On this occasion I’ll be writing a series of articles that analyze that situation by going to the past first (“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”), observing the limitations of that era and when I mean era, I’m exactly referring to 15 years in the past, as crazy as it sounds, and then getting back to the present and taking a bird’s eye view at the current situation, from a social and game design perspective.
In the beginning…
Let´s define what MMO and paralysis mean in this context, for the sake of argument. MMO refer to those games that are exclusively played online, with or against other players. It may mean many people at once or even one on one but on a place where the term “massive” makes sense, a virtual location where a slew of users gather to play the same game, compete and socialize.
Paralysis in this case means the slowing to a screeching halt of any features that made what MMO games are today. It´s like somebody just pressed pause on the innovation timeline.
After making those observations, I will propose a series of changes that I personally believe are where MMO’s should go in order to get us out of the lava pit.
Getting to the point
Let’s dive into a more concrete definition of what MMO games are. They are basically the next logical step and extension of single-player role playing games (RPG’s), which are in turn just an extension of the tabletop RPG games. All of them recreate this alternate reality where you could be anybody you want, considering the game constraints, and advance your lone character or party and then interacting with all kind of logical entities, be that a magic sword, a devious shopkeeper, a bionic implant or a faster-than-light travel space bike. All of this to reach a series of goals in a path of emotional discovery and exploration.
Add Internet to that and the outcome is obvious. You could have these realities, instantly accessed by anybody on the world who have a connection. Game designers were suddenly offered a treasure chest of possibilities. This was a new land to conquer; it was a vast and unknown continent where everything was possible.
And so they came, they saw, they conquered. But as any developer on the massively multiplayer online game industry can tell you, players consume content faster than you can produce it. This fact is so true, that in a short time span, a lot of people are already burned out and asking for more. The tedious has sunk in and there are a lot of hungry faces to feed with new and innovative ideas.
There is also this little tiny problem, innovation is something slippery. You know what it means, or kind of, but you cannot seize it easily. Throw into the mix the entire capitalism concept and you have huge elephant corporations scared of this little innovation mouse. After all, you are not going to put millions of dollars into something that may not work? Would you?
One could argue that independent developers have the key to this. They are not constrained by taxes and wages; they can live on their own time and innovate at the pace they see fit. They can experiment, make mistakes, throw it all away, rinse and repeat. This sounds like the light at the end of the tunnel; surely this is the right path.
Not so fast! You are not going anywhere. And the thing is, MMO’s are really giant beasts to tackle. They have all these moving parts that you have to take care of, and on top of that, you have this volatile community that you have to nurse carefully if you want to keep them happy. After all, an empty MMO is a sad, sad place where content is consumed constantly.
Less rambling, more action
Sorry for the word grinding back there. There is definitely a lot of work ahead, in terms of innovation. There are going to be more casualties than ever before but if the entire user-base that shouts for new things is right, those who dare to enter new terrain are going to be rewarded. There are already some interesting venues on games currently under development.
Next time, I’ll start with the second part of the series, a brief history of Massively Multiplayer games and how they came to be. From the original MUD’s to the upcoming Guild Wars 2.
If the right buttons are pressed, the following years are going to be full of excitement.
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