If you haven't already, watch this.

[KrakkenSmacken]

From the guy who has been designing Magic the Gathering for 20 years, 20 lessons on game design.

 

Probably the best talk I have ever heard on the topic, and I have heard plenty over the years.  Well worth the hour.

 

 

 

1. Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
2. Aesthetics matter
3. Resonance is important
4. Make use of piggybacking
5. Don't confuse "interesting" with "fun"
6. Understand what emotion your game is trying to evoke
7. Allow the players the ability to make the game personal
8. The details are where the players fall in love with your game
9. Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
10. Leave room for the player to explore
11. If everyone likes your game but no one loves it, it will fail
12. Don't design to prove you can do something
13. Make the fun part also the correct strategy to win
14. Don't be afraid to be blunt
15. Design the component for its intended audience
16. Be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them
17. You don't have to change much to change everything
18. Restrictions breed creativity
19. Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
20. All the lessons connect

 

 

I highlighted  the 4 lessons I think affect the current game the most.

 

1.) 

As the recent event showed, the developers thought players would take a certain action (hunt players with treasure) because that was fun, but in reality it turned out drastically differently due to the nature of people.

 

11.)

I really like this game, and some of the moments in combat are great, but I'm not sure I could point to anything I love.

 

16.)

There appears to be zero fear of boring players.  Obligating hours upon hours of empty ocean sailing to get to "end content", or almost any content, is one of the major complaints and something that should literally scare the developers.

 

19.)

Yup lots of us complain, and point out problems, but the odds of us giving you the solution to the problems, that's a real crap shoot.  So, I would say, if we say something is bothering us, listen to that, but all our advice, healthy grain of salt.

 

Except this post, you really really should watch the talk.

 

 

 

 

[jodgi]

Sure we can talk about this, but first:
 

11.)
I really like this game, and some of the moments in combat are great, but I'm not sure I could point to anything I love.

There are several ways of loving this game even for people with wildly different interests and tastes. Some people role-play and use the OW and even (boring) time spent hauling to let the suspension of disbelief happen. Some people are history buffs and this little game is the best representation there ever was. The winning the war guys can get together and plan conquest. There are even guys who love the economy bit, god save their souls!

 

The above doesn't mean much to me. I'm really a planes guy that has played WoT the last years due to pretty good PVP. I came here because someone over at tanks told me there was this upcoming sailing game that held promise to become a skill based PVP game. I love this game because the fighting mechanics really are world class, I would place NA among the two best fighting mechanics games I've ever seen. 

 

What the funk do you need to love a game?!

[KrakkenSmacken]

Sure we can talk about this, but first:

 

There are several ways of loving this game even for people with wildly different interests and tastes. Some people role-play and use the OW and even (boring) time spent hauling to let the suspension of disbelief happen. Some people are history buffs and this little game is the best representation there ever was. The winning the war guys can get together and plan conquest. There are even guys who love the economy bit, god save their souls!

 

The above doesn't mean much to me. I'm really a planes guy that has played WoT the last years due to pretty good PVP. I came here because someone over at tanks told me there was this upcoming sailing game that held promise to become a skill based PVP game. I love this game because the fighting mechanics really are world class, I would place NA among the two best fighting mechanics games I've ever seen. 

 

What the funk do you need to love a game?!

 

Great question.

 

More moments, or rather a higher frequency of moments.

 

I have had exactly 3 very memorable moments I loved in this game, after almost 800 hours of sailing.

 

Moment one, in a contested pre-port battle battle, I road the flag carriers SOL's bow with my merc.  I was too low to be shot at, and by my constant pressure on his hull I slowed him enough that he could not get away from the boarding parties.  If I had not done that he would have gotten away.

 

Moment two.  Me and a team mate got pulled into an instance with an overly confident frigate captain in our snows.  After a hard fight to get his sails low enough, I spent the next 35 minutes on bow chasers slowly de-crewing his ship.  My team mate was sinking and managed to get out of the fight before he went under.  Captured that frigate, and quite a few cuss words from our opponent.

 

Moment three.  With my clan mates we got tailed by a new player in a cutter, who was all piss and vinegar.  Well the poor bugger got pulled into a huge fight with us, right along side an enemy 3rd rate. Watching him do his best to stay afloat, his ridiculous little sail in among giants, was incredibly funny, and we all had a great laugh.

 

Great moments all, unfortunately at 1 every 250 hours it's pretty hard to say I "love" the game as it is.  I used to play LoL, (before I heard about sesame points), and I would get at least one hero moment, or great play almost every game (45 min max per game).  I have so many moments that made me feel as a game is supposed to make you feel, that they have all blended together into a general appreciation for the game.

 

I love what I imagine NA will eventually become, and that it is clear the developers are listening to our comments, so that's why I stick around. That and I have an incredibly high tolerance for grind. I was really hopping that the new RvR mechanics would create a sense of urgency between nations and drive more moments, but that does not appear to have happened. If things don't improve enough by the time CrowFall launches, I'll be directing my grind time in that direction.

 

It is not our job to "find" the fun, it is the developers job to put it front and center, and make it the main focus of the game.  Right now, and possibly forever, the main focus of the game seems to be, and the thing you spend the most time doing, is getting in a virtual boat, and scanning the horizon for something interesting.

 

I like doing that, but I certainly don't love doing that. 

 

I've also been playing hackmud, exercising,  or watching movies on my other monitor while I watch the water go by when the horizon is empty.

 

If you listen to only a few minutes of the presentation, listen from 34:00 - 36:00

Edited October 26, 2016 by KrakkenSmacken