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!
–
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.
