Great Games for Roleplayers, part 2

-- World of Warcraft. This is an excellent introduction to MMORPGs, and RPGs in general, but it shouldn't be taken to be, in its current form, anything more than that. The game does nothing exceptionally, nor does it introduce anything new (or even a new take on an old idea) or bring any new ideas to the MMORPG table, but it does take the already-existing concepts (crafting, questing, killing creatures, etc.) and polish them and simplify them to make them immensely accessible. For someone unused to the MMORPG genre, WoW is an excellent and mostly uncomplicated way to "get into" the genre without feeling overwhelmed. Rephrased: if you're overwhelmed by anything in WoW, you're not really going to find fun in the MMORPG genre. Where WoW fails is exactly the same thing that makes it such a great intro-RPG: it's oversimplified everything, which ruins the "world" for most players with a long history of offline RPGs and other MMORPGs. Crafting in WoW, for example, allows zero customization, which means that each and every item you build will be exactly the same as the equal item being built by the other three million people building one. That isn't a good system -- but it is a good system to introduce the idea of crafting to someone who isn't familiar with it. This is also where Blizzard could focus a bit of work: improve crafting, introduce customization to the crafting process, let people tinker and twist their creations to produce things that are truly "made by X", and you'll greatly improve the game (for those who've played other MMORPGs). Fleshing out the NPCs in the world, so that they have more to say than just the required dialogue of "I'm a seller" or "here's your quest", would go far to creating a deep, believable gameworld. There is one area that WoW is utterly schizophrenic: the game level 1-59 is very casual friendly. It's endgame, which is a term that basically encompasses "what one can do at the max level", is exactly the opposite: a RAID-specific (getting very large numbers of players together to attack something together) focus is most of the endgame, coupled with running only a few instances together (again, requiring large groups of players). It would go far for Blizzard to stop relying on instances and RAIDs and start developing an endgame philosophy that is something new -- something more roleplaying, something deeper and more involving than repetitive killing.
-- Guild Wars. There's little positive to say for Guild Wars, from the perspective of roleplaying. The game is almost entirely instanced, meaning that, once you leave the cities where all players exist together, you're by yourself or with only those who are "grouped" with you. So, in the whole wilderness, there is no "massively multiplayer" -- you're it, roaming an empty world devoid of other players and therefore the interaction of the MM part of MMORPG. Basically, the game really is built for those who don't want to have to think much or do much, who want to just dive into the Arena and fight other players (PvP). It's so far in that direction that you even get to "auto-level" to the max level while fighting in the Arena -- thereby eliminating the value of the RPG in MMORPG, since you don't have to develop anything or put any effort into building a character. It's auto-levelled, go kill -- that's the philosophy. If you enjoyed Diablo2, for instance, you'll probably enjoy GuildWars. If you enjoyed Morrowind or real RPGs, you'll hate GuildWars. If you're looking to play a role, build a character, interact with thousands of other players during your travels -- look elsewhere.

More later.