Six Things I Wish MMORPGs Could Take From Single-Player RPGs
I’ve spent a bit of time lately thinking about MMOs vs. Single-Player RPGs, and how each have significant advantages and disadvantages when in comparison to each other. If I was just to look at story and gameplay, for instance, SP-RPGs would come out on top; but as a whole package, I much prefer MMORPGs. So I decided to write a pair of complementary articles — this one looking at features MMOs could take away from the single player games, and the next doing the exact opposite.
1. Grand, Epic, Involving Stories
It’s nearly universal that people hate most quests in MMOs, because they tend to be dull, repetitive, grind-oriented and in huge numbers. It’s very rare, on the other hand, for a SPRPG to ask you to do an inordinate amount of “kill 10 rats” quests just because the developers were trying to string out play time.
If I ever had a choice, I’d choose far less quests in a MMO so that the ones included would be captivating and worth playing. Quality over quantity. Have me make choices that impact my character and the world, choices I can’t take back with a cheap “load saved game” ploy. Let the quests tell a huge story that will remain in my mind long after I log out for the night. And if you’re worried about lack of content, put those quests on a timer (like dungeon timers) and let me repeat it in two weeks or a month from now.
2. Interaction and Relationships with NPCs
Because SPRPGs have a lack of other human socialization, they have to artificially create it with NPCs who, by and large, are more interesting, complex and involved than their counterparts in the MMO worlds. I’d love to encounter NPCs in MMORPGs who weren’t just vendors or quest givers — what about characters I could forge an alliance with, or fall in love with, or make an eternal enemy out of? I don’t care that other people would be doing the same things — after all, we’ve long since gotten past the weirdness of other folks doing the exact same quest/dungeon we just finished, so the believability of MMO worlds is already stretched in our minds.
3. Have An “End of the Game” — NOT An End Game — And Encourage Rerolling
Two web-based games get around the problem of “end games” in MMOs by having players retire their characters in order to roll a successor (Kingdom of Loathing and D&D Tiny Adventures). It’s odd at first to give up a character you spent so long building, but the sting of the loss is quickly dissipated through the fun of doing it all over again from a different angle and having things to pass down to new characters.
Personally, I love leveling and hate end games in MMOs — so why not have an epic “end of the game” storyline where your character does something heroic to end their career, and pass down their legacy to a new toon?
4. Give Us Tons Of Options In Character Creation
This is an axe I’ve been grinding for a while now, my barely-disguised loathing of how simplistic many MMOs make the character creation process, preferring instead to have all character decisions and development happen as you level. One of the biggest joys of SPRPGs is in agonizing for hours over character creation screens, trying to make the best or more interesting character possible. Some MMOs do this, but not nearly enough, and not to that degree.
5. Use In-Game Cutscenes To Tell Stories
For important moments in SPRPGs, the game temporarily takes control away from the player to inject a cutscene using the game engine. It’s surprisingly involving and memorable, and yet MMOs have only used this sparingly, as if it was a technology to be feared. Fortunately, you can see them warming to this avenue of storytelling, and we’ll hopefully see more of it in the future.
6. Force Me To Make Choices, And Then Live With The Consequences
Every great SPRPG I’ve played has moments where I must make an agonizing decision between two equally attractive or two equally terrible choices, and then live with the consequences. My development as a character goes beyond mere stat crunching and leveling to something more organic and true-to-life: decisions that are irreversible and may impact future events in ways I’m unable to see. This is what involves me in a game more than anything else, because I’m not just interacting with the world by bludgeoning it to death, but through free will and choice.
- Posted in: General
I think 3 is a very interesting idea. Ultimately I don’t think it would work for MMOs like WAR, though, because the different careers have such distinct playstyles. If you only enjoyed playing one kind of career, it would be a pain to have to either reroll that career over and over or start a new career you don’t really like.
It seems like it could work in a CoX type game, especially since most of the fun in CoX is character creation anyway. Since there is a limited sense of endgame “progression” in that game, it would make sense that you just have an awesome end of game encounter and then retire your character, giving your new one some boon from the encounter.
Overall, more consequences would be hella nice, after all any choice doesn’t have much weight without them.
On #3: I love leveling. I also love “Endgame”. They’re different experiences. Why should the game have to end in order to roll a new character? Even what you’re describing is still just a transition, so why not just do that on your own terms and have the options for both?
1. Agreed…. although in single player games, you CAN reload if you don’t like your choice. Do we want to punish people for making a bad decision?
2. Sounds great.
3. Sounds great
4. I used to love the ‘agonization’ process, but now I’ve come to loathe it when I play a new SP-RPG, as I can’t be bothered learning the systems of a new game all over again.
For example, I was quite adept at creating builds in NWN1. I was all set for NWN2 until I discovered they were using an entirely new DnD ruleset, which completely invalidated everything I knew before.
For this reason I prefer choices not at the character screen, but during play.
HOWEVER, the way it’s done in MMORPG’s is too permanent and requires just as much research as in SP games. I’d rather the decisions be more transient (for example, your character temporarily rising in power over the course of a dungeon – power which can be spent in particular ways depending on player preference and what is needed for the particular dungeon).
5. Love cut-scenes, but only if they
a) don’t suck
b) are skippable, with a synopsis afterwards that I can read later (just in case they do suck)
c) aren’t filled with incredibly boring panning of empty scenery.
An example of a SP-RPG with both good and bad cut scenes is Baldur’s Gate 1. I really enjoyed the “machinima” style cut scenes that play out like scripted encounters in the game. I hated the cut scenes where you’d reach a new area and it shows you some drawn out movie of a drawbridge opening and some people strolling about the town.
6. While I personally (usually) live with the choices I make in SP games, many people often reload until they get the one they wanted. I think in an MMO, all the choices should have some advantage and be of similar appeal (otherwise you just have to wiki the correct choice).
i agree with alot of what you’re saying.
i think if eve’s faction standings (based on decisions/actions and not grinding), economy and open conflict (amoungst a lot of other eve goodies) mixed with lotro’s involving quest lines, lush and vast landscapes with instanced story sequences (videos included) also merged with WAR’s ferocity, fast paced action and PvP renown system (and rewards): would make a great game.
oh, and make it star wars – where becoming a Jedi is not only difficult, but takes working out without guidance. and give player jedis a non disclosure agreement so they can’t tell anyone else how to become a jedi – else their home gets nuked.
that would be sweet…
I like cut scenes. So far the only 2 MMO’s with cut scenes that I can think of are Age of Conan and City of Heroes/V. Though COX only has a few.
Basically what it sounds like to me is that you hope Bioware basically makes TOR a SPRPG, just as an MMO. Hehe
I dont agree on 3 for most MMOs. Though it could work for some.