Monday, Oct 10, 2005
I never write in this thing, but... I've been in the mood to play a good RPG lately. This isn't unusual; as soon as the wind gets nippy I yearn for adventure, every year. The thing is, I can't find a good game to play. Right now I've got Baldur's Gate, which I never finished, running, but the interface is driving me mad. I can't stand the fixed camera. What I really want to play is a mmorpg. But I can't stand them.
Here's the deal - when I play an RPG, what makes me interested in the first place is the story. I want a good story to wrap me up to the point I am motivated to roleplay in my mind. It is a roleplaying game, after all. Some mmorpg stories can do this. I beta-ed Lineage II. It had a really great story. I thought about it, and said the myself, "Okay, so my character will be a Dark Elf, righteous in his belief that they are the higher race. He will look upon members of other races with scorn, and cut down those he sees near the walls of his city." Great. Except when I get in game, despite all the story about Dark Elves hating the lighter races blahblahblah, the city is crawling with non-Dark Elf players. I couldn't kill them because that would turn me red and I'd get smacked down by a mass of eager pkers, and what was the point of hurling racial slurs at Lusciousbooty2401?
So my point is, massively multiplayer roleplaying games make it difficult for you to actually roleplay. I'm not an avid rper - I don't set up shop at the local ren faire, and talk in thees and thous. But when I am playing a roleplaying game, goshdarnit, what's the point?
I have this ideal of a roleplaying game. The Elder Scrolls philosophy is "Live another life in another world." I like that as a starting point. (I'm sure Morrowind was fun to play, but it was ugly. I'm stuck in a fungus infected swamp. Who wants to play there? ) I want a game world that actually works like a real place. In most mmorpg I've played, everybody is a fighter, unless you are an artisan making stuff to sell to fighters. Also, everyone is working on the same quest bank.
"Hey, what quest you workin' on SirRidesALot?"
"The Gather-50-Nondescript-Items-and-Bring-Them-Back-For-No-Good-Reason
quest."
"Oh, I had that yesterday. They are over there"
The entire game is doing boring errands for no reason. That's really what is lacking in these games - a reason to play. The developers think you can't ever win anything big, because winning=game end. But I don't think that is true. I'll use a totally different game as an example - Disney's Toontown Online. This game is very innovative. First off, you can't not roleplay, because you can only talk to other players through a text bank. It's quite extensive, and quite useful. I actually enjoy the limitation. (please feel free to check my age at this point) The idea of the game is that you are a Toon, and these corporate style robots, COGS, are trying to take over the Toonworld, to stamp out it's rampant silliness. To defeat them, you pull practical jokes like thowing pies in their faces because (PUN ALERT) Cogs can't take a joke. Ahh. But really, it is a neatly set up game, with lots of non-fighting activities to enjoy. Really it's novelty lasts far longer than any game I've ever played. But, back to the story problem. No matter how strong you get, no matter how long you play, you never beat the Cogs. It's pointless. You can't win.
Here's the deal - when I play an RPG, what makes me interested in the first place is the story. I want a good story to wrap me up to the point I am motivated to roleplay in my mind. It is a roleplaying game, after all. Some mmorpg stories can do this. I beta-ed Lineage II. It had a really great story. I thought about it, and said the myself, "Okay, so my character will be a Dark Elf, righteous in his belief that they are the higher race. He will look upon members of other races with scorn, and cut down those he sees near the walls of his city." Great. Except when I get in game, despite all the story about Dark Elves hating the lighter races blahblahblah, the city is crawling with non-Dark Elf players. I couldn't kill them because that would turn me red and I'd get smacked down by a mass of eager pkers, and what was the point of hurling racial slurs at Lusciousbooty2401?
So my point is, massively multiplayer roleplaying games make it difficult for you to actually roleplay. I'm not an avid rper - I don't set up shop at the local ren faire, and talk in thees and thous. But when I am playing a roleplaying game, goshdarnit, what's the point?
I have this ideal of a roleplaying game. The Elder Scrolls philosophy is "Live another life in another world." I like that as a starting point. (I'm sure Morrowind was fun to play, but it was ugly. I'm stuck in a fungus infected swamp. Who wants to play there? ) I want a game world that actually works like a real place. In most mmorpg I've played, everybody is a fighter, unless you are an artisan making stuff to sell to fighters. Also, everyone is working on the same quest bank.
"Hey, what quest you workin' on SirRidesALot?"
"The Gather-50-Nondescript-Items-and-Bring-Them-Back-For-No-Good-Reason
quest."
"Oh, I had that yesterday. They are over there"
The entire game is doing boring errands for no reason. That's really what is lacking in these games - a reason to play. The developers think you can't ever win anything big, because winning=game end. But I don't think that is true. I'll use a totally different game as an example - Disney's Toontown Online. This game is very innovative. First off, you can't not roleplay, because you can only talk to other players through a text bank. It's quite extensive, and quite useful. I actually enjoy the limitation. (please feel free to check my age at this point) The idea of the game is that you are a Toon, and these corporate style robots, COGS, are trying to take over the Toonworld, to stamp out it's rampant silliness. To defeat them, you pull practical jokes like thowing pies in their faces because (PUN ALERT) Cogs can't take a joke. Ahh. But really, it is a neatly set up game, with lots of non-fighting activities to enjoy. Really it's novelty lasts far longer than any game I've ever played. But, back to the story problem. No matter how strong you get, no matter how long you play, you never beat the Cogs. It's pointless. You can't win.
