My Proof that MMORPG Design Isn't Perfect
This is an issue I have consistently with MMORPG's, so I'm going to blather on about it here, because, hey, that's what this place is for.
MMORPGs inevitably create a "stuff envy" in a good 90% of the players of the game, due to the fact that there are a vast amount of items/abilities/whatever that are flat inaccessible to a certain portion of the playing populace. The problem is that MMORPG designers are constantly feeding the minority at the top, without ever feeding the vast majority at the bottom. Someone remind me to hit back on this topic in a second.
As an example, examine, for a moment, the latest additions to the World of Warcraft universe: Soon-to-be Ahn'Qiraj (consisting of a 20-man and a 40-man dungeon), the Four Dragons (all raid-caliber opponents, 40-man deals), Zul'Gurub (the first 20-man "casual raid" dungeon), Blackwing Lair (the third 40-man instance.)
Notice a trend? None of these additions appeal to gamers who do not have access to 19 friends, all of similar mindset, who can devote massive amounts of time to solving these dungeons. Now, for background, I have been known to go on some massive raids in Dark Age of Camelot, killed a couple of dragons, taught King Tuscar a lesson, and the occasional massive artifact raid or ML raid, so I'm not necessarily against this kind of content. After all, if you don't have the capacity to support that first M with specific content, there's no reason to have a billion people per server.
However, MMORPG designers need to realize that the majority of their fan base simply aspires, at this point, to "be like" those people who can go on MC/BWL raids every night. The honchos at Blizzard have seemed to come to the decision that you are a "hardcore player" only if you have a raiding guild behind you, without realizing that there are a pretty large amount of "hardcore players" out there who are not in a raiding guild, but are every bit as hardcore as the raiders are.
Instances like Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Depths, Scholomance, Stratholme, and even the "newly released" Dire Maul provide some incentive for people to go out and do things as a smaller group, but none of these instances are remotely challenging to the smaller group (though some encounters are, oh the horror stories of the Skyfury Helm quest).
The theory I put forward is this: You have epic encounters, and you have raid encounters. Any encounter can be both or neither. Epic encounters are designed to be the cream of the crop, the place where you get all those shiny purple items, and feel all good about yourself. Those are for the hardcore players. Then you have raid encounters, in order to take advantage of that first M, encounters which require a large number of people. But not all of the epic encounters have to be raid encounters, and likewise, not all the raid encounters have to be epic encounters. Throw a couple of straight zerg fights in there, with some decent blue gear to appeal to the casual gamer who can get a ton of buds together, but all of which are either poorly skilled or poorly equipped. Likewise, provide smaller-tone encounters for the 5-man group which is superbly skilled.
Thusly reminded, I believe the reason for this is that that vast majority who are not actively raiding are actively doing other things, and enjoying other aspects of the game, such as leveling or PvP or what have you. When the raiders have beaten Blackwing Lair repeatedly, started to just get to farm status, they're looking around for what's next (hence the release of Ahn'Qiraj.) If there's no newer, bigger, better challenge for these players, they simply go away.
The rest of us can only see the carrot on the stick. I look at the new artwork for Ten Storms, and I think "man, that looks pretty sweet," and drool over one day, just maybe, owning a piece or two. But the fact is that, given my play time, and the lack of raid guild behind me, I will never see a piece of that set. Yet I keep playing under the belief that I have the ability to get ahold of the whole set and parade around like I just got hired by Calvin Klein.
Obviously, the highest end gear will only be available to those who can raid, and who are exceptional players, those who go through dungeons that are both "epic" and "raid," but the epic quality tier should not be limited to only those with 19 people behind them. At the moment, I can see absolutely zero reason to level my Shaman from level 52 to 60, due to the fact that once I hit 60, there's not that much more to do. I won't see a raid starting at 6 am, and there's almost no PvP that early. No raid guild will even invite me to go on the one night a week I can participate due to their silly policies about attendance. So the game pretty much ends at 60 for me.
And I think that's a large problem, one that MMORPG designers need to look at. Stop staring at that "Massively" part of the name, and focus in on the "Multiplayer." A group of 5 or even 10 is still a group that needs some focus or direction in the game, and giving them sub-par equipment and less-than-challenging encounters to beat isn't the way to do it.
MMORPGs inevitably create a "stuff envy" in a good 90% of the players of the game, due to the fact that there are a vast amount of items/abilities/whatever that are flat inaccessible to a certain portion of the playing populace. The problem is that MMORPG designers are constantly feeding the minority at the top, without ever feeding the vast majority at the bottom. Someone remind me to hit back on this topic in a second.
As an example, examine, for a moment, the latest additions to the World of Warcraft universe: Soon-to-be Ahn'Qiraj (consisting of a 20-man and a 40-man dungeon), the Four Dragons (all raid-caliber opponents, 40-man deals), Zul'Gurub (the first 20-man "casual raid" dungeon), Blackwing Lair (the third 40-man instance.)
Notice a trend? None of these additions appeal to gamers who do not have access to 19 friends, all of similar mindset, who can devote massive amounts of time to solving these dungeons. Now, for background, I have been known to go on some massive raids in Dark Age of Camelot, killed a couple of dragons, taught King Tuscar a lesson, and the occasional massive artifact raid or ML raid, so I'm not necessarily against this kind of content. After all, if you don't have the capacity to support that first M with specific content, there's no reason to have a billion people per server.
However, MMORPG designers need to realize that the majority of their fan base simply aspires, at this point, to "be like" those people who can go on MC/BWL raids every night. The honchos at Blizzard have seemed to come to the decision that you are a "hardcore player" only if you have a raiding guild behind you, without realizing that there are a pretty large amount of "hardcore players" out there who are not in a raiding guild, but are every bit as hardcore as the raiders are.
Instances like Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Depths, Scholomance, Stratholme, and even the "newly released" Dire Maul provide some incentive for people to go out and do things as a smaller group, but none of these instances are remotely challenging to the smaller group (though some encounters are, oh the horror stories of the Skyfury Helm quest).
The theory I put forward is this: You have epic encounters, and you have raid encounters. Any encounter can be both or neither. Epic encounters are designed to be the cream of the crop, the place where you get all those shiny purple items, and feel all good about yourself. Those are for the hardcore players. Then you have raid encounters, in order to take advantage of that first M, encounters which require a large number of people. But not all of the epic encounters have to be raid encounters, and likewise, not all the raid encounters have to be epic encounters. Throw a couple of straight zerg fights in there, with some decent blue gear to appeal to the casual gamer who can get a ton of buds together, but all of which are either poorly skilled or poorly equipped. Likewise, provide smaller-tone encounters for the 5-man group which is superbly skilled.
Thusly reminded, I believe the reason for this is that that vast majority who are not actively raiding are actively doing other things, and enjoying other aspects of the game, such as leveling or PvP or what have you. When the raiders have beaten Blackwing Lair repeatedly, started to just get to farm status, they're looking around for what's next (hence the release of Ahn'Qiraj.) If there's no newer, bigger, better challenge for these players, they simply go away.
The rest of us can only see the carrot on the stick. I look at the new artwork for Ten Storms, and I think "man, that looks pretty sweet," and drool over one day, just maybe, owning a piece or two. But the fact is that, given my play time, and the lack of raid guild behind me, I will never see a piece of that set. Yet I keep playing under the belief that I have the ability to get ahold of the whole set and parade around like I just got hired by Calvin Klein.
Obviously, the highest end gear will only be available to those who can raid, and who are exceptional players, those who go through dungeons that are both "epic" and "raid," but the epic quality tier should not be limited to only those with 19 people behind them. At the moment, I can see absolutely zero reason to level my Shaman from level 52 to 60, due to the fact that once I hit 60, there's not that much more to do. I won't see a raid starting at 6 am, and there's almost no PvP that early. No raid guild will even invite me to go on the one night a week I can participate due to their silly policies about attendance. So the game pretty much ends at 60 for me.
And I think that's a large problem, one that MMORPG designers need to look at. Stop staring at that "Massively" part of the name, and focus in on the "Multiplayer." A group of 5 or even 10 is still a group that needs some focus or direction in the game, and giving them sub-par equipment and less-than-challenging encounters to beat isn't the way to do it.
posted by Kindralas | 7:47 AM
2 Comments:
The more I play MMORPGs, the more I see the similarities with CCGs. Both have to appeal first and foremost to the hardcore top 10% or so. In CCGs, those are the guys who find the most broken combos and play the most powerful decks and design has to be based around them, lest you run the risk of printing even more broken stuff that makes their third-turn-kill decks into second-turn-kill decks.
Then there are the fixer cards and rules changes -- or updates in MMORPG-talk -- that "nerf" the most popular and deviant strategies and often brings calls of revolt from that top-notch player base, while the rest of the people don't even notice.
Of course, that top 10% has also spent the most $$$ on the game, which means the companies have to appeal to them.
to take it a step further in the comparison, the OP is the same way.
the FNM players and PTQ players "aspire" to be on the pro tour. Are they ever going to get there, probably not, but they aspire to be there and that's what continues to drive the cogs.
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