Muzyka and Zeschuk of Bioware Talk at Colorado College
Product: Muzyka and Zeschuk Talk
Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk visited Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado this week and gave what seemed like a painfully short talk on digital / human interaction. We're talking about the people who co-founded Bioware, and therefore brought you Bauldur's Gate, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age, and more. How can you have enough time? One thing I learned: They're real (medical!) doctors. Also, Bioware games always rank in the top 10% in metacritic scores (well, perhaps, but it takes some number wrangling at gamerankings.com to get this conclusion). It comes as no surprise, but perhaps it has something to do with Muzyka and Zechuk's fascination with the human digital relationship. How do you create characters that the player identifies with? How do you create emotionally engaging interactions - interactions that the player cares about? They laid out some basics: use an activity pillar system. Have the player go through cycles of exploration, combat, progression, and story. Don't go too heavy on any one thing. Oh, and combat doesn't have to be a physical fight, it can be emotional conflict.
They also emphasized the need to make the player feel like they are discovering things. The feeling that "you're the first person to ever see a place for the first time" is what they want to invoke in the player. I can say, with the emotional engagement I personally felt just with the galaxy map in Mass Effect, they got this down. They'd also like to let you know that unlike Roger Ebert, they believe games are an art form. They're dynamic, they're interactive, and they can go online and evolve into new experiences. Star Wars: the Old Republic was also briefly mentioned. It's going to have all your standard MMO elements, such as guilds, achievements, and social interaction - your now standard MMO elements. But they emphasized the story of the hero would be big here. Everyone will speak, and you'll get elements of a narrative.
The doctors may also have a role in training the Taco Bell employee you just ordered your chalupa from. Yes, they are also co-chairs of a company called Code Baby. The company has offices in Edmonton, Alberta, as well as Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of the things Code Baby does is provide a human-like bridge for interacting with what may be thousands of pages of content on a website. How do you find what you're looking for when you see nothing but lists and links? Code Baby has created digital characters that pop up and greet you when you come to a site such as Amtrak.com. It asks you what you'd like to do, and helps you along. They stressed that they know the dangerous path that was Microsoft's Clippy, and they're not going to repeat that. They're working to deliver content that's customized to what people really need when they go to a website, and even to evolve a relationship with the customer over time. In addition to helping people with website navigation, yes, they also have characters that may have trained your friendly Taco Bell employees.
Near the end of the night, I got the nerve to ask one Mass Effect-related question. Basically, I asked if there was a special reason why the quick Renegade and Paragon decisions were added to Mass Effect 2. They answered that it was all optional, and simply added as an extra level of excitement. It was actually a feature that was on the wish list for the first Mass Effect. And don't worry, if you're the kind of person who can't make a decision, they'll completely understand. The neutral path is also a respectable decision in itself. And if you've ever missed a decision, they understand that too, having thrown bags of chips up in the air in a scramble to get back to the controller in time. Throughout the talk, there was an underlying theme that echoed what we hear from companies like Google. Be good to your employees, stick to your principles, and draw on the strengths your employees, and even the areas where you actually work out of. In the wake of the nasty Activision news, it was nice to hear some refreshing words from a company like this.
-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville
Related Links: Code Baby's Official Website Bioware's Official Website Muzyka and Zeschuk Talk Announcement Site
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