MMORPGs - are they for me?

Or do I just want to play Ultima forever?  What's a cranky gamer to do?

I have a confession to make:  I have very little experience with Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.  Given that Role Playing Games are my favorite genre, and I write for a blog about video games, and MMORPGs are like, the biggest thing to happen to video games in a decade - I think this represents a pretty substantial hole in my game playing experience and perspective.

Now granted, I did play FF XI to about level 20 or so, and gained dual class.  And I've watched 5 seasons of 'The Guild.'  Also - I once lived in a house where three of my roommates split their rooms up so that they all slept in one room, and then the other room was dedicated to WoW.  During that time, I picked some of the MMO experience through osmosis.   So I'm not utterly without knowledge of MMOs.  But I do realize that the MMO experience goes deep, and I just float above the surface, making observations.

But maybe i'm like a pelican or a kingfisher, maybe I can float above the surface, but dive in and grab a fish every so often.  The metaphorical fish being some sort of intellectual point that I want to make, somewhere, somehow.  Anyway, this topic came up because I was writing some thoughts about a game called Ultima: Exodus and going on and on and on-- as I am wont to do-- when I came to a point where I wanted to make a comparison to MMOs, and then make a series of claims about MMOs.  At this point, I felt I should break this subject off to its own post, and focus in on MMO vs Ultima: Exodus.

It isn't unusual to talk about the Ultima series in context with MMORPGs.  Ultima Online is widely credited as the first successful MMO.  In addition,  there's this great article about the Ultima series,  humbly making the claim that it is the most important game series ever.  And giving the series credit for a lot of what became genre tropes for MMORPGs.  For example, open world gaming and multiple choice conversation mechanics. 

In addition, outside of said article, I have made my own observations from playing Exodus.  One is the sort of 'guild' element:  the option to have up to 20 custom made characters with which to build a party. This element served my household well, as there was enough space for me, my two sisters and my Dad to all have four seperate characters.  In practice, this led to a lead party, the original party that we delved into the game with.  This one would have the highest levels, the strongest gear, and progress the furthest.  Then there were the splinter groups:  characters we would make just because making characters was fun.  They might not progress very far, or gain much gear.  But if we liked a particular character or party, we could boost them up with some grinding, into a legitimate party option for the lead team.  This actually turned out to be a pretty good idea, as there are certain class differences that can become primarily important in the game.  For example, I think the Mystic Sword may only be able to be equipped by a Fighter or Barbarian.  I remember getting to a point and realizing that I couldn't equip it to anyone in my party.   In addition, you may find that your party just needs a bit more brute strength or a bit more magic to accomplish a given goal.  So it is really helpful to have additional characters leveled up.

All of this contributed greatly to a 'team effort.'  The younger kids might not be up to the task of raiding the tougher dungeons, but we were a match for the goal of grinding away and raising characters to decent level.  This allowed our family team to, in effect, accomplish multiple goals at once.  Similar, I think, to MMORPGs of today.  Though, of course, Exodus was neither massively multiplayer or online.  But it was Multiplayer on a small scale, it just required taking turns rather than simultaneous play.  And why not?

So this brings me to confront my ignorance about MMORPGs.  Like, do any MMOs have similar elements to what I described above?  The only example that pops into my head is "Realm of the Mad God."  Which does a lot of things right.  I like the 8-bit graphics.  I like the team play.  I'm not wild about the shmup style action.  I know it sounds strange, but I kind of wish for a turn-based MMO, even if that seems counter-intuitive.  Also, Mad God doesn't do much for customization, as far as I can tell.

Alright, at this point, I should mention that I am feeling very rigid.  Like, what I really want is just for Ultima: Exodus, NES version, to be online so I can play it with my friends in exactly the same way I played with my family.  I realize this is not going to happen and it borders on delusional.  But I still want it.  I mean, what are video games if not escapism?  What's more escapist than a deluded fantasy about reliving my own childhood- today?  Anyway, maybe there's something deeper in there, but if you'll excuse me, I've got to go to work.  

-D

P.S. Big Congrats to Jaconian and Conklederp for being awesome!

I'm in love with my own ideas: Birds and Bees

So, I was listening to this podcast from Science Friday, about the sad plight of bees.  They really sound like they're up against a lot, and are very sensitive.  There's a problem of a lack of variety - corn, corn corn, too much, doesn't serve their purpose and they're malnourished.  And then there's pesticides, where only a few parts per billion can get into the bees systems from the pollen and then affect their behavior. 

So, of course, while listening to this I thought:  Video game!  Maybe an RTS, maybe a hybrid game.  But a bee colony has a set of behaviors, each bee is essentially grinding pollen, and/or on a fetch quest.  They've also got some rad other behaviors, like scouting, dancing and of course, making honey.  Why not have a game about it ?  What I like about this game is that it doesn't have to be *super duper* compelling game-play wise.  It can be basic, even a little boring.  But what it *does* have to do is be as accurate as possible (maybe a little bit of creative license, but there's always some of that, they call it 'theory').  And allow the players to take part in the different parts of running a bee colony.  Sim Bee!  Sim Colony!  TM TM TM!!!  Anyway, I think that would be great.  I also think it would be great to pilot a Bee in 3d space.  zip zip zip!

In addition, it wouldn't be hard to come up with a story arc.  Have a bee colony that's doing well, through the generations.  But then have it run into some of the bee colony problems listed above in the podcast.  Suddenly, there's a lack of nutritional variety, become more and more scarce, while on  the other hand, there's pesticides slowly finding their way in, fucking shit up.  Sadness.  But a good story, and valuable!

The second animal idea I had was bird flight simulator.  I suppose there could be some flocking that might happen. Birds come in many shapes and sizes and flying styles, not all can form those great 'V's we see overhead.  But birds have their own interesting qualities if you watch them.  I'm sure that the annals of ornithology have all sorts of fun data to play with in terms of gaming and simulation.  

Because- so many games are just simulators if you look at them right.  Mario Kart is a go-kart simulator.  But that was too boring, so they through in items and zips and combat and such. 

Mega Man is a running jumping and shooting simulator--  A Kinesiology simulator!  It's not very accurate though.  Same for Super Mario Bros.  Similar to how action figures are little humans, that just don't move right.  Those funny art pose figurines are much closer than GI Joe or HeMan ever were.

Anyway, I think educational and simulation games is where its at.  You can quote me on that.  Also, you can steal my ideas, since they aren't worth much on their own.  But I really want to stress that I think games based on educational and science topics can really be awesome.  Everyone loves physics engines, let's try to use them for something other than blowing shit up!  And if I'm right, then playing games that will teach us about the birds and the bees may help us be more compassionate, and that's a quality you can never have too much of.  

-D

You Know What? Flying Is Weird.

I was sitting outside yesterday morning, mainly because it wasn't raining and it wasn't cold.  It might be the start of the "Drinking Coffee Out on the Deck in the Morning Because the Cat Wants Us to Go Outside" time of year.  Yes, the cat will hang out by the sliding door and meow at us after we're awake wanting us to open the door so he can go outside and sit on the deck with us.  Although I don't think we really factor into his thinking aside from having to open the door for him.  So there we are, enjoying our coffee and I see a vulture circling on air currents and thermals.

That's when I start thinking about Pilotwings.  Until I had been playing Pilotwings Resort for the 3DS extensively, I felt like I could never get the hang of hang gliding (pun not intended or noticed until after I wrote that) regardless of the Pilotwings game.  In Pilotwings 64 I could never figure out the right balance of gliding between thermals, circling and watching the beautiful scenery.

So there I am, looking up at this circling vulture and after it circles a few times, it flies a different direction (aren't all directions different after a circle?) then rises while circling as it comes in contact with another thermal.  How do they know where the thermals are?  I get that it's some bird intuition-sense-it-through-their-feathers/brains/esp-something-or-other-that-I-don't-fully-understand, but it's still kind of amazing when I think about it.

That's probably one of the reasons why I will never go hang gliding.  If I were to be convinced to go, even on a tandem glide, which I'm pretty sure is required if you've never been before (like sky diving), I would be pseudo-panicking because I wouldn't be able to see where the thermals are and we would end up just circling our way back down to the ground.  Like, how do you know where they are in the real world if they don't look like this:

That's my fear anyway, maybe along with hang gliding old women dressed as clowns carrying sharpened rusty knives in their teeth.  But that's something else entirely.

You also cannot tell, but I had just taken an hour long break to put together an Ikea bookshelf.  I went looking for my collection of 3DS games [I wanted to take an in-game picture of a thermal in Pilotwings Resort, because that's one of the few 3DS games where you can take in-game pics) in a pile that was birthed after cleaning up the apartment, was unable to locate it and thought, "If all our video game stuff was centralized, it would be easy to find stuff" and "I should clean up that corner where our video game stuff is stacked/piled."  So when I first started, Conklederp asked if she could help and this popped into my head:

I didn't want this to happen, but I ended up needing Conklederp's help so she did, and it only took, at most, an hour, probably not even that long.  I've got carpentry and cabinet making running through my blood on both sides of my family, so I know how to build shit.

So I did all that and then I have now come back to finish.  Again, birds can fly and that makes them pretty awesome.  Ducks can swim and fly, which makes them awesomer.  Dippers, are just too fucking much and are probably in the process of taking over the world.  What's that, you haven't heard of Dippers?  That's part of their plot too and so far, it's worked.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Smoke & Mirrors