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The Secret Life Of MMOG Characters
An article at Gamasutra pines for MMOG characters to have their own lives. Specifically, the author wishes that over a very long period of time xp would accrue for parked characters. From the article: "Here's what I'd like to see: instead of Vanille Ice and all the millions of unused characters sitting on their collective tookuses, why not imagine that each day they venture forth and do some low-level crime fighting (orc slaying, etc.) just to, you know, 'stay in shape'. Now this workout wouldn't actually happen in any way visible to players logged on, but these characters would earn nominal amounts of experience each day. And in three months time, presto, a new level."
It'd be funnier if they *didn't* work out, and grew a bit broader around the midsection as a result.
A tale in the desert lets you perform "Offline tasks", after you've done them sufficiently in game. If you've collected 500 units of grass in your lifetime, you can set your character to collect grass while you're offine. Or, you can accrue "run time", which you can use for instantaneous travel (the idea being that you did that running while offline).
(for those who don't play WoW, leave your char logged off for a few weeks and when you come back you get double experience up until your next level or so)
And besides, the power levelers are going to run circles around "casual" players any day of the week.
(Guess who just got -1 redundant! Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know!)
If you remain logged off for an extended period of time, leveling up happens 100% faster.
The MMO that I play is Vendetta Online, and it is currently in the process of some significant overhauling. The biggest focus right now is on rewriting the client, but the devs are also working on improving the AI of the NPCs, so that they'll live their lives much the same way the player characters live theirs. But rather than "this workout wouldn't actually happen in any way visible to players logged on", the actions of the NPCs in Vendetta Online are very much going to be visible to players. If there's a trade mission being offered, and a player doesn't take the mission before an NPC shows up where the misison is being offered, the NPC will take the mission. And when a trade mission is taken, either by a player or an NPC, a Pirate mission might be made available from a competitor, which can also be taken by either players or NPCs.
Join moola.com, play games to earn money.
There are other games that develop these ideas as well, but I don't think it's a serious article. Any article that mentions Progress Quest obviously thinks of MMO's very highly. heh
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
Offline skill-based "leveling". The author of this article needs to check out EVE. Your character trains while you're asleep, while you're playing, heck, even if you cancel your account and leave a long skill running it will keep training!
It really makes for great gameplay because no matter how much someone grinds the game, they won't train any faster than me (unless they can get some uber implants which assist slightly in the speed at which you can train skills). But basically in EVE I can start a new character and within about 2 months or so compete and kill players that have been playing for 3 years because you can specialize - take many things to level 4 in a specific subset of skills (there are 5 levels to every skill) intead of that last "level 5" that takes eons to train (like over 23 days for some skills).
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
Just what I want to see when I login: When I pop into the zone, I'm in my house... but I'm not alone. There's a level 93 quadruple-classed Ninja/Executioner/Assassin/Brawler named "Chok Norissss" giving me a red-assed beatdown! As I lay there bleeding to death, Chok explains himself... Apparently, while I was logged out for a few days, my toon decided that he would go pork Chok's in-game life partner, repeatedly...
Long Live Sig Vicious.
No, it's closer to "Concerned writer offers suggestions to Game Companies on possible ways to maintain interest in their MMOG titles on the part of casual gamers as a device to improve income."
If the MMOG Companies can figure out how to make it attractive enough for players to maintain their monthly subscriptions even if said players don't have time to log in every week or even every month to play, they've hit a potential goldmine of long-term subscriptions.
For instance, I played Asheron's Call for nearly 6 years. I was part of a good monarchy, had characters in various states of advancement and even had in-game goals I was actively working towards. I started playing before I got married, and even after I got married, I simply got my wife hooked on the game and we played together. So why did I cancel? Well, one-month old newborn twins will severely negatively impact both your wallet and your spare time. AC fell far enough down the priority list that I could not justify paying the subscriptions on the three accounts we own when we didn't have time and energy to log in for more than 5 minutes in a given month. Paying $40/month to Turbine for essentially nothing wasn't a worthwhile proposition.
But if Turbine had set it up so that some sort of advancement was happening on my character even if I didn't log in for 6 months straight but merely kept my subscription active, well, I might still have one or more active accounts.
In the end, it's not about Lamers wanting something for nothing. It's about Game companies maximizing their revenue streams (Duh). If allowing some sort of limited, offline advancement for players who merely maintain an active subscription keeps players like me who would otherwise cancel their subscriptions for lack of time and desire to play then the Game companies have found, in essence, a source of free money.
Wow's idea that you could spend a week (at least at launch) with that toon being offline and end up with 1.5 levels of 2x experience worked. It was incentive to bring your alts out once in a while, and have them gain a level fairly quickly, then put them back in the closet for a week or two.
But you still had to do stuff to gain that experience, and quest rewards weren't doubled. Only actual mob experience doubled. You had to work for it. It was just easier to get somewhere on that less used toon.
But just gain experience while off-line? What's the point in rewarding people for doing nothing? Next you are going to ask that you be given a stipend for not playing that character? The character should get free currency because they weren't played?
No offense, but you play MMOs to accomplish something. I don't want to accomplish something by NOT playing.
Or, as Herm Edwards, former coach of the NY Jets put it, "You PLAY to WIN the GAME".
I love how there are a lot of solutions to the problem that the basic act in most MMPORPG's is boring. You grind away, killing baby spiders of tenderness or sickly sewer rats until hours and hours later you level, at which point you can go buy a bunch of new spells and some new abilities. Then you test them out in combat, and head back out to grind for another 6 hours to level one more time.
Combat always seems to be too straightforward. I've been playing world of warcraft dwdfor about 80 hours, and so far I've found one enemy that I couldn't kill with a default strategy. Sure, towards the endgame I could group up and do interesting things, but for now it is a grindfest. At least they don't make you sit down for a half hour like Everquest did: 60 seconds or so of wasted time is enough in WoW.
If your game can be easily scripted, you haven't made an interesting enough game. Every single MMPORPG out there suffers from this.
Free leveling would be a great way of drawing people back in to play if they haven't been on in a while, but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem that what you're asking the player to do should be fun.
The ______ Agenda
The writer wants to have characters do something while the player is offline. WoW tries to address this with "rested bonus".
What I always thought would be a better idea is to have characters get tired the longer they grind. The first two hours of "work" each day you get 100% XP. After that it's a linear roll off until at 8 hours, you cease to make any XP gains by grinding (still get XP from questing).
Then people would have a dis-incentive for "power levelling" and just go out and enjoy the world and, you know, put the RP back into MMORPG.
what if you gave the characters a day job, like some folks do in D&D campaigns. say, you have to make your character go to a business, get hired, and then, when you're not out adventuring, you can be said to be doing the "day job." day jobs probably don't provide much advancement, but certain jobs could be based off of skills. in one campaign, a character got a job as a 'blacksmith'.. and after finishing a particularly long dungeon exploration, we decided that "the next adventure happens two months later, when you're all summoned to the village elder's house....." in that two-month's span, they got a salary (based on their chosen job, and if any of their 'skills' seemed like it would make them better at performing that job), and recieved X amount of money for 2 months of labor. nothing much, granted, but enough to seem reasonable and provide a more interesting level of immersion.
WoW however also enjoys the fact that hitting level 60 isn't that hard at all so some friends of mine who play it say its not really worth it since people generally fall into two catagories. A) they play so infrequently or in short periods of time that the xp boost eventually just caps out and is 'wasted' or B) they play 'hardcore' enough that rested bonus just isn't worth the 'downtime'.
Wow. Take it to the next level. Whenever you're not online, your character has some other personality that actually works towards a _different_ and possibly contrary set of goals--instead of grinding XP, maybe he goes out and harvests fish or shoots puppies or something. Of course, the more time you spend online, the harder your character works against you when you're offline (just to keep it fair for the casual gamer). Man, that'd be hard to balance, but why do games always _require_ that you're in more or less total control of your character? If you're going to give them an "offline" life, why not do something _interesting_ with it? Imagine logging back in only to find that some naked newbie's character is locked in your apartment's bathroom. Total riot.
However, these don't, I think, adequately balance the playing-field; in WoW even with the rested bonus countermeasure, those that grind constantly still have a significant edge in arms and armor, and it is this issue that must be addressed. Perhaps, as 'Time Goes By,' you could tell your character to pursue various tasks; somewhat like the training option in sports simulations that allows your character to focus on a single aspect of the game (shooting, tackling, tactics, etc) or in Homeworld Cataclysm in which the Beast mothership can focus on one aspect of her being to accelerate it (building, researching, firing, defending). Similarly, one could instruct your character towards a course of action on log-out, dependent on your locale and skills.
For example, Yassi the Night Elf hunter could be instructed, upon log-out, to hunt low-level wild beasts, with her skinning skill and also make bags with the leather recieved, so that when I log back onto Yassi, she'd have made a lot of bags, and improved her skinning and leatherworking skills in the process. Or, if Yassi was miles from home in the Barrens, she could be instructed to make her way back to Darnassus; when I log back on, she's got less silver (for hippogryph fare) but she's back in Darnassus. Or she could even grind against low-level monsters and merely collect their drops. In this way, one could automate some of the more mundane parts of the game, and allow greater freedom for offline characters.
Of course, it would be mightily important to ensure that only one character per account could use this ability (otherwise each player would just create tons of mules to harvest stuff) and that the benefits recieved would be much lower than the benefits of doing it one's self; I'd say between ten and twenty percent.
Any thoughts?
games journalism blog
For those who haven't tried it; IMHO it's the first MMORPG that provides all the best excitement of everquest without any of the tedium.
Disclaimer: I don't claim to know anything about, well, anything.
.02% to the player's "to hit" probability percentile -for that skill-, per unit pre-purchased, but at the cost of being -kept- offline for 9.5 hours AND 100 gold pieces.. value dependant on exchange rate.
.05
.. roll the dice ..?
Sure, getting XP modifiers and offline cash and breast plate, etc. -while- absent is fine.. but why should you? What incentive does the ever-giving, limitless-supply, disneyworld factory conveyor belt of the MMORPG world have to fork out this stuff? Tax those that wish to -take advantage- of these systems..
This is just an example of -one- application. The variables, adjustments and angles are limitless. You could SkillShop (TM)(R)(C)(patent pending) Foul Language. In this case, it would add
Choose skills you'd like to -invest- in while offline. Not just expect a return for showing up. Like being a deadbeat dad and coming back to a brand new house.
Multiple benefits in that the worlds will be less crowded with AFK'ers, who will be 'active' in the world, but identified as offline (maybe even with a countdown counter for all to see), who, for a fee and some time to read or cook or walk or enjoy a movie, or find a real life mate, could enhance everyone's online experience and fill pockets at the same time.
Those in it for a quick boost give the server less time to rest but the local economy benefits from the higher rates and the need for (?) trainers, facilities, materials consumed, produced or processed, etc.
Logoff options:
Combat:
[ ](42m/5g) [ ](24m/15g) [ ](15m/35g) Flame Punch +.15
[4](44m/7g) [ ](27m/18g) [ ](15m/35g) Spinning Kick +.12
[6](90m/5g) [ ](45m/14g) [2](15m/35g) Foul Language +.02
General:
[ ](32m/7g) [ ](17m/16g) [ ](15m/35g) Legs - Running Skill +
[ ](47m/8g) [ ](19m/15g) [ ](15m/35g) Arms - Grab/Climb Skill +.03
[ ](48m/9g) [ ](19m/13g) [ ](15m/35g) Mind - Dodge Skill +.01
Collected funds could be rerouted back into the community, providing a pool of earnable offline income. As a "Foul Language Master" you could offer rogue non-NPC training at lower (higher?) rates (in remote areas or 'villages' with no trainers). Rare skills can be got by meeting (and paying/partying with) strangers. Bartering Skills/Product?
2D avatar chat could be offered as a waiting-room or lobby experience. parlor games, voice chat, etc. etc. etc. without the hangup of walking long distances, grinding away at mobs or other repetitive tasks.
Now, mix in the model of 'play for free, upgrades for Real Money' and the game companies might have a new cash cow. Deep pocket heroes. An uber-skilled, well-funded player who is hardly ever online due to constant offline-training-time.
but, whatever happened to
Right, sure. Lets take the MMO out of the MMORPG for a moment. Would you think say a game like Baldur's Gate was as much fun if you first had to grind you way to level 20 before getting on with the game proper? No.
In single player land we want the game to be fun regardless what our level. Levelling up is just a way to give you a few new toys to play with. Just because the level 18 spells are really neat doesn't mean it is excusible that the level 1-17 spells suck donkey balls.
In short I think MMORPG's should be fun to play regardless your level. Removing levels completly is not going to be acceptable but I think they should be far less important. If the casual player who after a year is still a low level can have as much fun as the power grinder (or perhaps even MORE fun) then you got a game that people will not cancel because they find themselves all alone unable to find a party. Current games suffer to much from the fact that a new player is in a world with everyone else at high level being bored.
But frankly I think it is impossible to achieve this. The only way I can think of doing it is to make combat far far more complex. Stop it with the simple D&D crap and get some real strategy and tactics in there. Perhaps where the difference between a low level and a high level isn't just special moves but plain experience. Then adding difficulty would be easy. Just increase the number of attackers. With real AI and real combat you could then easily have mixed level groups. Imagine this scenario. High level fighter keeps the center position, a low level fighter stand by his side attacking only one enemy being protected from being overrun by the high level who can fend off multiple attackers.
Current combat ALWAYS runs like this. EVERYONE attack the biggest threat and then work their way through the mob. This is not 'real'. In real live the heavy would take on the heavy and the low levels would take on lower level enemies. One on One. Just imagine how different fights would look. Rather then a dozen models all meshed together they would be spread out more. Rather like a big fight in the movies.
Yeah yeah, I am rambling. I just think that a game that I am expected to play for years should be more challenging then a single player game I finish in a week. For me the problem with all the MMO's I have played is that I grow fed up with the combat wich is boring and repetetive. Change this. Make it so a cellar filled with rats is fun. Scale the dungeon for total group level. So 1 level 1 player gets 1 rat. 2 level 2 players get 2 rats. But a 2 level 1 and a level 10 get 12 rats. Now they have to work as a team, perhaps with the level 10 just concentrating on keeping the enemies at bay and the low levels picking them off one by one.
Tada! Fun for everyone. Sadly it ain't going to happen, the current move is to arcade like combat with it becoming more about twitchy turning games then cool strategy and hot tactics. MMO the world of lag and everyone is going for combat that requires instant reaction.
DDO is particulary bad, you got to block manually. Oh sure, that is fun. For the first day. But after you played a year and blocked a million times it might get a bit repetitive.
Sadly I am in a minority, I actually prefer it if my avatar is not under direct control but rather takes instructions and carries them out.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
A system that rewards people who not play it is detrimental to the motivation of the gamers. Why should anyone grind on when all they have to do is create a dozen alts that can sit unused and slowly but steadily gain level? Too many shortcuts or 'easy roads' means that fewer will be interested in the difficult road, and soon enough fewer will be interested in the game.
So, the reverse would be better, or in my mind at least more interesting. A system where experience steadily decreases while you are away, at least down to the most recently reached level. This would more accurately reward dedicated gamers, thereby making an interesting game.
Of course this is a difficult balance issue. WoW for instance could never bring this into game, because they would loose a lot of their customer base. It doesnt matter to them that those who stayed would be even more dedicated.
I would like to see a somewhat harsher game... I mean, I play ArcticMUD off and on and that is one harsh game... you die, you lost immense amount of exp, all your gear, suffer stat damage for a week or more, etc etc etc... so harsh i usually let the character die for good (good roleplay) and take a few months off before playing again... sounds unfun? problem is, I keep coming back... the point becomes, in a persistant world, when you log off, your character should still be int he game as an NPC... lets say we have an unnamed game in which the ENTIRE economy relies on player/npc crafted goods... the only items that can be looted from battles are those that at one point HAD been made by players... this would make such items as swords and armor and arcanery intrinsically precious... not like in WoW where you discard your sword every couple of days or so; So anyways, lets say your character has blacksmithy skill... you spend your online time experimenting, coming up with new formulas, new designs, trying to achieve a new plane of skills or such... and offline, except for sleep time, the npc version of yourself is hard at work filling orders and quotas for more basic but needed swords, armor for the town guards, etc etc etc... making money, building up crafting experience, etc... sure, there'd be the danger that your town could get sacked and you'd die... but then again, all the more incentive to keep the town guards well armed, giving a real NEED for crafters (over the hobbyist level that you find in current games), and guards and ... gasp... ROLES to play...
anyways...
Let's take it a little further -- rather than just having one human player per character, why not trade them around a little?
Every time you log on, you get dropped into a character that somebody else has just logged out of. Feel like doing something anti-social? Violent? Cannibalistic? Go for it! And the best part -- once you've gotten the character in jail / being chased by hundreds of angry players, log out and let somebody else take over. It'll be HI-larious.
After all, you can only program a script to be so evil. Allow other people to run your character when you're away? It's virtual Ted Bundy time.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
It'd be funnier if they *didn't* work out, and grew a bit broader around the midsection as a result.
What's sad is the ammount of players who would frantically try to keep their character in shape, while completely ignoring their real body!
You know where you are? You're in the $PATH, baby. You're gonna get executed!
What would be fun and cool is if you could get new skills or new quests every level and that you could easily do reach said level in a few hours instead of a few months. It wouldn't even have to be a set skill or rewards. Maybe one level you get a new spell. Maybe one level the reward is a new shirt or a bundle of cash. Perhaps give the player a choice of keeping these Quest items or turning them in for something else so it doesn't feel like you're nothing but a Fed Ex service for medicore gear. (I still maintain the Fulborg rod quest is one of the coolest thing in WoW and it serves no purpose whatsoever.) Perhaps they do nothing to improve your stats or gear but you can get cool things to change or improve your appearance. Vanity works in a lot of games why not MMOs?
If you keep a player busy enough and keep them focused on the short term goal they casual players will be content with the level they're at now and want to reach the next level soon without ever thinking about end game.
"This is not 'real'. In real live the heavy would take on the heavy and the low levels would take on lower level enemies. One on One. Just imagine how different fights would look. Rather then a dozen models all meshed together they would be spread out more. Rather like a big fight in the movies."
What real fights do you watch, where people end up slugging it out one on one? Beatdowns in the street are usually gang vs solo. Police and other people trained to fight wait until they have overwhelming numbers before going in to subdue even the weakest prisoner. Military tactics emphasize dropping one enemy through mass fire before turning to engage others. Even barfights turn out to be "gang up on one guy" rather than the bare knuckles stuff you see on TV. Your last line says it best, there - "Rather like a big fight in the movies" That's because movies need to be entertaining, not realistic.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.