The general "being there" feel

NIII

  Recently, i've begun to realize that what i'm missing from MMOs today is the feeling of immersion into the game world. This goes a bit further than community, and it also goes further than grind. That is by no means saying that grind and community are not a problem in MMOs. More or less, it is the construction/development of games that kills me. When I log into a character, and walk outside of a 'town' to see 15 wolves within maybe 20 steps walking distance of eachother, I wonder how messed up the ecosystem of this world really is.

 

  I don't know if I am the only one that has a problem with the way developers map and plot their spawns, or if I am just the only one that thinks it is important enough to post about it. I really think overspawn is a huge issue with alot of games. I mean, I know that the developers must make money, and to do that, they have to give the customers what they want, and to do that, they have to cater to the majority of them, but to me, that doesn't mean throw 50 of x monster on the map so the players can go to that designated area of the map to kill them and move on to the next 'mob'. I guess this is where grind comes into play, right? But it isn't just grind. Would it not be smarter to think about why animals are where they are in the real world, and what affects them? It couldn't be THAT hard to add migration patterns of herds if you are going to have them, but every animal will not travel in a herd or pack. There should be some beasts that are few and far between, but do not respawn in the same spot so the next person can come along and kill them.

 

  Another thing is the construction of towns/cities. Alot of times, it looks like the city was there before the terrain, which although possible with alot of manpower, is improbable given there are only a total of maybe 20 (if even) NPCs in the town. It's like the developers don't even consider how things occur in nature, or how people interact with it. This, paired with how all 20 of the NPCs in the town are lacking homes, really lights a fire in me. Where do all these people live? Do they require nothing to live? They don't live. That's the point i'm making. Call it a rant if you want, but it isn't really a role playing game, if nothing takes a role in anything. Shouldn't the town have at least enough houses to tend to the NPCs that apparently reside there, since they don't ever move. Shouldn't there be more than three tables in the local tavern? Generally, most everything in most every game is very shallow, development wise.

 

  Please tell me i'm not the only one that does not even see the illusion of interaction in these games. Tell me what ruins a game for you, why you can't fell like you're a part of the game 'world'.

Gamer54321

I believe the following abruptly undermines immersion into the game world or immersion into how the game works:

• invisible walls

• linear progess

• meaningless fluff, sounds, models, functions

Alot

There have been only two RPGs that managed to make me feel immersed: Oblivion and Guild Wars: Prophecies. After that, nothing.

I don't understand what immersed me in GW. After all, it had quite a lot of immersion-breaking elements such as invisible walls, numbers popping up when you did damage, instancing.

Amaranthar

You're not the only one. Games are built like a game instead of a world. It's been a long time complaint. To some extent, it's acceptable. Such as newbie dungeons where you need the constant supply of things to bash, and some control over the MOBs. Or even in some higher end content for specific purposes. But even that could be made to feel more immersive, with some explanation as to why.

I've always dreamed of a huge game world that isn't built to constantly "use" all the content, controlling every little aspect of what's in that world so as not to "waste" content. I'de love to explore and find something never found before, or even to hear of some other player doing so. Discovery is sorely lacking in our games. But that isn't possible in a game where players are everywhere all the time, "making use of" all the content repeatedly and always. Sure, it doesn't jive with cost effective analysis. I don't want a game world built on that. I want it built on interesting and exciting.

angerbeaver

I've thought about the housing issue in towns also although it never bothered me. I would assume they had farms they lived on around town and the town would just be a trade center. This of course would be moot once I go outside and see no houses.

I remember in WoW seeing wolves chase after rabbits and whatnot. I thought that was pretty cool. Maybe it happened in LOTRO (my first p2p MMORPG) but I don't recall npc interaction like that.

Gamer54321

Here is an idea for a community (town, player housing):

Each house get an armed npc servant (upgradable), and with alot of housing, any attacker will have to fight all NPC at once + any defending players.

I imagine that this will prevent the trivial razing of property and theft.

 

Hmm, I guess this could be understood as something similar to Eve onlines Concord police authority.

 

An interesting factor could be that it encourages large factions, preferably two large and opposing sides. Smaller communities might benefit from secrecy (it it somehow works, with trust issues and all).

Amaranthar

Originally posted by Gamer54321

Here is an idea for a community (town, player housing):

Each house get an armed npc servant (upgradable), and with alot of housing, any attacker will have to fight all NPC at once + any defending players.

I imagine that this will prevent the trivial razing of property and theft.

 

Hmm, I guess this could be understood as something similar to Eve onlines Concord police authority.

 

An interesting factor could be that it encourages large factions, preferably two large and opposing sides. Smaller communities might benefit from secrecy (it it somehow works, with trust issues and all).

Yeah, I think in a Sandbox world instead of "upgradable" you have skill training for the NPCs.

A town alarm bell. Give the NPCs the ability to raise the alarm (if they detect an attack by seeing or finding signs of an attack). If the alarm is raised, they go into action as a whole. Maybe players running the town could have some basic abilities to choose specific actions, like "go to tower 14" for some and "group and patrol here->to there" for others. Otherwise, they should group up and move, not just stand around waiting to be picked off one by one.

garry

An interesting thread and I think the word Immersion is important. Any game I have played the creation of a character begins the process of immersion for me. I enjoyed the creation of characters, (yes I am a person with altitis), in EQ and WoW. Absolutely went wild over the character creation in CoH and Champions and to a lesser extent in STO. Have tried many other MMOs and CC have certainly improved. Game play itself was the determining factor for continuing to stay and pay. Character immersion is a primary factor for me in avoiding death, penalties are just annoying. I always care about dying in a game cause I am immersed in my character. And I am PvE oriented. PvP is a side show for me to try and get some of the gear 'reserved' for PvP. Its like I have to work a job and immersion in my character has no real meaning, only if I can jump around and shoot/strike the other dude more than he can shoot/strike me. OK OK I know there is more to it than that for a true PvP player but it has no immersion factor for me, I'm just saying.

 

The process for obtaining levels, stats, gear, money etc.. is where the possible grind comes into play but all of it is better if I can retain immersion with my character. So all in all I think character creation is a primary factor in immersion.  Environment? Of course it is improtant, in every game, and immersion factor is determined here primarily by genre and skill of programmers and artists. SWtOR, GW2 and TSW have understood this, at least I believe they do and all three will be getting my money. The CC will be getting my first impression of the games and how much immersive I will feel at start. The IP and content, familiar game mechanics etc will continue this process.

 

Last word on this - Immersion with character is the first and primary factor, for me, in staying with a game. CC, then in game IP and mechanics will keep me immersed in the game.