Stories in our MMOs.

Posted on February 11, 2008 by SynCaine

Scott over at Pumping Irony (great name btw) has a post about storytelling in MMOs and why they generally fail. He breaks down the current problems, mostly that character development is really just attribute development, which I fully agree with. Even many of today’s single player RPGs fall into this mold, The Witcher being the last memorable exception to this, and even then not all agree.

MMOs currently come in two distinct varieties, the sandbox and the theme park. Sandbox games are open, theme park’s are on rails which follow a set path. WoW is the best example of a theme park, while EVE is very much a sandbox. In my opinion, a theme park is very limited in its ability to tell a story with any real meaning or lasting value. No matter the lore behind it, the major problem with a theme park is that all participants follow the same relative path, meaning everyone is the hero. This path has to be safe, accessible, and overall positive, as it has to cater to the majority, leaving little room for artistic freedom. Even if we get past this hurdle, you still end up with a bunch of maxed out ‘heroes’ all having gone through the same story, which makes recalling adventures a bit pointless. When you talking about raiding Onyxia, everyone knows how the raid went if it was a success. You ran in, beat on her, she flew into the air, you beat on her some more, she used fear and whelps a bunch of times, and eventually she died, leaving behind a forged Qual’Serrar and some other ‘epic’ loot. It’s a fun experience, no doubt, but it does not make for a good story or anything truly memorable. If anything, an epic wipe makes for a much better story most of the time.

In my opinion and experience, the greatest MMO stories come from games which allow their players to have a meaningful impact; sandbox games. When players talk of UO, most stories revolve around other player characters, not NPC’s. That time you got ganked, or got revenge on said ganker. Or when you finally sold that crafted GM armor set off your vendor and bought a house from another player, only to get scammed. The countless EVE stories about bank heists, Corp scams, epic alliance conflicts, not one mentions NPC’s in a mission or some pre-set challenge designed by CCP (other than the lag monster that is).

Think back on what you remember most from earlier games, what really stands out to you as a memorable moment. My guess is most of those memories involve other players, and are likely unrelated to any lore whatever game we are talking about presented, at least directly. The more games limit the actions of their players, holding us on to the rails tighter and tighter, the less likely we are to have such memorable moments, moments that provide far more storyline than anything a developer could create.

I believe lore should go so far as to set the table for the players, giving us a reason why we are in whatever world we are in. The real story should begin on day one of the servers going live, driven by player action. The role of the developer should be not to provide storylines and events, but rather to give the players tools to use as they see fit, and allow the story to evolve as the players embrace those tools. When things go stale, throw in more tools to create a spark or mix things up. Above all, heroes must be forged from the player community, rather than being defined during character creation. This would allow old players to retire and be remember, while letting those new to the game the opportunity to rise up and eventually take up that spot. The ‘greatness’ of the hero will not be determined by stats or level, but rather the impact on others and the memories they leave behind.

Edit: Cameron also has two solid pieces about stories in MMOs, and his posts further reinforce my point, that NPCs are not memorable and are unable to convey a great story. He points out that with most NPCs, we simply listen to them and then agree, go kill whatever needs killing, and come back to again listen to them before they hand us a reward. While a great vehicle for player rewards, it does little for storylines or interaction.

Compare that to say joining a player guild, one which asks you first to prove you are serious about joining by making you a recruit before they give you full membership. The ‘quest’ is that process, and the end result is completely decided by your actions and those of other players. If you decide to ignore the ‘quests’ given by senior members, say by coming to a raid unprepared, you are very likely to fail that ‘quest’. Being able to repeat it and try again is not guaranteed either, like it is with NPCs.

Which really comes back to why we originally found MMOs so appealing, and that is player interaction. Simple tasks like killing rats seem new and fresh when you bring in others to share in your adventure, and the more we are allowed to shape and share those adventures, the greater the story will become.

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, The Witcher, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 3 Comments

The value of the blogging community.

Posted on February 11, 2008 by SynCaine

Darren made a nice plea over at his site for bloggers to get into the WAR beta, or at the very least Keen. I support that (both the bloggers part and the Keen part), and can’t really come up with a great reason to keep bloggers out.

One reason that does come up whenever the whole ‘are bloggers press’ issue comes up is that the company does not want negative publicity about a game still in beta. Just like certain companies refuse to send PCGamer or other magazines pre-release copies of their games for review, some people think MMO developers apply the same reasoning to bloggers. The reason I have trouble accepting this is that MMO blogs reach a relatively small audience, and a very hardcore one at that. Regardless of your play style or game time per week, anyone who goes out and finds an MMO blog has long since crossed the threshold of casual and into hardcore status. True casual players are not even aware of official forums, let alone fan sites or blogs.

But let’s assume a developer wants to grab even the small hardcore population that does read blogs and listens to podcasts, is keeping the bloggers themselves out going to help? For one thing, bloggers tend to be a close knit community that respect each others opinion (for the most part), and take what is said into consideration. Unlike when I read a PCGamer preview and take everything said with a grain of salt, if I read something positive on a blog that I respect I take it as truth. When I read that Tabula Rasa ‘turned a corner’ and was actually fun, it put the game on my list. Based almost exclusively on Tipa’s writing, I went out and bought two copies of EQ2 to give it a try. Sure it did not work out, but it was two copies and three months of subs I would have never bought had it not been for her blog. On the other hand, while I was in the PotBS beta, my decision to see what the game was like in release was put on hold based on Keen’s PvP write ups, showing me that game was not yet ready for prime time. Of course, if in two months Keen makes a post saying all is well and PvP in Pirates is a blast, that could sway my opinion right back.

My point is that while bloggers do influence buying decisions among our small community, they do so with honesty. No one here gets paid to write glowing reviews or previews. If you have a solid product, bloggers will write that. If your game has issues, we will write that as well. Ultimately it comes down to the buyer; it just so happens bloggers and our readers tend to be better informed than the average gamer, able to see past the bullet point fluff and analyze the details. If everything checks out, you get our money. If you have some skeletons that you tried to hide, you likely won’t see many of us subscribe until you straighten those issues out.

Posted in Blogroll, EQ2, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Podcast, Site update | 7 Comments

Research might help

Posted on February 8, 2008 by SynCaine

It seems I’m a bit late to address this, but I think it’s important enough to talk about it here, late or not. A few days ago a Wired blog written by Earnest Cavalli commented on the January video clip released by Mythic showing some in-game footage of Warhammer. It would seem Mr. Cavalli was not very impressed with the video, so much so as to write an entire post about it. So following his lead, I’ve decided to make an entire post about his post about said one minute video, here goes.

Alongside the January issue of their newsletter, EA Mythic tossed out a link to a video clip that demonstrates the hectic realm vs realm combat in Warhammer Online, which looks awfully familiar.

Wrong. Paul very clearly states at the beginning of the video that this is not RvR or even PvP combat, but footage taken from a 30 minute presentation. They figured since they have the stuff already recorded, why not give the fans something new, even if it’s just something silly. I guess we know the answer to that question now…

For those who haven’t been spending the last decade engulfed by virtual worlds, “realm vs realm combat” is similar to “player vs player combat” only it occurs on a much larger scale.

Wrong again. I’ll give the guy a break here and assume he never played DAoC, the only game that has featured RvR (since Mythic coined the term). If he had, he would know most RvR combat was group combat, not ‘larger scale’. Large scale might refer to a relic raid, something that happened only on occasion in DAoC. Or maybe he means EVE’s fleet battles when he says ‘larger scale’, but fleet combat is just called PvP, so hmmm… In reality, RvR is the same thing as PvP, just that the PvP in DAoC was called RvR due to the three realms fighting for control. It has nothing to do with scale, large or small.

Instead of one-on-one fighting or small group skirmishes, you have tens or hundreds of players all fighting simultaneously in the closest virtual approximation of real war currently available in an MMO.

So DAoC simulated real war did it? Far more accurately than say EVE or Shadowbane do? Right… Last I checked, real war looks a lot like group vs group PvP now anyway. Maybe he meant WW2 style war, but I think we had an MMO based on that war already…

While the video does look nice, I’m honor-bound to point out two issues with it: it’s heavily scripted and it looks so very similar to World of Warcraft.

And I’m honor-bound (wtf does that mean when you are talking about a one minute video anyway?) to point out how flawed your post is.

I can forgive the scripting — this isn’t a finished game, after all — but I’d be hard pressed to tell WAR’s RvR apart from WoW‘s Battleground combat if YouTube added just a few more instances of graphical artifacts.

I’m glad you can forgive the scripting, considering you were told it was scripted at the beginning of the video. Oh and the game is finished enough to make a similar video without the scripting, but what are details… I think most people would be hard pressed to tell two PvP systems apart from a one minute video which does not show PvP. Maybe if it was actual gameplay footage, showing the interface, maybe we could make some simple comparisons about the PvP, like how hotkeys react in combat and cooldown lengths. What we really should be comparing is WoW’s scripted pre-release videos to this, but that would require some effort in finding those old WoW videos, and who has time to do some research before typing…

Of course, I realize the Warcraft universe is functionally lifted wholesale from the Warhammer universe and I also realize it’s an excellent idea to mimic the current market leader when creating a new MMO, but I’m just incredibly struck by how similar the two games look.

So knowing Warcraft copied the artwork from Warhammer books published years ago, and knowing that Warhammer Online also (legally) uses that same artwork, you are ‘incredibly struck’ that they look similar? And when you say similar, you surely mean level 50 and under WoW characters, right? The last time I checked Iron Forge, it looks more like a Power Ranger hangout than anything resembling the original artwork and lore stolen from Warhammer.

Then again, with the number of people WoW has seduced, maybe having a similar look is the only way to create a successful MMO anymore.

It’s a good thing WoW is the only successful MMO since 2004, and games that use different art styles have all failed. Long live the cartoons!

On a seperate note, if you’d like to see a version of the video with higher resolution and a more complimentary aspect ratio, take a trip over to Mythic’s site

The above is the only actually helpful sentence in the whole piece, but congrats on that. I recommend you yourself give that link a click, and listen to that funny man talking in the first section of the video, as clearly you missed it the first time around.

Now, what DOES this one minute of video show us? Well not much actually, without breaking it down frame by frame or analyzing tiny details. We do see how collision detection might affect combat, as we see the two sides stopped when they hit each other. Other than that, it was another chance to see a new clip of WAR, regardless if it’s scripted or not, and for many fans, we will take what we can get. Clearly Mythic should have been clearer about the video for some, maybe with a big banner ad above the video stating “scripted footage” or something, but for actual fans new stuff is new stuff.

Easy media bashing aside, the above is a good preview of the coverage we will be seeing as Warhammer gets closer to release. Uninformed people assigned to write something about this new ‘WoW like game’ are going to throw around inaccurate statements left and right. The art style topic has been covered enough times, and anyone with a few minutes will be able to research who copied who. On top of that, character art is only one component of the overall look, and does nothing for actual gameplay. As the recent realizations about PotBS PvP system have shown us, making only a few small changes to a formula can make massive differences. A few tweaks to the WoW formula, and a PvP based design team, and we could have an entirely different game, regardless of how similar they look. Just be prepared to deal with a lot of laughable media coverage, regardless of how much information Mythic puts out.

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Back in the day…

Posted on February 7, 2008 by SynCaine

A quick but important note today, one that is long overdue. If you have never read WTFman.com, do yourself a favor and head on over. While I don’t agree with the site on all points, I still find it a worthwhile read and a piece of MMO history.

This is a ‘blog’ before blogging had a name, dating back to the early days of UO. The guys over at WTFman did some really great things with UO, both with the flash videos (remember how cool flash was?) and their overall commentary. Yes ‘Joy of Villainy’ is a PK guild, yes they acted in ways that UO is most famous for (ganking and such), and yes in today’s WoW world, most will consider them asshats. But if nothing else, they are asshats with style, and not the 13 year old future inmate that most people perceive all PKs to be.

Back when UO launched, WTFman was a site I visited daily. Always full of humor and rants, the site added a new aspect to UO for me, and I’m sure many others. While I never played with the JoV crew in either UO (different server) or AC (different time), I’ve always respected the guys for sticking to their style of play, even as most resisted it strongly. It is also a great site to get into the mind frame of a PK, a well written (usually) glimpse into a game style most won’t experience. Whether you agree or not with how they play, at least reading the site will give you a view of MMOs from that perspective.

Sadly the site was largely dormant after JoV moved on from AC, although a few posts have been going up randomly. To get a full grasp of the site in its prime, check out the archives.

Update: I just realized the archive only goes back to late 1999, which sadly means most of the good UO posts are gone. Still, with a little effort I’m sure enough decent AC and UO posts remain, although they might be a bit more difficult to track down.

Posted in PvP, Random, Ultima Online | Comments Off on Back in the day…

Collision Detection, a key to smart PvP?

Posted on February 5, 2008 by SynCaine

Ha, and just as I hit the ‘post’ button, something that I have been meaning to talk about pops into my head. Funny how that works…

A long time ago, Mythic announced that Warhammer Online will feature collision detection. Now at the time I glanced over that and really did not give it much thought. I mean how much of an impact can going around someone rather than through them have on a game, right? If anything I pictured getting trapped by a few NPCs in a town and getting annoyed at the whole thing, wishing I could just run through everything like you can in most MMOs.

Currently playing The Witcher, a game with collision detection sparked a few ideas, and seeing a gameplay video of WAR hit the point home. Collision detection in PvP is ‘serious business’. All of a sudden forming an attack line or creating a wall becomes viable strategy. Formations, positioning, not running around like a loon; all important with the addition of a rather simple sounding feature.

What this also means is that now the PUG vs Pre-made distinction becomes even greater. A PUG will have great troubles holding formations and watching over each other, while a premade will execute tried and tested formations and battle plans. Tanks will position themselves correctly, ranged DPS will know where their LoS lies, healer will stick to safe spots away from the enemy. The possible amount of changes something like this brings could be immense. This means that a premade should be able to out-perform even a heavily over geared PUG, which serves only to reduce the importance of items and place more emphasis on smart thinking and organization.

As with all things WAR however, it all depends on exactly how everything is implemented. The size of a character has to be great enough to enable blocking, LoS has to be defined enough to actually matter, and pathing difficulties have to be great enough to actually allow a healer to hide behind his friends. Hopefully collision detection delivers on all its possible potential, as it alone could bring a very distinct feel to PvP combat in Warhammer Online.

Just one more reason why that WAR beta invite can’t come soon enough…

Posted in Combat Systems, MMO design, PvP, The Witcher, Warhammer Online | 12 Comments

Less RL, more MMO time please.

Posted on February 5, 2008 by SynCaine

It seems to be a slow day in the blog world date. Not much to entertain me, resulting in not much to entertain you, oh faithful readers.

My gaming time has been randomly limited of late, and what time I have had has been spent in WoW trying to catch up to my instance group. Hopefully this weekend I can get back to The Witcher and try to finish it up, as it really is an excellent game. Once that is complete, and WoW returned to its regular low maintenance level, I should have a bit more time for EVE, as I need to get back to some PvP in that. I have a few ships all set and ready to go, and the last few weeks have been well spent finishing up some much needed skills. I also need to stop being lazy and finally get enough ISK together to purchase a Hulk, something that is long overdue considering I’ve had the skills to equip and fly it for over a month now.

Posted in EVE Online, PvP, The Witcher, World of Warcraft | 1 Comment

Because WSG games need to be a bit longer.

Posted on February 4, 2008 by SynCaine

From the PvP masterminds over at Blizzard:

We’ve reached a point where we’re now confident that applying diminishing returns to honor is no longer necessary, and we’re currently planning to remove it with the 2.4 patch.

Basically what they are saying is if you would like to honor farm, as most PvP players do, simply queue up for WSG and head to the middle of the map. By removing diminishing returns, Blizzard has successfully removed any motivation for a game of WSG to ever end, unless you need a few marks of course. Now to earn a few easy epics, you just need to run down the hill, spam away in the middle, die, and repeat until its time for you to log off. Easy infinate honor, without all that silly ‘winning’ that gets in the way.

I think we are one patch away from Blizzard just giving away epics. Why even play the charade of having to actually earn them.

Posted in PvP, World of Warcraft | 17 Comments

Podcasts for all!

Posted on February 4, 2008 by SynCaine

Both Witty Banter 2 (not to be confused with Witty Ranter, as some are known to do…) and SUWT 19 are up.

Witty Banter is the previously mentioned podcast that I was a part of. SUWT 19 talks about two topics found on this blog.

Enjoy both everyone!

Posted in Podcast | Comments Off on Podcasts for all!

Reasonable expectations.

Posted on February 1, 2008 by SynCaine

While recording episode 2 of “Witty Banter” last night, due out ‘soon’, I derailed a topic heavily (twice actually) into a WoW vs other games debate. Hopefully what was said is not complete nonsense, although that is entirely possible. You have been warned.

The point I want to make here is that we really need to stop using WoW as an indicator of success. Just like no movie studio sets out with the expectation of making another Titanic, and no recording artist expects to sell like Thriller, we should not expect ANY game to reach WoW numbers.

It would be financial suicide to base your profit model around the assumption that you can produce WoW-like numbers, and I’m sure all studios recognize this. Mythic, for example, is NOT betting on Warhammer reaching 10 million accounts, or even half that. If they hit 1 million plus sustained accounts, WAR will be considered a hit, and will be highly profitable.

The other thing to recognize is that WoW is NOT as good a game as 10 million accounts suggests. It’s a great game, yes, but it’s not multiple times better than the other ‘hit’ MMOs that are currently out. It seems few people remember that while WoW had a successful launch, it did not rocket up in numbers and hit 10 million instantly based on how amazing it was. It had solid steady growth at the beginning, and at some point hit that ‘critical mass’ level, transcending gaming and becoming a cultural phenomenon. It was that cultural status that propelled it far beyond traditional MMO numbers, attracting massive amounts of ‘ultra casual’ players, people who have only played WoW, and will likely move on from MMOs after WoW. To expect to attract that audience to another MMO would be foolish, as no matter the quality of your product, most WoW players will never even consider another MMO. The biggest hope for any game reproducing WoW numbers is when Blizzard releases WoW 2, and even then I’m not sure even Blizzard themselves would expect that much.

So while WoW is a great game and does a lot of things right, it’s not the be all end all in making a successful and enjoyable MMO. Making the assumption that since WoW is PvE focused, only PvE focused games can be successful, or that since WoW’s endgame is raiding, raiding is the only possible endgame, is a bit foolish. The MMO gamer market, the one that studios can expect to attract, will accept many forms of entertainment, it just needs to be quality. Whether that game is PvP or PvE, group based or solo focused, fantasy or scifi, it might not really matter if the game delivers a quality experience. Will it attract millions of ultra casuals? Who knows, pop culture has always been unpredictable, but smart business says to focus on your market, not chase a pipe dream.

Posted in MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 15 Comments

Shadowbane reset sparks interest.

Posted on January 31, 2008 by SynCaine

I guess Shadowbane is going to reset its server, putting everyone back to square one. A bold move, and interesting enough that I might have to check back in to Shadowbane, especially since its free…

Posted in PvP, Random | 8 Comments