style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">You
Must Be “This” Tall to Play This Game:

By John (JP) "AgonThalia" Sherman

style="font-family: Arial;">There have always been
threats from entertainment to warp our kids’ minds and there have
always been
watchdogs who desire to protect them from those influences. style="">  This eternal battle is as old as we are, as a
species we evolved to be both violent and gentle, to be intrigued and
excited
about violence, yet smart enough to be somewhat disgusted by those
primal
feelings.   In the Paleolithic caves
of
Chauvet and Lascaux style="font-family: Arial;">, are some of man’s earliest examples of
art, expression
and entertainment.  There are violent
depictions of animal hunts as well as images of early humans next to
their
children.  Fast forward about 30,000
years to 1697, the story Cinderella,
portrays a young woman conquering her surroundings to find love, as
well as a
grotesque description of her step-sisters severing their heels and toes
so
their feet could fit into the glass slipper (guess what, the blood gave
them
away… so they weren’t too bright).  Fast
forward a few more hundred years, there’s a story about a cop searching
for
redemption and revenge in style="">Max style=""> style="">Payne style="font-family: Arial;">. 
Entertainment thrives on conflict, without it, there’s no
development,
there’s no growth, there’s no triumph and, of course, there’s no fun. style="">  Almost every single media in which
entertainment
is distributed, there are levels of conflict, some are mild conflicts
designed
to teach lessons, others are more graphic to stimulate those primal
emotions
that stimulate our instincts.  Almost
every form, that is… except the MMO. 
Most MMO’s are rated either Teen or below.  Single
and multiplayer games all have their
hyper-violent representatives, but not the MMO. 
Is there even a market for a mature themed MMO? 
If there was one, what would make it deserve
a mature rating, yet still have a broad appeal? 
Lastly, would style="font-family: Arial;">Jack style="font-family: Arial;"> style="font-family: Arial;">Thompson style="font-family: Arial;"> be too busy fighting other video games to
even
notice? 

Enough with the History
Lesson, Lets Talk MMO’s

style="font-family: Arial;">When we look at some of the
basic similarities of the display of violence in MMO design, what we
find is
that most of the violence that’s portrayed are very little more than
blood drop
icons, a generic reddish (or some alien color) mist that emerges from
the
victim or other sanitized visual representation of damage and injury. style="">  When I impale an orc, there are times I want
to see the sword coming out the back, when I take a hammer and flatten
a
troll’s head, I want to hear the bones break. 
Other times, when creatures score a hit on me, I’d like to see
my avatar
leave a trail of blood, that if the nearby animals smell, they could
come after
me to have a quick lunch.  With the
addition of more realistic or gorier effects, for me, it adds to the
level of
immersion, it heightens the fear and survival response in me and
ultimately, I
have more fun.  Now, before you begin to
think I’m some blood-junkie, I know my limits, I wouldn’t let my child
play it,
nor would I play the game when he’s around. 
I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and I
think that
allowing him to see daddy solve conflicts with violence is not a good
lesson to
teach him.  I love action films and
horror flicks, not because I want to live them, but because I enjoy the
visceral reactions the good ones leave me with. With
that said, I believe
that there’s definitely a market for a mature themed MMO. 
As defined by the ESRB, a mature rating is a
video game that has “content that may be suitable for persons ages 17
and
older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and
gore,
sexual content and/or strong language”.  Before
we go any further, I’m only referring to an “M” rating, not “AO” which
is
defined as a video game with “content that should only be played by
persons 18
years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes
of
intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity”. style="">  So, lets take what we know about good game
design, good MMO design and good mature content and figure out what
would be an
MMO that would deserve an “M” rating, yet still be fun enough to play
for a
long time.

The
Setting:

style="font-family: Arial;">There are endless
settings that MMO’s could
come in, but your basic flavor will come in fantasy, sci-fi or horror. style="">  Fantasy games are the standard, you don’t
have to be too creative to come up with your own fantasy universe, or
you could
shell out the money and purchase the rights to Planescape or
Dragonlance.  While Planescape would make a
good mature
themed MMO, we’re still grouped in with the fantasy element, and in
order to
get that realistic rush of adrenaline and fear, it needs to be a little
closer
to reality.  Sci-Fi is also a great
environment for a mature MMO.  The only
thing that limits you is your imagination, and while you’ll still run
into the
fantasy element if you add alien species, the sci-fi genre has done
mature very
well in other forms of entertainment, and mature fantasy usually ends
up with
porny dungeon babes in skimpy armor.  A
horror themed MMO in my opinion would be the holy grail of the game
designer.  However, since most of the
great horror rests in a reactive situation thrust upon doomed people,
(either
by chance or their own stupid decisions) MMO’s tend to be active
environments,
where you choose to go to a certain section and look for what’s there. style="">  Good horror combines elements of surprise,
reactionary situations, and an appeal to the fight or flight reaction
in
humans.  style="font-family: Arial;">H.P. style="font-family: Arial;"> style="font-family: Arial;">Lovecraft style="font-family: Arial;"> is one of my favorite authors, his
descriptions of
man alone in an uncaring universe surrounded by alien gods, vicious
cults and
madness is both unsettling and exciting, to convert good horror into an
MMO,
there would seem to be something lacking if I’m looking for a group to
beat the
shoggoth in the Marsh refinery in Innsmouth. 
Let’s stick with a sci-fi theme. 
We can combine the fantasy elements of alien races, and the
environmental horror and darkness of a Lovecraftian universe. style="">

The Foundational Conflict:

The
Conflict Landscape:

Magic
vs. Technology:

style="font-family: Arial;">Guess what, there’s magic…
well, technically not magic, but science so advanced that it seems to
us like
magic.  The cultists have it, they use
it, and they don’t share it with anyone. 
Normal explorers that gain access to that limited magic would
gain
significant power, but lose their humanity and their sanity, making
them more
susceptible to the looming horror.  The
power they gain through magic would also visually transform them
slightly as
well, the more they have, the more disfigured and un-human they become. style="">  The alien magic the cultists wield was never
meant for normal humans who have not completely given their sanity over
to the
alien gods.

style="font-family: Arial;">Fortunately, we have guns,
lots of guns… big ones too, we fight the threats off by shooting it,
gutting it
or just blowing it up.  Players would
have access to different and unique death blows, impaling the enemy,
headshots
and other, more graphic depictions of the finishing touch. 
The violence wouldn’t be random or
indiscriminant like GTA, to be honest, GTA doesn’t really have much
visual
violence, what it does have is random violence on innocent bystanders. style="">  That’s really not an option in an MMO, so we
go with what works, good depictions of bloody violence. 
Just once, I’d like to see an adversary in
PvP or PvE decapitated.