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Rank Whoring Hello everyone! My name is Erica J. Marceau and I am the resident Game Expert of the Mac OS Journal's staff. Many of you might not know who I am so I'll take this opportunity to introduce myself. I used to work at the MacGamer's Ledge as a reviewer and now I am a Contributing Editor here at the Mac OS Journal and write reviews and this column. When I'm not playing or thinking about games, I attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and will be graduating this December with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. My other hobbies include watching animé and reading manga, learning how to program and make web sites, and traveling in the lands of Puddleby in Clan Lord as Jeanne. Every month I'll cover a different topic, from interviews with important people in the gaming industry to ideas for the perfect game, and everything in between. No matter what topic chosen, I hope that you enjoy my column and that my own thoughts on games stimulates thoughts and ideas of your own. And if there is a topic of the Mac gaming industry that you'd like me to talk about, please email me at: erica@macosjournal.com or use this feedback form.
This month will focus on a term that I first heard playing Clan Lord: Rank Whore. I can imagine the shock on some of your faces but after thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that understanding this term will help us understand the appeal of Diablo II [Editor's Note: See Erica's review of Diablo II in the September issue] and highlight some of the potential problems in multiplayer games.
Ok... What is It? A Rank Whore is a person who focuses on getting to the next level, learning a new ability, or making an existing skill stronger. While Rank Whores might care greatly about the game's plot and story, once they begin playing they are usually focused on gaining ranks. A Rank Whore puts gaining levels and points above even finishing a game which is quite different from the ordinary gamer. As a Rank Whore myself, I can remember spending hours in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VII just going into battles over and over again just to get to the next level, getting a more powerful magic spell, or to earn more money. I didn't need to spend the time leveling up and could have beaten the games quite easily at an earlier level. Why did I do it? What was the appeal of spending hours fighting the same monsters over and over again? I'll attempt to answer this by relating the appeal of Rank Whoring with Diablo II. Let me first say that Diablo II has a great plot with interesting characters that could fuel a ton of fan stories and fan art for quite some time. In fact, an online buddy and I theorized that Blizzard would do well in going back and making another game set in the world of Diablo. Not the same type of game as Diablo but using the mythology and places that are in the map in the manual. However, there is no choice in the quests undertaken or how we interact with the townspeople. Furthermore, all of the quests basically involve going to a certain place, killing all of the creatures there, defeating a boss (Super Unique Monster in official terms), and sometimes getting an item. Based on this, can you say that us Diablo II fans are just in love with mindless clicking or is there something deeper? The answer is Rank Whoring. Diablo II is the perfect game for Rank Whores because there are enough items and statistics to keep us happy for a very long time. How do these make us happy? By providing us with goals to keep aiming for. As an example, my sorceress is level 30 and just beat Diablo II with an online buddy. I have a number of goals for her including getting 40 more strength so she can wear the Silks of the Victor without equipment giving her the strength necessary, getting the Telekinesis and Teleport skills so she can get Energy Shield, finding a good belt with a bonus to life and resistances, finding Culwen's Point to give me another +1 to all skills, getting strong enough to kill Andariel without dying (like I did last time), and adventuring with my online buddy. As long as there are goals, ranks, and new skills to earn, I will be playing Diablo II and The Chaos Sanctuary at battle.net will remain my home page. Playing Diablo II with friends is better because the monsters give you more experience points and bosses give twice the reward. However, this doesn't detract from the main purposes of gaining ranks and finding items. The game doesn't change aside from playing alone. Yet people want to play with other people instead of computer-controlled enemies that only seem to win through sheer numbers and/or overpowering the players. The response to this need is the introduction of Online Multiplayer games and particularly Online Multiplayer Role-Playing games. The most popular happens to be Clan Lord from Delta Tao of which I am a proud member. The main problem I see with Clan Lord is that it doesn't satisfy Rank Whores or even those with Rank Whorish tendencies.
What Makes a Good RPG -- What Makes a Good Rank Whore Game? One of the great features of Online Multiplayer Role-Playing games is that they can last forever. New quests can always be added either by the creator of the game or by the participants (that's you and me) by how they interact with the game. Since it's a role-playing game, you have items to find, skills to train in, townsfolk to talk to, new places to explore, quests to create and solve, clans to join and much more. On paper Clan Lord is a great game until I realized that it is anti-Rank Whore. I say this because Delta Tao has made it difficult to gain experience and thus ranks easily. The only way to gain significant amounts of experience is by hunting. When you get to a certain level, hunting has a diminishing rate of return so that you gain more ranks by leaving your character in the library when you don't play. While it is possible to gain many ranks, it takes many months of playing. I understand Delta Tao's reasoning for doing this. They want you to play as long as possible so they make it take a long time to get powerful. Unfortunately, Delta Tao doesn't provide good quality items either. You can dye your clothes in a variety of ways, 5 different weapons, a shield, different colored belts, a sunstone (to communicate over long distances), and some other miscellaneous items. It is possible to buy everything that you need and find that you are gradually accumulating coins in the bank that can't buy anything worthwhile. Lastly, while there are quests to solve many people believe that there aren't enough clues to actually solve them. Delta Tao has told us that we might be able to solve some of the quests but hasn't given us any other information. Because no one can figure out the cause of certain events, they are going unsolved. You might be wondering why I'd even bother playing Clan Lord since it doesn't sound very fun. This isn't true at all! Clan Lord just lacks appeal for Rank Whores, and satisfies those of us who want to communicate with other people. Instead of mindlessly going around killing monsters for experience, Clan Lord emphasizes talking to people and getting along with people in order to accomplish goals that you couldn't succeed at if you tried it by yourself. I have met a lot of great people there and have had a lot of great experiences. My Light & Shadow clan has done many activities and I foresee us growing in the future. The only bad thing is there isn't enough for us Rank Whores and I think that this is a problem with online role-playing games.
Comparing and Contrasting
So on one side you have Diablo II which is a pure Rank Whoring game, with an emphasis on experience points, skills, and items but with little attention paid to playing with other people. On the other side, you have Clan Lord with an emphasis on working with other people, exploring the game, and contributing to the game world through your actions. What I would like to see is a game that is the combination of both of these games. Diablo II was going to approach this idea when it was going to allow clans to buy a clan house. It would act much as a town would among other benefits. Unfortunately it was removed in order to release the game sooner with the promise that it might be added later. I imagine an online game with the kind of social interaction and game interaction that Clan Lord has combined with the Rank Whoring aspects of Diablo II. A game where hunting for ranks isn't frowned upon and where there are enough quests to keep you busy for quite some time. Delta Tao wants Clan Lord to be this kind of game. The only question is if it's possible to have a Diablo II/Clan Lord hybrid. What do you think? Email me and let me know your thoughts.
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