tldr: see next post for invitation to brainstorm fun MMO settings; this post is a big long introduction.

Today my friend and I were discussing the topic that we needed a new game we could play together. I said I wanted to start a new MMO, but the last one I tried, Guild Wars, I couldn't get immersed in it because it didn't seem to have much of any story or unique worldbuilding; I didn't get any sense of who my character was in their society, or what my motivation for roleplaying was supposed to be. My friend said he had felt the same way when he tried to play Perfect World - just couldn't invest himself in the game because it didn't grip him. I thought this was interesting because I played Perfect World for 2 or 3 months, so it must have gripped me fairly well until the point where I stopped playing. I thought the Chinese Fantasy feeling was interesting, although it has that unfortunately common over-the-top theme of a world under siege by a dark supernatural army. One of my major motivations in playing PW was to obtain one of the cool mounts that as a noob I saw high level players using in town; also a major motivation for me when I played WoW. Beyond that, I thought the class identities were interesting, and I found some identity in being a crafter, but I agreed that PW didn't have particularly good worldbuilding.

Then we discussed Dofus which we had both played for several months - that game is weird because it doesn't really have quests, aside from the tutorial content, much of which was added a long time after the game was created. It does however have a strong humorous character to the world. This character is developed through the description of the classes in the character creation interface, through the goofy flavor text on many items, through the dialogue of NPCs, and through the game's art. An individual character's role in society is developed through their class's personality, their profession choices, their choice in how to build the character by spending stat and skill points (most classes had 2-3 viable builds), and the visible wings indicating one's faction alignment and rank. But overall, the world's theme could have been much better developed, and we would have enjoyed having a lot more story and quests. Myst Uru is another example of a game which manages to be very atmospheric despite having basically no story and quests. A Tale in the Desert almost qualifies here, but it's just so sandboxy and procedurally generated that the locations in the game don't communicate anything; only the appearances of items in the game and the gameplay activities themselves (growing flax, making bricks) really develop the Egyptian atmosphere.

Inevitable the conversation turned to WoW. My friend and I agreed that physical locations in the game were evocative and memorable, and the level 1-20 story/quest content for almost all the races was excellent, but above that level it got rapidly worse; quite similar to the pattern seen in Dofus and Perfect World. Also another MMO I played, MapleStory.

I also tried Flyff, BrightShadow, Mixmaster, TwoMoons, etc. and I would group these all with Guild wars in having little or no worldbuilding.

Conclusion: rather than studying an existing MMO's presentation of story from level 1-max and trying to emulate that, only a few games have any worth studying and it's almost all in the lowest levels of the game. When trying to emulate it, a much better effect could be achieved by modeling one's own level 20-40 and 40-60 content after the 1-20 content of another game, than by modeling it after that game's poorer higher level content. Also, a game world can be communicated to players not just through NPC dialogue and quests, but also through item flavor text, the character creation process, character class/profession/faction development within the game, and the game's visuals.

[Edited by - sunandshadow on November 26, 2010 3:48:40 PM]

So, how do we actually go about coming up with a good idea for an MMO world? Well, MMO gameplay puts a few constraints on us:

1. You probably want a reason for there to be monster everywhere which the player can and should kill. Ideally these monsters are also of a type which can be captured and used as pets or mounts. This alone is probably the reason most MMOs are fantasy or fantasy mixed with something else. (A secondary reason being that magical combat has more breadth and is more visually flashy than realistic combat.) It's very difficult to come up with a pure science fiction or modern realistic setting where it's reasonable for lots of monsters to exist and morally acceptable for the player to be slaughtering them.

1.5 As a corollary, you probably need some wilderness areas for these monsters to live, and also some forgotten ruins for players to explore; you also want some hubs of civilization where players can do business with each other, get organized for pvp or dungeon runs, and which is a safe place for players to log out (and maybe even consider their 'hometown' within the game). This set up of a wilderness dotted with a few cities naturally lends itself to a frontier, feudal, or survivalist mentality, and isn't well suited to a highly organized government, pacifistic philosophy, or other sophisticated and urbane type of culture.

2. You probably want to have a selection of races, classes, professions, or factions that the player can choose to align themselves with and work to gain higher rank at. That means you have to invent the options, balance them against each other if the player can't pursue them all with the same character, and then the options have to make sense existing in the same culture/time period/location.

3. The theme of the world can be a strong selling point. In Dofus the theme is the Dofu, a magical artifact which can only be found by beating a higher-level dungeon. Each gives a large stat bonus or can be sold for a lot of money, so they are good treasures. One of the beginner quests gives the player a fake Dofu, which gives a tiny stat bonus, and gets the player interested in finding the real things. In Perfect World the theme is the Dragon Quest. The Dragons are mythic level bosses, somewhat comparable to the Weapons in Final Fantasy 7; as a lower level player you can't interact with them, but you run around to various NPCs collecting legends about them. Other hypothetical themes might be discovering every area on the map, collecting all of a large set of objects, discovering why and how your character got pulled into the game world in the first place, discovering what happened in the world's past to cause a current post-apocalyptic state, discovering the mysterious culture/race which left a lot of ruins, discovering who is the final boss behind a lot of problems, or achieving some sort of apotheosis or transcendence (character becomes god-like or is reincarnated as a class or race not available to starting players).



So, what worldbuilding ideas do you all have that you think would make for a fun MMO?

[Edited by - sunandshadow on November 26, 2010 3:14:22 PM]

Here are some of my own thoughts, just because I think it would be fun to discuss them.

I like a survivalist mindset - I'm a fan of marooning stories, McGuyver problem solving, gathering and crafting, sim farming, sim animal breeding, etc. So one type of MMO world I think would be fun would be the kind which sets the player's initial overarching goal (the one required to graduate from the beginner tutorial area) to be a goal of climbing a crafting tech tree a bit. I believe allowing the player to craft some of the basic gameplay elements which will be used throughout the rest of the game would help make those elements feel personal and something to be proud of instead of something to take for granted. These basic gameplay elements might include a backpack or other storage devices, a world map, some kind of transportation device like a teleportation stone, the most basic level of player housing, a first weapon, tools used for further crafting, etc. I would not include a first mount here because that's a major reward the player should not be able to achieve immediately.

But, I don't want to just maroon new players in the wilderness by themselves. Getting a bit of mentoring from higher-level players is really helpful to people beginning an MMO, and many people play MMOs for the feeling of community and might be a bit unhappy to join and not see any other players. Seeing the cool stuff higher level players have equipped, as well as things like earned emotes that higher level players can do, are major motivators for lower and mid-level players. For these reasons is it best not to prevent beginners and non-beginners from talking to each other, as many games do. Pvp might be impossible in the beginner area, and beginners shouldn't be able to leave the beginner area until they've mastered it (also level one bots should not be able to leave the beginner area and spam the rest of the game).

On the other hand, there should be some logical reason why new players appear in the beginner area, and why they have to work their way up from sticks and stones if the rest of the world contains much more sophisticated technology. One possibility is that the beginner area is a test imposed by a powerful organization or unknown force, which for some reason doesn't want people with no strength or skills in their world. The easiest interpretation of this is a school, where benevolent adults won't let incapable children out into a dangerous world until they acquire some survival skills. The opposite is also possible - the player might be trying to enter an exclusive school by passing a difficult entrance exam. Another possibility is that the starting area is a cage where players are intended to be trapped, and have to break out. Another possibility is that the player has literally been marooned somewhere uninhabited and needs to build themselves a means to get back to civilization, but the player happens to have a device which allows voice communication with more populated areas. Yet another approach is to place the player as a young adult in a tribe where the whole culture is at the survival level but other cultures elsewhere are more advanced.

We might, in fact, want to implement different starting circumstances for different races. We could consult the "suits of cards" theory about the personalities of RPG player (or a similar theory) and design one race's starting circumstances to appeal to each type of player. Perhaps the survival start might be aimed at players who like crafting, while a more combat-focused start might be aimed at players who don't like crafting.
[post in progress]

I’m not MMO player but I like the survivalist start up idea. One of the interesting setups for a game I’ve played recently was Harvest moon Island of happiness which has the player and a few other characters marooned on an island. As the player develops their farm, build roads and bridges on the island, new areas are unlocked, the town develops and more characters start arriving on the island. It’s all a nice setup controls are rather poor and the crop mechanics overly complex this time around but the setup is good and interesting.

What I think would be a cool setting for MMO or SP game would be shattered earth setting, where the player and a couple of npc wake up in desolate ruined colony floating in astral space. After a quick tutorial the player gains access to their first set of gate cards/stones/devices the cards allow the player travel to different eras/dimensions similar to Chrono Trigger. In these different eras the player can collect relics and samples, gather materials, learn about the era, intact with the people, hunt monsters, and quest with their fellow players.

Those adventures through time then shape the player’s home dimension. New npc can come through to time expand the players colony. Relics unlock new activates and items available such as you collecting parts for a Victorian workshop you can craft and buy more Victorian and Victorian hybrid items in your home dimension. Bringing back plant and animal samples back allows you start growing and raising them back at home, helping turning the home dimension from desolate to a lush paradise.

Learning about an era would increase your culture points in that era allowing you unlock styles for your home. So the more time you spend in the prehistoric era the more you can transform your home colony into a Neolithic village. Or if you gain enough you Victorian and Modern culture points you can have your colony be a steam punk theme.

NPC would help out around your dimension crafting items, crowing planets, raising animals, and exploring the ruins, etc depending on the type.

As you play and your dimension can grow in size allowing more buildings, space for npcs, plants, animals etc..

Back story setup being that a cataclysm in the distant future has shattered the dimensional barriers fragment the earth into shards floating in astral space existing in timeless state between tick and tock. The survivors have been changed by the cataclysm there are now three groups of people. Avatars people who can traverse dimensions with a limited control of reality able to create their own bubble of reality out of the shards floating in astral space. The Hungry the warped souls of those who perished in the cataclysm now scattered across time driven insane and inhabiting twisted bodies. And The Lost displaced from time that help rebuild the earth as servants of the avatars.

I'm not sure how useful this might be, but I posted a series for last month on my blog about building fictional cultures from the ground up. I know 99% of all fantasy / sci fi games just exactly duplicate a pre-existing Earth culture as a back drop, throw in some speculative elements(magic / high technology) and focus on story events without bothering to do anything new or creative with it.

If anyone wants to check it out, it's the 4 part series from last month http://brianlinvillewriter.blogspot.com/

"1. You probably want a reason for there to be monster everywhere which the player can and should kill."


What if the MMO was designed to let the players advance and progress through activities other than killing mobs in this world?

I'm not a very big fan of the current MMO design since it has a forced "monsters everywhere" philosophy, It would be much more fun to have monsters be rarer and more scary (OMG itz a monster, run! *dies*)

Something really effective in MMO world building is giving the players an experience that can link them to this "supposedly living" world (Random events, constantly updated content, varying triggered events and very well hidden valuables).

Hmm, I guess this doesn't have much to do with writing, just throwing the idea out in the open ;p.

Quote: Original post by sneaky_squirrel
"1. You probably want a reason for there to be monster everywhere which the player can and should kill."


What if the MMO was designed to let the players advance and progress through activities other than killing mobs in this world?

I'm not a very big fan of the current MMO design since it has a forced "monsters everywhere" philosophy, It would be much more fun to have monsters be rarer and more scary (OMG itz a monster, run! *dies*)

Something really effective in MMO world building is giving the players an experience that can link them to this "supposedly living" world (Random events, constantly updated content, varying triggered events and very well hidden valuables).

Hmm, I guess this doesn't have much to do with writing, just throwing the idea out in the open ;p.

Well, it does somewhat have to do with writing. When I see the phrase "living world" what that means to me personally is that I want an MMO to feel like reading a novel. Not a random life, but one scripted to be dramatic and satisfying escapism. A player's experience within a game world can vary much be shaped by the writing within the game, so identifying what sort of experience you want your player to have leads naturally to the question of what you can write to cause them to have that experience.

Personally I do like killing monsters if there's some actual strategy involved, I see monster-killing as a profession the player has within the game world, but I can understand people who don't find that activity appealing.

Re:

Quote: So, what worldbuilding ideas do you all have that you think would make for a fun MMO?

It might also be interesting to discuss how to build a world that attracts people who don't normally play MMORPG.

Concept: Team-based MMORPG:

Title: Fantasy Road Trip

In this game, small groups of players would form a team and share a caravan. The purpose is to travel, sightsee, solve challenges and collect interesting things on the way. The caravan itself serves as a mobile home/inventory of the team and an reset point for the team members. The condition of the caravan could degrade overtime (i.e. if the wheel breaks the team must repair before the caravan can move).

Why is it fun:
o Shared resources
o Commitment to the same team
o Discussions that arise about where to go, what to get, and what to do.
o It is the safe way for the team members to understand risks and consequences
o It is the safe way to completely screw up and gets everyone killed without dying if it were a real trip.
o Singing (DDR style gameplay to move the Caravan)
o Anecdotal stories of how road trip goes bad (Reminds the players not to take cooperation for granted)
o Roadside Guestbooks
o ...

Target audience:
o Family members
o Friends
o Random strangers
o Solo'ers
(The game makes it really hard for a person to maintain a caravan by himself. A lot of the quests cannot be solo'ed. Some tasks would take exceedingly long, or become very challenging if attempted solo.)

Challenges:
o Hunting
o Treasure hunting
o Puzzle solving
o Solving a mystery
o Team-based Combat
o Breeding
o Crafting
o Caravan improvement/decoration
o ...

Variations to the "Caravan":
o Ship
o Flying creature
o Spaceship
o Submarine
o ...

Regions to explore:
o Harmonious Nature
o Dangerous Nature
o Creepy Nature
o Towns
o Harsh Nature: Surival Challenge Lands
o Zombie Land
o Warzone
o Cultural Zones
o Historical Zones
o Fantasy Zones
o Philosophy Zones
o Education Zones
o Mindbender / Puzzle Land
o Romantic Pockets
o ...

Interaction among teams:
o Tag along, cooperative, alliance
o Competition / Rivals / Race
o Enemy
o Random helpful strangers
o Sees others' teams and Caravans
o Exchange interesting places to explore, things to do, things to get
o Trading

[Edited by - Wai on December 12, 2010 6:34:37 PM]

I don't know yet whether it would make for a fun MMO, but what I have done is to make "monsters" part of the "tech tree" as "just another kind of unit that can be built and deployed".

This approach though means that whether there be monsters, and if so where there be monsters, is up to the controllers of the "civilisation" that chooses to build and deploy the type of unit(s) known generically as "monsters".

I am currently trying out "Imperial Warfare" to see an implementation of an attempt to have "armies" and "individual heroes" combined in one battle-resolution system, but whatever the implemention details the question of how large an army an individual character is or can be "equalivalent to" in the sense of "can do as much damage as and survive as deadly an attacker as" is going to be a key factor in the game.

There is a potential conflict of interest between people who want to in effect play an entire nation or civilisation and march large scale units around and those who want to play a single individual and yet possibly interfere in some way with the plans of those who are marching armies around. And vice versa.

But on the up side, it creates the possibility of doing one's worldbuilding inside the game, by using the terraforming capabilities of engineer units to mould the map and the ability to build monster units to populate the map. (Though on terraforming the specific engine I am looking at does not yet give engineers the ability to build rivers, hmm, something for a future version maybe...)

Quote: Original post by sneaky_squirrel
What if the MMO was designed to let the players advance and progress through activities other than killing mobs in this world?

AGREE! There's so much more we can be doing here than just killing mobs! If you have to really try hard to justify killing boars (i.e. an NPC needs to make a boar liver pie), then maybe it shouldn't be there? When considering the game world, there are settings that are better suited to greater things than mob killing...

1. A dozen or so miscelaneous areas, each with some unique theme (jungle, mountain, forest, desert) and unique mobs. If there is no real meaningful connection between them, or why they are important, then it's simply a collection of mob spawn points. "Quests" are just lame excuses to kill critters in these unrelated areas.

2. A dozen or so areas, each with political, economic, and military points of interest, with NPC forces interacting with the resources and each other. This creates a realistic setting with so much more that needs to be done than killing blind mobs. Make the mobs themselves have some sort of organization and reason for what they are doing.

So, here's an example setting that just begs for a better experience:

A newly founded excavation site on a new world... As the colonists dig deeper to exploit more valuable resources, they discover more about the world they have come to call home. Unfortunately, as the scope of the excavation expands, the surrounding settlements become the focus of attack from native populations. During this time of ever-growing tension, you have come to seek your prospects on the new world.

In this setting, perhaps exploration could be one alternate activity.

- Exploration skills, archaeology, mining, cartography.
- Reading of ancient languages, deciphering codes.
- Invention (blueprint-based) crafting.
- Negotiation missions, trying to problem solve to maintain relations with the natives.
- Exploration missions, either on the mainland, or deeper into the mines.
- Trade and Company opportunities, making money.

Trade would also have significant meaning. In fact, I'd even boil it down to this:

The more of an impact the player can have on the world, the more it will mean to him or her