holy-trinity
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How MMOs infect other games
Games are rather viral in the way that their ideas spread around. You start off with perfectly self-contained genres, perhaps, but before long your characters are leveling up in a sports game and going through jumping puzzles in an action game (or a first-person shooter if you're unlucky). Next thing you know, you're shooting hoops before racing a car and shooting people and then solving a riddle... you get the idea. MMOs seem like they'd be largely immune to this -- after all, many of their conventions not ported from elsewhere, such as persistent online play, are fairly unique to them. However, Spinks has a fascinating essay regarding the way that, for better or for worse, MMOs are becoming closely entwined with other games. In short, while she notes that the mechanics haven't always made the jump from, for instance, World of Warcraft to Dragon Age, the design of the game's structure and the tactics available have. She notes the increasing prevalence of the "holy trinity" in non-MMO games (Final Fantasy XII being another excellent example), the ways in which our ideas about discussing both the game itself and the tactics it requires have expanded, and the ways that our attitudes toward our characters in a game have changed as MMOs have diversified, expanded, and improved. Insightful and astute, fans of gaming should find more than a little food for thought within the full article.
Attacking the holy trinity of MMOs
If you've played MMOs for any length of time, you've probably grown very familiar with the trinity. You can't help but be acquainted with it in any sort of group content, where in more games than not there's that split between the tank, the healer, and the DPS. Certainly there are subdivisions and extra roles, but for the most part those extra roles are slight twists on one of the existing roles. (Controllers in City of Heroes are DPS with a debuffing/controlling aspect and slightly less damage, for instance). Brian "Psychochild" Green has an article on Gamasutra examining the issues with the holy trinity in game design: what purposes it serves, what its drawbacks are, and how useful it might be to get rid of it entirely. Examining the roots of the trinity design in Dungeons & Dragons and common gameplay types it offered, Green goes on to take a look at how the structure has become codified, what other potential systems could be put in place, and if there's even an advantage to doing so. He discusses the issues of hybrid classes, group versus solo design, and proposes a potential alternative that remains rooted in the core elements of the design. Anyone with an interest in design should take a look at the full article, as it contains some interesting insights and analysis of one of the core underpinnings of our genre.
New details emerge on SWTOR's healing and space components
So it looks like those lucky buggers over at IGN sat down with a couple Star Wars: The Old Republic developers and pelted them with as many questions from the community as possible. The results have made our day much brighter, and we're sure yours will benefit in much the same way.While a lot of the questions were deflected in one way or another -- as this is a game that's probably not coming out for a while -- some tiny new pieces of information did surface. For instance, much of the community has been wondering about healing. Will the game go with the "Holy Trinity" or is something else planned? The answer appears to be a little bit of both. It sounds as though each class has the opportunity to invest resources into healing abilities. Although, BioWare is quick to point out that parties will definitely want some "healers" in higher-level situations.Insofar as space combat is concerned, it appears that BioWare isn't talking about it, yet. Yes, they didn't flat out deny its existence in the game nor did they give confirmation, so for now we'll have to wait. A large part of the interview merely confirms things we've already known or suspected. Planets will have multiple zones, PvP is important to the team, customization will be very important and all the stuff you'd expect from a game this immense.
The Daily Grind: Are you tired of the "Holy Trinity" yet?
Rogue, Warrior and Cleric -- or in other words DPS, tank and healer -- have been with MMOs since the very start. Since those humble beginnings, some MMOs have eschewed the classic three-role dynamic. Shooters have definitely been the most common variant, but puzzle-focused titles are also another example. It's only a matter of time until an entirely generation of MMOs move away from the system. In fact, that seems to be happening right now, although it may be too early to say.What we're wondering though, is this: Do you think the change will, or should be, permanent?Beyond even that, do you care how your MMO gets its combat on? We're sure some of you just want great games, and there's nothing wrong with that sentiment at all. Our guess is that those of you most adamant about something new, something fresh, are probably more seasoned players. Don't worry, the same is true of us as well. After almost ten years of the trinity, we're itching for something to take us by surprise. Wonder who or when that'll be...
Player vs. Everything: Coolest classes ever
For most fantasy MMOGs, the basic classes you can expect to be playing aren't too hard to predict. Whether you're a stalwart warrior with shield in hand, a crafty mage raining fiery bolts of destruction, a sneaky rogue with poison on his knife, or a benevolent cleric healing the wounds of his allies, you make up part of what's known as the holy trinity of MMOs: Tank-DPS-Healer. You need someone to get your foe's attention, someone to whack them over the head until they die, and someone to keep everyone alive until that happens. Everything else is just icing on the cake. We can debate the merits of that particular combat system as long as you like, but what I really wanted to point out is how boring those three specialized roles are. The four archetypes I mentioned are a staple in almost every single fantasy MMOG on the market, but they're far from the most interesting ones. While it's true that you can't get by without them, they've become so vanilla-flavored at this point that they're practically passé. Whenever I log into a new game and look at their class list, I wince a little. "Oh, a chance to be a brave warrior... again. Hmm. Mage? Rogue? Meh." I've always been a big fan of classes that went against the grain, played outside the box, and did something a little different from the "core" classes. Not everyone needs to fit nicely into those three archetypal slots. The classes that don't often turn out to be the most rewarding and fun to play, in my experience. That said, I thought I'd take a look at some of the more interesting class designs in the games I've played and discuss what made them so cool.
Confronting the MMORPG holy trinity
For the veritable cavalcade of new titles in development to make it in the lucrative massively multiplayer genre, they're all going to have to face the challenge of standing up to the "holy trinity" that is World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, and EVE Online, at least according to Lauren Michele on her blog Mystic Worlds. While there is certainly room for niche titles to make their mark (a category she sets aside for the likes of CoX and Guild Wars) every new game in the MMO space, whether they like it or not, has to compete with the big three. Casual-friendly games have to compete with the polish and spit-shine of WoW, more intense games, both in terms of graphics and mechanics/lore have to compete with EQ2, and any game with aspirations in the PvP or economic niches have to go toe to toe with EVE.While I might not be inclined to agree with the specifics of her characterization, I think the larger point Lauren makes is extremely salient to developers working within the genre. While second-tier first-person shooters get compared to Halo in the same way that new MMOs get compared to WoW, those new shooters aren't typically competing for those same dollars. The same can't be said for MMOs. While it's true that MMOs are one of the few growth spheres left in gaming, a fact which is largely responsible for the rather dense gaming horizon ahead of us, those new games aren't just going to have to compete with one another -- there's a whole litany of old titles that continue to hold players and represent direct competition. It's about to get a lot tougher out there.
