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The World as Story: Emergent storytelling in World of Warcraft
How does storytelling function in World of Warcraft? What are its limits? Does it have to unfold solely via quest text, or can it be told via other means? I ask this in part due to a developing discussion on the scale and scope of how the world we interact with as we play reveals the story elements. Back when I first started playing WoW, game story was almost exclusively revealed via quest text. When it wasn't, it was often revealed via in-game books. I remembered being floored with the pre-fight scene between Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros because it was a bit of story happening entirely in front of my eyes via dialogue and scene. Over the years World of Warcraft has added a host of tools to its story delivery options - cutscenes, scenarios, events like Battle for Undercity, open-ended exploration, and quest integration with each of these kinds of vectors for story. It's not all just text anymore - we have in-game cinematics, cut-scenes rendered and played through using totally in game scenes, dialogue (the end of the Isle of Thunder, when Jaina and Lor'themar confronted one another was entirely realized through in-game dialogue), scenarios like A Little Patience and Dagger in the Dark, and even more complex combinations of all of them. The Dominance Offensive/Operation Shieldwall story in particular was unveiled through all of these techniques, using every arrow in the quiver to drive the story points home. I'm bringing this up because of the recent revelation that not all secondary objectives in Warlords of Draenor will have quest text. The discussion led to a series of tweets from Dave Kosak that I think definitely are worth discussing. How do we get story in an MMO? Can the world we encounter be the story itself? As we move through it, how can it be best presented to us?
Chaos Theory: Emergent futures for The Secret World
So the big news in the MMO industry this week is Sony Online Entertainment's philosophy shift toward emergent gameplay. It's kind of a crazy turn of events from my point of view. Sure, the company was responsible for the genre's premier sandbox (the dearly departed Star Wars Galaxies), but prior to that it was responsible for EverQuest, otherwise known as the granddaddy of the themepark. What does this have to do with The Secret World? Well, Funcom has also been making noises about emergent gameplay and paradigm shifts, and I'd like to speculate, prognosticate, and otherwise pontificate about that after the cut.
EVE Evolved: Power players and player retention
As I mentioned in our coverage of the EVE Online Fanfest, the best part of the experience for me was discussing EVE with players who are as involved in and enthusiastic about the game as I am. On my first night there, I got into a fascinating discussion with a few players on a topic I hadn't really considered before -- power players. Every MMO has players who get heavily involved in their chosen game. EVE's Fanfest really highlighted this, as around a thousand of EVE's power players flew to Iceland just to talk about the game, contribute ideas in roundtable discussions and find out what the future holds for the game. Ultimately, the fate of EVE lies in its community. EVE's main strength as an MMO is the fact that with so many players in one game universe, people form very real ties with each other. Corporations and alliances are more than just collections of people; they're sub-communities with their own aspirations, internal politics, playstyles, personalities and even senses of humour. These organisations give people support and a place to call home in an unforgiving universe, and it's the power players of EVE who make all of that possible. In this week's EVE Evolved, I explore the importance of power players in MMOs and what the concept means for EVE's development.
Gamebryo creator Emergent snapped up by anonymous party
Emergent Game Technologs has had a rough run recently. First, the developer of the Gamebryo engine puts its whole business up for sale in November. Then, just a few weeks ago, Bethesda reveals that it's breaking with tradition and not employing Gamebryo in the latest Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim. This latest development? Well, it could go either way. The company has been purchased by an anonymous buyer, according to Develop. Whether or not this is good news for Emergent and its staff really depends on who this new buyer is and what their intentions are. Hopefully we'll have a clearer picture when the developer's identity is revealed "soon."
EVE Evolved: Group PvE in EVE Online
EVE Online is often thought of as a strongly PvP-based game, with player conflict and competition at the heart of practically every activity the game offers. Competition for resources, power, and notoriety routinely drive players to disintegrate each other's ships, but this effect isn't limited to just PvP. Miners compete with each other for ore on a daily basis, for example, and traders fight for market supremacy. EVE's competitive sandbox element is such a headline feature that PvE often takes a back seat in discussions about the game. EVE's combat-based PvE comes in the form of repeatable agent missions, hidden exploration sites, and deadly Sleeper encounters. While most of these can be completed solo by experienced pilots with a well-designed ship, they're often much faster and more fun when done in groups. The lack of a limit to how many pilots can be brought on PvE expeditions even makes it feasible to take newer players along to tough missions, something that doesn't happen in most MMOs. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at why EVE's PvE is so inherently soloable, which types of PvE encounters are well suited to group play, and what the future holds for EVE's possibly neglected group PvE content.
EVE Evolved: Death of an Industrialist, part 2
Of all the things that define EVE Online, it's the stories of criminality that stand out the most. The criminal underworld of New Eden is so deeply ingrained in EVE that CCP even made a selling point of it in the latest official trailer. Last week, I began to tell the true tale of one EVE pilot's thirst for revenge and the corporate infiltration techniques he used to get close to his target. In this week's conclusion of the story, Scott's plans for revenge come to fruition. But is Scott really the victim he believes himself to be, or has greed blinded him to what he's doing? If you haven't read part 1 of the story, skip back to read last week's EVE Evolved column before reading on. Newbies again Once in Zeeqo's corp, Scott and his crew began the slow task of setting their target up for a colossal fall. Simply destroying Zeeqo's mining barge could be a swift and fitting retribution, but Scott had a much harsher punishment in mind. Zeeqo would be made to pay for his mistake several times over. The plan for retribution hinged on Zeeqo's weekend freighter runs to Jita, a time at which he flew his most expensive and indefensible ship. This gave the three infiltrators only five days to befriend their target and work out how best to capitalise on his weekly haul.
EVE Evolved: Death of an industrialist
It's often said that the EVE Online universe is a dark and harsh place, the market overflowing with con-artists and the skies filled with pirates looking for some easy prey. The sandbox style of New Eden enables emergent gameplay like market manipulation, corporate infiltration, spying and theft. When faced with the choice, some players choose to be ruthless outlaws who will stop at nothing to further their own goals. Political puppet-masters pull the strings on the alliance war machines from behind the scenes, spies infiltrate corporations to gather intelligence, and thieves plot their way to riches. The latest official game trailer makes a big point of this side of EVE, telling an incredible story of revenge and theft that closely mirrors the reality of New Eden. As if to highlight the point made by the trailer, this week EVE player Bad Bobby confirmed that he'd stolen a total of 850 billion ISK from players in the investment market. Concluding a plan set in motion years ago, Bobby pulled off the theft last week of his supposedly secured Titans4U company. In keeping with this recent theme of theft and corruption, this week's EVE Evolved is a story of revenge, corporate infiltration, social deception and utter destruction. I've embellished the story in places and names have been changed to protect the privacy of all those involved, but the events described are real. In this week's article, I begin to tell the very real tale of an EVE player's revenge -- a precision strike against an industrialist who made one fatal mistake.
Goon Squad downs Tirion Fordring
Perennial pariahs Goon Squad, Horde-side on Mal'Ganis-US, have really carved out a niche for themselves in the World of Warcraft. Well, two niches. The first is a rock-solid reputation of being the foremost trolls and griefers in the MMO market, period -- a reputation perpetuated by a community that operates mostly on word-of-mouth and lovingly crafted by the guild itself. The second is providing some of the best and most hilarious WoW videos on the internet. This one is no exception -- they managed to score a victory for the Lich King by defeating the dread paladin Fordring. It's a rare ability, possessed by Goon Squad and a few other community figures, to be able to take the building blocks of the game experience provided by Blizzard -- strictly compartmentalized and defined by sets of incontrovertible rules -- and then cobble together something wholly new and, frankly, ridiculous out of them. You're not supposed to be able to bring together two often-'shipped faction leaders for an impromptu date. You're not supposed to be able to blow the Wintergrasp fortress wall to smithereens in a minute's time. You're certainly not supposed to be able to kill the head of the Argent Crusade who, by the way, should learn to cast Consecrate.
EVE Evolved: Wormhole piracy 101
If it seems like I've gone wormhole crazy lately, that's because I have. The wormholes that arrived with the Apocrypha expansion have infiltrated and enriched many different aspects of EVE Online, from exploration and corporate goals to small gang PvP and piracy. In previous articles, I looked at preparing for an expedition, untangled the mystery of the Sleepers and told the story of a tense week for Total Comfort alliance in the Sleeper's den. After a week spent hunting wormhole-dwellers for fun and profit, this week's EVE Evolved is dedicated to the fine art of being an interstellar cut-throat as I delve into the world of wormhole piracy.Wormhole piracy is one of the few professions where small gang warfare is most prevalent. While many pirates have already begun including wormhole systems in their roaming gangs, our corporation (and I'm sure others) have come across a much more effective method. By setting up your own pirate staging base inside a wormhole system, your corp can use its regular outgoing wormholes to wreak havoc in systems all across EVE. Using this method, it's possible to spring attacks on people without anyone even seeing you coming. Whether you're planning surprise attacks on 0.0 systems or hunting in the 2500 new unknown sleeper systems, wouldn't you like to run your own pirate way-station?Read on for an informative guide on using wormholes to wreak havoc around EVE and make a profit in the process.
Tiny Angels coming to Wiis with the help of Gamebryo
Are you keeping up with your South American telenovelas? If so, you've probably heard of Chiquititas. If not, which is probably the case, the show (known in English as Tiny Angels) is a fictional series about a group of orphans in Buenos Aires.You're probably worriedly wondering what this has to do with the Wii, so let's just rip the band-aid right off. Portugal based developer Biotroid is making a Wii game about the series. Interestingly enough, though, the game is being published by Emergent Game Technologies, who are giving Biotroid access to the Gamebryo engine. In case you haven't been keeping up, that's the same engine that's been powering games like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Civilization IV. Obviously, Emergent is looking to cash in on the success of the popular Argentinian show.Let's be honest -- we don't have high hopes for this game, which will be a platformer of sorts. Aside from licensed games usually being terrible, Tiny Angels seems like a particularly stupid license to use. But, in some crazy twist of fate, this has the potential to be one of the prettiest titles on the Wii.
Oblivion's Gamebryo engine ported to Wii
Don't be fooled: this is not a sign that Bethesda is bringing its Elder Scroll series to Nintendo consoles. However, Emergent Technologies' Gamebryo engine -- which runs both Oblivion and the upcoming Fallout 3 -- now supports the Wii.Gamebryo is also optimized for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. We haven't seen any screenshots of the engine in use with Nintendo's hardware and no projects have been announced; the Gamebryo engine has also been used to make Freedom Force, Civilization IV and Dark Age of Camelot. Will we start seeing a significant visual improvement in Wii games? That's entirely up to the game makers, to be honest.[Via Gamasutra; thanks, vidGuy]
Emergent porting Gamebryo Engine to Wii
The Gamebryo development engine, used for games including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Civilization IV, and many Xbox Live Arcade games, is being ported to the Wii.The engine, which is specifically designed to facilitate multiplatform development, should make it easier for developers to create Wii games using the same development tools as Xbox 360, PS3, and PC games. The new version 2.3 includes in its Wii support "a Wii-specific viewer, extensive libraries and APIs to simplify pipeline integration."We don't pretend to know the first thing about technical game development, and we're certainly not going to applaud porting by any means, but we think that anything that makes it simpler or more cost-effective for developers to create Wii games is a positive development. Does this mean a Wii Oblivion is on the way? Not without a hard drive, it doesn't.
Breakfast Topic: The crazy things we do
I've been having fun with sheep recently. Admittedly, I am Welsh, but I'm talking WoW -- and odd behaviour. While skilling up in Engineering I made several mechanical sheep; I tried making them attack nearby Horde players, who were thankfully laughing too much to retaliate. There's nothing like an angry sheep in the morning to get your blood boiling.I also wasted valuable minutes of my life repeatedly polymorphing a sheep, just to see what would happen. No prizes for guessing the result! So, what are some of the weirdest things you've found yourself doing in WoW -- with or without farm animals?
