Sorry, Jeff — MTV gave me your line
An interview with MTV News just went up, mostly about the overall landscape of MMORPGs and how they have and haven’t changed since the MUD days.
When doing the interview, Stephen Totilo said to me that an Austin designer had told him that I measured MMOs based on “time to penis.” I told him, “I think I’ve heard that, but I don’t think I said it. But it’s a good metric!”
Now, of course, we know the term is properly called “time to cock” and it can be credited to the fertile (er, sorry, must pun) mind of Jeff Freeman (whose recent post about thermostats interfaces is a must read for game designers. No, really. Ponder it next time you look at your character sheet).
In any case, some stuff I said in the MTV interview:
“I think we often don’t make the games as good as they should be. I think if you played most of the MMO games and you played them as single-player games, we’d grow bored of them really, really quickly.”
What makes the MMOs enjoyable, he says, is visiting these worlds with friends. But are they really fun because they’re great games? “I think because they are such cool places and so full of cool possibility … it props up the games to some often large degree.”
11 Responses to “Sorry, Jeff — MTV gave me your line”
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an awful time playing it. I like, you know, actually doing things and the social aspect of these sorts of games is usually what drags them down for me – I like a light dusting of multiplayer on my hack n’ slash, basically. And, of course, in MMOs the social game is about all they have going for them. But it’s an interesting move and one, I hope, that will lead to good things for an innovative and captivating game. I mentioned the fascist (like fastballs) Strunk and White the other day so let me just pass
I’ve said much the same to friends, guildies, and on community boards when people are in an uproar over one thing or another.
They AREN’T great action games, or RPGs- Morrowind/Oblivion, NWN, etc are much better games- They are beat hands down by other FPS/TPS, especially considering the pvp aspects. Crafting and economy sub games are nothing compared to any strategy/god game thats ever come out.
It’s the community you play with, and the interactions that result, that
make mmo’s what they are.
Now, if only we could get any mmo that would come CLOSE to any major single player title in terms of gameplay, and add multiplayer to that arena, imagine the possibilities!
A number of years ago (maybe 7?) at the australian GDC, one of the modelling tool companies (softimage? Autodesk?) had a booth. In that booth, they thought it might be fun to lay out a bunch of modelling clay for artists to have their way with.
Oh, and did they ever.
What resulted was the most high-quality, superbly crafted set of genitalia and pornographic sculpture that you’d ever seen. From fully detailed life-size vaginas (complete with individual strands of play-doh hair!) to detailed scrotii, to Gumbi and Fred Flintstone performing unspeakable acts.
Anyhow, I guess I’m just saying the creators share something with the audience.
I guess it’s just human nature to pay homage to the genitals. (There’s a good Richard-Dreyfus-in-Close-Encounters spoof to be done here!)
/blink
Yeah, not the wording I would have chosen. 🙂 I think he meant “although not the most successful” or something!
I thoght it was clear, but the reader’s usually right, no?
I ran it by my copy editor and we changed it to “creative director of 2003’s ‘Star Wars Galaxies,’ one of the most ambitious and high-profile MMOs — although not the most successful — of the last several years.”
Consider the story patched.
Well,heck, if you’re editing it — there was a misspelling of my name too. 😉
I remember a discussion a while ago where the phrase “Mean Time to Cock” was used (as a measure of how accessible creation tools were for users, and therefore, how quickly—on average—a giant penis would get created with them)
I wish I could remember where the conversation was. I’ve searched for it before without success.
[…] hehe looks like i'm the reason this got changed …https://www.raphkoster.com/2007/01/09/sorry…-line/#commentsMnemon:And creative director of 2003�s “Star Wars Galaxies,” one of the most ambitious and high-profile MMOs – if not the most successful – of the last several years./blinkRaph:Yeah, not the wording I would have chosen. I think he meant “although not the most successful” or something! Stephen Totilo (author of the article):I thoght it was clear, but the reader�s usually right, no?I ran it by my copy editor and we changed it to “creative director of 2003�s �Star Wars Galaxies,� one of the most ambitious and high-profile MMOs � although not the most successful � of the last several years.”Consider the story patched. ——————– […]
I don’t know if I’d want my MMO to have single-player gameplay. If it’s too compelling, I won’t want to share it with other people. I think spreading it a little thin is desirable, if only to (god I hate to admit it) encourage socialization.
[…] Sand – Cock variant: The MMO permits players to introduce novel content, for example, flying penises. […]