The Dumbing Down of MMO Games?

The impressive success of Blizzard’s online MMOG, World of Warcraft set a new standard in online gaming; easy play for a wider audience. With a subscriber base of over 8 million, you can’t argue against the success of that strategy. Existing & ‘In Development’ MMO games have taken note, implementing many ‘WoW’ like features and strategies to attract new players and keep existing ones. While this is all well and good, can this trend have adverse effects? Are MMOG games losing their challenge?

Old School MMO’s; “Back in my day!!!”

I’m sure you’ve heard it from many veteran MMOG players. Each one having a story on how tough it was gaming in the early generation MMO games. “I lost all of my stuff when I died” or “It took me a year to get to the endgame and I played every day!” How about “It was a PvP free for all and I got ganked daily!”. While these may sound like exaggerations, each of them has a core of truth to it.

In the early days of MMO games, there was no definitive standard on how to go about creating them. The early design paradigms of MMOG’s focused on a challenging game environment with intricate character development systems. Ultima Online in the very early days was a very ambitious game sporting a responsive ecology, a level free Skill based system, a player built economy, and a Player vs. Player environment that awaited players outside a city’s gates. Everquest offered players a plethora of character classes, races, quests and high end raids. Both games were also known for their stiff death penalties; having to reclaim your corpse and all items from the spot you died on which could be very difficult if the monster/player killer was still near or you couldn’t find your way back to it.

Another game noted for its innovation and depth was Asheron’s Call. AC featured a quasi level/skill based approach that allowed players to customize and build a class of their choosing. AC also offered a magic system in which players had to experiment with combinations of items to get a desired spell effect. Death in that game was a rough affair as well, similar to EQ & UO. The infamous Star Wars Galaxies, Pre NGE version sported a skill based system as well with ‘Professions’ to choose from. Players had a limited number of development points allowing them to mix and match professions or focus on one or two specifically. Death and item loss were mitigated by ‘Cloning’ and ‘Item Insurance’. Players no longer had to do corpse retrieval runs but if they didn’t insure their items they would decay and eventually break.

There area few more games I could cite but I think what I’ve mentioned illustrates the point; Early MMO games were complex, allowing players many options and the ability to customize their class and the way they played the game. In game penalties for dying were not meant to be onerous, but penalties to help foster the fear of dying in game. To put it another way, they built the excitement that comes with risk taking.

While many players accepted these systems, many others rejected it. MMOG’s such as these required vast amounts of time, planning or hardware that some players didn’t have or want to bother with. People argued that the designs and penalties were getting in the way of the game and killing the fun factor. Players wanted to ‘Play’, not ‘Work’ in their MMOG of choice. Over time, changes were made in such games to alleviate penalties and help increase the fun factor. Other MMOG’s in development were taking notes and incorporating them in their game design. One in particular paid very close attention.

The WoW Paradigm

When World of Warcraft was released it was a smash hit in the MMOG community. Today, they boast a subscriber base 8 Million Strong, more than any other MMO game ever. Where did they go right? They made having fun simple.

For starters, the graphics of the game were not cutting edge, more cartoony and colorful in look, with simple textures. This allowed the game to be run smoothly on both high and low end machines. Quests were everywhere, often leading and directing players to other quest lines in other game areas keeping the game play flowing without having to hunt for it. Blizzard also made finding quest givers blatantly obvious by placing a large, yellow exclamation point over their head. Dying in game was a relatively painless affair; your spirit would respawn at a point and all you had to do was run back to your corpse. If you didn’t want to do that, players had the option to resurrect at the spawn point for a 10 minute debuff and damage to their equipment. Leveling in the game was faster than other MMO games. WoW also offered a variety of playable races and classes each with ‘Talents’ to add a personal touch should the player choose.

For casual gamers, WoW featured a ‘Rested XP option’. The way it worked., if you spent a significant amount of time away from the game, you would build up ‘Rested XP’ that in game translates to double the experience point awards for killing monsters. All you had to do was log your character off in a city or Inn and it would start to build up. This gave casual players a tremendous boost to leveling, allowing them to see more the game had to offer in a lesser amount of time. For once in a MMO gaming paradigm, casual players were no longer the minority next to the hard core players. WoW made it easy for players to experience the game without requiring a huge investment of time. With MMOG’s usually being addictive to begin with, WoW made it child’s play to get hooked. It worked all right!

It wasn’t long before WoW became the benchmark that every other MMOG was being gauged against. MMO games both current and in production started to adopt WoW strategies: Rested XP, Obvious Quest Givers, Faster XP gain, you name it. Some MMO’s went so far to embrace the WoW paradigm that they completely changed their game, alienating much of their player base in doing so. (cough SWG NGE..cough) Ok maybe I can’t prove that last statement but I don’t think it’s coincidence!

While many were praising WoW and Blizzard for their innovative and simple approach, there were quite a few people speaking against it. WoW was being labeled an MMO for kids or ‘The Fast Food of MMO games.’ The crux of the arguments being the game was too simple; With no real challenges or penalties, what was the point? With developers jumping on the WoW band wagon itching to get a piece of the subscriber pie, MMO gamers wondered if this was the start of a new and disturbing trend of MMO’s

The Hassle/Difficulty/Complexity Dilemma

When is a ‘Difficulty’ a ‘Hassle’? Or a ‘Hassle’ a ‘Difficulty’? When is a game too simple or too complex? I think the only answer to these questions is ‘When your customers tell you they are’. And no that’s not a copout.

What is one players challenge or difficulty is another player’s hassle. In game development balancing the two is a tricky act, one I think should be influenced by what the customers are asking for. All games need a challenge and an element of risk. Though MMO games are open ended (you don’t win the game or lose the game) there can be wins and losses. How hard it is to win and painful to lose should depend on the focus of the game which in turn depends on how interested the customers are in that focus. The same holds true to the complexity level of the MMO game in question. If it’s part of the game’s focus, one that the customer base is interested in, then it’s all good.

When it comes to MMO games, there are many different types of customers each seeking something to match their play style and needs. Not every MMO has that. Some have what players want more than most while others are specific in their offering. It is also up to the developer how much they want to offer. I’d imagine the one that balanced the customer range the most would be pretty successful. Of course a developer can try to cater to a certain part of the market. That’s already happening now.

Old School Resurgence

While developers paid close attention to those things that made WoW work, not all of them altered the approach to the game they were developing. One such MMOG that comes to mind is the newly released Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Vanguard set out ‘To bring back the challenge, both the risk and reward”. Taking a page from its older cousin Everquest, Vanguard is an MMO offering a host of classes and playable races in a very large worldscape. Reaching back to old MMO roots, Vanguard has a death penalty for players requiring them to find their corpse to regain lost experience and items they did not ‘bind to them’ via magic crystals. While many griped about the hassles of corpse retrieval, having something like Vangaurd’s system or SWG’s old insurance system minimizes the impact of death, with some foresight on the player’s part. The risk of penalty from in game death is somewhat lessened but its still there.

Though this game has been around for awhile, it’s speaks volumes about MMO games staying true to their concept. EVE online is a MMO where the complexity meek need not apply. With most of EVE being Spaceship oriented, it requires a lot of thought into ship customization, requirements, and the skills to use it all. The crafting system is very detailed and the economy totally player driven. With only one gaming universe for everyone to share, what happens in the game is due to the people playing it. Old school gamers as well as complexity nuts can be satisfied here.

Looking to the MMOG gaming horizon, I can see a few games that are taking new and differing tacks on their games. Age of Conan, for example, is featuring a combat system that will allow players the ability to direct the swings of their weapons; A definite break from classic MMOG combat based systems. Another MMO in development featuring a complex side is Pirates of the Burning Sea. Naval combat in PoTBS will feature the aspects that made it critical in historic naval warfare: Wind Direction, Facing, Ship Type and Cannon Shot to name a few. Tactics and strategy are par for the course.

Both these games show promise of developing something different from the WoW paradigm. As I’ve said, WoW is a great game and brought a new approach to the industry. But its not THE approach, so old school fans and new should be glad.

Keeping The Customer Happy; Both Old and New

The golden law in any type of customer service oriented business is keeping your customers happy. MMO gaming is basically a customer service industry and the last thing any customer driven business should do is make their customers unhappy. True, you can’t please every customer, especially MMO customers, but developers CAN try and do so without losing focus of their game. Streamline and improve your MMOG’s for better game play but add depth for those players who like content and include the option to ‘open up the hood and tweak things’ for those player types that like to tinker.. Don’t forget the risk factor too! All games have them or they wouldn’t be games now would they? Have your penalties for dying and other ‘unwise’ game behavior but don’t drag your players through the mud to do so.

So are MMO’s being ‘dumbed down’? I would say no. While WoW raised the bar in some MMO standards, it’s not the standard that every other MMO should be judged by. There are old gamers & new gamers looking to spend their time and MMO game dollars and not all of them want to play WoW. It’s the savvy developer that’ll pick up the idea on what this new player base wants, and future players as well.

Darke