I come from a five hours, incessant discussion with a friend about game design and mmorpgs. It was so absolutely useful to talk with someone in my own language. I could elaborate so quickly so many concept and I was able to summarize most of the work in the last three months. All at once.

This discussion was so absolutely useful for me because I was able to make a better synthesis of all I read, thought and wrote along these months. Too often I analyze a problem taken out of the general context, delving in the detail but losing the correct reference. Sometimes I forget how things are interconnected and how each solution to a problem must be coordinated and not contradictory with another one. As I often repeated, I always design starting from problems. I isolate some fundamental problems in the mmorpgs (socialization, pvp balance, narrative, emergent play, healer classes and so on), identify all the traits and then try to derive my own solutions. So all these ideas start from crucial points and I always try to suggest alternatives that I believe are valid and worthwhile. This is design for me. I have a problem and try to figure out effective solutions. Minimizing the side-effects (or “deficiencies” as Raph calls them, see the end of the article).

Recently we touched so many fundamental points. About the limits and accessibility problems of a sandbox, about the linearity and staticity of a narrative, about the unexcused, negative transition from the levels being a way to progress in the story (classic pen&paper RPG) to the story being a way to progress through the levels (classic DikuMUD progression). We have lost the story. Some also said that we lost the possibility to affect and change the world, like branching quests that open up different possibilities.

I wrote my own opinion about all these points and suggested many solutions. But it’s always hard to make a synthesis of all that. It’s hard to have a “one size fits all” answer that is truly satisfactory without those “deficiencies”. I wrote that some of the problems, goals and solutions are antithetic. You cannot find a solution for everything because one will be opposed to the other. I gave up here. I’m not good enough to think something that works so smoothly. A story, to be a very good story, needs identity and authorship. Control. It has a start and an end. It’s more or less linear, even if you can segment it and let the player follow a personal order. But all the pieces would still be there.

At the basic level: a good story has an awful replayability.

After you have spoiled it, part of the fun of the exploration and discovery will go away. Yes, we could chase the myth of of the branching possibilities. So that you can repeat a story and find out different possibilities. But this makes the development time increase exponentially and these games have budgets, and these budgets depend on time. This would also not remove the artificiality of a falsely persistent world where you can go back and repeat something to see it going in a different way. It’s a paradox, a false solution.

Mixing together the needs of a strong narrative, an accessible, deep sandbox and a satisfying character progression (along with an healthy socialization and community cohesion) IS JUST NOT POSSIBLE. They have antithetic requirements. The narrative needs a start an an end, it needs deep characters, stories and myths. And it needs to be accessible without mandatory grouping, without other players asking you to skip reading the text because you are wasting time. Without these other players IMPOSING STANDARDS on how you experience the content. I fucking hate this. I want to play the fucking game at my own pace, in my own way, screwing up the way I like, in the order I like and without hearing a fucking annoying noob getting in my way, getting me killed, criticizing what I’m doing or spoiling me the whole thing.

I FUCKING HATE OTHER PLAYERS IN MMORPGs.

What’s this? Me going nut? No. These are the requirements of a GOOD narrative. When I read a book I immerse myself into it. The world outside STOPS TO EXIST. Noone can dictate me how to read, what to read. It’s all about me and the book. I isolate myself hermetically from the outside and the same happens when I’m enjoying an old RPG. It’s about me and the world. My exploration, my experience. The Full Immersion. This type of narrative CANNOT require mandatory grouping. It CANNOT require you to play five hours straight, all at once. It CANNOT require you to plan your life around a game. It CANNOT require you to catass to victory. I want a game that is accessible: 1- When I fucking have the time to play 2- Right away without making me dependent on other players. Without forcing me to adapt to other players. I want my own game. At my pace. For my enjoyment. I am the measure of my game and I fucking DON’T CARE if someone out there is advancing way faster than me. I don’t want the competition here. I want the story and me in the story. I want to zone out of that crap. Fuck the socialization, other players suck. I have enough of depending on them, their time, their pace and their classes.

This is not me going nut (again), this is what other players out there are demanding. The first things everyone wants to know about a new mmorpg, every kind of mmorpg, is if it’s possible to solo or not. Peoples are SICK of depending on other people, of impassable barriers that make content inaccessible. Of mandatory 40-man raids lasting 5+ hours as the only way to progress. Peoples are SICK of that sort of design. Peoples have enough of adapting their life to a game. Peoples are sick (literally) when their houses smell of cat ass. People want games with a value, not excuses to chase carrots-on-a-stick. People want interesting stories, deep characters. An immersive world that simulates different elements and isn’t just combat, combat and more combat. People want broader worlds, good stories, a deeper interactivity. Something that is truly valuable as an experience and not some “fill in” grind because the developers are at loss.

How can you put together all these pieces together? I have no solution. It’s impossible to build a game about other players when these other players are its first problem. You want “x” and “y”, together. But where “x” is the contrary of “y”. Where one breaks the other. I want a mmorpg where I’m not dependent on other players, but then aren’t mmorpgs just about other players? What the hell, go playing a fucking single player then.

Yes, you can try to mingle all these aspects together, trying to discover the games of the future that will do everything right, all at once. You can call this “rich world simulations”. Imho, you are just entering a tunnel that you’ll never exit and risk to break more than you can fix. Maybe it’s possible, but it’s not viable right now. Not even worthwhile. The best solutions are always the simpler ones. Those that make you wonder why you didn’t get the idea before, after someone else had it. Intuitions.

I don’t have intuitions here as I don’t have one solution for every problem. But I can try to do my best with what I have available. My principle from the start has been about reposition each element we have in these games where it is more appropriate. Where it is most valuable and can be used as a resource, instead of a source of problems. So I don’t have one perfect solution, but I have it as collection of parts to place every problem where it belongs, making the game work better and, hopefully, making the players enjoy the game at the best of its possibilities.

My “dream game” is built of three different layers. I’ve tried to simplify and abstract as much as possible here to close all the points I’ve risen above. Offering my own solution:

– The Sandbox
The PvP world. Here is “the world in the hand of the players”. A large war map with regions, cities and smaller outposts, with two hardcoded factions (Chaos and Law) at war, with a third (Balance) set as a “pad” between the two (superficially: dedicated crafters, traders and mercenaries). Making temporary alliances with one or the other, keeping the commerce alive and maintaining a delicate equilibre (Chaos needs some resources that only Law can produce and vice versa. The “Balance” is the only way to trade those resources between the two). This is the “satisfying repetable content”, a character progression with a flat levelling curve, where you can unblock different ranks and roles but where one isn’t directly more powerful than the other. Where you aren’t acquiring directly better versions of the same skill, but where you open up different possibilities of interactions in the war. Making the gameplay more varied, with squadrons, different units and different goals for each. Bringing variety and dynamism in the war. All the world is in the hands of the players, all the world can be conquered and managed by the players. There’s an emergence of RTS game, collecting resources, keeping supply lines between the regions, patrols and so on. It’s a system, a world simulated in all its part. It’s the immersion in a “world at war” and where each element has a specific purpose. Nothing is linear here and it’s all about the stories and situations that the players create. Emergent gameplay. Dynamic situations. It’s like the RvR in Dark Age of Camelot. The power differential between each player is minimal to keep the balance. Veteran players play along with young ones, in the same battles. All the goals are shared, you fight for the realm, not to grow your e-peen. PvP is socialization, here you are together with other players. Coordinated with them. Everything has the goal of bringing the players together. And not apart. All the economy and trade happen solely on this level. RMT is technically not possible, I’m sorry (no, I’m not).

– The Narrative
The narrative is a linear path. It must have a start and an end. This is where the quests exist, where you’ll experience interesting stories and discover interesting characters. This is the level of the immersion. You travel in the multiverse, between different planes of (ir)reality. The scenario can shapeshift. You live the story. All the quest and stories are completely detached from a functional power progression. The gameplay focuses on the story itself. Your character isn’t the purpose. You chase the story. You explore. Every advancement you make is about the story, opening up possibilities that cannot be opened in another way. You move through this progression while you live along the NPCs. Your goals are goals that are set by the story, your power is secondary and never directly connected. To move between these regions and the various planes (hubs) you’ll need to progress through this story. Exactly like a single player RPG. There is no “grind” because good stories aren’t excuses to give you experience points. This progress is still *mandatory*. You cannot skip it if you want to access new zones and progress in the story.

In order to fulfill all those points the content must follow two rules:

1- I must be able to experience this part of the game at my own pace. When I find some time to log in. Whether I have 10 minutes, 1 hour or 5 hours available. The game must be always ready and accessible to make me have fun for the time I have available. Free of time constraints imposed by the game.

2- This content MUST BE SOLOABLE FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END. I should NEVER depend on other players, or their classes, or their impositions. I must be freed from the competition with other players so that I can play the game at my own pace, the way I choose. Free to immerse myself. Grouping should be *never* mandatory but it will remain optional. I can still go adventuring with another friend, till a maximum of four players in the group. A duo should be the norm. The instances will be balanced on the fly to adapt themselves to the number of players.

This type of approach also opens the possibilities to PvE expansions. Again, the progress through the story has nothing to do with you achieving more power and loot. There’s no “carrot” to chase. No artificial excuse. You can enjoy your progress through the story or avoid it. So what? I would still LOVE to play a game if the story is interesting and I’m enjoying exploring it. No, I don’t need “carrots-on-a-stick” to motivate me. If I’m having fun that’s enough to keep me involved and immersed in the game world. At the same time this new content remains optional for every players and will never be mandatory to compete.

– The Communal PvE
Each plane/hub will have a set of stories and adventures that require larger groups of players to complete. These can go from a 5-man dungeon to epic raids. To unlock all the content on this layer, you still have to progress through the story (“the narrative”) so that you have access to all the different planes. All the content on this layer is optional. You can have competitive dungeons, survival arenas and every kind of different mode. Here you depend on other players, have to build balanced groups and have to organize to succeed. The loot dropping in these instances is not directly more powerful than what you’ll get from the “narrative”, but you’ll get special, rarer items (they look different, have fancier effects, open up secret plots and stories, but will never offer more power). These communal PvE instances are also the only way to summon powerful “artifacts” into the PvP world.

These artifacts make a player near to a demi-god. One player wielding one or more artifacts can fight alone and win against multiple opponents and will be really, really hard to take down without an organized effort from the opposite side. These demi-gods are supposed to become the focus of the PvP in a similar way to how the “heroes” were used in Warcraft 3. They are special and unique. They artifacts aren’t usable in PvE, they lose all their properties if they are brought in a PvE instance. In order to keep them on your character, you need to “feed” them by killing the players on the opposite factions and have a role in the conquest, participating actively in the PvP. Exposing yourself. If you are hiding you won’t be able to fulfill the “feed” requirements and you’ll lose the artifact. When you have an artifact with you your character will change its appearance and you’ll be recognizable in the battlefield. Even graphically you’ll transform into a demi-god. The other faction will also know that one of the artifacts was summoned and will be able to “divinate” your position in the map. They can track you down. you will be hunted. If you die in a PvP battle, your artifact will be dropped on the ground and one of the players in the opposite faction can loot it and use it, acquiring the powers that were yours. The artifacts are also limited in number. Each type of artifact can have only a fixed (and really small) nuber of “copies” active in a PvP world. The most powerful artifacts are unique and one and only one copy can exist in the PvP world at once. If an artifact is unique, the instance where it can be summoned will be sealed till the artifact remains in the PvP world. There isn’t a time limit to the persistence of an artifact in the PvP world, just its “feeding” and “active” requirements. If the feeding requirement aren’t met, or if the player with the artifact has been logged out for too long, not meeting the active requirements, the artifact is reset to the original PvE instance that will remain sealed for a set amount of time depending on the type of the artifact.

This is also how I expect to create interesting patterns in PvP. These demi-gods players will remain truly *rare* and not mandatory to play the game because the number of artifacts that can exist in the world is strictly limited. Only very few players will be active, using them. This makes them exceptions. The demi-gods are supposed to create gameplay for everyone. They become targets. They are recognizeable in the battlefield and will make the war feel more “epic”. They will become “hotspots” themselves, leaders of armies to siege other regions. A demi-god can be a strong advantage in a battle in the exact same way it happens in Warcraft 3. At the same time, these powers are transitory. Once you are fighting (and you are required to) you are also vulnerable and if you cannot survive a battle you’ll lose your powers and someone in the opposite faction will inherit them, overthrowing the previous situation. During a battle there isn’t a limit to how many times the artifact can switch from a faction to the other, till the “feed” requirements are met. Again, these tools are PvP tools and are meaningful only when actively used. The artifact loses all its properties outside the PvP world, becoming just a dead envelop till it is brought back to the PvP. Finally, a demi-god cannot use any fast travel option (teleports and such) while in the PvP world.

—
This idea of a game has no levels and is based on percent skills. The power curve remains flat but the character advancements is deep and is inherited by other statistics, like plane affinity, magic items progression and so on. The skills increase with the use, whether you are progressing in the narrative, or participating in the PvP. Both patterns are viable and balanced to be equally desirable. As I explained, the progress in the story is detached from functional XP rewards. Most of the game content (both PvP and PvE) is already accessible right out of the box. The aim is to bring the players together instead of building artificial barriers between them.

(character advancement as a result rather than motivation)

From Raph:

The challenge at the end of the article stands, which is to come up with a systems that does satisfy all the things you want. What would it play like? How would it feel? If it has deficiencies (it will), are they easily remedied?

(first part)

Its not a problem of quests, its a problem of the fundamental game mechanics that enforce the quest-types.

For example, mobs in WoW do not eat. They do not sleep. They don’t go to a job. They don’t talk. They don’t move to a different zone. They just stand around, walk around a bit for exercise, they attack a PC if he gets too close, die, and respawn a few minutes later.

WHOA… its shocking that complex quests can’t be built around the pathetic limitations of mob behavior!

The only (current) solution given the mundane and static world of todays VSOGs is quests that are about WoW players. But the problem, again, is gameplay limitation. What do WoW players want? Items, gold, experience, socialization. WoW players actually want much more, but WoW only gives them so much.

That’s a quote from a very old post on Q23, from Brian Koontz. I wasn’t expecting to use it but I found it on a text file just a minute ago and it may fit. This will be a follow-up to my summarized analysis about quest mechanics. This time focusing on the solutions and the answers to those questions that concluded the previous article.

Here is where I left:

In the quest I brought as an example above the text seems to get in the way of the game, not part of it. Again, you are rewarded if you read it (well-written text) but it’s still felt as an intrusion. Something that doesn’t seem to belong there. An ‘extra’ text (once again) that in that case is getting a tad too much “inflated”.

Now the point is, Mythic seems to have some good writers, and then some wonderful artists. These are precious *resources* and they seem good. Isn’t there a better way to use them? Would it be possible to move the text there (without changing it) to a different context to make it more meaningful and with a more appropriate “presentation”? Is there a way to valorize that text?

I don’t mean changing the font and making it more readable. I mean transforming it in a *subject* (and value) of the game instead of just an ‘extra’ that most of the players would (and will) rather skip (the outcome is the same, your “duty” is to click till the end till you “ding” the reward. Nothing could go wrong).

The “solutions” to these problems will be the subject of another article. But I’ll anticipate that these ideas I have will be about recovering that functional purpose that made the text in those old games I quoted so relevant and… fun.

The goals here are about:
1- Transform passive, ‘extra’ text as *subject* of the gameplay and not as just an inflated backdrop that the players would rather skip so they can go back at “playing the game”

4- Reward those players that read and ‘explore’ actively the game this way

As I always say what is important is to set the goals. Once the goals are set we can consider the possible solutions, which could work or not. What is fundamental is to have a reference that is valid. Those four points are the reference I used to come up with my ideas.

Now there not much to invent. I always considered ‘game design’ as not something where the rabid creativity is terribly useful and I also don’t feel so talented when it comes to the pure creativity. What I consider more useful is the capability to observe, understand how things work, bring them back to the essential and figure out new, better ways to use what’s available. It’s about rediscovering and adjusting. Shaping things more than inventing them out of thin air. Working and researching more than being a genius doing everything perfect at the first try.

In this case the second point defines what I want to bring back. This isn’t abstract theory, this is about concrete ideas. What’s written in the first goal may appear as fancy but it already happened in those classic RPGs, like the Ultima series, System Shock and even Bioware games, like Baldur’s Gate or Torment. These were wonderful stories where the gameplay was more about the dialogues than combat. And that ‘text’ wasn’t felt as an intrusive extra. It was the spice of the game, what made it *fun*.

So what’s the difference between those games and the quests in the current mmorpgs? To my eyes it’s rather evident. In WoW the essential part of a quest is its objective. Similarly in DAoC you click through lenghty, optional text that is there as context. While you’ll have what’s actually relevant for the gameplay in your “journal”. In both these games the quest has two, nearly autonomous parts: the context, which is optional, and the objective, which is required. Autonomous because you can easily do without the first part (and the game somewhat pushes you that way) and because the two, nearly always, have nothing to share when it comes to the gameplay.

Basically, the optional text gives a context to the quest but serves no practical purpose. In nearly all the cases you can do without it if the quest objectives aren’t poorly written.

The first two goals I wrote up there can be joined together, the same it is possible with the last two. I believe that reading in the old RPGs had a special flavor and was “fun” because it was, in fact, the *subject* of the gameplay (first goal) and not an inflated backdrop. So one goal flows naturally in the second. The point here is that in those old games you didn’t have any “aid” to streamline your gameplay. See these three examples:

– In System Shock you start basically stuck in a room. You cannot move out of it till you don’t find a log file and read it to find the key-code that will allow you to open the door. The same log file will tell you what is supposed to be your next step, but from that point onward the game loses the linearity and will become just a complex, hostile environment where you follow “bread crumbs” of informations. The first environment is that small so that you can get used to the mechanics of the game. You have to read the log files to understand your situation and place in the game. Learn the environment where you are put, collecting and putting together parts of the story till you are able to figure out the overall scheme. This game has its greatest quality in the freedom it leaves to the player. It isn’t directly linear and all the game is fragmented in those little pieces that you progressively bring together. It’s one of the most immersive games ever.

– In Ultima 8 you start on a isle and there’s basically no interface helping you. No quest journal to speak of. You are basically trapped in the first small town till you don’t figure out who to speak with and where to go next. You won’t have a waypoint on a map, you won’t see big exclamation marks hovering NPCs heads, telling you that a quest is available. You’ll have to figure out all that by yourself. By speaking with people, exploring the place, asking the right questions, progressively learning about the world around you. Two seconds in the game you’ll meed Devon, a fisherman. If you ask the right questions he will tell you a lot of the place where you are. If you ask the wrong questions those informations are lost and you’ll have to gather them from other sources. Devon will still give you two basic hints: go see what’s happening on the dock (an execution) and go speak with Bentic, a librarian that you can find in the eastern part of the town. Again you have to figure out these basic informations from the dialogues, since the game doesn’t point you artificially in those directions.

– In Ultima 7 you gate directly into Trinsic. Even here you are stuck in the town and cannot leave it till you don’t accept to investigate a crime and obtain the permission to leave. Even here you have to explore the game world, talk to the people inhabiting it, learning about their stories, figuring out their relationships and finally playing a role in how things develop. There isn’t one defined path shining brightly and when you finally solve the first “quest” and are able to leave Trinsic you aren’t rewarded with a “ding” and some experience points. Your character basically remains the same throughout the whole game at the exclusion of some story items you’ll have to acquire.

All these three examples are WONDERFUL VIRTUAL WORLDS. They still are better than anything we have online right now. There’s no other game with the same depth and immersive experience. To deliver all that these games have characters that “live” in those worlds. They aren’t functional buttons you press to get a quest or buy stuff. Are those characters to give life to the world. You start with no knowledge and you move your first steps talking to those NPCs so that you can slowly learn about the game world, slowly becoming part of it, taking an active role. But that world and those stories existed before you stepped in. You are an explorer. You wander around, find places, get to know those NPCs. Live with them.

Ding! Grats? There’s none. Noone cares about skills or stats. In the Ultima series the combat and the micromanagment of your character are close to NULL. Still they are wonderful games. Some of the best (if not the best) ever created. Still today.

It should be clear that the difference is that the text was used in those games as part of the *exploration*. It wasn’t an optional backdrop. Without going around, exploring, asking questions to the various NPCs, taking notes and learning the history and culture of that world, you wouldn’t be able to do ANYTHING in the game. There wasn’t a total focus on the combat, or kill ten foozles, or gain ‘x’ levels. It was about the world, the stories, living an immersive experience in as many aspects as possible. In Ultima 7 the NPCs had schedules and it felt already so incredible watching the guards patrolling and turning off the lights in Britain at night. It was pure atmosphere in a self-consistent virtual world.

Two are the patterns that I isolated in those old games and that we completely lost today:

– The first (first and second goal) is that the text was an active part of that research I explained. You had to figure out the objectives by yourself, dialoguing with the NPCs and progressively acquiring the informations you were looking for (this is gameplay). Engaging the logic of the game world (and your own). The dialogues were just that: dialogues. They didn’t need to be anything else.

– The second pattern is about the *function* of the quests:

In my idea (that mimics that magic that made me love so much those early games and that the modern ones have lost) a quest is a mean for the story. A quest can be a way to get access to a different zone, discover a new spell, convince an NPC to do something for you, and so on. If an NPC asks you to obtains some reagents (kill10rats) it’s because once you have accomplished that simple quest, something will happen after. And then something else. You wouldn’t chase strictly your character progress. You would chase a story and discover, step after step, a world. A world with its own depth and identity before you put your foot in it. Learning from it and not inflicting ‘punishment’ on everything that budges. If you don’t deliver those reagents that were requested, or if you don’t find an alternate way to pass that point, you wouldn’t be able to continue with the (your) story. Because the story is the *function*, not the pretext.

This means that there could be “kill10rats” quests. But they would be part of a world and a story that goes on, cohesively. And not a redundant action without a purpose.

In those old games questing was a mean for the story. Acquiring more power, if it was possible, was to move the story onward (Raph described exactly the same things on his analysis of the D&D, here). Not the opposite. The narrative was the purpose of the game, not an intrusive ‘extra’ getting in the way of mob-bashing. The purpose was the story, the world, your active role in that world. Learning it, discovering it. You were discovering something BESIDE you. Not your e-peen growing indefinitely. You cannot tell me that a growing e-peen is more satisfactory than the immersive experience of those virtual worlds. Because, if this is true, it’s YOU to be broken beyond repair, not these games.

Everything I’m writing here closely resembles to what I was shouting during Wish beta. There are two faces of the medal similar to what I said defining the dichotomies of instancing. It’s in the PvP that the world should be focused on the PLAYERS. Make them the pivot of the game. Giving them control, letting them cooperate. And then there’s the PvE, with its antithetic needs. Where the focus should be on the *world* itself. Offering stories, learning its culture, exploring it. If this world doesn’t “breath” on its own, if it doesn’t has secrets to discover, if it doesn’t frighten, well, it wouldn’t have any value. It wouldn’t offer anything worthwhile.

The PvP is about a game where the players make experience of each other and relate to each other. It’s the social layer. The players are brought together, the collective effort. Something bigger is being built. It’s the starting point for emergent content.

The PvE is about a game where the players make experience of the world and what it has to offer. Where you narrate a story to them and to that story they will belong. It’s the journey toward something you do not expect, the exploration. It’s about the surprise, the discovery, the fear. This is the roleplay where you impersonate the character and live a story with him.

I want real dialogues and “living” NPCs as it happened in the Ultima series. Where you don’t skip the quest text to get a strict summary of the objectives, but where, instead, you have to RESEARCH and EXPLORE. Talk with different NPCs, taking notes, figuring out the stories. Where you can ask about different topics and not just click, click, click and click again till you reached the end of a one-way text and finally got the quest. Where these NPCs are interconnected and where the dialogues are more rich. So that the world comes to life as something cohesive and not a bunch of quests glued together without any tie between one or the other if not a vague reference. A world where EVERY item is interconnected.

Dialogues that aren’t simply functional to get or finish a quest, or flagged clearly that way. The NPCs would tell things to you, recommend who to speak to, where to search what you are looking for, give informations about the world where you live, explain how to open that portal. But without strictly functional quests that trigger at some point. Without the game recognizing between “this is the text for a quest” and “this is extra text”. Without a “you got a quest!”. Without functional mechanics “you gained 300xp!”.

If you are trapped in a dungeon, your duty would be to escape alive. Not to get experience points because you killed the monsters. If you are working to open a portal to another world your duty would be to research and collect the items and knowledge you need to do open it, and not other unexcused rewards. If you are researching a new spell, your duty would be about studying it, learn where you can acquire it, train it. But not magically “dinging” and the spell appearing in your hotbar because you “gained a level”.

Then, maybe, reading will regain its function instead of remaining “optional” extra text without a purpose.

Concretely? Here is the plan: