Boring – The MMORPG - Chapter One: The brainless struggle
Don’t get me wrong there are lots of things I like about today’s MMORPGs. The vast and diverse world in which they usually play is certainly one of them, as well as the whole creating your personal ultimate hero over time thing.
But there are vast abysses which keep me canceling the accounts of the few MMORPGs I started playing every few months. Today I want to introduce you to one of these great fun killers: The combat system.In City of Heroes I play a tank called Crimson Lion on the German server Zukunft. He is great at standing up to even the toughest guys (lots of patches before he could even hold out against an archvillain, one of the toughest things around). Before you run away, it’s fine with me that I don’t deal lots of damage and I’m not going to whine that I am not as invincible as some tanks would like to be.
So, one night Crimson Lion was out on his own, taunting some unfortunate Freak away from whatever sinister thing he was planing. A fierce battle issued – or was it? I surely hit him hard and as I picked one of a challenging level he scored some hard punches, too. But that was all there was to it: Two guys standing in the middle of the street hitting each other without any other consideration.
Luckily in real life I have never been much of a fighter, so tell me if I am wrong, but in a real battle I don’t suppose that’s all there is to it. First of all, you try not to get hit. So you parry. When you parry you can’t attack. Instead you probably try to make the best of it, keep a good standing, move this way and that so you get a tactic advantage and wait for a good chance to counter. And when you are the one attacking you don’t just hit as often and hard as you can, you can test your opponent to find for chinks in his defence, try to get him in a position where he has a clear disadvantage and THEN strike for damage. Sometimes it might even be in your best interest to stop attacking, if your next strike would make you vulnerable for a counter that would be hard to avoid.
Yet in MMORPGs (as well as many other games including most pen and paper I’ve seen), opponents just keep hacking and slashing at each other until one side has no more hit points left and that is imho plain boring.

Of course you could argue that the real strength with MMORPG combat lies in team interaction. And it is true that you can think of quite a few strategies how to fight as a whole.
Yet in the end it often boils down to this: Tankish characters run into the mob and get the opponents attention. As soon as they got it the remaining party jumps in and does their stuff, be it healing, damage dealing or controlling. A well organised group even singles out some opponent to attack together.
Is this really how heroes should fight? Wait until the opponent is distracted and then stab or shoot him in the back? I don’t feel very heroic attacking someone who is busy fighting the one he has been challenged by and what attacks I use to take him down is quite irrelevant when some friendly sorcerer has made a temporary statue out of him anyhow. Not to mention these boss fights when a whole cluster of “heroes” surrounds a single fighter and batters him with blows from all sides.

If I play a hero, I don’t want to have to act like a berserk and just launch an endless series of attacks and I don’t want to be part of a mob of guys whose strategy is to make their enemies helpless to respond to their assault. There is no honor in that, and for me no fun either.

I see this trend as a lack of animation vision. What you would like to see and what you do see being just a construction of how to represent the flow of time from beginning to the end of the fight. I usually forgive these transgressions when dealing with an MMO because you have to consider all the extra tracking the server has to do to maintain a battle that could “range all over”. Its actually a really good excuse for them. Just sit and blame these graphical improprieties on non instanced combat. Its more a question of design when trying to overcome this issue though. The considerations here are numerous but some of the first that comes to mind is how does the environment interact with the conflict. Is there line of site that is accurate. Do attacks execute On Demand or on a timer. In the example of COH there is a great deal of opportunity to take it to that next step since all attacks execute server side first and just register on the player terminal with server cuing. So the lucky few that experienced the Matrix Online may know what I mean by embellishing the combat. If not the effect is to place a number of pointless but entertaining animation chains in between these pre-calculated server cues.

My Solution for On Demand and Timer Based Combat. First we want to consider the network cluster ideal as a point of interest for connecting a large number of players to each other. This method load shares many computers all accessing the same data giving the illusion of 1 system. With that out of the way here comes my crazy idea. Let the client do the work. This has been an industry faux pas for years in online games because it gives the client the power to cheat. In a low bandwidth world this is true. But not today and exploits will exist anyways. These games are not CIA databases. There is a necessity for a bit of flexibility in where the data can come from. So let the player both render the combat and the combatants AI locally. Faster reactions and a whole lot of pretty for the players. So now I am sure your thinking… Hey that’s instanced combat… Well yes but not strict instanced combat. The actions of the player will still be for public consumption but at a pace slightly behind reality and a little less embellished. Finally I want to touch on how this affects group combat. This is actually the tricky part. The game server needs to allocate data and assign multicast grouping to a combat party so they receive the same information at the same time instead of relying on the server only to broadcast each player on its own as the server sees fit. Each member of the combat party in reality recieves the data being sent to the other players in the party along with its own. This allows for a greater level of precision. So now that data sync is done how bout group AI. Well I would venture that in this current Internet world actually peering the AI would not work. But my idea would work as such. Terminals would be profiled when they installed the game to figure out how much extra work they can do without affecting game play then load sharing the AI decisions and motions in a WAN cluster that spans only the group.

Its seams probable but this is a new kind of endeavor for me. I do not skate much, being a businessman. So I am worried about my capital expenditures while they design ramps and coping. I have the best hopes but you never know. I am wishing myself luck. In all this I just wish I could get back into games again. Its been so long and my notebooks are overflowing with plot ideas and gameplay. It kills me to just spend it all here on the net but as long as someone benifits I guess that is all the is important.

More later.

Next issues is downtime.From the LARP standpoint downtime activities are any GM authorizedactivities done when a player is not involved in an actual game session.To the MMO downtime is usually sequenced trips to the WC and snackruns. The best way to eliminate downtime is to give playersentertainment that they can carry with them. A very fine example is ifthe game requires long travel times from mission source to destinationthis would be considered a downtime even if the player or group huntedon the way to the objective. A down time activity for this situationcould be as simple as card games or puzzles. Even something as mundaneas sudoku could be utilized as a way for a player to break the boredomon a long trek. In a group players could gamble or play more intricate2 player RL or fantasy world specific games. For the most part unless aplayer or group is constantly going to be challenged to and from a questthere should be little or no need to make the player waste their timewith auto run. If a mission is built right the challenges should leadinto each other. Where a travel solution would be chasing andattacking a group of bandits across town towards the next objective.Nothing is more pointless then grabbing a mission the running in onedirection for five minutes then promptly returning to the quest giverjust to have to do it all over again. The staples of single playergames are the pretty obvious linear gameplay one receives for examplein an FPS. MMO’s are supposed to be non-linear and free form butquesting and developing plot in the current way just creates a staccatoversion of linear gameplay. I am sorry, allowing players free formexploring is not providing them non-linear gameplay. Its a downtimeactivity its linear gameplay to perform with the other linear gameplaygets too dry.

A player should never be uninvolved in a quest orplot. In fact the best part of the madlib style quest generation is thelikely hood of you as player running into other players involved in thesame plots at the same time exponentially increases. Since many ofthe quest segments should be instanced anyways a player will not needto compete with other players for kills and rewards but since they willbe in the same locations they may opt to join forces to ease thedifficulty of an objective. Of course some quest segments should bepublic but they will have to be carefully balanced for playerpopulation. A quick fix is to put a pop cap per leg instance so therecan only ever be so many people in each instance at any one time. Oncethe pop cap is reached a new instance forms to accept the next group.Player groups are not subject to pop cap and most of the time will havetheir own instance generated for them.

Next time Community and more Downtime

technorati tags:MMORPS, MMORPG, Game, Development, Mission, System

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So since I last commented I have continued to consider this topic as an afterthought. Going through my normal thought process then revaluating what I had just done from the female gamer’s perspective. Admittedly I am not a girl gamer and I keep seeing the Sims in my head like you mentioned in your post. So as a method of getting my head out of that mindset I went back through the feminist gamer livejournal and found this Why Women Aren’t Gamers – Yet. While it is a bit uninspired it reminds me of a convention in the Asian markets. Although many men are involved in creating female oriented content some of the largest studios anime and game studios are run by women. For the most part this is where I see the solution coming from. I feel it is a bit unfair to say to developers “ok, now that you have your idea, change it”. On the other side I ultimately believe that options equal fun. So a lot of my previous statement relies on the situation. In the rather hot button example of Fable I agree with the feminist gamer livejournal. Fable was designed to be an open ended game system providing freedom of decision and character development. Allowing for a female character would not have taken away from that. In defense of Peter Molyneux, he was also responsible for the creation of the black and white series which does not focus on any specific gender. Also the development and release of the game Fable was thoroughly hindered by Microsoft Peter Molyneux generally is a perfectionist and doesn’t like to let a project go until he is happy. But where there is money there is power. Microsoft threatened to pull the plug on fable if he didn’t meet there release schedule. So we will never really know if he had any intention or not of allowing for gender rolls either. Finally the game fable is designed around the classic heroic fairy tale. Although this does not allow it to be sexist it does fall in the genre of a male dominated world and male dominated hero role. Again it’s the modern day and it’s a game so the skies the limit but that’s my two cents on fable.

Ultimately I fully appreciate the fact that you posted this in the first place because without it I hadn’t been giving the topic a lot of thought. I would appreciate any additional resources you have come across since I didn’t find many definitive solutions in the female gamer’s livejournal. It was more people asking the question and complaining about the existing problem then ways to fix it. I see the solution very simply. If you want a game that fits your demographic make it. I see problems in the MMO industry and that is where I work for the advancement of the genre. I see games like movies. Not all movies appeal to all people. Not all games should appeal to all people either. I would like to see an increased presence in the number of female developers creatively making decisions that affect games. That is what I see is the need to satisfy female gamers. Marketing is the problem for the most part to why females don’t get games though. They don’t see the demographic outside the current sphere. I easily believe that there are that many female gamers out there. In my area the population is rather low in my experience but I know they are out there. I have played with them in MMORPGs. Anyways thank you for stimulating my development and if you have any specific needs or solutions that you have come up with please email them to me so I can get a further grasp on another perspective.

This topic is important to the industry. Not in the fact that the current industry needs to change itself into a softer more universally oriented puff of fluff. It proves how much growth is available to its development. Personally I find the differences between men and women rather interesting. I still find it difficult to see the perspective of the opposite sex. I can understand the possible reactions to certain situations that they may encounter. Ultimately I see this as usual in the same way as movies. There are plenty of movies that appeal to women that do not often appeal to men. I am sure there are men that are somewhat alienated by the lack of more female games. This is not saying anything about sexual orientation just personal preference. The market cannot be limited to one demographic. I reiterate that in order to solve this problem we need women to take the reigns and force there way into the industry and make there desires a reality.

Solution 1: Content injections!
This amounts to creating new missions and classes on a regular basis. The mind tends to wander less if there is always something new to do. This is the best solution for a system that was developed in a rather closed manner not allowing the player much option on their own to try new things.

Solution 2: The Alternative Method.
This solution is completely dependant on the system and the creativity of the developer. Give options in activities to the player that will lead them to other activities and shared social situations which will facilitate a stronger community. The biggest benefit of this is an organized community which will make better and less self centered requests of the developers. At this point it becomes the developer’s job to evaluate and implement the requests of the community in a timely fashion. At the same time keeping the community abreast of the status of new items while rewarding those players and groups in game for being constructive to the further development of the game.

Remember the general community when kept appeased is a developer’s greatest tool. Treat them with respect and give them credit where it is due. Don’t ignore them and refuse there advise under the guise that you are the developer aka GOD and you are infallible. All that will happen is you will have to sit on there ideas for 3 or 4 months before you make the decision to finally implement them and foolishly calling them your own.

So this evolution is still a MMO and for the most part still has a heavy interest in RP but it’s the “game” portion that I conjecture is the thing that needs to go. To be the rough definition of a game is one that provides a challenge and entertainment. The more options you add to a game the closer it gets to a “Simulator” and that is what the MMORPG will become the MMORPS.

Doesn’t seem like much but the MMORPS will be the general answer to many gamers needs. A simulator tries to take all aspects of a thing and properly represents them in 2d or 3d environment. A great example of a simulator is Forza Motorsport. It is the first game in my experience that has allowed me to see the actual differences between cars and between upgrades. I actually get the feel as if I was in the driver’s seat. One car that is a rear wheel drive may feel like it is pushing me around while another may give me that yanked around front-wheel drive feeling. This is a unique experience especially when you have a 3rd person perspective on the car and basic vibro feedback. This is the kind of attention to detail I will bring to the industry.

Everything can be made better as a simulator apart from the farce fantasy genre like ratchet and clank. The again that game is not a MMORPG.

The key features of the MMORPS stems from the fact that there is a focus on attention to detail. This means that in a MMORPG where the developer creates a persistent world that should be a living breathing character of its own. Problem is that doesn’t happen. My goal is to create so many options that there is no time where a player actually has nothing to do and when they truly don’t want to do anything I will provide passive actions to continue to entertain the player without working hard.

This is an important side point that I will continue later. A game is supposed to entertain. Many games become work and lose their fun. It is important to remember that a challenge is entertaining to some but to others a more mellow flow of game is required. All sides must be incorporated into the game to allow for the maximum entertainment value.

This in no way means that art is not important to game play. In fact art is one of the primary factors that affect the immersive quality of a game. A bad game can be made playable with good art but a good game can only be added to by art. Although a good game can be hampered by bad art the average player will find it easier to ignore poor graphic quality if the game content draws them in. In short my argument is this, content is immersive and art is just a multiplying factor of content. Content comes first!

So within the development cycle I have found that having a more completed and better outline design document that describes full game content and player experience while not getting you a licensing agreement faster it will provide you with the tools to create a better game with fewer problems. One way or the other you will need art, investors and license owners are visual people in general, they will often have trouble if you only verbally describe the concept. Art is not evil! Art needs to have a secondary focus for the developer. Create the content, create experience, create the game, and then make it beautiful.

So thats it for my Community Demands

Side Note. I have been tooling around with a program called Skype. Its a free netphone and VOIP system with the heart of a P2P network. Actually created by the developers of Kazaa. So far as my tests with this go it is better then any teamspeak server for clarity and latency. So I am impressed. The logic of getting all the company directors and developers connected as part of a net conference call that maintains live encryption is worth its weight in gold. Most importantly many mobile devices like the Sharp Zaurus 6000sl and 6000W will be able to utilize this tech to turn any WiFi pda with a mic into a phone. Some PDAs are purposely developed for this purpose.