A Timesink is an artificial method to get you, the player, to play an MMO longer than you normally would. It is hoped that this time investment will translate into extended subscription, but if not handled properly, this can backfire spectacularly.
Cooldowns
One of the things MMO designers fear is a player running out of content. This is especially true with a brand new MMO which has to compete with MMOs that have had years of content updates behind them. Making content takes time, and that time is usually not 1:1 to the time a player will spend consuming said content. How can a designer ensure that the content they are putting into the game will engage a player long enough until the next content patch can be put out?
Two words: Cool downs.
You Can Please Some of the People All of the Time
As MMO designers, the team at Paragon Studios has come to a brutal realization. No matter what we put into the game, someone will find fault with it and complain. Read the rest of this entry »
From the iPad
One of the things I bought for myself this year was a 3G Apple iPad. When I first heard about the device I was excited. Ive always wanted a reason to get a Mac, but the lack of game support and hyper-inflated price just kept me away. I could spend more on a brand new PC and get more for my dollar than buying a Macbook.
When I got my iPhone things just fell into place. Id wanted an electronic organizer, a portable email device, iPod, and cell phone and the ability to have all of those in one place was amazing. The iPhone really was a purchase that I had zero regrets after getting, and when the 3GS iPhone was released, I got one day one.
When Apple finally unveiled the iPad, I was, in a word, disappointed. It was NOT a Macbook tablet. It was not a Mac with the features of the iPhone, it was a big iPod touch. Yes, the price was right for what I wanted to pay, but I didn’t think the features were going to be there. “It can wait,” was my thought immediately following the unveiling.
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Acronyms
Long before I worked at Cryptic my friend introduced me to the idea of the TLA, or Three Letter Acronym. It seems that being an internet-based society, we apparently need to do things on a hyper-efficient level, and that means cutting out letters whenever we can. So abbreviations become the norm. EverQuest was simply “EQ” to hundreds of thousands of people, as WoW is to millions. Ask any MMO player what DPS means, or even DOT, and they can tell you without hesitation.
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