ggwood's Journal: MMORPG Opinions

Just a few thoughts on MMORPGs before I forget them.

There will be a day when truly dynamic MMORPGs arive. Content will not change at a rate of 30 day patches which alter a tiny fraction of content. It will change minute by minute. It will be far more like playing D&D in person with a real DM then versus a static environment. And it will not be a PVP gankfest. If you want great PVP, go play counterstrike. Massive Role Playing is not that.

Yet it would be prohibitively expensive to actually pay people to be one's DM. It would be multiple dollars per person per hour - and right now we're talking about maybe $15/month. How will this true dynamic content arrive?

Other players. They will be anonymos and run a zone, with perhaps 10-100 people in it. They will be elected and can be removed from office in real time. They will have the power to spawn a custom NPC with a specific handcrafted quest, or a merchent NPC with goods, or a moneychanger or banker in a zone to save people from a run to the city. They'll control the weather. They'll be able to control any NPC guards and their patrols. They'll be able to form up a horde of bad guys to rush the town walls. They will be the spice of life which is the difference between now and the future.

They should be recruited from long time players on other servers to "DM" or whatever we want to call it a zone on a server on which they have no characters and no particular interest. They won't know the server they will DM ahead of time. With modern MMORPGs with 30 or so parallel servers, these people will not be terribly effective in benefitting any particular person - even if they wanted to. Further, they would be assigned to a zone at some point below their current level of their main. A zone they have spent some time in. But again, even if there was a particular person they wanted to help, it is rather unlikely that person would be at the right level.

Having a DM present should not vastly improve the loot of the zone or the experience per hour played. It would be that last 10% bonus. The DM would realize people are hunting orcs for a quest or faction or whatever and spawn "more" of them - perhaps they can't spawn that many more, but just more. If a group is camping a rare spawn (if those are even in advanced MMORPGs) assumedly the DM would not be able to respawn that mob without limits.

People will enjoy being the DM as much or perhaps more then actually playing. They will be able to take on assistants to help manage the zone and they will have a social network among themselves. Perhaps they'll have a "break room" where they can mingle. MMORPGs have socilization as the best aspect going for them.

(A minimum requirement for becoming a DM might be to play multiple classes up to a certain level to show some mastery of the game).

On a totally unrelated note:

In the future, I envision several types of "levels" for a character: solo, group, raid. We'll be able to look and see how much a person has done each activity. Further, there could be a dungeon/instance/wilderness indicator showing how much exp gained in each zonetype. There could be some kind of newbie-helping indicator, or some kind of special level for playing a lower level then your main to group with lower level people.

To reward playing in multiple types of settings (say solo/group/raid) there could be a bonus for attaining a level in each. One way I'm thinking is: you have these three totally separate pools (solo/group/raid) and you gain exp in only one at a time. The first one to ding you to the next level grants you a full level worth of hit points/mana, etc. You gain access to the new spells or abilities. However, if you spend the time to get the second or third up, you do gain some extra hp/mana (only - plus maybe minor other plusses). I'm thinking maybe 10% of the original level gain worth.

Ugh! Why all this extra grinding? To reward people for other modes of play. To make it less of a grind and more of a reward, the subsequent leveling could be 5x faster for the second and 20x faster for the third.

I think low-end raid content is sadly lacking from most MMORPs at the moment and I think this could be a great way to get people into big teams early. Let's say the level cap is 60. By level 20, why not have some content for a bunch of level 15-25s to get together and take down, say, a giant. I'm not saying a veritable horde of people are needed, but perhaps 12+ people. The giant gives great loot for the level, but nothing that these players won't gain at level 30 anyhow. But for the next 5-15 levels, they'll have some nice stuff. Of course the content would need to be instanced or level limited so that a level 40 doesn't run in and solo the giant, or stand on the sideline healing or buffing or debuffing for them, making the encounter trivial.

What if you hate soloing? raiding? Then don't. You'll only be a few percent behind those who do - and if you even take it up, you'll be able to level really quick at it.

I think WoW had a great idea in exp for pure exploration. I'd love to get credit for visiting all those obscure zones in EverQuest.

I love the ability to solo in WoW, however grouping just wasn't enough of a bonus. With two or maybe three people together, why bother trying to add another?

I also loved the challenge of EverQuest Lost Dungeons adventures (missions). Each class in the group had to do their part. As a reward, we got nice loot (well, before they nerfed it...as they systematically do with each expansion...talk about bait and switch) nice experience and we got special points to buy gear. By saving up, we could get unbelievable gear - it just took a while.

I love the competence and teamwork - but I enjoy soloing too and if we have a group of five and we can all solo - and perhaps we're better off soloing, whats the point of grouping? What's the point of building those skills up?

The 3 level (group/solo/raid) solution I suggest answers this: there is an explicit bonus for each behavior at any point in your career.

As for raiding, I think there needs to be some instanced content or special quests so that a guild can restart a previous raid from an advanced point. Right now, in Everquest, there is way too much trivial content to hack through to get to the exciting parts. Raids are loads of standing around and running to specific locations and the raid killing trivial mobs.

Why can't we fight through the Boss's horde of underlings one-point-oh times and take a whack at the Boss. If we fail, we get another try: without the wasted time hacking through the trivial filler. Activating the bookmark should benefit most of the people who did the dirty work getting there. Let's say, for every 2 original people, a third not there originally could join in, but no more then 10% more people can attempt to smack the Boss down then came in originally. Thus let's say a small guild hacks it's way to the Boss with 20 people. They fail to take him out. Of those 20, let's say only 14 are online next day to try again. They can add up to 7 more people (one for every two of the 14). But no matter how many they have repeated they can't go over 110% of the original 20 (up to 22, in this case).

It might be necessary to restrict how many such "bookmarks" certain guilds have. Maybe three is a good number. Or perhaps each character can only have up to three different raids saved.

I envision getting as many wacks at the Boss as the guild desires. Perhaps they try 3 times in an evening and then realize they cannot do it with this few people - maybe they need to pick a different target or qualify more people for this target, etc.

Certifications:

I think RPGs should certify the ability of people to play a certain class via special solo instanced zones where they should have to use their skills. My rogue would have to systematically disarm a bunch of traps, sneak around a bunch of MOBs and avoid those that can see through hide. A monk may have to single pull a mob into a room. A warrior may have to hold aggro on two mobs at once off a fixed location NPC "caster" who stands back and casts small aggro spells on each over time. A healer would heal a tank in battle. A wizard would have to know when to nuke when a tank had enough aggro, etc.

I would like to be able to check out the certifications of people wanting to join my group. I think special instanced tests at levels 20, 40, 50, 55, 60 and every 5 levels thereafter would do. Fail and get another try in two weeks (real time) to delay any simple repeat until pass phenomina.

The point is to ensure a basic class competence by explicitly testing people on very basic skills needed in groups. There is too much powerleveling or E-Baying. The quality of a level 50 in EverQuest is no where near what it should be. To be honest, I'd like to see everyone in these tests with identical gear and stats. No bonus for being a troll or whatever. No bonus hit points for being an Ogre. Just walk in and see if you pass.

On that line of reasoning, there should be a "standard" gear for each level. Excessive twinking to have AC or hit points or whatever way, way above this standard should have a lessened impact. Yes, you should still be able to twink. No, it should not be an insane advantage as it is right now in EverQuest.

EverQuest is making a huge stride forward by allowing anyone to group with anyone in game, regardless of level via the "shrouding". The purpose is to help one's friends without explicit powerleveling. To play together at the same level is best.

Warcraft has a *great* idea in that quests give huge EXP rewards and good gear, but are only doable once. This is absolutely the right thing to do. It doesn't flood the market with junk quest gear done by someone 20 levels too high. It prevents bordom. It rewards travel.

I envision a future where there is no big list of quests kept because they change so often.

A very boring collect quest could begin with a DM spawned NPC handing the PC a container, which the PC fills with some random junk and smacks the combine button to make it into a single piece (easily transportable). The quest is turned in to a standard zonewide NPC - so that if the DM and the spawned NPC go away, there is always the chance to turn in. Further, the quest goes with the container. Since there are endless items in game, there are endless possible combination quests to do.

I love the EverQuest quest originating system of typing the text. It makes a person think about the game. Watching and listening can lead to more quests. We should be rewarded for taking the time to truly interact with the game in this mannor. In reality, the rewards are very poor in Eq. Probably 10% of all quests are ever done. It simply isn't worth the time.

In WoW, it is very kid-friendly in that the online quest system tells you exactly what you need, but there is something to be said for having to write it down and think about it and try some stuff out. Out of game knowledge about the game (in my own head) should count for something! Maybe not all quests should be done this way, but let's say 10% require us to type and write stuff down and go find stuff ingame without directions.

The little overhead map with groupmembers locations highlighted is very key and Eq should implement this somehow. A bunch of the "leadership" things should be way easier to attain - particularly at very high level!

There should be no hard and fast group limit. A smooth transition to a raid force should encourage gropuing and allow people to take unpopular classes. Right now in Eq, groups need a tank a healer, a slower, a puller and a damage dealer - but so many classes are purely damage dealers (rogue, wizard, mage, ranger, and to an extent beastlord, necro) that they are very, vary hard to find groups with because so many others are so much more desirable because of added utility.

Right now, in Everquest, if I group with 5 others, I get a big exp bonus, but if I add a 6th friend (total group size seven) I have to start a raid and take a huge hit. This is crazy. Let me add a seventh. Sure, maybe you want to have some instanced content balanced for exactly groups of six or some high level stuff. Fine. However, for the bulk of the game, let me grab three rangers if they are available and get them into my productive group of five and sure we'll take some kind of hit from the 40% xp bonus (or whatever it is) but let's make it easier to find groups and easier to add more people. It will be far less frusturating for us all.