Storyboard: All the way live

Once again, I have managed to very effectively shoot my plans in the foot. Last week I promised that I'd be doing my year-in-review post this week, only to find on closer examination that I had missed a week in my column numbering over the past year, which means that I'm still one week shy to be doing a year in review, and while I could still write it up on the pretense of "close enough"... well, that's kind of a cop-out, right? Better to do that at the right time.

This is all well and good, but it does mean that my original plans for this week's column are pretty well blown to pieces. So instead, I'm going to spotlight two live events that have been going down in two of my games of choice -- the Praetorian Invasion in City of Heroes, and the heralds of doom popping up hither and yon in Final Fantasy XIV. They're interesting to look at from the perspective of roleplaying, since both of them support and stymie roleplaying in different ways, and they're useful case studies for live events in general.

The end is nigh

Final Fantasy XIV's event doesn't have a particular name or even a great deal of ceremony associated with it. In fact, it was easy to miss it starting altogether, because all that heralded it was rain. This might not seem like much, but in a game where weather is almost uniformly predictable, the fact that it was suddenly raining all the time was notable. And it was slow, and steady, and the sort of thing that you notice in small bursts over regular play sessions.

Then drops started happening -- drops that would normally be crystals, ubiquitous items for crafting, that were... depleted. Drained of their energy altogether. Again, it was a subtle thing, the sort of stuff that gets people talking even if they aren't normally roleplayers. You may or may not come across any depleted crystals, but finding one is always something to surprise you.

Finally, I got lucky (or unlucky) to run smack-dab into a prophet of doom. A friend and I were just coming back from taking care of some levequests together when we found ourselves facing a hooded figure who shouted some warning prophecies, tossed some powerful buffs all around, and then teleported away without even acknowledging anyone. This was full-fledged RP chaos, with players of all types speaking up. Some people were shouting that the man was a rabble-rousing maniac, some were telling others to be quiet so that he could speak, and one was trying to organize an impromptu arrest party.

Presumably, there are going to be a few more installments in the event, as it's leading up to the game's next big update in June. As it stands, I've not seen anything more beyond the doomsayers, but that doesn't mean it's not out there...

What works: Subtlety is underrated. All of the parts of this event have worked so far because there's no one screaming "go to spot X to take part in the event." Verisimilitude is intact, and until you've noticed things happening for a while, it's not entirely clear that anything is going on. That makes sudden changes -- like the appearance of hooded men prophesying doom -- immediately visible and cool. It's a great chance for players to enjoy the setting and take on whatever roles they want in the chaos -- do you think doom is coming? Are you calm and collected? Nervous? Or just tired of all the rain?

What doesn't: Unfortunately, all of this subtlety builds a wonderful mood but makes the even screamingly easy to miss altogether. I lucked into what I've seen, but at this point players could be logging on every day and missing big chunks of what's happening. And it's pretty frustrating to know there's an event taking place, just over the horizon, when you aren't able to take part in it.

The sky is falling

Praetoria has been a big focus in City of Heroes of late, and so it makes sense that the game would make an all-out invasion a focal event for the anniversary. Players were warned about it ahead of time, and I know that at least one of my characters was primed for it. (I'd long wanted for her to get her hands on some Praetorian robotic tech, and this was a perfect excuse.) So when the time came, I made sure to be on the server early and ready to go for the event.

GMs took the role of warning systems in Paragon City that night, alerting players to which zones were experiencing issues and where the incursions were taking place. And it was a perfect chance for players of any stripe to take part in the defense. The invasions were spread across a wide region, with several signature characters invading and fighting against players.

In true superheroic fashion, this was a big old brawl for all the marbles. Players were left to dart all over the place in a pitched defense of the city (or the islands, in the case of villains). Remember when I talked about roleplaying in the thick of it? That was what needed to happen right here. As the defenders rallied in one place, ambushes came screaming in from other locations, fights against towering robots and paragons of superheroic power. (There were also some pretty big technical issues with the event, but I'll cover that on Wednesday.) If you liked the old-school crossovers, the big ones that had everyone in a company's heroic stable fighting a seemingly endless stream of mooks, you had a night full of double-sized event issues.

What works: Leaving aside the technical issues, I think this was the sort of event that felt appropriately big. Things were happening, and there was no ignoring any of it. Rather than asking you to stand around talking about what you liked or thought, the game was forcing you to act, and that meant that you had to show what you felt by your actions. Were you going to stand and fight against a force that could easily kill you, or were you going to hide somewhere safe until the worst had passed?

What doesn't: OK, those technical issues are kind of a big problem. Add those issues to the fact that the event for each server runs precisely once, and you wind up with a really chaotic environment that goes beyond "roleplay in active situations" and into "roleplaying with a room full of people shouting at the same time." Trying to actually portray anything your character was undergoing was an exercise in frustration. You couldn't miss it, but there were times when it would have been better if you missed a bit more.

Extreme scale

I don't think this particular column lends itself to an easy conclusion so much as to loose observations. Both events were essentially polar opposites of one another -- one subtle and small, one obvious and huge. Neither one is ideal for roleplaying, but they both provide interesting opportunities regardless.

Next week, really, anniversary stuff. Until then, mail your comments to eliot@massively.com or leave them in the comment field below.

Every Friday, Eliot Lefebvre fills a column up with excellent advice on investing money, writing award-winning novels, and being elected to public office. Then he removes all of that, and you're left with Storyboard, which focuses on roleplaying in MMOs. It won't help you get elected, but it will help you pretend you did.