Post by Morreion on Sept 23, 2010 9:34:28 GMT -5
Player Perspectives: A Quest to be Weird
MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton writes her column this week on the different ways that MMO players try to make themselves different from the herd.
This essay makes the point that it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd in today's homogenized MMOs. It seemed to be easier in older titles. Part of the problem is the 'on rails' gameplay of the typical theme-park MMO. Uniqueness through character creation or clothing is fine, but my favorite way to be different is to be able to choose my own role in a sandbox world. SWG allowed you to do this with their skill tree system. In UO I remember seeing players who were beggars, fishermen and treasure hunters. There were even real estate brokers there! One guy I knew was an alchemist who was a forensic detective- he could speak to dead players and track down their murderers, leading his guildmates to the murderers for revenge. Now that was cool!
Funny comment:
MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton writes her column this week on the different ways that MMO players try to make themselves different from the herd.
This essay makes the point that it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd in today's homogenized MMOs. It seemed to be easier in older titles. Part of the problem is the 'on rails' gameplay of the typical theme-park MMO. Uniqueness through character creation or clothing is fine, but my favorite way to be different is to be able to choose my own role in a sandbox world. SWG allowed you to do this with their skill tree system. In UO I remember seeing players who were beggars, fishermen and treasure hunters. There were even real estate brokers there! One guy I knew was an alchemist who was a forensic detective- he could speak to dead players and track down their murderers, leading his guildmates to the murderers for revenge. Now that was cool!
Funny comment:
lol I had a scout in DAOC named Hillbillybowman. His house was awesome. Outhouse in the yard, random junk all over. Inside I put barrels and stuffed animal trophies everywhere with a giant burning X made out of sconces on the wall. It was part of his backstory I made and then word got out. I made all the crafting stations and merchants usable by all and would find random people hanging out in my house all the time.
The weirdness didn't stop with his somehow legendary status in my little village. I came home one day to find a dozen people, all wearing hot pink sitting around a 10' tall cobra head trophy I had in my basement. They informed me that they decided to squat in my basement as they didn't have a guild house and had their guild meeting there for almost 6 months.
The weirdness didn't stop with his somehow legendary status in my little village. I came home one day to find a dozen people, all wearing hot pink sitting around a 10' tall cobra head trophy I had in my basement. They informed me that they decided to squat in my basement as they didn't have a guild house and had their guild meeting there for almost 6 months.
