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A Counterpoint article to KC_2's "Why Online CRPG's Will Never Work"
Why Online CRPG's Will Eventually Work By Bill Allen
This is a small (Well ok... not so small) article to counterpoint the article by KC_2, "Why Online CRPG's Will Never Work". I will try to stick to KC_2's points... because they are valid.
KC_2 seems to feel that there are only 2 types of people that play Online RPG's. "Masochists" and "Assholes". Playing Online CRPG's in their current state, I guess one could be considered "Masochistic", but I don't think that is the driving factor of a person that plays these games that doesn't fall into the "Asshole" category.
MMORPG's in there current state are FAR from perfect. "Assholes" do ruin the fun for others, and there will always be "Assholes" to encounter. Hey, I encouter some every day, in Real Life! The world is full of 'em! The Hacking problem... well... that falls under the "Asshole" category too. Cheaters? Same category. Pretty much all of KC's points boil down to Jerks that can ruin your fun in a "virtual gaming world".
I totally agree. What? How is this a counterpoint article???
Heh... I'm getting there...
Being what KC_2 would consider the "Masochist" category... I, and many others wish to adventure and explore virtual worlds with "friends". The problems that go on with current MMORPG's are basically an industry "Learning State" problem. Every new Online CRPG's that comes out, tries to learn from the mistakes of their competition's previous product. You will find MANY FAQ's where people ask "How are you going to handle the "Asshloes" in your game?". Not exactly worded that way... but you get the point! :)
On-line MUDs (Text Based) Have exisited for many years. They have their problems too. But what makes their community different from a MMORPG? They're small. It's much easier to "Police" a game with 50-250 users versus one with 2000 users per server. They are also "Privately Owned". No big corporate beauracracy hindering descisions on how to enforce rules, etc.
Design flaws of current MMORPG's: As far as the Jerks go, there isn't an MMORPG out yet that has a decent "Justice System". Pretty much... they let the players do anything they want, and suddenly "Ban" when they think something has gotten out of hand. That works better in the small MUD environment, but doesn't work at all for a large MMORPG. Large MMORPG's need some sort of "Player Justice System" implemented. Easier said than done, on a design note. Hackers and Cheaters? Gonna always be a problem for a large scale game. Pretty much, Hackers and Cheaters have never directly affected my gameplay experience, vs. the "Jerks" that are in the game. Other design flaws include the "All I can do is hack and slash"... this isn't an RPG.
So What's the solution? A few Design Ideas that I haven't seen implemented yet:
~ A Player Justice System (A few games will be released soon with this... but I'm sure it will take some time to be perfected)
~ A quest system that makes a player *feel* like he / she is part of the "story". These would have to be randomly generated per player so they couldn't cheat by looking up "spoiler sites". Pretty much a pre-generated story path PER player, that works something like Daggerfall's random dungeons... but not as repeatetive! Lotsa code there.
~ If an experience table is used to gain "Levels / Power points to build a character"... A requirement to do a generated quest before the "level" is awarded would keep a lot of the "Hack and Slash Only" feeling out.
~ Involvement in local governments (Much Like Meridian 59 did... except a lot more)
~ Involvement with local Religions (Much like the government idea, with holy quests, etc.)
~ A single player feel for indoor encounters. For instance, when one enters a dungeon... they are the only person in it. If one enters a dungeon "grouped up" with a few other players... that group are the only people in that dungeon. The system would have to be able to switch between a single person and "grouped" people with ease. (i.e. someone has to logoff and can't finish the dungeon with his friends, somebody's ISP takes a dump, etc.). This would allow people to "do a dungeon" without encountering Jerks, and unrealistic respawn / camping of mobs. Some "Wandering monsters would "Respawn" off camera... but there wouldn't be many. Dungeons can only be populated by obtaining a quest first. This makes the player / group of players follow a "single player" type of story / adventure. Once the dungeon is completed... it is not repopulated until a quest sends the player / group of players back to that particular dungeon via a quest that has a storyline of "A group of MobX has occupied this place, now".... then whatever in the story to follow... ("They have stolen this item, retrieve it for me... they have been attacking the people of this town, eliminate them all for a great reward... etc. etc.). Of course these dungeons would "Adjust" to the level of the player(s) to keep it challenging.
~ A single player feel for outdoor encounters. Basically a wandering monster that spawns off camera and is targeted at YOU. The monster that has spawned for YOU is "adjusted" to your current level of power and health status... to remain challenging, but not exactly "Try to kill you easily". The lower your current health upon the encounter... the more of a chance you might die. This way, there is no kill stealing... for the exp goes to the person that was targeted by the world to begin with. If someone helps you... another monster spawns off camera to attack him. you can then help him if you wish, but he gets the exp. The same would go for "grouped up" people outdoors. Instead of one monster spawning off camera, a group of them targeted at the individuals of the group.
~ A reward system besides "Power / Levels / Loot". Certain quests should generate monuments, or plaques in Taverns where others can read about someone's "good deeds". These things would also affect the faction with the NPC's of the area. Price cuts on purchased items, easier to be involved in the local government, special quests that wouldn't be *normally* given. (An equivalent for people that like to play evil characters... plaques of "Bad Deeds" in Thieves Dens and such... not really Bad as far as being "Assholes" to other players... but bad in the eyes of the virtual world's story)
~ Limited worlds. Say 250 users MAX. Much easier to police and give customer service. Only a few "Main cities" so meeting people is still fairly easy. Also these games should be run by Private individuals like the Text MUD / Sysop of BBS days... but in a franchise form. The on-line fee would mainly go to the software developers, and a small portion to the person that "runs" the server for dataline expenses / small profit. People could choose from hundreds of privately owned servers (Though their characters would be stored on a main server of the software developers). The idnividual owners of this "Franchise" system could *add on* to their world any way they saw fit, via an editor, but the *core* mainland would be the same on all servers.. This would also allow players to hop from world to world with "Their" character. Too many "Assholes" on this Server? Find another one and lose NOTHING! Server has a full 250 Users? Easy to find another one with the same "core" and some different add-ons. Want to make sure you can play with your friends? Instant Messaging to organize which server has enough room for all of you to play together. Also, the Developers could concentrate way more on hackers, since all they are doing is keeping the player's accounts on a server. The Franchise owners wouldn't have to worry much about Hackers because they don't have the accounts. They would only have to protect against basic "Trying to crash your server" that any website owner has to put up with.
~ PvP / PK. I personally don't like this type of play, however, some people do. It would be up to the Individual that runs the server whether to allow full PvP, PvP in "arena's" only, a Player PvP switch, or no PvP at all. Players could easily avoid servers that support a PvP function that they don't like.
Basically what I'm proposing is what I like to call an "LMORPG".
- Has many single player features (Story and Quest Driven)
- Has the on-line Community Features
- Eliminates most of the problems with "Jerks" (There will always be some!)
- Works like a major MMORPG with the "Franchise" Method. (Can You Say Mc Donald's?)
- Jerks only get banned from individual servers... they are free to keep an account and "Find" a server that will tolerate their BS (Probably full PvP Servers).
This is basically a major step beyond "Neverwinter Nights", and a step backwards from a messy "MMORPG". But it's
still online! :p
KC_2 says: "Online CRPG's". Well... that covers MANY levels of the Genre. You've got your MMORPG's, your Neverwinter Nights types, your Diablo types, your Single player types that allow 4-5 buddies to adventure with you. As it stands, I agree that MMORPG's will probably never work in their "Current" state. Slicing 'em up a bit is a great solution, or at least I think so. Bottom line, though... there's still a lot of work to be done... but I think "Eventually", someone will "Get it right"!
Regards,
-- Taz
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