Well, I’ve spent the past 20-some-odd days going through a few MMO’s. First up, went back to EverQuest II to meet up with some old friends and guildies. Grabbing Rise of Kunark I rolled a character on their server and got introduced to the Sarnak. The expansion has defiantly increased low-leveling speed for 1-20 and given far better equipment to the range (far, far better). It seems a tad overpowered to me, but I guess it attracts new players. other than that, the game hasn’t changed too much from what I remember.

Next up is Tabula Rasa. The game itself (as I think I’ve said before) is not really new, there’s a bit more action in the combat, a bit more FPS oriented, but the overall game is still pretty unchanged (quest grind to level, some instancing). Cloning is a cool feature and works well with the tiered class system–one of the more original features. Overall, slightly different sci-fi MMO.

Lastly, Eve Online (again). This is the one game that I don’t think I can truly quit. There really is no other like it. Also, 5th Alliance Tournament is coming up this Friday (yay). Can’t wait to watch it.

Well, I’ve been playing through some of the strategy games on gametap recently–most are older and turn-based. Since I haven’t thrown out any game ideas in awhile, let’s try one.

Since I’ve been playing a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic and Warlords Battlecry I think I’ll design a game somewhat similar to them. I enjoy multiple races and armies of all varieties so that’ll be in (around 6-10 races should do it). Conquering a map is nice, so let’s add in that (a world map, think Risk). Storyline and objective? The forces of heaven and hell are battling for control of the world, take a side (or not) and conquer all that you can. Alliances? Sure, a political system would be great–not required to win, but an alternative method. Conquering. Each battle takes place in a region of the world, each region has it’s own layout and cities that need to be conquered–enemies to be fought are based on armies adjacent or on the region. The region maps should look similar to the maps fought on the Heroes and Warlords, combat should be different–I dislike the combat systems they had and would like to instead use one like Total War, You’re massive armies fight it out in a real-time battlefield that is loosely based on where the combat starts, it can be automated or you can take control of your personal legion, with the other legions under control of their commanders who are under you (you give them general orders, but it is up to them to keep their legions fighting). So, AI will have to be good–if I could I’d try and make this the overall focus of development since most of the game has been done before it kinda just needs replicating and meshing with the rest of the game (not that that would be easy, I’m sure). Why focus on AI? That seems to be the area that lacks the most in games, and in a strategy game I feel that should be one of the strongest aspects. Moving on, I would like the use of advisers, a limited number of them that you could assign to the tasks that you really do not want to do–give them general orders and keep an eye on them, they should have their own personalities that play a part in their choices and actions. You might ask, what about the story? Isn’t there a story besides some lame heaven versus hell? Not really, or not yet. I’d think the story would play out throughout the region maps, quests and such to go on, either helping or hurting one or both of the sides (help them both? possibly, would need to think through how that’d work). But yeah, there’s a general idea for a game–maybe I’ll try developing it further.

Been thinking on this subject over the past few days, read some articles about it as well. How are in-game ads going to grow in the future? How are they going to effect games?

I’m all for helping the industry and ads could certainly do that by paying off a bit of the production costs. Ads that show before or after a game session are all well and good–they don’t break immersion; ads that show during the game session can be an annoyance if they are done poorly–flashing up on the screen (like Acclaim did with their free to play mmo’s, very annoying)–but done well, using the theme of the game and making them non-intrusive or immersion breaking, they can even add to the gaming experience (post-apocalyptic Earth and you see the ruins of a Coke sign, that works quite well).

Ads in the future… hmmm. Ads have been done in pretty much every way that I can think of, at the moment. So, they will probably continue on the current methods and increase in number if not depth. As more games become one with the internet I wouldn’t be surprised to see more than product advertising be done in a game. Imagine going through a modern-age Earth game and seeing ads for the current politicians? Those little yard signs and such. Or seeing ads for other games, being able to play demos of other developers games through a game–using a simulated computer or console (may be done/has been done? I think I remember something).

With the growing costs of game production, the price difference is going to be made up from higher game costs for consumers or advertising revenue in games. Ads will likely never cover the cost of major productions (if they did, I think the game would be one giant ad), but it may mean the difference between paying 50 bucks for a game or 60 (or maybe 40–while it is doubtful that a producer would drop the cost below the standard, it would be more attractive to buyers which could increase profit in the end).