A couple weeks ago, I wrote that I had
fallen off the wagon and started playing Pokémon again. That's still true -- I've trained up a Scizor, revamped my wifi
team and taken part in a tournament since then (which I lost,
regrettably). I've put a moratorium on breeding anything new until the
new Black & White games hit later this year, but that doesn't mean
that I'm out of battling by any means. I've got Shoddy Battle to tide me
over.
My time with Pokémon has been a refreshing reminder of how
much I enjoy competitive battling; not because of the adorable
creatures, but because of the skill and knowledge required to build a
team. Honestly, there aren't a lot of games out there like it.
Competitive RPGs take a few different forms. The newer variant is Defense of the Ancients, which is characterized by picking from a pool of characters and leveling it up over the course of a single round. Conversely, more traditional MMORPGs tend to focus on loot and skiill trees, while tactical RPGs like Fire Emblem emphasize team building. Each sub-type offers a very different competitive experience, but a high degree of customization is a common thread that runs through all of them.
The core problem facing all competitive RPG designers is the need to
incorporate that customization into the competitive gameplay without
sacrificing balance. As an illustration of the unique challenges faced
here, let's compare Street
Fighter to the average RPG, which have a lot more in common than
you might think. Both are heavily stat and skill driven, but in very
different ways. Ryu's movement is determined by a hidden speed stat, and
his hadouken likewise has a power stat and the special ability
to knock down opponents at close range. The best players aren't
necessarily conscious of these stats, but over time they will develop
enough of an intuitive feel for the game to take advantage of any
opening they might encounter. That's the same problem facing many competitive RPGs -- they aren't
exactly pick-up-and-play experiences along the lines of Modern
Warfare 2 (which, interestingly enough, has become something of a
competitive RPG itself). The closest is probably DOTA and its spinoffs,
where characters are chosen from a pool and level up over the course of a
single match. The rest demand hours of preparation, which requires a
certain amount of dedication. Originally published on 1UP.com.
Now pretend Ryu is a character in
an RPG rather than Street Fighter (yes, I know about Namco
x Capcom). The addition of a skill tree and gear means that there
can be any number of variations on Ryu, from offensive to defensive. Now
multiply that across all of the other characters and you'll have an
idea of the number of variables at work here.
What happens is
that characters end up being categorized by their individual strengths
and weaknesses, which defines their role in a given party. It's a
concept that should be familiar to anyone with experience playing an
RPG, but it takes on increased significance within the framework of a
competitive RPG. Rather than trying to balance individual characters,
the designers need to balance the roles while simultaneously ensuring
that no individual character is too dominant in their particular niche.
That's
not always easy, of course. As one example, the Pokémon Garchomp was so
good at its job as an attacker that it ended up being banned by some
competitive battling communities. Its strength and speed was such that
two counters had to be present at all times, and even then that wasn't
always enough. Players were so concerned with stopping Garchomp that
team building options became rather limited, which arguably made the
game less interesting than before. After it was banished to the "uber"
tier, teams became somewhat more diverse, and everyone breathed more
easily.
What makes Pokémon particularly unique is its peculiar
way of handling stats. Every Pokemon has a certain statistical ceiling,
but most never approach it thanks to a hidden stat called "IVs." It's
what makes one Pikachu weaker than another, even if they are the same
level, and is meant to add in a little variety. It's not an issue in the
battle simulators, where everything is standardized, but it can have a
measurable impact in the actual game. It's possible to obtain those
stats via breeding, but it's incredibly time-consuming, which inevitably
turns off a lot of would-be battlers. The barrier of entry is just too
high.
That's basically what drew me into
Pokémon in the first place. Half the fun is mulling over the different
combinations of characters and moves, trying to build a team that takes
advantage of their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. There's a
certain amount of strategic decision making and prediction involved in
the fights themselves, but victory is impossible without a solid set of
characters at your disposal.
Ultimately, it's the planning that
goes into each character that sets RPGs apart from other multiplayer
games. They're more difficult to design, but their sheer depth will
ensure a healthy fanbase for a long time to come.
