Emergence, the concept of several small systems interacting to form a complex system that is “larger than the sum of its parts” is something we’ve discussed briefly before, but which I’d like to bring up for discussion once again, today. I find emergence to be one of the most fundamental elements of game design theory; [...]
Posts Tagged ‘movement’
Dancing with the details
Saturday, October 17th, 2009The many faces of battle
Sunday, October 11th, 2009There’s one thing (well, there are several, but one which I’ll talk about right now) that’s always bothered me a good deal about most MMO combat systems, which is that character position and movement are only very rarely an influential factor. There are a few games that do some interesting things: Aion takes into account [...]
An instance, for instance
Monday, September 21st, 2009Instances can be incredibly useful tools for MMORPG design, if used correctly, and terrible devices that eat away at immersion and interaction, otherwise. Today’s post is dedicated to discussing some of the benefits of instancing in online games, as well as investigating the negative effects that can arise from poor use of such a system. [...]