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DC Universe Online General Article: Panel & Demo - Iconic Play
As part of MMORPG.com's continuing coverage of last week's Comic Con, Carolyn Koh reports on the DC Universe Online panel. Sony Online was showing off the 'Iconic Play' feature, a PvP player's dream. Check out Carolyn's impressions.
By Carolyn Koh on July 28, 2010
A new trailer was shown at Comic Con, revealing some of the back story for DC Universe Online. The future of Earth finds Lex Luthor, in his own words, a rat in the walls of Brainiac’s domination of the earth. He returns in time to warn Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman of the fate of the earth and releases the exogenic bots that he had stolen from Brainiac, into the world. Creating a whole new generation of super heroes, and those are you and I as we create our characters and enter the world of DC Universe Online. I was able to see and play the game as well as attend the panel and have some round table time with Jim Lee, Marv Wolfman of DC Universe as well as Wes Yanagi, Jens Anderson and Chris Cao of Sony Online Entertainment.
SoE also recently announced the actors behind some of the iconic voices in the game, with Mark Hamill reprising his role of the Joker, Kevin Conroy that of Batman and Adam Baldwin as Superman. Mark was on the DCUO panel at Comic Con and conveyed his pleasure at being asked to do the Joker again in DC Universe. “It’s fun to get behind the crazy car,” he told us, and using the Joker’s persona, to the delight of the crowd, he cackled, “A game named after me! DC Universe! DC! DC! Demented Clown.”
DC Universe Online was showing off their Iconic Play feature at Comic Con this year. This is pure PvP play where you take on the role of one of the icons and play against others in a PvP arena, using the powers and abilities which are based off what’s seen in the game in your earlier time with it. The arena shown was the bat cave which was a two on two match, with capture and defense of the bat computers being your goal.
“Part of the attraction is to play as iconic characters,” said Jim Lee. “This gives us the cake and allows us to eat it too.”
Like the other PvP battlegrounds, there are turrets to capture and activate, security drones to be released and pure beat them up combat between the iconic characters. I saw Batman, Nightwing, Harley Quinn and The Joker being played. “Just like you get a mentor character to learn from when you create your character, the idea behind the Iconics was for you to learn from the legends.” Senior Producer Wes Yanagi said as he showed me the gameplay. “The Iconics have the same powers that you see in game, and this is one way to learn more about your enemies in order to defeat them.”
“The Joker is a jack of all trades and a bunch of fun to play,” Wes continued as he showed me all the tricks he had up his sleeve. “You’ve got Crowbar Joker for close in melee and in his two-gun mode, he also has a jet pack.” Wes also popped Joker’s invulnerability skill by encasing himself in a gaily wrapped box, when he was being badly beaten up by Batman and Nightwing because he was talking to me. “Hold on,” he said. “I’m being beat up here. This skill is particularly useful. You can just sit in there and wait for your timers. Okay, here comes his goons.” And he sprang three goons to assist him in the fight.
“Iconic play is all about raw player skill,” said Creative Director Jens Anderson, “every player has the same power set in the characters they choose to play. But the game does support the way you want to play. Whether, it’s in groups, solo, getting right in the action or getting all the upgrades and skills and sitting back to nuke.”
Another feature of DC Universe Online is that the smaller characters that get an outing, characters seldom or never before seen in games. When pressed for details, Jim Lee smiled and told us, “You heard earlier that Ambush Bug is in the world, but how many of you have heard of Egg Fu?” To the clear lacking response, he grinned smugly, “Egg Fu is in the world.”
Marv Wolfman has been writing Superman stories for six decades, he is the man that invented the Teen Titans and is a gamer from way back, starting with arcade games. “Yes, I know about games,” he assured us, “even if I don’t know anything about how they are created.” His favorite console game is God of War, and he fought for a year to make sure that he was on the comic. About MMOs? He’s played most of them, including City of Heroes and his wife is Lead Producer for cinematics at Blizzard, so yes, he’s knowledgeable about them too.
Marv was brought in to flesh out the storyline, to write the mission stories. What’s special about DCUO, in his opinion, is the ability to play alongside your heroes. He is excited about the game as he wasn’t used to movement being so fluid in MMOs. “Movement is beautiful!” he enthused. “My God, it’s shocking!”
I asked how the game gave villains a fair shake since in the comic books, they were always the losers. Marv admitted to having some problems at first. “I finally got around it once I managed to wrap my brain around the real issue and thought of them not as heroes or villains, but as the Protagonist. What was their story?” he asked, “Their needs, their wants, their goals? Villains don’t see themselves as villains.”
Thus done, the stories are structured for the player missions and depending on player alignment they are assisting or hindering the protagonist so the mission could go either way.
“My job is to make it a DC-centric story and not just DC-centric but character specific. How that particular character would act and react. I’m given a scenario that’s set in a specific location, with a specific set of characters and with those specific characters in mind and how they would act and react, I create the story.”
Game launch is set for November 2nd and beta invites are going out at this time, with hundreds of them handed out at Comic Con. Players that pre-order the game will get the Batman Iconic and at launch, all players will get Robin and Harley. More characters will be added after launch and they will have to be unlocked through play. Jim also informed us that at game launch, a bi-weekly DCUO comic will also be published that will support the game world, but obviously, both game and comics will influence each other. “Get the game quick,” he laughed.“Wonder Woman’s costume hasn’t changed yet. Last chance to see Diana Prince in her old costume.”
It's as if they have their own "Iconic Drinking Game" and they score points by using the word "iconic" in press releases or feature names.
While I guess most of us wanted to take the role of an established character and make him/her our own it would never work....imagine how many 'real' Batman's there would be.....it nice to see they have actually given enough thought to make some conscession on this though and thats the great thing about this game...they really seem to have thought about putting the player in the DC Universe, about using the theme to justify your presence and involve you conceptually, this level of care is rather rare in MMO's of any flavour and gives me hope this will be a lot more fun than we might have expected...trying to resist signing for beta after previous experience but sooo tempted!
Are players really that interested in iconicism? Maybe its because I haven't been much of a comic buff in so long, but I don't see the appeal of all these batmen running around, PvPing against jokers, or otherwise.
can't wait to play as captain marvel in the 2vs2 arena!!! SHAAZAM!!!
Isn't it called Legends play?
Is it? They were calling it "Iconic" all weekend long. I've found though, that this happens more often than not. A game feature gets a "nickname" (for want of a better word) in house and then becomes something else when marketing gets their hands on it... and sometimes can be named something else altogether at launch!
Cheers,
Carolyn
Okay, here is the thing. Iconic or as webster puts it...
icon·ic (? kän′ik)
adjective
If this was in response to my joke, then I want to clarify my joke was not a bash on DCUO. It was more commentary on how SOE likes to use the work "iconic". One example would be the oft-repeated phrase "starwarsy and iconic". Really has nothing to do with anyone's age or the purpose/intent of the actual word. Just the fact that SOE really seems to like that particular word.
Otherwise, doesn't really seem to be much mudslinging in the thread. Well, not by mmorpg.com standards at least :)
Dude its totally. . . . Iconic.
I've bolded the section I don't understand. What does "based off what's seen in the game in your earlier time with it" mean?
Also, what relation does the "Iconic Play" have to character progression in DCUO?
Good grief... ok I guess I must memorize my Green Lantern oath then... how was it again...
Iconic play is a game feature separate from your character progression. However, the powers that the icons have are based on what you see them use in game. So playing Joker allows you to see how some of his powers work. The Devs were coy about saying whether you get to experience all their powers, so they said the powers are based on what you see them use in the game.
Find myself wondering if John Constantine is in the game. They like to keep his character seperate from the "superhero" types, but he has been in various "superhero" comics since the character was created.
What about Lobo?
As for the whole iconic talk, it chillingly reminds me of SWG's NGE hype. Which was an iconic piece of poo.
The minute SOE talking heads mention "iconic", it's over.
Man do I ever hear you. Anytime I see the word iconic in relation to video gaming I think SWG: NGE. That was their tag phrase they beat to death but this is an SOE product of an existing IP so it's expected, right?
The two words that make me want to toss handgrenades are "iconic" and "refreshing". Actually, I just want to nail the person in the head with a bar of Irish Spring soap with refreshing. Iconic, now that one gets the handgrenades.
SOE... me no touchy
Ditto
This.
This is going to be great. I can't wait to see it and play it!
I dont usually judge a game by its publishers previous failures but SoE's decision to offer EVERY major country preorder bonuses EXCEPT the UK will alienate a lot of people. Probably just the first of a number of poor marketting and/or gameplay decisions which may lead this game to failure. I for one wont play it just becuase of this - what were they thinking omitting a whole country like the UK from its bonus scheme - maybe they just dont need the revenue?
Game will mostly be copyrighted toons kill stealing. That's how they really got all their gold and gear.
@leaving out the UK on preorders? wtf!
I don't normally mess with SOE too much as their style has been high-handed (to say the least) in the past, but I am seriously thinking about playing this one.
My only conerns are the depth of content and that the current descriptions of gameplay elements lead me to believe that the game may actually be "full-time open world PvP", which is of no interest to me.
It's SoE, so it's going to fail anyway.
I definitely don't "trust" $oE, but then I'm old enough and I dare say wise enough not to tust ANY company, corporations are by their most basic nature -evil- soulless devouring things, all you can do is wait and see how it turns out, and try the trial (there better be a free trial). Never trust anyone, or thing, trust is a deeply precious thing that must be earned, never just given.
Long as it can be added to station acess ill give it a shot.Trailer was nice.just hopeing comp animation were better than what i sen on consoles .
Batman first appeared in Detective Comics 27, and Superman appeared in Action Comics 1.
Cryptic has nothing to do with this game. They made Champions Online and City of Heroes/Villians.
I believe they mentioned Legends play as an arena type situation. I don't get the impression this will be all-out pvp, but I could be wrong.
I will be trying the game for a trial a couple of months after launch. I just don't have much faith on any newly released MMOs these days. I don't care what company is developing the IP.
I caught your humor in it and was thinking the same thing myself while reading it. In regards to the game though I like this idea as long as it's relegated to a pvp lobby type of situation and they don't have people running around the game world as Batman etc.. I'm getting kind of amped for this game especially with it being on ps3 also which is where I'll most likely play anything like that.
I also heard in the new vid, there will be shapeshifting! Like Beast Boy into Animals and like Martian Manhunter into people.
How cool is that!? :D
Sounds cool to me, its more like a mini game with-in the MMO,letting people full fill there fantasy(s). personally I cant wait to make a GL corp. character, lol i remember running around as a kid with my GL ring :). And i cant wait to fight along side OR against DCs best :) villian or hero. around 3 more months left we will see, hell cant be any worse than CO.
I will gladly pay a sub if I can morph my character into John Smedley and then place it in the PvP area 24 hours a day 7 days a week for players to beat the shit out of it.
It is SoE, so I'm not touching that game.
I'm a lot more interested in playing my character than any DC ones.
I am almost positive that there will be different servers. There will PVE servers and PVP servers. The PVE servers will have pvp arenas if you decide you would like to participate. but you are not required to play in them for progression.
As far as depth of content. I don't think anyone will know until we can actually play the game, and then it will still be subjective to the individuals playing. For some it might be enough for others not so much.
If you go to DCUO's website under media. There a quite a few videos with the dev's discussing the game and answering questions from facebook posters.
I want to make my own character...i don't want to play an iconic character...
So do I. But a chance to play around with Green lantern and other iconic super heros sounds like fun IE take a break from the regular ol game it self, PvP PvE and IPvIP :) just another opitonal thing.
If I play as the Joker, do I get to use Data's booty trap hand? If not , it's not iconic enough SOE.
Dear Carolyn Koh, you said, "Marv Wolfman has been writing Superman stories for six decades," But he has actually been writing them for 4 decades. He is 64 years old, not 80+. I apologize for nitpicking.
As am I. But look at it this way... Playing a stealth/melee style character? Play as Nightwing or Batman in the Legends PvP thing and see how the powerset turns out. Considering a tank? Play as Superman or Wonder Woman and see if you like it. Wanna try a blaster? Play as Green Lantern and see if it suits you. Think of it as a testing ground for abilities and character concepts, as well as a bit of a break from the character progression while you're waiting for your friends to get online/catch up. Or, if you REALLY don't want to play as one of the "Iconic" characters... Don't. That simple. I'll be using Power Girl and Nightwing because I like them as characters, but I'll also have a main who'll be differant to both.
Exactly.some nice points on "testing Power sets/bucket of powers"