Because I Said So!

It was never my plan to turn every Kander's Candor into an excuse for a post but it does consistently flag up points of discussion. The podcast is certainly well-named. Occasionally you can almost hear the "should I have said that?" catch in Kander's voice. Since it's not going out live it's probably safe to assume everything's been stamped for public consumption but there is that occasional delicious frisson of listening in to something you probably shouldn't be hearing.

Episode Six is available now and once again it's a very interesting listen. Particularly if you've ever wondered what the weather's like in southern California.

One thing that's been mentioned three times now is the way that, in the past, the developers who do the actual design and coding work were instructed, sometimes at very short notice, to add features to the game that they otherwise would not have been interested in doing. It comes up again in this episode in relation to "set bonuses", the extra stats or effects a character gains from wearing more pieces of a particular armor set.

These bonuses, which Kander describes as "horrible and terrible" and blames for all kinds of balance issues, were apparently added to EverQuest II in a hurry because "things happened elsewhere", by which he means similar things were implemented in other MMORPGs and the EQII team were ordered to replicate them. In previous episodes he says the same happened with both pvp battlegrounds and the automated dungeon finder. The clear implication is that this was done at the behest of upper management for purely commercial reasons with little or no regard to how it might affect the health of the game.

All of these features were added in the Sony Online Entertainment era, before control of the game moved to Daybreak. Listening to what Kander says, and especially the way he expresses himself as he remembers a sequence of events from many years ago, a picture begins to take shape of a top-down command structure under SOE, in which arbitrary diktats had to be carried out to exacting timescales by less-than enthusiastic workers, who then had to try to order and maintain other, more crucial systems around the unwanted intrusions.

A strong impression also appears of a current team that, while very under-resourced and overworked, has taken back some measure of control. It's very apparent that some of the features that have either been removed completely or allowed to gather virtual dust under Daybreak have been those that were imposed from the top to begin with and for which the people doing the actual work have little affection.

As a long-time player I was always aware of what seemed to be the whim-based nature of many of the half-baked ideas we had to put up with but until I started listening to these podcasts I had no idea how many aspects of the game were being shoe-horned in on the instructions of people with an agenda very different to "what's best for the game".

Again, as a player, I have felt for several years that I can feel a difference. Lots of things still happen that don't work out well but the reasons why someone would want to try to move in those directions aren't hard to fathom. As has become all too clear from listening to Kander describe the circumstances under which expansions, game updates and other content get made in the Daybreak/Darkpaw era, it seems unnecessary to look much further for an explanation why something hasn't gelled than "not enough time, not enough people".

At one point Kander is asked whether the EverQuest and EQII teams work together and if some of the systems that works so well in one game could be adapted for the other. Given the recent introduction of very different versions of the Overseer feature in both games, it's a timely question, although the systems the questioner would like to see moved across are much older ones such as EQ's best-in-genre loot interface.

In answering, Kander tellingly refers to the original EverQuest as the "jewel in the crown" and makes a point of saying that the team go out of their way to protect the integrity of the older game. He suggests that there are things they'd try in EQII that they would never do in EverQuest, the implication clearly being that they know where their bread is buttered. Judging by the rising populations, evident in both games but especially in the older, it's an approach that seems to be paying off.

Even with the company's fortunes tentatively on the up, it's painfully clear that there's little fat to spare. Towards the end of the podcast there's a brief discussion of questing. It comes as something of a surprise to learn that a single developer, Kaitheel, writes and implements almost all the new quests we see. No wonder they're so tonally consistent.

It also takes him about three quarters of his time doing that, which is why the team seem so excited about the Overseer feature. Considerably more excited than the players, I'd have to say. I think I'm probably in quite a small minority in seeing the Overseer system as one of the most engaging, rewarding and addictive that's been added in many years.

I like it primarily because of the rewards. Wilhelm describes EQII's Overseer as "more of a magic prize machine rather than a game" and I agree. I just think the prizes are really, really good.

The developers, though, if Kander is any indication, seem to view Overseer as a genuine alternative to questing, with lore and narrative and characters and story. I don't think a lot of players are going to buy that. Overseer missions bear about the same relationship to quests as the blurb on the back cover of a fantasy blockbuster does to the six-hundred pages inside.

It's something that the podcasts make much more obvious than conversations on the forums. The way developers see a game is quite different from the way players see it. In the past, things may have been added out of hubris and greed; now they're being added out of necessity. Neither is necessarily going to make players happy.

In the previous podcast there was a question about crafting in Blood of Luclin, widely believed by players who craft to be the worst implementation in many years. While Dreamweaver and Kander gave a very clear and honest acknowledgment and explanation ("not enough time, not enough people") it was impossible not to notice that neither of them seemed to understand why crafters were so disatisfied with what they had been given.

The main reason is simple. Tre's a particular problem where the step from the top rung of the solo content ladder to the bottom rung of heroic is too big for many players to manage. In the past the leg-up they need has been provided by Mastercrafted gear. In BoL, the best gear players can make is worse than the rewards from the Signature solo line.

That seems fairly easy to understand but it was evident that the point was being missed. Or, since Kander was adamant that a smooth transition from solo to heroic content already exists in the standard progression of the game, maybe it's the players who are missing something. Either way, the two sides are still talking past each other.

Things have definitely been looking up on the communication front, though. There has been a noticeable change in atmosphere since Daybreak spun the two Norrathian titles off to Darkpaw. The podcast is helping to clear the air and let's hope the player council, whatever it ends up being called, leads to a meeting of the minds between players and developers.

If relations continue to improve, since the Darkpaw split co-incided so closely with the departure of Holly Longdale, it's going to be difficult to unravel exactly what the catalyst for change was. I did notice Kander mentioning that upper management were being supportive of an initiative to get more input on the questing workload, though.

I'll end on that optimistic note.

A Funny Thing Happened...

As long as I've been playing MMORPGs I've been reading Forums. Longer. Back in 1999, when I was considering dipping my toe in the online gaming waters, almost the first thing I did was visit the Official Forums of the games I was looking at (Ultima Online and EverQuest) to get a feeling for what I might be letting myself in for.

Back in those days, forums tended to be lively. There were often frank exchanges of views. Some people became tired and emotional, as the tabloids used to put it.

Forums then were not for the faint of heart. Communication between players and developers could be... robust. Several of Sony Online Entertainment's so-called Community Representatives adopted tones more suited to a nightclub bouncer or the sarcastic host of a late-night panel show.

Games companies were very well aware of the impression their forums could have on potential customers.  They needed to be. Social media was in its infancy. There weren't a whole lot of other places to look for information on games you might want to try other than the company's website and forums.

Both the quality and intensity of debate varied enormously, forum to forum. Much depended on the skills of the moderators. I remember Dark Age of Camelot having surprisingly well-mannered forums, particularlyfor a PvP-oriented game, something that was most likely the direct result of Mark Jacobs hiring Sanya "Tweety" Weathers to run them.

EverQuest, in direct contrast, had first Abashi and then Absor. Things got so bad after a while that SoE became probably the first and possibly the only MMORPG to close its own forums because they were bringing the game into disrepute.

What's missing?

Even so, they had to return, albeit very heavily moderated. In the early 2000s no online game could afford to run without public forums indefinitely. It was reckoned at the time that no more than ten per cent of players ever visited forums and only one per cent posted or commented there, but those minorities were what we would now call "Influencers".

"Read the Forums" is a phrase I remember keenly from public chat. The forums were where you sent people to find out things you didn't want to spend ages typing out; then there'd be an argument about it and you - or someone - would end up typing it all anyway.

There was always someone in every guild who made a practice of reading the forums and relaying all the info in guild chat. Sometimes that person was me. Over the years, though, I did that less and less.

At some point Official Forums stopped being central to companies' communications. There were flashier, sexier, zeitgeistier options. At the same time, tolerance for bad behavior diminished. Moderation became stricter. Swearing and name-calling, something not always limited to players, fell out of fashion. Forums became anodyne, bland.

After a while, even official communications drifted away. You can probably still find the weekly or monthly Patch Notes somewhere on the official forums of most MMOs, but you're more likely to find the latest news releases on Reddit or, increasingly, on Discord.

Reddit was, for quite a while, the up-and-coming channel for hip developers to hang out with their fans. The crowd-controlled moderation there supposedly allowed for more civilized discourse. That was hard for some older players to believe, given Reddit's widespread reputation for vindictive flame wars and general bad behavior, but I have to say my own experience of MMO sub-Reddits has been pleasant enough.


The problem with all such third-party applications, though, is ephemerality. Social media is littered with the rusting hulks of former giants. It may seem cost-effective to avoid customer service bills by outsourcing communications to the current hot social media platform but how long before you have to move again? And again?

There was a time, not so long ago, when many of the MMORPGs I played were very keen to push their presences on Facebook. That's a name I don't hear so much any more. Reddit is still going strong, especially when it comes to Ask Me Anything, but increasingly Discord is the place to be.

Discord, the theory is, allows for both instant and asynchronous communication. It also handles both speech and text. You can chat in real time to game developers while you and they are playing the game. Or you can hold forum-style discussions that persist over days or weeks.

If only ten percent of players ever went to the official forums, though, how many visit the Official Discord? Based on numerous in-game conversations I've heard over the past few months, as various Guilds and Alliances in World vs World attempt to shore up their organizations, Discord doesn't yet have much of a universal recognition factor.

I admit I'm somewhat biased. I don't much like Discord. I find it over-fussy in appearance, fiddly in function and vaguely patronizing in tone. It gives every impression of trying too hard to be popular, like one of those teachers who insists the class calls them by their first name.

Even if I did like Discord more, though, what I would still object to is being asked to make an account with a third-party just to have access to official communications from the company that operates the game I'm playing. As an alternate channel I can put up with it but as the only one? That's a step too far. 

I don't play Revelation Online any more and I'm not likely to, so when I noticed today that My.com has permanently closed the Official Forums for that game I didn't have to make any hard choices. And let's not get melodramatic: I don't imagine forum closure would immediately lead to me leaving an MMO I was otherwise enjoying.

It's a bad omen, though. Fortunately, it's not something that seems likely to affect the games I'm playing, or not right now, at least.

I've noticed over the past couple of years that Daybreak, who appeared very keen indeed to talk to players via both Reddit and Discord, have quietly reinforced their presence on the official forums. Discord is still the place to go to get immediate dev feedback but most of the answers I've found to issues I've been researching of late have turned up in developer posts on the the forums.

The Guild Wars 2 forums are also very lively. I would guess traffic is down compared to a few years ago, and ArenaNet developers are infamously cautious about what they say in public, but there's still plenty of to and fro going on. I visit the forums most days and find something to keep me amused.

Looking ahead, I was reading the Ashes of Creation Q&A on Reddit this morning and literally the top question in the comment thread that follows it is "Official Forums. When?". To which the next commenter has appended "That is the most important question of all".

If AoC turns out not to have any Official Forums it wouldn't stop me playing. It wouldn't encourage me, though. And when you're already on the fence about a game it doesn't take all that much to tip you off. I hope the devs have been reading Reddit.