I'd like to expound a brilliant and thought-provoking essay about the nature of change, and how a re-spec is like a metamorphosis for a character, with potential characterization like a cocoon to emerge from. Maybe some other time, I remain hopeful.
Instead, one particular quote caught me off-guard. I don't even think I heard it in context. The caffeine rattling my veins made it a little difficult to focus on any particular thing for very long.
The quote was, "Class is a name."
Speaking as nerds, "class" means a concept for a character build. Fighter. Rogue. Paladin. Evil Paladin. Etc.
The basepoint of my argument against class systems is, "what if I want to be a sneaky wizard? What am I then?" Most games wouldn't allow a wizard to do anything remotely sneaky without multi-classing, let alone do it well. To that end, what's a sneaky wizard?
We didn't come up with any creative names, but another gem came up. A class name is the build concept in one word.
Let's talk MMORPGs for a bit. Specifically, WoW, that great sinking ship which inspired all others. The game has... something like over 10 classes by now. Warrior, rogue, mage, warlock, paladin, priest, blah blah blah. Each one has unique points to it, and favor certain play-styles. But, courtesy of the gaming community, there's really only three classes:
- Tank
- DPS
- Healer
At the end of it all, those are the available classes. Because WoW is such a combat-heavy game, there's no other gameplay that needs attention. Because of this, you are a tanker, nuker, or healer. I chose the kiwi-flavored one.
Looking at them as presented, the classes all have very different presentations. In a better game, these facades would carry over uniquely, giving each of them a truly different play-style and necessity.
Having angered every WoW player on this blog, I'm reminded of Guild Wars. It had six classes to choose from, but two slots to do this in. The character creation was meticulous, and the carry-overs gave so much definition to your play-style.
- Warrior/Monk: Unstoppable self-healing guy
- Necromancer/Mesmer: Deathly Trickster
- Elementalist/Ranger: Long-distance blaster... with a cool pet.
In a dungeon delve, it didn't matter who you had. As long as you had the basics covered (a healer. Good lord, bring a healer), you could run in with whatever pants you had on at the time. As long as the team could figure out the dynamic created by their interplay, the sky's the limit.
Between 10 classes, 3 specs of gameplay for each, and having a secondary class, there's 900 very distinct combinations of player.
God, I miss playing that game.
~
What's in a name? My studies indicate everything. Your class, or archetype, or trope, or what have you, is the glove you wear to interact with the world. It defines your options, and gives all participants a very detailed picture of your character.
To that end, the Escapade Engine character sheet is going to have a space- right next to the character's name- for the class they're playing as.
- Thief
- Paladin
- Archer
- Alchemist
- Tank Driver
- Taxi Driver
- Drifter
- Survivalist
- Tinkerer
- Scout
- Time Traveler
- Mad Scientist
- Mad Hobo Scientist
- Professional Human
- The list stretches on into infinity...
No comments:
Post a Comment