MMO Gaming

A while back I mentioned what it takes to make a perfect game…or at least a perfect MMO. Well, I guess in truth I only gave a part of the story. While all those elements together would create a great game (and, on top of that, be something we haven’t seen before) they would not make a “perfect” MMO.

In fact, all these elements, even executed perfectly would still not be the perfect MMO. There is more to the story than that. All those paths represent only one possible arc a player can take. There is much more to consider here, each with its own branching paths and problems which need to be addressed.

The common thread through all of these, though, is the “S” marker. Without that any new game will not do well. It exists above and beyond each path and each arc. Which is, actually, rather odd considering the trend of most MMOs coming out.

I think I’ve missed mentioning a few key points that may not be clear, so let’s get them out in the open right now. The original post referred to, obviously, the famous (or infamous depending on who you talk to) Personality types developed by Dr. Bartle. Therefore the “S” I am referring to is the “Social” aspect. Now, the test determines player types and I am referring to “paths” but I feel the connection is plain. You need to make viable ways for each player type to interact with the world. Primarily “explorer” players need to be able to invest time into that outlet in your game and advance in meaningful ways. Primarily “killer” players need to be able to invest time in, and advance in that way, and so on for each of those types. I’ll exclude the social from this because, as I said, it actually seems to be a common thread linking all arcs together so actually exists both inside and outside of the individual paths and player types.

Essentially we have only represented one of several possible arcs though. We have represented “adventuring” as our sole possible way of advancing in the world by using the method I originally described. While adventuring is certainly the most common arc to follow, probably also the most popular and by far the one that all players “need” to participate in it is still not the only arc available.

Let’s come back to this topic in another post and start describing each of these arcs, I’d hate to get too long-winded.

mmog, mmo gaming, mmo, design, game design, bartle, EASK, explorer, achiever, socalizer, killer