I know this blog has been quiet. There's a reason for that. I finally realized what career path I wanted to follow. I've decided to follow my dream and become a writer. Not just any old writer, either. I'm going to write for games. I love stories. I've spent countless hours with Hugo traipsing through Paris. Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" is so engaging that I read and watch every version of it I can find. Why? Because it's a holiday ghost story that sucks me in every time. I won't even go into the countless hours spent reading Edgar Allan Poe. The man's genius created a world I was both very afraid of and yet wanted to enter with every fiber of my being. I want to bring that kind of story immersion to games.
I know it's possible. I experienced it with Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Guild Wars, Mass Effect, and Age of Conan. The seamless integration of story with gameplay may seem like a pipe dream to some but I have faith. As games get more sophisticated, they become more dependent on the storyline to drive the player's motives. This presents countless opportunities to integrate interactive storytelling; to take it to the next level.
So, the silence here was because I had a huge task ahead of me. I was already half-way through the Game Design program and needed to make up my mind on whether to transfer degree programs or stay put. I had put in a heck of a lot of work on my Game Design degree and I didn't want that knowledge to go to waste. I spoke with the program director for the Creative Writing for Entertainment Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree and found that Game Writing was one of the areas the program focused on. She also stressed that the main focus of the program is to hone my skills as a writer so that I will be able to write for any medium. I liked this aspect. Where the Game Design program focused specifically on designing games the Creative Writing program has a much broader application.
I was sold. I began the transfer process and on September 26 I finally, officially, became a Creative Writing for Entertainment student at Full Sail. I'm excited. I've always wanted to write. Books are my one enduring passion and to finally combine a career and my education with that passion has made me one very happy camper.
Showing posts with label Age of Conan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Age of Conan. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
FSU: Reaction to Industry News - Age of Conan Has Gone Free-To-Play
Earlier today Age of Conan announced that it is adopting a Free-to-Play subscription model this summer. As an existing, and past, subscriber I immediately wondered what this would mean for me. Considering the announcement was a whole 15 minutes old when I read it, I knew I’d have to wait a bit for real, concrete answers. I’m pretty sure that companies release news like this in advance to gauge the community’s reaction and adjust the upcoming changes accordingly.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
An Analysis of a Video Game’s Tutorial: Age of Conan (MMORPG)
Positives:
+ The tutorial is a separate area in the game, an island called Tortage and it is extremely immersive. You are plunged directly into the storyline and don’t surface until you leave the island for your homeland upon reaching level 20. This separation from the rest of the game gives a new player time to acclimate to the game.
+ The tutorial starts out placing you alone in an instanced area. This gives you the opportunity to learn the ropes without competing against other players for resources or mobs. You also learn how to equip armor and weapons, wield your weapon, and use potions and food in this instanced area.
+ Quests are logically laid out and lead seamlessly from one to the next. The Destiny Quests are the main quests of the tutorial area. They are solo quests and occur only at night. These quests teach you class related skills and provide class specific armor and weapons. There are many other side quests to keep a character occupied for days. These quests take place during the day and provide small perks like potions or food as rewards.
+ You don’t accrue death penalties until level 10. This is a plus as you’re still learning the ropes of the game and may die simply because you didn’t know how to equip a weapon or use an attack yet.
+ The story that unfolds and tasks assigned to your character during the Destiny Quest depends on which archetype you’ve chosen to play. This means that, while the story is essentially the same for each character, a healer archetype will not experience the same Destiny Quest as a warrior archetype.
Negatives:
- If you happened to select a PvP server then you’re going to be ganked every time you go to the Underhalls or White Sand Beach to complete quests. Unfortunately this is because it is an easy way to rack up PvP points early in the game.
- Once you leave the beach solo instance you cannot go back. The gate out is one-way. So, if you meant to go back and check something out you’re out of luck.
- There is a lot of running back and forth from Point A to Point B. This wouldn’t be a huge problem if the distances weren’t so great and there is no quick travel option.
- Bag space is very limited. So is storage at the Trader. It is possible to buy more bag space but it is expensive, especially in the tutorial area.
- There is a Field Manual along the left side of the user interface. When you encounter something for the first time it pops out a little tab to show it has information on the subject. This usually occurs at the least opportune time for the player to check out the new information, like in the middle of a fight. The tabs tend to accrue because of this timing issue and end up blocking the left side of the screen from view. This can cause a problem when you’re facing multiple enemies because you’ve now got a blind spot.
- While there are a lot of quests it sometimes feels as if you’re doing generic fetch errands or kill “x” number of mob tasks. At times there are no quests available and the player must grind out the necessary experience to level up. Grind of any kind is tedious and makes players feel like they’d rather be elsewhere.
Thoughts:
~ The solo Beach instance that every player starts the game in is underused. It is a well designed area with a lot to offer but once a character leaves they can never go back. This seems a bit silly since a character can return to every other area in the tutorial no matter what their level. Why is this one area off-limits once they’ve passed the gate?
~ Tortage sets the standard for the game. It is the first thing a new player experiences. The fact that it is so wonderfully done is actually a bad thing in this case because the rest of the game pales in comparison. Where Tortage has depth, engagement, and immersion the rest of the game doesn’t. The stark contrast between the tutorial area and the main game area is very noticeable. This contrast has led to many players leaving the game in disappointment or deleting and rerolling characters who live in Tortage forever.
~ As well done as Tortage and the tutorial are, after running a few alternate characters through, even it becomes repetitive. Players start looking for the quickest way through or wish to skip it all together. This wouldn’t be a huge deal except that skipping the tutorial means that you’ve put a halt on the Destiny Quest. This closes certain avenues quest-wise until you to go back to Tortage to complete the quests.
~ In some tutorial areas (Aion, Guild Wars) there are practice dummies that will allow you to try out a new skill to see its effect and range. There are none in Tortage. If you want to gauge effect and range then you need to practice on a mob. This makes gathering accurate information on effect and range tricky because you have to defend yourself after the initial attack.
Would Like:
* The solo Beach instance opened up. Add some quests that send the player back to the area to explore. There is a lot there that most miss as they run through it.
* I’d love if the main gameplay areas were redesigned so they could live up to the standard set by Tortage. I know this is a long shot. The game has been out for a while and already has an expansion. This doesn’t mean that the main areas can’t be revisited and tweaked. One thing that could be done that would add depth is to add some spoken dialogue to the main game area’s NPCs.
* There is a door at the bottom of the Archeronian Ruins. It goes nowhere. This would be a perfect place to add a dungeon.
* A way to skip Tortage when a player already has a couple of high level characters. Provide the player a quest that allows them to satisfy the Destiny Quest and move on to their homeland without having to level through the whole tutorial area.
* A clear explanation of what the various stats on armor and weapons do. I know that if you mouse over the stat on your character page it will give a very basic description but not a lot of new players know to do this. A pop-up explaining various stats the first time a player encounters an item with one would be much more helpful.
Credit where credit is due:
Various. (2008-2011). Age of conan official forum. Retrieved from http://forums.ageofconan.com/index.php
+ The tutorial is a separate area in the game, an island called Tortage and it is extremely immersive. You are plunged directly into the storyline and don’t surface until you leave the island for your homeland upon reaching level 20. This separation from the rest of the game gives a new player time to acclimate to the game.
+ The tutorial starts out placing you alone in an instanced area. This gives you the opportunity to learn the ropes without competing against other players for resources or mobs. You also learn how to equip armor and weapons, wield your weapon, and use potions and food in this instanced area.
+ Quests are logically laid out and lead seamlessly from one to the next. The Destiny Quests are the main quests of the tutorial area. They are solo quests and occur only at night. These quests teach you class related skills and provide class specific armor and weapons. There are many other side quests to keep a character occupied for days. These quests take place during the day and provide small perks like potions or food as rewards.
+ You don’t accrue death penalties until level 10. This is a plus as you’re still learning the ropes of the game and may die simply because you didn’t know how to equip a weapon or use an attack yet.
+ The story that unfolds and tasks assigned to your character during the Destiny Quest depends on which archetype you’ve chosen to play. This means that, while the story is essentially the same for each character, a healer archetype will not experience the same Destiny Quest as a warrior archetype.
Negatives:
- If you happened to select a PvP server then you’re going to be ganked every time you go to the Underhalls or White Sand Beach to complete quests. Unfortunately this is because it is an easy way to rack up PvP points early in the game.
- Once you leave the beach solo instance you cannot go back. The gate out is one-way. So, if you meant to go back and check something out you’re out of luck.
- There is a lot of running back and forth from Point A to Point B. This wouldn’t be a huge problem if the distances weren’t so great and there is no quick travel option.
- Bag space is very limited. So is storage at the Trader. It is possible to buy more bag space but it is expensive, especially in the tutorial area.
- There is a Field Manual along the left side of the user interface. When you encounter something for the first time it pops out a little tab to show it has information on the subject. This usually occurs at the least opportune time for the player to check out the new information, like in the middle of a fight. The tabs tend to accrue because of this timing issue and end up blocking the left side of the screen from view. This can cause a problem when you’re facing multiple enemies because you’ve now got a blind spot.
- While there are a lot of quests it sometimes feels as if you’re doing generic fetch errands or kill “x” number of mob tasks. At times there are no quests available and the player must grind out the necessary experience to level up. Grind of any kind is tedious and makes players feel like they’d rather be elsewhere.
Thoughts:
~ The solo Beach instance that every player starts the game in is underused. It is a well designed area with a lot to offer but once a character leaves they can never go back. This seems a bit silly since a character can return to every other area in the tutorial no matter what their level. Why is this one area off-limits once they’ve passed the gate?
~ Tortage sets the standard for the game. It is the first thing a new player experiences. The fact that it is so wonderfully done is actually a bad thing in this case because the rest of the game pales in comparison. Where Tortage has depth, engagement, and immersion the rest of the game doesn’t. The stark contrast between the tutorial area and the main game area is very noticeable. This contrast has led to many players leaving the game in disappointment or deleting and rerolling characters who live in Tortage forever.
~ As well done as Tortage and the tutorial are, after running a few alternate characters through, even it becomes repetitive. Players start looking for the quickest way through or wish to skip it all together. This wouldn’t be a huge deal except that skipping the tutorial means that you’ve put a halt on the Destiny Quest. This closes certain avenues quest-wise until you to go back to Tortage to complete the quests.
~ In some tutorial areas (Aion, Guild Wars) there are practice dummies that will allow you to try out a new skill to see its effect and range. There are none in Tortage. If you want to gauge effect and range then you need to practice on a mob. This makes gathering accurate information on effect and range tricky because you have to defend yourself after the initial attack.
Would Like:
* The solo Beach instance opened up. Add some quests that send the player back to the area to explore. There is a lot there that most miss as they run through it.
* I’d love if the main gameplay areas were redesigned so they could live up to the standard set by Tortage. I know this is a long shot. The game has been out for a while and already has an expansion. This doesn’t mean that the main areas can’t be revisited and tweaked. One thing that could be done that would add depth is to add some spoken dialogue to the main game area’s NPCs.
* There is a door at the bottom of the Archeronian Ruins. It goes nowhere. This would be a perfect place to add a dungeon.
* A way to skip Tortage when a player already has a couple of high level characters. Provide the player a quest that allows them to satisfy the Destiny Quest and move on to their homeland without having to level through the whole tutorial area.
* A clear explanation of what the various stats on armor and weapons do. I know that if you mouse over the stat on your character page it will give a very basic description but not a lot of new players know to do this. A pop-up explaining various stats the first time a player encounters an item with one would be much more helpful.
Credit where credit is due:
Various. (2008-2011). Age of conan official forum. Retrieved from http://forums.ageofconan.com/index.php
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