MMOG Designers Throw Down Over Instancing

jkdove writes "On November 29, 2004, Slashdot featured an article with Brad McQuaid, CEO of Sigil Entertainment and his stance on Instances in MMORPG's. Raph Koster, Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment and Scott Jennings, Server Programmer for Mythic Entertainment quickly entered into the ongoing debate at GamerGod, offering their own contrasting viewpoints. From Raph Koster's entry: 'Brad cynically points out that the more common reasons are because there wasn't enough time or budget to develop sufficient content to keep spawn points from being contested or overcrowded.' From Scott Jenning's reply: 'I'm not really sure where he's going here. Players know when they're going through the same instance for a thousandth time, so I'm not really aware of any game that can claim this as a wedge against the Content Demon.'" Update: 12/01 17:12 GMT by Z : Updated to keep Scott out of trouble. Sorry Sanya!

Comments

Wake Me Up

[Shihar]

Someone wake me up when someone builds a MMO(ha ha)RPG that doesn't involve camping, hunting, dungeons or anything of that matter. Would I jump at the chance to join a game where I can play a member of a mercenary company, train up by sparring within the company, then go out on missions that have meaning? Hell yes. Would I love to play a game where you can join the kingdom's army and go on military campaigns? You betcha. Can I even begin to stomach the thought of another game where I play generic fantasy 'adventure' number 13245803 who, like everyone else spends his every single waking second wandering around looking for shit to kill? God damn mother fucking NO.

Good job MMO(ha ha)RPGs, you have perfect the 'go out and kill NPCs from now until the end of time' gameplay. Now grow a pair and make a game with meaning.

This entire instancing Vs static camps just exemplifies what is wrong with MMORPGs. No one is talking about making interesting and dynamic worlds with interesting events happening all of the time. They are just rehashing the best ways to line up NPCs to be killed for f4t l00t and 3xp. Bah. What a waste.

I'll just stick to Armageddon.org. Text it might be, but at least those game designers realize that 'adventuring' by slaughtering thousands of NPCs is stupid and boring. Someone point me to another multiplayer game other then Armageddon where a band of mercenaries can be hired out to protect a wagon train and I'll be impressed. Until then, fuck these massive multiplayer online NPC whacking games.

Re:Wake Me Up

[Shihar]

I am more then a little confused about how got "make a MUD where everyone dies" from stating that killing NPCs for l00t is boring. I think your problem is that MMORPGs have rotted your mind to the point where you are convinced that there exists only three types of online games; games where you do nothing put PK, and games where you do nothing but kill NPCs, and games where you get to do some of both.

I don't want any of the above. I just want a game with meaning. Yes, MMORPGs have proven that they pwn3 at making games where you play whack the mole for exp and skills. Now I want to see an MMORPG with a living, breathing, dynamic, and interesting world. I don't want a fairy land where everyone is an "adventurer" (that would be code for kills NPC all waking hours of the day) or a PKer.

I want a game where I can be a frigging mercenary or a soldier. Instead of killing shit for f4t l00t, I want to kill raiders who are attacking the town or a wagon train I am guarding. I want to be sent in to battle with other players in formation to fight the armies of whatever. I want a game where I can go raid the enemy's towns. I want a game a game where I do something for a frigging reason. I just want a game where whenever I go off and kill something, I can justify it. No, murdering your way through Castle Black for the 1000th time to loot Lord 3vils sword of +2 is not justification. That is idiotic.

Basically, I want a game with a fucking story, even if the story is the mundane life of Joe the mercenary. The thought of one more mindless fucking game where I play generic fantasy adventurer number 3409583 makes me want to vomit.

Seeing as how I assume the mods have all gone to bed (and even if they don't my karma is untouchable), let me put it in real simple and blunt terms. MMORPGs are the most worthless pieces of shit games in existence. They rely purely on addiction and nothing else. If one day everyone woke up and realize that "hey, killing shit for exp and l00t is fucking boring" or "hey, mindless PK kinda gets old, I should go play Counter Strike where at least it is done right", MMORPGs would be left with exactly zero subscribers.

MMORPGs are the most unoriginal, unimaginative, least daring, formulaic pieces of shit video games in existence.

Re:Wake Me Up

[Shihar]

The capacity for interesting and dynamic content DOES exist. Some MUDs have already done this. It is just going to take an MMORPG maker some guts to break the mold. They are going to have to build an MMORPG that likely will hold little appeal to their traditional target market (spread sheet addicts). Sure, such a move would be risky, but as more then one MMORPG is learning right now, the market for addicts is limited.

If you want to see what I am talking about done in practice, try www.armageddon.org It is a MUD that is exactly what I am describing. Granted a scale up from 50 players to 1000 players is a tall order, but I don't think it is an impossibility try and incorporate some of what has been proven on a small scale and try and apply it to an large scale.