Tattered Page

Ok, I may have brought up the GLS conference once before. Rather old news- it’s been months now, but they don’t let me out much. One of the events there tied in rather well to a recurring rant of mine. It was the “Fireside Chat” with Richard Vogel entitled, “So you want to design an MMO for learning?”

I fully expected to hear a cautionary warning of the challenges involved in making such a dynamic MMO, but hearing your thoughts validated by one of the bigger names in the industry is a good feeling- even when they’re really obvious thoughts. Besides, Rich has had a hand in so many titles and is now Co-Studio Director at BioWare Austin. The stories he might have- the hints he might leak about BioWare’s secret MMO…. I couldn’t pass up the chance.

Now, I swore I’d sit there, politely listen, nod a few times, and keep my trap welded shut. Sure, this was a fireside chat, but I’m the non-game-dev there. This is the time to listen and learn. I’d behave.

I didn’t.

It was small room, standing room only, and Rich gave a lot of good stuff. There were the occasional distractions from the core topic- some good anecdotes on SWG development challenges and the crowd prodding him for hints on the nature of his current project.

Then someone asked, “Will it [the Bioware project] have a crafting system like SWG?”

Rich paused before saying, “Well there are different kinds of MMO. Some focus on a game, while others follow a simulati…”

I’m paraphrasing, of course. Anyone that knows me will tell you I can’t accurately quote a conversation 5 minutes old, but the important points are there- game… simulat… I cut him off.

Now, I KNEW where he was going- the “game vs world” talk would have been a good topic for the group, had I let it go there, but using the word “simulation” in that context of crafting implied something that annoyed the heck outta me.

“Waitaminute.” I interrupted… probably in a bark too close to the one I use to get noisy students to pay attention- the one I learned from drill instructors my first day of boot camp. “Why is it that we see combat as the only game? Why is it that crafting has to be a dry, boring simulation? Heck, we have the guys here that made Diner Dash- they made waiting tables fun. Why not crafting?”

See, to me, a veteran of many a combat drill, making combat a “fun game” is as much of an abstraction as making a game out of building a landspeeder. Combat isn’t “naturally fun.” It’s tedious. It’s routine. It’s six hours of boredom interrupted by six minutes of sheer terror. The pulse-pounding “terror” part has allowed game developers to camouflage bad combat engines long enough to refine battle games, but it’s only through serious design effort (and lots of time) that we’ve managed to come up with the “iconic fun” of game combat. Now it seems that we can’t see a “game” in anything beyond combat. Why aren’t we applying the same design principles to “gaming crafting?” Why must it be a dry “simulation” emulating what real crafting would be?

Where’s the focus on FUN?

It was a rhetorical question, and Rich led it through a great group discussion with plenty of interesting tangents, including minigames as timesinks or for success checks and how to support “playing a merchant” (a playstyle that many saw as severely damaged by central auctionhouses). Everquest 2’s rather minimal (but still a minigame in the traditon of “whackamole”) crafting game was mentioned. The spreadsheet-managing metagame of SWG got even more attention. The comment (fortunately) didn’t derail the whole thing. Eventually, we drew back to the topic originally intended.

Maybe it wasn’t a faux pas. Maybe, for others it was totally immemorable, but it sticks in my mind. I may just be paranoid, but I’m sure Richard jottd something down on the back of my business card when they were exchanged after the talk… marking me as a rabble rouser, I’m sure.

But back to the original question:

How CAN we produce popular games that involve household chores and waiting on tables (even getting sequels), but we can’t seem to make crafting in an MMO anything more than just a button-mashing “dry simulation?” Why do we only SEE it as something boring? Can we do better?

Postscript: Yes, I wrote this in the “we.” No, I haven’t changed carreers. I’m still developing learning & collaboration systems- at least until some game executive goes nuts & opens a studio in western PA (low cost of living, Steelers, talented & educated pool of recruits, better weather than Boston ( (I lie… but… if only Curt Schilling had been a Pirate…))

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.