Slightly embarrassing story time: One of my favorite things to do in classic Star Wars Galaxies was sing. Yes, musicians and dancers were technically restricted to playing in-game music and dancing in-game dances, but the emote system also included singing emotes, complete with specially formatted music-themed chat bubbles. So instead of just standing there while people watched/listened to you for healing and buffs, you could belt out song lyrics. I prewrote all mine so they would be in time with the song flourishes and be properly spaced out so as not to spam. It was my “thing” for a while, but really a lot of people put on shows like mine. I went to some huge choreographed music festivals. Our player city had a local music troupe made up of members of a friendly guild. We even put on several well-attended theater productions.
All this popped into my brain after I read that DJ Marshmello is doing a concert in Fortnite this weekend. Some folks are marveling at the supposed novelty of a concert in such a space, but of course, to those of us who’ve inhabited virtual worlds for decades, it’s old hat. But still an extremely cool hat!
I’m sure you folks can think of other examples – there were player DJs at City of Heroes events, for example, complete with a streamed music playlist that everyone at parties could listen to live. I’m quite certain Second Life has hosted thousands of such events. And what about Lord of the Rings Online’s many concerts, Weatherstock most prominent among them? Have you ever been to a concert in an MMO?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
