I’m a fan of “sandbox” style games that are more open and have been very interested in Darkfall since I like the classless, skill-based, and raise skills through use style mechanics.

The game runs fairly well on my over two years old Mac Book Pro running Boot Camp/Windows 7, though I had to turn the graphics down a lot. Still get some “hitching” now and then, especially any time I get near water or any similar. Was crashing fairly often but after the most recent patch runs fine, even at 1440×900.

I think the graphics and animations could be better but since I still enjoy Asheron’s Call now and then it isn’t my main concern. Graphics are nice but I want solid gameplay.

The game itself has gone a bit too far into the PvP end of things I think. I understand the concept of making a hardcore MMO but you literally can’t go two steps in any of the quest locations without getting killed (or someone jumping in front of you to make you go “red”, then killing you).

I played Ultima Online from beta on so I’m not a stranger to this style game but it is really annoying when trying to figure out the game that you spend most of your time running back from spawning in town.

Maybe they will add more critter spawns soon, that would make it much easier to get a handle on the game since you could just run out in the middle of nowhere and do your thing. Like I used to in UO.

Anyway, the thing that really is bothering me is not the ganking or the amount of travel and such that makes the game hardcore. Some of it is annoying, but I get the philosophy of the game.

I just wish they hadn’t made the game client work against me so much though! Everything you want to do in the game is so cumbersome it is frustrating.

For example, if I want to rest to regain health/stamina/mana, I have to do the following:

1. Drag the rest skill onto my action bar (just the first time).
2. Sheath my weapon.
3. Hit the rest icon (with my mouse or by hitting the corresponding key).
4. Hit the right mouse button if I am in “UI view” to get to “play view” (whatever they call them).
5. Hit the left mouse button to actually activate the rest skill – You can’t activate a skill by clicking it in your bar or hitting the key, you have to “slot” it then hit the mouse button to use it.

Every action in the game is this complicated to some degree. This is not “hardcore”, this is bad UI design and annoying for the players.

Anyway, I’m not giving up on the game, though I did log off in frustration last night when after running back to our city I got killed by the EX-guild member who is somehow camping our city and killing everyone. Ugh.

To sum up, I like the open play style and classless/skill-based system. The graphics/animations and UI could use a lot of work especially the unnecessary complications that are part of doing anything in game and the totally open PvP will make this game of limited appeal to a lot of people. I expect there will be a lot of sales up front based on the hype, but a lot of drop-off in player counts shortly after launch depending on how they address player feedback.

I have wanted to see innovation in the MMO area for some time though so I’m hoping I’m wrong.

Some reviews/reactions I read today:

• http://www.massively.com/2009/02/19/anti-aliased-special-edition-hands-on-with-darkfall/
• http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=Paragus1%2F022009%2F3314&bhcp=1
• http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=reillan%2F022009%2F3317_Darkfall-Review&bhcp=1
• http://www.brokentoys.org/2009/02/19/the-mordred-problem/
• http://www.cuppycake.org/?p=651
• http://word-of-shadow.blogspot.com/2009/02/pvp-qq-problem.html
• http://www.massively.com/2009/02/19/paragus-darkfall-beta-review-not-your-grandmas-mmorpg/

P.S. If you are playing Darkfall, don’t forget to hit “T” for overhand strikes. Less chance of accidentally hitting someone else and going red!

How do you keep up with social media? One person mentioned they could not keep up with social media at work (it’s blocked) so I suggested they set up their mobile phone for that… and take “social” breaks periodically.

How do you keep up with trends? I suggested Google Reader and Google Alerts (and Twitter of course) as great ways to keep up on trends in your industry.

Good ways to network (people not computers)? Participating in forums, contributing to blogs including posting good content on yours, tweeting, networking on Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo.

Are press releases useful? We send out press releases for major announcements but more often I send brief “newsflashes” with links to more info. Both are useful in their own way but the more frequent, brief newsflashes help build relationships with news outlets.

How do you get tech support as a small business? IRC or forums are great for computer support… and of course you can use Twitter now. Also, DIY (“do it yourself”) is best. Non-techies should do what my family does, call a techie relative… believe me, they don’t hesitate to call me! Best way to learn about tech is to not be afraid to ask questions and to try and do it yourself. Just back up your files frequently!

Online tools for collaboration? At my “day job” we use MSN chat. Since we have multiple offices worldwide, being able to get in touch quickly is key. Beyond chat, we have private forums and wikis and other tools which are used to varying degrees but could be better utilized. I also use Toggl.com for time tracking which I find works great on the Web and on iPhone. For document sharing/editing, I looked at various solutions and found Google Docs the simplest solution. Works nicely on mobile phones too.

How do you interact with customers on your site? Kind of depends on the nature of your product, site, customers… but chat or forum interactivity of course is key.

Hope you find this useful! I will add a link to the log of the chat when it is posted.

Update: Log posted from last week and new chat tonight!

http://sbbuzz.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/summary-from-sbbuzz-february-17th-edition/

http://sbbuzz.biz/2009/02/12/summary-from-sbbuzz-february-10th-edition/

I was “mjayg” in this chat. Attended the one this week which had a guest from Google. Will post more shortly.

• Top response to question “what is the goal of a Community Manager” was “increasing engagement”.
• One of the attendees stated that their community grew quickly, had to focus on keeping people in compliance, trying to get to the point of being proactive rather than reactive – participate instead of policing; sparking positive discussions, running discussion group (sub-forums), etc.
• Another has online “office hours” and “video conferencing” to encourage positive behavior and personal interaction instead of disciplining and policing. Hoping to move to community moderating itself.
• As you build a community, you start to have problems in the community… larger social networks have changed what people expect online.
• “Policing” forums may cause accusations of being a “police state” but the “quiet majority” often will privately message thanking the CM for “cleaning up” the forums.
• NextNY community wrote the guidelines together early on – community was small at that point – email and blog guidelines were all put on a wiki to edit. People in the community wrote the guidelines, not the CMs… open to revisit them if people complain.
• Most forums seem to follow a system of warning, 3 day mute, 7 day mute, (maybe) 21 day mute… then permanent. Warnings kept private, “cases” not discussed in public. Accidentally banned someone on Friday, person went to all the people who wrote positive things in press and told them – now the policy is “don’t ban on Fridays”.
• Tools to Further Communication: WIKI, IRC, IM, Yammer (“Twitter for business”), CoTweet (based on Yammer/Twitter), search.twitter.com (for customer service feedback), Get Satisfaction (tab on the browser – easy integration – better for finding things broken on server). Important thing is to stick with one solution.
• How to monitor forums for “bad words” – have to read each post, forum software has report feature; no one using community moderation (like Slashdot) where users can vote down a post/thread for fear of “vocal minority” abusing it.
• “Ground Report” lets users flag and gives ethical users mod powers and growing their own moderators. Based on original AOL chat rooms – 4 or 5 overall group moderators who managed leaders of the community.
• People have tried mentoring (established members paired up with new members); virtual currency (helping others, good posts) – just added it, didn’t tell community who generated good behavior on their own; karma points for incentive (virtual economy) – self-moderating systems – needs to have a positive AND negative side. People love getting points… hate losing them (“fear of the bad”).
• “Tribes” by Seth Godin – There are pre-existing communities, our role as CM is not about trying to segment but to let people interact with each other and creating spaces and enabling the community. Charlie of NextNY is the arbiter, says he “does not run” the email list.
• CM role blurs – CM/support, CM/marketing, CM/evangelist. One CM does informal guerilla marketing by going to other boards and helping people and then talking about her site only when they ask where she works. Not overtly marketing. Don’t have marketing people do it, need someone who is part of the community (she doesn’t have prior CM experience – figured things out based on her knowledge of the community).
• Difference between community support and customer support. Issues posted in forums will be responded to by other people in the community before CM has a chance to respond. Volunter moderators also help in this regard. Forums broken up into General Help, Product Launches, Announcements, Member posts… Support forums help when people ask the same question over and over and established members (or moderators) will link to previous answer without CM getting involved.
• Company transparency is a good way to gain peoples’ trust. Even if you can’t answer every question, you are sharing information (like why shipping late, etc.). People respond positively.
• Forum threads are harder to use to get concrete information. Community chats to discuss issues, get feedback
• Post “top 10 features we are adding” but tell them “adding #11 based on your feedback”.
• Limited options aren’t enough, need to get comments/dialogue.
• How do you measure success of your community? Web metrics? Number of posts on forums? A lot of measuring success depends on the goals of having a community, type of product. How do you justify the investment (especially these days).
• Challenge is to get people who are usually quiet to get involved. Engage newbies (some forums have a “newbie” section).
• Empowering community to handle customer support is one way to reduce customer support costs (less support calls, cost of a bad product experience).
• Zappos is a “customer support company that also sells shoes” – best word of mouth marketing. Different company, different experience; every person at company has a Twitter; customers enthusiastic and tell their friends – metric is answer to “how did you hear about Zappos” question. Community is marketing/generating revenue.
• Innovation lasts for two seconds. Hard to build a sustainable advantage. A good customer experience is key to success. Everyone in company should be trained on making a customer experience a good one.

I attended the chat last night and really enjoyed it but more importantly, learned a lot.

Here is a compilation of some of my comments last night. Once they post the log of the chat I will link to it so you can read more!

1. Some good advice for people running a business: Provide only one product or service. Serve one audience only. Have the simplest web site possible. From http://tinyurl.com/cs2agg
2. Zappos is an excellent example of a company that engages their customers. Customer service (or customer experience) is now king.
3. On blogs: In the past I’ve found blogs to be burdensome if they don’t have a specific focus. Will probably stick to Tweets with my new company. (ha ha I’ve reversed myself already)
4. On outsourcing: I love the stories of consultants who find business, then outsource people to do the actual work for them. Sneaky!
5. Great article on transparency – http://tinyurl.com/2d932c
6. It is important to be authentic and to bring people “behind the scenes” BUT they can also think that means you are “open source” – meaning they think they are now part of the team and are upset when you don’t use their feedback. You have to be prepared for the negative backlash if they don’t feel their input is being heard or making a difference. If you have a forum you have to let people have their say – but be prepared as you might not like what they tell you and you need to act on it. Excellent article on this from the NY Times at http://tinyurl.com/css9mh
7. On measuring success with social media: In the game industry most games are gone in a few months. If you still have people interested past that it is a measure of success. Also, using social media (especially forums, blogs, etc.) to lessen the investment in support services can be a measure of success as your fans helping fans are sometimes the best support!
8. Microformats are “a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards”. Check out http://microformats.org/ in case, like me, you had no idea what they were!

Gamer Zombies are not mindless, shambling creatures but very enthusiastic, opinionated people who love playing and talking (and arguing) about games. They also love to find like-minded people and (virtual) places to gather.

Stay tuned for more about Gamer Zombies and how we can help you reach them!