so im thinking here.. who's idea was it that MMOS had to be role playing? (which the biggest ones are). As stated in the other thread, theres a huge decline in roleplaying - most people in the game play to be the best. or, when not to be the best, just to level and gain skills (cuz, thats also fun). but whats the point of doing that in an mmo setting? mostly doing co-op adventures, and showing off how awesome you are. the greatest possible outcome is the idea of the perpetual world filled with real people, that you can actually have an impact upon, and impact others can see, but the simple facts it is a game and millions of people have to have the same experience at different times ruins the chances of any single player drastically impacting the game world.. ANYWAY..none of that was the point., its just me defining my frustration with the current MMO trend. the real question is, is there any other kind of gameplay that can make greater use of the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of real people in the same game world at the same time? theres GOTTA be. and im talking about soemthing so outside the box here.... just posting this to see what people thing, i dont know the answer, ive been thinking about it for a few days now.

A tournament based MMOG where players become ranked based on how well they do and at the end of a tournament they win real life money is one form. Basically any method that pulls away from the MMOG "world" and has effects outside.. but these forms would take away from the immersion that makes MMOGs so additive and entertaining. I believe that even a co-op design and showing off how cool your online character and its equipment and weapons are should still be considered in the "RPG" shadow, or whatever you want to call it..

Tournaments aren't a bad idea, though it takes away from one of the main elements of MMOs. The fact is, a MMOG is one that contains a world where people can log on at any time to find something they want to do for however long they want. The freedom is part of the draw, I think.

I think that the freedom itself is one of the largest limitations, since you really have to accomodate for the different playing habits of the possibly hundred of thousands of people playing the game. So, to a certain extent, MMOG may just be another fad in the gaming world that would either die in a few years or evolve into another completely different beast.

the different playing habits is a good point.. hmmmmmmmm indeed

though the point about being able to log in an do whatever you want for however long you want doesnt sort of work in most mmorpgs. travel time, finding people to group with, and travel to location where fun will take place all come before actually having the fun. alot of mmos are trying to help this out. actually, im only thinking of guildwars here wherein you can insta-warp to a place. but even in that game, while travel time is nothing, finding a group is rediculously hard.

i do agree that having no restrictions on the time it takes to have fun is a great idea.

speaking of tournaments ive been wonding about the state of sport games on pc. the only competition/sporting seems to come from fps - nothing against that, fps on pc cant be beat. could sporting be expanded though.. purhaps to mmo?

Man there are unique MMOGs out there.



There are the wierd community games like:

A Tale In the Desert.
Second Life.
There.
The Sims Online.
etc..

There are alot more in this genre too.

The notable thing is if you combined all the subscriptions together from every MMOG that is not an RPG, you wouldn't even come close to the subscriptions of even one big RPG, and there are alot of them.

There is not a lack of choice in MMOGs, RPGs are just popular.

Second Life probably offers the most player impact on the world. But there is not much structure, game wise, to second life.

Out of all the MMOGs, the most ballsy is probably WWIIOL. It is way outside the box, and it will never be hugely popular becuase so. The industry isn't the only one that punishes pioneering game design. The players do too.


I think my point is that there is a wide range of MMOGs. But people simply don't like them, or they are too afraid to try them, or they just don't knwo about them.

I remember a detective MMO from a few months back. Gunshoe or Shamus or Flatfoot or something.It was neat, but there wasn't much in the way of interaction with other players. And really, a world full of private dicks would probably get weird in a hurry.

But the notion of an adventure MMO is always good. Trouble is, the genre has evolved in a one-player paradigm. How can we have 5000 people inhabiting a puzzle-based world without solving everything in a few hours? Remember those UT maps where you had to perform impressive feats of agility and solve puzzles to win? There were always three or four players who knew everything and did it in five seconds. I couldn't even keep up with them well enough to see the solutions.

But there were a few maps that required real teamwork. There was one where you had to blast a vehicle across a chasm. You'd stick grenades on it such that the blast would propel it across the hole. Then you'd do the same thing to a few members of the team. Friendly fire was off, so they wouldn't be hurt, but you couldn't do yourself, since suicide was still possible. It took a lot of communication and teamwork to make it.

That said, I never saw the end of that level. Some jackass would always stick his grenades on the side of the vehicle and blow it in completely the wrong direction. Then we'd start over, and he'd blast us all into the hole so we couldn't do the job.

Maybe if the game was structured like a Reality TV show. You all get in there and try to solve the challenge. WHen the team fails, you all have a vote to select one player to be "booted" in exchange for the rest of the team respawning, or the puzzle resetting, or whatever. Another player can join up, and you try again. When you have a winning team, you can continue together.

I've always wondered what it would be like to take Animal Crossing and make it an MMOG. May be quite interesting in itself. Completely passive and non-violent while being a community based game.

What we really need in order to get MMOGs on the mass market is some MMOT - Massively Multiplayer Online Trivia.

shmoove