By now, it is common knowledge that Star Wars: The Old Republic aims to make story the fourth pillar of the MMO genre. One of BioWare's key tools to achieve this is the multiplayer dialogue system. A blending of Mass Effect style conversations and traditional MMO group play, this system adds a new variable to how players choose where they want to go and who they want to bring with them. After talking with Jeff Cannata on our podcast, I decided to take a closer look at how this system will change how groups will play MMOs.
Grouping is a defining principal of the MMO genre; it makes the massively part meaningful. Over that past decade of MMO evolution, grouping changed dramatically. Early parties formed organically from player populations that encountered difficulties. Early games allowed players to group at their discretion, leaving much of the initial class composition up to personal preference. Players quickly realized that particular classes used skills that were far more beneficial than others and preferred group makeups emerged. This trend saw the creation of the holy trinity of tank, healer, and dps, and inspired future games to adopt a more structured role for their class designs. Today, almost every MMORPG uses some derivation of this style of play.
As games changed and refined themselves, the gamers playing them changed socially. Grouping requirements made pick up groups, or PUGs, common place. This in turn encouraged players to meet each other and helped them find like minded players to experience the game with. Finding these groups were as easy as posting LFG (looking for group) in chat and waiting for a response. And while many of today's players only play with friends or guildmates, at some point in time almost everyone starts with this simple step.
As players found homes in guilds and clans, PUGs developed a negative connotation for many gamers. Rolling the dice to see who you are going to spend the next thirty minutes or more with commonly results in incompatible players being thrust together. The reasons for this incompatibility range from personality to experience level, but a common end result is someone becoming inpatient or disgusted and leaving the group.
But this is old hat to MMO veterans, what is special about SWTOR?
Star Wars: The Old Republic is throwing an entirely new variable in the equation by adding a narrative focus to their Flashpoints. While gamers in the past butted heads over personality and playstyle, SWTOR players will also contend with interest in story. Do you want to wait and listen to each line of dialogue, read the subtitles and then skip the voice over, or do you want to skip it entirely? Do you make your conversation choices quickly or take a while to choose? Are you taking the story seriously or lightheartedly? How a player answers these questions will add a new depth to who they will enjoy grouping with and where they wish to play.
Many players who do enjoy game narrative read the accompanying subtitles then simply skip to the next line before the voice over work is completed. SWTOR does let players hit the spacebar to do this, but every player must agree to move on. If three people in your group wish to skip the dialogue but one does not, everyone must listen to the entirety. Though it doesn't sound like much time, the extra few seconds for each line of dialogue could mount over the course of a Flashpoint, leaving those who read ahead annoyed or agitated.
The same goes for when players make their personal dialogue choice. The Mass Effect style chat wheel is much easier to read than sorting through entire answers, but the abbreviated responses make some gamers pause while deciphering their desired choice. There is a timer in place to keep conversation moving, but players who decide quickly might not want to wait for others to take their time. Both of these examples are compounded greatly if any of the party members don't care about the story at all.
However, speed isn't the only stumbling block players may encounter regarding group play in a narrative. Many players will become interested or involved in the stories of The Old Republic and will want to experience them with a deep level immersion. These players may find it difficult to play a group Flashpoint with players who don't desire that serious of an approach to the story because they are constantly drawn out of the situation. This problem is compounded greatly when you include voice chat, something that is quickly dominating how players interact in MMOs.
The most interesting thing about this new dynamic is that it could affect players who are already in established guilds or groups. This narrative twist is not influenced by gameplay and players may find their traditional group divided by how they wish to approach a particular Flashpoint because of story. People who played together through multiple games may find tensions arising they never before encountered.
Players will inevitably find a way to play with like minded people and, if the multiplayer dialogue system becomes a factor, they will find a work around. It may be as simple as adding whether or not you care about story to your search parameters. It is possible that BioWare will find the holy grail and make it both enjoyable and a non-issue, but we could certainly see LFSG become a new main stay of our chat boxes.
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Posted 2/9/2011 11:47:49 PMThis game will have story, start to finish, everywhere.
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Posted 2/8/2011 9:17:55 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/8/2011 12:31:57 AMya LFSG that works nice or NLFSG not looking for story group
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Posted 2/7/2011 10:56:03 PMIt may mean less PUGs, but I don't think it will mean less enjoyment. A heightened emphasis on community and finding other players who you like to play with might actually strengthen the game and give it more staying power, even if it doesn't get near WoW's mega-numbers. A strong game with a good community and 1 million players or so is better IMO.
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Posted 2/7/2011 8:28:59 PMThis is not to say that Story will destroy PUGs, or that TOR will be a worse game because of this. In fact, because of TOR's emphasis on Story, it will tend to attract more players that have a similar approach to the game as I do. But for those MMO players that don't share the love of the Lore and the Story, I see TOR being a frustrating experience for them - at least at first.
I *do* think that, over time, if BioWare hasn't already put in some sort of in-game mechanic to deal with this problem, players will come up with their own solutions. LFSG or LFNSG - perhaps even LFSG - VO (for those that want to listen to the complete VO and not just read the text). It will be interesting to see just how this issue is dealt with - either by BioWare, or by the Player Community.
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Posted 2/7/2011 4:20:01 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/7/2011 6:35:08 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/9/2011 11:44:55 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/7/2011 2:24:58 PMSome people like random weather effects because it is realistic, well the community is random and they now can also affect story. It should not be a problem when we begin to see the wisdom of this which adds to replay-ability and is a real example of the original dungeon and dragons pen and paper group experience brought to mmos.
This has been said by the devs, but the issue is we are accustomed to player friendly questing of previous mmos which did not bring the original feel of RPGs into mmos. I will enjoy the variability of the questing done in swtor because that is how it is meant to be enjoyed and that's how it was done originally in RPGs. In fact single RPGs could not bring the real element of RPGs played with friends in games such as DnD, because they were single player and now that they are multiplayer they are more of an RPG, to me anyway. ;)
It is a better RPG because we are in groups, so it's not just my story, it's our story. And that is the point they made as well. So we ride together or die together. Bad boys for life. Or something along those lines. :)
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Posted 2/7/2011 2:14:54 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/7/2011 1:09:59 PMThat kind of conditioning is a diffcult thing to defeat, especially the notion that the fun only starts at level cap.
I take some heart from the fact that most who have actually played the game found themselves changing their opinion on voiceover and cutscene.
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Posted 2/7/2011 1:55:57 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/7/2011 12:43:26 PMThen the player can go. "Oh wow, he skips alot I don't want him in my party because I like to read the narrative."
Anyone agree or have other ideas?
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Posted 2/7/2011 1:53:46 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 2/7/2011 12:42:36 PMPersonally, I can see myself playing flashpoints and using the LFSG anotation.
One of the bigest reasons for me being interested in this game IS the dialogue through voice, meaning I'm SICK and TIRED of reading blocks of text. I am likely only to roll one of each class type so wont be over 're-replaying flashpoints to an extent that i'l be bored of it, however towards level cap that way of thinking may ofcourse change.
In that instance, i'm sure it would be about 6month-year into release and 'everyone' will know all the story paths and will 'probably' skip much of the dialogue and have choice they know they want - from experience.
So for my fisrt to maybe fifth playthrough of a flashpoint I would listen. any more playthroughs of that particular flash point would mean a [spacebar] here or there.