I Regret That I Have But One Life to Give

General

– to MMORPGs, that is.

There are currently a variety of MMORPGs out there that honestly intrigue me and that I would consider playing.  EVE Online combines heavy space technology with roleplaying characteristics in a large massive multiplayer online game, though I’ve heard that the learning curve is abysmally high.  The Lord of the Rings Online possesses those fantasy elements that fascinate me and supposedly has a thriving roleplaying community due to the series’ enduring popularity.  I’ve been a longtime fan of the Warhammer series¹, though I know very little of the Fantasy series that spawned Warhammer Online.  And, of course, the recent announcement that BioWare is developing a Star Wars MMORPG around its popular Knights of the Old Republic series leaves me ridiculously excited since I’m both a fan of the Star Wars universe² and think that BioWare is infallible.

However, my inability to adopt a new MMORPG while continuing to play World of Warcraft has prevented me from giving these games more than a cursory glance.

A lot of things keep me from leaving World of Warcraft.  For one, I’m still enjoying the game, even having started playing years back during the open beta.  There are still aspects of the game I’m learning about, whether it’s playing a new class, new role, or even doing the game differently than I had before.  This is important for me, since I do enjoy both numbercrunching and theorycrafting.  There’s also the social aspect of the game that has prevented me from joining a new game; I love the community and all of its idiocyncracies, whether it was interacting with the raiding crowd, the roleplaying crowd, or even the still-growing blogosphere.

There are certain characteristics that I’m looking for in my ideal MMORPG, many of them gleamed from my time playing Ultima Online on The Alter Realm freeserver.  These things would include:

Rules Actively Enforced by Staff

When I was on TAR Sphere, I spend the majority of my time not only as a player but also a staff member.  I was originally a counsellor tasked with answering pages, but eventually became a Game Master and assisted with world design, decorating the towns and dungeons, and hosting player events.  However, it was understood that all of the staff members — from Counselors to Game Masters alike — would spend a portion of their  time in-game just watching other players and actively seeking people who were failing to adhere to the server rules.

Blizzard in particular fails in this regard.  They have adapted a passive stance to many of their own rules, particularly ones regarding conduct.³  By waiting for players to make complaints before even investigating a matter, players often feel that there is a disconnect between the intended game and the game that has resulted from such passivity.  Sometimes it takes hours for a Game Master to reply to serious breaches of conduct, as was the case yesterday afternoon on the Feathermoon US roleplaying server when a number of griefers repeatedly visited the site spouting racist nonsense.

More Interaction Between Staff and Players

I know that it’s difficult for Blizzard to interact with its players on an individual basis, but I really feel that this is something in World of Warcraft that could be rectified for some easily acquired benefits.  When I played on Ultima Online as a Game Master, I was clearly and proudly serving that realm alone.  I was active on the forums, I participated in world events and even designed a few, and other players knew which characters I had.⁴

While I understand that I was responsible for a single realm that had only a few thousand active accounts during its heyday, Blizzard could adopt a similar program.  Rather than cycling Game Masters through a variety of different servers, each server should have at least one — though most likely more! — dedicated Game Master.  This would allow for some measure of consistency regarding policies, especially on roleplaying servers where staff members have informed us that it’s the community that determines what is acceptable and what is not.  This has become increasingly difficult as the years pass and different staff members make different decisions regarding a number of policies that Blizzard itself has established.  In particular, a number of staff members have reacted with disdain when roleplayers have approached them regarding typical roleplaying complaints, with even basic problems like griefing.

More Player Impact

One of the things that I adored about Ultima Online was just how much impact a player could have on the world.  For example, one of the very first things that a friend of mine did upon joining our server was keep a diary regarding the adventures of “Nakey Man”, a naked miner that he encountered on his very first day.  While it made sense to mine naked to a longtime player of the game⁵, it was fascinating to him.  This journal was later put into circluation through the thirty-page books that were designed into the game.  Imagine just how something this minute could influence World of Warcraft, especially for roleplayers who are clamoring for this kind of detail.

Of course, there were a variety of other things that made this game so appealing.  Players could cut and dye their hair.⁶  The player economy was much more robust, with the vast majority of items being crafted by the community as opposed to being acquired by fighting mobs.  In particular there was a large economy for items to decorate player housing, which is where I originally made my niche on the server as Veras, TAR Sphere’s number one interior decorator™.  Armor, a number of player-created housing items, and even player hair could be dyed unconventional colors through a dye tub, allowing for further customization.

And having a bulletin board outside of your house or in major cities was definitely a fun way of communicating with other people!

A friend of mine who played Final Fantasy XI extensively once lamented this aspect of World of Warcraft as well.  In that game, he explained that players who created or assisted nations had definite impact on the world.  If you created a character in one nation and gained a lot of fame, that nation gained further prominence within the world.  Some cities became under attack and players needed to clear the area of enemies before it became safe again.  In World of Warcraft, the closest things that have come to this ideal are the initial Sunwell efforts and The Source Invasion — both of which were one-time world events on each server.

Increased Venues of Player Interaction

World of Warcraft has only a few venues for interaction with other players.  One of the things that made Ultima Online so appealing was the amount of depth that went into forming a guild.  Not only could you create guild housing, set up permissions, and do all of the things currently within the game, but you could also assign friendly and hated guilds.  If you were in a guild and possessed a hate guild, even towns weren’t invariably safe; you could find yourself attacked in an isolated corner.  This would be wonderful within World of Warcraft, allowing for people to settle scores within the game, especially for those within the same faction.  How often have you wished that you could attack and kill a member of your own faction, perhaps even more than members of your opposing faction?

World of Ultima Online?

This isn’t to say that I’m looking to return to Ultima Online any time soon — though I have considered it in the past.  However, other than perhaps a brief bout into Lineage II at the request of a friend it’s the only MMORPG that I’ve played outside of World of Warcraft and the one that I spent the vast majority of my time playing.  As a result, it’s where I’ve had the most impact and had my perceptions of MMORPGs sculpted.

If there were a game that combined all of these concepts while maintaining aspects of World of Warcraft that I find both so appealing and addictive, then I’d probably switch over.  Maybe?

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