Comments on: An 8-step Program for Saving TSO http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/10/an_8step_progra.html Always Fairly Unbalanced Tue, 04 Oct 2016 13:18:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Urizenus http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/10/an_8step_progra.html/comment-page-1#comment-55689 Urizenus Fri, 11 Jun 2004 09:56:02 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3080#comment-55689 Yah Johnny, the first thought I had on the first day in game was: why can't I really play chess while I'm playing chess? I tried to set up the giant chess boards but they were impossibly unwieldly. I don't know if a game has ever been successfully played using those. But more importantly, tools for putting on events would be the obvious and natural thing to introduce into TSO. On SL, for example, you hit a button and get a list of all the events/times that users have scheduled for that day. In addition (and somewhat annoyingly) every hour on the hour the Lindens spam with a list of events happening that hour. So you might be tinkering away at your house and get an announcement about a waterfall buidling contest or something. This should be a minimum requirement for a social game like TSO. The new objects they add in tso are just a joke in comparison to other games. I mean tso gets a cannon, but I lost count of the number of user-built weapons I've collected and/or seen in SL -- and not just deadly ones but also rockets that explode into snowflakes etc. The cheers for cannons and light sticks are just plain comical to me by comparison. If the shell allowed custom content the dev team (such as it is) could have stopped thinking about that crap and thought about optimizing tso to be a gaming environment shell as you suggest. Yah Johnny, the first thought I had on the first day in game was: why can’t I really play chess while I’m playing chess? I tried to set up the giant chess boards but they were impossibly unwieldly. I don’t know if a game has ever been successfully played using those.

But more importantly, tools for putting on events would be the obvious and natural thing to introduce into TSO. On SL, for example, you hit a button and get a list of all the events/times that users have scheduled for that day. In addition (and somewhat annoyingly) every hour on the hour the Lindens spam with a list of events happening that hour. So you might be tinkering away at your house and get an announcement about a waterfall buidling contest or something. This should be a minimum requirement for a social game like TSO.

The new objects they add in tso are just a joke in comparison to other games. I mean tso gets a cannon, but I lost count of the number of user-built weapons I’ve collected and/or seen in SL — and not just deadly ones but also rockets that explode into snowflakes etc. The cheers for cannons and light sticks are just plain comical to me by comparison. If the shell allowed custom content the dev team (such as it is) could have stopped thinking about that crap and thought about optimizing tso to be a gaming environment shell as you suggest.

]]> By: Johnny Lace http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/10/an_8step_progra.html/comment-page-1#comment-55688 Johnny Lace Fri, 11 Jun 2004 05:58:16 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3080#comment-55688 step 9. Stop adding useless game related stuff like pets, new objects. It won't enhance gameplay. Instead add tools that help you organize events, have lotteries, multichat, moving your sim from town to town. add mini games like real chess, checkers, card games like the game zone. In reality, turn TSO into a game zone with a virtual world shell. The ultimate virtual world. Don't change the game or gameplay. It's limited. Change the gaming *environment* ! step 9.
Stop adding useless game related stuff like pets, new objects. It won’t enhance gameplay.

Instead add tools that help you organize events, have lotteries, multichat, moving your sim from town to town.

add mini games like real chess, checkers, card games like the game zone. In reality, turn TSO into a game zone with a virtual world shell.

The ultimate virtual world.

Don’t change the game or gameplay. It’s limited. Change the gaming *environment* !

]]> By: Ian http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/10/an_8step_progra.html/comment-page-1#comment-55687 Ian Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:01:30 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3080#comment-55687 Reading the old herald hehe, great ideas uri Reading the old herald hehe, great ideas uri

]]> By: Peter Ludlow http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/10/an_8step_progra.html/comment-page-1#comment-55686 Peter Ludlow Fri, 31 Oct 2003 17:53:34 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3080#comment-55686 I was recently talking with Brian Weatherson, who has his own philosophy blog, and he remarkd in response to this piece that perhaps the monthly fees would be necessary to get people to close out dormant accounts. That is a good point. Perhaps another solution would be to work down their bills by spending time on certain job objects in TSO. The theory would be that by being online they are content providers and can get a free ride. You can keep a dormant account, but only if you pay. I was recently talking with Brian Weatherson, who has his own philosophy blog, and he remarkd in response to this piece that perhaps the monthly fees would be necessary to get people to close out dormant accounts. That is a good point. Perhaps another solution would be to work down their bills by spending time on certain job objects in TSO. The theory would be that by being online they are content providers and can get a free ride. You can keep a dormant account, but only if you pay.

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