Greedo the Killer Pimp, Part II

This is a continuation of yesterday's post based on Jeff Strain's key-note speech.

Of course, WoW came a few months later and wrote the book on how to level via questing. And how to plop the player into a safe and comfortable beginning zone where toothless monsters could gum your ankles all day and not kill you. Tickle yes, but not kill. However, that was months after SW:G. To many, SW:G prevails as the poster child for what not to do in a MMO. And so I agree with Jeff in this particular instance, SW:G didn't turn out to be a good MMO candidate.

But my complaints about SW:G concern mainly game mechanics whereas Jeff's point deals with content. With the proper game mechanics in place, I think SW:G could have easily developed some exciting, ground-breaking content for players to experience. It's no secret, Star Wars has been a merchandising whore since the groovy days of 1977. Who else but George Lucas would sell his soul to Taco Bell and allow that fast food giant to fill poor R2 with Mountain Dew? (I know he's a robot and devoid of human functions, but Mountain Dew being the color it is, I quickly switched to Pepsi). Lucas has signed off on an entire fleet of Star Wars content, most of which he likely hasn't read, let along wrote himself. I'm too lazy to check exactly, but at my most recent visit to Barnes & Noble, I spied dozens of graphic novels and books set in the Star Wars universe. And of course Star Wars games have been a staple of console and computer gaming for the past fifteen years. Few of these books or games are set within the six movies George created. Instead, they expand beyond the original canon framework, sometimes thousands of years in the Star Wars past.

So with all its iterations floating around out there, I'm not exactly clear on why Jeff thinks a licensed setting like Star Wars can't make a good MMO. The fact that it didn't cannot lead to a broad assumption that it can't ever. And just because the content originates from a book or a movie doesn't necessarily mean that a MMO developer is any more limited in developing a fun world to game in than a developer starting from scratch with an empty universe. It's specific design choices that will limit a player's enjoyment of a game, a phenomenon not any more inherent to a licensed franchise.

Perhaps Jeff is essentially talking about my earlier comment about Matrix Online, that if you didn't like the movie, you won't try the game. That an original MMO, with a newly created universe, doesn't have the baggage of prior expectations to meet or fail to meet. That Tolkien's hobbits or Lucas' Ewoks aren't in Guild Wars and so suddenly the sky is the limit as far as what ArenaNet can do with that world. I guess it's true that starting with an established universe does instantly alienate a potential audience. But I've taken a glance at Guild Wars in the store and it looks as original and unique a fantasy setting as any other MMO on the market, which is to say it doesn't seem original at all.

As for player expectations regarding MMOs from licensed properties, I seriously don't think SW:G players expect to play Luke or Han or Chewie or Anakin. A thousand thirteen year olds running around as Lord Vader? Count me out. Most reasonable players don't expect that, and I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell the rest that do. Players may not even expect to meet these famous characters in-game, although Lord of the Rings Online has done an exceptional job of weaving its famous characters into the quest plots of its game. No, SW:G players expect a Star Wars experience, something that reminds them of the movies. That can be an incredible hook. The movies don't limit that experience, they springboard it. It's the job of a developer like Sony Online Entertainment to develop content and a game mechanic engine that delivers the Star Wars experience.

It can be done. Step one would be to ensure a newly created toon live longer than three seconds after spawning.