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Hyperspace Beacon: A 2012 SWTOR reflection
To say that this year has been interesting for Star Wars: The Old Republic would be a major understatement. I think it's safe to say that in the course of this year this game has gone from being one of the most loved games to one of the most hated. Maybe I just like rooting for the underdog, but I still love the game. (There are other reasons, of course.) Love the game or hate it, 2012 has been a wild ride for the game and this column. As this is the last Hyperspace Beacon of the year year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on some of the past opinions and predictions I held, then test them against my current stance or the truth behind what happened. Before I get into the meat of this column, I want to make mention of an event. The Imperials of The Ebon Hawk server are holding a gala in the name of Darth Nox, commemorating the one-year anniversary of her ascension to the Dark Council. Players are invited to come ready to roleplay and participate in in-character games. Nox will conduct a scavenger hunt, items will be up for raffle and auction, and every participant should walk away with something. If you were looking for an opportunity to get into roleplay or just have some fun, be sure to visit the market area of Dromund Kaas (instance 1, coordinates: 20, 200) at 6:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 5th, 2013.
Storyboard: Mistakes at the creation level
A lot of character mistakes come down to experimentation, essentially. You have what seems like a good idea, but it turns out in play that it's messy or annoying or unfun or whatever. There's nothing in the world wrong with that; you try something out and it either does or doesn't work. While good concept work does a lot to help you catch these things, sometimes good ideas won't work. But then there are problems that come up time and again based on a fundamentally bad assumption. Something goes wrong right from the point that you click "New Character" because you're making an assumption that can immediately be recognized as a bad idea. So I'm going to go ahead and list a handful of these problems that are bad ways to start off so that hopefully we can all stop making these mistakes in the future and make some exciting new ones.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR spoiler alert!
Originally, I had my heart set on playing a Smuggler when Star Wars: The Old Republic went live, so I had intended on not playing one in beta. But the temptation was far too strong. I played a couple of Smugglers to try out the different specs and see the storyline from a couple of different points of view. Unfortunately, that burned me out on the class, and I could never finish the story on the live servers. Another of my intentions when the servers went live was to max out a character as fast as I could so that I could get to endgame in a decent amount of time. Therefore, I picked a class that I didn't think would hold my interest: the Sith Warrior. Unfortunately -- or fortunately depending on your perspective -- I fell in love with the Sith Warrior storyline. I was impressed that an "evil" character could have such an interesting story arc, so much so that by the end I was really rooting for her to win. What I didn't know was that there was a connection between the Sith Warrior story and the Smuggler story. I was right there listening to the characters speak, yet I didn't understand at first why I felt that nagging feeling as if I'd heard certain things before. Once I did discover the connection between those two storylines, I sought out other story connections. I found out that SWTOR is full of these tiny links. Since it's been a year since release, I figured that it's safe to share some of my favorites. Yes, major spoilers follow the break.
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.
Storyboard: The lies we tell ourselves
We all have our delusions. Some of them are very conscious decisions, like ignoring the fact that Superman Returns is a thing that actually exists. Others are more unconscious, like people who genuinely believe that the ancient Mayans put together a calendar predicting the end of the world in a few weeks. But they're always there, and all of us have a full set of them bred into us from years of social interactions and peer groups. We ignore, we obfuscate, and we reject facts that do not line up with our opinions. Make your own joke there about gamers declaring a game is or was a failure. Our characters often see the world with a lot more clarity. It's not that they're devoid of opinions; it's that they tend to base those opinions on the real story instead of what they saw or felt or thought. That's all well and good, but perhaps it's time for reasonable things like facts to take a hike in favor of some good old-fashioned delusions. After all, if we're all deluding ourselves in real life, shouldn't our characters get to occasionally stick their fingers in their ears and declare they can't hear anything?
Storyboard: A second descent into madness
I had a lot of stuff to talk about on the subject of madness. As it happens, I had so much to talk about that I elected to split it up into two columns instead of writing one monster, scratching and crawling about in a lone column's space. And as I sat down to write this column, I realized that I have an entire column's worth of things to say about a single facet of madness: acting mad. Herein we come to the meat of what bothers me about madness as most players use it: It winds up getting used as something wacky. It's an excuse to do things that are wild and unpredictable because your character is so crazy. That bothers me because there's so much to be done with madness and so many ways to make it an interesting character trait. It's not something for casual or shallow use.
Storyboard: Hey, I know you!
I am not a private person. I have a job that requires me to put my name on things, so that right there is a layer off the privacy shield. But beyond even that, I like to give shout-outs to people I think are cool and make my presence in a game known. It's no secret that I work here, it's no secret that I write columns here, and in most games that I play and write about regularly, my character names are kind of open secrets anyhow. Hence why I can walk around in Final Fantasy XIV and bump into people who tell me that they really liked an article I wrote, which is kind of a surreal yet awesome experience. All of this means that my reputation precedes me... which is not necessarily a good thing. While I'm all about keeping up the OOC communication, there comes a point for some players when their characters stop being Sven Ergunsdottir (played by Paul) and start being Paul's Norn guy with the name. There are challenges to playing alongside someone you know better in real life either because you know one another or because the person in question is a jerk who writes a bunch of readily available articles. So how do you handle roleplaying with people who know you very well?
Storyboard: The first stage of madness
Madness is a very powerful narrative tool. Unfortunately, it also gets used horribly, taken out back, and worked over with brass knuckles until it bleeds. Instead of diving into madness, players are most often more content to flirt with the surface elements, have a character who spits out funny non sequitors, or behaves with eccentricities. Let's talk about madness. Let's talk about using that effectively. Let's talk about making a character who's something more than just a crazy happy random quote machine, someone who is at once fascinating and disturbing and quite possibly unpleasant to be around because that is what madness is. There's a lot of potential for roleplaying there, a lot of stories to be told, a lot of consequences to be explored. So many consequences. What, then, is a madman? Where do we start when we discuss insanity in roleplaying? How can we impersonate it? What can playing that role accomplish?
Storyboard: Community sites and what they can do
No MMO, to date, has a system to facilitate roleplayers interacting with one another outside of actual roleplaying. There are hubs you can haunt, there are things you can do, and there are addons in the games that support them, but at the end of the day, all you can do is throw your hat into the ring and hope against hope that no one is going to look at you strangely. Odds are good that you don't really want that experience outside of a high school dance and quite possibly not even then. So you need a way to know that you're getting in good with the roleplayers. In short, you need a community. I've been thinking of late about what community sites should be doing and what they actually can do. It's a point of contention because fostering a solid community relies strongly on having a central point of congregation, but trying to build a single community for an entire game's roleplayers is exceptionally difficult.
Hyperspace Beacon: Returning to SWTOR
With Update 1.5 and free-to-play looming on the Star Wars: The Old Republic horizon, many players are feeling the itch to come back to the game. Two and half years ago when I started the Hyperspace Beacon, I compared that itch to that of a freshly shaved Wookiee. Now it can probably be compared to a Gungan rash. But it's still there; you still have to scratch it. Unanswered questions remain. Has BioWare fixed the launch issues? Is there a compelling reason to play every day? And probably the biggest question of them all: Is free-to-play going to make SWTOR worth coming back to? Personally, I'd like to answer yes to all those questions, but I can truly speak only for myself. If you want a real answer, you're going to have to come back to try it. Hyperspace beacons in the Star Wars lore are stationary probes that navicomputers lock on to so that starships speeding through hyperspace don't crash into a star, planet, or other celestial object. Today, this column will be your guide through the reaches of internet-space so that you can find the information you need to get back into the Star Wars MMORPG. Angle the deflector shields as I boot up the navicomputer. We will make stops around the best fan sites for news, guides, and community building. If you've been away for a while, you'll notice that galaxy-scape has changed, but I will show you the new landmarks. If you're ready, punch it, Chewie!
Storyboard: Plotting concepts
There's an uncomfortable paradox in roleplaying as regards plotting in advance. If you plan out your character developments in advance, you're not really roleplaying so much as laying out a pre-determined plot that other people are forced to fit within. On the other hand, if you don't plan out anything, you don't have any conflicts driving your characters, meaning that you're trying to force yourself into other character plots in the hopes that you might develop some relevance. Stated more simply -- plotting out your character in detail or not plotting your character out in enough detail are both equally detrimental to your roleplaying. Ever since I've been writing this column, I've been trying to develop a good way to actually handle this issue, and a fairly recent post from Websnark actually kicked me down a new path. For ease of reference, I'm calling it plotting by concept. I can't say that it works perfectly forever and ever, but it's been producing good results for a while, so I'm just going to outline how it works in the hopes that other people can find it useful too.
Hyperspace Beacon: Roleplaying conflict in SWTOR
Like many of you, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of Update 1.5 for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will hopefully happen next week. Although I have been on the test server and tried out the new content, I don't want to give my impressions until it's officially launched. So this week, I've decided to address an issue I've seen crop up more and more in the roleplay community that has nothing to do with the pending game update. In any good story, there is conflict -- physical, interpersonal, or otherwise. In MMO roleplay, a good chunk of conflict turns physical. After all, most of our characters are highly skilled warriors and other combat specialists, and physical conflict is the natural course. That means that roleplayers then have to be highly skilled at PvP if their characters are to be highly skilled, too, right? Don't get me wrong, I love PvP, but this supposition always rubbed me the wrong way, especially in a game like TOR where there is a large disparity between PvE skills and PvP. So what kinds of physical conflict resolutions are there if it's not straight-up PvP? And doesn't the dueling system in TOR limit itself to one-on-one dueling? How do you resolve that issue? Excellent questions. I'm glad you asked. Let's dive in.
Storyboard: RP 101 - The mechanics of interaction
There are a lot of times in life when you're expected to figure out the mechanics of something by jumping in facefirst. Your first time roleplaying is among them. You know about all of the groundwork you need to do before you start roleplaying, and you know about what happens when you are roleplaying, but the first time you roleplay is going to be filled with a lot of awkward half-starts and confusion over what you're supposed to do at any given moment. So it's a lot like the first time you learned how to ride a bicycle. Yes, I was building up to the bicycle analogy; what did you think I was going for? Part of this is because most people have The Friend Who Roleplays, who introduces you by example; you don't need to find out how it's done because someone who already knows is showing you. But maybe you don't have a roleplaying buddy or anything beyond a desire to see what all the fuss is about. Rather than discussing anything more abstract, I'm going to talk about the bare mechanics of roleplaying -- stuff to do when you start, stuff to keep in mind, and the pure mechanical aspects of conveying a character through text and a few model animations. This is both easier and harder than it sounds.
Hyperspace Beacon: Will free-to-play save SWTOR?
Last week, I discussed the reasons I still play a game that literally a million people have quit playing. I believe a huge part of that discussion stemmed from my expectations of the game. I truly believe that many people expected Star Wars: The Old Republic to be the answer to all MMO problems and Wookiees. Of course, no game could ever live up to that dream. I attempted to curb some of those expectations in a few of my articles, but some community desires were just beyond the scope of BioWare's plans for SWTOR. This led to disappointment and a lot of unreal prospects for the game. On that note, I'd like to take a look at the free-to-play plans for our Star Wars MMO. Many players hope that F2P will finally launch SWTOR in the right direction. Others believe that if SWTOR had launched F2P, we wouldn't have seen the mass exodus that we saw in March. (Of course, there are also those who claim that F2P is just the next step toward fail and that the game will shut down in less than a year.) Personally, I'm a fan, so I'm hopeful. However, I take that hope with the realization that this could definitely be the beginning of the end for SWTOR. Ultimately, the potential for success hinges on the disparity between what the players want and what BioWare delivers. Will F2P save SWTOR?
Storyboard: In praise of in-game stereotypes
Unicorns are very rare. Every one you meet will be the last of its kind. Odds are decent that you've heard that joke before. It's especially funny from a roleplaying perspective because you can substitute all sorts of things for "unicorn" in that sentence. Vampires, for example. Or werewolves. Defectors from another faction. Magical offspring of major storyline characters. The rarest of all breeds is the character that seems to fit perfectly with the setting steretypes. Roleplayers tend to view stereotypes as one of the seven deadly sins, up there with naming your character after a major lore character and ERPing in public. (It's not the usual list.) This is unfortunate in the extreme because there's a lot to recommend stereotypes beyond the usual. So before you sit down and make a character directly playing against a stereotype, please, stop and keep a few things in mind. Not only are stereotypes not bad, but they actively verge on being good.
Storyboard: Playing the role and playing the game
Roleplayers are usually keenly aware of the split between roleplaying in the game and actually playing the game. Roleplaying does not tend to play nicely with the actual game, see. The game expects you to perform a variety of tasks to accomplish things, and none of those tasks is accomplished when you're sitting in town and talking about metaplot elements with RPers. At the same time, you want to roleplay, and roleplaying is not really accomplished by just playing through the game's content and reaching the level cap. You have to strike a balance between the two, something that's often very difficult when you compare the nature of the game to the nature of the characters you play within the game.
Chaos Theory: Reticles and roleplay in The Secret World
Funcom is a lot of things, but quitter isn't one of them. The company and its flagship The Secret World title have been through the proverbial poostorm in recent weeks, but the devs are doing their damnedest to come out swinging. What in tarnation am I talking about? Joel Bylos' state-of-the-game letter from yesterday, of course. The newly minted Game Director dumped a wall o' text on us that hinted at a couple of exciting developments in store for everyone's favorite horror/conspiracy MMO. Let's chat them up after the cut.
Storyboard: Hobbyists
When was the last time that one of your characters did something fun? I don't mean something that amused you or a night of roleplaying that made you smile. I'm wondering about the last time that one of your characters got to cut loose and enjoy himself or herself. The equivalent of you having a night to just sit down and play your favorite game, except tailored for that character's particular interests. My guess is that it wasn't all that recently, partly due to the fact that you've probably never been terribly clear on what your high-level paladin likes to do for fun in the first place. And it's something I've mentioned in passing before, but generally hobbies take a backseat to personalities and relationships in roleplaying. Not that there's no merit to all of that... but there's a lot of merit to figuring out what your character finds fun and working it into your roleplaying.
Blend in with the Tillers with your own farmer outfit
For as long as I've played World of Warcraft, players have been making farmer outfits. Who knows why? Maybe it's because Blizzard made it so easy, or maybe it's because every gamer subconsciously yearns to live an agrarian lifestyle -- Eh, on second thought, I'm going to go with it's because Blizzard made it so easy. I mean, look at the types of items we can get. There are overalls, a pitchfork, and lets not forget all those ugly brimmed hats. Wrath of the Lich King even gave us the chance to wear plaid flannel shirts. Flannel shirts! What fantasy world application truly requires the abomination that is flannel!? Well, whatever it is, Mists of Pandaria has finally given us a place to live out our agrarian dreams, and thus a good reason to make a farmer outfit.
Storyboard: Making character relationships work
Character interrelationships are the heart of roleplaying. The interesting part of your character isn't his background or his personality; it's what happens when you put him in a room with several other people and let the whole thing move from there. You're trying to create an entirely different person who will build an entirely different set of relationships in an entirely different world. Unfortunately, some of those relationships can feel a bit... forced -- as if you're trying to find a connection where none exists, or as if you've jumped past some important elements of characterization that would make everything seem clearer. In short, a lot of your relationships feel as if they were cut from the Star Wars prequels. I harp on verisimilitude a lot in this column, but that's precisely because roleplaying depends on the illusion of reality in each interaction. If your relationships in roleplaying feel real, it does wonders for grounding the characters and their interplay in reality and giving substance to everything else you do. So I think it's worth noting some obvious stumbling points and some ways to help relationships feel more organic.
