That’s been slow going compared to my previous Klingon characters; they leveled mostly by FvK PVP a few months ago.  Back then, a new match started every few minutes in prime time.  In two full nights of playing, Qohn only faced other captains twice, both KvK, and had a dozen attempted matches end in “not in queue” or “not enough captains accepted” messages. It’s hard to say if the queues are empty because they’re bugged or because there aren’t enough new subscribers or old ones rolling new characters. We’ll know when Cryptic fixes the queues–hopefully very soon.

The bright spot tonight was “Bringing Down the House”, the first Klingon PVE content I’ve played.  Chasing down a Romulan assassin across several worlds allowed for a good mix of ground and space combat. The story’s interesting if a little linear (most MMO content I’ve played so far is) and surpasses anything at equivalent levels on the Federation side.  More, please.

But first, Cryptic, please fix the queues.  Although I avoid PvMP like the Black Breath in LOTRO, I couldn’t get enough KvF after launch, and it’s going to be a long climb to Commander and (gasp) my beloved K’t'inga without it. And I promise to tear myself away from disintegrating Star Fleet captains long enough to enjoy any new Klingon PVE at or near level this time.

The Nuts-and-Bolts Problem

The real problem is level-based systems define hit points as a function of level. The underlying mechanics simply don’t mesh with real-life experience: A 60th level character can’t actually survive being stabbed with a dagger 60 more times than a 1st level character nor survive a fall from 60 times as high. No metaphor is going to be able to rationalize such things.

In tabletop games like Call of Cthulhu that aren’t level-based, hit points are a funtion of attributes. That means the character’s maximum hit points don’t change significantly through gameplay. The consequence is that every combat includes a high risk of death; a critical hit could kill a character with a single hit. This works in CoC because combat is infrequent.

Computer RPGs (MMOs particularly) depend on combat much more than table-top games. I kill more mobs in an average LOTRO session than any of my tabletop characters did in a year of gameplay. The statistical consequence of all that combat is defeat goes from a probability (< 1) on the tabletop to a frequency (> 1) in MMOs over a character’s lifetime. Since LOTR lore does not allow any kind of resurrection, the health metaphor ends up being immersion-breaking in a much more fundamental, undeniable way. Hit points cannot be health because defeat cannot be death; the result is more arcade game than role-playing game.

The Hearts-and-Minds Problem

Most computer games use the health metaphor, so most gamers are more comfortable with it by introduction and repetition. Health gets grandfathered under the collective “willing suspension of disbelief” needed to start playing these games in the first place. Morale conflicts with the internally-consistent model everybody’s already accepted. It’s natural on purely cognitive grounds for morale to break immersion for people who have been habituated to health.

Unfortunately Turbine applied the metaphor inconsistently as pointed out in the Wave and blog comments. The developers and writers are products of earlier games too; they are working at odds with their own habituated internal models. Beyond text and labels, the combat animations themselves conspire against the morale metaphor. They show attacks connecting every time, not just for the (ahem) killing blow. In the morale metaphor, all attacks except the last should be near hits, blocks, parries, etc.

Such inconsistencies exacerbate a perception problem around the semantics of morale. Adarel and others liken the effects of defeat to “being sad”, something game mechanics like hope and dread reinforce. My war-gaming history frames (breaking) morale differently; it’s the point where a unit loses cohesion, routs, and flees the battle. After all, few historical battles resulted in the complete destruction of one side. Unfortunately for Turbine, metaphors are creatures of context. They may have chosen one that their audience won’t accept outside of old-timers like me who know if from other contexts.

What Would Yoda Do?

Putting Turbine’s continuity issues aside, I find the morale metaphor much more satisfying because it better explains the vast difference between 1st and 60th level characters without violating my common sense understanding of the real world. It’s not the best one, however. Consider the hybrid route many class/level tabletop games took when moving from the fantasy setting to something more modern (and fatal) like this quote from WotC’s Star Wars RPG core rulebook:

Hit points [...] represent two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a graze or near miss. As you become more experienced, you become more adept at parrying strikes, dodging attacks, and rolling with blows [...] but all this effort slowly wears you down. Rather than try to keep track of the difference between attacks and how much phsyical injury you take, hit points are an abstract measure of your total ability to survive damage.

This and other d20-based games are the literal descendants of the game where hit points first evolved: Dungeons and Dragons. Tabletop games have struggled with the metaphorical mismatch of health and hit points for years, preferring to hybridize it with combat abstraction. If LOTRO represents a similar evolution in the MMO space, I suspect future ludologists will only study it through the fossil record. Leaving hit points as an abstraction and concentrating more on playing or creating content for games seems a better survival strategy than working to make it really stick.

Links:

LotrO & Tolkien: Morale and the Absence of Death – Good or Bad? — Google Wave

Morale in LOTRO — Anti-immersive? by Adarel on LOTRO Reporter

A mighty big bug, and colourful too!

The otherwise excellent WordPress 2.9 release has caused some problems in the FeedWordPress plugin I use to syndicate content from my My LOTRO blog. The plugin developer’s been quiet since July, and the latest beta build of WP 2.9.1 hasn’t fixed the problem–yet.

Game-related blogs exacerbate problems with managing your content across many sites and trying to provide a one-stop-shop for those who are interested. In the case of my.lotro, their blogging software is often a version behind and the mods they make quirky; I noticed in the latest release that tags and categories in quick edit pick lists are white-on-white for instance.  However, they have some nice game-related features like achievement logs and character details. My knee-jerk response is that they should provide better RSS widgets and become more an aggregator than a host for non-game content, but there are the usual issues of allowing uncontrolled content on their site and the visual train-wreck of content created for wildly-different CSS schemes that make it a dice roll.

What’s a gamer-blogger to do? Wait. I’m tempted to put my programmer hat on and see if I can fix this, and maybe submit it to FeedWordPress’s developer. Then again, my holiday LOTRO marathon really shouldn’t be interrupted, especially with STO so, so close.

Star Trek Online

Fleets are the guilds of Star Trek Online. The guys over on mmojunkies.tv mentioned in STO Radio podcast 1.4 that fleets would have seven customizable ranks. They’ve even put up their choices and logo for Nova Fleet already.

Googling around, it looks like fleets are popping up all over the place. I don’t know if this is normal for other MMOs that haven’t launched yet, but it doesn’t surprise me. Star Wars: The Old Republic might have a larger, more passionate (i.e., fanboy) base than Star Trek, but there is an inherent structure and deep lore to the Trek universe–beyond just its military ranking–that makes such organizing easier and more contextually relevant.

If I were designing a fleet, I’d go in a different direction than STO Radio and base it on modern naval organization. The game isn’t released, and I’m not in the closed beta (yet … cough, cough) so none of this factors in how privileges relate to ranks, but here goes:

Like the modern navy, I don’t envision static arrangements of ships into flotillas, squadrons, etc. Fleet rank may imply authority when grouping with individual rank breaking ties. Of course I would expect consensus to overrule simple rank based on player skills and the challenges at hand.

I just get more excited every moment I think about this game coming out. My usual goal of moderating expectation is completely out the airlock! Please, Cryptic, do not disappoint!

That’s when Volund appeared. ”We sail north, Elf. Your time is almost…” Finding two armed elves where he expected one helpless one, he shouted, “… intruders? Attack! Come to my aid, you worthless thin-beards!” Two more dwarves burst from the hatch. Their advance forced the elves to fall back against the railing to avoid being surrounded.

Both sides paused, sizing up the situation before resuming the fight. Stars shimmered in the cold mountain air. Waves lapped against the side of the ship. Despite the dire circumstance, the moment filled Ael’s heart and he sang out,  ”A Elbereth Gilthoniel! A tiro nin!”

One dwarf blanched, dropped his weapon, and leapt into the water.  The other crumpled lifeless to the deck as Avorthal’s blade found its mark in that instant. Then Avorthal screamed, “You shall not escape me, villain!” and leaped after the terrified dwarf. Two figures shrank into the distance as the two remaining combatants with mouths agape stared dumbly after them from the deck of the Irestone…

Elf overboard!

The D7 battlecruiser from The Original Series and its improved descendent, the K’t'inga class, are my favorite ship designs in all of Star Trek. I can’t imagine a Star Trek game without them, and I wish STO would get some good Klingon starship porn out there.  As much as I love the Discovery and Excalibur so far, I need to see some attractive Klingon ships.

Come on, Cryptic: Give me some sugar Gagh, baby!

Here are the Future Past videos by way of GameStop:

• Star Trek Online: The Future Past, Part 1
• Star Trek Online: The Future Past, Part 2

Camenecium.com