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Breakfast Topic: Do you have any characters that've slipped off your radar?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Sometimes we lose track of things. As I was working through my third Mass Effect 2 campaign the other day, I was reminded of my first play through Mass Effect 1 in which I had painstakingly developed the perfect version of Commander Shepard. I lost that first save game file, unfortunately, and had to play through ME1 again in order to set myself up for a character import into the sequel. Alas, for some reason, I have never been able to recreate perfectly the masterpiece that was my first Shepard. I also have a character on WoW that I no longer play, the loss of which distresses me greatly. I created this character, a blood elf gunter, shortly after The Burning Crusade came out. I loved my hunter's name scheme, as he and all his pets had the word "Blood-" prefixed to their names. At that time, I had just begun to play with a group of RL friends who attended the same college I did. The five of us would all bring our laptops to one guy's room and play late into the night. We leveled quickly, each filling one of the roles necessary for running 5-man content. It was a blast, but unfortunately it ended when they graduated. Eventually I began to play with new people who were committed to the opposite faction. They were already active on a different realm, so I switched and left my beloved hunter behind. I've missed him ever since. Sometimes I think about transferring him to my new realm, but all my characters are Alliance and I don't know anyone on the Horde side. And how could I change him into a night elf or some other race when he is perfect just the way he is? Do you have any characters that have slipped away? Do you ever think about what could have been if they hadn't?
Storyboard: The hook brings you back
We're told, at a young age, not to judge a book by its cover. The problem with that statement is that when you're out buying a book, the cover is pretty much all you have to go by. Publishers understand that, and while a great book can overcome a lackluster cover, pretty much every book goes out of its way to try to attract your immediate attention. There are entire schools of thought on cover design for precisely that reason. The same goes for your characters in a roleplaying setting. You can develop a deep and engaging character with a lot of different potential stories, but without something to draw in other players, no one will ever know. You need something to get other players curious, something to get them invested and interested in what you want to do. You need a way to show them from the beginning that this isn't just another generic warrior or mage or whatever. You need a hook.
Storyboard: Navel-gazing cardboard cutouts
When you create a character for roleplaying, most of the time your creation is something of a mess. He or she has a huge pile of issues, regrets, fears, mental blind spots, and possibly even physical ailments that should have a lasting impact on telling stories and creating drama. And your goal as a player is to take all of those flaws into account to tell stories about someone less than perfect, whose imperfections you can hopefully see even if the character can't. Unfortunately for everyone, there are two very compelling ways to do this, and neither one of them is right or wrong or even evident at a glance. It's only by roleplaying with someone for a while that you get a sense of what she's aiming for, and it often turns out to be after it's too late to do anything. You might be going for character arcs or character development, and the two are frequently incompatible over the long term.
Cable joins the Marvel Universe Online roster
Marvel Universe Online's roster keeps growing steadily, with newcomer Cable being announced as the latest playable character at New York Comic Con this weekend. The gun-wielding, telepathic, telekinetic son of Cyclops joins Wolverine and Deadpool as the game's third announced character. Also teased is another hero whose silhouette should be distinctive to any comics fan (or anyone who went to the movies anytime this summer). Who could this mysterious avenger possibly be? Follow on past the cut and find out for yourself.
The Daily Grind: How much time do you spend on character concepts?
There are people for whom the character concept stage consists of logging in to City of Heroes for the first time, glancing at the available archetypes, and immediately creating a darkness-based Corruptor without a second though. Then there are people for whom character concepts are an art, something created gradually through a great deal of consideration, time spent out of the game devoted to deciding whether or not one powerset would work slightly better with another. Sometimes it's a roleplaying thing, and sometimes it's just a min-maxing thing, but it's possible to take a character concept very seriously before you hit the "create" button. Or you could be perfectly happy with something that looks cool and just move on from there. So how much time do you spend on your concepts before you make your character? Do you have a clear picture in your head of whom you want to play before the game launches, or do you just decide at the moment and roll with it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Can you have too many options at character creation?
While Aion may not be your cup of tea, you certainly can't claim that the character creation in the game is lacking in features. It is possible -- easy, even -- to make a tiny, anime-esque sprite or a would-be marble statue, if you wish. Of course, to do that you have to play with several dozen sliders, hair styles, skin tones, eye spacers, and an overall breadth of options that could make some players boggle. All this, of course, pales next to games such as Champions Online and City of Heroes, which have even broader options. And sometimes you don't really want to fuss with the fine details of your arm length before playing the game; you just want to get in the game and start punching things. So is it possible to have too many options at character creation? Or is that like asking if you can have too much money? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Storyboard: Mistakes I know I was making
When I write this column, I talk a lot about what works within the context of roleplaying. I make suggestions, declare certain things as being bad ideas, and otherwise make a point of speaking as someone who knows what he is doing. This is not unfounded; I've been playing MMOs for eight years and roleplaying for fifteen, so I at least have some benefit of experience to work with. But a lot of the conclusions I've reached and the ideas that I've formed have been the result of trying something, failing, and learning from the experience. Today, I'm going to look back to three characters whom I played, characters I was excited about, characters who absolutely failed to work. Beyond just that, however, I want to talk about why they failed to work and what I might have done to overcome their innate problems and make them fun to play after all. These are points I've touched on before, definitely, but it never hurts to fit these things into an actual context.
DC Universe Online lets you prove how legendary you are
The fact of the matter is that in our minds, all of our characters are legendary. That's kind of the goal of MMOs. But DC Universe Online wants to give you a chance to mark your character as something special, even above and beyond that -- and true to form, the development team is kicking off a contest, asking players to show off their character to be featured in a future issue of DC Universe Online Legends, the game's tie-in comic book. Submissions require a shot of the character's front and back, a 50-word description of what makes the character legendary, and of course your account name. The deadline for submissions is October 4th, but you can feel free to submit as many of your characters as you like. So what are you waiting for? Not only will your character be legendary in your own mind, but you'll be able to point to him or her in the comic to show everyone else.
Storyboard: Making it worse
Last week, I talked about how cross-eyed the whole roleplaying dynamic looks when compared to MMO progression models as a whole. Some of you probably looked at that column and shook your head in confusion, either because you don't roleplay or because you have a much lighter method for RP (which is perfectly fine -- I wrote a little while back about the fact that there's a lot of RP that covers a very wide band). Others probably looked at my litany of recent misery-inducing events in my character's life and wanted to know how to get to that same point. The former group I can't help a whole lot, but the latter group is the focus of today's column. If you know you want to get your favorite characters up into a tree while being pelted by rocks, you need an idea of what sort of rocks make the best projectiles and what the worst trees are to climb down. So let's take a look at ensuring that your character pretty much fails at everything he or she tries to do -- and how to succeed after all.
The Daily Grind: Out of all your characters, who's the favorite?
Play MMOs long enough and you'll amass your own little army of characters. Some details might be the same from game to game, even if you're not much of a roleplayer, but there's no doubt a vast difference in capability and what abilities are even available to a given player. Sure, you can have a similar-looking elf in both World of Warcraft and RIFT, but odds are good that the two will play completely differently. Maybe you only have a couple of games in your history and you're immune to the urge of making dozens of alts, or perhaps you've got a hundred characters spread over dozens of games. Whatever the case, there are no doubt one or two names that stand out in the list. So who's your favorite character out of the ones you've played? Is it a character that stands out due to class abilities, roleplaying, or some other sentimental connection? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
GamersFirst launches Sword 2: Revelations
GamersFirst announced today that it has launched Sword 2: Revelations (formerly known as Granado Espada: Sword of the New World). But this isn't just a simple re-name and re-release; The team is introducing "three brand new expanded skill systems, a new area for questing and exploration, [and] a new unique playing character and pet to both drive the continually evolving story of Sword 2." The new skill systems are all crafting-related, introducing new Alchemy, Cooking, and Wing Crafting systems. Viron Island is the aforementioned new area, complete with new quests and three distinct forests, each with its own distinct challenges. And lastly, the game introduces Raven, a former spy that offers "complex gameplay options and the new pet Capybara which provides players with increased experience gains and item drop rates. For more information, head on over to Sword 2's official site.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Battle Slugs
Battle Slugs is essentially a stylized version of the old Chinese game Go. You start with two different colors of playing pieces which jump around the board in different ways. Jump one space to produce a cloned slug or two spaces to move the slug you're controlling. When you land next to a piece of the opposite color, it changes color. Those are basically the only rules, but like Go, the strategy gets complicated quickly. You want to try and claim space on the board (the one you're playing at least -- there are 25 different levels in the game), but you have to do so carefully, because overextending can make trouble quickly. The game's actually pretty hard -- I had trouble mastering even the first level consistently. Battle Slugs was originally a Flash game, but you can't tell from the presentation on iOS. While the graphics can be somewhat crude, they are colorful, and bring a lot of personality to the title. Loading times are a little long (though that's of course between matches, not during), and the iTunes reviews have some complaints about the game's performance on older phones, so beware of that. But there's a lite version to try out first if you want to make sure you like it, and the full version (which is Game Center enabled as well) is only 99 cents for a universal build anyway. If you like the strategy of Go and don't mind some cartoony characters, Battle Slugs could tease your mind for a while.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: swackett
Most weather apps display weather as you might expect with temperature and weather symbols. Swackett, a free (ad-supported) weather app from the Mac App Store, bucks the trend with cute cartoons of people showing the current and forecasted conditions. A "different kind of weather app," swackett shows you your current local weather conditions as well as today's, tonight's and tomorrow's forecast using characters of people wearing "suitable clothing" for each condition. For instance, if it's cool but not cold, swackett shows people wearing a light jacket, jeans and T-shirt. If it's going to rain, you'll see someone holding an umbrella. You'll even come across "easter eggs" for certain weather conditions from time to time, such as characters replicating a scene from Gone with the Wind for hot and sunny weather. A break-down of the day's weather is also displayed in 2-hour intervals along with a 7-day outlook and local, regional and national radar, plus regional satellite maps. Weather information is powered by AccuWeather.com, so there's a good chance your location is available. You can even tweet the current weather condition directly from the app. Swackett is also currently available as a web app (iPhone app coming soon), so you can get your weather predictions in the browser, too. An optional free login lets you save location and preference settings for temperature and other customizable features across devices. If you get sick of the free swackett characters, more can be purchased from the swackett store with "British Invasion" and "The 1950's" available for US$1.29 each. If you're looking for something a little different from a standard weather app that'll make you chuckle, then download swackett for free from the Mac App Store.
Alter-Ego: What's in a name?
While it is incredibly tempting to go off on a tear about the major decision announced this week to reboot the entire DC Comics universe, starting 52 new comics at issue #1 and essentially retconning every hero and villain we've known to date, this week's column isn't about that. After all, this isn't a comics site, and we've already heard from the DC Universe Online developers that the continuity in the game is separate from that of the overall DC Universe. (Considering how much we heard that noted in the recent chats, we wonder whether Sony Online Entertainment didn't know this major shake-up was on the way.) As such, I suspect we will see the game's storyline remain essentially intact, at least until the point at which we finally take down Brainiac once and for all. After that, it's anyone's guess. Depending on how the reboot works, it might well shake up the game's direction if the new comics are doing well with readers. No, instead our superpowered game is getting its own different version of a restart in the promised upcoming MegaServer merges. While before we had multiple servers, each side will now have two -- one PvP and PvE for both PC and PS3 players -- giving us a total of four. Over this mad-scientist server-mashup, the issue of collisions looms. This week, we also found out that the merges will not only affect player names but league names as well, ensuring that there is plenty of confusion and concern on the part of the playerbase. Will MegaServers be the bane or balm of DC Universe Online's population issues? What precisely are the facts and fallacies? Whom will this affect? Join me behind the break as I take a look at the overall situation!
Breakfast Topic: Who are the most robust characters of the expansion?
We're many months out after the launch of Cataclysm, and the changes to the world have finally become the norm for me. Orgrimmar's refit is finally Orgrimmar for me. Stormwind's high-res streets do not surprise me as much as they used to. One of the greatest achievements that Cataclysm earned for itself was the robustness of its characters and pumping up the old vanilla world. Character robustness is something that Blizzard has been honing for a long while. It's a tough deal sometimes, when you're creating a host of citizens and military personnel who exist at some podunk outpost handing out quests to player characters. The changes to the questing paradigms, as well as the new emphasis on the environments of Cataclysm telling the story just as much as the quest text, have placed a new burden on NPCs that might be in the spotlight for moments. There's an expectation that these characters, however minor, are required to have a modicum of depth. The Southern Barrens takes this expectation to heart and delivers. Both the Horde and the Alliance have de facto leaders, infantrymen, conflicts, and battles that all make sense, given the environment and characters with interesting and robust personalities. General Hawthorne is either a sinner or a saint, depending on your questing experience, as are the hunters of Taurajo that have fled to the hills and are engaging in guerrilla warfare, with a questing hub that geographically defines their fight as well as characters who succinctly give players a glimpse into the conflict. Alliance players are sent straight through Horde territory, over a blockade and behind enemy lines to the Northwatch advance. The story is robust, and the characters are multifaceted. Cataclysm has given bit players their time in the sun by fleshing out their stories, giving them tasks and information, and using the environment to make even the smallest NPC a robust member of the Alliance or the Horde. Which characters and places in Cataclysm do you think got the robust treatment, and which are your new favorite stories?
The Secret World showcases NPC backstories
Funcom has just updated its website for The Secret World, and the info drop encompasses the backgrounds of some of the NPC characters we've been hearing about lately. Last week's interview with lead writer Dag Scheve clued us in to the fact that Funcom won't stand for any of its NPCs being lazy and falling into old mission-dispenser habits, and today's reveal gives us some more story-related insight. We're introduced to the likes of a crazed journalist with a death wish, an assassin who didn't make the cut at Juilliard but did with the Illuminati, and a half-human half-demon member of the Dragon who serves a mysterious mistress, just to name a few. While we don't know how the stories of all these individuals are interrelated, it goes without saying that we're looking forward to finding out. Head to The Secret World website to start your own journey of discovery.
Storyboard: All about the lore train, like it or not
In tabletop roleplaying, through all of the various supplements for a given game, there are usually overarching plots, which players could either interact with or ignore. This is the metaplot -- not the plot that necessarily concerns your game, but the plot that the designers are keeping an active hand in. Of course, if you wind up running smack-dab into the middle of the metaplot, your tabletop game has a distinct advantage over an MMO. If, for instance, the game has a story arc that involved a city's being destroyed within the metaplot, you can just ignore the metaplot or delay it slightly. Your story rules, and the metaplot just fills, in background information. This is not the case in MMOs. The game's lore is not a distant force; it's an oncoming freight train, and if you haven't gotten hit with it yet, you will. I touched on it briefly when I first talked about the strange relationship that roleplaying has to lore, but between patches and expansions, lately I know I've been feeling the pinch of the world changing around me. (Well, around my characters, at least.) So how do you adapt when a game's overarching plot derails a character arc or a group-wide story?
Star Wars Galaxies to allow free server transfers to a galaxy not so far away
Servers can feel awfully restrictive when you're on Server A and your friends are all on Server B. The team behind Star Wars Galaxies is no doubt aware of this, but if you've long been locked away from playing with potential friends or just stuck in a server you'd like to leave, there's good news. Free character transfers between servers are being launched on April 26th, allowing players the freedom to move characters with impunity. Eligible characters must be at least 90 days old and on a game account currently in good standing. In addition, the character to be transferred must be on one of the original 10 ground planets (Corellia, Dantooine, Tatooine, Endor, Dathomir, Lok, Naboo, Rori, Talus, or Yavin 4). Assuming those conditions are met, any player will be able to execute a free character transfer upon logging into Star Wars Galaxies. For more details on the free service, check the official announcement. (And no, Starsider is not an eligible destination.)
The Secret World lead writer talks MMO characters
Funcom has released the latest salvo in its story-focused marketing campaign for The Secret World, and the new info comes courtesy of a dev blog by lead writer Dag Scheve. Scheve talks at length about NPC characters in the game and even goes so far as to lay out something of a mission statement. "We want our characters to provide an experience beyond that of a mission terminal. We want them to be memorable in their own right, and to be a mirror to the world they inhabit," he explains. While details on how this will be accomplished are scarce, Scheve does spend a bit of time discussing cinematics and even describes a few of his personal favorites from the upcoming game. Check in with Massively on Wednesday as we chat with Scheve about MMO story and how it's received by today's audiences.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion -- a brief conclusion
Before I started writing up the archetypes that have made up a 10-part series (with two meta columns including this one), I only wrote out a very brief preamble in front of the Soldier column. As I said at the time, the goal was to provide character templates that work, in a broad sense -- characters that adapt easily to specifics and serve as a good jumping-off point for making something more original. It's a good way of glossing the series, made only slightly worse by the fact that it's not altogether true. From the first column, the archetypes I've been discussing have a long list of blanks for players to fill in, and that's been by design, because -- when you get right down to it, archetypes aren't characters. I touched upon this a bit when I stepped into the meta column, but now I want to be more explicit: Archetypes are at their core about motivation. They're not set to answer any questions about your character except for why he or she is out on the road, adventuring and questing and doing all sorts of unpleasant things.
