Titan: Blizzard's cancelled MMO.

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Better do that than just follow research data blindly... I'm quite sure that shit like "Use your tablet to call airstrikes!" came from a retarded suit reading a report on how the youth loves multi-tasking....

Yes, sitting people in a room and asking them leading questions is less productive than masturbation, but that isn't the type of study I was talking about.

It would be interesting to take a combat prototype for an action-MMO and perform a study to determine if playtesters will enjoy the game more due to tab targeting. Will they play for longer before becoming bored/fatigued? etc.

Or to design a study aimed at discovering why players want access to sprawling feat trees that provide only the illusion of choice and the very real chance of bad choices. Why does Billy sit in his MMO beta requesting talent trees and promptly look up a build provided by someone else the moment they are added to the game? etc.

What is the optimal cost of useful in-game items to migrate F2P players to paying players? Where is the data that says a F2P game shouldn't offer a 'subscription' that provided a standardized set of pay items to a player each month? (One of the primary reasons I don't ever put money into a F2P game is that all of the items are either pointless pageantry or feel like cheating.) How much more likely is a player to pay for an in-game advantage if it can be hidden from their opponent? (Science can be evil too)

Apparently, League of Legends has multiple psychology-type PhDs on staff doing research into player behavior, although apparently its mostly directed towards getting the players to stop calling each other fags.

I think there is likely quite a bit of internal research at these companies on the various gameplay elements that will cause players to spend more money or make subscriptions stickier. However, I doubt any of it would be made public because 1) it provides a competitive advantage and 2) it probably has nothing to do with making the games more satisfying and everything to do with making the games more stimulating to the sub-rational elements of the brain in order to facilitate compulsive, joyless play.

I bet in a decade or two the MMO industry will have a minor scandal when some disgruntled employee releases internal memos in which Blizzard execs discuss how to increase the nicotine content in WoW and give quests with pictograms to make the game playable to children too young to know how to read.

 

[J1M]

If a competent effort of that sort was taking place, there would be a lot fewer MMOs flopping and losing millions of dollars.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

If a competent effort of that sort was taking place, there would be a lot fewer MMOs flopping and losing millions of dollars.

I don't know, it might just be that it still requires a decent amount of skill and luck to turn that research into a game that effectively harnesses those attributes. Particularly if the market is saturated by established products and it requires significant resources to even enter. Most new products fail in any industry because of how hard it is to shake people off of their preferred brands. The science behind addiction is fairly robust, but the bread and butter of major companies in the spirit and tobacco industries are their established product lines (remember Snus? Zima?).

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/01/activisions-titan-is-unlikely-a-subscription-based-mmorpg-any/

"We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be," Morhaime said. "While we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG."

 

[felipepepe]

"After years trying to make a worthy successor to WoW, we still don't have a fucking clue on how to do it."

 

[Dr Tomo]

Well I would expect that the company doesn't want to cannibalize their wow #'s which looks a bit bad at this point. I don't think they are ever going to release the game at this point, but I do look forward to Blizzard having their moba project blow up in their face.

 

[Night Goat]

They might not want to cannibalize WoW numbers, but those numbers will keep dropping whether they do or not. If they were smart they'd have a sequel underway, but they probably don't, because Blizzard.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Make new big project to lure in aspiring game developers, have them work on game in groups, then cannibalize the ideas for implementation in WoW.

Re-envision the project every few years and shuffle dev's into other projects?

 

[Mastermind]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/01/activisions-titan-is-unlikely-a-subscription-based-mmorpg-any/

"We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be," Morhaime said. "While we can't talk about the details yet, it is going to be based on micro-transactions because we can squeeze more money out of retards."

 

[Hellraiser]

Looks like it's going to be pay2win, who would have thought. Not like it matters, Titan is vaporware anyway

 

[Gerrard]

Imagine my surprise.



By the way, here's a video that explains why combat in WoW is shit and you're a retard for thinking otherwise.

 

[felipepepe]

He is completely right in that video, the "problem" for most people is the MASSIVE gap TERA create between players. A pro player can actually solo elite mobs 10 levels above him without taking a single hit, while noobs won't even kill same-level enemies without getting their asses kicked... and in the non-Korea popamole world of today, that's unacceptable.

 

[abija]

Always knew codex wants more action and less RPG :p

Seriously though, player skill gap is not the "problem". There are real problems like making it "feel" right on medium/high latency, making it work in group play and being able to create varied and difficult encounters that don't degenerate into avoidance cheesing all the time (and there's the minor issue that if you implement this type of combat YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE THE GAME A GRINDFEST).

 

[Terpsichore]

Any sort of "action" combat without targeting simply isn't a viable option for a MMO.

 

[felipepepe]

Always knew codex wants more action and less RPG :p

Seriously though, player skill gap is not the "problem". There are real problems like making it "feel" right on medium/high latency, making it work in group play and being able to create varied and difficult encounters that don't degenerate into avoidance cheesing all the time (and there's the minor issue that if you implement this type of combat YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE THE GAME A GRINDFEST).

TERA already has a great combat system, but it's just too much of a korean grind-fest with extremely boring quests and world. I played the beta, and fighting was really good (even with my huge latency), and group fights were fun for everyone.

Even if you take the holy grail of Action-RPGs - Dark Souls - the skill gap is just massive. You have people speedrunning the entire game naked at LV 01 in an hour, while half the internet spends days trying to get past S&O and eventually ragequits, even after grinding for level & items. How can you avoid that happening in a MMO is the real issue.

 

[Gerrard]

The only real problem with latency is that it affects attack speed, and it shows that the game wasn't originally made with global release in mind. Otherwise, even if you have 200ms ping the combat still feels right as long as your connection is stable, there's no rubberbanding or ghosting (pretty sure that game compensates lag in PvE).

 

[Dexter]

They might not want to cannibalize WoW numbers, but those numbers will keep dropping whether they do or not. If they were smart they'd have a sequel underway, but they probably don't, because Blizzard.

I guess it's kind of ironic that EA cancelled Ultima Online 2 (it did look plenty shit, but still):

because they "didn't want to cannibalize Ultima Online's subscriber numbers".

 

[Dr Tomo]

They might not want to cannibalize WoW numbers, but those numbers will keep dropping whether they do or not. If they were smart they'd have a sequel underway, but they probably don't, because Blizzard.

Don't think it has anything to do with intelligence to be honest, more like they are creatively bankrupt at this point and just dicking around/collecting a paycheck before Kotick finds out. I expect something similar like the Gearbox fiasco how Aliens: Colonial Marines post release.

 

[Scruffy]

guise
guise
hey guise
guise


do you remember when blizzard was good?

 

[almondblight]

It is interesting watching them burn millions of dollars though. Since the stuff they release now is going to suck one way or another, I'm not really sure why they don't just throw out some shit after 3 - 4 years in development instead of waiting 10+ years.

Maybe someone at the top is dying of cancer or something, because it seems like they just want to see how many millions will be thrown at them for garbage until the whole thing collapses.

 

[Metro]

Hopefully it's Jeff Kaplan.

 

[Dr Tomo]

It is interesting watching them burn millions of dollars though. Since the stuff they release now is going to suck one way or another, I'm not really sure why they don't just throw out some shit after 3 - 4 years in development instead of waiting 10+ years.

Maybe someone at the top is dying of cancer or something, because it seems like they just want to see how many millions will be thrown at them for garbage until the whole thing collapses.

But they usually get their ROI back from all the people purchasing their products so it is justifiable. There are tons of tards that plays video games and people wonder why the industry is in it's current state.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I miss Blizzard North.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

guise
guise
hey guise
guise


do you remember when blizzard was good?

 

[Dr Tomo]

guise
guise
hey guise
guise


do you remember when blizzard was good?

They still are, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Wrath of the Lich king, Mist of Panda, and soon we can add Titan as well which will be so damn good they can charge us $65 instead.