| lungdisc |
MMORPGs have been made by taking all the features found in the single player and co-op RPG games and then adding a lot of players into one server, interacting with one another.
Single player RPG specific features:
- story and quests
- level progression and skills
- items and crafting
- killing mobs
Co-operative RPG specific features:
- grouping with your friend(s) (ofcourse)
- chatting
- pvp (dueling) -> Diablo 2
- finding players to group with -> Diablo 2 when in the lobby
- guilds -> done outside of the game, but still
MMO specific features:
- seeing a lot of players in one place
MMOs only makes you believe that you are doing your adventuring with millions of players, when in fact you are barely interacting with them.
And why is that?
It's because players are too busy doing their routine tasks (killing 10 rats) to progress with their character level. But once they reach the maximum level, then they start maxing out the other progression scheme (gear). And once they get the epic gear by doing instances, players usually stop playing the game with that particular character.
And why is that?
It's because the entire focus of the game is on level progression. PvP is just an activity like others (fishing, mini-games) and there's not much to it, because it has no consequences over your character like level and gear progression does. And if you really want some adrenaline pumping, playing an FPS or RTS game is more thrilling, more skill involved and much more balanced, ie: Battlefield, Starcraft.
Yes, some games like Lineage 2 and others do give purpose to PvP like faction wars, castle sieges, locking down farming spots, etc. But remember that players only do these things to help themselves and their guild mates to be more efficient at maxing their level and over enchanting their gear.
So let's try here and figure out on what can MMOs focus on, besides level/gear progression.
First of all the difference between RPG and FPS/RTS games is that your character is persistent. You can't login everyday in your favorite MMO and start the game at level 0 like MOBA games do or getting your character perma-killed. So, let's stick with the level and gear progression, but make it come second in importance: a more skilled level 1 player could kill a less experienced level 60 player.
This topic is only about creating awareness. I don't have the answer for it, but maybe with your help we can come up with some decent ideas.
My idea is to focus on player interaction like PvP, but with persistent rewards that are not tied to level/gear progression. The level and gear should only help you in reaching that main goal and not the other way around.
I believe if we solve this problem we will not be having the issues that current MMOs have like endgame activities, PvP rewards, boring quests, etc. And we will also make the jump from the WoW clones era to another era of MMOs, hopefully a better one.