Comments for David Allen

Comment on A Review of Fallen Earth (April, 2012) by foomoo

foomoo — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:26:10 +0000

> I don’t know of any other MMOG on the market which has accomplished what FE has in
> the terms of size, scope, and AI-controlled NPCs; all on the same server and without
> any “zones”.

darkfall

Comment on A Review of Fallen Earth (April, 2012) by Mark

Mark — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:19:41 +0000

One of the best reviews I have read in a long time. It was very in depth, well organized and included the good and the bad. Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed information.

Oh and I have been playing a week and love the game ^^.

Comment on Choosing your MMOG: Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, or World of Warcraft? by Requnix

Requnix — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:25:42 +0000

Actually, I don’t think Mercenaries were implemented at the time I wrote the review. If I re-review EQ2, I’ll be sure to cover it!

Comment on Choosing your MMOG: Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, or World of Warcraft? by Corwin Karl

Corwin Karl — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:47:22 +0000

You forgot one of the best parts of EQ2, Mercenarys. This is a custom feature that allows two or three people to pull off a difficult raid by themselves.

Comment on A Review of Fallen Earth (April, 2012) by Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:54:38 +0000

Well-written review. Actually got me back into playing the game. Like it thus far.

Comment on A Review of Fallen Earth (April, 2012) by Michael

Michael — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:29:53 +0000

Amazing review, very in depth. I obviously didn’t read it all. I am just sifting through some stuff while I wait for my game to patch, I have yet to play it. Would be interesting if I could have a playing partner, you know, for the game. If you want, you can contact me through that e-mail I entered.

Sincerely,
Michael

Comment on The Next Generation of MMOGs by Paul Devine

Paul Devine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:53:56 +0000

Hi David,

Your articles are deep and informative, thanks for these.
Paul

Comment on Unlimited Detail: One Year Later by Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:58:53 +0000

If I’m not mistaken, John Carmack had spoken about using similar tech a few years back as a possible direction for a future iteration of their game engine technology. It’s called Sparse Voxel Octrees or something to that effect. At the time, he indicated that he felt hardware wasn’t where it needed to be to make it feasible. Of course, we’ve come a long way since then.

I’ll be really interested to see how it all works in an actual gameplay environment, instead of a “static”, limited environment for a demo only.

It’s definitely going to change things. No question there. Normal mapping, tessellation, all of that could well become redundant.

Comment on Dominion by Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:30:47 +0000

Oh! About Unity3D, that is one that I’m evaluating. I like a lot about it, but there’s just something about its interface and/or workflow that hasn’t “clicked” with me yet, for some reason.

I’m also checking out DXStudio, which has a pretty nice setup – particularly for prototyping.

Comment on Dominion by Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:25:19 +0000

Not a problem! I’m a big fan of game design and, by extension, game designers. The opportunity to speak with someone with experience and “mileage” in the field is always a welcome one for me.

I see that your current business has moved away from the game design side of things and seems more “business productivity” oriented, if I understand it correctly. That makes me rather curious – especially as you noted the possibility of Dominion being picked up again someday… Is game design something you still have an interest in pursuing in the foreseeable future?

Also, if I may “pick you brain” a bit, I’m curious of how you feel a MMO of the scope and scale of something like Horizons would fit in today’s market?

I mean in terms of its depth, breadth and scope. Obviously some of its gameplay mechanics would not sit well with many gamers these days. I’d say Horizons/Istaria is still quite “old-school” in that way. Though, that’s actually one of the things I’ve always liked and found intriguing about it. It can still be quite unforgiving and there’s a lot to wrap your head around.

I just see so many developers chasing after Blizzard’s behemoth, and so few really trying to do something different (though there are a few smaller, but still noteworthy ones), that I wonder what a good “compromise” between that old-school depth, breadth and scope and the newer sense of accessibility and “convenience” would be. The two almost seem to be at odds down to the genetic level lol.

That’s something I’m wrestling with for my project and I think I have a fairly good grasp on a way to approach it. Of course, as the saying goes, everything works on paper.

Anyway… Sorry for the long reply.

Thanks again and all the best!

-Mike