The festering scab you are picking at here is indeed the myth of MMO game design. There exists a culture of designers that believe that they know best and can design best. This sheer arrogance leads to non-gamer oriented solutions to game problems. It’s not that these are bad people, it’s just that they are the ones being asked to make a decision on topic after topic and it’s easy to lose yourself in the “how do we handle the masses� mindset and forget what the game is supposed to be about.
You cite the crafting mini-games as an example and I think it’s a good one for the reasons you state. A game element such as crafting needs to be looked at in a new light and find out what makes it interesting or attractive in and of itself and work to make that enjoyable and integrate it to the main game, not bolt it onto the side. Too much of MMO fare these days are implemented as workarounds to poor initial design and being caught in the general morass of “well this is how things are done�. This is the losing proposition. The challenge for success is to build what needs to be built, not what worked for the last company.
Much of computer gaming history came from smaller shops or even individuals who had a vision and worked towards it. They took bold steps and embraced innovations. Some were successful. Some less so. In today’s corporate managed MMO design, this vision and innovation is lost. The games being produced are, by and large, a re-hash of the first-gen MMOs. Just as we had mile-high stacks of Doom clones in the 80s and 90s, today we have vast wastelands of EQ clones.
Where are the games where you start off and begin making personal choices of quests and activities that define your character’s powers and abilities instead of working the level treadmill? Where are the new genre’s of crafting where it has nothing to do with sitting in one spot for hours at a time or is done merely to get rich? Where is the game where the implementation of crafting makes it so fun and so enjoyable in and of itself that it required no smoke and mirrors or mini-games to cover for it? Where are the games where I can always group with my friends regardless of level, class, possessions or “advancements� and still have a fun, productive time for all?
Designers have a difficult task. They must produce a game that is deliverable, enjoyable and maintainable. But when caught up in the overall game view, it’s easy to lose sight of making the game enjoyable. I see too many games where the relationship with the devs is apparently “keep the users at bay� design. Users need to expect more and demand more. Designers need to start seriously listening to the voices of the users when it comes to fun. You may have a few great ideas for “solving problem X� but it’s the users that play the game and they generally know what they like or dislike and if you listen to a smart group of them, you can learn a lot.
Game design (and especially changes in a running game) must be done –FOR- the players, not –TO- the players. Players are fickle after all and the next new shiny is always just arriving.
Ultimately Games are like great movies. They need to have vision, soul and a sense of self if they are to succeed. This almost always comes from a visionary /writer/designer and rarely, if ever happens by corporate committee. This visionary person is the one who grasps what the audience wants or will enjoy and seeks to deliver it. Designers today seem to have become too far removed from this, the source of their power, to fill the role anymore. In it’s place, we need to start looking for the MMO equivalent of the visionary director/writer. In the massive complexities of MMOs, that is probably not a “lead designer� or a big name holder of “The Vision™� and may instead be informed, intelligent users who just want to have fun and enjoy the game.
It’s time for us to take the next step beyond the chest thumping Neanderthal approach of “Me designer. Me god. Me tell you what you play� and move on to more progressive models. But the corporate stranglehold on MMOs makes this transition unlikely in the near future. I think instead the biggest advancements in large scale MMO design will come from the smaller MMOs that come and go but bring new ideas to the show. Cannabilizing these ideas will be the feeding grounds of the large MMO houses.
Ramblings...
Abalieno,
In response to your "OOC Design" comments:
The festering scab you are picking at here is indeed the myth of MMO game design. There exists a culture of designers that believe that they know best and can design best. This sheer arrogance leads to non-gamer oriented solutions to game problems. It’s not that these are bad people, it’s just that they are the ones being asked to make a decision on topic after topic and it’s easy to lose yourself in the “how do we handle the masses� mindset and forget what the game is supposed to be about.
You cite the crafting mini-games as an example and I think it’s a good one for the reasons you state. A game element such as crafting needs to be looked at in a new light and find out what makes it interesting or attractive in and of itself and work to make that enjoyable and integrate it to the main game, not bolt it onto the side. Too much of MMO fare these days are implemented as workarounds to poor initial design and being caught in the general morass of “well this is how things are done�. This is the losing proposition. The challenge for success is to build what needs to be built, not what worked for the last company.
Much of computer gaming history came from smaller shops or even individuals who had a vision and worked towards it. They took bold steps and embraced innovations. Some were successful. Some less so. In today’s corporate managed MMO design, this vision and innovation is lost. The games being produced are, by and large, a re-hash of the first-gen MMOs. Just as we had mile-high stacks of Doom clones in the 80s and 90s, today we have vast wastelands of EQ clones.
Where are the games where you start off and begin making personal choices of quests and activities that define your character’s powers and abilities instead of working the level treadmill? Where are the new genre’s of crafting where it has nothing to do with sitting in one spot for hours at a time or is done merely to get rich? Where is the game where the implementation of crafting makes it so fun and so enjoyable in and of itself that it required no smoke and mirrors or mini-games to cover for it? Where are the games where I can always group with my friends regardless of level, class, possessions or “advancements� and still have a fun, productive time for all?
Designers have a difficult task. They must produce a game that is deliverable, enjoyable and maintainable. But when caught up in the overall game view, it’s easy to lose sight of making the game enjoyable. I see too many games where the relationship with the devs is apparently “keep the users at bay� design. Users need to expect more and demand more. Designers need to start seriously listening to the voices of the users when it comes to fun. You may have a few great ideas for “solving problem X� but it’s the users that play the game and they generally know what they like or dislike and if you listen to a smart group of them, you can learn a lot.
Game design (and especially changes in a running game) must be done –FOR- the players, not –TO- the players. Players are fickle after all and the next new shiny is always just arriving.
Ultimately Games are like great movies. They need to have vision, soul and a sense of self if they are to succeed. This almost always comes from a visionary /writer/designer and rarely, if ever happens by corporate committee. This visionary person is the one who grasps what the audience wants or will enjoy and seeks to deliver it. Designers today seem to have become too far removed from this, the source of their power, to fill the role anymore. In it’s place, we need to start looking for the MMO equivalent of the visionary director/writer. In the massive complexities of MMOs, that is probably not a “lead designer� or a big name holder of “The Vision™� and may instead be informed, intelligent users who just want to have fun and enjoy the game.
It’s time for us to take the next step beyond the chest thumping Neanderthal approach of “Me designer. Me god. Me tell you what you play� and move on to more progressive models. But the corporate stranglehold on MMOs makes this transition unlikely in the near future. I think instead the biggest advancements in large scale MMO design will come from the smaller MMOs that come and go but bring new ideas to the show. Cannabilizing these ideas will be the feeding grounds of the large MMO houses.