Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO
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New article on MMORPG.com
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen | GDC 2016 - Hands On Preview of Brad McQuaid's Magnum Opus | MMORPG
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen | GDC 2016 - Hands On Preview of Brad McQuaid's Magnum Opus | MMORPG
Skanda
I'm Amod too!
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Are you kidding?! Brad is like the real world Wild Stallions. After that livestream he will be beating off investors* left and right because they can't stop throwing money at him. Once this Great Art releases millions upon millions of people will come pouring out of the woodwork to play this game because that's just how MMO players are. The world will know peace and global warming will enter an indefinite pause thanks to Brads greatness.
*Of the Johnny49 kind
Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Reht
Molten Core Raider
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Muligan
Trakanon Raider
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I'll say this... pretty well everything Brad said I agree with conceptually.
Bring back people needing each other and establish meaningful relationships (not necessarily real life but it would be nice to know people by name and know the good from the bad)
Grind does need to be reduced
Travel means to be meaningful
Get rid of the random grouping, complete the dungeon, and leave to never see each other again.
Nothing new in any of this but no one has braved releasing a game built in that manner for years. Who's to say they'll stick to their guns or even execute any of it. However, if they bring this to reality, i'll definitely give it a try.
Bring back people needing each other and establish meaningful relationships (not necessarily real life but it would be nice to know people by name and know the good from the bad)
Grind does need to be reduced
Travel means to be meaningful
Get rid of the random grouping, complete the dungeon, and leave to never see each other again.
Nothing new in any of this but no one has braved releasing a game built in that manner for years. Who's to say they'll stick to their guns or even execute any of it. However, if they bring this to reality, i'll definitely give it a try.
I agree.
The thing that made MMOs magical to me in the first place was having to interact with other people. I think it's a human trait to want to band together to take on a challenge that we can't do alone. It's probably something left over from our hunter/gatherer days. But he's not wrong, most people don't have time for 10 hour grinds and things like that anymore. So it's probably going to be about finding a fair balance for most people. I also don't mind limited teleportation. I know some people on the Pantheon forums will probably lose their shit over that comment, but it's just not feasible these days to have a whole world without it.
popsicledeath
Potato del Grande
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Most people didn't have time for 10 hour grinds in EQ either. The minority did. The rest of us didn't but still enjoyed the game because at no point was a 10 hour grind even remotely necessary. It was a luxury that a few had, most didn't, and I think gamers should be okay with that. The problem EQ had is you sometimes spent your entire gaming session just trying to get somewhere, or if you made a decision to go to one continent you were often screwed if your friends were at another (obviously earlier in the game and at lower levels). You can let getting to the action be easier to make smaller chunks of play time more feasible than simply making content all fully digestible in 2 hour chunks.
It's one of the areas I think Vanguard got right. You were rewarded with longer play sessions, of course, but the general cockblocking of getting places wasn't as bad (once they fixed the dumbness early on). If you only had an hour to play you could still get into a group at times because the game provided tools to do that; most importantly imo is all healing classes could summon players to the group once they were in range which allowed large, complex, open dungeons that were still accessible. Then you can have the exploration and vastness of a meaningful world and the 2 hour bite-sized chunk of playing time they're going for without everything being overly simplified.
Whether they can find this right balance is of course the key. Anyone can say 'meaningful travel' and perk up the ears of a thousand neckbeards. The reality is obviously how they interpret and implement all the buzz words that are awesome in our imaginations but maybe not so much in reality.
I think they're going to probably shit the bed when it comes to implementation, though. We're already seeing signs of over development. For instance, they want zones and the environment to be meaningful. Instead of just making a landscape that is worthy of respect, like in EQ with cliffs and tight areas and fucking open holes in Solb that led to a fiery death, they're already trying to hype up shit like a zone that has a certain energy and you have to have the stone to harness it for combo spells and shit. They better focus on basic design, as that's hard enough to get right without the over-design bullshit fantasies they're already talking themselves into.
It's one of the areas I think Vanguard got right. You were rewarded with longer play sessions, of course, but the general cockblocking of getting places wasn't as bad (once they fixed the dumbness early on). If you only had an hour to play you could still get into a group at times because the game provided tools to do that; most importantly imo is all healing classes could summon players to the group once they were in range which allowed large, complex, open dungeons that were still accessible. Then you can have the exploration and vastness of a meaningful world and the 2 hour bite-sized chunk of playing time they're going for without everything being overly simplified.
Whether they can find this right balance is of course the key. Anyone can say 'meaningful travel' and perk up the ears of a thousand neckbeards. The reality is obviously how they interpret and implement all the buzz words that are awesome in our imaginations but maybe not so much in reality.
I think they're going to probably shit the bed when it comes to implementation, though. We're already seeing signs of over development. For instance, they want zones and the environment to be meaningful. Instead of just making a landscape that is worthy of respect, like in EQ with cliffs and tight areas and fucking open holes in Solb that led to a fiery death, they're already trying to hype up shit like a zone that has a certain energy and you have to have the stone to harness it for combo spells and shit. They better focus on basic design, as that's hard enough to get right without the over-design bullshit fantasies they're already talking themselves into.
Seriously EQ is one of the most influential games ever made and they're calling this steaming pile his magnum opus?
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
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