Ranch Rush game released!

Nothing more fun than a quick game.  And by quick game, I mean a rush job.  Check out our fastest game writing job so far — Ranch Rush!  It’s a time management game featuring a character with a bit of sass and a lot of energy!

1) Download and install the Ranch Rush trial from freshgames.com.
2) Launch the game and click on “Buy Now”.
3) Play.

I believe you can play a trial version — but watch out.  It’s addictive!

Post script — I’m pretty geeked out, now that I notice they’re using some of our dialog lines to market it!

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Create your own time to penis quest!

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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Whither D&D? Episodic gaming and MMOs

This Saturday I volunteered to teach foster kids about video game design. One of my students came out with something that surprised me. He liked “series games” — those that come out with sequel after sequel. I like ‘em too, but that’s because I consider them episodes, which conveniently ties in with my last post on D&D 4th edition. Last week I wrote about how D&D approaches player types and tone. Today I’ll take another look at how D&D’s 4th edition can come in handy with game design beyond the stand-alone game.

The DM Guide illustrates different types of games:

Campaign Games
According to the guide, campaign games mean what you do matters next time — allegedly. However, if the DM burns out, the story never finishes. I’d have to disagree with point one — sometimes in a campaign game, what you do in one session doesn’t always matter down the road. From a video game perspective, having one DM — or one writer — on a project can often lead to a weakness in one or more areas of the story, because there’s no one to bounce ideas off of. Therein lies one of the reasons for the Writers Cabal!

Episodic Games
The DM Guide indicates that episodic games don’t fit into a larger story, leading to a sense of purposelessness (fun word!). I have to disagree, and my TV roots will start to show. Episodic stories can take place in a campaign world and/or with the same characters. In these cases, the stories will be satisfying, because each adventure will (hopefully) lead to a satisfying conclusion, and they can all eventually lead into a larger campaign. Stephen King, for example, wrote many disconnected stories. Now — decades later — he realizes he can tie them all together with a big good vs. evil storyline. Furthermore, if your campaign story ends up having a lame or fizzled ending, you will at least be able to say, “Oh, and this one time, I did this!” The best stories are made up of a bunch of smaller ones.

Ongoing/One-shot Games
Ongoing games can either be episodic or campaign oriented. Ongoing games with the same group of people can encourage cooperation, while one-shot games encourage exposure to different types of player types. These concerns tie in more directly with multiplayer games, so…

D&D 4th edition demonstrates influence from certain MMOs. One commenter on the Gamasutra article noted that the “Healing surges” mechanic of 4th edition seemed similar to the rate of recovery popular in MMOs. In general, 4th edition definitely wants to take advantage of the online space as much as possible, even making it easier to run D&D games online. Do you think this trend will be good or bad for D&D?  Personally, if I’m going to play a game online, I might as well do so with my gaming group in an MMO. That said, maybe I could run a D&D game online that I wouldn’t want to do in person. Who’d be interested in that?

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Game story vs. player story… And the winner is?

Last Thursday at the ION Game Conference, we gathered for the ultimate showdown… internal game story vs. emergent player story. The results may not be what you think. Sam Lewis, Lead Designer at Cartoon Network; Katie Postma, Community Manager at FireSky (STARGATE WORLDS), and Sande Chen of Writers Cabal debated the topic, with yours truly doing her level best to moderate. In attendance we had a number of game designers interested in expanding their ability to combine game story and player engagement. Here’s how it all went down.

Story vs. Story: Redefining Narrative and Player Engagement in MMOs

Internal game story or narrative in MMOs provides context and meaning for player actions, while the emergent story and social fun engages players and tends to make MMOs sticky. That said, many at ION talked about using a diversity of methods to engage players and keep them around. Can game story be far behind? We talked about internal game narrative, emergent story, and ways to combine them both.

Sam Lewis pointed out that the worst kinds of game stories get in the way of achievement. Few enjoy hearing about a character’s life story when they want to kill the big bad. It’s important when writing and designing to keep in mind all player types, and not force anyone down one particular path. For example, story-lovers tend to be explorers — you wouldn’t necessarily want to make your game all about exploring, story or otherwise. Of course, this ties back in with designing with diversity in mind.

Sande pointed out that you can make the game story important. If hearing a character’s back story isn’t important, it probably shouldn’t be there to begin with. However, you can create systems to make story important, like lore badges in-game, or through forum status out of game.

Katie added how even though STARGATE WORLDS would draw a lot of fans of the Stargate world and story, 60% of its players would not be familiar with this world. The designers would be attempting to tell story other ways, like through the names of debuffs, for example.

Overall, the design ideas for making the internal narrative more important and more relevant to players include:

• Lore badges
• Link story through gifts between players
• Use of instances: The changes players can effect in instances as opposed to the persistent world make them ripe for story
• Animations in the persistent world, though these would be reset for each player
• See progression of story on website, perhaps through earning cash like on Club Penguin
• Catch the disease bug. Have a story-related effect spread throughout the game

The stories people play
Katie recounted what players talk about when playing MMOs. Hard-core raiders will share how they got their exalted reputation. A roleplayer in her casual guild would give a play-by-play of what he was doing fully in character.

Sam pointed out emote systems worked well in creating player story. He brought up the cantina crawl in STAR WARS GALAXIES, where players could go from cantina to cantina and would put on performances in each one. The biggest problem Sam had with MMOs from both a story and gameplay perspective involved the low stakes — if player makes a mistake, well, it’s no big deal. However, in EVERQUEST, the corpse run became one of the most talked-about features, because if the players didn’t get to their corpses in time, they lost everything.

Where game story and player story meet
Sam Lewis worked on STAR WARS GALAXIES, which, while brilliant in many ways, had some flaws. On the one hand, it didn’t capture the game story/world of Star Wars well enough for most players. On the other hand, because initially it was so hard to become a Jedi, it encouraged players to form entire guilds around helping characters become Jedis.

Katie pointed out that in WoW, most of her knowledge of lore came from another player. How, then, can we use the social systems that make MMOs great to tell the internal story, and vice versa? Check out these ideas that came up:

• Before launch, put some story clues onto the website and community boards that will get everyone commenting and speculating
• Allow user-generated content, such as tools to create missions in game
• Use systems like the cantina bands and tie them into the story
• Make it possible for players to be the first to discover something story/game-related, then give them public reward and recognition
• Let players show their story through motion capture and share it with others

At the end, each person offered one tip developers can implement right now to combine player story and game story on their MMOs.

• Let the worlds you build tell the story and create curiosity, rather than rely on dialog to convey it
• Bring in writers early to integrate them into the design and story-building process
• Make User-generated content available at launch and make sure your guild tools are robust at launch

Overall, this panel was chock full of good content — and I didn’t even get into the great question and answer period. I quickly discovered taking notes and moderating at the same time was a bit of a challenge, so if you were there, let me know if I missed anything key. What other ideas do you have for telling great game story, helping players tell their own stories, or helping players tell game story?

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Top 5 trends you need to know in MMOs

In preparation for the ION Game Conference, we thought we’d update you on the state of MMOs. We’ll be speaking about game story versus emergent story, which is sure to lead to a knock-down fight — er, a few disagreements. Read on to find the latest trends that affect story, pulled in party from Gamasutra.

1. Not all MMOs will be successful — and some won’t even get off the ground. Bioware, THQ, Activision are all trying to get into the MMO space. Activision, of course, was successful with the Blizzard merger. However, we can point to as many games that disintegrated or barely made it out the gate. A few have asked if mainstream MMOs really can innovate. Which leads to:

2. Casual and children’s MMOs make money, too. Reportedly $350 million for Disney’s Club Penguin.

3. The days of the subscription model may be numbered. Free and micro-payments games already attract a number of players. Real Money Transfer (RMT) games may be just around the corner.

4. MMOs are not a zero-sum game. More players are entering the MMO space, so higher subscription numbers on one game don’t necessarily mean fewer in another. Although not everyone agrees.

5. User generated content (UGC) appeals to many people, and quest-making tools in MMOs may help players make the technology hurdle. Most UGC appears on fansites.

Have you heard about any MMOs experimenting with or demonstrating these trends? Stay tuned for more about story and MMO this week!

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What kind of NPCs do you want?

You turn the corner, rifle at the ready, and sneak down the hall.  Just as you’re about to shoot, an NPC comes out with his hands up.  What do you want him to say?  When it comes to game writers, arguably we influence the game the most with how we write NPC dialog.  And yet, when we attended a meeting at a major game publisher, we had one executive lamenting the state of games: “There’s no excuse for NPCs with no character.”

I happen to agree.  All characters should have a character arc and as much personality as possible.  Great examples might be from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.  Anyone played GTA IV yet?  However, some people hold that sometimes a guard is just a guard.  NPCs with personality or arc could be distracting or just unrealistic.  If you’re not around an NPC long enough, how could he or she go through a full character arc? 

The obvious answer involves reaching some kind of balance, but I’m still of the mindset that everyone should have an arc, unless they literally have one line.  Where do you stand?  What kind of NPCs do you want?  The quirky kind who learn to love again, or the earnest sort who just gets the job done?

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Asking Questions, Receiving Answers

Being open to questions doesn’t begin and end with the game writer-developer relationship. When I go to game expos, I like to ask questions. Sure, I like to see the previews and sometimes, I’ll hop on and play a classic game like GALAGA. But usually, I go look at the new games being demo’ed and if there’s somebody nearby to bother, I’ll ask specific design questions, e.g. Why did they decide on this aspect of the design? Did they know about this factor? Asking questions is something that filters in and out of work, life, and play.

At conferences, as previously mentioned, we have a good time at parties and sessions. We always seem to find people willing to engage in scholarly discussions, whether at the AI dinner or at the hotel lobby. Industry parties are also a gold mine of shop talk. At the last event I attended, I asked an audio engineer about voice-over set-ups for an ensemble cast. I talked to a programmer about localization issues. He told me that at his studio, they design the interface for German as a default since it tends to have the longest words. As a rare treat, I met a game writer from a French game company. He told me that the sex quest with the dryad in the game, THE WITCHER, was tasteful and thought more games should incorporate mature themes.

While working, we ask questions, but we also like to receive questions from developers, especially ones of the clarifying sort. It’s part of the back and forth of production. Since changes to quests, back story, or other content may occur during production, we need the channels of communication to be open.

What’s the best answer to a game design question you’ve ever come across? What’s the best question?

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April Fools fun — MMO content and design

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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