Dopass.com

I love my job. I know it's something I say a lot which, considering that I can't talk a lot about what I do, might seem a little circumspect, but it's true -- I really do love my job. By trade, I'm a game designer. I design the systems, mechanics, lore, levels, enemies and worlds of the games I work on. This time around, however (much like my time on Auto Assault) my focus is primarily on content. I'm a lore master, at the coarsest end of the granularity scale, but that's not really what I do...

You see, all of that lore, all of those stories, they have to work for the game -- they have to enable or support the game play of the world I'm a part of making. Even little choices, like what each geographical area of a world will look like, is a game play choice -- the concerns of game play supersede any aesthetic concern one might have. In other words, I am not a writer or an artist. Nor am I just a "quest designer" or some sort of glorified implementer. No, the truth is, I'm actually more like a watch maker.

My tools range from the course -- the broad strokes of the words I use to weave a history to bring a world to the fictional point where our game play fits the context -- to the fine: To the tiny gears, springs and levers that make the smallest critter behave believable or the townsfolk of a world comment on their day as they go through it.

This all sounds like an ego trip, I'm sure, and I suppose in a way it is, but I'm mentioning all of this for a reason. Give me a chance to explain, and then you can tell me I'm vain. Read more»

I've been wondering for awhile now, how I was going to talk about this, but I think I'm just going to say it. The last time I talked about story and writing in games, I stirred up a bit of trouble, so I've been wondering if I should share the realization I've had recently... but it's too good not to share. Read more»

If you've paid any attention to my twitters recently, you probably saw a few comments about "to-do lists." These were parts of a conversation I was having with another developer about how the quests in modern MMOs don't feel like "quests" at all, but rather as errands or chores -- literally glorified to-do lists. I've done a lot of thinking about this lately, focusing on how to fix it. Read more»

I've been struggling for awhile with an interesting problem. It's more like an observation that I have trouble reconciling, I guess. It's all based on the sense of dissatisfaction some folks have with the current generation of MMOs. I'm talking about a particular type of player; the type of player that gravitates more to say, EQ2 or Final Fantasy XI than say WoW or WAR. The type of player that, perhaps, laments the lack of things like "lore" or "story" -- Often they're the very same people complaining about the lack of the capability for players to change the world they play in, even in games that do try to offer players that very thing.

The problem is how to address what they really want, when it doesn't really match what they've asked for. There's a huge amount of "interpretation" in what MMO developers do, I think. We look at the complaints and comments of the players and we try to figure out what we can do to provide what they're looking for. The trick, and the trouble, comes from figuring out what they're really asking for, which brings me back to that observation... Read more»

I've been playing a lot of WAR, lately. I'm enjoying it, but I'm also struck by how familiar it all is. Now, before you snort knowingly and mutter "Warcraft did it," let me explain - I don't mean it feels like Warcraft. It's really more about how... old... it feels. Read more»