Curing MMORPG inertia

I love the idea. I find myself playing MMO's at release and then stopping after leveling gets to be a chore. I don't have time to put 2-3 hours a week into a game and thusly quit playing. Case in point I've had a character on WoW since it released and it's only upto level 25.

I wanted to play WoW so bad. I went out and bought it. I started paying the 14$ a month and... after 2 weeks I stopped playing. It was just too much commitment for a video game. I'll stick with Castlevania, Zelda, and MegaMan.

Right there with you. I have a level 43 in WoW. Everytime I think about playing, I look at my apartment and realized it needs cleaning, or would rather do the dishes. My friend keeps bugging me to play, but I can't bear the thought of the monotony.

LOL my WoW character has been at lvl 30 since March 2005. I finally cancelled my account in December. I'm embarassed to say it, but Blizzard makes a mint off of suckers like me. If only I paid more attention to my monthly statements. Don't get me wrong, WoW is great, just not for busy people.

Here is a possible new concept to introduce into an MMORPG.

Instead of simply gaining experience for doing nothing, a dynamic "lore" system should be developed.

You receive real world emails of adventures of guildmates / partymates (these would be autogenerated in-system (a message like "Your adventure has created a small epic, do you wish to share it?", then a character could choose to share them with others. A log is kept of who receives and who sends lore. Heck, games could also attatch their advertising to this. You could send someone who isn't already playing some lore and get them hooked.

When you logged back in, you receive bonus EXP from adventuring in those areas, or performing tasks that you received lore about; after all, you know a little bit about the area, the monsters, etc. You are infact more experienced.

Then, the person who shares the legend gets a bonus when someone uses their "lore" to explore an area. Not an EXP bonus, but a secondary ranking system having to do with how "legendary" your character becomes. After all, little adventures are trying to grow up just like you.

This is exactly what Eve Online does. And i'm surprised a gaming site like this didn't even mention it.

You characters advance their skills and skill levels while you are online or offline. At the exact same speed.

I wholeheartedly agree. Prior to the NGE on Star Wars, it was moderately simple to get to the template you want, unless you wanted a Jedi, of course. Now they penalize the adults who used to be the primary segment of the population by making it so that you have to play a lot to get up to a usable level in much the same way WoW is. In their attempt to make the game more dynamic, they have really just made it more repetative, as you run out of quests that give any good amount of xp early on and are forced to do the same veractile quest over and over and over and over, or maybe some other quest that is instead of short and fast long and drawn out that gives you about the same xp in the same period of time. I played a heavily templated character who now is stuck at level 86 (of 90). I personally have given up and handed SOE my resignation in the form of cancelling my subscription.

Uhh... sounds like Eve Online - (your skills train while you are offline or on).... or a macro running on UO :)

Here's a thought. Why not make races tailored to the amount of time people have to play? You can have different races have different life spans. The shorter the life span, the faster you would level up. Of course, you would spend less time as well at the highest level.

This would also encourage people to try different classes and characters and add a certain sense of realism. Additioanlly, there would a light at the end of the tunnel (although that light is death) for leveling off that occurs in MMOs. What to do once you've reached the highest level.

A sense of continuity could be achieved as well by having a house such that the stuff that you've gathered during a character's lifetime could be inheirited by the next character.

Now that aging is a factor, different dynamics could be explored. Such that younger characters may have more raw power, but as they develop, they may loose some of their physical strength in return for more skill based traits.

Of course, I do realize this system would not appeal to those who become completely invested in a particular character. I do think, however, there are a lot of interesting avenues available if aging becomes part of the game.

My first thought was UO. In UO, almost the reverse takes place. You actually lose skill and stats the longer you don't play.

I personally think the gaining while doing nothing really isn't all that good of an idea. The resting part is fine, but I don't think you should gain in stats and XP for not playing.

Really, if you are getting bored grinding for XP, you should try new things. At 43, I got real bored of grinding for the sole purpose of XP. I decided to try exploring, and farming an area here and there for some neat items. Next thing i knew, I was 45, a bit wealthier, owner of a whelpling, and had the grand experience of being chased by huge monsters in various different areas.

This is a good (if already implemented) concept, but I think the root of the problem is that MMO's themselves are often built around the concept of repeatedly completing monotonous tasks.

As a FFXI player I've been stuck in the 40's for months basically because I'd rather poke my eyes out than farm, fish, etc for days on end and the gilseller caused inflation keeps me from purchasing gear I need to be a more effective member of en EXP party.

What we don't need is a fix for this style of MMO, we need a new style of MMO that's more exciting every single time you pick up the game, whether it's for 30 minutes or a whole day.

Play Guild Wars.

Their gaming system is designed around skill, not hours played. If youre interested in PvP combat specifically, you can start a PvP only character at the highest level right off the bat, without killing a single creature.

Or, if you want to go the PvE route, you still wont have to invest tons of time. The level cap is at 20 and is very easy to reach. The game continues to get harder even after you reach the level cap due to enemies using better and more powerful skills and more complex mission/level design.

Not all MMO's require hours and hours of ridiculous grinding just to keep up.

#12: I agree. Also, the fact that Guild Wars has no monthly fee eliminates the idea that you're wasting money if you don't play it as often as possible.

Good idea. I should be getting something for paying my $14 a month, whether I am playing or not.

And it will probably discourage goldfarming

I played Wow through summer, hit level 40, got totally bored, so I made a new character and went up with it, and kept repeating that till I had seen all the low-medium level areas. I couldn't be pressed to gain any levels past 40, and there were no exciting new areas to explore where I could actually do anything. Essentially, the game became boring unless I would become willing to just hack away for a while. And I wasn't, so I cancelled my subscription.

I'd be willing to play at skill and reflex based MMOs, but MMORPG is so boring. Guild Wars, if skill based, sounds interesting, but I'd love to see something like a MMOAdventure, or MMOPlatformer. Adventure would work perfectly. To gain power you don't level up, but you explore and get heart containers or something like that. You find upgrades to your class and items in planned encounters and dungeons, not in random ones.

Or imagine a world as big as Azeroth, but instead of being filled with RPG enemies, filled with platform elements. Go anywhere, jump on any goomba.

Or, how about a huge area that's basically a sandbox, a GTA type game.

Progress Quest is cool too :D

I actually just quit playing on Feb 4th cause the came was too time consuming. Don't get me wrong it was great fun, but then I found my self playing more and more and progressing more slowly. I saw my other guild mates that obviously had buckets of time to waste/grind that were leveling at a faster pace. I just could not keep up with them and for me to grind up to their levels seems like a hassle.

Games are great fun but not when they start taking the place of RL human interaction. I guess im one of those weird people who prefer not to be sitting behind a computer for endless hours playing for virtual glory because it all seems like a waste of time when its all been said and done. In retrospect I think about all the hours I spent playing and wonder how good I would be at playing guitar/bass which I love, then at least I would have something to show for all my time and effort. I mean its not like you gonna give your girlfriend and epic for valentines day, I’d rather give a song I wrote or learned, but that’s cause I’m old school.

That’s my 2 cents, take it for what it’s worth.

Amen. I too used to be a WoW player. In fact, I played it CONSTANTLY for about 3 months. But I got to saturation point, where I just couldn't justify the amount of time spent on the bloody PC just to level up. So, my warrior sits in purgatory at level 49. If WoW progressed in the later stages like it did in the earlier ones, I'd still play. But the fact that in later levels to do ANYTHING of consequence requires grouping up with a party and HUGE chunks of your time leaves much to be desired. Games shouldn't FORCE you to have a play a certain way, it should be up to the player. Dungeons should be scaled for how many players are in the party- including solo. Oh well, who cares. It was fun for 3 months, that's not bad for a video game. What worries me are the people who LIVE on those games. I had a friend that dropped out of college for a semester due to his WoW addiction. Sure he made level 60 while I am at 49, but I also had a life beyond my computer desk. And I know other people in our guild that have a COUPLE level 60's who have played 5 days a week since the game came out. I can't even imagine how bored I would be by then. At 49 everything was getting monotonous, heck, from lvl 45 to 49 I wasn't playing because I enjoyed it, I was playing to simply level... Ok, my rant is over. But I agree, MMO games need restructured so that they don't require people to devote 500-800 hours to their TV/PC just to "beat" the game.

Simutronics has come up with a semi-solution for the casual MMORPG gamer. Experience conversion modifiers. Basically, for the first hour per day that you are in the game, you absorb experience at an increased rate (3x I think). This steps down to normal after 2 hours. Really helps the 30-something "other things to do" gamer.

Who are you people that you play a game for a year and can't get to level 60 in WoW? I mean, come on-WoW's about the easist MMO there is. Even if you don't grind, you can get to 60 in a just a couple months simply by questing.

You all must either suck or REALLY suck. No two ways about it.

One of the reasons I still have an account with Star Wars Galaxies is this whole "gain while not online" concept. As a trader (architect in particular), when I am offline, my harvesters are still gathering resources and I am still selling my goods from my vendors. I don't get xp (already at the top level), but getting the resources and money keeps me coming back, once a week at least.

And for the guy stuck with a level 86 (out of 90) character on SWG, the next time they have double xp week, you should use some of your respecs to change classes. Each time you respec, you'd get double the xp you were supposed to get. A couple respecs and my commando went from CL84 to CL90.

Sonkun:

Uh, Unless you run macros 24/7 and play for 10 hours a day, there is no way you can hit lvl 60 in WoW in 2 months. The average gamer probably can hit lvl 60 in 5-6 months. My buddy who dropped out of school and only worked 20-30 hours a week hit 60 in 4 months- playing non-stop. Like I said, I played WoW 3-5 hours a day, 5 days a week for nearly 2 1/2-3 months and stopped at lvl 49. Of course I wasn't questing or grinding all the time, but seriously, to hit 60 in two months would require you to level an average of once a day. This is not even remotely possible for most people with school or jobs. Most people I knew in WoW could be stuck on a level for up to a week or longer, especially in the 50's. If you were able to accomplish this feat, you seriously need to get out more...

Nice idea. But it'd be abused.

People would no longer have to mine accounts - they'd just make a new account, some characters, wait a year, and sell the account. Suddenly, they're high levels.

#21: I enjoyed the flexibility of the previous game. The new game just isn't fun for me anymore. I have several masters badges that I earned, but not necessarily by doing only one thing over and over again (I did lots of different things) even for my favorite classes which were art, arch, sw & particularly ID. IMO SWG has moved away from what made it closer to the "good continual play" MMO to something that wears out quickly.

Oh and I've not been a particular fan of exploits like that. If you have to exploit to do something in the game in a reasonable amount of time, energy and frustration, then the game is designed wrong.

This is really bugging me. I don't play WoW or any other MMORRISDFJEG... but inertia makes absolutely no sense in this context. Inertia is the tendency of an object at rest to stay at rest or an object in motion to continue in that motion until acted upon by an outside force. Perhaps you meant ennui?

ck: Ennui might be the cause, though it is more frustration at not seeing your xp bar go up after several sessions of doing insanely boring grinding, but I think they are trying to say that inertia is equal to the loss of momentum to the players. Velocity in this case is the sense of achievement/time played. Mass in this case is player willpower. Once achievement/time played goes to 0 the willpower resists achievement acceleration, thus inertia. I think would could come up with more functions and maybe even add in relativity if you want.

Indeed. Inertia in this sense is the inability of a player while at rest (i.e. not playing) to continue playing. Once a player logs out, inertia stops them from logging back in. Makes perfect sense. Ennui is also applicable, of course -- ennui causes this inertia, even. But the force required to get players to log back on isn't being met by some games. Having characters gain actual levelling XP (not quite in the same context as EVE's skills, though I'm well aware of that one) would be one way to try and cure it, as the article postulates.