I really want to write about design that is forgiving of error, but a more basic point in The Design of Everyday Things keeps interfering: much user error is design error. If users keep doing the same things wrong, there is probably something about the design that is encouraging them to do the wrong thing. [...]

User Error and Design Error is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

One of the good things about WoW is that Blizzard never deletes old characters, and Blizzard allows to have up to 10 or so characters on each server. However, each character's name is unique per server.

I wonder if this combination of factors will reach a boiling point as Cataclysm approaches. It is getting harder and harder to find a name for a new character. Instead it's a continuous round of "That name is not available" until you finally hit some acceptable combination. I think this factor has contributed to the large amounts of odd names and non-standard characters used these days.

Over 5 years worth of names have been locked away. And that might present a problem when Cataclysm hits. With two new races and a large overhaul of level 1-60, people are going to be making lots of new characters which will require new names.

Maybe it's time that Blizzard starts looking into ways to free up some of the names that are gathering dust. Deleting characters is excessive. But maybe Blizzard could unlock the name of any character under level 40 and that has not been logged in for 4 months. Anyone could take the name, and if the old character logs on, she will have to choose a new name.

I was skeptical at first, but I really like the way Cryptic handles names. They use "characterName@accountName". In-game and on nameplates only the Character Name is displayed, while the full name is shown in the chatbox. Though, the character name is emphasized and the account name dulled. To friend someone or send tells, you use the account name.

It's really nice to be able just create a new character with the exact name you want, and not have to play "That name is not available" roulette.

In a stunning news announcement Blizzard just declared that they weren't changing World of Warcraft to a Free2Play business model this year. They said: "Are you crazy, guys? We already rent half of Silicon Valley for our servers, if we went Free2Play we'd grow to a 100 million players and wouldn't know how to handle the hardware!"

Coincidentally CCP also announced that EVE Online wasn't going Free2Play anytime soon: "We have a solid business model charging people for the priviledge of waiting for their characters to gain skills while offline. If people could do that while not only not playing, but also not paying, we'd be ruined!"

Meanwhile Square Enix denied that Final Fantasy XIV would be released with a monthly subscription model, but change to Free2Play before Christmas. "We can't admit being scared by all those negative beta reviews. And anyway we are so bad at designing account management and billing systems that a change like that would never work for us!"

Coming up: The competition in which YOU get to guess which game isn't going Free2Play next!

I was wrong.  The game patched up quicker than I anticipated and I was looking at the new game launch splash screen much sooner than I had anticipated. Of course, the first thing I wanted to know was how many Turbine Points I had.  I speculated previously on how many I would end up with [...]

I’ve been taking a little break from WoW lately.  Moving up to school and getting situated for the semester took a lot out of my game time.  Now that I feel ‘at home’ here, I realize that (along with 90% of the guild) we’re sorta waiting for Cataclysm.  There’s no real incentive to grind for [...]

And the update appears to be going at a brisk pace.  I probably won’t be playing tonight, but I’ll be ready for tomorrow. I like the unblinking eye of fire graphic.  Granted, you can’t currently get to Mordor. One does not spend Turbine points in Mordor. Not yet, in any case. Filed under: entertainment, Lord [...]

Remember when it was easy to decide which MMO you were going to play? Of course it was the one you had a subscription for, interrupted by the occasional single player game that needed your immediate attention. Now I look at my desktop and find that I could start a Tetris game with the number [...]

I didn't intentionally set out to do a recap of all of my MMORPG projects the way I did last year for Labor Day, but it just so happens that my last three posts sum up what I'm doing in three of my five games.  With LOTRO's big free to play rollout happening over the next day or so, I might as well mention WoW to make it five out of five. 

Through a combination of my preference and schedule, raiding in the Wrath era was never a serious option for me.  The irony is that it has never been easier to assemble a group for unscheduled 5-man instance, but it has also never been so meaningless for the non-raider.  Most of the content is stuff that I was already beating comfortably in pugs, 18 months and two gear resets ago.  If I was raiding, the massive gear upgrades would allow me to see new content.  Because I'm not, the only reward for zerging already-trivial content is to make that content even easier. 

What's left for me in the Cataclysm era are projects that may no longer be possible when the new expansion arrives.  For example, I finally saw the Wrathgate and the Battle for the Undercity from the Horde side over the summer, and I'd still like to beat down the rest of Nagrand so that I can do the chain that introduced Thrall to Garrosh.  (I haven't heard confirmation, but I assume that this chain will be gone in Cataclysm, with Garrosh sitting in Thrall's seat in Ogrimmar.  The Battle for the Undercity WILL be removed from the game for both factions for the same reason.) 

I also experimented with farming old group content for mounts, with comically lucky results.  There has been so much gear inflation in Wrath that it's now possible to solo 5-man content from the previous expansion.  This is actually a lot of fun, because it's difficult but doable in a way that none of Wrath's solo content even attempts.  Depending on how well the early attempts go, I might try to solo the entire TBC Heroic Dungeon achievement line just to see if I can. 

Finally, there are pre-Cataclysm world events, the first of which started today.  This type of thing always jumps to the front of my gaming queue simply because it won't be there down the line. 

Overall, WoW does not figure to be my full-time MMO at any point before Cataclysm arrives.  Fortunately, with four open access MMO's at my disposal, it no longer has to be. 

Late last week I posted about some of my concerns coming into PAX Prime. I assumed that upon returning from the land of Starbucks, drizzle and exactly one legendary musician, namely Jimi Hendrix, I would be backtracking on my uncertainties and actively singing the praises of the Expo. The reality is, it turns out, more complicated. As I go back and look at what I wrote last Thursday, I actually don't feel like my reticence was unfounded.

Last week PAX was an unknown quantity that seemed somewhat lost in the middle-ground between major media expo and community driven fan event. This week, my feeling on the matter has changed not one iota. In fact, I would dare say that PAX doesn't exactly know what it is right now. There is the PAX of the console freeplay rooms, the PAX of star-driven panels, the PAX of a giant LAN party, the PAX of endless board games, the PAX of meet and greets away from the show, and of course the PAX of the convention floor. Each one has a totally different vibe, and they all seem loosely connected by the veins and arteries of twisting hallways without ever quite resolving into a unified organism.

I loved the community driven events, and meeting new GWJers around what seemed like every corner is a joy I genuinely treasure. If you think we have a cool community here online, just wait until you put a bunch of us in a room together and start playing board games and Rock Band. I'll just say, if you ever have the chance, put it on your calendar.

That said, some of the other elements of the show -- the actual convention hall and the long lines for panels, for example -- didn't really resolve in the same way for me. I was constantly surprised to find myself going from feeling perfectly at home to suddenly quite out of place. Focus on the people of PAX, from Enforcers to the vast majority of very cool gamers, and it is one thing. Focus on the event itself, however, and it suddenly seems indistinct.

I realize I am being cryptic, and that's why this will be a short piece. I'm not sure I can come to a complete thought on PAX so close to it. I find myself wishing I had attended when it was much smaller, because I think the more something like this grows, the greater the risk that it loses its soul. Ultimately, I have no regrets for going and I walk away with treasured memories. Despite what other reservations I may still hold about the event, that's more than enough for me. For now.

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If you couldn’t make it down to PAX to catch our presentation of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, no problem — we’ll be hunting down the latest coverage of the game in short order. To kick things off, the folks over at Machinima.com’s Inside Gaming have a full interview with Hunted director Maxx Kaufman, along with [...]

I received a written offer of employment yesterday, so that pretty much makes it official that I'll soon be working again. I was supposed to start next week, but I just got a call that they would like for me to come in on Friday and get my orientation going so, I guess I start a new job this week.

The company? They are called Hidden Path Entertainment. You are probably familiar with their awesome tower defense game "Defense Grid"that was on several platforms.

I can't talk about what I'll be working on yet, but once they announce it I'm sure I'll be just as obtuse about my work as I've always been.

So, why Hidden Path Entertainment? When I met the team I just could tell how passionate they are about what they do. They are a small but very experienced team, they aren't afraid to push their limits and work on a variety of projects and game genres, they are family oriented, and they are local.

I had several opportunities come up over the past 7 weeks that were out of state, and while they were very tempting, especially the big name MMO guys that came my way, I just really wanted to stay here and enjoy the new house, the fact my wife has a new job, and just the general atmosphere of the Seattle area, which I'm just way into still.

Anyways, that's whats been going down!

When someone said we were expanding to Benelux, I just assumed we were starting a brand of Fallout-themed cologne. As it turns out, Benelux is a place, and has been since 1946. And now Bethesda is in that place. Bethesda Softworks, a ZeniMax Media company, today announced the continued expansion of its global operations, opening [...]

1) Has any game in MMO history redesigned more core systems then WAR? Amazing to think what could have been added these last two years if Mythic could stop ‘fixing’ things every patch. 2) Adding a third, PLAYABLE faction would actually fix much of what troubles WAR. Good thing Mythic is strongly against actually doing [...]

(Edit: the blog post that prompted this entry was just replaced with the following: “Note: This blog has temporarily been removed in order to support an amicable resolution to the issue at hand.“) Today, it’s David Allen’s turn to make his lawyers throw things at walls! In an industry where gaming companies swallow tens of millions of

Here's a brief explanation of why I'm looking forward to particular games.


Halo: Reach

This video shows why. The most common failure of competitive multiplayer modes is a failure to separate people of different skill levels and, just as importantly, different goals. Some people play for the end results... stats, rankings, challenge completion, etc. Others, like me, play more for the experience itself... the grenade toss into a sniper perch, the point-blank shotgun blast that throws the enemy back, getting killed by your own sticky grenade as the enemy runs toward you. Players like me are less concerned with optimal loadouts and strategies because we prioritize fresh and compelling experiences over winning.

Halo: Reach seems to address this through a refined matchmaking system that goes beyond soft separation and actually divides people into tiers. The fanatics and achievement junkies can have their tier and the "casual" players can have theirs. And, again -- just as importantly, the matchmaking system also asks preferences on Chattiness, Motivation, Teamwork and Tone.

Customization is the other reason I'm interested.


Fable 3

I've recently been surprised at how replayable Fable 2 is. The humor, the joyful art style, the skill options and the moral options are all fun many months after my first (and second) playthrough.

Fable 3 seems to have made co-op actually enjoyable by enabling the use of player-developed characters and making the two players' cameras independent. But it's the single-player mode I'm mostly interested in. The weapons that morph depending on how you use them could be great. And I'm anxious to dive into the latter half of the game, which focuses on making decisions as ruler of Albion. Much will depend on whether the moral options are not so limited as to force us into decisions we don't agree with.


Call of Duty: Black Ops

Black Ops is offering more customization, which is good. For the most part, I'm interested in this Call of Duty for the same reasons I liked the last ones, despite the mediocre matchmaking and inexcusable frequency of connection troubles. I love earning new guns and upgrades, and doing so keeps gameplay fresh by encouraging me to change my loadout often.

I was surprised to learn there will be a bot mode. I haven't heard anything about being able to invite another player to join the fight against bots, but it's a start. I'm still dumbfounded by the industry's failure to repeat Perfect Dark 64's brilliant bot mode. In the interview I saw, Treyarch's spokeman explained it as practice for people before they fight other players (it has a separate ranking system). I wonder sometimes if shooter developers think all shooter fans are achievement junkies like themselves. A bot mode doesn't have to be practice. Sometimes, even the most skilled players want a more relaxing game. And some players prefer more casual play all the time.

Whatever the reasons, was Perfect Dark 64's bot mode not as popular as I think it was? Is popularity not why it was freshened up for re-release on Xbox Live? How many people downloaded Monday Night Combat recently? There are obviously a lot of gamers who like playing against bots, so why not meet the demand and make a profit?


On my sidebar, you'll see a list of other games I'm hopeful for. Most won't be out until next year. I recommend taking a close look at Brink.

As previously mentioned I picked up Tropico 3 for $6 thanks to the current Direct2Drive sale, and I’m very glad I did. The game is a very lighthearted and comical take on the SimCity genre, and made for a great second game to League of Legends over the long weekend. I’ll get the ‘required’ review [...]

Am I the only one who finds it strange that the first announcement in the August 2010 Producer's Letter of Warhammer Online is that WAR is *NOT* going Free2Play? Stay tuned for a series of exciting news announcements, I might reveal tomorrow that WoW isn't going Free2Play either!

Over at his blog, TooNuRacoon has a pretty thorough look into the basics of setting up and executing a suicide gank in EVE Online.  If you’re interested in that sort of thing… intellectually or otherwise. TNR goes through ship choice and outfitting (simple), target choice, fleet formation and execution, and the economic results of such [...]

For my small viewfinder, not much news came out of PAX.  Perhaps the biggest thing was the announcement that ArenaNet was making an iPad/smartphone app for Guild Wars 2 with such neuromantic functionalities such as talking to guild mates, scouring the auction house, and watching guild mates play via an overworld map.  I was going [...]

The Roads After PAX is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Well, we’re firmly into the backlash cycle of The Old Republic, as people are starting to realize that it is, after all, a game instead of an all-encompassing entertainment savior.  I can only speak for me and mine, but I took away a very positive impression from PAX, and I thought I’d talk through the [...]

It was a restful holiday weekend at our house. No one was up for hosting a huge BBQ so everyone stayed at home and did whatever with their own family. We, meaning me, since I’m the only one who can cook on the gas grill without burning everything, kept it simple and light – burgers, steaks and grilled veggies. Light cooking detail and no visitors meant plenty of time for relaxing which of course included gaming.

The fifth and final Brink video documentary is now available to check out above. Focusing on the crazy ideas generated by Brink’s developers, the doc highlights the impressively balanced arsenal of weapons that you’ll have access to in the game. For a collection of the four previous docs, head to IGN.

I didn’t go crazy with it, but I managed to grab a few extra beta invitations and special codes from PAX to give away to Bio Break readers.  I have a handful of Rift beta invites, End of Nation beta invites, and codes for a special League of Legends skin. If you want to snag [...]

You used to suspect eBay when you met someone at the level cap with decent gear who did not know what half his abilities were, how to function in a group, or where common locations were. Now that is normal. : Zubon As a LotRO Hunter, I have contributed to that. Why find the dungeon [...]

Changing Times (1) is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

There’s enough titles of the horizon to warrant a post hitting the highlights. In no particular order, here’s what I’m looking forward to. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, likely late this year or early next. My initial impression was that we’d see it well before the end of the year, and the timing of the start [...]