There’s been quite a lot of discussion lately over the current state of WoW — most of it centered around how it has become too easy.  Tobold recently posted a great commentary on its current state of failing to challenge people.  And GameSpy posted a very similar article on not just twinking your character, but on the myriad of ways that are available to players to make the game easier to them.  From extensive online databases (thottbot, wowhead) that answer every possible question for every quest, to mods and addons that point you directly to where you have to go at every conceivable moment.  And you can’t hardly swing a dead cat on the internet without hitting another blog from someone who’s fed up with how easy the end-game content is screaming about moving on.  Even Greg Street, aka Ghostcrawler, has recently posted on the WoW forums that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if some of you that consume every bit of new content we can produce take a break and try something else for awhile.  Now I worked with Greg for quite a long time over at Ensemble, and when I read this post, I can fairly hear the frustration in his voice at the throngs of forum posters standing beating down his virtual door waving pitchforks and shouting MORE MORE MORE!  So what’s going on here?  Hit the break to hear my thoughts..

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So, we’re going to drill down a bit here kids, but occasionally I’m reminded that specific elements from specific games deserve special attention. These are things that I think are brilliant in function, but have failed to be properly recognized.  This particuluar topic came about as a result of another conversation with the illustrious Mr. Anderson, whom has just returned to Lord of the Rings Online.  We were talking about LOTRO’s excellent quest log (which blow’s WoW’s away on several levels), but were lamenting the fact they still fail to do some of the things we love about groups and missions in City of Heroes.  So without further ado, here are some of the things other MMO developers should absolutely be stealing for their group mechanics.

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There’s a lot of pressure on MMO designers right now to do something different.  Scott Jennings is screaming from the top of his blog there isn’t a single MMO designer in the world that wakes up thinking “I’d love to clone WoW,”  and to a certain extent, he’s right.  Several have tried recently, and for a variety of reasons, (most of which had nothing to do with the actual design, sadly), none of them have had the success their publishers had originally hoped for.  So there’s more pressure than ever to shake things up, find our own niche, and do something a little different.  And the most common theme I seem to be hearing lately is that “MMO’s need more action!  No more auto-combat!  No more hit the attack button and get a sandwich!”  And several developers right now are answering that very clarion call.  The Agency, Champion’s Online, DC Universe Online, all promise “more action, twitch-style combat. ”  The Agency, especially, talks about how player skill will be the deciding factor in combat, not dice rolls.  All of this sounds great.  But for a variety of reasons, in an MMO, I actually think this is a bad way to go.  Here’s why.

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So if you’re one of the four people that follow this blog, you know already I’ve been playing MMO’s for, well, a damn long time.  And today it is, as much as ever, still the primary genre that I play.  But as I’ve been working my way through Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills these past days, taking my time as I savor the content of Northrend, a recurring thought has been echoing around in my head:  MMO’s have changed.  And they are continuing to change.  And if you’re starting development today, what kind of trends should you be paying attention to if you want your game to feel current three years from now when you finish?  And that’s how today’s post was born..

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