MMORPG.com Developer Journal #8
Original Article found: here.
By: MMORPG.com
Date: June 6, 2006
The Lead Designer of Hero's Journey follows her muse in this
new journal
 I bet you thought I was going to show up here with an article about Wyr. But no. When I sat down at the keys this morning, it was not Wyr that my muse fed me, even though they are neater than Felix Ungar and provide 110% of the FDA's daily recommended allowance for Vitamin Awesome.
No. This week, we're talking about...roleplay.
Yeah, yeah. I know I keep bringing this stuff up, and I'm
sorry if it's boring the snot out of some of you. What can I say? I like to see
people writhe in agony.
Sadism confessionals aside, roleplaying is a loaded term.
Previously on Steph's Soapbox o' Doom I've talked about roleplaying games, and
what I think puts the RPG into MMORPG. In particular, I was talking about RPG as a
classification of game. But I wasn't actually talking about roleplay. Until
now.
My views on good roleplay are, admittedly, biased. I am an
experienced tabletop and computer gamer. And though roleplay is not void in
graphical MMOs (hell, it's not void in most games -- I found roleplayers in a
web-based turn-based massively multiplayer zombie apocalypse game), it's not being
facilitated, either.
Okay, but what is roleplay? (In games, I mean, as opposed to
... nevermind, I'll tell you when you're older.) Well, on the whole I'd say it's
being someone else. It could be a slight step sideways ("Hey, check out my Human
Writer Shephanie Staver!") or it could be a 180 with a triple salchow ("Hey, check
out my Cardboardboxian Guano Miner Zaxaron Schmidley III!"). Either way, a good
roleplay experience should exercise your imagination. It's thinking made
fun.
But we're not really thinking much in MMOs, are we? For
instance: when was the last time you read the quest description -- I mean, really
read it? You scan it for what you need to know -- where to go, what to kill -- but
you don't really care that Captain Reynolds has a problem with the radion
accelerator core of his 03-K64 light freighter. You just know that, for some
reason, 10 Cosmic Rat Tails will fix the problem. (Giant rats -- what aren't they
good for?)
And why should you care? The game's designers have given you no
reason to. Either way, the quest is going to work out because all you really need to
know is: go here, kill this, go back here.
(Not that the kill-collect cycle isn't fun. It's a way of
unwinding and tuning out, and it's a hallmark of the whole MMORPG experience. But a
good roleplay experience can also impart the same euphoric bliss of the temporary
vacation some of us seek in games. Here endeth the unnecessary parentheses.)
Roleplay is also about interaction and, arguably, an audience. I
say "arguably" because many of the greatest roleplayers I met still did so even when
others weren't watching. As a DragonRealms GameMaster, I took secret delight in
stalking certain solo players and seeing how they behaved out in the hunting areas on
their own (and then rewarding them for roleplaying even though no one was technically
"there").
 But the most fun I've had with roleplay was when other people were involved. The initiating interaction doesn't even need to be another player -- it could be a creature you're stalking, an NPC you're bartering with, or a lonely stump (in the case of one memorable GemStone III character, it was a certain tree). Whatever it is, though, there's a point where someone recognizes that, hey, Skeezle's talking to that orc. Suddenly, you have someone else talking to that orc. And then you have a roleplaying game.
Again, I'm not saying this never happens in graphical MMOs. I've
been in one or two where I was chatting up an NPC and had someone come in and join,
albeit these occurrences are brief and rare. I am saying, however, that most graphical
MMOs have limited their roleplay experience to emotes and (maybe!) faction scores. They
have not designed for roleplay. It's something they throw on when players come knocking
at the door at 3 AM. And if it seems flimsy and cheap to me...well, that's why.
Does your character's background matter one shred in your favorite
MMO? No. Does your templar knight's reaction to an NPC asking him to go on a quest
really do anything? No. As a general rule of thumb, does he even have an option other
than "Yes" or "Cancel"? No. Should he?
Hell yes.
And maybe, just maybe, if your templar knight should choose to
strike down that NPC with great vengeance and furious anger, what then? What
repercussions, aside from a faction hit? What if that action changes him fundamentally?
What if, say, it turns him into an anti-paladin?
What if, hm?
Most of my May was spent recovering from E3 and organizing Quest
and Area design meetings. That's me, Quest and Area design girl. So under the influence
of the Grenmeer Lowlands and our latest ideas for a Quest design, you'll forgive me if
roleplay-as-I-ken-it is on the brain. The things we've come up with I still can't talk
about, which is the supreme irony of my writing muse. After months of wanting to write
about the super coolness of Wyr, of biting back the urge to tell you all about stuff that
would get me lynched by my boss, I come back from my break and...write about stuff I
can't actually talk about in too much detail. Ha ha! Psych!
Anyway, what I can say is that roleplay is something we intend to
facilitate in Hero's Journey...with a vengeance. You won't be forced into it, just like
you won't be made to wear a pink dress if you're a Wizard-Healer (no matter how marvelous
we may think it looks on you, baby), but those of you who love it (and we suspect there
are more of you than the marketing guys know) will be very happy.
Next time, I'll whip up some Wyr for ya'all. Because sometimes, you
just want a socket to hold on to.
-Stephanie Shaver, Lead Designer
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