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The core of an MMO.
robert4818
Member UncommonPosts: 661
What is the absolute core of an MMO?
To me. The core aspect of an MMO is one word. GOALS. Every mmo focuses on goals. The difference is how the mmo's let you attain them.
In a "Theme Park" MMO, the goals are pre-made. All you have to do is chase after them along the path laid out.
In a "Sand box" MMO, the goals are generally either left for the players to determine, or more likely pre-made to a certain extent, with the pathways to attain them open.
If a game doesn't allow you to have goals, pre-made or self set, it is my opinion that it will fail.
That means that a game like APB, which has no long-term goals, will either have to drastically change some aspect to begin including "concrete" goals (area control, etc.) or it will fail.
(Just for nay-sayers, I would point out that lack of goals are not the ONLY reason for an MMO to fail, it is just one reason.)
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
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Nope, that is the core of an MMO Developer/publisher.
An MMO needs to keep you playing for a long time. That means you need to invest that time into a game. Goals are what keep you playing for those extended times.
Those goals can be levels, status, currency, gear, stats, territory, etc. But those are the things that keep you playing, and hence, keep you spending $$.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Every single mmo out there shares the same concept; character development. Call it "goals" if you like, but that's what every one of them have in common.
How that's done is of course, very different.
I wouldn't call that however, the core of all mmos, even though they all surround the same concept. For some the core is teamwork. For some it's grinding. For others it's the amount of time invested as opposed to the goals attained (EVE is a good example of that).
So while the core of the gameplay varies, the concept (I'm guessing, what you're calling core), is the same.
Thats why end game is so hard to manage. Goals need to always seem attainable yet never let players run out of new goals. Make them too hard (kill 20 billion mobs) and they seem like unobtainium. Make them too easy and the player achieves everything and gets bored.
That's strange... and here I was thinking that the only core of ANY game not just MMOs was fun.
If it's not fun why bother? You can have a well balanced set of goals, but ultimately if the player doesn't find it fun they aren't going to keep doing it.
There's not really a "core" to MMO besides being Massively Multiplayer Online. Any game sufficiently large-scale will fit this vague concept, and be a MMO. You could have an action game, a puzzle game, or a role-playing game and make it an MMO, and all three would be MMOs.
Goals exist in every game, so claiming they're the core of an MMO is not really true. Nor do I believe APB is completely devoid of goals. Even having never tried the game, I'm sure there are countless goals to pursue (either goals players create on their own, or ones the game presents to them.)
MMOs are MMOs. Just because APB comes along and maybe it's not an RPG, that doesn't make it less of an MMO if it involves sufficiently multiplayer gameplay. Just because you don't like a game, that doesn't cause it to not be an MMO (nor should you care whether it's called a MMO; it's just part of a genre label, who cares what people are calling games?)
If you took a MMOFPS like Planetside, removed all RPG elements and had it just be fun combat on a massive scale the game would still be a MMO even if it lacked overt "goals" (but really you can't make a game with fun combat without at least having some player-created goals such as "My goal is to kill 5 players this life.")
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eh but that's really non-sequitur as mmos are invariably designed with specific content and to create a path to follow in order to retain subscribers. What we need is for player control to evolve the game into something that perhaps the designers didn't expect, or rather, implement themselves.
It's been done... Second Life.
MMO's are just online games in a perpetual world, goal structure has nothing to do with it.
Nothing matters past the 'online' and 'massively multiplayer' parts to it. What you keep bringing up is the RPG elements, which is just stapled onto the MMO suffix.
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I don't think it's goals at all.
most games have some sort of goals. I highly doubt the core of an mmo is the same as, say, a rubik's cube (goal is to get all sides the same color) or Monopoly (goal is to control the finances of the game and to drive your opponents out of business).
but you did say "to me" so I suppose that's fair. However I don't believe that is the core of an mmo.
The core of an mmo is the bringing together of people. Not to group, or to socialize or to create together but to allow them to interact and/or coexist on some level.
It's the experience of being in an online world with others.
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Well there are countless games out there which are fun without evolving on their own, so I strongly disagree that we "need" that for games to be fun.
And yeah, games are always designed with specific activities and specific content, but I'd disagree that there will always necessarily be a sense of a "path to follow". There was no "path" in Planetside or Second Life, yet both are nevertheless MMOs.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I would have to say i agree with you. Goals are an important part to any MMO whether it be PvP contorl or killing baddies in a dungeon. I think the thing is tho there needs to be either enough goals to keep the interest level high or more of an open world where you can set your own goals on many different levels.
Second Life? What next. We gonna call conference calls on tiny chat and IRC mmos?
Second Life and similar venues are just that; venues. They're not games. If we're calling an MMO anything where people congregate online, then ok. I think personally that multi"player" refers to a game.
Say what you will about the game - all I'm saying is it's been done before. That was just one instance. Pretty much any sandbox / sandbox-lite game describes what you want. Haven & Hearth, Love, etc... Most of these also aren't really popular either so it just goes to show you how great player created and evolving content truely is. Subscription numbers speak louder than the voice of a few would be game designers.
Actually these games fail because they aren't games at all. Player created environments are exactly what we need in mmo games, but pointing to second life and saying that this doesn't work is flawed because that particular attribute is not what makes it fail.
Facebook, twitter, youtube, etc are very highly successful venues and are entirely dependent upon user creations to survive. There are other factors and I don't even consider Second Life a game.
If we are going to consider SL or Sandbox and this and that to be mmos, then we need to be questioning the OP's original question which is too broad because going by those standards anything online with a userbase is an mmo so there is no "core" or standard that even begins to summarize exactly what an mmo is because the definition is too broad... mmorpg.com would be an mmo... Myspace an mmo... IRC... etc.
Escapism.
same reason people drink and do drugs.
It's just cheaper, safer, and less likely to get you in trouble with the law.
MMO to me = Massively multiplayer competition. I play to compete massively. If there is no competition, no fun, no reason for me to play.