Star Trek Meets Chat Roulette
Via @scifigeeks
Where’s the “Massively”?
Recently I got into a heated, but short discussion with some of the folks I regularly Skype with about the nature of a “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game,” lovingly referred to as an MMORPG. Specifically, we were speaking about the new game “Vindictus” and if it was, in fact, an MMO. Let me tell you why it’s not.
Vindictus is an online game built from Valve’s Source Engine and adapted for a hack-and-slash style of gameplay. That is to say it is much like a far more complicated, far more responsive and far better implemented Streets of Rage or Double Dragon. Or even that multiplayer X-Men game from the arcade days (Remember those? Ug, now I want to play them…). It is currently in beta and offers only three classes (with two more to be released) with each class locked into a specific gender (which annoys me to no end).
In Vindictus you can customize your features to a degree and customize your clothing within major restriction. Ultimately, the lack of gender choice and certain other modifications cause many characters to end up looking a lot like others of the same class. This is a common and unfortunate occurrence in many free-to-play online games offered by Nexon and it’s contemporaries.
That aside, the gameplay is fun, the animations and graphics are very very good, and, while I’ve only gotten up to level 9 (twice… stupid east/west servers) I’ve had no trouble progressing through the missions and gameplay.
This game is defiantly multiplayer, I’ve been playing with my friends over the past few days and having an excellent time of it. There’s also a small role-play element of it, even though a player doesn’t have much choice in the matter. But what this game is -not- is a “massively” multiplayer game.
There are several counters to my statement. Let me break them down for you here:
“Vindictus is billed as an MMORPG.”
Given the gameplay style, Vindictus is no more an MMO than Left 4 Dead (2) is. The game is set up in such a fashion that players must receive missions from their quest givers (hence some form of rpg) and move to a lobby area to queue up to do these missions, waiting for other members of their team. Now, mind, the lobby area is cleverly disguised as a ‘boat waiting to sail,’ but it’s clearly just the same as a Left 4 Dead lobby where players select the mission they want, the difficulty they’d like to play on and any modifiers to their experience.
Where is the “massively” in that? When only interacting with other players (BARELY!) in between missions in a “hub” world where nothing is taking place, what’s “massively” about that? All told, a given player is only interacting with other people for those thirty seconds it takes to pull together a team of four or less, then sent to a private instance of a mission in which one cannot physically (virtually) interact with any other players.
Lastly, just because something is “billed” in a category doesn’t make it so. If that’s the case, I’m a billionaire… nope, still broke.
“Vindictus will have a lot of players”
Regardless of the number of people actually playing the game, there is no opportunity to interact massively with other people. One cannot drop in with another player spontaneously and kill the same creature, then speed off in another direction with only a “thanks!”
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I don’t say all of this to pull down what Vindictus or any other miss-attributed online game is. They are fun games but they are not MMORPGs. They’re multiplayer online rpgs.
I think the reason why developers and publishers want to tout their games as an MMORPG is because their pricing model is unlike other games. Consider:
I buy Diablo 2 off the shelf, I pay a specific price and get to play it forever. After that initial investment, the developers get no more money from me.
I buy World of Warcraft (ug) off the shelf, I pay an initial box price, then pay a subscription price for life.
The difference? The pay models. Only MMORPGs get the special consideration of an ongoing exchange of money from the consumer to the developer/publisher.
So, next time you look at a new game touted as an MMORPG, take a closer look.
I’m looking at you, Star Wars…
IC
Next: Roleplaying in Games
The Future of Gaming
Fifteen years ago, if you told me that gaming would progress to where it is now: a multi-billion dollar industry filled with games that are easily on par with million-dollar films, I’d believe you. The reason for that is people want to be a part of their entertainment experience. They want to feel as though they connect with whatever character is being displayed on a screen, talked about through audio or read about on the page.
To this end, I fully expect, in the next fifteen years, that entertainment will progress to a point where the difference between what we know today as a film and a video game will become blurred. of course, there will always be a spot in the world for the major films as there is still a spot in the world for photography, sculpture and painting. But as we go forward, technology will progress to a point that will enable us to experience virtual reality.
And major, major kudos to the first major video game studio that creates the first multi-player online role-playing game with the richness of Oblivion or Fallout, the graphic fidelity of Avatar and the up-and-coming virtual reality. I wish I could see the future so that I can see which company comes out on top, because I’d really like to buy their stock.
In a world filled with robotics that can mimic human facial features, video technology that can -read- human facial features, when will we see these applications adapted for our entertainment?
Dunno. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll probably be an early adopter of that first sort of game. At that time, I will cease being a productive member of society as I power level my way up to max.
IC
