What Makes Online Worlds Fun To Explore?

Thanks to IGN RPGVault for their roundtable discussion on building satisfying MMORPG worlds. Rick Priestley from the forthcoming Warhammer Online argues that "There's no point in having a huge world if it's empty. Better to have a smaller, well-realized one with plenty of activity and player density", going on to voice "concerns with the idea that you should give large areas of the gameplay over to the players - building houses, raising taxes, leveling cities and so on", lest "anarchy" ensue. However, Gordon Walton from Sony Online addresses "lack of [graphical] richness", arguing that the "...primary business challenge we face with art is that the costs for first-class art continue to rise faster than our market is expanding, and that MMOGs require tremendously more art assets than the vast majority of standalone games."

Comments

mmm, not a suprise perhaps if you play pc games.

[SmallFurryCreature]

Take games like quake, flight simulator and Operation Flashpoint. The best art for them is user created. FS9 is a case in point. While the engine certainly seems capable enough the default art is hideous. Spend some time downloading and you will be able to replace all the aircraft with far better looking versions that also reflect real world airlines not some hopelessy faked ones.

The sims huge appeal (among a certain group) is that you can create your own addons like clothes and furniture. So perhaps games that play online where others can actually see your creation they should allow for user created content as well.

Of course they are not going to want that. First time someone adds a topless piece of clothing all hell is going to break loose.

Guess they are just going to have to find a way to create a larger customer base. Here is a tip. Get rid of credit card only subscription. Large parts of the world don't have the widespread use of credit cards. A company like sony does however have local offices pretty much every in the world. Use them to also accept local bank transfers.

Second Life

[neostorm]

I am not entirely certain of this since I haven't played the game myself but I think the MMO "Second Life" allows for users to create in-game objects that are saved on the servers.
The graphics in this particular title are hideous, but with a developer stepping back to allow the users to create their own world, litterally, it might be pretty cool in the future.

Just food for thought.

generalize the question

[TwistedGreen]

What makes exploring fun in general?

It's just what humans do. I like how Frank Herbert describes it, in Dune, as the Atreides leave Caladan for Arrakis:

"Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken."

Online worlds and adventure games in general simulate that, which is what makes them fun.

Hmm...

[NanoGator]

Personally, what interests me about MMORPG games is interaction with other people. I would love for a GTA based massively multiplayer game. Heh I get a smile on my face just imagining some of the mischief I can get into. That's what I used to do with Quake. Play little games with other people's minds. It was always fun making the other guy go "Son of a bitch!"

It seems to me that anything you can do to create a game where the humans are allowed to be human puts it on the right track. Pity they took the flipoff button out in Quake 3.

Binko

[Graymalkin]

If Sony or anyone else wanted to sell me an online game they would need to nix the credit card requirement. I've got enough recurring charges on my card without a video game being tacked on top. Sell me the game with three months of online time attached to it. Give me another three months for every expansion I buy. Three months gives me enough time to play the game enough to decide if I like it or if I wasted my money. Instead of having me sign up with a credit card sell a little calling card like deal with X weeks of server time.

All the content in the world doesn't matter when a game needs a credit card to play. Credit card requirements exclude lots of students both in high school and college as well as people who simply don't want/need more credit card charges. Companies then wouldn't need to worry about content because there would be people online to interact with.

Once I'm playing the game my interest isn't too hard to keep. If you're running a fantasy game give players a couple languages or writing systems to learn. Provide clues to special items or abilities in these languages. It give the hard core players something to do and rewards them for it. Also give the players a highly interactive world. I want to see a game where any NPC I can talk to will give me a unique reaction depending on a number of different factors. Take dialog trees to the next level by adjusting the NPC's actions and demeanor to the results of the dialog. If you insult a member of an NPC clan or guild you should have some consequence any time you meet another of that group's members.

I'd also like to see games learn from the likes of Pokemon and Animal Crossing. Both of those games use real time clocks to change the world according to the time. When it is dark out different things happen than during the day. Events take place only on particular days. Putting this into an online game would be easy. Tie the game's calandar either to the real world one or its own. If its around Halloween give people spooky adventures, if its around Christmas give them philanthropic ones. Give players a reason to have their characters online and in particular areas at certain times. Characters can have different schedules based on any of their personal atributes. Mages might be called to a conclave or mage fair and fighters might be invited to a tournament. No new media needs to be made for these sorts of events, just NPC scripts and players shwoing up to participate.

Inside the game world give players something to do besides blindly adventure or talk to NPCs. Tournaments or contests where players can be rewarded for particular skills would be a pretty good idea. Again no media needs to be produced, only in-game scripting and characters are needed.

Re:Binko

[tvalley000]

Pre-paid playtime cards are actually the norm in places like Korea and Malaysia, where the predominant MMOG audience is based in Internet cafes. In a cafe situation, it's not really expected that people would commit to secure, credit card based transactions over a public terminal. Besides, apparently there is a large population of transients playing these games in the streets of many asian cities -- making it that harder for them to get online if they've got to have a credit card for the barrier of entry.

muds as an example

[deemah]

So graphics are what make MMORPGs interesting? Nonsense. MUDs/MUSHes/MOOs have been running for years with little more than the classic text adventure console style and are _still_ hugely popular. Of course, being for the most part free to play might have an additional acctraction.

The whole point of the genre must be player-player interaction - if a world is so large and sparse that my character wanders in a wilderness for vast hours of gameplay, i'm not getting the experience i've paid for.

Adding player-built features is a great way to hike up the amount of player interaction, as is the simpler introduction of player killing ( even with the associated possibility of abuse ).

In summary, I'd rather enjoy a text-based adventure than be bored of looking at pretty pictures.

My Own Personal Take

[robbway]

I've discovered that the original Asheron's call was boring: because you didn't advance in abilities fast enough, the world didn't change, and there was incredible lag and errors. Same thing with the orginal Lineage. In both these examples, you spend your first 40 hours or so battling training level NPGs, dying a lot, and looting your old corpse. That just isn't fun.

Yet Diablo 2 and Phantasy Star Online kept me glued for hours. Mainly because of the quasi-random dungeons and puzzle placement, as well as the slim possibility of obtaining more rare items for use or trade. Then, when I beat the game single player, I lost interest in both, because the quests didn't change. It was all level building at that point.

So here's my criteria so far for a good MMORPG:
1) Fast level building early on, slow later, with a really high ceiling on levels, or no ceiling at all.
2) Randomly rare items that increase in ability as you advance in level
3) Somewhat random dungeons that seem familiar, but everything moves around each game
4) Fascinating single-player play, but more than 5 chapters, please! Perhaps some Chapter 6 random questing mode? I don't have all the answers.
5) Fascinating multi-player cooperative play. Some things should only be achievable as a group and cooperating.
6) Fascinating multi-player antagonistic play. Hacking and slashing at each other in PK mode is boring as crap and rather dumb. I suggest in addition of PK arena type play, also add competitions throughout the world: races, creature hunts, gambling, treasure hunts, target practice, or whatever is appropriate for the fantasy world.
7) You should never feel maxxed out nor finished with the quests! Especially if you're paying a monthly fee. With Diablo, it kinda made sense that you maxxed out, since you paid all your fees up front with the software purchase. Subscription services should live up to their name: periodic quests, periodic events, holidays, change of season, contests, etc. (not to mention software patches)
8) You should also have some level of permanent effect on the world. A plot of land where your hut is, for example.

SWG

[jafuser]

I only have one guy to pick on, since I only actively play one MMO game currently =)

Gordon Walton Vice President and Executive Producer Sony Online Entertainment writes:

Licenses, so long as they are more world than character based, can help tremendously in giving you the flavor and character of the world you are building. At the same time, licenses can end up dramatically limiting your freedom to add flavor and richness to the world dependent on the relationship you have with the licensor.

Seeing how SOE has so many licensed MMORPGs I wonder which one he's talking about? =P

Experiencing an area that is very similar to one you have already experienced for the first time is a letdown, because it detracts from the player suspension of disbelief.

• Starports. Apparently in the Star Wars universe, all starports are exactly identical and are only large enough to accomodate one ship (except for in Theed).
  
• Cantinas. All the same everywhere. Some have minor interior color differences.
  
• Caves. Many of them are duplicated, just with different enemies inside.
  
• Shuttles. All the same, not even any color differences.
  
• Player Houses. Some overall variety of house types, but very little can be customized about each house itself such as interior and exterior colors, exterior decorations, and lighting for example.
  
• Creature lairs / destroy NPC camps. They all the same set of five or six things (a warren, a dead log, a pile of bones, an earthen mound, etc), no color variations and they are all too small in size.

Having a living world (one with natural motion, an ecology and sensible physics) is also important for immersiveness.

Sensible physics apparently means:

• Players can't jump, not even an inch over a twig laying on the ground (see debris on Rori).
  
• You must enter a house by walking up one specific side of a ramp, even if the ramp is completely buried.
  
• If a hill separates you from your enemy, don't worry, you can shoot straight through it as though it's not there!
  
• A dead log will burst into flames and eventually explode in a huge Simpsons-esque fireball if you destroy it, even with melee weapons (i.e. a sword, fists, or a staff).
  
• You can *walk* up the side of a steep cliff, even if it's nearly at a 90 degree angle to the ground. Not only that, but with sufficient nonmagical skill, you can climb a 200m cliff instantly, since it seems vertical motion is not a component of space-time.
  
• If your enemies intend to you attack you, you better watch out! It seems that despite what was depicted in the movies, bad guys can teleport instantly to your location from over 60m away!
  
• Apparently mobs shrink when they go into their homes, because most creature/NPC homes are smaller than the creatures themselves!

Don't get me wrong. SWG is a cool game, but it has a long way to go to incorporate satisfying content to go with all of their fancy game structure. It will be quite a shame if they never live up to this, considering that they have a great framework in place to build content upon.

In the long run, I look forward to a game which has:

• the player creativity potential of Second Life
  
• a good player-developer connection like in A Tale in the Desert
  
• excellent graphics like Star Wars Galaxies
  
• an honorable FFA social structure (has yet to be done, though IIRC UO does a fair job of it)

Re:Murder

[PainKilleR-CE]

In a PvP server I would normally think that agreeing to a duel was the only implication of consent.

On the other hand, you could be in a PvP server and kill someone from off-screen (depending on the type of game this could be simply with a knife from behind or from a distance using a spell or a bow) without warning and it would probably be similar to murder.

There's a lot more to playing an RPG PvP than simply running around randomly killing people, and some games have more or less etiquette involved than others. People generally don't like to die when it causes some sort of penalty, so the level of etiquette and formality often comes with the level of severity in the penalties. At the same time, if there's no penalty at all, it becomes more like a free-for-all DM game, or maybe a team-based DM game (though the teams being enforced mostly by the players themselves in many RPGs). In that kind of situation you expect to die at just about any moment.