Archive for April, 2008
A picture of innocence
Posted by Rockjaw in Personal, Weird self portraits on April 29th, 2008
If anything qualifies as a ‘Weird self-portrait’ it’s this. Except, erm, I didn’t do it myself. Oh well:
Guild Wars is three, too
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on April 28th, 2008
Continuing the apparent obsession we have with releasing games on April 28th, in case you weren’t aware today is also the three year anniversary of Guild Wars’ original release.
(For the record, Guild Wars Factions was released two years ago to the day, while Guild Wars Nightfall was released in October 2006 – possibly even the 28th of that month, or darn near. We do like our symmetry.)
April 28th 2005 was a pretty big day for us in Europe – it was the first time we’d released a game simultaneously with the US*, and it was actually as a company the first time we’d released any title globally at the same time (Guild Wars went live in Korea on the same day). There was champagne and video conference link-ups, if memory serves, and given the time differences some of the participants were in pyjamas (Seattle), some were bleary-eyed (Austin), some were having breakfast (Brighton) and some were going to bed (Seoul).
Massively has a couple of retrospective articles up to mark the date, and of course if you’re a player there have been in-game celebrations going on for the last few days, although today’s special; today is when you get your character’s birthday present, assuming that your character was created on launch day, of course.
I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I haven’t finished the original GW campaign, Prophecies, and I always told myself I wouldn’t play Factions or Nightfall until I’d finished the original. (I did dip into Factions a bit with an Assassin character; it was just too tempting.) This isn’t through lack of trying; I just got stuck on a particular story mission and haven’t been able to get past it! I know, what a slacker… one day, one day.
Anyway; happy birthday to all of our April games, and many happy returns.
* If you’re wondering: NCsoft Europe didn’t exist when City of Heroes and Lineage II were released in April, 2004 in the US. We launched them as soon as we could after we did exist, mind you…
Player generated heroics ahoy
Posted by Rockjaw in Community, MMO-related on April 28th, 2008
Lovely moment of serendipity today. I was looking at this Massively post, asking the question ‘Is user generated content the future of MMOs?’ and thinking ‘Hmm, I’d like to comment about that on the blog’ and then Matt Miller goes and drops Da Bomb in his 4th Anniversary Address for City of Heroes:
Similar in concept to our character creator, [this future feature] allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialogue and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.
Happy Anniversary, indeed.
I was aware that this was coming – I certainly didn’t realise that it was going to be talked about so soon, so I had a ‘Woah’ moment when I read the text myself, as I’m sure a lot of other players did too! It’s obviously very exciting news for the game and for the community, especially for all the roleplayers out there (and I’ll cross my fingers for your /walk emote, too…). I may even allow myself a small ‘w00t’.
w00t!
It even appeals to the retired GameMaster in me, too, considering that like almost everyone else I’ve often thought about how interesting it might be to create my own missions in-game. The key is of course that these missions won’t just be for yourself – but for other players, and the community at large. It’s pretty dizzying in fact, and just another huge, exciting development for a game that sure doesn’t feel ‘old’ at all to me.
By the way, do I think that user-generated content is the future of MMOs? Not entirely. It sure is part of it though, and it’s great to see that other developers share the same thought.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some missions requiring my attention in Paragon City….
Guild Wars’ architectural vision
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others on April 26th, 2008
Via Rock Paper Shotgun, I read an interesting interview tonight with Daniel Dociu, the Chief Art Director for ArenaNet – who make Guild Wars, in case you weren’t aware. The interview’s at the excellently named BLDGBLOG, which is a blog about architecture.
Why talk to Daniel? Well, he has interesting things to say about architecture in games, and of course he really knows his onions. When asked about his influences when coming up with designs, this was part of what he had to say:
… I look back all the way to the dawn of mankind: to ruins, and Greek architecture, and Mycenean architecture, all the way up to the architecture of the Crusades, and castles in North Africa, and the Romanesque and Gothic and Baroque and Rococo – even to neo-Classical and art deco and Bauhaus and Modernist.
Sounds like he’s forgotten more about architecture than I’d ever know! Anyway, the interview’s worth a read. Or if you prefer, just worth a look for some lovely imagery of Daniel’s. If you’d like more info on the man himself he’s also got his own site, complete with gallery for your perusal.
Coffee Pictures, Part 5
Posted by Rockjaw in Weird self portraits on April 26th, 2008
@ Moksha
Man, that top lip is getting hairy. And look at that spam-head-glare!
You said what?