The Daily Grind: Are you obsessed with jumping?

I suspect that if you polled players about their biggest Guild Wars pet peeves, the lack of a jump ability would be toward the top. The game world just isn't built with a Z-axis. Even if you could jump, there'd be nowhere to go. ArenaNet has been quick to assure fans that the sequel will in fact have jumping. Jumping! You'd think there were no other important mechanics, like crafting or travel or guilds! Besides, if you build your world for jumping, you also build your world for falling... like off of City of Heroes' tall buildings or those obnoxious Kelethin tree platforms in EverQuest (seriously, learn2railings, Wood Elves!).

Still we crave our spacebar jumping, so much that we demand it even in 2-D sidescrolling crafting sandboxes like Glitch (where jumping neither decreases aggro nor makes you harder to target in PvP, sadly). Are you one of those obsessed with jumping in MMOs, and if so, why? Is it a nervous twitch? A way to immerse yourself in the gameworld? Do you jump for attention? Or is jumping merely shorthand for an interactive three-axis world?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Reader Comments (52)

Yes I basically bounded my way through LOTRO the first time, trying to get to new heights. I also tend to run in circles ceaselessly.

Yes, jumping is a pretty important feature for me. Almost nothing is more annoying than being stopped by a small ledge or fence I would have been able to easily jump over in most other MMOs.

@Faryon This. I am not a "jumper", but when every small fence is a hindrance, it just annoyes me.

@Faryon

Indeed, back in my FFXI days having my hulking Galka Monk get hung up on a small rock or ledge drove me batty. Especially when I spent months hunting Morbolger in Ordelle's Caves for my Brown Belt. The caves were several levels and the stairs weren't proper ramps so you were constantly jiggling your character left and right to wiggle up those damn stairs.

@Faryon

If I can't jump or fall off of something, I can't play it.

It's a crazy fascination gamers tend to have with jumping. There isn't a game I've played where I don't keep jumping on or off a mount. Not to mention trying to get the hard-to-reach places on a mountain. That's when my space bar dies.

Sometimes I jump to get some more energy or fluidity into my movement, not hopping as such, for example sometimes I might jump into combat rather than run over, I might jump to clear a low fence or wall rather than run around it, I might even jump as a quick way to show excitement or greet an unknown player who happens to be looking at me (or at least I think they are.)

I don't really consider myself a bunny hopper though, I don't push the space bar constantly because I think it gives me some kind of advantage.

@FrostPaw
The addition of fluidity/energy is why I do it, too, and finding interesting ways to leap into combat was one of my favorite things to do in WoW.

Yes. I know that for some people it's a non-issue, or even an annoyance, but movement is a huge thing for me in games and the more options I have for it the better.

Yes, and this was one of the many things I loved about Asheron's Call. That game actually had a Jump skill you could level up. With it, you could sail over buildings, while other more land based characters could do nothing more than watch you with envy.

I find it's something a lot of people (me included) constantly jump because, subconsciously, they need to keep busy somehow, no matter how stupid the activity, while playing a game. I mean, why hold a controller or touch a keyboard if you're not going to press any buttons right? I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all. It's just a funny little tick some of us have lol.

Also, god help the developer that doesn't put jumping into their game because I will lose my mind. Guild Wars barely gets a pass and that's because I love that game so much. I still find myself trying to jump constantly though.

I say if Eve can put in jumping, anyone can. "But Eve doesn't have jumping..." Really? Think about it then feel free to facepalm at my stupid joke lol

At the end of the day jumping is about immersion in the game world. You've built this 3D world, you have to allow people to move on the Z axis!

@Bhima
Immersion? On a daily basis, how many people do you run into who jumps around randomly?

@fastcart
Depends how much sugar they've had.

@Thremma

not really. I know plenty of fat and obese people who eat sugar ALL day long and they never jump once.

@fastcart
It's immersive because my character responds to what I want them to do. If I want to jump or get up onto a rock or something and my character is rooted to the ground, it reminds me quickly that I'm playing a video game.

My favorite part of City of Heroes, and one of the main reasons that even though I don't play it a lot, I have kept a subscription to it for years, is that I love the super jump skill. Sure, you can fly and teleport all around their world, but I love super jumping all over the place. Making a huge jump, and then in mid air timing it so that you land on a good spot to keep that momentum going (avoiding hitting things above you, or jumping into the side of the building) is like a mini-game all of its own.

@(Unverified)

In DCUO I prefer Acrobatics over Flying or Superspeed basically because of the grappling line; horizontal grappling movement speed is the fastest an acrobat can move, but it takes skill, and some amount of planning, to effectively use it to move along - something I find much more enjoyable than the point-and-forget nature of supersonic flight or the limited complexity of superspeed.

Double jumping is a nice bonus, though :)

I'm a jumper. I love leaping enthusiastically wherever I go in MMOs.

It's probably pretty annoying.

In the game I'm playing now, Zentia, you can do double or triple jumps, which have special animations but they have to be timed right.

So everywhere I go you can see me hopping and occasionally somersaulting through the air.

Any video game with a character you move should be fun to move. I think that was an important ingredient in the recipe that WOW introduced to MMOs that led to it's success. Games feel wonky when the player avatar is all disconnected from the world and looks like they're walking at a different rate than they're moving. This is a very basic aspect of game psychology many people are unaware on the surface of how important it is, when forced to actually focus on it, it seems insignificant to what they'd think was important.

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The Daily Grind: Are you obsessed with jumping?

Reader Comments (52)

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:09AM Stanimir said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:13AM Faryon said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 10:11AM Elikal said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 11:40AM GryphonStalker said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 7:01PM xBludx said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:14AM behlulm said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:14AM FrostPaw said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:17AM Irem said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:16AM Irem said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:44AM Wispur said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:50AM Baby Choo Choo said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:53AM Bhima said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 9:23AM fastcart said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 9:37AM Thremma said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 9:52AM real65rcncom said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 10:02AM Irem said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 8:55AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 10:14AM DarkWalker said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 9:02AM Pingles said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 9:12AM Halfcentaur said

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