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Storyboard: Dark past of infinite darkness
There's no reason in the world that the idea of a dark past needed to become a cliché. I mean, it has; there's no denying that. Do a shot every time you find a character with a dark past and you'll have alcohol poisoning inside of half an hour. (Do two for every character whose past is dark and mysterious and you can just call an ambulance before you start.) But it's one of those things that's been cast into the realm of the cliché before its time -- it's a legitimate element to constructing a character that's become overused. Of course, it's been sent to the horrid land of the cliché by people using it poorly and overzealously. You can still make an interesting and nuanced character with a dark past, but you have to do so with a gentle hand. You need just enough dark past that it's interesting but not so much dark past that it gets obnoxious or silly.
The Daily Grind: How do you kill off your characters?
Indie sandbox Origins of Malu plans to feature a very unusual PvP mode: a permadeath PvP duel system. Characters who voluntarily duel under this system -- and lose -- will be erased from the game. Forever! Massively's staff roleplayers are divided on whether or not this feature will ever see much use, though. While most of us think it's an awesome system that will provide some spectacular entertainment, others of us have argued that it takes a lot of courage for MMO gamers, so used to investing time and money into their avatars, to kill off a character permanently. It won't be easy finding another roleplaying duelist who's both capable of putting up a good fight and willing to risk his own hide. Plus, wouldn't it be weird if every single RPer who wanted to off a toon did so in a gladiatorial duel to the death? There are so many other dramatic ways to end a character's story! And that brings us to today's Daily Grind: How do you kill off your characters? Do you go for climactic in-game events? Do you field "can I have ur stuff" requests? Do you delete silently and never look back to avoid future temptation? Or do you cancel your accounts and let your characters slumber peacefully, awaiting your someday return? 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: When I was the problem
I do not claim to have any sort of superhuman intellect. If I understand how people are likely to make mistakes in roleplaying and how to fix those mistakes, it's a product of having made a lot of mistakes of my own. Sometimes it's a result of failing to fix them and realizing what would have worked after the fact. And while I'll write advice on how to fix the things that you're doing wrong, I never want to give the impression that I'm preaching rather than practicing. Last week's column was all about what happens when it turns out you're the problem, and there's a J'accuse-style rant if there ever was one. In light of that, I wanted to make it very clear that there have been situations in which my character was the problem rather than some hypothetical example. And so I pulled out three of the most notable examples of places where it turns out I was causing a world of disruption within the group.
Hyperspace Beacon: Holocron Files -- Cathar
It's probably a bit predictable that this Holocron File would be about the Cathar. But I'm not above being predictable when it's important or timely. In this case, the Cathar were announced to be the next playable species in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Hopefully, it is just one of the next playable species. I know many people are looking forward to playing Nautolans or Togrutas, which are a bit more iconic if you consider the popularity of Kit Fisto and Ahsoka Tano. But the Cathar are not without iconic figures. Knights of the Old Republic fans will remember Juhani as one of your possible companions, and serious Star Wars fans will remember Sylvar and Crado from the Tales of the Jedi comic book. Personally, I have yet to create a Jedi Knight character (yeah, I know, call me what you will), so I think the Cathar look to be a good species for that class. However, given the history and overall disposition of the Cathar species, I think it could easily fall into any class story. Maybe that is why it was chosen as the next species over the aforementioned Nautolans and Togrutas. As with any species I play, I like to learn as much about it as I can. Thankfully, the Cathar are a pretty easy species for gathering this information, not that Wookieepedia is a great source on the topic. So what are Cathar all about? Where do they come from? We'll find out in this week's Holocron Files.
Storyboard: The problem in your group is you
There are a lot of ways that roleplaying can go south. Over the past two years, I've tried to focus on how to look out for problems before they happen, how to identify problems coming from others, and how to solve problems with a minimum of drama. It's important to try to fix miscommunications, after all. Unfortunately, there's a problem that comes from analyzing everything other than yourself: Sometimes, the real problem is you. Maybe you've been trying to fix all of the problems in your group without realizing that the real pot-stirrer was the jerk trying to fix everyone else. Maybe you've been trying to enforce a specific standard that no one else wants to adhere to. Heck, maybe you're just playing a character that you like a lot but everyone else loathes. Whatever the reason, you aren't the solution any more; you are the problem that needs to be fixed. And that means figuring out what to do when you find out that you have seen the enemy and he is you.
Free for All: Making the perfectly flawed character
Whenever I play a new MMO, the first thing I want to know is who I am supposed to be inside this particular game world. I would like to have as much control over the conception of my character as possible, but let's be honest: Great customization is not as common as many of us would like. This might explain my attraction to games that offer the ability to craft a true, unique character, even if only in looks. I love a good cash shop and the ability to make my character essentially me -- if I were the me inside that other world. I don't play MMOs to be the hero, at least not most of the time. I don't want to kill the largest boss or get the best armor. I'll leave that to gamers who like that sort of thing. I play an MMO to sort of lose myself inside the world of a character of my own making. Over the years I've noticed a pattern in how I establish a great character, one that I want to continue playing. Originally, I wanted to refine this process into a list in case other players wanted to compare, but the list keeps evolving, so instead, I'll give some examples of how I have been creating unique and wonderfully flawed main characters in some of my favorite MMOs.
E3 2012: Hands-on with SOEmote
There's aging gracefully, and then there's EverQuest II. Sony Online Entertainment's eight-year old fantasy flagship is pretty much the benchmark for MMO feature sets and functionality at this point. There's so much to do in the game that it's overwhelming at times, and that was before the introduction of the roleplayer's dream known as SOEmote. SOEmote is one of those things that you'll either love or hate. In a nutshell, it's facial scanning technology that takes webcam input and outputs it to your avatar. EQII's toons already boasted some of the most visually expressive animations in the genre, complete with a laundry list of /emote commands that's longer than this article. SOEmote takes that to the next level (and it also adds voice-modulating capabilities, though these weren't exactly listenable due to the din of noise that is the E3 demo floor). The tech is scheduled to hit the game's live servers toward the end of this month, and it'll be met with both huzzahs (from the roleplayers and the immersion enthusiasts) and WTFs (from the raiders and progression fiends).
Storyboard: On roleplaying projects
Roleplaying projects are great. They're good for avoiding burnout, good for stretching your roleplaying muscles, and good for giving you reason to explore something you'd otherwise ignore. Not every project works out all that well, but I'm a big fan of the idea, and I'd encourage everyone who likes to roleplay to try a major project. The problem is that roleplaying projects are a lot of extra work and sometimes don't produce a lot of worthwhile results. Restrictions can breed creativity, sure, but sometimes they're just limiting. Roleplaying a character who never moves, for instance, is certainly possible but probably not a lot of fun, unless you really like sitting in a chair in-game while you sit in a chair in real life. So while I'm not kicking off my own little project just yet (it would take time away from my latest round in Choose My Adventure, and that would be terrible), I thought it'd be a good idea to look at how to create and work within a project so that the experience is a fun break rather than an oppressive fun-sucking nightmare. Hopefully, even if it doesn't work out, you can at least have some fun with the concept.
SOEmote tech brings live facial expressions, voice to EverQuest II avatars
Roleplaying is the red-headed stepchild of MMO design considerations these days, but at least one studio hasn't forgotten immersion enthusiasts. Sony Online Entertainment has announced a new EverQuest II feature called SOEmote, which converts your webcam input into avatar facial expressions. The suite also gives users the option to modulate their voice to something appropriate for their character. "Any game that calls itself a roleplaying game absolutely needs this feature. For other games, it's just a really good idea that your players will want. Pick a character. Pick a class. And then be that character instead of just being yourself. That's what a roleplaying game is supposed to be," SOE producer Dave Georgeson explains. Head to PCGamer for the full interview and a tech demo video.
Storyboard: Why I rejected your guild application
Explaining guilds to people who don't play MMOs is always odd. You have to explain the process of applying, getting interviewed, and generally being brought on some trial runs in a way that doesn't make the whole thing sound like an unpleasant second job. This is even worse when it comes to explaining roleplaying guilds, which often level all the same restrictions as endgame-focused guilds with the added benefit that you're being examined based on your character rather than your play ability. So it feels like a real kick in the teeth to do all that and then get rejected. At face value, this feels outright ridiculous. The only criteria for a roleplaying guild should be roleplaying, and if you're applying for one, you almost by definition pass. But there's actually a lot of valid reasons to say that someone just isn't right for your roleplaying guild. So you might not have been rejected because the guild is made up of judgmental pricks -- it might be for the best.
Diablo III becomes fastest-selling PC game ever, deluge of broken PC mice likely to follow
Chalk one up for an at least temporary resurgence in PC gaming. Blizzard can vouch that Diablo III has set a new record for the fastest-selling PC game to date: at 3.5 million copies trading hands through Battle.net downloads or retailers in the first 24 hours, and 6.3 million after a week, that's a whole lot of people battling the biggest of Prime Evils in a very short time. Naturally, a Blizzard-obsessed South Korea is accounting for even more activity, where over 39 percent of play at local gaming houses can be pinned on the action RPG, and the tally doesn't even include the 1.2 million bonus copies coming through a World of Warcraft annual pass promo. Before console gamers start packing up their PlayStations and Xboxes in symbolic resignation, D3 isn't the record-setter for the most copies of any game sold in one day -- that distinction goes to Modern Warfare 3's 6.5 million copies spread across multiple platforms. That's still enough to spur on some furious clicking and possibly a glut of dead mouse buttons, but you'll be glad to know there are suitably-themed replacement mice waiting in the wings.
Hyperspace Beacon: Four reasons in-character reporting is good for SWTOR
A few weeks back, I wrote an article about why I played Star Wars: The Old Republic. I drew on references from my childhood and how much Star Wars influenced my life. Although I did mention the impact of the roleplay community, I didn't talk about the roleplaying side of my MMO gameplay and how that influences my enjoyment of the game. When the quests dry up and PvP becomes stale, RP and the RP community hold me to this game. Multiple readers of the Hyperspace Beacon and fans of The Republic have asked how they can get involved in the roleplay in SWTOR. I usually point them to one place: SWTOR-RP.com. I could go on and on about this site and what it has done for the roleplay community, but nothing stands out more than the metagame that it's created with in-character articles. These news reports and editorials have been a launchpad for many in-character conversations. So let me draw you in and show you what I'm talking about.
Storyboard: The second anniversary of Storyboard
Last year, I had planned to change up the focus of Storyboard a little. The "high and wide" format had been working, but I was worried that the column just wouldn't have legs if I didn't start going for more focused and narrow applications. So I spent several months working on just the right way to do more game-specific columns in here. You don't remember them, of course, because none of them was ever posted. Those several months of work did not produce a single viable column. At the capstone of the second year of Storyboard, I'm forced to basically eat crow about one of my major plans for the last year because it turns out that not only did it not work but it didn't need to work in the first place. I managed to fill up another year of columns just fine without going into great detail about one game over another, and as it turns out, I'm a lot happier with this year as a whole anyway.
Storyboard: Why roleplaying is worth the trouble
Why bother roleplaying? I've covered a lot of topics in this column that circle around that topic. I've talked about why roleplaying is important and how you can roleplay without tears, but I've never touched the central question, something that was brought to mind recently by a fellow Massively writer. Why even bother with roleplaying? The usual answer is a shrug and a self-evident "because it's fun," but that's more a dismissal of the question than a functional response. That's not a good thing because there's a case to be made against roleplaying. Your character doesn't have an impact on the game world. Your roleplaying is, in the context of the game itself, irrelevant. The game doesn't care why your character wears weaker gear than normal; it just downgrades your stats and makes your life harder. You derive no benefit and wind up losing a lot of time for social interactions that are prone to drama and arguments. So why bother?
Hyperspace Beacon: Holocron Files -- Miraluka
As I mentioned in my Why I Play Star Wars: The Old Republic piece, Dark Forces and Jedi Knight were two of the Star Wars video games I enjoyed most. Obviously, this was before Knights of the Old Republic. In Jedi Knight, the main antagonist was Jerec. Although it's never mentioned where Jerec comes from or even what species he was, his most distinguishing feature is the cover over his eyes. At the time, players thought it was a type of cybernetic implant similar to that worn by Geordi LaForge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It wasn't until the Tales of the Jedi comic book series that we learned that Jerec and others are a part of the Force-seeing humanoid species known as the Miraluka. If you choose to play a Jedi Knight or a Jedi Consular (or if you have 1.5 million credits to unlock it through the Legacy system), you can play as a Miraluka. I have been fascinated by this species since Jerec of Jedi Knight and Shoaneb Culu in the Tales of the Jedi after that. So this week, let's talk about this captivating species, its culture, its connection to the Force, and what its role is during the time of The Old Republic.
The Daily Grind: How far would you go for cosmetic gear?
Massively's got so many cosmetic-gear gurus and sandbox aficionados on staff that sometimes I suspect no amount of character customization and housing and achievements and titles would ever be enough for us. We'd do just about anything for more ways to distinguish our characters in an MMO. But what about raiding for cosmetic gear? Enter OpenRaid, a World of Warcraft website that helps players organize cross-server PvE dungeon raids and premade PvP teams for the express purpose of acquiring achievements and gear to transmogrify (i.e., map the skin of something cool onto something with good stats). While I'd hope that needing to run large-scale endgame content for gorgeous weapon skins isn't going to become commonplace in future MMOs, it's still fascinating to see roleplay-oriented players playing content they wouldn't normally touch, just to collect a dress. So how far would you go -- or have you gone -- to get your hands on a sweet piece of cosmetic gear, title, or achievement? 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 Road to Mordor: Seven player events you must attend
More than any other MMO I've played, Lord of the Rings Online seems to draw out player events like crazy. Maybe it's the setting, Tolkien's world-building, the renaissance fair outfits, or the disproportionately large RP crowd, but LotRO seems to be graced with far more of these kinds of player-driven initiatives than elsewhere. As such, today I wanted to scout around the forums and official calendar to highlight a few of the many, many events that festoon this great game of ours. These are great to check out, particularly when you're a little bored with the same-old, same-old of questing, raiding, skirmishing, or PvMPing. The ingenuity and spirit of these events is often quite infectious, and I never regret going to one once I make the effort. So check out seven great player events in LotRO, coming to a server near you!
Storyboard: Problem players
I don't tend to talk about the players behind the characters in this column because more often than not it doesn't matter. A good roleplayer is a good roleplayer, and if your characters can interact well, you don't really need to be close friends behind the scenes. Sure, I promote communication out of character, but that's to avoid drama, and liking the person involved is more of a bonus than a requisite goal. The majority of roleplayers won't have issues beyond character or story-based ones, and thus I focus on those. There are exceptions. Even if most of the troubles you'll encounter are the result of characters that don't quite work for whatever reason (something we're all guilty of), there are certain players who are going to cause problems no matter what. And I'm not talking about the guy who always makes the same character with minor setting adjustments. I'm talking about the players who will make you actively dislike the game you're playing, the cases where you're going to need to address the problem beyond just shaking your head at one character or another. These guys exist, and even though they're not the majority, they have an unpleasant impact.
Storyboard: The growth of a plot tumor
Everyone has had that friend. Heck, almost everyone has been that friend at one point or another. It's the guy who just found himself in a relationship, and suddenly every single topic of conversation jerks right back to that relationship. It starts out subtle, but eventually your friend will turn everything back to the topic of his relationship, up to and including a car crash. And while said friend isn't a bad guy, you start enjoying your time with him less and less because he's down to a single droning note that's no longer interesting. The exact same thing happens in roleplaying. It's not usually about a girlfriend, although it can be. It's any aspect of a character's plot that grows until it's all-encompassing and grows into the plots of other characters as well. It's a plot tumor. It's a growth bigger than it has any right to be, and it's the sort of thing that can really drive you away from roleplaying whether or not you liked the plot in the beginning.
Hyperspace Beacon: Advice from a master
I had the pleasure of playing Star Wars Galaxies with Brian "OddjobXL" Rucker for at least five years before his unfortunate passing last week. We never met in person, but he was a great influence on my life despite my having only recently found out what he looked like. One of the great things about the internet is that personality really shines through when you don't have a preconceived notion of who someone is based on how he looks. Brian was one of those people whose personality stood out from the rest of the community because of the stories he created and wisdom he imparted to others. When he played SWG, he posted quite a bit as Mandash Grim on the Starsider Galaxy roleplay website; when a good chunk of those players decided to give Star Wars: The Old Republic a go, he moved with them to SWTOR-RP. On this forum, he talked about how SWTOR influenced RP, even though it was not exactly the way he envisioned it. It's hard to summarize in a thousand words his gaming philosophies, which had such an influence on me, but I'd like to highlight a few key things he wrote that I believe summarize his feelings on something everyone reading this column probably loves: Star Wars MMO storytelling.
