Giving Players the Ability to Run Events

PokemonTrainerRed

I was thinking about the role of a GM and it occured to me that it seems to be something that doesn't get used much when in actuality it could be a fantastic tool to use for an MMO world.

Sandboxes would suit this very well, but could also be implimented more into other subtypes as well.

How do you think about it? Or not really that bothered?

madazz

It's a great idea and worked well in UO. Depending on the type of event a GM would help too. But yeah, its not the same anymore without the GM doing cool random fun things. 

Castillle

I think its a great idea but I dont think its really suited for MMOs.  Id say something like a multiplayer game would be better so people can host their own stuff.  This is mostly because of the community though... Yknoe it either becomes something no one uses or something everyone exploits.

KenFisher

What kind of event would a player be able to run?

PokemonTrainerRed

Originally posted by XAPGames
What kind of event would a player be able to run?

I would love to see the whole world themselves. They are the will behind the world. The GMs just make it so. Events like invasions, boss fights, social events, roleplay events, the choices are actually endless.

Tuyet

Originally posted by halobump

Originally posted by XAPGames
What kind of event would a player be able to run?

I would love to see the whole world themselves. They are the will behind the world. The GMs just make it so. Events like invasions, boss fights, social events, roleplay events, the choices are actually endless.

  Ryzom has been trying to do this for years. There is an event team that the players can apply to join. I've never considered it to be really successful but they have done some real good events off and on. The Dev's still seem to be really devoted to developing more of it.

maplestone

What is preventing us from being their own walking event in the first place?   What mechanics are needed to make our footprints in the world more interesting to each other?

Scot

It has been done before with some success, but it does not fit into the streamlined solo orientated MMO's of today. As a player I see it as part of a possible solution to the desire for new content in any type of MMO. But that idea does not seem to have had much industry support, even less so today.

azzamasin

Originally posted by halobump

I was thinking about the role of a GM and it occured to me that it seems to be something that doesn't get used much when in actuality it could be a fantastic tool to use for an MMO world.

Sandboxes would suit this very well, but could also be implimented more into other subtypes as well.

How do you think about it? Or not really that bothered?

This is what the Foundry system is all about in the new Neverwinter MMO and it's one of the main reasons I am so looking forward to.

Quirhid

It could be exploited - no, someone will exploit it.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by halobump

Originally posted by XAPGames
What kind of event would a player be able to run?

I would love to see the whole world themselves. They are the will behind the world. The GMs just make it so. Events like invasions, boss fights, social events, roleplay events, the choices are actually endless.

Tools for social and roleplay events are common in sandbox and social focused MMOs. Invasion and boss fight type content is something that really doesn't work well in the hands of the player.

dave6660

Depends on how it's implemented.  My fear is that it would overused to the point of becoming more of a nuisance then a fun activity.  How many times a day can a huge dragon attack the town before players start saying, "who cares"?

Inf666

1. It will get exploited to hell. Start a small event for your guild and spawn easy to kill monsters with good loot. Since your guild knows what is coming, they can equip perfect gear.

2. It does not scale well. You have 5000 players on your server? An event incorporates 50 players? For every player to be able to participate in an event every day you will need 100 GMs per day per server. With redundancy lets say 200 GMs. How will you get that number of players to act as a GM without a reward?

3. A mass of events will result in players losing interest fast. What would you rather do: Go into a dungeon with a chance to find an uber sword or play the same event with no reward at all for the 10th time?

botrytis

Originally posted by Quirhid
It could be exploited - no, someone will exploit it.

I agree - if people can cheat, they will.

 

Also, I have seen some inane ideas come from players (more than game developers).

Fearum

No thanks, when I go out to eat I don't want to cook my own meals or have some other customer cook my meals. When I give money to a company, I pay them to entertain me.

dave6660

Originally posted by Fearum
No thanks, when I go out to eat I don't want to cook my own meals or have some other customer cook my meals. When I give money to a company, I pay them to entertain me.

There's a lot debate on how far the game should go to entertain you.  Some players want to treat the game like a toy, the company provides the tools and you create the fun.

Tuyet

 Ryzom also had the Ryzom Ring for years but no longer do.

 It was basically a scenario editor where players could create instances for othe players to play their scenarios. However there was no experience or loot for killing anything in the scenarios - any reward had to be given by the player. Ryzom's a pretty grindy game as is so there's not much motivation to spend a lot of time getting no reward. I never even experimented with it or even played a scenario but have seen videos of scenarios others made. I think Ryzom actually messed up big on this, they should have done something like make worthy scenarios part of the game for say a month or 2 - giving exp and loot - maybe they could have limited players to say just once a day or week entering any specific scenario.

nariusseldon

I highly doubt it will be fun. Most players are not good content creator.

I am not opposed to trying the idea out though .. although i have little faith in it.

 

Scot

Play some of the mods in the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series, then come back and say they were not "fun". Yes you can get some very poor ones, but the best a top notch and most are of a high quality. Less well known would be the Neverwinter modding, they did some great stuff there MMO wise. Thinking back to AO were you could do some scrippting, the fanbase created a text based library for nanos.

Given the chance players can do a lot for a game, gaming companies do not tend to like it too much as it raises copyright issues. But many modders these days have their stuff brought in house so to speak, like in the Civ series.

MumboJumbo

Originally posted by Scot

Play some of the mods in the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series, then come back and say they were not "fun". Yes you can get some very poor ones, but the best a top notch and most are of a high quality. Less well known would be the Neverwinter modding, they did some great stuff there MMO wise. Thinking back to AO were you could do some scrippting, the fanbase created a text based library for nanos.

Given the chance players can do a lot for a game, gaming companies do not tend to like it too much as it raises copyright issues. But many modders these days have their stuff brought in house so to speak, like in the Civ series.

I believe Scot is correct:

1) Devs can't make enough content by comparison to the time players can burn through it.

2) Player communities around mods etc give the game more life as well as actually more content.

etc.

Eg FTL has some nice mods for that game and another ks campaign I'm waiting on I'm expecting some great modding for.

But back to mmorpgs, the content problem is only worse; there's some indications companies are taking this route eg Forge for SOE etc. Also think devs should harness some particular selfless/resourceful players to run events or mobs or whatever also. Why not if it fits with the game design. Win-win.

KenFisher

I'm not sure if this counts as a player run event, but large scale invasions of opposite faction cities are something I've found enjoyable.

 

Only other thing I've seen event wise is a GM who loaded up a huge-ass monster and invaded a city.  However, I'm not sure I'd want to give players access to such a tool.

nariusseldon

Originally posted by Scot

Play some of the mods in the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series, then come back and say they were not "fun". Yes you can get some very poor ones, but the best a top notch and most are of a high quality. Less well known would be the Neverwinter modding, they did some great stuff there MMO wise. Thinking back to AO were you could do some scrippting, the fanbase created a text based library for nanos.

Given the chance players can do a lot for a game, gaming companies do not tend to like it too much as it raises copyright issues. But many modders these days have their stuff brought in house so to speak, like in the Civ series.

I use to play NWN, Dungeon Siege .. both have mods .. and yes, 99% are no fun. And even the good ones are poor immitation of professional produced stuff.

There are some .. very rare .. good mods .. like DOTA ... but i would waste my time on 99% of them.

nariusseldon

1) Devs can't make enough content by comparison to the time players can burn through it.

One game .. may be not. Just play a few games .. there are more than enough content. I will never have time to burn through content in DDo, LOTRO and DCUO.

Phaserlight

Re: OP

The MMO I am a part of does this on a regular basis.  See:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/some-assembly-required-ten-years-warp-by-for-vendetta-online/

And also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnYiqbciNiw

and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4hM08fSLFY (voice cast by yours truly)

A big part of getting around the maturity bar required for having access to "GM" tools is 25 hours of game time logged and a 500 word essay on Maturity, Trust, Involvement, and English, before being allowed access to those tools.  However, most of the events don't even need the tools; as it is a sandbox environment the community tends to be self-organizing.  The "Nation War" that I voice-casted from last Sunday can be run by anyone, without any special privileges except for the trust of the community.

Scot

I don't see player modding as being needed for sandbox or themepark; they just make for a better game. But in a themepark where content locusts want a new serving every month it may help to whet their appetites.

MMOExposed

I believe it would be best if we(the consumers and community here) could come up with idea for how the make this feature less exploitable, while at the same time keeping it useful and not simply an ignored feature like events in GW2 and Rift became..