Rob Shillingsburg

Sigh - Rob Shillingsburg

My thoughts exactly: "The players should generate the story as they go...This means breaking down some of the mechanics we are used to and allowing players to actually change the worlds they inhabit, instead of being forced to spin their wheels by fighting monsters that will simply respawn in five minutes or an hour. Some may object to this as being a “niche” feeling, but this niche has room for everyone. If executed properly, a player-generated story-based MMORPG solves a lot of the problems we have today with much less developer, writer, and designer time needed." - Rob Shillingsburg

The emphasis on quests, items, and character development, as opposed to dynamic story generation, seems to come from computer RPGs, not new to MMORPGs, and I think it's because it's impractical to have much story development from a small number of people. So the story is written in advance and everyone experiences roughly the same story. MMORPGs do open up the possibility of having... more... - Amit Patel

"Book Ten suffers from Yet Another Wandering Narrative Safari – a condition not uncommon in MMO design and certainly not exclusive to LotRO – it is categorised by large amounts of exposition with little-to-no action or adventure until the very end, and possibly occurs because the content designer spent the night before overdosing on re-runs of the X-Files." - Rob Shillingsburg

"Devs, if you really want to combat bots, just make the gameplay fun. Don't make crafting and harvesting a simple matter of clicking on a button and waiting." - Rob Shillingsburg

"This, to me, is a powerful argument in favor of… ok, you knew this was coming… procedurally generated content." - Rob Shillingsburg

"They designed a system that effectively requires frequent respecing, and then charge $12.50 per respec. Amazing." - Rob Shillingsburg

"There is no such thing as 'players doing it wrong', there is only bad game design leading players in the wrong direction." - Rob Shillingsburg

"No one should ever be left behind or forced to sit out because the group or raid is full. No player should ever be prevented from completing a dungeon crawl because not enough players are online." - Rob Shillingsburg

Interesting! - Rob Shillingsburg

Quick FAQs to clear up confusion about Love. - Rob Shillingsburg

"The purpose of this blog is to keep my dream of that ultimate MMO where even the smallest person can change the world by some act of kindness or bravery; the realization of a truly dynamic, living breathing virtual world where one person can make a difference." - Rob Shillingsburg

"The sobering reality is that only a handful of people in the world have the power and resources to make a MMO." - Rob Shillingsburg

This article sums up a lot of things I've realized about software development recently: don't worry about the future; focus on what you need now; deliver frequently; a lot of what you learned in school is just wrong. - Rob Shillingsburg

Also, how are you going to have a smooth, fast, problem-free build process and art pipeline just by ad hoc implementation? - Andrew C

The playtest was lots of fun. I hope it becomes a regular thing! - Amit Patel

Pretty cute little multiplayer game. - Rob Shillingsburg

Right on! - Rob Shillingsburg

Another great DarkFall story - Rob Shillingsburg

Chuckle - Rob Shillingsburg

"We play fantasy MMORPGs because we wanted to be in Lord of the Rings. Why does it so often feel as if we ended up in Lord of the Flies instead?" - Rob Shillingsburg

I am not hardcore enough to even consider playing DarkFall, but this story warms my heart. - Rob Shillingsburg

Dungeons in MMOs: lovingly hand crafted, or procedurally generated? - Rob Shillingsburg

Quick impressions of Fallen Earth. - Rob Shillingsburg

Just one of many reasons that I don't like levels in MMOs. - Rob Shillingsburg

Quite an indictment. - Rob Shillingsburg

Nice looking stuff! - Rob Shillingsburg

I'm in a couple of these. Kinda. - Rob Shillingsburg

PvP's main problem: half the time, you lose. - Rob Shillingsburg

Ok, so I'm an indie game developer, I'll be at GDC Austin, I discussed indie games back at GDC 2009, and I own a Williams Attack From Mars, prequel to the first Pinball 2000 machine, Revenge From Mars. This looks interesting, to me. - Rob Shillingsburg