Messing my brain in free to play

Human brain craves for novelty. It thrives on new things, learning new skills, seeing new things. This is why a new MMO is so interesting and this is also why there is a honeymoon after the launch before you can really say anything about the actual game.

But what comes of the brain which is succumbed to repetition and same mechanics for a prolonged period of time? Lazy and confined, like an animal in a zoo, which has been confined to a too small cage. If set free, it will continue the compulsive behavior without even understanding that the cage has been removed.

I've been going through MMOs which have turned from subscription based to free to play, and I can say that I'm pretty much full of the whole genre. I had confined my brain in WoW for too long to even recognize the lack of freedom the game is built with. The jump to EVE was obviously too big a paradigm change, because the freedom and solitude was too much to endure.

Now as I have grown both as gamer, MMO player and human being, I have viewed the games I have tried from quite a different perspective than earlier. Over the last few weeks I have meddled with Rift (ok, I have a sub in there), City of Heroes, Champions Online, Guild Wars and Fallen Earth, last of which came to me as a surprise that it had went F2P.

And boy are they different and strange learning experiences!

First of all, I have learned that I'm more into eye candy than I wanted to believe. City of Heroes, despite the upgrades to the starting story and all, is clunky and the graphics are appalling to me. It underlines the problem I have had with Lotro for example by having the character graphics at different depth or shade than the surrounding area. I would have expected that this 'graphic novel' style would have suited to a superhero game, but it just makes the character look like a sticky note on a report: an added feature. This is where WoW still excels the rest of the AAA games: the graphics are seamlessly in the same style and depth and belong together.

Champions was the next and change from CoH to Champions was like reinventing the superhero MMO! The graphics work like in a cartoon, the over exaggerated hues just bring out the graphic novel style stories and the starter zone flows like a cartoon: from one scene to another. But there is something lacking in the heart of the game, which comes apparent later on. Something I just cannot put my finger on, but it's not calling me to go any further.

Including GW, none of these have even tried to change the MMO in any particular way. Champions has been closest with some pretty nifty ways it handles the skill use and provides just enough choice in the character development to make the character feel own without overwhelming the player. A huge plus is also the fact that I have played Hero Games' pen and paper superhero game, so the basic concepts are very familiar to me... :D

Enter Fallen Earth.

I could rant, but the honeymoon has only begun. I can see some shortcomings in the system, but I regret that this game was not developed by a daring big studio. But then again, it would have never been this rough gem it is. The mere concept of shooter kind of MMO pushed me away when the game launched, where as it should have been the point to really go and try it. The basic "Aftermath"-type postapocalyptic MMO should have been one of the genres I should have tried right away (been a sucker for this genre since the first try of Gamma World way back when).

The game is in the right direction to be honest. Spinks just asked about how we are coping with the coming winter in MMOs and I responded that the MMOs have to evolve for the new spring to come. Fallen Earth has done that in a way I can see evolving the genre. It has a quest driven storyline in it. It has sandbox freedom which enables you to develop your character in a meaningful way even by crafting (guess who is progressing this way... ) and it has graphics which are not too clunky. And the economy, fully player driven, so almost everything above basic materials and guides have to be manufactured by someone.

What strikes me the most is the discussion and questions in the [Help] channel. It really shows how far we have gone from the adventure games of old where you really had to think and do and explore to even get along. These players wouldn't stand a chance playing any of the first four Ultima series' games! And still Fallen Earth is being gentle with players by showing resource nodes, merchants, enemies and all in the minimap and having the NPC telling you whatever you need to know to survive.

The best part of FE for me is the fact that I can pop in for a few minutes to start crafting, do some gathering or scavenging and log off, knowing that everything I just did progresses my character in a meaningful way. And while logging off in a town you can be sure that you have basic resources near by, you can get into the 'chores' right away.

Like I said, I'm still in the blissful honeymoon stage with the game, but my brain is really enjoying the novelty, the new thinking it has to come up with and the possibilities this game might hold in the future.

But today it's Three Dunces/Stooges again in WoW. I can live with that.

If not taking into account SWTOR and GW2, what game is satisfying your brain's craving for novelty?

Social design and lack of it

I've been writing and discussing about the lack of social tools in WoW, though I could as well talk about them lacking in MMOs in general. It just happens to be so that the MMOs we play teach to do things in their way, and the teaching aspect can be very, very subtle.

We joke about "kill ten rats" quests, mention the few somewhat controversial quests on the repertoire (namely Kirin Tor torture quest in Northrend and the Aviana kill or release quest come to my mind right away) and may have noticed how the game teaches you to care only about yourself and steal, kill, murder and main in the name of fulfilling you quest. How WoW teaches you that it's ok to steal the half-empty glasses in Dalaran Inn to present them to a paying customer for a daily, for example.

All of this is in the category of social design. Not only the lack of control and consequences of the LFD PUGs, nor the inability to add cross faction players to friend lists (except RealID, I think), nor the inadequate and antiquated social tools presented in the game.

MMOs are based on the ever evolving Skinner Box, which just sucks you deeper into the hunt for new shiny gear, achievement, entitlement, making the players eyes shine and jaws gape like the ringing bell effect on Pavlov's dogs. In finer language, the operant conditioning in the game results the typical classical conditioning results in the players.

This is social programming, too. It makes the players do as the designer has planned the players to do when the game has been designed. As the players learn to do thing #1 from the beginning of the game, the designer can predict that the player knows how to do thing #1 when this player's character advances in levels. Due to this it becomes later on in the game to break the thing #1 causing something to happen. However, this is what happens in WoW this very moment: the game teaches the player to solo up and do it in style fast, and as the character 'comes of age' and reaches level cap, the rules are changed completely. Be social, group or leave.

In a twitter convo sometime ago Wolfshead asked a valid question: Why cannot we debate with the mobs? Why can't we take the culturally viable way of avoiding the physical confrontation and use non-violent ways to reach our target? Currently the social design of the MMOs in the market are more in line with the Milgram Experiment, where the designer has decided how the game must proceed and the player must follow that train of thought or quit. The torture and killing quests are just excellent examples on how - in my humble opinion - the game designers are using their power to teach, condition and change the players views wrong.

The further we go along the line, the more closer we come to the Stanford Prison Experiment, where the ones given the authority by their role became the monsters they originally abhorred. We have a sort of situation already, where the established guilds already dictate the non-guilded players fates quite by a whim and in fact use their power pretty casually. "If you don't like it here, you can leave" is a very common statement in a guild if someone proposes a change or asks for an explanation for something.

Power without responsibility is violence.

If the game design teaches everyone take care of themselves, the designers cannot expect the players later on to take the stand and take care of each other. Especially if they make it clear that only one can get the leet loot and epics in a raid, when some have to settle for the greys and coins.

Also the MMOs currently have very binary quest system: either you take a quest or you abandon it. If you take it, you get reward. If you choose not to take it, you get nothing. What if there is a quest chain in which you get into a moral conflict with the story and would like to take another approach? No, you either continue and do 'wrong'/against your morals (or your character's) or you decline and lose the rewards.

The binary Yes/No choices are way too ancient for the current games and there should be more ambition in the designer/coding side to get around this crap. Already in the early adventure games there were multiple choices to go along, so why couldn't the current MMOs have even rudimentary set of choices to be presented?

Also the social aspect of reputation and factions is laughable at best. The effects of ones actions should have repercussions ingame, on the NPCs and factions far more tangible than currently. The social minigames like the persuasion in Morrowind/Oblivion could serve as a starting point, add a few nuances and see how it works.

Anyhow, I could rant on forever. I think it would serve the MMO or RPG designers and/or companies to have at least one person with sociologic and/or psychology as a background to help in the design from this side and point of view.

At least this way the game design could change towards more socially engineered instead of more achievement oriented.

Do you have any other suggestions on how the social design could be changed? Regardless of the players, of course...

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Call has been answered

So Naithin and Gordon have answered my call for their dream MMO setting, both in their unique style and tact. I'm still waiting for the one from Larísa, the one she promised to do at some point or another.

That'll be worth a snatch post in itself, for sure.

For now, go and read what Naithin and Gordon have to say about their dream MMO (setting).

Shoo!

What would you like your MMO to be?

I have been pondering over the question of what story, IP or background I would like to see a MMO done. The setting of the game.

As it happens, as we bloggers and gamers generally are quite heavy consumers of different medias, I'd like to put  this challenge on some of the bloggers I greatly appreciate. So if it wouldn't be too much to ask, I'd like to see what would Gordon from We Fly Spitfires, Naithin from Fun in Games and Larísa from Pink Pigtail Inn would like their MMO be designed on. No, this is not a meme, but feel free to share the pain!

To clarify my question, I have to tell what I would like to see. I have earlier described my perfect MMO and in that post I have stated that I'd like to see a mysterious secret society setting a'la Lovecraft, and as it happens the Secret World is based on that premise. So I had to have one look at my bookshelf to understand that there is but one possibility. One perfect setting for a compelling MMO.

Urth of the New Sun MMO.

Gene Wolfe created a magnificient world, a living, thriving and very much compelling set of communities and events with unbelievable monsters, creatures and conflicts. Not everyone gets to be the young torturer who becomes the leader - and cause of destruction - of the world, but the mere living world itself calls for exploration.

I would like to have a character roaming the war ridden wastelands on a destrier, to wield a light lance and see the dream eaters. The sheer size and mystery of Urth is calling my intelligence, and this game couldn't be anything but hard, harder and time consuming. Talk about having WOW! in a game, this would have the constant amazement of a world freshly created.

It could be even set into the four year time when Severian is doing his off-world pledge to revitalize the sun, only to end the whole game to the catastrophe commencing after his return. The sense of wonder in combining the pre-space flight wonders with the wonders of the universe after the space faring culture has collapsed is just presenting unimaginable possibilities.

What backstory would you like to play as MMO? What would be YOUR dream setting for a MMO?

Class mastery

What measures your mastery of your class? Just read a blog post complaining about people on raids who haven't mastered their class. I wonder how can you tell you have mastered your class, because in my case I try my best to learn from each encounter I enter. My view of the mastery is subjective and it's not necessarily equal with someone who has a)played longer, b)mastered more content, c)mastered more classes or d)spends more time reading the off-game resources for tweaking.

How do you rate your own mastery of the class? For me the rating is pretty straightforward: either I can or I cannot. Either my gear/stats are acceptable compared to the requirements, or not. Either I understand the concept/fight/fault or not. In short, I don't have reasonable expectations on my own performance.

After all, as a sort of a perfectionist in nature, I'm my own worst critic and enemy, and I'm very seldom satisfied with myself.

Including my class mastery.

It's a bloody team effort

Whatever way you look at it, MMO's are a team effort in more ways than one. In the most basic level, the single character's growth from zero to hero is a single experience both to the toon and to the player, but everything else is involving co-operation with other toons and players.

Dungeons. Group quests. Raids. Guilds. Trading.

The difficulties in maintaining these functions boils always down to the communication and understanding on the personal level.

That's why I'm pretty much bothered by the silent 5man runs the LFD is providing. In fact, I'm pretty much bothered by the silence in all the areas of the game: even the /2 trade and 1/ general are pretty silent when you take the excessive spam off the channels.

Proper communication is key to success in team effort. Assuming that others understand you perfectly leads to disaster. If you are leading a party, take that few sentences in that PUG group to explain in few words the bosses, do not assume others know and execute it the way you want to.

Do not assume I know what you mean with your silence.

Communication is the key thing to success in team effort. Make it count.

Sure, not all of us can type while we're bashing the trash. Wait for the more quiet moment (mana break?) to state your mind. You may not ever see the rest of the group again, but they may rank you in something like Elitist Group for others to see. That one helpful sentence may help you later on in your runs.

Not all of us are as vocal with their concerns: never the less, the concerns are not any less than those of the vocal minority. After all, it's a team effort and the team is just as strong as it's weakest link. The failrun has it's weakest link, and if you are there for the first time without saying anything about it, it's your fault. By stating that you are there for the first time, do not understand or do not know the stuff you may well get advice on how to proceed.

Might even get congratulated for your honesty.

MMORPG, Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game, is a team effort in it's multi-player part. Behind each and every player controlled toon is a player, a person, with different values, knowledge and experience of the game. To convey your thoughts and information to those other players with whom you play ensures that they understand your position and point of view, and in the end, makes your life a bit easier in the MMO world of your choice.

In the group content -5mans and raids- you are nothing without the team. The team can replace you, but you cannot experience the content without a team. The same goes with a guild: the guild can easily replace you, but without the guild you are deprived from a lot of things in the game.

In team effort, communication is everything. Even more than skills.

Open up and share your thoughts.

Random thought: Game in MMORPG

Why do we insist calling MMO's -especially this thing we dubiously call MMORPG- a game? There is nothing game-like in the whole concept. Well, as much as there is game-likeness in normal pen and paper RPG, which is neigh, too.

So, why on Earth do we call MMO a game? It has no winning condition, it has no game like rule sets and it's -well- endless, ever continuing.

MMO is not a game in the traditional sense for lacking the specific win condition/end of game. Role-Playing, yes, if we take into account the fact that we are basing our decisions in game on the possibilities our character has. But game, no.

But what is it then?

Alt or not?

Alt, or alternative character, in MMO is something that most of the players will create at one point or another. Be it a bank mule or a seriously played toon of another class or race, it's all the same: it's not the main character the player is playing, or planning to play, for the imminent future. Some stick to one character, some get a case of altitis, requiring them to create several alts to accommodate their moods for

Jason from Channel Massive blurted out in episode #109, that he had a hiatus from MMO's during which he played only single player games. Now that he's returned to his favourite addiction, MMO's (Champions Online to be precise), he has found out that he is concentrating on one character instead of his earlier (severe case of) altitis. He also states that this has somehow slowed down the urge to clear all content from all angles in the game. And that he's enjoying the game.

This commentary in the podcast got me thinking the issue with alts and the possibility to play several toons in a game. It's quite clear that in strongly PvP based games it would be kind of cheating to have a toon on both sides of the PvP factions, and the new and coming sandbox sci-fi game Earthrise has already asked the members of their forum about the possibility to have more than one toon on a server, clearly concerned about ruining one element of the game (in game spying of another faction) by allowing toons on both sides.

I also connected this with my recent spree of Oblivion: somehow it didn't even cross my mind to start a new toon in the game. I guess it's the same in Fallout3 and other Bethesda games, and hopefully in the forthcoming Star Wars: Old Republic MMO, in which the questing is supposed to be reminiscent to the one in the Fallout/Elder Scrolls games.

I myself am playing three toons at the moment: warrior Laiskajaakko, priest Pupunen and banker. The time spent on Laiskajaakko is easily three or four times the time spent on the others, so I can easily say that I have only one toon in the game. Then again I have several toons of my own on other servers, too, and three on Horde side on the same server as these three.

The question is, is it necessary to have more than one toon in a game? And how much does a crew of alts affect the overall immersion in the game?

My answer to the first question is that no, it's not. Really, in the 'old days' of the computer gaming you plunged through the games with one toon till they died. You still play single player games with only one character, even the games where you create the character yourself, and you are completely happy with it! So why would an MMO be any different from those games?

Like I stated, I have several toons, but I enjoy the game most when I can jump into the shoes of one character only and follow his advancement through the game. I've already seen how hard it's to take on the lower levelled priest and remember the quests which my warrior has done... only to notice that the priest has completely different quests on the area. The immersion is broken in a way for the second toon, and I cannot imagine how little of the RPG part you really can put into the nth alt you're levelling.

And there I gave my answer to the second question. I don't think that running around with several alts can be immersive: it's bound to be more a game of finding out how this or that class works and functions, not like writing the story for the character at all.

Big part of this problem comes from the fact that the quest system and the level of involvement in the game are not working. (But that's another story.) In single player games you are immersed to the game's overall plot and quests by involving you -the player- through the direct contact with your character, and the quests in a way come to you unnoticed and tie you as a player in personal level to them. In MMO's the quests hubs have NPC's with exclamation marks just waiting for you to collect the quests and there is nothing that would involve you to do those quests except the rewards. MMO quests are impersonal.

Anyhow, what do you think? Do you really need the option to create several alts from the beginning or should this possibility be 'unlocked' by playing your 'main' to certain level first?

Podcasts I listen

Over the past few weeks I've indulged myself into the world of gaming podcasts. There are few I'm trying to follow, but I thought I'd list the ones that I have been following lately. They are in no particular order of preference, so take care and read my comments on them with a grain of salt. And no, they are not all WoW related by far.

Van Hemlock podcast
The one I love the most: the quality is superb both soundwise and content wise. Mind you, not WoW related mostly. Definitely worth the time, always looking for the next show to come up. Splendid effort from the guys!

All Things Azeroth
The podcast which got me lured into listening to podcasts. Medros and Graece host a wonderful show of all things Azeroth and WoW related, with some sidestepping occasionally to the overall gaming issues. Excellent content.

Inside Azeroth
This podcast is a bit of a dilemma to me: it's fast, furious and occasionally funny, but the raunchy word usage and fanboyish raving from time to time dims the light of the excellent and thoughtfull content. If you can take the occasional rants and f-words, surely worth the time to listen to the general thoughts and ideas of these guys.

Channel Massive
The more I listen to this, the more I like it. Not WoW related mostly, so for the ones who like MMOs' and games in general. Great big fun usually and the chemistry of the hosts works excellently.

Shut Up. We're Talking.
Great show, sadly a bit lengthy one each time. Great content about MMO's and games in general with guests and all.

Twisted Nether Blogcast
If you want to know what's going on in WoW blogosphere, TNB is THE authority in it. Great show from Fimlys and Nibuca with guest hosts from all over the WoW bloggers community.

Banstick Podcast
Hudson (Hudson's Hideout) put up a podcast and the result is... stunning! Just brilliant and witty, like his blog used to be is, definitely worth the time to listen to these guys chat about MMO's and games they play. Even WoW now...

Guild-Chat
Kreeoni started a podcast a while ago with David, concentrating on running and managing a Guild in WoW. Excellent choice and I wish they have the feedback and stamina to go on with this. The first three shows I've heard so far have been excellent in content and I sincerely recommend this to anyone interested in how the guilds work, what the GM's do and how Kreeoni and David see things differently due to their different guilds and policies (Kreeoni's concentrates on 25man hc content, while David's in 10man hc).

The overall length of the typical podcasts are from 50minutes to a bit over 2 hours, latter of which is a bit of a problem for me as my drive lasts about 1h 15minutes... and my darn phone doesn't understand how to ff a MP3...

So if I have one request for the podcasters, it is that Please make your shows fit the 1h to 1.5h limit! There is plenty of time to get it done within that timeframe, just like Van Hemlock does!

If there are other excellent -and short enough- podcasts you would like to recommend, please leave a comment. Thanks!

Sidestepping

I got some time on my computer yesterday. At home I mean, at work I stare it too much already. What did I do?
* Check AH in WoW, make new auctions and purchase new items to sell - 1 hour
* Login and drive five races in Upshift Strikeracer : 55 minutes (including learning everything from zero)

I wonder which is more fun...

Ah, nevermind. That car racing with guns blazing brought so many memories from the tabletop gaming era, that there is no question about it. CarWars of the modern era, definitely. Even though I hate racing games (I seriously lack the ability to drive imaginary vehicles on screen) and resent PvP, this game is good, clean FUN! It's fast, furious and easy to learn, and one race takes only about 10 minutes minutes depeding on the group entering the race.

It's racing, it's PvP and it's tweaking the cars (later on). The best part is that it's free to play and seems to be stable enough to keep even the full track going. Ok, I have to admit that it's a bit shallow on the story side, and that the graphics are not quite en par with the latest console games, but it runs smoothly and is pleasing enough to keep me at least occupied every now and then. Even in the summer, as it's bound to rain every now and then!

What did I gain in WoW? Cashed some 200g profit only to make purchases with 170g. We'll see when I get the time to cash what I posted.

Summertime low downs

Ok.

For myself, the summertime routines are starting: the weather gives more than amply the opportunities to exercise with the dogs and the gardening, the weekends are filled with competitions and trainings and all in all, everything points to the fact that my playing will get scarcer and farther apart. In addition to that, Gatheryn opened the pre-registration for it's Beta, something I've been waiting for sometime now and Earthrise is nearing the point, too. It's not that I'd be bored with WoW or anything, but these two open up genres which I haven't explored as of yet, except in pen and paper RPG's. Which is completely different.

Talking about boredom brings up this question in my mind: what will happen to WoW's subscriber count after the summer lowbies and already apparent WotLK burnouts put together? Summers have usually been pretty quiet in MMO's, with the 'high season' being around Christmas time, so the amount of active players will be considerably lower by nature. But this combined with the generic WotLK burnout and possible Ulduar specific burnouts, what will be the outcome of this low season to the overall subscriber count?

Remains to be seen. The playing field is slowly evening out in the sense of competition and genres in the MMO market. Now the free-to-play games are coming with even greater force, putting more emphasis on the quality and playability than former AAA-class games.

We're surely living interesting times.

Reconsidering current end game

MMO's are considered to be games. WoW is no exception in that, even though most of the content is heavily soloable and the norm is to power level to the level cap with the aid of addons and guides. If we're very strict about it, MMO's lack something that games have typically in common: winning conditions. In that sense they are more akin to the pen and paper roleplaying games, in which the game refers more to the way of interacting with the story and rules than to the winning conditions and actually winning "the game". In addition to all that, games with set winning conditions are usually played for leisure or spur of the moment. They can be taken out for a quick game, as well as the solo computer and console games.

As the MMO's have evolved to the current stage, where the end game is considered to be The Game, and the levelling game, which in roleplaying games is the main interest, is just a tutorial to raiding, the concept of a MMORPG has changed a bit. At least in WoW you cannot learn to play your character, class or the encounters by playing anymore, at least not as effectively as the rest of the population or raid expects you to. You character is scrutinized before you are accepted to a raid team, and usually this is preceded with clear questions on how and what you have raided before: newbies don't bother.

Because of this requirement that you have to master the flavour of the month talent build, know the encounters by heart so you can dance the right dance and have the experience to support the knowledge, the game has lost something of it's fascination to some. It's not a game, casual entertainment or pass time anymore.

It has become a hobby.

To be able to play the game of "End Game Raiding", you have to level your character to the level cap as efficiently as possible. This is so that you don't waste your time in the levelling game and get bored with the repeating quests. Next you have to spend your time in reading the guides and websites describing the most efficient talent builds, the gear and glyphs to support them and in addition to that, learn to play the specifications. You have to train yourself to play the character at the maximum level with the best possible efficiency.

And in raiding the main thing isn't to kill the boss, but to be the best in DPS, TPS, HPS or whatever your class is specified to do. The main thing is to be able to do your character's job better than the last time and preferably better than the guy next to you (in the raid roster).

Isn't this exactly what you do in any other hobby: You gather information, train your skills and try to do your best and improve yourself?

So what makes MMO's more a game than a hobby?

Computers and computer games are not considered to be hobbies for some reason or another. Reading, riding or playing chess are hobbies, however. Playing games is considered equal to watching TV: mindless waste of time while being 'entertained'.

Which it really is in the end.

Stargrace pointed out to me in Twitter the other day, that there is so much creative talent in the people who play MMO's. My response to was that the games actually deprive us from using that creativity, as we are spending our time in using other peoples' creations instead of creating ourself.

The question is: are the MMO's becoming a real hobby or are they just waste of time comparable to cheap TV-serial?

My current "perfect" MMO game

I promised earlier to write a separate post about my perfect MMO. As it happens, I will combine this with the task posted in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and make it a list post. I suppose it will be a long one, so bear with me.

Tobold posted also about the RPG concept in WoW , though from a point of view I haven't noticed yet. That's because I haven't raided yet. But as soon as I read the post, certain things clicked: the dungeons and instance bosses are more videogamey than roleplaying gamey. I agree with him to the point that MMORPG's are more based on general videogame concepts than roleplaying, as I described in my earlier post. The single player experience is not that of immersion, but that of achieving something more in the game. Sure, pen and paper roleplaying was full of anticipation of the next level abilities and the possibility to gain the ultimate weapon/armour/gear to overcome the main villain. But the journey was more important than the destination, and as the commenters in the forementioned Tobold's post stated, the D&D modules that were initially written for sale, the game itself was more of the heroic story of the group or one character in the group.

Great RPG experience was more akin a good fantasy novel than a hack and slash session.

Now to My current view of the "perfect" MMORPG:

1. Intriguing setting. Something that invites you to explore and find out the lore, story and the background. For me the first computer game equivalents of this were Albion and the first Silent Hill. Why, where, what and when. This being said, the genre isn't that important, the setting can be as well fantasy, sci-fi or contemporary.
2. Growing storyline. Character should be involved in a developing story that makes the player feel s/he's accomplishing something great and wondrous. Even though Tigole claims that the players want to see their minimap blinking yellow at the quest hub, I strongly disagree: if the storyline is inviting the player to find out what comes next, it's at least more motivating.
3. Meaningful decision making. Every decision should have an impact in the evolving story. You could even have two or more possibilities to continue the chain, and no possibility to come back to change the current character's story. The faction/people group reactions should reflect your decisions, with appropriate ripple effect from the point the decision is made: with this I mean that the impact of the decision should be less profound the farther you go from the point.
4. No levels, but a reasonable way of gaining expertise. My personal favourite ever in pen and paper games was the Chaosium 's Basic Roleplaying system , in which you had the possibility to gain more expertise every time you used a skill. Possibility got smaller every time you got closer to the maximum, making the maximum almost impossible to reach in normal gaming. Original Call of Cthulhu utilized this system, and it's IMO still the best pen and paper RPG devised.
5. Open storylines. Goes well with points 2 and 3: your decisions open new opportunities and you can drop the line. This means closing that particular line for some indefinite time, maybe even returning you back to the former story after gaining more information and/or experience in the ways of the world.
6. Basically independant of gear. Meaning that there are several different swords, but they basically do the same damage from level to level. It's more of a question of skill, the characters skill, how much damage s/he inflicts. In fantasy setting this leads however to the next point.
7. Unique gear. The unique or named gear should be such. Not like in WoW that you have umpteen Neriak's Supernumerary Stickers in the AH. There would be only one, and until that one is disenchanted, destroyed or discarded, there would be no others. This could lead to the interesting possibility to have someone really collect the unique gear...
8. Collections, shinies and dingies. Fluff and something to keep players interested in the overall world itself. EQ2 did this exceptionally well, I loved it.
9. Player housing and guild housing is a must.
10. Guilds and co-operation should be emphasized and made easy. I'm still wondering how WoW hasn't copied the system EQ2 has for this.
11. One character per server/world. Makes your experience as player unique.
12. Some way to reward for not dying without actually punishing for it. Then again, permadeath would be permissible if the setting would account for it.
13. Open Sandbox to explore and do things in. This was omitted from my first version: freedom to do asa you please, only the stories from quests to guide you on. Freedom to interact, work and do when and what you like to.

That was the initial list, out from the hat. It's not complete and I could define and refine it endlessly. All of the areas are not yet reasonable to expect from the current MMO architecture and technical side, but I can dream.

My dream is a level-less MMORPG set in 1930's, with prohibition, mobs, sinister cults, mad scientists and evil aliens. Call of Cthulhu with permadeath or insanity, in which you could leave a will to leave inheritance to your characters distant relative, with whom you could continue the story, creating her/his OWN story from the remains of your former character.

One thing that I would like to see is something that was introduced in a Finnish novel for young people: in that novel the MMO world was built in chapters. One chapter lasted for one real time year, developing the story to the next chapter, all the while depending on the players activities (like Sunwell Offensive in WoW). The 'story' itself would take three chapters to complete, after which the game would reset completely. Technically still challenging, but possible. A Tale in the Desert does this already, but to see a MMORPG set like this...

That would be something.

My thoughts on roleplaying

This is the second post in the series responding to Azariel's questions, defining my view on role-playing in MMO's and in games in general. First one dealt with definitions, this on my thoughts about roleplaying in games.

Total Immersion

The most memorable gaming experiences, both in pen and paper and in computer games, for me have been the ones I can only describe as total immersion to the game. Taking up the story so personally that you really take the place of the avatar/character on screen. This comes up from several factors, but for me the most important is that I'm interacting with the world as the character, not as the player through the character. Thus there should be better tools to interact with the world in character rather than using the game as a social interface tool.

Chance of making change

Another important issue is the possibility of the single character to make difference in the world. It's the small things that make it, like scribbling your signature on the toilet wall... not that I'm encouraging it in real, but the tangible 'mark' you/your character makes to the world. In MMO's currently the issue is relevant because of the fact that the NPC you have to kill will spawn back in few minutes only to be killed again later by another player, the quest giver will be handing out the same bundle of notes to be delivered right after you have acquired yours and so on. 

If the character kill a boss or a quest mob, this mob should be done with: no more encounter, and rest of the game should reflect that.

Which leads to the next one.

Character impact in the world

The standard heroic high fantasy story tells about the stable boy who gets to be the hero saving the world. Naturally the sandbox world would make this harder to acquire, as the stories would rely so much more on the shoulders of the character interactions and the world. However, in a story and quest driven surroundings of EQ2 and WoW, the main storyline, even though coming together from several quests, should be possible and even encouraged. I myself have gotten frustrated over the lost questlines in WoW, namely the Sillithids (the 'chapters' are spread across and without a growing storyline), Burning Hand (the storyline dies too soon, just when the starting Horde character starts to get interested) and so on.

The stories could come up with a story for the character, where this characters actions really make the difference, have an impact in the world as whole. It doesn't matter if this is just an illusion, but it would be very real and personal experience for the player. In WoW the new Phasing technology seems to be capable of creating the illusion that your character is making the difference: My bet is that this will be the main focus of the Blizzards secret MMO project.

All actions have consequences

In the real world you can be an asshole, but the world will treat you like one, too. If you steal, you'll be facing the consequences. Why on earth isn't this viable in the fantasy world? In WoW you are encouraged to kill NPC's not following the consensus, you are asked to steal and murder without any consequences.

However, in single player games like Fable2 and Oblivion your every decision effects the way NPC's tied to certain factions interact with you. Cheat one, and the others will not trust you. Kill someone, and you'll have the guards chasing you. How hard could this be to implement in a MMO? Darkfall has something along the lines, though if the scale goes from -100 to +100 as Syncaine reported, it makes is possible that you kill baddies till you are at +100 and then some of your own without any consequences as far as you don't drop below 0.

Tools of the trade

The current MMO's are more like social playgrounds for the gamers instead of the worlds in which the characters live: the tools of interaction are very limited at best and the game aspect is way too profound. However, you cannot win a MMO, as there are no real winning conditions.

Like I have earlier stated, the social tools should be upgraded. In role-playing side the upgrade should be made so that the interface itself reflects the in character and out of character interactions, making the player-to-player interactions more character-to-character based, and thus creating more immersive surroundings.

If you think of WoW, the role-playing tools are very inadequate and to really role-play your character you have to work the system around to make it work. Instead, IMO it should be the other way around: to be able to interact only out of character should be the harder part.

Recap

Even the earlier single player games have had the technology to make each playing of a game different through the effect of what you as a player decided to do. The persistent world however breaks this illusion by forcing the same experience to every player, regardless of the decisions they make.

I'm not saying that these things are viable for execution with the current technology, but they could be worked towards the end of total immersion.

The reward should be satisfying, immersive experience, in which the decisions you make as a character make the difference in the world. And in the story of the character.

Definitions of Role-Playing

This is the first post inspired by the comment made by Azariel in How about roleplaying? and I'm trying to define my views on roleplaying and more importantly, roleplaying in computer games and MMO's. Granted right away, that I've not played in RP server except in EQ2, but that didn't result a single roleplaying experience within the short time I was playing in there.

The issue is such that it requires definitions, even to the people who are playing. If nothing else but to have a common basis and nomenclature from which to discuss. Here we go.

 

What is roleplaying? What is RPG?

Wikipedia:

Roleplaying refers to the changing of one's behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

while roleplaying games are defined as:

A role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they may improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.

In addition, roleplaying games are:

A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters.

And further more, computer rpgs:

A computer role-playing game (CRPG) is a broad video game genre originally developed for personal computers and other home computers. ... The earliest CRPGs were inspired by early role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons, and attempted to provide a similar play experience.

Despite a spectrum of features and game styles, there are some elements common to the CRPG genre. Perhaps the most salient is that of the avatar, with its quantized characteristics that typically evolve over the course of the game, and take the place of the gamer's own skill in determining game outcomes. Another common element in CRPGs is a well-developed fictional setting.

Whole lot of definitions.

My personal view of roleplaying games, be it pen and paper rpg, computer/console rpg or MMORPG is that the character depiction, avatar, should be considered as a person in the fantasy world with it's particular rules and laws. Thus I'm very much in favor of the original definition of the Roleplaying.

While I play, I think firstly from the point of view of the character, then from the point of view of my personal greed for power and advancement. And for me there are no winners nor bragging rights in RPG's except from the character point of view. Claiming ownage in pen and paper games is pretty much impossible as the interpretation of the world and rules differs from group to group: thus it was unnecessary point of the game. However, the current MMO's tend to put the emphasis on the GAME rather than the ROLE-PLAYING, making the playfield completely different.

Skin crawl or taking the class

However, the definition of MMORPG is somewhat more detailed and more gamelike. As a matter of fact, Wikipedia states pretty clearly about roleplaying in MMORPG's, that:

Some MMORPGs also may expect players to roleplay their characters – that is, to speak and act in the way their character would act, even if it means shying away from other goals such as wealth or experience. However, as this behavior is far from being the norm, most MMORPG players never actually play the roles of their characters. Still, MMORPGs may offer "RP-only" servers for those who wish to immerse themselves in the game in this way.

So for the roleplaying servers the game should be more on the Roleplaying than on the gear grind and theorycrafting. WoW is more -from this point of view- for taking the class and learning the role of the class than roleplaying the character. That, however, has become the norm of the MMO's from early on, and there doesn't seem to be any difference in the game rulesets (levels, skill based) at all.

Would there be interest for a MMO in which the world -and the ruleset- forces the player to take on the character and do the skin crawl?

Roleplaying vs. Ruleplaying/Power playing

Where theorycrafting rules and gear and levelling is more important than growing the character as such, the power playing rules. In WoW this has been made easier and easier over the life of the game, speeding up the levelling and making the over-levelling of instances and quests a norm. In a sense the game is a vague shadow of the vast content it has, because currently the new players are fast forwarded through the content that really is the Fantastic Journey of the new created character to the Herodom. Purely by roleplaying you gimp your character, as you make your weapon, gear and buff choices based on the character's perception, not to min-max the stats. I have that on my protection warrior: instead of having two-handed sword, which is vastly better for levelling purposes, he has taken dual wielding instead: sticking purely on swords, the human weapon, instead of the axes and such. Min-maxing favours ruleplaying, and WoW -and majority of the concurrent MMO's- clearly encourages this.

Gear and ownage

Like I stated earlier, in pen and paper games claiming ownage is more or less impossible due to the fact that the rulesets, worlds and gearsets differ vastly from a group to another. However, in MMO's the persistance of the world imposes same rulesets, gear and interpretation to all. This massive multiplayer surrounding does however make unique gear less unique due to the fact that it's impossible to have loot tables which would take the uniqueness into consideration. Also 'unique' quest rewards become norm as more or less all the characters finish the same quests. Thus there are no bragging rights with gear anymore, as every content is grindable to the point that eventually everything is available to the one with most persistance.

Which leads to the fact in current MMO's: is the most succesfull player the one who has most time to put into the game, or the one having the most fun in the game with much less?

Are bloggers the trendsetters?

After reading several blogs from my blogroll about the copying/tweaking issue risen by the Tigole post in WoW Forums, a thought surfaced. Just like a slowly growing irritation in the back of the mind, the thought had formed itself into a solid being after I quit my lunch. And -like all good reasons to write- it compelled me to hear it's call and write about it.

Being the newcomer to the MMO's and especially blogging, and generally being one of the followers of trends rather than the trendsetters, I'm a bit slow and late. I rather am late and safe than early and apologetic. And I take my time to consider things before making a decision.

But it seems to me that majority of the active bloggers aren't. People seem to make their decisions pretty fast, take their stand and defend it with fervour rarely seen in real life. When Age of Conan was about to be launched after so and so many delays, it was the flavour of the month: each, every and then some bloggers readily discarded their other chores and booked a trip to sunny Hyborea. Only to return later 'in the wait of the next gen mmo'.

Weeks before the Open Beta of Warhammer: The Age of Reconing launched, the buzz was already there, and as the early entry started, the blogosphere was full of entries of WAR, it's mechanics and how fun it was to bash real player characters in the scenarios. Well, honestly speaking this is still going on, even though there are some reports already that this may have been just the initial rush to the new, greener pastures.

And here I am. Newcomer to the MMO's, befuddled by the buzz and hype on the next great shiny MMO, hearing how the game I'm just now playing is 'old news' and 'so passé'.

Of course, the buzz before the launch of AoC or WAR was mainly due great marketing, but the voice of the blogosphere -especially in the small niche of MMO players- turns the tide for better or worse. The enthusiastic reviews of the game and it's mechanics are sure to suck players who have nothing to complain in their current game to the next big hype.

The sad part is the fact that no-one seems to remember that there are still newcomers to the older game. Especially in this case, where WoW has been around for 4 long years and the ones who have been burned out by overdoing the content have gotten their friends, spouses, siblings and youth interested. The bloggers -the über-gamers- show clearly that the newcomers are noobs because they do not understand how inadequeate the game of their choice is. And the newcomers clearly feel it as the MMO of their choice -if it's not the current flavour of the month- is void and empty, without the MM part of the whole definition.

I have played, on and off, for a bit over two years, mainly WoW. From the beginning I witnessed the terrible urge of people to level up the content to the cap, to 'enter the game'. And all the while I have been wondering the reason to that, as I have not had the possibility to participate in the 'end game grind'.

Instead, I started to enjoy the game the instance I started to play the content. When I decided I want to read the stories and find the longer story lines.

The more I'm wondering the terrible rush to the cap currently, because I'm encountering more of the newcomers to whom the basic concepts of the game are completely lost. But they are convinced that they have to level up as fast as possible, nevermind the content or the scenery.

Sure, the great majority of the players have their toons capped and are at the top of the pecking order when the WotLK launches. The more the newcomers to WoW will feel obliged to level up as fast as possible, and the less they will understand their class or playing in groups when they reach the cap someday.

During that time the bloggers who have overplayed and burned out by WoW will blog about WAR, their accomplishments and bewildering thoughts on how much better their gaming experience is than what it was in the earlier game.

Till the next flavour of the month comes with a bang and boom.

Fallout MMO? Starcraft MMO?

Who knows, but the next one is lurking already.

Are you ready?

Copying on copying

I had just a brief run on WoW yesterday, only to notice that I really hate when I have to wait for the battleground to start. The thought occured to me already last night, but it condensed while I was driving for work: if you can queue for scenarios from anywhere in WAR, why can't that feature be copied to WoW?

And how on the spot I was. Seems that the great minds think alike. But then again, I had commented on copying from WAR already in another fine blog.

But not to delve into the issue Syp so nicely pointed out any more than to say that from merging the best ideas and most working concepts of the former generations something beautifull will emerge. There will not be any leaps in MMO's until the technology moves on to new ways to play or poses new ways to interact within the game or UI. The generic concept will be the same: player creates -or is given- a character, alter ego if you please, to venture in a make belief world of fantasy/science fiction/fable and progress through the content. What could change except the outlook and perhaps the way this concept is presented? Majority of the whole 'new game' would be copied from the former ones anyhow.

It's not the copying I would be worried about, but the quality of the copying. If some crucial element is copied fully, but executed more poorly than the original, then it's something to worry about, as then the original idea of the concept must have been lost by the copier.

The only way to 'copy right' in MMO's, movies, tv-series, programming etc. is to copy the concept and make it work better. With the 800lb mammoth gorilla as the benchmark, how could you not copy the most renown parts of it?

Enough.

I just noticed that I don't know how to play Warlock. And I'm not sure I want to know how to play one, either. I have never been too keen on the pet classes anyhow, and to me this is just one of those. I'm willing to stand at the back seat, keeping people alive, or at the front row getting up close and personal. But not inbetween, like pet classes seem to be.

I'm out for the day.

Recent activities

First of all, I have been surprised that I have been linked to... and quoted by someone like Zubon from KillTenRats. That in itself is a merit, but let's not settle for that.

What I've been up to? Nothing good, sadly. Ran a half a marathon in the weekend, where my only aim was to run the whole distance of 21 km. Well, I did, and now I'm trying to cope with the sore and stiff muscles. Which are slowly getting better, thank you.

Haven't been on WoW, except for a couple of WSG's with my gnome-lock. I surprised myself of being in the middle of the roster in each of the battles, being only lv14 among the lv19 twinkies. I think I should be really proud of myself, being the PvP hater that I am. I still do not quite understand why should I bother, as all the stuff I can purchase with the tokens are available only at lv60? Will that limit be set higher at the dawn of WotLK?

Most probably we'll be having a brotherly questing tonight, or tomorrow. Maybe I will get some ideas from that for new posts. Though I have some on my memory stick, I haven't been able to finalise them for publishing. Maybe later...

Instead I have been spending my few online minutes in some other ventures. Got invited to the Beta of Freaky Creatures. Because it's Beta under NDA, I'm not saying anything about it. The other things I'm involved with are browser based games Molehill Empire and The West. First of which lets loose your inner gardener and some garden gnomes, while the second is a brand new browser MMO set in... well, Wild West.

The West is still in development and it's getting new features all the time. It has the same sort of idea as Star Wars Combine (damn you Werit for inducing this on me!) in the use of time, that jobs really take time in real and there is only so much you can do in 24 hours. The central focus of the game is the founding and building of a city, which is populated with players. This brings up the social aspect, as there are four character classes available: Adventurers, Dueler, Workeres and Soldiers, all which have crucial skills to benefit the city. In a general sense, you have to have players who deal with construction, others for resources and some for protection. It seems promising, but let's see what happens when the game matures.

So far I have been having fun in The West.

Otherwise the time flies, especially as the real life keeps the speed up.

But like Jack wrote: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...", there has to be games and fun every now and then.

Every day. Azeroth, here we come. *grin*

Role in MMO

Role in MMO

I would much rather write about player character’s role in MMORPG, but it has come obvious from several instances – not least from my earlier posts – that the RPG part of the current MMO’s is non-existing. They are MMO games, almost having “stress on the games”. But I have started to wonder about the role a typical player wants her/his character to be, and the recent blog entries on WAR have given me more ground to this.

Up until late I have been advocating my ‘perfect MMO’, which would have quests and NPC interaction which would affect the outcome of the character’s personal development. Multiple choice interaction, in which your decisions would change the outcome of the ‘discussion’. Railroaded quests in which your input would change the outcome of the quest, even turn the quest the other way around (Save the princess – encounter the princesses mother – kill the questgiver – be crowned as king). Well, railroaded would be too strongly put, but you get the idea.

Now however I have come to the conclusion that it’s all depending on the participation and role which the player wants to take. I’m a sucker for stories with strong hero’s and anti-hero’s. And as a human assumption I have thought that so are others, too. But the recent WAR outrage has started to make me doubt this assumption.

In EQ2 and WoW (which I have played), the player is lead to believe that the character is bound for great deeds and is the hero: the quests are posed to the character as the main hero and protagonist, the praise is given to the particular character for accomplishing a deed and so on. The player gets the zest that ‘I am The Hero of this story’ and starts to act like one. That is the assumption of the game developer at least in the Old World content. The content driven part of the game.

If there was an all and out war in WoW, each and every player participating the foray would depict a hero in the legend. At least that’s how I would depict the incident. And because of that it’s impossible to launch all the player characters out against the Scourge, for example, because there would be no armies to command. Like Heroes usually do.

In WAR (which I haven’t played so far), where the war is everywhere, the presumption is completely different: the characters are soldiers fighting for their faction. And this is where it becomes a different bowl of porridge. The players assume their role as warriors for a cause, and are not in fact expecting to be the heroes or the protagonists of the great storyline. Of course there are the PQ’s and Lairs and all, but as far as I have understood, the original position of the character is that of a warrior.

And it seems that a good lot of the players prefer to be fighting as footsoldiers against other footsoldiers in a large army instead of competing to grow up as a hero.

All this being said, I doubt that the player enjoying the status of a soldier would enjoy my perfect MMORPG. It would be too much to ask for a person preferring to be ordered and fighting to take the position of a hero in training and make decisions that would later on prove that s/he might not be suitable to be the warrior, but a healer instead.

Roles and role models are difficult. What is your role and who is your role model?

That is a tricky question, I think.

Like a pack of hounds...

Needless to say, I love instances. Who doesn't? Especially when they are ran with a group of people knowing what they are doing –or at least willing to learn how to contribute better to the whole. When the communication works. And when the greed is governed by reason.

An excellent instance group works like a pack of wolves or sighthounds: each knows the common aim, everyone commits to the greater good of the group and all are driven by their own special talents and abilities. In a pack of dogs the roles are cast in silence: as the alpha female gets the impulse, the whole pack moves. They spread into a fan formation, with the leader in the center, and they start chasing the prey. No sound, only efficiency. The chasers and the flankers take care that the prey doesn't flee, and the alpha does the killing. Clean and effective. No fuss.

I have been in a couple of groups which have had this ability to read each others’ intentions. Without /p walls of text, without vent or voice chat. Just by knowing what the group is trying to achieve. They are few and separate during my two years MMO experience, but they exist: the excellent gamers who delight the whole genre. They are the groups from which you try to add people to your friends list only to forget them later on as they level up so much faster than you do.

Majority of the PUG’s, however, come from the other end of the scale. Unorganised, uncivilised and destructive on their own merit. It is impossible to play the game so that everyone in the group enjoys it with these types. And sadly, these come thirteen in a dozen.

And they are not usually the newbies like me, but the ones who have been around from day one and still haven’t learned to play their class nor in the groups. The N00bs.

After the first five such blunder-PUG’s I gave up on understanding the why’s and how’s of these guys. There didn’t seem to be any connecting factors between them. Maybe age or mental age, but that’s all. Maturity isn't dependant on age, it's more a state of mind. That's somewhat so hard to accept, but it's true. And games seem to bring out the best in jerks, too.

Now I’m in a nice situation. I have two brothers whom with we have decided to play a sort of hobby-game of WoW. We have it all at the moment: priest, rogue and warrior. Granted, we could have more dps on the side, but hey, if we go into an instance, we get to take the lucky one with us. I want to show people how things could be run, and with the training we provide to each other I think it’s soon possible. We may not be the most experienced, but guess what: we enjoy the learning process! For us the levelling is the game, end game is just some sort of a pipe dream in the future.

We are the pack of hounds, though without the alpha female.

She’s in the kitchen, generating huge amounts of wife aggro while we enjoy.