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.

Be back soon...

...I meant about two years later. Yes, its a cosmic timescale I work to. Anyway. Despite this blog allegedly being about P&P roleplaying, it is also going to be about games design, and some deconstruction of video games. I'll probably end up changing the title again. But I'll leave it as it is for now, just to mislead you all.

O, just for the record, I haven't played WoW in months. Just can't bring myself to waste my time on a game whose endgame is so gimped. I mean, I really don't want to spend 5 hours trawling through a 25-man raid along with five other mages, on the off-chance that a boss drops the one item I'm so desperately after - the only item I need to improve my character - just for another mage to roll higher than me. Not my idea of fun. And a fatal flaw in game design, revealed by the fact that I, and several of my previous WoW-playing friends have all stopped playing because of this one mechanism.

I would go as far to say that any game that requires you to do the same thing over and over again, and restricts your play to having to do just one thing as a route to get one particular facet of advancement is making a mistake.

I don't mind that, Such-And-Such A Wand Of Terrible Doom only drops from Flaming Dave Doomhead. But there should be another wand of the same power obtainable elsewhere.

But hell, don't get me started on WoW's flaws, I need to go to bed, its been a long day, and that is the subject of another post.

I only really rocked up here today to announce two things. I'm switching this blog back on. And I'm going to commit to it.

There I said it.

pilch out