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You know what I miss in MMO's?
WRyan
Member Posts: 266
The RPG part of the game.
Now... okay - I know what you're thinking. I'm not talking about the type of RP you find in RP servers, where people generally behave and/or speak/type like their digital alter-egos. No, I mean a game that encourages the gameplay of building a cast of characters.
So here's my original idea of what would become a modern MMO.
When I was younger (15-ish maybe, a little over 10 years ago), MMO's really didn't exist. I mean, sure, UO was going on, and EQ was just around the corner, but it wasn't a mainstream thing at the time. Back then, everybody and their brother got excited about the next big RPG that would come out on the Playstation. For me and my friends, it was FFVIII. But none of this is really getting at what I'm talking about...
I remember thinking about halfway through my playing FFVIII that it would be really awesome if there was such a thing as a game like FFVIII, only the other characters were other people, playing somewhere else in the world. Now, put in mind this was before the concept of going online was event a hint of a possibility for me back then. Hell, back then, being online was using your phone line with a 56k modem - that was the best technology there was.
So, today's MMO is... well... I mean it is what it is, but it's nothing like I thought it would be. Really, all it is, is a grind with meaningless content that has nothing to do with YOUR character. I can't look back on any game and say "That's MY character's story..." unless I made it up myself in my "Bio Section." I mean, think about it... do any of our characters have a story of their own that the game itself gave us? Do we have a unique story that no one else has? No... all we have are experiences of PvP, or the first time we saw the Mega-Dragon of Doom, or our first steps in an online realm. We don't have a unique story in the game that unfolded before us as we made our decisions, where our friends and other community members were the rest of the cast of our great legend.
I still beleive there is a way for this to happen in the MMO. I beleive that there is a way that our unique character has a story all their own, where our guildmates share a co-starring role, and our characters co-star in their stories in kind.
My theory is that each quest can be something of a mini-adventure. Where half the quest is played out by just meeting the rest of the cast. For instance, an entirely different element of PvP could be captivated in a conversation between two or more players.
Maybe I've got pipe dreams about this, but it seems to me that a lot of what is lacking in engaging gameplay is due to the fact that the game itself isn't built to allow the players to be integral parts of each other's very own stories.
Comments
1) it could be done, but it would take a tremendous amount of programming to create an individual story for every character, even if the server only supported 50 characters and some of the stories occasionally overlapped. This could be resolved by making a medium amount of storylines to partake in and joining groups that are persuing those same storylines, which is what has occured and how most MMO's operate.
2) Imagination is a wonderful thing, it shows that when you were younger you had imagination enough to think of how great it would be to play what an MMO is now, the only problem is it didn't give you a completely individual story, and unfortunately the only way to achieve that in an MMO is to do so within the realm of one's own imagination, or to solo alot and only join groups when you feel it is within your wanton storyline.
3) Instances have done alot for the whole idea of immersion into the storyline, and if you don't play MMO's with alot fo Instances, I'd suggest doing so, they're more immersive into a feeling of staring in a story.
Programming this isn't that hard. Designing it and figuring out how it should work is nearly impossible. Designing it, figuring out how it should work, programming it, and being able to make the rest of the game, is definitely impossible. But I agree, before MMO, when thinking about what a virtual world could be like, it was nothing like what actually happened. But it's also hard to do. One way would be to have a semi dynamic story, where the outcome of certain instances progress the story one way or another. Still a lot of work, and not much closer to your dreams, but it's a little bit of the way that could be accomplished with modern technology.
I think Asheron's Call had a story that progressed, with GM's decided what would happen and players influencing that. GM's and RP (the kind you mentioned you aren't into) are probably the only realistic way to do what you want. Give it a try sometime. Check out neverwinter nights, there are some persistant servers where you can have this kind of experience.