Category Archives: Design

Permanent Character Choices in a Classless Game (or, “Werewolves!”)

July 1, 2011 by Eric | 22 Comments »

Most modern MMOs require the player to make very few permanent choices. Permanent choices cause stress, especially in games where players feel they need to make “the right choice” in order to be successful (or “viable” or “allowed in groups” … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Project Gorgon | 22 Comments

World vs. Game, Emergent Gameplay, and the Fun Loop

June 24, 2011 by Eric | 12 Comments »

[This is part of a discussion of my indie MMO, codenamed "Gorgon" for no particular reason. This week is about some of the earliest questions you have to ask before you begin your MMO.] Realistic or Gamey? One of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Project Gorgon | 12 Comments

Punditry is dumb. Switching to developer mode!

June 18, 2011 by Eric | 18 Comments »

Tired of Punditry Sandra and I have run out of steam as MMO pundits. Again. The problems are that 1) MMO punditry is basically saying the same things over and over, but, 2) nobody really knows the secret to making … Continue reading →

Posted in Design | 18 Comments

You Can’t Bolster Your Newbie Hose With Self-Indulgence

May 10, 2011 by Eric | 23 Comments »

The latest numbers are in for World of Warcraft, and as of March 1st they were down 600k subscribers. That would ruin any other subscription MMO on this continent, but for them it’s just a few percent. That article goes … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design | 23 Comments

Evolving Quests

March 21, 2011 by Eric | 19 Comments »

Side-quests are a classic game mechanic, as ancient as roleplaying. When playing D&D with friends, we’ll stumble upon a traveler being mauled by a bear and we’ll take swift action — if we’re a band of do-gooders, at least — … Continue reading →

Posted in Design | 19 Comments

The Griefer With The Coin Bag

March 8, 2011 by Eric | 41 Comments »

Got back from GDC week and still trying to get back into the swing of things… and here comes a funny story straight from GDC! Go ahead and read it, it’s pretty funny. (Original story) (Cached version because it’s very … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Design | 41 Comments

Proximity Breeds Endearment

February 7, 2011 by Eric | 3 Comments »

Here’s another example of where our brains trick us into enjoying things in spite of ourselves. I was reading a book of folk tales and I got to the story of The Snow Queen. It is about two innocent children … Continue reading →

Posted in Design | 3 Comments

Retention and Rebound

January 31, 2011 by Eric | 7 Comments »

Rage-Quit vs. Yawn-Quit Long ago, when my friends and I were playing EverQuest, one of our party members decided to do some soloing after everybody else had gone to bed. He fell into a pit and died. In EverQuest, you … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Production | 7 Comments

More on Classed vs. Unclassed Games

January 24, 2011 by Eric | 26 Comments »

I’ve read a lot of really great posts as a result of my hornets-nest stirring post about how classes are better than unclassed games. Some rebuttals have been pretty smart and have changed my mind about a number of things. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Design | 26 Comments

Classes vs. Open Skill Systems

January 20, 2011 by Eric | 45 Comments »

A few years ago, I was interviewing for a systems designer gig. The design interviewer had been at Turbine many years prior, so we vaguely knew each other from there, but she needed to know how much I’d grown as … Continue reading →

Posted in Design | 45 Comments