Post by Morreion on Jan 2, 2012 11:22:30 GMT -5
Two incidents that occurred today prompted me to write this post.
Loendal posted this about SWTOR:
Also, I was discussing filling in the map in Rift with Jaema (I've just ended my subscription there). We commented on how dead the lower-level zones were; I saw only 1-2 people in both of the 'starter zones' last week. Rift is 10 months old now.
This got me to thinking...
Both SWTOR and Rift are level/quest-based theme parks. They both cost a lot of money to make. Tons of time, money and effort were spent to produce whole zones that will be mostly deserted in a handful of months. Level cap is easy to reach in both games quickly, which will possibly lead to higher turnover as players go to other games.
It seems to me that content is both expensive and time-consuming to make, but is quick to play through.
MMOs have a difficult time sustaining this model. WoW players often go back for an expansion, finish it up in a month, and leave until the next expansion. It seems that in the long run, this is a losing proposition for game devs.
My first MMO was UO. UO had no levels, being a skill-based system. It had no level-based zones- there were a variety of monsters in every area, some weak, others strong. This meant that there was no abandoned zones that players had 'leveled' through- newbies and veterans alike could be seen in the areas of any of the towns on the map, because there was a variety of things to do everywhere. This led to a more thriving world (it also was more dangerous- lowbies could get killed by strong mobs if they weren't careful, but that was more interesting IMHO). Also, lowbies could group with skilled veterans; this would allow them to raise their skill levels faster by fighting powerful mobs that usually wouldn't aggro on them. This typically is difficult or impossible to do these days.
My 3rd MMO was DAoC. DAoC had few quests- the ones they did have were memorable epic quests, designed around your class. Every 7 levels or so you'd get a new epic quest, culminating in your epic armor quest around level 50. You looked forward to them. The rest of the time, you hunted, camped or dungeon-crawled to level up. You usually did this with other players, making it a more interesting experience. There were multiple areas to level up in, and exploring them was enjoyable, all done with a long-term community of players. None of the 'thousand quest' design of modern MMOs where you typically solo through the game doing what quest-givers tell you to do, and then look for another game.
It seems to me that MMOs are designed to be more expensive and more short-term in orientation than they need to be. Why design a world when perhaps 90% of it will be deserted in 6 months? Why design a world where obeying what numerous quest-givers tell you to do is more important than exploring or grouping up with others? Why have level ranges that keep you from grouping with others not of your similar level? Why have a game that's over with fairly quickly, where all of that work is gone to waste because players have little reason to stick around?
Here's to hoping for a virtual world approach that brings back some of the early design decisions to MMOs once more. A focus on the actual world and what you can do with others there would be refreshing. I'd like to see games where players will be the content, or create their own content- getting away from an expensive, short-term and time-consuming dead-end design model of devs painstakingly producing the content. I hope MMOs will move away from becoming more like single-player games and go with their strengths- virtual worlds and player interaction.
Loendal posted this about SWTOR:
My ex-wife said that she hit the level cap already. The game's only been out for 11 days. This is working a full time job and other outside-of-games things she does. I thought SW:TOR was supposed to be deeper and more engaging? She's been a power gamer for a while, I suppose, but I would have though it would take more then 11 days to cap out. That's 4.45 levels a day.
Also, I was discussing filling in the map in Rift with Jaema (I've just ended my subscription there). We commented on how dead the lower-level zones were; I saw only 1-2 people in both of the 'starter zones' last week. Rift is 10 months old now.
This got me to thinking...
Both SWTOR and Rift are level/quest-based theme parks. They both cost a lot of money to make. Tons of time, money and effort were spent to produce whole zones that will be mostly deserted in a handful of months. Level cap is easy to reach in both games quickly, which will possibly lead to higher turnover as players go to other games.
It seems to me that content is both expensive and time-consuming to make, but is quick to play through.
MMOs have a difficult time sustaining this model. WoW players often go back for an expansion, finish it up in a month, and leave until the next expansion. It seems that in the long run, this is a losing proposition for game devs.
My first MMO was UO. UO had no levels, being a skill-based system. It had no level-based zones- there were a variety of monsters in every area, some weak, others strong. This meant that there was no abandoned zones that players had 'leveled' through- newbies and veterans alike could be seen in the areas of any of the towns on the map, because there was a variety of things to do everywhere. This led to a more thriving world (it also was more dangerous- lowbies could get killed by strong mobs if they weren't careful, but that was more interesting IMHO). Also, lowbies could group with skilled veterans; this would allow them to raise their skill levels faster by fighting powerful mobs that usually wouldn't aggro on them. This typically is difficult or impossible to do these days.
My 3rd MMO was DAoC. DAoC had few quests- the ones they did have were memorable epic quests, designed around your class. Every 7 levels or so you'd get a new epic quest, culminating in your epic armor quest around level 50. You looked forward to them. The rest of the time, you hunted, camped or dungeon-crawled to level up. You usually did this with other players, making it a more interesting experience. There were multiple areas to level up in, and exploring them was enjoyable, all done with a long-term community of players. None of the 'thousand quest' design of modern MMOs where you typically solo through the game doing what quest-givers tell you to do, and then look for another game.
It seems to me that MMOs are designed to be more expensive and more short-term in orientation than they need to be. Why design a world when perhaps 90% of it will be deserted in 6 months? Why design a world where obeying what numerous quest-givers tell you to do is more important than exploring or grouping up with others? Why have level ranges that keep you from grouping with others not of your similar level? Why have a game that's over with fairly quickly, where all of that work is gone to waste because players have little reason to stick around?
Here's to hoping for a virtual world approach that brings back some of the early design decisions to MMOs once more. A focus on the actual world and what you can do with others there would be refreshing. I'd like to see games where players will be the content, or create their own content- getting away from an expensive, short-term and time-consuming dead-end design model of devs painstakingly producing the content. I hope MMOs will move away from becoming more like single-player games and go with their strengths- virtual worlds and player interaction.