Complexity in an MMO - Simplicity is king

I'm not sure exactly the best way to express what I'm trying to say here.

The best games are ones about an extremely SIMPLE and UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD mechanic, where a totally ignorant newcomer should be able to look at it and understand what's going on.

I absolutely can't stand how COMPLICATED and ARBITRARY almost every MMO ever makes certain things. There is usually an entire set of (completely arbitrary) vocabulary that a player has to memorize to even BEGIN to be able to understand what the heck is going on.

I'm talking primarily 1 - just how the basic BATTLE system functions, and how gear and stats affect it, how classes work and what their roles are and 2 - how the general events and systems of the game work and how they interact with each other.

If I need to spend hours pouring over a games wiki and freaking read 40 pages of tutorials before I begin playing something so that I don't potentially waste the hundreds of hours doing something that I later realize to be a complete waste of time or irrelevant or far inferior to something else I should have been doing, then there is something VERY WRONG with a game.

I just hope that the general philosophy of gear in particular, is something that is extremely straightforward and easy to understand. The only specific arbitrary things to memorize should be the things that make certain special weapons and equipment unique.

Never stray too far from that simple core MMO battle mechanic that the entire game should be about.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

George_Black

Press E to man the cannon
Hold X while pressing Y to change the degree of the aim.
Use right click to confirm aim.

Player 2
press E to pick up torch.
Hold X to set torch on fire.
Holding Y bring torch to cannon to ignite, use mouse to touch

Player 3
Press E to raise hand
Left click to "FIRE!!"

missed

I agree that not everything needs to be a complicated minigame.

Kneczhevo

I have agree, and disagree, when it comes to MMORPGs. The longer a player takes, to learn the complexities, the longer the interest remains in a "good" game. Just like; why we are interested in AoC. It's part of the adventure.

I agree, that a game should not be so complex, it takes a days research, just to jump a ditch. /sarcasmOff

The problem most MMORPGs have; is they keep adding content, increasing the the learning curve, for the newer player.

Sathrago

I would personally grade an MMORPG's quality on their ability to take simple systems for each branch of the game and combine them into a complex breathing, interesting world. That's what I believe the goal of AoC is, so that is why I am here

akabear

I agree, I am a strong believer the difficulty in understanding how to play the game should scale with the individual player development.

CROW3

I want the game to be complex, but not complicated. I prefer a minimal UI, but that doesn’t necessarily mean simple, and I certainly want a blend of abilities that I can stack / create a rotation as I prefer. But again just my preferences...

Wandering Mist

The key to new user entry into a game is in the UI. If the UI is over-complicated, or overloaded with too much information, new players will get lost and quickly lose interest. I'm also not a fan of making a system more complicated just for the sake of it.

Complexity and Depth are 2 totally different things.

maouw

Yes! Good topic!

I find simplicity/minimalism is inviting and welcoming (iOS and Apple products do this really well, though I don't personally buy into it)
My favourite experiences of depth come from compounding the effects of simple systems to trigger bonus effects and discovering synergies between these mechanics.

Ehrgeiz

WoW vanilla was not complicated
Aion was not complicated
Archeage was not complicated

I really dont understand how someone needs always to be handheld and eplained to the last detail. Todays braindead games like Final Fantasy 13 with its hours long tutorial is so annoying.

The only complicated game I ever played was Eve Online.

daveywavey

maouw wrote: »

My favourite experiences of depth come from compounding the effects of simple systems to trigger bonus effects and discovering synergies between these mechanics.

Complexity through the interweaving of simple systems! Exactly!

Sathrago

daveywavey wrote: »

maouw wrote: »

My favourite experiences of depth come from compounding the effects of simple systems to trigger bonus effects and discovering synergies between these mechanics.

Complexity through the interweaving of simple systems! Exactly!

Yeah there was this other guy in the thread that said that too. He's really awesome check it out. XD

daveywavey

Sathrago wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

maouw wrote: »

My favourite experiences of depth come from compounding the effects of simple systems to trigger bonus effects and discovering synergies between these mechanics.

Complexity through the interweaving of simple systems! Exactly!

Yeah there was this other guy in the thread that said that too. He's really awesome check it out. XD

Absolutely! @CROW3 is awesome.

Sathrago

daveywavey wrote: »

Sathrago wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

maouw wrote: »

My favourite experiences of depth come from compounding the effects of simple systems to trigger bonus effects and discovering synergies between these mechanics.

Complexity through the interweaving of simple systems! Exactly!

Yeah there was this other guy in the thread that said that too. He's really awesome check it out. XD

Absolutely! @CROW3 is awesome.

CROW3

Hehe 😉

realKiza

I like it when the game mechanics are easy to get into, but they aren't so simple they can't have any depth. My best explanation would be, a high skill ceiling with a very accessible skill floor or easy to learn and difficult to master. That being said, that's just combat. I wouldn't mind some parts of it requiring some dedication to learn before you even get started for some PvE stuff that requires you to put a lot of thought and research into it first.

Sunboy

As Aristotle already figured out thousands years ago, not to hard, not to easy. The Golden mean. Problem how to reach it. Democracy?

CROW3

Sunboy wrote: »

As Aristotle already figured out thousands years ago, not to hard, not to easy. The Golden mean. Problem how to reach it. Democracy?

Possibly. I think we should vote on it.

Exiled King

Wandering Mist wrote: »

The key to new user entry into a game is in the UI. If the UI is over-complicated, or overloaded with too much information, new players will get lost and quickly lose interest. I'm also not a fan of making a system more complicated just for the sake of it.

Complexity and Depth are 2 totally different things.

Perfect example is Starborne. The UI is so cluttered and there is so much going on, you see players lose interest pretty quick because the game is pretty complicated and the game also doesnt explain things very well.

neuroguy

I believe the word you are looking for here is accessibility, not complexity.
I would actually disagree with you completely if you do mean complexity though. Complexity usually refers to depth and an MMO is a game you spend many hours in. If that game has no depth you are just going to experience repetitive monotony. Barrier to entry should be low, yes. The mechanics should be intuitive or have some in-game introduction/support/tutorial. But complexity is great, it means it will be difficult to master, it means there are many ways of potentially achieving a goal, it means experimentation may be rewarding. For example, I don't think many people want a simple animal husbandry system, I think people want it to be accessible and easy to engage with mechanically but it should have complexity and allow for cool unique creations to play around with.

Child Item