So the folks over at Bioware have made great what-to-do about how important story is going to be in their upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.  And to drive home the point, they’ve embarked upon the ambitious endeavor to be the first fully voiced MMO ever released.  Not just the tutorial, not just key missions in the main storyline – but every encounter.  This past week they released some gameplay footage, and we actually got to see some typical NPC interactions take place.  And what’s clear is that it’s not just voice acting they’re talking about.  Rather, its full blown cinematic sessions with voice-acting, camera cuts, scripted NPC actions and interactions.  The amount of investment (and cost) in undertaking this effort boggles my mind.  Let’s put it this way.  For Halo Wars, we recorded over five thousand lines of voiceover.  And that was for an RTS, where character interactions mostly consist of units acknowledging your commands or informing you they’re bored.  So I can’t imagine how many thousands upon thousands of lines of VO they’re going to record, and then on top of that directing and refining each NPC interaction into a mini-cutscene.  It’s safe to say that the financial risk they’re taking in hanging their hat on this endeavor is enormous.  But is it the right one?

 
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Delsenora - Our young tour guide

So the first thing one has to decide when touring Azeroth is where to begin.  Will we be Horde or Alliance? Which race and class to choose for our journey?  Well for me, World of Warcraft will always begin in Elwynn Forest.  This was where I started when I set foot in Azeroth for the first time during the friends and family alpha, back in 2004, and it will always be an iconic zone for World of Warcraft.

I could have taken one of the other races and brought them over to Elwynn for the beginning, but I am trying, for no particular reason, to preserve the sort of classic beginning WoW experience.  So human it would be.  And for personal reasons, namely that I’ve had my fill recently of melee classes, and already have a 74 hunter, I’ve elected to go with a mage.   So our guide for the tour of Azeroth will be a young female mage by the name of Delsenora.  And yes, 100 geek points to anyone that recognizes the origin of the name.  And though we, the player’s of WoW and the witnesses to her journey are long time veterens and know every inch of this land by memory, she gazes at the world with fresh young eyes full of wonder and eager for adventure. 

Our journey begins in Northshire Abbey

For a long time now, the guards have been gone.  All the time of my youth, the protectors of Elwynn Forest – the Guards of Stormwind Castle, had been a reassuring presence in our village.  But now they have been called away,  for reasons we know nothing of.  All that we know is that all around us, evil and unrest has been growing in our once peaceful forest.  And with no one from Stormwind left to defend us, the task falls to us – it’s citizens.  I had heard that Northshire Abbey was besieged with difficulties, and so, armed with only the most rudimentary knowledge of magic, it is there I have decided to begin my journey.

Our first quest - take a few steps forward and get another quest

Upon arriving at Northshire Abbey, it was immediately obvious there was, in fact, plenty of trouble, and plenty of work for an aspiring sorceress such as myself.  The first first thing I’m asked to do is to clear out some kobolds from a nearby mine.  Kobolds are filthy, disgusting creatures that resemble nothing so much as an upright, bipedal, poorly dressed rat.  Though my knowledge of my craft is still small, the kobolds are weak and unorganized, and I make a significant dent in their numbers.  Besides the kobolds, there are wolves to clear, and a threat that is new to the abbey, one that is organized — the Defias Brotherhood.

Um.. there are a LOT of bad guys over there..

At Ensemble Studios, when we were working on the Halo MMO, we studied Elwynn Forest extensively.  I remember having an argument with Jerome Jones, one of our designers there, about how early you get that first Defias quest.  I felt sure that you didn’t get the quest until you were at least level 4.  I was wrong though.  You can get that quest as early as level 2, and if you were to immediately embark upon that quest, you would be extremely sad.  The Defias are large in number, eager to aggro, and level 4.  Despite this obvious misstep by Blizzard in their starting zone design, WoW has still managed to do okay.

Despite their organization, I manage to deal with a goodly number of the Defias bandits, and even manage to rescue the grape harvest of one of the locals at the Abbey.  This seemed to especially please the clergy of the abbye, especially one Brother whom appears to spend a little too much time up in the bell tower, secluded from his fellow brethren, sampling the wines of the local orchards.   The leader of the local Defias gang was a name named Garrick Padfoot.  And though the task was a grisly one, after some work I delivered his head to the leader of the abbey militia.  

Garrick and his henchman

Forty years from now, if I can still sit at a computer, I can assure you I will remember both the name of that bandit in Northshire Abbey, and can walk you unerringly to his location.  These things we can never be rid of, lol.

 

Soon enough though, things were under control at the abbey, and I was asked to report to Marshal Dugan, in Goldshire.  Once there, I found that they too, were understaffed and underarmed, and being beset by troubles from all sides.  Another mine cleared of more kobolds, and a new menace I’d not encounted before (but oh, don’t we love them..), a race of fish-looking, angry creatures known as Murlocs.   In fact, one of the things I discovered while assisting the militia of Goldshire is that the Murlocs are swimming up the river from Redridge, and are attacking in ever greater numbers.  With the Murlocs pressing on one side, Kobolds on the other, and Defias roaming everywhere througough the forest, the folk of Goldshire are in great danger indeed.

Stormwind City!

Eventually my quests took me to the great city of Stormwind, and it does indeed live up to the grandeur of its name.   Shops and stores of every variety, teeming with people, and home to some of the most learned wizards in the land, I could fill this entire journal up with descriptions of its wonders.  But my hand grows tired, the hour late, and I shall only say that if you have not yet visited it, it is a wonder for any age.  

After my duties were done in Stormwind, I returned to Goldshire, and resumed assisting the folk there.  It would appear there’s a logging camp in great peril from the Murlocs that have taken up resident close by, and their guardsmen could use some assistance.  It is there my journeys will continue.

At the end of the first night..

I finished up the night at level 8 (it was late.. ), and about halfway through the Elwynn Forest content.  I picked up a robe to replace the Apprentice Robes that make up my starter gear, and have taken Tailoring and Herbalism for my professions.  The flowers will be sold, and the tailoring will give us something fun to do on the side, and to help with the character.  I am, at least so far, intent upon not twinking the character with golds and items from high-level and well meaning alts.  Of course, I reserve the right to discard all such nobel aspirations in the face of practicality at my whim.  In the next post, we’ll wrap up Elwynn Forest, and set out to the heartland of the Eastern Kingdoms – Westfall.

So I gotta say I’m pretty excited about Cataclysm.  So much so, that I’ve decided to start a new series here at Of Course I’ll Play It.  In honor of the upcoming world destruction, I’m going to be embarking upon a last tour of classic Azeroth, as it stands today.  As it has stood, by far and large with little change, since the game launched five years ago.    I’ll be rolling up a level one character, and will be setting out on a casual trip through the world.  I will not be using any leveling guides, and quest helper will get uninstalled.  I will, I think, keep Cartographer active, only because I’m not as young as I used to be and I can’t remember where everything in Azeroth is.  

But this is no grind to 80.  This is a leisurely stroll through a land that already holds many memories for me, and will soon be changed forever.  And as I proceed along the way, I plan to take a ton of screenshots, and to record the journey through this blog.  Most of the journal will be somewhat in character, though I may step out of the narrative to reflect on some of my prior experiences in these lands.  If you wish to follow along, all of these posts will be flagged with the “Travel” category, and all of them will have “Tour of Azeroth” in the title. 

So without further ado, I’ll be rolling up our tour guide this evening, and the first posts should go up tomorrow. 

Dusty

Diamonds in the Rough

The mmo design landscape is littered with mechanics that I like to think of as uncut gems.  These are mechanics that, at first glance, appear to be plain ‘ol rocks – unwanted, uncomfortable, unnecessary, and for all intents and purposes best discarded without looking back.  But the thing about uncut gems, is that once you look closer, and you try out some games without them, you come to realize these mechanics are actually very valuable.  And that while a shorthand gain might be achieved by discarding them, over the long stretch you realize that the game is actually much better served, and players have more fun, by keeping them.   Recognizing an uncut gem over a plain ‘ol stone is, of course, an inexact science.  And there is much truth to the adage that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  And to make things even more complex, players attitudes and perceptions change over time, so today’s uncut gem might end up being tomorrow’s worthless rock.  Enough analogies, let’s talk examples.

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