Warhammer Zealot openPVP compilation as a single YouTube video

I have "digitally remastered" the original compilation for better quality, and thanks to YouTube's generously increased play time and file size limits, I've uploaded the entire compilation as a single video!

WAR vs WoW: the little guy vs economies of scale

I was going to post a comment on Grimnir's post WAR : Love-Hate with the MMO community, but it got too long so here it is instead.

WAR is a good game, and haters are always gonna hate. But on the other hand, WoW enjoys economies of scale. Also, Blizzard can throw more money at the problem and can have more and better talent on their payroll. Their salaries are competitive with similar positions in other industries --- the talent at Blizzard is no longer made up of 2nd-grade people who couldn't get work in more mainstream industries. Then there's the factor of sheer manpower. As hard as each person at Mythic works, they will struggle to compete with the multiple people Blizzard can afford to assign to the same task. This especially makes a difference for development tasks like creating new content or fixing bugs. WoW has the upper hand and it will be the constant vortex that sucks people away from niche or up-and-coming games. The pressure is on the little guys to grab and hold the attention of the gamers. Furthermore, because of the mature state that WoW is in, it is freer to innovate or make drastic changes (Cataclysm) while the new guy is still busy carving out his niche or ironing out bugs. Then again, WoW doesn't even need to innovate. MMO startups like WAR can have brilliant ideas, but WoW is in an awesome position to steal them. You can bet that whatever good idea that is well-received in WAR is already considered or will be considered for assimilation into WoW. Blizzard runs WoW like a good business and that's something good businesses can do. It just takes a few false steps from WAR and WoW will be waiting to slurp the unsubscribers into its belly.

However, it's not entirely WoW's fault. What you see is really a product of WAR's current policy. Mythic has been a shy about recruiting since the initial ruckus. Now, it's as if they want people to come to WAR, but only on their own terms and in their own time. It's a more hippie approach to running a business. Compare WAR's approach with WoW's marketing attacks and things like their super attractive recruit-a-friend program: triple XP, free game time, rewards, free summons to each other, free levelling, etc. WAR is intentionally taking it slow. They want people to discover the game by themselves and form their own opinion about it, instead of getting blasted with a huge population influx and not be able to support it; or getting everyone hyped and not being able to deliver (again). So what we see today is a result of WAR's own low and slow marketing/recruiting: many people are just peeking over the fence and forming their opinions from there.

All that aside, one thing that bothered me about WAR (being the small little-guy hippie game), was that I never really felt like I was ever rewarded for being a loyal customer. What's wrong with sending me double renown tokens in the mail every few months? Unique vanity items or dyes or trinkets to decorate my armor with? Tome unlocks? Or even some free game time? These things cost nothing to give out in the digital world, but they are meaningful as a token of gratitude saying, "Thanks for sticking with us through thick and thin; we appreciate your support". They can give bigger rewards to the people who stuck it out since the beginning, or those who have stayed subscribed for 1 year, 2 years, etc.

Mythic has made very bad management decisions in the past. They made even worse decisions when EA came into the picture and they tried to make it more like WoW. They should have just figured out what they wanted to do from the start, and focused on that. It sounds like they're finding their niche now as Bioware-Mythic and they're making better decisions, but the odds are against the little guy and...

How Square Enix should salvage FFXIV

I have it! After watching the latest FFXIV official opening cinematic, I know what Square Enix can do to salvage the garbage that is FFXIV online! Make FFXIV an anime series. That is, keep all the storytelling and CG aspects of the game but take out the interactive bits. I'd gladly pay $50-$60 for a set of FFXIV anime DVDs that feature the eye candy and the storytelling that's synonymous with FF, instead of $50 for a shitty game. I actually think they might make more money in the long run if they just released "FFXIV: the anime series", instead of "FFXIV online: the shitty game that plays like it's from the '90s".

Global Agenda: Sandstorm phase II

    Global Agenda (GA)'s expansion, Sandstorm launched today. I didn't know about this, initially. I logged into GA hoping for some quick games on my sniper Recon. First thing I noticed was that the graphics were different... and shinier. Next, PVP matches were not popping up as fast as they usually do. Then, I remembered about Sandstorm, and how they were going to add new content and "open world" maps. So, I ran through the short quest chain to gain access to the "open world" map and stepped outside.



Sadly, the "outside world" seemed to be a lowbie PVE zone. I was hoping to run into some human enemies, but unfortunately they didn't make it an open PVP zone. The only other major addition that I noticed were 10-man raid instances and a few new lowbie PVE missions. So, Sandstorm turned out to be an expansion that added more PVE and "MMO"-esque content. I might try the 10-man raids at least once, but otherwise I'll be waiting for people to return to queueing for PVP matches. One nice thing that came out of the last round of changes is that GA is completely subscription-free now.

"How to fail at producing a competitive product", by Hiromichi Tanaka

The development of Final Fantasy XIV occupies all my time, so I do not have time to play other games. I am therefore sorry to say that the last game that pleased me as a player is Final Fantasy XI.
- Hiromichi Tanaka (exerpt from the interview below)

This is like saying, "We want to build the best car in the world. No, we did not test any other cars currently in the market. But, the car that pleased me most as a driver was the last one we built."



Translation below:

"I worked on Final Fantasy XI for 8 years. I was able to collect a lot of feedback and testimonials of MMORPG players. But I also heard many moving stories from the players. A lot of things happened between them. So I had a great pleasure in working on a new MMORPG and I will be able to hear many new stories written through the game. We do not try to compete with World of Warcraft. We really want to convince the fans of Final Fantasy who have never played an MMORPG. But also show to casual gamers that MMORPGs are very exciting to play. We really hope that Final Fantasy XIV will be a good first experience for those new players.

With this title we want to bring new players to the MMORPG experience, so we spent a lot of time to manage the play time. We know that MMORPGs can consume a lot of time for players. We have therefore created the "Guild Leaves" and an armory which will allow players to use their playing time effectively. This is one of the main novelties of this Final Fantasy XIV. We really wanted to make quests less repetitive as possible for players. In Final Fantasy XI, when you were done with a quest, it was not meant to be repeated. Instead in Final Fantasy XIV we really want the players to repeat them as many times as they want. Attempts are being made to make these quests as pleasant as possible so that players do not feel bored.

The development of Final Fantasy XIV occupies all my time, so I do not have time to play other games. I am therefore sorry to say that the last game that pleased me as a player is Final Fantasy XI.

We have not yet anything in mind to the Playstation Plus members. You'll have the traditional achievments for all players, but nothing special for Playstation Plus members. "

Source

I think FFXIV would be a better product if someone with more relevant production experience was at the helm, and Tanaka had the role of Lead Designer instead of Executive Producer. I'm going to assume that FFXI purists will be happy with FFXIV. But, if you have enjoyed other games, it will be unlikely that the things you enjoyed in those games will be in FFXIV. I further speculate that despite an initial spike in subscriber numbers, the game will struggle to expand its market (especially in the first few years) and settle somewhere close to current FFXI subscriber numbers; basically migrating players from older Final Fantasy games to FFXIV.

Medieval economics

I just remembered a podcast that I heard some time ago. It's titled "Hear: Bloody, Miserable Medieval Economics" from NPR's Planet Money. It describes the harsh reality of medieval economics and includes some concepts that we may have seen in MMOs or movies (such as guilds, knights, craftspeople, professions and kings). It was a world where knights were evil, guilds were oppressive, and the black plague helped usher in the industrial revolution. It's a good listen and it definitely changed my perspective on certain things.

FFXIV alpha: not pleased

Due to the NDA I can't say much, but I'll say that it was incredibly disappointing to see very basic issues (in Alpha and with low population no less!) when the game is slated to be released in a month. It is making me suspicious of Hiromichi Tanaka's competence. I found out that he is the producer of the FFXIV game so I looked up his resume and began speculating. Most of his experience seems to be in game design, so I'm sure he's a brilliant/solid game designer. But does he have experience leading large-scale software projects? Developing massively-multiplayer games? Working on games like Chrono Cross or Seiken Densetsu does not qualify someone to develop MMOGs, since they are on a different order of complexity. So, the only real MMOG experience he has is from FFXI. Has he learned enough from FFXI?

Not having comprehensive technical expertise is not a dealbreaker for a leader, as long as he is humble and wise enough to identify what is important, recognize his shortcomings, then hire and manage the right talent to fill in the gaps. But then I wondered: what if Tanaka-san doesn't get it? Is there someone else overseeing the production of the game that has the influence to change his mind? Someone who could keep Tanaka honest or redirect the heading of the game? Since Tanaka produced FFXI and was brought back for FFXIV, I am thinking not. He's probably the best guy that Square Enix has for the job, and has even more influence in FFXIV than he did in FFXI.

But, what about his subordinates? Surely someone lower in rank can raise concerns or influence some change. I recalled Tanaka-san's resume. If his resume is any indication of how it is in the game industry, there is probably a lot of inbreeding and incest. Tanaka started out as a programmer for games, and went on to being a designer for game after game. He has little professional experience outside of the game industry, and now he's on top of the totem pole. So, if someone like Tanaka-san cannot recognize problems in the development, and everyone in the organization is similar to him, it's very likely that no one will be able to steer the ship away from any impending doom or toward better methods/technology. This would be particularly so because of the Japanese work culture.

The other concern is that Tanaka has tons of experience designing games. While this is good news for the PVE content and gameplay in FFXIV, it could be bad if he allows himself to get too distracted or consumed by the game design components that he is so fond of. This is a common pitfall for managers that have come up from the trenches --- they tend to see things from the point of view that they are most familiar with. He is a producer after all, and at some point he needs to detach himself, assume a more global stance, delegate, and give fair attention to the other important parts of the game.

I hope that I'm wrong about the FFXIV production, despite FFXIV (and FFXI under Tanaka's leadership also) having succumbed to sloppy scheduling, undefined-deadline releases, basic/fundamental issues in Alpha, and Beta testing only less than a month before release! If a real company producing Operating Systems, CAD tools, microprocessors or even online tax software were run like these game companies, they would most certainly not be successful. Somehow gaming companies are held to a different standard, or have more room for error. Please prove me wrong, Tanaka-san!