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Champions Online previews upcoming Carrier Wave mission
Champions Online's heroes were instrumental in stopping an attempted hacking, but they're needed again once the source of the hacking attempt is discovered. The second mission in the game's current Fatal Error arc will be available on Thursday, and it sends players straight to the source: Cyberlord's carrier in Canada. Players are tasked with getting on the ship and stopping Cyberlord before he tries again, since that's much easier than just stopping his hacking attempts every single time for another few years. Needless to say, the mission will involve bashing through robots on the decks down to the core of the ship, with new perks and titles available for anyone who defeats enough robots. Players can also earn new Cybernetic Boots for taking part in the operation to prevent another hack attack. For more information on in-game action figures obtainable through this mission, take a look at the official preview, and be sure to finish the first part of the arc before the second comes out tomorrow.
Storyboard: We are (among) the champions
The night before I started writing this column, I finally managed to clear Chapter 1 in Star Wars: The Old Republic with one of my characters. I overcame great obstacles, beat back horrible odds, and defeated a great menace to the galaxy. I was hailed as a hero by the authorities in charge, and while it had been at great cost to myself, I was now more than worthy of respect, accolades, and the gratitude of a galaxy unaware of how close it had been to almost insurmountable danger. But then I finished the quest. This problem is not unique to Star Wars: The Old Republic at all, though. By the end of my career in World of Warcraft, I had slain several unique individuals dozens of times on multiple characters, including several kills that were noted by NPCs as being once-in-a-lifetime achievements. Final Fantasy XI made me a pivotal figure in historic events that I could then jump right back into any time I had a friend doing the same quest. And let's not even get into the chronological strangeness that can erupt in Lord of the Rings Online. What's to be done when there's an ongoing story that your character is part of and not a part of?
Storyboard: The gatekeepers of story
There's a notion floating around the MMO mindspace, one that you've no doubt heard over and over again, especially in light of the recent heartbreaking closure of Star Wars Galaxies. It's the idea that creating a capital-S story in an MMO is by definition a flawed enterprise. According to this argument, the whole point of an MMO and the point of good roleplaying is to create a story that's unique to the players. Real memorable stories should come from players, not from developers. I could just write "no" here and be finished, but instead I've gone into full-on rant mode on this one. About a year ago, I wrote up a piece explaining that players are not individually storytellers, not even if you're roleplaying. That extends further, though -- a group of roleplayers does not suddenly become a storyteller, like a version of Devastator that's made up of literature majors. This isn't right, and it's doing a great disservice to the things that roleplaying actually does well.
