Musings
Brendan over at centripetalforces recently redid his blog layout and completely deleted his old blog, thus allowing him to start fresh. I’m in no hurry to do that (hell, this blog is only 2 months old), but it got me thinking a little bit. I wonder how many people get stuck into a rut and never find the wherewithal to get out of it? And I don’t just mean with a blog. I myself have this propensity for starting over whenever I get bored with something - you just have to see my list of past MMO characters to see that. But then you have people like Jon, who stick with something far past any point of having fun, in hopes that it might get better or because they don’t want to lose the time involved. I can understand that determination in the face of difficulty is a good thing, and sometimes sticking it through can be good, but sometimes we just have to move forward. Life should be about seeking new experiences or, at the least, enjoying the old ones - not beating unenjoyable ones 6 feet under in some attempt at continuity.
Interestingly enough, though not entirely related, I was reading through a few threads at the Forge when I stumbled across this post, wherein the author said:
I think the solution is not to go back there. You cannot go back there, because you know the things you know and they won’t be new and fascinating any more. My solution is to go ever forward. To seek out new games, new styles, new players, new inspiration.
I just love that. It’s a very free way of looking at things. The past can affect you through the things you know and have experienced, but it doesn’t keep you from finding a new spark of fascination with life or bog you down into the mud of daily routine and doing things because you always have, rather than because you actively want to. Funny to find such an inspirational set of sentences on a site about Roleplaying. I suppose there is wisdom to be found everywhere after all.
cruinh
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
I don’t know… considering the depth to which roleplayers seem prone to explore their characters feelings and motivations, moral quandaries, and so forth, I’m surprised that doesn’t lead into philosophical musings and inspirational wisdom more often.
It’s interesting you should blog about this when just yesterday I’d read about Tabula Rasa getting almost completely redesigned. ….starting off with a “clean slate”, if you will
jena
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
Eh, you’re probably right.
I think WoW is making me cynical about “roleplayers”, even though it doesn’t really qualify as a roleplaying game.
I read that about TR too.. I was kinda disappointed, because the game sounded so cool that I hate to see it delayed.
I don’t know though. I’m starting to think I’m just not cut out for a MMO. I’m not sure why, because I really like the idea.. I just don’t like having to grind to get anywhere. I like console games a lot, because a lot of the time, you don’t have to actually fight a lot of stuff just to finish the game. Sure, you have the option of doing all the hardcore stuff (like Jon’s 111 hour FFX game, oi), but you don’t *have* to in order to get the story. I think that’s what MMOs are missing, and I can’t think of any real good way to fix that.
In a way, I think MMOs are almost doomed to failure, for me. I mean, look at what I wrote in this post, and then consider that MMOs are meant to be long-term games that are played a lot. I’m just not cut out for that. The only reason I got to 70-whatever in Diablo II was because I was freakin’ badass; plus, I had to keep fighting just to pay off my repair debts as a barbarian.
Oh, and I did it over two completely different periods of time, separated by about 2 years. That said, no MMO is ever going to have a class like that. He did tons of damage, could take tons of damage, and was generally a total badass. Nobody gets to be badass in an MMO. Nobody gets to singlehandedly save the world from the legions of Hell. Maybe if you get to 60 in WoW and have full epic gear or whatever, you might be badass at killing players. Whoo. *waves a flag ala Monty Python*
Anyway.. I’m on the verge of turning this into an epic novel, so I think I’ll shut up now.
cruinh
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
Well… I’d heard rumors that people who had played it were pretty disappointed with how it was shaping up. I think the TR redesign is probably a very good thing. I have renewed hope for it
You know all this, but I’m gonna say it anyway
I think I’m almost in the same boat with you on MMOGs… except that occasionally I actually enjoy grinding. Particularly after I’ve spent a whole day coding or generally just don’t want to think about anything for a while. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I played FFX-2 tho. I was playing it for the story… for that perfect ending. Maybe I was just obsessed (I got past the 200 hour mark with that one).
But I also think the best games are the ones where the story is what keeps your attention to the point where you don’t even notice the story anymore. The game’s still there, but it flows smoothly and goes quick enough that you’re still thinking about the last story segment by the time it’s over and you’ve gotten to the next one.
Talking about this makes me think of Grandia 2. That game did it pretty well, i thought. At least, thinking back on it, I can’t think of any times where advancement in the game kept me from the story. Thank god they’re finally making a sequel to that. I hope it’s as good
jena
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
Exactly. That’s exactly what MMOs are missing. There’s no real immersion, because you don’t play an MMO for story. Very few people even play to be in the world - though I have to say that’s about all that’s kept me going in WoW. A lot of console games even lose that balance, when you have to battle through thousands of random encounters just to get to the next plot twist. Sections of Suikoden and Suiko II were like that for me, but there was almost always another story to be found - maybe another character to recruit, or something. And at least in those games you could get items (or characters) later on to help deal with the tedium of random combat (right. Baldur’s Gate II and Neverwinter Nights were on the right track. But we don’t want additional players to be stuck in the roles of henchmen, so there needs to be a better narrative structure that allows for input from multiple people (or not, if there aren’t any). This sort of game would have to be limited to no more than 4 players, most likely, but it’d still be great for “adventuring” with friends without having to resort to a total hack and slash, grindfest game.
cruinh
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
I feel like I’ve heard about a game like this somewhere… a LMOG, I guess. Limited Multiplayer Online Game.
I guess that’s Neverwinter, or even Fantasy Grounds (although that last is practically a different genre from what we’re talking about).
I used to have a lot of fun playing games co-op with my roommate in college (though there were never enough games to play like this). Like Doom for example. That was awesome. Yeah, no story to speak of, but imagine if there were a roleplaying game like that.
Actually System Shock 2 is pretty much the sort of game I’m talking about, but it’s the only one I know of. Great sci-fi/cyberpunk story. Combat and tedium rarely get in the way of advancement. And you can play co-op. But for some reason I could never get anyone to play it with. Phang and I tried a couple times, but we both knew the game too well when we played it so it wasn’t much fun. And besides the co-op was still only put in as an afterthought. The game was quite obviously designed for only a single player in some parts (what NPCs there are only talk to you as if there’s one person in front of them).
Now I’m just rambling at this point… but I think that’s basically what we want. A good co-operative multiplayer RPG. Preferrably with some good periodically released, episodic content so it lasts for a while.
jena
April 19th, 2005
3 years, 5 months ago
Amen, bruthah~