Comments on: The Contemporary MMO Challenge

By: Brian McIntosh

Brian McIntosh — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:20:51 +0000

Wow, I’m sorry I’m finding this blog so late. It sounds like you’re onto something good. I’ve long appreciated the transcendence of MMOs. They are vastly social and can reach a much broader audience in terms of appeal than many contemporary computer or console game types.
I also think you are on the right track with SciFi. We haven’t seen a huge runaway SciFi hit yet the likes of WoW or EQ.
As far as ‘magic’ goes, there are a number of mechanics that work well for fantasy mmos and this is one of them. I would say don’t lose the element, just implement it as some kind of technology. I think alot of designers get hungup on this and the ’shooter’ aspect of scifi. Summonable creatures can be ‘pocket robots’, healing can be done with ‘nanobots’ and so on. If you don’t assume you are trying to make ‘magic’ it shouldn’t come off as cheaply veiled ‘magic’. Just think about what’s available in the future As far as that being the easy way, I would suggest not making EVERYTHING nanobots (lol). Other technologies could have some really interesting impacts(monomolecular filament wire??). I suppose its in how much realism you want to go for and how much you want to base your world on ours (In my mind, don’t be afraid to stray from reality too much because people play these things for escapism).

As for guns, they are useful and must have their place too but they mustn’t be allowed to dominate the entire game. A ranged character archetype or two is a good thing

As for the challenges of environment, you can always go offworld . This is something that doesn’t work as cleanly in fantasy but is still done and its a natural for SciFi. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about MMOs, diversity is a big thing in environment settings when you are trying to draw in alot of players and keep them interested. Of course if you expand to include multiple ‘worlds’, then you must also look at your ‘earth’ world. If its still interesting, then you have to make a decision to take earth into a drastic extreme to keep it interesting as well. Coruscant (was that the name?) from star wars comes to mind. Instead of the ‘boring’ homeworld its become one massive global metropolis, pretty scary and impressive at the same time.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with and I’m hoping its the next big thing! Sorry for the log reply but this is a subject that I put lots of thought into regularly

By: Link Sausage « Tish Tosh Tesh

Link Sausage « Tish Tosh Tesh — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:48:50 +0000

[...] is an interesting article on MMO design, framed in a discussion about “contemporary” MMO design. The comments on melee are especially interesting to me, as I’ve always had [...]

By: Things to read over the holiday weekend « Welcome to Spinksville!

Things to read over the holiday weekend « Welcome to Spinksville! — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:35:29 +0000

[...] Course I’ll Play It is working on a new MMO and looks at why picking a fantasy genre makes things so much easier. He touches on some sacred cows too: melee is more fun, players want magic, [...]

By: CAT: idea for a contemporary MMO « Welcome to Spinksville!

CAT: idea for a contemporary MMO « Welcome to Spinksville! — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:21:59 +0000

[...] idea for a contemporary MMO Following from Dusty and Syp, this is one of my ideas for a contemporary MMO setting. Thinking of an interesting [...]

By: The Wandering Rogue » Modern MMO Concept: The Black Pyramid

The Wandering Rogue » Modern MMO Concept: The Black Pyramid — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:22:49 +0000

[...] idea for a college-based MMO (interesting idea, by the way!) he was inspired to come up with after Dusty from Of Course I’ll Play It made a post about how much more challenging it is to create a contemporary, modern MMO without [...]

By: Contemporary MMO Challenge… ACCEPTED! « Bio Break

Contemporary MMO Challenge… ACCEPTED! « Bio Break — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:13:49 +0000

[...] 23, 2009 by Syp So Dusty oh-so-casually threw down the gauntlet lately — for us armchair MMO designers to come up with a contemporary MMO that would work, [...]

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:08:12 +0000

Insightful stuff about how much the setting directs your character and thus player motivations.

I’ve always found that the fun in gaming is being able to do something I can’t do in the real world. Whether that’s play a guitar like Satriani, dunk like Jordan, cast magic spells or fly through the air on a magic carpet, it’s getting satisfaction out of being able to achieve something that I probably or definitely won’t achieve in my life time.

By: Dusty

Dusty — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:05:59 +0000

Yes! This is the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter type of world, where the reality is similar to ours, but such things as vampires and other fantastic elements are common place. It’s an excellent premise, imho. I also kind of like the Matrix premise, where the magic comes from the player’s ability to alter reality itself.

By: Rob Donoghue

Rob Donoghue — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:00:38 +0000

Also worth noting that one common Urban Fantasy trope to explain why there’s not as much magic in the real world is layered alternate realities. In the next dimension/faerieland/alternate history, things are very different, and heroes are the ones who can move between these layers. Has always struck me as something MMOs could do very well.

-ROb D.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:33:39 +0000

This is a really good article – I ‘knew’ about the melee portion but never actually heard it articulated that way.

For the magic section, I offer this quip, paraphrased: “Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.”

Very, very awesome article.