I have some topics in a queue right now, which happens rarely. There's just too much good stuff to blog about at the moment and I only have time for one post a day.
There's this brilliant post by "Killed in a Smiling Accident"
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.
He wonderfully described the obvious problem. But what is the solution?
Let's try to make a more abstract ansatz:
- Good gameplay is balanced. That is, it provides a reasonable challenge.
- MMORPGs use character power progression (CPP)
a) to move you through the 'story' in a predefined direction
b) to reward you (for hitting the buttons in the skinner box)
From these points it automatically follows that as your character becomes stronger, so must your enemies. WoW-WotLK actually tried to do it the other way: You would really overpower all your enemies the stronger you get. It was terrible gameplay in the open world, but especially in 'heroic' dungeons. And since good gameplay is the basis for any game, Blizzard rightfully corrected the issue.
The only screw left which we can turn to adjust the whole thing is the speed of the CPP. And here comes that big question: Isn't the CPP in most modern MMORPGs a bit too fast? Wouldn't it be better for gameplay and immersion alike to have a slower character power progression? Wouldn't it be ok to easily defeat that level 10 wolf, without totally annhilating it? Now that I am writing about it - I discussed this before. Have a look here - bullet point (4) and here.
Can you think of reasons for this extreme character power progression in current MMORPGs, other than the assumption that players want to 'feel' a jump in power everytime they pick up an item?
I agree the pace might be too fast in current mmos, question is if there is any turning back. We agreed to slow progression in older games because there wasn't much of an alternative. Now the game world is teeming with mmos (and other games) that are ready to fill our needs and give us our kicks asap. I think game developers are afraid that if they don't satisfy us fast enough, we will turn elsewhere, and the worst thing is they're probably right.
ReplyDeleteIn WoW they have tried to implement various areas in which you can progress, like leveling and professions, but you don't want too many of that either. I remember how horrible it was to have to skill your weapon profficiency all the time and on each new character. I think the more time character progression takes, the less prone are we to replay a game. And mmo designers today want to give us indepth characters as well as easy obtainable progression, so that we will want to be at it forever. It's a really difficult thread to balance.
As I previously mentioned in this comment http://nilsmmoblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/mmorpg-design-guidelines.html
ReplyDeleteCPP is bad. Its not a question of whether its very fast or it is a mind numbing korean grind. It needs to be ditched almost completely .Characters should not progress in power, but rather in the range of various activities available to them and their impact on the world (yes - the impact of his actions , not levels or gearscore)
I would keep power progression frankly for sole reason of accountability. In virtual world throw away chars can present huge problem for exploiting accountability systems. That initial progression could also serve as tutorial for completely new players .
You can have character progression without them becoming more powerful . That should be one of the staples in the design imho if one wants create virtual world and not diku treadmill
I symphatize with your opinion, Max. If I had to create an MMO, I'd make CPP very, very weak. For example the difference between a new player (who finished the tutorial) and a veteral, who played more than is healthy, were about 50%.
ReplyDeleteThat, however, also means that you lose CPP as a prime motivator for playing and I can understand that developers are very, very careful with such a thing.
After all we are just in the middle of 'nudge'. The idea that you can make endless money by using pitty psychological tricks to make people pay. To remove the skinner box would be risky for any investor, to say the least.
To simply remove it from WoW would certainly crash the game. So you will need other gameplay mechnics to make it fun. My usual suggestions were exploration, unpredictability, community building, ...
That, however, also means that you lose CPP as a prime motivator for playing and I can understand that developers are very, very careful with such a thing.
ReplyDeleteAfter all we are just in the middle of 'nudge'. The idea that you can make endless money by using pitty psychological tricks to make people pay. To remove the skinner box would be risky for any investor, to say the least.
You see right to the core of the issue! CPP is a carrot which exploits the basic human psychology everyone has. Thats why it works ,that is why it makes money
That why it is very hard sell to do away with it :(. I think (or maybe its just wishful thinking?) That one can replace raw CPP with something which works as well for our monkey selfs without being actual power progression.
For example simple thing such as title(s) or cosmetic toon adjustment. There is quite successful dota clone out there called league of legends. Its f2p supported by mini transactions - all the things you can buy give you 0 power. Its mostly skins and new characters .
I also know people would strive for other things (such as social acceptance ,name recognition ,etc).
Their toon might be same in power as yours, but they could have nice title to their name , set of uniquely customized armor, nice estate with a house. Noticeable spot on weekly leaderboards .
In UO there were communities in motivated not by purple items but by simply being a community! Foreign concept for WoW , but it works!
CPP is easy to do and it works. It also caters to lowest common denominator and therefor ideal for mass market games . But its not the only way