Post by Morreion on Mar 17, 2010 8:29:36 GMT -5
Justin Webb: Nobody Wants to be the Janitor on the Death Star (MMORPG.com)
Justin wants players to feel like the hero in MMOs, and I see his point. But what really fascinated me was that the large majority of the commenters on his article disagreed, and with good reason. Here are some of the comments:
I think the commenters make very good points. This seems to indicate that some players like doing whatever they want in a virtual world. Perhaps a sandbox world would be more popular that you'd think.
One of the problems MMOs have in this regard is that they are full of lots of other players all trying to be heroes too. When everyone is a hero, it can be difficult to feel like your contributions matter. And especially hard to stand out and feel like you are a badass – there’s always someone who’s a bigger badass than you are.
So what kinds of thing can developers do to help players feel like they are heroes? And, conversely, what things can ruin the experience and make you feel like a cog in the machine?
While I understand that performing mundane tasks early on can help forge a sense of progression when contrasted with events that may happen at higher level, there really is no excuse in this day and age for making players “kill 10 rats”, or any other combination of barnyard animals. It’s become a cliché (and a great MMO blog). But there’s no surer way of making players groan than throwing seemingly harmless animals at them in a starter area.
Sure, I guess that Conan himself started out small, but exterminating rats in a basement or delivering pies and/or mail around town does not make anyone feel like a badass. Let’s not do this anymore. It’s embarrassing.
Okay, so what should we be killing at level 1? Well, it doesn’t have to be rats. The bigger/meaner the monster, the more the player feels like a badass when he kills it. For example, the first public quest in Empire Chapter 1 of WAR culminates with the player taking down a chaos giant. The giant isn’t just hanging out at a nearby barn waiting to be murdered. He’s pissed. He arrives by smashing a pathway through the forest, trees falling around him as he makes his way toward the players. The ground rumbles as he approaches. The thing is though, he’s fairly easy to take down. But when you kill him for the first time, potentially at level 1, you feel like a badass. We can all argue about the implementation of PQs in WAR and whether they work well on a low-pop world, but that Chaos Giant experience is visceral and exciting in a way that killing 20 worms in the Feerott never will be. Let’s do more of this please.
So what kinds of thing can developers do to help players feel like they are heroes? And, conversely, what things can ruin the experience and make you feel like a cog in the machine?
While I understand that performing mundane tasks early on can help forge a sense of progression when contrasted with events that may happen at higher level, there really is no excuse in this day and age for making players “kill 10 rats”, or any other combination of barnyard animals. It’s become a cliché (and a great MMO blog). But there’s no surer way of making players groan than throwing seemingly harmless animals at them in a starter area.
Sure, I guess that Conan himself started out small, but exterminating rats in a basement or delivering pies and/or mail around town does not make anyone feel like a badass. Let’s not do this anymore. It’s embarrassing.
Okay, so what should we be killing at level 1? Well, it doesn’t have to be rats. The bigger/meaner the monster, the more the player feels like a badass when he kills it. For example, the first public quest in Empire Chapter 1 of WAR culminates with the player taking down a chaos giant. The giant isn’t just hanging out at a nearby barn waiting to be murdered. He’s pissed. He arrives by smashing a pathway through the forest, trees falling around him as he makes his way toward the players. The ground rumbles as he approaches. The thing is though, he’s fairly easy to take down. But when you kill him for the first time, potentially at level 1, you feel like a badass. We can all argue about the implementation of PQs in WAR and whether they work well on a low-pop world, but that Chaos Giant experience is visceral and exciting in a way that killing 20 worms in the Feerott never will be. Let’s do more of this please.
Justin wants players to feel like the hero in MMOs, and I see his point. But what really fascinated me was that the large majority of the commenters on his article disagreed, and with good reason. Here are some of the comments:
What is WRONG with being a janitor on the Death Star if that is what the player wants to do?? Before they ruined it, SWG had THOUSANDS of players paying money to be shopkeepers, mall operators, miners, dress-makers, dancers...I knew of several groups that existed solely to be a BAND or a group that specialized in putting on amazing fireworks displays. Why are any of them less important players than someone who wants to be a Sith or Jedi??
Just speaking for myself I have no real desire to feel heroic or badass. The feeling I liked most from MMOs was in SWG when I was able to craft lots of useful items and work with others on creating items. I liked being able to support others via my crafting and all that went along with it.
From the way your column reads it sounds like you want a single player RPG instead of a MMO or you want a RPG with a chat box. The whole point in my opinion is to have "groups" of heroes.
The obsession you have with the "heroic story" is cool, even admirable...but, I have to say, it seems out of place in the mmo world. As you said in an earlier article, the "heroic story" is designed to be about (the) ONE. The game genre you want to fit it into so neatly and nicely is designed to be (massivley) MULTIPLAYER. Everything one tries to do to make an INDIVIDUAL feel ultimately heroic in an mmo will only drive that player into a more isolated/instanced/individual gameplay experience. Which, by definition, is a single player game, right?
I have to say I disagree with this. Like others have said not everyone wants to be the hero... I actually have quite a lot of fun just toying around with fluff content and other things non-combat oriented. The only reason I actually focus on combat in MMOs is because that's all current MMOs allow players to focus on. Not everyone wants to fight all the time, and too many games now are solely focussed on combat.
I NEVER wanted to be Luke/Han/Lando or any other 'iconic" Hero in SWG. I just wanted to live my own life and make my own way (whatever that may be) in the Star Wars Universe. If I became a Jedi, cool. If not and I was just a Graul Hunter making Bone Armor on Dantooine, well that was cool with me too.Im tired of these MMOs that pigeonhole me into what I can and cannot be or do.
I think the commenters make very good points. This seems to indicate that some players like doing whatever they want in a virtual world. Perhaps a sandbox world would be more popular that you'd think.
