Decided to try Gametap for the first time a couple of days ago, honestly never expected much from it (the classics are great, no doubt, but my attention span simply doesn’t work with them anymore). The model of Gametap is pretty nice, there’s free games to draw in users, a trial month for 99 cents, and a wide enough selection to make it worthwhile (for the first month, at least). So, I bit and downloaded Psychonauts first. Why did I miss that game when it came out? Wonderful platformer, loved the artwork and comedy. The game play was pretty usual of the platformers–lots of jumping and puzzles–the psychic powers were what made the game, adding a puzzle effect to even the fights. After Psychonauts I went on to download Beyond Good & Evil–another great game I missed (I swear, I won’t let that happen again). I’m still playing through it, but the thing that I find best in it is the sound and music, I love the music they use. The gameplay has some great action in it and the platforming is fairly usual but with some decent twists. I’ve forgotten how much I love platformers and adventure games with all the RPG’s and MMO’s I’ve been doing lately–it’s nice to play some, they tend to just be fun challenges (which makes for a good gaming time).

So, was thinking about the beginnings of MMO’s–not their developmental beginnings but the player’s beginning. What makes an MMO attractive to the new player? What makes them stick with it? First impressions are everything and that holds quite true with MMOs. WoW is the biggest at the moment and when I thought on my time there and the beginning of the game it was pretty obvious why. The start of WoW is simple, familiar (to any veteran MMO player) and quick. The player levels fast, the quests are easy and if the player had never played an MMO before they can figure everything out in the first couple of levels. Now, I figure the time to reach level 10 in WoW is something like 4 hours (for a mean at least), the time is important because it helps people stick around longer at the beginning–if you level too slowly at the beginning people will find it too hard or slow, you level too quickly and while it may attract some people others will find it too easy. So, 4 hours is a pretty decent amount of time, I think. Getting to the teens is pretty important for another reason, it begins setting the player attachment to their character–this is why it is good to not make the leveling too fast, if the leveling is just slow enough to make the player feel a bit of a challenge to get there so they will be less likely to simply start over on another character–alts are great, but I really think (thinking like a designer) that I’d want the people to get a character leveled first so they have a solid attachment to the game. Having a bit of a challenge to level should be good for other reasons, as well, players like a challenge and will feel some accomplishment for it. Now, most leveling (WoW included) feels less challenging and more grinding, but that’s a thought for tomorrow (or later tonight?).

Been thinking lately on the basic progression in RPG’s (offline, solo ones) and have been able to determine that they all follow a linear path (duh, right?)–one core quest line to follow, many tangents along the way. NWN, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, all follow this pattern (Elder Scrolls of course has a hell of a lot of tangents, Diablo not so much). Now, what got me thinking was–how can this be broken? Has it been broken? (as far as I’ve seen, not yet–perhaps I’ve missed some games) The first thought that came to mind was multiple core quest lines, all of which close out other quest lines or open new ones, open different areas, different companions (if any), different opponents, etc. The coding I think would be possible, content would need to be increased and that may be the biggest obstacle (how convenient that I wish to become a content designer, eh?). Re-playability would be higher, and how about multi-player? Having players of different story lines be able to access completely new and different content based on their combination of quest lines (say, one player was tasked with seeking out some insane  wizard to kill, another with destroying a town – while separately they would find their wizard to kill and the other to destroy that town, they now have the option of causing the wizard to destroy the town and any negative effect that would have fallen upon the player tasked to destroy the town now falls to the wizard, the wizard is taken care of by the policing sentries in the area and two birds were killed with one stone).

Other thoughts on changes–my taking out levels still stands. RPGs at the core are about character progression and growth, the most obvious ways of showing this is  through levels, but visual increase in power should be used instead. As a mage you begin seeing sparks of magic around you as you get stronger,  perhaps some aging-glasses (from all that reading by candle light). Equipment gets fancier, more powerful as you progress, your familiar and spells are more powerful and look/feel so. Rogues, their movements become quieter, their animations more fluid and precise, they begin blending into the shadows more easily (aging could still apply). Warriors (easiest by far) stronger, bigger (not body-builder big, but defiantly look stronger), bigger and meaner weapons and armor, their animations become stronger their blows hit harder, they stand their ground better when receiving hits. What else, druidish characters – more in tune with nature (plants grow better where they walk, animals follow them when around, perhaps have some plants growing out of them or begin taking on the look of an animal). Holy characters (paladin/cleric) besides getting stronger and carrying bigger armor/weapons-a nice light showing down upon them, maybe some sort of halo/angel wings, auras of light and power–more charismatic/diplomatic? (I think I’m simply hitting on all the stereotypes, but those change after the system is laid out–need examples) People may see the hardest part of this to be telling when you ‘level up’ since you probably wouldn’t gain an extremely different look (I’d want this to be smoothly progressive, based more on accumulated XP than points of level up) and you simply wouldn’t really ‘level up’ just continually get a little bit stronger after every challenge you face (that feels more natural to me), so that over time you’d be able to look at your character as it is and a picture from where it was a week ago and see noticeable differences that may not have drawn your attention (not to mean power progression will not be noticeable, only that it happens smoothly and if you do not observe your character often or closely, it may not always be obvious).

Pirates of the Burning Sea.  The game recently launched, and for those that do not know it is a MMO based in 1720 and deals with the Caribbean (sailing, pirates, colonial conquest, etc).  I must say, before I tried the open beta back in December, I completely thought the game would be boring, worthless, just another attempt at making some quick cash. However, after playing it for… a day, I pre-ordered it. The game has some fairly new (or at least altered) game play features. The naval combat is a blend of tactical and real-time (I sort of think Eve Online combat, mixed with real-time features) which I think provided the biggest draw to me (game play-wise). The setting is also quite nice, not totally fantasy or sci-fi, but mostly historical. Being a bit of a history buff I even went so far as to join a RP’ing guild–which is providing the most fun for me, at the moment. Back to game play, PvP is done in a pretty cool way here, with ports (towns, have missions, merchants, and resources–much needed) that are conquerable by the opposing factions: ‘unrest’ is built up through different means, once high enough the port goes into a state of unrest and a big red circle is opened around the port allowing pirates (or privateers with the sanctioned piracy skill) to PvP (attacking the other nations, even if those players didn’t have their flags on). After more unrest is built up an even bigger circle appears and all nations are fair game for PvP. At this stage (I think, cannot remember exactly) there either needs to be a bit more unrest gained, or the port just automatically sets the period for the port contention battle (either way, in 24 hours after the battle is called, the battle will happen between the attackers and defenders). This sort of PvP is something I like, conquerable areas, RvR, and somewhat avoidable. Naval combat is more tactical than most MMO’s, you have to deal with the wind (which can be a huge benefit or huge setback), ship positioning (you can only fire cannons that are facing and in range of the enemy), and armor (you have four types of armor on the ship, corresponding with the sides ((port,  starboard,  stern,  structure–center, ect)) as well as sail strength ((no sails, no moving)) and crew ((no crew means you have less reinforcement if you board or are boarded)). Having different health types creates different strategies for attack and different roles for ships in groups (which can only get to the size of 6, some disappointment with that–this game could benefit from larger battles outside of port contention). The crafting consists of 10 plots per server, each support one building and buildings require different resources depending on their function. The overall system is fairly standard, you have basic resource gathering, then refining, then manufacture – all of which is done through different buildings. The limit on plots means players have to choose wisely what they want to do in crafting, or join up in the societies (guilds) and work with others (which is a smart idea, anyway–this is an MMO). The rest of the game is pretty standard, quest grinds, leveling, crafting, etc. (there are some really interesting quests, however–even if they are pretty simple the naval combat can often make them far more exciting).

The game itself is a step towards some change in MMO’s I think, by no means perfect it is trying different things.