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Five MMORPG Pitfalls that I Trust Ashes Will Avoid
Barzel
Member
The MMORPG genre is my favorite. I have played these games since UO, and I have seen the rise and fall of many titles. Below are five of my concerns with the genre on the whole. I do understand that these may be obvious to many, including Intrepid (and that they may have addressed them previously). Also, I understand that perhaps not everyone may agree with my points, and for the sake of brevity I may have been a bit too simplistic in places. Finally, I have a reasonable hope that Ashes of Creation will be a game that avoids the usual pitfalls that frequently appear in today's MMORPGs. All that being stated, I offer them up in the hope that at least by placing them here, it may be a reminder of important things to consider. (I use WoW as a negative example frequently below. I am not trying to pick on WoW, it is just the most relatable as many have experience playing that game).
1. The MMO in MMORGP
MMORPGs used to be multiplayer games with a single player option. Now, by and large, they are single player games with a multiplayer option. I disagree that this is a good direction, in fact I would argue that it sort of devolved the genre, homogenizing it all in a WoW-like design. Only now is the genre starting to recover from this solo fixation, and this is a good thing. My concern is that, perhaps, too much emphasis will be placed on the solo experience, at the expense of the multiplayer experience.
Whilst this is not a zero-sum game, and both experiences are important, a good MMO always errs on the side of social play–both cooperatively and competitively.
2. The RPG in MMORPG
If you ask a dozen people what role-playing is, you may get a dozen different answers. It does not necessarily mean “these and thous”, or acting like an orc (though it can include these things). It does mean, at least, filling a niche in the game, in a party/team, and/or in a guild. The “trinity” of tank, healer and DPS is perhaps the most obvious example.
Once upon a time, classes in MMORPGs would have one or two utility abilities that other classes did not have. For example, druids in old EQ had Spirit of the Wolf (I think it was called) which was a speed buff only they could cast. Because that buff was valuable to other players, it made druids important and useful, even if they were a more casual player. The same can be said for Warlocks in Vanilla Wow and their summons (and there are other examples).
Role-playing has nothing to do with every class being capable of everything in the pursuit of the specter of balance, because that removes the importance of the individual and the purpose of grouping in the first place (not to mention it is boring). WoW, for example, at one point in time whilst laboring for balance, basically made every class capable of everything. That type of balance is antithetical to a multiplayer RPG.
Make each class have a exclusive and useful abilities, and this will put RPG back into the rest of the acronym.
3. Sandbox MMORPGs are Like Bridges
Trolls and griefers love competitive MMOs. These people also tend to conduct themselves in a deplorable manner online in every form of media, but can really spread their wings in a social game where they can directly have influence over other players. Frequently, cheaters (hackers and exploiters) come from this population as well.
I can only hope that Intrepid will not tolerate these types of behavior, and apply meaningful consequences to those who engage in them. If not, TOS abiding players will leave, and the troll could care less because he will simply go to the next game when he runs out of targets. It is one thing to be killed by a player of higher level and/or more skill (etc.), and yet another to be killed by a player in RMT gear who spouts racial epithets.
A slap on the wrist does not normally dissuade the cheater and/or griefer. Developers need to frequently ban accounts, if they want their game to be healthy.
4. The MMORPG Bell Curve
The population of players in an MMORPG will have different desires and requests. Who, then, do the developers listen to primarily to improve and expand the game?
You could see the game population like a bell curve--on the far left you have casual players, on the far right you have the hardcore players, and in the middle you have the bulk of your player base (somewhere between these latter extremes).
The ironic thing is that the far left and the far right are usually the most vocal, even though they are in the minority. Therefore, though it may be tricky, developers need to find a way to listen to the wants and concerns of the quiet middle of that curve, and act on those primarily. This does not mean that you ignore the input from casuals and the hardcore (and you certainly cannot ignore the needs of new players). It simply means that the bulk of the work that gets done is for the middle–for the good of the majority of your player base.
While this seems obvious, we have seen games lean too far to the left (WoW) and too far to the right (Wildstar) before. While Wildstar is gone, and WoW remains a success, WoW’s player base did start to shrink significantly right after Wrath of the Lich King, just at the time they were making the game more and more casual friendly.
Appeal to the populous middle, and your game will be better.
5. It is All About Immersion
Immersion makes the MMORPG. The MMORPG is, at its best, a second world–a place where you as a warrior and your friend the wizard, fight dragons. The more you can hide the mechanics and numbers beneath an engaging and cohesive exterior, the better the game will be. This may be the case for many types of games, although it is especially true when it comes to the MMORPG. Most people do not want to play “systems”, they want to play an elf warrior bent on rallying his people to retake their homeland, or an orc assassin seeking out his next kill.
Hide the systems, focus on immersion, and you will create a quality piece of escapist entertainment that keeps players engaged.
Thanks!
1. The MMO in MMORGP
MMORPGs used to be multiplayer games with a single player option. Now, by and large, they are single player games with a multiplayer option. I disagree that this is a good direction, in fact I would argue that it sort of devolved the genre, homogenizing it all in a WoW-like design. Only now is the genre starting to recover from this solo fixation, and this is a good thing. My concern is that, perhaps, too much emphasis will be placed on the solo experience, at the expense of the multiplayer experience.
Whilst this is not a zero-sum game, and both experiences are important, a good MMO always errs on the side of social play–both cooperatively and competitively.
2. The RPG in MMORPG
If you ask a dozen people what role-playing is, you may get a dozen different answers. It does not necessarily mean “these and thous”, or acting like an orc (though it can include these things). It does mean, at least, filling a niche in the game, in a party/team, and/or in a guild. The “trinity” of tank, healer and DPS is perhaps the most obvious example.
Once upon a time, classes in MMORPGs would have one or two utility abilities that other classes did not have. For example, druids in old EQ had Spirit of the Wolf (I think it was called) which was a speed buff only they could cast. Because that buff was valuable to other players, it made druids important and useful, even if they were a more casual player. The same can be said for Warlocks in Vanilla Wow and their summons (and there are other examples).
Role-playing has nothing to do with every class being capable of everything in the pursuit of the specter of balance, because that removes the importance of the individual and the purpose of grouping in the first place (not to mention it is boring). WoW, for example, at one point in time whilst laboring for balance, basically made every class capable of everything. That type of balance is antithetical to a multiplayer RPG.
Make each class have a exclusive and useful abilities, and this will put RPG back into the rest of the acronym.
3. Sandbox MMORPGs are Like Bridges
Trolls and griefers love competitive MMOs. These people also tend to conduct themselves in a deplorable manner online in every form of media, but can really spread their wings in a social game where they can directly have influence over other players. Frequently, cheaters (hackers and exploiters) come from this population as well.
I can only hope that Intrepid will not tolerate these types of behavior, and apply meaningful consequences to those who engage in them. If not, TOS abiding players will leave, and the troll could care less because he will simply go to the next game when he runs out of targets. It is one thing to be killed by a player of higher level and/or more skill (etc.), and yet another to be killed by a player in RMT gear who spouts racial epithets.
A slap on the wrist does not normally dissuade the cheater and/or griefer. Developers need to frequently ban accounts, if they want their game to be healthy.
4. The MMORPG Bell Curve
The population of players in an MMORPG will have different desires and requests. Who, then, do the developers listen to primarily to improve and expand the game?
You could see the game population like a bell curve--on the far left you have casual players, on the far right you have the hardcore players, and in the middle you have the bulk of your player base (somewhere between these latter extremes).
The ironic thing is that the far left and the far right are usually the most vocal, even though they are in the minority. Therefore, though it may be tricky, developers need to find a way to listen to the wants and concerns of the quiet middle of that curve, and act on those primarily. This does not mean that you ignore the input from casuals and the hardcore (and you certainly cannot ignore the needs of new players). It simply means that the bulk of the work that gets done is for the middle–for the good of the majority of your player base.
While this seems obvious, we have seen games lean too far to the left (WoW) and too far to the right (Wildstar) before. While Wildstar is gone, and WoW remains a success, WoW’s player base did start to shrink significantly right after Wrath of the Lich King, just at the time they were making the game more and more casual friendly.
Appeal to the populous middle, and your game will be better.
5. It is All About Immersion
Immersion makes the MMORPG. The MMORPG is, at its best, a second world–a place where you as a warrior and your friend the wizard, fight dragons. The more you can hide the mechanics and numbers beneath an engaging and cohesive exterior, the better the game will be. This may be the case for many types of games, although it is especially true when it comes to the MMORPG. Most people do not want to play “systems”, they want to play an elf warrior bent on rallying his people to retake their homeland, or an orc assassin seeking out his next kill.
Hide the systems, focus on immersion, and you will create a quality piece of escapist entertainment that keeps players engaged.
Thanks!
"’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
5
Comments
"You, the warrior
Your friend, the wizard
The fun that never ends~
Adventure time!~"
... Sorry, my son is in the Adventure Time phase. X']
- of the Game needing a "strong" MMO Aspect and that you need to team up much with other Players in many Contents of the ingame World,
and :
- Punishing Trolls, Griefers, Cheaters, Hackers.
There is nothing more annoying than People who can constantly bug and annoy others, with the normal Players not being able to do anything about it.
Ironically i don't remember much or any such Players in WoW. But during awhile when i played Planetside II for like Four Months,
nothing is more annoying than a Dude (lol) who " FLY'S THROUGH THE SKY " in a Max-Suit, has INFINITE Ammo, is NIGH IMPOSSIBLE to kill - and the only thing that keeps his ridiculous Power in Check, is the fact that your "Zerg" of an Army is hopefully huge enough, so that he can never do enough Damage in time, to fight you back and prevent your Zerg from achieving their Objectives. 😅
Or other Case :
A Guy - "again" a Dude in a Max-Suit, stands (floats) UNDERNEATH THE GROUND inside a Base, where your attacking Team has stationed a Sunderer, so that you can try to capture that Base.
What is the Guy doing ? Shoots with - "again" - INFINITE AMMO - THROUGH the Ground-Texture upwards, so that he can damage the stationed Sunderer-Vehicle with his especially chosen Weapons of Choice to do damage against armored Vehicles.
You are running around with like "Four Engineers" or above (lol) so to repair against the Damage he does. He is targeting your Vehicle "AND" several Players at once, while himself is completely hidden away and nobody can attack his Player Character back. 😅
One of my Allies asked finally after a while : " Jeez, from WHERE are you shooting at us ?? "
Dude even answered back, with an edgy Line like : " From Hell. "
lol
Cheaters are the most annoying People. They have like given up playing normally - and replace usual Fun Gameplay with being an annoying Challenge or just massive dicks to other People. 😅
I liked on the Live Stream Presentations i have seen, how much the "Caravan-Gameplay" reminds me of the Team Efforts of Planetside II.
A good MMO should always have this Stuff. "Needs" that kind of Stuff. Gameplay You can impossibly do alone/solo. Or City-Siege Battles. I am positive Ashes will deliver a good Game regarding this. 🙂👍
Too see how a new game looses a ton of memberships due to this, go look at Lost Ark. Now I will agree that their mechanism for advancement is uggg but the nail in the coffin for a lot of people was the rampant bots that existed in that game. They have supposedly addressed a lot of this but now it is just too late.
BoTs have to be addressed immediately regardless of how well made the game is.
So, it remains to be seen to what level Intrepid is serious about combating these problems. I do believe Intrepid has described several systems to address them, such as the resource spawns being random, world PvP, data tracking, and paid GMs (perhaps even a few others). Will these strategies completely solve the RMT/botting/cheating issues? Most likely no, if history is any indicator. However, they have the potential to greatly reduce the problem and place it so far out on the fringe that it will not affect most players' gameplay the vast majority of the time. I do trust they are taking it seriously, but it remains one of my major pitfalls above for a reason.
All this being said, I lump in cheating with griefing in my post, though they are truly two separate things. I do want to reemphasize that combating cheaters is necessary, but Intrepid will also have to address the players who engage in degeneracy at the expense of others in the game. I put them together because both of these player behaviors destroy the health of the game, and will drive away players/customers very quickly.
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Regarding bots specifically, you can read some quotes from the team on our stance on security: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Security_systems