Virtual Worlds – Page 2 – Geir Ove Alnes

I Would Play It If…

Saw the following meme/game thingy at MMO Gamers and thought I’d jump on the band wagon since I have nothing else to write about at the moment. The goal, according to Bio Break (where this little game originated), is to finish the following statement with a simple response, substituting different games into the sentence:

“I would play [TITLE OF MMORPG] if…”

Here are mine, listed in random order:

I would play World of Warcraft if it didn’t require as much time as it does to keep up with my always-raiding friends
I would play Ultima Online if I travelled through time back to 1998, or 1999, or 2000, or 2001, or 2002. And maybe 2003.
I would play Eve Online if it were more like Elite, and if you could fly seamlessly between space and individual planets
I would play the Wheel of Time MMO if it actually gets made and released, no matter the quality of the game itself. I am a WoT fanboy, after all.
I would play City of Heroes/Villains if I could only come up with a decent design for a superhero/arch-villain
I would play EverQuest 2 if I hadn’t already played a trial version of it, during which I found out that I hated the visual style of the game
I would play Runescape if I was 12, or if no other MMO existed
I would play Warhammer Online if it didn’t look and feel like a slightly twisted version of World of Warcraft (yes, I see the irony there…)
I would play Lineage 2 if not for nightmares of horrible, horrible GRRIIINDIIIiing
I would play Lord of the Rings Online if I ever should feel like having a mug of ale in The Prancing Pony
I would play Darkfall if I hadn’t already had my fill of getting ganked by random PKers ten years ago – and if it was actually for sale

In other news, round 2 of our (mine and Babak‘s) little blogging contest starts on the 17th/18th of May and will as usual last for one month. We use this as a method to “force” ourselves to put on our blogging hats more often, and hopefully it will lead to a whole bunch of new blog posts from the both of us.

My approach to game design

On the 1st of March, Danc (Daniel Cook) posted a very interesting entry in his Lost Garden-blog about game design styles. He lists a number of different styles he has observed in game designers, then describes his own definitions of what each style consists of and what shortcomings/limitations it may have.

The styles he listed:
Copycat: make a game like another game that is interesting.
Experience: Make a distinct moment of game play that looks and feels interesting.
Narrative: Make a story that is interesting
World: Make a place or world that is interesting
Systems: Make systems and objects that are interesting.
Player Skills: Make verbs for the player that are interesting.

He ends his article with a couple of questions, one of which I’ll tackle here:
What style of game designer are you? Do you fit into one of these approaches?

On the 1st of March, Danc (aka Daniel Cook) posted a very interesting entry in his Lost Garden-blog about game design styles. He lists a number of different styles he has observed in game designers, then describes his own definitions of what each style consists of and what shortcomings/limitations it may have.

The styles he listed:

Copycat: make a game like another game that is interesting.

Experience: Make a distinct moment of game play that looks and feels interesting.

Narrative: Make a story that is interesting

World: Make a place or world that is interesting

Systems: Make systems and objects that are interesting.

Player Skills: Make verbs for the player that are interesting.

He ends his article with a couple of questions, one of which I’ll tackle here:

What style of game designer are you? Do you fit into one of these approaches?

Continue reading “My approach to game design”

World Builder – the movie

Woah. I just finished watching World Builder, a short film about a man building a realistic-looking virtual world using holographic tools from inside a “holodeck” of sorts.

You should watch the entire thing; not only is it a quality production from start to finish, with an innovative approach to how world-building can happen in the (hopefully near) future, it also tells a surprisingly good and emotion-stirring story despite only lasting for 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

(
(World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.)

It was created by digital effects artist Bruce Branit, who co-created one of the first short films (405) to get distributed widely on the Internet back in 2000 and has since had a finger (or ten) in visual effects everywhere from movies like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sin city and Serenity to TV-series like Moonlight, Lost and Pushing Daisies. Watch a reel of his work here.

One to watch, most definitely!