Your MMO is a Joke
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
I'm with you shamus, i'm one of those weirdos who actually reads the quest text...and for that when i talk about the story to my other wow friends they have no clue what the hell i'm talking about. It for me helps in making the quests interesting to do, cause i know that doing this is for a purpose, instead of just for a reward of loot & exp. I think with the upcoming star wars: the old republic game coming out, with its fully voiced, fully cutscened game, it will make lazy people who don't want to read understand the game they're playing more. And i won't be the only one who knows the story! but of course there will be people who just will skip over the cut scenes =/
And to be clear: I'm not saying the game shouldn't be campy fun, but that it should be thematically correct campy fun. The Incredibles was great fun, but it had the jokes in the right spots. The bad guy wasn't a buffoon, but a real threat. Even though the world was silly, it was fun silly and not stupid silly. When it went for laughs, it actually had real jokes and not a guy named "Homer Samson" yelling DOH! It had physical humor that wasn't just the main character slipping on a banana peel.
KOTOR is another game that did humor well. HK-47 is hilarious without once using the setting as a cheap gag. He fits in the world, which makes him that much funnier.
Evil Genius did the 60's spy-movie send-up, and did so with wit. In that game you DO play as a bit of a goof, but your character actually has an appropriate goal (take over the world) and not something stupid. (Take over a pie factory.)
Here are three witty and interesting approaches to humor. Champs doesn't go for any of them. The writing isn't trying to be clever. It's just lazy.
"Oh look! It's an anchorman named Rob Mahogany! Get it? Like the Anchorman movie? Wasn't that movie funny? Huh?"
KOTOR is another game that did humor well. HK-47 is hilarious without once using the setting as a cheap gag. He fits in the world, which makes him that much funnier.
Evil Genius did the 60's spy-movie send-up, and did so with wit. In that game you DO play as a bit of a goof, but your character actually has an appropriate goal (take over the world) and not something stupid. (Take over a pie factory.)
Here are three witty and interesting approaches to humor. Champs doesn't go for any of them. The writing isn't trying to be clever. It's just lazy.
"Oh look! It's an anchorman named Rob Mahogany! Get it? Like the Anchorman movie? Wasn't that movie funny? Huh?"
Sadly, yes. And Hellgate was a good bit sillier. I did a write-up of it here:AvauntVanguard said:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1701
you understand that Lackluster PvP is pretty much the definition of good compeditive play for any RPG?KarmicToast said:
find me an MMO other then Planetside with real compeditive multiplayer that doesnt care about how you are doing in the storyline or how your equipment is set up
Neither of which require you to play the storyline at all or have the most 'uber' gear thanks to PvP-only characters (and the complete lack of any "best" items). Even a tiny amount of unlocking will leave the would be PvP player with a character just as well off as one a player who's spent 4 years doing PvE will have.
Additional: Some people seem to think I hate this game.
I love this game way too much. I've been playing obsessively for 2 weeks. I just think the writing is poor, both in a narrative and thematic sense. I'd hate to see this "can't be aresed to try" approach to quest writing become the norm.
I love this game way too much. I've been playing obsessively for 2 weeks. I just think the writing is poor, both in a narrative and thematic sense. I'd hate to see this "can't be aresed to try" approach to quest writing become the norm.
Personally, I love it when games are silly and constantly break the fourth wall.
I haven't played Champions Online so I can't speak for it specifically, but the article honestly makes it seem like a game that's right up my alley.
Well, okay, maybe not exactly. I'm a huge fan of MST3K, and my favorite kind of humor fits right into that niche; a serious world contrasted by snarky characters who break the fourth wall and generally take the piss. Still, an entirely silly world that constantly breaks the fourth wall and snarks at itself sounds like a good time to me.
I can see how an entirely silly world can be a turn-off to people who feel that games, by definition, have to 'draw' you into their world, but I don't necessarily play games to be drawn into them. I don't mean that I hate games that try to draw you in- quite the contrary; I just feel like people seem to think that a game has to try and engross you in its fiction, when this isn't necessarily the case.
I haven't played Champions Online so I can't speak for it specifically, but the article honestly makes it seem like a game that's right up my alley.
Well, okay, maybe not exactly. I'm a huge fan of MST3K, and my favorite kind of humor fits right into that niche; a serious world contrasted by snarky characters who break the fourth wall and generally take the piss. Still, an entirely silly world that constantly breaks the fourth wall and snarks at itself sounds like a good time to me.
I can see how an entirely silly world can be a turn-off to people who feel that games, by definition, have to 'draw' you into their world, but I don't necessarily play games to be drawn into them. I don't mean that I hate games that try to draw you in- quite the contrary; I just feel like people seem to think that a game has to try and engross you in its fiction, when this isn't necessarily the case.
I've been thinking about this a bit (while bitchslapping demons in Lemuria)...
Over time, I've been attacked more and more by my Nemesis' Minions, I've read on their forums that it's rumoured that they're going to add in "dependants", housing and super group bases, and many people in my super group are talking about the concept of designing your own Nemesis base, so what we have here are a character you've designed, fighting enemies you've designed, in lairs you've designed, saving people you've designed and then going back to the apartment that you've furnished using the money that isn't worth spending anywhere else.
In my personal opinion, the Nemesis quests and dialogue is some of the best in the game. The plots are cliched (I just destroyed my first Nemesis' Death Ray and...
but they work. The dialogue is a surprisingly good display of the personality you've picked for them, and it's not that comical overall. I have a feeling that the main, premade content is going to provide the backdrop for more player-made content as the game goes on. I wouldn't be surprised if the first major patch adds in more Nemesis options and quests, and that the more "zany" main quest lines are increasingly used as filler for Nemesis schemes, which are usually FAR darker in nature.
Over time, I've been attacked more and more by my Nemesis' Minions, I've read on their forums that it's rumoured that they're going to add in "dependants", housing and super group bases, and many people in my super group are talking about the concept of designing your own Nemesis base, so what we have here are a character you've designed, fighting enemies you've designed, in lairs you've designed, saving people you've designed and then going back to the apartment that you've furnished using the money that isn't worth spending anywhere else.
In my personal opinion, the Nemesis quests and dialogue is some of the best in the game. The plots are cliched (I just destroyed my first Nemesis' Death Ray and...
she was recruited into Dr. Destroyer's League of Destruction. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun...)
but they work. The dialogue is a surprisingly good display of the personality you've picked for them, and it's not that comical overall. I have a feeling that the main, premade content is going to provide the backdrop for more player-made content as the game goes on. I wouldn't be surprised if the first major patch adds in more Nemesis options and quests, and that the more "zany" main quest lines are increasingly used as filler for Nemesis schemes, which are usually FAR darker in nature.
Then you're prolly looking forward to SW:TOR. I know I am. Hah, be the centre of your own multiplayer movie? Right on.
Too be honest I think that the game sounds brilliantly hilarious. Like Destroy All Humans!... Exept without having one child* that tried earnestly, and succeeded in most places to follow in it's daddies footsteps, a middle child* that, like so many others, was neglected attention (by myself specifically) and a baby* that was born with D.O.W.N.S. syndromeShamus Young said:
*In order
WoW has high fantasy that reads like it was written by a English major making $20/hour. With that being my first experience, I've never had high hopes for MMO story lines. Which is fine... in MMOs you create your own story, by where you go, what you do, guilds you join, friends you make, etc.
Maybe CO does have bad writing but no worse or better than the rest of the pack. I'm the sort that is yeah yeah give me the experience and crappy green quest equipment and I'm done with it. So maybe I'm not picky.
Maybe CO does have bad writing but no worse or better than the rest of the pack. I'm the sort that is yeah yeah give me the experience and crappy green quest equipment and I'm done with it. So maybe I'm not picky.
