Practicum 2- Alex Girard

As I continue to play DC Universe Online, I'm starting to think that I mistakenly picked the least-popular commercial MMORPG that I could've chosen. Obviously, I didn't expect the massive amounts of players that one might see in the hulking behemoth of the genre, World of Warcraft, but I figured that there would be enough people around the cities that I'd find some people to play with.

So far that's not been the case.


This is a pretty typical scene in the Gotham City Police Department. This is supposed to be a pretty high-traffic area, as every player who started in Gotham will have this as their "hub" for getting missions, selling gear they don't want, checking their mail, and getting to other parts of the world (notably, Metropolis).

I do see people in the police station, but it's never more than three or four at a time, and if they're there they're usually trying to get out and go to the next mission. The way that this game has taken a more console/action-game approach to combat and missions compared to other MMORPGs kind of facilitates and promotes solo-play and de-emphasizes the role of social interaction for the sake of social interaction. The lack of any player-crafted goods (that I've seen so far) also kind of limits the interaction between players.

I decided to recruit the help of a high school friend who was also playing the game, just so I could get a little team-based gameplay to discuss for the practicum project. Unfortuntely, despite starting in the same place and following essentially the same line of missions, we ended up having no missions in common, and it probably only would've served to slow us down if we teamed up.

The Gotham Police Department has a teleporter in it, which I took to a giant space station called "The Watchtower." The Watchtower links Gotham to Metropolis, and has things like a bank to store things you find. I actually ended up seeing a few more players here...


... but for the most part, they were just standing around near the NPC (Non-player character) vendors or simply running from point-to-point to complete a quest to explore "The Watchtower." I then took a trip over to Metropolis to check out how things were going on the other side.


It's definitely a lot nicer than Gotham. For one thing, the sun actually shines in Metropolis, compared to Gotham where it's constantly night time. Metropolis is also designed more like a futuristic... well, metropolis, compared to a grimy caricature of New York like Gotham. The police officers in Metropolis even look like robots. Or something.

Lordly Caliber is getting stronger. Generally in MMORPGs, the emphasis on group play increases the higher you get in level. I'm almost level 10, where characters get a second power "loadout" specifically for group support situations, so I'm hoping soon I'll be actually playing with other people, instead of just playing alongside them.