From MMORPG to MMO
I'm gonna get ya!
Roleplaying games have always been close to my heart, and perhaps that is why i jumped of joy back when i heard about Ultima Online. An entire online roleplaying world, with a well managed game system, where you could play out your character and interact with others who where also roleplaying! It turned out that things didn’t go exactly like i had envisioned. Ultima Online was full of Player-Killers (PK’s) and i don’t think i ever met a single person who roleplayed. In stead i became Rasmus from Denmark, playing a normal multiplayer game with other people from around the world.
My hopes for the online roleplaying games was cracked, but still i kept playing pretty much all the online roleplaying games that came out. I’ve played Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Eve Online, The Matrix Online, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Second Life and the list goes on and on. What I’ve found in these games is that you CAN find roleplaying, but you need to look hard and long, and often you need to take the initiative.
Also it didn’t slip my notice when the game publishers suddenly went from describing their games as MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), to MMO’s (Massively Multiplayer Online). This change happened slowly but surely. What i can’t help think about is the motivation behind it. I am sure that originally Ultima Online was supposed to be an actual roleplaying game. But as more and more players joined, the designers realized that most video game players are not into roleplaying. Even though tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, can be said to have inspired pretty much the entire underlying ruleset of modern day computer games. If it hadn’t been for the dice rolling and number crunching seen in Dungeons & Dragons, and its direct and easy transition to software calculations, i don’t know how most computer games would look today.
But now i can’t help wonder; did the MMORPG developers take the easy path out? In stead of working harder at getting players to roleplay, giving direct enticement to do so through the game design, they decided to just go with the new established conventions of catering to as many players as possible. I can defintly understand this from a purely monetary view. You need as many players as possible to keep your game running.
What i don’t understand then is; In my experience as a roleplay instigator in MMO’s, i have found that pretty much everyone who has engaged in roleplaying with me has commented that the game suddenly got a new level of play. It became more engaging, it even kept some players in the game that would have left otherwise. These statements has come from young kids, housewifes, and hardcore MMO players. With this in mind i can’t help feel a bit sad that modern day MMO designers don’t try a little harder.
RPG are just bad named!
The first RPGs were games that emulated the rules of the common dice based Role play games, emulating all but the actual role play. (Done by you)
RPG now just mean a game where you play a character that have attributes you can alter. Rather than having to depend on the actual players abilities
The loss of RPG in the MMO is due to two things: Its shoter, and there were other kinds of massive multiuser games around than just RPGs.
But in someway I agree, its fun to RP in a MMO. But the only idea I have to actually let this happen, is having an ekstra payment for playing on a “true” Roleplay server. (and perhaps hide the math of the underlying rules a little)
I do remember playing a RPG with a GM mode, (hard work for the GM) called Vampire: lot of work, and short time of great fun.
Well as i see it, i think its okay for the players to know the underlying rules and systems. Thats how it works in real RPG’s, and yes tweaking your character is often part of the “fun” in MANY roleplaying games.
The problem is that the games themselves (especially endgame content) usually end up focusing too much on unique items, crafting and achievements/trophies/arena combat/call it what you want.
I feel that it would be a lot more awesome if the developers focused on things that facilitated roleplaying. Like letting the players build their own cities as seen in Star Wars Galaxies (and partly Age of Conan), or let them form MASSIVE guilds who then have actual influence on what is happening in the world and the game (Eve Online).
I actually think that Eve Online has gotten a lot of things right. They’ve managed to let the players take part in the world and the story of the world. They ensure that if one coorporation goes out and does something big, then all players are actually informed about it via news networks, papers, and magazines. Of course the main problem with Eve is that it, besides having all these awesome things, has an insanely steep learning curve, as well as some very boring mission design. But i am really looking forward to the next CCP MMO. It will supposedly be a World of Darkness MMO – since they own the rights for that.
I’ve played Neverwinter Nights in the DM Client, and frankly, after having done that for more than three years, I don’t see how any MMO could ever emulate the same roleplaying possibilities than that game. It shipped with a toolset that, while limited, allowed you to quickly build areas within half a hour to entertain a group of players for 3-4 hours. I should know, because I would sometimes quickly think up a few ideas at the last moment, and improvise my way through it.
The reason why I’m mentioning this is that certain builders also set out to build Persistant Worlds in NWN. These are basically mini-MMOs that allow up to 64 players to be logged in at one time. If the world is built correctly, this could result in small, close-knit communities. The best thing about this is that the height of its popularity, there were hundreds of these PWs, and all of them had their own preferences. Some were standard MMO, but others would have you be in-character at all time. Some would have different death rules, even instant death.
The best thing about NWN, however, would be the DM client. This allowed players to take over NPCs, talk through them, and improvising new things on the fly. If DMs took an active part, they could do new quests on the fly, help PCs out, partake in roleplaying, and slowly change the persistant world over time. This even led to players becoming a part of the setting, with stories of certain characters becoming leaders of organisations, sometimes becoming NPCs and quest givers themselves. I’ve heard of story arcs that lasted for months, invasions that would change the nature of the setting, and players working hard on restoring order.
Now, I think that this sort of interaction is basically impossible for a MMO, so I can forgive the developers for dropping the RPG part, and actually applaud them for being more honest. And I personally also don’t believe that you could actually *have* proper RPing in a MMO. Without a DM Client, without editors changing the setting based on the players’ actions, without the world actually responding to the events, it just won’t work for me. I’m willing to try, mind you, if I ever come across a RP guild in WoW, for example, but I will likely always wistfully look back.
Well i think that imagining how roleplaying is done in an MMO is quite difficult if you haven’t tried it. But it is possible. The problem is that it is basically the motivation of the players that drives the RP, and not the game itself. The game can have elements that helps with the RP experience, lige city building, or an in depth character customization system. But most often RP is done by setting up a social agreement that “in our guild, you must roleplay that you die if you curse in our temple” or similar. That is why roleplaying is most effective in guilds, because here everyone has to agree to the same social rules. Another important factor is that the players in a RP guild all need to be aware, and capable, of ignoring the players who don’t RP. This in itself can be very difficult. Having an in depth roleplaying conversation with a guy called “PenisForAHead69″ can be quite impossible.
I once played on a persistent world in Neverwinter Nights, and yes that has the possibility of some awesome RP. The problem with the PW’s was that they where all private systems. So no one was making any money of them. That means that keeping them running was a massive task for whoever had set them up, and most of them eventually died because they couldn’t find the Gamemasters needed to run effectively. But yes i think that Bioware nailed it with the GM client and their toolset. I wish they would do something similar again.