Bart Stewart -- Game Design

G A M E D E S I G N

Most Recent Essay

2007/06/25: Ethical Behavior Inside the Magic Circle

Past Essays

General Design Issues

2007/05/25: It's All Been Done? No Way!
2006/12/07: Freedom and Responsibility
2006/11/09: Character Growth Games 3
2006/10/17: WMDs in MMORPGs
2006/08/31: Classes vs. Skills 2
2006/06/30: Bottom-up, Top-down, and Inside-out Design
2006/06/29: The Jack-of-all-Trades
2006/06/27: Cooperative Play
2006/06/23: The Passage of Time
2006/05/25: Social Engineering in MMORPGs
2006/05/19: Game Worlds Should Be Logically Consistent
2006/05/15: Public Games
2006/05/11: Controlling Gameplay Speed
2006/04/24: Who Makes the Rules?
2006/04/11: Unconventional Feature Ideas for MMORPGs
2006/04/10: MMOGs Unfair!
2006/03/21: Most Desirable MMORPG Features
2006/03/07: Character Growth Games 2
2006/02/13: Storytelling Through Quests
2006/02/01: Copy Protection of Games
2006/01/31: MMOGs as Balanced Systems
2006/01/30: Level-Free Design
2006/01/28: Class-based vs. Standalone Skills
2006/01/21: Character Growth Games 1
2006/01/16: How a Game Industry Institutionalizes
2005/12/21: Supply-Side Content Provision
2005/09/01: The Effects of Collectibles
2005/01/21: Fighters Should Be Poor

Specific Feature Ideas

2006/03/31: Books in MMORPGs
2006/03/22: Card Games in MMORPGs
2004/09/13: On the Value of Roads
2004/07/29: Badge System Concepts
2004/07/06: Weather and Other Planetary Features
2004/06/11: Player-Defined Organizations
2003/11/03: City Councils

MOBs, NPCs and AI

2006/06/28: Non-Player MOB AI, Part 2
2006/05/04: Defining MOB Behaviors by MOB Age
2006/02/06: MOBs as Cellular Automata
2006/01/25: Non-Player MOB AI, Part 1

Game Mechanics

2006/04/25: Quest Structures
2006/04/06: On the Persistence of Corpses
2006/01/26: Alternatives to Hard Caps on Skill Learning
2006/01/23: Instant Travel Considered Harmful, Part 3
2006/01/12: Instant Travel Considered Harmful, Part 2
2006/01/12: Instant Travel Considered Harmful, Part 1
2005/05/12: Item Power Balancing
2004/07/23: Why Buffs Are Pure Essence of Evil

Crafting

2007/05/17: Crafting for Explorers
2006/07/17: Ten Questions for Crafting System Designers
2006/06/27: Crafting As a Process

Combat

2006/04/27: MMORPGs and Combat, Part 2
2006/04/25: MMORPGs and Combat, Part 1
2006/03/13: Why Special Moves Are Wrong for MMORPG Combat
2006/01/26: Strategy vs. Tactics, Part 3
2006/01/26: Strategy vs. Tactics, Part 2
2006/01/12: Strategy vs. Tactics, Part 1
2004/10/20: A Stealth System
2004/04/12: Environments and Tactics

Magic

2006/01/12: Magic As Art and Science
2006/01/11: Lyndon Hardy's Master of the Five Magics
1998/12/18: The Four Types of Magic in Middle-Earth
1993/10/12: Magic-Using Societies in Fiction

Game Economics

2006/06/16: Price Stability in MMORPG Economies
2005/12/01: Economic Stages of MMOGs Synopsis
2005/12/01: Economic Stages of MMOGs
2005/10/11: Inflation
2005/06/15: Crafting vs Sales
2004/03/23: Player Contracts: The Short Version
2004/01/26: Player Contracts: A Design Document

Personality, Psychology, Player Types, and Playstyles

2007/06/20: A Simulationist/Narrativist Manifesto
2006/09/26: End-Games and Playstyles
2006/07/12: Thottbot versus Explorers
2006/07/11: Quests for Non-Achievers
2006/02/28: Does a MMORPG Need Killers?
2006/01/17: Achiever Rewards and Explorer Rewards
2006/01/16: Who Are Explorers, and What Do They Want?
2005/01/28: Bartle's Player Types and Keirsey's Temperaments
2005/01/07: Temperament and Online Games

Design Analyses

2005/04/30: Key Features of EVE Online
2005/10/12: Key Features of the Original Sim City

Essays Specific to Star Trek Online

General ST:O

2007/04/19: Combat Modes and Starfleet Ranks
2007/04/07: Starship Operations and Crafting in Star Trek Online

Essays Specific to Star Wars Galaxies

General SWG

2006/02/16: The History of SWG and Non-Combatants
2005/11/21: SWG's Betrayal
2005/10/13: Should Professions Depend On Each Other?
2005/09/29: New Economic Abilities for Merchants
2005/09/26: A Categorization of Every Documented Change v2.0
2005/08/24: On the Current Popularity of Advanced Professions
2005/06/23: How to Increase Population Density
2005/06/09: Crafting Diversity in a Player Economy
2005/05/10: SWG's Framework for Success
2005/05/04: Reactions to the Combat Upgrade
2005/03/28: Crafting is the Light Side
2005/03/22: Move the Trade Forums Into SWG
2005/02/24: The GCW, Crafters, and Neutrality
2005/02/23: Recrafting Crafting
2005/01/19: Suggestions for Advanced Search Features
2004/10/30: Songs in the Key of SWG
2004/10/16: Five Fixes to Core Systems
2004/09/13: Species-Specific Abilities
2004/09/07: The Path to Becoming Force Sensitive, Part 2
2004/09/06: Orbital Bombardment
2004/09/01: A Categorization of Every Documented Change v1.0
2004/08/31: Inventory and Encumbrance
2004/08/11: NPC City Crafting Specializations
2004/08/09: SWG vs Real Economy
2004/07/18: Storing Ships as Deeds
2004/07/10: The Path to Becoming Force Sensitive, Part 1
2004/04/15: Crafting: A Blueprint for the Future
2004/04/13: Pazaak
2004/04/09: Hero NPCs
2004/03/11: Content Shouldn't Just Mean "Dungeons"!
2004/03/05: Modular Architecture: A Redesign Proposal
2004/02/26: Higher Education
2004/02/20: Jedi Progression
2004/02/15: Imperial Stormtrooper Water Ballet Team
2003/09/19: General Crafting Improvements

Jump to Lightspeed

2004/08/25: Asteroid Mining
2004/08/22: Why JtL Needs Freighters
2004/07/02: Space Commerce: A Design Proposal
2004/07/01: The Long List of Star Wars Ships and Vehicles
2004/06/30: Sensor Ops and You: A Design Proposal
2004/06/15: Appropriate Uses for Capital Ships
2004/05/29: Balancing Imperial and Rebel Ship Strengths
2004/04/07: Space Expansion: The Commercial Game
2004/03/18: Proposed Skill Trees
2004/03/14: Ship Systems
2004/02/26: Summary of Ideas

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