Chronicles of the Principii

Developers' Journal

Why Mage Faire is a Fair

Posted on: January 24th, 2013 by T'nara the Wise

Gordon and I didn’t always know that the virtual world we were creating was going to be a fair. We knew it was going to be a virtual world, rather than a single-person application. And it clearly had to be magic-themed. Gordon and I have both been fantasy geeks forever, and are uber Gandalf, Merlin, and Harry Potter fans. Magic was a no-brainer. But what was the context? That was not immediately obvious.

The Common Question

From the earliest days, when we’d tell someone we’re making a virtual world, they’d ask, “Is it a game, like WoW? Or a sandbox, like Second Life?” This is a weird question to answer, because it presumes there are only two possibilities: (a) a HUGE pre-created world with an elaborate quest and advancement system with virtually no user-generated content, or (b) a 100% user-generated world, with no quests, no direction, and no specified goals.

What we’re creating is something in between. It is a sandbox; no question about that. But one of the things that’s maybe not so great about some sandboxes is that there are no goals. You go in there and look around and say “This is neat, but what do I do?” Essentially, what you do is look cool and chat. And for some people, that’s exactly what they want, and it’s awesome.

Some people don’t want to just look at stuff, look cool, and chat. They want to create. And in some sandbox virtual worlds, you can create absolutely anything, but it’s (in my humble opinion) work. The tutorials that teach you how to create and animate stuff are so complex and discouraging (indeed, the tools themselves are complex and discouraging), a large fraction of people never make it past the tutorial and into the world itself. And if you do learn how to effectively create stuff, it’s still 100% up to you what to create. No quests or guidance. I find that overwhelming and intimidating.

You have to hand it to WoW and other AAA themepark MMOs: with their ginormous quest systems, you’re never at a loss for something to do. There’s plenty of guidance, and goals within goals within goals. However, for creative people especially, it can be a bit much, always being told what to do. And it’s no secret it can get grindy.

With our little indie team, we couldn’t possibly make a themepark MMO, but we can borrow something from them, to enhance the creative sandbox experience. It can be very motivating to have a specific challenge–a goal or sense of purpose–and the sense of accomplishment when it is achieved.

So, we wanted to make a sandbox, but one where

  • creation is fun and easy to learn,
  • there are goals or suggestions of what to do,
  • but not so much direction that it’s grindy.

How to do that?

It’s an Academy. No, it’s a Society. No! It’s…a Fair!

Our first thought was: an Academy. This was when Harry Potter had become a full-blown craze, but the last book or two hadn’t come out yet, and the movies were even farther behind. Who wouldn’t want to go to a magic academy like Hogwarts? Heck, yeah!

But as we went down this path, we realized it was getting way too structured: different classes that you had to pass in order to be allowed to advance to the next thing. And it was all about learning magic, but not at all clear what you do with the magic once you’ve learned it. Fun and easy to learn, and not grindy? Fail.

So, what’s some other context in which you learn and have direction, but it’s not a school? How about the Boy (or Girl) Scouts of America? There’s some structure: requirements for earning a badge, for example. But there’s also great freedom: do I work toward the Backpacking badge or Cooking? Maybe both. It’s much more sandboxy than a school. This seemed like a better model for our magical virtual world. Plenty of goals, but you can choose among them. We should be able to make sure it’s not grindy if we’re careful. But how much fun would it be, really? Earning badges, or the equivalent, in different types of magic? Again, what do you really do with it?

While we were pondering this, feeling like we still didn’t have it quite right, we went to Dragon*Con. Dragon*Con takes place in Atlanta every Labor Day Weekend and is, according to their web site, “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction & fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!”

This was our third or fourth time at Dragon*Con, and as always, it was THE MOST FUN WEEKEND of the entire year. Why? Because it’s a huge fantasy-geek fair! There are costumes, contests, games, performances, films, live music, a parade (not to be confused with the zombie walk), an art show, and a scavenger hunt. There are sessions where you can learn costume design, comic book art, puppetry, how to direct your own film, publish your first novel, make a video game, or build a steampunk contraption. And shopping! You can buy swords, armor, corsets, fangs, dice, masks, superhero t-shirts, and elf ears. You could miss every single famous-person panel in the entire con, and still have an absolutely fantastic time. Because it’s all about fans putting their creativity on display for other fans, and teaching other fans what they know.

And it hit us–like stepping inside from a humid, sweltering Atlanta afternoon, and getting hit by a delicious blast of hotel air conditioning–our magical virtual world should be a fair! Mages putting their creativity on display for other mages, and teaching other mages what they know. It would be like Dragon*Con, with magic, all year long!

How does a fair stack up against our objectives?

  • creation is fun and easy to learn: You learn magic from other mages putting on demonstrations (or memories of those demonstrations). We’ll highlight the tutorial memories that are the most entertaining.
  • there are goals or suggestions of what to do: Play magical games, go on a scavanger hunt, see (or give) a performance or demo, create submissions to contests, go “shopping” (Acquisitioing spell elements),….
  • but not so much direction that it’s grindy: No quests, only merriments. A merriment is a suggestion or invitation for something fun to do, and it’s optional. You don’t have to complete a merriment in order to be allowed to move on. And there’s no reward at the end. You do a merriment because the merriment itself is fun. Even if you do them all, it won’t be grindy, because it’s all fun.

That was a couple years ago. And we’re still convinced this is it. This is the sandbox made by mages for mages.

And that’s why… Mage Faire is a fair.

P.S. We are not affiliated in any way with Dragon*Con. We just love it, and in fact, plan to be there this coming Labor Day!

P.P.S. We are not affiliated in any way with Harry Potter…or Merlin…or Gandalf. We just love them too!

30 Responses

  1. PANsy says:

    A very unique history of development that I really enjoyed reading about. Is it March yet?

  2. ElleD says:

    Interesting! Just sorry that the initial testing won’t include Mac users!!

  3. eLkiRa says:

    Things are getting more exciting! 🙂

  4. Mal'akh says:

    So Mage Faire will be a persistent massively multiplayer online fantasy convention. Sounds good. 😀

  5. Serene_the_Fantasist says:

    And this is why I love it here!

  6. Brib Annie says:

    I always enjoy hearing about how ideas develop. It will be fun to see how it goes once we begin to test.

  7. SavannaBlueRose says:

    Oh Joy.oh Happy…Here’s to Dragon’Con,Comic-Con..WorldCon,
    Costume-Con,Los-Con,(my favs..lol)and all the fun, Magic, and Friends..all weaved into Mage-Faire..Hazzzar,,and TY,Ty,Ty xxooox Savanna

  8. Miss_Melody_The _Temptress says:

    Thanks for the explanation, I am so looking forward to the testing of this game. Wish I lived in the USA so I could go the Dragon*Con, sounds so much fun.

  9. Breezy_Meadow says:

    So interesting to get some insight into how the design ideas are formed. You guys sound like amazing, insightful and fun. Can’t wait to see what develops!

  10. UrMinx says:

    Oh Bravo! Please keep these posts coming, it makes the waiting easier and gives me more understanding of how all this magic works.
    Thank you!

    *searches inventory for Emo Bear…..*
    *blush, oh, right*

  11. Moz Art says:

    Interesting development, Ann, and it’s great how it all gelled together after the final idea slotted into place! I have searched for games like I know Mage Faire will be, but since the sad end of Glitch there’s been absolutely nothing to replace it. Your ethos for Mage Faire is sound and like everyone else, I look forward to the opening of the tests.

  12. Baybi_Mage says:

    *Hands tapping on monitor*…Open,open,open!

  13. Ashley says:

    Oh my goooosh I cannot WAIT for March to be here already!!! This sounds so creative and amazing and wonderful…I am in love with a game that hasn’t even started yet!

  14. Chazerei says:

    I love this idea! I can’t wait to don my elf ears and hit the con…errr, faire!

  15. VickyAlice139 says:

    Oh wow! Can’t wait for this to open! Sounds just amazing.

  16. BBWolf128 says:

    Anyone here familiar with Glitch.
    I was a Glichen until it closed.
    I enjoyed it immensely.
    I don’t think that it would be bad if some of the lessons/ideas from there in a different form/idea here.

  17. This sounds like so much fun. It’s a unique vision and it’s going to be wonderful.

  18. kastlin says:

    UrMinx is right! And wrong. These blog posts are extremely interesting and, in one respect, make the waiting easier (because there is communication, not silence). In another respect, they make waiting HARDER, because this is all sounding so amazing!!!

    *passes UrMinx the plush emo-bear that just arrived from Bupy*

  19. Kookaburra says:

    Oh, I like what I am hearing. Things to do but not things we HAVE to do.

    But I will say my heart raced for a moment when I read “Plenty of goals, but you can choose among them.” as “Plenty of goats, but you can choose among them.” Goats seems a natural with mages, for some reason.

  20. Kookaburra says:

    oh, we need a way to edit our own forum posts, or delete them, so we can clean up the messes we leave behind. 🙂

  21. Ann DramaDuh says:

    Oh my gosh! NO quests???? Could this really be true? I do so much hate quests. Riddles are great … scavenger hunts are fun (esp with a grp) … helping others is awesome … but quests? Rrrrrrealy could do without ’em.

    Your journey has been very interesting. Thanks for posting the story of it.

    Long live Mage Faire!

  22. UrMinx says:

    *hugs emo bear tight, missed you* and sends *emo bear hugs* to the Devs.

    Ty Kastlin

  23. Sitheil says:

    T’nara,
    Thank you so much for sharing this part of the “back story”! As you may have noticed, we are all waiting with bated breath for MF Alpha. 🙂

  24. UrMinx says:

    btw, Missy_the_Mischievous, aka Li’ll Missy, I hadn’t chose my name for here yet/ 🙂

  25. Ooola says:

    Lovely to know how it all began! My imagination is all fired up now with visions of merrymaking. Tra-la-lee-la And, goats, thank you Kookaburra.. visions of goal oriented goats. I will give away flower necklaces.. even to the goats. May we have mead? I’ll make honey wine and become Ooola the Bee Stung.

  26. MonaBlue says:

    I like many others have been searching for a new home since our beloved Glitch shut down. The world of MF could be what we all have been searching for. I loved the backstory on development, especially no assigned quests. I can not wait to try this wonderful merrymaking site. Is it March yet?

  27. Fifi says:

    So very interesting and FUN!!!!!!

  28. Catherine says:

    So very, very excited for it all to start!!And the art work I have seen so far looks awesome!! Long Distance High Fives all around!!

  29. Saucelah says:

    But will there be peanut butter? I’m convinced Glitch closed because it had jelly but no peanut butter.

  30. Neon Tetra says:

    This is exciting! I’m polishing up my wand and practicing making Bacon for all lost Glitchens everywhere, because seriously, what is life without bacon? lol big bear hugs to you all!