Moving away from the "time=reward" model... (long read)

“Clearly in any MMORPG there are lots of other players online, but are we really playing with them or just playing the same game at the same time? Sure there is the community but it doesn't really have any impact on the game world. Your interaction with another player ultimately has no effect on anything except as far as socializing /community are concerned ……” -Unknown poster
How would be the factor to determine the total amount of ‘dust’ in the world

In trying to create a system that will change the way that most MMOG’s are designed today I realized that the key to any system is not just it’s the positive things it offers, but if the system can be exploited that will often determine how much ‘fun’ it offers. Fun is subjective and hopefully the reader will see the concept I have tried to describe. This is my third revision of this document and this revision is 6 pages shorter than the last as most people don’t like reading almost 15 pages in order to grasp a concept. It was in that endeavor I have greatly shortened this document. The downside is that the concepts that I have defined might not be as apparent to the reader because some of the extraneous detail was taken out. If you see any potential to this idea, and don’t understand something or just want clarification, please ask and I will attempt explain.

THE PROBLEM

The problem is that the current model for almost all MMOG’s is a formula based almost entirely on making money over the longest period of time, as a result games are limited in their potential due to certain problems that are encountered once the level ceiling has been reached. This effect usually pronounces itself once a player has had the opportunity to play a good deal after the level ceiling has been achieved.

There are two basic symptoms of the problem.

• First, the items a player possesses have more influence on his success in combat than does his skill.
• Second, related to the first problem, is the time a player spends collecting wealth* varies greatly between players.
• As a result of the problems above, most players must spend unwanted time endlessly grinding in order to obtain the wealth necessary to be viable vs other players (this is especially pronounced in PvP environments).

*Wealth being defined as a combination of coin, items and other in game possessions.

These problems are described by something I call the Mob Driven Economy (MDE).

While it would seem to make sense for a mob to drop an item that is in relative proportion to its difficulty, the effect of such a system means that players will have to spend vast amounts time to acquire items that will allow them to compete in combat. As the game progresses over time players learn that if they wish to have a decent experience in PvP these super items aren’t an option they are a necessity to have a chance to compete with other players. This is a great fiscal strategy for the game companies, because players play longer in order to obtain items, it comes at the cost of the ‘average’ player. Remember that the distribution of players has the majority of players playing somewhere in between the players that play the most and those that play the least. The problem is that the average and below average players (in terms of play time) make up a vast majority of the players yet the majority has to do what the minority does in order to be viable in a PvP setting.
Quick example:
1. Player 1 plays an average of 30 or more hours a week (this player represents 20%
2. Player 2 plays an average of 15 hours a week (this type of player represents 60%)
3. Player 3 plays an average of 7.5 hours a week (this type of player represents 20%)

Since achievement in most games is effected mostly by time than it stands to reason that 80% of the players have to do what the top 20% are doing to be viable in most games. If something takes a week to accomplish for player 1, it would take player 2 two weeks and player 3 four weeks (all other things being equal) to acomplish. Though the numbers I use are fictitious I’m pretty sure they represent a rough spread between player types.

Because players will spend months, even years acquiring everything they need in order to be viable in combat this creates huge disparities between players that have little to do with player skill and those disparities become more pronunced over time. Basically, this means that time spent ‘farming’ is the single biggest factor in acquiring wealth and in turn is the single biggest factor for player success in combat.
Before you, the reader, thinks about the game you’re playing and think that these problems have not presented themselves to you, remember that the problem becomes most apparent when you have played a game and taken the time to level a character to its highest level within that system. It is at this point where players have reached this milestone that they will drive endlessly to acquire items of visible (and non-visible) achievement. These items often influence combat in such a way that players with better items are more powerful. Those items are often only obtained with large investments of time.
Within the first year of any MMOG the model that most games employ usually works ok, because of a certain amount of ‘newness’ and playing in unknown environments almost any game will hold a players interest, but the problem becomes more pronounced over time as players learn the system and look for the system they are playing within to provide fun for the long term. Usually it’s the minority of players who invest the most time that have the most fun at the expense of everyone else.
In a non-PvP environment these problems are minimized because players work together so the disparities between them are not as overtly visible to other players, or other players don’t care because they aren’t fighting each other. In a PvP setting players are much more sensitive to these issues and imbalances caused by super items.

THE SOLUTION

When I think of MMOG, I think of thousands of people playing a game together. Some love the community within the game, some love the combat and still others like other aspects of the game. I would suggest that its time to take the genre past community, or a place where people simply share similar interests, and move to an online society where players live in a world of interdependence, where players are rewarded for more than just time spent grinding for experience and items. Where everyone has a chance to succeed, but success is not guaranteed based solely on tenure. Players will have real motivations to engage other players, both in combat and non combat situations, as friend and as foe.

The concept involves...
• The economy would fluctuate, transparently to the player, based on the number of active players in the game.
• Players would ‘bank’ there money in the world thus wealth would never be unreachable.
• Gives unrelated players real reasons to work together
• Each guild has an opportunity to provide needed services to other players within the game.
• Solo, and casual players will be able to compete in combat without spending enormous amounts of time collecting items and will find that they are a very important part of the world.
• Create a system where the source of wealth can be protected, but redistribution of wealth is built into the system.
• The system will take a unique approach to rewarding ‘power gamers’ in a way that won’t punish casual players so far as single combat is concerned.
• The system would work best in a world where 10,000 or more players would often be in the game at any given time
• There will be reasons to spend time acquiring items, as in the past, but those items won’t have a pronounced effect on single combat.

Hopefully I have captured your attention and you will take the time to carefully consider my suggestions below. Every solution will inevitably raise more questions and I hope the reader, before dismissing the idea, think of way to make the idea work, or ask for clarification.
Obviously I can’t describe the nuances system down to the finest details as I could write 100 pages and still not be finished.
Please try to remember that the concepts I present are just concepts and can be manipulated if better solutions present themselves, and though I give names to certain ideas and concepts within the system, many of them are simply physical representations of those ideas and concepts. I will try to place single quotes ‘ around those concepts so the reader knows that these aspects are not written in stone and could be changed if a better solution present itself.

MORE DETAILS

There are several parts to the foundation of a good game, its content and storyline, graphics, questing system, skill system, how the player vs player (PvP) system works, players playing against monsters (PvE), politics and the economy just to name a few. After having played at least 15 MMO’s since the late 90’s I have come to conclusion that no other system in a persistent world has the opportunity to effect all the other systems within a game like the economy.

The concepts that I am going to define won’t please everyone. The system will be best for players who enjoy challenges and who don’t expect to win all the time. The PvP environment creates this opportunity best and would be the combat system that this concept would center around.
The system will attempt to allow players a certain amount of freedom, but that freedom will be defined within certain boundaries.

HOW THE SOLUTION IS ACCOMPLISHED

As I outlined in the summery the economy would be based on a fluid system that would incorporate a key element players will use to create items, we’ll call this key element ‘dust’. Dust would be used to create almost every item in the game. ‘Dust’ will allow items in the world to have special properties beyond the items normal function.
The amount of dust in the world would vary depending on the number of active players over a given time. The reason for this is to ensure that players can get enough ‘dust’ to make what they need, but if the ‘dust’ were being monopolized than eventually players would have to seek out other players as a source of ‘dust’ thus increasing conflict within the game.

A little more on the source of ‘dust’

‘Dust’ would come from a place in the world that could be defended by players. Players would have two choices

1) Players could fortify their positions around ‘dust’ deposits and build extractors that would extract ‘dust’ automatically or with very little effort from players. This would free players to do other things within the game, including the defense of the guilds keeps/ forts.
2) A player could choose to extract the ‘dust’ on his own without fortification

The number and distance between deposits of ‘dust’ could be used to control monopolies. It could also help to dictate the number of clan and guild organizations within the world if that was deemed to be a positive factor.

Once the ‘dust’ is extracted a few things can happen to it.
1) It can be made into an item
2) It can be stored
3) It can be traded or sold

‘Dust’ is a magical element and by its very nature wishes to return to where it came from. It is the crafter that is able to combine dust with certain other elements in order to slow this process. The type and quality of the elements it’s mixed with that determine its longevity.

The number of active players in the game over a given period of time modified by their level. There would have to be a fairly simple formula for determining the amount of ‘dust’ and it would variy on a number of factors, more than I can think of now. Here is an example of a few items that might effect the amount of ‘dust’ in the world. The number of players, modified by the number of levels those players have achieved modified by a certain amount of dust for each level.
So if there are 3 players that have logged in the last week (the time could be more or less) in game and their levels are 1, 3 and 5 than there would be 3 players and each level brings a certain amount of ‘dust’ into the world.
Level (1v 3)=y
Level (2w 2)=y
Level (3x 2=y
Level (4y 1)=y
Level (5z 1)=y

Where v, w, x, y, z represents a higher value for each level
Where y represents the total amount of ‘dust’ for the number of players that have achieved that level.

So if we look at the example above and give each a hypothetical value we can calculate the amount of dust in the world for these 3 players

v=5
w=7
x=10
y=14
z=21

5x3=15
14x2=28
10x=20
14x1=14
21x1=21

So in this oversimplified example there would be 98 ‘dust’ in the world for these 3 players. Of course in the context of this example it means little because we don’t know what it would cost to craft an item. Item quality and difficulty would have to be in proportion to the amount of dust available in the world. This example just shows how the amount of dust in the world would vary based on player activity.

Lastly, if there were 3 ‘dust’ deposits in the world than each deposit would contain about 33 units of ‘dust’.

If the number of players fluctuates and there is too much or two little ‘dust’ in the world then that would be compensated for at each periodic check.
If there is too much ‘dust’ in the world then the ‘dust’ deposits would run dry and any item decay would not replenish the deposits until the amount of dust in the would, calculated by the formula above, was obtained.

How dust returns to the world

When an item is made it has a certain quality, that quality is determined by the amount of dust and the number of other components it takes to make and the skill of the crafter that makes the item. The higher the quality of the item the better the dust is confined within the item thus the decay process is slowed. The amount the item decays over time depends on the activity that its owner is engaged in and the type of material it’s made of.
Walking, running, combat, rain, fire, acid, cold and other elements will increase the decay over time.

As an item starts to decay, for every 1% it decays the ‘dust’ that is released returns to where it came from equally across the world.

How is surplus wealth stored?

Guilds would create forts/keeps and those forts would contain vaults. There would be two basic types of vaults, guild vaults and non guild vaults. The guild vaults would hold all the guilds players wealth, the non guild vaults would hold all non guild players items.

Why would players put their wealth in another guilds vault?

The first and most obvious reason for the player is to protect their surplus items from theft.

Why would a guild want players to deposit their wealth in their vault?

The more wealth a guild can attract to their vault the stronger the guilds fort will be. The guilds would also charge a small fee. That fee would be a percentage of the wealth the player has in the vault.

What happens to the wealth in the vaults if a guilds fort is attacked and taken?

First and most importantly, any wealth stored in the non-guild vaults would stay there and remain the property of the original owner, but the new owners would get to charge
the players using the non-guild vault a ‘rebuild fee’. The purpose of this is to give non-guided players a reason to help the guild being attacked. The guild vaults could be subjected to different rules. One stipulation is that players cannot remove items from a guild fort that is under attack. The fee each player would have to paly would be based on the amount of ‘dust’ either in pure form or the amount in each item.

What happens if a guild fort is attacked and the attacker looses?

Well depending on the confines of the system attackers that loose may have to forfeit something. The spoils would be shared with the guild and non-guild players who have items stored in the guilds vault. The spoils would be shared in appropriate proportions (active defenders getting more). This system would require attackers to announce their intentions directly or indirectly.
One idea for an indirect announcement is a certain type of machine must be built and that machine would be very large. It would take time to build and pushed to the keep meant to be attacked. If the invaders were warded off the sige engine would be broken down and reclaimed as a spoil to go to the defenders. But this is an off-the-cuff idea…don’t read to much into it…..

More detail and comments about guild vaults.

This idea is in its infancy and will need to be tweaked extensively, but the point of the concept here is:
1) To encourage players to work together (players who don’t know each other)
2) To give real reasons to take forts other than simply points or experience
3) To provide casual players a place to put their items
4) Because wealth is changing hands it helps meet the requirement of the distribution of wealth.

How we handle items in the game.

This aspect has to be incorporated for the concept to work.

Here are some highlights of the items system speaking specifically of weapons and armor.
1) The disparity between weapons and armor of the highest and lowest quality will give very little single combat advantage*.
2) Casual players will be able to acquire items for relatively small cost to their higher quality counterparts.
3) There will be significant differences between items, but they will be inter-combat related (meaning there will be very little to help to a player in actual combat)
4) The items quality will determine the items potential for other utility type effects. A sword that provides out of combat endo regen, light, speed or any host of utility type effects.
5) The appearance of the item will be directly related to its quality. Its quality will be accomplished quickest by the most accomplished players.

*combat advantage is when players are actively engaged in combat. Items may help with after combat effects while the player is still on the field of battle. This the player with better items has about the same chance to win any given fight, but he may be able to stay on the field of battle longer.

For this system work the combat skill system will have to be as innovative as the economic system that I have defined. The entire point of this concept I am attempting to define will shift the from items and time invested to a skill based system that would treat all players practically the same allowing the most skilled players to be rewarded for their combat prowess.
Any given item and the material its made out of have certain potential to hold ‘dust’ and that would be in proportion to the utility it provides its user. Each material would have certain pros and cons and work similarly to other systems already used in other games.

How would PvP affect the economy?

Since, in theory, skill would be the predominate factor in determining winners and losers in battle then the question of what happens to the defeated player, should he loose his items?

This is a very difficult question because, as stated before, ‘fun’ is a relative term.

I think its important that players have an opportunity to capture somthing of value from other players. This serves a few functions….

1) players of all types can capure some of the resouce they need right on the field of battle (but they also ahve the potential to loose it).
2) Distribution of wealth is something that is important in this world concept

Here is an idea that would allow players to keep items and still allow the victor to take something of real value. When player 1 defeats player 2 than player 2 drops a certain amount of ‘dust’ for the victor to pick up. That ‘dust’ would come from the defeated players items and would show up as decay. Bun in the case of combat the dust (or a portion of it) would not go back to the world, some of it would be paid directly to the victor, or spread among a group of victors.

This would allow you to compensate for large level disparities and disparities in the number of attackers. If a lvl 50 attacked a lvl10 than the amount dropped would be minimal, or even none. If a player of lvl 50 attacked another lvl 50 than the amount would be average, and if a lvl 40 attacked a level 50 and won than he would take an even higher amount.
Other cases where a group of 10 players finds a group of 2, if all 10 players attack then the spoils would be very small.
This might have the side benefit of encouraging players to fight more fairly in order to keep the spoils of victory higher.

I know the hard core PvP’ers want items, but this idea has the benefit of being the next best thing, because what is dropped allows players to make more items. And the defeated aren’t left naked on the field of battle.

Basically, the less you loose the better your items will stand up on the field of battle and the less you will have to leave for repairs. This is another idea that needs more thought but I think it’s a good starting point.