09/3/12

[GW2] When Story and Class Collide

I’ve tried to roll an Asura thief three times, and I just can’t bring myself to play the character. Why, you might ask? Story. The narrative elements in Guild Wars 2 have effectively barred me from playing a race and class that I would otherwise choose. That sounds harsh, I guess, but it’s true.

Let me back up a minute.

ArenaNet has accomplished something personally miraculous and made each class fun enough to play that repeating content doesn’t matter. In other games, repetition was always the barrier. Classes were fun to play each was close enough to the other that having to play through the same zones and quests really turned me off from the whole “altaholic” thing. Not so here. Going from a warrior to a thief is a polar shift in gameplay, as is going from engineer to elementalist or mesmer to guardian. And each class has an indefinable “something” that makes them stand out from one another; maybe it’s how their spells hit, how the animations sync up to the audio clips. I don’t know, I just know that it works and it’s magic. So much so, in fact, that I’ve been making new characters left and right because I want to consume it all right now.

And it’s introduced a problem I’ve never run into before: Some races just don’t fit the class choice. Hence the always a bridesmaid never a bride Asura. See, there’s something that just doesn’t fit with “high tech, inventor, genius” and “surly, underworld thief.” Why does he need to thieve and why does he want to? To my mind, the engineer is the Asura class. Anything else is just pigeonholing, and trying to fit that square peg into that circle hole breaks my immersion every time I’m reminded what the Asura are all about. Story quests are out because, well, they feature Asura. Culture is the enemy in this case. I mean, after all, why would an Asura bother being a warrior or guardian when a central story tenet is how tinkerly and gadgety you are?

The same goes for other races. I can’t see a Charr or Norn being a thief. They’re big and bold and need a big hammer or sword to seem “right.” I can’t see a Sylvari being a guardian; they’re lithe and elfy and seem more at home with a bow or magic staff than a two-handed halberd. These things require a cognitive dissonance that I just can’t stand. Ironically, the other big story MMO (SWTOR) didn’t suffer from this because your racial background was pretty much meaningless. Culture means something here and that’s both a plus and a minus.

In the end, I wouldn’t change the story elements, I just wish you could ignore it. I would play an Asura thief if I could get through the introduction and actually have that feel okay. But I can’t, at least yet, and it seems like a lot of people can. I do wonder how it all makes sense if you care about lore and setting. Maybe I just didn’t get far enough.

08/11/11

Avoiding the Fun

I really have no idea what this has to do with avoiding fun. This guy is avoiding something, though, and he's going to have a hell of a time not ripping his hair out. Eyelashes? Nah, we don't need em.

For the first time in probably three months, I tanked an expert dungeon in RIFT last night. It really wasn’t because I felt like being the stalwart defender or guardian against the night or even leader. No, the real reason is that if I didn’t I might have given up on RIFT entirely.

I go through phases, I’ve noticed. Sometimes, most times, I really enjoy digging into an MMO. This is usually during the leveling up process where there’s always the next ding to look forward to. Then I hit the endgame and get a good feel for it before getting bored. It’s not a knock against the game I’m playing, though RIFT’s dungeons could stand to be a little shorter, but more of my need for an internal vacation. When I play level through an MMO the first time I become a bit of a sponge, and all that soaking can leave a guy worn out. To unwind, I spend a lot of time in single-player games and namely Call of Duty — though, I might add, my time played in Black Ops is ~50 hours, my time on my cleric is ~300.

Anyways, in the last couple months since I hit the level cap, I’ve done nothing but DPS. It made me lazy. I got geared up for the one role and going back to tanking started to seem scary. Groups in RIFT are welcoming, but who wants to be the guy that doesn’t know the encounter? DPSing in RIFT is more complex than, say, WoW (you have to move more), but it still takes far less attention to detail than tanking does. So despite the fact that I spent my last year in WoW tanking, and while leveling up in RIFT, I avoided it; this activity that I knew I loved, I simply didn’t sign up for. How weird is that?

Something tells me I’m not alone in that, though. As gamers, we get in grooves. When you do one thing a whole lot, it starts to feel like your thing, while everything else takes on a foreign sheen not unlike your first time doing anything in a dungeon. How many people were nervous the first time they stepped up to heal? I know I was. Hell, it took me a year to even try tanking and another one after that to go back to it when I failed (this was Burning Crusade era). Then everything clicked and tanking became my new groove, just like that.

Until RIFT, that is.

We did T1 Foul Cascade tonight. Did we wipe? Oh yeah, five times actually. No one yelled at me. No one vote-kicked me (even though I offered to leave out of embarrassment after the third wipe). They were simply patient while I remembered all the tactics every good tank needs to know. After the first hour, I had my timing back and that calm cool that stays panic when something goes wrong. Once that came back, it became a matter of knowing the boss strategy, and we didn’t wipe again.

Here’s the magic part: I walked away from the game tonight feeling rejuvenated. Where every other time I’ve logged in this month consisted of my queueing up before logging out in boredom, tonight I would have stayed logged in longer if it’d been any earlier. Knowing how different a feeling that really is, it makes me excited to get up tomorrow and try my hand again. It’s a breath of fresh air.

The point being, if you’re anything like me, trying something new — even if you’re not sure about it — might be the surprise you need to keep yourself going. All too often we expect the game to bring the options to us and leave a to-do list right on our front door when really we’re so much more empowered than that. Try something new today, be it a game or a role or a class. You just might like it!

12/22/10

Rift NDA Dropped – Here Are The Goods

As you know, I’ve been taking part in the Rift beta events. The long and short of it is this: Rift is a good game, not immediatelyground breaking, but a fun MMO that will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played anything post-Everquest.

In my opinion, this is the first PvE game that’s actually viable to the wider MMO audience. LotRO came close, but the slow combat and low-fantasy setting hold it back, making it a bit more niche than a lot of players like. Rift doesn’t suffer from this in the slightest and is a lot of fun to play if you’re not looking for GW2 or TOR level reinvention of the genre.

The specifics:

*Note: Apologies for the lack of screenshots, it was disabled during beta.

Character Creation

Rift offers a lot of options for character creation, but it is more limited than, say, Aion. You choose your race, archetype, and then can select a variety of attributes for your head (eyes, mouth, nose; width, plumpness, etc.). You can also select from ten or so facial tattoos and customizations. I was a little disappointed that you couldn’t customize your body at all, but, honestly, it’s a passable oversight.

Introductions and Cinematics

The cinematics are good and do a nice job of pulling you into the setting. They give you just enough background to understand your place, but really only scratch the surface of the deep lore written into the game. I personally prefer the Guardian cinematic. In Beta 2, I had a laugh at the voice actor they chose to do the narration. He sounded like a bad Mr. T impersonator. Or, as one staffer put our in a system message, “The Guardian narrator also reminds you to snap into a Slim Jim.”

The actual newbie experiences are awesome. The Defiant start off in a war torn valley. Buildings are burning and being overrun. Angry spirits, invading guardians, cultists, and various undead are there waiting for you to kill them. There is a decent variety of kill, collect, and “activate this item(s) in the field” quests. Both factions get their first two souls almost right away (within an hour). I was a little torn at the high-technology slant the Defiant seem to embrace.

I found myself quite surprised at how much I like the Guardian experience more, though. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s probably my favorite of any MMO. The way the action blends into the cinematic, and the way everything seems to be compounded for your immersion, adds into a remarkable experience. You start off as a resurrected dead – literally, there are piles of bodies lying around – and go into the usual “defend our town” kind of stuff. Just like the Defiant, there is a decent variety of quests. I liked it so much more, however, because it was MUCH more immersive. The music was spot on. Your screen would shake with explosions. Pillars of smoke rise in the horizon and battle horns sound in your ears. The questing was also much more action-y, I thought, though this is probably because I chose to play a mage (pyromancer) instead of a cleric (paladin).

Each faction ends with an epic stand off before throwing you into the “real world.” I thought these were very well done and built up to a culmination no other MMO can stand up against in the first 5 levels. This is how MMOs should start.

Setting

I’m a little torn. The setting is a strange blend of high-fantasy wilderness/warzones with sci-fi cybertech. The Defiant have hologram machines all over the place and the main impetus of your existence is to be sent back in time. I get it, and I’m sure some people will love it, but it doesn’t really fit with a traditional fantasy setting. That’s just my feeling, though, as some people really like it; it does make the Defiant zones unique.

Art is a good blend of stylized art and realistic models. Characters are highly detailed (you can see every ring on a piece of chainmail). Colors are over saturated, which makes for some really great skyscapes.

It should be said that I was immersed pretty much non-stop until other players would come into the scene and break it somehow (not meant in a negative way). The balance between sounds and visuals is very well done.

Graphics/Performance

The game is very scalable and can go from looking very nice to butt-ugly. As I mentioned above, character models are highly detailed even on the lowest settings. Anything medium or above will probably rival most other MMOs. On high or ultra, it’s competing with LotRO and AoC.

They’ve made good strides in performance, but it still has a ways to go. During the first beta event, lots of players had trouble getting over 20FPS regardless of graphics setting; I was one of them. We had a good thread in the forums and Beta 2 was much better. I was running at about 25-35 on high. I expect it to be better on release.

I would say that if you have a machine running their recommended spec, you’ll probably get 25FPS on medium right now. For comparison, here are my stats: E8600 3.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, nVidia 260GTX 896MB GPU.

Gameplay

It’s standard MMO stuff. If you don’t want a game in the same vein as what’s out there now, or are tired of the “same old questing,” do everyone a favor and don’t bother. The beta forums were flooded with people complaining that Rift didn’t do enough different. Frankly, I don’t fault Trion for that, I fault the testers for not reading about what they signed up to test.

In a world when GW2 and TOR are out to challenge out concepts and tell us how everything we know is wrong, Rift is there to remind us why we found this stuff fun in the first place. Well, that’s the goal. Whether it works will depend on how much you enjoy questing.

There is a noticeable wall in the leveling curve around level 10 or so but this will probably change.

Quests are well written and fun to read.

Gathering/Crafting/Dungeons

I can’t comment much here because I didn’t get a chance to do much with them. The only one of the three I did to any detail was gathering and I’m happy to say we’re not sucking the essence out of any ore nodes here *cough* Aion *cough*. You find a node, you click it, you swing a pick axe.

Crafting is pretty standard. No chance to fail, as far as I’m aware, and you’ll probably have to work with other players to advance any large degree. You can choose three professions, which includes gathering. So, if I wanted to armorsmith, I’d probably take up mining and maybe skinning for some extra money. No secondaries, outside of gathering as far as I’m aware. See here for a list of all tradeskills.

I did notice that the entry level crafting stuff was much better than anything I’d seen from questing.

Rifts

I had to check out of Beta 2 early, so I didn’t see what improvements may have been made. In Beta 1, however, I got far enough to see a few from Water and Death spawn.

The graphics are incredible. It’s really neat seeing the ground change under your feet and water start pouring from the sky.

But you don’t care about that. How do they function?

Usually, just like PQs minus a lot of the problems WAR’s version had. A rift opens and players in the zone have a set of objectives open on the right side of their screen. When they’re met, you move into the next, more difficult, phase, and the next, until you get to an end boss. Kill it and you’re ranked on contribution (no idea how) and given a reward which seems to be some kind of crafting mat. They really don’t explain what the heck it is you’re getting, so I’m pretty clueless on whether or not the drops were worth anything. I vendored them.

I sincerely hope they change the starter rifts, though. Here’s the thing: those first few rifts, though an introduction, spawn over and over again, with no difference at all between them (if they’re on the same plane). Death rifts have the same phases every time.

Again, this is just in the starter zones, but I can’t help but feel like players’ first introduction to the much lauded dynamic content should be more, well, dynamic. This wasn’t. At all.

I hear it got much better in later zones, though, so bear that in mind.

Souls

The soul system is pretty neat. I liked it. They’re pretty much skill trees and as you advance up, you get new skills. In Beta 3, they’re planning on giving you more points, which is a good thing, because I felt like I was being told to choose a salad at the buffet table. It really lets you customize your archetype and isn’t hype. No, you can’t make anything you want – no warrior-mages – but you can make most blends of usual classes in it. Healing-DPS-buffer? You can do it.

Combat

Standard stuff. If you’ve played WoW, you’ve played this. I played a wide array of classes and can say that each has a different feel. I preferred a pyromancer because it felt like a fire mage. It was quick and deadly.

Combat is snappy and action-oriented. Somewhere between WoW and Aion, you’ll find Rift’s system.

It is GCD based.

Final Thoughts

As I watched the forums, I saw a pretty clear definition rise amongst players. People that wanted something familiar and polished loved it. People that were tired of quests and action bar combat hated it. Deciding which camp you fall into will pretty much decide whether this is the game for you.

Detractors did raise a good question, though: why play Rift when you can play other games that do the same thing? Honestly, I think it’s worth playing because it’s a different take on an old favorite. It’s the same gameplay we all know in a Telaran wrapping. It’s a starting point for new and fun stuff. The rift system is neat and, taken all by itself, offers a lot of possibilities for cool gameplay; Trion has it built so they can run events and more with the rifts than, well, open rifts. A lot of the potential for the game is under the surface, in the tech of what makes it.

After playing these two weekends, I’m planning on buying the game. It’s a PvE fan’s game. It’s the MMO player’s game. It’s polished and on the right track. More than anything, this beta has given me more faith in Trion than I’ve ever had in an MMO company. Seeing the product in the state it’s in now, and seeing how far it’s come from even the first beta event, leaves me enthused. This is a game that will probably go under a lot of people’s radar, but it’s good, and I firmly believe it will find its own dedicated audience.

In a few words: this is like Everquest 2 in style, WoW in gameplay, and way beyond WAR in innovation. If that sounds good to you, check it out.

12/14/10

Rift: Social Observation or Close to Home?

Note: This is a cross-post from our new Rift blog, Rift Watchers. Find the original here.

As I’ve followed the game, one of the most compelling aspects I’ve found actually has nothing to do with gameplay: it’s the factions. At first glance, it seems like your standard two-sided battle. You have the good guys in the Guardians and the bad guys in the Defiant. I mean, their names really categorize them before you’ve read a word of background. The Guardians. Images of plate-clad paladins come to mind, calling on the Light, smiting down their foes with big, square hammers, and reciting from gilded books. The Defiant. There’s a name for a Dark Elf if I’ve ever heard one. Who are they defying… does it matter? They’re the Defiant! They defy everything! Even their parents! On Sunday!

But the comely names belie a deeper connection to the modern day. In many ways, these two factions are more like you and I, the division between the East and West, conservative and progressive. Looking beyond the fantasy trappings, you begin to see a relationship much more resonant with adult gamers: there is grey area here and certainly a question of who is really good and evil.

Factions, as we’ve known them

Though the names are appropriate — more appropriate than even the Horde and Alliance, an example we’re ALL familiar with – the first impression is polarizing. When there’s so much more behind it, I have to wonder, why hide those shades of grey?

The answer, I think, is that Trion is trying to touch on our comfort zones. Nearly every major battle throughout history is recalled in terms of right and wrong, winners and losers. In gaming, we can trace back modern day factioning to the alignment systems of early Dungeons and Dragons. In those days, characters would choose a guardian deity and take on the alignment to match, anywhere from lawful good to chaotic evil. As the genre has progressed, those decisions have been simplified and re-envisioned as faction warfare.

The truth for Rift is that most of their playerbase will have come from World of Warcraft as their first MMO. To these players, entering character creation with distinct factions is an expectation. Many are also of the “forget the story, hit the objective” playstyle wherein the above is simply all they need. A system of “Us vs. Them,” “name red, soon dead” more than justifies their role in the game world.

Yet, for those interested in extra depth within their game worlds, Trion has provided in kind.

Compelling Through Grey

I find it very compelling just how different the factions are from other modern day MMOs. Put succinctly, there is something distinctly human about them. One need look no further than the evening news to see parallels to each in our own world.

Take, for example, the Guardians. They are, by all rights, the conservatives of Telara. They are firm believers in the Vigil (the council of gods) and believe that the path to salvation is through faith. Echoes of the Inquisition ring out in their core philosophies.

“Telara must first by saved – by deed, by example, or by the sword. Its people must be redeemed, its corrupters cleansed. Only then will the Guardians be imbued with the divine and ascend to a higher level.”

“Their inquisitions purge the secretive cults of Akylios, and their agents search for sinister signs.” – Taken from the Guardian Section of the Official Site

That’s not only a more serious tone than commonly found in MMORPGs, but it’s also so close to our own history that one might be forgiven for attributing to them other characteristics of the zealot.

That may be too specific, however. It also echoes of the current Middle East conflict and the clash of cultures between Islam and the West. It can even be applied to the political landscape of most all democratic nations. At its core, it is conservatism rooted in religious belief.

On the other hand, the Defiant play the role of the progressives; they are the self-sufficient, “save ourselves or don’t be saved at all” pragmatists.

“The Defiant do not care whether the gods abandoned the world or not”

“So while the Guardians run around Telara building temples, sticking their noses in everyone’s business, and desperately praying for a miracle, the Defiant plan on actually delivering one”

Through their love of Eth technology, we can see the great religion vs. science debate resurface again.

“Mixing technology with magic offers amazing opportunities for innovation, personal power and cultural progress” – All Quotes Taken From the Defiant Section of the Official Site

The Guardians are opposed to the advanced, sacrilegious technologies the Defiant would choose to embrace. It’s reminiscent of evolution versus intelligent design. The Defiant cast faith to the side for practical technology; the Guardians see it as a fool’s path, Regulos’s path, and one that will ultimately lead the world to doom.

…

Yet, they both fight for the same noble goal: to save the innocent of Telara. Each has their own way of approaching the task, which divides and fills each side with loathing, but as outside observers we can see that unity is their easiest path to salvation. They hate and mistrust each other for how they seek to achieve peace. So, who is right: the Guardians who fight for what they cannot see, or the Defiant who fight with the tools in front of them? It’s completely and utterly grey, open to your interpretation. That, my friends, is one of the defining characteristics of much great fiction. Just ask George R.R. Martin.

Returning to the point, this divide between the factions is so distinctly human that it should come as no surprise we’ve seen them echoed in other post-apocalyptic media for the last twenty years or more. Two factions, survival on the line, death on the horizon. People, under the duress of war, polarize to their ultimate safety. They cling to what it is that can save them and grow to what cannot. The Defiant are blasphemers and heretics to the Guardians; yet, the Defiant label them zealots and fools, To their followers, they are the bravest of heroes.

It’s so interesting, this “enemies of fellow man” theme the game has embraced. It’s a setting flush with drama and intrigue. With the knowledge of the outside observer, we can watch, rapt, for new developments, twists, and turns in the saga of the Telaran people.

Final Thoughts

This inaugural editorial is perhaps a bit long but I find this topic too interesting to gloss over. It’s subtle enough where many people may not even notice it. Yet, when you approach the game for the social commentary the writers are so evidently attempting to make, it takes on a whole different flavor from any other MMO on the market.

This setup excites me on more than just a conceptual level, though, let me be clear. On some level, I feel like I can identify more with these characters. There’s a piece of us in them. If you read quests, like me, this is a situation rife with possibility for exciting storylines. Identification and resonance, coupled with good, old fashioned fun, is the recipe for a game that keeps you coming back for more.

That’s a good thing to have in an MMO.

11/3/10

LotRO: She’s Kind of Like THAT Ex, Isn’t She?

I’m returning from my mini blog-cation to bring you this sexy, sexy post. Now, back to that shadowy corner by the fire…

Take a look at the banner up top. See that burly guy talking about zombies or some such? That, my friends, is a dear old friend of mine born from the lands of Middle-Earth. I rolled him a little over two years ago, took up a Guardian’s axe because it looked fun to whack things with, and went out to seize an orc by its throat. Somewhere around 1000 birds later, I found that orc and seized him good. Then his buddies might have killed me, or another one of those damned birds, but, the point is, the process went on for the next 44 levels.

Until about eight months ago when WoW decided to seize me good and pulled me away from all the progress I’d made. WoW’s kind of a jerk like that. It demands monogamy – at least from those of us who have trouble sticking to “just one game” – and will slowly suffocate out its competition with promises of “phat lewtz” and “lengthy epeens.” So, try as I might, I left my dear friend all alone in the reaches of Angmar surrounded by the undead, shady dudes in robes, and even eviler birds.

Even after I left WoW, I still didn’t go back to LotRO. I mean, I tried. The problem is, that dwarf somehow became like “that” ex-girlfriend. You know, the one where you left on good terms but it’s still really awkward when you meet in the grocery store. Yeah, like that. So, I’d log in and notice weird things, like he attacks slow or shouts too much (seriously, there are zombies RIGHT over that hill). Before too long, I’d leave him right in the middle of the fruit section action, looking around wondering what he did wrong.

This is where FFXIV would come in: my main squeeze, baby, I’ll never leave again xoxoxoxo, but I’ll spare you all that. I am not a one game man.

That last time bothered me, though. We actually had some fun again. He killed this, I meta-gamed that, it was like old times; the spark was flickering. Before I knew it, I was starting to feel hopeful. Except, as those old familiar feelings started to wash over me, so did another familiar sentiment well up:

OMGIHATEBROWNZONESWHATTHECRAPISITWITHYOUANDBROWNZONESTURBINEREADMYLIPSB-O-R-I-N-GWTFBBQOKAIYOUHEARMENOW?!?!BLARARARAGH!

Good. I acknowledged it. Now we can move on. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

So, I’ve decided to pull my old Rule of Three out of the closet. I came up with this rule a while ago because it always seems like I have trouble getting back into LotRO once I’ve been away a while. To be honest, I’m more prone to pick it up, play for five minutes, and walk away again, than give it a fair shot. But, once I’m back into it, I love it. Strange, right?

The Rule of Three says to give the game either: three straight hours; three days of consistent 1 hour or more sessions; or three weeks where it’s your main MMO (3+ hours a week). My biggest hurdle has always been getting over the re-entry and tapping back into the core of what makes LotRO fun. It’s all about time. Every time I’ve applied this rule, I’ve been able to get back in and find that same sense of adventure I’d known before. From talking to other bloggers, it sounds like I’m not alone in my challenges here, so give it a shot if you’re having trouble getting into the game – from a break or for the very first time – and I bet it helps.

*Raises his Right Hand* For the rest of this week, I solemnly swear to make LotRO my main MMO. I may not be able to be monogamous but, damn it, there’s enough of me to go around. Even if LotRO is a bit… free with herself these days.

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

10/26/10

What’s In A Main?

Grumpy Dorf of Raging Monkeys raised an interesting question recently: what goes into a main character? It’s deceptively simple, really, and I’ve never really thought about it much until now. After reading through the post, however, I couldn’t help but question myself. There is certainly more to each it than which character I happen to play the most. Quite a bit more, actually.

When I think of an MMO I’ve played, it’s always paired with the character I played it with. In LotRO, that’s my Dwarf Guardian. In WoW, my Orc Death Knight. In FFXIV, it’s my baby Lala’fell. The list goes on even beyond MMOs. I do the same thing in most single player games too, with the exception of first-person-shooters. Each game has a face to go with it.

Each of those, with the exception of the Death Knight, has been my first character. That’s no coincidence, and I’d bet many of yours are firsties too. Part of that is because first impressions really are everything. The only reason my Death Knight is up there instead of my true first character is because I’ve made him as carbon copy as it’s possible to make without being the same class. His model is identical; his name is the same. My main characters are firsts because mentally I each fresh earth of a new world with the fresh face that explores it. I almost feel guilty working on an alt, like they’re sitting there waiting, stuck in whatever spot I left them.

Those first decisions are also some of the most meaningful I’ll ever make in a game. Before I see the world for the mechanics behind it, I approach the game looking for my place in the fiction. I mean that literally, where would I, the player, fit in should I magically be transplanted. In LotRO, I’m a Dwarf because, in the world of Middle-Earth, I’d want to be Gimli. In FFXIV, I want to be the small guy fighting against the odds. In each game, I wield a sword because, to me, that is the stuff of heroes. Nothing after these first few steps comes as close. You’re birthing a set of eyes through which you see the world; it is your surrogate.

So, to me, my first character is my main character, and my main character is myself. Sometimes, most times, I’ll make up some little backstory. The personality is always the same, though, because when people talk to the character Syeric, I want them to talk to the person Syeric. Roleplay often seems a bit forced because I have to step outside of my comfort level so much more. That’s also probably the reason I’ve found it more memorable and fun when I’ve been able to do it. It’s so much more like playing make believe as a child than deliberately injecting “aye” and “lass” and “mead” into every sentence. For a little bit, I’m able to slip my skin and become that brewer’s son or Orken orphan (cliched, I know).

For me, my mains are mainstays of each game I play even when I’m not playing them; even when an alt elevates into my usual login choice, I sooner consider myself having two “mains” instead of letting the first slip. There are times when I’ll linger on the character select page, wondering if I should pick up one of these long dusty yet forever youthful old friends and take them for a romp through an old haunt. Sometimes I even do.

At the end of the day, I wonder how similar I am to other players out there. Lots of people stick with one character forever and others roll dozens of alts. I keep a small roster in each game and usually consider most, if not all, of them mains. The only real way to separate that with me is by having too many main characters forcing, them into alt-territory (never a problem), or by simply putting months or years of time between logins.

06/28/10

Full Voicing Might Be a Bust

As a rule, I’m pretty skeptical of full voicework in RPGs. When it’s done right, it can be great and add to the immersion and storytelling. When it’s done wrong, though, it’s the exact opposite and the entire product winds up feeling cheap and under-produced. So, I have my reservations about SW:TOR.

The first, and most recent, comes with the news that every character will have their own voice. This just seems problematic to me. As a matter of fact, lead designer Daniel Erickson lays out some of the biggest concerns.

Daniel Erickson

“Our player characters were not going to be voiced because it’s a massively insane expenditure and hugely complicated to do. You have to cast 16 of the best actors ever and then hold them for eternity.”

Add to that the fact that your character, and thereby that voice, is your gateway to immersion and you have a pretty big risk. The worst thing a game can do is remind you that you’re playing it. Just like good literature, games are more fun when we can sink in and experience the game, rather than play it. There’s also something to be said for being an individual, which Bioware hasn’t spent much time focusing on (other than talent trees).

I’m not the biggest fan of Dragon Age’s voiceless conversation system but I like it better than Mass Effect’s. Mass Effect plays like a movie, Dragon Age plays like an RPG.

Second, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, is exactly how long will it take to release new content? If every quest has to be recorded and then re-recorded with the different conversation options, you’re adding a huge amount of development time onto each content patch. If it’s good, and big, maybe it will be worth the wait and keep people satisfied. If it’s rushed, then you risk having the patch fall flat on its face. It’s a tricky medium.

Like most of you, I’m excited for TOR. Believe me, I hope that this game is all that we’ve waited for and more. If Bioware can live up to their reputation, it very well may be. I’ll play it until I’m cheek to the keyboard asleep, if that’s the case.

One thing is for sure though, TOR will change how we perceive the MMO. The question is, will push the traditional MMO design forward or blend single-player RPGs into the online space? It’s an exciting time.