Tagged News: development

In Sean Bulger's latest column, he looks at the idea of competition between players as part of building an MMO community. Every other Wednesday, Bulger chimes in with a new community focused column here on WarCry.

One of the most controversial topics you'll run into with online game development - but certainly far from the only one - is competition between players. The very idea of Player versus Player (PvP) content can scare off a number of players and make plenty more question the potential community of any game with it. It would seem that a fairly large amount of MMOers believe that PvP is detrimental to their enjoyment of the game, that it draws in a fairly bad crowd, and it hurts the community for a game. Between the PvP severs of most games and the popularity of primarily PvE games and PvE content, tends to showcase this mindset.

Read more after the leap.

Today we introduce a new column to our schedule. Every other Wednesday, Sean Bulger will check in with his look at communities and design. In the first edition, Sean introduces us to his column and talks about players as a resource for development.

While it certainly does come off a bit grim to refer to players as a resource, we are. In fact, we are probably the most important resource for an MMO. When a game begins to fail and starts to lose players it tends to cause a landslide - when enough people leave a guild, they often take other guild members with them. When enough players leave a server, server merges are needed. Many people play MMOs because they are filled with other players - even testimonies from primarily solo-gamers still mention that other players filling the world is a positive thing for them. It is what separates these games from single player, or normal multiplayer games.

Read more after the click.

SOE will expand with a new development studio in India, according to an article on Gamasutra. This news makes sense given the recent announce of the Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book MMOG in concert with Virgin Comics.

For more, check out the source.

The Vanguard Developers have left their office in Carlsbad, from the building they originally developed the game in, to SOE's San Diego campus. This will provide a greater access to SOE resources, but not every employee from Carlsbad has remained on the team as a result.

The Vanguard development team is relocating its offices to SOE's San Diego campus effective Monday, October 15, 2007. As part of the integration into the SOE family, the developers will benefit from having access to shared resources and the combined experience of SOE's other game development teams. As a result, not every Carlsbad employee has been invited to stay with the development team.

Under the new leadership of Thom Terrazas, an eight-year SOE veteran, SOE will continue its commitment to Vanguard and its players. The remaining Vanguard team members are going to continue to deliver on an exceptional product. They are a creative force in the online games space and we look forward to continuing the vision for Vanguard and to continue to deliver groundbreaking game play. SOE remains committed to seeing Vanguard grow and prosper.

This had been expected for some time since SOE bought out Sigil.

Auto Assault former lead designer Snipehunter posted the 5th entry of the weekly Auto Assault retrospect titled appropriately "A Day Late and a Dollar Short", in which he reveals the story behind the creation of Grand Junction:

As the work on the Fetid Bayou was coming to end, I spent my days working on the initial design of region 3, the Grand Junction. Grand Junction had the name, originally, because it was meant to be the location of a major highway intersection - the confluence of three 12 lane ribbons of concrete and asphalt that had weathered the test of time. There was really only one problem with that - as far as I knew there was no such place in Austin and I'd decided in my work on the mutant history that it was the citizens of Austin that helped the mutants build the Citadel. That left me with a dilemma: Do I stick to Austin's real road layout, or do I play dramatic license and mold the future Austin into what I needed it to be? This is where Google came to my rescue.

Read the full article on Dopass.com

EA has rethought the way they organize their game development in an effort to save money and react more quickly. Now, the company is organized into four seperate divisions: sports, casual, The Sims and new games. For hardcore gamers, that means only one division is likely to be working on anything original at all and that division is highlighted as responsible for Command & Conquer, Battlefield and one would assume all the movie franchises. Likely not a banner a day for innovation.

No word on what this means for their online games, such as EA Mythic's Warhammer Online.

Electronic Arts Inc. said it will reorganize the world's biggest video game publisher into four units, in an efficiency drive by its new chief executive.

Under the plan by CEO John Riccitiello, announced on Friday. EA will consist of units that focus on sports, casual games, its "Sims" virtual dollhouse franchise, and other games.

EA said the changes, which will not involve job losses, should help it save money at a time when the cost of developing a top-tier game can run up to $20 million.

The full story is on Yahoo! News.

Acclaim and designer David Perry are putting on one of the most unique competitions I've ever see. The new project is called "Top Secret", it's an MMO being directed by David Perry, but designed by the community. Anyone can contribute to it, as Perry assembles the best ideas into a single game. The kicker though, is that one person from those contributors will be selected to direct their own fully funded MMO project. If you think you have the talent, but just need the break, this is your chance.

Check out the press release after the click.