Guest Post: The death of in-game interaction
by Dean Poisso 
Aug 22nd 2010 at 2:00PM
WoW's evolution has changed the course of both MMO game design and the landscape of the MMO player base in dramatic ways. By exploring the road most traveled, WoW has led the way from the roots of tabletop pen-and-paper RPGs and early MMO tabletop simulations into MMOs as virtual RPG themeparks.
Despite WoW's fantastic success on many fronts, in its evolution toward catering to the most common, casual style of play, it's removed much of the human interaction that made early MMO experiences special. Today's WoW is slick, seamless and streamlined. There is nothing one player can achieve that another player cannot also relatively easily achieve. Yet while players in today's WoW maintain that this thinly clad, egalitarian experience is "best," in reality, what we see is a continuous striving for distinction free from the confines of the game design itself. The ever-present GearScore sniff test has streamlined the need for player interaction to the point that interaction is barely needed at all.
In fact, it might be this very streamlining that has caused this MMO behemoth to slide away from the real magic of the early MMOs, to become a sanitized gaming experience that only barely acknowledges its need for virtual face-to-face gameplay. I miss the real interaction with my fellow players that speaks to the oldest traditions of what spawned MMOs: tabletop RPGs. I want player interactions to drive the game experience, from raiding to crafting to questing. The biggest villains and heroes of an MMO should be players, not pre-scripted heroes and playerless cut scenes. The next big MMO, I hope, can make this happen.
Player skill interactions
A class- and skill-driven economy One of the things I miss in an MMO is the face-to-face sale of class-specific skills and buffs. It's a level of interaction that fosters community.
Deep crafting While having raiding instances drop the latest and greatest items (as justly they should) is fun, making your own items should be equally rewarding. While I wouldn't remove epix purple dropz entirely, keeping epics truly rare makes them special. A deeper crafting experience would be fostered by rare and dangerous spawn locations. Why can't there be more significant seasonal crafting materials available only during certain times of the calendar cycle? Why can't skilled player services carry equal or greater importance than those of mere NPCs? Why can't players form crafting guilds with factions and intrigues of their own?
Dynamic guild content: Meta-factions
Players: a vital game resource Again, players and player guilds should serve vital functions for the game itself. Meta-guilds in major social hubs (for example, a thieves guild, a mage guild, a blacksmithing guild) provide a framework for faction-specific services and rewards, driven by players and player guilds. A player guild might be associated directly with any of these meta-guild factions, with suitable responsibilities, internal requirements and commensurate rewards. Solo players could participate as individuals. The game developers could control meta-guild relationships within certain parameters: PvE- and PvP-oriented quests, in-game directives, faction-ranked responsibilities for specific players ... (Guild war between the thieves guild and the guild of mages, anyone?) This would allow guild leveling and player factioning to be driven by the players, for the players. Guided by the game developers, this system can generate nearly endless content and offer something that has never been handled well in MMOs: intrigue.
Taking faction deeper with PvP Players become involved in PvP not only by something as simple as flagging for combat but through choices such as which faction they will ally with. It is possible to be a casual adventurer -- but this decision also means opting out of the skullduggery and intrigues some factions might require. (Choose your friends wisely.)
Player-created cities Player-generated, self-sustaining content breathes life into MMO cities. Allowing players to create their own cities tied into the player meta-guild system loosely described above could provide another source of near-limitless content. Players should be able to replicate much of the design content found in the game for their own uses. These areas should be pre-planned in the design of the MMO, and these regions could be instanced.
PvP/PvE interactivity Why must PvE and PvP be completely separate pursuits? I would love to see traditional WoW-style PvE instances that can spark a PvP event in which groups can queue to go head-to-head for better rewards, faction goals and greater experience.
Risk equals reward
Death and taxes Death is meaningless in WoW. Why not bring back that meaning? Make game death its own experience in some cases. Or bring back experience loss or some other meaningful consequence, so that players will strive to avoid death. Death should have gravitas.
Incarceration! As part of the faction system, players who run afoul of their meta-guilds or enemy factions might be placed in a prison instance with other player inmates. Create interactive content in prison. Jailbreaks! Pit-fights! Gambling! Quests -- PvP, PvE and faction-related content! Where are rogues from the guild of thieves supposed to go after getting busted? Perhaps there are rare crafting mats found only in certain prisons (or deep in the pockets of certain prisoners). Perhaps there are rare skills and knowledges that can only be learned from the scurrilous scum who've learned to make prison a lucrative business. Prison is a dire but sometimes rewarding place ... And yeah. There's more death.
Everything counts
Virtual life in Azeroth has become too institutionalized, favoring automated systems over player interaction. As a gaming nerd with a handful of dice and a pencil, I realize now that WoW (which ultimately attempts to simulate pen-and-paper RPGs) has possibly removed the very essence of the multiplayer experience. It's done many things fabulously well, but what I'd like to explore is the interaction between my fellow players within the context of the game. Every mundane activity should be be an opportunity for some sort of interactive experience.
Instead of interactions akin to chatting with the people in line at the next theme ride instance, the next MMO will rely on the human element to keep the possibilities dangerously unknown. I want my next MMO to make me gape in fear and wonder what's behind that door. I want my guildmates to pull my ass out of the fire at the last moment, not save the day by reminding me to stay out of the goo on the floor during phase two. I want to smell the whiff of danger at the entrance of that mineshaft yawning before me. I don't want to find myself yawning at that same mineshaft as I run past ... ever.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Bernie Roscoe Aug 22nd 2010 2:20PM
Seems legit!
zombiesaur Aug 22nd 2010 2:03PM
Maybe it's just me, but games that make you lose exp when you die made me rage into quitting.
Because I'd always get into terrible groups that'd make me lose exp with their fail.
I hope WoW never picks this up.
eyeball2452 Aug 22nd 2010 2:37PM
I totally agree. It sounds like the author wants to go back to EQ, which is basically where WoW started. A lot of the suggestions in the article would be a regression in the genre or are failed components from games like WAR and AoC.
I like the ease of use or quality of life additions that WoW has added. Basically, the more time I have to spend in game and not doing content is more time that I think about quitting and moving on to a new game. In terms of economics, if the searching cost is too high for any MMO feature, I'll go back to playing an RTS or FPS where I can just turn on my PC or console and begin playing the game within 5 minutes.
Searching for crafter or instance groups for 30-60 is a game breaking problem for an MMO and I'd hate to see the genre head back in that direction. Farming for resources and grinding rep is in the next tier of not game breaking, but not fun content that makes me consider quitting if I have to do it for too long.
Elmouth Aug 22nd 2010 2:39PM
-by MC
"I remember reading similar write-ups by other armchair designers ten years ago. It's really funny how some things never change.
Here's a question to ponder: if these suggestions are so wonderful, if they bring so much value, why haven't they been implemented in any modern MMORPG that actually matters?"
This, a thousand times.
I also personally like having less interaction with random people that I don't care about.
Bellows Aug 22nd 2010 2:51PM
I agree with all the reasons for not having a harsher death-penalty. However, I've long felt that there ought to be a 'hard-core' realm that gives players the opportunity to play that way. Just think about how cool it would be to actually have a level 80 character on a realm where death was severe (or even permanent!).
devilsei Aug 22nd 2010 3:42PM
Honestly? I don't mind experience loss in an MMO, as long as its fairly balanced. FF 11 is the WRONG way to handle it, die enough (and if you are soloing that will be the case from my experiences), and you'll even de-level, one thing no one likes, or should at least.
Hell, one of my favorite games is Demons Soul, and if you die in that, you have a chance to gain back your "exp" by finding your blood-stain/corpse. Die again though, and its lost forever.
Thats a fair way of dealing with it, providing a way to make up for the xp post-death. It wouldn't be as easy as returning to your body in your MMO obviously, but creating a "debt bar" that can be removed through either in-game currency, perhaps even a rare drop on the world-loot list (level specific too if you feel risky), or by adding in a slightly boosted xp gain for anything gained in the debt zone.
Utakata Aug 22nd 2010 4:33PM
I find the concept of "meaningful death" in games bizarre at best, needless at most. Since I really don't like my characters to die to begin with and try to avoid it with at all costs, I need no furhter "incentives" to make me "more careful."
Further more, meaningful death in form of xp loss (or what other cruel, demented and/or unusual ways the developers can come up with) is highly unfair to the new player...who only way to learn the games threw making mutliple mistakes. For example, WoW is my first RPG/MMO ever...and I thank the game that taught me with small consequences of dying multiple horrid daths with my Mage up till lv 19 that all other chracters/classes I have rolled expereince very little death or mistakes while leveling, dungeon crawling...even raiding to an extent. This has carried over to numerous other games. If this would would of been EQ or FF11 and their perverse death mechanics, I've would of packed my bags and never set foot in another MMO ever again. I suspect many other new players would to.
Bottom line: In the end, I doubt that any MMO would be successful and all encompassing today if WoW decided make death "meaningful" as the author suggested. Nor do I feel it is ever a great tool in learning the game. Rewarding players instead of punishing them is a better teacher and motivator IMO.
West Aug 22nd 2010 5:47PM
wow has two death costs:
1. the sometimes painful run back to your dirt-napping corpse
2. durability
also has option for a severe durability/stat cost in exchange for not having to run to the corpse.
having played just a *few* MMOs, the current costs are my preference.
Chamual Aug 22nd 2010 5:53PM
@eyeball2452
I don't think the article is yearning for failed features from AoC and War (those games failed, not nessacarily the features within them), but more of an MMO in the style of Ultima online and the original Starwars Galaxies before it went crazy. In those games you were playing with and against other people, the real enemies were controlled by players not the game designers. The best weapons and crafted items were as good as if not better than anything the NPCs could drop. The whole experience was not driven by running dungeons and quests, but by the other players. I think the only MMO at the moment that is like this is Eve.
One mistake in the article I think is that WoW is no longer an MMORPG based on the old pen and paper games. It has evolved into a multiplayer dungeon running and boss fighting game. The 'RPG' element has is greatly removed, the only role playing you do is whether you play the role of a tank, a healer or a dps.
I know there are countless articles on WoW.com about role playing your character, but I certainly see way more of it on the website than I ever do in game, and in the 3 years or so I've been playing, that element of it has for one reason or another, vanished from the game and now it is all about teleporting to dungeons and killing bosses above anything else!
Prances in Underpantss Aug 22nd 2010 6:42PM
It is way too easy to die right now in WoW. You can get killed in one or two shots (in PvE and PvP) and sometimes there's just no way to avoid it. If it were a little harder to die, and a little easier to avoid it, then maybe, just maybe, i would play with a death tax. Right now, the cost to repair is more than enough.
kazeko.fuuga Aug 22nd 2010 11:20PM
I've played a few other MMO's and even more rpg board games.
I've enjoyed them a lot but I'd honestly hate it if WoW took up to be more like them. This is mainly because Warcraft part makes WoW special to me. I've loved the lore and setting since Warcraft 2.
There's a lot of places where you can make your own story. This game has you playing alongside your heroes and fighting for the cause as the story moves along. Adding a lot of interactivity is fun, but it dilutes that experience to me.
Of course, MMO's are generally about choice but a lot of these changes will make the game fundamentally different because of those choices. Blizzard has made its own world and set it up, suggestions like these are aimed so that players make the world what it is. Warcraft really was never set up to be one of those type of games from the start, nor do I think it should be. It's letting you explore the world and even work along side the Heroes of it. The major plot revolves around them and that always take the forefront because the automated game design.
Blizzard found this storytelling more appealing than using the RTS format. I agree that it is an evolution of its predecessor. However, when the players start making the game, it'll lose its origins, which I don't rightly think they're willing to give it up.
No I don't really think this is that type of game or should be. It's just not the direction they want. I'm happy about that myself.
Jamz Aug 22nd 2010 2:04PM
The death penalty thing is rly BAD...i played Aion it would take hours to get xp back....i mean if u lost half ur xp bar b/c u were helping a guildy do a dungeon...is that fair?
Zalvi24 Aug 22nd 2010 5:19PM
wait what? you lose XP in Aion when you die? i didnt know that when i first got into it ( when it first came out) no wonder it felt like an eternity to level
Croe Aug 22nd 2010 5:29PM
Not to mention dying because some nub healer doesn't know how to heal anyone but the tank, or some new tank who doesn't know how to hold threat. Or DCs.
If death did have such a penalty, such as losing XP in WoW, raids would be severely hampered, too. You wouldn't keep on trying a new boss over and over again until you got it right. The cost would be just way too high. And gearing up for instances just would not be fun or rewarding.
Fifteen years ago, I played a text based MUD (called Dragonheart) and while it was as addictive as WoW, the penalty for dying was steep. Each death would mean you would lose a level, and dying could be quite emotionally devastating as you saw days of work go up in smoke.
I think the consequences for death are okay right now. At worst, you have to spend a few more gold and wait 10 minutes before playing again.
sooper Aug 22nd 2010 5:31PM
I agree.
In trying to understand the author's perspective, I did have to ask myself, "If the only consequence for dying is a corpse run, some more inconvenient than others, then what is the point of it?"
I think it's a fair question that doesn't suggest anything along the author's lines.
In this light I have an idea of something like spirit beasts that you have to evade or beat up on occasion and loot to get your shit back. You never lose it but the longer it takes you, the more you're not going to want to die again. Or maybe changing the death mechanic altogether and making it more a fight for consciousness that you become enthralled in prior to the inconvenient corpse run. Something to make the player be slightly more strategic (less careless) instead of inconsequential pwnmobbing.
Don't apply it to dungeons though.
Faith-lb Aug 22nd 2010 6:15PM
@Zalvi yea you lose i think 2% permanent XP of whatever that level takes , say it takes 10million xp to level each death , you loose 200k xp forveer , plus , ofcourse the XP you have to buy back at a soul healer... this prolly was the most suckiest thing about aion for me... I was a tank in aion and every time you die cuz you try your best to keep aggro on all mobs... you lost so much xp it wasnt worth it for me nemore.
skodnoise Aug 22nd 2010 2:10PM
Er....while I somewhat agree with what you've said here, most of your "solutions" are just the drudgery that made games like EQ terrible. Things like death penalties and forced PvP in raids (actual PvP, not things like champs or gunship) aren't what the WoW community has been bred to enjoy, in fact we've been bred to be thrilled that we don't have those things. It's all fine and dandy when you think, 'Woah I'm out on my own and I really don't want to die because there's a cost!" but I'd be throwing a few curses at the game if on the 10th wipe of a hard progression boss we had to call it quits, not because we ran out of guild flasks or repairs for the night, but because our main tank and 5 healers just lost a level. That said, I do miss how I used to friend people I thought were good tanks so that I could invite them on future heroic runs. My server has a private pug channel and while there were trolls, decent groups were actually made in it quite often. These days it's become nothing but "LFM ICC 25 GDKP, 5.8k GS or 5k gold required!"
Sleutel Aug 22nd 2010 5:22PM
Let it never be said that there aren't players who want the game to be MORE grindy and frustrating.
xenothaulus Aug 22nd 2010 2:19PM
Sounds like you need to play EVE Online.
Vonmises Aug 22nd 2010 4:11PM
I 2nd.