Massively^™

Yesterday was the final day of ION 08, but that didn't mean there weren't some incredbly great panels to attend. "Taking Your Community From Pre-Launch to Live" was just one of these panels and to make things even better it included some previous speakers I quite enjoyed hearing from.

This time around the moderator was Steve Danuser (38 Studios) while Craig Dalrymple (Sony Online Entertainment) took a panelist seat along with Katie Postma (Firesky), Meghan Rodberg (Turbine) and Victor Wachter (Cryptic Studios). It's important to point out that all the panelist are in fact community managers, as opposed to Steve Danuser who is the lead content designer and director of community development for his company. However, Danuser was previously a community manager for EverQuest II.

Onto everyones favorite topic: "Fuckwads!" They're usually absolutely negative, but can they be converted?

Katie says, "You can convert them!" She's rather optimistic as her URU Live experiences have taught her that anyone genuinely interested in a game can be turned to the light side. Apparently back in Katie's URU Live days there were three guys who "vehemently" disagreed with each other, but did agree that the game was broken. These three guys had an incredibly impressive discussion in a thread, so Katie invited them all into a chat room one day. She told them how impressed she was with their ability to articulate their complaints and issues. So she asked, "Do you want to be moderators?" and they agreed! In the end these three players ended up being huge advocates of URU Live. Two of them even did some tech support for the game.

Identifying what a person is trying to accomplish through their behavior is also key, says Victor. Some of these people are just trying to get some attention unfortunately. Time can be wasted on the wrong people, so being able to locate and invest in people who can be brought over from the completely negative is an important skill.

Meghan brings up the ones who are hopeless. There was a poster in the Lord of the Rings Online forums (a LotRO Scholar) who took great pleasure in beating people with his intellectual epee. This person eventually had to be banned, but since he'd developed a niche group around him he did take some people with him. However, it truly was the best choice for the community.

If they're not a true "fuckwad" who's just trying to beat people with their intellectual epee then give them an NDA and beta access, says Craig. Letting them see the game -- and try the game -- for itself can alleviate many fears.

How do you balance the smaller fansites with the big PR-fueled media outlets?

"It's hard." laments Katie. Meghan chimes in with agreement, "I love the grass roots." she continues, "they're the people supporting you for basically nothing." They do it purely out of love and passion. "You can't not appreciate that." admits a solemn Meghan. Still, the truth is that developers need marketing and PR. "Sometimes you want to give the smaller sites screenshots, but you just don't have them." It's a tough place to be.

Something that Craig points out is that simply showing up letting small sites know that, "Hey, you guys rock!" is all the validation most of them need. It's easy and very important.

Katie mentions that she filters the smaller sites through her by taking their questions and answering some of them to the best of her ability. Then, she takes these answers to the PR folks, who of course just have to improve them (can you see the high-level trickery here?) before giving them back to her. This is a great way to reward the smaller sites.

Someone in the audience suggests that big sites have passionate writers who are hired for that very fact. "Big sites aren't all completely soulless." remarks Steve.

A trick that Craig makes use of is quietly suggesting to smaller websites to pay attention to news feeds over the next hour or so. This way the big sites still get that sexy press release while the small sites are able to talk in-depth about it right away. Katie brings up the problem of there being so many smaller fansites that tipping even several can make others feel like there is preferential treatment going on. She did however invite a local fansite to attend office events, purely because said fansite was nearby.

Steve asks about hanging the big carrot stick in front of players so they'll be good in order to earn a early beta slot. He asks if the panelists have been any good or bad uses.

Immediately Craig chimes in with, "Such as using a website where you have to play for membership to download the beta?" A square upper-cut to the jaw if I've ever seen one.

Another thing to keep in mind is that giving beta keys to smaller sites so they can give them away in contests is tricky. The contest has to be incredibly fair and nigh un-cheatable. Also, it's important not to announce the names of the winners in beta slot contests, because while that may sound cool it's only really announcing the 999,999 other people that they lost.

Of course the risk of letting influential individuals from the community into the game early on is "unexpected results". There's a lot of excitement about a game between the moment it's announced and the day it launches. Many players can't touch or feel the game out for themselves, so there's a risk of players building up a game in the mind that's completely different from the actual title.

Craig says that it's also important to clarify what's really going into a game with the game's lead. Otherwise you'll end up over-promising, which is of course very bad. "Yes you're going to have unicorns that poop Pegasuses!" exclaims Craig. He something else well-worth remembering, saying "Once you say it, that's it. It's for real now. Somebody from the company said it and that's it."

Next is the topic of dropped features which have been previously promised.

We don't talk about something publicly until we see it, says Meghan. Most of the panelists have learned this lesson in the most bitter of ways as all heads are nodding in agreement. "Don't talk about it until you see it." goes the mantra.

Katie says to be honest and genuine, admit that you were told to say it and so you said it, then apologize. Craig chimes in to say clear communication is incredibly important in all things. "It almost never happens, but there are times when you are told to go and say something by someone in the company." Craig reveals a bit surprisingly, to me at least. "I don't say this very often," begins Victor, "Part of our job is to advocate for the customer." A community manager sometimes needs to remind upper management that their reputation with the community literally relies on what they say. Craig also recommends trying not to say something that was dropped will be in a patch or expansion unless a lead developer commits to it.

"I like getting paid, so at the end of the day I'm going to do my job." notes Craig. It's best not to lose your job over it. Hopefully -- if you're lucky -- the company you work for respects the role that a community manager plays in the success of the game.

Meghan brings up the fact that it's a good idea to slowly break the news to the community when you do make the post. Make it an open discussion and lead up the breaking the bad news slowly.

"Hey, we cut that feature!" yells Craig while giving two thumbs up.

In all seriousness, a community manager has to speak to the large audience first. If there happens to be small pocket of players that are complaining loudly it's ideal to attack it and find out their issues. However, the general audience does come first. Meghan adds, "Just making sure that players know you're working on it helps."

Another fun story from Katie, this time about a player they recently let into the "Friends and Family Alpha" for Stargate Worlds. This player literally could not get into the game. They ended up getting in touch with a developer through an instant messenger and figured out what the issue was together. Bringing the right players intimately close with developers and making them a part of problem solving is a huge part of the overall success equation.

How do you handle negative buzz coming out even with an NDA in place?

Even with an NDA there will be a point when information gets leaked out. Victor suggests taking as much control of the situations as can be taken and to look for the right people to help you spread your message. Allowing people from the community to write up a personal blog post and then send it through PR to "OK" it is smart. Combat fire with fire, essentially.

Katie laments that, "There is always a vocal minority."

"SOE has a crack team of ninjas." Craig says in response to the NDA question.

"Your team is on crack?" queries Katie.

"Yes." says Craig with a great deadpan voice. Or maybe he's not kidding. Who can tell with Grimwell?

What we do know -- or Craig knows, at least -- is that when NDA discussions are leaking out into the Internet it's a sign that these people didn't have a provided place to vent these problems. Without any place else to go they simply post out on their own blogs or forums.

How do you deal with a buildup of negative-focused communities?

"Send them lots of cupcakes." Advises Craig, most wisely. (We finally know the secret to getting SOE to send us lots of cupcakes!) The truth is that these players -- or groups of players -- aren't really interested in your game, they're just interested in being a part of the hate club. It's fun for them to be hateful and spiteful. They simply don't want to do anything else but be angry.

The panel finished with lots and lots of different topics being covered, all of which continued to show me why these people are so important to the successful launch of an MMORPG. Every one of these community managers seem incredibly good natured. That's saying a lot when you consider that this is a group of people who constantly sit between the ire of fans and the supposed apathy of a developer. It's a tough job, but somebody has to constantly remind us that we're all just passionate people who all love online games.

One of the strengths of MMOs are their communities. The stronger a community around an MMO is the more likely that game is to last into the foreseeable future. "Successfully Managing a Community Emergency" was a panel at ION 08 full of the people in charge of the communities we all take part in. Fittingly enough all of these men and women have their own friendships based on their shared experiences as well, which makes for a kind of interesting mirror effect. It was like watching the same group of people who post on these forums talk about them -- except with a bit more maturity than you'd expect. Though don't get me wrong, there was a lot of goofing about as they tackled different forum emergencies.

The panel consisted of Katie Postma (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/Stargate Worlds), Victor Wachter (Cryptic Studios/Champions Online), Alan Crosby (Sony Online Entertainment), Meghan Rodberg (Turbine/Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online) and was moderated by Craig Dalrymple (Sony Online Entertainment/EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Free Realms).

This week's installment of Cryptic's ongoing "Meet the Team" is all about Michael McCarry and his role as a programmer on the team. He spends most of his work time on the powers and advancement system in Champions Online. It's worth noting that Michael is also one of the only two Canadians currently on the team -- a fact that he's quite proud of. We have to mention that his gaze makes us wonder if he's got some kind of evil plot for those of us planning on eventually leveling up our heroes.

Michael cites Champions Online's combat system as the feature he's personally most excited about. What's interesting about that is his current game obsession happens to be Age of Conan. While it probably doesn't mean much for the game he's working on, it does go to show that people at Cryptic are paying attention to similar games -- if only because they look pretty fun in their own right.

Get your decoder rings out kids. It's time for a super-special secret broadcast for this recent Champions Online Q&A, brought to you by Ovaltine! Well no that's not true. Actually, this particular decoding article is brought to you by the guys over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun and it isn't trying to sell you more Ovaltine. What the article is trying to do is explain some of the answers in the recently published community Q&A all about Champions Online.

Most of the commentary covers the powers customization answers and rightfully so, as they're a bit daunting for people that haven't experienced a point-based table top RPG before. So if you're not experienced with the pen and paper version of Champions or un-familiar with pen and paper RPGs completely, then we highly recommend reading it. As they saying goes: There's gold in them there hills, or possibly some kind of super gamma-exposed uranium that could give you laser nostrils able to cut through anything at the smallest of sneezes.

You probably already know that Cryptic Studios plans on coming to Gencon Indy and PAX this year. What you may not know is that Cryptic would like you all to tell them what you want to see. What team members do you want to meet? What panels do you want them to attend and discuss? All of your questions can be asked in the discussion thread.

Our personal suggestion is definitely related to PAX, where we'd love to see Jack Emmert, Randy Mosiondz and John Layman. Last year at PAX there was a very interesting "Future of MMOs" panel that we would love to see get some Cryptic input. Although truthfully we just want to find a bunch of you guys and chat about all things superheroes, MMOs and pen and paper RPGs. Oh and of course if we could get some crazy demoing of Champions Online, that'd be super awesome too. It's probably asking a bit too much, but it's nice to dream isn't it?

'Whoosh. There goes another one. Up, up and away. Enjoy your shiny new jet pack while it lasts, kid. Wish I'd had one at level 5, back at the start of City of Heroes.

'But I didn't. Nobody did. In my day we had to run. You wanted to stay out of trouble, you kept to the white line down the middle of the road. You wanted to fly fast, you had to wait till level 14. You wanted a real challenge, you went swimming with the Hydra. They was worth something back then.

'And let me tell you another thing...'

The newest edition of Ask Cryptic, on the official Champions Online site, delves into the customization options we'll have in the upcoming superhero MMO. Arkayne and Sporkfire combine powers to answer questions asked by fans in the forums. Probably most interesting is the clarification that archetypes only provide a 'framework' for a character's powers; they don't restrict them. That is, a "Brick"-type character (the party's tank) will get bonuses when using defensive powers. By the same token, though, they can still use energy projection or martial arts-type powers. They just won't be as effective with the Brick as when used by a Martial Artist.

Other questions delve into the role of min/maxing in Champions, using advantages and limitations. They also discuss the options we'll have to make inhuman characters in the character creator, and what kind of website features the game will ship with. That last sounds very promising, as they're looking at everything from social networking elements to character pages to see what will best fit the game.

It's that time of the week again, where we get to meet another team member working on Champions Online. This week the spotlight shines on Nellie Hughes, content designer -- which if you're keeping track, means she works with that wily Mr. Zeke Sparkes. Which gives us even more reason to believe that she's got a very cool job.

All of the Champions Online-related and otherwise questions put to Nellie are quite entertaining, especially when talking about her Weird Al Yankovic performance during her elementary school years. That's simply the kind of thing that takes a lot of courage to pull off. We'd say it's similar to the kind of courage it takes when creating MMOs for rabid comic book fans.

Wrist-mounted machine guns are incredibly useful when you're inside warehouses of undisclosed location. However, we're of the opinion that fully-automatic guns mounted on your wrists would be incredibly useful -- if not extremely fun -- in just about any situation. Well, all right, maybe not in a room full of kittens; unless they were lolkittens.

The picture you see above is just one of three new Champions Online screenshots and features the much-fantasized machine-gun-on-wrist. Check out the rest in our gallery, featuring all the other in-game shots released thus far.

The guys over at 1up.com have a great two page preview/interview covering Champions Online. The preview itself covers quite a bit, including Cryptic's time with the Marvel MMO, customization in Champions Online, combat, the Xbox 360 version and of course some hints at what we may see for villains. Overall the preview expands on a lot of these subjects, with quotes for Jack Emmert giving away a detail or two here and there.

The big tease about the villains has really piqued our curiosity, as Emmert says, "But it's something we're thinking about in Champions: Is the gameplay experience the same for a hero and a villain? But that's part of our top-secret plan we're not talking about."

A lot of people on the official forums have been clamoring for some kind of villain gameplay and Cryptic has previously shown they pay attention to the community. We would love to see the villain side play dramatically different from the hero side of Champions Online. The big question left to Cryptic is exactly how villains will be a different experience from heroes?

Following up on a piece earlier in the month on "Breaking the Wall" and getting into game design, Champions Online developer 'Heretic' has posted part two of this series, which looks "Beyond the Wall" -- once you've broken into the field, what next? The article chops the game designing process into four steps: vision, design, implementation and iteration.

The vision is the first step in game design, and involves determining the basic principles of the game -- from things like the genre, to what will make it different to other games, and various rules that the game will be designed around -- but none of this should touch on how the principles will actually work.

It's no lie, Cryptic will be at GenCon Indy from August 14th through the 17th and then not more than a couple weeks later, they'll be at the Penny Arcade Expo from August 29th until the 31st. A more important piece of news is that they plan on bringing all sorts of prizes, demos and games along with them. Sounds like we'll get a chance to score a ton of Cryptic-related real-world loot.

Don't worry if these events aren't ones you attend, as Cryptic is quick to point out that they will be announcing other appearances.

Of all the team members we've met that are working on Champions Online, Zeke Sparkes is possibly the most important yet. That's not to say that the previous team members haven't been anything but incredibly important. You see, Zeke is the guy in charge of designing, creating and testing the "meat n' bones" of Champions Online. The shape, color palette, mob layouts and generally everything you interact with in both persistent and instanced areas are all streaming from this man's brain.

He is -- in a sense -- the Game Master of all our future excursions into the yet-to-be world of Champions Online.

It wasn't very long ago that there were only two Champions Online wallpapers to plaster across our pixel-powered screens. Now Cryptic has been kind enough to add Menton and Ironclad to their desktop background selections, bringing the total to four wallpapers. We hope this becomes a regular thing as they reveal more NPCs, as we're very certain that some of the coolest characters are still beyond the lore horizon.

Thankfully, Cryptic has seen fit to make their wallpapers fit widescreen monitors as well. Which is something we -- and apparently a lot of you -- asked for the last time Cryptic was nice enough to offer us these things in the first place -- so thank you Cryptic. Now would you kindly keep working on bringing our utmost superhero fantasies to life? Thanks, we owe ya one.