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24 Hours In The Matrix

Posted by Zonk on from the jackburn dept.

Both E! Online and Gamespy have looks at the most recently launched Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying game, The Matrix Online. From the Gamespy article: "Since the close of the beta, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that it has employed a troupe of 20-odd people whose job it will be to enact narrative scenarios in The Matrix Online live. These people will assume the roles of popular characters, interact with players, and generally move the stories in ways that only live "actors" can."

5 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. How Cool? by Dubpal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While it's a nice idea, 20 actors over a massive environment containing thousands of players seems to be spreading it a little thin. For the average user, are these actors going to have any real impact on a player's experience? Seems to me if the game gets anywhere as popular as other MMORPGs, you're going to have little chance of interacting with an actor.

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  2. Great, but.. by cluke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is great and all, but the problem is that in games like this, everybody is determined to exist *outside* the game. People aren't playing against the game, they are playing against the rules - as if the designers have set them a challenge of how to defeat the system. This renders all role-play bogus. It is all the worse in MMORPGs like this (as opposed to single player RPGs), where peer pressure ensures that highest level = the winner.
    I mean, let's not kid ourselves, for all this fancy talk, we know that this game is all about whomping mobs and collection phat loot, whilst "omfg wtf lolling" with strangers. A few role-playing actors aren't going to fix that.

    1. Re:Great, but.. by LordZardoz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your right.

      But a few role playing actors does imply a consistent supply of Live Content / Game Events. This will permit those intrested do live quests and have some direction / goal to their gamplay, rather then playing "Click the 3D Monster to Death".

      END COMMUNICATION

  3. Re:Actors don't work by Quarters · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The process of distributing TV and radio is call broadcasting because a small amount of data can simultaneously be distributed to a large viewer/listener group. Your "minute of interaction a week" conclusion is flawed in that it depends on each in-game actor only interacting with, and being seen by, one player at a time. This, obviously, won't be the case. At the worst the # of actors will generate "about a minute of interaction a week". The greater the parallelism with the player base achieved, the more interaction time / week generated.

  4. Re:Tough choice by nacturation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    E! Online and Gamespy... hard to say which company's game reviewing I respect most...
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