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It’s well known that many development studios don’t have the time or finances to build the quantity and variety of content found in WoW. Some games have to rely on delivering their content through a limited number of locations. But when that’s the case, why set the game in a bloody warehouse?

I spent most of my time in City of Heroes inside mundane, life-sapping warehouses. Now I’m doing the same in Hellgate: London. At least CoH had a better excuse due to the limitations they imposed on themselves with their setting. I’m only in Act 3 in Hellgate, but so far it’s like a guided warehouse tour.

In other news, the writing and plot in Hellgate is absolutely atrocious. Their interesting world appears to serve no purpose other than to fuel highly marketable cutscenes.

I’ve enjoyed a handful of realistic games, but they’re usually not something that interests me. Now I’m working on one, and damned if it’s a designer’s nightmare. Well, at least for this designer.

Working on a realistic game starts the process as more of a recreation instead of a creation. Realism can be a useful tool, but it’s also a horrible constraint. We can only push the boundaries so far before we don’t have any semblance of realism. For an MMO, this means it’s a constant war of give and take in late game development. In my previous project, we only really operated with one constraint: making fun and expandable systems. That’s not really a limitation so much as a goal. Realism is a goal that imposes limitations on a wide range of design areas, ranging from systems to game balance.

How should ships of different sizes interact and be balanced in Pirates? The answer to the question is simple for me, but it’s something I can’t do because of realism. So I go with Plan B instead of my instinctual design decision. Those instincts are what got me here in the first place, and I don’t like anything that forces me to ignore them.