To digress into the specifics of what you mentioned further;

If we're talking about MMO story content, I think that the one thing that needs to be cracked, and will push the genre forward massively, is individual stories. It's tedious when you create a character, and that character is exposed to the same events as everyone else's. For example - the staple beginning quests in most MMORPGs always seem to be "Go collect some assortment of items in a harmless part of town, so you can become familiar with the basics of the game's interface".

As a result of this, minutes later, you find yourself in the spot where your items can be found, with fifteen other novice players going through the same motions. It completely undermines the illusion of the game being your unique experience of the game world.

The word 'tedious' only applies when you have to repeat a set of quests every time you create a new character. Personally I think you're just looking at shared experience wrong. People enjoy watching the same movie at the same time with their friends, then discussing it during and after. People enjoy being in a book club where everyone reads the same novel and discusses it. If people playing an MMO aren't doing the same quests how can they meaningfully ask each other for help or discuss their experience of the game's story?

If people playing an MMO aren't doing the same quests how can they meaningfully ask each other for help or discuss their experience of the game's story?

I don't have another person's game in mind but in my own sandbox there would be several reasons to ask for help and for people to get together. One way is including puzzles that take several people to solve by disjointed moving parts, for example. Another is to make up for weaknesses. If you need someone who's an extremely well versed diplomat then that'd be another reason. Another possibility is the sidekick scenario where a couple friends travel together. Quest rewards (like loot and coin) can be shared however the group decides and in the end it's about people being social instead of being a glory whore. Also too in my game there aren't "xp rewards," per se. Skills are invested in rather some "character level" stat. Another reason is let's say a player in on a quest to take down an enemy stronghold that alone will take several people by nature of the task. Something like this is also its own reward as I'm also taking the "if you see it you can interact with it" approach so there's no telling what sort of goodies you could find there. The possibilities aren't limitless. You'll never have the scenario of "oh my god my friend just asked me to help on [Long tedious quest]. I've already done that dozens of time." If done right, I really think it's the superior way to go.

No rebuttals? Man, I was really hoping to hash through some stuff on this.

No rebuttals? Man, I was really hoping to hash through some stuff on this.

Oh, I figured my disagreement was already covered by the blanket statement "I resent MMO elements that force, pressure, or bribe me to play socially when I'd rather solo." Maybe I said that in a different thread, if so I apologize, I lost track. I like solving puzzles by myself. I've done group puzzles in Dofus and Maplestory and they are torture. One of the things I detested about Dofus was that you simply couldn't get certain monster drops unless you were in a group. Again in A Tale In the Desert one of the reasons I quit was that some resource gathering simply couldn't be done solo. The kinds of group play I like are the ones that are really casual - anyone can enter a battle or multiplayer minigame if the battle starter doesn't have it set to private (Dofus, Wizard 101) You can battle or play a solo minigame in a room with other players and look at what they are doing if they don't have their activities set to private, and your avatar may make appropriate emotes or thought bubbles, or the chat log may make appropriate auto-comments, to show others when you have good or bad luck. (Dofus, Gaia Online, Puzzle Pirates)


I'll talk about sandbox games if you want, though. I accidentally ended up playing a sandbox game this week (Viva Pinata, didn't know it was when I bought it) so now the reasons I don't like sandbox games are fresh in my mind.

[Rant against sandbox games] I hate being disoriented and clueless. No idea what I'm supposed to be doing next or there isn't anything I'm supposed to be doing, not even an array of goals of which I can choose one to aim for. No idea how difficult any goal will be to accomplish so I repeatedly end up stuck when I get to a requirement I haven't unlocked the ability to satisfy yet, and likely don't even know how to unlock it. When I do manage to accomplish something within the game there is little recognition of it, and it is unrelated to any story the game has and thus mostly meaningless. I have no idea what percentage of the game I've completed, and since the game has no ending it can't be satisfactorily completed. I never get as much gameplay out of a sandbox game as it seems like there is, and often am dissatisfied to find that I have stopped playing the game without experiencing all of its content, but I have no desire to play it more because I don't know what to do next and further play would be too repetitive with what I've already done. So overall I feel disoriented, inadequate, like what I'm doing is pointless, and like I have made a bad purchase during and after playing a sandbox game. [/Rant]