Neverwinter | Superior Realities

Recently, I talked about how the announcement of an expansion for Guild Wars 2 has me tempted to give the game another go. But there’s another game I enjoyed in the past and am considering a return to, with a new update coming down the pipe to sweeten the deal.

That game is Neverwinter, but in this case, things are a bit more complicated than they are with GW2 and Heart of Thorns.

As regular readers know, Neverwinter is a game I find very fun — with great combat and the best ranger class in the industry — but I feel terribly directionless in it. Once you’re at endgame, there’s not much to aim for that doesn’t involve massive grinding or a significant outlay of cash. This even throws a damper on my normally obsessive need to level alts, because once they get to endgame, what am I going to do with them?

As with Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter is also a game that lacks “stickiness.” There’s not a lot that compels me to keep logging in. For example, usually a good story is the best way to do that for me, but while the Foundry scratches my story itch in Neverwinter, the fact that Foundry missions are all standalone means there’s no hook to keep me coming back for more.

I may not be motivated by the traditional gear grind or similar systems, but I remain fairly goal-oriented as a gamer, and Neverwinter and Guild Wars 2 are both games that failed to provide me with goals I find compelling. But while GW2 has a big sexy expansion to call me back, Neverwinter has a harder road to travel.

But first, let’s back up a bit. You see, I’ve already made a return to Neverwinter not too long ago, and it didn’t take very well. I meant to cover on this blog before then, but I became distracted by other things — which is really a beautiful metaphor for my relationship with Neverwinter in general.

Abortive alts:

A few months back, Neverwinter released its seventh class, the scourge warlock. As I’ve said in the past, a new class is always a good way to get my attention, and I’m fairly fond of the dark arts, so I decided it was time to return to the world of Neverwinter.

I was out of character slots, but I had spent enough time in Neverwinter in the past that I didn’t mind dropping a little extra money for more slots. As it turns out, character slots are surprisingly cheap, and they’d recently begun a program rewarding people who spend on the game with a unique companion, an additional character slot beyond what I paid for, and various other perks — a rare act of generosity for Cryptic. So that was a good experience all around.

I played the warlock (a Tiefling because I apparently lack all creativity) until around level fifteen. I enjoyed it, though it was not quite as fun as my ranger or my warlock in World of Warcraft. But hey, I can rip out people’s souls and enslave them. That’s always fun.

It also interested me that warlocks have the potential to be a healer class akin to atonement priests in WoW or assault rifle healers in The Secret World — that is, they heal through damaging enemies. I haven’t looked into how viable this build is, but it intrigued me greatly, and my tentative plan was to play the warlock as a healer.

I was curious about healing in Neverwinter in general — I had never healed in an action combat game before — and I now had character slots to burn, so I decided to also give a devoted cleric a whirl, making her a Half-Elf.

Again, I enjoyed it. It’s a little tedious to solo with, but not as bad as I expected, and being a healer in Neverwinter turns out to be incredibly fun.

It’s not at all like healing in other MMOs. You’re not a mindless slave to health bars. You’re more of a Swiss army knife, a utility class trying to fulfill whatever need your party has. Sometimes that means pouring heals onto a wounded player, sometimes that means maintaining debuffs to support your party, and sometimes that means going full out on damage if no one needs healing. It’s very versatile.

If more games were like this, I wouldn’t mind the trinity system so much.

Again, I made it to about level fifteen. I wasn’t sure where to go from there, though, since soloing isn’t the most enjoyable option as a cleric, and group content seems to be a very poor way to level in Neverwinter.

While tinkering with my warlock and cleric, I also spent some more time with my max level ranger. They had undergone a major overhaul since last I played, and I was worried they might not be as fun, but if anything it was more frenetic and powerful than ever.

I love that class so much.

But yet it wasn’t long before I once again left Neverwinter behind. This wasn’t a conscious decision; nothing made me ragequit. I just lost the motivation to keep logging in.

And that brings us to the now.

Elemental Evil:

Neverwinter has recently announced their next major content patch, Elemental Evil, and that’s got me thinking about the game again. Once again, I’m tempted to give it another go.

There’s another new class in this one, the oathbound paladin. Not a lot of info about the class is available right now, but judging by its giant shield in the preview, I’m guessing it’ll be a tanking class.

I’m not the biggest paladin fan in the world, but it’s an archetype I sometimes enjoy, and tanking in an action combat environment is something else I’d like to try. So that holds a certain appeal.

There were also reports that Elemental Evil would include the stronghold system, a form of player housing, but now I’m hearing that might be pushed back until later. It’s also unclear whether this is a guild hall system or whether there will be personal player housing as well.

If the former, I don’t care at all. If the latter, it might be worth a try. After playing WildStar, I have begun to see the potential in player housing, but it tends to be pretty uninteresting in most games, and knowing Cryptic, it will probably require many real money purchases, massive grinding, or both in order to get anything from the system.

On the downside, Elemental Evil will also bring a level cap increase and a gear reset. My gear isn’t exactly top of the line, but it’s pretty good, and it took a fair bit of effort to acquire. Invalidating all that effort and making me start over from scratch doesn’t exactly endear me to the game.

Conclusion:

Unlike with Guild Wars 2 and Heart of Thorns, I don’t rate my odds of returning to Neverwinter terribly highly. I’m not ruling it out, certainly, but the chances aren’t great at this point. Even if I do, I’ll probably just level a paladin to fifteen and then lose interest again.

And that saddens me a bit. It’s very strange. Neverwinter is a very fun game I have almost no desire to play. I almost feel the problem lies more with me than with the game. I just can’t seem to find a goal or a hook to keep me coming back. If someone has some suggestions, I wouldn’t mind hearing them.

Again, it might help if I had some friends who played and I could adventure with them, but I don’t, and I’m not a particularly outgoing person, so I don’t see myself seeking someone out just to play Neverwinter with them.

So the impasse remains. I am eternally tempted to give Neverwinter another go, but I can never quite get myself fully engrossed in the game. It’s rather vexing.

* * *

By the way, if you’re wondering why every single one of my Neverwinter characters is female, it’s because I find the male character models in that game just don’t look right — some weird uncanny valley thing that creeps me out. The females have it too, but not as badly. That game’s graphics are odd in general.

Well, that plus all the reasons I usually roll female characters. But this is the only game where I exclusively play women.

We all have our online aliases and secret identities. In my sci-fi forum days, most knew me as ensign edwards. These days, I use my real name for most things, but in the gaming world, I still have my alter egos, and there is one that stands above all others: Maigraith.

The story of Maigraith begins several years ago in Elwynn Forest. It was very early in my World of Warcraft career, and while I’d settled on a mage as my main for the time being, I was still trying a lot of different classes. I’d seen my father playing a rogue, and it looked fun, so I decided to make one of my own.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to stick with the character, but I wanted to see Elwynn and Stormwind, so I made her a human, figuring even if I didn’t like the class I’d at least explore some interesting areas of the game.

I gave her black hair in a ponytail, figuring that she needed a hairstyle that wouldn’t obscure her vision while she cut people up. I settled on one of the few human female faces that seemed appropriate for a killer: hard and tough-seeming, with brown eyes that looked almost red.

Finally, I named her Maigraith, after a character from Ian Irvine’s Three Worlds Cycle. All my character names in games are obscure nerdy references, usually from fantasy novels, and I especially favour the Three Worlds books. Partly because I love them, and partly because they’re not super mainstream, and therefore the names are almost never taken by other players. Legolas is never available, but Maigraith always is.

As for why I settled on Maigraith herself, I’m not sure. She was one of my favourite characters, but definitely not my all time favourite, even if I’m limiting myself just to the female cast members. For instance, I liked Ulii much more.

As it turned out, I liked being a rogue. I liked it quite a bit. Little did I know it then, but I would go on to spend more time playing little Maigraith than any other video game avatar before or since. She’s never quite been my focus — she always seems to fall by the wayside — but she’s the one character I never get bored of. My original main, the mage, has been collecting dust since Cataclysm, but Maigraith endures.

And that endurance has rippled out across my gaming life.

In virtually every game I’ve played, I’ve had at least one significant female avatar. Often, it’s the character I play the most. And nearly all of them have been modeled after that most venerable of Stormwind assassins: tough-looking, dark-haired women with practical hairstyles and unusual eyes.

They’re not all exactly the same. Some have white hair instead of dark hair. Not all of them are named Maigraith. But virtually every one of my female avatars has some of the DNA of the original Maigraith. The only major exception I can think of is my Shepard in Mass Effect, who was modeled after Nova Terra from the StarCraft games.

So now I’m commanding a small army of Maigraiths and Maigraith-alikes. My rogue in WoW is still kicking around. Then there’s my warlock in the same game. My thief and mesmer in Guild Wars 2. My Templar in The Secret World. My hero in DC Universe Online. My ranger and gunslinger in Aion. My archer in Rift. My oracle in Dragon’s Prophet. My agent in Star Wars: The Old Republic. My ranger, rogue, wizard, and cleric in Neverwinter. My spellslinger in WildStar. My archer in TERA. My Castithan in Defiance.

And I’m sure I’m forgetting some. That’s not even touching on single-player titles!

I’m not really sure why I started on this. I think originally I just used the name Maigraith a lot because, again, cool reference and rarely taken, and eventually it made sense to me to also copy her appearance in some way.

Plus, it’s a look I like. I’ve already spent a fair bit of time musing on why I play female characters so often, but I think a lot of it just boils down to the fact I like to play agile character archetypes, and in most games, it’s a lot easier to achieve an appropriately lithe yet athletic look with a female than a male, who tend to be roided meat mountains.

I like the tough look because these are fighters and warriors, and it makes sense for them to exude a quiet strength and determination. I give them unusual eyes to hint that they are a bit different from or superior to ordinary humans — many are literally not human. In general, I design them with the idea that they are practical, capable individuals and try to make their appearances reflect that.

And to be honest, most of it just boils down to a sense of tradition. I’m very fond of patterns and habits, so once I started cloning the original Maigraith, I kept at it largely out of inertia and a fondness for the sense of history behind my self-created archetype.

I suppose some might find it odd I spend so much of my free time pretending to be a dark-haired woman with a large sword… but if I ever reach the point where that’s the weirdest thing about me, I’ll count myself lucky.

But I am comfortable with Maigraith as my face in the gaming world. She’s nothing like me, and that’s speaks well in her favour.