Continuing the “random dialogue”, this time the topic is too much important to be condensed into one simple principle. Here we deal with the basic structure of a mmorpg and the discussion could continue in every direction and include every other topic.
My comments still in italics.
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Key idea: Players should be able to play with any other players they like, unless those players don’t want to play with them
Putting artificial barriers between players is bad. Players should have the opportunity to play with their friends without having to satisfy any special conditions. They should also be able to join any group they are interested in, as long as that group wants them. A single-shard model is ideal, but in the event that it’s impractical, characters should be transferable enough that players never feel like they can’t be with the people they want to be with. This applies to levels, shards, regions, whatever. If two people want to play together, they should never be prevented from doing so. There shouldn’t even be disincentives.
This is a huge problem and not that simple. A single shard isn’t a simple solution and, while possible, it still needs a form of “stratification” to be viable. My strategy and keyword is about “permeable barriers”. Which means that the barriers are still there (like servers and classes) but they are permeable, so with the possibility for the players to cross them with relative ease. The goal is to transform a limit (a barrier that makes you bounce back), into an advantage.
Sidenote: WoW managed to screw this up and STILL have the queue problem thanks to the retarded regionalization system they went with at launch.
Sidenote: World Passes? What the fuck? Are you telling me that if I buy this game with my friend, and we both go online that evening, we can’t make new characters and start playing together? Why the fuck not? Do you want me to play your game alone? Maybe it should be single-player, then. I don’t buy multiplayer games with the expectation of playing them with jackasses selected at random from the general public. I want to play with people I know.
Another large problem, the social structure of a mmorpg is the most important part and I have many ideas about this. The idea of “permeable barriers” allows the players to meet and play together if they want, without impassable barriers in the form of servers, classes or levels. But at the same time it’s crucial that the community opens up, welcomes and integrates new players. If you give the possibility to the players to just mind their own business, you’ll have an arid and drying community as a result. I always repeat that these games should be based on processes of integration more than exclusion and it’s where I think a game should go. That’s the strategy I would follow.
It is important to erase LFG problems. It is important to erase the dependence of players on other players and specific classes. To remove mandatory requirements. But at the same time the game needs to branch up and move to a level where the collaboration is important. I’m going to write more specifically about this, but the goal is to involve every player instead of just setting higher accessibility requirements (like the 40 people to do a raid). Veteran guilds and new players should play side by side. The biggest guilds should become the fabric of the game for the rest of the players, not elitist, secluded communities. Higher level content that opens up when you have many players collaborating should exist, but it should also become a structure that, when active, is going involve just everyone. Becoming “content” for everyone.
DAoC’s relic raids are an immature way to do something similar. A type of content that opens up and affects a whole realm, not just the single catass guild. My goal is to bring this type of content and overall collaboration to be the center of the game.
Brenlo has various questions and I have a few solutions to propose. My goal has always been about focusing on the collaboration. The “defects” he points out are instead the direct result of gameplay structures that aren’t really focused on the collaboration and where this collaboration is often just a side-effect that may or may not happen. So the idea is to give this approach much more relevance within the game and less self-greed driven mechanics. More “inclusion” than exclusion.
Let’s talk about high-end hardcore guild content. Something concrete, though. My idea is that what a guild accomplishes should be visible and affect the whole community. It shouldn’t be constricted in a private space detached from the rest of the game. The goal here is to make these guilds, and what they do, the center of the game, affecting everyone. Make people participate instead of segregating them.
Let’s take two concrete examples demonstrating roughly how it could be possible to achieve those goals. These aren’t real ideas, but just schematizations to simplify the idea, so don’t take them literally:
1- The hardcore guild goes into a private instanced dungeon to defeat a dragon. But the result isn’t exclusively a personal power growth for a couple of characters winning lottos. Instead the guild obtains the possibility to summon the dragon in the open PvP world and have it fighting for them in the territorial conquest. The dragon becomes a content that is ultimately exposed to everyone and not exclusively existing in a private space without affecting anyone else. The defeat of the dragon equals to the possibility to command the dragon in the non-instanced space for a set period of time.
2- A new dungeon is added to the game. This is the most hardcore type of content in the whole game. The difficulty is set very high, the dungeon is a 5-man but to complete it you need to go through a 6-hours marathon. Completely inaccessible for a casual player. The trick is to provide content and a true sense of achievement for the hardcore players. These guilds will slowly progress through the dungeon, getting nearer to its completition. There are no quests to grind as with the opening of Ahn’Qiraj, but just challenging, unforgiving content for those who can “afford” it. The change of pace happens at the end. When the first guild will finally “conquer” the dungeon by completing it from the beginning to the end, they’ll have the possibility to open a new portal to it. Every successful run through this dungeon will grant the possibility to open new portals, till all of them are enabled. The purpose of these portals is to “fragment” the dungeon in smaller units, so that single sections can be completed in a shorter time span and the six-hour marathon can be segmented into smaller, more accessible play-sessions. Every portal opened by a single catass guild is then available on the whole server. Giving the guild who achieved this acknowledgment and, at the same time, slowly opening up the hardcore content for every other player.
In both cases we have hardcore “catass” content. And in both cases this content isn’t isolated, but “brought back” to the community so that it is usable by everyone. So that it includes everyone. So that it has an effect for everyone. Concrete consequences. With at the end the purpose of the collaboration (the dragon fighting for the whole faction in PvP and the portals being enabled for the whole community).
Which is the ultimate goal: *all* the hardcore content in the game must always have an “hook” back to the whole community. What many players in a guild achieve should *always* have a communal objective that can then be shared with the whole playerbase. This is how you make a game truly collaborative and how you can make these big guilds a center of a game that *creates gameplay* for everyone. This is fundamental. Opening up these communities instead of isolating them and creating increasing gaps between veteran and young players. The goal is again to have them play *side by side*, becoming reciprocal resources.
The result is an healthy community in the long term, a better player retention, a true sense of positive achievement and collaboration and an overall better satisfaction while playing the game. Since what you do is better “motivated”.