First of all, yes, I do realize that this exact same topic is covered in numerous threads. And yes, I also realize that it can be an extremely divisive topic with a difficult arguement to make. Thats fine, I still don't believe that it's a dead horse. Actually, I think the opposite is true. With the direction the genre is taking I believe that this topic will be one of the more important ones when it comes to new MMO's.
So, what does "Accessibility in MMO's" actually mean. Well, if you spend a lot of time on MMO forums you probably already know by now. Many times, it's "old school vs. new school" or "intuitive" vs. "confusing" or even "instant action" vs "time sinks". All of those arguements, however, make the situation sound far more clear-cut than it actually is. In my opinion, it's short sighted to just assume that accessibility is an evolution in MMO's. To assume or to claim this, you'd have to ignore that fact that there are consequences for every action. You can, of course, claim that the results out weigh the consequences. Really, thats the easy side of the arguement. "I work and deal with everything else during the day, so I only have a couple hours a night to play. I want to spend that time with my friends having fun, not wandering around, lost in some forest looking for an NPC." I'd say thats a valid opinion, not one that I agree with in this case, but it's a personal preference that I can understand.
My arguement here, is that the consequences of accessibility have had a fairly significant, negative impact on MMO game worlds. The tricky part, is trying to prove or explain this, because the individual changes are mostly small and subtle, even though they add up to a noticeable, yet hard to explain effect. In many cases, I feel like we're sacrificing depth and immersion just for short term enjoyment. Thats really what I'm trying to get across here, the fact many of the great memories and stories and moments of immersion come from "inconveniences". The only way for me to really explain this is to go through specific features or situations that have become more accessible.
Leveling/Progression rate - Leveling is WAY too fast now!!! Just kidding. Thats a whole other topic that I'm not going to touch right now. Besides, I was never a big fan of long, tedious level grinds anyway.
High tech UI - I could really break this down into a few catagories, so I'll go with combat first. Honestly, how many of us spend more time in combat watching the UI rather than the actual fight? With all the indicators and cool downs and status bars we might as well just play text based RPG's. Seriously. I know this isn't a new problem with MMO's, but it definately feels more severe than it use to. What happened to the days when you actually had to watch/listen to the fight and manually activate all of your skills? Do we really need the UI to do everything for us? Sure, it's much more convenient, but don't we log into the game so that we can actually play it ourselves? Personally, I think things need to be trimmed down to the point where all this UI juggling isn't neccessary. As slow as MMO combat can be, I'd still prefer to experience it directly, rather than through the UI. Maybe one solution could be having a small number of skills (per class or build) that are mostly reactionary, positional, or situational? Any idicators you might need for a skill would be right there infront of you, in the action. Anyway, I'm getting side tracked here, so I'll just move on.
GPS/Maps/Indicators - This is a big one thats not exclusive to MMO's. In Oblivion (yes, I've spent WAY too much time playing that game) you literally have a map, with GPS, and indicator arrows for EVERYTHING. The same goes for many MMO's now. Sure, it's nice at first. You just want to find the location, talk to the NPC, and get on with the quest. All that extra stuff inbetween just slows you down. I'm guilty of this as well. It gets frustrating when you're completely lost and you're just happy to you have something that can tell you where to go and what to do. But, how many of those experiences do you actually remember once their gone? There was no unique, individual journey to get you through that quest. More than likely, you didn't learn much about the game world as you were running straight from point A to B to C. You didn't talk to any more NPC's than you absolutely had to and you didn't really pay attention to the ones that you did talk to, because you can always just check your quest log later and skip straight to the important stuff. So, no extra bits of lore or useful knowledge of the game worlds geography. In short, you didn't "experience" the game, so much as you just played through the UI.
An example here that we've all probably been through is being lost (for hours possibly) in Random Forest. Bob the blacksmith said that I should seek out Fred the hermit at his hut in northwest Random Forest. The sign says that this is the South Road into Random Forest, so I guess I should head that way...The next hour or so is usually full of lots of running, lots of cussing, lots of getting stabbed, slashed, and smacked, and plenty of wondering where the F--- you're at. If you're good (or lucky) you'll eventually find Fred the hermit and proceed with the quest. So, was it a purely fun experience. Maybe, but probably not. At the time, you were probably thinking about how you'd find Fred, murder him, take the loot, then go back to Bob and kick him in the N---. Looking back though, it was more than likely a very memorable experience. You've probably told the story to everyone that will listen and you came out of the situation with some well earned knowledge of Random Forest. In truth, because of the experience, Random Forest would feel much more like an actual place, rather just a clump of trees on the map.
Thats just one area, of course. An entire game world like this would be a very rich, challenging place. Travelling from point A to B wouldn't be just another trivial task inbetween the "real content", rather, travelling itself would be content. The only way to truly learn about the game world would be to experience it the "inconvenient" way. Head out and figure things out on your own, talk (and listen) to NPC's, learn the landmarks and geography, play the game...
Character creation/customization - Without a doubt, this is one area that I won't compromise on. The whole character creation and speccing process has been watered down to the point of...well, lets just say we've gone from RPG, to RPG-Lite (with less calories/thinking), to "what does RPG stand for again?". I'm sorry, but the "I'm a casual player" whine doesn't cut it for me here. So, you screwed up your first character because you thought it would be cool to be a wizard with high strength and constitution, you know, the Renaissance Man build? Yea, it sucks, but who cares. You'll get over it soon enough and you'll either stick it out with your "gimp" character or you'll learn from your mistakes and roll a new one. We've all done it and, as weird as this may sound, it wasn't the end of the world, we lived to game another day. The point is, when you have a system where starting stats actually matter and where you have some options with your spec/build it adds that much more variety and uniqueness to characters. You may not appreciate it at first, when you have no clue as to how to build your character, but later on, when you're a little bored and looking for something new, it's nice to have a more complex system to experiment with. Believe it or not, some players actually enjoy creating and playing really unique, oddball builds.
The change in character customization from DAOC (my first real MMO) to LOTRO (the last MMO I spent any time in) was very significant. Sure, DAOC was far from perfect in this area, since each class only had three spec lines and you couldn't mix and match much until higher levels. However, it was worlds better than LOTRO, where there was, essentially, no speccing. Every player of a given class had almost the exact same list of skills/abilities. Again, it's a serious lack of depth. Sure, these new, high res graphics are nice, but uh, I'd rather have some depth back.
Instancing - Yep, this is a fun one, guaranteed to stir up the some controversy. In all honesty though, I'm not comming from a biased back ground here. At first, having more instancing really did sound like an interesting idea to me. You could have more exciting and dramatic encounters with out having to deal with other players or groups. The reality though, for me at least, was...meh. Quest instances still don't approach anything near what a single/multiplayer game can present and you've essentially segregated the player population even further. Eventually, the game world will just be a hub for players to meet up in between instances. Hmm, last time I remember, there was debate as to whether some specific games were worthy of the MMO title based on this design...yet, this is the way that most MMO's are heading...and players are happy about it!?
Obviously, the "massive" feature is the major thing that seperates MMO's from other genres, so why is being slowly removed? I'm sure that most of us got into MMO's because they were massively full of actual players. Hell, even chronic soloers (like me) are attracted by the idea of having a world thats populated by real people (or their avatars atleast). If you dilute this feature then theres less of a reason to choose this genre over one that has better game play. And, I'm sorry to be an ass, but not even the most carefully constructed, well thought out, well written instance is still shit compared to the type of drama and immersion that the player population can create amongst themselves.
Now, don't get the wrong idea here. I'm not saying the "accessible" MMO should die a fiery death, never to return. As long as there are players that enjoy that type of MMO I think it should be represented fairly in the market. What I really hope to see in the future is just a much more diverse genre where the "pie" is sliced a little more evenly. We don't need another WOW to come along and, indirectly, steer the genre into one narrow direction.
Of course, any comments are welcome here, as long as you actually read the whole blog. And, I'm really interested to hear some comments from the "old school" crowd on this subject. What subtle depth and immersion differences have you noticed between the MMO you started with and the one you're playing (or not playing) now?
User Comments
Nice write up. I read through it, and for some parts I agree with you. Of course, on the level/progression rate and high-tech UI I have some different thoughts on it.
I see the level/progression rate as a direct result to the system, which isn't a perfect one, but yet it is more dominant in the present MMO market. If a game where by design doesn't show that level/number directly, but indirectly, through the use of skills (higher damage/buff/debuff/etc..). There are ways to turn the focus away from the use of number as indicator for progression, but that's another long debate topic.
As for the high-tech UI, it isn't that bad, as long as the UI does what it should - a way to control the character and make the user FEEL like they are in that world... The UI should reflect the game world, and also capable of customization (This is THE only part of WoW which I think did a good job - user modification on UI). not all high-tech UI does everything for you. Of course it really depends on the style of the game. FPS it's all about the players' reaction and coordination on their keyboard & mouse (simple keys to control). While in MMORPG, a character may have 20+ skills to use, ranging from attacks/defense/heal/buff/debuff/crowd control... So it may seem like it takes the players directly out of the action, and just look at the UI and press the buttons. Anyway, even this is debatable due to different play-styles. Until VR becomes a widely-accepted system for MMORPG, I guess using high-tech UI isn't bad, as long as the macro systems aren't handling everything...
"Obviously, the "massive" feature is the major thing that seperates MMO's from other genres, so why is being slowly removed? "
Yeah its really weird how MMOs are becoming more and more instanced. World of Warcraft wasnt so bad but many of these newer MMOs are taking it to the next level.
And I guess the reason why we dont have the Stat system for character creation is because it sort of goes against "sports gaming" whereas each individual has a preset role they're locked into. Since mmorpgs these days are trying to present "football" events where we have 5,10,40 players I suppose they optimized freedom out and fully embraced cookie cutter roles.
Sigh, its really sad when you think about it.....
"Thats just one area, of course. An entire game world like this would be a very rich, challenging place. Travelling from point A to B wouldn't be just another trivial task inbetween the "real content", rather, travelling itself would be content. "
Yeah I fully agree with you there a bit of travel can really enrich the environment. Guild Wars is the opposite- they pursued instant travel. But oddly enough the small bits of serious travel they had created player created professions- "Runners"
It was very interesting. Basically it was really hard for players to cross to certain lands to complete their quests. You basically had to group and hope to make it.
However, if you had the skill and build, you could become a runner and charge money. You tell all your clients to wait at zone entrance while you run to next area. Because GW was zoned, when one party member makes it across everyone is teleported there.
It was really cool seeing all the wild builds popup for this player created profession.
So this is the kicker: GW only had a small bit of long distance travel. This small sandbox element allowed some exciting player created professions popup that the devs probably didnt anticipate
Doh, just realize I wasn't finished with my comment after pressing that [Save Comments]... bah.
Anyway, about instances. I can't say I like it or dislike it, but I can only say this. It takes the immersion right out the window when you get to kill the same boss over and over because you want to loot something from him. This is also something that can have a long debate about - the use of instances, and the drop loot VS crafting items. Overall the instance idea wasn't necessary bad, but what it creates is removing a lot of immersion out of the game in favor of gaming enjoyment. There is no right or wrong, but it's just sad...
Well I must say I'm really glad you touched upon long range travel. I hit it from a different angle in a series I had in my blog:
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/vajuras/032008/1373_Long-Travel-Times-Rez-Spot-PVP-and-Victory-Conditions
Perhaps what you should consider is breaking this article up a bit and sort of zero in on each individual point. It'll flow out a lot faster and I've found I can get my points across really well when hit the issues individually.
This way- readers can idly click on topics they're interested in too
Another thing I'm not clear on the point on High Tech UI. That point might be worth investigating a lot further down the road...
I might be totally off but I think perhaps maybe what you are getting it is a more immersive UI whereas the information is covnveyed via sensory input?
Console and other genres do that well. For instance in "The Darkness" players had to listen for audio cues that let them know when they're darklings are burning. You had to pay attention to your avatar when you took damage.
They went for an immersive feel. No health bars or numbers on the UI.
Was this what you were trying to get across?
With the combat UI, yea I guess I was refering to more of an immersion thing. IMO, the less UI you have (or need) the better. Not to mention, I'm not a fan of most macro skills. Even in DAOC it was a problem with /stick /assist /face, etc. I mean, it can get to the point where the player has to put out almost no effort to actually play the game.
vajuras, I'd never heard that about travel in Guild Wars. Thats actually pretty interesting. Of course, I guess it really depends on the specifics. Some areas in LOTRO we're VERY hard to travel through, but only because the concentration of mobs was ridiculous.
I was 'supposed' to be testing that title but the none inclusion of pvp was a deal breaker. But the bits of LOTRO I saw I thought it was well put together. Just wasn't for me. It looked great though.
So it as an immerson thing ah well good to know I didnt get it wrong.
Man I see both zergwatch and myself got that creative itch and caused the blogs to push downwards. Wish they could organize the blogs a bit better- like perhaps organize the blogger section like how Massively.com is or something....
LOTRO was a solid, polished (other than combat) game. Some of the graphics were very nice for an MMO and a lot of the area/zones were really immersive, with great atmosphere. Oh, and the sound/music was excellent. However, that game is the definition of linear themepark. If thats your style of game you'll love it. If not, well, you'll get bored pretty quickly, like I did.
If LOTRO was the typical, "rush to the endgame" MMO, then it would've been much less painful than MMO's of the past, since you could pretty much just quest all the time. However, there really wasn't much at endgame and the 1-50 game was just way too linear for me. It really is a casual MMO. Thats when I realized that, in most ways, I'm not a casual MMO player.
So, LOTRO was sort of the nail in the coffin for me to realize that I was really interested in more open, sandbox style MMO's. Shouldn't have been a surprise, since those were always the type of games I played on consoles. Just wish I would've known that from the begining, then I wouldn't have missed out on UO or SWG pre-CU or Ryzom...
I was thinking the other day I would like to see a Ryzom blogger popup. You never see much talk about it. Yeah I regret skipping out on Ryzom too.
I totally had plans to play it. I just didnt know it was going for something different. I thought it was a Class based thingy and by the time I found out different I was already busy with EVE Online and it seemed to be going downhill by that time anyway....
Sigh..... Yeah missed out on SWG pre-CU too
yo how bout make this kind of game n this game will be so gud lots of people will luv it cuz this game will be ohdi beastin
> character creation = some games the character r made already n u cant edit their faces a lot of people luv games that character could be edited like hairs face skin heght body like very buff buff or normal well i luv like a lot of hairstyle yo im no homo ass b but luv asian hairs. n lets make somethin realy enterestin thing in here wen u pick really buff the char will run slow atacks n low evation slow hits hard n big armor n life buff lil slow movement speed n attack speed normal life normal defense attack n normal eavation noramal body moves fast atacks fast high evasion low life n defense but atack is the same as buff .
>characters = ( knights r those people who wears heavy armors n uses sword double sword spear shield n long sword the body could only be buff or normal in each weapon it has diferent skills) (defenender could only be buff or really buff weapon are axe hammer shield double axe and long swrod and each weapon has diffent skills) (gunner could be buff or normal weapon could be double pistol or revlolver rifle and shotgun each different weapon has different skills) (hunter could be buff or normal weapon are crossbow long bow ,bow and double crossbow each weapon has different skills) (fighter could be buff or normal weapon is olny knuckles) (priest could be normal or buff weapon could be staff and book book is consider as a shield ) ( summoner weapon could be staff or double knife could summon a lot of monster but there is certain thing to pick summon like light monster or dark monster could be buff or normal) ( mage could only be normal weapon is sword ) ( assasin could be buff or normal weapon are double knife double claw or berserker knife double katana or single and small shield each weapon has different skills )
>Stats (str for high attack for every stats) (vit for life every stats u put for realy buff it adds 30 for buff 20 for normal 10 and small for defense really buff adds 2 buff and normal adds 1) (agi for attack speed atleast 35 for for really buff , buff atleast 30 and for normal 25 for evasion plus five more or ten well u decide but for i think it will be better if u add five more to the 1 in attack speed stats) (dex lil damage every stats u put and hit rate for really buff, buff, n normal i guess it will be the same thing as the attack speed dex is gud for range) (int for mana and magic damage) (magic defense atleast need 2 put 5 stats)
>level max level is 200 for each level it adds a lil str and life for really buff adds 120, buff 80 life and for normal 50 life n 1 stat for knight adds 1 for str for defender adds 1 for vit for archer and gunner dex for fighter and assassin agi for mage and priest int
>suggestion skills passive = (knight = counter %15, splash damage external bleeding making the enemy lose 50 life per second last in 10 second 10% ) (defender = block counter 10%, triple splash damage 15%) (gunner = double bullet curving for double pistol splash damage 10% quadruple shot shooting four time really fast %10 , 1 shot step back %10 and head shot stunning people for 3 sec7%) (hunter = head shot7%, step back shot 10%) (fighter = double hit stun 7% triple hit 10% counter double hit ) (assassin = spinning cut splash damage hits 3 times 15% poison cut 50 dmg last 10 sec) (priest = heal 5% when ur gettin attack , maim when ur getin atacked maim for 10sec 10%) (Mage = cast fire ball and ice ball only level 2 fire and ice ball)
>Ultimate skillz = (knight gods strength hitting enemy 5 times splash damage plus external bleeding and 4 waves tsunami that slashes 3 elements thunder, fire, water and, ice splash damage and long range and while slashing knight dashes to get to the enemy and attack 50sec cool down for both ) (defender 5 hand earth shake crushing enemy while slashing them hits five time divine crusher hittin enemy hard that the land trembles and maims them) (gunner = burning rush punching enemy while shooting them 4 times and its splash damage and goes back far and shot them 3 times, adrenaline rush shooting bullet everywhere around really fast) (hunter hungry arrows summoning wolves and bite the enemies' foot and shoot them five times the bite has damage but only bite once , arrow shower shootin arrows in the sky and fall to the enemies body hitting them 4 times) (fighter = spirit punch punching enemies from far away by his aura , and god's palm agen punching five times and enemies are being hit by the god's palm from the sky) (assassin shadow mist inside the mist assassin slashes enemies inside the mist and inside the mist they are maim makin it hard for em to escape inside the mist , and assassinate spinning like a driller towards 1 enemy and leaves 20% of their life chance 2 hit 50 percent but if it miss it still give damage but only a lil like leavin 80% of their life) ( priest = angel's blessing healing all the teammates life and mana and makes em fast and strong punishing evil this skill strikes enemy by lightning 5 times and heals team) (mage = 6 elements strikes = enemies gets strike by thunder, then fire, then cuz earthquake then hit em by tsunami then tornado then blizzard, and his last ult is meteor shower hiting em 5 times and stun em fo 5 sec) (summoner summons a big monster that hit all of the enemy that he see five times , summoner will cast another kind of monster that casts magic that hit the enemy 5 times)
> gameplay = there should be boss that can kill 1 party there should a lot of dungeon to go and monsters and orbs to put in ur equipment and make em strong some orb has special effect and some can be obtain in specific monsters iight it should be hard 2 obtain orb for gunner class they for their helmet they only wear mask like phantom opera well i wish the graphics will be so great in 3d of course and low mb if you can make it like it make the graphics better than 2 moons perfect world and granado espada and this game will be the best
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