Post by Morreion on Feb 11, 2010 7:59:38 GMT -5
Confessions of an MMO Writer (MMORPG.com)
Matt Daniels, the former Lead Writer for Mythic's Warhammer Online, stops by MMORPG.com to talk a little bit about what a game writer does when working on an MMO.
Matt Daniels, the former Lead Writer for Mythic's Warhammer Online, stops by MMORPG.com to talk a little bit about what a game writer does when working on an MMO.
...As your character levels up, the tasks get tougher. First, you were the only one who could save the town. Now you're the only one who can save the entire kingdom! But wait a sec... can't we just throw this entire army of ten thousand players at Sauron? Can't we just get all seven hundred and eighty-one Jedi on the server to go and take on Darth Vader at the same time?
Nope.
Because YOU have to do it. Because YOU are the special and unique Hero of Destiny.
Just like everyone else.
Nope.
Because YOU have to do it. Because YOU are the special and unique Hero of Destiny.
Just like everyone else.
...Asheron's Call launched in November of 1999, offering players a huge, mostly seamless world to explore. This was supported by a compelling backstory and an abandonment of the typical fantasy archetypal races in favor of entirely new creatures. Gone were such familiar critters as elves, dwarfs, dragons and orcs. Instead we got three human cultures and an array of monsters with names like "shreth", "tumerok", "banderling" and "olthoi". It might have been enough to publish this rather unique spin on the tried-and-true fantasy setting, crack open a cold one and call it a day. Ah, but the mad story-wizards at Turbine were only getting warmed up.
...The world was changing, the story was evolving, and the players could all play a part in it. If you logged in at the right time, the Dereth you stepped into looked and felt radically different than the pleasant fantasy setting you might have logged out of just a few months previous.
And Turbine didn't stop there. Eventually, they even went as far as to destroy some of the game's major hubs of civilization, placing eerie, floating spires in the air above them. Who created these massive floating fortresses? Why were certain high-level players kidnapped, taken up into these unreachable citadels and interrogated? Who was behind it all?
These mysteries gave the game's players a compelling reason to return every time a new monthly patch was pushed live. I found myself unable to stay unsubscribed to the game for more than a few weeks, because I just HAD to know what was going to happen next. Once you realized just how extensively Turbine was willing to alter the game world in order to expand upon the unfolding saga, just about anything was on the table. The announcement of a new monthly updated inevitably prompted the question "what will they do next?"
Such ambitious storytelling made for a very memorable game, and one that pushed the boundaries of its format even by today's standards. It must have been incredibly fun to be a writer working on Asheron's Call, figuring out how to unveil the next world-altering chapter of your epic plot.
...The world was changing, the story was evolving, and the players could all play a part in it. If you logged in at the right time, the Dereth you stepped into looked and felt radically different than the pleasant fantasy setting you might have logged out of just a few months previous.
And Turbine didn't stop there. Eventually, they even went as far as to destroy some of the game's major hubs of civilization, placing eerie, floating spires in the air above them. Who created these massive floating fortresses? Why were certain high-level players kidnapped, taken up into these unreachable citadels and interrogated? Who was behind it all?
These mysteries gave the game's players a compelling reason to return every time a new monthly patch was pushed live. I found myself unable to stay unsubscribed to the game for more than a few weeks, because I just HAD to know what was going to happen next. Once you realized just how extensively Turbine was willing to alter the game world in order to expand upon the unfolding saga, just about anything was on the table. The announcement of a new monthly updated inevitably prompted the question "what will they do next?"
Such ambitious storytelling made for a very memorable game, and one that pushed the boundaries of its format even by today's standards. It must have been incredibly fun to be a writer working on Asheron's Call, figuring out how to unveil the next world-altering chapter of your epic plot.
