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It is the timeless and undeniable appeal of RPG’s to get away from your cubicle, your schoolbooks, or any of the mundane elements of your life and escape, even if just for a moment, into another world where anything is possible. For many people, their goal in such a world is simple: to become someone else, or an extension of themselves, something more, something influential and powerful – a hero.
When dealing with MMORPG’s in particular, I have often seen it argued that the journey a character goes through is the journey to become a hero, and one that is never truly attained, because that would mean the end of the game. Personally, I can’t see the logic behind the argument. At the very least, one must consider themselves a hero after participating in major raid encounters that impact the world, and some people might even consider themselves heroes for merely aiding the townsfolk by completing various quests. Still, some people consider the fact that many other players are completing the same quests or members of the same raid dampens the feeling that they are unique or meaningful in the grand scheme of the world. In this case, whether or not the player is a hero is entirely subjective, based on their own feelings towards what they are doing, and there isn’t much we can really analyze.
What we can look at, however, is how the gameplay itself influences how the players feel about their characters and the impact their actions have on the world. It is my belief that, given proper nurturing, a player can feel like a hero even at level one, and continue to grow as he levels and experiences further adventures.
Defining ‘Hero’
The newbie experience is key in making the player feel like a hero. To some, that may seem like a strange statement. Shouldn’t the player grow as they level and only eventually become a hero at some high level of play? That seems to be the common train of thought shared by MMO developers, but I feel the term ‘hero’ should be defined differently. Rather than merely looking at a hero as one who accomplishes great deeds, we could instead think of ‘hero’ in a literary way: the protagonist, or main character, of the story. In most stories, the protagonist is clearly defined, and, even if he is inexperienced and weak at a point in the story, the reader takes to this character and views his actions as important in the overall scheme of things. This is, of course, much easier to do in a story or single-player game. Still, it could easily be incorporated into an MMO through fairly simple scenarios and quests
The Story of a Rogue
Let’s say we’ve rolled a Rogue character. If it were World of Warcraft, we’d drop into the same zone everyone else does and begin doing the same, uninspiring fetch quests that every other character of our chosen race goes through. It’s completely impersonal, and you have no idea why your character is there or what he is doing.
What if, instead, you dizzily wake to find yourself inside a dank, musty cell. You gain control of your character and briefly orient yourself with the camera and movement controls, looking around the tiny cell which is only slightly lit by a barred window high above you. The dim beam of light is shining on a tray of moldy bread and a cup of water which has tipped over and long since evaporated. You approach the bars, starting a scripted sequence: the jailer slams his club into the iron bars of your door, causing you to stagger backwards. “Why am I here?” you manage to ask. Your head is throbbing, your memory clouded, you can’t remember where you are or why you are imprisoned. “That your idea of a joke?” the warden scoffs. “I know ye, rogue. The name (player name) is well known in this city, as are your prestigious deeds of honor and valor.” His voice is thick with sarcasm. “You’re murderin’ scum. No better than an orc in my eyes, and you’ll get no better treatment. You made a mistake ever showin’ your face here again. Luckily, come dawn, it’ll be the last we’ll ever see of it.” He walks away, his footfalls echoing down the corridor alongside his quiet laughter. Your mind is racing with unanswered questions, but you have a more pressing matter to deal with – planning your escape. While most memories of the past are clouded, some remain, one of which would be particularly useful.
A quest pops up, instructing you to locate something sharp, anything will do. Your mouse lights up when hovered over the small, hinged door used to slide food into the prison cell. It has been left ajar, and the corner of the thin door may prove a sufficient edge. The player kneels down, gritting his teeth and cutting roughly into his forearm. From the incision, you reveal a lockpick, hidden for years inside the skin for such a day as this – a useful memory to have retained. Within seconds, the lock on the door is undone and you begin to sneak out. On screen instructions reveal how stealth in the game works, and you try it for the first time. Unfortunately, your skills are rusty, and another prisoner spots you. “You there! Take me with you!” he yells, far too loudly. Your fist meets his nose with a satisfying crunch, but the damage has been done. The warden and two other guards round the corner, swords and clubs drawn. Your quest objective updates and changes to instruct you to defeat your captors, and the game briefly pauses and highlights your combat bar, explaining each ability and how to use it. When you are ready, the fight begins, and you are able to disarm one of the guards and use his blade to dispatch the others. Your quest again updates, instructing you to make your way out of the prison and the city without alerting more guards. This time, stealth functions much better and you quickly learn about moving through stealth. You find a trunk with your previous belongings in it, including a sketch of a man, a map, and instructions to kill him. More unanswered questions, but you can begin to put things together. Eventually, you emerge outdoors and clamber up to the rooftops, making your way over the city wall and into the-relative-safety of the wilds. From here, your story continues; perhaps you can seek out those who hired you for this hit, and find out who you were in your forgotten life, or perhaps you will simply start a new one.
The Story Continues in the Hands of the Player
The point of the above is to show how to immediately immerse the player in a world, and make them feel like they are already a major player in the events that are occurring. Amnesia is obviously an easy excuse (and even a little cliche) to allow to player to re-learn things about the world, but it wouldn’t have to be the same for every type of character. A promising mage may begin by begin accepted as an apprentice under a very powerful wizard, only to later learn this wizard has been corrupted by his power, and is planning to commit an act of great evil. Anything that immediately makes the player feel like they are part of a story will work. Isn’t that much more fun than just being dropped in a world with no reason or background, feeling as though you have to grind levels before you even get to the point where you care about who your character is?
This act of making the player feel like a main character could also easily continue throughout the leveling process. While he will obviously be traveling with and meeting all sorts of other heroes, he could still have his own story told through a long, constant quest line that allowed him to discover more and more about the story that began when he began his character. These quests could advance at certain level intervals or require certain levels of reputation with various factions, and would ideally be mostly solo endeavors, or focus heavily on the player even if it were group content. Similar to the epic quests from EverQuest, even though multiple players may be doing these same quests, the focus would be on the player enough that he felt like he was doing something major and defining who his character was.
Heroism in All Aspects of the Game
The above would be a great start for making players feel more like heroes, but it can’t end there – it must encompass all areas of the game. I mentioned earlier how current MMO gamers define themselves as a hero once they have completed difficult raid content or the most difficult quest tiers. There is obviously nothing wrong with this, except that it generally only happens at max level. Why shouldn’t it be happening the entire time? If we begin making the player feel like a hero from level one, all of his adventures should be heroic in scale. I’ve mentioned it before, but ditch the “go kill some wolves” quests, or, hey, at least make them giant 9-foot long winter wolves. It’s amazing how much more powerful the player feels if the monsters he is battling are impressive themselves. There’s no reason to save all the cool stuff for max level, there’s enough to go around!
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This is yet another step in the creation of my ideal MMO. Check back soon (and hopefully sooner than a month this time…) for my next entry, where I will discuss the importance of a robust economy and meaningful tradeskills.
In this installment of my Ideal MMO series, I’ll be discussing religion and deities in MMOs, and what they can bring to the game-play.
First, we should examine how MMOs have treated religion in the past. As usual, EverQuest is probably the best example. EQ allowed you to choose your deity at character creation based on your race and class. This often gave you small faction modifier and would later allow you to use certain items restricted to follows of a specific deity. Unfortunately, the system was never really expanded upon further than this. Aside from that aspect, EQ also allowed you to kill the Gods (or representations of them at least) in their home planes, which was always cool. Unfortunately, there were little to no repercussions for killing your own deity. In fact, most all of the Gods were treated as any other raid boss would be, with no option to interact with them even if you were a follower. The monk Epic for Iksar was a notable exception to this, but I can’t think of any others.
EQ2 originally launched with the claim that the Gods had deserted Norrath, and it wasn’t until years later that they reintroduced the ability for players to choose a deity. I liked the fact that a quest was required to choose a deity, as I feel it should represent a personal journey that your character must undertake to find within themselves which deity best represents their own values. Once a deity is obtained, however, the system is actually quite shallow. You may use blessings and miracles of varying potency by using “favor”, a sort of divine currency that you gain by sacrificing items to an altar. To me, this sort of cheapens the meaning of having a deity, and one has to wonder why a deity would even care that you are tossing old rusty swords onto their altar. I think I would be more offended than grateful, personally. EQ2 also allows the player to change their deity, wheras EQ1 did not. Definitely a plus, as I mentioned in my previous post on alignment; players should always be able to change their minds, even if it takes a little effort.
So, how could it be improved?
The Ideal Religion & Deity System
Let the player make an educated choice later in his or her character’s life. Players should not have to choose a deity based on a brief paragraph at character creation. Instead, have players come into contact with the various religious beliefs that permeate the world as they explore, and offer them some introductory quests given by sects of a specific religion that don’t force them into making a decision just yet. This way, the player can get a feel for what the religion represents and see if it is something that meshes with their own characters beliefs and values. When they are ready, have them undertake a series of quests similar to EQ2 which will solidify their choice and unlock further advancement. EQ2 came close to getting this right, but failed to make the player care much about his or her choice. Most players just ask others what the best choice would be based on the buffs the deity grants them, and they choose that. Not very interesting.
Have each deity be represented by a faction. One of the main incentives to get players interested in choosing a deity would be the factions. If you read my post on reputation, you are already familiar with how this would work. Players could perform quests and tasks for a group that represented the deity of their choice, and earn rewards by advancing their reputation with them. This would allow players a concrete reason to choose a deity beyond role-playing. However, it would be important to balance the item rewards so that players do not choose a deity simply based on the rewards offered. Also, an Agnostic faction would be needed. A group who believes they owe no thanks to the Gods for their fortune, but have instead forged their own way in the world. This way, players who did not wish to select a deity for whatever reason would not feel like they were at a disadvantage.
Favor as an alternate advancement system earned through deeds. Rather than earning favor by sacrificing mundane items at an altar a la EQ2, Favor should be something the player earns through actions that their God would find pleasing. Instead of being a currency players spend to call down favors, I would make it more like an alternate form of experience, similar to AA’s from EverQuest. Players would earn this favor experience only from certain deeds, and the more they advanced the more powerful blessings the God would bestow upon them. The blessings or miracles could be controlled simply by cooldowns ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours depending on how powerful they are. Agnostics would have to be given similar abilities based on their “free will” or some other explanation. It’s unfortunate, but it must be done for balance purposes. The system fails if any player feels punished for their choice.
Particularly dedicated followers should be able to interact directly with their God. This is a subject that always bugged me in EQ. You are able to choose a deity, and yet when you come face to face with them they are nothing more than another mob to you. While it was fun to feel powerful killing various Gods, it really doesn’t make much sense, which is why you see so many “retcons” (deliberate changes in previously established lore) and poor explanations offered by the EQ writers post-Planes of Power. Instead of this approach, I would like to see meeting your God become sort of the ultimate reward for earning reputation and favor with them. Similar to the Greek myths of old, perhaps the Gods have quests they need mortals to handle because of some strict rules that prevent them from interfering with other Gods’ plans. What better way to make the player feel like a hero than allowing them to be the chosen warrior of the Gods?
I’d also like to see a special version of the Gods’ home plane that can only be accessed by devout followers. It could have special vendors and quest givers and act as a hub of sorts for players of the same religion to meet up and possibly group for quests, and of course allow them to meet their God as mentioned above. This would be separate from the normal plane that can be accessed by all players for other purposes.
Killing a God should be extremely rare. The main deities should remain unkillable, in my opinion. It simply causes too many immersion breaking holes in the story and general logic of the game for it to work. This does not mean encounters on that epic scale can never happen, however. It could easily be a God that is threatening to break the established rules of the pantheon or some other great evil that must be stopped. Lesser Gods and Demi-Gods would not need to be selectable as deities, so these would be much easier to deal with when it comes to raid bosses. This could still give the players that sense of extreme power without mashing up the established lore too much. Of course, avatars (manifestations of divine beings in a physical form) should always be killable, but with the proper repercussions and rewards. They should also be made small group encounters (10-15 players) so that those who do not wish to kill the avatar of their own God do not need to participate with their guildmates necessarily, and could instead form a different group for an opposing avatar.
To summarize, I feel that religion should add a great amount of depth to the world, and immerse players further in its history, as well as its current inhabitants. Instead of a simple faction modifier or insignificant buff, it should be a serious facet of character customization that engages the player and gives them something extra to earn for themselves, all while solidifying what their character represents to them. The Favor system could offer an exciting diversion from the normal leveling grind for players and give them something else to work towards, which is always good for player retention. And lastly, Gods would actually feel like Gods! There’s nothing impressive about Cazic Thule in EverQuest when he can be killed by a single group. By making the main deities immortal, you solidify their place as major characters in the workings of the world and show them the proper respect. Thus, when a God is killed, it truly means something.
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Make sure to check back for the next post, in which I will discuss making the player feel like a hero – even at level 1.
It’s time for Part 2 of my Ideal MMO series: Alignment and Reputation Matter! In this post I’ll be talking about why these things can add a huge amount of depth to an MMORPG and look at interesting ways to implement them, keeping in mind that we want everything about the game to be fun and never overly punishing for the player.
Alignment
For those unfamiliar with the term, Alignment is essentially the moral and ethical standing of a specific character or entity in the world. Put more simply, it is a way to define whether a character is good, evil, or some shade of gray in between.
Alignment has barely been touched upon in previous MMOs. It is much more common to to simply have race determine whether a player is good or evil, and leave it at that. EQ2 scratched the surface of alignment by allowing players to “betray” their original alignment, but due to their odd class system it is mostly only used to switch between good and evil versions of classes.
In my ideal MMO, Alignment would be greatly expanded on. Players would be able to choose their alignment during character creation, with the exception of certain races and classes which are inherently good or evil. Alignment would effect your starting faction with other races of the world, determining how they view you. For example, a neutral aligned Barbarian would be much more welcome among Dwarves than an evil one, and would have an easier time building a good reputation with them. In this way, you do not have to focus specifically on race when determining relations, and players will feel like they have more control over who they are in the world.
Alignment can add depth in various other ways as well. Certain quests could only be available to those of a certain alignment – for example, an evil aligned human wizard may have no qualms taking up a quest to kill some innocent faeries, while a good aligned one would possibly prefer to deal with them through diplomacy. The more “alignment quests” a player completes, the further into their alignment they could become, unlocking even more quests and other special bonuses. Alignment could also offer unique abilities to the players chosen class – an evil aligned Cleric may be willing to cast spells of a darker sort than one of good alignment, or a good aligned Warrior may inspire greater courage in his fellow party members than an evil one. In this way, you can see how alignment could become a pathway for further character customization, while adding depth to the gameplay itself.
It’s important to mention that alignment could always be changed. While some races or classes may not ever be able to become truly good, a neutral alignment would generally be available to every player. Even an Ogre could walk among the tree cities of the elves if he was willing to prove his reputation. Which brings us to our next point in this category!
Reputation
Reputation (or faction as it was called in EQ) has been commonly used in MMOs, and is simply a way of earning greater status among NPCs. This is another area I would like to see expanded upon.
Reputation goes hand in hand with alignment, but is specific to certain factions, groups, and races of the world. Like in other games, by doing certain deeds beneficial to a faction, the player would earn favor with them. A player can always gain reputation with a faction regardless of race or alignment – the maximum level of reputation you may gain with them is where alignment comes in. An evil Death Knight is never going to be on friendly terms with Halflings, but his reputation may become great enough that they will respect his power and simply keep their distance as opposed to attacking him or driving him away.
I would like to see reputation get away from the grind that it is in World of Warcraft, and delve more into the Lore of the world. Perhaps it could be in the form of a long, epic quest chain? The quest could start by introducing the player to the lore behind the group or race in which they wish to gain favor with, specifically what their troubles or goals are. The player would be able to, slowly at first, do their part in helping this group with their struggles, eventually finding out more and more about them. The bulk of the reputation grind would be made painless through these story-driven quests, which would offer large chunks of reputation as they progressed. In the end, the quest chain could culminate in some great deed or battle the player participates in for the good of the chosen faction. Maybe he took part in reclaiming some ancient elven ruins alongside the Dune Elves, giving them back a part of their lost culture. Or perhaps he aided a powerful thieves guild in overthrowing a rival guild by carrying out a series of difficult assassinations of key members. Whatever it was, it would result in the player earning total respect and acceptance by this group.
Depth could be added to the system by creating opposing factions, similar to what Everquest did. A player who chooses to advance his reputation with the Dark Elves is not going to be loved by the Wood Elves. The player would have to choose which factions to ally himself with, and different benefits would be present for each. More character personalization is always a good thing!
Lastly, I would like to see more than just items as rewards for building reputation, even if they were merely cosmetic rewards. It would be interesting to see the world react to your deeds. For example, a player with maximum reputation with one of the human kingdoms may find peasants bowing or kneeling before him as he passes through. Awarding special titles based on the faction would be fun as well. A player should always feel like he has advanced his character by earning this reputation, not merely unlocked a vendor item as in WoW.
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Next time, I’ll be talking about another character customization choice that has been neglected: Deity and Religion.
I was trying to think of something to write about (news in the mmo world has been slow, and I’m not currently doing anything interesting myself in an mmo either) when I came across this thread on the Nerfbat forums: Your Ultimate MMO in 10 Bullet Points. While I could have simply posted my 10 bullets and moved on, I realized I could probably ramble for hours about each single point. So, instead, I will be making 10 different posts over the next couple of days, each one explaining why a specific point makes it on my list of the 10 things I want in my ideal MMO.
One note: I don’t count setting as one of my bullet points, even though it could be. I will only ever play Fantasy MMOs and therefore I consider it a given. There’s no reason to write a post about why I want Fantasy, as it’s just my personal preference. Some of the other stuff could be considered as preference as well, but it’s a least a little more interesting to talk about. That said, on to point one:
1: Diverse Choice of Player Race
One of my complaints with WoW is how limited I feel when it comes to choosing a race. I do not, however, consider this a design flaw on Blizzard’s part, they are simply sticking to their predefined lore. Furthermore, the racial selection feels smaller than it actually is due to the splitting of Horde and Alliance, bringing your choice of race down to 5 from 10 once you’ve chosen which side to be.
When it comes to my preference for racial selection, I’m a little old fashioned. EQ offered the best diversity in my opinion with 16 choices, though technically EQ2 now has more. I like a large amount of races, but not so many that you have to start picking random animals and making them humanoid – I’m looking at you, Vanguard. I also prefer the races to come from the Lore, and not the other way around. Make the world first, decide who populates what region, and then look at the races you have. This way, you don’t have to scramble to make up lore that will probably be very patchy just to fit a race into the game. Lastly, I prefer that the races are inspired by the classic iterations that have already been established. By this, I mean I prefer the standard DnD races, or any offshoots that you find in various campaign settings. I feel that grounding yourself in something that has already been established, and then tweaking it with your own unique touches allows you to avoid alienating fans of the fantasy genre while still offering you freedom to be creative with their history and culture.
Since this theoretical MMO has no previous games in its lineage, we can start from scratch and have whichever races we want without butchering the lore. I already know what the world is like for my ideal MMO, as it is a world I have previously made myself (possibly coming in a future post), so I can go ahead and make a list of the races that would be found there. While many are simple tried and true staples, there may be something in there to interest you anyway.
The Races:
Humans – The youngest of the races, but the fastest growing. Other races find them constantly surprising, for they are never idle and no one human is ever the same as another. There are four human kingdoms in the world, and players would be able to choose which they wish to pledge their loyalty to – if any. Aside from these kingdoms, humans have also established a huge port city that is known for its acceptance of all travelers – so long as they remain civilized. This city has become a bustling center of activity, and is a common area for adventurers to meet more of their kind. A human’s alignment can start anywhere from Good to Evil, and they have the easiest time of any race changing alignment and faction.
Dwarves – Dwarves, as tough as the stone they mine, inhabit the mountains and caverns of the Northlands where they beat back the ever advancing threat of Orcs and Giants, thanklessly protecting many of the other races’ settlements below. Most prefer to keep to themselves, spending the day mining ore and crafting flawless weapons and armor, but there are many who choose the adventuring life. Most are Warriors, Paladins and Clerics, and they are a valuable addition to any traveling party. Their hardiness grants them a bonus to natural armor and hit points, and their dedication to their Gods makes it more difficult to interrupt a dwarven spellcaster. They always start of Good alignment, but can fall to Neutral if they choose to live a more roguish life. Dwarves are natural blacksmiths, and can grant bonuses to armor and weapons that no other smith can bestow. They also enjoy mining and brewing. It can be difficult to gain the favor of a Dwarf, but once you do, you have a friend for life.
Gnomes – Gnomes are small, wiry cousins of Dwarves with large noses and sparse white hair. They love mining gems and thinking up incredible inventions, and are responsible for most of the technology found in some human cities as well as their own city. Other races are reluctant to accept anything invented by a gnome as…safe for use. In the last few decades, Gnomes have managed to create a power source out of certain gems which seem to hold and retain mana. These gems can be used to power all sorts of inventions, and when given other enchantments can also be used to empower weapons and armor with additional magical properties. This has become a very lucrative practice for the Gnomes, and they have found great success trading in major cities. Gnomes are also very adept at magic, particularly enchanting and illusions, and many adventuring Gnomes choose a magical profession. They are also capable Warriors though, and excellent Rogues. They are usually of Neutral alignment leaning towards Good. Greed, for riches or power, can sometimes turn them towards an Evil alignment. Gnomes are excellent tinkers and jewelcrafters.
Halflings – Ever curious, these furry footed creatures often find themselves getting into trouble, and have perfected the art of getting out of it again. They are very small, generally chubby, and one of the most fun-loving and friendly of all races. They love exploring and getting into mischief, and thus are often found in adventuring groups or roaming about the various cities of the land, taking in the sights – and the food. They lean towards Good to Neutral alignment, and are never truly evil. Halflings are particularly good Rogues, though they can be found in nearly every other adventuring profession as well. They also love cooking, harvesting and mapmaking.
Barbarians – Hearty men of the north, the Barbarians make their home in the mountains where they revel in hunting, drinking and brawling. They are much larger and more quick to anger than their human cousins, but they are known for their honor and valor in battle as well. Barbarians are generally of Neutral alignment, some leaning towards Good. They are allied with the Dwarves and Humans in protecting the land against the nearby Orcs, Half-Orcs, and Ogres. Fans of melee fighters might especially be attracted to Barbarians, whose racials such as Berserking gives them an edge that could turn the tide of any battle. A Barbarian Shaman is also a welcome addition to any group, and they have access to some spells which the more vile Shaman of other races cannot attain. They are also particularly good skinners, leatherworkers, and brewers.
Wood Elf – Formerly sworn protectors of the woodland realms who rarely left the trees, the Wood Elves are now found commonly across the lands. They are the friendliest of elf-kind, and look kindly towards most goodly races, especially good-aligned Humans and Halflings. There is tension between Wood Elves and High Elves, but they are not openly hostile. Wood Elves despise Dark Elves and other evil races. They are descendants of an ancient branch of elven-kind called the Wild Elves, and still carry a streak of this feral ancestor in their blood, which can show itself in times of great conflict where they are fierce and capable companions. They are often seen as Warriors, Rangers, Bards and, more rarely, Druids (though only because Druids themselves are a rarity). They prefer peace, and have a great love for nature, art and song. They are always of Good alignment.
Dark Elf – Far from the Dark Elves you may know of old who hid under the ground or in dark forests, these Dark Elves make up one of the most vast and powerful empires of the modern world. They rule almost the entirety of the eastern continent, where their black towers and looming spires can be seen for miles. Dark Elves are similar to other elves in build, though their skin ranges from dark indigo to purple, and their hair is generally white, but sometimes black. They possess a vast army of warriors and wizards which defends their land, and believe it is their destiny to expand across the sea to the west, where they will overtake the human kingdoms and enslave their elven kin. They are known for their sprawling cities of black marble, stone, and steel, with a unique architecture fitting of their race. Dark Elves command great respect even from their enemies, and they are tolerated in neutral cities, albeit cautiously. Good aligned cities will generally turn them away at the gates, but not openly attack for fear of reprisal – with the exception of the elven kingdoms which consider it their duty to rid the world of their tainted kin. Dark Elves begin as evil aligned, but it is easy for a player to become neutral if they choose. It will take much more effort to be accepted among the goodly races. They can excel at nearly any profession, but are particularly deadly spellcasters and assassins.
High Elf – Elves that consider themselves the only remaining pure-blooded elves left from the original line. They have used powerful magic to raise an island into the sky and they live there cut off from all other races. They are sometimes seen in the lands below, but never without a specific purpose or agenda. Players would have to start with lower faction with other races, but it could always be raised through deeds. They are the only race permitted in the High Elf skycity and have a unique ability to teleport there once per day. They are of Neutral alignment, and can become either Good or Evil, usually whichever will benefit them more. They are the most powerful spellcasters, and are particularly good at Elemental magic. While they don’t often come down from the sky to trade, when they do they offer incredibly potent magical items, often with enchantments not available from any other race. They are also adept at crafting runestones, which allow even a non-magic user to teleport to a location inscribed in the stone.
Half Elf – Half-Elves are a versatile race with great potential. They are the result of the pairing of an elf and human, though it is much more common for them to be raised among humans. They are most commonly adventurers, finding it difficult to fit in completely anywhere except the open road. They are commonly Bards, Rogues, and Rangers. The Half Elf player would have the ability to choose where his heritage lies, with the exception of High Elves which never mate with Humans. This would restrict his starting area and initial alignment, though Half Elves are always able to forge their own path and become any alignment. Heritage would also open up varying visual customizations, differing a half-dark elf from a half-wood elf, and so on.
Dune Elf – Dune Elves are nomadic elves that wander the deserts of the world. Often thought to be a mirage when seen by weary adventurers, they travel in small groups and never settle in one area for very long. Some say they are searching for the ancient ruins of their people, while others say they are cursed to roam the scorching desert forever for some unknown treachery committed against the Gods. Although rare, some Dune Elves have been known to leave the desert and become mercenaries, taking up with adventuring bands – for a price. They tend to be much more rugged and violent than a typical elf, but still possess their great agility and intelligence. They are extraordinary melee fighters, especially with bladed weapons such as the scimitar.
Ogre – Hulking brutes who are a distant offshoot of the even more monstrous Giants. They tend to live in the mountains and carve out homes for themselves in the many caves. They are nearly always at war with some clan of Dwarves, often because their dwellings expanded too far into Dwarven territory – or simply because one Ogre chose to have a particularly unlucky Dwarf for a snack one day. Ogres are extremely powerful and violent, though not as unintelligent as many have made the mistake of believing. They do not care much for culture and do not keep history. They are easily bored and it is not uncommon for an Ogre to leave his homeland at a whim and never return. They are hated by most goodly races, but sometimes accepted among evil races such as Trolls and Half-Orcs. Dark Elves are not fond of them, but do not consider them an enemy, though they keep some as slaves. A player who chooses an Ogre would do so for their unrivaled strength and racial abilities that greatly benefit tank and melee damage archetypes. They are almost always evil aligned, though they can become neutral.
Troll – Trolls are disgusting, slimy creatures with extremely long limbs which they can innately regenerate if one is severed. Like Ogres, they are violent and deadly. They tend to stay in their territory, the marshes and swamps of the southern lands, but occasionally they will travel elsewhere for some purpose. They are surprisingly very religious, and commonly participate in rituals dedicated to their vile Gods. They are more intelligent than Ogres, and more experienced with the use of magic, though they lean more towards the shamanistic side than the arcane. The Trolls have recently been expanding their empire further northward, building great temples and forts. It is likely only a matter of time before they violently clash with the other races of the world. Trolls are always evil aligned and are only tolerated by Ogres and evil aligned Half-Orcs. They are particularly brutal Warriors and Death Knights, and their Shaman possess curses and hexes which no other race dare attempt to cast.
Half Orc – Half-Orcs are the result of Orcs breeding with Human females, often through rape. These are generally very disturbed and unstable individuals, though there are cases of some Half-Orcs which gained some renown and respect and lived-relatively-normal lives. They are usually abandoned by their mothers after birth, and it is very rare for a Half-Orc child to survive. If the child is born among Orcs and appears strong, they will care for it and treat it like a normal Orc, and it will usually live out its life among them. More rarely, the human mother will keep the child and raise it, and these unique half-orcs sometimes manage to find their way into society and almost always lead interesting lives. For the player, this choice is up to them. They can choose to play a more brutish, unstable Half-Orc who was raised among the clan, or the type of Half-Orc who was raised by Humans and now searches for his own place in the world. Regardless of this choice, the Half-Orc will always start out with lower faction and of a neutral or evil alignment. With time and effort, the player could choose another path if they wished. They make powerful Warriors, Shaman and Monks.
Planetouched – Planetouched are Humans or Elves who have been manipulated in some way by a planar being. They could have demon blood somewhere in their ancestry, or even have been directly cursed or blessed by a deity or other powerful being. They are generally disliked, or at least mistrusted, depending on the level of abnormality in their appearance. Their alignment ranges from Good to Evil, and whether or not they are accepted among other races can vary greatly. This race, like the Half-Elf, would have a wide variation of customization during character creation giving some insight on the Planetouched’s unnatural blood. It could be something as obvious as demon horns protruding from their skull, or something subtle, such as strangely colored hair or eyes. Gameplay wise, the Planetouched is similar to a Human or Elf, but instead of possessing the racial abilities and bonuses of that race, they take their bonuses from the type of planar being they were influenced by. This could be a temporary demonic form which greatly increases their power for a short time, an ability that reduces the mana cost and empowers all spells of a certain element, or an innate ability to phase out of the material plane briefly, confusing opponents. This could be decided upon and balanced at a later stage. They can excel at nearly any profession – their struggle lies in being accepted by other races.
Merfolk – Aquatic humanoids that come from the depths of the ocean. The race is bordering on extinction due to unknown circumstances, and many young Merfolk have taken to adventuring outside their homeland to search for one who might be able to aid them. Not much else is known about these mysterious creatures, but they seem greatly intelligent and extremely cautious. Through magical means, they are able to transform their bodies and walk on land like a normal bipedal humanoid, as well as breathe oxygen. Recently, more and more of these Merfolk have been appearing among the land-dwelling races, searching for an answer that might save their dying people. They would start in an underwater city (did I just hear a collective groan from the audience?) and have an extremely fast movement speed underwater, as well as enduring breath, obviously. On land, they move like normal races and suffer no penalties for remaining inland for long periods. The game would not have an abundance of underwater areas, so the racials would not be considered overpowered. They are of Neutral alignment and make excellent spellcasters. Those that choose the path of the fighter will find Merfolk to be capable Warriors, especially wielding spears and tridents, the chosen weapon of their race.
Fairly basic, with a few uniques in there. You may have noticed I mentioned alignment and faction a lot – another huge part of my perfect MMO. More on that in Part 2 of this series.
Questions or Comments? Any race you feel should be included that I left out, and why? Would you exclude any of these races for any particular reason?
Anyone who has been following the 38 Studios (formerly Green Monster Games) thread over at FoH may have noticed I’ve been posting in it a lot lately, possibly even coming across as a little fanboyish. I actually didn’t even realize it myself until I took a step back today and re-read some of my posts. Where was this excitement coming from? I’m usually extremely skeptic and pessimistic towards new MMOs. Furthermore, why get excited over something that has not even released the first teaser images? Despite the logic of these questions, I couldn’t deny it: I was excited.
Many people doubt 38 Studios’ ability to break into the Fantasy MMO market, some encouraging them to instead make a Sci-Fi or some other genre MMO. I’m glad to see that Curt and the team realize this is not the way to go. Fantasy absolutely has the highest fan base, and even if most of those people are currently playing WoW, it does not mean they can’t be enticed away – even by a company that has never shipped a title.
I was glad to see Curt respond with this post:
1) Entering a market with more potential customers than any genre out there.
2) Entering the market with the people actually MAKING the game having a huge list of titles shipped, from building teams to shipping products, the leadership group has done it all and the dev team is comprised of people that have worked on pretty much every MMO in existance.
3/4) (They are the much the same thing in our case) Entering the market with two men who have built entire companies and careers on creating their own original IP/Brand and have succeeded for almost 30 some years doing so.Are the hurdles high? No doubt. But like many others you make the mistake of assuming the way to ‘win’ is to throw ‘hundreds of milions of dollars NEEDED to go head to head with WoW.
That’s false, wrong and a losing approach. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to take time, but it’s also going to get done. Some how, some way, and we are getting clearer on the how’s and the way’s as we go, it’s going to work.
If it wasn’t I’d have walked away from this already.The proof will be in the pudding, and me pontificating on how great it’s going to be is useless here, or anywhere. I believe in the team and what they are doing and as it becomes a living tangible thing you can log into, and see, it only solidifies those beliefs. They’re working their magic and getting to see it from nothing more than a vision to something that lives and breathes now will be a very cool thing to share with people one day.
I’m glad we started shooting video from the first day of the companies existance and continue to do so.
You can tell Curt has complete faith in his team. With great talent like R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, and various team members with a rich history in the MMO community, I can see why. There is a massive amount of potential in 38 Studios, and I look forward to seeing glimpses of the game to come.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about 38 Studios, head over to 38Studios.com and especially be sure to check out the videos there, they really give you an idea of the drive, ambition, and confidence the company has in the product they are making.
By now, everyone has heard the news that SOE will be removing flagging requirements from all zones up to the Prophecy of Ro expansion. Many believe it to be the direct result of a fantastic post by Loral over at Mobhunter, a post aptly titled: “Flagging and Attunement: Blizzard gets it, SoE doesn’t“.
If you’ve taken a look at the official EQ community forums, you’ll quickly see there’s another thing SoE doesn’t get: Compensation.
Anytime you make a controversial decision, it is important to give some form of compensation to those who feel they are getting the short end of the stick. In fact, there’s no reason not to do this, as it can often be something that comes at no cost to said company.
Titles are probably best. This is the route Blizzard chose to take when they first started removing attunements in The Burning Crusade. While it was still a controversial change and there was much moaning for a short while after, at least they played some damage control and awarded those of us players who had earned our attunements. They also tactfully ensured that future players could also earn their attunement the old way if they chose and would still be awarded the title.
This is pretty much the perfect way to handle it, and SoE should adopt the idea. They already have a system in place for awarding titles and we all know everyone loves to have them. It doesn’t cause any imbalances as it is a purely cosmetic change, and yet it shows respect to the playerbase who has stuck with them for so long and struggled through all the flagging and attunements that will now be removed. While many of the more hardcore players will still complain for awhile, they will feel like they got something out of it that they can wear as a badge of honor and you will see a change in attitudes.
I’ll even do the titles for you:
- Howling Stones/Charasis: the Dauntless Explorer
- Old Sebilis: Reclaimer of Sebilis
- Skyshrine: the Skyguard
- Veeshan’s Peak: Chosen of the Wyrmqueen
When all are obtained, player receives the prefix “Ancient”.
- Vex Thal: Keeper of Shadows
- Ssra: Bane of the Shissar
When both are obtained, player receives the prefix “Relic-keeper”.
- Bastion of Thunder: the Stormbringer
- Halls of Honor: the Valorous
- The Temple of Marr: Champion of Marr
- Tower of Solusek Ro: Ward of the Burning Prince
- Drunder, Fortress of Zek: Challenger of Zek
When all are obtained, player receives the prefix “Planeswalker”.
- Plane of Water: the Abyssal Tidewalker
- Plane of Air: the Ascendant of Air
- Plane of Earth: the Stone Guardian
- Plane of Fire: the Fiery Sunderer
- Plane of Time: the Hero of Time (couldn’t help myself)
When all are obtained, player receives the prefix “Godslayer”.
- Ikkinz: the Trial-bearer
- Uqua: the Taelosian Defender
- Yxxta: the Primal Hunter
- Kod’taz: Avenger of the Nihilite
- Inktu’ta: Seeker of Forgotten Artifacts
- Qvic: Retainer of Sacred Grounds
- Txevu: Challenger of Fate
- Tacvi: Muramites End
- Anguish: Vanquisher of Discord
When all are obtained, player receives the prefix “Realm Warden”.
- Dreadspire: Hunter of the Nightborne
- Demiplane of Blood: the Bloodcursed
When both are obtained, player receives the prefix “Broodhunter”.
- Theatre of Blood: Restorer of Lost Melodies
- Deathknell: Chosen Guardian of Ro
When both are obtained, player recieves the prefix “Purifier”.
Or something like that, I’m sure others may be able to come up with titles more fitting. The point is it doesn’t take much effort to come up with something to appease those disappointed by the changes, as well as implement something that actually adds life to the game, seeing how a lot of players may consider going after the flags the old way just to get a cool title.
Is this something you think SoE should do? What kind of titles would you like to see? Feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.
Quest: A word all too familiar to any MMO gamer. Quests are a, if not the, core element of gameplay in all modern MMOs. They can be used to guide the player, to flesh out the lore of a given area, to distract the player, and to dangle a carrot, pushing the player to keep going just a bit longer for that nice reward. Today I want to talk a bit about these quests we all know and love (or sometimes hate) and what I think works and what doesn’t.
I’ll try to break the types of quests down into categories to make it easier for both of us. Let’s go:
Slaying Quests
We’re all definitely familiar with these. Probably the most common quest in MMOs such as WoW and EQ2. It simply involves killing X amount of a certain type of creature, or killing a specific named mob.
While probably the most uninteresting (except in regard to the nameds, which I will get to in a moment), slaying quests are easily the most necessary to have in an MMO. I mentioned earlier that quests could serve as a distraction to the player, and slaying quests do just that. They keep you from realizing that you’re killing mobs over and over again for XP. In the EQ days, we would sit in a camp and grind on mobs all day long without a thought. That’s just how it was. Would it have hurt to have the gypsies of Oasis ask us to kill 25 orcs for them to lessen the threat to their camp? Not at all. It would have been great, especially since we were definitely slaughtering those orcs anyway. There are a few keys to a good slaying quest:
- If at all possible, have a slaying quest mesh with other quests in that area. For example, if you are giving the players a quest to collect gnoll hides, give them a gnoll slaying quest as well. If quests in the area send the player through a bog infested with Trolls, give them a quest to slay some so they have some fun on the way. Simple!
- Make it lore relevant. Explain it. Why do they want you to kill the gnolls? Flesh it out. Don’t have a random guy in a camp tell you to go kill 10 moss snakes halfway across the forest because he doesn’t like the color green. While that may sound ridiculous, trust me, it’s far too common in games right now. Quests are one of the best ways of showing players how rich your world is, make them want to read the quests instead of just hitting accept immediately.
- Have the slaying quest lead into other quests occasionally. And no, I don’t mean when you run back to tell the guy you killed the gnolls he says “K, now go kill 10 more of these harder gnolls.” That’s just annoying. Make it something interesting, maybe one of the gnolls was carrying a map with a marking on it and you recognize it as a map of the next zone over. What could be at the marked spot? You’ve immediately hooked the player on wanting to see that next zone or area and tied the two together with the lore, though the player will have to find out how on his or her own.
- Whenever lore allows, add in a named to the slaying quest (and make it drop loot). No matter the type of gamer, every player loves to fight a named. People in EQ2 run around dungeons all day just looking for named to kill. Why can’t this be just as fun in quests? WoW has countless slaying quests with a named attached, but it’s never interesting. It’s a slightly harder version of the other things you killed, and it never drops anything good. Make the named drop something just as good as the quest reward. Make it exciting.
- Don’t make the player travel too far back and forth. If the quest has multiple stages, put the questgiver near the mobs in question, such as a small caravan too afraid to continue on for fear of Giants in the hills ahead.
Easy enough, probably the most basic type of quest along with gathering quests. There is less to say about them other than what I have because every MMO does them the same way, and they do it decently. My biggest complaint is probably that it is overused, especially at lower levels of play.
Fetch Quests
Another familiar simple one. Fetch me 10 decaying bone femurs. Or 20 bear teeth. Man, there are some real crappers in this category in most every game. Essentially this is just another distraction to get the player to kill mobs, but allows players to feel like they are doing something different from the slaying quests because they are retrieving items. What makes a good fetch quest?
- It doesn’t have to be so boring! Apples, hides, tails(?), you name it, there’s probably a fetch quest for it. I’d like to see something a little more exciting. This isn’t necessarily a problem with fetch quests themselves, but the design of the games we’re seeing right now. We need a push towards making the player feel heroic and powerful much earlier than they do right now. Why at level 10 should I have to go kill wolves and gather fur? Send me into a Gorgon lair to collect snakes from their heads to be fashioned into magical whips for dark elven mistresses. Done and done.
- Again, lore relevancy. I guess this is going to apply to everything I say about quests, but it gets ignored in fetch quests probably more than anything else. Tell us what the NPC needs these items for, and why they need us to get them instead of doing it themselves. Give us opposing NPCs sometimes that want the same thing brought back, and make us choose who to help.
- A good drop rate. We realize this is to distract us from grinding mobs, but don’t get ridiculous. Players need to feel progress as they go, if you want us there longer, make the required amount higher.
It’s also worth noting that I think EQ2 handles these fetch quests the best as far as mechanics go. Often times you don’t actually have to take up inventory space collecting physical items for the quest, but instead it will simply confirm that you got one and update your log. This is fairly convenient, but I guess it could be argued that it is less challenging (though inventory space as a challenge is dumb). Unfortunately, while they have a good mechanic for these quests they are one of the prime culprits for overusing it and making them as bland as humanly possible.
Escort Quests
Finally something to rant about. Man, I hate escorts. Hey guys, let’s follow Slowest-walker-ever-to-walk-slow Man around while random mobs pop out of nowhere and attack him. If we’re lucky, he might randomly run off after one (the only time he moves fast) and make us fail the quest. It’ll be a blast.
Escorts suck. But, they could be fixed. It may be an issue of technology at this point, I’m not sure, but a good first step would be:
- Non-retarded AI. If this dude I’m helping escape needs my help to do so in the first place, I doubt he’s going to charge in at the incoming mobs and start pummeling them with his bare fists. Depending on the character, make them cower behind the player and his group, or maybe they do have some martial skill and are able to help you fight, but will obey commands you give them (like a pet).
- Normal player movement speed, or close to it. I don’t care if you want my grandma to be able to do the quest so you make sure the NPC moves at the same speed she does. Most players can more than keep up with an NPC running around, and when you make them walk slow it’s just a huge annoyance and a waste of time.
- Don’t make them too long. The Mana-Tombs escort is an example of one that is too long. You’ve just spent nearly an hour clearing this dungeon, and then you have to walk all the way back through it with Ethereal Slowbie, fighting more trash. Meh. Make it fast, and therefore more exciting.
If it were me, I would use the escort quest very sparingly, at least until AI improves. There is potential for some cool things using them, but it’s just not there yet. I would like to see something similar to the Durnholde escort in WoW, where a very powerful character from the lore joins your party. Except instead of sucking like Thrall, the guy would be a complete badass and your party would be basically unstoppable with him around. You could go through a dungeon area with him just owning everything in your path and giving your party crazy buffs, etc. At the end he could be mind-controlled or possessed by the boss somehow and you have all those abilities he used turned against you. Add in some mechanic where you can either kill him + the boss or break the spell and then kill the boss, resulting in different loot. End of story, epic awesomeness. Oh well, maybe someday. Until then, we get slowbies.
Mystery Quests
Mysteries: my favorite type of quest. This one may have you confused because I basically just chose a term to call this type of quest because it seems to be the most fitting. Mystery quests have all but disappeared from modern MMO gaming in favor of the informative quest journals and mini-maps. I’m talking about the quests of old – the quests of EverQuest.
I call them mysteries because in EQ, you had little to no direction or guidance on how to solve a particular quest. Often times you would come across an item and not even realize it belonged to a quest out there somewhere. Quests were all around you, and yet it was oftentimes impossible to find where one ended and another began. I still remember how the Rogue community solved the entire Epic quest chain before the Monks even knew who their starting NPC was. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning this type of design. At least, not exactly. I do, however, think mystery quests should make a return in a more user-friendly way, though not as friendly as normal quests.
The point of a mystery quest would not be a distraction from killing mobs, or a dangling carrot (ideally, the player would not even know what reward, if any, they would get!) but instead simply encourages them to get out there and explore. Not only go and explore the world, but the community as well. Maybe the Wizard forum community has figured out what that glowing blue orb you found in the depths of a dungeon is for. Or maybe you will be the first to figure it out. These types of quests can add a huge amount of variety and depth to a game and it’s unfortunate that they have been all but phased out today.
How can we design mystery quests to be more user friendly than the EQ impossibles?
- Make things a little less random. In EQ, a quest item could drop halfway across the world from the NPC you needed to hand it to. Speaking of which, randomly handing things to NPCs is just a little over the top. If we reign it in a bit, we can reach a nice middle ground. For example: say you’re in a dungeon killing some undead spirits. When one of them dies, it says, “We can never rest until…”. Okay, until what? Later on you kill another type of spirit and realize it has a different message, “the Sun sits in its rightful place.” Okay, we got the rest of the message, but it’s still pretty confusing. Only the next thing you know (or maybe even earlier in the dungeon) you’ve gotten a strange drop called “A Brightly Glowing Sphere”. Now all you need to do is explore the dungeon and find it’s rightful place. Simple, confined to one zone, and yet fun to experience and figure out for yourself.
- Give plenty of indicators without spoiling it completely. If a player finds a magical object that they believe is tied to a mystery quest, maybe they could take it into town and have a lore-master or some other type of mage look over it. This NPC could give the player a vague clue as to where to look next. Similarly, if the player is close to the next step of their quest, maybe the item in question could have some type of emote showing a reaction. A mysterious sword may start humming quietly as a player approaches what looks like an ordinary stone. They then notice a small slit in the rock, just wide enough for the blade to fit in…
I hope MMO developers will give quests like this a chance again, and realize that a huge number of players dislike having their hand held all the time. These types of quests have the potential to be the most fulfilling of all.
What are your thoughts on the different types of quests? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you agree or disagree with my suggestions on how to improve them? What do you think of the Mystery Quests? Leave your answers in a comment!
As an avid player of MMORPGs since 1997, nearly half of my entire life, it is no surprise that these games have had a particularly strong influence on nearly every facet of my development as a person; socially, mentally, and emotionally, these games were as important a factor in my upbringing as my own home environment and real life activities.
Having always been entranced by stories of adventure and heroism, it was impossible for me to resist the call of such a game that would allow me to go beyond the pages of my favorite books, beyond film and single-player games where I could only allow the story to unfold before me, a spectator and nothing more. In these worlds, I could be the hero, or villain, that would have tales recounted about him for ages to come.
And so it was, at the tender age of 12, I purchased what many consider to be the grandfather of MMO gaming: Ultima Online.
Seconds after logging in for the first time, I was completely enthralled by this living world I had come into. I remember it clearly still today – the forest of Yew; the kind lumberjack I befriended who taught me the ways of fletching so that I could become self-sufficient in the wild as an Archer. The music, the ambiance, the realization that all of these people around me were living adventures of their own – it was one of the most incredible experiences in my gaming career.
It’s hard to say where that free-spirited innocence went after the first year or so. Before long the game was only about maxing skills, PVP wars with rival guilds, griefing other players just for fun and looting their belongings, even breaking into their houses if possible. “Own” became a staple of my vocabulary. This is not to say it was a bad thing, my time in UO was greatly enjoyable and I look back on it fondly. It is simply interesting to for me to look at the changes in myself as the game went on, and how it relates to today’s MMO scene, where WoW dominates and can be much more easily related to the latter half of my time in UO. Back to that in a moment.
In 1999, a game was released that had an even greater effect on me than UO ever could. It was of course, EverQuest. Still to this day, in my opinion, the single greatest game ever made. EverQuest allowed me a brief return to that childlike state of imaginative curiosity and wanderlust. A whole new world had opened up to me (in 3D this time, no less) and the fact that it was heavily inspired by the classic DnD worlds made it all the better. Again, from the get-go, the music, the atmosphere, just everything about it was perfect. The lore was absolutely incredible, even just reading excerpts from the manual made you want to get in game and see these places for yourself, or find out what other mysteries there were to unfold. It made you feel like the world was real, and far bigger than it actually was. In your mind, Norrath went beyond what you could see in front of you. There were no exclamation points to force you on a railway to max level, no maps or mods, no guidance except for your own ambition. It may not have been the perfect way to design an MMO, but damn if it wasn’t fun. Some of my greatest memories are things that seem so silly to me now as an EQ veteran: getting lost in the Greater Faydark fearing that at any moment I would meet my end to some powerful creature and forever lose my corpse, traveling across the Oasis and gaping in awe at all the high level players gathered at the docks awaiting the boat, delving into the dungeon Guk and actually being afraid of going too far in.
As always though, with greater knowledge and experience, I no longer feared anything in the world of Norrath. It’s mysteries became known to me, and I only sought ways in which to advance myself quickly and efficiently. Soon only the raiding scene mattered to me, getting those upgrades and progressing further as fast as our guild could manage. When not raiding, it was all about grinding out those AA’s for whatever boost in power we could get. Again, we cannot look at this as a bad thing since it is not like the game became less fun or lost any value to me, my view of it simply changed. It seems to be just the way MMOs progress as they age. Is it something that is impossible to avoid? Is there a way to give even veteran players that fresh feeling and excitement of the unknown? That is a discussion for another post.
I continued to play EverQuest for many years, up until the release of World of Wacraft. Here is where my reminiscing may change tune a bit, because while WoW was extremely fun gameplay wise, it did not capture my imagination and inquistiveness in the way that previous MMOs did. Perhaps it is because in WoW you are told what to do and where to go every step of the way, you feel you are simply going along a preset path the entire way. This, I believe, caused me to fall into the latter stage of MMO gaming much sooner, and all I cared about was gaining another level, getting upgrades in gear, and what my next talent point would be spent on.
That was all okay though, because where WoW fell behind in lore and immersion, it more than made up for it with gameplay. No one will argue that WoW is not the most fluid, stable, and simply playable MMO ever made. They took a genre that was fairly known for being clunky, non-user friendly, and overly difficult and really opened it up to the masses. They also did their research and learned what worked and what didn’t in past MMOs. This what I appreciate most about World of Warcraft. It raised the bar. Because of WoW, all MMOs that we see succeed in the future will have to be as polished and at least as playable as WoW. This is a very good thing for us as gamers.
I spent a fair amount of time in WoW, as I’m sure most have. I grinded my way to 60, PVP’d a bit (could never bring myself to do the GM/HWL grind, rough stuff) and participated in my servers first Raganaros kill. I leveled a bunch of alts (what else is there to do after a certain point) and played happily up to and through the release of The Burning Crusade.
TBC is where Blizzard somewhat started to lose me, I guess. I was as excited about anyone else about the expansion, and when it came out I thought it was the greatest thing since Fuzzlecutter Formula 5000. But after a time, I realized how much the game was shrinking as a result of TBC. Blizzard chose to do a hard reset with the expansion, and catch everyone up in gear so that all players would be in Outland instances and raids together. To clarify, this was sharply different than the standard EQ had set, where players had to progress through previous content – sometimes even years old – before they would be powerful enough to tackle the new stuff. Whether this was a good idea or not is debated still constantly, but I’m of the opinion that it was a bad idea. As I said earlier, the game world started to shrink in a way. If you were level 70, all of the former world of Azeroth (with the exception of the main city of your choice, Caverns of Time, and Karazhan) became pretty much obsolete. You had no reason to go there. Not only that, but even lower level players found themselves skipping as much content as possible in a rush to get to Outland and 70. I am currently on a break from WoW, and I will probably remain away until the expansion.
Great, why are you telling me all this? or Okay, I skipped to the bold stuff.
So, you’re wondering if all that rambling and reminiscing served any purpose at all other than to waste your time, right? I don’t blame you.
I felt like I needed to preface this blog with a brief (yes, brief) recounting of my MMO background. You need to know where I’m coming from and what kind of gamer I am to understand some of my views and opinions. It also serves as a warning to some of you who may be against those old school EQers who like to wax nostalgic all day long – I’m definitely one of those dudes. I will be writing a lot about design concepts for MMOs as well as discussing the current state of the MMO scene and games that are on the horizon. If you didn’t know much about my background, you might see no reason to listen to what I have to say.
As I said in my opening, MMOs are a part of who I am. I don’t just play them, I live them. Simple as that. This blog was started because I have too many thoughts bouncing around inside my head to be confined to message board posts and chats with friends. I had to have somewhere to get those thoughts out there, and this is it.
I hope you will return in the future for more ramblings from this wandering Rogue.
