A Brief, Brief History
Dave
Arneson and Gary Gygax created Dungeons and Dragons in 1972,
by 1978 AD&D hit the shelves. The idea of a game in which a
player can do as he wishes in a vast fantasy world tickles the
imagination, but the reality of sitting at a table with the socially
inept and rolling dice ultimately fails to deliver on this idea.
Since the earliest days
of computer games (i.e. Adventure, ZORK), role-playing
games have been a staple of video gaming. Traditionally, these RPGs
involved little more than a canned storyline and graphics served
(when technology allowed) to dress up the dice-rolling aspect. Not
only that, but until recently RPG video games were single-player
only – so instead of pasty-faced goons, your fantasy world would be
full of moronic robots, pacing back and forth and repeating the same
line of dialogue over and over…
The late 90’s brought
Ultima Online, a revolutionary game that allowed hundreds of
gamers to log onto a persistent world any time of the night or day
and engage in role-playing with their buddies. But now, instead of
arguing over die rolls and character sheets, everyone looked and
acted the part. The illusion of the fantasy world was possible, but
the 2D graphics were archaic (even for their time).
EverQuest was the
next milestone. While the graphics were muddy and there was really
no goal or storyline to speak of, people became addicted at an
alarming rate. EverSmack, EverCrack, NeverSleep are a few
names given to this game by shunned spouses and neglected children.
People stopped showing up for work, paying their bills and bathing.
Suddenly those long nights playing D&D with your buddies looked and
sounded pretty realistic, and now you could do it every night with
thousands of people.
Which brings us to:
Anarchy Online: The Notum
Wars
Anarchy online is a few
years old, but has never enjoyed the mass following of mega-geeks
that EverQuest does. Instead of a middle-earth style fantasyland,
Anarchy Online takes place in the distant future, on a small planet
owned and controlled by a corporation called Omni-Tek. The following
are the three playable factions:
Neutral –
Relegated to shantytowns between the borders of the two rivaling
factions, the neutrals are both partially accepted and shunned. It
is worth noting that one may join the Clan or Omni-Tek at any time.
Omni-Tek – These
guys rule over the planet of Rubi-Ka… because they own it. Everyone
on the planet exists there only because it has been terra-formed to
make mining precious minerals possible. They have the greatest share
of wealth and the newest technology; they’ve even created an
entirely new humanoid species to maximize productivity.
Clan – Disgruntled
denizens of Rubi-Ka who feel oppressed by the cold, corporate greed
of Omni-Tek. They acknowledge that Rubi-Ka was once a simple mining
colony, but believe that the culture and peoples that have evolved
it its wake deserve to be given the freedom to defy Omni-Tek.
Apples and Oranges
Some of the MMORPG
conventions defined by the 800-pound gorilla before it (EverSmack)
have been adopted and refined in AO:TNW. Some of the more
annoying aspects have been blunted or done away with completely:
Corpse Runs – Far
into the future, the humanoid races have devised a way to cheat
death. Whenever you die, a planetary network of replicators
automatically reconstruct your body (including bionic augmentations
and clothes) at the last place you bought “insurance”. All of your
possessions are re-generated in a special booth right next to you.
Dying is not completely
without consequence, though. Resurrected players will lose all exp
points gained since they last paid at the insurance terminal, and as
they spawn directly at this terminal, they may find themselves far
away from their current mission.
Hunting – I really
hate trudging through the wilderness looking for something that will
give me experience (not to mention mad L3\/\/+) while trying to
avoid those creatures that will kill me without fail. When I gain a
level I get to look for a whole new set of creatures, but the
pattern remains the same. Ugh!
You may do this (if you
wish) in anarchy online. However, the developers have created a
system in which you can simply go to a mission terminal and acquire
a mission in one of the many, many dungeons scattered (sometimes
hidden in plain sight) throughout every area (including towns). All
of the creatures you encounter and treasures you plunder within
these dungeons are a perfect match for your current level, and the
player selects the difficulty. Only the player or group who acquire
the mission key can go, so lag is basically non-existent here.
Not enough for you? In
addition to wild baddies and a convenient mission structure, there
are hunting grounds, which are specifically tailored to a tight
range of skill levels. Right about the time you’ve got one of these
massive killing grounds figured out, you’d gain access to the next.
All of this and a
bounty-based PvP system makes for some great RPG style combat… the
best I’ve seen in an MMORPG thus far.
Guilds – These are
called ‘organizations’ (OK, its ‘organisations’. As I am not a
friggin Brit, I’ll just go ahead and spell it our way) and hold more
than the just the promise of PvP group combat… but I’ll get to that
in a little bit.
Transportation –
This is achieved by a number of means, most notably a grid of public
teleport terminals, which (get this) can be hacked to allow
the player to travel farther and wider. Forget about finding a
specific player class to take you and your group across the world to
get to a mission – that is so 31,000 years ago.
A super-cool new option
for personal transportation are the sleek vehicles. Some hover
across land or water, (or both) some have combat capabilities. One
thing is for sure, though – you’re sure to turn some |\|00b!3 heads
as you speed past them in one of these bad boys.
Magic – Since this
is a pure science fiction game and not a steam-punk type alternate
universe, the idea of magic would clash horribly with the machine
guns and combat robots. The game developers have gotten around this
problem by using a clever system of bionic augmentations and nano-technology
to mimic the effects of D&D style spells.
Healing flesh and
creating energy shields can be achieved by draining your nano-supply,
just as you can damage an opponent by forcing his internal nanos to
run a nasty program. A very elegant way to implement a
tried-and-true gameplay mechanic into a game universe that would
otherwise make no sense.
The War for Notum
The on-going storyline in
this universe is fed by a system of land control that pits faction
against faction, using the accumulated monies from private
organizations within the game to build towers. These towers mine
‘Notum’ (the namesake of the retail upgrade) and also defend the
land on which it is mined. This adds yet another strategic aspect to
a game that already takes the standard conventions of the genre and
makes them its respective bitch.
Powerful Visual Appeal
The graphics in AO:TNW
are an incremental upgrade from its predecessors. Textures are
sharper and environmental effects are well done, but the graphical
prowess comes at a price.
When this game was
originally released, a top of the line computer (PIII 800mhz,
GeForce2) would choke and die when more than a few characters shared
the screen. It seems that current technology (I had to upgrade to
play this game) does an adequate job of keeping up, but it seems
that the amount of horsepower needed to run this graphics engine is
disproportionate to the quality of the graphics. Don’t get me wrong;
as of the time I write this, AO:TNW is the best looking
Sci-Fi themed MMORPG on the market, even after several years.
The audio in the game
requires little more than a footnote, as the music and sound effects
are all standard fare for an RPG.
Final Digs
On a personal note: I
played Morrowind for about 80 hours before I thoroughly whooped its
ass and became a god. About the same amount of time went into
playing AO:TNW, and 75% of the game population were still
more powerful than my character.
The massive time
investment that a MMORPG requires is more than I am willing to
invest. For hardcore RPG fans, it means an incredibly immersive game
with endless replay value… For gamers like me, it means you’ll get
bored of the ultra-slow pace and go back to killing Nazis. (yee
haw!)
With a slew of new
MMORPGs coming to the market, as well as hybrid MM-FPS type games
like PlanetSide making a big splash – it’s very hard to say
what the future holds for the genre. As it stands right now,
AO:TNW is basically the best there is when comparing apples to
apples.
If you’re already a
MMORPG fan, or are looking to get into them, this game is cream of
the crop. If you are wary about paying monthly subscription fees
(the game can be downloaded for free – hell, they’ll even mail you a
CD) and are unsure that you can invest so many hours a week – I’d
suggest sticking to Counter-Strike.
