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The guys from Penny Arcade aren’t around this week and are having guests write their articles for them. Tycho from Penny Arcade ran into Raph Koster and posed a design challenge to him to come up with a MMO based around players building buildings, actually getting in there doing the wiring, plumbing the whole lot.

One thing Raph said that I really think is an important way of looking at games is this.

Games are made out of smaller games – turtles all the way down, until you hit the game that is so trivial and stupid it isn’t deserving of the name. In an MMO, we nest games pretty deep, because some games are short-term and some are long-term. In something like WoW, the smallest games are things like “hit Heal on time.” Then you get ‘kill the foozle,” and above that “kill a hell of a lot of foozles” and above that “make yourself stronger by picking the right gear” and in some cases “make your guild stronger” and so on.

I think that is a very insightful way of looking at how to design games, as mini games within themselves. The whole article is worth a read because the MMO he comes up with does sound like it could be kinda fun even. He came up with it in only 3 hours too.

I think the idea of doing mini designs and then showing them off is kind of cool, maybe I’ll do those occasionally here. Through up rough sketches of game ideas for anyone to read and pick apart that may be fun

Also Raph is working on a new project called Metaplace which looks to be very interesting. It promises to enable the players to design and create their own MMOs.

I just ran across this great resource for 3D models that would work great in indie games. The site is called 3DRT and they have a decent selection. They seam to have quite a few packs of models and many of the models come with several textures that work in making each one look really unique. Their prices are low as well and are thus fairly friendly to the indie developer. I haven’t used them myself but their stuff looks good so if you’re on the market for some 3D model packs these guys are worth checking out they may just have what you need.

Here’s a sample of one of their models with textures.

Slashdot has posted a great interview with Dr. Eyjólfur “Eyjo” Guðmundsson of CCP who makes EVE Online. Dr. Eyjo was recently hired by the guys at CCP to do various research on different parts of the EVE Online economy. This is certainly not something we see a lot of in the game industry but it is a trend I hope picks up. I think that we need to look for more insights into our games and I especially think economics one of the perfect subjects to explore through MMO’s because of the fact that they are rather small and  contained systems but yet they can display all of the dynamics of economics since they are inhabited with humans with goals much like those in the real world.

Also Dr. Eyjo has an economics of EVE Online blog he’s started writing to share some of his discoveries with the EVE Online community.  This is definitely something worth checking out if you’re at all interested in the economics of virtual worlds.

Lord British (or General British as he likes to be called these days) has made his development team for Tabula Rasa write an essay about ethical parables within Tabula Rasa (essay quoted below.) Providing players with ethical dilemmas has always been a big thing for Garriot in his Ultima games and I think it’s a very interesting topic for game makers to explore. Movies have been exploring different persona’s ethics for a long time and it’s good when games start looking within the human psyche as well.

Still i can’t help but think that when the difference between good and evil means the difference between me getting that +4 Longsword of Death Dealing I need rather than some crappy +2 Slingshot of Monkey Torturing I may have other things swaying me to make a particular choice other than morality.

Ethical Parables in Tabula Rasa

Players of most massively multiplayer online role-playing games today usually aren’t faced with any great variety of missions that really impact your character or how you play. The most you’re faced with is what kind of reward you’ll get or, at most, which of the two factions you’ll support against the other. It doesn’t really have any effect on you in the grand scheme of things and you’ll probably forget about the whole thing in a month or so. Instead of that static, boring type of storytelling, we wanted to create a more immersive story with Tabula Rasa, one that the players could interact with, where their actions could have long reaching consequences. We call this form of story-telling interaction the ethical parable and it is one of the hallmarks of a Richard Garriott game.

Ethical and moral dilemmas are something we definitely wanted to incorporate into the design of Tabula Rasa from the very start. The entire goal is to give you pause and allow you to think about the choices that they make in order to accomplish a mission. This way, at times, you will not be limited to one single path but may have multiple paths. We want you to think about the larger story and how your actions can affect this story down the road. Now you have the ability to play the game the way you want to play it. This in essence is the parable–a type of story that allows you to explore moral lessons or decisions.

We won’t be throwing these ethical parables at the players in every mission, but we definitely want players to get a taste for them early on in the game. We’ve placed a few on, the first major landmass that players will encounter in Tabula Rasa. One of these early missions involves the delivery of pharmaceuticals to soldiers on the front lines. While the supply commander, a rather straight-laced and stand-up kind of individual, would rather these pharmaceuticals be distributed to the soldiers in a formal, organized system, there’s a man who stole a whole bunch and has been selling them to the soldiers for a nice profit. Your decision to either turn in the thief, or help him distribute the stolen goods, not only affects the mission outcome but determines how the NPC soldiers will interact with you from then on.

Another mission of note is for players with levels in the mid-teens. As you progress though the game and are redeployed to Foreas Base, you’re told that the AFS has a Bane prisoner who is currently undergoing interrogation. This will start a chain of missions as the Bane prisoner reveals more and more information, allowing you to attack the local Bane base, kill a key Bane soldier, deal with some traitors, and possibly even defend the prison from attack.

At the end of this mission chain, you’re now left with the choice of what to do with the prisoner. On one hand, he’s one of the evil Bane, who wiped out most of humanity and forced people like yourself to fight for survival on a few scattered alien worlds. It doesn’t deserve to live… or does it? As a mere soldier, the Bane was just doing what it was supposed to do, no more and no less, and cannot really be held responsible for what the leadership of the Bane did to Earth. What would be the harm in letting him live, and more importantly, what more could you learn from him? If you were a prisoner, wouldn’t you want to be treated humanely, instead of being executed for telling you what you wanted to know?

These are a couple of examples of the parables we will present in Tabula Rasa. Some of them will have little or no long-term impact, and others may influence the way you experience the game. We want to give you the choice to play the game the way you want to, without hemming you into one specific path. This way, we’ve created a better, richer, more immersive game experience for you to enjoy.

This is a book review for Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution a book about the history and future of the video games industry by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby.

I recently picked up Smartbombwhen I had a few bored minutes thinking it would maybe entertain me for a short while and I’d toss it aside. I’ve followed games and the industry for years and figured I’d know pretty much everything it had to say. However, after starting to read it I just couldn’t put it down and thoroughly enjoyed myself, it’s full of interesting nuggets even longtime veterans of the industry could appreciate.

The book touches on several topics mostly about the history of the game industry and some of the “stars” of the industry. It also tries to do a little prediction of the future of games as well as taking a shallow swim through some of the more esoteric parts of the industry you may not see every day.

The book starts out somewhat slow with a chapter on CliffyB and Epic (who tend to make good games but less interesting reading material) and then a chapter on gaming prehistory and the creation of the first games. Most of the info here was relatively dry to me and I had read it all many times before. However, if you’ve never read a lot about the history of video games this is an excellent place to do it.

Then the book quickly picks up pace in the next chapter with a fascinating look at Miyamoto and Nintendo. The beginnings of Nintendo and Miyamoto’s work are talked about as well as a look at a more Miyamoto today, the book continues this origin/present theme throughout. Even the most stalwart Nintendo fan can probably find a juicy tidbit here and will certainly be touched by Miyamoto’s love for the worlds he creates for us.

The next chapter looks at the founding of id and the origin of the legendary John Carmack and somewhat infamous John Romero. We are told about how they started id and founded what is probably the defining genre of the last decade of gaming (virtually an epoch in gaming time), first person shooters. The chapter also gives us a somewhat fluffy look into pro gamers and their lifestyle (I glossed over much of this part since I find it grossly boring.)

Then comes what is probably the pinnacle of the book, the chapter on Will Wright. We are told how Will went from curious kid to eccentric genius and a bit about what happened along the way. We find out what inspires Will’s mad genius and are given a look at his next game (which we’ve all come to know as Spore by now.)

Next up is a discussion on virtual worlds and a look at one of the other game designers I respect most, Raph Koster. We are given a glimpse into the development of Star Wars Galaxies and what nightmares that apparently entailed. There’s also a fairly interesting story about a MMO player who lives the more interesting portions of his life in virtual worlds, a more and more common occurrence and something I predict will only increase.

The book rounds out with a section on government thrusts into the game space, with Full Spectrum Warrior(which I’m actually playing currently and is quite decent) and America’s Army, as well as the future of games. Things like augmented reality (very cool) and military based games are discussed.

Overall I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in games and especially anyone interested in learning a bit more about some of the more interesting people in the industry. Sure there are a few chapters of fluff but after finishing the book I really felt It was a valuable read and worth the time spent, if only to steal a glimpse into the minds of some of the most brilliant persons making games today.

Just a quick note about D&D 4th Edition. If you’re interested Jonathan Drain is following it extensively on his blog which you can check out here.

It looks like there is a lot more changes than I originally thought and many of them seem to be for the best. Seams like in a few months we may all be playing a much more streamlined and fun system!

Well it looks like Wizards of the Coast felt their coffers getting a bit light and have decided it’s high time they make all of us buy new copies of all of the Dungeons and Dragons books we have. WotC have revealed that in May 2008 the 4th edition of D&D will be released.

More info can be found at Wizards D&D site but here’s come of the more interesting bits I’ve found.

- The system is still d20 based.

- Two new player races included in the player handbook. (Hopefully they don’t just throw moon elves and such in there)

- The core rules now go up to level 30.

- Subscription based access to part of the D&D site that provides DM and player tools as well as magazines and community features they’re calling this the D&D Insider.

So far, while the online stuff looks very cool, this doesn’t sound like enough of a change to justify a whole new edition so let’s hope they are holding lots more info to blow our minds with. I guess a lot of it
comes down to the fact that it’s very hard to patch a physical book based system and even issuing errata doesn’t really get the job done since a very small portion of the player will ever use the errata. Maybe this is why it seams they are trying to slowly move over to a more digital based system.

Lots more info over at the official D&D site including funny videos!

Wizards D&D Site

If you’re like me then by now you’re tired of hearing about Uwe Boll and just want to see a game related movie that doesn’t necessitate you clamping your head in a vice and playing World of Warcraft for 40 hours to return to normal brain function after viewing. Well lucky for you that movie is here (or coming for those of you not fortunate enough to be in the opening cities.)

First let me say King of Kong is fantastic and you should probably just stop reading and go see it right now. Seriously.

So that didn’t convince you or maybe you have a few hours to kill to the next showing (or a few weeks/months) well fear not because I’ll keep writing about it so you can continue anguishing in your pit of self despair while waiting to see this masterful look at one of gaming’s greatest subcultures.

I just returned from seeing King of Kong here in Los Angeles at the Landmark Nuart where to my pleasant surprise also featured a Q&A session afterwards with the director Seth Gordon and others from behind the scenes. For the uninitiated King of Kong is a documentary which brings us a story of drive, conquest and controversy in the race to become the worlds best Donkey Kong player. The narrative is centered around Steve Wiebe who, after being laid off from his job and generally downtrodden by society, rises from the ashes and performs feats of training not seen since the great Rocky Balboa to rip the long standing Donkey Kong record from none other than the “Video Game Player of the Century”, Billy Mitchell.

Overall I’d say the experience was fantastic, however, I do get the feeling that careful editing has been performed to generally put Billy into somewhat of a negative light and paint Steve as the victim. We do, however, get to see many sides of the “characters” involved, including the part that I feel says the most about Billy, when he brings a Q*Bert machine to an 80 year old lady to help her in her goal of becoming the record holder. Even still it comes out to what is certainly a delightful piece of cinema and will surely be a treasure to video game lovers for decades to come.

Some interesting tidbits to come out of the Q&A session afterwards are:

- Billy Mitchell is a PR master and is very rehearsed in how he portrays his public image which could explain how he is so easily made to look evil.

- The battle for the high score is still an ongoing saga and just last night more draconian rules were instated making taking the record in Donkey Kong akin to an arcane ritual which one can only equate with necromantic resurrection.

- Seth Gordon is very comfortable around geeks and is in fact one himself.

- The controversial “gummy substance” was probably silicon used by Nintendo to repair the Donkey Kong boards back in 1984.

3D Mailbox has released a new email client that lets you view your email as if each message was a character in a game world. You can feed your spam to sharks and apparently watch hot women swim? Now I believe that by incorporating game design elements into business software the productivity of the user can be improved. However I’m not sure this is how to do it. Either way it’s certainly hilarious. The even have a free version you can try out here that lets you access only the first level.

There’s a little more info about each of the levels here.
3D Mailbox: You’re Kidding, Right?

Well the internet sleuths are in full force and Destructoid reported that someone has stumbled across what was the initial concept work for Echochrome and it is called OLE Coordinate System. The best part is you can play it right now by downloading it here.

Of course since this was one of the most interesting games to come out of E3 I was quick to jump on it and give it a try.

The project page explains that OLE stands for Object Locative Environment which certainly describes what we’ve been seeing from Echochrome game play so far. The author also explains the goal of allowing us all to play in Escher like worlds.

“While M.C. Escher is famous for his “trick of the eye” works, this piece enables users to create and experience their own Escher-esque worlds.”

The page then goes on to describe the various mechanics of the game:

• Subjective Translation – Where the player can change their view so that a character can navigate across gaps between objects that are not continuous in their old view
• Subjective Landing – Where a character can fall from an object and land on the same object at the same height as what they fell from
• Subjective Existence – Where the player can obscure the view of a gap to make it not exist such that the character can cross the gap unimpeded
• Subjective Absence – Where things the player cannot see (such as holes) no longer exist to impede or effect the character
• Subjective Jump – Where a character can jump and land on things that would not appear to be within the arc of the characters movement

What’s available for play is mainly a level editor where you can create your own Escher like levels and try out the mechanics of the game. Sadly there’s now way to save your levels from what I could find but I’d love to see screen shots of what other people came up with. Here’s a video showing off the OLE Coordinate System in action for those who don’t aren’t into checking it out first hand.

All of it seems very metaphysical and definitely gets the mind jogging. We’ve seen a couple of the mechanics before such as in Super Paper Mario having the ability to flip to 3D mode and move around pipes and such blocking the way. The holes also remind me of the upcoming game Portal in Orange Box and the portals in Prey a bit. But certainly all of these things haven’t been put together into such a mind bending package before and I really think that’s where the fun will come from once Echochrome drops. I’m definitely looking forward to Echochrome being released as I can see this making a fantastic puzzle game.