26 Ways to spice up MMO combat

When I started writing this article some while ago, it was called “10 ways to spice up MMO combat”. As these things go sometimes, it’s grown considerably in size ever since, with more and more ideas accumulating in my draft that I wouldn’t want to abandon. Well that’s that – I guess we call it proof of how badly MMOs need to improve one of their most centric features: battle.

Now, I don’t claim that any of the here suggested features or effects are new; nothing’s new under the sun, everything has been done somewhere, sometime, in an online or classic video game. Some of it we’ve sadly not seen enough of, some has never been done properly or very poorly. Not all of it is applicable to every type of MMO or necessarily in combination – but these are all features with some great potential to make future MMO combat more tactical, cooperative and dynamic in my eyes. And yes, more action based.

“Actual fast-paced combat opens (or really, re-opens) the doors of possibility when it comes to MMORPGs. If you don’t have to spend an hour theorycrafting, respeccing, buffing, and finally, dice-rolling your opponent to death — and instead could catch him unawares and simply send him packing with a blade to the throat — you’d have free time to do things other than combat.” [massively]

Many of us probably agree with the Massively article in that it’s time to move away from lengthy battle preparations, clicking ability bars and waiting on cool-downs, as you stand beside a few more people. Or as Epic Ben (whose page has sadly disappeared since?) put it a while back: “raiding is like synchronized swimming”, MMO combat is often static, repetitive and not exactly interactive. While it will never be quite the real thing (and certainly shouldn’t in every way), there are ways to make virtual combat feel more realistic, alive and exciting. And there are genres that can still teach MMORPGs a lesson or two.

So, here goes – I’ve tried to create some rough sections and to keep detailed descriptions short. I am also feeling lucky today and will just assume you know exactly what I mean by my weakly attempts to name and simplify complex mechanics (y’know, be creative!). In hindsight, I also realize I utterly failed to create any logical order. Good luck!

26 Ways to spice up MMO combat

A) Player-/Class & Group-centric features:

  1. No roles; no holy trinity, no dedicated tank & healer slots. Instead, every class is defined by specific DPS, CC and mitigation abilities. Ideally, we will see this in GW2.
  2. Low health bars, weak healing; similar to most FPS, players can only take so many hits before they die from a level-appropriate target. One-shots are possible. Healing is relatively weak (Darkfall) and most healing abilities target self-sustenance.
  3. More deaths occur as a consequence of the above points; to balance more deaths, death penalties shouldn’t be harsh and combat res becomes a more common ability.
  4. Friendly fire exists; AoE, cone attacks or similar can hurt allies and must be used with caution.
  5. Exhaust effects; players on low health suffer from slower reaction, blurred vision or similar impairing effects. Likewise, status ailments (with individual cures) will affect certain abilities.
  6. Class combos; players can set up combo- and sequence attacks for more powerful DPS. Difficult encounters enforce group interaction/timing and making use of class synergies.
  7. No auto-targeting; spells and abilities must be “aimed”, directed, positioned (AoE zones). Special attacks are responsive to player movement (for ex. influence the flight path of a boomerang by running along). There are several targeting “areas” per body (head, torax, limbs) with individual weaknesses.
  8. Players can actively block, dodge or parry melee attacks if timed correctly.
  9. Classes come with individual elemental affinities and magic resistances (as mobs do).

    B) Opponent-centric features:

    1. Enemy “states” such as aggressive or passive are not indicated by tool tips. There exist different aggro ranges for all kinds of mobs (also within the same family, call it a bad mood!).
    2. Enemies are frequently linked; more multi-mob pulls enforce smart use of CC.
    3. Enemy “AI”; enemies will fight differently depending on group size or spec composition (for ex. switch resistances). Enemies can block, dodge or evade attacks. 
    4. Enemies will pursue attackers more relentlessly (FFXI).
    5. Enemies can attempt to flee battle – the chase is yours to decide on.
    6. Content difficulty is dynamic; enemies/dungeons will adapt to group size and player levels.
    7. Outdoor boss fights or public quests are pick-up and FFA.
    8. Dungeons are randomly generated for each reset and may offer a random boss order and pick.

    C) Environmental features:

    1. Enhanced sounds and need for sound awareness; enemies can be heard from a distance, stealthed enemies can be tracked via noise. Players can discern “10 yards away” and “two levels above at six o’clock” (FPS).
    2. Impact of positioning; player damage responds to range, favoring tactical spots (hills, cavities), shooting from behind walls etc., thus encouraging smart use of terrain and map conditions.
    3. Drawing on the environment; special abilities or spells can be triggered by suitable surroundings – standing in pools is used to create tidal waves, woods proximity triggers archery bonuses etc.
    4. Night/day and weather conditions affect combat and individual abilities.

      D) Eye & Ear candy (never to be taken lightly):

      1. Nice combat visuals; high quality animations for trademark attacks, spells and special abilities. Characteristic palettes for each class, no animation copy&paste.
      2. Finisher and executioner animations (AoC or Skyrim).
      3. Combat music; engaging combat will trigger dedicated up-tempo tunes, with different tracks for ordinary, dungeon endboss or big epic baddie scenarios. (FF)
      4. Dramatic boss scenarios; cinematics/cutscenes before end battles, zone intros, dramatic phase switches.
      5. Allow players to switch dynamically between 1st and 3rd person view.

      Well, have I missed anything you think should be up there? Where do you see the biggest difficulties?

      I know that quite a few of my favorites will be featured in GW2; I don’t wanna go into another hype-stage at this point, but I am greatly looking forward to class & profession combos (which I loved in FFXI), terrain and movement dependent spells, small health pools and health deficit effects – and yes, losing the trinity of course (even if that last bit is still awaiting full confirmation).

      In general, I think we need MMO combat to return to a more dynamic, cooperative focus rather than a group-setup or spec-focused one. Let the actual teamplay, group tactics and performance matter; allow more randomness (for more situative reactions), create more need for control and pro-active play (as opposed to reactive/passive with heavy healing) and more need for situational awareness. Let our worlds come alive; let our opponents act smartly or erratically, let us find different answers to the same problem. Let us care less for stats, procs and cooldowns and more for general timing, synergies and spontaneous action. 

      Most of all: challenge us, so we may rejoice in our victories! I think we are ready for the next chapter.

      A call for MMO missionaries. Or not.

      There’s a particular breed of people I am very weary of. Not scared in a jumping-ship kind of way, but more like “Uh oh…” as I see them approach or worse, join conversation in a social circle I happen to find myself in. Call me biased; but to be completely free of pre-judice is to never learn from experience.

      Whenever a sporty person approaches, I am on guard. You can usually tell from the way they are dressed in forceful business casual, their ever-glossy forehead or intolerably energized gait. Not to mention the well-trained shoulders and legs, of course. But before you get the wrong idea – I am all for physical exercise. Indeed, I am making conscious, well-loathed but conscious efforts to stay fit as I am growing older. I am also dreaming of the day that VR helmet and fullbody motion-sensor suit finally arrive, so I can plug them to my PC and play MMOs while having to go through mindbogglingly boring workout routines. If anyone ever tells you they enjoy their workout: be weary. Be very weary.

      I am not talking fit people here, but sporty sporty. The ones that will always inevitably steer the conversation to their favorite subject. The ones who have “seen the light” and really think you should too as you receive their well-meant, unasked for dieting tips. You don’t want to be around them, you don’t want them in your clique – they’ll make you walk instead of taking the bus to the bar or bring raw carrots to a movies night. No, I don’t think we mix particularly well, MMO players and sporty people. And I’m not in any way suggesting the ‘overweight, asocial slob’-image here some media are eager to spread about video-gamers. But err….we invented the WoW treadmill, okay? You get my point.

      So anyway, there is that 37ish co-worker of mine who fits the profile perfectly. She’s recently been pregnant and ever since (1 year ago now) she’s been talking about her workout, losing baby-fat and how it took her nine months to lose the dreaded last four pounds. She is also thin as a stick, but now she finally radiates inner peace (and cravings for mars bars). Fortunately, she is rarely in the office when I am and I am rarely joining the “lunch faction” that meets up around the kitchen table every day at 13.00.

      Only last Friday…I did. It started out innocently, with a chat between myself and my British co-worker who usually works in London and is the only other person with a sense of humor (figures) in the entire company. I was just having a coffee with her, when sporty person came in to join us. Too late to plan for a quick escape route. Rats.

      It took exactly 5 minutes for our conversation to go from holiday plans to running shoes. I have since been trying to reproduce the exact order of events but have failed miserably, twice. I don’t know how she worked “so, what brand of sports shoes are you using for running?” into our talk on bed&breakfasts and English cuisine, but I found myself in the lucky position to be asked that exact question. “Ummm….I don’t know”, I answered. “You do have running shoes, right?”, she persisted. Helplessly, I looked down on my two feet. I was wearing my black work shoes, a pair of semi-high heeled, no-name boots which is what I wear half of the year. I guess, I could run with those. For the rest of the time, I wear my comfy five-year old Adidas sneakers. That’s one myth about shoes and handbags dispelled for you.

      “I have some shoes….sneakers.” I added. – “What type?”, says she – “The comfy one”, says I. The spotlight beaming at me from the interrogation lamp started to flicker. I could tell she was giving up, but I somewhat saved the situation by mentioning Adidas. At least I was not completely ignorant – too bad that didn’t stop her from educating us both on suitable sports shoes for city jogging for another 15 minutes. Just when I recovered my will to live and was about to mention how utterly moronic and counter-productive running on concrete in the middle of city traffic is for your health, the phone rang for her and she left. Annoying people always get the quick exits handed to them.

      Where are the MMO missionaries?

      That whole experience got me thinking on my way home later (when highly philosophical, mental monologue frequently occurs). I was trying to remember one single time in my life where somebody tried convincing me to play video games. Or for that matter, any situation where someone, a co-worker or other acquaintance might have picked up the topic in conversation, trying to engage others. Why are there no MMO missionaries? Besides the most obvious answer, that missionaries of any kind are in fact insufferable folk, really – but, where are the video game enthusiasts? Why are they nowhere to be heard, talking about their hobby, infusing others with their interest to the point of truculence?

      It’s not a mainstream hobby, I get it. It’s not srs enough for boring work conversation. It’s still a little geeky. But really, how is the world ever going to be a better place without any of us talking about gaming? Do you want a planet ruled by business casual city-joggers?  

      DO YOU???

      So, I’m making this official: from this day on, every week, I will at least once bring up the topic of video games outside this blog, to non-gamers. I will share my positive experiences and encourage others to give it a go sometime. If the topic isn’t going my way, I will make it. I will say things like “…our conference call line? Wait, ever heard about ventrilo? It’s a great, free voice comm tool for PC, people actually use it to play online games together. You know, WoW and stuff right? No? Well, let me tell you…”.

      Easy. One recruit a week and soon enough, when I log on to the game in the evening, to unwind and recharge my batteries, I will be surrounded by co-workers. The excel-specialist that never shuts up, the guy with the golfball keyring……the city-jogger….

      GAWD.

      …I think I just remembered why we want no MMO missionaries!

      “Keep it secret – keep it safe!”

      Happy Monday to all of you out there, enjoying the peace of united geekdom at their PCs.

      The Future is Panty-free

      Yeah, it’s an old story – and you don’t wanna hear it anymore. I don’t want to either, heck for most of the time I act as if the topic was water under the bridge. We’re way past that, the genre is, videogames are. This is almost 2012 after all!

      You wish.

      I get it: panties are exciting! To a few men, mind not many grown-up men but a few, seeing virtual panty (Japanese; pantsu) in a videogame is a bit like omg-christmas, outrageous and cheeky and *tehee* *blush* *chuckle* – add your random IRC emote…I guess we all have to accept that. I don’t even want to ask the reasons why, although I have a sound theory or two, about being stuck in infantile phases of boyhood, of over-sexed media or for the opposite case, cultures where social corset and conformity are so strict that everyone must turn into drooling lechers in front of their PCs at night, to restore at least some balance and mental sanity.

      I don’t know. You dwell on that.

      This is the important part: In MMOs I do not care to see panties. Let’s repeat this: In MMOs I do not care to see panties. I don’t think they do anything much for a female character’s credibility. Or for a “heroine” battling vicious fiends, for that matter. Still, they are out there and never quite out of fashion: plate bikinis, swinging hips, breasts the size of a small country. It’s not just the omni-present fake portrayal of the female form; nothing feels quite as unimmersive as having to play a combat class that looks as if she was on her way to a lolita dress-up party. Any player, male or female, looking for serious consistency in setting and atmosphere in their MMOs want to see proper armor in sync with their class and the world they are playing it in.

      Yet, they keep coming. Lineage and TERA are my all-time favorite examples, but the bare midriffs can be found in plenty of more recent places, even in a perfect world. How cynical.

      And I wonder: can we get over this yet? How many female online players worldwide will it take until a Blizzcon panel deems a large portion of their player base worthy of more than a flippant answer? Worse yet, if a company with a few million female players won’t care – who will?

      I guess Dwism had it right all along:

      Whatever you think of their response to this (and mine is in the comments on both posts), there is one thing painfully obvious for me, about these panel talks.

      Every single employee with anything worth saying at Blizzard, is: 35+, white, a little overweight (some more than a little), balding and likes metal. And they only ever talk to other people like that.

      It’s not about players, male or female. It’s about the men who make these games. If nothing changes up there, nothing will change down here. For now, enough devs don’t seem to care, not even for the underlying message of their indifference, which can only ever inevitably bring me to the following two conclusions:

      A) MMO(RPG) developers are emotionally immature lechers in desperate need to get laid.
      -or-
      B) MMO(RPG) developers consider the majority of their male playerbase emotionally immature lechers in desperate need to get laid.

      I don’t know about you, but as a male player I’d feel offended.

      P.S. With all that in mind, I am officially and exclusively launching MMO Gypsy’s “No-Panties MMO seal of quality”, for a better and hopefully more serious online gaming future! You may spread and copy at will!

      How videogames make you sick

      I happen to be one of the lucky people who spend 60+ minutes per day (which is an alltime low too, so pity me) in public transportation to get to work, five days a week of buses and trams. After so many years of commuting I have come to loathe it with a passion, being crammed into tiny spaces with lots of smelly people I never chose to meet in the first place, breathing down my neck or smashing their bagpack into my face as they pass my seat; preferably a single one, if I can help it. And it strikes me: PT is a little bit like the “massively multi-player” promise – lots of people, no real cooperation. Everyone is ever eager to catch an empty compartment before having to share one with somebody else.

      I am the last one to complain about that, though. I consider it a twisted joke of fate that I should be so dependent on PT, truth be told I am a misanthrope on most days which is why I play MMOs and run an internet blog to reach out to the world behind the veil of blessed anonimity. Right.
      Anyway, there I am sitting tired and wet in the tram (gotta love the rain) at 6PM on my way home, when I am joined by a 40-something mother and her little son. I usually stare out of the window, avoiding all eye contact, but I couldn’t help noticing the weird hairdo of the woman – the sort that makes you think somebody put a chamber pot over his head and then cut along the edges. The thing that cracked me up was that the kid had the exact same hair as she did, which made the pair appear like the freakish twins of some monks order on planet Zork or something. Hillarious.

      Contemplating fashion trends in far-away galaxies, I was not ready for the conversation which ensued between the 5-ish years old kid and his mother. It was, you guessed right, about videogames and made me wonder fairly soon whether I had not indeed blundered into some fucking parallel universe without me noticing. But this was still the real world, I did check on my smartphone and the internet never lies.

      So, the little boy started asking mommy if he’d be allowed to play “the game” tonight. Sadly, I never got enough info out of the conversation to guess at what game it might have been, Kirby’s Wonderland or Call of Duty 3 (which I doubt considering the mother’s hairdo). He kept nagging her about it, you could tell he was really into it. Mom not so. When ignoring him and the continuous repetition of “no, you won’t tonight” didn’t show desired effect, she started explaining: “No, you can’t play honey, these games will make you horribly sick again.” Instantly I did wonder: had this kid maybe played Wii-Sports at zero degree temperature in the backyard? Had he accidentally swallowed a button from his XBOX pad?

      “Yes you will honey, they make children horribly sick”, she continued. “You remember the nightmares you got after that evening at Samuel’s house? That’s what the games do. You get really bad dreams and you can’t sleep anymore”. So, there you got it – only it didn’t end there. She went on explaining how games really spread this mysterious sickness and how it had befallen most of his friends in pre-school, that it was horribly contagious. And I could see it before my waking eye: the evil cyber-virus, spread by Koopa Troopas and piranha plants shooting out of green pipes. Beware the contagion!

      All the while, mirrored in the window glass, I watched the little boy’s face. You could tell that he bought his mother’s shit and that it was really her humbug tale more than anything that started to scare him. I wondered how I would’ve felt if somebody had tried to convince me that Pacman and Wonderboy were out to get me at the age of five; how it would’ve poisoned one of the few places in my life that were safe – an untouched shelter, an island of my own. I wondered too, briefly, if I might get away with smacking someone straight in the face in the middle of a crowded tram, but scratch that.

      I hate people like that; people who think to protect others is to scare them. People who scare others because they are scared and ignorant themselves. Parents who won’t give their children the chance to deal with the reality of the times they are born into, so they can be outcasts among their peers. People who don’t think or choose the lazy way. People cruel enough to cut their son’s hair like Matthew Broderick in friggin’ Ladyhawke.

      I wonder what wild tales she is going to tell him when he starts asking to watch TV. Or play rock music, uh-oh. I hope Samuel invites him back real soon and that he has the sense to tell his mother he’s off to play football.

      Skyrim fun links

      It’s Friday everybody – my favorite day of the week! In lieu of any MMO to talk about, because Starwars does not enthuse, Guild Wars 2 is far away and WoW is becoming Pokémon, I decided to put together some Skyrim links for all those of you who are currently immersed and bedazzled in the vast world of Tamriel. Just a few bits’n bobs you might want to check out and have some fun with!

      • Skyrim easter eggs; like most games these days, Skyrim holds a few hidden movie and pop-culture references and quotes in store, even if somewhat more subtle and scarce in number (and a good thing too). I can’t say I noticed any of them myself ingame, but then I was busy wiping tears away over the beautiful vistas.
      • Skyrim kindle edition; the numerous books scattered over the lands of Skyrim are a wonderful feature of the game, so is the fact that you can read them all, collect and store them on your personal book shelves. Care to browse’m on your way to work? No problemo! Fan initiatives such as these never cease to amaze me. 
      • Skyrim arachnophobia mod; apparently arachnophobia is such a serious issue that it can considerably hinder the enjoyment of video games for people who are affected. The beauty of PC games is the community and interactivity; if the devs allow it, players can write their own mods and fixes for almost everything. In this case turn them nasty spiders into bears or crabs!
      • Legit console commands; while all console commands are “legit” of course, there are several that are more useful and feel less like “cheating”, considerably improving your gaming experience. I certainly find my game flow less disrupted by an improved carry weight or extended night-day cycles, but judge for yourself.
      • Skyrim detailed map; Someone actually went through the trouble of mapping entire Skyrim including all locations, early on after launch. Quite impressive, although I must say I love not having discovered everything just yet.
      • Skyrim sim power; clips such as these show the amazing authenticity of Skyrim’s gameplay, the technical finesse that brings life to this virtual world. Now if only I had such an aim!
      • Skyrim on Cracked; as usual, Cracked.com have their own cynical take on how playing Skyrim will affect your personality.
      • Skyrim on Penny Arcade; not surprisingly, Gabe of PA is an avid Skyrim player, battling with the same initial issues as everyone else. Especially the strip on obsessive looting behaviour made me chuckle – you can never have too many brooms imo!

      I wish you all a very good weekend and mighty adventures! I know where to look for mine.

      (Quite possibly the greatest quest of all times.)

      Massively Multiplayer Misnomer?

      I’ve come to a conclusion (drum-roll): the vast majority of all MMO players out there today are not in fact MMO players. Even less so MMORPG players. That’s right. We need a new name, more than ever.

      What caused this insight? It’s not so new – in fact I’ve asked for a change of name-giving before. In the meantime though, things have moved on from there with considerable speed. Or as the Dude would say: “New shit has come to light!”

      Two cases against the “MM”

      By now, the “massively multiplayer” label is a complete sham; a false premise, an empty promise. Think about it: what is the maximum of players you actually share your time with when online? When you run dungeons, how many do you need? 4 more people? 9? And how many friends have you made online the past 5+ years? With how many people do you effectively have regular exchange in your social group, guild or band of brothers?

      A massive amount? I doubt that very much. If I think back on my time in WoW, some 6+ years of raiding, I have spent 95% of my time with the exact same 10 people. I don’t remember any fleeting acquaintances, I certainly don’t remember anyone from my friendlist that I stopped using halfway through TBC. What I do remember though, is all the downsides from playing on big servers: the headache to choose a guild or recruit, the over-camped outdoor bosses, the cringe-worthy general chats, the awful anonymous PUGs. Oh, there was quantity sure – but quality?

      My recent thoughts on Skyrim and player-hosted servers has brought me to an inevitable bottom line: Online games don’t get better with bigger servers. Opportunity does not equal the need to play with others, nor does it improve matters for the individual player after a certain number and size. What is the effective difference between an online server with 50-100 players who play cooperatively together, know each other, benefit from more available space and resources and a server of 100’000 people? Wait, I know – the auction house. If a convenient economy is the only up-side, then I believe I have made my point. Any MMO player currently out there who is dreaming of the immersive experience, the role-play, the simulation, the story, the building of community down to player housing and whatnot, would be better off on a drastically limited size server.

      My second argument against the “MM” in MMO is influenced by the current trend we can observe in popular games like WoW or SWTOR: NPC companions. Tobold draws a particularly dark image today of the future raidguild that hires bots rather than people for crucial raid spots. Maybe even most raid spots. Who needs flawed human beings when a program can do the job much better? What will happen if NPCs do not only look, talk and follow you like a best friend, but get an AI to out-perform even the best player?

      The cooperation factor in WoW took a massive hit with the introduction of the anonymous dungeon finder. Already now, many players spend most of their online time solo with a companion pet by their side, doing the odd 5man run with mute strangers from a different server.

      Are smart NPC companions the next step in the MMO-evolution towards player isolation? Like the vast cities of man where every individual sits alone in his apartment at night, tragically independent, surrounded by baubles and clutter?

      Not so “RPG” either

      Whether it’s MMO, MMORPG or online RPG – terminology has been in disarray for at least 5-10 years. The more online has entered the world of gaming on every conceivable platform, the more you could hear the term “MMO” used, misused or mixed up in various context. Frankly, I am not sure I know anymore. Anything since UO that has looked remotely like WoW has been called MMO, even Call of Duty and League of Legends are obviously online, cooperative games – just not the kind classic MMORPG players (who don’t exist by now) used to refer to.

      It’s the same with “RPG”; less than ever does role-play actually define the MMORPG genre. What does role-play mean? Is it just to play a given character and control him, or is it to invent your avatar from scratch, to add a past, history and personality that defines him? Is it to be completely in character (and have the tools and means to do so) or to at least act in a way that is consistent with the setting and world you play in? If not, then any game where we just “steer a hero character”, Mario Brothers included, is a role-playing game.

      …What makes WoW an RPG? Or is the online component maybe by nature an enemy of immersive role-play?

      Rock bottom line: Uh-“O”

      At this point I realize that I have completely disintegrated an entire definition and from there a genre I happen to love. I’ve stripped it, reduced it, lost it. One letter is all that’s left to me: “O”. That’s all I’ve got for you, one stinking letter! That one is a dime a dozen; the future is definitely online. I’ll happily invest in online shares.

      As for the rest – it lies in darkness, doubt and uncertainty. Change can be a good thing, but I’m not sure I’m ready for too much change and re-definition. I can see the nice features along with the new….yet all the while I keep thinking that I really just want my rug back (peed on or not).

      Tunes of Magic II – Fantastic Edition

      When I started the “Tunes of Magic” series a while ago on this blog, I explained how hard it is for me to take soundtrack picks from my vast themes library. I have so many favorite game and movie tunes with such fond memories attached to them, that it’s hard to judge objectively how “good” or interesting a tune really is for others. Who would want to hear a track from the 32bit era today with no connection whatsoever? I know I wouldn’t.

      Music is such a beautiful medium; it is not just a complex yet simple art form, a carrier of sound, melody and harmony that couldn’t be more accessible; the best of tunes convey a whole world of mental imagery, tell epic stories and, similar to smells and odors, carry memories with them that can hit you full force when you least expect them. It is music like this I try to hold on to.

      In my introductory post I explained what “types” of tunes I adore most and I didn’t really make a selection in terms of genre or topic there. Since then, I have been attempting to order groups of tunes into their own sections though, so I can present some of them in more orderly fashion soon. For today though, indulge me with another pick of 6 random MMO/game- and movie-soundtracks that I’ve chosen over one common denominator: my “all-time top 3+”.

      I present to you my three most beloved fantasy tunes and epic story-tellers, plus another three more random but no less beautiful songs to continue with a set of six. If I ever got asked the “deserted island question” for music, the first three pieces here presented would be my personal picks, no doubt. These are mostly quiet and pensive tunes that keep changing and truly come alive after a while (so you really want to listen to the whole thing). I hope you enjoy them as much as I do and that they bring some sparkle to your day!

      Final Fantasy X – Ending Theme
      What to say about this tune…while FFX was not my favorite installment of Square’s popular series (despite featuring Lulu), famous house-composer Nobuo Uematsu has utterly out-done himself with this piece, taking up the no-less stunning piano intro of FFX once more. I love this tune with all my heart. I think it sums up the spirit of the beloved JRPG franchise beautifully.

      Wrath of the Lich King: Mountains of Thunder
      Exploring my way across Northrend after WotLK’s launch, this tune came up as I passed the first mountain range for Stormpeaks. I was spellbound and spent an entire hour or more sitting next to the minefield there, listening to the music under the light of the pale moon. I still get goosebumps hearing this – and so very mushy over memories past in WoW. Those were the times.

      Conan the Barbarian – Orphans of Doom
      Not exactly a huge fan of the Conan films and their aesthetic in general, I consider the soundtrack composed by Basil Poledouris in 1982 the finest, most stunning and achieved score of any fantasy film up to date. The whole album of the first Conan movie is a revelation, epic and beautifully capturing the soul of “high adventure”. Highly recommended listening!

      Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – “From Past to Present”
      Having extensively praised the game in last week’s posts, I cannot possibly deny you a piece of its beautiful music either. The soundtrack is the perfect match for Skyrim’s vast world of adventure and adds immensely to its immersive atmosphere. Apologies should this link be down again soon (I have had to replace these several times now).

      Lineage II – Call of Destiny
      While I’ve never played either of the Lineage games for various reasons, both MMOs sport a large variety of exquisite soundtracks that can easily compete with more popular titles. It’s well worth browsing youtube sometime for Lineage music to see what other gems you might discover for yourself.

      Chocolat – Main Title
      Chocolat is a special little movie gem with gentle magic and a very french esprit. I remember hearing the opening in cinema for the very first time: I was so delighted that I hurried home to buy the soundtrack right away. I love the Elfman-esque first half as much as the merrier, up-lifting ending of this piece.

      To be continued. And as always, do let me know your personal favorites and recommendations, no matter how old or new!

      Happy Monday

      I admit I’m not a Monday person. Nor a morning person for that matter. Mornings are for other people. Still, do you need to draw such a sour face? They’re everywhere on my way to work – on the streets, in the bus, as I climb the stairs to my soon-to-be-quit office. Grumpy faces. Nobody smiles anymore, do you notice? Even when it’s the weekend or after-work, people are so dead serious everywhere, you could think they’re all dealing with highly important matters of gravity or are on their way to a funeral. Way to make my morning worse.

      Seriously folks, lighten up! Try to smile a little more. I hear it’s healthy. Shake your body to that music in your ears sometime, whistle a tune, laugh about a joke real loud. There’s something strangely infectious about a merry mood. Happy Monday everybody!

      Freedom of choice and player-hosted MMOs

      Skyrim is making quite the noise at the moment; not just among classic RPG lovers but a large circle of MMO players too, realizing just how much they have missed that sense of wonder and adventure in the online world. No doubt it is a certain kind of MMO player who feels this loss most acutely – I know why I do and like me, many MMO players have actually started their journey decades ago, as console gamers, as tabletop and pen & paper players, as lovers of the fantasy genre as a whole. These past days I have felt as if re-discovering a long lost friend and exploring the world of Tamriel has been an almost poetic experience. I kid you not. Within the first few hours, I’ve been inside my favorite Robert Frost poem and been the hero on my cherished old D&D covers. What more could I possibly want from a game?

      “He gives his harness bells a shake
      To ask if there is some mistake.
      The only other sound’s the sweep
      Of easy wind and downy flake.”

      I don’t know how to call this essence that we can feel when a fantasy game, book or movie is being true to its core. This strange magic that happens when somebody does it right and takes us there with him. The difference between a work of passion (and geekdom) maybe and a generic work of fail that we can all tell apart. Some games have soul, some don’t – you can feel it and see it but not nail it down on single criteria like graphics or combat.

      Me and a friend of mine like to call it “high adventure” and we borrow from the opening of Conan the Barbarian there. Or we call it “epic bombast shit” (EBS©) in a  not-so-srs attempt to qualify the seriously atmospheric and epic fantasy from its ugly mass-market siblings.

      Either way, Skyrim has it; this sense of magic and awe, of being there in this vast world with dragons in the sky and darkness lurking around the next corner. It has its minor flaws, as others have already pointed out, but at this stage it’s entirely beside the point for me. Again: what else could I possibly want?

      The “Skyrim MMO” deal

      Right after entering Skyrim, I said “man, if only this was co-op. I would need holidays”. Indeed, the world of Tamriel screams for companionship; sharing the travels and adventures with a few more people who don’t happen to die on the way or get stuck under the stairway like their NPC equivalents. I would love nothing more than a co-op mode for maybe 2-4 players.

      The MMO idea now, I am not so sure. I commented about this before, and my initial negativity stems from the justified scepticism of what a developer might do to Skyrim in popular WoW-fashion. That idea is frankly a nightmare and I care little whether WoW’s gamification trend came from the players or the developers, I would never want to share Tamriel with WoW’s current MMO achiever crowd. Ever.

      I’m far from opposed to online modes though or sharing games by principle. Why did I become an MMORPG-player in the first place, if not because I prefer to have more than NPCs around me? But for this to work in Skyrim, we would have to take a close look at all the aspects that make the game so dear to us right now – and at how to protect those. How can you retain Skyrim’s scale, open world and playstyle freedoms in an MMO while maintaining a sense of meaning? This is something Bethesda has managed to balance: open world vs. meaning. They show us too, that not all satisfaction in an RPG is delivered by means of a classic definition of “challenge” and immediate “hard rewards”. There is great joy in adventure and exploration.

      The answer to the question might already lie in the online world: FPS games. Times before we’ve noticed features of online shooters and communities with the potential to improve things for MMORPGs too. It was my better half though who tipped me off when pointing out what he liked about Skyrim and as an FPS-player, always disliked about WoW –

      “…This is what the players want: freedom. Let me play the game however I want and with whom, don’t tell me what to do or how to play. Let me choose my difficulty, whether to use console commands or not. Don’t tell me when to grind or what items I need or where I should go. I’m not an idiot. This is what the …[insert random Blizzard insult here]…still don’t get.”

      A popular dilemma of MMOs is the accomodation of player X; to appeal to a variety of players within the same game, to offer dynamic content and different levels of difficulty. All of that can simply be summed up as a basic issue of player freedom. If you realize that you cannot deliver for everybody, why do you even try to define the game in the first place?

      Several weeks before Skyrim’s launch, I tipped my toe into Red Orchestra 2 – for lack of alternatives and the wish for quick, cooperative play more than anything. I joined the friendly banter of my partner’s clan on teamspeak and tried to hide my cringe-worthy attempts at mimicking the FPS player. Yet, I never fail to be impressed over how readily the FPS industry has delegated their server administration to the clans who represent their loyal player base. If you log into RO2, you’re met with a long list of player-hosted server types, each offering their own rule sets, map and itemization choices, number of players allowed. Whether you choose to play in a smaller group, use aim-bots or loathe any kind of mod, there’s a place for you.

      This is what I would want for a “Skyrim online”. A chance to choose how I play it and to share it with a limited amount of like-minded players. A developer can never look after so many individual choices, but I can. And I would join such a game in a heartbeat.

      Skyrim shows us that the RPG and MMO player alike love the scale and freedoms of an open world. FPS games have shown for years that the best way to cater to a mixed audience, is to let the community configure and moderate their own servers. Why should we not adapt this for online RPGs in the future?

      Skyrim cloth and cosmetic armor

      Following up yesterday’s announcement, I’ve prepared an overview of what I believe to be some of the nicest available cloth or “cosmetic” outfits for Elder Scrolls V. I’m putting cosmetic in brackets here, because strictly speaking all armor in Skyrim is cosmetic if you happen to be a non-melee class. The best available gear for magic users comes from enchanting – meaning, you chose whatever gear you enjoy the most (you can wear any armor class too) and add the most powerful enchantments which you will have to earn by skilling up the profession, learning recipes and creating powerful soul gems.

      Likewise, the best armor for warriors and thieves come from professions too; while there’s no “tailoring” in Skyrim, there sure is armor-smithing and leatherworking which creates the best sets combined with enchanting. An interesting approach to gearing up, in my opinion.

      In this post, I will focus on “cloth” (armor class 0) that cannot be crafted, but picked up in Skyrim, either by drop, reward, purchase, theft or murder (the game being open like that, almost any NPC can be killed). In a few cases, the items can only be acquired via console commands on the PC version of the game which is why I will include commands (where I know them) for those looking to collect the peaceful or lazy way. And yes, console commands are completely legit, if not somewhat of a spoiler. But then, so is surfing on the net and looking at pictures.
      Note that the console command to add an item to your inventory is always “player.additem [itemname] [quantity]”.

      Skyrim “cloth and cosmetic” armor – some picks

      Most of these items aren’t powerful by themselves as they lack proper enchanting. All pictures are taken by myself and may serve as overview to plan your future gear or for collection purposes. Item numbers from left to right.

      A) Festive clothing

      1. Embellished Robes #000E84C4 (also as Refined robes #000E84C6)
      2. Emperor’s robes #00015516
      3. Embroidered Robes #000EAD49
      4. Fine clothes (blue) and fine hat
      5. Fine clothes(green)
      6. Fine clothes (brown)
      7. Wedding dress #00088956 / wedding wreath  #0008895A / wedding sandals #00088958

      B) Mage outfits

      1. Blue mage robes (also exist in black; common item)
      2. Archmage robes #0010F570 (reward mage questline)
      3. Master mage robes #0010D664
      4. Thalmor set (robe #00065BAC, unhooded #0010C698, boots #00065BB3, gloves #00065BB)
      5. Vaermina robes #000E739B
      6. Mythic Dawn (robe #000B144D, unhooded #0010901, boots #000B1460, gloves #000B145B)
      7. Psijic set (robes #00065B94, hood #00065B99, boots #00065B9B, gloves #00065B9D)

      C) Commoners

      1. Clothes (also exist unhooded; common item)
      2. Clothes (common item)
      3. Merchant’s clothes #0006FF45
      4. Chef clothes #0001BC82 and hat #0001BCA7
      5. Monk’s clothes #000BACF3 and boots #000BAC07
      6. Blacksmith’s clothes #0005B69F and shoes #0005B69E
      7. Cicero jester set (clothes #0006492C, hat #0006492E, boots #0006492A, gloves #0006492D)

      That was some work! It’s a real tribute to Skyrim’s gameplay variety; not only does it offer players an epic adventure of traveling with companions, questing, dragon hunting, skilling and crafting, but also a little “UO feel” with its player housing, decorating and collecting gear and books. In case you didn’t get enough cloth armor inspiration yet, there’s a few more at this place!