Monday 24 August 2009

Cataclysm – You Know Too Much

You watched the Cataclysm trailer this weekend didn’t you?

I have to say it looks pretty exciting. However it sometimes seems to me a pity that we can become so much in the know about future WoW events before they ever happen, from a story-telling point of view.

There’s a strange irony to how we approach this RPG. We strive to know tactics before we step through the door of an instance. Almost certainly we know the potential loot! Of course it varies from person to person, but often players have enormous amounts of information about challenges before they are undertaken, and not to have that information is failure.

Does this foreknowledge fly in the face of immersive roleplay, or would the heroes of old have indeed gathered as much information as possible before heading off to kill that Minotaur? You decide.

Aragorn: ‘Okay when Frodo draws his sword about 100 orcs are going to come charging out of the woods. I want the Hobbits to draw as much aggro as possible and start running to where Boromir will tank the main group. Legolas, Gimli and I will deal with any adds, dps like crazy, and then run down to the others. I’ll off-tank the main boss while the rest of you finish off the mobs.’

Frodo: ‘How do you know all this stuff anyway?’

Boromir: ‘I still think we should wait for a healer. Ask Guilds.’

4 comments:

  1. The fecking lols!

    I think I did a little wee when I read the last part =)

    I agree. Theres this addon that some use that give drop down menus of all the loot from EVERY dungeon... couldn't believe what these knowledge gurus had hold of!

    I've stepped into WoW (since Jan) full of awe and bewilderment of everything I've encountered (being very new to MMORPGs) and fairly new to online gaming at all.

    I've found that due to this I've spent in game hours upon hours of exploration, talking with NPCs and players alike, gathering materials for my professions and venturing into dark dungeons... all with little or no pre-sense of anything that was about to unfold... I don't know about you but one of my most scariest moments was opening the door to the ship-cave in Deadmines to see tonnes of pirates all awaiting you with serrated daggers! I crapped it and said I think I'd rather just go back to Darkshore ^^ needless to say we pressed on regardless and defeated Van Cleef... but the pure innocence I had then I would trade for any amount of gold! The wonderlust that pulled me into that cove with all those madmen staring at me?!

    I've had many adventures now and I fully await the expansion with open arms but as I've done with previous patches of WotLK, I'll just plug in and play... no researching my inevitable death previously ^^ just jumping in, learning tactics and (hopefully) leaving again in one piece and with the spoils that I deserved (epix plz) =D

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  2. This was a serious problem in Final Fantasy 11 as well. When we finally got to play it here it had already been out for a year or so in Japan, and when it was released in the US and europe, it was already with the first expansion.
    It meant that for any stage of character development it was already known what the best location/zone was to level and which piece was the best-in-slot for which class. Even ideal Party compositions were pre-dtermined as it was completely known which skills became available when and how to best synergise them.

    For RP it's very tricky, on one hand you can be very immersed, on the other you DO have metaknowledge of the game, even if your character does not. The internet has made information like this available on a mass scale.

    I know I will enjoy finding my way through those 5 extra levels in the new Azeroth. I remember being very pleasantly surprised at the Wrathgate, Makuru's(?) Guru and the Sons of Hodir questlines. Seeing as there's a lot of enthusiasm for these I'm sure we'll see some epic, unannounced stuff regardless :)

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  3. A little off-topic but it is only a comment and not the blog post so I hope I don't annoy anyone. Its about what Ard mentioned 'metaknowledge'.

    I am, I'm sure all will agree who have played alongside me, very into adding comedy into RP (mainly in D&D but sometimes in WoW)... because of this I created a new feat for characters in 3.5 to choose called 'Metagaming' it technically allows your character to reach into the twisting nether of creation and use his knowledge of the game to his advantage in the RP world... also this feat is the prerequisite for another feat with a similar name, 'Meta-cheat' this allows the player to peer over the DMs screen and use this secret info to aid his cause ^^ allowing his character and his comrades to accomplish new feats of 'divination'. I'm thinking of a new feat along the lines of 'meta-kicktheDMintheteethuntilhegivesyouthat+5vorpalswordyoudesperatlyneed'

    I hope noone takes me seriously here, it was intended to be satyrical. =)

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  4. I like it Eyriour : D haha!

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