BradSTL
07-06-05, 19:30
See, here's the funny thing: of all the MMPORGs I've heard of or played, only Reakktor doesn't get this. For example, in Matrix Online, virtually every red-pill has met Niobe, whom they all know from the movies. In the first month or so, a fair number of people met or at least saw Morpheus; when they stopped seeing him, there turned out to be an in-game reason for it, and now everybody is looking for him or at least for his body ... not just because he's a celebrity, not just because some EGM told them to, not just because they got a mission from a mission terminal, but because he's someone they know who was nice to them.
In Anarchy Online, the rebel Council of Truth was dominated by two large NPC-only clans, the Sentinels and the Knights; while your average player clan might have 20 to 100 people in it, those two clans supposedly had thousands, and had been there for many years more, and that's why they sat at the top of the Council of Truth and we didn't. But if you got at all involved in clan politics, within a month or two you were guaranteed to meet at least one of the NPC leaders of those two clans in a political or social setting.
Did you hear about Lord Vader's personal appearance a month or so ago in Star Wars: Galaxies? A group of role-players did an exceptional job of creating a stormtrooper batallion on Tatooine, and ran it with military discipline. This came to the event game masters' attention, so when they'd proven they could keep it up for a while, Sony sent an EGM as Darth Vader to review the troops and give them a morale-boosting speech. It literally made the news, not just in game but in the mainstream press. And even though for the players all there was for them to do was stand there in formation and listen while an EGM rattled off a prepared speech, everybody involved described it as the greatest roleplaying day they'd had in SWG. Sony picked up on this. Have you seen the TV commercials that they just rolled out for SWG? A full half of what the customers shown raving about the game were boasting that you had a chance to actually meet and interact with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and so on.
Now, here's my main point, the point that Reakktor's events team just doesn't seem to get. When we created our characters in this game, we didn't sign up with a side, we signed up with a faction. Each of those factions has two NPCs with their own fascinating backstory and distinct personality. Those NPC personalities are an important part of the personality, the feel, of each of the 12 factions. But in all the time since Neocron 1 hit beta, which is what, three years ago now?, one of them has been seen in person by players, once and then never again. (Reza showed up in person once in Plaza One to make a speech before the public execution of some political criminals. Remarkably, I was there.) That's one more appearance than any of the other 23 faction leaders and co-leaders have made.
Yes, there are the 12 job dealers. I spend a hell of a lot of time online, and am the elected representative for my faction, and I haven't seen mine. Ironically, the only one I have seen was for a former-enemy faction. I'm told by GMs that they mostly stopped logging in the job dealers because 3/4 of the players who meet a job dealer ignore them or tell them to go to hell. Some of that is because people don't perceive that taking a job dealer's job will be either fun, or rewarding; I heard a rumor that most of what they're handing out are delivery missions for minor rewards.
But I wonder if the real reason that people are ignoring them is that the job dealers are "nobodies," minor bureaucratic functionaries like the NPC clerk/typists in faction HQ, and beneath us. If a job dealer showed up with a name and rank that made it clear that you will take this brief job, or I can have you snuffed like a candle, or at the very least screw up your faction sympathies? But if you do take the job, you'll be able to brag afterwards that you did a job for the CEO or for a personal friend of the CEO?
Why is this important?
For 50 or more years now, businesses have known that you don't have to pay your people as much, or give them as many perqs or rewards, if you at least once in a while walk up to someone who's done a good job and say, "Good job." People live for this kind of thing. There are some clan leaders who have beat their brains out for their factions. Some of them have actually produced incredible successes for their factions. Yeah, they got paid, a little bit. Yeah, they got to enjoy the benefits of the terrain they captured and held. But what did they get from their bosses? Not even so much as an email. And would that be so much to ask?
Back when, to pick a Terra example because that's what I know best, Freedom Force controlled 41 of the 44 outposts, how long would it have taken for some EGM to log on as Hagen Yager and write an in-game email saying, "Nice job"? If the EGMs were (as I happen to know) concerned that they were doing too nice a job, how hard would it have been to have emailed one small paragraph saying something like, "Don't forget, this is an alliance. We need the other factions on our side, too, so don't squeeze them out altogether. Let them have an outpost or two of their own to defend, if they can." I do know that it would have taken less time and effort than what they did try to do about it, which I won't even bring up because it would piss off so many people it would sidetrack the conversation.
There is an awful lot going wrong with this game that could be fixed, or nipped in the bud, if the art department would quickly knock out 24 recognizable faces for the faction leader and assistant leader NPCs, and if one of the EGMs (or better, someone in charge of actual story development like Snowcrash) spent 30 minutes to take one server a day, picking one of those 24 NPCs and showing up in someone's clan HQ, or apartment, or faction HQ, or outpost underground and delivering a message. They could: Provide teasers for upcoming content without having to script an NPC to stand there and do it for them. Warn people who're wrecking things for the whole faction by being jerks that they do have bosses who are watching them. Encourage players to do things they haven't tried yet. Create a "buzz" of rumors that makes it look as if things are actually happening. Give players something to strive for, a hope that if they do something really successful or really cool they'll actually get to meet and be praised by a VIP.Why doesn't this happen?
Well, one reason is that the art department still isn't prepared for it. All these years, and we still don't have face files in gfx.pak or the gfx directory for the major NPCs in the game world. Some time ago, when an EGM emailed me asking for event suggestions and I made these same points, I was told that the EGMs don't have authority to ask the art department for anything like that. Which is all well and good ... but why hasn't someone who does have that authority figured out that they need it?
The other reason shows up in the poll numbers from a poll I ran yesterday (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=125888). While at least twice as many people actually want feedback from their faction's management, or want to interact with their faction's management, at least 1/4 of the people who responded would do something completely stupid and out of character like shoot at the EGM. This is why EGMs don't show up in public very often, and when they do they have to have their LE chips in; otherwise jerks will come along and try to ruin everybody else's fun just because that's how they get their kicks.
What they need to do about this is to give the EGMs a macro that does three things. First, it should apply the same soul-light and faction sympathy penalties as if they'd actually killed the EGM's NPC. Secondly, it should temporarily ban the character for one hour. Thirdly, it should insta-kill them.
Sure, some of them will whine. "Wah! Wah! Wah! I'm paying for this game, I'm entitled to do whatever I want!" Yeah, but one of the rules of the game is that your actions have consequences. Saying you should be able to shoot at Hagen Yager or Max Trond or one of the Jordan brothers and have the same consequences as if you shot at a shopkeeper or or a runner is like saying you ought to be able to walk naked through Chaos Cave without being attacked by the Creepers, "because I'm paying for the game and that's what I want to do!"
In Anarchy Online, the rebel Council of Truth was dominated by two large NPC-only clans, the Sentinels and the Knights; while your average player clan might have 20 to 100 people in it, those two clans supposedly had thousands, and had been there for many years more, and that's why they sat at the top of the Council of Truth and we didn't. But if you got at all involved in clan politics, within a month or two you were guaranteed to meet at least one of the NPC leaders of those two clans in a political or social setting.
Did you hear about Lord Vader's personal appearance a month or so ago in Star Wars: Galaxies? A group of role-players did an exceptional job of creating a stormtrooper batallion on Tatooine, and ran it with military discipline. This came to the event game masters' attention, so when they'd proven they could keep it up for a while, Sony sent an EGM as Darth Vader to review the troops and give them a morale-boosting speech. It literally made the news, not just in game but in the mainstream press. And even though for the players all there was for them to do was stand there in formation and listen while an EGM rattled off a prepared speech, everybody involved described it as the greatest roleplaying day they'd had in SWG. Sony picked up on this. Have you seen the TV commercials that they just rolled out for SWG? A full half of what the customers shown raving about the game were boasting that you had a chance to actually meet and interact with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and so on.
Now, here's my main point, the point that Reakktor's events team just doesn't seem to get. When we created our characters in this game, we didn't sign up with a side, we signed up with a faction. Each of those factions has two NPCs with their own fascinating backstory and distinct personality. Those NPC personalities are an important part of the personality, the feel, of each of the 12 factions. But in all the time since Neocron 1 hit beta, which is what, three years ago now?, one of them has been seen in person by players, once and then never again. (Reza showed up in person once in Plaza One to make a speech before the public execution of some political criminals. Remarkably, I was there.) That's one more appearance than any of the other 23 faction leaders and co-leaders have made.
Yes, there are the 12 job dealers. I spend a hell of a lot of time online, and am the elected representative for my faction, and I haven't seen mine. Ironically, the only one I have seen was for a former-enemy faction. I'm told by GMs that they mostly stopped logging in the job dealers because 3/4 of the players who meet a job dealer ignore them or tell them to go to hell. Some of that is because people don't perceive that taking a job dealer's job will be either fun, or rewarding; I heard a rumor that most of what they're handing out are delivery missions for minor rewards.
But I wonder if the real reason that people are ignoring them is that the job dealers are "nobodies," minor bureaucratic functionaries like the NPC clerk/typists in faction HQ, and beneath us. If a job dealer showed up with a name and rank that made it clear that you will take this brief job, or I can have you snuffed like a candle, or at the very least screw up your faction sympathies? But if you do take the job, you'll be able to brag afterwards that you did a job for the CEO or for a personal friend of the CEO?
Why is this important?
For 50 or more years now, businesses have known that you don't have to pay your people as much, or give them as many perqs or rewards, if you at least once in a while walk up to someone who's done a good job and say, "Good job." People live for this kind of thing. There are some clan leaders who have beat their brains out for their factions. Some of them have actually produced incredible successes for their factions. Yeah, they got paid, a little bit. Yeah, they got to enjoy the benefits of the terrain they captured and held. But what did they get from their bosses? Not even so much as an email. And would that be so much to ask?
Back when, to pick a Terra example because that's what I know best, Freedom Force controlled 41 of the 44 outposts, how long would it have taken for some EGM to log on as Hagen Yager and write an in-game email saying, "Nice job"? If the EGMs were (as I happen to know) concerned that they were doing too nice a job, how hard would it have been to have emailed one small paragraph saying something like, "Don't forget, this is an alliance. We need the other factions on our side, too, so don't squeeze them out altogether. Let them have an outpost or two of their own to defend, if they can." I do know that it would have taken less time and effort than what they did try to do about it, which I won't even bring up because it would piss off so many people it would sidetrack the conversation.
There is an awful lot going wrong with this game that could be fixed, or nipped in the bud, if the art department would quickly knock out 24 recognizable faces for the faction leader and assistant leader NPCs, and if one of the EGMs (or better, someone in charge of actual story development like Snowcrash) spent 30 minutes to take one server a day, picking one of those 24 NPCs and showing up in someone's clan HQ, or apartment, or faction HQ, or outpost underground and delivering a message. They could: Provide teasers for upcoming content without having to script an NPC to stand there and do it for them. Warn people who're wrecking things for the whole faction by being jerks that they do have bosses who are watching them. Encourage players to do things they haven't tried yet. Create a "buzz" of rumors that makes it look as if things are actually happening. Give players something to strive for, a hope that if they do something really successful or really cool they'll actually get to meet and be praised by a VIP.Why doesn't this happen?
Well, one reason is that the art department still isn't prepared for it. All these years, and we still don't have face files in gfx.pak or the gfx directory for the major NPCs in the game world. Some time ago, when an EGM emailed me asking for event suggestions and I made these same points, I was told that the EGMs don't have authority to ask the art department for anything like that. Which is all well and good ... but why hasn't someone who does have that authority figured out that they need it?
The other reason shows up in the poll numbers from a poll I ran yesterday (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=125888). While at least twice as many people actually want feedback from their faction's management, or want to interact with their faction's management, at least 1/4 of the people who responded would do something completely stupid and out of character like shoot at the EGM. This is why EGMs don't show up in public very often, and when they do they have to have their LE chips in; otherwise jerks will come along and try to ruin everybody else's fun just because that's how they get their kicks.
What they need to do about this is to give the EGMs a macro that does three things. First, it should apply the same soul-light and faction sympathy penalties as if they'd actually killed the EGM's NPC. Secondly, it should temporarily ban the character for one hour. Thirdly, it should insta-kill them.
Sure, some of them will whine. "Wah! Wah! Wah! I'm paying for this game, I'm entitled to do whatever I want!" Yeah, but one of the rules of the game is that your actions have consequences. Saying you should be able to shoot at Hagen Yager or Max Trond or one of the Jordan brothers and have the same consequences as if you shot at a shopkeeper or or a runner is like saying you ought to be able to walk naked through Chaos Cave without being attacked by the Creepers, "because I'm paying for the game and that's what I want to do!"