It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows my background that I am extremely interested in this system, both as a keen player of Eve Online and also as an industry professional who has worked in community and evangelises for community involvement in games design. For the last two sessions, I’ve been an alternate – a stand-in delegate who is allowed to take part in the discussions, is privy to the internal workings but doesn’t get to raise proposals directly nor to travel to Reykjavik for the regular developer summits (as it happens I was at the last summit but only because a full delegate couldn’t make the trip).

This time around, I am pitching for a third term and hopefully as a full delegate. If you are an Eve player with an account over 30 days old I would appreciate your vote for Helen Highwater, my main character in the game.

My talk is going to be all about how community experience can be an asset in other areas of the games industry – either for community managers who want to move on to new roles or those who simply want to expand the scope of their current position. This is something I feel pretty qualified to talk about as I’ve worn quite a few hats over the past few years and ‘community’ has been at the core of nearly all of them. In fact, in my current role as a games designer I’m mostly responsible for creating social and retention systems. These are clearly areas where a strong understanding of player dynamics are essential.

Plenty of notable CMs will be there too, I’ll be in such august company as Donna Prior, Jörg Koonen, Sean Kaupinnen, Martin Rabl and a former colleague of mine, Fabien Alexandre. This is the first event of its kind in Europe and hopefully will become a fixture in the industry calendar – there’s certainly been a lot of lively discussion on the main CM industry forum and it looks as though Two Pi Team who are organising it intend to build on it for the future. For me it will be a nice change to be at the GC without needing to be on my feet for 14 hours a day and to be able to wander round and chat without feeling guilty.

There’s also a strong possibility that a Warmachine game between myself and Donna Prior may happen at the event. Should such a titanic struggle come to pass then it will of course be properly chronicled over on my other blog.

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while and I finally decided that I’d launch a separate blog for my wargaming and miniature painting exploits. If you’re interested in that kind of thing then head on over to Stormy Teacups where you can keep up with my adventures at German and international wargaming tournaments as well as see my collection of painted miniatures grow very slowly indeed (unlike my collection of unpainted miniatures which grows at an alarming rate…).

I’ll still be updating this with all the clockwork regularity that you’ve come to expect but I figure splitting the wargames stuff off from the video games industry waffle was a good move. Comments and feedback are much appreciated on either site!

Please update all your bookmarks and RSS feeds to this new URL and make sure you comment if you have something to say. I’m a little busy to make a real post at the moment but I’m always up for suggestions if there’s something you’d really like to talk about here. Leave a comment below if you have feedback, suggestions or just generally want to say hi on the internet.

For various reasons I’m really not interested in talking too much about the circumstances of my leaving GOA, I will say that I’m going to be sad to leave some really awesome people behind and that I will be taking a lot of very good memories away with me. Anything beyond that is a matter for my exit interview and some carefully written parting emails. I will have been here nearly five years when I leave and it’s been a valuable experience every day. Not always good times but I don’t regret any of my time here.

Finally in my last blog post Belsameth asked if I had more pictures of my Grumlok miniature in progress. I forgot to upload them for ages but I finally got around to it today so here’s a gallery of all the pictures. The darker ones were taken with my digital camera at home while the brighter ones were taken by our studio A/V guy here hence the stark difference in quality between them.

There are two things you should know about Southern Spain. One is that it is very brown indeed, the other is that it is very hot. Crazy hot in fact. I stepped off the aeroplane and, by the time I’d struggled across the baking tarmac to the immigration office I already needed a shower. This was at 9pm, It boded poorly for the midday conditions.

The Campus Party itself is a 7 day long LAN party which is held in a massive convention centre. People camp on the ground floor (there were literally halls full of tents) and set their PCs up in the halls on the top floor which is also where all the exhibitors are.

I took some notes during the event along with loads of pictures. I started trying to write this up as an amusing travelogue but eventually realised that teh funny was not to be found and so I’m just going to give you my raw notes. Stream of consciousness, GOOOOO!!!!

Day 1

Damn it’s hot! Wave of heat as I stepped off the aircraft. Hotel is miles from anywhere but pleasant in an anonymous business hotel kind of way. Spain is mostly brown. Trees are prettier here.

Feria is a huge and cool hall with air conditioning (yay!). We are next to the Spanish Navy, Wii Fit and all the food. English is not universal here, Segways are however. We are also close to the Rockband stage. I doubt I will grow fond of this. Had hachata which was delicious in a nut flavoured milkshake kind of way.

Day 2

Marta says that Valencians only eat paella for lunch so we decided to be tourists and eat it for dinner instead. Yum!

Day 3

Moved to a nicer hotel in the centre of Valencia. The old one was in an industrial estate, the new one is in a beautiful city plaza.

Went looking for cocktails at 2am. Failed. Ended up in a flamenco bar *with no flamenco) where the barman didn’t know how to mix a bloody mary. By that time though it didn’t matter, enough wine, beer and cider had been consumed to make further alcohol irrelevant.

Day 4

Today I have mostly been giving t-shirts to the Spanish military. I do have a decent haul of swag in return however – my favourite loot so far is the LED soap bar. I also got to play in a djembe circle with the same group that initiated me into their capoeira band yesterday.

We said goodbye to Marta in the morning and hello to David and Pedro in the evening. The stand was busy all day and the Spanish kids are really excited about WAR. So was the Dutch guy from Antec. I got a henna tattoo of the WAR symbol which looks hella cool.

In the evening we went to the cathedral square  and had tapas, paella and a huge fish skewer. I love the food here.

Day 5

Rahim popped in for a flying visit this afternoon. He was around for a quick interview then he had to go again.

Saturday is the last real day of the LAN party. On Sunday everyone packs up and goes home, we will also be packing but we don’t go home till Monday.

Team WAR rocked the joint on the last evening. I was on drums, Lionel pushed out some sweet bass sounds while Jose laid out the riffs on Gimme Shelter. Much fun ensued and we got a respectable score despite our noobness.

I asked ten questions about the way that people prioritised information about games and where they tended to go for trustworthy news.

Here are the questions with the collected results.

1: Which of the following types of game related websites do you read (please delete all that do not apply)

• News sites (for example TenTonHammer, IGN, Gamespot etc) - 50/64 (78%)
  
• Community forums (for example a guild or clan forum, or general computer game discussion forums such as VN boards, F13 etc) – 58/64 (91%)
  
• Official game sites (sites operated by the developers or publishers of a game) – 47/64 (73%)

So clearly the average respondent is pretty widely read on the world of video games. It’s interesting though that many people who read community forums never read regular games news sites or the official sites of games.

2: Do you actively seek out news and information about upcoming games that may interest you?

• I follow games I’m interested in very closely – 29/64 (45%)
  
• I check out upcoming games I’m interested in every so often to see what’s happening – 29/64 (45%)
• I actively avoid finding out information about games I may be interested in – 0
  
• I don’t actively look for information on games I’m interested in but if a friend sends me a link then I’ll check it out. – 0

The totals are less than 100% due to some people not understanding the question or answering in a non-committal manner. In general though we can see that the respondents keep reasonably up to date with upcoming games with almost half of them following development very closely.

3: Are you an MMO player?

• Yes I play multiple MMOs currently -16/64 (25%)
  
• Yes I play one MMO currently – 28/64 (43%)
  
• Yes although I am not currently playing any MMO – 18/64 (28%)
  
• I have never played an MMO nor am I planning to do so. – 1/64(2%)

A fairly even split with a pretty much expected bell curve. Single MMO players form the bulk with lapsed and multi-game players forming an roughly equal curve on either side. Given that an MMO can be a significant time investment, it’s not hard to see why this is.

4: How many MMOs have you played for more than the trial period/beta?

• One – 3/64 (5%)
  
• Two – 7/64 (11%)
  
• Three – 11/64 (17%)
  
• Four – 8/64 (13%)
  
• Five or more – 32/64 (50%)
  
• None – 1/64 (2%)

Only a very small number of respondents had only played one MMO in their lives (or none for that matter). Half have played at least 5 and 80% have played at least 3. This makes them veterans of the genre for the most part (I hesitate the use the word hardcore, as it everyone loads it up with their own definition baggage).

5: Which would you say is your main source of information about games that interest you?

• Official game sites – 17/64 (27%)
  
• Community sites or word of mouth from friends – 45/64 (70%)
  
• News sites – 8/64 (13%)
  
• I don’t know or I don’t look for information like this – 0

This one cemented what I felt instinctively and also reaffirmed my own experiences. People learn about games from other people or communities, not from marketing outlets for the main part. In otherwords, the best marketing vector is the friends of the target.

6: Which of the following would you be most likely to trust?

• A news article on a professional game news site – 15/64 (23%)
  
• A news article on the game’s official website – 17/64 (27%)
• A news article written and researched by a fan on a community site – 25/64 (39%)

A reasonably even split here with a bias towards information from sources that are perceived as being closer to the community. I didn’t frame this question very well, I should have said opinion piece rather than news as the intent was to find which source people assumed would be least biased or most fair.

7: Please indicate how trustworthy you generally find each of the following (rate from 1-5 where 1 is barely credible and 5 is an unshakeable faith).

• A news article on a news site that you do not generally read – Average 2.19
  
• A news article on a news site that you read regularly – Average 3.5
• A news article on the game’s official website – Average 3.42
• A news article on a community site written by a fan that you know personally – Average 3.9
• A news article on a community site written by a fan that you do not know personally – Average 2.44

Again I intended this to be an indicator of how unbiased a source was but still the results are interesting. People trust news sites of unknown provenance less than they trust random fans on a message board. Of course they trust fans that they know more than any other channel.

8: Roughly how many of the following types of website do you read regularly (at least once a week)?

• Game forums (official or otherwise)
• News sites aimed at gamers
• News sites aimed at computer industry professionals
• Official game sites (operated by a developer or publisher)
• Blogs by gamers
• Blogs by game developers or other industry professionals

I didn’t collect the stats for this question as many people didn’t understand how to answer it. When going through however forums were by far the most popular followed closely by news sites aimed at gamers. Blogs were the least read of all with industry news sites and official sites forming a rough median.

9: Please rate the following factors in your choice of game to play. Provide a rating for each of 1-5 where 1 is not a factor at all and 5 is an overwhelming factor in a game’s favour.

• Many of your friends are already playing the game or intending to do so- Average 3.65
• Information from the official website – Average 2.82
• Good previews/reviews in the gaming press – Average 2.85
• Good reviews from friends - Average 3.94
• Developer’s track record (your experiences with their previous games) - Average 3.65
• A friendly community on fan forums - Average 2.48

Interestingly the expectations of a developer were equally important to players as the desire to play alongside their friends. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that and I fully expected the first response to be the runaway favourite. Again though personal recommendation and word of mouth counts for more than press reviews.

10: Finally, which of following games is the one that you are most likely to try? (delete the one that does not apply)

• A game which has received bad reviews but that is enjoyed by your friends – 56/64 (88%)
  
• A game that your friends did not enjoy but has received glowing reviews  in the press – 8/64 (13%)
  
• I don’t read game websites – 0
  

No surprise at all here and it strongly reinforces the previous points about where people are most influenced in their buying decision. I would have been shocked if the disparity was smaller to be honest.

So there you have it. Veteran MMO players, mostly get their impressions of games and make up their mind to try or not based on what their friends think and what the scuttlebutt is on the various community forums. News sites and official sites play an important part of course but mostly they are feeding the vast meta-community gossip machine.

Everyone knows that when an MMO launches the real hard work has only just begun.  Despite the fact that typically these games are in development for more than 3 years, there is still a lot to do post launch. Bugs to be corrected, new content to add so that the players don’t run out of things to do and of course balancing. Now this last item is probably the hardest thing about any MMO and that counts double when the MMO has any kind of PvP mechanic in it. We can all think of several games that have massively missed the balance bus and we remember them for just that and not any of the otherwise great features they may have had.

Worse, every single player, developer, community manager and forumite has wildly different views onwhat needs to be done to achieve this mythical balance. Nerf this class? Buff that one? Rework this mechanic? Add utility to here? Strip overpowered abilities from there? It’s all a bit like spinning plates on poles except that the plates are invisible and your hands are tied behind your head. Oh and you have to spin the plates with your ears.

Since Mythic was acquired by EA, they’ve had access to some of the sharpest and slickest coding teams around, people who can put games out on the shelves at a staggering rate and that’s the kind of expertise that EA Mythic are going to put to use on WAR. What will happen is that rather than continue to patch WAR for balance and content, a new version will be shipped every year. This new version will completely remix all the class abilities and power balance so that everyone will have to figure out from scratch what is over and underpowered – and by the time they’ve done that, a new version will be hitting the shelves!

Here are some FAQs

Q: Will there be no patches at all?

A: The only patches will be to fix game stopping bugs. Such bugs include but are not limited to:

• Bugs that prevent you from logging into your account
• Bugs that adversely affect the stability of a user’s PC.
• Bugs that threaten to destabilise reality and cause the End Times to occur.
• Bugs that open rifts to alternate dimensions.

Actually we’re just kidding about that last one. Rifts to alternate dimensions are awesome. They may be filled by hot blue alien chicks and that’s a risk we’re prepared to take frankly.

Q: What will change from each version to the next?

A: Lots of things! The developers will use their expert judgement and a state of the art binary RNG system to determine which features will carry over from one version to the next. Each version will be numbered for easy identification and so that players will always know that they are using the latest (and greatest!) client. So this year you will be playing WAR ’08 and just in time for the busy Christmas season you’ll be excited to get your hands on WAR ’09! Not everything will change of course, large bits of code will be copied and pasted into the next version with only enough differences to justify a new version number and shake up the experience for players. Who said making games was hard?

Q: Will different versions be able to play together?

A: Sadly no. You will always need the latest client. This is for technical financial reasons that are all to do with server architecture, shareholders, platform leveraging and shareholders.

Q: Can you comment on the rumoured console release for WAR?

A: Not at this time but look out for cross platform functionality added in WAR ’11 and ’12! We’re excited to be working with some of the biggest players in the console market – Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and those people who make the’150 retro games on a preloaded console’ things.

For those of you interested in how games are put together, bookmark it. People who actually put games together for a living like Raph Koster, Scott Jennings, Richard Bartle, Steve Danuser, Ryan Shwayder and many other industry flag bearers pour out pearls of wisdom and nuggets of insider commentary there.