MMO Gaming

Earlier I mentioned talking about what makes a mob memorable. Of my top 5 list (fine, top 4, really) what makes those encounters so memorable? Is it the social/community aspect involved in taking down those mobs? Is it the challenge? How do you go about classifying what makes a good mob and what doesn’t?

Considering, of course, that the aspect of socialization as it relates to various encounters (raiding with a guild/friends) isn’t something that one can specifically design for (aside from needing a certain number of people to actually beat it) we’ll focus on some other things that make it worthwhile.

PvP is easier than PvE…to design. I think everyone can admit this. Let’s face it, a lot more work is involved with designing an encounter with specific AI, abilities, etc. than it is to say “here are some guidelines to follow, now fight.” PvE is perhaps more accurately PvD, player vs. Designer. It’s a lot more work, on the designers side, for encounters against artificial creatures than it is for other players. It would seem fairly likely that this is the reason we see trash mobs at all. Ask a typical PvE player (specifically raiders, but anyone who’s grouped really) about whether or not they like trash mobs and they’ll probably say no, but if it’s a slowdown to progression that is is good for the designers who can spend more time crafting the next set of enemies. All this though, is an aside to the real question, what makes a memorable fight?

What factors do you put into a design to make a mob memorable?

• Lore
• Reward
• Risk
• Intensity
• Feeling

Let’s break that down a bit more thoroughly.

Lore - Time for some generalizations. PvE players care more about story than PvP players. Maybe a bit broad, but overall, I think, true. Not to say PvP players, or the PvP aspect of a game, can be glossed over in story and is shallow or lacking, but those who want to really advance and understand the story of the world are the ones doing the quests, taking down the “bad guys” and saving the day. These players want to know something about the encounter. Why are they here? What’s happened in the past, and now, that makes the destruction of this creature so important? How did they become so powerful in the first place? Where does this fit in with the rest of the world that’s been created?

That’s the first step. If you’ve got a great idea for an enemy, but nothing else about him/her/it then you need to take a step back and explore the “Why?” questions. Mechanics of an encounter can make them fun, but lore makes them interesting and memorable.

Reward - As great a story as may be crafted about a mob, chances are, if a player can’t get anything out of it, they won’t bother. It’s similar to when people argue for “optional” penalties (ex. death penalty.) If you have the choice between playing your favorite game with a death penalty or without one, what would you choose? Often times the argument here is since you would play without that penalty if you could, you aren’t really all that interested in any extra “challenge” the death penalty may add to the game. This is flawed logic. Just because you will not actively put yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t have to does not mean you aren’t interested in challenge.

That’s why a reward is necessary. If there is no reward for the risk (which we’ll get to in a moment) why does a player want to put themselves in a fight which they have a good chance of not winning (and possibly not winning multiple times)?

Risk - This ties in quite neatly with reward (thus why there are so many risk vs. reward debates.) Much like the argument for reward, if there is no risk to a fight, no challenge, no chance of losing, then why bother? Sure, sometimes we all like to feel super-powered and blow through enemies in our way, but that’s not a good way to keep players with your game. If the player knows that they are going to win, then there is no sense of accomplishment when they do (which gets into territory relating to the various mentalities of players, most notably the Explorer, Socializer, Killer, Achiever, we’ll talk about that at another time though.) Setting and accomplishing goals is important. It’s why a story about a man who makes millions after being poor his entire life is so much more intriguing than hearing about a person who grew up wealthy and ended up making even more money,even if they both end up having the same amount when all is done. A story about a rich person making more money? Who cares. But a story where a poor person overcomes obstacles to make millions? That’s interesting.

That same mentality can be applied to risk, challenge, when designing an encounter.

Intensity - Here we get into some difficult to define territory. How do you define, and design for, intensity? Pace is important to introduce here. The pace of a truly memorable encounter needs to be different than any random encounter. The mistake many make when designing encounters is that they assume in order to add intensity pace must be increased, quickened. This is a problem because it assumes that the only way to create suspense is by things happening frenetically. Did you catch it there? I changed from the word intense to suspense because they are similar in the feeling you want to accomplish. An intense fight will create suspense, drama. That “will they or won’t they” moment that we always get watching a movie. Now think of some movies and figure out the pace that was used to bring about that feeling of suspense. In some movies it was probably a fast pace, but not in all of them. Chances are you thought of one movie which moved a bit slower. It built up that suspense over time and then hit you. Those are the types of movies that make you jump a little bit out of your seat.

Take that into account when designing an encounter. Allow pace to go both ways. Design encounters where the pace is slower, more pronounced, and do so in a way that adds suspense, and therefore, intensity.

Feeling - Once again we are in territory that is difficult to define. Feeling. What is it? Part of it ties directly in with intensity. That is a part of the feeling of the encounter, but it isn’t the whole thing (and it is also separate, as you can have an encounter that is intense without feeling.) Feeling, the way I’m defining it, is that “epic” idea of the encounter. It’s the thing that makes you feel like it’s important you be there. Really it ties up all the previous things I’ve talked about. If the lore isn’t there, you can’t have that “feeling”; if the risk or reward isn’t there you aren’t going to get that epic feeling. If the intensity is lacking you won’t get the feeling that you are accomplishing something great. That’s not to say, of course, that these encounters should make you feel as if you are indestructible, but you should get a strong sense of accomplishment from what you’ve done.

And really, that’s what the feeling is, accomplishment. Knowing that what you do actually matters. Now, it’s a given that this is something that needs to be implemented in games. A stronger sense of accomplishment, but that’s better left to another topic entirely.