MMO CHAT: I'll probably buy and play that game even though it looks like dogshit

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > MMO CHAT: I'll probably buy and play that game even though it looks like dogshit

Wakko: Jun 9, 2002; Faboo!

a victory condition

when somebody wins, they get added to a leaderboard and the server resets

# ¿ Aug 20, 2018 20:16

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 06:19

Wakko: Jun 9, 2002; Faboo!

Bloodly posted:

Everyone thinks they want ultra realistic hardcore 'like real life' things where your survival isn't protected and you can rise to dizzy heights or fall just as far. Where things take forever to do and so this 'means something'. They think they want it hard for the sake of challenge.

There's a presumption that you'll be either on top, or watching and glorying in someone else's achievements from afar because hey, they did the work. Like they're actual celebrities.

They think they want 'another life'. I doubt this.

It's clear that there's a sizeable niche who do want something like this- see the proliferation of Arma 'Life' servers and GTA 5 roleplay. There is evidently a subset of gamers that want challenge and achievement in their gaming experience equivalent with significant real-life investment. But for better or worse, this market pales in comparison to the number of people who want to come home from a stressful day and not face anything resembling meaningful setback or failure in their leisure time.

If you're planning to make a game, looking at the relative market success of Fortnite vs. PUBG vs. Arma/Tarkov/etc. provides a good sense for where to focus on the spectrum of gaming adversity if you want to guarantee a return.

That said, it's completely possible to make a game with significant adversity that doesn't feel like an endless slog. If the core gameplay loop is fun, even achieving modest success in a play session can feel relaxing. The problem is MMOs are largely mired in design tropes harkening back to 1990s MUDs. Gameplay centered around pressing a button every few seconds to trigger an ability is boring as hell.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2018 21:07

Wakko: Jun 9, 2002; Faboo!

Zaphod42 posted:

I would figure this of all threads can appreciate how modern wow is so different in fundamental design from classic wow, and how not ALL of those changes are preferable to some.

Yeah wow was very much two games at release. The enduring popularity of classic shows that abandoning the part of the playerbase that wanted something closer to a living world than a themepark has left a wide niche open for new entrants.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2019 21:46

Wakko: Jun 9, 2002; Faboo!

Chomp8645 posted:

imo the most critical aspect of old MMOs is the also the one that cannot be reproduced: the mystery.

You can revert as many mechanics as you want. You can remove group finder and all that poo poo and to force social interaction. But you cannot bring back the mystery. You cannot get rid of the wikis, or the data mining, or the helper mods, or everyone having excellent and convenient voice communication.

That's the secret of the old MMOs, and it's all poo poo that isn't actually part of the game itself. It's like with Magic cards. You could never recreate the experience of the old days, with people trading cards back and forth and researching sets. Because it doesn't matter what you print on the cards, you aren't getting rid of the internet.

You can never bring back the near-total lack of knowledge that the early internet conferred, but there's still a lot that can be done to bring back mystery. Even though every Rust server runs the same game, the rules can be wildly different, and any two servers can have wildly different terrain. Even though the procedural generation in No Man's Sky has it's limits, you can get through a good number of hours never seeing the same alien twice.

The path to reintroducing mystery in MMOs relies on these two key pillars, procedural generation and player agency. They're super hard to do at all, and even harder to do well, so I don't expect it to happen anytime soon, but as the outside world becomes increasingly terrible, the market for a virtual world is only going to grow!

# ¿ Aug 29, 2019 23:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > MMO CHAT: I'll probably buy and play that game even though it looks like dogshit