The must-have features of a next-gen MMO, part I

Here's one of my random posts about MMOs, rather than P&P.

To be honest I love to drone on about this subject, and have considered starting up a new blog for this topic alone.  But one blog is enough for any man.  So I'll restrict myself to the odd meandering thought in the direction of video gaming RPGs.

I'll also keep it short.

1. Rag-doll physics.  For too long MMOs have featured no real physical interaction between PC and mobs. This is most obvious and most disappointing when a PC is in combat against some massive beast.  You seem them, standing at the beast's ankles, slashing away, with totally unrealistic interaction with the beasts massive size.

Take a page out of the awe-inspiring Shadow of the Colossus's book.  The little fella in that game literally had to scale each beast to get to the weak-spot before he could do any real damage.

What I want to see is a dragon knock you flying with one sweep of it's massive tail.  I want to see bodies tumbling through the air and laying in a heap, stunned, broken, dashed.

IMHO rag-doll physics allowing for proper interactions with enemies of disproportionate sizes is a must for a next-gen game.  Admittedly the above examples are somewhat fantasy-focused but its fairly obvious how the same can be applied to sci-fi, horror, whatever.

2. Deformable landscapes.  Spells, heavy weapons, however serious damage is inflicted it should leave a mark on the natural world or unshielded structures.

3. Interactivity with structures.  In many ways this is kind of an extension of deformable landscapes, but what I want to see is a little sneak-thief being able to scale the wall of a building.  Add some of that Assassins' Creed / Prince of Persia virtue into MMOs and have people be able to utilise structures to their advantage.  Dovetailing nicely with rag-doll physics, parties should have to think cleverly about how they approach killing large beasts.  Climbing pillars so they can leap onto the back of a beast, providing an opportunity to hit a weak-spot a la Shadow of the Colossus, or toppling over pillars so they come crashing down on a beast's head.  Rather than the WoW approach of having the party do what often ends up as some intricate dance around a boss - up the ante of such games by ramping up the realism provided by the combination of these three points.

There is obviously a lot more that could be said about this subject, hence the part 1 appellation.  But these points, among others, are at the core of it.

pilch out.

Co-op in video games

An aspect of contemporary, online video game design I think is much undervalued and potentially unappreciated by many development houses is co-operative play.  And my appreciation of it probably stems from my P&P pedigree. Afterall, P&P is almost, almost, all about co-op to a large extent.

The amount of P&P games which are solos (i.e. only feature one player character) vs the amount that feature more than one player character is a testament to this.  And even solo games will frequently feature some form of collaboration between PC and NPCs.

MMOs obviously include co-op elements of gameplay pretty much by standard.  But other genres can benefit from this aswell.  I'm thinking in particularly about FPS.  One of my favourite genres.  I've been an avid fan of Counter-Strike and the Battlefield series in the past, but must admit rarely play FPS these days.  That said, I am currently stumbling through Bioshock.

Whilst FPS as a genre has covered co-op play in several notable examples, rarely is it pure co-op.  I.e. players vs AI.  It is typically players vs players.  And I still think there is a lot of fun to be had from players vs AI.  And also possibly a gentler experience for some of us older gamers, than having our collective asses handed to us by some cola'd up pre-teen with reflexes like a vat-grown ninja.

Other games I think would benefit from co-op.  I'd love to see a co-op mod for Assassins Creed II, which I've recently (admittedly I came to it late) completed.  Great game btw Ubisoft.

Games I have played recently....

The Witcher
Assassins Creed II
just about to start Bioshock

...yes I know these are all old (well oldish) games, but I'm catching up on some classics that passed me by whilst I had my head in the sand.

I'll give the lowdown on what I thought about the first two soon enough.  But for my next post I'm going to talk you through a couple more classic magic items which have featured in numerous P&P games I've run over the years.  I started this blog with a post about The Homunculus Jar.  And this next post will be adding to that subject... (i.e. magic items for P&P games).

O, and in case you didn't know, had forgotten, or are deluded... P&P is still the best gaming experience you can ever imagine.  Don't get me wrong, I love video games, but P&P is the heart and soul of the gaming process.  This is a universal truth.  Make no mistake.