MMO Design and Theory

SAY WHAT? PvP is dead? Zomfggzzzzzziajrsdhkjdsfgkdfjg or some such random internet expletive jargon. Well, the concept isn’t dead just the practical applications of it. Now when I say PvP I speak specifically to games where player versus player is an aspect of the game (not the entire game itself) and thus this statement does not apply to competitive games such as, well, any genre other than MMO gaming.

In MMOs, PVP is (was?) found in two varieties: closed and open. Closed PvP is when it is organized (like a duel), the most obvious example is the Battlegrounds (first employed in DAoC…I think?) as a way for Players to come together to do PvP at their convenience instead of roaming aimlessly in search of it, this style also allows controlled numbers so that combat is fair – more or less. The opposite of this is therefore Open PvP (not to be confused with open-world pvp). This style is where your enemies can kill you at any time with any numbers and any unfair advantage. It is ruthless and unforgiving.Now that I’ve outlined those two types let me hit you with the punchline of the topic at hand: Open PvP is the only meaningful type of pvp! Bam! Fist full of controversy right there.

First of all, let me qualify that statement; the reason open-world pvp is the only meaningful type of pvp (and remember this only applies to MMOs) is that MMOs are the only genre that can have this style of pvp. So, for my first premise I am positing that no other genre can have open-world pvp and as such MMOs don’t need to compete in that area – they’re always the best.

Second, and this is the point which may be hard for hardcore MMOites to swallow: closed-pvp, while fun, is a trivial, unbalanced pass-time when compared to any competitive game ever such as a solid FPS, RTS, MOBA…etc. It will never be as exciting, meaningful or challenging (or lucrative in the long term) because there is just too much variability in the way the games are designed and the way the characters are different from one another – I could go in to insane depth on this point but let’s simply just follow my premise for the time being.

Third, open world PVP is either zerg or get zerged. There are lots of niche roles small groups can play that are tactical and effective but at the end of the day is almost always comes down to who has the most fodder to throw at the other person. On top of this, the average player doesn’t like the fear of being able to be killed at any time by those they deem as “nerds who need to get a life”. Companies realize this and don’t make open pvp games or if they do they fuck them up beyond repair (Shadowbane, Age of Conan, Darkfall …etc) as they are much harder to keep people playing and need to essentially be flawless from launch because small issues heavily influence the flow of the game.

So, to summerize my premises that lead to the conclusion that pvp is dead

1. There are only two types of pvp, open and closed
2. Closed pvp is dead because it is terrible relative to other alternatives on the market
3. Open pvp is dead because it is rarely ever done anymore and when it is it is just a numbers game

Therefore, pvp is dead.

Accept this fact and enjoy pvp as a casual pass-time and not as something worth any merit… or play a competitive game if you need a real challenge.

Sounds like a Motorcross Racing game, doesn’t it?

MTX, the acronym for Micro transaction, is basically the go to word for anything involving sales within an online game for the video game industry. While it was mostly frontloaded with gold farmers long ago during World of Warcraft (I don’t remember seeing any gold spam prior to this, I’m sure it existed though), the corporations have, in usual fashion, capitalized on the success of independent businesses and moved in on their own games, offering their very own MTX while simultaneously putting the ‘BAN HAMMER (thanks, Mythic)’ on 3rd party sales. But this was just one head of this mythical beast.

On the other side of the industry, the packaged goods sector, console games (and I say console because PC gaming, in the offline sense, was absolutely ravaged by piracy and crippled until proper protection occurs – dont hold your breath) are getting absolutely crushed in revenue due to brick and mortar suppliers biting the hand that feeds; used game sales make up almost the entirety of revenue lost since the booming sales before the recession. Gaming hasn’t been in decline (quite the contrary), it now has a wider audience buying fewer total games – it sums up to about the same thing for the entire industry but for the creators, the sales figured for used games are absolutely crushing… enter DLC. Downloadable Content is the packaged goods version of MTX and it is how they compete with the impact of used game sales, attempting to persuade consumers to buy new copies at full price to get free DLC instead of buying a used copy (which is typically only $5-10 cheaper) which does not contain said DLC – if a consumer wanted that DLC they would have to pay a small fee, usually $5-15. This change in gaming trends, specifically more total consumers buying fewer total products has lead to an increase in quality (arguably production only) and a decrease in quantity (excluding DLC)

Why do you care?

Good question! Well, on the surface, you probably shouldn’t care at all,  you’re still paying the same price for games and there are way more blockbuster/must-have games and far fewer Superman 64s. Everybody wins! … that is until the Bobby Koticks of the world (aka. the 1st horsemen) dig their roots in. The booming sales of the $25 mount sold to players in World of Warcraft last April rang in around $2million in just 4 hours – this is, for me, the tip of the iceberg. Following in suit with Activision were all the other major players ringing out DLC after DLC for their top games. Now, personally I love DLC (I’ve spent probably $300+ a year on Rockband DLC since its launch) but there is a line that is being pushed and even crossed – the line that divides large content expansions, like full production add-ons, versus paying for some fluff or a very limited amount of content. Perfect example are map packs in shooter games for console; on PC players will just make their own maps and while the majority of them are shit there are some really good ones that rival or surpass those made by the company on console you do not have that option, you are instead forced to pay out the nose to keep relevant in the online community. Basically, people like our good horsemen, Conquest, have found a weak spot in your wallet and our going to drain every last penny from it through MTX of any kind that they can think of, if you think it’s bad now, it will only get worse, because that’s how capitalism works.

The second downfall of the industry

The 2012 predictions for the end of the world probably weren’t far off if they were talking about video games – just like before when the companies thought they could just milk everyone’s wallet in exchange for an abundance of crappy titles, we’re now going to see the same thing in the form of MTXs and additional peripherl (Move, Kinect…etc) sales. We’ll see a full circle rise and fall when the industry hits the eventual tipping point of money making and completely over-saturates the market with garbage DLC. My prediction? Nintendo 3ds is the future because the games are cheaper and the quality is just as good (not visually but certainly in fun) and NO DLC.

What ever happened to all those innovative features from games of old? Was Wily Coyote in charge of planning and didn’t want to try the same thing once it failed due unfortunate circumstances? (or due to cheater roadrunners!)

The strongest example that comes to mind for me is Everquest’s faction system – now, most people who look back will say that it was stupid amounts of grinding in most cases (which was true), but the concept was fantastic. Having factions of NPCs that can be friendly or aggressive depending on your playstyle can have some exciting ramifications. Imagine this type of system in a game that gives you dialog options while you’re doing quests. Do you help the native tribes fight the oppression or support your militia? Well now that you’ve decided to betray your army alliance and help the natives (*cough*avatarhadaterribleplot*cough*) you’ve caused the Alliance base to be aggressive to you but opened up some new quests with natives. Everquest had the right idea with this system but the multi-pathed quest systems didn’t exist back then to let the design be utilized to its fullest.

Another great example, one which has no faults in my opinion (and yet never gets replicated) is Dark Age of Camelot’s three faction system. I will try to summarize my incredible disdain for a two faction pvp system with two words: ‘zerg’ and ‘tug-of-war’ (well, four words with some hyphens) – inevitably one side has to zerg the other one over else a tug of war happens; instanced (battleground) situations have the same results though it’s usually one side having more skill causing continual rollovers. How does the three faction system help you ask? ASSJAM! A hilarious coined phrase from DAoC, as in: “fuckin’ furbies just AJ’d us while we were rolling a mid keep” – simply put, one team typically acts as an equalizing force for the other two, no matter the advantage one team has over another they cant (in almost all cases) take on two teams at once. Stop making two faction pvp games, I understand the need for dedicated teams to help protect the terrible players, the ‘e-hoi poloi’ if you will, but open it up to at least three, it will help alleviate balance issues for you.

Multiple skill builds and spec groups. Shadowbane had a lot of things going for it (despite its many failings), one of which was the ability to combine preset classes with an open assortment of skills to pick and choose from. Now, obvious complaints about many skills being useless and simple templates coming to fruition ring true but it took months of terrible builds before most people came to something useful (and then the aforementioned masses copied those people) – but that style, that mixing of the open skill trees for the creative with the templated class structure for those with less experience creates a good balance which can pull in both crowds. It has long been my ideology that the population of any game, while comprised primarily of people who run around like headless chickens, mashing keys in a seemingly random fashion, stays strong based on the continued support of those who push the limits of the game and rise to the challenge, and while I could speak on end of this particular topic I will save that for another maticulous rant for it proves an segway to my final point…

Challenge, where the fuck did that go? Now, I can easily point my angry internet nerd finger at the mighty collossus that is World of Warcraft but truth be told it had some very good systems in place oh so long ago. Cracking open the history books and turning back back to the beginnings of its long and egregious existence: long ago in its lengthy days of beta users were able to set their own stats at each level – this ability proved too much responsibility for the average user and was cast aside in favor of a static system. Along these same lines, the difficulty of the game slowed tuned down so that the majority of players can experience the entire game, pffack I say to that.

While these examples are but a few of the many things lost to the ether of time and poor design choice, it is important for me to reiterate the sayings of those I consider enemies on this quest for the re-imagining of the MMO genre: “this is a business” – with that in mind let me say that I recognize the business aspect of the situation and simply wish to amalgamate the innovations of old, the systems designed to separate the boys from the men, as it were with the new systems which uphold the McDonald’s brand of ‘everyone is a winner’. Such a system is possible, it just hasn’t happened yet. Until then I shall keep spewing my unnecessary extra-syllabic words and vague allusions to things long forgotten. Sadface.

Hey kids, welcome to today’s episode of How to Fail. Today we will be looking at the wonderful world of  MMO gaming, with specific interest in to the elusive PvP realm. First and foremost, it is important to distinguish different types of failure which coincide with time periods relative to the games release

Pre-launch: A game that fails in prelaunch essentially cannot get their game to function properly.

After several months of head on wall action by programmers and designers, the company will decide to cut its losses, admit defeat and give up. This is very typical of new studios; while it does happen to the larger ones, they have the funds to push through the extended period of failure to a launch date – sometimes this just makes things worse however

Launch: A game launch can go down in flames for two reasons

First, if the game was forced to launch even though there are outstanding blocking bugs (bugs which actually prevent the player from playing the game or continuing past a certain point) or if the game simply cannot attract enough subs due to poor marketing and/or just being a poor idea in general.

Post-Launch: While some consider any game that sells millions of copies a success, a post-launch failure stands in direct opposition to that statement.

This type of failure can come in many forms but always results in the same thing which is a substantial drop in subscriptions in the first three months. Even if a company keeps half of their initial subs by the 3 month mark they are in decent shape relative to a lot of titles these days.

So, on to the specifics of making a successful failure.  At the top of the list, make a game that copies Blizzard’s award winning formula. Make sure not to change anything, and if you do have to, make sure it isn’t an improvement, afterall, if it worked for Blizzard it must work. Next, make sure there are several different ways for your game to crash – these can vary from zoneline crashes to having too many people/effects on the screen or even just random crashes, just make sure it happens. Once people are crashing enough, make sure that game breaking exploits make it in to the game, any type will do as long as it clearly gives an unfair advantage to anyone who finds and abuses it. Tell everyone that fixing this exploit is top priority but instead of sacrificing precious man hours to go through the arduous task of find, fix and test, simply just do a random banning of individuals who MAY have been associated with these exploits. Now that your boards are erupting with angry inviduals you can watch as the final wave of your failure unfolds. About this time in the lifeline of the game youll start seeing your upper percentage (usually 5-10) of the ‘elite’ gamers and guilds hit max level and realizing that you purposely did not finish your end game content as you spent all your time making sure the aspect of the game that reviewers see is immaculate. Kudos! Let those people know that something will be coming soon to improve end game content which is currently non-existent, useless, bugged to the point of unplayability or all of the above; elite gamers are notorious for having video game ADD so it shouldnt take more than a few weeks of having nothing meaningful to do to get them to promptly unsubscribe, write some nasty forum posts and quickly skulk over to the next ‘big thing’ where they will go through it all again.

Additional lesser strategies include, but are not limited to:

• make sure classes are imbalanced,
• make sure content is repetitive as well as derivitive
• make Hubs feel as much like ghost towns as possible by reducing NPCs and spacing players out to thing the populous
• turn everything in to a grind, crafting, questing, even pvp. Everything is fair game for this one
• make all your GUIs counter-intuitive and make sure that the controls are extremly hard to use. Allow gold farmers to run free with bots that farm major areas and spam mailboxes and /tell to every living person as much as possible
• make sure you only have two sides for PvP, tug of wars leading to inevitable overzerging are way easier to build than having to balance an extra faction for maps and other designs

If you followed all of these steps to the letter (or as close as an MMO can be to doing something properly) you should already be getting ready to layoff the majority of your company and cash out all of your money and live a blissfully ignorant life. Congratulations, Mr. CEO! You did it!

Special Thanks to:

• Small companies with big ideas.
• Wolfpack for dashing the dreams of millions thousands of pvp fans – so close and yet so far.
• Mythic for failing to make a revitalized DAoC game (3 realms!) and instead giving us Warhammer.
• Last but certainly not least is FunCom for completely dropping the ball with Age of Conan, no words can describe the fall from grace that players took from levels 20-80 at launch.

First!

Once I get some free time I’ll be uploading some tables and samples of the game ive been working on designing over the past couple years in my spare time, which of late has been very little. Aside from my personal work I’ll try to be blogging about MMOdesign mechanics and things that I’ve loved or hated in other MMOs over the many years of experience I have in a fairly methodical way.

If you have any ideas/concepts once I get the ball rolling, feel free to contact me and we can get some additional sections going if need be. Until then its hard work on Mass Effect 2 (game of the year 2010!)