Behind the Curtain: More Epic Gameplay?
by Craig Withers 
May 1st 2008 at 9:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, EverQuest, Opinion, Behind the Curtain
Should MMOs give us a more 'epic' feel to our experiences? In the past, when I've explained the time I spend in-game to friends and relatives, one of the common complaints or opinions that I hear a lot is that it never sounds very exciting.While I know that I've been saving a future Warchief from slavery, or putting to rest the spirit of a lost fiancée, some people are always going to see it as me just killing some more anonymous monsters that will be back in five minutes' time.
"This is boring!" they cry, "How long does it take you to kill a boar!?" I have to explain to them, again and again, the genre staples – incremental gear upgrades, starting from pathetic, finally getting up to ridiculous pieces of gear that make other players weep with envy. When they turn round and say, "Okay, show me the cool gear then, go buy some and use it instead." I have to explain, once more, that that kind of gear is only rewarded after you've spent weeks, months even, in the game, working your way up to them. It's about this time that disgust and terminal boredom sets in, and they drift away to their own pursuits, convinced that I'm slightly mad.
I can see their point, to a certain extent; even though I really enjoy EVE Online, I don't play it at the moment, primarily because I don't have time in my life right now, and also because any time I do start it up my girlfriend – who enjoys WoW herself – mocks me viciously for what appears to be endless hours of shooting at rocks and doing maths for fun. While I realise she's just teasing, there's a niggling voice in the back of my head that tells me she just may be right – although the rewards are there, is the time and effort investment too much to justify the pay-off?
Also, the game is not geared towards playing solo; eking out a living on the fringes of low-sec space as a one-man operation. That being said, being the bloody-minded individual that I am, I always end up playing that way, just to be stubborn.
We all know that MMOs have traditionally taken flak for being chock full of Fed-ex and 'kill X number of Y' quests, but I try to explain to people that MMOs are usually played this way; small-scale victories, the building blocks or stepping stones or baby steps on the road to the larger, epic conquests that will come later in the game; spending an extra few minutes checking mineral prices in EVE might give you that little bit extra on your profit margin that makes the time you spent mining last night worth it; in World of Warcraft, it might be the endless instance runs in PUGs that finally nets you enough tanking gear to take over as Main Tank for your guild's Karazhan runs.
That being said, as games grow and expand and level caps are increased, it can become harder and harder to keep new players interested if they feel like they're facing an ever-increasing level grind before they start to feel like they're participating in the game with the rest of the population. With the level cap in WoW going up to 80 with Wrath of the Lich King, will Blizzard sweeten the deal for new players any more than they did with the levelling buffs they applied in patch 2.3?
Everquest certainly managed to put out a good few expansions, without resorting to increasing the level cap each time and extending the length of the grind faced by new players or giving rise to rampant mudflation – and if it was possible back then, it's certainly possible now.
Should MMOs be giving players bigger and better rewards sooner than we normally see them? Should we be seeing players in WoW riding around on mounts at level 10, instead of 40? Should your first class quest reward you with an overpowered epic?
The obvious downside to doing so is that your progress, you achievements could become devalued. Where would the sense of achievement come from? Where would you go next if, after your first hour or two in the game, you were being handed actual welfare epics? How much value would you place on your gear if it had been handed to you for free?
I'm probably being naïve – 'epic' rewards can just as easily come from the quality of the content you're experiencing, rather than the material rewards you're being handed at the end of said content; the fact that you've been rewarded with a great sword might be little more than a bonus, if the new area you've been exploring for the past few hours has you so enthralled that you completely lost track of time.
At the end of the day, there are arguments for and against both points of view here – some people always gauge their success or enjoyment based on the material rewards they've accrued, while others take equal enjoyment simply from playing, regardless of their (relative) success or failure.
It comes back to the afore-mentioned genre staples – where the material rewards, the gear, aren't really bonuses or extras, but are more likely to be the point of the game. These staples aren't necessarily a bad thing – in a way they're comforting, giving us a way of anchoring ourselves in the game, making it easier to find our feet – but the sooner we see some really high quality, high population MMOs achieve success through subverting them, the better off we'll all be as gamers.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rational said on 9:15PM 5-01-2008
If someone is complaining that it's just killing monsters that will back in five minutes time, then something is wrong with their suspension of disbelief. When we read a book, we don't realize that we're just holding a sheaf of paper in our hand and we're staring at it for hours on end.
In order to enjoy the activity, you have to put your imagination to work. This is why quest text and NPC interaction is important. It's supposed to pull you into the world and give you a reason for doing what you're doing. Sure, it starts out small, but it's supposed to become "EPIC" at some point in the story.
If we removed all the quest text from an MMO, just removed every scrap of quest text and replaced it with simple instructions on how to complete each quest, a lot fewer people would play the game.
"EPIC" is in your mind. The mechanics don't matter, it's what you THINK that matters. So having a reason for doing things is important.
This is one of the principal failings of EVE, and the reason why I don't play it. A lot of people don't play EVE. Presumably, the 10 million people playing another MMO are also not playing EVE.
EVE has its strong points, but "EPIC" is not one of them.
Reply
randomLurker said on 11:15PM 5-01-2008
[warning: hardcore eve follower speaking, rampant fanboism may occur past this point.]
Well, like most games, EVE's nature depends on how you play it. the 0.0 wars are epic in scale - tens of thousands of players fighting eachother in massive fleet battles of a scale not found in any other game. Downing a titan is far more epic than any raid boss because there's people behind it - and it won't respawn. Of course, this is pretending the lagmonster doesn't live under the bed - it's ruined many an epic moment. Still, even small gang warfare seem epic because of the stakes. The story too - even player made, the backstory of goons and bob, the propaganda and talk - there's real hatred between some of the people there.
No matter how gripping the text quest is, playing in a real story against real people's just more thrilling, for me at least.
It's just nullsec's not for everyone, and mining and mission running - most of the game for the average player - decidedly unepic.
On a side note, I think that people have really different definitions of epic - to pull out a cliche of MMOs, it follows along bartles suits. The epic item rewards talking about in the article might drive a diamond crazy, but not do much for a club.
Reply
Scopique said on 11:55PM 5-01-2008
There's "epic in scale", as randomLurker mentioned, and then there's "epic in story", which I think is the point of the article.
Nothing beats EVE's fleet battles in scale; watching scores of ships tactically beating the crap out of one another wins, hands down, over any raid experience. But that's a point in time. Although you may end up in several fleet battles in the course of your time in EVE, there's nothing that separates them from one another except the stakes, and those are personal...what does victory (or loss) mean to you?
On the other hand, an epic storyline is something that cannot be accomplished in modern MMOs. In order to be epic, per the dictionary description, the experience has to center around the individual...and has to include a task that only the individual can accomplish. Modern MMOs are constructed so that EVERYONE has the same opportunities, so there can never BE on hero to complete the epic.
Reply
Rational said on 2:40PM 5-02-2008
I disagree with your assertion that an epic storyline can not be accomplished in modern MMO's. Obviously an MMO can not practically be centered around every individual player. But they can be thematically centered around each player by customizing the storyline in such a way that each player feels that their decisions are significant.
Like I said above, it all lies in the suspension of disbelief. A storyline can feel epic even if you're not the main character. All that is required is the sense of being part of great and momentous events.
Ravious said on 8:03AM 5-02-2008
Well I disagree with Scopique. Guild Wars, which I do agree may not be a standard MMO, and the dev's prefer it not to be lumped in with MMOs, is still an MMO, has quite a few epic storylines. However, Lord of the Rings Online - an MMO in the traditionalist sense - does have an epic storyline, where the character is the one defeating The Enemy in a pretty good story.
I just think that the kind of epic GW and LOTRO have were not on the white board for WoW and EVE, which is not a bad thing. Different MMOs for different tastes.
Reply
mikejl said on 8:38AM 5-02-2008
You can not have a epic story when you are one hero in a sea of a million heroes. This is where the single player RPG shines. If developers can fins away to add a single player (instance world) where you become the hero in parallel with the MMO world we know today. That would be EPIC .. IMO.
Reply
DFG said on 1:01AM 6-20-2008
What I found to be epic was Sid Meier's Pirates! I loved the fight scenes behind the tavern. When you got to a certain point in the fight, I think you kicked them through the railing and onto the lower floor; and then you follow them down with a flip! Now if they hit you back to a point, you stumble back up the stairs. These little pre-defined moments were enough to keep me sucked in. I know WoW is not capable of doing this. I'm speaking in general.
Now what might work as an example of something epic in an MMORPG would be where players sign up for defense of a stronghold, and whenever an attack is appropriate and enemies are traveling to attack, the player must go to defend. There, they go to an instanced level with the other players. However, to get more players into the defense and to reduce lag, you split the stronghold into parts, each with their own instance. Now in the normal game world, I'm thinking WoW here, a stronghold might be pretty small. In this case, it is but a symbol for the stronghold. In the instance, it's massive. This allows you to split it up into multiple sections and make it feel epic. I don't know exactly how a stronghold siege would work. I'm just saying something that would help in adding epic moments.
To make things interesting, you have a bunch of players inside of the keep. When other players die, let any of these players go out to continue the fight. They may also be used in performing other types of attacks against the enemy if the opportunity arises. These instances will help the defense a lot.
If everything was epic, it'd all be mundane, which is why these stronghold sieges should not be rinse and repeat like the other content; such as the normal stronghold sieges I hear WoW will have.
That doesn't mean I'm fine with respawning creatures every 5 minutes in the same location of the wax museum. If everything is handed to you, it'd all be mundane. Keep in mind, I speak for myself.
Oh I hope you shoot up rocks while you're doing other computer stuff. That sh**'s boring. Clearly CCP, in that regard, did not do well in establishing corporate capitalism. They got manufacturing down, but not mining. That doesn't make any sense. You're an uncommon type of pilot and you mine asteroids with your hulking spaceship that should instead be out destroying other ships; as well as replacing your ship, using the production of the normal everyday folk who work mining asteroids :D. Now that makes the player special.
Reply