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Automated Interaction
I'd really like to see systems that facilitate "automated interaction" between players.
Themepark MMOs tend to crutch on very solo focused quest hubs to give players something to do. The benefit is that a player can log in at midnight and knock out some daily quests and feel like they got something constructive done in their play session. The negative in the system is that they end up clicking through all the quest text without reading or caring about it, since 90% of the quest text in the game is window dressing on a fetch quest that exists not to be a story but to dole out a resource that advances their character and thus advancing their character doesn't put them in contact with other players naturally.
Sandbox MMOs tend to crutch on having players interact directly to give the game direction and meaning. The benefit is that when they are able to interact they feel like part of a living breathing world in a way that a single player game can't deliver. The negative is that if the players don't interact, or interaction isn't convenient/practical, during the actual play session of a player then that player ends up logging out having done nothing constructive, which happens a LOT in group sandboxes.
I'd really like to see an MMO that provides 'Automated Interaction' options. Where players are able to interact with each other indirectly via the game systems. Especially if that automated interaction could reduce or outright replace quest hubs full of filler quests.
What would automated interaction look like?
Suppose a farmer character plopped down a farm plot in one of the nodes. The farmer plants the fields, but planted fields cause vermin like rats to spawn, and the rats have a default behavior of wandering around nibbling the crops and will produce a small yield of low quality crops (or that could be simulated by having game logic where if X rats are killed in the fields during a given hour then the crops in that field don't degrade for that hour). Now, the farmer could stay logged in 24/7 and chase away all the rats themselves, but that would be a lot of work. The farmer might form a guild where they have an out of game forum and spreadsheets to organize crop guarding, but that is also a lot of administrative and social work of a different sort. Or the game could have an automated interaction option where the farmer could choose to post a 'kill rats' quest attached to the node that automatically pays out a bounty of the farmer's choosing from a purse the farmer sets. Ideally that would create a system where the farmer wants to attract newbies to their fields to kill rats, and the newbies realize that killing the rats actually matters to another person. Even if the farmer and the rat slayer literally never log in at the same time. Especially if the names of players assigning and doing the quests are made known to each other via the system. Maybe when the farmer sells their harvest they send a bonus to a particularly diligent rat slayer, or when killing time they walk through their field and see a rat slayer out there and that prompts a more involved interaction.
There could be a number of set actions on a plot. Like maybe there is a 'water the crops' action that could be set as a quest if the farmer won't be able to log in for a week to water their crops. Maybe there might be a 'harvest ripe crops and place them in the barn' type quest if the farmer wants to outsource that action on their plot.
This could be applied to lots of things. Suppose that an economic district spawned thieves at night, and the NPC shop owners would close down if thieves are around. If X number of thieves were chased off near a shop then the NPC shop owners would stay open or open back up. If sellers want their shops to be available 24/7 then it would behoove them to post automated interaction quests to reward players for chasing the thieves away.
Or maybe players choose not to put rewards on the quests directly, but use the system logs and tallies to see who did what and the players on the town council decide how to reward them (because noobs would be valuable to any group of players not looking to stand around killing rats).
The system could also support interaction between PvP and PvE players. Suppose there was a rule that if a plot owner posted a bounty on a player and that player was killed in the area of the node that the bounty applied to then that player was banned from entering the node for X number of days. Basically their character (or even their entire account?) is 'dead' in that part of the world for a period of time and can't bother anyone there for awhile. I'm pretty sure people would pay good gold to PvPers to ban a player from a region of the game for a period of time. Or even just allow for a setup where the quest can be setup to 'trust' that any non-citizen ear turned in by a player in that region are ears belonging to hostile players, where committing fraud would be a REAL good way to get yourself a on the standing bounty list.
Themepark MMOs tend to crutch on very solo focused quest hubs to give players something to do. The benefit is that a player can log in at midnight and knock out some daily quests and feel like they got something constructive done in their play session. The negative in the system is that they end up clicking through all the quest text without reading or caring about it, since 90% of the quest text in the game is window dressing on a fetch quest that exists not to be a story but to dole out a resource that advances their character and thus advancing their character doesn't put them in contact with other players naturally.
Sandbox MMOs tend to crutch on having players interact directly to give the game direction and meaning. The benefit is that when they are able to interact they feel like part of a living breathing world in a way that a single player game can't deliver. The negative is that if the players don't interact, or interaction isn't convenient/practical, during the actual play session of a player then that player ends up logging out having done nothing constructive, which happens a LOT in group sandboxes.
I'd really like to see an MMO that provides 'Automated Interaction' options. Where players are able to interact with each other indirectly via the game systems. Especially if that automated interaction could reduce or outright replace quest hubs full of filler quests.
What would automated interaction look like?
Suppose a farmer character plopped down a farm plot in one of the nodes. The farmer plants the fields, but planted fields cause vermin like rats to spawn, and the rats have a default behavior of wandering around nibbling the crops and will produce a small yield of low quality crops (or that could be simulated by having game logic where if X rats are killed in the fields during a given hour then the crops in that field don't degrade for that hour). Now, the farmer could stay logged in 24/7 and chase away all the rats themselves, but that would be a lot of work. The farmer might form a guild where they have an out of game forum and spreadsheets to organize crop guarding, but that is also a lot of administrative and social work of a different sort. Or the game could have an automated interaction option where the farmer could choose to post a 'kill rats' quest attached to the node that automatically pays out a bounty of the farmer's choosing from a purse the farmer sets. Ideally that would create a system where the farmer wants to attract newbies to their fields to kill rats, and the newbies realize that killing the rats actually matters to another person. Even if the farmer and the rat slayer literally never log in at the same time. Especially if the names of players assigning and doing the quests are made known to each other via the system. Maybe when the farmer sells their harvest they send a bonus to a particularly diligent rat slayer, or when killing time they walk through their field and see a rat slayer out there and that prompts a more involved interaction.
There could be a number of set actions on a plot. Like maybe there is a 'water the crops' action that could be set as a quest if the farmer won't be able to log in for a week to water their crops. Maybe there might be a 'harvest ripe crops and place them in the barn' type quest if the farmer wants to outsource that action on their plot.
This could be applied to lots of things. Suppose that an economic district spawned thieves at night, and the NPC shop owners would close down if thieves are around. If X number of thieves were chased off near a shop then the NPC shop owners would stay open or open back up. If sellers want their shops to be available 24/7 then it would behoove them to post automated interaction quests to reward players for chasing the thieves away.
Or maybe players choose not to put rewards on the quests directly, but use the system logs and tallies to see who did what and the players on the town council decide how to reward them (because noobs would be valuable to any group of players not looking to stand around killing rats).
The system could also support interaction between PvP and PvE players. Suppose there was a rule that if a plot owner posted a bounty on a player and that player was killed in the area of the node that the bounty applied to then that player was banned from entering the node for X number of days. Basically their character (or even their entire account?) is 'dead' in that part of the world for a period of time and can't bother anyone there for awhile. I'm pretty sure people would pay good gold to PvPers to ban a player from a region of the game for a period of time. Or even just allow for a setup where the quest can be setup to 'trust' that any non-citizen ear turned in by a player in that region are ears belonging to hostile players, where committing fraud would be a REAL good way to get yourself a on the standing bounty list.
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