Tattered Page

In Zen of Design’s post about the Cryptic-Marvel team-up, Aaron and I had a nice debate on story in City of Heroes and whether Cryptic can do well with Marvel’s material. We’ve since moved the debate to our own blogs. Aaron has expressed some concern that Cryptic’s characters don’t have the depth, but read it for yourself. It’s good stuff- even if I disagree.

Aaron is right in one aspect. Although I believe Cryptic advanced the MMO storywriting skills by leaps and bounds, nobody’s going to mistake any MMO’s story for award-winning literature.

He just gives Marvel too much credit- and Cryptic too little.

Giving Too Much Credit

Aaron points out that many of Marvel’s characters have powers that reflect or contrast inner personality traits. Some of these are rather cliché (the “man as beast” issues) but others are rather noteworthy ( Nightcrawler hates himself for his sins, wishing he could disappear, which he does (he teleports)).

Problem: Few of these metaphors originated with the character.

There were a great many issues of the X-men before Nightcrawler’s religious views became apparent… or before Mystique stopped being a one-dimensional shape shifter. Rogue started out as a bad guy, and evolved quite a bit before the empathic “iconic” rogue characteristics arose.

Long-running comic titles are the collective work of a great many authors- often dramatically redefining the characters as creative vision dictates. Some hit a chord so well that they become iconic- as untouchable as Superman’s S- while others are mutable and will change again a few years from now when some new plot device is needed.

Movies-from-comics can benefit by refining that “essential” character from the tales (Wolverine in X-Men, Spider Man) or are overburdened by the rich, yet inconsistent tapestry that’s been woven by so many hands (Electra, Daredevil, Punisher).

When Wolverine first appeared in the Hulk comic- or even later in the X-men, he wasn’t much more than a short canuck with claws and an ability to take a beating. Over the decades, he’s been torn down and built back up, physically and mentally, for all of us to see. That’s given us the illusion of depth- and through the experience, has allowed Marvel to distill his essence on film. It only took the lion’s share of 2 feature-length movies.

More than once, a development team has tried to distinguish itself through dramatic turns (Wolverine’s memory block/implants/more blocks/recovery, Angel/Death/Archangel, etc). Some are successful, some aren’t.

Colossus’s invulnerability often contrasted Shadowcat’s intangibility in a way that made their frequently on-again-off-again relationship something rather iconic for each of them. Now, we have them consummating their relationship in one comic, where in the “Unlimited” series, Colossus is GAY?!?!

Which will become the “iconic” Collossus, and which will enter the dustbin of dead-ends?

Marvel’s success comes over time, after the creative efforts of many people, and despite some very, very, bad missteps. It comes from trying out the good, discarding the bad, and having enough good sense to keep most of what the fans calls iconic. Sometimes, they disregard even that.

Cryptic doesn’t have that luxury. They’ve got to be BETTER than that.

Giving Cryptic Its Due

Cryptic has profiles of the “legendary” hero and villain groups on their website. They don’t tell much- they offer a chronological history of the characters devoid of inner feelings or motivations. This is largely what Aaron bases his concerns on, and if this WAS the story, he’d be dead right.

Those profiles fill you- the player - in on the publicly-known history of the heroes and villains. You don’t need to read them- you’ll learn much the same in your first dozen levels in City of Heroes.

Once you’ve established your expectations and think you know the world, the story begins…. because in many ways, your assumptions are dead wrong.

To be honest, the “iconic” heroes never seemed to get much attention (YOU are the hero of the story). The villains- your adversaries- THEY come alive. In Cty of Villains, the “Patron” system does well to make the villain patrons come alive.

The villains’ stories aren’t divulged at once- they’re meted out over the course of multi-mission story arcs. A clue in one might lead to a discovery in one direction, three levels later, another story arc reveals another piece of the puzzle. The backgrounds are rarely beaten into you- and rarely told complete. It’s all very episodic- like a comic book, and it frequently takes plot twists that change your entire outlook on a villain- again, like a comic book.

Many characters evolve beyond that initial profile to become something more… something where their powers help define them by reflecting something inward or contrasting against some personal characteristic.

Something maybe Aaron would appreciate.

The Downside

The biggest issue I have with the stories are that they’re so easily missed. Try taking the time to read the latest installment in your storyline when you’re in an 8-man pickup group. Try piecing together the story when you’re skipping between a half-dozen multipart missions.

I love the tales- don’t get me wrong- and I like the “cutscenes” they added for flavor, but it can be so easy to miss. At the end, I get the summary- but not the clues that pieced together or the character comments that inspired them… and those are worth experiencing.

Odd Tangent: Destructible Environments

Aaron mentioned destructible environments… something that’s tough to do on an MMO (tracking all that destruction across hundreds of accounts) Perhaps he’s seen the mayhem & safeguard missions (tracking the destruction across- at most- 8 players). If not, find a trial account and I’ll guide ya through one.

Granted, they’re new, and not fully destructible, but they’re a promising sign.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 1:33 am and is filed under City of Heroes / Villains, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.