Originally posted by Aeonblades At first I was upset, because I hardly recognize any of the characters on here even if I have played most of the games. Then I realized this was a beauty contest, and the characters don't really play a major part in any game mentioned here. It's all good.
If you didn't recognize the characters then you probably haven't played the games. Miss Liberty is/was a major part in City of Heroes and deserves to be recognized for it.
Originally posted by VikingGamer Looking at this list and then comparing it to some of the characters from single player games you mention at the end and you begin to realize just how thin the storylines in most mmos really are.
That's been my biggest problem with mmos for years. Lack of decent lore/plot/story delivery. Asheron's Call had 10,000 years of lore written for it, but much of it was scattered across the land waiting to be discovered or delivered via the monthly updates through town criers or some lines of text from npcs. The technology they had to work with was limited, so I can give them a bit of a pass.
WoW had most of the meaningful lore either gated behind books (that I found to be poorly written) or gated behind raids. There's a ton of lore to be had in the WarCraft universe, but the delivery was poor.
Aside from that, most mmos I've played have had very little lore outside of a few quests and many of the storylines never really came to fruition. It is a very difficult balance for mmos though. The very nature of the genre doesn't lend itself well for large sprawling storylines to dominate the majority of your gameplay experience, since it can become tedious after one or two playthroughs. Smaller bursts of interesting stories scattered throughout makes repetition less tedious, but you're only given small bursts of lore and it's not very satisfying in the long run.
I cannot see how there is a more Epic player than Yuna from FFX.Her story is simply unparalleled with no other.
I often do not remember female characters THAT much from games,yes i recognize the names but none stand out in my mind as much as Yuna.
She believes it is her calling to go on a long pilgrimage to perform the final summoning and defeat SIN.She believes this involves giving her own life to save mankind.The story is very deep with many smaller stories within.
no nei from the phantasy star games nor Aeris from FF7, i'm surprised... sylvanas is a good choice to represent WoW tho and I would have put FV number 1 She's the icon of EQ to this day, almost 2 decades later.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
EdiT: I see goron24addressed this. I had to look this up. Mara Jade didn't even wear her character name and was at best an NPC who happened to have red hair.
I'm with ya. She was around during that timeline but I don't think she was in the game. Matter of fact, she doesn't know Luke from Adam until RotJ, while SWG takes place between ANH and ESB.
You know... just because you need to have GW2 in the list somewhere, doesn't mean you need to stuff it in the number 2 spot. Having a small 1 line of text doesn't do much justice for a character you claim to be #2 tier. XD Granted a few others could use more as well, it just seems a blatant move to try and put a character up in a game that really has little to really push their spot.
Originally posted by itchmon no nei from the phantasy star games nor Aeris from FF7, i'm surprised... sylvanas is a good choice to represent WoW tho and I would have put FV number 1 She's the icon of EQ to this day, almost 2 decades later.
Aeris was a useless mute and I'm glad she got killed. I don't know how anyone even remotely cared what happened to her. She was just there to tug at your heart strings with some "REAL" consequences and sad synthesizer music. Anyone who knew what message the devs were planning to convey should have known a character was going to die. At least it wasn't someone cool like Tifa or Cid.
Although I'm not a big fan of such things there are definitely some female NPCs on that list which bring back fond memories:
Sylvanas Windrunner (btw: mispelled in the article afaik): at the beginning of The Burning Crusade while leveling a Blood Elf I stumbled upon a quest item (The Lady's Necklace) that led to a very emotional meeting with the Banshee Queen. One of the nicest little quests I ever had in a MMO and one that I'll probably never forget ....
Narmeleth: the epic questline in LotRO regarding her was really one of the best stories I ever played in an MMO. These old quests alone are worth playing LotRO (the newer things, well, not so much )
Kirsten Geary: best reason to play as Illuminati in The Secret World
A good reminder that sometimes even little things in MMOs can matter ....
"Lightning ensues a long and complex storyline, which reflect her changing roles and evolving personality."
Really? Lightning only MMO apperance was in 2 limited time FATE events in FF14. These events boiled down to grinding the same FATE over and over for tokens to get vanity gear. Lighting had at most 5 lines of dialoge in the event.
How does that equate to "long and complex storyline"
Unless you mean her story in the FF13 games. . .Which are single player games!
DO THE PEOPLE RUNNING THIS SIGHT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TERM M.M.O. MEANS?
newsflash read the title mmorpg OR rpg,which of course the ff qualifies AS.
"Lightning ensues a long and complex storyline, which reflect her changing roles and evolving personality."
Really? Lightning only MMO apperance was in 2 limited time FATE events in FF14. These events boiled down to grinding the same FATE over and over for tokens to get vanity gear. Lighting had at most 5 lines of dialoge in the event.
How does that equate to "long and complex storyline"
Unless you mean her story in the FF13 games. . .Which are single player games!
DO THE PEOPLE RUNNING THIS SIGHT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TERM M.M.O. MEANS?
newsflash read the title mmorpg OR rpg,which of course the ff qualifies AS.
if you bother to read the msg then see the one from staff saying they changed the title mate
Overall some surprisingly good picks on that list.
However, I've gotta say, I'm extremely dissapointed to see Lightning on there, especially given how far up the list she is placed. I may not be a woman, but putting lightning up there as a 'complex character' is like putting a character up there from Dead or Alive.
Her character is basically SE going 'man, people really liked Cloud, how can we bring him back w/ out bringing him back? Oh.. lets just give him a vagina, boob physics and call it a day'. Heck, her latest game (lightning returns) centers around her putting on different outfits. How stereotypical can you get. But that's a much longer discussion for a different topic.
More or less all the other choices I can get behind, because they are actually developed characters. Not poorly disguised revamps of old ones, with shoe-horned plot elements band-aided on as explanations.
While I do realize this was voted on. I do agree with you 100% about lightning. She was the worst Lead of any Final Fantasy I've played. There are so many other great females from the final fantasy group that I can't believe she has been picked. Just a few as an example: Terra, Celes, Rydia, Rosa, Dagger, Tifa, Lulu, Argias. Anyone of these characters have 1000 times more complexity and personality than Lightning.
To the MMORPG Staff. Thank you for putting this list together. I realize you didn't put these characters in the order they're in. Even though I laughed when I saw Lightning, I did enjoy read this article anyways :-)
this 2 characters are suppose to be 1 and 2.probably Vie as number 1.why? firiona Vie is pretty much central to EQ storyline and spans both everquest .Nearly all the storylines involves her and she is even central to a number of expansions.
I was really surprised that none of the women picked were known for being good at cooking, domestic work or anything else not compatible with a thoroughly modern Miss. Ok no I was not.
Oracle... one of the main reasons I don't play my heroes in DCUO often is because of Oracle. I prefer ten times to hear Calculator's voice in my ear, who is more funny, than hers.
Desdemona brings so much memories back, the same as Firiona.
Kalijo is one of my favorite companions, with her anti-system way of being and short.
Caithe... I prefer Eir, I like her more and with Trehearne, Scarlet... I started to hate all npcs related with plants.
Number 1: the reason my original main was Illuminati... even when I ended playing my Templar more because my friends :P
Unless you mean her story in the FF13 games. . .Which are single player games!
DO THE PEOPLE RUNNING THIS SIGHT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TERM M.M.O. MEANS?
Two thoughts for you:
1. If you look at the opening paragraph of the article, these were characters voted upon by MMORPG.com's site readers and the list was not compiled by the author. She simply tabulated the results. Perhaps the readers didn't understand the question and answered with Lightning though she is primarily a single-player character.
2. If you haven't noticed, we cover single player RPGs regularly now as they are generally of keen interest to our readers.
2 thoughts in reply.
#1 So the Author who complied the votes simply allowed a single player game character to be in a list that SHOULD have been only about females in MMO's, instead of disqualifying her. Why?
What would have happened if enough people voted for Lara Croft, would she have made the list as well?
#2 Yes I do realize that, but the original voting was for MMO female characters only, not MMO' and Single player RPG's. Because if Single player game females where allowed this list would be noticeably different.
P.S. I realize now that I should have be more polite in my original post, I apologize for letting my emotional state of mind at the time allowing myself to type a statement that could have been phrased more politely.
Kirsten Geary is an awesome #1 spot. Love that character. Excellent writing, and Kari Wahlgren's voice acting makes her feel completely believable, even likeable, despite her rather short and facetious personality... even from your first meeting with her.
Glad to see two entries from XI (even if they share the same rank). I'm ambivalent on the choice, though. Lion is certainly an important character, given her actions throughout the storylines. Prishe I could agree on. She's a likable character, who definitely has a very direct, tomboy-ish personality... and a mouth to match. Here's some cutscenes featuring her, for those not familiar with her origins in FFXI.
Would have loved to see Shantotto on there. Perih Vashai is also a rather distinguished presence in the world, if not directly in the storyline; she's the blind Chieftaness of the Mithra in Windurst. She sits quietly, advising and sending Adventurers on their way to unlock the Ranger job. She really shines in Wings of The Goddess, though, where you get to see her in action, prior to be being blinded.
Comments
If you didn't recognize the characters then you probably haven't played the games. Miss Liberty is/was a major part in City of Heroes and deserves to be recognized for it.
That's been my biggest problem with mmos for years. Lack of decent lore/plot/story delivery. Asheron's Call had 10,000 years of lore written for it, but much of it was scattered across the land waiting to be discovered or delivered via the monthly updates through town criers or some lines of text from npcs. The technology they had to work with was limited, so I can give them a bit of a pass.
WoW had most of the meaningful lore either gated behind books (that I found to be poorly written) or gated behind raids. There's a ton of lore to be had in the WarCraft universe, but the delivery was poor.
Aside from that, most mmos I've played have had very little lore outside of a few quests and many of the storylines never really came to fruition. It is a very difficult balance for mmos though. The very nature of the genre doesn't lend itself well for large sprawling storylines to dominate the majority of your gameplay experience, since it can become tedious after one or two playthroughs. Smaller bursts of interesting stories scattered throughout makes repetition less tedious, but you're only given small bursts of lore and it's not very satisfying in the long run.
Other than the Everquest lady who I remember from the cover (but whose name escapes me) I was like: "um...who?"
None of these characters are even remotely familiar and I've play 8/10 of these games quite thoroughly.
I review lots of indie games and MMORPGs
I cannot see how there is a more Epic player than Yuna from FFX.Her story is simply unparalleled with no other.
I often do not remember female characters THAT much from games,yes i recognize the names but none stand out in my mind as much as Yuna.
She believes it is her calling to go on a long pilgrimage to perform the final summoning and defeat SIN.She believes this involves giving her own life to save mankind.The story is very deep with many smaller stories within.
Sending off the dead souls to the Farplane
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Let's make a ten most voted male characters list!
Oh wait, that would probably be sexist...
My gaming blog
I'm with ya. She was around during that timeline but I don't think she was in the game. Matter of fact, she doesn't know Luke from Adam until RotJ, while SWG takes place between ANH and ESB.
Wow, you still haven't let it go huh?
Aeris was a useless mute and I'm glad she got killed. I don't know how anyone even remotely cared what happened to her. She was just there to tug at your heart strings with some "REAL" consequences and sad synthesizer music. Anyone who knew what message the devs were planning to convey should have known a character was going to die. At least it wasn't someone cool like Tifa or Cid.
Although I'm not a big fan of such things there are definitely some female NPCs on that list which bring back fond memories:
newsflash read the title mmorpg OR rpg,which of course the ff qualifies AS.
if you bother to read the msg then see the one from staff saying they changed the title mate
While I do realize this was voted on. I do agree with you 100% about lightning. She was the worst Lead of any Final Fantasy I've played. There are so many other great females from the final fantasy group that I can't believe she has been picked. Just a few as an example: Terra, Celes, Rydia, Rosa, Dagger, Tifa, Lulu, Argias. Anyone of these characters have 1000 times more complexity and personality than Lightning.
To the MMORPG Staff. Thank you for putting this list together. I realize you didn't put these characters in the order they're in. Even though I laughed when I saw Lightning, I did enjoy read this article anyways :-)
World of Warcraft - Sylvannas Windrunner
EverQuest - Firiona Vie
this 2 characters are suppose to be 1 and 2.probably Vie as number 1.why? firiona Vie is pretty much central to EQ storyline and spans both everquest .Nearly all the storylines involves her and she is even central to a number of expansions.
Sorry list priorities are bit off.
Oracle... one of the main reasons I don't play my heroes in DCUO often is because of Oracle. I prefer ten times to hear Calculator's voice in my ear, who is more funny, than hers.
Desdemona brings so much memories back, the same as Firiona.
Kalijo is one of my favorite companions, with her anti-system way of being and short.
Caithe... I prefer Eir, I like her more and with Trehearne, Scarlet... I started to hate all npcs related with plants.
Number 1: the reason my original main was Illuminati... even when I ended playing my Templar more because my friends :P
2 thoughts in reply.
#1 So the Author who complied the votes simply allowed a single player game character to be in a list that SHOULD have been only about females in MMO's, instead of disqualifying her. Why?
What would have happened if enough people voted for Lara Croft, would she have made the list as well?
#2 Yes I do realize that, but the original voting was for MMO female characters only, not MMO' and Single player RPG's. Because if Single player game females where allowed this list would be noticeably different.
P.S. I realize now that I should have be more polite in my original post, I apologize for letting my emotional state of mind at the time allowing myself to type a statement that could have been phrased more politely.
Kirsten Geary is an awesome #1 spot. Love that character. Excellent writing, and Kari Wahlgren's voice acting makes her feel completely believable, even likeable, despite her rather short and facetious personality... even from your first meeting with her.
Glad to see two entries from XI (even if they share the same rank). I'm ambivalent on the choice, though. Lion is certainly an important character, given her actions throughout the storylines. Prishe I could agree on. She's a likable character, who definitely has a very direct, tomboy-ish personality... and a mouth to match. Here's some cutscenes featuring her, for those not familiar with her origins in FFXI.
Would have loved to see Shantotto on there. Perih Vashai is also a rather distinguished presence in the world, if not directly in the storyline; she's the blind Chieftaness of the Mithra in Windurst. She sits quietly, advising and sending Adventurers on their way to unlock the Ranger job. She really shines in Wings of The Goddess, though, where you get to see her in action, prior to be being blinded.
Fucking LIGHTNING?!
WORST CHARACTER EVER MADE!
Please do not hype any gam.. oh wait, nevermind... forgot what forum I was on.
"Ten Most Voted Female Characters in MMOs and RPGs"
Most voted to do what exactly?