Game Development Giant

EQ...

Jester recalled everything about this game in his mind.

To be honest, Jester didn’t know much about this famous 3DMMORPG game. Although he had played the game for a while when the national server was opened, he didn’t play it in depth. To say that this game was not good was because external conditions did not allow it at the time. No energy or time to do it.

However, this game plays a pivotal role in the entire history of MMORPG games.

Because without this game, there would be no subsequent WOW.

It was precisely because Blizzard's designers were addicted to playing EQ when passing time, and there were many things in it that did not satisfy them, that they came up with the idea of ​​​​why don't we make a better game.

Thus, the idea of ​​WOW was born.

The developer of this game is SOE, which is Sony Online Entertainment. According to the time point, this game should be more than half completed. In the second half of this year, a large-scale internal test should be conducted, and now Small-scale alpha testing should have been conducted several times.

To be honest, the current MMORPG market is not very big.

Just like in Jester's memory, when Blizzard recalled the early development of WOW, when Blizzard had a market outlook for this game, it felt that it would be successful if hundreds of thousands of people could play it.

The reason why Blizzard came up with this idea is that the number of people online at EA was only more than 200,000.

Moreover, this number of more than 200,000 is already the largest number in the world for similar games.

After reading this brief document about EQ and Sony Online Entertainment, Jester directly called his assistant and asked him to prepare detailed information about the game.

The efficiency of Mars Entertainment is very fast. In just half an hour after Jester's instructions were given, some information about EverQuest was delivered to his desk.

There is not much information.

After all, this is a game that's still in development and hasn't even started being promoted yet. Although the producer has no intention of keeping it secret, not much is known about it, but fortunately there are many people who are interested in this type of game, so. They have several fan sites, some of which have a lot of fans. Judging from the number of daily posts, there are probably thousands of active people every day.

In this day and age, that's not bad.

Jester quickly finished reading this information. Although it is just a few words, if you compare it with the EQ that you have played in your mind, you can actually simulate it roughly.

Then, Jester went to browse EQ’s fan site.

It can be seen that there are many players looking forward to this game, and judging from the news currently revealed by EQ, this is indeed a game worth looking forward to.

To be honest, although WOW is the final game in Jester's plan, he is happy to see the game EQ appear at the original point in time just like the original game in history.

Actually. WOW is a very subversive game.

He basically completely subverted the conventions of all previous MMORPGs. This subversion did not start with WOW, but with EQ. However, EQ did not subvert enough. In Jester's view, EQ It came out ahead of schedule, but it just served as a front for WOW and laid a player base for super large MMORPG games like WOW.

When EQ was first released, it didn't take long to reach a scale of 120,000 people online.

However, in 2004, when WOW was launched. Their number of active players does not exceed 500,000. From this, it can be seen that the game EQ actually has very big shortcomings and regrets. Otherwise, Blizzard's designers would not be able to have the idea that we can make a better game while playing this game.

After WOW came out, this game, which Blizzard planned to have just a few hundred thousand players, was enough for them to continue developing it, and it exceeded one million in just a few months. Two million, three million, and in less than a year there were five million paying players.

This number is staggering.

Of course, WOW was able to be a huge success from the beginning, except for Blizzard's desperate investment.

What's more, this game is innovative, outstanding and excellent in all aspects.

What exactly can an MMORPG do?

What are the limits of MMORPG games?

What does the perfect MMORPG look like?

The original version of WOW is enough to answer these questions. Although WOW is a game with a long time span, when Jester traveled through it, the vitality of this game was still strong, although it was already declining.

Blizzard has made several changes to this game over such a long period of time.

It is true that the number of players continues to grow over a period of time.

However, the cost is that many RPG elements that should be included in an RPG game are cut off, such as the most classic settings of feeding and training the hunter's pets, and the settings of the hunter's quiver. These are It would actually be a pity to cancel it.

This is also the biggest difference between WOW and other MMORPGs at the beginning. There are so many settings in it. Blizzard is making it as a real RPG game, without considering that it is an MMORPG. What we want to do is to make it easy for people who have never played this type of game to get started. They don't need to think about this problem and what they have to do.

Just make a great RPG game and add MMO elements to it.

But later WOW paid too much attention to the elements of MMO, but ignored what an RPG game should have.

Many players say that the original WOW is difficult, prisoners, and everything is slow-paced. To kill a BOSS, you have to hang a faucet and add a BUFF. However, it must be said that this is exactly what an RPG should have.

If the original WOW was Blizzard's efforts to build what a real magical world should be like, then the subsequent revision of WOW was Blizzard's effort to make WOW more and more like a game. Many people like it, few don't, it varies from person to person.

At least as far as Jester is concerned, he doesn't like this change.

Put the EQ thing aside. Jester called his assistant again and asked him to pay attention to EQ at all times. If there is any new news or progress on this game, he should be notified as soon as possible.

The development of Monster Hunter has ended, and the release date is not far away.

The pre-sale was also very successful.

At least judging from the number of pre-sales. This game is guaranteed to sell at least three million copies.

This makes the development team of Zheng Ge’s “Monster Hunter” full of energy.

Although they knew from the beginning that they would never have to worry about sales when developing games under Jester, but Monster Hunter is different. This is a niche ACT game, and his natural door This bar will definitely block many players who are interested in this game but are worried that they may not be able to adapt to the difficulty of this game.

Including Jester.

Fortunately, the enthusiasm of players on the pre-sale eliminated everyone’s doubts.

Now Jester's main focus is on the development of new motion sensing games, but Jester has actually completed the gameplay of Super Balotelli Galaxy. However, to create a level as classic as the original Super Horse Silver requires level designers to be extremely familiar with the sense of motion.

Therefore, the core team of more than 20 people selected by Jester now actually has a daily task of using motion-sensing equipment and understanding what a motion-sensing game should be like.

Only when these level designers are extremely familiar with the operation and performance methods of somatosensory can they start the development of the game.

If even the level designers know nothing about motion sensing, or even have few exposures to it, then it will naturally be impossible to develop a classic motion sensing game.

so. This period of time is relatively Jester's most leisurely time.

But the emergence of EQ made Jester feel that the development plan for WOW should be prepared in advance.

The temporary department that formed the setting team for Azeroth has now been disbanded, but in nearly a year, Azeroth has been fleshed out from scratch. Two entire continents, dozens of different areas, hundreds of different characters and their connections.

Jester felt that what he should do now could be pure text.

For example, task setting.

In an MMOTPG, task setting is a rather huge project. For a game like WOW, there are thousands of different tasks, and the texts involved may weigh millions.

This all takes a lot of time to complete.

Therefore, these non-technical things can be done in advance.

Moreover, for the game EQ, Jester also plans to let his subordinates experience it personally.

After all, only with full interest and passion for this type of game can we make better games. What Blizzard originally wanted to make was an MMORPG that surpassed EQ, and then they made WOW. If their team continues If you don’t know anything about a specific goal, then you can’t talk about developing a game.

In fact, Jester already has a rough idea of ​​who will be the WOW development team.

He took out a list from one of his folders. There were not many names on the list, but they were definitely the elites of Mars Entertainment. They could all be said to be absolute leaders in their respective development teams. Core member.

Moreover, another thing these people have in common is that they are fans of RPG games, but they are not die-hard fans of American PRPGs.

Jester asked his assistant to notify the people on this list to the conference room No. 3. After a while, he would personally give these people a new instruction about his mysterious new game.

Jester's mysterious new game can now be said to be the top secret of the entire Mars Entertainment.

It is said that no one in the entire company except Jester knows what this game is like, because Jester has never revealed anything about this game to the outside world. This time Jester’s assistant heard He went to his boss and asked some people to go to conference room No. 3. His boss wanted to discuss with them about the mysterious new game.

Jester's assistant was also very excited.

Although according to his status, he is not qualified to attend, but just knowing that this mysterious game will be officially developed is exciting enough.

More than 20 people on Jester's list came to the conference room three one after another.

This conference room is not commonly used. It is only used here when some relatively high-density research and development meetings are held.

The youngest of these twenty people have been in Mars Entertainment for at least three years, so they don’t know anything about this conference room. Several of them have even been to this conference. The experience of participating in the most confidential game development plan in the company.

Therefore, when these people entered this conference room, they looked quite excited.

Although when they were notified, they were not told what they were brought here for.

But being in this conference room means that they will definitely be sent to participate in a very confidential development project.

Moreover, these people are all elite members of different development groups in the company. They are also familiar with each other and have even cooperated with each other. Seeing these old friends gathered together, they immediately realized that they were going to Those who participate will definitely not be a casual project, but the entire company has the qualifications to bring all of them together to participate in the development of a project.

The answer is ready to come out.

Jester’s mysterious new game! Although they all had guesses in their minds, everyone's face was serious, and they all remained silent while waiting for the person who asked them to come here in the conference room.

This is actually relatively rare when game designers hold meetings.

Usually at this time, they will have a heated discussion. Even if they are just discussing game design, they will also discuss issues such as how a certain game should receive the highest rating.

Just as more than 20 people had been waiting quietly without saying a word for about 20 minutes, the door to the originally closed meeting was pushed open.

A familiar figure walked in.

It was Jester. (~^~)