some other lame excuse for incompetence.

The worst day-night cycle mistake you might make, however, is to tie in-game light levels to real-world light levels. This means that a casual player that can only play for a few minutes right before bedtime will always be left in the dark. If your day cycle actually has in-game repercussions (item/monster Foo only spawns at midday/night) that magnifies the problem even more. In Asheron’s Call we used a seven hour day cycle to ensure players weren’t stuck with one light level. Any day cycle length that is relatively prime to the 24 hours in a real day will keep things mixed up.

Night: I actually didn’t care for WoW’s night because it was nearly as bright as day, only the sky color was different and a bright blue sky would light up my office but I could see equally in both. In Vanguard, dark is dark. Damn dark. Very damn dark. Not to mention it seems like they programmed the cycle to be 30 minutes of day and 3 hours of night.

Dyes: Yes, please! We do like to feel like we’re individuals. Even if our neon pink and green armor looks utterly ridiculous and causes irreparable damage to the viewer’s eyes, at least we have that avenue of self-expression.

Scars: meh… I actually just created my first character ever who has scars. One of the many reasons I’d never done this before is quite simple: within 5 levels, I’ll have enough new armor, etc. from the noob quests to cover up everything I did in the game’s “advanced” character generation, so why bother? If the designers aren’t going to let the artist’s work be seen and appreciated anyway, then the artist’s time is better spent elsewhere.

Repetitive textures: Cornfields I can live with, though I’d certainly appreciate a few different varieties of the cornfields interspersed within each other to make it feel more real. But for cryin’ out loud, make enough textures to make the overall world look organic. Again Vanguard is a good example of abusing texture repetition; though I’ll give them free brownie points since the game wasn’t actually ready for release. We’ll see if they go back and re-texture the world as they progress though.