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an innovative and fun mmorpg - impossible for todays market?
Cepheiden
Member Posts: 5
We all know the common issues of mmorpgs so i will skip on naming most of them.
Now one important thing about rpgs / mmorpgs is to have some kind of progression - or else we could be playing some fps. This includes the whole discussion about time / skill / gear and balance.
As we know theres no real fun solution to this problem yet.
However i thought of one possible solution. (I tried to keep this and the whole topic as general as possible. Theres alot of detailed discussion possible for this topic as it would be affecting almost any aspect of mmorpgs.)
1. Give them progression in any aspect.
2. Set a limit to max. char power. Just call it 100%. (Char power is the sum of all possible power sources a char can have. IMO that would be gear, ingame char skills (basically the profession), battlepower (basically the lvl of the char - but lvls are cutting it to hard).
3. Any char can progress that power in a proportional way. Getting to 50% will be rather fast (maybe a month for example). 80% will take some time (like a year). 90% will take some time again (like 2 years). 100% is almost impossible to reach (like 5 years if there wasnt an addon that increases limit but keeps the % the way it was). I dont know the exact english term for it but i hope you get the idea. This way there will be progression FOREVER.
Along with this should be mentionend that in this game 90% shouldnt be much stronger than 80%. And even 50% should stand a chance against anyone anymuch higher - based on player skill. These powers are just giving the chars a small edge over chars that have invested less time. This will allow for balance between hardcore and casual gamers and still allowing hardcore gamers to profit from investing more time.
4. Give them progression for anything they do. For example Power should increase with anything one does that would logically increase power. No matter where / when / what one is fighting - one gains skills / power. Or maybe just running - builds up stamina. Along with that NPC enemys should be made more like in action games, cause if you gain something from anything you fight, anything has to be dangerous. This would also solve placing ridiculous amounts of enemys(npcs) in the most seneseless places as every enemy(npc) would require more skill and less stats to kill.
This is about the basic idea.
Of course crafting and gear has to be aligned as well. As in making gear less important but still noticeable. Making gear more of a cosmetic choice - which includes making tons of textures for gear.
There are more details but i just wanted to give you the general idea and in the end it comes down to how much work the devs can actually put into the game.
However no small company could ever afford this amount of work. Maybe Blizzard would be able to pull of something like that... but i guess they will just take the safe road to money and create another wow-like game. Guess in the end we will have to stick with same boring stuff again and again...
Comments
First: your subject says it is impossible to be innovative, your thesis appears to be "here is my idea for a mmorpg"..
Second: Games are broken up into 3 aspects, mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics. To get even deeper, it is the challenges created through a rule set which create the game. Thus, a mmorpg is a genre, that genre is expected to include certain challenges and dynamics which make up the genre. In this case micromanagement, numerical skill progression and or adjustment, and perhaps even spatial reasoning, to name a few.
That said, touching on your topic. Innovation = risk. Innovation is not just doing something different, but doing something successful that was previously not done or incapable of being done. Publishers right now are in a nasty state, all their money is coming from ultra casual games (guitar hero, wii fit) and FPS (Modern warfare 2). They dont need innovation in terms of game design, rather they focus more on graphical (fps) improvements or peripheral innovation (wiimote, guitar controller, playstation wand, project Natal)...ect
Blizzard (which has also become part Publisher via Activision) has shown that mmorpgs can bring in a ton of revenue, but that didnt happen through innovation in just game design, but rather quality, marketing and delivery. Very few Publishers want to take the risk of MMORPGs that are different right now. They would rather let someone else show its a successful innovation before copying them. Look at guitar hero and then later Rock Band. Less risk more reward.
However, I think that game development without risk takes the enjoyment out of the process as well as the product. Unfortunately CEO's such as the one at Activision believe that is the best course of action. He actually hates games as a form of enjoyment and has stated that game development should be pure business. If he gets his wish, say goodbye to innovation and fun developers.
Going back to the challenges that make up the genre, it doesnt matter if the progression is in the loot, or just the character itself. If you look at the mechanics, nothing much has really changed. Those who hate WoW because the gear makes such a huge impact will happily play a game that uses the same mechanics but is found on the character themselves. This is silly because the mechanic hasnt changed, the act of powering up hasnt changed, just one gives clearly identifiable and interchangable modifiers (gear) than the other.
SO with #1 Progression isnt innovation, its expected.
With #2 the moment you limit character power, or growth in this case you lose the player. One secret in game design is that goals for improvement in these types of games must exist. In WoW there is faction points, achievements, pvp, gear. This is done because without the goal you lose the player. It is just bad game design to not have that in place for mmorpgs. There should be clearly stronger and weaker characters, it might bother the ultra minority of whiners (but they will never be happy to begin with), but seeing someone stronger than you is a form of motivation to be just as strong and therefore adds to the goal. If all were the same, well, whats the point of an avatar unique to you in a competitive environment...why even pay a sub? Play a fps. Thus, imbalance in power needs to exist as long as it does not break the dynamics of the game, or done is such a way where it ruins the player's experience in all areas. (portal camping in AoC for example).
#3 That is already done through lvl up requirements increasing over time. You could make it more drastic, but sadly having a level that takes months or years to aquire is not very popular. I love it in the few games I have seen it in, but the issue is some feel the need to grind to achieve, they cannot continue playing until they meet that goal... and thus end up hating the game. Therefore it is better to have obtainable levels within shorter periods of time but throw in other time sinks that do take much longer as you progress. WoW did this with ranking and faction points. Smart move.
#4 That has also been done, the problem with that is that it is ripe for exploitation. The innovation would not come in the form of pure game design as much as the system design. You dont want characters that at the end of the day can be good at everything. I like that but its also a form of suicide in game design. The elder scrolls is a single player game which works with that system of progression, however, in a competitive multiplayer environment, it would do more harm than good.
Small companies can do this, the work load isnt as big as you think, rather its the design element that is hard, how to make a system that works, be able to test it, and market it properly. It is too much risk as well. Blizzard made WoW the way they did for a reason, taking a bit of everything and mashing it together. It was their first attempt at a mmorpg, and as such, they shouldnt do anything too risky. WoW was more of a test to see if they should focus on the mmorpg market... and its a great test. Their next mmorpg will be based off what they learned from WoW as well as the fanbase they have built. Its a long term strategy.
Smaller companies would need to get a Publisher (most cases) to support them in the project, the problem is if a Publisher wont touch it, then you have issues. Right now the industry is still going through growing pains, it can turn out great or dead like film.
Dont give up though
Learn what a GDD is and try to base your ideas off of that platform.
I agree and have said so many times over the last few years. I think it's important to limit the difference between characters so that social elements can be added to a game properly. For example, in WoW there is so much of a difference in character ability that the players have to be separated in zones. This is bad if you want to have things that are social, such as building cities. A player built city isn't going to move through zones with advancing characters.
It also opens up a better Trade system. New players aren't left behind in their zone, especially after a time of game release where most of the starters have moved on. You need to not have them move on, for equipment and supplies, so that everyone can participate in the trade scheme.
On top of that, with this idea, you can have trade routes/caravans, etc., because of having the cities. And it would all matter to all the players. It would go beyond the current game design of questing through stuff, and allow for organization and participation, and in a wider scope where some can participate in a more casual manner along with those who are more heavily into it.
The other thing is that it opens the game up to a more worldly aspect. Players wouldn't be zonign through content. Therefore, a different kind of content can be added, even after the release. Along with the social ties of a player built city, trade, and all, exploration and discovery become a much more viable experience. And a discovery would be of equal importance to all, not a level group thing.
Once upon a time....
I think I agree with the OP. I don't like games that are structured so you get to max level relatively quick, then spend forever trying to get the best gear. I would like to see gear be of less importance, but have a much longer time for character progression. I would like to see character development be infinite, so your character is always improving as long as you're playing. It would not necessarily be increasing level, but by completing other tasks you could improve passives. If you were level capped, you could still travel all over the world to accomplish a task that would give you 1% more passive defence, for example.
I agree in essentially endless progression. I don't know about truly "endless", but 99 that takes you 3-4 years of hardcore play to achieve seems like a sweet spot to me. I am not at all a fan of the "get to max level and raid" focus.