01/25/13

Sad Days… Scott Hartsman Leaves Trion Worlds

I was surprised and dismayed reading Green Armadillo’s 2013 predictions post last night. It seems that Scott Hartsman has departed from Trion Worlds and the executive producer position on RIFT. This is probably the most dismaying news to come out about the game since the scaling back of zone invasions pre-launch. In a statement on the forums, he does his best to assure us that the game is safe:

The good news is that if you enjoy what’s been going on in RIFT lately, the folks who are now in charge are the same ones who have been making all of the game-impacting decisions, both to content and gameplay, for some time now. You’ll definitely be hearing from Bill Fisher, the lead game designer soon with some exciting updates. They love and play the game a lot as well and I feel strongly that RIFT couldn’t be in better hands.

Still, I find it saddening that Scott is taking his leave of the company and what’s become my favorite MMORPG. Under his leadership, the game was able to become what it is today: a thriving, vibrant world filled with competitive features, excellent PvE and PvP, and a content schedule that puts the rest of the industry to shame. His team challenged expectations by bringing factions together and breaking down barriers that keep friends apart. They introduced the world to the best housing system in any MMO, instanced or not. And for a first expansion, Storm Legion wasn’t just a big content drop, it was a redefining content drop. They included so much into that $40 box that it set a new precedent for what players should expect for their development dollars.

It was Scott who took the game from being an un-fun mass of dynamic systems into the refined, dynamically enhanced content that we have today. It was him who, anytime he was put in front of a microphone, camera, or keyboard that talked openly and frankly about his game and the industry. If there was a problem, he called it out and we could see his team’s reaction to that with his quotes still in memory. On that same token, if there was something players were responding positively to, he shared that too and wasn’t afraid to counter the negativity with facts. He was active, and involved, and made a point to keep in touch with the average player whether they had a blog or not. He surprised me once by commenting on this very site before pre-launch when I raised the question if rifts were PQs 2.0. I always got the sense that he was a down to earth guy that would look at and discuss MMOs like a seasoned player rather than a groomed-by-PR executive.

I worry about what this means for RIFT. Commenters at Massively pretty consistently feel that this probably heralds F2P. I would tend to agree. The layoffs following Storm Legion don’t just indicate the game may not have met expectations, but they go directly counter to statements Scott made about Trion directly avoiding that. When RIFT came out, layoffs didn’t follow because he, and presumably other higher ups, believed in keeping teams together and not fragmenting vision and ability for the bottom line. But that wasn’t the case recently and I wonder if the company going public doesn’t have a big role to play in that decision. And on that same token, the company being publicly, I believe, would have a lot to do with the game dropping its subscription fee. Free to play is where it’s at now and investors want return.

I hope that’s not the case. Out of all games, I truly hope RIFT avoids free-to-play. There are good arguments about making the game available to all players, and I can see that reasoning, but my question is simply this: If they go F2P, will they be able to maintain the update pace? Traditional cash shop models rely on whales to fund most of the game. Are they enough to keep the bi-monthly updates coming? Maybe they are. If they’re not, however, RIFT’s biggest claim to fame, that rapid iteration and constant expansion, will fall by the wayside. I worry that even a buy to play model might not be able to support it because, heck, even when every game had a sub cost, that rate of expansion was unprecedented. If the game comes out free and they keep it up, I will be the first to pat them on the back. RIFT is truly and excellent game and has earned ever penny of profit its made. I wish them the absolute best no matter what path the future leads them down.

Either way, the team Scott crafted and supported with RIFT is made up of some of the best in the industry. I have faith that whether they keep the sub, drop it, or anything in between, that will do so with the same impeccable quality we’ve come to expect. Scott was a head man, but now it’s up to his successor and the remaining team members to show the world that they’re still there ready to knock it out of the park. The few that I’ve met and interviewed have always been masters of their craft and I have a lot of faith in them to do great things.

Also, Trion as a whole is publishing ArcheAge and that’s pretty awesome. So bonus points for the larger entity.

One thing is for sure, wherever Scott goes next, I will surely be keeping a close eye. Everquest Next, maybe? (Please?) For myself, and I’m sure many others, I’d like to extend my thanks for how he piloted the ship and spoke to those of us on the shoreline. It was nice to be treated like real people instead of cattle to be driven by the PR-prod. Good luck, Scott!

03/24/11

The Multiverse – Season 02 Episode 02 – I Got the Chicken PAX!

Hi Guys,

Season 2, episode 2! This week Adam and I are joined by Jeremy of the MMO Voices podcast and one of my partner’s in crime over at Rift Watchers. We have some great conversation on PAX re: MMOs here and more, including:

The MMO “big wig” panel, featuring just about every studio head you can imagine
Bioware condescending to the other devs? “Not everyone has $300 million to make a game”
The Trion party — I was sad to have missed this
TOR – developers on one-year contracts?
Chris gets prank called by Scott Hartsman

Plus:

Enjoy!

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12/22/10

Rift: Looking to the Future After Beta 2

The second beta event for Rift is finished and lots was learned from it. I was lucky enough to take part and, well, I’m excited for the NDA to drop. By the way, I checked and since Trion was asking people to status-update their being in-game, I think it’s okay to say that much (I haven’t actually seen anything to the contrary, source me if you have it).

Surprisingly, I missed out on one of the big events that Scott Hartsman details in his wrap-up post. The event is a story chunk from Prince Hylas Aelfwar, and the Battle for Silverwood. In effect, lots of rifts and invasions occurred, and over 500 people crammed into one small region to fight them back. As Scott mentions, all this in a modern day, graphically intense, MMORPG and the servers didn’t crash. And Blizzard said it was “impossible.” Mmm-hmm.

An outline of the rifts/invasions from the Beta 2 event

I find this most interesting because it presents new opportunities for the rift system I’d never even thought of before. I knew they could spawn them on cue and had plans for bigger and better things, but aiding narration wasn’t something I’d thought of. Now, I’ll be interested to see how this plays out in practice – I don’t see GMs randomly running these events all that often – but it could certainly mean neat, unexpected, and unquestionably epic encounters in our future.

Another point I thought was worth mentioning is that, even though the event was made for levels 8-20, it featured full-on raid rifts. That all but confirms that there will possibilities for raid content below the level cap. As someone who doesn’t like the “the real game begins at level cap” philosophy, that prospect is very alluring. What’s more satisfying that leveling up in a raid?

Overall, I’m very happy with everything in Scott’s note. This sounds like another bang-up job by Trion and it leaves me all the more excited for the final game.

On a couple unrelated notes from the last couple episodes of The Rift podcast, I’d just like to point out a couple of lines that stood out to me:

Scott mentioning that the patch notes from Beta 1 to Beta 2 are over 8000 words. Tell me again how this is “just a promotional beta?”
Adam mentioning that “in a few months when we’re released or on Beta 7.” Speculate as you will but it perked my ears up.

Can we also give it up to the ladies who run that podcast? They do a wonderful job of supporting the community and giving us the information we want to hear. As a podcaster myself, I know doing a weekly show requires a lot of planning and – gah! – editing. So, keep it up, Ari and Desi!

12/3/10

The Beta Philosophy Behind Rift

As my interest in Rift has been growing, I’ve become much more curious on the creative minds behind Rift. Even if you don’t buy the concept (and why wouldn’t you?), you have to appreciate the sheer amount of experience this team brings to the table. So, last night I Googled Scott Hartsman Studio GM and CCO of Trion Worlds. I found his personal blog, which is a good read by itself, but, given our current HOURS away from Rift’s first big beta event, I found this article most interesting: MMO Betas: Tying Budgets to Beta Size to Production to Fun. In it, he touches on many aspects of the beta scene as we know it (marketing push), how it got there, and what we might glean from how a company pulls it off.

One of the more interesting points is that Scott clearly ties the size of a beta to the developer’s confidence in their product. In effect, if there’s no big beta, there’s something to be worried about. It’s also interesting to note that, while many of us consider betas a “free preview,” that developers hope to capitalize on the player’s desire to feel like they’re cheating when the game goes live. Now, that may sound bad within the context of this paragraph, but what Scott is getting at is that player’s enjoy feeling like they have an edge on the game. It assumes that players have moved beyond the purchase-preview stages of beta testing and into the content-peek; that the beta is about getting an edge on the content, rather than the other player, if you will.

He also goes on to discuss why some betas are plain out un-fun. He quotes a colleague (link now defunct) that sums it up pretty nicely.

“By the time that beta comes around the meat and potatoes of the game hasn’t had enough time to marinate in the juices of fun, but the stock took so long to cool that you can’t throw it away. (Man, do I love metaphors)”

He’s talking about the length and process through which modern MMOs are made and it’s an insight I hadn’t really heard before. As he describes it, oftentimes the tech behind a game is built up so far in advance that by the time it’s time to fun-test, much of it is too far gone to change; systems are tied together, dependencies have formed, and, looming over it all is the impending launch date, preventing devs from giving overhauls the consideration they truly deserve.

What does all of this mean for Rift? Good things, I hope.

First, I think we can glean that Trion is pretty confident in their product. Their beta page has three big events listed spanning a total of 20 levels each. This weekend is the first and they’ve visibly ramped up marketing leading up to it. While the others are not dated, nor elaborated on in terms of length, I think it’s safe to say that this is a “big beta” as Scott describes it. Thousands of VIP keys have been given out this last week alone and, if past is any precedent, thousands more will be given out before they’re done. The combined manpower being put into the beta will surely combine into the dozens of years and, if that’s not big, I don’t know what is.

I am a little concerned about crafting and some of the other small fluff features, however, as very little has been said about them to date. They’ve touched on some winning points, though, even if they’re small. Non-combat souls, crafting it’s own level path, collections? Yes, please.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is that this article is a good indicator that they’ve dodged some of the pitfalls common to past development. If we look at the date it was published, April 2009, it’s a safe bet that Scott and Trion were already deep in development, probably nearing a state close to what testers will get this weekend. As a rule, people don’t call out a problem that they’re guilty of themselves. So, looking back through the promotional videos and interview texts, when Trion says they’ve developed a scalable system, one that’s built with the future in mind, I believe them.

All told, the article is a great read and definitely worth checking out. There are lots of others up there and, like other MMO dev blogs, it offers some insight you’ve probably not seen elsewhere. Check it out.