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This makes players play
xDrac
Member UncommonPosts: 203
I noticed... the only two MMO's that kept me playing for a year and longer were Lineage II and RF Online. And I believe I noticed why. They both have one big feature that kept me playing all these years.
In Lineage II it was there was the Olympiad. To be eligible to participate in the Olympiad, you needed to be Noblesse. To become noblesse, you had to complete a very lengthy and difficult quest. So once you earned the privilege to participate, every day at a certain time you could participate in the Grand Olympiad games and compete against other players to become the best of your class. At the end of each month, the best players of each of the 34 classes were crowned Heroes, received a unique weapon, a circlement and (imo) most important of all, their character started glowing with the Hero aura.
I think specifically the last feature, the glowing and aura around your character is something very important. It set you apart, it made you special and not everyone could reach it. Only one player could be the best, and if you were that one, you were special and were respected. And you were glowing, for everyone to see. So everyone knew WHO you are. I believe this feature, kept a lot of people playing, it gave them a goal to reach. Something to work towards, to dream about.
Now, in RF Online there were the Race Wars. I believe three times a day a great war would start on a special map. The three races would fight for resources. Each race had a Control Chip. The goal in the war was to destroy the other races chip before your own one was destroyed. The race who got the last hit on the destroyed Chip would win the war. Now, naturally, a whole race in a war has be lead and the race had to work together. You weren't just one random individual. You were part of a race. These wars really encouraged races to stick together. Now, I mention each race would have to be lead in war. There was an election system. I believe 6 leaders could be elected for each race (election by vote). Once elected, you received special armor, certain privileges (own chat etc) and, once again, your character would be marked as one of the leaders. You would have your race symbol glow above your character and you would glow. The actual Race Leader (highest ranked) would have the biggest and most intense glow of them all. Additionally he could place nuke bombs (one per war) at the Race Wars. And the special chat he had access to made it easier to lead his own race. That's only the tip of the iceberg but yeah, you get the idea.
I think features like that are EXTREMELY important in an MMO. But tell me, how many of the newer MMO's have done such things? Sure, perhaps TERA tried with the 'vanarch' system but... in my opinion, there should be a neat looking visual change in your characters appearance too. Like the glows for example.
Example of the Heroes in Lineage 2: here
Example of the Race Leaders in RF Online: here
Also, what I think is important, is that these "events" happened REGULARLY. (daily to be exact) And I apologize if I made 'mistakes' in describing some of the features. They are pretty in-depth and I might not know everything there is to know about them still.
Web & Graphic Design - www.xdrac.com
Comments
I don't know if it's "what makes players play," but it is a very important part of the social nature of MMOs for a lot of people, myself included. While a lot of online games provide ways for player achievements to translate into "bragging rights," MMORPGs, by virtue of their persistent worlds and focus on character progression, have the potential to do it better than other genres.
For me, anything that lets your character be individualized just a bit more is a good thing. Having it coded in as an honest-to-goodness, fully-functional feature is even better thing. Games that allow for a smaller spectrum of character customization benefit even more from this, as it allows a way for a characters actions to stand out even if their style cannot.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/PerfArt
Well yeah I admit the title is more to catch attention. But I do believe this is a vital part in MMORPG's of the past and it is part of why they have survived for so long. MMOs that come out nowadays miss it and thus don't really seem to last long or do that well. But that's just one of many things. I also believe that one should level slowly, so that people keep having a goal of "reaching the next level". in most games nowadays, reach the max level is a matter of a few weeks or months. Which I consider pretty fast to be honest.
Web & Graphic Design - www.xdrac.com
Never played those games but that sounds like something I would like.
I think you are right, if an MMO has these types of features, it will survive for a longer period of time. I think half the reason why WoW is still around is because of the introduction of arenas, which achieve the same thing as the features you listed. It is interesting to note that all these features are pvp oriented, but not the focus of the game, which is important.
Player progression doesnt have to be based on what gear you have or how much higher your stats and numbers are to other players. I like it to be more dynamic than that which is what these features provide. It's a way to progress your characters uniqueness and place in the virtual world.
Also, these features emphasize social interaction within the game which is a defining idea to have in an mmorpg, something newer mmos are taking away.
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That sounds awesome.
Developers of various games have made it no secret that systems like tend to do more harm than good, when it comes to attracting and retaining players. Not everyone will agree, obviously, such as yourself.
For the very small percentage of players who have the free time and skill to be eligible for exclusive systems like that, it's great. For everyone else, it tends to feel like an income gap or something. WoW experienced it in a big way with the way PVP rankings worked back in Vanilla. You basically had to be able to participate for 12 to 16 hours a day every day for the season, to have a shot at being the High Warlord. I had a friend who was one of the last, before they scrapped the system, and it was crazy just how much it drained him in real life.
Blizzard recognized the issue, along with a similar one where the raids were taking up the most developer time, yet were seen by very few players.
I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, just that the reason you don't see more games using systems like these anymore is because they drive more players away than they attract. There's a real 'survival of the fittest' factor in game development, with the best ideas (in terms of pleasing the most players) sticking around, and the worst ideas either becoming niche markets or going away entirely.
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The people participating in these events are having a good time just like you are in game. You may get the odd dick here and there, but you do in MMO's. Regardless of what your doing in game.
EDIT: Like the Viking said, competition. Humans love it.
I'm sure it did. A lot of players are achievement focused, but certainly not all. It's a mistake to assume that everyone else in a typical MMORPG is motivated by the same things that you are. To quote Nick Yee
"MMORPGs are seductive because they have hooks for many different kinds of people and appeal to them through different means....we can understand MMORPGs as environments where people are playing a different game side by side."
Different hooks for different folks. Status hooks like those you describe will keep a portion of players playing, but others will shrug and move on.
Unfortunately MMOs are generally poor stages for competition. I know many people spend upwards of 8-10 hours a day playing them and they would like their time to mean something and be acknowledged but the gaming mechanics just don't seem to support true competition.
Not to say that this form of competition can't be fun (ultimately that is the point I suppose) but this 'strive to be the best' is kind of funny to me when you consider the field of play.
If you think MMORPG combat can only be mindless face-rolling then I could probably see your point.
Yep
Obviously a lot more humans love it than hate it, despite what they say. Otherwise, gearscore, dps check, and all those epeen stuff won't be so popular.
I play RPGs to develop my character to the max of its abilities and secondarily to feel part of a big, interesting world. That's why I usually quit at level cap if the world isn't interesting enough to keep me trhere. Grinding the same fights over and over to get gear or e-sport PvP hold very little interest for me.
Web & Graphic Design - www.xdrac.com
Well I can say I don't play MMO's for any of the reason's the OP stated, I've never been in that sort of competitive league, so any game that focused too heavily on it would be not of interest to me.
I do enjoy the realm wars of DAOC, or the alliance fights of EVE, but not really into one on one, man-o-mano combat, because face it, I suck at it.
But that's the point I suppose, developers have to provide all sorts of hooks to cater to a variety of interests and the more they have, the greater their player base.
Of course this runs the risk of attempting to be everything to everyone, and that too never works out that well, waters down the game play a lot.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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