Completely Mental Rumination on MMORPGs in General and Pantheon: ROTF
Entry posted by niku
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I remember the not-insane guy from the documentary about The Pirate Bay talking about why he rather used AFK in place of IRL when denoting anything he did which was not in front of his computer. Recalling the exact quote proves difficult but it doesn't matter as my point isn't necessarily what he meant but how I perceived it. I seem to recall his reasoning being something along the lines of online and digital presence also, technically, being part of real life.
It makes sense to me that reality is not exclusive but in fact the opposite; inclusive. Anything that can be at all I would consider part of reality and thus also, if I am involved in it, a part of my own real life. Which leads me to virtual reality. Not VR but the idea of virtuality. As far as I know, European philosophers back in the day (and maybe even now?) sometimes divided reality into the material reality (is actual, has form) and virtuality. Keep in mind that I'm using the term very liberally. Something virtual can be a thing, such as a character in a visual novel, which is not material but according to some people very much real since it obviously exists. If the character did not exist, there would be no way to see or interact with it, even through the UI of the game. There may be moral values connected to the importance of something virtual vs. something material but that is another discussion. However, I don't really buy the fact that distinctions between forms of realities are necessary nor representative of the way it works. This is why I'm just going to say that everything is real, real to the extent that we don't even need the word real as nothing can not be real. Truth be told, I am making a conscious effort not to get trapped in a spiral of semantics, arguing the duality of language, thoughts and symbols such as the word 'reality'. So, in conclusion to this paragraph, let me say that since I consider reality inclusive and non-specific, I also consider reality all-encompassing and so it includes anything that follows henceforth.
Since smooth segue is smooth and If I haven't already lost everyone at this point, what I wanted to get to was this: animu and vidya are for realz! In fact, it makes me very satisfied that I can fool myself into believing the equal reality of MMORPG worlds enjoy compared to the one my shrink wants me to be functional in.
Ever since I was a wee lad I have enjoyed escapism a lot. Like many of my generation I was at a point completely absorbed in the World of Warcraft, Azeroth. Because, while I love the worlds of my favourite movies, anime, fighting games, visual novels and so on, they are a bit lacking in the world department. With world I mean a traversable landscape which preferably differs enough from Earth to make it interesting. So, for me, what an MMORPG needs to be is a system which makes an as large of a virtual landscape as interesting and exciting as possible, ideally to the point that you start to forget that it is not indeed virtual.
My interest in these kinds of games has dwindled significantly for the past several years. I feel they have become more about being virtual landscapes supporting a gameplay system than the other way around. Specifically I'm talking about convenience features which make the gameplay systems quicker and easier to understand. I didn't get into them for that, though. There are plenty of games I enjoy primarily for their gameplay features, such as Street Fighter and Starcraft, but none of them are MMORPGs.
Recently I have regained hope, though. On March 11th this year, Visionary Realms streamed over an hour of gameplay from the pre-alpha version of their game Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. I've been skeptical, thinking the game was most likely vapourware until I saw the stream but now, seeing how far along they've gotten, I think it will most likely see the light of day after all. Basically, the game is like any other game in the genre only stripped of what I consider bloat features. It will also be significantly slower paced and focus more on group efforts as opposed to solo play. There will be limited fast-travel, instancing and enemies which can be killed by a lone player. They are promising that there won't be exclamation marks over the heads of NPCs giving quests and combat as well as regeneration of health will take longer than in modern MMORPGs. The graphics aren't exactly state of the art but to me they look serviceable, although I'm fine with playing Dragon Quest (1986) on my Famicom so my standards aren't exactly sky high.
Maybe this pitch sounds like a snorefest to you and I completely understand why someone might think so but I do hope that there are enough people interested in this kind of niche to let the game stay afloat. Perhaps you are like me and love to escape to a world of fantasy, be it in a visual novel or otherwise. Perhaps you are like me and happen to have 12-20 hours to kill in front of your computer before you sleep again. Just thought I'd put the word out there in my own construed and needy way.
That's all, thanks.
- Arcadeotic, babiker, Deep Blue and 3 others
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