Blizzard: Next Gen Will Be Better for MMOGs on Consoles

[Nutcase]

I see a big issue as being communication as well. The whole "community" function in MMOs works through massive text based communication, which is how people meet for the first time, sell and trade items, exchange information, and other things.

You could do all of that via voice chat, via NPC's, etc. It's just a matter of design.

I for one do not appreciate global chat channels like WoW's a whole lot. Almost everything done on there would have been better served by a specific trade or matchmaking system; having the channels allowed the devs to be lazy with those things.

I tend to disagree here, you really can't have several hundred people sharing a voice channel without pure chaos and everyone talking over each other.

I didn't say voice channel. Think about it. There are almost seven billion people in the world, yet you don't have a problem with hearing and being heard. Why is that?

Everything you put under an NPC is something that doesn't require another real person, and kind of ruins half the point. There is a reason for mass chat channels, and why in many games crafters and such need to deal with other kinds of crafters to do what they want.

What I'm saying is that NPC's can act as intermediaries, connecting player characters who want to be connected, holding messages, guiding people and so forth. For instance, say you deal in rare items. You could stand in the bazaar, talk to potential customers, have your wares on display, things like that. But let's say you don't want to do that, and hire a NPC assistant to stand in the bazaar in your stead. So the NPC will advertise your items, and if it finds a customer, it connects you two - offers to lead the customer to you, teleports the customer to you, teleports you back to the bazaar or whatever. Compared to normal WoW skill trade, this contains all the meaningful human interaction but zero standing and waiting. In fact, with the boring quasi-social bullshit eliminated, you are likely to engage in more actual interaction between people.

 

[Lazzi]

Wow. Maybe blizzard just sucks? DC Universe. FFXI and XIV. Champions Online. All console MMORPGS.

I would just like to say that your avatar is sex.

Anyway, Blizzard never said that it would be impossible to bring MMOs to consoles, he's just saying that there are a lot of hurdles to over-come in order to make it happen, especially when the game already has a solid base on the PC. I haven't played FFXI, so I don't know how simple or complex the controls are, but I can confirm with personal experience that World of Warcraft is simply too complex for a 10-button controller.

Even using the 360 controller's D-pad as four extra buttons, I'm having a hard time with my little experiment to successfully play WoW with a controller at the same efficiency as I do with the keyboard and mouse. And let me tell you, I've got a fairly workable build going right now, but it's such a complex button config that I'd wager roughly 80% of WoW's player-base would go crosseyed trying to figure it out.

Just for a taste of how it's mapped-out, I'm using Xpadder (in case you know of the program). Using that, I can have upto 8 different control set-ups (mapping specific keyboard keys, or mouse buttons/movements to buttons on my 360 controller). You can set-up certain buttons to toggle back and forth between different control sets as needed. Currently, I'm using 6 of those 8 sets, and I'm still working on figuring out a decent functionality for some of the macros and hotkeys I use regularly.

So yeah... the complexity of how the game is played is also a very big factor that he didn't really directly mention. World of Warcraft all but requires a keyboard and mouse, because even if I do get my controls mapped perfectly to play on a 360 controller just as well as with the keyboard, it'll be such a tangled web that's tailor made to how I personally play the game, that it won't be usable for a console-version of the game that's meant for just anyone to use.

So again, I haven't played FFXI, maybe it's just as complex. But I can say from trying it myself that WoW would not work on a console unless they went through the added hassle of packaging-in a Keyboard/Mouse... at which point you might as well just buy it for the PC.

Thanks. My brother tried using that program for WoW and just couldn't get it to work effeciently. My point is though that other game companies are making MMORPGs from the ground up for consoles and doing it with ease it would seem. FFXI is one of the most complicated MMOs out there and it does a damn fine job of it on the console. CHampions Online looks to be pretty epic. Not sure about DC Universe but it's a PS3 MMORPG. FFXIV will be just as complex if not more so. I just don't think blizzard really wants to try and make a console MMO seeing as how they have enough money with what their doing to own their own country. Can hardly blame them though lol.

Remeber the FFXI was more menu based, which was more typical of a FF game and is what made it work out on the PS@/Xbox 360.

How ever this doesnt work out so well in real time so it wasnt as easilly controlled in highers Lvls, and the macros were very difficult to comprehead (we im compairison to WOW atleast) so alot of caster turned in to clickes and then shifted toward more simpl jobs like WAR and MNK.

Blizzards goal it to make a full but simple MMO for a consel.

 

[Lazzi]

Wow. Maybe blizzard just sucks? DC Universe. FFXI and XIV. Champions Online. All console MMORPGS.

I would just like to say that your avatar is sex.

Anyway, Blizzard never said that it would be impossible to bring MMOs to consoles, he's just saying that there are a lot of hurdles to over-come in order to make it happen, especially when the game already has a solid base on the PC. I haven't played FFXI, so I don't know how simple or complex the controls are, but I can confirm with personal experience that World of Warcraft is simply too complex for a 10-button controller.

Even using the 360 controller's D-pad as four extra buttons, I'm having a hard time with my little experiment to successfully play WoW with a controller at the same efficiency as I do with the keyboard and mouse. And let me tell you, I've got a fairly workable build going right now, but it's such a complex button config that I'd wager roughly 80% of WoW's player-base would go crosseyed trying to figure it out.

Just for a taste of how it's mapped-out, I'm using Xpadder (in case you know of the program). Using that, I can have upto 8 different control set-ups (mapping specific keyboard keys, or mouse buttons/movements to buttons on my 360 controller). You can set-up certain buttons to toggle back and forth between different control sets as needed. Currently, I'm using 6 of those 8 sets, and I'm still working on figuring out a decent functionality for some of the macros and hotkeys I use regularly.

So yeah... the complexity of how the game is played is also a very big factor that he didn't really directly mention. World of Warcraft all but requires a keyboard and mouse, because even if I do get my controls mapped perfectly to play on a 360 controller just as well as with the keyboard, it'll be such a tangled web that's tailor made to how I personally play the game, that it won't be usable for a console-version of the game that's meant for just anyone to use.

So again, I haven't played FFXI, maybe it's just as complex. But I can say from trying it myself that WoW would not work on a console unless they went through the added hassle of packaging-in a Keyboard/Mouse... at which point you might as well just buy it for the PC.

Thanks. My brother tried using that program for WoW and just couldn't get it to work effeciently. My point is though that other game companies are making MMORPGs from the ground up for consoles and doing it with ease it would seem. FFXI is one of the most complicated MMOs out there and it does a damn fine job of it on the console. CHampions Online looks to be pretty epic. Not sure about DC Universe but it's a PS3 MMORPG. FFXIV will be just as complex if not more so. I just don't think blizzard really wants to try and make a console MMO seeing as how they have enough money with what their doing to own their own country. Can hardly blame them though lol.

Remeber the FFXI was more menu based, which was more typical of a FF game and is what made it work out on the PS@/Xbox 360.

How ever this doesnt work out so well in real time so it wasnt as easilly controlled in highers Lvls, and the macros were very difficult to comprehead (we im compairison to WOW atleast) so alot of caster turned in to clickes and then shifted toward more simpl jobs like WAR and MNK.

Blizzards goal it to make a full but simple MMO for a consel.

Since when has Blizzard ever shown interest in working on consoles?

Its seems like an idea now.

The are no longer content with invading our computers.