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Pioneers Of MMORPGs Discuss Genre Evolution
Thanks to GameSpy for their new article charting the pioneers of MMORPG gaming, and discussing with them the "major quantum leaps" needed "to grow from two million North American MMORPG gamers to ten million." MUD co-creator Richard Bartle argues that "...so many MMORPGs have become so intently focused on automating and artificially motivating players to engage in the game-world that at times, the experience feels a little too 'Disneyfied.'" The solution, the article suggests, is to focus on "more human elements", "more life and realism into AI-driven NPCs", and stress "user-generated content" in the next generation of MMO titles.
... is it?
Daniel
Carpe Diem
I for one welcome our new vampire archer elf overlords!!!!!!!!!
i have several DND charactors, i play once a week on average, i don't play MMORPGs because i can't afford a monthly fee, but some people can
I also go to the bar 2-3 times a week and most nights i bring home a woman, and i'm not talking about fat and ugly women, i mean Hot ones.
i don't look or act like your traditional Geek, but i assure you that i am one, i have no problem being up until 4:00 in the morning to code, then the next night going to the bar. heck, sometimes i'll come home from the bar at 3:00 AM, get layed by a good looking chick, push her out the door and tell her "i'm call her", then, in a half-inebriated state, code for 4 more hours until sunrise, then play DND with some buddies for the day. Its happened before, and it will happen again.
Check out Virtual Worlds Review for an overview of some of these emerging environments. (I have no affiliation with VWR, but I have played some of the games they discuss)
Forward, retransmit, or republish anything I say here. Just don't misquote me.
uh, like, what fantasy game did you just describe? i want to play it.
uh, its called "real life" maybe you should try it sometime
What they really mean is "pioneers of the graphical MMORPG." They barely touched upon MUD/MUSHes and the like in the first article.
And, actually, none of the games are really RPGs at all, since no one ever RPs in the G. Yes, there are exceptions, but for the most part, all the people playing EQ, Galaxies, Camelot, etc, are just looking for the loot and experience. They are trying to "beat" the game, not actively participating in it.
The real problem with these graphical MMORPGs is that they are all based upon the concept of leveling a character in some way, or reaching some goal that can be measure by a little progress bar.. That goal ends up really creating a bad dynamic for the RPG portion of the game. Luckily for the game creators, there isn't a lot of RP in them.
When playing various MUSHes, the goal was to be a good role-player: there weren't necessarily any benefits beyond the happiness of being a good roleplayer, and having people respect that.
MUSHes also allow you the ability to create any type of character, since there's no graphical limitations.
Roleplaying in the Everquest and Camelot suffers from being level based, with some RP tools thrown in. They aren't flexible enough for users to create actual characters.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
just give everyone the possibility to develop add-ons to the game, make it portable, and let the thing go. a single programmer or a limited team of them cannot think about every possible situation or every possible way to attract people.
.02 euros
but a whole world of programmers in a lot of countries maybe can do it.
make the game easily customizable and playable in many countries (language support, country servers), and let the whole thing evolve.
don't worry too much about piracy issues - if the game is good, people will buy it. make licenses available online to buy. let people try it by providing 20 days licenses to play in a smaller world.
just my
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
for this being horribly offtopic, but does anyone thing of the phrase "Mmm more pig..." when they see this acronym?
also known as wishful thinking.
this shiT be hilarious...
Pretty cool of you to take time out from your busy schedule of banging sluts to troll on slashdot.
Although, an online game can evolve and does not need to be a new product, as this article suggests. That is the beauty of persistant online worlds.
:)
Ultima Online has changed to allow players more expression in a persistant world. It originally did not ship with many of the features it has today, such as customizable housing, vendors that can be dressed up by players, more AI features on higher level creatures that are unique to them, an extremely extensive magic item system, etc. This is on top of the enormous content already in the game. Something that Second Life does not have (and much of the player generated content seems shallow aside from visuals, imho).
Professional content over armchair designer content has been much more appealing, imho. A good mix of the two is something that goes a long way for folks.
thank god for this uplifting post!
A++ post!
I started my mmorpg career in december of 97 with a game called Ultima Online. I never thought myself as a roleplayer or even thought id be interested in any roleplaying games. Surprisingly I was instantly hooked. I couldn't put the game down. I cannot think of another game where I actually have fallen asleep at the keyboard only to wake up a couple hours later and continue my playing. What made ultima than so great? The community. One of uo's main points that kept me in the game was the pvp and the long term goals. For example: in that time period it was extremely rare to come across a grandmaster blacksmith. Occasionally one would be setup near the britain smith and offering his service to the fellow players. THIS WAS A HUGE EVENT! Obtaing grandmaster was not an easy feet and those who were gm's were treated as kings. Thats just one example. Another was the unrestricted pvp. You step outside of town alone your likeley to get mugged. When you died everything you were carrying at that time was left on your corpse for free loot (including house keys I might add). So this in turn forced you to travel in groups when ever you left cities or decided to go adventuring! I myself played the role of a PK in an extremely organized guild that was very succesfull. Here is my idea of the next perfect mmorgp: 1) unrestricted pvp outside of TOWNS (NO LAME PVP ZONES, TOWNS ARE SECURED BY GUARDS THATS IT) 2) more important long term player accomplishments. 3) as little npc activity as possible. The more focus put on the individual player the better. Uo has since evolved into the typical mmorpg. Complete w/ almost 0 pvp and a very "disney" type feel to it. This was not the way it was originally designed. These developers need to grow some balls and start making their games less care-bear-ish. In the real world you can do whatever you want. Yes there are penalties but the point is you can do whatever you want whenever you want. We needs this in another mmorpg!
.[[erax0r]].
Stress user-created content? We've been doing that since 1996 in our game! Engage smug-mode.
Guess it's time to move on and add whatever's going to be the next trend, before everyone else figures it out.
Ok, ok, disengaging smug mode. But I thought I earned at least one quick "I told you so" after all that work. Back to the code mines now.
Furcadia - A free online game with user created content, DragonSpeak scripting, & more.
Posted like a true AC, where people who know him can't call him out.