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What makes a successful MMORPG?
Gianluigi
Member Posts: 12
Hey guys! I'm researching the question 'What makes a successful MMORPG?' for a project at school and I figured that if I need some surveys to get filled out the school would not be the best option so I have decided to create an online survey for people on MMORPG dedicated forums which is why I am posting here 
I have two surveys one with compulsory questions and one with optional ones:
NOTE: The compulsory question survery is the main one i need done
So if it's not too much to ask can you spend a few minutes answering these surveys for me it will be much appreciated
Oh and this is only of portion of my research thats why there isn't a large amount of variety on the questions but I can still add more.
For those also wanting to know the results from these surveys too I will happily post them after two weeks
Thanks!
PS. If you feel as if there should be more questions added please comment them below and I will add a whole seperate survey with the questions you choose. Please note that they can't be biased
Comments
Would've answered the questions but the lack of choices leaves me without a way to answer the majority of your questions.
Yea.. not much of a survey, might want to rename it to ''What do you like about WoW''.
Good? Being released before 2004.
Successful? Easy-mode themepark even easier than the last.
Took the survey for ya, good luck in your class.
I will do those surveys , but you might to reconsider rewriting them and posting again.
They are VERY limited, it feel like "What make a succesful raiding type themepark?" than what make succesful mmorpg to be honest
You're missing alot of possible answer types.
edit: done
Done
And good luck for your project.
Alright guys if you feel limited with the surveys can you please reply with what you think I should add to the survey, change, or answers to add, and no I have not based it on wow.
Also this survey is no where near all the research I will be doing for my project its much more complicated than that
Compulsary questions:
1) That depends wildly on the game. Ideally, I like a variety of stuff, but mostly I'll do what the game does well. And if I don't like what the game does well, then I'll quit and play some other game. The question doesn't lend itself to a multiple-choice format.
2) My main criteria are that I need to be able to jump in and play rather than spending half of the time trying to organize a group, and that it needs to be balanced as opposed to a contest of whoever is highest level, has the best gear, and/or has the most players on their side wins. Your options aren't relevant to either of those criteria.
3) The important point is that I shouldn't have to pay attention to the leveling, and shouldn't be gimped for not paying attention to it. If I have to spend a lot of time doing things that I wouldn't otherwise even consider doing, but have to do them for the express purpose of leveling, then it's a bad game and I'll quit and find some other. None of your options are relevant to the question.
4) I like a combat system that is done well and isn't just a copy of something else I've already played until I was sick of it. Your answers aren't relevant.
5) See #4.
6) If the game has a coherent storyline, then yes, I do follow it. But most don't. I try to follow some of them anyway.
7) Ideally, I'd like it to last for the length of the game, but then come to a conclusion that ties up the loose ends. See any campaign of Guild Wars for an example of this. But coherence is more important than length, and anything that reduces to "we have to kill X because it drops epics" is bad.
8) Ideally, I like to be able to log on and quickly get a group for the content that I want to do. But grouping mechanisms are hard to do well, and I'd sooner solo than spend half an hour trying to find a group.
9) That depends on the nature of the game. All of the features you list except for voice chat are desirable if it fits the game. But they simply don't fit some games.
10) I don't role-play.
Optional questions:
1) One critical thing for me are that I need to be able to log on whenever I want and do the content I want, without having to wait around for a group. Scheduling my life around a game is a complete non-starter. It's also critical that the content be designed so as not to repeat some small subset endlessly, have loot rules that make ninja looting impossible, and not require me to be online for hours on end. I'm not aware of any game that has raiding that comes remotely close to meeting those baseline criteria that are absolutely necessary for it to have any chance of being good.
2) Dungeons that are interesting and substantially different from other content. And short enough that I don't have to be online for excessively long periods of time.
3) Quests that encourage you to move around and do a lot of different stuff, rather than staying in one spot to grind endlessly. And quests that actually work right, as opposed to being bugged and sometimes uncompletable for one reason or another.
4) If everyone and his neighbor's dog is spamming the same skill(s), then it's probably overpowered and needs a nerf.
5) That question doesn't even make sense. It depends on the nature of the combat.
Done.
1. You may want to specify that you're talking about "combat" related features. Also keep in mind that there are MMORPGs out there without any kind of combat. Or if you really want to talk about meta-gaming you should explore the whole concept of a Massive Multiplayer Rol PG. I'd add:
- Socializing (Chilling with friends)
- Developing your character (Talent build)
- Amassing wealth (through commerce, harvesting, crafting, politics, etc)
- Exploration
3. You're assuming that the MMORPG has "levels". If you want to cover the whole genre, you should talk about "character progression" rather than "leveling"
Also leveling with friends and leveling through grinding/quests/dungeons may meet each other. Maybe you want to talk about a solo/small group/big group type of character progression, or maybe you want to talk about about the type of content you want to be subjected to your character progression quests/grind (even if the term grind is a bit generic)/dungeons/etc. Also keep in mind that there are many types of character progression: Real time training, Skill usage, levels and so on.
6. I'd put yes / no / partially in boxes to validate like the rest of the survey so far hehe. Rather than following the storyline, you may want to know how important is the storyline for the user, but that's just an idea.
7. I don't understand this question. EVE for example has not a definite storyline to follow, but is build around npc storylines and player-made storylines. WoW has many storylines to follow. DDO separates the storyline in Dungeons with a variable size.
9. You could specify that you're talking about not-combat features. I'd add crafting to the list. Also some games don't have "Auction House" that's why I suggest you to use the term "trade".
smooth gameplay and stable community
Subscription number(you paying monthly not one time like movies,music etc), not going F2P.
I hope this is not a survey for any type off University Project.
You should really rename it, since the options are really pointing to WoW playstyle and stuff you can do in WoW.
And if you look in some databases (if this is for a Uni project) you will see there have been extensive research in the area of game development specielly for mmorpg.
But still i did answer your questions and i hope you get enough replys for your 3% margin.
Gl with your research
elven boobies
Thanks for the help, I looked over the survey again and realised it was pretty limited, I was just in such a rush to get SOMETHING up because I am limited on time
But I have gone through and made some changes so yeah thanks 
!
Na this isn't a uni project, it's some new type of research project for year 12's and yeah I think they may be getting rid of it because it's that bad haha
I wish I had access to those databases D;
Also I have gone through and changed quite a bit of questions and stuff still have to look at the optional question survey now
Getting decent players who are loyal and provide good feedback. Good luck with that.
When you ask for rank-like opinions (such as "how much..." or "how important is to you X") you may want to provide a measurable scale (such as "1 to 10" or "least ... most") rather than an empty text box. Empty text box will give you more work trying to regroup the range of comments into a valid & computable result for the purposes of the survey.
cba doing the survay so i'll just say it here.
Successful MMO is the MMO with good endgame. If you're stuck in grinding at midgame knowing that there's nothing new on later levels, then the game simply ain't for me.
Also patches, lots of patches and even more patches to make it playable even months after the release
In this day of age, innovation.
What questions we're you referring to?
Getting people to buy it, and then continue to support it.
/endthread
As far as any list of mechanics or social expectations I don't think there's a recipe to follow for that.
I think looking at all of the games that have used a lot of the mechanics that made WoW or EQ successful while adding or refinding this or that in those forumlas confirms my thought.
If I were to make a suggestion to a new company starting on a new mmorpg project to be most successful; the devil is in the details. Don't take too many short cuts because you'll have to rely on a hypemachine rather than your 1s and 0s to stick around for any reasonable amount of time in the business.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
I took both surveys. I hope it helps.
Put the right mix of everything. The problem with putting too much would be development costs and consolidating populations to certain areas of development to make it worth while.
So the right mix would be between sand box elements and themepark elements.
ALso the combat has to be a trade-off of being a mix of fps style and the watch the animation style combat.
So themepark elements would be story, leveling, raiding, questing, and story based objectives which in a controlled method can affect the world in a sand boxy way. Also adding a lot of mini games in the game as a side to the actual core of the game. Also imo, the story has to be short, and the lvling as well which is focused mostly on training style quests and getting skills or items for quests instead of getting exp and going to the trainer.
The sand box elements could be creating a platform to allow players to create content themselves. THis player created content content could be mini-games using the game engine, or quests. Having housing and sand box elements of destructibles houses and seiges.
The sanbox element of the game would help stimulate a need for a great economy and create a great immersive factor to the game as being a living world since from a theme park element certain pvp objectives can affect the economy in a controlled way that is not extreme to completely wipe out players achievements.
The AI also has to be top notch, and the combat should be up to the challenge as well. Smart AI makes for a great game out of the pvp element as well.
Character creation has to have a lot of features and options.
Lots of in game items, and possibilties to use them through out the game (so erly lvl items can be used late lvls) and customize as they players wants. Also there can be ways to mix certain items with other components for certain yeilds. This would be part of a complex crafting system.
ALso for PVP I would have mounts included, but only for certain other objectives I would allow flying mounts or planes depending on the game. Since having planes all the time would change the feel and strategy, and that is the point of allowing it in certain regards.
Also a bounty system, with gambling.
And the game would be mature would blood and gore, possibly with nudity with boob physics and a variety of different boobs instead of the generic look of boobs. I am an old guy, and I like boobs so it is important for me! Maybe, I am just a bit lonely?
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Yea, but keep your game forums closed from trolls trolling how they are dissapionted about anything new or different.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble