Loading... "Epicness" Matters

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Posted Thu, Oct 01, 2009 by Shayalyn

Welcome to the 1,177th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Why is it that certain games draw us in while others leave us cold? Why do games that are strikingly similar in their mechanics and level of polish either hit or miss with us, seemingly with no rhyme or reason? Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg steps in to explore this issue, and suggests that there's an important yet perhaps overlooked element to MMOGs in today's Loading... "Epicness" Matters.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers today:

Global Agenda (Up 19 to #12)
Runes of Magic (Up 6 to #14)
Fallen Earth (Down 3 to #16)

Recent MMO Releases

8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (release date)
9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)

Upcoming Releases

10/9 - Cities XL (release date)
12/1 - Lord of the Rings Online - Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Important Dates

10/1 - 10/3 - EVE Online FanFest
10/23 - 10/24 - Hero-Con

Loading... Daily

I’m playing Aion, and my level 15 Gladiator is kicking some kobold ass. My age 15 son (no matter how compelling the urge to measure his age in levels might be, I still can’t bring myself to do it) is watching over my shoulder.

“What’s cool about this game,” he says, “is that even at lower levels you look epic.”

I agree with him. My level 15 gladiator has some fancy plate armor, and swings a decidedly kick ass greatsword. She moves with grace and fluidity as she confronts her foes. She charges and then leaps, swinging her greatsword over her head crying, “Hyaaaaah!” The greatsword crashes down, knocking her opponent flat on its posterior, where it struggles for a few seconds to climb to its feet and resume combat. Before she can even run two full sets of combos, the kobold is dead and she's looting its already cooling corpse. Now, that’s epic.

I didn’t realize how important feeling epic was to me until my friend Danny asked me what it was that found me addicted to Aion. I rambled for a bit about polish, a large world, and the presence of a thriving community, and then realized that what I was saying about Aion could apply to just about any MMO, some of which, World of Warcraft included, left me cold before my free 30 day subscription expired. If Aion is, as Ten Ton Hammer’s John “Boomjack” Hoskin once put it, “WoW with wings,” then what about this game connected with me in a way that didn’t connect with WoW or any of the other games I opted to shelve early on?

As I was musing about the virtues of Aion I realized there was nothing particularly new about this MMO, but it did give me something I needed nonetheless: the opportunity to feel powerful--epic!--early in the game. And that, for me, has made a world of difference.

Reuben “Sardu” Waters proposed in yesterday’s Loading… that there are three camps gamers fall into when it comes to what keeps them playing games: character-driven players, class patriots, and carrot chasers. I can say for certain that class loyalty and carrot-chasing haven’t been enough to keep me playing a MMOG; I’m fickle when it comes to classes, and carrots only feed my gaming hunger for so long. By process of elimination, that would mean I’m a character-driven player, and that sounds about right to me.

But I’d propose that there are two kinds of character driven players: those who are attached to the idea of having the best of everything and making their character elite, and those who are attached to their character’s personas. I fall into the second group. While every MMO player is concerned with stats, they’re not an all-consuming obsession with me. I’m attached to my Aion character because she’s cool. She attacks fiercely, dresses sharply, and looks amazing. Although stats help her kill quickly and crit like a maniac, I wouldn’t be happy with them if she didn’t look and feel so damn epic doing what she does best, being a killing machine.

Does being attached to a character’s look and her “epicness” in combat sound superficial to you? As little as one week ago, I might have agreed. But after this revelation that “epicness matters” I suddenly have a very different outlook. Just a few days ago, I couldn’t put my finger on what fueled my addiction to Aion. I thought that perhaps it was just that Aion is new and shiny, and that the community seems to be flocking there (flight pun intended) in droves. But WoW had that same dynamic at launch--newness, polish, and community--and it was a complete miss for me. I can only conclude that, after working 60 levels to finally look and feel epic in early games like EverQuest, I have a low tolerance for running around virtual worlds in rags and slowly working my way to riches.

Aion delivered riches instantly on all kinds of levels. You begin with a robust character creation system that pretty much assures you’ll never encounter your doppelganger in game. Starting gear looks decent, and the full set of armor and the new weapon players earn by level 10 looks rich and visually appealing, nothing compared to the decidedly ghetto low-level gear of games past. The skills acquired by level 10 make your character execute combos that not only look impressive, but are impressively effective against enemies. The drops I picked up, if not obvious vendor trash like claws and carapces that I could sell to NPC merchants for cash, were all decent gear that players would likely want. The virtual currency of Atreia, kinah, flows freely, and while the economy’s pricing structure makes up for it, it still seems impressive to have 30,000 kinah or so (depending on your thriftiness, luck with drops, and success as a virtual salesperson) in hand by the time you reach ascension at level 10.

My first few play sessions in Aion, I reached level 10 and ascended, learning I was an immortal Daeva. This in itself is pretty epic. But even after I'd earned my wings, and the status to go with them, I was thrust out into the world to kill crabs, turtles, and water birds. My first thought upon learning that I’d be killing more of the same types of mobs I’d killed from the moment I'd stepped foot in Atreia was, What the…? I just got wings! Why am I killing crabs? But I felt cool killing those crabs, nonetheless. And when I stopped by the broker after my killing spree to sell the nice item drop I’d picked up, and the little weasel-like Shugo merchant stammered in awe, “A Daeva! Ke-ke-ke-ke-ke!”…it all seemed worth it, and still does. After all, as epic as I already seem, there's still no place to go but up.

Does looking and feeling epic matter to you like it does to me? Talk about it in the Loading... forum.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Aion General Discussion forum

Why is my character glowing?

Does your Aion character have a glow about them? Assuming your character isn't pregnant, that can only mean one thing--your DP bar is full and you're ready to open a can o' whoopass. Uninformed about DP? It's your Divine Power, and a special skill you receive at level 10 grants you the ability to lay a serious hurtin' on your enemy, just once, before you need to slay more enemies to fill the meter again. What's your favorite DP skill and animation? How do you use DP? Tell us about it!

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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"So far my favorite is the crazy Gladiator skill that lets you pick mobs up and swirl them around above your head with your polearm before smacking 'em down on the ground. Good stuff indeed, especially when you use it on mobs twice as big as your character."

- Sardu
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

2 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 96 in September! 1,048 in 2009!

Today's New MMO Coverage and Features

Aion: Good versus Evil – The Two Sides of Aion’s Faction System
What matters most- what faction system games use for PvP or how it is done? Aion’s player versus player combat uses the same old two faction system making use of a tried and true method, but in this day of gaming couldn’t PvP stand a bit more sophistication? In this editorial, Savanja discusses PvP factions and why sometimes just sticking with what you know is better.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: An Overview of the Favored Soul and Monk
Dungeons and Dragons Online went to a free to play model earlier this month, re-titling itself as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited and if the crowds of players are any indication, the move was a good one. One of the more interesting aspects of this new DDO version are the two classes available for purchase, the Favored Soul and the Monk. See what has Dalmarus so excited about them both.

Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

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