DC Universe Online architects explore the dark side

Who Was There: Longtime DC Comics author Marv Wolfman appeared alongside Sony Online Entertainment creative directors Jens Andersen and Christopher Cao. All three are collaborating on the upcoming DC Universe Online massively multiplayer online role-playing game and came together to discuss the role of heroes and villains in the title.

What They Talked About: Right off the bat, Cao asked Wolfman why comics are so frequently told from the hero's point of view. Wolfman explained that a large part of it was due to the Comics Code Authority, an oversight board comic book publishers had to work under for decades. The CCA mandated that villains never succeed, as well as wind up losing unequivocally at the end of every story, which tied writers' hands when it came to depicting them.

The CCA oversight was so heavy-handed that Wolfman actually had problems with it when he started writing. Before writers were given proper credit in the books, a fellow writer for DC's House of Mystery credited Wolfman's contribution on an issue by having a character say, "The following story was told to me by a wandering Wolfman." The CCA actually forbade werewolves in comic books at the time and took exception to that remark in the issue. If the publisher wanted to leave it in, Wolfman explained, it had to specifically issue a credit saying the story was written by Marv Wolfman, a practice that quickly led to comic creators getting regular credit for their work in every issue.

Back on the topic of games, Wolfman said he's run into challenges writing for villains in DC Universe Online, partly because he was so rarely allowed to in the days of the CCA. However, he said people don't necessarily want to see villains lose every time out, and audiences really enjoy the conflict that comes from characters in games, specifically good versus evil. He also said that he enjoyed character-less (or character-light) games like Portal and Myst.

Wolfman also called out Kratos from the God of War series as a fascinating character, though not necessarily as a hero or a villain. He kills everything that gets in his way, but the audience feels for him because he is avenging his family. (Wolfman should be partial to Kratos, as he is currently writing the God of War comic.)

Another challenge Cao said the team faced was what he called the question of, "How do I beat up Robin?" What does it mean to raid the batcave or defeat Superman? Wolfman said it's perfectly acceptable to include those sorts of setbacks for the heroes because heroes need to be defeated. Superman isn't as interesting as Robin, Wolfman said, because he's invulnerable. A character isn't heroic unless he suffers defeat and then rises from that defeat in order to triumph over evil, Wolfman explained. That problem is also one of the more interesting aspects of writing for an MMOG game, Wolfman said, as there's no guarantee the good guys will win.

Rising from defeat is just part of the hero's journey that Cao said the developers have been trying to instill in DC Universe Online. He added that players will be given the experience of going from a Robin-like character and growing into their own, like Nightwing, approaching a status on par with Batman.

Anderson has a history in single-player development, and he said the need to design the game for both heroes and villains has been a new twist for him as well. The need to think about what motivates characters, like Lex Luthor, has Anderson finding himself sympathizing more with their motivations. As he said, Luthor doesn't think of himself as evil.

Another shift that Wolfman has had to make is to focus on the needs of the player instead of the familiar DC Comics characters. Whereas the best parts of comics typically follow the big-name protagonists, Wolfman has found himself writing scenarios where players team up with these characters, ignore them, or even go against them for their own interests.

"It's about the player, not the superheroes," Wolfman said. "I really don't care if Superman has a good time in the game."

Another topic touched on was how the developers have tweaked the standard comic formula. Whereas normally it's the villains that instigate problems and superheroes that come in to clean up the mess, the developers quickly found out that it wasn't very fun for players to sit around waiting for villains to do something before springing to action. Cao didn't explain fully how they planned to address that issue in DC Universe Online, but he did say part of the solution was to add a third faction, one of simple amoral monsters that either side could beat up on.

Wolfman isn't in Austin just for the conference. The Los Angeles-based writer is also checking in this week with the development team at Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio. A number of times throughout the session, Wolfman bemoaned having to work offsite from the developers, a complaint that recalled a Tuesday session with Evan Skolnick of Vicarious Visions. In that session, the lead writer on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 explained how the development process benefited from having everyone in the same place.

Quote: "A policeman doesn't go out and beat up people who have not committed a crime…technically."--Wolfman explaining why superheroes are often reactive, waiting for something to go wrong before springing to action instead of imposing their will on the world.

Takeaway: Writing for DC Universe Online is vastly different from what the developers have done before, and dealing with villains is vastly different from dealing with heroes. While the panelists acknowledged that novelty provides plenty of challenges, they also were excited about the ways they were dealing with those obstacles.