[Tork]

Welcome to Developer Rountable #18, Part One. Today forum members ask about the Alganon Studies system.

Question #1 by Alarion: "How does the Studies system help to keep "casuals" from being left behind in progression and/or power?"

Answers: Hue Henry, Data Design: "Players who put in the effort to gain experience and levels deserve the rewards that come with doing so. It is not our intention to eliminate those rewards, but instead to keep players advancing even if they are unable to invest those hours into playing the game. Imagine two players, Hardcore Hank and Casual Carl. Imagine they both have the same goals. Hardcore Hank is able to dedicate his time and energy into playing, and will be able to earn epic items, buff scrolls, crafting recipes, and other rewards through gameplay. Carl, on the other hand, does not have the time to farm these items. Both players, since they have the same goals, undertake the same studies, and advance in their studies at exactly the same rate.

As the two advance through their studies, they both gain powerful rewards and access to items, quests, and other gameplay elements. Hank gains rewards he could not have gained through play alone. Carl gains the same rewards. While most of these rewards are upgrades for both, some of these elements are merely cosmetic for Hardcore Hank; he has already advanced to the same level through gameplay and would be making an equal-swap to the new rewards. For Carl, however, these elements are upgrades, and give him the bonus he needs to step into the fray alongside Hank.

In this way, the studies are rewarding for both, allow Hank to be rewarded for his efforts, but also allow Hank to close the gap and continue to play alongside his friend.

Josef Shindler, Data Design: Although players who choose to improve specific stats (like damage or survivability) can do so, the study system also unlocks additional content when you deeply pursue a subject. There are some pieces of gear that can not be crafted unless you know a specific study. There are items that can not be used until you've studied how to use it. There are quest lines, instances, items, pets, even emotes that can be studied and unlocked. As long as you choose these elements of study, you are guaranteed access to this content when you choose to pursue it. A hardcore player who plays twice as much will not be able to match the options of a casual player who has been around twice as long."


Question #2 by Fervent: "Will we be able to use SMS to do thinks like queuing up Studies while not in game?"

Answers: Hue Henry, Data Design: "At launch, the starting and queuing of studies will be available only in game. We are looking at the possibility of integrating this with the MyAlganon.com site and SMS messaging. However, this opens opportunities for players to completely automate their studies and never log in to the game. While this is good for us financially, (accepting subscriptions of players who don't actually play is good for the pocketbook) we want to do a detailed analysis of how it will affect the "fun factor" before we make an official decision. Fun comes first."

Josef Shindler, Data Design: "Studies have a number of rules and restrictions. This seems like a good question to fill you in on how studies work in general.

• Only one character per account can be studying at a time.
• If the player attempts to begin a study on one character when they are already studying on another, they will be prompted if they want to pause the other character's studies to begin the study on the current character.
• If a study completes on one character and there is nothing in the queue, it will begin to study (if available) the paused/queued study on the last character to have a study updated/added.
• This also applies if the player stops studying on one character and studies are queued on other characters.
• Study completions will be sent to MyAlganon, and can be broadcast via SMS, etc.
• A player can queue multiple studies, so that one study will begin when a previous study has ended."

Thank you forum members Alarion and Fervent for the insightful questions. Also a big thanks to our developers Josef and Hue for taking the time our of their busy schedule to answer.


Have a question for the developers? Head over to the Developer Roundtable #19 thread and post a new question.


I will be posting links here to Part Two, and Part Three of Rountable #18 in the next few days so stay tuned.

Discuss Part One of Developer Roundtable #18 below.

[Zerragon]

This feature sounds awesome, and is the main feature that makes me consider playing Alganon for now.

Reminds me of a web game "Planetarion" i played before, where you could initiate reasearch, and wait x amount of hours before the research finished to reap the rewards.

Its a very "casual player" friendly feature. And that it allows you to keep track with and enable you to play alongside more hardcore players is a big +.

Now if I just could get a peek at this before the game is released !!!....

[magtoch]

Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to trying the feature.

Now if only crafting was done the same way;-)

[esh]

I don't understand this... So Hardcore Hank doesn't seem to be getting rewarded for his time. If he does the same studies as Carl and they are both gaining the same things Hank earns in play - how is he being rewarded for his efforts? I'm responding to the "cosmetic" descriptor on the rewards Hank recieves:

While most of these rewards are upgrades for both, some of these elements are merely cosmetic for Hardcore Hank; he has already advanced to the same level through gameplay and would be making an equal-swap to the new rewards.

How does this not, in a sense, "shortchange" the players who are actually putting effort in and playing? Doesn't it negate his efforts?  Effort should equal reward. This seems to be giving the same award to people, regardless of their efforts.  Maybe I am being dense here, but I simply don't understand this at all. Can someone help me out here? 

This post has been edited by esh: 16 September 2009 - 12:38 PM

[Cerwyn]

esh, on 16 September 2009 - 01:35 PM, said:

I don't understand this... So Hardcore Hank doesn't seem to be getting rewarded for his time. If he does the same studies as Carl and they are both gaining the same things Hank earns in play - how is he being rewarded for his efforts? I'm responding to the "cosmetic" descriptor on the rewards Hank recieves:

While most of these rewards are upgrades for both, some of these elements are merely cosmetic for Hardcore Hank; he has already advanced to the same level through gameplay and would be making an equal-swap to the new rewards.

How does this not, in a sense, "shortchange" the players who are actually putting effort in and playing? Doesn't it negate his efforts? Effort should equal reward. This seems to be giving the same award to people, regardless of their efforts. Maybe I am being dense here, but I simply don't understand this at all. Can someone help me out here?

well, Hardcore Hank is also studying, but he's probably not going to study the same things as Casual Carl. he'll get the skills/abilities/w/e that CC gets by putting in actual time in the game, and use the studies to diversify his character. for example, HH might be a dedicated tank who doesn't really like taking a secondary role, but he's aware that sometimes it is necessary in order to get into a group. so when he's actually playing he'll focus on the abilities of a dedicated tank and when he's offline he'll study for his secondary attributes. since CC can only study one line at a time, HH will be the more diverse and better balanced character, even if they're both roughly equal as dedicated tanks. making it much easier for HH to find teams and experience different play styles.

[Minuvo]

esh, on 16 September 2009 - 12:35 PM, said:

I don't understand this... So Hardcore Hank doesn't seem to be getting rewarded for his time. If he does the same studies as Carl and they are both gaining the same things Hank earns in play - how is he being rewarded for his efforts? I'm responding to the "cosmetic" descriptor on the rewards Hank recieves:

While most of these rewards are upgrades for both, some of these elements are merely cosmetic for Hardcore Hank; he has already advanced to the same level through gameplay and would be making an equal-swap to the new rewards.

How does this not, in a sense, "shortchange" the players who are actually putting effort in and playing? Doesn't it negate his efforts?  Effort should equal reward. This seems to be giving the same award to people, regardless of their efforts.  Maybe I am being dense here, but I simply don't understand this at all. Can someone help me out here? 

The idea with studies is it makes your progression gated, not grindy. What we're rewarding here is a different kind of 'time spent'. Hardcore Hank is getting the full run of our content. He's blasting through things and is a real gaming stud. Casual Carl plays when he can and doesn't see everything we have to offer in Alganon. He has a good time and that's what's most important, but sometimes he wants to go a little further. Maybe he gets a week off and decides he's going to try some of the really juicy dungeons but finds himself under-geared, under-skilled and under-educated. This is a serious problem.

The problem we're addressing with studies is that most of the players who play MMOs rarely get to play the entire game. The data is out there regarding this; in some cases, less than 5% of a MMO's entire population gets to explore high end content. What we're doing here with studies doesn't take away from our Hardcore Hanks in any way, shape or form. What it does is gives players like Casual Carl a guarantee that they won't be left behind. All they have to do is plan their studies and wait.

Here's a real example for you, with some important parts left out for those of you who like to explore: somewhere, out in the big wide world, is a really hot sword. It's so hot, in fact, that unless you've studied magic and elemental fire you won't be able to use it. It's not terribly hard to get either relatively speaking, but if Hardcore Hank does not study magic and elemental fire, he won't be able to use this sword even if it's the best in the game for him. Casual Carl has the same options as Hardcore Hank; if he studies magic and elemental fire, then Casual Carl can have that hot sword and use it too.

[Iridiana]

I'm glad to read about Studies. I think I can define myself a casual gamer cause I'm no more a student but a worker and I don't have a lot of time to spend at pc. It's very hard to find an MMO which doesn't require to grind... Well, I don't like grinding even if I have the time to :P Anyway I love the philosophy that inspired this game, it's what I was looking for :)