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RPG Devs Should Beware MMOGs

Posted by Zonk on from the going-to-eat-your-lunch dept.

CVG is reporting on comments made by Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. In an interview with the site, he points out that traditional PC RPG developers are in danger of permanently losing out to the developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. "He believes it's key that developers of non-MMO RPGs look closely at what the genre offers over MMORPGs to ensure the RPG genre doesn't lose out to the increasingly popular massively multiplayer online world. 'I think those of us that make non-MMO RPGs need to look at what a single-player/small multiplayer RPG can do that MMOs can't and spend our time and effort on those things', Urquhart said. "

15 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Not the same market! by Mishotaki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The MMORPG and the RPG genre are completely different, one is for socialising with people in a vast world with only a backstory guiding them while the other is more oriented to dicovering a story by yourself....

    1. Re:Not the same market! by 7Prime · · Score: 4, Insightful

      *PC* RPG, not console RPGs. That's the point. A lot of American made, PC RPGs are basically MMORPGs without the MMO part... they have very little story, and are so obsessed with non-linearity and the "make your own character" bullshit that they absolutely refuse to do so.

      jRPGs/console RPGs are a different genre and a different market. aRPGs either need to either jump onboard with the MMO stuff, or learn a few things about story and character development from their friends across the Pacific. Both genres have merrit and a strong future, single-player, non-linear RPGs, however, do not. Elder Scrolls, I'm looking at YOU!

      --
      Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
    2. Re:Not the same market! by edremy · · Score: 4, Insightful
      jRPGs/console RPGs are a different genre and a different market. aRPGs either need to either jump onboard with the MMO stuff, or learn a few things about story and character development from their friends across the Pacific. Both genres have merrit and a strong future, single-player, non-linear RPGs, however, do not. Elder Scrolls, I'm looking at YOU!

      Yeah, I mean, Oblivion only sold 3M copies, it's obvious that the single player non-linear RPG is doomed!

      I must admit I'm a bit confused why you think Morrowind/Oblivion don't have strong stories. They do. In fact, most of the single-player "western" RPGs I can think of have *better* stories than the jRPGs I can think of- Fallout, Planetscape Torment, Icewind dale, etc. There aren't a lot of them since they are hard to make- the people who like them demand massive amounts of content, multiple plot lines and actual (re)playability, and sales figures for those that don't measure up suck. jRPGs don't have to worry about most of that- it's much more canned. You don't have to figure out six different ways to finish every questline to avoid pissing off the guy who went stealth and couldn't steal the Frobizz of Justice- you're just going to watch the pretty graphics and develop your character into the same one everyone else has.

      --
      "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
    3. Re:Not the same market! by Uniquitous · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're certainly not the only one. I prefer the "solitude" of single player RPGs, as they provide some great benefits over MMO's. Just off the top of my head: I only have to pay for it once, I don't get nerfed, I don't have obligations to a gaming clan to run an instance for the thousandth time so the noobs can level, and I can pick it back up in 2 years and not play in a ghost town. MMO's have their place, but it's no place I want to be.

    4. Re:Not the same market! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
      aRPGs either need to either jump onboard with the MMO stuff, or learn a few things about story and character development from their friends across the Pacific.

      Are you kidding me? American RPGs need to stay the fuck away from JRPGs as much as possible. Most of us don't want to watch a linear emo-anime story unfold in the exact same way no matter what we do about it. I hate that there were almost no good RPGs on the PS2, a console supposedly lauded for them. Yeah, if you like spiky blue haired androgynous protagonists with gigantic swords and cute poses you're in luck. But if you like meaty stories that aren't aimed at Japanese teenagers, and those fanboys who emulate them, you're out of luck.

      Bring back RPGs of the 80's. Oblivion is a good start, but it had some killer flaws (I must admit it tried too hard to be non-linear). Neverwinter Nights is a even better one. NWN2 was a big step backwards.

      You know what the best old-school RPG was last generation? Gladius. Especially with the swing meter turned off. Good old fashioned party-based RPG goodness.

  2. Advantage by laffer1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biggest advantage is the lack of 13 year olds whining and asking for help. Just focus on games targeted to mature gamers.

    --
    MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
  3. RGP vs MMOG by bobo+mahoney · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For me the biggest reason to play a single player/ small group games vs. an MMOG is that I can play in smaller bouts. It is a bit of a waste to play an MMOG for 20 minutes, yet it works OK to play 20 minutes at a time in a single player game. Two year olds tend to dictate when you can and can't play.

    --
    Bobo Mahoney
  4. Coming from OBSIDIAN!? by SpeedyDX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    NWN2 and KotOR2?

    I think it's key for Obsidian to develop games that don't have 50 bugs around every corner. I started the first act of NWN2 5 times, and they all ended up with corrupted save files after crashing, before I gave up on it. For KotOR2, I lost both my main save and my back up save to some weird bug.

    Maybe they should worry about ironing out their bugs before they worry about competing with MMOs.

  5. You mean, like, telling stories? by LionKimbro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Single-Player RPG's have always excelled, and will always excel, at what they do: They tell stories.

    Like books, before them.

    I don't see any danger here to the RPG.

    That said, it might be fun to read a book (play an RPG) with others some time, and if they made it possible in the game, that might be neat, if it worked out.

    Perhaps you get cues, on what to say and act, but you do it in your own words, with language tips to the side, and briefings before-hand? (Like a computer-mediated LARP?) Could be neat.

  6. Quick tips for Obsidian by wooden+pickle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably the first things Obsidian should worry about are: 1) Releasing products that are finished. Hi KOTOR2 2) Releasing products with an adequate amount of performance optimization. You shouldn't have to turn NWN 2 settings down to the point of making the game look 6 years old in order to make it playable.

  7. Re:Isn't this a no-brainer? by fitten · · Score: 5, Insightful

    mmorpgs offer never-ending opportunities for character advancement and development.


    Never ending trips into UBRS, LBRS, MC, BL, Strat, Scholo, ZG, etc. does not equate to never-ending opportunities for character advancement and development.
  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  9. Re:Mod parent up... by Compholio · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but refuse to get sucked in to the time and money sink that is an MMORPG...
    And that's exactly why the game producers don't care about people like you or I anymore. Everything's about maximizing profits and the game studios can make more money off of people who pay a monthly fee for their games. That's not to say they don't make a profit off of traditional games but they don't make as much profit.
  10. I Agree! by Senjutsu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After playing my first MMO, a non MMO seems rather "lonely" and "empty", and I am not even that social. I think that will be hard to overcome. Why, just the other day I was playing Final Fantasy XII, but had to shut it off out of sheer loneliness. It just felt so empty; whither the naked people running around and dancing for no discernible reason? Whither the messages asking me "u want 2 bai goldz"? Whither the people 40-levels above me challenging me to duels every 3.5 seconds in between inquiries into whether or not I am "sum kinda fag"?
     
    Without those things it hardly felt like any kind of immersive story-telling experience at all.
  11. Oblivion is illustration of the bad state of RPGs by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oblivion barely qualifies as an RPG. The skills and armor sets were drastically reduced from Morrowind, and the combat was morphed into a Quake-like first-person twitchfest rather than a stat-based combat system. Classes don't matter, because you can do anything anyway. You can be the Arena Champion as a level 1 warrior, and then join the Mage's Guild and work your way to the top without ever actually using magic. The world and most of its quests (especially the main quest) are totally bland and meaningless.

    It's endemic of the "next-gen" hype that leads to budgets spent on crap like SpeedTree and FaceGen rather than making the fucking game.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."