holy-trinity
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Flameseeker Chronicles: Of revolutionary design, babies, and bathwater
The "revolutionary" aspects of Guild Wars 2 might be an old topic, but it's one that's been on my mind lately for two reasons. First, a couple of my colleagues and I got some hands-on time with Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3. One consistent feeling was that it's a good, solid game but nothing revolutionary. (I was very impressed with it overall, even though I feel it's not a game for me.) That sparked a lot of discussion regarding the fact that BioWare never claimed that the game would be revolutionary, so the argument is pointless. I can certainly get on board that train of thought, but it still set me thinking about this aspect of game design. The other incident was a conversation in Massively's staff chatroom the other day. Two Massively team members were discussing the pros and cons of the Guild Wars 2 class setup -- specifically, the elimination of the holy trinity. Watching the two of them discuss it, combined with my recent thinking on revolutionary game design, set me thinking. Follow along after the jump and let's take a look at the pros and cons of blazing a new trail!
Hyperspace Beacon: The hybrid
As many of you know, BioWare revealed the Trooper progression video for last week's Friday update. This surprised me because I was expecting a light update -- after all, E3 is next week, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to have a major presence at the expo. During the video, we witnessed many of the different Trooper abilities. The AoE of the gatling-like blaster, the heals from remote droids, the root from the carbonite grenade, and all the other abilities attest to the range of roles the Trooper can play in a group. The Trooper is not the only class that can possibly fill every role of the group dynamic. In fact, we know four of the eight classes have the choice of being full DPS, healer, or tank: Trooper, Consular, Bounty Hunter, and Inquisitor. There is much debate on what this means for group dynamics and boss fights as well. Although most of the community would agree that having these hybrid classes isn't going to stop anyone from buying or playing the game, they might have an impact on the staying power of the MMO. For me, it boils down to a couple of different schools of thought. On the Galactic Underground, an internet radio show, the hosts and the IRC audience spoke about the differences between a hard and soft trinity gameplay and which they preferred. For me, how the hybrid works depends on whether the game is set up with a hard or soft trinity. The definition of hard and soft trinity is a bit subjective. After the break, I will outline what I mean by hard and soft trinity and detail how I think the hybrid classes fit in Star Wars: The Old Republic...
TERA blog post redefines the holy trinity
En Masse Entertainment wants you to take everything you think you know about class roles and shove it -- well, you get the idea. En Masse's Scott James Magner waxes nostalgic on Dungeons and Dragons, EverQuest, and the establishment of the holy trinity. Scared of change? Don't worry too much. Magner says, "TERA isn't going to re-invent the wheel as far as class roles are concerned. Instead, we're redefining them as we move into the next generation of online games. TERA's eight classes fall easily into four in-demand roles, but how they do it is another story entirely." The Lancer and Warrior fill the tank role, but Magner is careful to point out that there is much more to to defending your allies than simply spamming your high-threat abilities; it's also highly dependent on blocking and dodging in a timely manner. Healers won't be playing whack-a-mole anymore, and Magner says that TERA's healers are "just as often in the thick of combat as the outskirts." Lastly, Magner thinks that the trinity should further divide into a "'foundation' of four," with DPS roles divided based on whether they are ranged or melee. The melee attackers deliver high damage with each strike, but the ranged attackers have an unbeatable attack speed. For the full details, head on over to TERA's site and check out the full article.
The Perfect Ten: Why a Harry Potter MMO makes sense
The idea of a Harry Potter MMO is hardly a new one at this point -- we've even speculated on it around Massively for years now. Rumors and wishful thinking have brought up this hypothetical MMO time and again, and for good reason: It simply makes sense. In fact, the more you think about it, the more surprising it is that we haven't heard official word of a Harry Potter MMO by now. After doing some poking around, the most likely suspects to take on this project would either be Warner Bros. (which owns the rights to the franchise) or Electronic Arts (which purchased a license from WB to make the movie video games). Both companies have MMO studios at their command -- Turbine, BioWare, Mythic -- and both have the resources to make it happen. So why does Harry Potter make perfect sense for MMO-adaptation? Hit the jump and I'll run you down the top 10 reasons! And if you post a positive comment after this column, I'll add five points to the house of your choice (go Hufflepuff!).
The Soapbox: Eat your tanking or you won't get your ice cream
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Picture this -- you're a parent of a squalling child. (For some of you, this may be a very easy picture as you sit at the dinner table.) Your child is refusing to eat his or her dinner on the basis that the broccoli doesn't taste like doughnuts covered in Skittles. Being a mature adult and realizing that a lifetime of Skittle-based food toppings is not a viable dietary choice, you are trying to patiently reason with said child despite the fact that the child assumes Kevin at school is evil incarnate because he took the good swing despite your child's having called it. Eventually, you break down. You tell your child that a special treat awaits if he or she eats all of those vegetables. And so your child queues up for a random heroic in World of Warcraft, and -- wait, we skipped ahead of the metaphor, but that's essentially what the whole Call to Arms feature boils down to. And it brings up interesting questions of bribery, choice, and what makes a fun and functional mechanic.
Guild Wars 2's Johanson: MMO class trinity is "tired"
Have you ever wondered where all the hype comes from regarding Guild Wars 2? Sure, the original game was a financial success, and the sequel has NCsoft's considerable financial muscle behind it. When you get right down to it, though, ArenaNet is a company with one game to its credit, yet the firm still has the courage to openly challenge Blizzard as well as the rest of the crowded MMO market. In a new interview at Eurogamer, lead content designer Colin Johanson says ANet's success and confidence largely stem from a culture of creative fearlessness. How does this attitude translate into a next-gen MMO? Johanson says the best example is the dev team's willingness to scrap one of the themepark MMO genre's sacred cows: the holy trinity. "We're basically saying, listen, this as a core game mechanic is tired, we can do something better, we can do something more interesting than this," Johanson explains. The interview also touches on ArenaNet's release-it-when-it's-done mantra, and Johanson elaborates on why Guild Wars 2 has been so long in the making. "We're going to do all of this, we're going to make this the game that offers something for everybody, and we're going to get that right, and if it takes us a little longer to do that, the trade-off is totally worthwhile," he said. Head to Eurogamer for the full report.
Enter at Your Own Rift: 'Role' play
In retrospect, it was all my fault. I had gotten too used to just throwing RIFT dungeon groups together and assuming that with the flexible soul system we'd be able to provide everything necessary no matter what archetype mixup we had. I suppose it's a testament to Trion Worlds' design that an exact group composition wasn't a top concern -- the goal is just getting five willing players together for a fun run. We were running Darkening Deeps, and I decided to start a group so that I could show off the dungeon to Rubi. We had two Rogues, two Mages and a Warrior, and I felt pretty confident going in that we would prevail. And while the Warrior stepped up and said he would tank -- taking the burden off of my Riftstalker build -- everyone else was curiously quiet when I asked if there was another healer who could back up my Bard heals for boss fights. Nothing. Not a peep. The other Rogue didn't have a Bard spec, and the Mages were whistling innocently when I asked if they happened to have a Chloromancer role tucked in their back pocket. Oh crud. This was going to hurt. Six trash pulls into the dungeon later, I called it and said that we simply didn't have enough healing power to make it through the bosses. My bad, I said, thanks for playing!
Global Chat: Game development edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! With so many high-profile games both in development and recently launched, the development process for MMOs both big and small is a popular topic of conversation among our readers here at Massively. Follow along after the jump for a look at what a few of our most well-spoken readers had to say this week!
Alter-Ego: An overview of the trinity in DC Universe Online
In DC Universe Online, all of the different powersets can pump out DPS -- however, the trinity is alive and well even in this superhero game. Thankfully, due to the way the powers are designed, our ability to stack effects, and the heavy utilization of combos, grouping or raiding in DC Universe Online doesn't generally feel like you're stuck simply mashing buttons. If you get in with a regular group, you'll learn the ways you can play your powers off each other using synergy, thereby adding an entirely new level of awareness to encounters. Unfortunately, endgame isn't just about going into an instance and unleashing everyone's max damage to tear through the place. While all characters can do damage in DC Universe Online, roles are still vitally important for group PvE and endgame content. As a preamble to a series that will look at builds for each role in the game and what they can bring to the table, I thought it would be a good idea to take this first week to look at which powersets go with the roles players use in endgame. Join me behind the break as I break it all down for those who are new to the game or perhaps are looking for a refresher.
The Daily Grind: Should the MMO holy trinity be a thing of the past?
Dungeons, lairs, and instances, oh my! No, Toto, you are definitely not in Kansas anymore. No matter what game you play, there is usually some sort of division of roles that a toon you roll takes on -- some characters are support, some are up-font and center, and others stick to the side and unload what their mama gave them. Undeniably, the holy trinity seems to be something of a standard in most MMOs -- you are going to have to make a choice at some point about how you actually play. But maybe some day you wouldn't have to choose a spec, roll a new toon, or make compromises in your class picks. Dreams of being a healer who can actually kick some serious winged-monkey butt could be a thing of the future. Or maybe it will never happen. That's why I pose the following to all of you: If the holy trinity became a thing of the past, how would you envision your favorite game changing? Would you rather see every class be able to use a mix of skills? Could it actually work, or would it just create games full of clone characters? 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!
Lost Pages of Taborea: Balancing vs. viable vs. fun
Thoughts of class-balancing, class-viability and triple-class combinations have been swimming in my head lately. In the wake of RIFT's open beta, Frogster announced that Runes of Magic will be moving to a triple-class system in early April. Along with a lot of speculation on how this will change RoM, there's talk of how badly three-class combos will upset class-balancing where some already feel classes are skewed. Viable and balanced are pretty subjective terms in the MMO genre that make it hard for any two players to be on the same page. I find it even more confusing when some make it sound like there's a mass exodus to RIFT because of -- in part -- the idea that RoM's classes are more out of tune than yours truly trying to sing Zombie. These ideas are highly speculative. I'd like to throw my own opinions in about what makes a class in RoM viable, what not to look for when trying to find balance, and why we may not want to squeeze every possible class combination into the holy trinity of healer, DPS and tank.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Tankers
If there's one thing that's always bothered me about the archetypes in City of Heroes -- the vanilla game, that is -- it's that none of them has a name that's particularly evocative, even though there are tons of examples that each archetype can draw upon. Today's archetype is a perfect example, one that covers Superman, Colossus, Giant-Man, Captain Marvel, even certain incarnations of more variable characters like Iron Man. But the name "Tanker" fails to conjure up images of anything beyond a dry recitation of party roles. Yes, this week we're discussing the third of four melee-heavy archetypes with the Tanker, as was hinted at the end of the last column. It's also the archetype closest to its two predecessors, coming with almost identical power selections in a slightly different order. But the Tanker's powers get prioritized in a very different way, so whether you're new to the game or just the class, let's take a look at how to make your Tanker as tanky as possible.
What's your style? Guild Wars 2 game designer elaborates on the combat system
The unusual combat system in Guild Wars 2 has been one of the hallmarks of the game for fans as development progresses. ArenaNet's commitment to breaking away from the holy trinity has been consistent, and now that we know five of the eight professions in Guild Wars 2, game designer Jon Peters is able to build on the information he gave us back in July. The newest ArenaNet blog entry revealed several new details on combat mechanics, including an explanation of boons and how they work as well as the fact that allied targeting will not exist in GW2. There's much more to see -- this blog entry is a great read not only for Guild Wars 2 fans but for any MMO player who is interested in combat mechanics.
Behind the Mask: Eight ways for free-to-play
A little while ago, a full list of Champions Online's first eight archetypes was given to the public. Originally I wasn't going to talk about them much, but a couple people came up and asked me, "Are you going to write about archetypes this week?" I told them I probably wasn't, but after reflecting on it, it seemed a hot topic that I should probably talk about. Cryptic has a habit of releasing ideas and content that are ridiculously bad in their first iterations. Over time, these ideas tend to get more and more polished, until we get something ranging from playable (melee) to almost exactly right (pets). The first pass at archetypes really isn't any different. The archetypes are bad. I am pretty sure the team will tweak the little problems, so talking about them seems sort of like jumping the gun. But hey, you guys asked for it.
Champions Online unveils the eight free-to-play archetypes for launch
It's an interesting road ahead for Champions Online as it prepares to go free-to-play. To facilitate the change and give subscribers a reason to keep paying regularly, the game is rolling out rigidly enforced archetypes that take away power selection but still allow for some personal customization. We've seen the initial description of how the archetypes will work, and the team at Cryptic Studios has just unveiled the eight archetypes that will be available to both free players and paying players when the conversion goes live. Each archetype has a strictly defined role, along with several powers meant to enforce that role. Tanking, DPS, and healing are all represented by the available choices, meaning that even players who haven't spent anything will be able to take on whatever role best suits them in the game. Players should take a look at the official listing to see exactly what powers will be available and at the lore description for an idea of where each archetypical concept fits within the Champions Online framework.
DC Universe devs talk trinity, changes to the game world
Thirsting for more information on Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online? Comic Book Resources has your long cool drink of water in the form of a lengthy studio visit recap. Last week, SOE invited a gaggle of game journalists to "DC University" for a tour of the game's development headquarters that included lectures from the likes of game director Chris Cao, creative director Jens Andersen, producer Wes Yanagi, and writer/resident DC legend Marv Wolfman. In between geekgasm-inducing peeks around the studio, the lucky invitees got some hands-on time with the upcoming title as well as the opportunity to ask the developers a few questions. When the discussion turned to combat, it became apparent that DCUO isn't going down the traditional MMO "holy trinity" path with its classes and builds. Cao states that while tank, healer, and DPS parties may be possible, they won't necessarily be the norm since "everybody's a damage dealer." Cao also talked about accessible and inaccessible portions of the game world and whether players would be able to unlock more locations as the title ages. "We've bottled the city, the idea is that somebody's going to have to unbottle it," he said, referring to the storyline angle in which Brainiac cuts off access to Metropolis' Daily Planet. While the devs were noncommittal in terms of specifics, Wes Yanagi commented that permanent changes to the world would likely occur via seasonal events and new players would be able to experience the pre-event world.
The Daily Grind: Do you like debuffers?
Controllers and dominators in City of Heroes, mesmers and necromancers in Guild Wars, affliction warlocks in World of Warcraft -- the debuffing class has long been a staple of MMOs. While the class frequently is closest to being a damage dealer, its primary function is to cripple enemies. Played properly, the resultant effects can turn a normal challenge into a cakewalk, or knock a seemingly invincible enemy back down to normal levels. Of course, as time has gone by the archetype has become a bit less common, with the holy trinity of tanks, healers, and DPS becoming more focused and less open to more esoteric inclusions. But it hasn't gone away -- science ships in Star Trek Online make heavy use of debuffs to cripple and wear down opponents. Do you like having debuffs and debuff classes as a central element of party gameplay? Or would you rather designers continue to emphasize the holy trinity and have classes focused on doing damage while debuffing targets? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our 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 The Daily Grind!
Waging WAR: A healer's advice for melee-DPS
Waging WAR starts the month of August with a look at archetypes in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the way they work together in RvR and scenarios. Although Greg's rules apply to pretty much any class-based, group-based, PvP-centric game, he prefers to think of them as particular to WAR, since there's a bunch of game-specific slang in there that he's too lazy to change. Having a role to play is integral to the massively multiplayer online experience, but when the term "roleplay" comes up, it usually means something very specific and closely related to dramatic acting. Taken in a broader sense, it means that we choose our roles when we project the most imaginative aspect of our psychic selves and ask the question "who (or what) do I want to be?" Thus, our vicarious adventures begin. For the purposes of social gaming, it should come as no surprise that those classes usually fit another staple in the MMO universe -- the role trinity of tanker, healer, and damager. While the bond between the healer and tanker is obvious, the unspoken pact between healer and damager is just as sacred and yet all too easily forgotten. For those who were unaware such a promise existed, it goes something like, "I, the healer, promise to keep you alive so you can kill stuff in the face (better)." However, in many cases, the damaging character is delegated an expendable role, compared to the tank's priority or the healer's own survival. These are exceptions that the melee-damager is usually aware of and even comfortable with. But today I'm not here to challenge those roles like I normally would when talking about damage-healer hybrids. As a specialized healer, I've defined a few, easy-to-remember rules that I believe every melee-damage player should follow in group situations (PUG or premade – there is little difference when it comes to these rules). Solo play is an entirely different realm and beyond the scope of this column; I want to focus on the special synergy between healer and melee-damager, and to dispense advice to those brave, wayward souls in their never-ending quest to face blades as they bring their own to bear. I'll bestow these tidbits of wisdom after the break.
Behind the Mask: Finding the Holy Trinity
One of the common statements made among the newer MMO generation is the idea that a game "abolishes the holy trinity." It's the idea that their game has evolved to the point where labels like "tank," healer," and "damage dealer" aren't as relevant when talking about a character. This idea isn't particularly new -- the first big RPG with mass online support to break this trend was probably Diablo 2, which actually predates most of the mass-market MMORPGs available today. Champions Online definitely takes a step in this direction. In fact, it was a suggestion on the forums and the overwhelming player response against the holy trinity that gave me the idea to write this in the first place. Champions is very solo-friendly, and a character can build to be pretty self-sufficient -- one can build for tanking, damage dealing, and self-healing all in the same package. This lends some pretty big weights to the idea that the holy trinity is a thing of the past. But Champions Online has a few things in its design that maintain the "Holy Trinity" design concept. Hit the jump, and I'll talk about why, contrary to popular belief, I think that keeping the holy trinity around is a good thing.
The Daily Grind: What's the most important part of the trinity?
While the structure of the jokingly-named "holy trinity" in MMOs -- tanks, healers, and damage dealers -- isn't universal, it's certainly common enough to be recognizable. Even in games without pre-defined classes, such as Champions Online, have a group structure oriented toward the three roles. But you can't have classes without a struggle between them, and there's always a discussion in relation to the trinity about which part is the most important. Tanks point to their relative scarcity and the pressure of their job, Healers point to their relative scarcity and the importance of their job, and DPS points to the fact that healers and tanks can't keep their stunts up forever if nobody is killing the target. So where do you fall in this debate? Which part of the trinity do you think is the most important to a group's success, and which one is the most superfluous? Do you think that (by astonishing coincidence) the role you play most frequently is the most important one, or do you think it's lower on the scale and you play it for other reasons?
