Ratboy’s “Rant”icles #2

A Game is a Game is a Game!

So Let’s put the “Game” in Game.

Allow me to preface this “rant”icle for everyone. I’ve spent the past two weeks on some much deserved R&R, mainly consisting of playing various wargames (such as Fantasy) as well as painting a lot of figs (not so much Fantasy, but more of the Warmachine variety). While on my little relaxer from the known world, I was thinking about what to do for my next issue of these articles, eventually it hit me and I decided to talk about the spirit of the game.

We all play games to enjoy them; it’s something we do in our spare time to amuse ourselves or be social with others, but what happens when the game is no longer a social activity and instead turns into a grand expenditure of time? Having played MMOs since the introduction of MUDs, back when all the MMO world consisted of was text based RPGs that required good communication between players, I dread to see the possibility of Warhammer Online (or any MMO for that matter) become a game where the community and social interaction is nothing.

Segwaying into this topic I want to use my most recent purchase as an example: this week I picked up Metroid Prime: Hunters for my Nintendo DS. While not one of my usual MMO/epic style games that I like to pickup, I mainly picked up Hunters with the intent on playing it during dead times and having another game for my favorite portable platform. It took me about forty minutes to break down and try out the multiplayer, which was sadly lacking. There is no real form of communication between the players; the game itself is simply a “login and kill a few things” game. While playing this, I wondered if this could be the fate of Warhammer Online.

Warhammer Online is based on the Warhammer line of games, a line of games that started out as a table top fantasy battle game. In Fantasy Battles, you get to see your opponent, mock him when he fumbles a roll, taunt him with your superior tactics, and berate him about his army’s paint scheme. As an MMORPG there will obviously be some social elements that lack and players will have to deal with (I never found out if Lady Oasis was a guy or a girl…) but there should never be a complete lack of social interaction between the players.

I should take this moment to talk about exactly what I mean when I say social interaction. I’m not talking about coordinating attacks, or planning boss strategies during a big raid; I'm talking about getting to know the people you play with and learning who they are and what makes them unique. As an example, the guilds I’ve been a member of over the past few years all had players with their own unique traits. These social interactions are what make gaming online such a great experience.

The entire concept of Realm VS Realm really emphasizes team play and actually (*gasp*) talking to other players about how to handle fighting the enemy. This style of play will actually make people talk to one another and let people get to know one another; the basis of guilds and parties everywhere. So in essence we can expect to see the formation of social groups by actually making players think and need to strategies against the enemy… well that’s the plan, but from what I’ve seen in other games it rarely happens.

Using the new MMO standard of World of Warcraft, the Battlegrounds system is setup for players to talk to one another and formulate plans on how to win games of Capture the Flag or defence of captured points in Arathi Basin. Sadly WoW, has issues when it comes to forcing this style of play on players. Very few people will talk to one another about strategies, and even when they do few players will listen to what is being said and run off to do their own thing. The only benefit to “Solo PvP” is that you’re not fighting players, and actually playing someone who thinks about their actions and will do things an AI would not. In this case the social interaction is lost and all we’re seeing is just a bunch of players running around engaging in single duels.

If anything, Warhammer Online should be made interesting with the social mechanics of RvR and how exactly players the teams/guilds are going to be able to handle events in-game and if like most other games it will spill into social groups outside of the game (check out the EQ2 TTH Site site for information on their little “get together"). Hopefully as more information is released about the game we can take a further look into how Warhammer Online will be a game and not a “time sink”.

-Ratboy

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