Developer’s Desk - Fall

Days are growing shorter and the weather's turning colder, but every change of season in the real world brings changes to Istaria as well. And I'll get right to the point, many of the most recent changes that have been applied to our Blight testing shard have caused players to question the direction that Virtrium is taking Istaria. So I wanted to write to everyone with some thoughts that address this question as well as some of the concerns that have been raised.

In a recent thread on the forums, the question was asked as to whether Istaria is still the way it was originally envisioned. Now, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, the team that “originally envisioned” Istaria is not at all the same team that is presently developing the game. And those who “originally envisioned” Istaria were not even the same as those who released the game back in 2003. (Yes, folks, that means Istaria is soon to be 7 years old!). And though it’s not as widely known, over the last 3 years that Virtrium has developed the game, team members have come and gone. For example, anyone who has ever worked inside the gaming industry knows that it is very common for individuals to “cut their teeth” on a smaller MMO, such as Istaria, before moving onto a “bigger game”. For Istaria, there’s a small number of developers who are still with the game after the past 7 years, but there’s also been lots of new people. The continuity of the long term developers, mixed with fresh inspiration from newer members, has resulted in some decisions that are truly a “mix it up” from goals of the past, while at other times we maintain very long term goals that we don’t deviate from. One of the benefits of being a small team is that we can consider significant changes - and unlike a bigger team where canon is set in stone - consider that perhaps a change would be better for Istaria over the long run. We do this by weighing in new perspectives, as well as old perspectives.

The game’s current producer, Velea, put it like this. “To me, Istaria is like a really good scotch that’s been in various distilleries over the years. One team had the game through the “malting” process, creating the original mixture of ingredients. Another took it through the “cooking” process, which added some of their flavor to it through choices they made. Then it began the “fermenting” process, what I consider to be the Tulga years, where the game was changed again. And now Istaria has been in the distillery casks at Virtrium where again the flavor has been changed. It isn’t the same game as it would have been had the same people who first “malted” the game had kept it through to “distillery”, but the many and varied teams that have developed the game have created a richer, more deeply defined and unique game in the process.” Now don’t go taking that analogy too far. Unlike a good scotch, there will never been a time when Istaria is done - rather, we’ll keep the creation process happening because no online game is ever truly finished.

As I look at Istaria, any MMO really, I see the game as having cycles. No game lasts forever for any one person, or even small group of people. The fact that Istaria has had some people who have played the game continuously since release is, to me anyway, an amazing testament to all those who have worked on the game over the years. For example, this team has kept many people playing and enjoying the game for three years now. I know from my own personal experience that I tend to have a 6 month cycle where I change games, pretty much tied to when my character(s) reach the end game. Most development teams simply can not create content quickly enough to keep their end game players involved and active in the game. So to get back to the original question and provide a one sentence answer.. Yes, Istaria is very much where we expected it to be, very in line with the vision for the game, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t continue to making changes, won’t continue to build on the foundation of what is is now, and won’t continue to add new content. As long as we have people who are interested in playing, we’ll do our best to keep providing them with something fun to play.

Which brings me to the first of those concerns that players have raised that I alluded to earlier. Many of the more recent posts giving us feedback on the current changes in some way or another talk about how long time players of Istaria are becoming “bored” with the game, are finding it “not fun” any more. I read these posts and think to myself that this is understandable. It isn’t meant as a flippant remark to say that if you’re bored with Istaria, that means it is time to stop playing for a while and play something else. It just means that the game has cycled to a point where about a tenth of the population of players have reached the end of the game. They’ve done everything there is to do. They’ve seen everything there is to see. Those people have come to a point where they will leave for a while. They’ll be gone for 6 months, maybe longer, or perhaps shorter. But during that time, we at Virtrium will continue to add new content. We’ll continue to improve upon existing content. What’s happening to Istaria right now is far from unique for any MMO, it is part of the natural cycle of online games. I’ve watched it happen with the games I play, and in fact I’ve watched it happen before with Istaria. And while we all understand and empathize with the feeling that “all my friends have already left, and more leave every day”, we can also look beyond that and see that many who have been gone from the game for months, even years in some cases, return every day. I’ve personally had it happen to me too where those I played with regularly seemed to all decide at once that it was time to stop playing Game X and go check out Game Y for a time. Sometimes I’ve made the choice to follow them, and after a time in Game Y we decide to take a look back at Game X because we all really had fun there. Sometimes I’ve decided to stay in Game X, made new friends, watched and waited through changes in the game, and after a while invited those friends who had left to come check out Game X again because I was still really having fun. Friendships go through the same changes whether they were made through a “real world” connection or a “virtual world” connection. It’s our job here at Virtrium to continually update and expand the world so there are new experiences for those who want to keep playing, and can have something they’re excited to share with their friends.

So that brings me to the “meat and potatoes” part of this Developer’s Desk, the “Ok, Amarie, but what’s coming in the future that will be fun?” One of those consistent “flavors” that is a part of the game is that the core storyline centers around a battle for control of the world against the Withered Aegis, and players are wondering what has happened with that war lately. We’ve done a couple of large content updates over the last 3 years that continue that storyline, but the Aegis really haven’t been putting much pressure on the Gifted of late while the team has focused more time on bug fixes, much needed game-system changes, and non-adventure related content. Our fall update, for example, will be adding new plot structures and has focused on a much needed loot revamp. We have some ongoing threads on our forums that I’d ask everyone to take a look at regarding the loot revamp in particular including a plan for the re-introduction of broken items. The “broken items” game-system allows players to collect various pieces of an item that are combined by a crafter. The final product is an item with pre-determined techniques on it, and it is feedback on those final items that we’d like input on. Broken Items Thread.

In the short term, we’ll also be introducing more blight anchors to the world across all tiers that will randomly appear and put some pressure on any Gifted looking to travel around the world safely. Many of these anchors were removed from game in what was intended to be only a temporary change because we’ve been developing a more robust system behind the scenes that would help bring that feeling of “it is a dangerous world out there” to the game in an even less static way. For those who may not know, Blight Anchors are static spawns that appear around the world and from them other monsters can spawn. They still don’t move around the world once spawned, and the monsters that spawn from them are also tied to the anchor, so only exist in a relatively small area. The system we’ve been developing doesn’t have that static feeling. In brief, what we are working on is a system where a powerful commander spawns in the world and begins traveling from there. As he does so, he spawns lieutenants. These lieutenants have a new “home” region defined based on where the commander “assigns” them to be. Lieutenants also spawn followers over time as he walks his path. The longer a commander is in the world, the more lieutenants he creates, and likewise for the lieutenant and his defenders. And all have differing abilities and “goals” for why they exist in the world, some of which will make them much harder than usual to kill. I can’t at this time say when this new system will be ready for testing, but wanted to give you an idea that there are things in the works that will present new and we hope interesting challenges to players of all levels. The war against the Aegis will soon be more active than it has been recently.

And where there’s war, there are stories. Earlier I announced a call for stories that we can use in game on special items that will also be a part of the loot revamp. One of the things we know our player community is good at is telling stories, so we’d like to hear from you. For more specifics, please see the forum thread Storytellers Needed.

I know this has been a longer Developer’s Desk than normal, and if you’re still with me at this point, thank you for reading. The thoughts and opinions of everyone playing Istaria are important to us, and we do appreciate the feedback you provide. Over the past three years it has helped us decide where to focus our time and attention to the game’s development, and I hope that you’ll continue to provide us with such feedback for many years to come.


-Amarie
Community Manager

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