Is Archeage a Vanguard 2.0?

Monday 11 July, 2011 at 1:43 pm / 0 comment

Is Archeage a Vanguard 2.0?

Okay. Maybe not the most flattering title for Sony Online Entertainment or die-hard Vanguard fans, but I am also a huge Vanguard fan and an MMO player that wants more of what Vanguard gives us. More MMOs like Vanguard, then, would be a very good thing for us gamers(who want that).

I admit I’ve filed right in line on the hype train wearing my cleanest underwear, nodding in unison with the other passengers at every new announcement and conveniently passing over any possible skeptical negativity. But I know that, so shouldn’t that make it alright?

Archeage’s latest video-tease shows a player running around one of the “big” cities(which honestly doesn’t seem all that big from the video) and it continues to keep me hopeful about this MMO(RPG?). The latest video hits on a subject that is huge for me, but probably falls on the polar-opposite of the spectrum of what mainstream gamers want(or care about). Buildings you can go in. Why is the ability to enter a building such a big deal to me?

It’s all about realism and immersion. Those two elements are monumentally important for virtual worlds. What if you could go on vacation to Paris, Tokyo or Greece, but you couldn’t go inside any buildings. That’d just be mega-lame.

Buildings you can go inside of and walk around through are structures inside an MMO that you are interacting with. Just by walking in the front door you are interacting and it opens up a depth of immersion that goes way beyond beautiful graphics.

I must still be very immature, because I still have a wonder and child-like excitement about being able to make a fort or hideout in Minecraft. Imagine if you couldn’t do that in Minecraft? Scary, huh? It’s really the same thing with MMOs and buildings you find littered across the landscape.

Going up to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and looking at it is pretty cool, then you start seeing it all the time. Maybe it stays cool every time you see it, maybe not. It’s the same effect that happens with people living near a beach. Some start to take the ocean for granted. Now what if you can go in that water, or in that building? The same thing could happen, but the ability to enter is another layer, world or level of involvement.

When Minecraft first hit the net, I was totally surprised by how popular it became. It’s a fun game. I was thinking about it under different conditions, though. One of the first thoughts that sprang to my mind was that it tapped into that part of MMOs that let you have housing or go inside of buildings and separated it out into it’s own game. And, given the fact that there’s a paltry amount of MMOs today that have buildings you can go inside of, I really didn’t see Minecraft being that popular of a game.

Part of me wants to be cynical and say that players aren’t understanding themselves, the way their brains work and that Minecraft is tapping into that and if they actively sought that out in MMOs, they could have it. But it goes way beyond that. That cynical side of me is being naive and cruel to explain some deeper elements of psychology and gameplay that I simply don’t understand.

I just really hope that MMOs start building worlds with buildings you can go inside of.