A DLC Rap, Yo

I just wanted to share the video below on my blog, because I agree that DLC and paid unlocks for premium content are becoming outrageous. So are the prices for CE’s at $150+, but apparently people are actually paying for all of this, so the game companies are going to keep shoveling more, because that’s how it works.

Will I pay for DLC? I bought the horse armor in Oblivion because it was new and different, but since then the only thing I’ve wanted is same-gender romances in SWTOR. I believe they were pulled or locked right before launch for political reasons. Bioware’s explanation–that there was some vague, last-minute, unforeseen glitch in this feature after years of development–was simply not believable.

If Bioware does fulfill its promise of SGR, maybe EA will have halved the price of the SWTOR box by then, so I’ll effectively be compensated for my pain and suffering with a lower total price. A rather hollow victory with the wallet. My prediction is companion DLC, so effectively this contentious content will not be in a player’s SWTOR game unless they actively purchase it, and Bioware will be able to deflect hate that way.

For the record, I dislike all DLC and generally will not pay for any of it, so apparently I’m more of an extremist and old-timer than Dan Bull. I hold video games as works of art–especially RPG’s. I equate an RPG to a novel, if you will, with memorable characters and a beginning and an end–like a good book.

I survived LotRO’s transformation from a place of beauty and integrity–my favorite game ever–into…something else (full criticism and nasty labels withheld for legal reasons–Turbine honestly scares me), but I’m sick of all of this marketing, advertising, and greed intruding into my game experience. A game is a happy place by definition–it should not be filled with this &%$# that ruins my immersion.

Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World are launching with cash shops. Guess what–I’m launching my cash at some new clothes instead of video games. In fact, this might be a good last post for my blog for a while.

So anyway, I’ll let Francis, everyone’s favorite fat angry gamer, take over on the intro (you might have to sit through a commercial first to see the video–lovely). As far as what “PLC” means in the refrain, I’m going to assume it means a British-style PLC, which is more or less a company, so an American translation might be “DLC Co.” Please correct me if I’m wrong. Enjoy.

What Went Wrong With DA II

I just now read the lengthy and solid Rock, Paper, Shotgun review of Dragon Age 2 that was posted last week. I still haven’t played DA2, and John Walker pretty much defined the main emotional, gut reason that I still don’t have any desire to do so.

“As a beginning it makes innumerous mistakes, but the most resounding is the complete sense of disconnect it gives you to your character. Picking him/her up in mid flow (for me it was a her, so for simplicity we’ll stick with that), she’s independent of you in her struggle. Not only is it made clear that the events you’re playing have already happened, but its emphasised upon you that you’re just an observer of an already complete family in the midst of their struggle.”

This is the main problem I also have with the Mass Effect franchise, which is also an RPG on rails where you play a defined character like in Heavy Rain, which isn’t considered an RPG at all. We might need a new term for what Bioware is doing.

I persistently can’t “get into” their main characters, because the character doesn’t feel like me, as in John Walker’s comment. I’m just watching someone else’s life play out and putting words in their mouth that are good, bad, or neutral, all nicely arranged for me on the dial so I don’t even have to use two brain cells in order to avoid a mistake.

Add this to the micro-transaction nonsense at the DA2 launch (having to pay extra to get the so-called ‘extras’ in the context of a down-sized game) and the McDonaldizing (dumbing the game systems down while filling up with more fattening action content) of the franchise, and I’m looking at making the classics at GoG my next games to play (Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate) after I hit cap in Rift. In those games I can play and develop a character that feels like mine.

Fake It Until You Make It

I’ve never really cared much for faking it, but it works for people in real life. Why not also in MMO’s? Keen touched on some interesting points in his last blog post about the appreciation of space and usable scope in games. He enjoys big scope. Most players do. The realities of game development however, (I’m not a developer, just a writer and admirer) largely dictate the actual usable space.

What Bioware’s RPG’s get right and some don’t, in my opinion, is implied scope, just like the castle in RIFT’s starter zone, and some of the vistas over Tortage in Age of Conan, but with a mental backdrop as well as a visual one. A backdrop of either persuasion is cake to create compared to a grand palace of usable modeled space.

I’ve suggested this concept a few times in the LotRO forums. There isn’t enough implied scope in LotRO. Does anyone know the politics of the day in LotRO? Or what Dwalin, Galadriel, and the elves of Rivendell are doing with their spare time, aside from sitting around and serving as quest nodes? Would it be bad to hear some news from Rohan or disturbing reports from distant future war fronts? How do people in Middle-Earth get their news? Are they ever afraid for their children? Where are the children, anyway?

A few NPC’s do mention things happening in existing zones, even in the Shire, where one would expect blissful ignorance. This is a good thing, but Turbine could do much more to create a sense of a larger world than physically exists in the game. They’re spamming lots of text anyway. (I actually enjoy it, and LotRO’s text is so well-written that only a few players have predictably complained.)

I feel sure that this is a tenet of Bioware’s design philosophy. In Neverwinter Nights, we heard grim recounting of the terror in the streets of Neverwinter before we stepped out and heard the shouts and cries of a city in turmoil. In Mass Effect 2, we saw video of the collectors before we met them–security video footage that created mysteries, stoked our fears, and expanded the player experience of space and time, while not creating any extra “usable space” beyond what was already in the game, just not reached yet. A better example is Dragon Age, where the NPC’s regale us with detailed stories of their distant homelands–a device that expands the perceived game world as well as characterizes.

It’s good to see RIFT doing something like this. I can’t play the beta with my download limitations, but I hope that the backdrop of the RIFT lore is also expansive in scope, even if it’s “faked” as Keen puts it. What is the most powerful tool of the game developer? Surely the player’s imagination. Like MMOGamerChick, I’ve been slowly boosting my lore circuitry leading up to SWTOR to head off a serious imagination overload.

This isn’t the type of post I’d like to write regularly on my blog, but immersion is something I really believe in, so thanks for sticking with me.