Over the weekend I learned of Gamma Fodder’s wholesale plunge into World of Warcraft. Though I was basically labelled as the dealer of some hyper addictive drug, I can’t blame him for wanting to try it out.

Interest in this game doesn’t seem to be letting up: the European launch press release cites sales of 280,000 copies last Friday, with 380,000 by the end of the first weekend. Not suprisingly, the official site for WoW Europe warned of choppy seas ahead, as the account creation site was out of order like the North American release, with players experiencing wait times just to be able to get into the game. I find it a bit concerning that Blizzard’s European team was not able to foresee this kind of response with so much evidence to support the tidal wave of new users that would hit its servers at launch. Though things appear to have settled down it doesn’t negate the fact that they were once again unprepared.

I’m not sure if this is a global sales tactic by Blizzard, where they firmly establish that their product is unplayable so that new users are deterred, but it’s not working. People flock to this game with blinders on, eager to drink the sweet, sweet nectar of an MMORPG that is actually fun to play. I fully acknowledge this as indisputable; World of Warcraft injected into every MMORPG fan’s mainline exactly what they were looking for – when they can play it. Though when gamers continue to line up for the high-population servers only to have to wait or trudge through a lag-crippled session, it calls into question the reasoning of the gamers themselves.

Due to its level of accessibility and favourable conditions for short game sessions, I plan on getting into World of Warcraft eventually. However at this time I’m finding it more beneficial to observe this growing community from the outside. It seems to me that the game still revolves around a discrete model of “Player vs. Everything”, where inter-player communication and cooperation is almost unnecessary. As it stands, World of Warcraft could operate interchangably as a locally-run game. To me, the Battlegrounds are simply something they’ve been dangling in front of players to convince them that they’ve made the right decision. These are tactics SOE used when Star Wars Galaxies first launched. The Galactic Civil War was going to change the way people played the game, making Galaxies a true representation of the war-torn universe shown in the films. Though this never happened, and instead the development team pushed out a space expansion while they tried to alleviate the more important class balancing and changes to the combat system, because that’s what the players wanted.

After just over two months, it’s impossible to predict how World of Warcraft will weather the test of time. I know first hand there is plenty of material in the game to keep players busy, but there are only so many quests you can throw at a player before they start realizing that what they do has little effect on their surroundings. Indeed, waiting while a quest “boss” respawns is enough to remove me from a game world that hinges solely on a player’s desire for more experience. Those that have fallen in with guilds have had better experiences in community building, but is the game world deep enough to secure long term interest? For the sake of the players, I’d like to see Blizzard use World of Warcraft’s success to build something worthy of its name and not simply rely on its short-term addictive qualities. It’s obvious Blizzard can get players to jump in. The real test will be to see if they stay there.

trapped in the sun

In my haste to name the squad tactical shooters to be released this year, I seem to have overlooked Konami Europe’s The Regiment for the PS2 and PC. The Regiment will introduce gamers to the world of Britain’s SAS counter-terrorist force, which became world renowned in the televised takedown of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. Powered by the Unreal engine (and making obvious allowances for the PS2), The Regiment will intermix fictional missions with a re-enactment of the famous operation at the embassy. I’m glad to see a developer examining this subject, as the inspiration for this genre has traditionally been very U.S.-centric.

With Republic Commando, Close Combat: First to Fight, Brothers in Arms, Rainbow Six: Lockdown and SWAT 4 all arriving in the next couple of months, PC gaming appears to be fixated on squad tactical shooters for the moment. Which is fine by me, as long as they’re offering something more than genre lip service.

I guess it wasn’t much of a stretch for LucasArts to develop its own take on the genre with Republic Commando: take the nameless, faceless clone troopers from Episode II: Attack of the Clones and put them in close combat engagements, picking and choosing from the featuresets of games to come before it, and creating what can only be called a mediocre first person shooter.

I downloaded the demo last week after hearing a mixed bag of opinions. I was interested to see if LucasArts could tackle the squad tactics genre on its own, as this would be the first Star Wars game in some time that was actually developed-in house. The first thing I noticed was only one of the four squad members actually sounded like Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett). They also had their own “nicknames”, and different personalities. I thought they were supposed to be a cross section of an army of clones? Why get tied up in things like “cameraderie” and “sassy one liners” when you’re essentially a one man army multiplied a thousand times?

LucasArts definitely took some liberties with the character design, but everything ended up looking like Galactic Heroes. Of course, it’s up to the player whether they like this interpretation or not. As someone who enjoys employing precision tactics when facing my enemy, I’d rather not be looking at a chunky, obtrusive interface and even chunkier avatars. I’m really not a fan of the “visor view” either, and in my mind it goes down in history with the likes of Deus Ex: Invisible War’s HUD. I can only imagine what this view will be like in Rainbow Six: Lockdown.

I liked the way squad commands felt intuitive, but I wouldn’t call it tactics. It doesn’t require any real problem solving by the player: simply mousing over points on the map will show “hot” areas, or actions a squad member can complete. Clicking on these points will issue the associated command, but it’s not like you get the option of storming a room with thermal detonators or sneaking in quietly. The objectives and their solutions are completely transparent. In the demo’s mission, Republic Commando does a good job of making you feel surrounded and overwhelmed, but I never feared for my life. There’s a pretty good chance when you go down with 0 health a squad mate will be by to heal you up with seemingly unlimited medkits.

All the weapons felt insubstantial, like toys. I’ve played Star Wars FPS before, and I know what a repeater blaster should “feel” like. I also find it hard to believe that every character has the entire Republic arsenal at their disposal. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the squad to have a Heavy Blaster unit, a sniper unit and a support unit? That way your men become indispensable – not interchangeable. In the face of existing and soon to be released squad tactical shooters, the whole game feels like a toy. More like squad tactical action figures.

The biggest thing this game has going for it is that it’s suprisingly polished given LucasArts’ past foray into 3D. Perhaps the campaign is really interesting, and eclipses the shortfalls of the game’s core mechanics. However I’m not willing to take the time to find out. If you’re looking for another Star Wars FPS that doesn’t involve the words “Jedi Knight”, then I suppose Republic Commando is for you.

Now I’d like to talk about Ash. Ash is a band from Ireland that was introduced to me during the end credits/blooper scenes from the North American release of Rumble in the Bronx. Their catchy tribute to old martial arts films, the aptly named “Kung Fu”, played in the background. The next day I bought the album it was from, “1977″. Opening with the sound of a tie fighter flying by, and later learning that the album was named after the year Star Wars was released (despite any of the members not being born yet), I knew these guys were for real. I even had the chance to meet them when they came to Toronto back in 1996 to promote that album.

This week I found that one of the songs off of their upcoming album was selected to be on the Republic Commando soundtrack. Once again falling back on their clever songwriting skills, “Clones” will also appear on an exclusive EP called “Commando” which includes a playable demo for the game. I can’t vouch for their popularity at the moment, as I’ve been into Ash for years. Though if anyone will benefit from this multi-media promotion it will be the band. Incidentally, Ash will be back in Toronto at the Opera House April 13th. I will be there.

I don’t know if you knew that

I’m not much for TV watching. I’d rather sit down with a good movie if I’m going to be in front of a screen, though naturally my favorite type of entertainment is of the interactive variety.

One thing that always gets me into a frothy rage is the way computers and technology are portrayed in TV or in movies. How many hackers do you know have a fancy 3D interface to work with (Swordfish), or complain about deleted or corrupted data due to de-fragging (countless episodes of Law and Order). Video games are another beast entirely, as it is so easy to demonize them when they’ve been such a hot button issue.

I wasn’t surprised, then, when I casually tuned in to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit last night to see them talking about this game called “Intensity”, which was supposedly the basis for a crime. A hooker was run over by a car, beaten to death and left for dead. Clearly inspired by Grand Theft Auto III+, the show hoped to tap into the “subculture” surrounding the game (and I use the term loosely – the kids shown in the program weren’t exactly credible gamers). Let’s also forget for a moment that the graphics were embarrassingly bad (on a PC!), and all you saw during the show was the same sequence repeatedly.

I respect that the show tried to tackle this trendy issue, and I also like how the defense lawyer tried to pin the blame on the developers of the game only to lose because of the defendant’s obviously sound mind. References to Columbine as video game violence manifesting itself were made, but ultimately the message I got from the show was that video games are just another form of media, and cannot be blamed for a person’s actions. Though as video games are still a very new form of media, opinions on their influence on youth have not been objectively formed yet. You still hear the angry cries of bad parents or blowhard government officials basing their “facts” on inconclusive studies. I appreciate that this show revealed both sides of the argument, and that’s a small step in the mainstream acceptance of our hobby.

we are what we remember

Last time I moved it was after the wedding. And it wasn’t like I was moving far away; the Wife lived with her parents in Rockwood which was about 30 minutes away from Guelph. Though the In-Laws weren’t there, as they were working overseas in Hong Kong. So the house was basically ours to live in. The Wife worked downtown, and I had been working at my job in Markham for just over a year and knew full well what the commute would be like. So we decided to head in together every day to keep each other company. I would drop her off at the subway at Yonge and Finch, and then head up to Markham. My first mistake was to think that this wouldn’t make much of a difference in travel time; in hindsight the typical delusion of most Toronto commuters. And so I give you a rant that has been building up over the last two and a half years.

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