Over the past few days I decided it was time to get acquainted with a few big name MMOs that I had never really tried out: Age of Conan, and Champions Online. Oh, well, and this third MMO I had never played, but we’ll get to that one. You may have heard of it.

 

Both Champions Online and Age of Conan featured cutscenes. I don't know how I feel about those in MMOs. It's interesting.

The introductory bits of Age of Conan are as good as people say. You start as a slave who is recently “freed” by a shipwreck, and within minutes of washing ashore you are dashing through the jungle on your first quest, to murder the only man that knows your true identity.

It’s engrossing. My character immediately has a purpose, and a quest that is directly important to him. You are doing interesting things right away. I immediately transitioned from the beach to the forest as I tracked my prey.

 

You'll notice all three PCs have shit on their back. If there is one thing about Champions Online, its that no one can resist making a character without SOMETHING on their back.

Champions Online follows a similar bent, although the execution leaves a bit to be desired. You start off in a sealed zone of Millenium City that is under attack by alien invaders. Within minutes of starting in this tutorial area, you are repelling the alien invasion, saving civilians, and meeting with the mayor. And you feel GODLIKE, even if you don’t necessarily understand the intricacies of what you’re doing. (Many people find some of the particular concepts and character attributes poorly explained, and I have to agree entirely despite being once familiar with the pen & paper RPG it’s based on)

 

I don't miss playing Warhammer Online so much, but I really do miss the *place*. I miss how how amazingly different the Dwarven and Empire starting areas felt, the sense of urgency, the variety of things to do.

Both games reminded me strongly of my experience with Warhammer Online. As a Warrior Priest for the Empire, by the time I had hit level 5, I had:

  • Relocated to a visually different area
  • Run a few quests, both of the “Kill X” variety as well as a few “Rescue the blah” type
  • Participated in a Public Quest (a raid-style encounter open to everyone)
  • Fought in a Player-versus-Player scenario
  • Learned the overall purpose of my character’s existence

The game designers behind these three very different titles all understood one thing: the introductory moments of your game are what sells them to a player. They should provide a sense of the character’s place in the world, give them interesting things to do, and in short answer the question “Why should I continue to play this game?”

 

Mulgore. More like MulBORE! (I will give credit to Blizzard for using bright colors. I wish more games featured bright, varied colors. I also wish it was put to better use than Mulgore, I suppose.)

About that third game. I decided it was time I finally try out the “gold standard” of MMOs that I would constantly hear all others compared against. It was time to play World of Warcraft.

I’m sure when it came out in 2004, it was enough for players to be dumped in a village and receive a dozen “Kill X Wolves” quests without any kind of overarching justification behind what made your character wake up one day, grab a club, and start grinding out XP. Certainly compared to the likes of EverQuest, that’s a wealth of background and detail. But even by 2005 you had City of Heroes and Guild Wars, each of which provided me more compelling reasons to begin questing.

But WoW has a reputation for being amazing, for paying back dividends many times for what you put into it. I took it on faith that my experience would improve, and Boozleboo the Shaman wandered out to the hills where creatures lazily stood around waiting to be killed. Keep in mind in other games I was already killing for some good reason, killing something that posed some threat against me or my kind. But here I’m collecting feathers and talons from mostly harmless creatures. Heroic.

Eventually I grind out enough of these quests that its time for me to move beyond the modest Tauren village and up the road. I made it to the next larger-but-otherwise-visually-identical village to start talking to people and gathering quests.

Aside from feeding a dog, they were all “Kill X creatures” quests with threadbare narrative behind or connecting them. Again.

Once the dog was fed, I plonked away at my other quests halfheartedly. Once I reached that second village, the tale of Boozleboo the Shaman ended before it began. While this kind of experience was probably good enough five years ago, in 2009 it’s a far different story. I need some variety in quest, setting, and/or narrative. I need some explanation as to why I am in the world and what goals I’m supposed to be working towards.

 

So this is where the story ends. Or at least, it would have ended had I wrote this yesterday as intended. Instead, Blizzard announced a new expansion on Friday, Cataclysm. It contains many tweaks to the five year old game, but let me quote this choice bit from Eurogamer’s writeup on the expansion:

Every single zone on the levelling path from 1 to 60 will be revamped with updated quests, art, and items.

I applaud Blizzard for finally taking this step. As it currently stands, the introductory areas are in poor shape. If they are intended to answer the question of “Why should I continue to play?”, the current answer seems to be a confused shrug before wandering off to high-level content.

If nothing else, add some more dog feeding quests.
-Scott