Whether you’re Horde or Alliance, do the “Angrathar the Wrathgate” quest-line.  If you push it, you could hit the quest-line by level 73, maybe lower.  Yes, you read that right.  The designers wanted this quest-line to be accessible, so they put it towards the beginning.

Why is it so important?  There will be more “moments” to come in further patches, but as of right now the “Angrathar the Wrathgate” quest-line is the largest lore moment in the entire expansion, and I’d even argue its aftermath is the largest lore moment in all of WoW.  Ever.

So how do you do it?  The relatively spoiler free instructions are here.

Namely, you do a number of quests in Dragonblight that unlock an event.  The event is amazing, and yes, this is the moment where some smartass jumps up and boasts they already watched it on YouTube.  To all of them, Great!  Did you also watch a pirated version of “The Dark Knight” on your TV at home?  Yeah, you missed something, but more power to you.  If you’re a lore dork then you want to do this quest-line.  And it’s not just the “EVENT”.  There is a huge aftermath, with HUGE lore ramifications for everything WoW will be in the future.

Angrathar the Wrathgate.  Do it.  And thank you Blizzard.

Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars - combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story.

Bold words, openly stating that MMO developers traditionally don’t even bother with story, and it’ll be interesting to see if Bioware can put their money where their mouth is.  Keep in mind that this is THE press release introducing the game to the world.  This is not some, “Hey it’s been a month… let’s toss them another bite” announcement.  This press release in and of itself is a big deal, and out of all things BioWare could have discussed, they decided to focus a large chunk on how much they’re going to focus on story.

Wise move.  BioWare is dealing with an intellectual property that a few of us have probably heard of.  (Let’s face it… anyone under the age of 50 in the Western World who hasn’t seen a Star Wars movie is just weird.)  The majority of the people who play The Old Republic are going to, because they want to live in a Star Wars movie.  They want to experience the story, gold bikinis and all.

The drawback of dealing with an iconic IP is just that, it’s an icon.  We all know what Star Wars IS, and more critically, we know what it ISN’T.  BioWare is side-stepping this whole dilemna by having Star Wars: The Old Republic take place roughly 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2.  (That’s 3700 years before Luke Skywalker.)  The story will be tied in enough to feel familiar, but distant enough to still allow the developers to create their own lore without breaking canon.

So boys and girls, bust out those old copies of KOTOR 1 & 2 and brush up on your Old Republic lore.  Oh, and if you want to get into the beta in a few years, I’d sign up for the SWTOR Newsletter NOW.

Within WoW, neither the Horde nor Alliance are predominantly good nor bad.  And because of this, neither faction predominantly defines your character.

I have to confess, I didn’t notice this at first.  I took it completely for granted until I began playing Warhammer.  And I have to say, I miss the gray.

Within Warhammer, Order is good and Destruction is bad.  Heck, even their names tell you that.

So, for my first Warhammer character, I rolled on the Order side as a Shadow Warrior.  Shadow Warriors are High Elves and High Elves are good.  They love the land, protect the animals, and don’t drive 55mph in the carpool lane with a chain of people behind them.

Well, last night I rolled a Dark Elf…

…and it was a bit of a shock how much the black and white factions can predefine your character and your immersion within the game.

As a High Elf, I had been defending the Elven homeland.  Now as a Dark Elf, I was invading it.

That didn’t sound so bad.  Invaders can be cool.  Vikings were invaders.  And, well, Vikings are awesome.

Then I started doing the quests…

Wipe out the defending High Elves.  Obvioulsy.

Help gather supplies.  Makes sense.

Slaughter the local wildlife.  Typical.

Use innocent civilians as bait so you can kill their rescuers.  Uhm… Okay.

Unleash savage beasts on mourners of the dead to demoralize the defenders.  Yeesh.

Brutal… but… okay, let’s keep going.

Then I got to the first town, and there amongst a group of laughing onlookers, was a Dark Elf torturing a wounded lion.

Alright, why am I running errands for these guys?  And therein lies the problem.  The more I played my Dark Elf  the more I found myself ignoring why I was doing anything, so I didn’t feel like a schmuck for doing it.  I was purposefully not immersing myself in the game.

So there’s the problem.  When you push a game’s factions to extremes, you also push the to immersion to extremes.  Sure there wll be those who just don’t care, but for everyone else, those who are sucked in by one faction are going to find themselves repulsed by the other.

Is that really a problem though?  Afterall, there are two factions.  If you don’t like one then stop whining and go play the other.  Unfortunately for many of us, our faction is chosen for us as we either follow our guild or simply go to where all of our friends went.

So I must prefer WoW, right?  Gray is more accessible.  From a storytelling standpoint Gray is more interesting.  It offers characters who are complex.  No hero is all good, and the best kind of villain is the one who in their eyes thinks they’re the hero.  This is all true, but actually no, I don’t prefer WoW’s way of handling factions.  And I don’t prefer Warhammer’s either.  I’ll take choice “C”… Age of Conan.  In other words, one faction.

No AoC is not a perfect game, and when taking everything into account, I’d rather play WoW or Warhammer.  But as far as faction design goes, I prefer AoC’s.  Why?  Freedom!  Factions?  My friends, my guild, and my guild’s alliances are my faction.  When it comes to PVP, it’s a free for all.  If someone’s cool we can party up.  If they’re a jerk… well that’s what my bow is for.  The game does not dictate who my friends and enemies are.  The world becomes much more of a sandbox where I can do whatever I want.

On a game mechanics side, one faction also means I have a much better chance of getting to play with all of my friends.  In WoW, WAR, or other games with multiple factions, launch day is marred by having to say, “I’ll catch you next time, buddy” to some of your friends who are going to the other side.  And that well… sucks.

The downside of a game with only one faction is it’s hard to pull off.  Good drama, good storytelling, comes from conflict, and it’s tougher to put together a great story when you don’t have as much control over that conflict.

So there you have it.  Whether it’s “Black vs. White” or “Gray vs. Gray”, they both offer their own unique benefits and drawbacks.  For my money though, I’d rather be given the paintbrush and make my own colors.

There’s just one thing bugging me about the game in general.

And it’s such a nit-picky thing, but it’s there, and it’s there A LOT.  The game-play is great.  The quests are fun.  This is really a second generation MMO and I think it’ll be very successful.  There’s just one thing they messed up on.

The friggin’ possessive pronouns.

Yes, that’s right.  Stop staring.  The possessive pronouns.  It never occurred to me how much something as simple as a pronoun could kill the immersion.

And it all boils down to a two letter word, “my”.

Every quest you do… it’s “My people thank you.”  “My people are under attack.”  “My homeland needs you.”

Only problem is, I’m a high-elf TALKING TO OTHER HIGH-ELVES.

Uh, hello, “My people, thank you?” I AM ONE OF YOUR PEOPLE.  How could you not know that?  OH!  That’s right!!  IT’S JUST A GAME!

Yes, I know.  I’m freaking out.  But I’m really just frustrated for the writers.  Warhammer is an awesome, awesome game, and this is such a silly, ridiculously prevalent, easily fixed writing error.  Why not just say, “we” and “our”?

“Our homeland is saved!” If you’re a dwarf talking to a high-elf, you’ll just assume the elf is talking about them self and all of the other elves.  If you’re a high-elf too, you’ll assume that you’re included in that “our”.

Instead of saying “my people” say “we”… as in “We thank you!”

This immersion killing possessive pronoun problem is so prevalent that it had to have been a conscious design decision.  Someone had to have sat down and made a conscious decision to use “my” as the prominent word choice.

The lesson that can at least be taken from this is for all the huge worlds, in depth characters, and cutting edge game mechanics, as a designer, one still needs to pay careful attention to details as small as the choice of pronouns.

Tiny details like this, which are taken for granted, are why game design is so much harder than it looks.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my Shadow-Warrior is ready for a new bow.

You can check it out here: Link

So why is AOC realistic and WoW more like a cartoon?  Obligatory decision?  Personal preference of the designers?  You could argue that WoW has cartoony graphics so it scales better with older machines.  That makes sense, but there’s something else to consider here.

WoW is High-Fantasy.  AoC is Low-Fantasy.

Let me put it another way.  Comic Book Movies.  Yes.  Comic Book Movies.  More specifically, X-Men.  Even more specifically, Wolverine.

In the comic books Wolverine wears a yellow spandex body-suit comprised of a lot sharp angles.  In the comic-book, he looks awesome.  In real life though, he’d just look silly, which is why in the movie Hugh Jackman wears a black leather outfit along with all of the other X-Men.  Their costumes from the comic-books just don’t translate to real life.

WoW is High-Fantasy, therefore it involves elves, wizards, gnomes, etc..  It also involves flamboyant spells, weapons, armor, you get the idea.

Wow has to look cartoony, because a lot of its weapons and (especially) armor wouldn’t work if the game looked more realistic.  Since WoW is entrenched in a high-fantasy environment, it has to look cartoony.  Genre denotes graphics.

Low-Fantasy, however, is more down to earth.  The weapons and armor are all based more in reality and therefore really shine when shown with graphics that make them look as real as possible.

So which one is better?  Neither.  They’re just two opposite ends of the spectrum.  For what WoW is, WoW needs that cartoony look to support it.  For what AoC is, it needs those fabulously realistic graphics to help push the limits of what its genre offers.

One has to wonder if that’s one of the reasons why that’s why high-fantasy MMO’s were more popular earlier on.  Cartoony graphics are easier for computers to handle (fewer polygons, etc).  Since cartoony graphics work best with high-fantasy (and anime styled games), perhaps that’s why we’ve had so many of them.  A case of graphics actually denoting the genre.  If that’s the case then perhaps as the average computer grows more powerful will begin to see a substantial increase in games that work better in a realistic environment such as low-fantasy and sci-fi.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Here it all is in two and a half words… it’s awesome.

I don’t know if the guys and gals at Blizz actually read that forum post of mine or came upon it themselves, but the immersion has definitely been cranked up a few notches.

Examples?  I’ve got plenty (minor spoilers ahead).

Upon arriving in Northrend, I approached my first NPC only to have him look at me and say, “Oh my god, it’s you.”

Hunting down Garrosh Hellscream in Warsong Hold, he addressed me with, “Hello Cocles.  Don’t think I’ve forgotten everything you did for me back in Nagrand.”  Garrosh was quite happy to see me instead of the typical batch of noobs he had apparently been putting up with under his command since he had arrived in Northrend.

Saurfang is there, and he’s probably more happy to see me arrive than anyone.

For the Alliance?  Keep in mind I tend to play Horde, so I may not know the knitty-gritties on the Alliance side, but I can say this… Fordragon is no longer in Stormwind.

Wrath of Lich King will be fabulous for lore lovers.  There’s plenty of it.  Story lines are accounted for, attention is paid, and plot holes, even in beta, are few and far between.  In fact, there have been several instances now when I thought I had found a plot hole, only to find it accounted for a couple quests later.

And now for a word on Death Knights.  You may remember my post where I discussed my ideas and hopes that the Death Knight opening would be as epic as having to bust out of Stratholme.

Well… it’s not.  It’s much, much MORE.  The opening zone for the Death Knights is possibly the most epic zone I have ever played in WoW.  You’ll go from level 55 to 57 in the time it takes you to go through, and let me tell you this… it’s not static, and there’s an over-arching storyline with major characters throughout the entire thing.  And these characters are NOT forgotten.  You WILL see them again.

With Age of Conan, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Bioware’s KOTOR MMO (oh yes, more on that later), and Blizzard’s own barely announced second gen MMO all vying for a piece of WoW’s pie, one had to wonder if Blizzard would be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat of an almost four year old game.  They did.  You will be pleased.  Get yourselves in the beta if you can.  It’s worth every minute of playtime.  My advice to starting out?  Check out BOTH starting zones, the Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord (I did them in that order), and definitely, definitely create a Death Knight and play through its starting zone.  You will NOT be sorry.  The story the Death Knight players get to see when they create their character is literally the prequel chapter to the story everybody sees when they hit Northrend.

If you’re into lore, especially WoW lore, then you’re going to have a blast levelling up in Wrath of the Lich King.

I’m actually surprised, since Blizzard has often been rather… odd with their lore support.  They’ll trickle out info regarding the lore of their future games, while at the same time shrugging off years of requests for a lore portion of their WoW forums.  They’ll prioritize game mechanics over lore, which is fine, but then suddenly give lore priority under weird circumstances.  Example?  They balked at the idea of gender specific classes for Night Elves in WoW (something that only affects aesthetics), then turned around and restricted druids to only using roots outside (a lore based nerf, which frankly made no sense).  Roots in a cave?!  Nonsense!

To get back to Diablo 3 though, take a look, it’s done as a book read completely out loud by Deckard Cain, with the cinematics from Diablo 2.

Diablo 3’s Lore Page - Deckard Cain’s Journal

Money, back then, was epic.  And with AoC, 1 Gold once again means something.  These days, in WoW, 1 Gold is what you give beggars to piss them off with how stingy you are.  It’s like throwing them a penny and shouting, “Have a night on the town!”

The difference, of course, is that AoC is brand new while WoW is four years old.

But that’s just it.  Why does money have to stop feeling epic?  Why do the days of, “One Silver?!  YES!!” have to stop?

It doesn’t.

You may wonder why I’m prattling on about game economics.  I’m, what we’re ultimately talking about here is lore.

Back before Burning Crusade, I was a monetary god.  My astounding wealth?  Over Three-Thousand Gold.  Whoopie.  That amount easily put me in the top ten richest on the server.  Maybe top five in my faction.  These days, what would garner a similar standing?  30,000 Gold?  90,000 Gold?

If it takes thousands of the highest denomination of money to sound impressive, then the money isn’t “Epic” anymore.  Sure, fifty-thousand sounds impressive, but you’re being impressed by the number, not the gold itself.

See where I’m going with this?  You can’t solve this with economics.

You can’t directly force auction prices to drop.  Lower quest rewards?  Create money sinks?  Give me a break.  Solutions like that are clunky and shove people into the arms of gold-sellers.

Lore is where the solution lies for maintaining money’s epic feel.  And the solution is simple.

Give the game’s money more denominations.  Expand it’s lore within the game.

Why doesn’t WoW use Mithril as money?  Or Platinum?  Or Palladium?

100 Silver = 1 Gold.  100 Gold = 1 Mithril.  Why not?  Sure it wasn’t used in Warcraft 1-3 but who cares?

Think about it.  Imagine being able to remember when you were level 57 and finally reached your first “1 Mithril”?  Sure you could say reaching 1000 Gold felt just as good, but, like I said, you’re being impressed by the number, not the gold.  MMO’s are about loot, and the money should feel like loot.  If there’s only four or five people on the server carrying 5 or 6 Palladium in their bag, then the money takes on a much more epic feel.  It’s what the money IS that impresses you.  It’s Palladium.  That stuff is RARE.  Not like that yellow stuff you throw at beggars.

As games issue expansions, they should also expand the economy.  When Burning Crusade was released, Blizzard should have introduced Mithril as part of the economy.  Epic flying mounts?  500 Mithril please!

Hopefully as newer MMO’s continue to be made, we’ll begin to see developers paying as much attention to the epic feel of our money, as they do its actual value.

Want the immersion part of it?  Imagine if the NPC’s treated you differently based on the threshold of cash you carried.

“Right this way, Sir.”

Even the character creation process is part of the immersion. From the get go you feel thrown into the middle of a story, and better yet, the game does this without making you feel confused. There’s no “Super Mario Bros.” Hellgate laziness or “Hey, I’m standing in the middle of a camp and have no idea how I got here!” nonsense we have in WoW.

As I mentioned previously, the game is single player for the first few levels. My big question before release was, “Will this work?” The answer, I’m happy to say, is an emphatic YES. In fact, you won’t even notice it’s single player. Let me say that again, because this is no small feat that Funcom has accomplished. You won’t even notice it’s single player. How? Storytelling. You start out on a beach in the middle of nowhere. Your first five levels are spent running through the jungle to reach the nearest town where all the people are. Why is there no one around? Because they’re all near the town! And where does the multi-player area begin? Right where you’d expect to start seeing people, a few minutes before reaching the town. Very well done.

Once in town, the game splits in two for the first 20 levels. Running at the same time, we have our multiplayer quests, and our heavily involved single player “destiny” quest line. Once again, Funcom bats this out of the park when it comes to immersion and making the mechanic feel organic.

The biggest problem with heavily involved single-player story lines in MMO’s is simple: other people. Here I am, reading a lore-heavy quest line, trying to get into it, but nope, I can’t. Why? Because some nearby jackass is getting off on the noise his character makes when he’s standing on an open fire. This is where some hippie/troll shouts, “Just turn off your speakers, move the camera, blah blah blah!” But you know what? I don’t want to turn off my speakers and I shouldn’t have to.

The solution to this, of course, is to instance the single player area. But how do you do it? Usually, the developers make it a cave, or a house, or an island. So what does Funcom do? The instance is the same, player-filled town you’re in… but at night.

Ready to do your single player quest line? Great! Simply head into the tavern and tell the bartender you’ll be hanging out there until dusk. When you leave the bar, “Presto!” It’s night-time, the streets are empty, and it’s time for you to get to work. Need to meet up with your friends again? No problem! Just head back into the bar and the tell the Bartender you’ll be hanging out until dawn. When you leave the bar, it’ll be day again, and the streets filled with players.

It’s stuff like this that impresses me. The idea is so simple. So obvious. And so much better than a boring cave. This is how games should be done. The mechanics, which make the game playable, are carefully hidden beneath a layer of clever storytelling. It’s easy to immerse yourself in a game like this, because you’re not constantly being reminded, “Oh yeah, it’s just a game.”

When players reach level 20 and finally leaves the beginners’ zone, they are taken to their race’s capital. When I arrived in my people’s city, I was greeted by “that NPC”. You’ve all met him. He’s been in video games since the early 80’s. Who is he? …He’s the guy who gives you your map. He’s a staple. You have to expect him– But let’s step back for a moment. Who is this guy? So he just stands around and gives maps out all day? When my character spoke to him in AoC I actually double-taked. The guy offered me a map, and there as one of my options was the response, “Wait… so you just stand out here all day and give people maps?” To which the NPC responded, “Yes, I’m being punished and I’d rather not talk about it.” Nice wink, Funcom. You actually made the map guy organic.

Age of Conan is worth the $50 and at the very least the first 30 days you get for free with the game. I myself have started a subscription and plan on playing the game for quite some time. Before you get it though, take note… it requires A LOT of power to run properly. If your computer yawns while playing Oblivion at max settings then you’ll probably be fine. It’s definitely worth the upgrade if you considering one though. The game is gorgeous, especially with the ansiotropic filtering turned on and cranked up a bit

I’ll finish with this. Age of Conan is the best immersion I have ever seen in an MMO. It’s now the high-water mark, and for that reason alone you should give it a look.