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Updated verseJune 17th, 2007 |
So sometimes, it seems it’s down to the simple things: a dye tub, a chat bubble, and thou.
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I think Erkht’s comment on AO was interesting. I assume quite a few went to SWG. Perhaps partially because Funcom didn’t follow up the story-aspects as much as twink-play. Then again, what guild you happen to stumble over matters a lot…
Yes, that comment caught me too. The game play now is centered around that gangbusters-go-for-the-next-tier, but my fondest memories from UO were centered around just spending time with other people in an in-game sense.
The communication method has alot to do with how it makes the player feel. Chat above the characters head makes it feel like it’s happening in the game, while chat windows makes it feel more like an out of game experiance. What the sandbox games also have is tools for the player to play with that also feel more like an in game experiance. The die tub, or whatever else the player can reach out and touch in the game is an example of the kind of “tools” I’m talking about.
UO had many things like this, that made you feel like your senses were in the game and not looking in from outside. Your mouse was your senses. You could “look” at something by clicking on it to get a description that might offer more information, as if you were looking closely at the item. You could “use” the item by double clicking it, and if you weren’t close enough you got a message saying so. You reached out and touched the game world.
This is an important issue for any game that wants to be something other than a go-gangbusters, narrow game play game.
Amaranthar, that’s interesting. I’ve been thinking a lot (made many sketches) of talk-bubbles vs console and can never reach any conclusion. Talk bubbles are indeed more integrated in the environment, but handling high-volume chat wihtout obscuring vital areas of the scene seems like a difficult challenge to me. I’ve barely tried UO… One alternative is the Habitat-console, but I dislike that. Feels wrong to block the top of the screen with “frames of things” that you have to look through… Okay, so you’ve made me sway back to reconsidering talk-bubbles… Hmm.
Yeah, I see the problem with chat bubbles too. UO was a fixed look down type of view, not the great swing views the 3D games have these days. That top down view meant that the speach was kept pretty much organized for the viewing.
I’m no expert, just a gamer, but some things about this from my perspective.
1) The actual white bubbles that 3D games use get in the way. I assume this is so you can actually read the letters among the colors of the backgrounds. UO only had letters, no actual bubble to block more of the view. Why not go with a block behind each letter, so that a word appears to be in a rectangle. Using a white block background, allow each player to set their own color from a selection of choices for the letters. This is something UO players used especially in combat to identify their own guild, and they’d know which chat was important to them to read. This would reduce the blocking (minus the bubble). Or you can use letters with a heavy black outline, but I think that might get a little smudgy looking.
2) You still need the chat window. In group meetings, it’s easy to lose chat without it. But here’s an issue. If you include chat windows, players will often start to ignore what’s going on in game and concentrate on the window. The deaf mute syndrome. Do you get tough and try to force players to adhere to the in-game over the head view? If you decide to go this way, then for meetings and guild/party activities you can have a specific chat window just for them, and forget about any others. No zone chat, no trade chat, only one for a guild or party. Yes, force the issue, or start down a different path from a sandbox game. But that doesn’t mean you can’t compromise if you want. But compromise is, after all, compromise.
3) If you’re in a room full of people and everyone is talking, you can’t hear what people beyond a distance are saying. Simulate this, and if the system is reading text beyond a limit, knock out chat that’s farther away. maybe just show some small dashes, like I think SWG did. But maybe make an exception for those in guild/party chat.
4) Allow a player to turn off the chat, or just everything besides guild/party. This can be especially needed in PvP, where players tend to spam if it would help them win a fight.
5) Off screen chat, show it from the side of the screen it comes from. Again, if there’s a bunch of chat going on, the distance should be reduced and thus reduce the spamming effect on screen.
6) If you’re going with the idea of tactile game play, clicking and double clicking to look at and use items, you won’t need all the windows current games always have. Just a message box somewhere for explanations of effects, usually in the lower left corner or above the item being affected. This also helps free the screen of blocked views.
All you really need are the health bars of the character and target, a space for effects explanations, a small chat window that’s resizable, and I think quick bars are a good thing. An inventory box doesn’t have to be open unless the player is using an item or taking inventory. Same for a paper doll (avatar).
You’re still always going to have chat in the way if it appears on screen. But for players who like feeling more like they are in the game world, like that immersion, I think it’s more than acceptable.
And there’s nothing better than a Deamon cursing at you for that down home welcome feel.
Sometimes it’s the little things. Some of them can change a good game into a great world (at least for me):
- If I can own a house, I should be able to decorate it.
- If there is furniture, I should be able to use it (sit down on chairs, lay down on beds, put something in cabinets etc.).
- If there are weapons/armor/clothes/furniture etc. I should be able to craft and customize it.
- If I there are mounts, they shouldn’t just go *poof* when I dismount.
- If I don’t like my profession, I should be able to drop it and learn something new without a problem.
- Fights shouldn’t be decided be one number (level).
- Rats shouldn’t carry weapons or money.
- If I talk to someone, I want to look at his avatar (or slightly above his head) and not at some little box in the corner of my screen.
I remember the first time I played Vanguard with a friend – the first thing I said was “What, no chat bubbles? What a shame, I bet you can’t sit down on chairs, too.”
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