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The Perfect Ten: MMO mascots
Everyone knows that a good mascot can make a difference between a video game's death and rabid popularity. Mario, Master Chief, Duke Nuke 'Em, Pac-Man, Samus Aran, Pyramid Head -- each one of these mascots isn't merely an aspect of the game, they are the virtual spokesperson (or spokesthing) which represents the game itself. Yet when you think about it, MMOs have had a tougher time producing mascots than other video game genres, partially because unlike other games, you don't play as the mascots, and partially because when you have a cast of thousands of NPCs, picking out one to elevate above the rest is a difficult job. Difficult, that is, but not impossible. Today we're going to look at ten MMO mascots (MMOscots?) that studios have tried to promote as the face of these games, to varying degrees of success.
Wings Over Atreia: Shakespeare in Aion
OK, OK, maybe Shakespeare is a bit melodramatic, but the idea of taking on a role and playing it out on a stage is not a foreign idea -- even in Aion. It just so happens that this stage is not under your feet but in virtual space instead. Besides, I happen to love Shakespeare, so props to me for mentioning him in a gaming column! Now, I am the first to admit that NCsoft doesn't make it easy for a gamer to roleplay in Aion; there are scant few tools to support this style of play. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Despite this dearth, there is in fact a whole community comprised of legions both large and small as well as individuals. These players use personal connections and a player-created chat channel in-game as well as external tools such as the Aion Roleplayers website to bind themselves together and support the community as a whole. So what exactly is roleplay, and how viable is it in the world of Atreia? Exit stage left (past the cut) to define RP, debunk some RP myths, and explore RP in general Aion.
The Anvil of Crom: Hives of scum and villainy
Once, a long time ago, I stood on the summit of a sandy cliff with my MMO mentor. His sage-like eyes took in the desert around us, surveying the burgeoning multiplayer landscape. On one side of us were MMOs; on the other, FPS titles and social networking games. Surrounding us from all directions I saw a writhing, rioting mass of digital humanity, overlapping chat bubbles floating toward the horizon for miles around. Some of these bubbles were legible, though many featured bizarre butcherings of the king's English as well as certain phrases that I couldn't even begin to decipher. Almost all of them sported excessive punctuation and some variation on LOL. Squinting his eyes against the glare and covering his ears with both hands, my mentor inclined his head down the slope. "Global chat," he said, a weary sign escaping his chapped lips. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
The Road to Mordor: Forum diving
[Special note: Obviously, the news that LotRO is going free-to-play hit after this article was already written, so stay tuned as we dissect what it means for existing and potential new customers next week!] Lately, it feels like we're in a holding pattern for Lord of the Rings Online. The last major content patch, Volume III: Book 1, is fading into distant memory, and we're pushing into summer without definite news of the next update -- or better yet, the next expansion. Players are also nervous about any changes or new directions the game may take after the recent acquisition of Turbine by Warner Bros., and the silence certainly doesn't help any. However, there's always hope in the darkest places of Middle-earth, and the same can be said for the game itself. The Summer Festival should be around the corner, and as for new news, Sapience handed out a bit of vague encouragement on the forums: "You guys know we're preparing an announcement. I can't give you a specific date as to when we'll make it, but I can say I just ran into Adam Mersky coming out of an E3 planning meeting and he was pretty stoked!" While we continue the wait for the next step forward for LotRO, I thought it'd be a good idea to head over to the official forums and do a little diving for some of the more interesting topics and discussions bouncing around the LotRO community today.
Cinemassively: Leet Str33t
While this machinima isn't made with an MMO, the subject matter of the video, leet speak, is something we've all encountered in online games. Leet Str33t is a trip down memory lane, to the old days of AOL, shown to us through two neighbors greeting each other for the first time. While this was made with The Sims, it could have easily be made in a virtual world!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
L3@rn1ng 1337 Sp3ak
With the pending release of Hello Kitty Online, we are all going to need to become proficient in leet speak. This is the language of nerds and basement gamers everywhere (Ed: Because no one in WoW ever talks like this, right?). So in hopes that we'll be able to better understand all those cute little muffins of joy, let's immerse ourselves in some leet speak for the rest of the post.It is also rumored that Rosetta Stone will be releasing a Leet Speak module soon. Stay tuned to HKO Insider for a review of that in the near future.Th3 pr1m@ry th1ng 2 r3m3mb3r ab0ut 1337 sp3@k is th@t u n33d 2 abr3vi@t3 3v3ryth1ng @s mch @s p0ss1ble. U sh0uld a1s0 n3v3r ty93 0u7 7h3 w0rd "you", i7 sh0uld alwayz b u!!!!11lol!!!111An0th3r th1ng t0 r3m3mb3r 1s n3v3r typ3 0ut a c0m9l373 w0rd 1n r3@1 1@ngu@g3 un13ss y0u abs0lut3ly hav3 t0. Us3 b@d gr@mer and sp3ling wh3n 3vr p0sibl3. U sh0uld n3v3r juzt typ3 "lol" n3m0@r. I7's alwyz LOLOL!L!!!!!111!!!!! S33? Dat iz sexi k3wl!!! Y@!!!!S0 h0w iz ur l337 593@%? Iz it uberz?
The Daily Grind: Your biggest MMO pet peeves
A recent thread on the Ten Ton Hammer forums about "biggest WoW pet peeves" caught our eye the other day. After reading some of the responses there, we got to thinking about some of the things in general that annoy us in different MMOs. One of the truly universal ones was gold-spam. It seems no matter what format they have to take, up to and including piles of dead gnome bodies arranged to spell out their domain, they'll do everything they can to annoy us. (After all, 300 dead gnomes, while great as a Horde member, still cause lag.) Another thing we agreed on was "1337 5p33k" (or "elite speak" for those who speak actual English) which just makes us want to hang people's characters by the toes and use them as in-game pinatas. While those are two that many of us agreed on, there were far and away many other things that really annoyed us in various games. How about you? Are there any things that really make your skin crawl? For that matter is it the people or the game that trips your pet peeve off? Did they design in a pet peeve on you? Or maybe your pet peeve is how your computer behaves when running certain MMOs?
You know you are too old to play WoW when...
Does leet speak reduce your WoW playing enjoyment? Do caps lock and abbreviations set your teeth on edge? If so, Xkhan agrees with you and attributes it possibly to age. His list of pet peeves incites an interesting forum thread discussing in-game annoyances along with the etymological origins of some leet speak.For example, did you know that GG stands for Good Game? While it is currently used sarcastically, for years it has been spammed at the end of FPS games as a show of good sportsmanship. Ah, playing CTF in Tribes II with the Hammer or something-or-other mod equaled hours of pure gaming pleasure. But I digress...We've discussed pet peeves before and whether or not we are killing our language with leetspeak. Many mature players would prefer not to play with children who are incapable of forming grammatically correct sentences or playing their character properly. But do we get more upset with these annoyances the older we get?
