WTF do you not understand about steampunk and MMO?

Yeah, headline is pretty blatant, isn’t it?  Let’s face it people, this isn’t rocket science.  IT’S A FICTIONAL GENRE.  It’s a genre which you can easily research and pick up a few novels that are set in it.  Crap, you can even go on the internet and find a RPG already set in a very unique universe that picks up on many of the right tones.  (Yes, I’m talking about you, EtherScope.  Feel proud.)

So why do I keep getting shit like this?  What the hell is that?  Is that a Goron on the left?  Are those freakin’ elves?  Did you “Neo Steam” people even look up what steampunk means?

Actually, they did.  Apparently they had to prove it to us that they did do their homework.  Also, I’m not sure what an “exotional zenith” is.  I thought those were reserved for porn sites, unless they’re trying to tell us something?

Remnants of Skystone is a game that really approaches the concept of steampunk better, but fails at their definition of MMO.  “Single player side scrolling adventure” I get.  But trying to call your “co-op adventure play” an MMO is like me trying to sell you this hamburger and call it a feast for 20 people.  It’s cheap and not that filling.  Just because you can  visit someone’s house does not mean you’ve made an MMO.  You’ve made a “I-can-visit-someone’s-house-multiplayer-online-game” or ICVSHMOG.

Sorry, I’m being too hard on them.  Nice game, just not an MMO.  Next.

Ah, The World of Gatheryn.  A game that really is an MMO.  All right, good job there.  It also uses a Victorian era view of steampunk.  Getting closer… It doesn’t have any f-ing Goron wannabies… getting even closer… casual game!  Damn it!

Actually, it doesn’t look too bad for a game that bills itself as casual.  It uses puzzles and mini-games as the main sources of conflict, and also pushes exploration and socialization, the two things I think games need more of in order to cater to all of the Bartle types.

Yet, let’s get back to the point.  The point is that if something isn’t broken, don’t attempt to slap Goron wannabies and furries into it.  People want steampunk at face value.

Of course, most readers would then turn to me and say, “Aren’t you changing up the steampunk formula?”

Yes, but I’m not forgetting the basic tenents of the damn genre.  My steampunk genre is still steampunk, if that makes sense.  I didn’t change the genre itself, just the tone.  Still has the same wonderous exploration, still has the same steam powered weapons and intrigue of your steampunk universe.

That’s how you change a genre without breaking it.  Take notes here people.

You need a break from your own “fun?”

I’ve recently gotten back into World of Warcraft after a recent haitus with the game, and it feels good to be back.  My guild missed me, the officers missed me, and it was good to just be back in Azeroth.  But after getting back in touch with everyone, I found a few holes in the list.  I asked around to find out where some of my other friends were, and what I got was pretty similar to what I had been doing.

“Oh, he/she is going on a hiatus for a little bit.”

It was when I heard this that it hit me.  Why the heck do we need to take breaks from our MMOs?  A game is something fun and relaxing.  Something we want to play because we enjoy it.  If that was the case, then why do we feel that we need to take “vacations” from them?

Personally, I think we’re taking our fun too seriously — and yes, that’s possible.  You can see it every time a raid comes up, you can see it whenever a new guild drama forum post pops up.  People find reasons to hate one another, even if their united objective is just having fun.  Can’t do the boss in one go?  Blame someone else!  Cause drama!  Loot that you needed dropped and you lost a perfectly legitimate random roll?  Tell him he’s an asshole because he somehow concentrated so hard at his keyboard that he not only caused himself an aneurism, he also forced Blizzard’s random program to make him roll a 89 and you a 2.

This is something I probably concentrate on too much, but fun is suppose to be fun.  This is usually the point where I would say something intelligent like, “Now if you changed the loot system around and perhaps minimized the rewards in favor of promoting storyline design…” and then wish for the best, but you and I know that’s sadly not going to work.  Some people are still gonna rush to whatever the max level is, or try to complete all of your content in 4 nanoseconds faster than their next door neighbor so they can prove to all of the women on the internet (all 6 of them) that they are the leetest (word looks stupid without the 3s, doesn’t it?) hunk of manhood there is in “World of Online Game X.”  All because technically, that’s what a game is about… beating someone else.  It wasn’t originally about the fun — it was about besting someone else.

But I like to think that we’ve evolved the concept of a game past that.  To something more than just that.  To something that we enjoy doing and don’t need to take breaks from…

So please, next time you’re on that raid or in that group… try to relax and enjoy yourself.  You might find that the game might be… fun?

Blog that nonsense!

So hey there the everybody.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Colin “Seraphina” Brennan, long time writer and first time poster.  Lol, just kidding.  I’m a columnist/blogger with Massively.com and a rampant gaming nerd.  It seems everyone has one of those “personal blogs” these days, so I figured that perhaps I should jump on with it too and actually give it a shot.

So what’s this blog going to be about?  Probably games.  Probably MMO games.  But who knows, I might actually surprise you with some other stuff.  You will never quite know where I’m going to go with this blog.  One day you’ll think that you have it down and then *BAM!*  I’ll sock you with something so different that you won’t know what hit you.

Well, that’s the hope anyway.   Hope you guys will stick with me for this odd journey!