Sierra Kilo

Raph has written another great article.  He talks about a few of the ways that UO and LegendMUD handled NPCs.  It’s an interesting read, as usual.  It actually sounds like he might be gearing up for some new designs.  Bioware Austin should snap him up on the MMO Dream Team
He says he “editorializes” a bit at the end, but he’s totally right.  NPCs have become vending machines.  This is less the designer’s fault and more the player’s.  MMOs have become a bandwagon.  MP3 players used to be a pretty niche market until everybody started getting into them.  Then Apple came out with a consumer-centric device that worked well.  Blizzard did the same thing with World of Warcraft.  Yes, I said it…WoW is the iPod of the MMO industry.  The only difference is that I’m happy as a clam with my iPod and I can’t bring myself to play WoW anymore.  Sure, the iPod has some things that I don’t like (iTunes being the top), but it still does the job much better than anyone else in the industry.  WoW has taken a step back in the industry.

The problem is that the industry has decided that the WoW model is the way to go.  UO built a good foundation, but started changing to suit the lazy masses.  “WoW is the new golf!”  Yes, and golf has de-evolved from an elite sport to Happy Fricking Gilmore.  WoW is the Happy Gilmore of the MMO industry while the iPod has become the elite.  Chew on that a little bit.

Yesterday was a bit stressful.  My brother has been trying to get into the SMU Guildhall, but financing has always been an issue.  He found out he couldn’t get financial aid, so he was a bit disappointed.  I told him I’d point him in the right direction if he wanted to try to learn some of that on his own.  I keep up with the industry, know where to find tutorials, and know where to look for other information.  He’s disappointed, but he’s talented.  If he could put together a portfolio and learn some of the software on his own, he could land a good art job.  After all, the best employees are the ones who can learn.  If he can learn on his own, he’ll be a great asset with or without a degree.

Then, on the way home, my car was wiggling around on the road just after I left the office, so I pulled off in the housing development that we are forced to detour through.  My right-rear tire was flat and there was a huge nail sticking out of it.  It’s one of those long, thick 4-inchers and it’s close to the sidewall.  That means that I might not be able to patch it and I’ll be forced to buy a brand new tire.  What’s worse is, I just bought that tire in November!

There was a bit of possible good news, but I’ll wait and see on that before going into detail.

I did get some new audiobooks.  Some of the Drizzt books by Salvatore.  I’ll need something now that I’ve finished the Dark Tower books.  I’ll write that up in a seperate post.