Interesting article today on how the UI director for Champs Online was one of the designers of the GMail interface. He describes some of the challenges in creating an game interface that is quick and easy to use but still provides the info that some folks want to see.
There are many times in Champions where I want to give the player every last piece of functionality but I also know that such a thing is detrimental to the overall experience. You get to a crossroads, a certain point when people can no longer find what they’re looking for. Microsoft Word is a notorious example of that crowding of features. It’s an incredibly powerful application but because you have so many features, all the really useful ones can get hidden.
In Champions Online, or any other game, you have to make sure that discoverability is not so much of a problem that you can’t actually play the game.
Attempts on CoX to add additional info (and additional ways of getting to it) have been a mixed success. Getting something that scales info from the get-go would be pretty cool.
Of course, I’m also impressed how WoW has had an extensible UI, so that people can add on things to it. I think that’s a great idea, but I don’t believe CO will be set up that way.
Considering that I do not like the Gmail interface, this does not bode well. But then Microsoft Office’s Ribbon thing sucks.
Most every MMO, with the exception of CoX, is is moddable. EQ2 is the only one that really didn’t need it (other than a mapping addon showing locations and dungeon layouts) since it came out of the box fully moddable.
AoC had a horrible UI (as did WoW), and within a week I had slapped in a Modded UI on the game.
Curse.com is your friend in the Modding Business. =P
Yeah, I’m not a huge fan myself. Though, honestly, email interfaces are not the most exciting thing in the world.
I’ve not heard that the CO interface is moddable. I’m sure we’ll hear something soon about it, though.