My Buddy The Protector: Why Companions Are A Good Thing

I've only had my cute Dwarf Protector for a day, and I'm already head over heels about him. I should have snapped some screenshots with him yesterday, but I was completely wrapped up in the moment with my little guy. He's just the way I like my men: short, burly and furry…

Hmmm… anyway, I had a point to this post…. Oh, yes, the funness of the companion soldier in Lord of the Rings Online! After reading a few more interesting tidbits about Skirmishes over at A Casual Stroll To Mordor (all of which made me fall more in love with the new mechanic), one of the snippets stood out more than the rest:

Should I be able to see/summon my soldier near my house?
Yes, you can! In fact, you should be able to summon them almost anywhere in a housing area, but apparently not inside homes. However, there is apparently a range immediately around homes that you cannot summon them at either. (Any clarity on this from readers would be helpful!) You should also find two NPC’s in the housing areas that will allow you to swap traits and appearances.

So I can now summon my companion while I'm in my housing community, which is kind of neat all in all. I'm not the biggest role player in MMOs. I find I just don't have the time for it, but I do concoct back stories for my characters and like to have a running narrative for my toons so that if I ever do find myself in a role playing situation I am prepared. However, the ability to summon your Soldier while in your neighborhood adds another flavor altogether to role playing, allowing those of us that might enjoy the occasional RP trip to come up with stories and tales to be told with the aid of our new AI controlled buddy.

Right now, I envision my character and his Soldier as testing each others mettle, seeing how each performs on the field of battle before opening up to stronger connections. In time, they'll be BFF's, inseparable on the field of battle.

You know, with all the controversy today over the idea of companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic (see Keen, Syp, Syncaine, Ravious), I have to say that the nay-sayers simply haven't experienced what it is companions can bring to the table and really aren't opening their minds to the possibilities. Like I elaborated about above, there are some definite "fluff" applications to them, and no matter how much the supposed hard core rails on fluff, it is an important part of some players connections to the game world.

But more importantly, there are the non-fluff implications of companions. Accessibility is key to the success of any MMO that wants to aim for mass market, or even more-than-niche market, success. Accessibility does not in itself mean entirely soloable. I think we are all cognizant of the fact that any MMO that is entirely soloable will not survive a monthly subscription fee. By Accessibility I mean that players can play the way they choose to play and not be punished. If I have three friends that I want to play game with, the idea of companions could open us up to be able to choose the classes we want to play, not the classes that are needed. What if we all three want to play a ranged DPS class? Our companions could help fill the tank and healer slots if we wanted, or we could get other players to do it. Those are the practical implications of companions, and those are the kinds of things that will bring real innovation to the genre and get people in game.

These pets (which is essentially what they are) will not destroy the idea of groups in games. AI controlled toons will never be able to replace the quick thought, reaction ability, and camaraderie of other live players. But they can give more people the ability to access more content, which will lead to more people in game, which will lead to more people being able to potentially group with you, which will make more people happy overall than arbitrarily gating content based on archaic notions of what the industry should be.

It's completely fine if you want to play a game that forces you to group for every single interaction and punishes you for not having the optimal group composition. Final Fantasy XI would be happy to take your money if that's what you really, really want. But I suspect it isn't. I suspect players want more choices and more options, not less, and I suspect that if companions in SW: TOR act anything like the AI controlled friends we can use in LOTRO (or WoW, or EQ2, or WAR or any number of other titles that have pet classes already…) that players will appreciate the mechanic overall and they will likely become a more and more regular occurrence in future titles.