Brad McQuaid On Instancing

heartless_ writes "The man behind Everquest and now Vanguard:Saga of Heroes has responded to a Gamergod.com article about chasing that old loving feeling from MMORPGs of the past. He goes off on a long dissertation on Instancing in Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Games. From the articles 'Let's start with the old school: perhaps the designers are big time original D&D players (or at least AD&D - that's what I played - hey I'm not that old). D&D wasn't massively multiplayer - it was you, your group, and the DM. No one would argue that setup created some great times, great experiences, and great memories. I sure have them. And if that is what you think back on mostly, what you cherish, what you are trying to re-create, then having multiple groups around is a problem.'"

Comments

Different balances for different tastes.

[Durinthal]

I've managed to play a good bit of three games that take completely different approaches to using instances: Asheron's Call (no instances, last I checked), World of Warcraft (only large dungeons are instanced), and Guild Wars (everything outside of towns/outposts is instanced). Asheron's Call, at its height, had many crowded dungeons and people waiting in line for spawns, though this always gave you a chance to meet others. Guild Wars, on the other hand, feels empty, though you will always find that creature waiting for you.
I think that Blizzard's done it best, where you can still randomly run into another player in the middle of nowhere (which can be fun for explorers like myself), but you don't have to wait for a boss to respawn at the end of that long dungeon.

Instancing and $15/mo

[Anonymous Coward]

Why pay $15/mo for an mmorpg when you spend large amounts of time in instances? Minimally Multiplayer rpgs let me play alone and with a small group of friends over the internets; isn't the monthly fee supposed to be in part to support server infrastructure that does things you couldn't just do with one computer and a non-dedicated server?

Re:Not really.

[Meagermanx]

MMOs are like all that is boring extracted from a traditional RPG, and shoved into a small space with thousands of people trying to have fun in the same area.
 
Three major factors in MMOs, combat, finance and stats, are the three most boring and time consuming parts of RPGs.
In RPGs it's better to have half a dozen fights in two dozen rooms, and have the rest of the rooms be cool treasure areas, trapped areas, puzzles, and the occasional NPC. Shove monsters in the remaining rooms (in interesting positions: sleeping, playing cards, and other exploitable situations), and you've got a dungeon. A cliche dungeon, but a fun one to play in, none the less.
MMOs just take the monster-smashing, stick the monsters in random areas and make you fight them 200 times before you get to move on.
RPGs make you earn your gold and treasure and then go back to town and reap your rewards with cool weapons and armor and spells. That's fun.
MMOs are so boring in the treasure-grabbing department that people are willing to pay actual money for in-game credits. We're not going to even get into "town runs".
RPGs make you sort out your own stats, which is necessary. But once you get your equipment set up, you're good to go until you level up or get something cool, in which case you're more than glad to fiddle with the rules. It makes math fun.
MMOs make you constantly min-max. They have plenty of items, but they're all the same. A spear works the same as a short sword works the same as a mace. Boring.
 
If you like those aspects of MMOs, go ahead and play 'em. I recommend a good RPG any day.
I've recently started an RPG forum with some friends. We play with the rules of the game (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), there's a 24 hour chance to give your orders, and it gives me plenty of time to work up flavor text and look up rules. I'm having more fun than I've ever had with an MMO.

Do Instances harm MMO communities?

[1inthestink]

As a veteran of a few MMOG's (WoW and City of Heroes most recently), I thought Brad's comments were mostly on the mark. I was surprised at how even-handed his remarks about World of Warcraft were, although he did allow himself a few cheap shots.

I definitely think that he exaggerates the impact of instancing on speed of leveling. City of Heroes is a highly instanced game, in fact, the majority of missions take place in an instance, whereas very little of World of Warcraft takes place in instanced areas. But there's no question that the speed of leveling is dramatically faster in WoW. He gives some great analysis of the thought process behind designing a faster leveling game, but the statement that more instances = faster advancement is demonstrably false.

Furthermore, I think that instancing is just one aspect of an MMOG that can either work for or against community-building. The biggest factor in my mind is content soloability. If you don't NEED a group to defeat the vast majority of a game's content, a lot of people won't bother. You can pretty much solo your way to max level in WoW, but trying to do so in EQ or any traditional MMOG would be damn near impossible. This fits in with WoW's more casual-friendly atmosphere, but it means that unless you plan on joining a guild, you're unlikely to make many new friends.

Not that you'd really want to if you've spent any time listening to the General Chat channel in the Barrens. "OMFG Trollz r gayzor!!111!"