Original Post
The MMO genre is getting stale. Each and every MMO (warranting SWG) has been the same old same old with every release, with a special feature thrown into the mix to attempt to differentiate themselves from all the other duplicate games. Start level 1, fight bad guys and quest, get new armor, and continue to max level. Sound familiar?
The fact that professional developers actually believe that their product will stand out by having one extra trivial feature astounds me, but thats an entirely different post.
In this thread, I think it would be fun to discuss different paths MMO's can take to keep the genre fresh and interesting. I have my own ideas which I'll share to get the topic up and running. Feel free to offer comments or criticisms, or your own ideas.
I look at the current formula for MMOs and get tired almost instantly. There is only so much excitement to be had killing monsters with the same old abilities, in the same point and click manner before the brand spanking new art in the world around you gets boring. To me, it seems no one has been able to truly tap the idea of having players play in a truly massively multiplayer game. Its just simplistic gameplay centered in a gigantic world, with the feel that you are part of a bigger world.
So how do you change that?
3 Ideas go into making my perfect MMO:
1) Unique Crafting system that eliminates Leveling
2) Monster-Hunter type gameplay. Killing monsters would be a rarity, and be tough. Finding them would be a completely different story
3) Player built worlds/cities
1)Unique Crafting system - No more leveling (at least through killing monsters and in the conventional sense)
How can you have a game without leveling your character? Well...lets look at the purpose of leveling. It allows you to slowly progress your character so that over time you can access new abilities and new content. There is no reason your character needs a "level" to accomplish that.
My suggestion: Make items the core mechanic for progressing your character. When you start the game, you are given a specific "knowledge pool" Each item you equip will reduce that number. So for instance, there are multiple ways to start the game. You begin the game, and have 10 knowledge points. You perform the tutorials and are given 3 items. The first item is a magic glove that shoots fireballs and cost 5 KP to equip. The second item is magic boots that increase move speed, also costing 5 KP. The third item is a Laser Gun that does 2 x's the damage as the fireball and shoots faster, but cost 10 KP to equip. You now have a choice. Keep in mind this is theory, and no balancing has taken place.
So the new question arises; how do players get more KP. Well, this is where the basis of the gameplay becomes important. Make the game focus around players making new items. If you've played borderlands, you can see the potential for item customization. Even Diablo 2 had a great way to produce random items and Oblivion/Morrowinds crafting idea for spells used a similar mechanic. Players produce items, with seemingly random abilities. They learn recipes and can recreate items they master.
The more time/experience you spend crafting, the more KP you gain. and the stronger items you can equip. You can then use those stronger items to enter new areas and gather new crafting components.
Already we have different types of players popping up. We have players who focus their items on speed, stealth, and armor, who run around and mine. We have the creature killers, who focus on getting a good balance and a strong weapon, and who want to take down the big guys for rare materials. Professions arent chosen. Instead, they are balanced by "proficiency" with a certain item type; like dungeon siege.
Ability Gains: Crafted items will give you stats, which increase your overall power, and abilities. Example: If you want to be a crafter, you find a pair of "Work Gloves" that cost 10 KP, and equip it. They give you the ability, "Craft boots" You then craft random ingredients along with the required ones and start making neat boots. After enough crafts, your proficiency with those gloves will increase, and you'll gain the ability, "Craft gloves" After enough times, you'll simply learn the ability from the item, and can dequip it(ala one of the final fantasies). The item qualities you craft will be limited by the stats you have in the overall "Crafting" algorithm stat, which can be made up of multiple stats, or just one general crafting stat/level. The way you would create better items is by increasing your crafting stat high enough that it would yield better stat items, which would also require more KP to equip.
The craft system would yield random results even if the player uses the same ingredients. Randomness will be based on a time factor (down to milliseconds) Certain ingredients would yield "unique" items. Successful recipes could be "stored" or "saved" by the creator, and sold at a price. If they sell the recipe, they can no longer make it. This helps to make every players "store" unique. Players who collect the greatest inventory of useful weapons will gain fame throughout the server. This gets into player housing...though more on leveling.
Other professions can include :
Real Estate mogul (get into that later as well),
Monster Trackers: Someone who specializes in tracking strong monsters locations and selling the info to monster hunters. Game Designwise, the players who choose this profession will help to spawn monsters and quests throughout the world. Like SWG's "quest spawn" system....a monster tracker might sell their collected data to a monster hunter, who can then go to a guild and get a "Horn." They then travel to the destination (randomly throughout the world), and perhaps this time they run into a large cave. They use the "horn" item and the monster appears.
Monster Hunters: Buys data from Monster Trackers and then physically goes and kills the monsters for scavenged parts to sell to crafters.
Crafters: People who make items to sell
Miners/Gatherers
2) We just talked about it...Monster hunting would be integrating into the player interaction...rather than something you do randomly throughout the game. Most of this MMO would take place in towns and through talking/interacting. So when a Monster Tracker actually discovers a RARE spawn, the data would be well worth the cost for any team/group of monster hunters. And in turn, the drops from that monster would be WELL worth the effort it takes to kill it.
Trackers wouldn't be limited to hanging in town. Their "mini game" for tracking would involve traveling around the world and finding clues/etc in the form of quests. They would have to talk to NPCs, trade for info etc. They might take up mining and gathering.
The trick here is allowing players to only carry 1 set of equipment...and storing the rest of it at their home. This way, when they set off on an adventure, they do so with one specific task in mind. I also dont mean to imply there wont be regular monsters running around the world that are dangerous. There would be. In this sense, if a monster hunter group goes out to hunt a big creature, an experienced miner might want to tag along. While he won't be a big help during the fight, he'd be able to gather the high level minerals that he wouldnt be able to get by himself.
3) Player built worlds
SWG had the coolest idea...but it never really took off.
I'd like to see the same idea...blueprints placed in the game world, which are then built. Each player can have 2 houses at any given time. The houses would have a "reputation" stat that is increased depending on how many other houses are located around it. Once that reputation bar reaches the next level, the player can choose to invest money into it and increase the size. This gives players a reason to put buildings close to each other. Once a neighborhood is developed, the houses increase in reputation based on the money invested in the houses around it. So it simulates property value. The higher level of the house, the more luxuries you have..such as a sign outside advertising your professions. Being searchable on the minimap. Having the ability to hire a vendor to sell your wares when you aren't around, etc.
Real estate moguls could make tons of money buying properties in up and coming areas that players will want, then investing very little of their own money into it. Then they would sell that house to a rich crafter who wants to start his business in that neighborhood, and wants the ability to upgrade his house to a lvl 3 estate for the ability to have vendors.
Gold would be put into the economy by players selling their unwanted items to vendors. Gold sinks would be added as needed.
Comments? I personally think this would be a very fun game to play. You wouldnt feel obligated to level, or trapped into doing raids end game. Your focus would be on the community...building your reputation within the server, and making your own little avatar home.
The fact that professional developers actually believe that their product will stand out by having one extra trivial feature astounds me, but thats an entirely different post.
In this thread, I think it would be fun to discuss different paths MMO's can take to keep the genre fresh and interesting. I have my own ideas which I'll share to get the topic up and running. Feel free to offer comments or criticisms, or your own ideas.
I look at the current formula for MMOs and get tired almost instantly. There is only so much excitement to be had killing monsters with the same old abilities, in the same point and click manner before the brand spanking new art in the world around you gets boring. To me, it seems no one has been able to truly tap the idea of having players play in a truly massively multiplayer game. Its just simplistic gameplay centered in a gigantic world, with the feel that you are part of a bigger world.
So how do you change that?
3 Ideas go into making my perfect MMO:
1) Unique Crafting system that eliminates Leveling
2) Monster-Hunter type gameplay. Killing monsters would be a rarity, and be tough. Finding them would be a completely different story
3) Player built worlds/cities
1)Unique Crafting system - No more leveling (at least through killing monsters and in the conventional sense)
How can you have a game without leveling your character? Well...lets look at the purpose of leveling. It allows you to slowly progress your character so that over time you can access new abilities and new content. There is no reason your character needs a "level" to accomplish that.
My suggestion: Make items the core mechanic for progressing your character. When you start the game, you are given a specific "knowledge pool" Each item you equip will reduce that number. So for instance, there are multiple ways to start the game. You begin the game, and have 10 knowledge points. You perform the tutorials and are given 3 items. The first item is a magic glove that shoots fireballs and cost 5 KP to equip. The second item is magic boots that increase move speed, also costing 5 KP. The third item is a Laser Gun that does 2 x's the damage as the fireball and shoots faster, but cost 10 KP to equip. You now have a choice. Keep in mind this is theory, and no balancing has taken place.
So the new question arises; how do players get more KP. Well, this is where the basis of the gameplay becomes important. Make the game focus around players making new items. If you've played borderlands, you can see the potential for item customization. Even Diablo 2 had a great way to produce random items and Oblivion/Morrowinds crafting idea for spells used a similar mechanic. Players produce items, with seemingly random abilities. They learn recipes and can recreate items they master.
The more time/experience you spend crafting, the more KP you gain. and the stronger items you can equip. You can then use those stronger items to enter new areas and gather new crafting components.
Already we have different types of players popping up. We have players who focus their items on speed, stealth, and armor, who run around and mine. We have the creature killers, who focus on getting a good balance and a strong weapon, and who want to take down the big guys for rare materials. Professions arent chosen. Instead, they are balanced by "proficiency" with a certain item type; like dungeon siege.
Ability Gains: Crafted items will give you stats, which increase your overall power, and abilities. Example: If you want to be a crafter, you find a pair of "Work Gloves" that cost 10 KP, and equip it. They give you the ability, "Craft boots" You then craft random ingredients along with the required ones and start making neat boots. After enough crafts, your proficiency with those gloves will increase, and you'll gain the ability, "Craft gloves" After enough times, you'll simply learn the ability from the item, and can dequip it(ala one of the final fantasies). The item qualities you craft will be limited by the stats you have in the overall "Crafting" algorithm stat, which can be made up of multiple stats, or just one general crafting stat/level. The way you would create better items is by increasing your crafting stat high enough that it would yield better stat items, which would also require more KP to equip.
The craft system would yield random results even if the player uses the same ingredients. Randomness will be based on a time factor (down to milliseconds) Certain ingredients would yield "unique" items. Successful recipes could be "stored" or "saved" by the creator, and sold at a price. If they sell the recipe, they can no longer make it. This helps to make every players "store" unique. Players who collect the greatest inventory of useful weapons will gain fame throughout the server. This gets into player housing...though more on leveling.
Other professions can include :
Real Estate mogul (get into that later as well),
Monster Trackers: Someone who specializes in tracking strong monsters locations and selling the info to monster hunters. Game Designwise, the players who choose this profession will help to spawn monsters and quests throughout the world. Like SWG's "quest spawn" system....a monster tracker might sell their collected data to a monster hunter, who can then go to a guild and get a "Horn." They then travel to the destination (randomly throughout the world), and perhaps this time they run into a large cave. They use the "horn" item and the monster appears.
Monster Hunters: Buys data from Monster Trackers and then physically goes and kills the monsters for scavenged parts to sell to crafters.
Crafters: People who make items to sell
Miners/Gatherers
2) We just talked about it...Monster hunting would be integrating into the player interaction...rather than something you do randomly throughout the game. Most of this MMO would take place in towns and through talking/interacting. So when a Monster Tracker actually discovers a RARE spawn, the data would be well worth the cost for any team/group of monster hunters. And in turn, the drops from that monster would be WELL worth the effort it takes to kill it.
Trackers wouldn't be limited to hanging in town. Their "mini game" for tracking would involve traveling around the world and finding clues/etc in the form of quests. They would have to talk to NPCs, trade for info etc. They might take up mining and gathering.
The trick here is allowing players to only carry 1 set of equipment...and storing the rest of it at their home. This way, when they set off on an adventure, they do so with one specific task in mind. I also dont mean to imply there wont be regular monsters running around the world that are dangerous. There would be. In this sense, if a monster hunter group goes out to hunt a big creature, an experienced miner might want to tag along. While he won't be a big help during the fight, he'd be able to gather the high level minerals that he wouldnt be able to get by himself.
3) Player built worlds
SWG had the coolest idea...but it never really took off.
I'd like to see the same idea...blueprints placed in the game world, which are then built. Each player can have 2 houses at any given time. The houses would have a "reputation" stat that is increased depending on how many other houses are located around it. Once that reputation bar reaches the next level, the player can choose to invest money into it and increase the size. This gives players a reason to put buildings close to each other. Once a neighborhood is developed, the houses increase in reputation based on the money invested in the houses around it. So it simulates property value. The higher level of the house, the more luxuries you have..such as a sign outside advertising your professions. Being searchable on the minimap. Having the ability to hire a vendor to sell your wares when you aren't around, etc.
Real estate moguls could make tons of money buying properties in up and coming areas that players will want, then investing very little of their own money into it. Then they would sell that house to a rich crafter who wants to start his business in that neighborhood, and wants the ability to upgrade his house to a lvl 3 estate for the ability to have vendors.
Gold would be put into the economy by players selling their unwanted items to vendors. Gold sinks would be added as needed.
Comments? I personally think this would be a very fun game to play. You wouldnt feel obligated to level, or trapped into doing raids end game. Your focus would be on the community...building your reputation within the server, and making your own little avatar home.
