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Mitara 2/08/08 4:24:31 AM
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Advanced Member
Joined: 3/22/07 |
There are so many ideas floating around, most of the crap and stuff seen before. But usually its not the ideas that gets the label of being next-gen, its the technology behind it. What is your definition of a next-gen MMO? |
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NeeAnderTall 2/08/08 4:59:36 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 5/25/07
"Train yourself you must, to lose everything that you hold dear" -Yoda |
My opinion of a next generation M.M.O. is characterized by the use of new innovations found in the consumer electronics market. SOE Online is playing around with the idea your agents will e-mail or text message you via cell-phone or wireless technology that your spy-car has been outfitted to your specs and awaits your eventual return to the game. These kinds of ideas are neat but you have to temper them with the cost to the subscriber. Costs the Subscriber has to contend with are easy enough to sum up...their Gaming Rig...Internet Connection with their ISP...and their Subscription to their MMO. Adding some innovations such as real-world connectivity to Blackberrys, cell phones, or texting via proprietary electronic devices might be a killer to afford the extra connectivity fees unless there is a business model that covers this feature. Sony is a company that loves to invent new and proprietary technologies for its consumers. Look at all the music formats they came out with before MP3's became king. If you can show Sony the next gadget craze that is an interface with their MMO you might be on to something worthwhile. Gadgets aside, the next innovative MMO I would love to see is one where you can have more of the controls to the sandbox than subscribers usually get to have now. What are the features that make a business savy MMO company? One that makes a marketable MMO that can compete in the genre it represents, a time sink (alot of annoying time consuming chores in MMO's now) to extend subscription life with each subscriber, and continuous change to keep the subscribers interested. A wider variety of servers is one method of utilizing different rule sets that make each realm unique. Sure there is PVP, PVE, Roleplay, and Test servers, but there are no "free-form" servers where the subscribers can upload their own content, albeit it content requireing some guidance and format conventions to be adhered too. An example would be simle enough...A WOW "free-form" server where you can play any race of character, foster your own reputations by doing quests, where doinf a quest for one side will have negative consequences. A place where mounts can be had earlier, where speed of movement isnt restricted. Also where 1 second equals 1.00 second exactly eliminating the choppy and uneven feel of combat where your toon appears to have uncomfortable slow-motion attacks intersperced with enjoyable fits of frenzied speed attacks. The math or mechanics for weapons vs armor, for character level and skills should be cut and dry, sure some randomness is needed via the electronic dice roll coded in the combat sequence but the combat should flow smoothly and evenly to a strict time standard. All gamers hate the sensation of lag. Eliminate the Lag...would be innovaton enough.
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VultureSkull 2/08/08 6:27:19 AM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 5/02/07 |
I’ve been thinking about what would make a next-gen mmorpg to me. Notice I said next-gen, not 3rd gen or anything like that… I’m talking about a step change from all existing games I’ve played, heard about or read about. In reality I’m thinking about a game that I would enjoy and hope others would too. These are my thoughts and are purely speculative.
Ironically I started by thinking about the origins of MMORPGs… RPGs. And more specifically paper based RPGs. Almost all of the fundamental RPGs/MMORPGs game mechanics are derived from these paper based systems. Character development, spells, skills etc are governed by systems very similar to the old D&D (first published in 1974!), AD&D, Traveller (http://www.travellerrpg.com/eLibrary/Files/T20CharSheet3.pdf). However, Computer based RPGs/MMORPGs have many advantages over paper based systems. Computer RPGs automate the numerical part of RPG systems extremely well and MMORPGs mean that you don’t need all the players in the game to be physically present in the same room to play. Visualisation, especially with the graphics capabilities of today’s computers is a significant improvement also. BUT, paper based RPGs had/have 1 huge benefit over computer RPGs and that is flexibility. If a scenario occurs that isn’t described by the system or the dungeon notes, the dungeon master or games master or whoever is running the game can use his/her imagination to decide what the outcome would/could be.
This is where today’s games really are lacking. They have successfully moved all the other aspects of RPGs in to a computer regulated environment by automating all the rules and systems. By automating the rules so inflexibly they introduce system ‘gaming’, kind of in the way that introducing performance management in an office lets employee’s ‘game’ the system to gain the biggest bonus. IE the game becomes about the rules, rather than the rules supporting the game. This phenomenon is evident in several aspects of MMORPGs today…
a. Exploits (legal or otherwise)
b. Grinding and farming
c. Non immersive game play
d. Power levelling
e. Twinking
Now I’m not saying that we should all go back to playing paper games, but could you really see a paper based RPG where you say to the other guys I’m just going to stand by the lake in Orgrimmar and fish for 4 hours so that I can level my fishing skill. No. So why do gamers do that in MMORPGs? Well MMORPGers have more time to play their favourite game simply due to convenience. Also, the game rewards such behaviour. Why? Because how else do they get you to pay to play other than by giving you things to do. Nobody levels their fishing because they like fishing. They do it because of the promise of some reward when they have a high fishing skill. Maybe players of paper systems did do this, I don’t know as I never played one for any length of time.
OK… enough about the past. What should a next gen game have? Well, it should deliver on the promise of actually role-playing!
NO GRIND or FARMING
I’m tired of have to do REPETITVE tasks to progress. I just want to immerse myself in the game world and everything else should just come. I have played 3 basic types of character progression systems in MMORPGs.
1. Continuous improvement of skills that are used. Ultima Online is an example of this. Morrowind/Oblivion are single player examples also. These are nice but are grind behaviour producing as players do something over and over again just to increase skill.
2. Experience/Level systems. This is the most popular method of character progression. D&D based games like WoW and many others are examples of this.
3. The Eve Online style system. Skills have to be bought. They then train over time continuously without any effort on the character. Removes grind from character progression to some extent. However, gaining currency to purchase skills is still subject to grind. On the other hand, by the time you are able to use the skill you generally have enough cash anyway. Are there any other games with a similar system to this?
There may be other systems that I am not familiar with.
Lets look briefly at other games, online or otherwise, that have no grind. FPSs. Why? There is no skill progression. Even when playing Battlefield to gain ladder ranking (and unlockables) you have to play games, but that is still what you would do if you weren’t trying to gain ladder ranking OK, so if you took character progression away would you still have an MMORPG? I don’t know. But if you got rid of grind it would certainly be an improvement.
Farming is more of a case of players finding out the easiest way to gain an item or currency in the game and then doing that over and over again.
A BELIEVABLE WORLD
Come on… how many places have you been to that have only been populated by level 62 indigenes? None, none, none.
Also, if I go into a dungeon to recover a UNIQUE long lost item, then how can the next guy that comes along do the same thing? Old RPG games usually catered for a party of friends that played together. So this kind of inconsistency didn’t happen. Please design me a game where I have unique quests. Unique to me! If they aren’t unique, then make them non-unique! The Conan system that combines single player quests with traditional MMORPG gameplay may go some way to solving these story inconsistencies. Maybe instancing these for small groups would work too… sadly I don’t have the answer, just the request.
STORY
I would love some kind of narrative that engages me, entertains me and keeps me coming back. I’m playing to be entertained. Yes… I know it would take a lot of work to produce an intricate well paced narrative that spans several years, but with all the subscription fees coming in, surely it can be done. Imagine… quest givers that have new quests every week or two!
FREEDOM
Eve Online has managed to create an extremely open and free world. Why can’t the traditional fantasy based games do the same? I love the freedom of Eve, but it does lack non-player based content. Something between Eve Online and KOTOR in terms freedom/narrative would be fantastic!
PVP
Yes. I don’t really have any thoughts on next gen PVP other than there should be PVP. PVP can aid immersion by the simple fact that it is not scripted. PVP should be supported in such a way that it promotes that. Not just by players responding to something in game (arenas), but maybe competing for the same limited resources… at the same time should have some penalties associated with it.
GRAPHICS/SOUND etc
To me these more technical aspects do not/should not make a game next gen. Otherwise we could just take a current game, give a new graphics engine and call it next gen. Obviously not! That’s not to say shoddy technical delivery is acceptable. Immersion is key. So, however is style…
My conclusion is that a next gen MMORPG should be relatively grind free and have more story/encounter/narrative content. It should be flexible enough to allow the gamer complete freedom of choice of whether to do their own thing or to engage in the structured narrative behind it. It should allow character progression, but not make character progression the objective of gameplay. It should be rich with scripted content (very, very rich) and yet allow player generated scenarios to emerge.
I realise this is a tall order… but that’s why such a game would be next gen. In fact maybe the next gen MMORPG would be Medium Multiplayer Online RPG… ie numbers scaled down, but content scaled up? I don’t know, all I do know is that it really has to be something special that can break the mould set by current games whose origins are in game systems invented over 30 years ago…
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daarco 2/08/08 6:40:04 AM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 12/19/06
Want Darkfall now! |
In short, combine the old style sandbox style MMOs with the modern......ehh...... No wait, just bring back the old school MMOs, since they all have degenerated the last ten years. We had the second generation, and then we got the first generation! |
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Mitara 2/17/08 4:47:48 AM
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Advanced Member
Joined: 3/22/07 |
Originally posted by daarco Very nicely put. Does this mean that we have no hope for the future though? Also most of the above was contents and not the technical data. What technical issues do you see? Should we support the console, mobile phone as well as the PC? Should we go for a low-end graphical card instead of state of the art? Should we create a new input device to cater for MMO needs? |
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gestalt11 2/17/08 5:34:20 AM
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Elite Member
Joined: 5/17/06 |
Its a game that intends to use marketing to sell its product instead of quality production. |
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28days 2/17/08 5:59:28 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/11/08 |
real next generation games won't happen for another 30 years or so.. |
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