Thursday, February 15, 2007

MMO's red herring

There's a new MMO in town and it's based on the Myst series. Blah blah, yadda yadda, new MMO. What's this? Hmm. Check out this snippet from the press release that got my attention:

"For the first time ever in the Myst universe, a player’s choices, actions, and experiences will help drive the ongoing storyline which expands and adapts on a continual basis. "
via VGGen

Really now? An MMO where what we players do actually affects the game world? Why, I've only heard of this like a billion times before. The problem is, I've never actually seen this to be true. Let's not kid ourselves, MMO's are not dynamic: The world never decays. NPCs are always were you last saw them. Storylines stay the same. Why is this lie told and believed over and over again? Two examples below:

Vanguard
"Characters will not only own buildings and vehicles, but they will also whisper into the ears of kings, manipulate the hand of justice, and change the direction of history. They will make their mark on a world we initially create but they ultimately shape and form."
via EBGames product description

City of Heroes
"Live the Story - Become an integral part of twenty different ongoing story arcs as the villain groups menace Paragon City and react to player victories and defeats."
via EBGames product description

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

3 comments:

Stanto said...

Erm; this's the second release of Uru 'mmo'.

It's one of the best for the sheer fact you don't level up but you are involved in an interesting story arch with a sense of community (which MMORPG games lack) and pseudo roleplay realism in so far as you are role playing yourself in the story. So it is as realistic roleplay as you are real.

The puzzles of the ages are as fun as any Myst game has been; to me.

Stanto said...

Oh and by the way; considering you can currently try Uru for free; I suggest you do so.

Ken said...

Apologies for mangling the facts. Indeed, this is the second evolution of Uru, after the first went dark for about two years. My point wasn't really to profile Uru so I brushed over the actual game, sorry for that.

I was mainly just trying to make the comment about MMO flexibility. Your reco makes it sound very enticing though. Since it's free, I may give it a shot when I have some time. Thanks