Neutron Night
Banned
Many of you are anticipating the upcoming MMORPG, World of Warcraft (hereby referred to as "WoW"). Some of you clearly think that this game can compete with another upcoming MMORPG, Dark and Light (hereby referred to as "DnL"}. In the following article, I will show why this belief is wrong. NOTE: This is an objective, balanced, unbiased article.
Comparison 1: Description
The first element of comparison must be: what are the two games trying to achieve? What ambitions do they have? What audience are they seeking? What, precisely, is the type of game the developers seek to create?
WoW : This game is "different" from other MMOs, according to Blizzard's website, because they seek a different, more mainstream audience. An audience that desires gameplay that won't take up too much time. This, in fact, is good for Blizzard. It allows them to charge a full monthly fee but most of their audience won't take up too much bandwidth. Clearly, the "casual" MMO player is very good for a company, it's understandable that they would prefer it over the more demanding players who want more for less.
WoW is a "quest-based" game. "Quest-based" is a polite term for "single player". I allows players to experience the thrill of performing tasks for NPCs, that are exactly like the tasks that everyone else performed for that same NPC. Clearly, this is different from a single-player RPG in the sense that it has added features, like internet lag. As soon as you solve the problem of NPC X, he helpfully reverts to his previous state so the next player can do exactly the same thing. This is good in that it prevents people from being confused by such things as multiplayer interaction. This is less desireable for those who wish to play an actual MMORPG.
WoW has a brilliant new feature know as "instancing". This nice new element allows players to escape from the bad people that might actually interact with them, allowing them to avoid unwanted massively multiplayer online roleplaying. Of course, you can play through "instanced" dungeons in a billion games without paying a monthly fee, but Blizzard would rather not talk about that. The party size is limited to 5 people, to prevent you from suffering math-related injuries.
WoW has multiple servers, err, "Realms". This prevents the world from becoming overcrowded, which of course is a problem when the universe is as small as in WoW. After all, Blizzard wouldn't want their core audience to complain when their computer can't handle 6 people on screen. Besides, it's much more fun this way. Who would want to be king of the entire world, when you can be king of Server 32, instead? Nothing is more fun than being on Sever 24 when you wish you were on Server 17. Having a limited number of people to deal with means you don't have to think about the implications of having an actual massively multiplayer game. Just as the ancient Catholic Church wasn't ready for the Earth revolving around the Sun, casual gamers aren't ready for an actual MMORPG.
WoW will include player housing...."as soon as possible after the game launches". Maybe you'll get it sometime in 2005. It's nice to know Blizzard has their priorities straight.
Although Blizzard is apparently trying valiantly to make the world as seamless as possible, it seems they're not quite up to the task. There will be at least SOME load time. As you will learn below, this is different from it's competitor.
PvP in WoW is done in a "fun" and "consensual" way. Translation: It's "fun" if your character sucks. If you actually want to kill someone, you're screwed. You'll only be attacking people who have signed a waiver allowing you to attack them. Kinda drains the intensity of combat, doesn't it?
As far as transportation goes...Blizzard's neo-fascist conservative stance on this is clear. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.
There, straight from the horse's as...mouth. Want control of your own destiny? Sorry pal, not the game for you.
What about that other game?
DnL : This is a game from people who seek to create the ultimate MMORPG. They are not an established company with a fanbase to worry about who complain about the orcs being this color, or whine that the Tauren shouldn't be able to ride a Gryphon or whatever. You see, this game is everything an MMORPG is supposed to be. Remember that "M" at the beginning of that acronym? Other "MMORPG"s ignore this. DnL is the first game that does not. This intent of this game is to give the players what they want. What they've always wanted.
DnL is "massively muliplayer" game. The social and political dynamics of this games gameplay systems are staggering. The political system works like this: There are 10 kingdoms in the game (PLUS the 2 starting kingdoms), each kindgom has 5 duchies, each duchy has 7 counties, each county has 9 baronies, and each barony has an indeterminate number of fortresses, possibly 13. A given fortress can have a Lord who has military control of it and holds it for his respective alignment. This Lord controls local food supplies, mining, local structures, etc. When your alignment gains control of enough fortresses in Barony X, you gain control of that barony and elect a Baron, who has political control over that region - he can set tax rates, etc. This increases up through counties, duchies, and kingdoms. The alignment control changes as people attack fortresses, cities, etc. This is all 100% player-driven, by the way - no shitty NPCs holding your hand. Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
DnL does NOT have a shitty feature know as "instancing". You see, this is a MMORPG. A game with a PERSISTANT world. Where everybody exists at the same time. You're fighting in one area at the same time some other guy is fighting 200 miles (literally) away. You can't seperate yourself from the rest of the world, because that is stupid and annoying. No siree Bob, other players are always around. This is a phenomenon I like to call "reality". Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
DnL has one server. Everyone plays in the same world. No theoretical upper limit. This is good, because the world is so fucking massive. There's that word again, the one that doesn't apply to WoW. If you and your friend Mary Sue Gertrude Thornton Jr. both start playing the game, you can be assured you're in the same world. Because everyone is. When you reach the position of Prince of Kingdom V, you know that you're the ONLY one who holds that position. There are no bizarre alternate universes where wierd versions of you, carry out their business. It is ONE persistant, massive, online world. Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
As for player housing...DnL has got it all. Apartments in established cities, manually buildable housing...you can even look outside your windom seamlessly. No "We'll do it tomorrow!" bullshit here.
DnL's world is seamless. Let's think about that for a minute. Seamless. As in, you go 100 miles without loading. You fly 2 miles up (more on this later) and you can see an area below you bigger than virtually an other entire MMORPG world. This is not at a cost to variety, as you will see in the screens below.
DnL is built on PvP. There is, of course, plenty of PvE. There are, also, plenty of rules governing PvP, such as the intervention of the various gods. This still scares some people, because they would rather whack Bush Bat 20,000 times. These people are safe to ignore. If you want the true essence of multiplayer, both cooperation and competiton, fellowship and war, DnL is the choice. Intelligent people realize that PvP is key to the replay value of an MMORPG. Without it, eventually you run into a wall. This has become apparent in virtually all existing games. This wall does not exist in DnL, with it's incredibly intricate conquest system that allows competion between the alignments of Dark and Light on both a small and large scale, integrating them in an ingenious way. This has flown over the heads of Blizzard.
Transportation? Hoo boy. In DnL you can ride dragons, hot-air balloons, hang gliders, parachutes, trolleys, shield sleds, and according to the devs any suitably large land creature will be ridable. And you can go anywhere. No limits. Wanna cruise low over the city? Soar to the stratosphere and look below at the entire kingdom? You can do it. And if you disbelieve, this is exactly what is going on in the E3 video, at www.darkandlight.com. You can actually see other people's balloons and such far in the distance. The LOD engine is simply incredible. But there it is on screen. No patronizing NPC "point to point" shit here. That's reserved for WoW players.
Comparison 2: Screen Shots
First, WoW:
Blizzard's amazing art design and detailed interiors in action.
A shot of the amazing water engine. What is that, pavement?
The poly count is staggering. But they used a purple tree, which must mean the art is good.
You didn't think I was going to include this shot, did you? Very nice...if you ignore the HUGE WALL OF FOG in the background. The hand is helpfully pointing to it.
Whoa, nice dynamic 3D snow. Certainly not just a flat texture...
I don't remember asking Santa Claus for fucking annoying purple fog everywhere...
Advanced grass generation at work.
Anyway, enough of that.
See kids, this is what happens when Mr. Fog takes a day off.
Nice detail, considered everything MUST have been randomly generated.
Hmmm, so THAT'S what grass looks like.
See that trail in the background? You can go there.
Warning: Not available in WoW.
And so the comparison is made. Based on exhaustive studies, I have concluded that DnL is the better game.
Comparison 1: Description
The first element of comparison must be: what are the two games trying to achieve? What ambitions do they have? What audience are they seeking? What, precisely, is the type of game the developers seek to create?
WoW : This game is "different" from other MMOs, according to Blizzard's website, because they seek a different, more mainstream audience. An audience that desires gameplay that won't take up too much time. This, in fact, is good for Blizzard. It allows them to charge a full monthly fee but most of their audience won't take up too much bandwidth. Clearly, the "casual" MMO player is very good for a company, it's understandable that they would prefer it over the more demanding players who want more for less.
WoW is a "quest-based" game. "Quest-based" is a polite term for "single player". I allows players to experience the thrill of performing tasks for NPCs, that are exactly like the tasks that everyone else performed for that same NPC. Clearly, this is different from a single-player RPG in the sense that it has added features, like internet lag. As soon as you solve the problem of NPC X, he helpfully reverts to his previous state so the next player can do exactly the same thing. This is good in that it prevents people from being confused by such things as multiplayer interaction. This is less desireable for those who wish to play an actual MMORPG.
WoW has a brilliant new feature know as "instancing". This nice new element allows players to escape from the bad people that might actually interact with them, allowing them to avoid unwanted massively multiplayer online roleplaying. Of course, you can play through "instanced" dungeons in a billion games without paying a monthly fee, but Blizzard would rather not talk about that. The party size is limited to 5 people, to prevent you from suffering math-related injuries.
WoW has multiple servers, err, "Realms". This prevents the world from becoming overcrowded, which of course is a problem when the universe is as small as in WoW. After all, Blizzard wouldn't want their core audience to complain when their computer can't handle 6 people on screen. Besides, it's much more fun this way. Who would want to be king of the entire world, when you can be king of Server 32, instead? Nothing is more fun than being on Sever 24 when you wish you were on Server 17. Having a limited number of people to deal with means you don't have to think about the implications of having an actual massively multiplayer game. Just as the ancient Catholic Church wasn't ready for the Earth revolving around the Sun, casual gamers aren't ready for an actual MMORPG.
WoW will include player housing...."as soon as possible after the game launches". Maybe you'll get it sometime in 2005. It's nice to know Blizzard has their priorities straight.
Although Blizzard is apparently trying valiantly to make the world as seamless as possible, it seems they're not quite up to the task. There will be at least SOME load time. As you will learn below, this is different from it's competitor.
PvP in WoW is done in a "fun" and "consensual" way. Translation: It's "fun" if your character sucks. If you actually want to kill someone, you're screwed. You'll only be attacking people who have signed a waiver allowing you to attack them. Kinda drains the intensity of combat, doesn't it?
As far as transportation goes...Blizzard's neo-fascist conservative stance on this is clear. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.
There, straight from the horse's as...mouth. Want control of your own destiny? Sorry pal, not the game for you.
What about that other game?
DnL : This is a game from people who seek to create the ultimate MMORPG. They are not an established company with a fanbase to worry about who complain about the orcs being this color, or whine that the Tauren shouldn't be able to ride a Gryphon or whatever. You see, this game is everything an MMORPG is supposed to be. Remember that "M" at the beginning of that acronym? Other "MMORPG"s ignore this. DnL is the first game that does not. This intent of this game is to give the players what they want. What they've always wanted.
DnL is "massively muliplayer" game. The social and political dynamics of this games gameplay systems are staggering. The political system works like this: There are 10 kingdoms in the game (PLUS the 2 starting kingdoms), each kindgom has 5 duchies, each duchy has 7 counties, each county has 9 baronies, and each barony has an indeterminate number of fortresses, possibly 13. A given fortress can have a Lord who has military control of it and holds it for his respective alignment. This Lord controls local food supplies, mining, local structures, etc. When your alignment gains control of enough fortresses in Barony X, you gain control of that barony and elect a Baron, who has political control over that region - he can set tax rates, etc. This increases up through counties, duchies, and kingdoms. The alignment control changes as people attack fortresses, cities, etc. This is all 100% player-driven, by the way - no shitty NPCs holding your hand. Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
DnL does NOT have a shitty feature know as "instancing". You see, this is a MMORPG. A game with a PERSISTANT world. Where everybody exists at the same time. You're fighting in one area at the same time some other guy is fighting 200 miles (literally) away. You can't seperate yourself from the rest of the world, because that is stupid and annoying. No siree Bob, other players are always around. This is a phenomenon I like to call "reality". Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
DnL has one server. Everyone plays in the same world. No theoretical upper limit. This is good, because the world is so fucking massive. There's that word again, the one that doesn't apply to WoW. If you and your friend Mary Sue Gertrude Thornton Jr. both start playing the game, you can be assured you're in the same world. Because everyone is. When you reach the position of Prince of Kingdom V, you know that you're the ONLY one who holds that position. There are no bizarre alternate universes where wierd versions of you, carry out their business. It is ONE persistant, massive, online world. Because that's the way it's supposed to be.
As for player housing...DnL has got it all. Apartments in established cities, manually buildable housing...you can even look outside your windom seamlessly. No "We'll do it tomorrow!" bullshit here.
DnL's world is seamless. Let's think about that for a minute. Seamless. As in, you go 100 miles without loading. You fly 2 miles up (more on this later) and you can see an area below you bigger than virtually an other entire MMORPG world. This is not at a cost to variety, as you will see in the screens below.
DnL is built on PvP. There is, of course, plenty of PvE. There are, also, plenty of rules governing PvP, such as the intervention of the various gods. This still scares some people, because they would rather whack Bush Bat 20,000 times. These people are safe to ignore. If you want the true essence of multiplayer, both cooperation and competiton, fellowship and war, DnL is the choice. Intelligent people realize that PvP is key to the replay value of an MMORPG. Without it, eventually you run into a wall. This has become apparent in virtually all existing games. This wall does not exist in DnL, with it's incredibly intricate conquest system that allows competion between the alignments of Dark and Light on both a small and large scale, integrating them in an ingenious way. This has flown over the heads of Blizzard.
Transportation? Hoo boy. In DnL you can ride dragons, hot-air balloons, hang gliders, parachutes, trolleys, shield sleds, and according to the devs any suitably large land creature will be ridable. And you can go anywhere. No limits. Wanna cruise low over the city? Soar to the stratosphere and look below at the entire kingdom? You can do it. And if you disbelieve, this is exactly what is going on in the E3 video, at www.darkandlight.com. You can actually see other people's balloons and such far in the distance. The LOD engine is simply incredible. But there it is on screen. No patronizing NPC "point to point" shit here. That's reserved for WoW players.
Comparison 2: Screen Shots
First, WoW:
Blizzard's amazing art design and detailed interiors in action.
A shot of the amazing water engine. What is that, pavement?
The poly count is staggering. But they used a purple tree, which must mean the art is good.
You didn't think I was going to include this shot, did you? Very nice...if you ignore the HUGE WALL OF FOG in the background. The hand is helpfully pointing to it.
Whoa, nice dynamic 3D snow. Certainly not just a flat texture...
I don't remember asking Santa Claus for fucking annoying purple fog everywhere...
Advanced grass generation at work.
Anyway, enough of that.
See kids, this is what happens when Mr. Fog takes a day off.
Nice detail, considered everything MUST have been randomly generated.
Hmmm, so THAT'S what grass looks like.
See that trail in the background? You can go there.
Warning: Not available in WoW.
And so the comparison is made. Based on exhaustive studies, I have concluded that DnL is the better game.
