Finished Article

For my finished article, I have decided to write about the phenomenon of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games and their status in the video game world. I want to talk about how their presence has affected the games industry, what the future holds for MMOs and what makes MMOs a unique and surprisingly diverse genre of games.

What makes Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games so unique? Firstly, they are usually massive. This means that there is a significant amount of content for the player to experience. Vast open world environments, in depth levelling and combat systems, more quests and activities than you could ever complete and raids/dungeons are all to be expected.

Secondly, they are entirely online, and as a result, have so far only been available to a PC audience. This is however a vital part of why the genre is so interesting, as the play experience you have depends significantly on the players around you. Scarcely populated servers and empty PVP rooms can (and often do) kill potential MMOs in their early stages of development , as if no one is playing the game with you, there is very little fun to be had.

Roleplaying is the final vital part of any good MMO. Roleplaying games owe their existence to classic role playing board games like the infamous dungeons and dragons. Their charm and unabashedly fantastical setting can be traced back to these board games from the early 70s and 80s.

(Dungeons and dragons board.)

There are thousands of MMOs at the moment, most of them are renowned for being clones of more successful MMOs, and some are renowned for being boring. Obviously personal preference dictates what MMOs. A subgenre of MMOs includes ‘Japanese’ MMOs which take influence from Anime and oriental culture in particular. The diversity of MMOs is surprising, as many interesting new takes on the genre have been seen in recent years.

‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ is one example of this, and was incredibly popular for a while, both with fans of the film series, and MMO players wanting to explore the galaxy far far away. SWTOR cleverly utilised an already existing universe, and a huge one at that, meaning that more attention could be paid to making the gameplay interesting, rather than insuring interesting and meaningful backstories were present.

Despite the mouth-watering idea of a Massive Online Star-Wars game, many fans complained, saying that the game lacked any engaging end game content, that it was too short and that it simply “wasn’t that fun”. The game had so much potential that I think it was over hyped a little, and it has now become ‘free to play’ (3 words most MMO developers never want to associate their games with.)

Of course, it would be impossible to talk about how revolutionary MMOs have been without talking about World of Warcraft. WoW is often considered the cookie cutter of how to do an MMO right, with over 12 million players worldwide and an ever expanding library of bestselling expansion packs. Renowned for being the ‘most addictive’ game, WoW has caused some controversy in the past, with several deaths associated with the game and spoofs of the culture connected with it.

My experience with World of Warcraft is similar to most people. A friend introduced me, I hadn’t played an MMO before, but had seen WoW spoofed in the famous episode of Southpark ‘make love not warcraft’ , which initially gave me a bad impression. It took a while to get into, and the apparent depth of the gameplay was overwhelming. If a game’s first impression intimidates you, then most people will not attempt to get into it. Even the interface is complicated, with a plethora of spell icons, text boxes, item slots and coloured bars to indicate various different things.

(Basically me in my teenage years.)

Being in year 10, GCSE’s were the only thing I had to worry about, so most of me and my friend’s time was dedicated to WoW. Raiding  on weeknights and competitive ‘player vs player’ games at the weekend. Setting up our laptops next to each other after school, we would play for hours.

(My Orc Mage character, sporting some old PVP armour.)

 We became very engrossed very quickly, to the extent where missing school to level up our professions seemed like a good idea. My friend even gave me my birthday present via World of Warcraft, giving me 5000 gold, which enabled me to purchase the ability to fly a dragon around. (My 16 year old self was very happy.)

Having grown up a bit, I now spend time practicing my drawing skills, instead of my blacksmithing, but I can say that playing games like World of Warcraft is really what inspired me to pursue illustration and concept art.

The art for MMO games is really important, and I think that as a genre, they demand the most work in the way of visual development. The mood and layout of different areas and environments has to be well established well before the modelling of said assets even begins.  With the huge amount of armour, clothes, character models and NPCs that need to be fleshed out as well, it really isn’t a surprise that teams of 20+ artists can work on one MMO.

Some of the concept art from Wildstar is below (an upcoming MMO that is challenging some existing clichés of the genre). I really like to see games that take a significant influence from the art created for it. You can see how the mood of different areas, and the silhouettes of creatures has really been prioritised, to ensure that the visuals of the game are strong, distinctive and unique.

This article has gone a little off topic, but I hope I have given you a little bit of an insight into the world of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games and how they have inspired me.