I bought Final Fantasy XI Online, it was fun at first, but soon I saw it for the useless level grind it was and got sick of the game. So, I asked myself, "How is this different from all the other FFs and RPGs out there?" The answer is obvious and everyone knows what it is: You are MUCH more involved in the story in single player RPGs than you are in MMOGs. Sure, there were missions in FFXI, but the story had to be adapted so that YOU were not the hero (plus the misssions were lame), you had to share the limelight with the thousands of other players on your server, making it less fun than you being the only one that could save the world, etc. So, this is the issue: how do we create MMORPGs on a more personal basis for EACH individual of the server world? One option would be to create perhaps 1000 story lines and allow 2000 people on one server, giving each person a random storyline and only 2 people get the same storyline, so most likely these people will never meet. This is *HIGHLY* impractical though. Creating 1000 story lines? Maybe if they were randomely created, but then they wouldn't have depth. Another option is to make it easier to allow the player themselves to create their own sotry within the game world, but it seems players hate to roleplay so it's very difficult as it is. Maybe if some device was implemented that allows players to make it easier to create their own story? This seems to be the largest and most impossible problem with MMOGs, there's just no way to stand out and be a part of a huge story with so many other players doing the same. [edited by - Valkyr on April 17, 2004 12:11:02 PM]

I had an idea about how to do this a while ago, while I was thinking about what a mmo adventure game might be like - Player Relative Game Time.

This means a game world where time is not objective (based on the world), but is relative to the player - each player starts at game time zero, although they can still interact and socialize with players that have made it farther through the plot. The idea is to have every player personally involved in solving puzzles in the game world and advancing the plot, not just the few highest-level fighters and quickest most obsessive questers. And the new plot would, like in a single-player adventure game, become available at whatever speed the player persued it, not whenever the world ops decided to release some more.

Relatedly, I think that it''s important not to let players interfere with each other too much - I played one MMORPG where it was absolutely impossible to buy any good items from the official shops because there were way too many people trying to buy them, all the time, and the inflation in the game was also crazy because of people reselling all these items. Along wit shops, I think NPCs (at least some of them) should be designed to give the illusion of personal interaction with each player, and the state of that NPCs relationship with the player should not be affected by what any other player does with/to that NPC.

And finally I think that MMORPGs intended for a teen to adult audience should try to create opportunities for romance, both between a player and an NPC, and between two players. I have spent a good deal of thought figuring out what types of NPC interaction and dialogue and what types of in-game soialization structures would encourage this.

Perfect. A massively multiplayer game that you play solo, don''t interact with the other players except when absolutely necessary, and have sex with NPCs.

Well, that is a quite interesting theory, but I still think it is neccessary to give each player his or her own plot OR allow each to player to easily create themselves a plot.

Perhaps, each player can be "born" to a different class of life radnomly. For example, while the lucky few randomly picked players are among the class of royalty and live in huge palaces, some would be born to middle and lower classes, and then each player imposed with a dramatic obstacle or event in their life (their mother is killed by some evil dude who becomes their arch-enemy) or, better yet, their village is burned to the ground by a dragon and they seek vengeance.

I had mentioned this once before. But perhaps, rather than having a class system to dictate the future experience of the player, how about defining the class system as the past of the player.

For instance, whats the difference between the Mage Apprentice and the Sage class? A whole lot of power right? But how about age-related disabilities? How about starting your characters in the more advanced classes automatically install permanent disabilities and side effects. Players who just want to be the badass can go stright to their favorite class, and players who want the ful experience can go to the weakest classes and set out to make themselves better.

I think you kinda missed my meaning of 'class' in my post above. I meant class as in 'social class'--the type of family you were born to and your past history (as you mentioned) to give you a goal and history to encourage role playing. There can also be DMs (dungeon masters) who reward role playing (like in some of the best player-made modules of Neverwinter Nights) and also help the players along on quest by possessing NPCs.

Also, there could be one huige story lien for the world all players could be involved in, plus each player gets a randomized (but deep and meaningful) background to give him his own purpose and goals, like the examples I mentioned above.

This is all to make it seem to you like you are the main character in the MMOG when in reality, everyone is and you still get to have the online experience and ever evolving world instead of one single-player campaign.

Edit:
As an overal statemeant, MMORPGs are now becoming a mainstream form of entertainment, but in their current state, they are far to shallow to give you that good feeling of an RPG. Some device or another has to implemented in an MMORPG to allow all players of that game to ahve an individual story and to appear to themselves... as well, the center of the world (this may sound egotistical, but that is how it is in a traditional RPG--you are trying to save the world and whatnot).

But maybe not the CENTER of the world, but you have your own deep story and background which may include but is not limited to causing you to seek vengeance upon an evil villain that has ruined your life. Stuff like that.



[edited by - valkyr on April 17, 2004 1:41:45 PM]

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Original post by Instruo
Perfect. A massively multiplayer game that you play solo, don''t interact with the other players except when absolutely necessary, and have sex with NPCs.

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o_O; I''m not saying you should interact with other players only when necessary - I''m saying opportunities for socialization should be abundant but socialization should never be mandatory. So an extroverted player could spend all their time chatting at the pub, and an introverted player could be a hermit and play with the game world rather than other people. I don''t see anything wrong with romancing or yes even having sex with npcs, but note that I suggested there should be opportunities to do this with other players too. MMORPGs are about simulating a society; love and sex are a huge part of our real life society, yet somehow people always leave them out of mmorpg designs.

quote:

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Original post by Inmate2993
I had mentioned this once before. But perhaps, rather than having a class system to dictate the future experience of the player, how about defining the class system as the past of the player.

For instance, whats the difference between the Mage Apprentice and the Sage class? A whole lot of power right? But how about age-related disabilities? How about starting your characters in the more advanced classes automatically install permanent disabilities and side effects. Players who just want to be the badass can go stright to their favorite class, and players who want the full experience can go to the weakest classes and set out to make themselves better.

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IMO if your goal is to make the mmorpg experience seem personal to your players, the best way to implement classes would be, instead of letting the player choose a class in the character creation phase, award the character award the character classes/titles/specialized skills during the course of the game in response to what the player spends their time doing in the game.

Everyone is misundertanding. I''m talking about the story, read my posts above, please.

quote:

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Original post by valkyr
Everyone is misundertanding. I''m talking about the story, read my posts above, please.

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I understood you, I was just replying to Inmate 2993, and to the last two MMORPG projects I considered joining where the designers were locked into the D&D character class mindset which I hate and am really frustrated with as a standard component of mmorpg design.