5 Pillars of MMORPGs That Should Be Torn Down

We can rebuild them.

The MMORPG has carved out a niche for itself in the video game industry using a tried and true formula that is founded upon five unshakable pillars of the genre. These features that, when combined together, mark a game as an MMORPG simply by way of their existence. Therein lies the problem, of course: if a design choice has become so commonplace that the mere mention of it conjures images of feral druids or frantic group fights against various colors of dragons, it’s also something that can be subverted. The MMORPG genre has been justifiably criticized as stagnant at times. Here are the worst offenders, and the ways in which game developers have begun to change them.

5. Auction Houses

Auction houses, despite being the closest most MMORPGs have come to achieving a global economy and thus a centerpiece of game design, are often strikingly similar. Whensome games innovate, the results are disastrous. Diablo III, though not a MMORPG in the strictest sense, tried (and failed) to incorporate real money into their auction house while the upcoming Black Desert is doing away with the auction house system altogether. All items in Black Desert will be physically tied to locations they’re dropped, and if players want to move them around, they will either have to drag them back to the nearest town or hire someone else to move them. There’s a reason nobody has developed a “help your friends move” simulator.

Failed attempts at innovation aside, there’s room left to experiment on the auction house. Imagine a game in which players have to actively choose who they want to be – epic slayer of monsters or savvy financier. Although players already use alts to achieve a similar effect in games like World of Warcraft, it would be interesting to see a game that took this to the next level. Perhaps an NPC economy could be initially placed into a MMORPG, with players forced to work their way into it before competing with each other and the game’s already-established big businesses to earn a reputation and profit. There are still many opportunities to create something innovative and exciting with game economies.


4. Big Narrative Moments Tied to PvE Raiding

Virtually all of the biggest MMORPG titles are guilty of this kind of dissonance. Someone who prefers being tested against other players rather than end bosses could’ve played the entirety of World of Warcraft’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion without realizing that Arthas actually dies in the end. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s story is a bit more centered around questing, but PvP players still miss out on deep, fun raids like The Wanderer’s Palace, which contains a callback to one of the most perplexing Final Fantasy villains of old.

These kinds of narratives are the crux of what make MMORPGs viable as constantly evolving worlds, but currently these stories are told in an exclusionary way. Tying the conclusions to stories that every player sees while leveling to only one end-game feature is a cruel reminder that MMORPGs seem to believe story and multiplayer are mutually exclusive content.


3. PvE/PvP Server Splits

Although this quality does not characterize every MMORPG on the market, it is present in enough of the bigger ones – including the biggest, World of Warcraft – that it deserves a closer look. At first glance, separating players based on their play-style preference makes a lot of sense. In doing so, developers ensure that a player who likes to meander about in the gorgeously rendered fields outside of a major town can do so without worrying about anyone slipping a dagger between their shoulder blades while they’re picking daisies.

Under the surface, however, these kinds of splits can cause some unwanted consequences. How often do updates release to criticism from both PVE and PVP players, who contend that the other group is being favored? The decision to merge these two player groups closer together would create a more communal environment within MMORPGs, and could push gamesin increasingly interesting directions. What if PvP players could affect how PvE stories play out, with each multiplayer skirmish representing political intrigue and power grabs akin to Game of Thrones? What if story changes affected the game’s multiplayer, as factions constantly shifted alliances and players found themselves allies after months of fighting?


2. Traditional Quest Structure (Go Here, Retrieve X, Kill Y, Come Back for Z)

World design in MMORPGs typically breaks down into three categories: sandbox, themepark, and zoo. Sandbox games are typically the most player-driven of the three – think EVE Online, and the way the players dictate virtually everything that happens within that universe. Themepark games, by contrast, are largely influenced by their developers. World of Warcraft’s fixed spawns, long and straight-forward quest chains, and predictable progression typify this type of game. Finally, there are zoo games, which attempt to hybridize the former two categories. Guild Wars 2 is the most apt and relevant example here: it lets players affect the world dynamically while also offering storyline quests that are choreographed entirely by the developers.

Despite the illusion of variety, these quest structures are still largely similar to the questing gameplay popularized by EverQuest so long ago. Players must kill enemies for items and then retrieve those items for someone who inexplicably has a vested interest in, for example, eyeballs. Then they are rewarded with gold or items, and they move on to the next person (who wants livers instead of eyeballs just to be difficult). The problem with these quests is that they can feel too much like work, where a developer has simply taken a grocery list and disguised it as a kobold that lost something in a mine. Developers need quests to take up a certain amount of time in their games, however, as quests make up the bulk of content before a MMORPG’s end-game and need to keep players involved beyond just a month or two of investment.

But what if players didn’t need to grind out levels to reach the most exciting content?


1. Experience-Based Character Growth System

Let’s be honest – the concept of a small number placed inconspicuously beside a very powerful dark wizard named Jeff indicating his skill is deeply engrained in MMORPG culture. It might be the first thing people think of when they think of the genre; long-time adherents to the online grind have probably discussed what level they would be in real life with friends at least once. For a genre that promises constantly changing worlds of endless possibility, having the large part of a character’s worth be summed up in a two or three digit number can feel jarring or outright wrong. Guild Wars 2 recently tried to tackle the problem of worth-as-numbers by implementing an automatic level scaling system, where players in PvE zones will be scaled down to match the recommended level of that area while PvP or World vs. World players get scaled up to max level. The problem, of course, is that this system is just a temporary fix, and can result in some horrible mismatches when a relatively inexperienced player gets thrust into combat with a seasoned PvP veteran.

Levels are the easiest, most efficient way to measure player progression and gate content. Levels also severely restrict the ways in which MMORPGs can be innovative. Of the five pillars discussed here, the concept of an experience-based character growth system is the most sacred. It’s also the one that needs to be reduced to rubble the fastest. Skills are so central to character progression and overall sense of accomplishment that they are, without hyperbole, the oxygen that breathes life into the rest of a game world. Skills are also the most difficult change to make, as many developers have already discovered. Games like EVE Online and Elder Scrolls Online offer complex and different looks at how player skill and experience can be integrated into gameplay, but no game has managed to create the de facto successor to the current standard model. It’s clear that developers have identified a breakthrough moment in the ways skill and experience work together in MMORPG progression could create the next World of Warcraft, but until then, fans of the genre should remain patient and open-minded as studios continue to try new ideas and chip away at this rather unruly pillar.


Games are being produced at a faster rate than ever before, and the talent surrounding the industry has never been more impressive. Video games are being given a never-ending stream of opportunities to grow and evolve, and it’s time for MMORPGs to become a bit more introspective and take advantage of the expertise and brilliance surrounding the genre. Developers should hold no element of MMORPG gameplay sacred, and reinvent the genre into something bolder, louder, and newer. These pillars are ancient, and their cracks are many. Using them as the foundation to build something new is a preventive measure as much as a revolutionary one – sooner or later, they’re going to fall on their own, and wouldn’t we rather tear them down on our terms?

 

 


Cody Gravelle is a writer who is primarily concerned with RPGs, mobile games, and how his hair looks every day. You can follow him on Twitter @cm_GG.

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interesting read... my thoughts.
# Nov 08 2015 at 12:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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I've dabbled in a fair number of MMORPG, with good old Everquest being my favourite to play over and over.

5. Auction houses. WoW's was better than anything I have seen before, and built in a nice $ drain with the fees but the use of add-ons to manipulate it (in my view) took a lot of the fun out of bargain hunting. For me, a hybrid system in which a trading house NPC in a given city (but not all city vendors would be connected) or trade center is the place where players can consign items but only get them back for a fee (think of a real-life pawn shop). I'd like these auctioneers to be faction-aligned so that any NPC merchants in the world that receive goods (as vendor trash) also filter their goods to the auction house with a decay time before they disappear from the economy. Ideally, the items would stay on the NPC for a time before updating into the auction house which provides the classic "vendor diving" in out of the way places. Players would gain reputation with each trading house they deal with, which would entail commerce benefits.

4. Raiding is the bread-and-butter of subscription based mmo to churn out the next expac. I haven't been a raider in a long time, but accept this. However, I totally agree that "moving the story along" is one of the best ways to build loyalty and interest into a game. Raids that evolve into lower-level (or at least the option to access them this way) group or even solo events when the content is not bleeding-edge makes sense. Yes the rewards from the difficulty levels could quite logically be different, but there's no reason for the story to be different, or non-raiders to miss large parts of the game's story.

3. PVP is really hard to do and have a game that PVE people stick with. WoW PVP when we were doing open-world raids on Ashenvale was a lot of fun. I personally enjoy most battleground scenarios... and have zero interest in arena stuff. Others have different views. WoW's rather artificial Alliance/Horde split really gets in the way of the story of the game at this point, and does wacky things to the server community on PVP servers when there is any sort of population imbalance. What might work is having the PVP servers play vs. another server in the instances/battlegrounds/arenas and the rest of the game content be PVE. This could even be done on a rotating basis (so every month the winning PVP server gets reseeded into a new round with all the other winners). Meanwhile the folks that don't want PVP impacting their world would just play on the "no opponent servers" realms. In this model you wouldn't have to balance Alliance/Horde or worry about logical lore progression (like a re-alignment of allied races).

2. Warhammer Onlines (RIP) had a somewhat cool "public quest" mechanic where you would wander into in-progress quests in various parts of a zone. Unlike the zonewide (I think it was Silithus in WoW where you collected crystals?) model, this was done compactly. If you wanted to hang around and keep contributing to the public quest you would move up the loot ladder for getting the better reward. So unlike older games that used horrible timesinks of spawn timers or massive kill counts, this one acknowledged bad luck but steadily raising your roll odds if you chose to perservere. It was brilliant.

Aside from that, the traditional quest model could just be employed better. Take Everquest... way too many NPC want stupid things in that game. Maybe an alchemist NPC would want various animal bits but not every town guard should. Some of the cut-and-paste could be better justified if it was the same kind of NPC (i.e., the local representative of the League of Alchemists wants gopher livers too). Part of the problem is probably the complication of drops as well... if animals drop "meat, bones, skin, and fur" vs. 10 000 different named pieces. Why would an NPC need a specific type of leather to made a not special cloak from? I think often designers overdo it. Poll any quest-laden game's players for what quests they like though and it's usually the Epic, lore-drenched ones that were not easy to do, that gave a reward that was worth having more than 2 levels later.

1. Levels could go (though I don't have a problem with them)... when replaced by a skill/job system that levels instead. The console game Final Fantasy Tactics did this beyond brilliant in my view. Jobs unlocked other jobs, and you had to do the job to gain job points to buy the abilities in that job tree. So you could specialize and be 100% knight... or you could do several jobs long enough to be a mediator shooting a gun that dances and has monk movement abilities. FF tactics did use your level to determine the difficulty of the spawned NPC fights though. If it was my call I would put a system just like that into an MMO.


Edited, Nov 8th 2015 1:35pm by snailish
interesting read... my thoughts.
# Nov 09 2015 at 5:46 PM Rating: Decent
I have a few suggestions...

5. Star Wars Galaxies...pre CE had an awesome system. Server only Vendor Bots.

4. Seriously? people that play PvP over PvE do it because they really don't care about the story. They care about leader boards and kicking another player's ***...

3. "What if PvP players could affect how PvE stories play out, with each multiplayer skirmish representing political intrigue and power grabs akin to Game of Thrones? What if story changes affected the game’s multiplayer, as factions constantly shifted alliances and players found themselves allies after months of fighting?" ....i'm guessing that the author play's primarily PvP. I admit it, i'm a care bear. Most MMO's don't do PvP right in my opinion, especially when it comes to open world PvP. There are too many variables to make Balance issues and asshats camping area's that are 10+ levels below their own...taking easy pot shots at newbs before they even are allowed to become invested into the game. Don't get me wrong, I like PvP...Call of duty, Planets Side 2, Battlefield, ect. But when it comes to enjoying a Role Playing Game of questing, crafting, and saving the world with my friends...I don't want PvP involved. And the fact that Dev's make a distinction between PvP and PvE server's says i'm not alone.

2. This one I kind of agree with. Level Matching to an area or no leveling at all would be awesome. Hurdles would be a sense of character progression and how to keep each area unique and viable as something a player wants to experience...hence, quest lines. There are folks that are testing the water's against the traditional questing process. As the Author pointed out, GW2 has made attempts as well as Rift Both introducing Dynamic events. Everquest Next will try this same model but promises that the progress or lack there of a player makes in an area will actually affect the area...Save a village, it might become a town...ignore the attacking orcs, they burn the village and make a fort.

1. Yes, i'm a fan boy of a dead game...Star Wars Galaxies...pre CE had an awesome system in play that allowed all kinds of hybrid builds. I so miss that game. Yes it had it's issues and the Devs found it hard...for whatever reason...to work with the community to fix them. But the system had promise! Best character development system i have ever played with.

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