WARCRY - Why just 16 players?

 

WarCry: Is there a reason why there are only 16 players in an Imperial Wars universe? Have you considered raising the number of players who can play
in each game or the number of worlds in a universe?

Larry: In the world of Massively Multiplayer Game Universes, 16 players may not sound a lot of players at first and there might be a tendency to think you’re getting cheated by not having hundreds if not thousands around you. But one has to ask if a massive numbers of players isn’t more of a necessity for an MMOG than the feature it is promoted to be. While fantasy world simulations are fascinating to visit (and I make it a point to walk around in as many as I can find time for) they need massive numbers of people online to be certain that there is some sort of interaction. But you cannot really have much of a relationship with most people in this environment. It is obvious that you must be online together often to have any depth of relationship with another player but less obvious are two other factors. One, if you and your comrades do not play equally as often, soon you will no longer be enjoying the same experiences as your character levels change, communication between players is therefore not persistent. And two, there is not a true effect of actions and the resulting consequences from them. People commit vicious virtual crimes on one another in this environment knowing that there is little or no consequence since the likelihood of meeting again will be very small. If this require a game presence of the publisher than this intrusion damages the game concept. These fantasy worlds can become very amoral environments that appeal more to adolescent murder fantasies than real adventuring. Often this kind of anti-social activity is blamed on human nature. I don’t believe that, I think it is a failure in the environment. In the end analysis, massive numbers of players has been made to sound a lot more attractive than it actually turns out to be. There are times when less is more.

WarCry: Alright, so what events can occur in a game of 16 players?

Larry: To directly address the number of 16 players in an IWars universe, I believe the depth of the relationships in our kind of game is more important than the number of players in the game. Consider that Jared Diamond in his book, “Guns, Germs, & Steel” speaks of how many actual relationships exist in a small clan or community, which is just what an IWars universe becomes. For 16 players there are potentially 120 dyad, or one to one potential relationships (16 times 15 divided by two) or 1,120 possible triad relationships including one to three and all possible permutations, and similarly, for quad relationships between 16 players, there are 10,920 potential combinations. And these relationships can potentially shift from episode to episode as conditions evolve and diplomatic declarations of Ally, Neutral or Enemy are made between players adding tone to these coalescing relationships. In Imperial Wars there is more than enough complexity for these associations to become more intense with more gradations. And I believe, because of this, they are less contentious and more productive in creating engrossing game play than in the massively subscribed games. Communications are constant and integral to game play so these relationships continually broaden and deepen. It is very clear in our experience that 16 players are more than enough to insure a deep and compelling interactive game experience.

Sixteen is a magic numbers in the consciousness of human beings. It seems a number we can easily comprehend but actually, as shown above, it is full of complexity. This number, or a variant of it, occurs over and over again in many game environments and designs (and not just because it is a hex number, it is true for games well before the digital era). In the case of Imperial Wars, the mixture of 7 (another key number) character types divided into the 16 Starlord positions insures several different mixes of games as players join the game queue for a new universe. The game server is required to select a minimum of two and maximum of three of each character from the queue when begins the process of creating a unique universe for play. To delve a bit deeper into the design, there are 350 worlds of various types and the Homeworlds are so placed to practically guarantee that players will begin meeting each other very early in the game, which is when the stories begin to flow. There are 220 starfleet engines in each universe, besides the 80 shared out among the players at the beginning, 49 gems and 14 ancient relics that have varying and competing values for Starlord characters and provide trading possibilities, as well as 7 Power Jewels that directly affect game objects.

Without covering the ranges of world values and their connections I can tell you there is a specific equilibrium of numbers and concepts intermixed to balance Imperial Wars, to insure an interesting and exciting universe every time out. It took a long time to find this balance and the numbers that create it. It is a challenge to test a game that lasts months. There must be just enough complexity to give depth and challenge throughout a game that is going to last a long time without adding confusion. To add more worlds, players, artifacts, starfleets, etc. would not add any discernable advantage to the player’s fun quotient, only confusion, and the death of any game design.

WarCry: You have mentioned that IWars is a “lifestyle” game, a game players can play at their own schedule. What does that mean?

Larry: I believe that one of the “flaws” of other types of persistent world games is the myth of real-time. First it is not really real-time, in most of these games there is a 1 to 3 hours of real-time to game-time. Next, there is no circadian rhythm to the characters; they don’t sleep, eat, defecate, or perform any of the other real-time functions that are not very fun or are gross. Also, it is technically impossible to affect an online game space in real-time, though brilliant programmer illusionists create the impression. So time in a persistent world is really an idealized state. But, because the world is constantly in action whether you are in it or not, you lose out if you are not online. You will miss adventures, opportunities to gain levels or experience or needed tools. The environment motivates the player to stay online as much as possible, even all the time, sleeping in front of the monitor. Setting aside the business model flaw of how expensive this motivation is to the online publisher, this creates a huge conflict between r/l (we even have a shorthand for real life) and this fantasy life. It is easy to see the direct correlation between how much time a player spends online and how well he or she will do in their fantasy world. Like Hiro in Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, you might deliver pizzas in your real life but you must spend most of your life online to be a warrior prince and the greatest sword fighter in the “Metaverse”.

It is completely surprising how many people can devote 30 hours or more a week to play online in a persistent world. But in the end it limits how many people can actually play and can cause life upheavals for the players. Turn-based games, with a good design, can supply all the compelling depth of a great game environment and still allow people to get on with their lives. By setting a turn interval, controllable by the players but with a deadline, they can actually attend a college and go to class, go to sporting events, have a love interest that does not necessarily play online games, get married and have children, own a pet and even travel and still satisfy their game playing urge. We call Imperial Wars a “lifestyle” game because you can fit it into your life. It doesn’t demand to be played all at one time in some unending long substitution for life, it is spread out incrementally, in little pieces of play that can be made and savored over many days. Doing well in Imperial Wars is more about playing well with the time that you have available to play than the quantity of time you have to play. Some players will constantly analyze their moves and turns and spend hour after engrossing hour at it. Others will quickly grasp their positions and move in incremental 15-minute or so periods all through their move interval as they find time in their work or personal schedule to jump on line and save some part of their move. Some will let the IWars client sit in the background on their monitor and jump back and forth to it while they work on other things. This is the essence of a lifestyle game; it allows you to have one!

I should point out that the players can also move the game as fast as they wish to play as well. Quick Submissions rather than Saves from all players will immediately turn the game before the deadline. Deadlines are just to make sure that each turn actually does take place. Also, veterans are often forming “lightening” games, which can be run in a long weekend and some have experimented with no time limit at all so there are many potential variations.

 

 

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