Dragon Age and MMOs

[Morreion]

Dragon Age and MMOs (MMORPG.com)

Flipping the topic to what MMOs might learn from Dragon Age, Mike explained that he did not want to offend any of his fellow game designers. So I asked him for three areas where he felt MMOs could learn something from Dragon Age as an RPG game. The first and biggest, he said, was story. The importance of story in a game is critical and he feels it is an area where MMOs are lacking. Bioware has always kept a strong story element to all of their games. Mike said that players like guidance and having a reason to play. Strong story lines provide players with a need to go back into the game. He saw this as a better way to keep players interested than just farming for loot.

Bioware has a great reputation- there's lots of anticipation for SW:TOR.

[Regolyth]

I agree with the quoted comment, story is a big element missing from modern MMOs (or at least a compelling one). I think it would add a lot of excitement towards the game. However, I'm also concerned that, even if added, it would go unread. A lot of people who play MMOs, play it for the achievements. Rarely do they bother to read the story that accompanies a quest. Either we have became jaded from bad stories in the past, and therefore no longer read them, or we simply don't care about it. Personally, it's the former. However, I know friends who never read the story, simply because it is a game. I have a friend who loves reading fantasy novels, but he will rarely read stories in-game, because he'd rather be "playing."

[Morreion]

That's true, Rego. I believe one of the biggest differences between today's average MMO player and the average player of yesteryear is that today's players often bring a gaming focus (as opposed to a virtual world focus) to MMOs. In other words, they are treating an MMO as a persistent FPS, and a lot of the non-mechanical elements go into the dumpster.