11-04-2009, 01:39 PM
Part of what I have in mind is a game that ends up bringing people together. The people who love to solo in WOW will also surely love Dragon Age or other Bioware games and if those are the people we want to entertain then we don't even need to do an MMO. We could just make another Bioware game or maybe the next Guild Wars. That would surely be a lot cheaper to develop and deploy.
I'd rather look at ways to utilize the MMO connection to get people playing together. Regular WOW style quests won't do that (and in fact can tend to drive people apart).
To bring people together you need goals that allow people to work together without being restrictive on how they do it.
e.g.
Dungeons with keys and timers = bad. This can create cliques and drive people apart.
Dungeons without keys or timers = good. This encourages ad-hoc grouping that can bring people together.
"Questing for loot" = bad, since it's only going to appeal to the people who happen to be on that quest.
"Farming for loot" = good, in the sense that anyone can join up at any time and help farm for loot.
"World objectives" = good (WAR, PS, WW2O, Aion) since people can always come together to work on those.
I also think WOW style gameplay is part of why we pick up fewer "puggies" these days. We say "I hate grouping with puggies, they usually suck" and I think we're hurt by instanced, quest driven gameplay because we don't really get to see other people in action.
In EQ, if someone's group was breaking up and one of them asked to join you, you could risk it -- after all, you just saw them hold part of the dungeon for 2 hours so you know they can't suck too bad. In Aion and WOW we're more encouraged to solo or do instances so when someone asks to join, we have absolutely no idea who they are or any indication about whether they suck or not. Did their last group do awesome and break up for dinner or did they wipe 5 times and give up? We have no idea.
So, IMO, if we're developing an MMO, we need to focus on things that bring people together. Like Planetside, I think the ideal solution is to have activities which are technically soloable (you can capture a PS base with 1 person, technically) but which will tend to involve a lot more -- the more the merrier.
I'd rather look at ways to utilize the MMO connection to get people playing together. Regular WOW style quests won't do that (and in fact can tend to drive people apart).
To bring people together you need goals that allow people to work together without being restrictive on how they do it.
e.g.
Dungeons with keys and timers = bad. This can create cliques and drive people apart.
Dungeons without keys or timers = good. This encourages ad-hoc grouping that can bring people together.
"Questing for loot" = bad, since it's only going to appeal to the people who happen to be on that quest.
"Farming for loot" = good, in the sense that anyone can join up at any time and help farm for loot.
"World objectives" = good (WAR, PS, WW2O, Aion) since people can always come together to work on those.
I also think WOW style gameplay is part of why we pick up fewer "puggies" these days. We say "I hate grouping with puggies, they usually suck" and I think we're hurt by instanced, quest driven gameplay because we don't really get to see other people in action.
In EQ, if someone's group was breaking up and one of them asked to join you, you could risk it -- after all, you just saw them hold part of the dungeon for 2 hours so you know they can't suck too bad. In Aion and WOW we're more encouraged to solo or do instances so when someone asks to join, we have absolutely no idea who they are or any indication about whether they suck or not. Did their last group do awesome and break up for dinner or did they wipe 5 times and give up? We have no idea.
So, IMO, if we're developing an MMO, we need to focus on things that bring people together. Like Planetside, I think the ideal solution is to have activities which are technically soloable (you can capture a PS base with 1 person, technically) but which will tend to involve a lot more -- the more the merrier.