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Lord British on Open Worlds and Social Platforms

Taylor

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WorstUsernameEver of the RPG news site GameBanshee noted on Friday that an open-world environment, akin to the system featured in Ultima Online, had not been adequately featured in recent RPGs. He wondered whether a social platform could handle this type of environment. In response, Richard "Lord British" Garriott defended the viability of the platform to support an open world, stating:


When we began work on what would become the first large scale MMO, using 5 year old graphics, people thought we were nuts, Conventional wisdom said people wanted to buy cutting edge graphics only. When in fact, game play is king. I believe mobile and social is creating a similar moment. Great RPG game play is possible on smaller devices. It may take a step back old school visually, but having a game that you can have with you on a mobile device, that you can play both synchronously when you are online at the same time as your friends, as well as asynchronously when you are more often not online at the same time seems compelling to me.

- Lord British

Mr. Garriott has frequently affirmed his belief that mobile and social platforms will become increasingly important to game publishers. With equal frequency, traditional gamers have expressed skepticism regarding this theory. The pessimism seems to center on the notion that Facebook-based games are insufficiently rich and robust in comparison to modern PC games.

When Ultima Online was launched nearly fifteen years ago, it revolutionized the PC-based MMORPG industry. Perhaps Portalarium's Ultimate RPG will perform the same service for social gaming.
 

senescal

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"Conventional wisdom said people wanted to buy cutting edge graphics only. When in fact, game play is king."

He has the eyes to see the truth and the balls to make it happen. All hail.
 

Vanpry

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I can completely see a typical mmo with a ton applications that link directly into the game in different ways. I think the non-combat feature that have been so forgotten about could have a rebirth in the application market. For example a app where you running a mining company or fishing crew, forestry crew, farm, entertainment show (bardic or dance), cooking, the possibilities are endless.
 
S

Sagitariuz

Guest
"Conventional wisdom said people wanted to buy cutting edge graphics only. When in fact, game play is king."

He has the eyes to see the truth and the balls to make it happen. All hail.
True story! And of course there are people putting the graphics > gameplay. But how cares? Different target group.
 
R

Red

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I was excited about the idea that a mobile app game could be linked in game to an MMORPG. This concept increases and diversifies the playerbase, and it could act as a draw to the main platform itself. Fascinating stuff.

How would the two games be linked visually and economically?
What would the supply and demand, want/need, and resource interactions be between the two games?
 

Coldren

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Game play is king is only true to a certain extent.

There is a limit to the style and design of the game that certain audiences will and won't accept. If it looks TOO much like a Facebook, mobile, gee-wiz-cutesy-fun game, you are NOT going to draw the hardcore crowd, no matter how good the gameplay is.

If it was an absolute statement that gameplay is king, UO I think would be doing MUCH better than it is, because it still has the most depth and breadth of gameplay in any MMO to date, despite whatever design decisions made for the game you disagree with.
 

senescal

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Game play is king is only true to a certain extent.

There is a limit to the style and design of the game that certain audiences will and won't accept. If it looks TOO much like a Facebook, mobile, gee-wiz-cutesy-fun game, you are NOT going to draw the hardcore crowd, no matter how good the gameplay is.

If it was an absolute statement that gameplay is king, UO I think would be doing MUCH better than it is, because it still has the most depth and breadth of gameplay in any MMO to date, despite whatever design decisions made for the game you disagree with.
Yeah, you see, when you say "hardcore crowd"...there's a lot of people that call themselves that. People that would refuse to play something with mechanics that would be considered hardcore included. Lots of Call of Duty players think of themselves as hardcore, but frown upon the idea of playing a few hours of ArmA 2. Lots of WoW players think of themselves as hardcore, but wouldn't play EvE, or even UO with magically upgraded graphics if there was such a thing. It's hard to say who the hell is this "hardcore crowd". Is it those guys with steady jobs and a family, who played ye hardcore games of olde and miss that kind of experience or the kid who plays 8 hours a day of whatever's new on Xbox360?

The fact is, no matter what style you choose for your game, there's probably a crowd out there for it. It's actually the selling point for a lot of games out there, sadly. "Look, it's like you really an anime character! :3 xD". And no matter what platform you're developing for, you can make your visuals dark and gritty or cute and colorful. Making the game social doesn't mean making it Farmville.
 

Coldren

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Yeah, you see, when you say "hardcore crowd"...there's a lot of people that call themselves that. People that would refuse to play something with mechanics that would be considered hardcore included. Lots of Call of Duty players think of themselves as hardcore, but frown upon the idea of playing a few hours of ArmA 2. Lots of WoW players think of themselves as hardcore, but wouldn't play EvE, or even UO with magically upgraded graphics if there was such a thing. It's hard to say who the hell is this "hardcore crowd". Is it those guys with steady jobs and a family, who played ye hardcore games of olde and miss that kind of experience or the kid who plays 8 hours a day of whatever's new on Xbox360?
The "Hardcore" of today is not the hardcore of our day, senescal. We're the people that worked our way through Master Blaster on the NES. We're the people that didn't have the internet to look up the answer to any puzzle we were confronted with. You either had the affluence to buy Nintendo Power, or you didn't, and had to struggle your way through the puzzles, or simply give up. Thankfully, those of us who didn't give up found the value and appreciated the effort in figuring out the difficult puzzles.

.. This is, simply put, not that generation, and the future of it is not the same demographic. I understand your perspective, but I don't agree with it. I simply believe that the statement that "Content is king" belittles the bearing that style and fidelity plays a larger role in long term adoption for modern gamers. I mean, I'm not playing MUDS on a BBS anymore, are you?


The fact is, no matter what style you choose for your game, there's probably a crowd out there for it. It's actually the selling point for a lot of games out there, sadly. "Look, it's like you really an anime character! :3 xD". And no matter what platform you're developing for, you can make your visuals dark and gritty or cute and colorful. Making the game social doesn't mean making it Farmville.
This is absolutely true, and is for any game, as you say. But I'm a UO player, and an Ultima player, who coincidentally, does not play ONE Facebook game. Why? I find most of them shallow, and do not enjoy the style in which most are developed. I did not like Windwaker as much as I enjoyed Twilight Princess. Clearly, the style does matter to me, and to many others.
 
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