It is often said in an MMORPG: Defeat the dark boss. But a role-playing game can tell much more interesting stories. Perhaps we will get one with the Blackwood expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, at least that is what MeinMMO author Andreas Bertits hopes.
Role-playing games are a genre where many exciting stories can be told. The developers are free to let their imagination run wild and write creative quests. But often, in the end, only the fight against the evil boss remains, which is often the case in MMORPGs.
The dark Lich King must be defeated in World of Warcraft, you want to give the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings Online a hard time, and in every expansion of the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, a new villain awaits for you to defeat him at the end.
It’s always the same stories that are told. A new, evil power emerges, and you know right from the start how it will end: The villain dies by our hands. This type of storytelling is simple and works, but it’s not particularly varied.
But it can also be different. You usually see this in single-player games. A pioneer here is the Ultima series, which has shaped my view of stories for RPGs.
- Even Ultima 4 from 1985 had no final boss. Instead, it was necessary to retrieve a book from a dungeon and master eight virtues, which made the hero a role model for the people of the fantasy land Britannia.
- In Ultima 6 from 1990, it initially seemed that one would have to defeat the dark Gargoyles and their leader, who started an invasion in Britannia. However, it turned out that they were only searching for a new home, and it was the hero’s task to bring both peoples together.
- In Ultima 7 from 1992, it was necessary to destroy a dimensional gateway before the evil Guardian could pass through. So, in essence, the game ended by avoiding the boss fight.
- And in Ultima 8 (1994), after being banished to another world, the goal was to find a way home. There was also no boss fight here.
I simply want to experience stories in MMORPGs that deviate from the norm, take brave new paths, and serve me something I haven’t experienced often.
Will ESO: Blackwood deliver a more unusual MMO story?
How could ESO: Blackwood help here? Not much is yet known about the story, but it is said to revolve around players finding and defusing some weapons of mass destruction in the world. Although there is an antagonist in Mehrunes Dagon, we do not destroy him.
Because Dagon also reappears later in the games of the Elder Scrolls series. The single-player titles are set hundreds of years after ESO. Dagon remains as a dark Daedric Prince.
At least there will not be a moment in the Blackwood expansion where we will annihilate him. However, that doesn’t mean there can’t be other boss opponents. Nevertheless, the story seems somewhat different than what we have known from ESO so far.
Andreas Bertits has been playing MMORPGs since 1997 and started in the genre with the classic Ultima Online. His love for the Ultima series also led him into the online world of Britannia.
Now he mainly spends his online time with The Elder Scrolls Online in Tamriel or adventures through the Forgotten Realms in Neverwinter. However, he tries almost every MMORPG that comes to market.
So, perhaps we can’t completely avoid bosses: Boss fights have become customary in MMORPGs. They are part of the regular gameplay. Because they represent a kind of goal. Players who have leveled their heroes for a long time can show how effectively they can fight against the boss.
Usually, these confrontations also offer special challenges in which players must employ specific tactics. This is fun and provides variety to the regular battles.
Moreover, there are often particularly valuable rewards that you can obtain as loot through boss fights. They are thus a game mechanic that MMORPG players expect. Therefore, there will certainly be one or another of these confrontations in ESO: Blackwood.
However, whether you really have to fight the one last boss fight is still unclear. Zenimax Online has not yet revealed enough about the story of Blackwood.
Nevertheless, the actual premise of the story, that the search for dangerous weapons is on and we need to defuse them, is interesting and refreshing. It has not been directly stated that the villain appears with a massive army that you need to stop, as was the case in ESO: Greymoor.
Therefore, I hope that with Blackwood I can experience a story that is simply different. One that does not present me with the super evil boss and where I know from the beginning that I have to fight against him and defeat him. Because we have simply had that too often in MMORPGs.
Of course, this boss mechanic still makes sense, but once in a while getting stories that deviate from that brings fresh air to an online game.
What do you think? Do you also want to experience stories in MMORPGs that do not revolve around the obligatory final battle against the boss? Or is that a game mechanic that simply belongs to you?
Do you want to know what the first real boss fight in an MMORPG was? We will tell you.
