Revaluating one's ability to be emersed into an RPG
A little essay on Why I play MMORPGs and if one can be Emersed into a world
Introduction
AnarchyOnline was the first MMORPG I thought would be worth playing, worth paying a monthly fee for. EverQuest had lame graphics and camping. UO was 2D. AC was just another medival thing.
I've followed AO since day1 sometime around March2000 when the website went up (i think). Downloading the 5soundbites, every mpeg that was released, checking every screen shot on my little'ol dialup modem. I was extatic when I received a Beta3 CD in the mail. It took 7hours to finally get into the game, but it was beta right! That kind of thing was suposed to happen! Granted this was my first beta testing experience (other than a little game called 10six), I naturally wanted to beta test to just get my hands on the game before anyone else.
Then beta4 starts. I was impressed by the graphics, I was getting a decent framerate in the newbie area. Then I walk outside into the city, wait about 8minutes, I see the landscape pop up, take a few 1fps steps forward, and crash. I couldn't log back in with that character. But hey! this was beta testing RIGHT! I wouldn't be like this when they released the game! right!?!?
LOL how nieve of me. What? Did i think the game would magicly work even semi-perfectly if it came out of a box instead of the mail? Did I think Funcom had their *perfect* version of the game stashed away and where going to release it in their AO box?
Aparently, that exactly was I thought; and hense the reason of big disappointment. LOL, talk about a fanboy, sheesh.
A patched Beta4 is exactly like the version that was shipped in the AO box. I got my box on release day, got my account set up 3rd day, got into the newbie area 4th day, stayed in crashed logged out mode in tir for a week, .... its all a blur after that. I dont think I ever went around Cities for fear I wouldn't be able to log back in.
Then I upgraded my system RAM (which met the requirement to run ao, which is bs) to 320mb. Woohoo, now i can run around cities with 5fps with freezes intead of just freezing/crashing.
Then there was the option to make everyone around you dissappear. YeAH baby, now I'm getting 13fps with freezes in cities!
Then it was changed so instead of seeing 0 people around you, you had to see the 5meters around you. Which basicly defeats the purpose of the whole option. So back to 5fps.
Graphics updates later on (the recent patches) have inproved things, yes. But its not enough.
(this is getting borring so lets get to the point...)
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Getting to the Point
The only reason I quit FirstPersonShooters like Halflife and Tribes to play MMORPGs was, to put it bluntly- to be completely sucked into a different environment and interact with the people living in that environment. Total emersion.
For emersion to occur to the game's limits, you have to have the
-great graphics
-graphics options at their fullest
-no hardware lag
-no latency
-great sound (music/effects)
-0 bugs
-content
-realistic content
-NPC interaction
-realistic NPC interaction
-A working guild system.
Out of that list, lets look at what AO has.
-great graphics
-great sound
-some content
And I will applaud funcom for their graphics and sound. The graphics are better than any MMORPG to date (daoc cant compare, yes i've played it). And AO's music and effects blow my mind. I've sat for hours and many occations just listening to each .wav file in the cd_image\sound folders. As i've gone through every sound and music file, I can remember where I was the first time I heard it. The sound that stuck out the most to me was
cd_image\sound\sfx\general\storm_red_02.wav
In beta3, I spent alot of time in Newland's Deserts and Stolts trading outpost, bronto camp, etc. Strom_Red_02 is the sound you would hear most often. Heh, the "good'ol days in beta" as I remember lagging my way through the desert.
Rarely have I played a PC game that will do that do you- where it has such well done sound that it can "take you back."
Thankyou funcom, the sound in the game absolutly blows my mind, and if for no other reason, I am glad I bought the game.
Sound is a big part of emersion. And AO's got it.
Graphics and 0bugs are other big parts.
AO has graphics, great ones infact. But the game lags on my "recomened requirements" computer, so my hardware lag takes away from that emersion.
And AO has bugs, and flaws. Alot of them. Every time a menu jumps, every time I cant scroll down to the last few rows in my inventory, everytime _something_ happens that distracts from emersion, it becomes less fun and more of a battle against design errors and flaws.
Anarchy Online is not a game, let alone a RPG. It has become a battle between you, the customer, and the technical flaws/bugs that keep you from being emersed into the world.
The way I look at MMORPGs (or expected them to be) is this:
You have fun interacting and living in a different world. The level/xp system and menus/windows are all just a way for you to control the person interacting and living. The priority is living interacting, and in the background is leveling and such. But its the comlete oposite.
Instead, Anarchy Online isn't a RPG, its a GBN. A Get Better Numbers game.
AO is a numbers game.
You rarely are emersed into the world, but you do get to compare your number to his number to her number, and get a better number gun so you can kill this number monster so you yourself can be a higher number so you can fight higher number monsters, but then you'll need a higher number weapon. And of course you'll need to group with people within a certain number range so you all can get a better number for yourself. And lets go shopping for some better numbers. Lets comepare my numbers to the items numbers. Nope they dont match close enough, lets go to the next shop to find numbers that match mine. /s Does anyone have a number buff so i can use my higher number weapon? I'll pay high numbers for a number buff!
And while the number complexity may be something to appluad, Its annoying and frustrating.
The bugs distract from..
the constant number comparison work you have to do distracts from..
The hardware lag distracts from..
And any flaw will distract from being emersed into the world.
Anarchy Online could have been the best Sci Fi MMORPG out there. StarWars: Galaxies could have had tough compition with AO. man this game has so much potential. So much potential and not enough funding or effort or whatever.
Now when I sign up for a beta test, theres still that desire to see it before anyone else does, but its more to actually beta test it. Instead of focusing on playing its focusing on finding the flaws and informing the devs. So when the real game is out, you can be fully emersed.
But I also think beta testing can take away from the emersion into a world. Sure its great to know how the game works, what mistakes not to make, you dont have to ask newbie questions, etc...but you dont have that 'wow' feeling from when you first step into the world. And that 'wow' feeling is part of emersion. This is a big reason why Im not sure if I want to beta test SWG.
So i say again.
Anarchy Online is not a game, let alone a RPG. The only thing that gives AO a RPG title is the level system and skills. It has become a battle between you, the customer, and the technical flaws/bugs that keep you from being emersed into the world.
An RPG would have allowed you to take on the role. Hense the name ROLE Playing Game. To take on that role, you have to be emersed into the world. And after more than a year of following Rubi-Ka and about 4months of living on it, I'm not emersed.
I'll check in on Rubi-Ka from time to time, maybe the game will actually be completed in a year. But by then SWG will have come out.
But for now, I'm off to find something that will actually let me RPG.
And such is the death of another fanboy. woo.
(i've spent too much typing this up already, i dont feel like spell checking, live with it.)
) I'm afraid AO is dead, it'll be lucky to still be here when SWG arrives, it won't be around after. Pity.
