Game talk

This is the catch-all category for stuff about games and game design. It easily makes up the vast majority of the site’s content. If you are looking for something specific, I highly recommend looking into the tags used on the site instead. They can narrow down the hunt immensely.

  • Do players know what they want, c.1985

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 13 Comments

    I love the serendipity factor of the Internet. Right after I post the last post on whether players know what they want, I see that Richard at QBlog has a ranked list of survey results from players on what they said they wanted in their muds back in 1985. Here’s a sampling:

    Intelligent mobiles 25
    Conversing with mobiles 22
    Regularly improved 19
    Messages to pick up later 15
    Lots of rooms 14
    Lots of players 11
    Speed of response 10
    Long textual descriptions 9
    Never crashes 9
    International game 6
    Built-in adverts -3
    Graphics -3

    Check the link for the full list. 🙂

  • Do players know what they want?

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 54 Comments


    There has been a lot of criticism towards the game industry, accusing them of being unoriginal. Sequels, sequels, everywhere. Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, GTA 4, Halo 3, The Sims 3, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, not to mention the annual versions of various sports games. Why can’t game companies be more original? Because game companies are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, making the games that players want, and the players don’t want original games.

    — Tobold’s MMORPG Blog: Follow the money

    If I say to you, “do you want chocolate ice cream?” you probably say yes. If I say to you “do you want more chocolate ice cream, this time with sprinkles on top?” you probably still say yes.

    If I say “by the way, there’s also this mango sorbetto,” you may or may not try it. But you aren’t going to ask for mango sorbetto without prior knowledge of its existence.

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  • Query: BBS games in the late 70s?

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 11 Comments

    Got this email from T. L. Taylor (author of the excellent Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture):

    I’ve checked on Raph’s timeline page (and googled a bunch) but don’t quite see the answer I need. I am writing this (very odd) handbook chapter on the internet & games and in my history section I am actually trying to give a bit of a nod to the old BBS scene. The Door stuff is fairly well documented but what I can’t quite find is if BBS’s in the (late) 1970s also had games you could play. I would assume so but would prefer to know for sure.

    Post away if you know anything about this topic! I didn’t log onto a BBS until the mid 80s myself, so I have no idea.

  • Blizzard case becoming EULA test case

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 22 Comments

    Blizzard Responds to Amicus Brief in MDY Bot Suit | Virtually Blind | Virtual Law | Benjamin Duranske

    Although it has not put the issue in quite such stark terms, Public Knowledge is essentially seeking a ruling that says that the sale of consumer software is, in most circumstances, a sale, pretty much regardless of what the agreement that comes with the software says. If the court agrees in spite of MAI and its progeny (and the ruling survives certain appeal) then U.S. copyright law would protect, among other things, making copies of purchased software in RAM in order to use the software — no matter what the “license agreement” says. Resolving this issue in favor of Public Knowledge would call into question provisions in EULAs governing nearly every virtual world and multiuser online game, as well as EULAs for other software.

  • MUD influence

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 122 Comments

    As part of the ongoing raking over the coals of Richard Bartle for saying the obvious (yes, you can tell what side I am on in those debates!), Steve Danuser says over at Moorgard.com » Sacred Cows

    I get tired of people implying that today’s MMOs owe their entire existence to the MUDs of yesteryear. Sorry, I disagree. The gameplay style of EQ or WoW is obviously influenced by MUDs, but I propose that MMOs would have evolved anyway.

    And Ryan Shwayder posts in comments saying

    Ultima Online is a direct descendant of what MUD? I’m not saying it isn’t, I’m just saying that I don’t know what particular MUD had a profound influence on that game. It seems like the MMO industry was born of different influences; EverQuest from DikiMuds, Ultima Online from Ultima games. Not all MMOs have a lot of direct comparisons to MUDs, so I think he’s right that they’d exist whether MUDs did or not.

    Well…

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