There's been lots of discussion on this website lately about the impact of roleplaying, both in tabletop and the prospective World of Darkness MMO. Many issues, from who is going to sire us to whether or not we'll be able to own pets, have been raised, but perhaps the most common unifying reason underneath all these requests is the fact that they will offer us freedom to roleplay, or do deny it. We want to be able to let our characters do just about anything, to live any life they damn well want to. With the developers unveiling of their own approach of "emergent roleplaying", it becomes a lot more important to add in realistic elements that give opportunities to all sorts of character concepts from any walk of life.
But there's a little catch.
The game can't be made too realistic, for the sheer fact that a lot of real life is boring. This is especially true for vampires, whose long cold nights of eternity are pretty damn empty. Without basic needs like food or sleep, or even distractions like sickness and a sex drive, what exactly does a vampire DO with these now potentially-endless hours of darkness? Get a hobby? Take up knitting? Plot and scheme against one another in a never-ending Jyhad? Well, this last one seems to be the answer, but it's hardly a satisfactory one if the entire reason the Jyhad was created and has been carried out for the past few thousands of years is that vampires were bored.
So what about all the "filler" content of a vampire's life? How realistic can the game be without suffering for it? Do we really want to have to walk or drive everywhere in a sandbox world? Will there be televisions to watch when our character's nefarious plans are still being worked out, and there's nobody to bribe, coerce, or intimidate at the moment? What about all the players who don't give a damn about the Jyhad, and just want to play a vampire for the sake of being a vampire? And then, what about all the mortals who don't even have the Jyhad to take their minds off things? Frankly, if "life" becomes a little too real in the WODMMO, it sounds like there will be a lot of boring and repetitive content that we as relatively normal, relatively innocent human beings take for granted that we have to do each day. We need to keep the action going, to skip over those boring parts where nobody does anything important, to keep the players and spectators of the Jyhad on the edges of their seats whenever they're on the game.
Let's summarize the average night of a Cainite. Wake up. If you don't have a source of blood handy, the first thing to do is go out and find one. This probably means a good hour or two of hunting, selecting the right target, and luring them into the shadows so you don't bust open the Masquerade. Then you return to your haven to get ready for Elysium. It's fancy-dress, which means you need to wedge yourself into your suit somehow, or almost break your spine being tied into your dress. Then the drive to Elysium. The Prince is giving another one of his tedious speeches about the need for stronger security in the city, and like a good little constituent you raise your hand in "Aye" for more emergency powers granted to the Sheriff and his staff. You make small talk, flirting with your allies, casting snide looks at your enemies, and there goes another few hours. Now the whole rest of the night is left up to you... but what is there left to do?
Well, if we're an average MMO player, that's just about the point we log off and find something interesting to go do in real life. Maybe our character really does just sit in their haven in their underwear watching T.V. while we're gone. Let's not even talk about all the "real-world" infrastructure that would have to go into this, all the pedestrian lives that went into setting up Elysium - the hotel staff, the decorators, the mortal security service who just got paid for standing there and looking intimidating. Not exactly the most intriguing evening there was, right? Small wonder that so many people in the World of Darkness are given over to indulging in various vices and crimes. Where's the danger, the excitement, the struggle? Why aren't my emotions raging high and fierce?
These are questions I've had to ask before, of many of the games I've played. Thankfully, most of them have taken a few cheating steps to help alleviate the boredom in their playes, such as fast-travel, overwhelming numbers of enemies, and of course the chance to solve that one last tricky achievement. From White Wolf and CCP, we've been hearing that things are going to be "player-based", so that theoretically means that the action is going to be non-stop, over-the-top, our characters in constant danger of their lives and liberty... right? Roleplaying and having an involved character background can only help with this, but this brings up exactly the problem I mentioned before. How realistic can we afford to be? How much of my character background do I really want to relate to my enraptured audience? "Yes, yes, and after I defeated the Werewolf Chieftain in righteous battle...! I sat around for a while, healing up and making sure my stocks were in order." Wheeee. Again, not the most exciting evening ever.
I really don't want to see this happening for any game I play, but especially not in the WODMMO. And to be honest, I'm kind of strapped for ideas at the moment, which is why this is kind of a disappointing blog. So this week, you, the audience, gets to help me finish this blog with ideas about how we can keep things exciting in the WODMMO. A few have been tossed around already - Harlequin has posted up the idea that we should create a sort of "roleplaying police" guild-analogue; others want to start playing the political game immediately and make a bid for Prince; a few have definite plans to create Clan-friendly organizations like the thing or a chantry. The question, then, is not how if somebody has a story to tell, because we're going to be writing our own stories from the moment our character first wakes up and claps a hand to their throat, a look of wild panic in their eyes as they realize they're no longer breathing, and have a sudden craving for living blood. The question is "How do we make it a story worth telling?"
12 Comments
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0 Merits
CookieMonster
354 days ago
And I am so sorry about that... My internet lagged so I clicked a bunch of times on the "post comment button". So sorry... Such an idiot...
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CookieMonster
354 days ago
In my opinion, I think that there will be measures set in place by CCP that give us more opportunity to capitalize on the player driven world. Also, I am hoping that there are other forms of currency aside from blood. I don't like the idea of only being able to have as much wealth as I have strength. That would also mean that there would be a limit on the amount of wealth you could amass, as your blood level isn't infinite.
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HfxTenor
1 years 9 days ago
I'm hoping for many many options for us to spend time building and consolidating our various power bases. Nightly or Weekly asset management for Resources, Roleplaying the careful search for just the right ghouls and Herd, building Allies and Contacts. I'm really hoping for a robust mortal population, including government etc., whether NPC or otherwise, for the Kindred to manipulate. This is where Backgrounds should play a very large role in our nightly activities.
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1 years 9 days ago
Now that is something I'd like to see in-game. Customability is important not only to make the game more fun, but it dramatically improves a player's ability to tell their own story. If every haven looks the same, if every domain has the same resources, or if every guild-analogue or sect-analogue is set up exactly the same way... then the whole system becomes a big "Eh". I definitely want to see mortals given some power, too, as it'll bring some meaning to the Masquerade and enforcing it.
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Morpheus
1 years 9 days ago
The Primary reason I am so pro-Gangrel Independance is because I might(if the system allows it) set up a Mercenary Group of some sort under some faux "Security Agency" Farce. I want to choose my fights rather than be forced into it under Camarilla or Sabbat agendas. I have always thought being a freelance Mercenary might kill the daily "routine" we fall into in games. Primarily because they are always thick in the action, in WoD context thick in the politics as well (Why else would you hire a Mercenary?). I just think it would be great running with all of the major sects(maybe the minor gang turf wars), being a deciding factor in the Jyhad, getting to know Kindred from all walks of life with their various agendas and not being too close to anybody's crap. Sounds fun to me at least.
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1 years 8 days ago
And we definitely need to have the freedom to do this, so that 1) you can express individualism and freedom in a way that fits in with your character's background and 2) to create more background and story by doing fun and exciting (or at least dangerous and exciting) things with the mercenary group.
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1 Merits
Draxod
1 years 10 days ago
The Sandbox element will most definitely take care of boredom. Having to hunt and possible defend your hunting grounds, taking over new territory, being schmoozed by humans wanting to be Embraced (If this actually makes it into the game), etc. This looks to be a glorious MMO! We players will find plenty of things to do, I'm sure . . .
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1 years 10 days ago
But how much of those things will be doing the same thing over and over again? Where're the exciting bits of story attached to those actions? To me, these sorts of things sound a lot like housekeeping, and I had enough of that from what little I played of EVE Online.
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Herrn
1 years 10 days ago
PvP! In eve no one is safe and you can always be raided. In the city i might claim a district as a feeding ground and defend it from all intruders, drop down from above one wayward vampires who stray from the many street. If the risk of meeting the sheriff is worth it i could skulk around in the shadows to diablerize someone and then try to get away with it. CCP will most likley includ property. This has me excited because we could all chip in, buy a warehouse and start a arena/fight club! Name it Versus and make good money on betting. Mabey someones story is to be the strongest or filthy rich
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1 years 10 days ago
That's one thing to do, and it's largely why I'm glad this is going to be a player-based game. But unless these sorts of things are running 24/7, and we get some power to switch things up (set up the warehouse to do fights, but then deck it out with traps and pitfalls to run a Game of Instinct), even PvP gets old after a while.
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