Post by Zeli on Mar 29, 2007 20:05:02 GMT -5
source: Skyles Blog
Skyles is a regular poster/contributor on Only-WAR. I liked this so I thought I'd share it here.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Quest for the MMOG Holy Grail
So you've played an MMO for a year, or two or even three. You paid, you had fun, but now you find yourself bored, disliking the game and bitter with the decisions of the game publisher. Are you out of line? Doesn't boredom set in with every computer game after you've played it a few times? Didn't the MMO remain fun longer than most games? How can you be unhappy about a game that successfully entertained you month after month, even year after year?
Most experienced MMOG players have gone through this. They stop playing their first game and start drifting from one game to the next, constantly looking for something and constantly disappointed. Some keep switching, others grow more and more disappointed and bitter with each game until they just stop playing MMOGs altogether. Like Questing Knights they seek something etherial, falling one by one as they lose faith and hope.
Why the disappointment, the ever-growing dissatisfaction?
Reading the design philosophy statements from the folks at EA Mythic gave me an epiphany, a moment of sudden comprehension. Whether experienced MMOG players know it or not, they're not looking for a computer game. They aren't looking for a packaged experience that they can buy, play for 40 or 50 hours, then put on a shelf. They're looking for two things: first, they're looking for an enduring pastime, a hobby - something they can commit to mastering and then enjoy just as long as they could enjoy playing basketball or chess; something that draws them back week after week, month after month, year after year, for a lifetime.
And, as with pastimes like chess and basketball, the MMOG player is looking for ways to fully interact and share the experience with other's who enjoy the same pastime. Like every golf course needs its clubhouse, MMOGs need tools that allow their players to organize and interact - event and scheduling tools, group organization tools, tools that allow them to customize and share personal space.
When an MMOG turns out to be a canned, limited experience; when it leaves its players isolated, unable to organize and interact in a meaningful way, it disappoints - it reveals itself as a simple computer game. As a computer game it might be a success, giving the players weeks and months of enjoyable play time. But as an MMOG, once the players realize that the experience is not, like chess or basketball, a life-long repeatable experience, it fails.
MMOG players don't look back at the time invested like they would look at a single player game. If they played Elder Scrolls III for a year, they remember that it entertained them for a year. If they play an MMOG for a year before quitting, they remember how it disappointed them, the ways it failed to live up to the pastime and hobby experience that it should have been. Its like they spent a year mastering a sport only to find out they would only be allowed to play one season, and they'd get nothing lasting from the experience. As a computer game the MMOG is a success, but as an MMO experience, it is a complete failure.
Right or wrong? Agree or disagree? What do you think it takes to make an MMOG as repeatable an experience as chess, golf or basketball? What kind of tools would an MMOG need to really support the development of its player community?
The Quest for the MMOG Holy Grail
So you've played an MMO for a year, or two or even three. You paid, you had fun, but now you find yourself bored, disliking the game and bitter with the decisions of the game publisher. Are you out of line? Doesn't boredom set in with every computer game after you've played it a few times? Didn't the MMO remain fun longer than most games? How can you be unhappy about a game that successfully entertained you month after month, even year after year?
Most experienced MMOG players have gone through this. They stop playing their first game and start drifting from one game to the next, constantly looking for something and constantly disappointed. Some keep switching, others grow more and more disappointed and bitter with each game until they just stop playing MMOGs altogether. Like Questing Knights they seek something etherial, falling one by one as they lose faith and hope.
Why the disappointment, the ever-growing dissatisfaction?
Reading the design philosophy statements from the folks at EA Mythic gave me an epiphany, a moment of sudden comprehension. Whether experienced MMOG players know it or not, they're not looking for a computer game. They aren't looking for a packaged experience that they can buy, play for 40 or 50 hours, then put on a shelf. They're looking for two things: first, they're looking for an enduring pastime, a hobby - something they can commit to mastering and then enjoy just as long as they could enjoy playing basketball or chess; something that draws them back week after week, month after month, year after year, for a lifetime.
And, as with pastimes like chess and basketball, the MMOG player is looking for ways to fully interact and share the experience with other's who enjoy the same pastime. Like every golf course needs its clubhouse, MMOGs need tools that allow their players to organize and interact - event and scheduling tools, group organization tools, tools that allow them to customize and share personal space.
When an MMOG turns out to be a canned, limited experience; when it leaves its players isolated, unable to organize and interact in a meaningful way, it disappoints - it reveals itself as a simple computer game. As a computer game it might be a success, giving the players weeks and months of enjoyable play time. But as an MMOG, once the players realize that the experience is not, like chess or basketball, a life-long repeatable experience, it fails.
MMOG players don't look back at the time invested like they would look at a single player game. If they played Elder Scrolls III for a year, they remember that it entertained them for a year. If they play an MMOG for a year before quitting, they remember how it disappointed them, the ways it failed to live up to the pastime and hobby experience that it should have been. Its like they spent a year mastering a sport only to find out they would only be allowed to play one season, and they'd get nothing lasting from the experience. As a computer game the MMOG is a success, but as an MMO experience, it is a complete failure.
Right or wrong? Agree or disagree? What do you think it takes to make an MMOG as repeatable an experience as chess, golf or basketball? What kind of tools would an MMOG need to really support the development of its player community?
Skyles is a regular poster/contributor on Only-WAR. I liked this so I thought I'd share it here.