From the Mailbag: Afghanistan and elsewhere

I have literally hundreds of mails backed up from the Mailbag. There’s no way I will get to all of them. So here’s just a few recent ones, and maybe I’ll try doing another post soon. Or maybe I should do this weekly, or something.

Mr Koster. Let me first start off by saying I have been following you since you worked for Origin, and I am a big fan of your work. I have several questions I would like to get into. I am currently stationed in Afghanistan, and I have some free time on my hand, It has always been a personal goal to work for a company like EA, or Sony. Or Just a company who is involved with MMORPG’s I would like to also design a small game myself, Do you have any suggestions on where to start. Thank you for your time Alan SPC US Army Salerno Afghanistan

Well, really, in order to start designing games, I suggest you jump in and start designing games. 🙂 If you don’t know how to program, I would suggest learning at least the basics. Pick up a language that has a relatively easy on-ramp: Flash, BlitzMax, DarkBasic, something like that. Then start messing around. Keep in mind that it’s really rare for a developer and especially a designer to be hired into a development role without having something to show.

I also suggest practicing on board games. They can be amazingly instructive in learning game design, and in your situation, might be a bit easier to manage. I’ve blogged before about my game design kit; not like there’s Michael’s craft stores in Afghanistan, of course. But you can and should substitute local materials. I bet that there’s a bunch of Army buddies who would be happy to playtest for you in the evenings.

Also, I bet there are many interesting games played locally there. It might take some digging, but you might want to ask around and see if there are traditional or locally invented games that you’re unfamiliar with. Getting exposed to and thinking about game design this way could be really valuable too.

As far as getting a job at EA or Sony or elsewhere… probably the easiest avenue in is as a game tester or in customer service, but it’s a scutwork job with a high stress factor, and most folks do not make out of that position into a role that is more directly involved with making games. You’ll also need to be local to the studio you want to join, because those low-level positions generally do not include relocation money.

Be careful out there in Afghanistan.

Thank you for your story, “A Story About A Tree”. I read it and then stayed up until almost 4am thinking about how communication and communities have changed. I ended up writing this. Thanks again for the inspiration, Dave

Be sure to read “Who Killed Miss Norway?” by Tracy Spaight as well! And after reading that, read my final thoughts on the matter.

Raph, At the Korea Games Conference 2006, I attended a session presented by Dr. Lars Buttler, formerly of EA. He and Jon Van Caneghem founded a new company (in stealth-mode he said) called Trion World Network, Inc. Dr. Buttler said they have recruited several industry veterans from many companies (Jay Lee being the only one he named). Given your contacts in the industry, I’m assuming you’re familiar with the company (I’m also assuming you aren’t affiliated with them).

Their goal is to revolutionize the game industry. They have developed a server architecture to take advantage of broadband. They envision games that combine multiple media streams into a single product, where the entire game lives on the server (i.e. no more client side collision detection or other “heavy client” techniques as they exist today). Clients will essentially become dumb renderers, so that it doesn’t matter which platform they run on or how the player gets them. Players will be able to compete across multiple platforms simultaneously.

Dr. Buttler listed several other benefits that could be enabled by broadband and 100% server side games, such as content that changes on a daily basis, easier integration of user-created content, a concept of “what’s on tonight” as it exists in television (tonight at 8 pm, orc armies are planning an invasion of the city), and more. The whole project sounds incredibly ambitious.

Dr. Buttler says they have been working on the platform for 18 months and will be prepared to announce their first title next year. They are looking for other developers to publish on their platform, but when I asked him he said that there is no SDK to license. They are also going to be very selective in who they bring aboard. They are essentially looking for WoW-killers is the impression I got. He kept stressing how their technology enables games with higher production values than WoW.

I’m curious if you’re aware of the company and what they are doing and, if so, how that fits your vision of gaming’s future. I’ve been following the progress of Project Darkstar (the Sun Game Server) since before they publicly announced last year. I thought that was a huge step forward, not only for the mainstream industry but also for the little guys like me. The team has let it be known that they want to make the platform available for indies with affordable licensing and, possibly, hosting. They already have demos that allow simultaneous clients on J2ME mobile phones and PCs. But TWN is in a different league entirely, not only in target developer market, but also in capabilities. So if you don’t mind posting your thoughts, I’d love to read them. Thanks for your time.

Well, I excerpted your whole email because I think most people haven’t actually heard of Trion and what they are doing, and it was probably a useful infodump for them. I know both JVC and Lars (not very well, in the latter’s case).

As far as my thoughts — there’s definitely a groundswell of products trying to make the massive development costs for AAA games go down. From Trion to Multiverse to Kaneva to Project Darkstar, Torque, Emergent, Hero’s Engine, and many others, there’s a host of products that range from ordinary middleware to innovative new approaches.

It’s hard to tell which approaches will work and make sense. Generally, each approach has targeted a different segment of the market. I don’t know enough about Trion’s method to know whether it will indeed make it easier to make AAA games like WoW, but I think that even if you made reaching WoW’s level of production values half the price, it’d still be out of the reach of all but the biggest publishers. In fact, even if you cut it by 90%, it’d be hard to reach for indie teams. I am unsure how you make games with higher production values than WoW — until it’s demonstrated what exactly that is, it’s hard to envision it. 🙂

Certainly having the entire game live on the server is not that radical a concept. As I have had occasion to mention lately and long ago, the default for virtual worlds, the “way they want to work,” really, is full streaming. I would be hesitant to say, though, that broadband alone can revolutionize the ways in which we develop content. Certainly it permits more dynamic content in some ways, but often that comes about simply because of streaming content that is always changing. We also shouldn’t forget (hard to, when you try going to a crowded area in Second Life!) that there are downsides to a totally dynamic environment as well: lots of latency and lots of packets coming down.

The other factor is that broadband doesn’t solve latency. It only helps. Depending on the game, you certainly can’t assume that the latency you are likely to pick up just from modems at each end won’t affect the user’s perceptions of something like collisions. Checking collisions solely on the server is what leads to rubberbanding. There is, of course, a sizable set of trick syou can use to help here, but none of them are really new (and in fact, some of them are actually patented, on the dead reckoning side).

So overall, I’m psyched for these guys, can’t wait to see what they do, somewhat ambivalent about huge claims, and unsure that any given individual project is really going to be a revolution; instead, I would expect it to be the whole ecosystem of projects that brings the future.

Hello Raph, This is an email that’s long over due. First I’d like to thank you for the 20 months that I spent in SWG. The time I was there was a lot of fun. And that’s about all I’m going to say about it. I have one simple honest question to ask you. When will you be making another game like SWG was? I think I’m going to quit playing MMOs all together until either a) some one figures it out, or b) I can figure out a way to do it myself. Currently, I’m in the middle of writing an essay entitled “Fundamental Concept and Design Flaws In Current MMOGs”. I’d be honored if you would like to take a look at it and see what you think before I publish it. I’m the founder of a large online multi-game Guild you are more than welcome to drop by and say hello anytime you like. Thank you for your time. -Steve Smith “Sonno”

Well, I have to admit that there are a lot of essays by players about the fundamental flaws in MMOGs. Heck, we just saw one published on Slate. So it’s not like I am rushing out there to read yet more… 😉 But that doesn’t mean you should quit writing them. Developers do read them from time to time.

When will I be making another game like SWG? Well, I think that I will definitely be making a “virtual worldy” sort of thing as part of what I am doing next. Whether it is like SWG in the particulars… I strongly suspect there will be some big differences. But I also expect that when I am ready to really get to work on it, I’ll be doing the same “open design to the community” thing that I have done int he past, so you’ll have plenty of chance to write essays to persuade me to do things differently. 🙂

Dear Raph, I’m writing to you as I greatly enjoyed your panel discussion that appeared in the Harper’s Magazine this summer. As a casual gamer with higher aspirations it struck a chord in me that game design can be both enlightening and educational. You probably get a lot of fan mail asking you questions related to how to break into the gaming industry and sadly this email will fall into that category. I’ve been a gamer since the days of Pong but it was always a hobby, something to do to pass the time. I went to art school at Parsons and got my BFA in photography and have for the past seven years worked for a very prestigious art gallery on 57th street. However fantasy and especially rpg games (NWN, WoW, Oblivion to name the most recent) have lately turned into more of an obsession and as I’ve gotten older I’ve decided that I would like to tentatively pursue a career in game design or production. I’m still young (only 31) and have plenty of time to relearn a new career except I have no idea where to start… Any advice, books, articles etc. that I should read or people to know about is greatly appreciated. I live in NYC and I’ve thought an internship at take2interactive or rockstar might be a good idea as I have a flexible schedule yet lack the required experience in the gaming industry needed for a full-time position. Nonetheless I’ve greatly enjoyed your work, keep it up! Best, Nathan Anderson

I think I need to generate a standard page on how to break in. 🙂 In the meantime, I suggest looking at the other Mailbag posts I have put up, because I think this question has come up in every single one. In addition, I think the quesiton of how to break in when you’re in your thirties came up previously as well. Good luck!

Hi Raph, I am trying to raise awareness about a new game development new site that I’ve just put online called http://devbump.com. What makes this site different is that it is run by users, not a select number of people. It follows the structure of the popular technology news site digg.com, where user submitted stories are voted upon by their peers. The stories with enough votes gets published on the front page. This enables everyone to share information and news from anywhere by anyone and leads to lots of interesting items that many people might have been exposed to in their usual circle of blogs/news sites. I have been trying to drive game developers to my site, which as a game development blogger you might know can be quite a task. If you have any spare time, I would indulge you to just take a glance at the site, and if you like it, perhaps even add it to your list of links on your blog. The traffic would be a godsend! Thank you for your time! David Marsh Senior Artist, Sandcastle Games http://marshmonkey.com http://devbump.com

I’ve checked it out a few times, actually. It’s pretty cool. I encourage everyone to use it! My blog posts need more bumps. 😉

Dear Raph, I just finished reading your book, and I am really in love with it. I have a feeling it’s going to be like “The Little Prince”; I go back to that book about once a year and learn something new everytime. I have this bi-weekly video podcast called GameJew. I seek to explore the video game industry and community from as many angles as possible. I do this dressed as GameJew, basically Mario without a shirt, as well as through songs (I’ve been working on a parrallel project writing 40 folk songs about the Wii) and puppets (Mario and Toad are my political commentators. They have a lot to say these days.) Rather than tell you any more about it, I’d love it if you watched a few episodes, and let me know what you think. Here are the latest two episodes, numbers 7 and 8: episode 7, 8 part one, 8 part two. I would be honored if, next time you’re in LA, you would grant me an interview. I’d love to talk more about your book, your ideas, and what you’re working on now. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your time, Jonathan Mann PS-Where can I hear some of your music? The CafePress store seems to be down.

I have to admit my first reaction upon heading the name of the show was “uhh…” But it’s pretty good, actually. The intro animations are damn weird. 🙂

The link for the music is working again. But you can also click on the Music blog category to get to lots of pieces I’ve posted on the blog in the last year.