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The Evolution of Online Dragon-Slaying
1up has a second article in a series on the evolution of online games. This entry wonders aloud about the MMOG player preoccupation with dragon-slaying. From the article: "Are we really that happy to hang out with orcs all the time? Apparently, yes. According to mmogchart.com, an MMO research site run by Bruce Sterling Woodcock, fantasy-based RPGs account for approximately 85 percent of the market share of all current MMO players. Aside from the recent exception of City of Heroes (which lets us swap out our leather elven tights for spandex superhero tights), most games that don't let us brandish +3 battleaxes of dorkdom and slay mightye beastes have fallen over like level 1 rats." We've previously discussed the first article in this series.
Oh dear.
"Game-design-wise, WOW's success proves in a very strong way what I had hoped for years was true," says Auto Assault's Seabury, "which is that fun games are what people really want. I've often felt the first-generation MMOGs were built by sadomasochists, despite their success. There were so many punishing, tedious systems and mechanics that made those first games great for someone, for example, who might enjoy peeling their fingernails backward very slowly, just to say they could do it."
You may now return to your timesinks.
Dragon-slaying in games seems to be on a huge decline - I havn't played a game where you really have a serious quest that involves slaying a dragon in a long time, and not just as a side thing that takes 40 people in WOW. Maybe PETA got involved?
"Potpourii doesn't taste as good as it smells." - Dark_Link2135
My opinion may not count for much since I've only recently begun playing an MMOG, unless you count the few days I spent with Ultima Online when it was brand new before deciding I didn't want to keep paying for it, but I have a low tolerance for inconsistency in a setting. I can accept magic as a catch-all explanation for all the unrealistic bits in a fantasy setting, particularly resurrections, but scifi and more realistic settings don't usually have that luxury. I've tried thinking of ways around some such hurdles in a scifi setting, but it's a lot easier to just say "A wizard did it."
Eve Online? I'd always thought it'd been fairly successful.
While I agree with the basic premise of the article, perhaps it focusses too much on traditional specifics like dragons and dwarves. In reality, the point applies more widely.
Anarchy Online eventually developed into a terrific SciFi-based MMOG, but even though it has no dragons nor dwarves, it is nevertheless a classic MMOG of the D&D kind, but with the classic D&D characters and creatures replaced by SF-themed ones.
Yes, game designers need to learn the right lessons about what players now expect (no grinding, casual and solo play friendliness, etc etc), but it's not enough to simply replace dragons and dwarves with robots and mutants and aliens.
Anarchy Online paved the way with its tremendous instanced missions and extreme ease of travel, but it's Guild Wars that really set the new standard for keeping the player happy by banishing the traditional Sadist's Manual of MMOG Design and rethinking the whole approach to player friendliness.
How many times are we going to refer to SirBruce's charts as definitive? He's mentioned publicly, as well as on the site itself, that his numbers are based on press releases and hearsay. Additionally, the companies themselves use the same terms to describe different metrics ("registered users" vs. "subscribed users" vs "active users" vs "active accounts", etc).
Sure, there are no other independent sources out there compiling this information, but surely we don't have to be subjected to yet another gaming journalist that believes he or she has found the penultimate source material for another dissertation on the meaning and existence of online games. Do we?
Older video game RPGs simply overused dragons. (The Dragon Warrior/Quest and Final Fantasy series being some of the biggest offenders.) In paper-and-pencil RPGs (such as D&D), dragons were never meant to be common, or even rare. Dragons were meant to be some ultra-rare, near impossible to beat, usually only appearing during storyline related moments monster.
I'm interested in hearing about any MUDs any of my fellow /. MUD geeks have found that they feel are doing something new and original. I'm an avid MUDder but I'm starting to grow sick of the Dikus, etc. The most original I've seen lately is Nodeka, but I'd enjoy seeing any others that are doing something different. Any recommendations, my unwashed nerd masses?
In every market research study and sales report I've seen. from Wizards of the Coast years ago to this day, fantasy roleplaying dominates the roleplaying genre in every medium. Yes, there will always be mildly successful science fiction RPGs, and even lesser candidates such as westerns, cyberpunk, etc., but for the foreseeable future, fantasy RPGs will rule the day. I'd like to offer some real analysis why fantasy MMOs dominate as they do, but I don't have data, just guesses (in short: D&D, Tolkein, and a sort of shared "fantasy" universe that is more approachable than unique worlds.) We should also have to account for churn. The MMORPG genre approaches its first decade of mass appeal, and many of its early adopters have moved on, and many of the new gamers that arrive appear to have the same preferences as the older ones--that is, for fantasy RPGs. At the same time, they haven't been "bored to death" with "yet another fantasy MMORGP". The analysis I've seen, like it or not, is that it's generally better, in terms of sales anyway, to be the 5th or 6th most popular fantasy RPG instead of the 2nd most popular science fiction game.
The funny thing is that most of those same people like to watch sci-fi tv series. Go figure :)
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