When Players log into an MMORPG, they like to play it, not read a book. This doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a storyline in the game. But more often than not, the amount of text is way over the top. World of Warcraft limits the amount of text for a quest to 511 characters – and this is still too much. There is a reason why Twitter limits the text to even fewer characters, with obvious success. Continue reading
There has been some discussion about the right level of difficulty in (role-playing) games recently. Jeff Vogel says on his Blog "Make your game easy. Then make it easier", his point is that games are recreational times and "People will happily forgive a game for being too easy, because it makes them feel badass. If a game is too hard, they will get angry, ragequit, hold a grudge, and never buy your games again".
Brian "Psychochild" Green on the other hand argues that failure is part of the gaming experience and there needs to be a feedback loop for the player. A game of Chess isn't fun when the opponent loses on purpose.
I like to look at the topic purely from an MMO standpoint:
To understand the level of difficulty in games one has to take a step back and look at what is behind motivation in games.
Patrick Blank, Lead Level Designer bei Runic Entertainment, hat ein dreiteiliges Video Tutorial darüber gemacht, wie Levels für das kommende Online Rollenspiel „Torchlight“ erstellt werden. Er erklärt dabei sehr anschaulich, wie ein Level aufgebaut wird und wie Scripte und Trigger in den Tools der Designer funktionieren. Sicherlich nicht nur für Torchlight Fans ein interessanter Blick auf Level Design für Computer Rollenspiele.
