Gaming, Gaming, Gaming...
Various thoughts of late from computer games to roleplaying...
Saturday night saw something akin to progress again in WoW. Just as I was despairing over what to do, the guild managed to down Shannox, scoring our first Firelands boss kill. Time could have been managed better and it took several attempts to get back to an early 8% wipe, but it's progress. Yay team! Morale boost +1. Strangely, I also picked up three new items: a very slightly better shield from Nefarian, the Avengers of Hyjal rep belt, and new legs from Shannox. I meant breaking my tier 11 2-piece bonus, but I think it's worthwhile.
It's interesting to hear that patch 4.3 will be the "final" content patch for Cataclysm, including the fight with Deathwing. So far, the major patches have come slightly faster than in Wrath, but when one only contained a couple 5-man dungeons it doesn't feel like "more content faster." Hopefully, though, it means the next expansion won't come a full year after the Deathwing raid is released this time.
Last night, I ran through one of my favorite bits of Oblivion again. Working for the head of the thieves guild, you collect several items across the province before he sets you at the task of stealing one of the Elder Scrolls from the imperial palace. That he then uses the scroll to break a curse and retire to his old life, turning over guild leadership to you, is neat enough, but it's the heist itself that feels suitably epic. Five years (and change) later, I wonder if Skyrim will measure up in that sense.
I picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution and I'm looking forward to starting in on that. If it's even close to what the reviews are saying, I should enjoy it. Whether it can capture the magic of the original remains to be seen. It may not be possible just because I, as the audience, have changed...
I'm really not all that big a fan of first person shooter games in general. I don't despise the medium, but I find most entries into the genre to be lacking in anything interesting to me. Doom was great when it first came out. Quake was okay. After that, it was mostly just rote lone person kills everything he sees and finds keys to doors. Deus Ex sucked me in with story and choice - the branches in the story weren't all that numerous, but the ability to tackle an objective in a variety of ways counted for a lot. Half Life felt a bit fresh and new, but the sequel didn't impress me much. So I really haven't been doing more than peripherally glancing at Aliens: Colonial Marines, but today I looked at a trailer and... damn. That looks close enough to capturing the look and feel of one of my favorite movies that I may actually have to get it. At the very least, it warrants a little more attention.
I'm still increasingly wary of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and thus I'm still holding off on any pre-orders. I'm probably repeating myself, but I'm thinking now I may hold off to see what trial they have at some point unless there's peer pressure to join.
Guild Wars 2 still looks contrastingly nice. I'm getting to the point of being sick of the hype, though - especially that being relayed to me through highly-biased sources. ;) Yeah, the dragon fights look impressive, but the videos have me questioning how individually involving they are. And I'm still skeptical of the appeal of dynamic, repeating world events anyway. But the game really does look good and shows plenty of promise. Even if I didn't have to own this title due to obligations of friendship, I'd probably be expecting to pick it up anyway.
I recently heard a comment about someone hoping there was more roleplay in GW2 than GW, which got me thinking. I don't actually see that much RP in MMORPGs. Communicating game mechanics is usually the priority. Go here, do this, can you upgrade that... There are specific RP servers in WoW, but I haven't put in time on them actually doing so. This also made me consider the very possibility. Most of my WoW characters are not so developed that I could roleplay them beyond a simple shell of an attempt. My main has a sort of skeletal background that I could make work with relatively little effort, but that's about it. My GW characters are even less developed.
I suspect GW2's background choices and "personal story" will make it easier to hit the rest of the game with a character who is a little more fleshed out in an in-game lore sense... but I sort of worry that the set racial/class choices may result in cookie-cutter characters. Two human rangers independently claiming to have saved the princess from bandits that one time (or whatever) is awkward at best. Any serious attempt to roleplay is going to require filling in some unique details beyond what the game provides, so that's still player effort above what's required. And unless the game has RP-dedicated servers (I have yet to hear much about server structure for the game), the atmosphere in general may spoil attempts to play the game strictly in-character. We'll see, I guess.
I've also been pondering lately the level of focus in roleplaying. I find, especially offline, this is often tied to group size. With two PCs, there's more interplay and the hows and whys of character actions tend to be more important and apparent. As the group scales up, there's less of that and more focus simply on what each character does. I think that's a natural progression, given the limited "spotlight" time. It's a bit of a shame, though, to lose those details of a story. At the same time, it's entirely possible to focus too much and end up with scenes focusing on the minutiae of a character's daily activity which - at least for me - tends to be boring. At some point, I want to see something happen beyond getting up, eating, going shopping, walking aimlessly around town, and going to bed. There's got to be some challenge or action in there somewhere, even if a character wouldn't actively seek it out. Without that... I may as well not be roleplaying? Real life is mundane enough. ;)
Saturday night saw something akin to progress again in WoW. Just as I was despairing over what to do, the guild managed to down Shannox, scoring our first Firelands boss kill. Time could have been managed better and it took several attempts to get back to an early 8% wipe, but it's progress. Yay team! Morale boost +1. Strangely, I also picked up three new items: a very slightly better shield from Nefarian, the Avengers of Hyjal rep belt, and new legs from Shannox. I meant breaking my tier 11 2-piece bonus, but I think it's worthwhile.
It's interesting to hear that patch 4.3 will be the "final" content patch for Cataclysm, including the fight with Deathwing. So far, the major patches have come slightly faster than in Wrath, but when one only contained a couple 5-man dungeons it doesn't feel like "more content faster." Hopefully, though, it means the next expansion won't come a full year after the Deathwing raid is released this time.
Last night, I ran through one of my favorite bits of Oblivion again. Working for the head of the thieves guild, you collect several items across the province before he sets you at the task of stealing one of the Elder Scrolls from the imperial palace. That he then uses the scroll to break a curse and retire to his old life, turning over guild leadership to you, is neat enough, but it's the heist itself that feels suitably epic. Five years (and change) later, I wonder if Skyrim will measure up in that sense.
I picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution and I'm looking forward to starting in on that. If it's even close to what the reviews are saying, I should enjoy it. Whether it can capture the magic of the original remains to be seen. It may not be possible just because I, as the audience, have changed...
I'm really not all that big a fan of first person shooter games in general. I don't despise the medium, but I find most entries into the genre to be lacking in anything interesting to me. Doom was great when it first came out. Quake was okay. After that, it was mostly just rote lone person kills everything he sees and finds keys to doors. Deus Ex sucked me in with story and choice - the branches in the story weren't all that numerous, but the ability to tackle an objective in a variety of ways counted for a lot. Half Life felt a bit fresh and new, but the sequel didn't impress me much. So I really haven't been doing more than peripherally glancing at Aliens: Colonial Marines, but today I looked at a trailer and... damn. That looks close enough to capturing the look and feel of one of my favorite movies that I may actually have to get it. At the very least, it warrants a little more attention.
I'm still increasingly wary of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and thus I'm still holding off on any pre-orders. I'm probably repeating myself, but I'm thinking now I may hold off to see what trial they have at some point unless there's peer pressure to join.
Guild Wars 2 still looks contrastingly nice. I'm getting to the point of being sick of the hype, though - especially that being relayed to me through highly-biased sources. ;) Yeah, the dragon fights look impressive, but the videos have me questioning how individually involving they are. And I'm still skeptical of the appeal of dynamic, repeating world events anyway. But the game really does look good and shows plenty of promise. Even if I didn't have to own this title due to obligations of friendship, I'd probably be expecting to pick it up anyway.
I recently heard a comment about someone hoping there was more roleplay in GW2 than GW, which got me thinking. I don't actually see that much RP in MMORPGs. Communicating game mechanics is usually the priority. Go here, do this, can you upgrade that... There are specific RP servers in WoW, but I haven't put in time on them actually doing so. This also made me consider the very possibility. Most of my WoW characters are not so developed that I could roleplay them beyond a simple shell of an attempt. My main has a sort of skeletal background that I could make work with relatively little effort, but that's about it. My GW characters are even less developed.
I suspect GW2's background choices and "personal story" will make it easier to hit the rest of the game with a character who is a little more fleshed out in an in-game lore sense... but I sort of worry that the set racial/class choices may result in cookie-cutter characters. Two human rangers independently claiming to have saved the princess from bandits that one time (or whatever) is awkward at best. Any serious attempt to roleplay is going to require filling in some unique details beyond what the game provides, so that's still player effort above what's required. And unless the game has RP-dedicated servers (I have yet to hear much about server structure for the game), the atmosphere in general may spoil attempts to play the game strictly in-character. We'll see, I guess.
I've also been pondering lately the level of focus in roleplaying. I find, especially offline, this is often tied to group size. With two PCs, there's more interplay and the hows and whys of character actions tend to be more important and apparent. As the group scales up, there's less of that and more focus simply on what each character does. I think that's a natural progression, given the limited "spotlight" time. It's a bit of a shame, though, to lose those details of a story. At the same time, it's entirely possible to focus too much and end up with scenes focusing on the minutiae of a character's daily activity which - at least for me - tends to be boring. At some point, I want to see something happen beyond getting up, eating, going shopping, walking aimlessly around town, and going to bed. There's got to be some challenge or action in there somewhere, even if a character wouldn't actively seek it out. Without that... I may as well not be roleplaying? Real life is mundane enough. ;)
Role-playing in MMOs is cybering in an inn.
ReplyDeleteI've actually done roleplaying in Guild Wars. When I made Tashiro, I fleshed out his background and laid out his goals. Hell, with the forum, we can actually do forum-based roleplay if anyone is interested. With GW2, I picked out how Tashiro retired, and what it offered to future characters in GW2. He became a druid - meaning his physical body faded away, replaced by spirit. So now, he's a servant of Melandru in a very real sense. Who he 'was' is no longer relevant, but since he guarded the pale tree through the latter part of his life, he's had a touch of influence on it.
ReplyDeleteIn Guild Wars, I really didn't feel inspired by the game to flesh out any backgrounds. The campaigns give you something, but not anything before that. Prophecies: Here you are in the wake of the ill-defined "Guild Wars." Go runs some errands and... OMG! Catastrophy! Thus begins an exodus. Okay story in itself, but no sense of anything for me to latch onto as background as far as what my character could be doing. Factions: You're set up as a student of sorts at a monestary. That's a little better, at least. Over the course of the campaign, you get some history (even if it's jarring and disjointed). So... I could work with that in retrospect, but didn't get a sense of it all until later on in the campaign. Nightfall: While the campaign didn't give me a lot in the way of background, it actually did the best of making me feel any sort of connection to the current state of things. I could roleplay a certain sense of Sunspear pride easily, but I'd have to go poking around wikis for timelines or something if I wanted to actually write a background. It's the pre-play background that's the pain in the tail and generally requires outside work to do. I think it's fair to say most players won't and don't want to put that work into playing one of these games. And therein lies a possible benefit to GW2's background selections, if I understand correctly. They may be pick-and-choose from a short list based on your race/gender/profession, but at least they're an in-game means of having a player decide on things that happened before gameplay begins. In fairness, I can't claim WoW does a much better job. Some of the stuff once you're in-play can be moving (and some isn't), but as far as background there's only a brief intro scene and what you get from early starter zone quests - all stuff that's pretty much set solely by race choice.
ReplyDeleteWoW draws the heaviest of backstory from existing literature and games more than any other existing MMO (save perhaps LotRO) to date. You're playing in the time span of many years after the events of Warcraft 3 (and its expansion). There is a lot to draw from, back story wise, than there is from games like GW, Aion, and RIFT. (Hey, SW:tOR at least has the expanded universe to draw on, even if it's that nebulous time pre-movies)
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned elsewhere, WoW may have more background lore built into it prior to the game than most MMOs (I'm not aware of GW novels or anything published prior to the game), but it doesn't present that in WoW itself. Or rather, it does here and there, but not up front. A player new to the game without previous Warcraft experience isn't going to start with a clear presenation of what's happened in the last twenty years and where their character fits in beyond what's presented in the starting zone quests. They may not have any idea of the importance of the Dark Portal or Stratholme until many, many levels later when they start hitting related instances. There is setting lore to weave a character into if you're willing to go beyond the gameplay to look for it, but that's true of several "major" MMOs these days. WoW is better than most of those (I think) at presenting that in-game, but it only does so over time, which isn't of great help to someone who wants to roleplay out the gate. I could almost give Star Wars games a pass on this one just because the source material is so ubiquitous. Almost. From what I've seen, GW2 looks like it's taking things a step further by making a player choose certain background traits/events for characters during creation. It's been a long while since I've looked at it, but it made me think of Dragon Age's background choses: "choose one of three things in a few categories." That isn't a fully fleshed-out character, but it does enforce some measure of character definition right off the bat. That, coupled with the designers filling in recent history (the centuries between 1 and 2) sets up a game that looks like it should be a lot more RP-friendly than what I've seen before. I'm just curious to see if giving people those tools means they'll use them. Without dedicated RP servers (and possibly even then), it's awful easy to just play the game and not the character. Heck, I know a lot of the time I may not feel like being strictly IC.
ReplyDelete