Posts Tagged ‘tribunal’

MMO Design: What I Would Do If I Made an MMORPG

27 July 2012 | 7 Comments » | Mordil

Now, I don’t claim myself to be an expert on game design – and for that matter, no one should. However, I have been reviewing and analyzing MMOs with Lore Hound for the last two years, have taken some game design classes, designed my own games, and given the fact Sephalon and I are essentially designing an MMO for Amalos,  I have a bit more insight than usual.

I’ve gone over and over in my head this past month all the elements and design choices studios have made to create MMOs since we’ve had numerous launches this year. What I’ve come up with, as a designer and a player, is the list below.

They’re not hard set choices, either, so please, give feedback in the comments below. It’ll allow me to become a better designer, and who knows, if I do end up using this, you’ll have had input in the creation!

  1. Payment Model
  • Initial Purchase

The initial investment should, and will, be low. One of the major set-backs I’ve had about jumping into a new MMO is the $40-60 dump I have to pour into just the first month of play. Since I’m married to another gamer, double that, and you see why we’re hesitant.

I’d set it no higher than $45 with one month of play free.

Each expansion would only be $30. Period.

There are different types of models I’m considering, but all are open options.

  • Subscription Models:

F2P – Micro-transactions:

It’s a valid option, but one I’m never fully privy too. It’s probably from the fact that I’ve never used the market systems because of lack of money, so I always played the basic game as-is. Continue Reading

Riot Games: Online Jerks to be Judged by Own Peers (LoL) – Updated

14 January 2011 | 9 Comments » | iTZKooPA

Internet jerks have ruined many games for me, and likely all of you. In fact, I rarely play Xbox Live outside my circle of friends and mature groups specifically for this reason. Toxic communities are but one scourge to competitive gaming. The other, and the one that really gets my goat, AFKers and leavers. There’s nothing more soul crushing than seeing a teammate leave during the heat of battle (RRRAGEQUIT!) or AFK because she’s thirsty ten minutes in to a match.

In first-person shooters it is annoying to lose a teammate during a balanced match, but not devastating. In RTS titles like StarCraft II or DotA contests like League of Legends, it’s routinely insurmountable.

Riot Games hopes to change all this by taking a page out of Survivor’s book. In the upcoming months, a Tribunal system will be instituted that allows select gamers to be the judge of infractions. The judges will be handed the bulk of community complaints, which tally “10s of thousands of complaints a day,” according to Steve ‘Pendragon’ Mescon. The player-judges, soon to be known as “pludges” (Copyright LoreHound.com), will receive cases ranging from harassment to ragequitting (leaving out of disgust over one’s team, persona, or opposition’s play). Chat logs and game information, but no game replay (still), will be made available as part of the report.

By following a set of (undisclosed) rules created by Riot Games, the tribunal members can punish or pardon the alleged players. These judges will themselves be ranked via a points system, likely giving more weight to their decisions the higher they themselves are heralded.

Being bad at the game is not a punishable offense (so sign up today!).

Hit the jump to read the specifics of the system, including combat of possible abuses, how it can be applied to other communities and a requested filtering feature.

Continue Reading