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Playable Worlds Countdown Gives Us More MMO Questions to Ponder | MMORPG.com
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Playable Worlds Countdown Gives Us More MMO Questions to Ponder | MMORPG.com
Playable Worlds is continuing its mystery countdown, posing intriguing questions and dropping some hints along the way.
Comments
Race and gender swaps and barbershop systems already exists in most games.
9 - What if... you could be admired and famous in an MMO for more than just your character level or raid skills?
This can be done in any game. Try to find any well known game without at least one player famous for their personality and deeds that have nothing to do with combat or level, such as their knowledge of the game and guides/assistance they provide other players. Or those famous for decorating housing or for always being available to craft.
8 - What if... the game also rewarded you for playing peacefully?
Every PvE game does. If you mean as a pacifist in regards to PvE mobs, yep most games reward crafting, RP, housing, etc.
7 - What if... an MMO let you reshape the landscape?
Minecraft and Roblox called. Also, see every survival game out there.
6 - What if... you and your friends could govern an entire planet in your MMO?
Yay?
5 - What if... even the devs didn't know what was hidden out there in the world?
Ah, yes. The garbage, lazy dev system known as procedural generation.
Fishing on Gilgamesh since 2013
Fishing on Bronzebeard since 2005
Fishing in RL since 1992
Born with a fishing rod in my hand in 1979
Frankly, I'm really surprised at this one, coming from Raph Koster.
I don't like this idea. I like the identity I create with my characters, and take pride in developing them well.
I do see a need to be able to change mistakes, and I loved the system that UO had where you changed from one skill to another, and naturally replaced the one with another, through skill gain that "robbed" from the old.
9 - What if... you could be admired and famous in an MMO for more than just your character level or raid skills?
Yes, this is a biggy for my likes. UO had players that were famous for what they did and accomplished outside of that.
Kazola's Tavern, for making and running (for years) the first player owned and run tavern.
The player that created the Museum of Memories, where players that gained unique items, including one-of-a-kind rares, loaned them to another player who created the museum, a player who had earned trust by his actions in-game.
The players who ran Player run auctions, again due to trust they earned.
The Fishing Council of Britannia.
The Mage Tower.
Etc., etc., etc.
This was social involvement that you'd think that MMORPGs would strive for due to their nature.
8 - What if... the game also rewarded you for playing peacefully?
Really? This is a no-brainer.
7 - What if... an MMO let you reshape the landscape?
Of course that's desirable. As long as it doesn't bring problems with it that can't be fixed. (Being a social game.)
6 - What if... you and your friends could govern an entire planet in your MMO?
I'm fearful of what this means. I'm looking for a single game, not something that's chopped up by instances. But that doesn't sound like Raph, so I'll have to wait and see.
5 - What if... even the devs didn't know what was hidden out there in the world?
Oh God! I would love this. It's a long-standing dream since before MMORPG were actually created. A world that runs on its own as a viable world.
Once upon a time....
I hear you. I deleted my account for a similar sentiment, but I occasionally browse it for gaming news every now and then.
Already done. Change genmder, haircut...
9 - What if... you could be admired and famous in an MMO for more than just your character level or raid skills?
Already done. Be famous for crafting.
8 - What if... the game also rewarded you for playing peacefully?
Kind of done.
7 - What if... an MMO let you reshape the landscape?
Already done.
6 - What if... you and your friends could govern an entire planet in your MMO?
Already done.
5 - What if... even the devs didn't know what was hidden out there in the world?
Alredy done.
---
[Drums nervously beating]
MINECRAFT!
You can changer your character, you can be admired for your skills (building/griefing), you can reshape landscape for better or worse, you could govern all server or all cave and no dev would know what RPG generated 5,87 million blocks from spawn point.
Oh, the rewards for playing peacefully. Just your inner peace. OM.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
The game of chess has been basically the same game for hundreds of years because of its replayability - something the MMORPG genre seems to struggle with a great deal. Great games, even the old ones, can keep people entertained for generations, if made well.
Maybe something needs to be learned from the old.
Outside of trying to, for some reason, justify your love of 25-year-old game design I am not sure why you would say that.
Software technology that allows for greater immersion and net architecture that allows for deeper interactions is required to move the genre past what was created 25 years ago and has not progressed. Until we see advances to those areas we will continue to see the same tired formulas.
Over and over again.
Boring.
Just take housing as an example, 20 years ago when playing UO I was hoping by now we'd have houses with basements, towers, and lots of variety - additional ways to interact with our houses and other people's houses - and instead we get instanced houses little more than trophy cases - a place to store stuff won in battle.
I guess I'd be wanting to see more innovation if the games of today would first meet the bar of matching the innovation we saw 20 years ago.
I think it's hard in a "themepark" game to have a robust and useful housing features that doesn't feature instanced housing. A sandbox can give you that ability to create homes, villages and kingdoms from scratch. Usually that potential never fully materializes, but there is always hope.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
I would like to get your response to this: WE GOT PROOF! Pax Dei is a Pay to Win Game! (youtube.com)
He also posts another video about guilds surrounding resources and walling them off from other players.
I'm not too concerned about this in an early access title; however, what interests me is whether or not the developer has expressed their opinion on it - is this desired or do they see it as something to patch out?
1. We have no idea what a "sub" will be or how much it will change for more land. If we are talking about a dollar extra, NBD in my view. If we are talking $10/plot.. probably a bigger deal.
2. That said, it's really very clearly NOT a solo game. You can build everything you need on 1 plot. It might be a bit tight, but doable. If you have a clan/guild, even a small one like mine, there is no need for multiple plots per person.
3. You can also only build in the homestead zones. The Wilderness (where the better resources and mobs/ruins/towers/caves/dungeons are) is a no build area.
4. Griefing via building has been stated by the Devs to be against the rules and they asked for folks to just open a ticket and they will address. I'm sure that they will make adjustments to prevent it as EA progresses.
5. They are going to wipe. Characters. Inventory. Land. Whole servers. Probably multiple times in EA. That said, what will KILL this game is when they actually launch, if they still have some kind of exploits/dupes. Because that will ruin the economy.
At the end of the day, until they actually finalize what the monetization is, it's hard to definitively say it's NOT P2W. Or P2W. But I really and truly do not think this will be a place where you have a "whale" show up, plop down $1000 and buys the best shit in the game. I think the monetization will be a sub (that fluctuates based on property) and some kind of cosmetics. Until it's final though, thats just my educated (or non-educated) guess.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
I enjoyed spending a couple of months looking for a housing spot in UO and it was a banner day when I got it. What would be nice is several levels of housing - maybe fill up those empty NPC towns with apartments and such, so a person can get started, but be on the lookout for a non-instanced house.
Every year tech has improved and the game worlds have gotten smaller with less features and instanced to the point you're lucky to see 50 people before being thrown into a new "instance".
Instancing, by the way, was developed by Funcom, first used in Anarchy Online. So at least we can blame Funcom for giving developers an easy out instead of actually developing better net code.
And we can blame modern developers themselves for being the lazy focks who think instancing is the holy grail of server management.
We are talking net architecture that allows for 1,000's of people online one server with minimal lag (not possible)
A.I. for mobs that allows for 100,000's of individuals going through their lifecycles without player involvement.
Seasons, natural terraforming (erosion)
Deep complex software systems in place that allow a world to come alive.
These do not exist yet.
20+ years ago or today.
So we are stuck with gameplay from 20+ years ago.
No thanks.