Questions
by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">
Answers
by Randall Farmer and Chip Morningstar
A few days ago, the Ten Ton Hammer staff
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29292">introduced
readers to two of
the founding fathers of massively multiplayer gaming, Randall
Farmer
and Chip Morningstar, and their initial MMOG project,
style="font-style: italic;">Habitat. Today,
we’re proud to present you with the second half of that
interview in all its extensive glory. In the second part, Randy and
Chip discuss the initial ideas behind
style="font-style: italic;">Habitat, their
thoughts on the influence the game had over MMOGs, and where the future
will take them. Enjoy!
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29288">
src="/image/view/29288/preview"
width="200">
A screenshot from the
world of Habitat.
style="font-weight: bold;">Ten Ton Hammer: How did
style="font-style: italic;">Habitat come about
and what caused the idea to originally emerge in your head?
style="font-weight: bold;">Chip: Part of it was
drawing on ideas that were kind of in the air. A lot of us at Lucasfilm
Games and the technically inclined folks of my generation grew up
playing tabletop war games, Dungeons
and Dragons, and things of that nature, and those people
had done the sort of world creation activities that you do to set up
those sort of games. The idea to do something kind of like that with
the computer as a moderating medium was not a new one.
However, I was having lunch with my officemate, Noah Falstein, and I
was talking about my thoughts on generating what we were originally
thinking of as universes – something out in space with
planets and continents – then be able to zoom down to
arbitrary levels of detail. All of these items would be created then
allow for multiple people to interact through the medium of a network
connection. That’s when we started kicking things around a
bit.
The way Lucasfilm Games worked at the time was that anyone that had a
game proposal would do a two to four page write up that would get
circulated to everyone in the group. You’d then take their
comments and revise it into a nice tight document. However, any of the
original content that we devised wasn’t going to be made
using exclusively Lucasfilm money. It had to be done as a partnership
with somebody else. Basically, somebody else had to pay for it.
So what would happen with these various ideas is that they’d
get filed with our general manager, Steve Arnold, who kept a big filing
cabinet full of all the various ideas that were bubbling in the group.
Then when someone would come shopping for a game, he could pull
whatever seemed relevant and make a pitch.
Lots of companies came to Lucasfilm because it was sexy to go to
Lucasfilm and people just wanted to go there. So a lot of these
companies that came, we actually were able to make deals with them. It
was probably late spring or early summer in 1985 – it may
have been earlier – when Clive Smith (who was then the head
of strategic planning for Commodore) came by. He had just gotten
Commodore into a couple of strategic things – being the
strategy guy – one was the acquisition of Amiga and the other
was getting Commodore involved with an online service that was just
starting up called QuantumLink, which was a consumer oriented online
service. This was very different from the mainstream of the day, which
was like Compuserve and very business focused.
So Clive came to us an asked us if we had anything that used modems
– because they wanted to sell modems – and also if
we have anything that would use high-end graphics machines.
Our general manager pulled out my proposal (it was then called
Lucasfilm Universe) and another proposal for a space game that would
exploit the graphical advantages of the Amiga. We pitched these two
projects to him, laid out our ideas, and he thought they were both
swell. Then the whole deal making apparatus kicked in and one thing led
to another, but when all the dust settled they decided not to do the
space-based game but that QuantumLink was quite interested in my
proposal.
They signed up for the deal, and then the project was underway. At that
point, the whole thing started rolling. However, I actually got about a
six month design ahead because the lawyers had to spend an inordinate
amount of time going back and forth getting all the contract paper work
figured out. It was a completely different style of deal then anything
anyone had done before, so they didn’t quite know how to
structure it. While all the lawyers were doing their “lawyer
dance”, I worked on design because it was pretty clear that
the whole thing was going to happen. So we were able to
really hit the ground running.
drawing on ideas that were kind of in the air. A lot of us at Lucasfilm
Games and the technically inclined folks of my generation grew up
playing tabletop war games, Dungeons
and Dragons, and things of that nature, and those people
had done the sort of world creation activities that you do to set up
those sort of games. The idea to do something kind of like that with
the computer as a moderating medium was not a new one.
However, I was having lunch with my officemate, Noah Falstein, and I
was talking about my thoughts on generating what we were originally
thinking of as universes – something out in space with
planets and continents – then be able to zoom down to
arbitrary levels of detail. All of these items would be created then
allow for multiple people to interact through the medium of a network
connection. That’s when we started kicking things around a
bit.
The way Lucasfilm Games worked at the time was that anyone that had a
game proposal would do a two to four page write up that would get
circulated to everyone in the group. You’d then take their
comments and revise it into a nice tight document. However, any of the
original content that we devised wasn’t going to be made
using exclusively Lucasfilm money. It had to be done as a partnership
with somebody else. Basically, somebody else had to pay for it.
So what would happen with these various ideas is that they’d
get filed with our general manager, Steve Arnold, who kept a big filing
cabinet full of all the various ideas that were bubbling in the group.
Then when someone would come shopping for a game, he could pull
whatever seemed relevant and make a pitch.
Lots of companies came to Lucasfilm because it was sexy to go to
Lucasfilm and people just wanted to go there. So a lot of these
companies that came, we actually were able to make deals with them. It
was probably late spring or early summer in 1985 – it may
have been earlier – when Clive Smith (who was then the head
of strategic planning for Commodore) came by. He had just gotten
Commodore into a couple of strategic things – being the
strategy guy – one was the acquisition of Amiga and the other
was getting Commodore involved with an online service that was just
starting up called QuantumLink, which was a consumer oriented online
service. This was very different from the mainstream of the day, which
was like Compuserve and very business focused.
So Clive came to us an asked us if we had anything that used modems
– because they wanted to sell modems – and also if
we have anything that would use high-end graphics machines.
Our general manager pulled out my proposal (it was then called
Lucasfilm Universe) and another proposal for a space game that would
exploit the graphical advantages of the Amiga. We pitched these two
projects to him, laid out our ideas, and he thought they were both
swell. Then the whole deal making apparatus kicked in and one thing led
to another, but when all the dust settled they decided not to do the
space-based game but that QuantumLink was quite interested in my
proposal.
They signed up for the deal, and then the project was underway. At that
point, the whole thing started rolling. However, I actually got about a
six month design ahead because the lawyers had to spend an inordinate
amount of time going back and forth getting all the contract paper work
figured out. It was a completely different style of deal then anything
anyone had done before, so they didn’t quite know how to
structure it. While all the lawyers were doing their “lawyer
dance”, I worked on design because it was pretty clear that
the whole thing was going to happen. So we were able to
really hit the ground running.
Ten Ton Hammer: What do
you feel is the biggest contribution
style="font-style: italic;">Habitat has had to
massively multiplayer gaming?
style="font-weight: bold;">Chip: One thing that
I’m alternately proud of and embarrassed by is the
propagation of the term “Avatar”, which has really
become the common term to use when describing your character in one of
these worlds. It was my coinage, and it’s certainly expanded
to take on a life of its own in ways that I continue to be bemused by.
I think there are two big contributions that style="font-style: italic;">Habitat made to the
MMOG industry. One is the things in Habitat that people emulated, and
then the things in Habitat that we told people about and they believed
us.
Randy style="font-style: italic;">: I would list
“Lessons of Habitat” as really one of the biggest
contributions to MMO gaming.
Chip: The
“Lessons of Habitat”
in particular is a huge contribution to MMO gaming. One of the things
that we’re in a habit of doing when we have one of these
adventures is to do a postmortem where we’ll get in front of
the world and tell everyone about all of our screw-ups. We try to give
everyone else the benefit of our mistakes.
I’m alternately proud of and embarrassed by is the
propagation of the term “Avatar”, which has really
become the common term to use when describing your character in one of
these worlds. It was my coinage, and it’s certainly expanded
to take on a life of its own in ways that I continue to be bemused by.
I think there are two big contributions that style="font-style: italic;">Habitat made to the
MMOG industry. One is the things in Habitat that people emulated, and
then the things in Habitat that we told people about and they believed
us.
Randy style="font-style: italic;">: I would list
“Lessons of Habitat” as really one of the biggest
contributions to MMO gaming.
Chip: The
“Lessons of Habitat”
in particular is a huge contribution to MMO gaming. One of the things
that we’re in a habit of doing when we have one of these
adventures is to do a postmortem where we’ll get in front of
the world and tell everyone about all of our screw-ups. We try to give
everyone else the benefit of our mistakes.
It turns out that people
respect that.
We’re being sort of non-linear here, but another thread of
thought that really led us into Habitat
was that in 1985, one of the great topics of discussion in computer
gaming was AI. How do you program the computerized opponent that you
play against in a computer game?
It was a hard problem, but one of the initial solutions that I
articulated via Habitat
was to not even try. We don’t know how to program an
automaton that is as rich, clever, or innovative as a human being. So
let’s not even attempt it! Let’s just let you
interact with a real human!
It seems really obvious in retrospect, and a lot of the ideas in
Lessons have that flavor, but it’s all about making the
social component a central part of the gaming experience.
Another one of our Lessons – don’t trust the client
– is an idea that people still continue to violate to this
day! (Editor’s Note: You can read an expanded version of this
lesson here.
respect that.
We’re being sort of non-linear here, but another thread of
thought that really led us into Habitat
was that in 1985, one of the great topics of discussion in computer
gaming was AI. How do you program the computerized opponent that you
play against in a computer game?
It was a hard problem, but one of the initial solutions that I
articulated via Habitat
was to not even try. We don’t know how to program an
automaton that is as rich, clever, or innovative as a human being. So
let’s not even attempt it! Let’s just let you
interact with a real human!
It seems really obvious in retrospect, and a lot of the ideas in
Lessons have that flavor, but it’s all about making the
social component a central part of the gaming experience.
Another one of our Lessons – don’t trust the client
– is an idea that people still continue to violate to this
day! (Editor’s Note: You can read an expanded version of this
lesson here.
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Randy
style="font-style: italic;">: It’s very
interesting to look at these things in retrospect. There are a couple
of things that really stand out in my mind. One was acknowledging that
the people were actually in control; the idea that when you created a
virtual world, you were entering into a partnership with the customers.
style="font-style: italic;">
This is something we
dealt with all the time.
interesting to look at these things in retrospect. There are a couple
of things that really stand out in my mind. One was acknowledging that
the people were actually in control; the idea that when you created a
virtual world, you were entering into a partnership with the customers.
style="font-style: italic;">
This is something we
dealt with all the time.
style="font-weight: bold;">Chip: And it
continues to be something that game companies continue to have to learn
every time one of them does an online game.
Randy style="font-style: italic;">: It took a while for some of
the lessons to really sink in. Several years had to pass before people
really began to believe that you couldn’t trust the client.
People spent a lot of time – even after Habitat –
continuing to believe the client. Whatever you do –
don’t believe the client! The client will lie to you.
style="font-style: italic;">
If you look at early
multiplayer versions of Diablo, those folks trusted the client to tell
them how much money the user got, for example. You add a simple patch
to the game and you could buy things for nothing and sell them for
insane amounts, generating users endless money. Even though you were
playing with other players, it was never a global market; it was always
just an instance.
My daughter and I
actually used this patch because we wanted to get through the game, but
we didn’t want gear to be getting in our way. I
didn’t cheat anywhere else, but we didn’t want to
be held back by gear issues. This was an example of a development team
trusting the client.
It took a couple years
for other developers to begin writing papers and telling other
developers not to trust the client.
style="font-style: italic;">
The benefit of being
early means that it allows people to use you as a reference. The
“Lessons of Habitat” document has been cited in an
enormous number of books, because it gave people an anchor to focus
their ideas around. They might propose an idea with a subtle difference
to our own lessons and advance the state of the art.
style="font-style: italic;">
It’s really
like a much beloved reference.
continues to be something that game companies continue to have to learn
every time one of them does an online game.
Randy style="font-style: italic;">: It took a while for some of
the lessons to really sink in. Several years had to pass before people
really began to believe that you couldn’t trust the client.
People spent a lot of time – even after Habitat –
continuing to believe the client. Whatever you do –
don’t believe the client! The client will lie to you.
style="font-style: italic;">
If you look at early
multiplayer versions of Diablo, those folks trusted the client to tell
them how much money the user got, for example. You add a simple patch
to the game and you could buy things for nothing and sell them for
insane amounts, generating users endless money. Even though you were
playing with other players, it was never a global market; it was always
just an instance.
My daughter and I
actually used this patch because we wanted to get through the game, but
we didn’t want gear to be getting in our way. I
didn’t cheat anywhere else, but we didn’t want to
be held back by gear issues. This was an example of a development team
trusting the client.
It took a couple years
for other developers to begin writing papers and telling other
developers not to trust the client.
style="font-style: italic;">
The benefit of being
early means that it allows people to use you as a reference. The
“Lessons of Habitat” document has been cited in an
enormous number of books, because it gave people an anchor to focus
their ideas around. They might propose an idea with a subtle difference
to our own lessons and advance the state of the art.
style="font-style: italic;">
It’s really
like a much beloved reference.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29289">
src="/image/view/29289/preview"
width="200">
Farmer is on the
board of advisors for Raph Koster's Metaplace.
style="font-weight: bold;">Ten Ton Hammer: When you were
originally writing “Lessons of
style="font-style: italic;">Habitat”,
did you have any idea how true many of the lessons would be 18 years
down the road?
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Randy
style="font-style: italic;">: Well, some of the
didn’t turn out to be as true as we thought. That’s
why we wrote “Habitat Redux”. But the majority of
the lessons turned out to be pretty solid.
style="font-style: italic;">
The challenges actually
came depending on our situation. If we were observing what had
happened, the lessons seemed to hold up very well. However, where we
prognosticated a little bit, that’s where we ran into more
trouble.
It’s important
to remember that Habitat was pre-Web, and there were things about how
people would advance with the technology. I mean, Habitat was debuted
in the age when people were paying per minute for online time. And
– I kid you not – people could actually type faster
than the speed that the data was being delivered over the wire.
style="font-style: italic;">
In that universe,
prognosticating about the future is perilous.
didn’t turn out to be as true as we thought. That’s
why we wrote “Habitat Redux”. But the majority of
the lessons turned out to be pretty solid.
style="font-style: italic;">
The challenges actually
came depending on our situation. If we were observing what had
happened, the lessons seemed to hold up very well. However, where we
prognosticated a little bit, that’s where we ran into more
trouble.
It’s important
to remember that Habitat was pre-Web, and there were things about how
people would advance with the technology. I mean, Habitat was debuted
in the age when people were paying per minute for online time. And
– I kid you not – people could actually type faster
than the speed that the data was being delivered over the wire.
style="font-style: italic;">
In that universe,
prognosticating about the future is perilous.
