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Storyboard: The advantage of familiar characters
It's kind of fitting that my character most prone to wandering has wound up in several different games now. She's existed in one form or another for years now, and while she's hardly the only recurring character I've used, she's certainly the one most prone to hopping into another game. While the are always setting-appropriate changes to her backstory, core elements of her personality and history remain, so that by this point it's quite easy to figure out how she fits into a new game even if I have to hammer out the specifics. This leads to an obvious question: Why? It's not as if I can't come up with other characters, nor is it that she's always the best fit for the game. For that matter, she's not even suited to every possible setting. So why keep playing the same character? There are a few different reasons, all of which show off the advantage to playing the same character across several games instead of starting fresh every time you step into a new world.
Leaderboard: New hotness vs. old and trusted
There's always something awesome just over the horizon. MMOs are coming out all the time, and it seems like it's only a couple of months before one new title or another is launched. It almost seems silly to stick around in a single game when there are so many titles already out there and so many more due out soon after. Why not live a little and see everything that the online gaming space has to offer? But there's always new stuff coming out for existing games, and that might be even more satisfying. There's something comforting about having all sorts of high-level perks to fall back upon in your game of choice, things you can't accomplish unless you stick with the game for a few years and learn its nuances. Truly embedding yourself in a game is a wonderful feeling, and it means that you always have a home to come back to (unless you get stuck with a shutdown notice, but that's another topic). Absolutely none of us is immune to the siren call of a new game or the familiarity of an older one, but that's not the point. Given the option, do you generally look forward to the next title? Or do you find a game, settle in, and stick with it as long as it's operational?
The Daily Grind: What does it take for you to go back to a game you enjoyed?
I'd been on a bit of a break from City of Heroes when the announcement came that it was shutting down. And I'm not alone; some of my friends had also been taking a break, but when it came to light that the game's days were numbered, they came back in a hurry. Everyone wants a chance to remember the best parts of the game before there's no part of the game left to remember, after all. But it doesn't just take a shutdown notice to revitalize your interest. Sometimes you might just be taking a few months off before you go back to a game, sometimes you're waiting for a content patch, sometimes there's an annoying system you want patched into oblivion, and sometimes it would take nothing less than a full reworking of the design team's philosophy to bring you back to a game. So what does it take for you to go back to a game you enjoyed but left? 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: Only good once
Truce Sokolov is a character I like to hold up as an example of how characters can take on lives of their own. She was created as more of a throwaway than anything, a Draenei Shaman whose main character trait was being kind of shy. Flash-forward a year, and she was my main character on the Alliance side of the fence, fleshed out into a strong and capable woman hamstrung by her lack of faith in herself and a resentment of her militaristic environment. She defined a large chunk of my roleplaying in World of Warcraft. So I've tried to port her over to other games. And it has never worked. To date, I've created about a dozen different Truces in different games, and absolutely every one of them has tripped at the starting gate. Or imploded on the launch pad. So as I sift through the wreckage of yet another incarnation of the character, it seems apropos to discuss characters that only work in a single incarnation no matter how hard you try.
The Daily Grind: What game have you fallen back in love with most often?
Some games you just can't quit. You might unsubscribe and head off for a time, but you always wind up back in-game before too long. And some games just give you new things to enjoy each time you log back in. Even if you're bored with one part of the game, you start playing a bit differently and suddenly it's like the first time. Put simply, you fall in love with the game all over again. Most of the games we play for long periods wind up in the catbird's seat more than once. But there are games that you fall back in love with, and then there are games that you keep falling back in love with all over again even if you'd prefer not to do so. So what game have you fallen back in love with most often? Is it a game that you think of as generally one of your favorite or one that you have sharply divided feelings about to start with? 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: What dead game would you play in a second if it revived?
Amidst all of the new games being released and the veteran titles still chugging along, it can be easy on occasion to overlook the titles that are no longer with us. Games like Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, and The Matrix Online all had fans, but they are no longer available for players to enjoy in any form, leaving some with memories and others with the wish that they had tried it when they had the chance. So which games would you jump on if you had the chance again? What games stick out as ones that you wish you had tried or seem like old friends that are now sadly departed? We've seen a lot of closures over the past several years, ranging from small free-to-play titles to a few high-profile departures, so there's almost certainly one game you can think of that's no longer with us. What dead game would you play if it got a revival? 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: What's your favorite PvE memory?
Rare indeed is the game that allows players to avoid the PvE side of the game altogether. Of course, that's assuming you'd even want to. Fighting great beasts and horrid beastmen in Final Fantasy XI, hunting down villains and preventing dimensional incursions in City of Heroes, aiding the quest of the Ring-bearer in Lord of the Rings Online... there are great experiences to be had in the PvE of most any game you care to name. But it's not always the most epic events that stick in your memory after the game has faded. Today, we'd like to know what PvE moment in a game is your fondest memory. It could be from a game you no longer play or your current game of choice, but it should be the sort of experience that's stuck with you as a happy recollection. It could be defeating Kel'thuzad in his original form, or it could be facing off against the Borg in Star Trek Online. What's your favorite memory from the PvE game? 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: What would bring you back?
So you unsubscribed. It happens. Much as we'd like to think otherwise, no MMO entertains us forever, and whether it's a patch that changed a lot of fundamentals or just a general growing dissatisfaction with the game is largely irrelevant. What matters is that you stop and let the game drift out of your consciousness for a while, until you really barely remember your favorite times in the game. That is until something catches your eye and gets you reading about all the things that have changed; until you find yourself drawing out your credit card and eagerly re-subscribing. Just like no MMO keeps us forever, many games won't lose us forever, even if we take a break. The question is: what would spur you to start playing an old favorite again? A new expansion? Promises that the biggest problems you'd found had been fixed? A change in management? Or is it just a case where time heals all wounds and absence makes the heart grow fonder?
