Zen of DesignRandom thoughts on game design, development and support, with emphasis on MMO design, from an experienced industry insider. Warning: I often take the devil's advocate position 'just because'.My Call of Duty 4 Experience- March 28, 2008 So far, it has some of the most spectacular scripted events I&8217;ve ever seen in a video game, visually. That being said, so far the actual gameplay seems to consist of not quite killing anyone before my squadmates do, followed by being blown up by unavoidable grenades.Online Viagra Soft Cialis Soft Out my credit score Cheap ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1031 Miss Me Yet- March 28, 2008 Sorry for being incommunicado. Wordpress has decided to not allow me to post. In order to prevent me from saying anything stupid, I suppose. I&8217;ve done a lot of work on the back end, upgrading the version, deleting a lot of old data, and other improvements that will hopefully improve performance, but I haven&8217;t ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1032 The Opposite of RMT- March 21, 2008 Magic: the Gathering has had, over the years, a debate over the use of what they call proxy cards, or the use of stand-in cards to represent more expensive, harder to find cards. Often times, these proxy cards are little more than writing the words &8216;Black Lotus&8217; over a worthless land card, but in ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1029 Dear Burnout: Paradise Team- March 20, 2008 The whole GTA-like open city thing&8230;. did it ever occur to you that someone might want to run the same race twice in a row Please, find the designerproducer that foisted this horrible decision on an otherwise great game, and bop him on the back of the head once for me. Kthx&8230;http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1028 Basic Fairness- March 20, 2008 The real issue of RMT is basic fairness. Which is less basic than you might think. It&8217;s really not about world disruption. Or gold spam. &8220;Game Gods&8221; who run these games are not necessarily opposed to RMT, and some have tried to monetize it already. More will in the future. It ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1026 That Libertarian RMT Argument- March 20, 2008 Here. &8220;When you criminalize free trade, onlycriminals engage in free trade. Thats why you see the thuggish behaviour you do.Legalize the trade, as some games and worlds have, and you have harnessed legitimate and normal human activity, and then can more easily identify and prosecute the criminals, i.e. those who use fraud, spamming.&8221; An homage, if you ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1027 Arcane Election Rules- March 11, 2008 My experience with the Texas Primary was not unlike Scott&8217;s, only we were attempting to fit about 500 people into a 35-man classroom on a college campus. We ended up forming two lines, going down the hall each way, each supporting a different candidate. Somehow, I was drafted into actually playing traffic cop ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1024 The Longest, Geekiest Quiz Ive Taken In a While- March 10, 2008 From this quiz: I Am A: Neutral Good Elf Sorcerer (4th Level) Ability Scores: Strength-10 Dexterity-11 Constitution-10 Intelligence-16 Wisdom-18 Charisma-13 Alignment:Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1023 Mao and Magic- March 8, 2008 In the previous thread on hiding numbers, Raph argues that showing the numbers is bad if You have some other sort of game where figuring out the mystery is part of the point The king of these games is, arguably, Mao. The game is a crazy-eights clone, with a whole bunch of Uno-style rules, but with ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1022 WoW Class PvP Metrics- March 7, 2008 My wife pointed these out to me - MMO designers who like metrics will probably find themselves mesmerised as well. This blog runs metrics on the Armory to determine the class makeup of teams at different Arena ratings. (For the uninitiated, 1500 is an average, starter rating, whereas 1800 is considered good and 2200 is ...http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=1021 |