We’ve long held that the problem with most MMOGs is that they don’t offer up enough of a developed sandbox to capture the imaginations of a broader gaming audience who may not want a mere hack’n slash adventure. In other words, casual pursuits like thorough, in-depth crafting systems in lieu of adventuring were not concepts that most developers considered. So too, the idea of a robust roleplaying system for those who did not want to simply go out and kill things.

As it turns out, Blizzard managed to simplify even hack’n slash, by pushing the high of a constant item reward system, combined with a simplified skill-rotation algorithm, making World of Warcraft (WoW) appeal to the largest possible audience. To many, this is interpreted as WoW catering to the lowest-common-denominator. In this respect, focusing on more complex non-crafting pursuits was hardly necessary.

Syncaine suggests that MMOGs different from WoW (e.g. EVE, Darkfall) will never be able to attract the large player-base that WoW boasts, simply because the elements that would foster that attraction are the very same elements that would detract from these games being “true” virtual worlds. (For the purpose of this post, we think it’s a fair assessment to suggest that games with more sandbox-like qualities are a “truer” representation of an ideal virtual world, and so we’ll follow Syncaine’s lead here, even though WoW is a “virtual world” in a more abstract sense, too.)

Gamers at large want their avatars on a fairly level treadmill; too much of an incline for progression, and players will get frustrated and quit. But games like Darkfall and EVE are all about frustration because a big factor in their success is player-driven events. Only by avoiding the things about these games that make them popular among the niche audience can you avoid as much frustration as possible.

So maybe the issue is PvP, here: maybe sandbox MMOGs reliant on PvP cannot attract the type of audience WoW has, because progression is in great part limited by what other players let you do, and what they let you get away with. We can look at a game like Minecraft, for example, and say that yes, a robust, non-combat MMOG has the potential to obtain a pretty large audience, even one rivaling that of WoW.

But this presents another challenge: balancing combat vs non-combat professions. If we try to capture the elements that make games like Minecraft and, say, Farmville popular, then how do we balance that against the combat elements that other MMO gamers desire? In effect, developers will be building two games in one, and adding a strong degree of synchronicity such that interactions between the two remain meaningful for all involved, and no “true path” exists for the average player (i.e. investing one’s time exclusively in either path will not provide the majority of game benefits).

We can look at one aspect of this argument by analyzing MMOG crafting, which in most games is a part-time endeavor to be done alongside the chief objective, combat. Yet to capture a larger audience, say, including people who desire to chiefly craft, then perhaps there needs to be a cut-off point in which part-time crafting ceases to make sense, and to become a great crafter, a large skill and/or time investment becomes mandatory. In other words, if you want to “max-out” a crafting profession, then you can’t max-out a combat profession, and artisan crafters will require players who spend most of their game-time on crafting, rather than on combat (like traditional MMO gamers).

But what we now have is a deeper game with more paths for players to take, but it doesn’t alleviate the issue of combat itself, in which “hardcore” players want combat more akin to EVE and Darkfall, but more casual gamers want something like WoW. In a sense, we’re back at the PvE vs PvP argument.

Games like Warhammer Online have attempted a PvE/PvP experiment to surpass that in WoW, to questionable success. Mythic had the idea right, but perhaps the implementation is where the problem is. Returning to our initial issue, rather than offering a PvE game game like WoW and focusing on simplifying and expediting progress, nor focusing purely on the niche sandbox PvPers, what if we had a game with multiple paths for players to take, some dependent on PvE, and others on PvP, each with different “max” outcomes? Some characters would be PvP soldiers aiding their kingdom in Darkfall-esque battles, while others would focus primarily on collecting resources in PvE scenarios, which they could then provide crafters who made the majority of goods that all characters needed for their respective professions.

In this example, players could choose which role they fulfill in the game, but no role would ultimately be more important than any other, and while those who enjoy combat would be in it for the glory, other players may be in it for the cold, hard cash. Either way, end-game items would be obtainable by everyone, as their acquisition would primarily be a cash affair, as they’d be crafted items.

Syncaine may be half-right in his assertion. Developers should be creating the best-possible niche MMOGs, but if they have the resources and come upon a formula for developing true professional tiers in an MMOG that offer more than just combat, then by all means, go with it and see if you can capture an audience that may one day rival that of WoW.

But in the meantime, we’d be happy with a more accessible niche title, too.

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We got rid of our World of Darkness (WoD) books a couple years ago; we stopped playing games in the WoD setting years before, and while we held onto our WoD library for sentimental reasons, the success of the revised (new) WoD pretty much made our library deprecated anyway. So when more and more rumours of a WoD-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) hit the blogosphere, we assumed (though hoped otherwise) that the game would be based on the new WoD setting. It wasn’t until we read developer Justin Achilli’s notes about what players wanted to see in the game that we were surprised; the WoD MMOG will be based on Vampire: the Masquerade (V:tM), which is a component of the old WoD (oWoD), rather on the new WoD’s Vampire: the Requiem setting.

At first thought, we’re disappointed that other WoD campaigns won’t be featured as player characters, but the scope of implementing that kind of game is extreme: just getting the scope for V:tM is more than enough for a developer to deal with. And it’s not like the game can’t feature werewolves, mages, wraiths, and changelings later.

Let’s focus a moment on what some players want, and that’s to capture the setting accurately. The one thing that would utterly ruin a V:tM-based game is if the server population were made up entirely of Kindred (vampires). In the oWoD, Kindred hide from humans for obvious reasons, despite manipulating them from behind the shadows. And there’s no reason this can’t be emulated online.

Visiting cities, and fealty to the Prince.

Let’s assume that every server represents a city and its surroundings. Going beyond that, you’d enter a different city, and thus connect to a different server. But straying away from your city should be risky, or at least not be obstacle-free. However the game decides it, be it via a particular system, developer-run characters, or simply sorted out by the players themselves, each city has a Prince, who rules the city and keeps tabs on all its supernatural denizens. When a player leaves their home city, they should feel like they’re in foreign territory; in the oWoD, Kindred laws require visitors to check in with their destination’s Prince, else are trespassing. An easy mechanic to handle this would be to require every Kindred character to check in with the Prince or his counsel. Only then will he be flagged as a guest (safe), and able to go about his business normally, whether that’s meeting with other characters or simply grinding through quests. If the visiting Kindred fails to check in, however, or his request to visit is denied, he is flagged as a trespasser, and everyone in the city is free to hunt him.

This does two things: one, it keeps Kindred populations down in most cities, and two, it introduces a controlled PvP atmosphere to the game, especially when you have to consider the masquerade.

Using minions, and not getting caught.

In the oWoD, Kindred don’t walk around in the sun because they’d burn. And they don’t walk around using their powers around regular people because they’d eventually get caught and… burn. The masquerade is basically the Kindred’s philosophy of fitting in: acting like a human around most people. If they don’t, they’re not only likely to be noticed by Hunters (humans who seek out and destroy the supernatural), but by other supernaturals as well.

So, we have a pretty contained system here: if the WoD MMOG has a day/night cycle, it means that free movement outside is impossible. Yes, Kindred can move around freely indoors, and maybe even get around the city via a subway, tunnels, et al. But either way, they’re limited in what they can do by day. So, limit players by how many Vampire characters they can play, but let them play several humans over time, maybe by letting them unlock human character slots as they progress through the game. These human characters would serve several purposes: ghouls, blood dolls, retainers, etc. Basically, characters that serve some purpose to the Kindred character, by supplying them with sustenance, or running daytime errands. And during the day, this can be useful; there’s no reason that these minions can’t grind quests on behalf of the Kindred character during the day, or, really, be the only ones who can do most daytime quests.

At night, when Kindred characters can roam city streets freely, there’s still the issue of the masquerade, and CCP merely needs to populate the streets, bars, clubs, et al with human non-player-characters (NPCs). Most such NPCs don’t need to be sophisticated: they’d walk around, dance, and do other banal activities. And if a Kindred character does something clearly supernatural around them, be it throwing a small car or turning into mist, then there should be repercussions. One, from other player characters in the vicinity (by immediately flagging the offending character), else by other NPCs in a Grand Theft Auto-style chase. This doesn’t have to be by lowly police officers who are called on scene, but by more supernatural peace-keepers: werewolves and mages, who themselves don’t want people stumbling upon the supernatural, and especially hate vampires.

These measures, too, will keep Kindred characters from becoming too comfortable out and about, making the WoD MMORPG a more elegant affair than the traditional hack’n slash MMORPG; Kindred characters need to be subtle around human characters, utilizing their minions effectively, and utilizing their powers only when desperately needed.

More EVE and less Warcraft.

Will CCP push elements of the irregular MMOG play-style associated with EVE, rather than focusing on “traditional” MMORPG elements embraced by games like World of Warcraft? We hope so, but in the end, it will likely be a blend of the two. Yet, a WoD MMOG has a lot of potential to break the mold, assuming it’s development team is willing to take the time to truly study the source material and understand what makes it different from typical hack’n slash roleplaying games. The end result probably won’t be a game that caters to the World of Warcraft crowd, but then again, neither is EVE, and only a fool would consider that to be unsuccessful.

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When we suggest that someone consider an iPad for basic home computing, we often still hear, “Why would I get an iPad instead of a laptop?” And this is followed with our typical explanation that 99% of what people need a computer for is a word processor and a web browser, and that because of how iOS is implemented, there’s no need to concern oneself with potential driver issues, viruses, and other problems typically associated with “traditional” computers. Never mind that the iPad is more portable, has a better battery life, and is snappier than the competition. (And in this space, there’s no real competition from other tablet computers anyway.)

But there’s always still push-back. Every once in awhile, someone has a specific application or game in mind that they want a laptop for, which makes the iPad a no-go. And we can’t fault them too much for spending an extra $500 to play EVE Online, because to be fair, we purchased a 17″ MacBook Pro for the sole purpose of playing World of Warcraft back when our last PC’s video card shit the bed. So we know all about ridiculous gaming addictions.

But for the rest of you, pay attention and wake up, because you’re late-comers at this point. Per Best Buy’s CEO, the iPad is now “cannibalizing” 50% of laptop sales. And with so few iPad’s on the second-hand market, it looks like most people are happy with their decision.

Maybe Best Buy isn’t indicative of the whole industry, but we bet that for the common man, it’s a pretty good sign of what’s coming: more digital media sales, more developers moving to iOS as a platform, and in turn, less people able to point to that one killer app to justify a laptop purchase.

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Scott Jennings makes a great point about why Darkfall won’t make it in the end:

…people enjoy hardcore PvP in the abstract. Or, to put another way, many more people believe they are ‘hardc0re’ then actually are. And they dislike being proved wrong pretty powerfully… The Mordred problem is simply that a great majority of the people who believe they are hardcore are not, and after being violently disabused of the notion, will leave.

Many people want PvP, and we’ve even stated in the past how it’s the PvP element that can make many MMOGs not get stale when characters reach the end-game. However, the industry still hasn’t gotten it perfectly right. World of Warcraft (WoW) ignores PvP for the most part, relegating it to a novelty or distraction from the “true” end-game: raiding. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR) makes PvE just another way to get to the PvP end-game, but in WAR’s implementation, PvP can quickly get old, in that the end-game is effectively and truly the end of the game as far as new experiences are concerned.

Only EVE arguably has PvP done right, as it strikes a fair balance between true, impact PvP (“the hardcore”) and a casual advancement game. Still, if Ultima Online (UO) managed to achieve success in its day, can we realistically argue that its success was based purely on the fact that there weren’t any other graphical MMOGs to attract gamers? Or was there actually something other than time investment that kept players of UO from immediately jumping ship to Meridian 59 or Everquest? More than likely, there’s a powerful, but niche market for real impact PvP, so even if Darkfall’s numbers drop significantly after a few months, it’s likely that subscriptions will level out and slowly begin to climb again.

Certainly, a game like Darkfall won’t become a viable threat to WoW’s market share, but we don’t think anyone’s claiming otherwise. Some gamers, particularly legacy MMOG players who were introduced to the genre with UO, will adore games like Darkfall. The important take-away, though, is whether there are enough “hardcore” gamers to make Darkfall’s development pay off monetarily, and that’s not something we’ll know for another year or so.

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Our take on EVE Online has fluctuated worse than a woman’s pregnancy mood. Let us summarize:

When we were first exposed to EVE through a friend, we didn’t think much of it. Giving it some more thought, however, we loved the idea of a graphical Trade Wars MMO. EVE even brought back memories of what we hoped Starshield could turn into (sans the quantum weather bit), and by the time our fascination with World of Warcraft (WoW) was coming into steep decline, EVE jumped back on our radar as the game to play. Then we actually played EVE, and after our trial period ended, we left EVE behind with great regret that the interface was clumsy, and that the game’s complexity brought about a learning curve simply too steep for us to want to climb.

Somehow, literally years later, EVE came back on our radar thanks in part to the hijinks of GoonSwarm. The recent incident we speak of, talked about in blogs aplenty, faithfully describes the scenarios prevalent in EVE’s online world. The incident in question can be found described much better elsewhere, but in short, the GoonSwarm alliance used key social engineering to topple a rival alliance, effectively altering the very political topography of a rather massive area of space.

This is where EVE differs from other MMOGs: corporations (guilds) actually matter, and alliances between corporations are even more meaningful. Since EVE includes a very significant portion of space that is PvP-friendly, the capability to hold areas of that space is as game-defining as land-grabs are defining in the real world. This is why mankind has fought over land for millenia: wealth.

Imagine if WoW guilds were able to control zones, preventing other players from entering without a healthy battle. Now imagine if the most powerful guilds managed to control certain zones exclusively, to the point where they’ve held onto them for years. To bring things even further into perspective, imagine if the control of these zones allowed this guild to monopolize a raid dungeon and get awesome gear from it for years. Now imagine that a rival guild, using connivery, managed to disassemble the guild from within. Sure, WoW has routine guild drama with guild leaders pulling a fast /gquit, but we’re talking about something far more earth-shattering. When this made-up guild finally dissolves, imagine that all its assets, from the guild bank and elsewhere, is now up-for-grabs by outsiders, if not destroyed outright. It’s almost like losing years worth of epic gear overnight.

EVE further differentiates itself from other MMOGs in its no-holds-barred attitude towards player interactions. In EVE, swindling, guile, and espionage are all valid tactics, whereas these subjects are matters of contention, or even reasons for banning, in other MMOGs. It’s because of these gameplay aspects, in addition to EVE’s sandbox-style gameplay, that has made EVE an ever-growing title with a new retail box hitting store shelves next month (the game was almost exclusively sold online since its release years ago). Alongside the retail box release comes a “new player experience”, which is aimed at scaling down the learning curve for new players by giving them more tutorials and not throwing them from the nest the moment a character is created. And, all this comes alongside EVE’s latest expansion (there are two per year, and are free to subscribers).

While some of our friends are returning to WoW after a hiatus, we instead gave EVE a second look, and figured that the new player experience could be the deciding factor in bringing us back to an MMOG. Why EVE? Aside from our love of piracy, espionage, and an economics system that makes transactions in other MMOGs look like something from a 1980s-style MUD, EVE also happens to offer casual gameplay despite its PvP leanings. On top of that, EVE isn’t “twitch”-based like other PvP titles, offering a formula for success that no other MMOG has yet offered. And, it has OS X and Linux clients, which makes those of who have abandoned the Windows platform quite happy.

When all is said and done, EVE is still a grizzly of a game whose complexity makes us a bit scared, since we’re theorycrafters at heart. How to juggle the game’s complexity with a desire to stay casually vested in a game that includes veterans with years of experience among its player-base? Well, we haven’t entirely figured that out yet, but that’s why we’re making an effort at cataloguing our trek back into EVE Online. We won’t say that we’ll definitely stick with EVE this time around (heck, we even almost quite just three days after subscribing), but we’re determined to give the game a go until after we’ve explored the new player experience. And, in the meantime, we’ll have a chance to train some of the game’s skills, which can only help us down the road, right? So, stay tuned to our future EVE musings.

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