Earlier this week, Psychochild drew my attention to a very nicely written article on the GamersInfo site. Entitled Stargate Worlds: Looking into the Wormhole, it grapples with author Kelly ‘Ophelea’ Heckman’s reservations about the SGW Massive game currently in development. It struck a chord with me because, well, I’m feeling reservations about a game I’m looking forward to as well.

Ophelea’s article is fascinating on multiple levels, though, because it not only talks about her frustrations as a fan of Stargate, but also attempts to dissect the design elements we already know about. My couple of paragraphs rambling about Firefly were by necessity devoid of design discussion.

This particular paragraph jumped out at me:

“What if I’m a player who doesn’t rush to level cap, but I will reach the top. There are a lot of players like me – we become attached to our characters. It’s this situation that has forced games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, Asheron’s Call and others to cater to the high-level players (welcome to the reason for the 40-man raid!). Resources simply cannot be devoted to low and mid-level content. Those at the high end would leave the game and they’re what monetize the game. This negates the entire design of “re-roll to see other content”. A very common complaint of multiple MMOs is the lack of new mid-level content. When your design specifically intends for your players to rush to the top they’re going to want a lot to do. Expecting them to re-roll multiple times seems risky.”

This is something that frustrates me to no end, both with tabletop and Massive gaming. For me, the best part of the story isn’t the beginning or end: it’s the middle. The part of the story where everything is grooving along and we’re really getting to explore the concepts behind the tale. I’m sure I’m not alone in not finding Seasons 1 or 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer all that engaging … but Season 5? The arch-villainess was a demon-chickie named Glory, and every good thing about that show just sang in the face of a truly vicious villain. Establishing characters … boring. Heroic denouement … boring. But a group of well-known characters doing what they do best, with great writing and interesting concepts behind them? Sign me up.

In the gaming space, this personal outlook on story has consistently left me disappointed. Dungeons and Dragons, for example, gets really really good from about 5th to 12th level. Before that, your character is too squishy; one orc with a good roll can end your story arc but quick. Above that, I’ve found, D&D’s rules-set starts to get a little hinky. “Okay, roll to hit, please? You … rolled a 43? Okay. Ahh, yeah, that hits.” In that centerville sweet spot, though, you’ve got thrilling heroics, awesome monsters, the game’s truly iconic spells … good times.

Similarly in Massive titles, I usually find my favorite moments somewhere in the middle; Duskwood is far and away my favorite WoW zone, from beginning to end. The problem is that by the time I am trudging, again, through the desert of Desolace Duskwood is but a distant memory. My inclination is to go off on a tear about another of Ophelea’s points, about how the story of a Massive game should be ever-changing and we shouldn’t have to worry about Max-level, etc … really what I’d like is to be able to decide to go back and play through the game differently with my same character. I don’t know what ‘differently’ means, but I’m not going to get into this so … ha ha … I don’t have to figure that out.

I’m not going to go off on a tear, though, because I’m getting pretty cynical about these things. Players need there sweet candy, and as long as designers are designing games for players that need their ‘phat lootz’, we’re going to keep seeing titles like this. Ultimately, though, if there was ever a concept that called for episodic content of some kind, isn’t it a Massive game based on a television show? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sit down every Friday and enjoy the next chapter of your character’s personal story, unfolding over time in the Stargate/Firefly/Calvin and Hobbes MMOG? With a design focus like that, you could even attempt to have … gasp … closure once in a while. Novel concept.

In any case licensing in games, especially of IPs like this, is not going to be leaving the Massive space any time soon. In fact, I can see a Massive title being a very appealing element for almost any television show. Even realistic titles like 24 or Lost could certainly have some sort of persistent world attached to them by an ambitious marketing team and a willing development house. I’m going to join Ophelea in hoping (against hope) that known and future licensed MMOGs do their best to keep in mind the most important letter in the acronym: the G.

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