Edit: Electronic Arts continued to launch the most successful online game - "Network Genesis" (Ultima Online), the company also launched a new online game for players who play games - "Majestic", this fascinating Interactive game will be launched in the second half of this year. What will you do if you are in suspense adventure novels? If the characters inside call you from the phone, leave the clue on your fax machine, while penetrating into your life, will you respond immediately? What do you do if you can't distinguish between true and fiction? This is the charm of online games, an empirical experience in online games. It uses the Internet as a stage that launches mysterious adventure story, allowing players to travel between real and fictional experiences in realities. In order to let the player immersed in the development of the development, online games are tailored to each participant to have experienced their experiences and invade your life with individualized plot. Online game players play the protagonist in the novel, interact with other players, excavate the clues, look for answers, collect and use the number of tools, and then overcome the challenge. Although online games have a dramatic pose and answer, in many ways, it is a typical adventure game. The main concept When we create Synthetic, (developing Majestic's Electronic Arts Studio), we started to build it more just online game Majestic - We want to create a new form of entertainment, some kind of interactive relationship The product formed, we don't want to create a "well-trained" network expert. We just want to create something composed of opportunities by the timing. In that truth, it will answer EA in 1983. Advertising: "Is the computer made you big yet?" In the country, the Internet has become the most popular recreational activities, which is better than the attention of TV. We want to make certain things that are worth noting, comparable to the TV to tell the story, but in the process, we will not lose its interactivity, and we want special ways to design entertainment from the beginning of this media. Deep experience guidance online games are "new, new, new things": * New because it is its new media and new users. * New is because there is no game in the past. * New is because it is promoted by Ea.com, a new company. In May 1999, online game Majestic officially started. At that time, Neil was moved from Ostein, the capital of Texas, USA, where he was already the general manager of Origin Systems. NEIL has a dream for network entertainment, so EA has to provide the autonomy necessary to provide venture capital and organization in order to promote this project. As this project, the work team has been different from the existing team in EA. It really needs to be familiar with the production of games, but it also needs to tell stories, sharing its training methods with TV and movie business, and how to take advantage of the best network technology.
Our core group is finally composed of people in a variety of backgrounds: Rich Moore stays in Atari's US Coin-Op Division and CAPCOM for many years, for more than many years, and the Internet is derived from him. When MediaShower; Gail Oda, our production officer is a older with rich experience in the production of visual effects. It has recently been engaged in impossible tasks 2 (Mission: Impossible 2); John Danza is a creation director, one Movie film models in guiding business advertising and music video belt; Ralph Guggenheim is a major member of Pixar and also producers for Movie Toy Mobilization (Toy Story). When the team is in place, and EA continues to support our dream of online entertainment, at this time, Majestic has begun to form. Although Majestic is unique in many ways, there are three main features different from traditional computer games. Edit: In view of the number of players with regularity and regular players, many companies are positioned in these two groups, rather than focusing on more than 30 hours above a week. Fans. Jupiter Media Metrix analyst predicts that by 2005, a frequent player (which is expensive to play games per week) will reach 19 million, and nearly 6 million people will be nearly 6 million players. With this mature customer market that is familiar with the computer, it is very developed in the online game. Just around you. Now you have the relationship between games, just like any other entertainment, they allocate your daily time and their interaction. But online games are not like other kinds of entertainment, which often takes up more time than you are estimated. Finally, this will win stumbling blocks in the market that adult as a demand. When you have a big grade, your life's appeal has changed: You have a job, there is another half, and there is a child, and you will have a night to play Diablo 2 (Diablo 2) has become a difficult, But it is not impossible. In this game Majestic, we tried to completely change the relationship between players and games; players don't have to play for several hours, and replaced it is that we want to pack the process into very small fragments. In order to achieve this, we use a variety of internet networks to design many methods that allow you to interact with games anytime, anywhere. A fun point is attracted to you, remind you to play, and continue to attract your attention at any time. When you work, let you suddenly receive an immediate message from the characters in the play, or you may have a phone call on the way you drive home. It turns out that a woman needs your help, or when you check the mailbox Just find the fax of a confidential government document between Game Developer, PC Gamer, and CGW. By pushing the game, we are thoroughly changing the existing experience of players to experience online games, and also created its unique challenge. Really staged. If the role in Majestic says they will contact you tomorrow, and they will call you tomorrow, which is likely to come true! From the virtual to the true, the real role can indeed accelerate the game's step. This influence is really big. Once we build it, the game can contact the player by an image as an immediate message or a phone window, and a dynamic window will bounce out to talk to you, or call it from the game. These elements are added in Majestic and build user expectations, which will become a key to online games. Continuous drama.
With the Internet, you don't only change your entertainment experience, and it also thoroughly changes the process of research and development and sales. By the drama dialogue, the R & D department can quickly publish the most popular story products to the market, and constantly provide a development experience process. When Majestic came out, we will have a programs for demand and the complete plots of two episodes. In the future, our internal team will continue to develop future plots, so that we will always run in front of the player. The experience of creating technological construction plots has led you to a conclusion so soon; you must separate technology with content. Technical is a maximum factor that can't expect the plan, and predictability is an important part. We want to develop new plots, while users are passionate about the previous plot. Therefore, the concept of this platform is - develop a variety of plots on a single engine - the birth. Compared to the content of each month, the technology is usually developed after a stable basis. Nothing is quite elastic, and we will gradually expand its development. Majestic has a unique technical needs, but it must meet some basic goals: * The Internet is our unique media. * Integrate a wide range of communication. * Played a role of more than one million users. * Provide a sound, elastic, effective platform to support the publishing of the story and regularly improve the stage background. * Generate some ways to make the content of the content can meet the needs of the plot development. Due to our needs, our definition of the engine is more extensive than the team's pure technical or method. Our platform does have these, but it can also use the technology of existing congorgents, and there is a new production process and pipeline. In order to achieve all purposes, we have developed a technique called Experience Server, and we have also established some important relationships with technical providers. We put the focus on the organization of production processes and pipelines, thereby entrusting a plan called "Red Book", which forced us to detail our process. We are particularly responsible for the management of pipeline management and assets, and we have invented countless new production processes that allow us to build this product. This platform is now the core of our doing anything. These technologies, processes, and pipelines provide key construction blocks to launch MAJESTIC and similar products. Throughout the basic construction, we will decide so quickly if we want to achieve the expected publication of the plot, we must separate the technology from the content. Our technical team is responsible for creating the basic technical foundation for asset and entertainment experience to be delivered to players. Majestic wants to support at least 100,000 players and provide experience in new plots regularly. It is necessary to meet these two standards, requiring an enterprise level of a corporate level that uses component-oriented as software-based. This fact strongly encourages us to use the topography map (Topography) and the server components that are similar to EA.com. Due to the same place, Synthetic and Ea.com make this conclusion, that is, on WebLogic's application servers, using server-side Java, which provides our appropriate software development environment. We have a netscape enterprise Servers with powerful expansion and easy to integrate with Java, and Oracle8i is used as the reason for our database system, based on the strong solidibility of its system and players with large amounts of capacity to handle quantities simultaneously. The Java language provides a considerable network core category and method and greatly supports the reuse of software components. The server-side Java basic category has allowed us to make many prototypes with our own characteristics, repeatedly improved, and provide examples of works that can outline the final result, and valuable products.
Many development processes behind Majestic are pushed by Rapid Prototype Developments and are accompanied by repeated, testing, and enhanced cycles. At the same time, the process, documentation, and informative management of the system design are for the final product version of the platform. In essence, this matches the needs of product display during development, while providing the following tests, as well as the correctness check of the up to the lower system architecture design process. The basis of the Majestic platform is composed of ENTERPRISE JAVABeans for considerable Java Servelets and JavaServer Pages. This method encapsulates the data access to a particular user and separated from the Presentation Layer. The platform is in accordance with its functional line, the information package, and its final presented format. Let us have no gap between the idea of doing the best for each pipeline part of the software. It allows us to independently improve the various parts to increase efficiency, can also increase new features and make some reins. Technical teams utilize the strengths of software Design Patterns on categories. In Majestic, use Factory Pattern Management Assets (Asset Classes) is an example. Imagine assets into an account, joining the player's property list is like a series of consecutive plays. The obvious benefit of this method is that we can easily expand the types of assets supported by our platform by adding additional assettypes. The existing methods and categories naturally continue to support new AssetTypes while maintaining current functionality. Some AssetTypes is the function of our experience server, from other coordination manufacturers that have been integrated on this platform. There is still a major principle when we develop, which is to use technical cooperation to provide a variety of delivery systems for our products. Fortunately, under the commercial arrangement of EA.com and AOL, we provide our special grade to access the AOL Instant Messaging network and its technical components. At the same time, we build partnerships with Sentica to provide voice and fax delivery; HotVoice, providing our E-mail, V-mail and e-Fax, providing an internet-based unified Messaging System (UMS); EGAIN, Their EGAIN Assistant provides basic technology for session AI; Akamai provides streaming video and audio; simultaneous AOL Spinamp, providing a CLIENT end portion of a streaming sound. With the consistency manufacturer, we have an easy to extend, allow replacement, increase or remove the asset transfer mechanism. The key challenge is like all games, and the technology development team of the game will face some key challenges. The main items on the list are: When the platform with product value is active, it is necessary to provide fast prototyping, integrated communication methods and techniques, and support the ongoing content development, and technology platform development test. We will discuss individuals. If the previous paragraph mentioned, our company grade software component development, prototype development, and platform versions of early architectural size are parallel management. For example, the early platform versions combined with logical and game logic. Any changes to visual representations, human interfaces or game logic, need to change this component. The fragment part of these software classes is shown in Figure 2. (Sorry, the original text is a magazine, so there is no picture here.) Integration of the technology needs to establish a clear functional requirement and integrate these product versions in the early days of the R & D cycle.
Just like our partial assessment process, we give higher importance to the designer capabilities, and our work is based on players; and their quality and integrity fall in an assessment period. Other business considerations are also included in some of the selection processes. Before you have not challenged and innovation, we will try our best to help our work partners to improve their combat power, so that he really is like R & D employees in our internal. Additional complexity will increase because in order to ensure that our partner's product process can be synchronized with our development process, in order to reduce the impact on our R & D plan. The problem that solves the integration of coincidence manufacturers is to isolate the information by queen (Queue). For example, UNIFIED Messaging System needs to pass a message to the player at a specific time. From our technical partners, the UMS steps are provided, and the UMS method is wrapped, we will make a combination of queues in the database. Therefore, we can easily only upgrade the components of our technical partners, but only need to involve the UMS processing element to complete changes. This processing process is shown here. The development of technical and content has caused attention to the focus and consideration. In order to reduce the product's display and assessment of the influence on the R & D period, the technology of research and development often requires change decision, or the priority of adjustment work. In Majestic, we have completed a way that can demonstrate possible products soon. This early prototype is not used on our final program code, but it is valuable for promoting the definition of the technical platform and the functional decomposition of architecture design. This prototype process also provides a model to the LeApFrogging platform version of the technology research and development. We have focused on a major demand early, that is, we must immediately support a variety of server environments. In order to maintain and support each environment, this increases the burden of work, but it helps to independent of the work of technology research and development from the creation and testing of the content. Software development is operating in a specific environment, simultaneous new features and testing sample content. Once this new feature is complete, it has been fully tested, which will be transplanted to the environment of the content product. This can isolate many conflicts between content products and technology research and help in our rapid prototype development. Majestic vs traditional game development has two methods for comparing Majestic and traditional game development. One is compared to the traditional product packaging with shrinkage, the other is compared to other online games. The nature of the Internet is to allow players to easily combine different activities. We occasionally be keen on ideas, browse the web, or a immediate conversation. We can also play streaming sounds or video at the same time. When you want to present the functionality that has been combined, then provide such options to the designer, is a challenge of Majestic. Then, for Majestic, a significant difference is that the structure it needs must be based on different internet network activities. We use a variety of different technologies and methods to confirm that the activities of the Internet are completed or by the player to switch to other activities. In Majestic, players see the content stored in the database is the completed key project and the problem that has been resolved. Unlike traditional games, Majestic is not fully dominated or controlling game environments - players are no longer 2D or 3D graphics world. Compared with most online games, the experience of this game is not rotating around a problem that needs to maintain a true FPS or reducing the delay. In order to make the player can achieve the presentation presentation by various frequency width speeds, and let all players feel that they have interactive and reactions, it is a challenge for the performance optimization to Majestic. During R & D, we also made a decision that in providing players personalized content, they must reflect the status of players in the game, and when the player completes the main goals, it can effectively give back the player's new content and activities. Majestic is naturally developed into a need to separate technology and content. Such separation allows the content to be changed at any time of R & D, and when each session is completed, it provides a foundation for the transfer of new completion.
The principles of the package are towards the organization of the definition technology platform and the composition of the data in the database, in fact, finally proves that it can be done. In addition to the experience server, Majestic discrete technology is not our exclusive, so what is our most unique experience? What is the biggest challenge we face? And the most proud technology achievement? I think it should be gradually formed over time, expandable, flexible, and is also a technology level technology that uses how to coordinate the entertainment experience in the development of development. In 1983, Bill Budge was responsible for selling EA's first monument game: Pinball Construction Set. Bill is responsible for game design, program writing, art, music, manual, and even for sale and making a packaging of floppy plates. In 2001, Neil Young was responsible for developing EA's first network adventure game Majestic. Neil is not responsible for game design, program writing, art, music, manual, or the nasty packaging detail. But like Bill Budge is a pioneer pioneer, Neil thought of a big new game design concept and fulfilling it. BILL is from the inspiration of the design user interface when Apple works. Neil's inspiration comes from the innovative media, like the WAR of the Worlds of Orson Welles, the newsletter of the weekday, and the movie series. When the two begins, they are tired of the game industry now can provide, but they are confident to find new ways to use our media. I saw NEIL efforts to solve the new design concept about Majestic: How to have X-Files mystery? How to make the same fuzzy and fiction like War of the Worlds? How to avoid standard CD games? How to create and issue a series of continuous stories? Then, it is like Budge, Neil makes his time appropriate organization judgment. However, Bill one hand, Neil hires an expert in John, Rich and Ralph to enrich this great idea. Neil has a EA original "computer that makes you call?" On his computer, it has erected a "software worth remembering in the heart" goal. Neil looks not like Bill, or wearing a nailed glove like Bill, but he brings the exploration wisdom of the game design. Although there are many changes in game development in the past 20 years, the style of these two creation leaders is very similar. - Bing Gordon, the main designer / common founder of Electronic Arts. Majestic's game design We have also built Majestic and its platform, using this media to create games, we have learned quite surprising things. Although the core of Majestic interactivity is a self-adventure game, the story is self-sufficient TV, although both are quite different in the surface and step, but Majestic is passed on the story of the storyte, but needs new intentions. And horizontal thinking. The change in plot step is one of the challenges. This means that we have to make a lot of content to ensure that users can connect their experiences continuously, rather than ask them to spend more than 15 to 30 minutes in any progress. Initially, we just intuitively determine the appropriate content size and compact levels. Our simple strategy is to confirm a direct goal, then implement it to this goal, regardless of its efficiency, and this rapid prototyping method proves to be very valuable. For Majestic, we put all the focus on the construction of the propagation program, which is a free product display that allows the user to experience Majestic in order. The displayed products use the platform of all aspects of the full plot to one-quarter of one-third. By focusing our focus on the trial show, we found that we have a lot of design and actual controllable issues.
In July 2000 we built the prototype of the propagand program and a small part of EA. Fifteen people participated in the first test, and generally we got a good response. In any case, I know the third user test in November 2000, we really know how the user knows effective control in the game. In that process, the knowledge and knowledge we have learned is mainly to be able to track the progress of each user who returns to us during the game. With these consultations, we can quickly see where the user has difficulty. Our goal of design ideas is to lend nearly 100% users to each plot, not to let people fall into a dilemma without progress. Think about the design of the game, it is difficult for you to have the opportunity to collect accurate and how to play the game. Try to each person to each person is the most basic design and business elements in a plurality of consecutive games. If we don't do this, Wanjia will not order or renew, if they don't do this, then don't talk anything. If you ask me, what are we learned in Majestic? Specifically, we will handle and solve the challenge of designing and solve the model, and at the same time, we can measure the actual user and the interaction of this item, which will be a major in our project designed from now. The essential. New media, new production processes create a plot MAJESTIC, combined with many technologies, tools and techniques obtained by movies, television, networks, and game products. All techniques are successfully integrated at the core of Majestic. The natural story of the game is the biggest challenge of the product. This rhythm is influential, from a series of consecutive dramas, and writing, to the technical platform, QA process, or even its sales and promotional experience. Temporarily let us put the focus on the basic details of the continuous drama. On any day, MAJESTIC's all staff simultaneously exposed three different plots in the project, each of which was operated in the product line in their way. In the ideal state, all staff can only create a plot in one time. In the real situation, they created the current plot, the previous one (depending on the reaction status of QA), and the idea and script of the next story development story. This continues to jump from the past to the future, bring a good benefit: it is forcing the team to constantly compare each plot to ensure that the quality level is better than one. As described above, we have long recognized the need to separate technology and content. Technical Team establishes the technical composition of the platform, and our content team is responsible for the design and development of the story and games in their contents. All challenges around the content team are to create a noteful role and uninterrupted story, so that users will take time to understand. This is the main difference between the games developed by most in Electronic Arts. In any case, there is a team that creates director, implementation, and other teams from TV, movies, and drama teams, we can apply them to this interactive media. To give a simple example: "Story Room" creation, a skill used by the scriptwriter and the artist artist, like the combat room used to develop the story. This is a work location that can develop new plots in the same time of the project. The characteristics of this room are from the floor to the ceiling, all the bulletin boards and whiteboards, and each facade has special use. The first wall showed all the ideas planned in the first time. When the time continued, creating the team's information, the character's description, with inspirational art and other use to fill in The discontinuous material between the story is filled with the wall, and we can continue to know the big direction of the whole story plot. The second wallery is maintained as a story constructed as a single plot of collective discussions. We can simply see and ensure that both the first wallery and the current plot conception on the second surface wall can be consistent.
Finally, the third wallery will redevelop the product in an illustration of the product. Once the story development is sufficiently detailed, it will give it to the entire team, they provide views and find a vulnerability when playing the story logic and game playing. Only the story completes through this latest test, it can be written as a script or the design of the design and ready to produce. DW Griffith has an inability to invent early movie language, like his inventions in "The Establishing Shot", "The Close-Up", "The Fade Out", and "The Cross Cut" in other things. among. I tried to understand "The Close Up" or "The Cross Cut" and what the new media we are creating has something to have some new ideas. Our words are increasing, and we are slowly making it smooth. We may even make the new language we have learned rich in poetry. - John Danza, creation director. Another test in front of the plot is a rough calculation of the quantity and type of each asset (a typical plot has 150 to 200 assets). According to the experience of the previous plot, we tried to assess whether the number of this assets is consistent with the limitations of our product plan? At the same time, try to make some correlation. This will be a difficult task that when the writer has declared their stories as much as possible, but the discipline of work is facing we must accurately estimate the workload of manageable products in each month. When the blueprint of the plot is created, the other two consecutive events quickly happen: capturing the logical table design of the triggered and events in the plot, and the product schedule for the team that can specify each asset to it. . A plot to passing Majestic is able to tell the various types of assets that can tell the story and entertainment audiences. All staff is arranged in accordance with specialized technology in special fields: collaboration, art, web design, Flash program design, and audio and video products - this is a simple classification for a wide range of assets in a plot. All work is independently designed, except for the assets of sound and images, they are created by our creation of directors and product management team supervision. When the plot of the entire product extends to eighth to ten weeks, the core of the product plan is usually cut into two parts: in a three-week product cycle to create a variety of unloaded assets, then do a week to integrate, test and launde assets. For a positive first display strategy of Majestic, it is a very short plan, in order to make a sufficiently detailed plan make the pressure all in the product management team. The entire production process depends on timely creation of assets in a timely manner, and eventually, all must be considered as a final verification. We have established a Multi-Step inspection system that allows us to track the status of each asset during our process. This MULTI-Step test method is the progress of tracking the plot by the self-reserved database. This system produces a variety of forms of metric units to allow our product managers to maintain the focus of the team in a request that meets the deadline. Although we restrict the type and quantity of the assets in a plot, we still learn from every newly created plot and apply to the next game. We will continue to improve the product line by creating time-hour tools to cope with each step in our process. Finally, in this interactive, each change in media in the unknown media in the story is, it is based on its ability to improve user experience. At the created level, a plurality of products have many and other work we have in movies and videos. First, each matter must be created to support and strengthen the emotional characteristics of the story. This is a place that is often ignored in the game design. Many interactive game products are very small, and we try to make Majestic become a "Story With Puzzles".
