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CCP Games releases faction overview for EVE Online
For participants in EVE Online's factional warfare in the Empyrean Age expansion, it's common knowledge that there are four races embroiled in conflict. However, CCP Games has decided to add some more variety to the roles that EVE players can assume. To that end, EVE dev Matthew Woodward (aka CCP Greyscale) created a political overview for those who wish to immerse themselves a bit more in the backstory, or for those who wish to assume roles in the factional struggle beyond what is currently known about the key races in EVE's setting of New Eden. The cruel yet devoutly religious Amarr bring worlds and systems under their heel to 'save them from themselves.' They're opposed by the fractious Minmatar, a group of tribes resisting Amarr tyranny -- many of whom are chemically enslaved by a tailored virus and regular fixes of its narcotic treatment, ensuring their continued servitude to the Amarr.
EVE Chronicle: Masks of Authority
Most EVE Online players wouldn't characterize themselves as roleplayers. Simply by piloting their ships as capsuleers -- whether it's to make New Eden a safer place, or to lay waste to every unfortunate soul that crosses their path -- all EVE players assume a role of sorts. However, for those who prefer greater immersion, one of the real strengths of EVE Online is the depth and breadth of its backstory, which provides a gritty setting for players to delve into, should they choose to. The latest EVE Chronicle provides a look within New Eden's power structures that goes beyond the heads of the four races. "Masks of Authority" sheds more light on the corporate paradigm that governs one's life as a Caldari player in EVE, a system overpowered by the Chief Executive Panel -- eight megacorporations whose collective wealth and influence makes or breaks the lives of all Caldari citizens.
Official Asheron's Call blog is nostalgic
Asheron's Call's 100th update is imminent, and to celebrate, Turbine has started a "Nostalgia Blog" in which old designers of the game reminisce about their experiences of elation and tribulation. The first entry is now live. It was written by Allan "Orion" Maki, who worked as a designer on nearly half of AC's content updates. He also wrote a huge chunk of the game's ongoing storyline. That storyline has been an important reason for people to keep on playing the game after all these years.In the blog, he describes his first, disaster-laden attempt at design, names his favorite characters and quests, and gushes compliments at AC, saying "you never forget your first love." Now he's working on The Lord of the Rings Online, but one senses that he won't forget his roots.
Divinity and malevolence personified in latest EVE Chronicle
CCP Games has been giving us a glimpse into the lives and motivations of the four leaders of the warring races in EVE Online, through a series of weekly Chronicles. Thus far we've seen the weight of years of struggle carried by the Minmatar leader, Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor, and the Gallente President Souro Foiritan forced to make horrific compromises to ensure the future of his people. We've also seen the questionable background of Tibus Heth, the head of the Caldari State. But it seems that CCP saved the best for last: Jamyl Sarum, Empress of the Amarr Empire, is by far the most forceful personality among the four -- a feared and loved ruler of billions. And rightly so, we've witnessed how grandiose her actions tend to be in the Empyrean Age trailer; she commanded the battleship which obliterated a vastly superior Minmatar fleet which included a Ragnarok-class titan. This time, in "All These Wayward Children," it's her words that speak louder than her actions. The viewing platform of an Amarrian starship, bearing the newly-coronated Empress, is the setting for the final of the weekly Chronicles. "All These Wayward Children" shows her extreme beliefs about the divine imperative to conquer other civilizations and how she doesn't simply punish perceived wrongs; she exacts sadistic retribution upon her enemies, political and otherwise... her "Benediction."
All the World's a Stage: Delicate subjects, handle with care
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the World of Warcraft is a stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. Michael Gray fills in this week for David Bowers to talk about how you can handle delicate subjects while achieving your roleplay goals.I can't speak for anyone else, but one thing Momma always warned me about is that there are a few topics you just don't talk about over dinner or in polite company. Sex, drugs, money, politics. If you're like me, your sweetheart gives you that look if certain subjects are brought up. "Don't even get started," that look warns me. I admit, I can be a powderkeg about feminism, racial equality, and general "do the right thing" subjects. But these issues do come up during the course of roleplay. There are more than a few victims among WoW's characters, and there are certainly some bad guys who'd do despicable things.If you're going to play with hot-topic issues, there some things you can do to help keep everyone's sensitivities in mind.
EVE Chronicle puts players at the center of factional warfare
The latest EVE Chronicle is called "The Dark End of Space." This installment connects the events seen in the full Empyrean Age trailer (namely, Jamyl Sarum's utter obliteration of a greater Minmatar fleet) with the lowsec militia conflicts and missions that have embroiled EVE Online's players in factional warfare. Indeed, "The Dark End of Space" focuses on how each of the four races -- despite having conflicting goals and ideologies -- view the capsuleers... the actual players in EVE Online: "A group of people so powerful they're practically a faction unto themselves. Immortal, fearless and wealthy beyond imagining. Born of all four empires but beholden, in truth, to no one but themselves. And utterly untapped, in this little skirmish of ours.""The Dark End of Space" shows how each of the races face similar difficulties, and how the players of EVE are thought by each faction to be the solution to their problems. EVE dev CCP Abraxas says of the newest Chronicle: "... this one breaks rank and instead focuses on the capsuleers. It explains how we went from the end of the novel to the onset of factional warfare, and how you guys got pulled into it." This could get very interesting if factional propaganda enters into the game, with each race's militia trying to further sway the capsuleers to their cause and tip the balance of power in the Empyrean Age. But for the time being, the Empyrean Age novel, the trailer, and the Chronicles are intertwined, and it seems that EVE's players are firmly at the center of what is to come.
All the World's a Stage: Adding flesh to your character
When you decide to roleplay, a whole new world of imagination opens up to you -- soon you realize that all the World of Warcraft is a stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. Michael Gray fills in this week for David Bowers to talk about how you can flesh our your character, and help it leap from the screen into everyone's imagination.As David's said before, getting into character can be a challenge. With the WWI right behind us and Death Knights looming around the corner, there's dozens of things threatening to water down our immersive roleplay. It can be frustrating, but the first thing you can control about your playtime is yourself -- and the character you've written.Your background sets up your character's story. It's where your character comes from, and often describes what motives your character's actions. But it's infinitely helpful to define more about your character than just the time the Horde ravaged your family and wrecked the estate, and maybe talk about...how he feels about children, or the summer holidays.Let's talk about how to flesh out a character, behind the cut...
Latest EVE Chronicle a look into Gallente moral erosion
EVE Online is running a series of Chronicles focusing on the leadership of the four races in the Empyrean Age, now locked into war in a galaxy divided. The latest EVE Chronicle, "The Paths They Chose," focuses on the Gallente race and is set in a blend of futuristic crystalline cityscape and natural scenery. The story shows the measures taken by leaders of the Gallente Federation to ensure their way of life continues. Holographic technology, advanced eavesdropping countermeasures, and an artificially cultivated environment merge in several acres of selectively grown flora and woodland; serenity and privacy for Federation officials and visiting diplomats is assured in the sanctum beneath a vast transparent dome. But the beauty of this place is juxtaposed with the inhuman actions taken within. A traitor to the Gallente people is grotesquely crucified upon a metallic 'dead man's needle,' which suspends the captive by his vertebrae while pumping him full of sedatives. The captive is abused like this by order of the President of the Gallente Federation, Souro Foiritan. Like the illusion of transparency of the eco-dome surrounding the characters, the moral high ground of the Gallente Federation is shown to be equally ephemeral, as President Foiritan reveals a new -- and dark -- direction that the Gallente will take in New Eden. Read "The Paths They Chose" to see Foiritan's descent into becoming "a leader cruel enough to do what needed to be done, and compassionate enough to understand why it needed doing." The story has struck a chord with some of EVE's players, who are discussing the sudden change and what this might do for the game's backstory.
Inside the War Room: video interviews with key EVE Online developers
The devs at EVE Online have been busy of late. They rolled out a new expansion, released a CG video for Empyrean Age, organized EVE Fanfest 2008 and now they've put up video interviews with four of their key developers. CCP Games gives these highlights of the clips: Tony Gonzales, EVE Online's Lead Writer, explains that tensions built within the Empyrean Age novel were developed to entice both veteran and EVE players and the 'uninitiated' science fiction fan. Gonzales also toys with the idea of writing a sequel to the book. Noah Ward, EVE's Lead Designer, discusses the new features in Trinity 1.1: Boost Patch. Learn all about the new improvements, deadlier ships and interface renovations now available. Matthew Woodward, Game Designer for Empyrean Age, tells us,"These new missions give players the strength of narrative." New missions within Factional Warfare alter the focus from isolated PvE, taking these objectives and tying them into the sweeping story found in the Empyrean Age novel. Nathan Richardsson, Executive Producer, discusses the origins of EVE Online while providing an overview of Empyrean Age's features. All out war was the most brutal and obvious choice for this new expansion. Was this war inevitable? Yes. Richardsson also offers his view on what makes PvP exciting and worthwhile. The video footage of the devs at EVE Online's dedicated Empyrean Age site is found in the interviews section. Check out all four to gain a little more perspective on what's led up to the factional warfare expansion, and what is yet to come.
EVE Online's 'Empyrean Age' a first step towards something greater
EVE Online's latest expansion, The Empyrean Age. has largely been a success, both from the standpoint of a number of EVE's players and what it will allow the game to evolve into from the perspective of CCP Games. EVE developer CCP RyanD's recent dev blog confirms that CCP is excited about the directions the game will now be able to take in the future. He writes that throughout EVE Online's five year history, there was a rift between developer-created storytelling and player-driven roleplaying. There were a few prominent storyline events run in tandem by the devs and volunteers in ISD, but while such events succeeded in some respects, they failed in others. The mixed response to the events made them a rarity in the game. But those initial faltering steps have given way to greater storyline interaction in Empyrean Age, as player created content and efforts begin to mesh with the developing story of EVE. CCP RyanD writes, "The path we are on now is really unprecedented."
The future of storytelling in MMOs
We can't help but wonder what the future of MMO storylines may eventually evolve into. So many players have so many various preferences when it comes to their favorite game's plot, that it's not an issue of pleasing everyone at the same time, but what the majority wants. Tobold addresses this issue in his latest blog entry, and speculates on whether or not the MMO storyline will progress in the same evolutionary line as movies have, where they began as novelties of moving pictures and soon became rich with real plots and immersion for the viewers.But if we follow the current trend of what's popular in MMOs, we'll see that the most popular games have little to no storyline. It takes a certain type of person to read every quest text and have a comprehensive understanding of what's going on in the game, and why they need to save the half-naked woman from the bad guys. That type of person seems to be a rarity, judging by the subscription numbers of the lore- and story-based games such as LotRO and AoC. But does this mean those games should stop being made? We certainly hope not, because it's always nice to have an intelligent game to play when you get burned out on grinding mobs and running errands.
EVE Online meets Half-Life 2 in machinima masterpiece
Clear Skies is a groundbreaking machinima produced by Ian Chisholm, which takes place entirely within the galactic setting of EVE Online, known as New Eden. Any attempt to lump Clear Skies in with your run-of-the-mill machinima would be a disservice to the scope of the work; the film clocks in at just under 40 minutes and was a labor of love for two years in the lives of its creators. Clear Skies follows a trio of down-and-out misfits who've seen no end of bad luck. John Rourke is the obstinate captain of the Clear Skies, a Tempest class battleship manufactured by the downtrodden Minmatar race of New Eden. Rourke's attitude toward his hazardous chosen lifestyle is cavalier, although this does not sit well with his friends among the crew. Solomon Burke is the pessimistic ship's engineer, while Charlie Fodder -- a gunner with an ironic name -- does his best to keep the crew alive. Typical of life in New Eden, Fodder is doomed to remain a rather busy man.
Breakfast Topic: Lore and story progression via static NPCs
When the Burning Crusade first came out, veterans noticed a few things back on Azeroth: Some of our favorite NPCs had disappeared! The wandering Rexxar was replaced by a fellow name Rokaro, and Hemet Nesingwary left Stranglethorn, leaving his son, Hemet Nesingwary Jr., to take over the hunt. More recently, Lady Liadrin has come to Shattrath City, leaving behind Lord Solanar Bloodwrath to guide up and coming Blood Knights in her place. In order to move along a few story lines, Blizzard decided that it was worth moving NPCs to move along the story, and left other NPCs in place with minor alterations so that other people could still experience their old quests. This, however, isn't the only way Blizzard has dealt with progressing story lines.
MMO episodes to mimic TV shows
Massively's recent ION Game Conference coverage featured an article on developing MMO's as if they were TV shows. This idea was introduced by FireSky's Joseph Ybarra, Senior VP of Strategic Operations. FireSky hopes to run with the concept of dishing up MMO content updates in episodes, with predictable development cycles of roughly six weeks. This marriage between MMO and TV production could also lead to developing 'pilot games,' which makes sense from a company perspective. After all, it involves smaller budgets and entails less risk. The developer can expend a small amount (by standard game development budgets) and gauge player interest. If that title proves to be popular, future iterations of the game could be developed with larger budgets, building upon the storyline of the previous episodes. Do you think that gamers would have more of a say in what the creators do with these stories than they do with TV shows, since an episodic MMO is an interactive medium? Would this be a welcome change in the MMO industry, as opposed to waiting for a few years for that next game?
Kael'thas in two places at once
This thread over on the forums starts off a little silly (it's a complaint about Kael'thas being both in Tempest Keep and Magisters' Terrace at the same time), but later on gets into some really interesting commentary and thinking about just how the lore and story in this game works. Obviously, there are no problems with having Kael in two places at once (as Bornakk says with an epic burn, a character can be alive on page 1 and dead on page 10 at the same time), but it's interesting that that's not always what happens in the game. Griftah, for example, was never in two places at once, and neither was Hemet Nesingwary -- both of those characters had progressive lore storylines. But Kael, like Thrall, has a storyline that evolves as a character moves forward in their own storyline, and so Blizzard has placed him in two different places at once, and asked players to move their own characters to see the storyline in order.Interesting stuff. Scuzz makes a particularly interesting point in the thread -- the World of Warcraft really does revolve around player characters, not NPCs. If you discover through quests that Onyxia is actually pretending to be a woman in Stormwind, all of the NPCs your character meets will be shocked. It's a sign of Blizzard's talent at game creation that something can be both known by most players and discovered by one player almost every single day.Of course there's no problem with Kael being in two places -- I would rather have my character move through a changing world than have Blizzard worry about making sure "reality" was kept correctly. But it's an interesting line being walked very well -- if you do the two instances in order, you get a much better story than if we were simply fighting a generic third boss in Magisters' Terrace.
WoW Moviewatch: The Showdown
Fishface is becoming quite the machinima addict! Less than two weeks ago, I featured his very first creation, StreamLine. Through trial and error, he is experimenting with different genres. Let's hope he finds a niche!The Showdown, his latest video, is an attempt at an action-packed storyline film. Unfortunately there's not much of a story going on. However, it is a very cinematic take on a battle scene. I'd say that the area that needed the most improvement would be the length of the video, but don't let that discourage you, Fishface![Via Warcraftmovies.com]Previously on Moviewatch ...
WoW Moviewatch: The Captured Exarch
I'm a firm believer that artists need encouragement, or they won't know what they did right or wrong. They won't be able to improve their work and, with nothing but silence or discouragement, they might not make another video. It would be hard to find production-quality WoW machinimas with storylines, or special effects, every day of the year. Those are just the special gems.With that said, Geis Archrion, creator of The Captured Exarch, works on improving his craft with each video. The machinima focuses on the suicide of a man, who leaves behind a mysterious note. Athanatoi, a scouting mercenary guild, must decipher it in order to figure out the next target of The Essence. There's plenty of action, and just enough of a cliffhanger to make me want to see what he does with his next video. While the camera work is shaky and the voice acting is rough, it's not that bad.[Via Warcraftmovies.com]Previously on Moviewatch...
Behind the Curtain: More Plot Please
So, I've been playing Bioshock pretty much non-stop for the past few days, and it's got me thinking. Not only did it get me thinking that I'm super clever for figuring out the twist about ten minutes into the game, it also got me thinking about story and plot and the importance they play in games. The story in Bioshock is handled masterfully – it's handed out to you in a careful and controlled manner, feeding you it piece by piece with just enough to keep you hooked, but not so much that you're getting hit with an info dump every half an hour. I'd like to see more story in my MMOs. Certainly, an MMO needs to have a good story set up around it, something to give the world some life, and get you interested from the word go. Or it may not, maybe you just want out-and-out PvP with no RP noobs or lore geeks to bother you, in which case I feel a little sad for you and I ask you kindly to move along and find another column to read.
Dungeons & Dragons Online live event postponed
According to Quarion and Patience of the Turbine community team, the Dungeon & Dragons Online servers got unlucky and rolled a 1 earlier today. As any good Dungeon Master would, Turbine consulted the critical fail tables and it would appear that the servers will remain offline until at least 7PM Eastern. What this means is that the final chapter of the Emerald Claw Conspiracy event that has been eagerly anticipated will be postponed for the time being. As we'd stated before, live events in MMOs are sadly uncommon, so we're certain that this is something that the DDO player base will be keeping their eyes on. We know we were looking forward to seeing some screenshots of it for One Shots, as world events are a lot of fun to check out! Hopefully things will work out soon and the DDO servers can get some new dice with better roll mojo for the future.[Thanks, Schad!]
Tigole interviewed by Warcry
Warcry posted an interview with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan (WoW's lead designer) last Friday, and while he doesn't reveal anything super new, he does confirm a few directions Blizzard is headed in with the game-- away from grinds, opening up more endgame content for players, and incorporating daily quests into more facets of player advancement.Kaplan does say that Blizzard thought the progression rate for Burning Crusade was done well, and that they are looking at getting even more players involved in endgame, which, with the coming of Zul'Aman and the lowering of the Heroic reputations, is something we've observed before. He says also that Blizzard is planning to involve reputation more with daily quests, while at the same time making sure it's not a grind (hopefully this will mean gaining reputation from daily quests like the new ones-- attaching instance runs or battleground fights to daily quests, with reputation as a reward). And finally, Kaplan hints at lore in Wrath of the Lich King, specifically saying that "Humans, Dwarves, Tauren, and Trolls will all have their storylines developed further" in Northrend.Sounds fun. He doesn't give any indication of where they are in the development process for the expansion (he does work for Blizzard, after all), but it definitely does sound like Blizzard is hard at work hammering WotLK together.
