Okay, the game’s finally up. You may have seen the reports that I’m running for president. Here’s the latest at News3Online. Check it out, and let me know if I have your vote!
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My friend Paul was driving some conservative out-of-town visitors around Los Angeles one sunny afternoon. Paul was explaining that the city was actually quite normal, despite what the news media suggests. Just then, a giant inflatable penis bounced across the road. Turns out, that is quite normal.
The Spore creature creation tools have caused quite a humorous conversation on other blogs and the women developer list because of TTP. TTP or TTC describes how long it takes user generated content (UGC) to yield a penis, hence ”time to penis.” At ION, we talked about how UGC can connect the player to the game story as well as the player’s story. If we handed quest creation tools to players in MMOs, what do you think would be the TTP? Let’s find out!
Create an in-game MMO quest that clearly invokes what TTP is all about. Let’s assume that the designers have coded restrictions on profanity and the use of certain terms, like penis. Even with this restriction, you can still write some blue content. A line from an old MUD stated proudly: “(playername) strokes his long black rod.” Come up with a short quest or quest premise, and post it in the comments if you’re bold or e-mail me if you’re shy at anne (at) writerscabal.com. I’ll come up with one myself by next week and we will see whose TTP is faster!
Need inspiration? You can set your quest in any MMO, but if you want to narrow it down quickly, set it in WoW. Extra points if you can tie your UGC into the game story that already exists. Have fun!
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We’ve been working hard all week, so enough of all these serious, useful posts. Game development is supposed to be fun, so it’s time to procrastinate!
If you’re stuck in the office, do you know where’s your stapler?
Or a bit of a Trek geek?
Or, more importantly, didn’t care for Indy 4. Or really didn’t care for it?
Enjoy. Discuss. Share. Wonder at our sanity.
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Last week we asked for good and bad examples of story in MMOs, and Courtney brought up GM events in Everquest that got the players riled up. As luck would have it, April Fools saw both real and fake in-game fun. Adding content in-game isn’t easy, so kudos to those who actually put a little fooling in-game.
Here are just a few examples of April Fools fun:
EQII - An in-game companion box
Puzzle Pirates - You can purchase noses at the palace shoppe
A ton of other games issued April Fools press releases, which included full-on concept art. While most of them made an attempt at much-needed humor, they missed an opportunity to tie it to their game story. Games do take advantage of the publicity opportunities seasonal events like April Fools provide, but they don’t use that publicity to attract players to the story. EQII even tied it into another game’s story!
Although as far as I know they didn’t actually put anything in-game, I’d say the winner this time out was CoX. They announced that the sound effects would be replaced with visual sound effects like “Pow!” They’re very much in character for the game world and simple and easy for non-players to understand.
Did you like any of the other announcements better? What was a must-see?
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We can safely say it was a first: games made an appearance in the Oscars. As they came back from commercial, the host was playing a round of Wii Tennis with one of the performers. A sign of things to come? Probably not, but what I want to see is a new nickname for the AIAS awards. Something better than Oscars or Emmies. Any suggestions?
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One year ago today, two intrepid writers started out on a grand adventure — officially forming a game writing partnership and beginning this blog. Our first post discussed our fervent hope to help developers work with writers and writing and improve the quality of game writing over all. One year later, we look back at all we’ve accomplished with pride.
And a party.
Tonight Writers Cabal will celebrate it’s one year anniversary/blogiversary at GDC. Join us if you’re in town!
Sugar Cafe
679 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94102 US
Monday, February 18, 9:30PM
Celebrate the successful first year of the Writers Cabal and hear an exciting announcement about what’s in store for our future! Join us for an intimate gathering of friends new and old — you bring the smiles and we’ll bring the cake!
With a lovely fireplace, the Sugar Cafe has been recognized in three “Best of” categories by Citysearch. More importantly, it’s conveniently located near the Cellar, where Telltale will be holding its party that evening.
You will have to show up yourself to answer the question you’ve been asking yourself since you started reading this blog entry: Is the cake a lie? See you there!
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Happy Chinese New Year! If you don’t celebrate it, all the better. Learning about different cultures may turn out to be quite helpful on your next game. While we’re celebrating, you get to view a little treat… our fine photo in traditional dress.
We’ve been building this list for a little while, but when the IGDA mailing list we’re on brought up the topic, we figured it was time to post! So here it is: You know you’ve been writing games too long when…
1. You find yourself using $playername$ in casual conversation. Ex: “Yeah, I wouldn’t wear that dress on a date. It’d be like, ‘Yes, $playername$, I am an idiot.’”
2. You watch a movie, the actor looks into camera, and you think, “Wow, he’s looking right at player.”
3. When you hear the word “shopkeeper,” you immediately have flashbacks of merchant screens.
4. You use medieval-speak when talking to friends, co-workers, relatives and you don’t even notice.
5. You’re doing some research on-line for names and before you realize it you have entered into the search field: “mini boss of nebulousness.”
6. You watch a movie and afterwards, your critique is “That’s totally not re-playable.”
7. You start giving people excessively specific directions. Ex: “Take this dish to the sink in the kitchen, then return to me.” Okay, so this never happened to me, but it’s only a matter of time.
8. You’re trying to recap a linear story for “normals” and you keep saying “player” instead of “the main character.” They look at you strangely.
Got any other moments from the game developer’s perspective? Share so we don’t feel like we’re the crazy ones!
Guess that game dialog! What game did this line come from: “Marvelous! Perfect! Perfect! Marvelous! Great! Perfect!” Check back next week to find out where it came from.
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