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Stradden 3/31/07 11:11:37 AM
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Managing Editor
Joined: 7/08/05 |
Staff Writers Dan Fortier and Carolyn Koh take opposite sides of the issue of The MMO Dilemma, to innovate or to upgrade.
Read the whole debate here. |
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Dreneth 3/31/07 12:20:00 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/11/05
Report illegal emulation: http://www.ic3.gov |
This article completely overlooked the simple fact that innovation to improve the genre does NOT have to mean new technology. It is possible to introduce new features and options without having to worry about new technology.
GAWD this aggravates me to no end. Why is it that people always assume that innovation means reinventing the friggin wheel?? For an industry that is in... how was it put... it's "infancy", there must be a hell of a lot of ways to add new features and content without having to explore new forms of tech. It's called creativity in design... and the tools to do so are already there. Stop giving your developers stupid ideas. Pay them to write decent code for a fun game, and see the development through to the polish before releasing it. That will improve the genre 1000 times more than attempting to develop new ways to color a rock. |
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xaldraxius 3/31/07 2:21:53 PM
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Elite Member
Joined: 10/07/05 |
New ideas, old ideas, innovations, upgrades: Give a penny take a pound. None of these things are what I see as being the most important part of an MMORPG. Individuality, story, developer involvement, huge events that effect not only every player, but the shape and scope of the world as well, these are what makes a good MMORPG to me. I want to feel that my character is an extention of myself in the world, and that he has the ability to shape or at least influence the events of that world. I want my: warrior, ninja, space pirate...etc to be able to be vitueous, or sinister and have the NPC's of the world react to him accordingly. I want saga's to be written about me, I want every action to have a consequence. I don't want to play in a world that is like an episode of the Simpsons where in the end everything is back to where it started from, give or take a couple of new shops, or dungeons.
As far as I am concerned no MMORPG has done this well since Asheron's Call. Everything else is just cookie cutter characters and static worlds with little or no influence shown to reflect the actions of the people within them.
City of Heroes/City of Villains does a good job of opening up the doors of individuality, but constantly repeating quests and beating the same villains in the same places over and over again is just dull.
Completely player driven games suck too. There should be at least one supreme villain that no one can defeat, played by a developer or someone else hired to play this char, who pulls the strings behind the scenes. Machinations that turn what everyone thought was a victory into a trick that serves to advance the possition of the enemy. REAL storylines that keep players guessing what will happen next, and paying their hard earned money every month to be a part of it.
Good graphics are always important, but the story is fundemental.
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Guler 3/31/07 3:02:17 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 3/14/05 |
This articale really failed to mention all the failed attempts at innovation. For example lets look at D&D online, Auto Assault, and the NGE in SWG. In all these examples the developers were trying to do something to change the game from the standard target and attack macro type set up. The real problem with innovation in a MMORPG is if you try something new and it doesn't work out you will have hundreds if not thousands of your dedicated fans taking the 10 hours per day they were spending on your game, and now spending that time trying to convince others that the game is not worth player.
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bainster 3/31/07 3:27:41 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 11/14/06 |
Originally posted by Guler I disagree here. The problem is not that they tried to innovate and failed. They failed to impose new ideas on old gameplay. Give me a feature that was introduced that changes how people played those games that was not a 1+1=2 feature. Game designers are hamstrung by investors. Everybody wants a succesfull game, but when you mention a new feature that is completely without any support in the market space as a sure fire way of drawing more players aka subscriptions, they are left on the cutting room floor because economics dictate (as in majority of TV and movie productions) that the working recipy for MMO's cannot be tampered with beyond a curtain point. Apart from pure innovation vs upgrade there is a multitude that affects the outcome of a MMO in the market, not just features. Just look at Vanguard. At the end of the day, Game designers have to try to innovate regardless of the restraints on them from a number of areas in the industry. If they are just going to create another clone of every other MMO out there to get a market share to make profit the then the future of entertaining MMO's is bleak indeed. |
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Dreneth 3/31/07 3:37:27 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/11/05
Report illegal emulation: http://www.ic3.gov |
No big surprise that many of the games that tried to change focus midstream lost a lot of quality, considering how it usually gets done. Most major changes to MMO's post launch are reactionary, and are a direct result of the most support tickets or feature requests from players, and are poorly tested prior to bringing them to live servers.
They real key is for an MMORPG developer (meaning the company as a whole) to develop new and interesting content and features BEFORE launching the game, test the hell out of them, and polish the whole thing before charging a penny for subscriptions. Then, as time moves forward, new features and content should absolutely be introduced to the game, and the same process should be followed. To say that it is impossible to be innovative and creative without screwing it up is absolute crap. Commercial software companies do it all the time... and they don't have HALF of the issues. It's time that players demanded MORE from the games they play, and it's time that the game publishers recognized that they have been dropping the ball for years. |
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Dreneth 3/31/07 3:44:38 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/11/05
Report illegal emulation: http://www.ic3.gov |
Originally posted by bainster This is an excellent point. This is one of the reasons why I have always been a little sad that MMORPG's got so popular. It can be nice because there are more people to group with (if you like that), but it turns the industry into just that... and industry. The more corporate gaming gets, the less innovative it will be. ESPECIALLY if the company is US based. Just look at the auto manufacturers here. It's criminal what happens there, and it's becoming more and more apparent with MMORPG's too. |
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jpete3 3/31/07 3:53:49 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 1/11/07 |
I guess there are just some things in life that people don't think are possible. Thank God we are not in charge of making new and exciting games :) Why can't we have both innovation and updates? Is there some law of the universe that says consumers can't expect high quality gamplay, with stunning graphics and a deep storyline? Some might say that I'd be asking for too much or I'm just not being realistic. I submit to you that we as consumers expect these things from other service and/or product providers every day. Why not MMO's? It's like asking the question "what do you want, high speed internet with low quality images or low speed with high quality images. Who among us would settle for those options? What if 10 years ago I said I want a computer with an internet connection that loads a page in less than a second? I want to be able to play video games in Oregon with people in Texas, New York and Germany. I want to download, upload, and send information, music, videos and e-mail instantly across the globe. No reason why gamers can't have what they want at a price they can afford. Whether it be innovation, updates, deep stories, good graphics, and whatever else you enjoy.
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gpett 3/31/07 4:14:44 PM
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