Anti-Aliased: Sometimes, it's the little things in (virtual) life

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 26th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Virtual worlds, Anti-Aliased

After playing so many games, there are moments that stick out in my mind that make me smile. Some of them are these really epic stories about boss battles, or hard fought PvP moments, or personal notes of glory and triumph. Yet others are drastically different. They're calm, touching moments, where the game either really affected me on an emotional level or wowed me with some attention to detail.

In the frantic picture of game design, balancing, art direction, content, and bug squashing of making a highly complex MMO, development teams begin to miss things. Who cares about how a daisy moves when there's serious issues at hand, like item drop rates not working out the way they should be? Yet some development teams do see these little issues and they do take the time to program them in. Not every user may notice them, but some users will, and appreciate them.

This column is dedicated to the little things in our virtual lives. Come with me as we look through some popular and some unpopular MMOs, and highlight some of the things that development teams have done to really hook us into their world.

The bear necessities

Players over level 70 got treated to heaping helpings of lore and amazing content in Wrath of the Lich King, and there are plenty of moments that really attracted the attention of so many. But what some people may have overlooked in their rush to 80 was the amazing content in the Grizzly Hills section of Northrend -- especially in the wildlife.

Birds, wolves, deer, horses, and bears fill the Grizzly Hills and turn it into a true outdoor spectacle. Birds will run flight patterns through the trees as they look for small prey, wolves will prey on deer that wander too close to their territory, horses will run in packs near the Westfall Brigade Encampment, and bears actually act like bears.

I actually had to sit down and enjoy this, because it was something very unique to the Grizzly Hills. Next time you're in the area, watch the bears that spawn around the river. They will actually lumber up to the water and begin pawing in it, looking for fish. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they'll dive their heads in and come up with a fresh trout, which they will take away from the river, holding it in their mouths, to a spot to eat.

I didn't know virtual birds flew south for the winter

The inhabitants of Middle-Earth have a whole bunch of things to attract their attention. Glorious artwork, great storyline quests, an intricate party attack system, and also birds. Yes, the programmers actually remembered to put birds in Middle-Earth, and not just monsters either.

Players in the area of Bree should look up every once in a while, as they may get to see a whole flock of well animated and well painted birds fly over head, making the scenic views of Middle-Earth even more scenic. Sure, this sounds kinda silly and not worth mentioning, but it's that attention to detail that makes Lord of the Rings Online look and feel so much like Tolkien's vision. Of course, the evil trees in the Old Forest and the creepy way some spiders drop down on you from the ceiling on a line of web help create that feeling too. Those things, however, are best saved for another article.

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Tags: anti-aliased, bears, birds, blizzard, bree, bree-land, featured, fish, grizzly-hills, joystiqfeatures, lotro, the-lord-of-the-rings-online, turbine, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Snorii said on 4:41PM 2-26-2009

Way back when I played SWG, I recall running around the planet Yavin IV and exploring there for the first time. I looked down through the fauna and was surprised to find a small frog casually leaping around on its merry way. I couldn't target it, but I thought it was a great small addition to the game. I think each planet had their own small critters - butterflies come to mind on Corellia (?) - but I liked the little frog I found on Yavin IV.

AILISSH said on 7:34PM 2-26-2009

The first time I journeyed to White Sands Isle in AOC and saw how
spectactularly they had had captured the water can be underlit from
beneath made my jaw drop. It was that little extra touch that made
the scenery pop. Also, too watch the alligators go in the water as if
eating and then come to shore to sun.

Benicio said on 9:36PM 2-26-2009

I remember when I first started playing WoW. I would always stop and take screenies of myself in nice landscapes or under a particularly nice looking tree etc.

But then the epeen fever kicked in and it was all about climbing the food chain and getting the biggest and baddest gear. Sad because the developers put so much effort into something we so easily overlook or ignore altogether.

sean said on 8:33AM 2-28-2009

Every NPC has something unique to say in Guild Wars.

A little story or introduction about themselves. Each sidequest had individual dialogs inbetween the pickup quests, hand in quests and sell your loot ritual thats repeated over and over. Even the accept/decline windows all had something amusing in responce to the dialog.

It captured what I loved the most about RPG questing, the little short stories than captivate your imagination rather than just another drag 'n drop NPC offering your 7th kill quest.

It shows that the developers really care about the lore and background of the game, even if most of the population doesn't. Lucky for those individuals the gameplay in Guild Wars is extremely simple and you can just click through most of it to get to the "pwning"