Publisher: Kalisto
Style: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
Players: N/A
Developer: Kalisto
Status: Preserved/Unknown
Platform: PC
Cancellation Date: 2001-2002
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9C5rLrss08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHSSYpLlM90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5IO_VT-jBI&feature=related
There Can Be Only One in MMORPG market. Before World of Warcraft this ambitious game wanted to make other MMO'S give a run for their money. Sad as it is it's Publisher and Developer declared Bankruptcy. Game was cancelled in Pre-Production stages.
Key Features:
EPIC STORYTELLING
Highlander: The Gathering offers each player a unique experience : to be the hero of his story. Like the main protagonist of a Hollywood movie, the player’s avatar will choose a lofty goal and try to acquire the means to reach it while overcoming the obstacles he will meet on the way. The more he will progress, the more difficult his task will be and the fiercer the opposition. He will have to make tough choices that will change him and prepare him for his final challenge.
Most massively multiplayer games fail in the storytelling department because they can’t allow players to mess with their finely crafted stories. Highlander: The Gathering places the player at the heart of the story. It is his story that drives the game forward.
Furthermore, a great care has been taken to present the avatar’s actions in a heroic and cinematic fashion. Interactions are staged in a high poly-count world with dedicated animations, camera direction and special effects. The locations in which the storytelling takes place have the same high level of visual quality that can be found in dueling arenas.
The storytelling system governing the evolution of an avatar’s story and the choices offered to its player is based on extensive research in the field of storytelling, be it academic papers and publications or the study of story-generating tools: scriptwriting and directing techniques, paper role-playing and storytelling games, computer assisted writing tools, etc.
A PASSION PLAY
In Highlander: The Gathering, an avatar is a creature of passions. He is not just the sum of his characteristics. He possesses moral values that define him as a Champion, a character who is willing to make great sacrifices to uphold what he believes in, or a Warrior, someone who will go to any length to reach his chosen goal. The Champion and Warrior categories encompass a number of more precise archetypes toward which the player’s avatar can tend: the Lone Wolf, the Casanova, the Samurai, the Avenger, etc.
Throughout history, such archetypes have been used to tell the most famous tales. In Highlander: The Gathering, the player can embody one of these archetypes. Archetypes are not similar to the character classes that can be found in role playing game. They reflect the way the player plays the game and offer him different options according to the values he upholds. For instance, only two honorable avatars will be able to make a blood pledge between them and only a courageous one will not fear vastly superior opposition.
A COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME WITH A STRONG LINK TO THE COMBAT SYSTEM
Just like the combat system, the storytelling system is similar in its game design to a collectible card game. Playing the CCG meta-game in the community is an integral part of playing Highlander: The Gathering. Players can build decks that fit their archetype and their goals, acquire new cards by accomplishing great deeds or by making deals with other players.
The story cards are "story building blocks” in a story construction set. They are used to further plots, affect other characters’ actions – to either help them or impede their progress – or modify the conditions of upcoming duels. The storytelling and the combat card games are strongly linked: Story cards affect the duels and allow the players to win new combat cards and most stories culminate in a climactic duel.
EASY TO LEARN, HARD TO MASTER
In Highlander: The Gathering, telling a good story only requires common sense. If you follow your character’s inclination – being true to the archetype you’ve chosen – and the system’s hints, you’ll live a challenging and rewarding experience… provided no other player takes your head, and with it your Quickening !
Telling a great story is another matter. The highest goals are the more difficult to reach. They require perfect planning, "deckbuilding” proficiency (i.e. the careful planning of one’s actions and choice of options), diplomatic skills and the willingness to put your character through trials and hardships. Not everybody can become The Only One.
Overview
AN ECONOMY OF FATE
Highlander: The Gathering uses fate points as the basis for its economy. Gold is not a currency fit for heroes but Fate definitely is. Fate points represent the control over an avatar’s story given to its player. Fate points are used to buy story cards, trigger events, bid during conflicts, etc. A player wins Fate points when he completes a plot, most of the time by defeating an opponent (PC or NPC) in a duel.
Cards and actions costs in fate points vary according to supply and demand in order to prevent dominant strategies and encourage the exploration of new strategies. This cost is also linked to the appropriateness of the player’s choice considering the story he tries to tell and the archetype he wants to embody. For instance, a noble warrior can make a pact more easily than a merciless bounty hunter who, in return, expends less effort when looking for a prey.
The following schema shows how Fate and cards are used in the game.
Story cards can modify an avatar (for instance, a "training” card can improve fighting statistics), the world in which the avatar evolve (the character can acquire rare objects, establish relationships with NPC, etc.), the community (forge alliances, declare enmities, etc.) or the conditions of a duel (place, time, stake, etc.)
The four domains of storytelling, avatar management, world modification and community building all lead to resolution found in duels, which, in turn, open new stories.
COMMUNITY & GAME
Highlander: The Gathering treats relations between player characters exactly as the other story objects. They are created through the use of cards and the expenditure of fate points and can be affected by game events. This means that, for instance, the establishment of a friendship relationship between two players is a resources consuming engagement and that it confers a real advantage in the game. In this example, friends can be called for help when danger threatens and they can play story cards to help ongoing plots at a lesser cost. Conversely, it’s easier (i.e. cheaper) to take revenge on a declared enemy.
By encouraging the players to create relationships that have a real meaning in the game and the stories told within it, Highlander: The Gathering offers its community and designers a unique tool to observe and alter play patterns and social dynamics.
ABSTRACT STORYTELLING & IMMERSIVE RESOLUTIONS
Highlander: The Gathering’s storytelling system uses concepts evolved from the fields of interactive storytelling, role-playing, narratology, collaborative writing and dramaturgy. It defines abstract building blocks (such as "contract”, "chase”, "negotiation” or "conflict”) and a storytelling grammar that allow players to build a web of intertwined stories through the simple use of cards. Story evolution and resolution is computed at this abstract level, devoid of intricacies and of very manageable complexity. The results of the characters’ interactions are then presented in heroic scenes, faithful to the Highlander mythos (see Epic Storytelling).
EASILY EXPANDABLE
Abstract storytelling and a card based storytelling system allow for data driven expansion: new story building blocks, new stories or new cards. Furthermore, each new story elements added to the gamespace creates new combinations with the existing content and is available to everybody, as opposed to new rare objects that usually end up in the hands of few experienced players.
This is an asset for a game in which continuous content creation is required.
Depending on the chosen business model, data-disks / expansions may be based on themes and contain new story objects that allow for more variety and unique experiences: new places, weapons, NPCs, story or combat cards, etc.
