Usenet follies

My ISP either doesn't offer a Usenet server, or keeps their Usenet server so secret that none of the support people can tell me where it is. This has probably been a good thing, at least from a time-wasting standpoint. It's pretty clear I enjoy spouting my opinions, and the comp.sys.mac.games.adventure forum can be tempting to me like shit to a fly.

So, I signed up for a Usenet feed, as if I don't have anything else to do. Turns out they are slow as hell to propigate posts, so being the eco-friendly guy I am, I figured I could recycle some of my recent tirades to add a few column-inches (or feet) to my own little corner of the web.

Yeah, it's all Clan Lord crap, so if that ain't your cup of tea, there's a lot to skip.

The usual disclaimers apply, but even more so, since I tend to honor the long-standing Usenet tradition of wise-ass, acerbic posts. Keep in mind that I love Clan Lord, and I respect the tremendous efforts of all the good folks at Delta Tao, both volunteer and staff. Really. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with these rants. So no more letter bombs, okay?


Recently, on comp.sys.mac.games.adventure:

Subject: Re: CL: Account numbers
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 21:18:48 -0400
From: "Worf / Mr. Nosuch"

Helpful GM wrote:

...of the 3000+ active clan accounts...

Ok, let's just look at this number for a moment.

3,000 ACCOUNTS (not characters) would mean:

3,000 x 10 = $30,000 a month in income for Delta Tao.

That's $360,000 a year. I, for one, would like to see that damn prime time lag go away if Joe is rolling in that much money... But, anyway...

Most online worlds discover that 10% of their account base is going to be active at any one time, especially during peak hours.

10% of 3,000 is 300.

I have, for the life of me, never seen 300 people on at once. (The current client will actually fail to display more than 255 players...) The peak load I've ever seen on Clan Lord is around 140.

That means, of the active subscribers, less than 5% choose to actually play at any given time. This means, compared to OTHER successful games, Clan Lord has HALF the appeal. This number is worse if you look at the typical number of active users during peak time, which tends to be closer to 100.

Now, I'm glad Joe is sitting back in Sunnyvale opening up envelopes with checks in them. Bully for him, that's what business is about, after all.

But...

There's two ways to run a business. One is to reach into people's pockets, and take their money, and not really care too much about actually delivering a good product, or providing good service. The other way is the inverse of that: deliver good product and great service, and watch the money pour in.

So, what worries me is that from these statistics, assuming the 3,000 number is accurate (and why would Helpful GM lie, right?) these numbers show a large dissatisfication relative to other games. And really, I just don't see anything being done by Delta Tao other than business as usual. That leads me to conclude that DT might just be in this for the dough. Maximize profits with minimal expenditures and effort, and the players be damned. Prime time frame rate reduction is a PERFECT example of that.

So the big end for Clan Lord will be when 2,500 or so people suddenly wake up, look at their credit card statements and think "Delta Tao? I thought I CANCELLED that!" In the mean time, Joe is enjoying his virtual monopoly, and the crew at DT can wax on about their wisdom in game design, when the real key to Clan Lord's success is being the only viable option in a limited market.

Don't get me wrong, I like Clan Lord, flawed as it is, but mostly due to things DT doesn't having anything to do with, like the community. I'll dare to predict that when another viable Mac MMORPG choice comes up, one that doesn't foster an adversarial relationship with its player base, Clan Lord will take a huge hit. I don't want to see Clan Lord wane, but really, Delta Tao has wacked out design priorities that seem to put maximizing revenue and GM enjoyment ahead of player satisifaction.


Subject: Re: CL: Fighter Tests
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 21:47:26 -0400
From: "Worf / Mr. Nosuch"

Levens DeBack wrote:

Erm... I was bricking the noid like 80% (in the fighter test) before the update, now I get in the test, it hits me 3 times in a row, killing me before I even start. Seems like a change to me. I'll go take the test again soon (Its been a week..) and I bet the same thing happens, even though I've been training straight detha for the past few months....

Joe Williams responded

The odds of him hitting you the first three strikes are about 1% -- not unlikely at all.

Joe, some suggested reading for you:

"An Introduction to Probability"

I know you are busy, so I'll give you the "Executive Summary," since you're a busy executive type:

Probabilities that are close to zero are considered UNLIKELY.
Probabilities that are close to one are considered LIKELY.

Exercises for the busy executive:

True or False: .01 is close to zero.

I have this sinking feeling that all the money being made from Clan Lord is being pissed away by Joe on lottery tickets...


Subject: Re: CL: Lib horus healers [was Re: CL: Ledgers and library chars]
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 22:09:18 -0400
From: "Worf / Mr. Nosuch"

Helpful GM wrote:

When a very-fallen person comes to town and 5 people say "let me go get my library horus healer" to raise them, it reduces the risk inherant in the game. Reward without risk is game destructive. I realize that you are all-for game-destructive things, so I'm not really talking to you, Outcast (and your friends) -- I'm mostly posting this for the benefit of the new people (there are several, and more every day! :) who may not quite grasp these rather subtle concepts.

Ok, here's some subtle concepts for you:

1. Seriously fallen people don't magically appear in town. Someone got them there, and probably at some risk to themselves, even if it's just the risk of breaking a chain. Factor THAT into the equation, please.

2. A /depart isn't that expensive, and that's really the alternative, so if you're looking at the "net gain", that's the baseline. It's a pretty damn small cost, which is one of the game design goals, if you recall. The game is SUPPOSED to not "punish" players, but reward them. How in the hell is "getting raised" now viewed as a REWARD?

3. The net difference in "risk" between "Let me get my library horus healer out (THAT I PAY $10 for)" and "Let's SS a few horus healers to come to town" is probably about 5 minutes of someone being fallen in town. Maybe 10 minutes at the outside. 10 minutes of player time is frequently a negligible cost to a given player. If it isn't, see #2.

4. Quickly raising a fallen is fun for those involved. Remember, the game isn't always about risk/reward (you're starting to sound like a rank whore when you fixate on this, you know), but about fun too.

Me thinks you have your head up your game-theoretical butt on this one. Especially when you consider that library characters, and library experience are not an exploit. They are a direct result of a game design decision.

Every time a player uses game mechanics to benefit in ways you don't like, you want to blame the players and not the game design. Well, as a GM I think it's disingenious to distance yourself from game design elements that produce results you aren't comfortable with.


Subject: Re: CL: unbalanced too-hard areas
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 21:52:39 -0400
From: "Worf / Mr. Nosuch"

Joe Williams wrote:

Let's redefine "balanced (area)" to mean "in the middle, risk/reward wise." The most popular areas will always be the least balanced to the friendly side.

There's a gaping hole in this definition.

It's like saying "My car is fast. It goes 100 miles."

100 miles? What? Don't you need to put a COMPARISON in there. Let's try this:

"My car is fast. It goes 100 miles AN HOUR."

Ahhhh. I get it. Now let's rephrase what Joe said:

"Let's redefine 'balanced' to mean 'in the middle, risk/reward wise FOR EXTREMELY STRONG PLAYERS OR GROUPS. WEAKER PLAYERS ARE FUCKED.'"

Ahhhh. I get it.

You can't balance an area in a vacuum. You have to balance it for a target group of players, and it's always been clear that each area has to be balanced for the worst case scenario, which is a group of very strong players assaulting it. So, for example, if the valley, when hunted by a bunch of 5th circle fighters and 4th circle healers yields too much benefit, it gets tweaked. It gets harder, and pays out less.

Never mind that weaker groups were hanging on for the lives in the same area. After the tweak, the same group gets totally hammered, and gets diddley-squat.

Now THAT'S balance.


Subject: Re: CL: belt cost [was Re: CL: Fighter Tests]
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 22:17:38 -0400
From: "Worf / Mr. Nosuch"

Helpful GM wrote:

That's the point: no one HAS to buy a belt. At least not until we introduce the bit about how your pants fall down and you trip over them if you're not wearing the proper-circle belt.

But that's not-even-close-to-soon!

Ok, I'll mention this for the zillionth time:

There should be a way for a player to tell what title and circle another player is. Since NPCs can tell, why can't we?

I know the /INFO thing is packed as it is, so how about:

/ASSESS

like

/ASSESS Worf

Lord Worf is a 3rd circle fighter.

/ASSESS NewbieGuy

NewbieGuy has no profession.

/ASSESS SomeHealer

Master NewHealer is 2nd circle healer.

Get it? Please please please? This is a huge oversight.

posted 4:36 PM | link |