Nollind Whachell (not verified) on April 11, 2007 - 19:28.
A successful mmorpg must promote inclusion, not exclusion. Battles, the real medieval battles were about inclusion and numbers. Grab a pitchfork and join to fight.
World War II is another great example as wars are a like an iceberg with the soldiers at the top above the water line. What's below the water is the war machine helping to get those soldiers to the battlefield and maintain their position there (i.e. supplies, equipment, transportation, etc). There are a variety of things an MMO could do to allow everyone to participate within a war but as you said it requires an interconnected ruleset to support this from the very start.
This can be done by making correspond to asymmetric numbers also asymmetric objectives. So that these objectives (and victory points you earn) are measured on your *current* condition, and not on the unfair premise that everyone has an equal chance.
Chess is a good example of this because you can be down to only a few units but you can still pull off victory by getting a checkmate off on your opponent's King. Another computer game with this approach was Microsoft's Allegiance (which is now open source and maintained by a community of fans). Think of it like a mini-realm vs realm space conflict with a variety of roles to play that you yourself can switch to on the fly (i.e. defense, scout, escort, offense, bombing, etc). It also included a tech tree as well as resource gathering (done by mining drones which you needed to protect). In the end game though, you can have most of your bases destroyed with the enemy closing in all around you but you can still pull off a total upset by getting a scout to sneak into the enemies home territory and drop a teleport probe, thus allowing your units to jump in and take their main base (either destroying it or capturing it).
I guess the next question though is what happens when one realm captures / destroys another realm? In Allegiance, the war was over and people started a new game. In an MMO with persistence though, what do you do? Do you give in and join the conquering kingdom or do you work with the underground rebellion to try to help the king to regain his kingdom? Again, the game mechanics would have to incorporate this within it from the outset.
Re: Asymmetric PvP/warfare and processes of inclusion
World War II is another great example as wars are a like an iceberg with the soldiers at the top above the water line. What's below the water is the war machine helping to get those soldiers to the battlefield and maintain their position there (i.e. supplies, equipment, transportation, etc). There are a variety of things an MMO could do to allow everyone to participate within a war but as you said it requires an interconnected ruleset to support this from the very start.
Chess is a good example of this because you can be down to only a few units but you can still pull off victory by getting a checkmate off on your opponent's King. Another computer game with this approach was Microsoft's Allegiance (which is now open source and maintained by a community of fans). Think of it like a mini-realm vs realm space conflict with a variety of roles to play that you yourself can switch to on the fly (i.e. defense, scout, escort, offense, bombing, etc). It also included a tech tree as well as resource gathering (done by mining drones which you needed to protect). In the end game though, you can have most of your bases destroyed with the enemy closing in all around you but you can still pull off a total upset by getting a scout to sneak into the enemies home territory and drop a teleport probe, thus allowing your units to jump in and take their main base (either destroying it or capturing it).
I guess the next question though is what happens when one realm captures / destroys another realm? In Allegiance, the war was over and people started a new game. In an MMO with persistence though, what do you do? Do you give in and join the conquering kingdom or do you work with the underground rebellion to try to help the king to regain his kingdom? Again, the game mechanics would have to incorporate this within it from the outset.