Archive for October of 2005
Overcompensating for something?
October 29, 2005Time Sinks
October 13, 2005
The schizophrenic nature of multiplayer gameing is affecting Turbine now, as they develop technology to give different players a different view of the same bit of scenery depending on which quests they've completed.
MMORPG.COM - Lord of the Rings Online : Interview with Jeffrey Steefel
I think it'd be more interesting if Archet appeared burnt to the ground for everyone depending on whether the players had saved it. But then I do realise that's more work than “instanced” theme park quests - if only there were some way beyond the original purchase price of games for companies to get extra money to provide content. Oh well.
“As an example, as you may have seen at E3, a beginning Man or Woman completes a ”tutorial“ instance in a Brigand camp, and then enters the game proper in Archet - a village that is having trouble with some local brigands, not to mention a certain black rider in seach of a certain Hobbit (oops, did I say that?). This first part of the game is an instance and is limited to newbie players only. After questing their way through the storyline, the newbie player will discover that the bandits are planning to raid Archet by breaking through the wall in the rear of the town. This triggers a private instance; the player will experience the raid on a burning Archet with only themselves and whomever is in their fellowship at the time. When the raid is over and our hero(es) victorious, they will be transferred into the ”real“ game world, the persistent massively-multiplayer world. Now, when the player returns to Archet, they will be entering the completely uncovered persistent world and find that key buildings are burnt to the ground. This is how Archet will appear to them from this point on in the game. This would not be possible without instancing.”
MMORPG.COM - Lord of the Rings Online : Interview with Jeffrey Steefel
I think it'd be more interesting if Archet appeared burnt to the ground for everyone depending on whether the players had saved it. But then I do realise that's more work than “instanced” theme park quests - if only there were some way beyond the original purchase price of games for companies to get extra money to provide content. Oh well.