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Oceanic Soapbox: Highlights and Lowlights

December 14, 2012 by

oceanic-soap-box

This week’s topic is one that may generate some debate. It’s been a huge year for MMOs and gaming more broadly, so I’m interested in what has been the highlight and lowlight for you this year gaming-wise.

For me the highlight was my first few hours playing The Secret World and seeing MMOs from a totally different perspective. A lowlight is a little more difficult but I’d have to say it’d be the struggles SWTOR has had this year – like a lot of people who’ve followed the game for years I was relatively confident of huge success. That may still occur though but at the very least here’s hoping we have SWTOR on the playing field for a lot more years to come.

So what about you: what’s taken you to the most highs and lows during 2012?

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed

The Naked Gamer: #1ReasonWhy

December 5, 2012 by

#1ReasonWhy

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

When I applied to write for The Oceanic Gamer, I told myself that I would never write this article. It is something that has been talked about for so long and it’s really getting to the point where I feel that if people just don’t get it now, then they never will. It’s not like there aren’t already plenty of articles out there by people a lot more knowledgeable and smarter. People better at getting their thoughts, opinions and more importantly, their feelings across.

However I feel I should at least give it a try after seeing the recent twitter campaign #1ReasonWhy. This twitter campaign saw women and men raising awareness of some of the battles still fought by women within the gaming industry. These were women that are making our games, expanding our knowledge and bringing gaming to everyone.

Before I started writing, I thought for a very long time how I am going to write this. I thought about what angle I should approach this from, how I should handle it. How I could maybe bring something new to this subject. In the end, I decided to bare all and go for the all natural stance, just like my column is named. I figure if I can’t talk truthfully and honestly about our current situation than there really isn’t a point in writing about it at all.

I wanted to start over ten years ago. This is because while I’ve been gaming since before I went to Kindergarten, it wasn’t until the ‘90s that I got into online gaming and I guess I became a part of the larger gaming community. So much has changed so quickly and I feel that the gaming industry is actually getting worse and moving backwards instead of forwards.

Roughly twelve years ago, I was really getting into MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon). They were awesome and as someone with a crappy computer and an even crappier internet connection they were the poor man’s MMO. This didn’t make them terrible games at all though. MUDs were text based and so they ran off player’s imaginations. You could create anything in a MUD just by typing. There were fewer constraints and it meant that people were creating systems that are amazing even by today’s standards.

I got to experience this first hand and it was my first experience being on the other side of the code. I got to be a world builder for a pretty amazing MUD. There were only two of us that got to play around in the game and create whatever we wanted, and I felt very lucky.

You may have already noticed where this is heading. My world builder colleague was indeed a male. There were three of us working on this game and the owner/coder of the game was also male. You may be already cringing thinking of the horrible tale I am going to tell but the truth is, there is no horrible tale. Everyone knew I was female, I was even titled the Goddess of Chaos, but no one cared. I was never once told to go make a sandwich, get back to the kitchen or even to show people pictures of my naked body parts.

No one cared.

I created amazing areas in that game. My world building skills were centred more about creating zones that were filled with their own sort of story, with hidden passages and brain teasing puzzles. My counterpart tended to make more killing zones, packing in as many baddies as possible and letting the player kill or be killed. This partnership meant we created a world with something for everyone and was targeted to all gamers.

When I think back to this time, I can’t help but wonder where everything went wrong. My first experience as a part of the gaming industry was great. My last experience though was completely different.

I worked extremely hard running a Community Team for an Indy MMO developer. I did an amazing job but I still felt constantly that the only reason I was there was because I was female and not because of all I had done.

It started as jokes like when discussing possible competition prizes – it was actually suggested that they could give away game shirts that have been worn by me (including a photo as proof). It continued when I was working to make the community a better place and was told how the directors made the right choice getting in a ‘girl’. It ended when we were going through the job description and one of the perks was going to game conventions. I said that I can’t sell the game, I’m not hot enough. The reply was, ‘don’t worry you are plenty hot enough’.

It was horrible seeing the hours of work I put in be pretty much squared down to the fact that I am a woman. It was hard to feel any pride in the amazing direction the community was taking when it was simply because I am a woman. It doesn’t help that I would take my developers hat off, put my gamer one on and get the exact same treatment.

And people keep asking me why I left such an awesome job.

So these are my experiences from the beginning and the end – I won’t bore you with the middle. Next week I will be coming back to this subject and exploring why this is happening instead of just my experiences. I will also be explaining the full reason I am writing these articles when I said I never would.

So stay tuned for what I am hoping will be at least a slightly interesting take on the gaming industry from my personal experiences.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, Other Games Tagged With: , ,

And Another Thing: MMO Subscription Numbers

November 28, 2012 by

MMO Subscription Numbers

‘And Another Thing’ is a regular column where one of the Oceanic Gamer team get an issue off their chest. If you’ve got a pet peeve or controversial issue you’d like to write about, drop us a line. This week’s column sees us welcome Darren Taylor to the fold – great to have you on board Darren!

There is a lot of talk these days that MMO success is a result of how many people are subscribing. World of Warcraft appears to be once again over 10 million subscribers whereas other MMOs are lucky to break several hundred thousand. Trion Worlds (the makers of Rift) has stated with its relatively small number of subscribers, that it is highly profitable and was awarded extra funding to further develop the game and expand into other countries.

To be honest, I am really not concerned with subscription numbers when playing as long as there is a healthy chat, people running around and it’s relatively easy to get a group for a dungeon or quest.  In fact I find Rift one of the easiest games to get a group in, even compared to the behemoth World of Warcraft.

Rift and The Secret World have done some great work to get its players to feel that their servers are thriving with life. Rift recently cut out the limitations of factions, enabling players from both factions to be in the same guild, group for the same instances, in effect doubling the population. Cross-server chat and grouping also increases the pool of people available. The Secret World has done something similar with its dimensions, enabling players to communicate, group and quest with anyone on any other of its servers, hence its much-advertised single server technology.

In both games, the world is very alive and no matter what time zone you play, you can always find people to group with. You don’t often see people complaining about populations, as they never seem to have a lack of players willing to do something in the game.

Star Wars; The Old Republic, with its huge following at launch did one thing very wrong with its perception of population. I bet you all know and remember the instance player numbers at the top of your screen everywhere you go. I tend to call it the “worry meter” and unfortunately it proved to be just that. How often did you see people complain that there were only 50 people in fleet on their server? I am willing to bet that if that player number wasn’t there would have been less complaints and less concern. It seems they may have corrected that a little with group finder, cross server and also their take on mega servers, although I am not sure how the Aussie servers are doing as of late.

I think that all MMOs will embrace the one server mentality in one way or other and players will always have someone to group and play with even if there are only a few hundred people online at a given time.  From a player point of view, we should no longer base the success on the game based on investor calls or released figures but how each game uses their ability to bring their players together. I am happy playing games that have a reported smaller number of subscribers compared to some, as long as I can enjoy everything the game has to offer.

Do you agree?

 

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, The Secret World Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: What Does Free-To-Play Mean?

November 22, 2012 by

what does free-to-play mean

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

It’s such a tiny term but seems to be so filled with meaning and causing so much confusion. Ask ten gamers what they think Free-to-Play (F2P) means and you will get ten very different definitions.

It feels like the term F2P is becoming nothing more than a buzz word used by people for their own personal agenda while ignoring everyone else. It has been very frustrating to watch people bring forth valid opinions of the changes to the subscription model made for Star Wars: The Old Republic but only to have them completely brushed over or ignored because people seem to be unable to get past their own preconceptions whenever they see the phrase F2P.

One common idea is that F2P means that you can create an account and play the game without paying anything. It doesn’t matter what you can or can’t do, just simply being able to login seems the biggest point in this description, oh and no time expiration. This means that games like World of Warcraft, Tera, SWTOR, Aion and Battle of the Immortals are all considered F2P.

Another common way of defining F2P is to say that you can play the whole game without any restriction to your gameplay. If the game has restrictions that are unlocked or accessed only by spending money then it’s no longer free. Instead it is some sort of unlimited time trial. So in this definition the only games that are F2P from the above examples are Aion and Battle of the Immortals.

So I thought about this and I wondered what harm is there if we see F2P differently? I would like to say none but all you have to do is read up on any of the feedback from SWTOR’s recent changes to see that this isn’t working. Those that consider the game as F2P see those that don’t as entitled and in return they get labelled as pretentious. It’s very hard to talk about the good and the bad when such loaded words are being thrown around. Also, many of us have predefined notion of what F2P means and so when we see the term, we are expecting to see one thing and may be seeing something else. None of this comes together to equal good communication.

Then I thought, ‘but isn’t it up to the developers and publishers to define what their game is or isn’t?’ That might seem like a perfect solution but not one that would be practical. WoW and Tera never once used the term F2P and yet the media and gamers constantly do. SWTOR says that it is but it doesn’t necessarily fit into all definitions of F2P. I’ve even heard of Guild Wars 2 being referred to as F2P simply because it doesn’t need a subscription to play. If we as gamers can’t even agree, then how are we expecting game developers, publishers, and media and of course marketing to?

The only way to see all the brilliant opinions on SWTOR is to stop focusing on what is F2P. Maybe we should instead just move past any buzz words and actually hear out what someone has to say. If we stop predefining people’s opinions then we will see that a lot of time, we are actually all in agreement.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, SWTOR Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: SWTOR F2P Thoughts

November 13, 2012 by

SWTOR F2P Thoughts

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

My relationship with Star Wars: The Old Republic has been more like a rollercoaster than well, a relationship. When I first heard about this new MMO my immediate thought was how awesome it was going to be to play out my childhood fantasy of being a Jedi. Obviously this isn’t the first Star Wars game but it was the first one that I was interested in playing. When I heard BioWare were behind it, well I had a bit of a geek squealing session.

I was frustrated when I heard it wasn’t being released in Australia at launch but through some clever workarounds I was able to get the game. So when launch did come around, I was able to play and to live my dreams as a Jedi Consular and even got to play as a Twi’lek. How much more cooler can you get?

Sadly, then my friends stopped playing and the awesomeness of being a lightsaber wielding blue woman wasn’t enough to keep me playing. The game had some great things and like many, I loved the story (even if I got lost a few times because I kept pressing the spacebar during cut scenes) but there just wasn’t enough to keep me paying a subscription for. I let my account lapse with the promise that if it went free to play, I would return if only to find out how the story ended.

When I heard the announcement that SWTOR was going to go free to play and how the story part of the game will be available to everyone, I was more excited than when the game was first released. Well, I was at first. Then they released more information about how the free to play will work and I went from yes to maybe to no, although floating around ‘maybe casually’ right now.

I admit that I am not a fan of free-to-play models with a subscription. I feel that it should be one or the other. There is always a chance of tension building between those that pay and those that don’t. Also, you have the added difficulty of finding the balance between rewarding the subscribers without punishing the free-to-players.

When I look at SWTOR’s new free-to-play plans, one thing sticks out to me – it seems to be all about getting you back to paying a full subscription. They seem to offer no reward for subscribing but instead lay all the punishment (or restriction) on the rest of the player base.

I admit I can’t see this working; the whole point of going free-to-play is getting people back playing your game and getting them to spend money because they want to, not because they have to.  People shouldn’t feel like their game play is affected because they aren’t paying a subscription.

I feel that F2P will only succeed if the unlocks are really cheap, so you can essentially unlock the whole game for the same amount as a typical box price and if they allow people to go from subscription to non-subscription back to subscription without feeling like they are being penalised.

For now though, my gaming plate is already pretty filled with four other MMOs and numerous other games I play with my friends. I would have made time for SWTOR but right now, I am not sure I will. This weekend will really tell if I start playing again.

So good luck to BioWare and May The Force Be With You.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, SWTOR Tagged With: ,

The Naked Gamer: Age and Gaming

November 11, 2012 by

Age and gaming

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

Well, it’s that time again. The time when my age gains a +1 and my experience bar resets for another year. Normally around this time I take a moment to reflect over the past 365 days and my life in general, although this time it’s a little different as it’s one of the big ones. You know the ones, where you are meant to make a big deal and you have to start ticking that older age bracket box.

Usually I will spend two weeks moping around and considering why I still claim the title of Gamer.  Even though I have always been on the younger side of the average gamer age, and probably always will be as the average age grows older with me, I find that society seems to continue thinking of gaming as child play. They seem to prefer to make up their own mind and ignore anything that might seem contrary.

Every year I am asked when I am going to grow up and stop playing with children’s toys. I am told that as a female my gaming hobby is either an attention seeking pastime or something I should finally give up to do things more worthwhile. I’ve even been told I would never be able to find someone if I continue to do anything that may be considered such a manly vocation.

I admit that these comments used to bother me. While a part of me knew they were false and I knew they shouldn’t get to me, they did. Every year I wondered why I enjoyed gaming and I even started to think maybe I am just being attention seeking? Who cares that I’ve been playing computer games since I was a girl. It was obviously something I did for some silly reason and simply not because of pure enjoyment. I even quit gaming for three years – it was torture.

So like usual, when this birthday came around I found myself once again having my deep soul searching assignment as to whether or not I should give up gaming.

I like to think that this year I am a little older and wiser and maybe that’s why I realised I don’t care anymore. I game because I want to, I game because I enjoy it and I love writing about gaming, talking about gaming and being a gamer.

While sure, it may not seem the most awesome life and while it may seem like I am wasting it staying home on a Friday night with a beer and my favourite MMO, I say waste away!

I can’t change how other people feel, what they choose to believe and even stop them from spreading it around, but I can decide if I am going to listen and if I am going to let them get to me. So, I am going to decide to not do that.

If there is one thing I would tell my younger self right now, it would be to never stop gaming no matter what other people might think. If they have a problem with your gaming then it’s their problem, not yours.

So boot up your computer, start a new game and let’s go save a princess together.

To gaming for life!

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With: ,

The Naked Gamer: Why I Play The Secret World

October 31, 2012 by

Why I Play The Secret World

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

It’s no secret that I enjoy playing The Secret World and I would like to spend this week talking about why. This isn’t a review, I am not trying to be objective or discuss the finer points like what’s good and what isn’t. This is just simply why I love playing this game.

There is nothing I enjoy more in an evening than playing The Secret World with my lights turned down and my speakers turned up. I log in, sit back and let myself be absorbed into the world.

It doesn’t have the best graphics currently around but it does have something far better, and that is atmosphere. I adore the contrast of light and dark –  it’s spooky and the sound effects are superb. It’s actually the only MMO that I play with the sound on. I like having the music set just loud enough to be classed as background noise and running around Kingsmouth hearing all the groans and growls. It is heart in the throat type stuff, I just love it.

I wouldn’t say I am big on role-playing, but I do enjoy creating characters and playing them with a style that suits my little back story of them. Now that I am absorbed into the game, The Secret World allows me to be absorbed into my character. Outfits aren’t designated by gear or costumes – you can wear whatever you want.  My only disappointment is that the female clothes aren’t at all interesting and I don’t really like them. I only hope they design more outfits that suit all fashion tastes instead of the more obvious choices.

Another thing that helps me stay captivated is that we aren’t given a voice. I know it’s been some people’s biggest complaint but there is nothing more cringeworthy than creating your amazing character and then having the game assign them a voice that just doesn’t match. It’s painful having to play through a whole game and cut scenes with a voice that makes just makes you want to shudder.

Speaking of cut scenes, I really enjoy watching them in The Secret World. They use this time to really let the other character’s personalities come through. There is no talking heads or limited movement during these video breaks. Instead, characters use full body language, they move around, they stop and pause; they think and feel and they allow their individuality to shine.

Then there are the investigation missions that can only be completed by figuring out all the clues. The world is slowly opened up and you will discover that not everything is as it seems. The Secret World is filled with secrets that only make me want to play the game more so that I can learn. Oh and the twists! But I won’t tell you about any of those.

All of these things come together to really give you a living, breathing world. When playing The Secret World, I can’t help but be pulled in. If you let yourself go and just fall into the game then you are in for one awesome ride. It’s really intense, fun, challenging and scary. It will have you thinking, wondering, and pondering about everything you see and everyone you meet.

The Secret World isn’t perfect but it’s an experience and one I am glad to have never missed.

(Editor’s note: As you know I’ve raved on about TSW endlessly too – are you seeing a trend here? This is a very immersive game – why not give it a try? And no – I’m not being paid by Funcom)

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed

The Naked Gamer: Extra Life

October 24, 2012 by

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

While most of us have gotten over our weekend of late nights gaming sessions and our infection of Mondayitis (which will just flare-up next week anyway), there are probably still a few fatigued gamers around. These valiant gamers will be daydreaming of sleep while stifling that lingering yawn and trying to survive their work/school day.

This is because on the 20th of October, gamers gathered (either physically or virtually) from around the world to play non-stop for 24 hours. Whether they were PC or console gamers, whether they played on their phone or through web browser, none of that mattered. All that did matter was playing computer games and helping children.

Extra Life is a charity event that started in 2008 and its current goal is to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia (Sydney). Even if your local children’s hospital isn’t part of this network, you can still organise for your donations to go to them instead. It is really is win-win for everyone – we get an excuse to challenge ourselves playing computer games and our children’s hospitals get more money.

Unfortunately this year, I didn’t participate. As much as I really wanted to, I couldn’t get a team together and I didn’t know any other teams to join. So instead I donated and have been spreading the word about this awesome charity event. Plus, there is always next year.

I know the biggest criticism I’ve heard is that it’s not exactly healthy to stay up for 24 hours, sitting on your bot-bot, probably consuming bad food and drink to raise money for sick children. Sure, if you put it like that then it is a bit ironic. However, the world is how you see it and I choose to see this as us gamers, doing something we love and pushing ourselves for one day out of the whole year in order to put our 1337 powers to good. It’s not like you even have to do the 24 hours in one sitting – while obviously it’s more fun and awesome that way, if you need more than one session then that’s fine.

If you can find a team of great people, staying up so late isn’t that hard. On the first day of Tera release I was up at 3am when the servers went live and didn’t go to sleep till 4am the next day, all without realising it. I really didn’t plan or mean to, it just happened. I was having so much fun with my guild that the time just flew by. Plus, I really did just have to do one last dungeon before bed, I promise.

Another criticism I hear is how exactly is playing computer games classed as anything charitable. While it is true that playing computer games will never be classed as volunteer work, it doesn’t mean we can’t raise money while doing it. There isn’t anything wrong with having some fun and helping out those that need it.

We as gamers have a chance to put our favourite hobby to good use, so I say take it. It seems really hard to argue that raising money legally for Children’s Hospital is a bad thing. Anything we can do to help sick children and help bring the gaming community together can’t really be so horrible, right?

So I hope to see you all next year during the Extra Life Charity Event. Let’s use those thumbs to help save some children!

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed

Oceanic Soap Box: Maintenance Leisure Time

October 19, 2012 by

This week I thought we’d get on our debating socks to talk about a subject that’s near but not very dear to most of our hearts: MMO server maintenance. This week saw a rather long maintenance of 12 hours over at Star Wars: The Old Republic – you only have to read the comments to see how maintenance can be a little annoying, particularly if it runs longer than scheduled.

So here’s the question: what do you do to while away the time a server is down? Do you play other games? Do you have a backup MMO you jump right into? Post a comment and share – we’re keen to know!

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: It’s A Secret

October 16, 2012 by

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

I recently read an interview with Martin Bruusgaard, ex-lead designer for The Secret World, on Penny Arcade. While I enjoyed the interview, there was one quote that stood out to me which I just couldn’t agree with.

“This may be a radical thing to say, but I think it would have helped if we actually had levels in the game. I’m sort of ashamed to say it, but I think that might’ve made things feel more familiar when it comes to players tracking their own progression and telling how strong they are, and knowing where to go. I think people got lost because they don’t have this number telling them how strong they are,” Bruusgaard said.

I feel it’s selling the players a bit short that the concept of an obvious progress indicator like a level is required to track our personal growth. The Secret World has quite a few progression benchmarks already, like the level of our weapons, our ever increasing skill level, and there are even faction rankings. I really don’t think it would have made much different if they did put some mystery numbers above everyone’s head.

This leads me to something I have always wanted to say to every game developer out there: there is nothing wrong with your game. There really isn’t. All games have their good points and their bad points, and there is nothing wrong with that. Sure there are nasties like bugs, down-time and other issues which aren’t fantastic, but they can’t change how awesome your game really is.

That does mean though that there are problems elsewhere. One of those problem I think is marketing and I’m not talking paid advertising here. There is something companies have been using for years and it’s completely free and perfect for MMOs: word of mouth.

I actually avoid MMO adverts –  I grew tired of hearing buzz words like ‘revolutionary’, ‘first ever’ and ‘dynamic’. A MMO needs to be able to sell itself and using as many fancy words as possible will only bring hype and then disappointment. When selling an MMO it’s not about selling boxes, it’s about selling subscriptions. Even free to play games aren’t immune from this. You need your player base to keep playing the game so they keep buying your product whether it’s a subscription, expansions, item cash store or  anything else to keep money coming in.

I know whenever I think about how I first heard of the games I’m interested in, it wasn’t advertisements. I think about the gaming news sites I visit, the gaming communities I’m involved in and my friends. Normally it starts with some sort of official announcement of a new game in development. Then the gaming news sites will start spreading it around. Then the gaming communities will start talking about it and finally your friend mentions this cool new game they heard about over that well-earned Friday night beer.

It does seem sometimes that publishers don’t really think about their target audience. It seems most publishers like to target existing MMO players, but is this really effective? MMOs are as different from each other as any other game – just because you play one doesn’t mean you will be interested in another. When I started playing The Secret World, the thing that hit me was nostalgia for games like Tex Murphy and Dog Day. The fact that it was an MMO and I’ve played MMOs previously really seemed inconsequential.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter. The Secret World might have had a disappointing start but it did have a great launch and a lot going for itself. Now the game seems to be getting out there more and appears to be gaining momentum.

I just wish it didn’t start out as such a secret.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, The Secret World Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: Panda Tears

October 9, 2012 by

The Naked Gamer

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

I’m a very emotional person. I recently read The Book Thief and there were tears towards the end. I’m unashamed to say that it’s not the first time I’ve cried over a book or movie. So while I normally don’t have any problem connecting with something fictional, I’ve never been able to feel this same way towards digital worlds and characters.

Therefore when I almost cried during the recent World of Warcraft expansion, it wasn’t something I was expecting. To avoid spoilers I won’t go into what happened, but anyone who has finished The Jade Forest probably knows what I am talking about. When watching that cut scene, I found myself involuntary yelling No! in a long drawn out fading screech that left my lungs empty. I waved my hands in front of the screen as if I could somehow stop the inevitable from happening. Unfortunately I couldn’t. When the cut scene finished, my heart sank in a way it never has before. I was left just sitting there for a long time staring at my little hunter with my mouth open, unsure how to continue.

I feel that Blizzard has done some things right in the newest World of Warcraft expansion and storytelling is pretty close to the top of the list. They’ve taken the style of Cataclysm, where the story is told as you progress through the zone, but kicked it up quite a few notches. Mist of Pandaria sees a really heartfelt fable delivered in a way where you are a part of it simply by playing. You can’t miss it even if you skip reading the quest text. You can’t even ignore it while you rush to the finish the rest of the content. It’s just there, gently leading you through the beautiful world towards the big teary finale.

In other games I’ve played, these sorts of story moments tend to just suddenly appear and before I can realise what’s going on it’s over. Because of this, I have been unable to appreciate their full meaning or even their true dire consequences. Or the story is so separate from the general game flow that it can be easily ignored or missed, leaving me to have to go backwards or forwards to continue. That is if I really want to.

There has been a lot of debate over the last few years about linear progression and its role in theme park MMOs. It tends to be considered a feature from the bygone days and something future games should be moving away from. However, in order to tell a story, there must be a start, middle and an end. It may seem better to give players the chance to go wherever they want but it doesn’t help the story to force them back into an old area or even into the next zone just to be able to find out what happens next.

If an MMO needs to continue with questing from hub to hub in order to tell a brilliant story that can bring me to tears, then please future MMOs, never change.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, Opinion, WoW

Oceanic Soap Box: Expansionary Thoughts

September 28, 2012 by

There’s always something happening in MMO land but I have to say that this week’s been one of the busier ones. What, with Mists of Pandaria landing, The Secret World releasing its Issue #3 update and SWTOR putting Patch 1.4 live, there’s a hell of a lot on offer.

So let’s open up the discussion across those three games: what are your thoughts on what’s been offered this week for your favourite game? Are you in a renewed honeymoon period with the game, still really disappointed or somewhere in between?

Let us know!

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With:
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