Role-Playing (video) Games, an analysis.

As I sit here with my second cup of morning coffee I had an inspiration to put down my thoughts on a subject that had come up on a Live-Journal post discussion I was part of a few days back. Well, possibly flame-war might be closer to how the actual debate went. A comment that had been made was that video game RPGs had been emulating table top, pencil and paper RPGs for years. I actually have to disagree with this sentiment to a degree and here's why. Think about what comes to mind when a video game RPG gets mentioned? Final Fantasy is often the forefront of people's minds. Possibly Fable, Fallout or Oblivion for those of a western gamer mindset and view. Some people will mention the MMOs that are out there, and a frequent number of Japanese franchises will come to the fore (Xenosaga/gears, Shin Megami Tensen, Dragon Quest, among others) A few folk may even bring up computer games like Diablo or Baldur's Gate. Where am I going with this? Well, see, I feel that far too often the video game role-playing game isn't like the table-tops for several reasons.

 A Table-top RPG will have the player choose their character's name, race and gender where applicable, determine their attributes with either a point allocation or random number generation (e.g. dice rolls), sometimes work on a skill set, aquire or purchase gear, and possibly have some sort of back story to why they are in the occupation/situation they are at the time of gaming. Or they work with their game-master to come to similar. Video game RPGs are more commonly having you play a named person, pregenerated and given a predelection towards a certain occupation and skill-set and it's very uncustomizable. Some games that allow for a degree of specialization or customization punish choices made, "for characters sake" because they aren't the maximized optimum to get through encounters. (Just about every game that has magic as a character option)

There are a few exceptions. Sometimes you get to name the character, but as they overcome adversity (read: Kill things in combat over and over) and gain experience, their growth is already mapped out and their skill set improves along a predetermined path. Sometimes you can alter their skill sets as they grow, but your level 45 warlock is going to look a lot like everyone else's level 45 warlock, let's face it. Some games don't allow for any real customization of the character at all, just obtain the best gear that gives the most plusses and continue forth, selling off everything else that they come across. Really, I think, that's where I think the term RPG stops fitting these games. It's not a role that you're playing, it's someone's life you're taking control over for a while. How does that differ from any action game with a pre-named protagonist? Because there's a menu and inventory system and you have to juggle an additional resource, like "Mana"?

Let's take a look at one of my favorite games of 2010, "Red Dead Redemption." At face value you're given a sandbox (That is to say free to roam the world and do whatcha want) action game set in a fictional wild west Americana stage. Your character is John Marston and some plot has happened to him and he's been set loose in this world with an ultimate goal, but needing to acquire friends, equipment and money before being able to see that goal through. Over the course of playing the game you can gain skills related to hunting and gathering. You can be a good guy and go after wanted criminals, act politely, and help out NPCs with their millions of side-quests. Or you can be a rotten bastard and tie women to train tracks. There's various things to do in this game, yet it's not labeled as a role-playing game because why? Because the majority of the combat is resolved real time and uses guns? There's even on-line multiplayer free roam. I argue Red Dead is more of an RPG than Final Fantasy XII and XIII could ever hope to be.

I think, perhaps, that the label of RPG is slapped onto any game that decides to use numerical value to represent a character's health and break combat down into stop-motion "turns" regardless of how much actual playing of a role or player freedom for customization of the in-game characters there are.  Our characters are the vehicles by which we can experience the game world and those within it, let us at least have the options for some custom paint job and chrome rims! Well modeled character design is nice and all, but if I don't see an outward physical change when I equip a new suit of armor, there's going to be a level of disconnect. Now, I admit, the hybrid "Action-RPG" label exists and is bandied about on a few titles, however they often still have limited customization (Kingdom Hearts) or choice (Fable 3).

In conclusion, the market is saturated with games that make a claim of being "role-playing" when they're more like experiencing some form of cinema broken up between stages of fighting. (Looking at you Final Fantasy series) There's other games that have elements of character growth, customization and optimization that don't get labeled as RPGs and really, there's barely any game that actually emulates the experience of having "rolled up" a character like the table tops any more (Except possibly Fallout).

The holiday rush

Once again the holiday season has come and gone, and in its wake I am both a year older and a bit run down. I shall endeavor to find meaningful or insightful things to continue to post to this little slice of the internet, for now I leave this. The holidays went well, my birthday was nearly perfect and I rather liked TRON: Legacy.

The Cataclysm Come - Review of the 3rd World of Warcraft Expansion

After years in the making, once more Blizzard updates the content of their persistent world MMO with new zones for people at the previously highest experience level to go out and quest in, and raised the level cap to add five more levels. (instead of the previously established ten) Not one to leave out those who have yet to reach the present "max level", Blizzard incorporated a new profession, that of Archaeology and radically redesigned the main world itself, shaking off the persistence that MMO's are more typically known for. One of the ways that this is accomplished is with honest redesign of the map, making hills and valleys where previously there were none. The other and more ingenious is smoke and mirrors in the form of "phasing", where NPCs, geographic features, terrain and even other players will be replaced by the changes planned. Say you begin in the ruins of a castle overrun by orcs. You do a quest to wipe out the orcs. Most MMO just don't send you back there, forcing the player to imagine that the orcs no longer exist, even if the models remain there in the game. With phasing, once you turn in the exterminate orc quest, the return trip no longer has orcs there. It may even have occupying forces of your faction now helping rebuild the castle.
The meat and potatoes of the expansion are the new zones and I must say I am impressed with each and every one of them. Given that World of Warcraft is running off a six-year old graphics engine, they still manage to add tweaks and changes that make things striking, lovely, haunting or evocative with their tool sets.
At level 80, a player is given the option of one of two starting zones (however they are by no means locked into those zones only, and can opt to go back and forth to fill their quest logs) one is the historic Mount Hyjal, scene of the final battle in the WarCraft 3 real-time strategy game. Players can visit the fallen world tree and perform quests on behalf of the ancient spirits of nature to help heal the land, especially against the present influx of angry elementals summoned by a nefarious cult from the Elemental plane of Fire that are attempting to raze the entire mountainside. The other "beginning" zone is that of Vashj'ir, a lesser known place (in terms of lore), that is a sunken city from thousands of years past, where the inhabitants, once elves were turned into the aquatic naga race. While full immersion in an underwater zone is exceptionally creative and the way they handle moving about beyond simple swimming is cute (You get a seahorse mount in the first ten quests or so), I am slightly phobic of deep water and the ocean, so when quests had me going into dark caves I would feel anxiety, even though it was just a game. It is not my favorite zone for that reason, despite the interesting quest chains and beautiful imagining of the vibrant undersea life. (I imagine various coral reefs and continental shelf were examined for artistic inspiration) Also, don't fuck with the whale shark.
After one finishes Hyjal or Vashj'ir (or ends up level 82 by whatever means) the player is then prompted to visit Deepholme, the Elemental plane of Earth. Here is where the terrible dragon aspect Deathwing once took shelter to lick his wounds from his defeat back in events that occurred within the time scale of WarCraft 2 and detailed in several novels by Richard Knaak. The Cataclysm storyline brings him back as the new menace to the face of the world of Azeroth, and it is by his destructive presence that so many things have changed. Quests involve snubbing the efforts of the same cult that's busy ruining Hyjal and making amends with the native inhabitants of Deepholme who recall the tumultuous time spent while Deathwing was residing down there and how it upset their normal way of doing things.
Once one completes Deepholme (Or is level 83) they are prompted to visit the land of Uldum. A large mass of the continent of Kalimdor had lain hidden by power Titan magic and machinery, yet Deathwing's sundering of the world ruined the previous fail-safes and now the splendorous Egyptian-themed desert location of Uldum lies open for exploration. The quests here focus around a race of cat-centuars known as the tol'vir, who were created by the Titans to safeguard Uldum and now that its been exposed to the world they need some help. Likewise one begins to aid a certain explorer/archaeologist and his rival through an amusing series of quest chains that pay homage to a series of action adventure films one may be familiar with if they know of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
The last zone available for exploration and questing takes the fight to the fortifications of the adversary. In the Twilight Highlands, players are encouraged to aid sub-factions of their own. The Alliance work to help the Wildhammer dwarves, one of the three Clans of dwarves who excel in the rearing and tending of griffons as well as having a shamanistic and down-to-earth nature. The Horde work alongside the Dragonmaw orcs, one of the longest established warbands to have invaded Azeroth in the first two wars, and who tame and ride dragons to use in their battles.  Due to the heated conflict between the two groups, a unified front has not been formed to strike at the Twilight Hammer cult, and players are thrust into the middle of the inter-faction rivalries. While in other MMOs this may be one of those sorts of zones where even doing a quest might flag you for Player versus Player fighting, not so here. Except on servers where world PvP is normal, those on player versus environment servers can opt to not become flagged and continue doing their quests without hindrance from the other faction (At least, more than normal).
Throughout the game players are not only treated to updated visuals on the zones, but also a fresh musical score and added in voice acting, sometimes for good effect and some times not. I am pleased to see greater use of in-game cutscenes as well, though I felt in a few places they got a bit overwhelming (Uldum primarily) I am pleased with the end result that Blizzard has put through on this game. It does seem to lack some elements of finer polish that Blizzard was known for in earlier days, but nothing is perfect and I'm willing to overlook some of the little glitches where this is concerned due to providing such quality to me in everything else.
Ratings:
Graphics: 7/10 (As lovely as all the new models and designs are, the stuff that hasn't been changed.. hasn't been changed. If you do not like the aesthetics of the character models, you still won't as Blizzard basically took a big magnifying lens to the RTS game and gave us models in that semi-cartoonish style to play with in 3D)
Music/Sound: 9/10 (The musical score is lovely, it's great to hear more individually voiced models and listening to Budd is a riot)
Gameplay: 8/10 (Unchanged really. There's more use of the "vehicle" UI for quests both at low and high levels, but they work. If one is familiar with MMO layout, there's nothing new here (In fact many MMOs are accused of face-lifting WoW's. If one isn't, a newly revamped system for early levels helps guide someone through playing the game)
Story: 10/10 (For those who are familiar with the WarCraft storyline from as far back as the first game it's all brought about here and adds into that lore with new twists and changes to both the old lower level zones and the inclusion of the higher level stuff. Combining the serious with a healthy does of humor, the quests and their associated storylines that play out through them are charming to behold and I do not mind the thought of repeating them for other characters.)
Overall score: 8/10 (or 9/10 if you round up) the expansion adds a fair amount of new stuff to dig into and explore, despite it being geared for those at the upper level of experience, the Sundering changed how one progresses through the earlier levels as well, making things new for those who felt the game was old and stale. I eagerly look forward to getting more involved in the new dungeons, raids and finally testing out that archaeology skill.

Recent gaming - World of Warcraft

I have been spending a good deal of time exploring all the changes brought about by the Sundering, the physical game-changing layout of the old world to herald the updated content to be released with the Cataclysm expansion this December. What I find remarkable is that a MMO is built on the concept of a persistent world, and here's Blizzard deciding to change everything. Well, most of everything. A lot of the world has remained the same, but there are many areas that have become highlighted with giant chasms and crevasses, or where there was once wilderness there are now signs of habitation and civilization. Implementing the technology and code that allows for "phasing" where after you complete a quest, there's a change to the game world, cities can fall under siege, forests can be felled and new roads laid down where there was once nothing, and all this is wrapped around a more streamlined questing experience, leading players to the next area where they can find new quests, easing them into the staples of what the WoW experience will be like.
What I happen to like is the precedent this establishes for the future. The game state can be advanced and changed, a story can be told that unfolds, moving factions and loyalties around with but a patch. I am excited at the potential for stories to unfold. One example of drastic change is the loss of Alliance held points within the northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms continent. Granting the Forsaken Horde characters a more streamlined leveling experience included the utter destruction of Southshore, an Alliance bastion for years in the Hillsbrad zone. I would like to see in the months down the line some kind of reprisal for this humiliation and slaughter, where the Alliance decides that turning the town and its folk into green goo would not be tolerated. There is so much potential and I hope Blizzard sees fit to utilize it to the utmost.
As a player who has been with the game for 4 years, I may not have known it since the time of launch, but I did endeavor to exploring as much as I could, taking whatever quests available and witnessing all the sights for both factions. This Sundering gives me all that I once knew with a fresh light. There are many familiar quest chains, but more there are new ones in old areas, and best yet, old chains with different outcomes, giving me a smile that Blizzard gives nods to folk who may have done a quest a hundred times to see its most recent form has a twist to let the players know, "Sure, you've done this so much it's stale. So here's something new for you to have." I think that sort of sums up the idea behind the Cataclysm and Sundering before it. A game that's six years old is going to feel stale unless it gives the players something new, and here it doesn't just tack on a new area and give a series of quests, it reinvents its own wheel, adapting and changing the old with what they've developed for the new, and applying it in a manner that lets us know what was old is new again.

I have not blogged much lately

Which may be taken as a sign of low activity in the realm of video games, board games, role-playing games and anything else. Which is partially true. I have been working on an art project, however on top of my usual duties. At any rate, enjoy your holidays! :)

Something brief

The holidays are fast approaching, and why not combine doing something good plus get a gift for a little one (or a tiger lover) in your life?
http://www.worldwildlife.org/ogc/species_SKU.cfm?cqs=CTTG

Staying relevant

As the number of page views and comments seems to indicate, rambling about my past favorite games and reasons why I think they are so great isn't working so I should perhaps move along into something more topical.
I play World of Warcraft and presently it is undergoing a lot of changes. A new expansion is due out next month and in preparation for that the persistent world is being sundered. While each of the previous expansions have created world events themed towards the expansion's arrival, it is this one where the actual in-game textures and surfaces are being changed from what they were about six years ago.  This isn't just a minor update towards higher end video cards either, this is a revamp of hills and valleys, creating new ones in many places with crevasses and volcanoes and flooding and all sorts of natural disasters! I've played the game for a long time, I've been present for world events before, but this one takes the cake in the level of overhaul of all the old content that many people have been asking for over the years. With the changes to the environment comes a change of the old quests. Previous bad guys just don't cut it in the grander scheme of things, a greater threat physically looms overhead, flying around and blasting down fire upon the populace. While I was critical of the trailer from a story stand point, it does display the sort of beast players will get to experience first-hand in their leveling experience, or so I am led to believe.
There is also a set of events going on right now, before the final sundering that interrupts the daily flow of city-based traffic. In a manner similar to last expansion's, "zombie outbreak", the home cities aren't even safe from attack, as great elemental threats burst out in the middle of city streets to be combated by characters of high level. (Lower level invasions are also occurring in every zone as well so lower level players aren't left out entirely) There's even associated rewards with a successful city defense, a chance to strike back at leaders of these elemental invasions. (Again, designed for 5-man groups of the level cap of 80, these four individual bosses have a ton of health, hit hard, have some neat aspects to their fights and will test most players even those accustomed to good group dynamics)
These invasions are very interesting to me to experience, and I'd rate this world event a good 8 out of 10. I am saddened that it is primarily aimed at the end-game player base despite being there with multiple characters, as I like world events that everyone can enjoy and rage over as it shakes up their previous way of playing. Some past events, like the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj or the previously mentioned zombie outbreak, got everyone involved, high or low level. I highly anticipate the actual Sundering and gleefully await the chance to fly around the old world and survey all the dama-er, changes to each zone. I've sided with the Argent Dawn to drive off the Scourge invasion (twice!), to hold back the Burning Legion at the Dark Portal, chewed some brains with the zombie outbreak and now kick the primal forces of the elements out of my cities. Bring it on, Deathwing.