Kingdom Hearts has me thinking about character creation in MMORPGs

Kingdom Hearts has me thinking about character creation in MMORPGs! How so you may ask?

Anyone remember back in the days of the Might and Magic and Ultima series where character creation was done with a set of questions. Usually they covered moral choices such as "You see a man begging in the street. Do you give him gold or do you berate him for begging?" While I can't remember the questions exactly they served the purpose that modern day attribute and stat sliders do.

I question in modern games whether seeing the actual numbers and making exactly the character you want helps or hurts the experience. In general RPG terms if I want a strong warrior I will raise my STR and CON during character creation. If I want a wise wizard I'll raise my INT. While this system gives me the ability to create the character I want does it really help me make a character that embodies my attitude?

Part of it comes from role playing. Good role players can pick up with any character regardless of the details. But we all know that modern MMORPGs are not really havens for role play. The mechanics are very anti-role play in the traditional sense. What roles are played are defined by the mechanics. You play a healer to heal... etc etc... there is a very weak sense of role play involved. Type-casting during character creation forces a role on you. Even if that is the role you want to play does it really reflect accurately of yourself?

What if you were asked a series of questions during character creation and answering them honestly would determine what skills, attributes, and alignment your character would be. What if you took the Bartle Test to determine your starting abilities? Or maybe through these tests and questions you are put into an advanced role in the world instead of having to progress your character with levels or skills?

What I'm getting at is that if the numbers didn't exist and you created a character that reflects your own personality and moral sanctions wouldn't you be playing a character that promotes role play? You would be more likely to enjoy the character for a greater period of time because you are actually thinking along the same lines as the character. The role playing barrier is stripped away because you are representing your real self in the game. Some may say their real self is lacking, but that is the point of the game. It gives you the power to swing a sword, throw a fireball, and slay the dragon. BUT your motives are guided by your morals and wouldn't it just be easier if you didn't have to play by a set of pre-defined rules because you created the character you wanted instead of a character that acts as you would?

Sadly, this is only a Utopian dream. The system would be broken down and attributes assigned to the questions. Eventually you would know how to answer questions in such a way that you get the character you want instead of a character that generally mirrors your persona. Fortunately those that are willing would be able to roll a true representation of themselves, but most likely would be cast out as "gimp" by the min/max crowd.

Real World Test: If you are a DM and run a D&D campaign the next time you get ready to roll characters have your players take the Bartle Test. Then divvy out pre-made characters based on the results. It is up to you how to figure out what classes/races/alignments fit with the various scores.

A wierd gaming day.

I had a bad day yesterday. Speeding ticket and then a city ordinance fine! No sense in breaking into the details... the day just sucked. So today I just wanted to game and that's something I haven't done in a while.

I kicked things off by canceling my EVE Online account for a month due to my expiring credit card. I will resub next month to keep those oh so valuable skills training. I'm taking a break from EVE because the game is just too intense for my RL situation at the moment. I will be back.

Next I grabbed some lunch and a funny thing happened. My PS2 stared me down right as a Kingdom Hearts II commercial danced across the TV screen. Without hesitation I finished up my lunch and grabbed my copy of Kingdom Hearts (the original) and popped it in. I jumped right into the beginning and made it past the first few save spots. This game is fun and I forgot what fun can be had outside of the PC gaming world!

Next I came upstairs and jumped online. I had wanted to resubscribe to World of Warcraft for a while just because the game can be fun if you stay away from the parts you hate. I put down another three month subscription and jumped back online. I forgot how painful the game is without your UI being tweaked out so I spent some time getting it up to snuff. I've rerolled an undead mage on the Whisperwind server. It's PvE (which I usually stay away from), but there is a nice guild I want to play with there... The Pod People.

After a triumphant return to WoW a game sitting on the floor caught my attention. It was Rebel Strike for my Gamecube. Having not played it at all since I bought it I decided to give it a spin. It's a bit tougher than I had imagined, but after all this PC gaming I'm still adjusting back to a console controller. Sadly my roomate moved out and took the Gamecube memory sticks with him. Unable to save I only made it through the training and called it a night.

It's no secret... E3 2006 got me jazzed up about consoles again. The Nintendo Wii has me more than ready to plop down cash. It's a great time to be a gamer... finally. I see a bright future between a Nintendo Wii and Warhammer Online :)

Update: 15 Nov, 2009 - Edited spelling, applied label, and removed broken link.

Mario Wii screenshots! Mario Galaxy!

Update: 15 Nov, 2009 - Removed post as all links and pictures were broken.

Post originally had screen shots of Mario Galaxy and a link to the E3 media site.

The move is on!

I'll be moving Tuesday (hopefully) so I will be in and out the rest of the week. Already have cable and a PC up and running at the house we just bought so I shouldn't see a huge lapse in gaming/net usage. However, I have work to do on the house... blasted gutters and rotten subfloor...

Anyways I'll be around hopefully for some EVE Online, Guild Wars, and Battlefield 2. Can't go too long without gaming... must feed addic...

Its 5:40 PM... do you know where your BoB invasion fleet is?

May 3 2006, EVE Online - V2-VC2 (Home system of Huzzah Federation)

It seems that Band of Brothers (BoB), EVE Online's version of an uber guild, has parked a nice little invasion fleet outside our home station in V2-VC2. They seem to be currently setting up a small control tower (player owned structure) that is equivalent to a floating Death Star. It can't be used to attack us directly, but if you get to close to it you can kiss that shiny ship of yours goodbye.

If you haven't sensed it yet... we are in trouble if we don't move fast. We are forming up right now as I post this and it's going to be a hell of day... week.... month depending on how long BoB plans to stick around. If you don't know anything about EVE then you may not understand any of this. It's WAR. It's gritty, overwhelming, and unpredictable chaos. This is the CHANGE that I expect in an MMORPG.

This fight (if it turns into a fight instead of a lot of nothing) will determine our future in EVE Online. We are one of the few, if not the only one, that seem to be willing to fight BoB. BoB unfortunately have a huge hand up on everyone they deem willing to fight because of their broad access to Tech II ships and weapons... along with a massive infrastructure geared directly towards massive WAR support.

If we win... we are sending a message that BoB will not soon forget. Sadly though... this is a small offensive on their part, but is still bigger than anything any other EVE alliance could muster.

To WAR.

Rogues aren't gods yet; Blizzard attempts to fix.

Blizzard is gearing up to fix "rogue issues" in World of Warcraft patch 1.10.1.

I don't really think Blizzard gets it. They did "get it" in beta that invisibility sucked ass and therefore it was removed from the mage class. But in effect they added it right back to the rogue class.

Rogues are the best PvE farming class and probably still considered the best PvP class. Granted I don't play WoW anymore (thank god!), but it doesn't take a genius to look at whats happening. Rogues are one of the most overplayed classes and therefore receives much of the developers attention. More people to bitch about bugs on message boards makes Blizzard's pants bunch up.

So Rogues aren't gods yet and Blizzard is determined to fix that :) Good day.


Update: 15 Nov, 2009 - Edited spelling, applied label.

Haven't posted in a few...

Still playing EVE Online and getting my ass kicked in PvP (but so far I've learned A LOT!). Still playing Guild Wars. Played a match of Call of Duty 2 CTF with a few friends from [MW]HQ. Also playing Battlefield 2 a bit and plan on doing another BF2 video.

I've also joined the staff at Grimwell Online(now defunct) to write articles. Grimwell has given me a chance I don't plan to disappoint him. So look for some good articles over there with a bit more thought and effort put into them.

Other than that it's all roses and ice cream around here. Will post a larger update about myself soon hopefully. Some big changes in my life :)

Update: 15 Nov, 2009 - Edited spelling, applied labels, and removed broken link.

Charleston AFB Air Expo 2006

Attended Charleston AFB Air Expo 2006.

Update: 9 April 2009 - Removed link to pictures that are no longer uploaded.

WAR!!! EVE Online at its best!

Band of Brothers post on EVE Online forums.

For those of you that may not understand the significance of that post I will attempt to explain. Player alliances in EVE relate to each other via a "standings" system. -10 (hostile) all the way to +10 (friendly). 0 is neutral. In 0.0 (low security & player owned) space alliances have "not blue shoot it" policies. That means anyone without a positive standing will be shot down if they cross into any Band of Brothers (BoB) space and BoB just set everyone to 0. Follow this link(defunct link) to view the current alliance owned space regions (BoB is on the bottom left in blue). I'm part of the Huzzah Federation (middle bottom in pink). Band of Brothers is one of the largest and most war hardened alliances in game and by far the "big boy of the southern EVE systems" where my corporation and alliance claim home.

After standings there is war declarations. Any alliance or corporation can declare war on another corporation or alliance at which point they become hostile towards each other. The difference between standings and war "decks" (as they are known) is that you can attack players involved in a war in any security space. So there is no safe space during a war. Standings are just a reference point, but does not allow you to attack in safe space (0.5 and above).

While BoB's action is not really an official "war" declaration it effectively is step one towards an official declaration... actually a lot of declarations from anyone that lives near them! We will shoot them down and they will shoot us down if we cross paths... we just won't go out of our way right now to attack them and of course safe space is still safe for the moment.

What this means for my corporation and alliance?

Two things. First we have set Band of Brothers to a -10 standing which means we will shoot to kill them now. We don't play the neutral game... we want our members to know that BoB has turned hostile on everyone.

Secondly our neighbors, the FIX alliance, are no longer protected by BoB. BoB previously bailed them out of a very bad war that almost cost FIX their entire area of space. With BoB on one side of FIX and us on the other it may just be time to finish FIX off. I can't confirm that's what we're doing, but its wishful thinking on my part

This also means we are gearing for war... mining ops, ship building, and combat training. Fun fun!

What this means for EVE Online?

It puts an end to the relative lull in action lately. Diplomacy was truly taking over instead of violent conflict. People weren't fighting anymore! When a player alliance so large and so influential over such a large section of EVE decides to pretty much declare open war on everyone it shows the power that players can have in an MMORPG.

Also recently there has been a shake up in the northern territories of EVE with some other large alliances. Its possible that all of EVE will be at war soon enough and if that isn't enough to get you interested in playing... then I don't know what will!

Update: 15 Nov, 2009 - Edited spelling, applied label, and removed broken link.

I made the report

Raph Koster has his monthly report up for March and I've made the grade.

The question remains: is this an insult or a compliment?

"And the main event, the wild and wooly world of the Internet, which washes up weird and wonderful weblinks which winkled out wacky wordage from Google, which I wish started with a W.

game website nobody knows about. Given the traffic, not this one anymore. As I recall, Heartless was upset I was stealing his traffic. Try that one."

Either way, I'll take it!