"RPG" missing from today's MMORPGs

I think MMOs could definitely stand to have a bit more of a story attached to them. I participated in the betas for both FFXI and WoW and didn't end up buying the full game because it just felt like a waste of time. I don't mind dropping $60 on a Final Fantasy, but I don't want to give a good amount of my time to essentially running around a world trying to gain a level.

I guess that, basically, the way I gauge the quality of an MMO is this: if I woke up tomorrow and my character was at the maximum level, would I sitll be interested? Would the people, the world, the story and the events keep me playing? So far, no game has done that. WoW succeeds at everything but the story, but nothing else has come close.

The NPC interaction neccessary to create a moving story line for a million-player MMORPG would neccessarily involve the costs of paying a staff of thousands of real people employed by the game company to act as dynamic NPCs. It would be way too expensive to run.

There is really kind of a distinction between the two kind of RPGs, there are those where you literally assume the role of a character and you make them wahtever you want and that player is an extension of you (most American made RPG's, KotOR, WoW, etc). Than there are your traditional story driven RPGs where you really aren't role playing at all (Jap rpg's such as Final Fantasy, obv.), you are just following a linear story line.

But a combincation of the two

My thoughts are that I dont like the title of the article. An RPG as defined by one person could be completely different than one defined by another. RPG simply put, means what it's acronym means... Role Playing Game. So that itself is not missing from MMORPGs.

What is missing however, is the self guided storylines. We've got the stat building (ad nasueum), we've got the ability to roll characters and make them look the way we want. We've got the ability to get new armour and weapons... and we've got the ability to become someone that only exists in a fantasy setting.

Most MMORPGs do have a loose storyline that you can follow, but allow you to go out on your own and do your own thing. I dont think anyone would have trouble classifying Oblivion as an RPG, however even though the storyline is there and can be completed... you dont have to do anything with it past the first act.

Would you say that the RPG was missing from Oblivion as well? Nah. It's all about what you're looking for in a game. Simply put, if you're looking for a rich storyline, you arnt going to be playing MMORPGs most of the time.

You know I am not going to blame the RPG makers, or atleast blizzard. They created three games to have a lore, they create a seperate story, they created a massive world with a plot, and a point for you and your guild to gain strength. They give you the ability to faction to add to the experience, and the feeling that you have melded into part of the world. WHAT MORE DO PEOPLE WANT?

I mean at this point it is going to have to take alittle imagination don't you think, children can have fun for hours, with a towel tired around their neck, and the imagination to be something beyond themselves. When the addition of friends come along that lone towel can have alies or adversaries, you're telling me with a completely digital world, filled with dragons, dungeons, orcs, live adversaries with monsterous power and abilities you can't have an ounce of your own thought help entertain you?

Don't blame blizzard or Sony, or Atari, for what must be obviously our short comings, because damn we are now so lazy we want the game to imagine FOR US, that is just sad and pathetic. SO what would you like blizzard to send you some ears, or maybe a pair of horns so you can dress up infront of the computer?

Honestly, I believe WoW accomplishes good storytelling. Maybe the story of the world as a whole is kind of shabby, but the stories of each individual quests are great. I've played many MMOs and WoW is the only one where I stopped to read all the quests. Mainly because some of them were really funny. The REAL problem of WoW is the character creation and the depth of the game.

All the characters of the same class are exactly the same except for a few talents which don't mean much, and within those talents there are just a couple of good combinations. In the end your character doesn't feel unique at all. In the other hand, even if you can get to lvl 60 in one month - the game is still fun to play for like 10 more months. Eventually people realize that the only thing they're doing is getting more loot, to later get more loot, to later get more loot. The only functionality of the armor you wear is to wear it until you get the next set. It's kinda pointless to run boring massive instances just so you can get to the next boring massive instance. The game is like crack, really...

If you really want an MMORPG that's story driven instead of customization driven, then every new member will be forced into a role. Obviously, most RPGs have hundreds of NPCs and a handful of main characters or heroes, so 80% of the time your character would be an NPC. Now, unless I'm playing Animal Crossing here, I wouldn't have bought an RPG to play as an NPC, I'd buy it to play as the hero.

The only possible solution I can think of for this would be a war game like Nintey Nine Nights, where giant armies are led by ranked officers, and then there are the kings and there are the ultimate warriors. Lets go to a scenario mode for a minute here...

So you're a newbie. You've been enlisted in Gathandal, the great empire of the desert, and you're led through training with about a dozen other newbies. You're not allowed to talk at all durring this time, and if you do, you will be sent back to the begining of training( because you're being taught to follow orders, which is necessary to survive out there). Training is led by actual NPCs, and you have to complete certain tasks, but it's like bootcamp for a day, and nothing more than that. If you want, you can stick around for more training and practice, because after that you're out on the battlefield.

On the battlefield, you walk in the front row, the fodder if you will, and the knights are behind you, horseriders to the sides, and the sergent shouting orders in text across the marquee at the top of the screen( he gets to watch the battle from the top of a hill), with about a hundred soldiers for each of the two countries fighting. If you can slaughter 5, you're promoted to knight, and if you can get 15, you become a horserider. 25 and you become a sergent yourself, and if you win 7 of 10 battles, you become one of the king's men, a dozen or two eleite soldiers that command the sergents. These men have enough control that they can cause a revolution and take the thrown as their own, and you're just filling the role of a peasant in this story.

The story is mainly character run, but at the same time, the gods have a huge part as they can take anyone's life at any time. 3 Kings could die in a single night, and it would cause much distress, but much chaos as well. Entire cities could be destroyed. Of course, the real catch would be that some of those subscription fees would go to paying for real actors to fill specific roles as kings and eleite soldiers, they would twist the kingdoms in certain ways as to make life special for even the simplest peasant.

So yeah, quite different from today's RPGs, you'd have to fill a certain roll, but there would also be a "chosen one" system, where if you rolled the dice right when randomizing your character, you would be one of the chosen, who would have divine abilities in some aspect. Somewhat like Tales of Symphonia's. That's the best I can think of at least.

Final Fantasy XI has a developed plotline that easily rivals any of its single-player counterparts in Chains of Promathia. However, it's extremely difficult, time-consuming, and group-oriented; furthermore, the game sort of "cheats", and makes it seem as though your character is the only one these events are happening to. Still, anyone who thinks that there are no MMO's with a decent story are sadly, sadly mistaken.

Asheron's Call to me is the closest game that has come anywhere close to having a story-driven world. Pretty much all content was involved around some new story (or one big arc, like the Shadow Invasions etc.) with lots of new lore. It was the only MMORPG I know of that did not specifically cater to the end game (since that in itself was a mountain to achieve), having lots of content for lower and mid end players in the patches, a good deal even involving themselves towards completeing a world goal (such as portals opening up that only allowed up to X level to enter)

WoW is EQ based, so doesn't allow that. The devs focus themselves on items and raids more than story, so the story/lore has to justify the gameplay. If it doesn't work for the game or add to a raid, then the lore will be adjusted to compensate

I really don't believe it *can't* be done, because it has been done to a degree. What you need next is some fresh blood in the developers chairs to try/risk something new, instead of the age-old EQ plan

Two words: EVE Online. It's not level based, and, unlike WoW, enough new players in frigates can take out a hardened battleship. There's an ongoing storyline, and regular events, both dev- and player-organised. If you join an RPG Corp then it's even more fun - it's great fun being a member of a unit of the Amarrian Navy, hunting down Matari rebel incursions during a patrol and trading insults when they inevitably run away(RP PVP).

they suck. they make people not care about the real world and get all stinky and slobbish and fat. terrible.

There are people in the MMO business that recognize this. In fact, there were a couple articles on MMORPG.com about that very thing before this particular article was released.

http://mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/174/setView/features/loadFeature/703

http://mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/loadFeature/508/gameID/174

I'm not biased or anything... really ;)

What I feel is wrong with MMORPGS are that I am driven to go level and a basic RPG ( FF, KH, DC, RS ) is that im driven to just have fun and follow this intense yet linear storyline. Its not a big problem though, if you want to RP go to an RP server or play an RPG, if you want more open ended RP go play an MMORPG, I don't understand why she thinks this is a problem.

If you want actual role playing, nothing beats pen & paper RPGs. Provided you have a competent Game Master of course.

I agree with #10. MMO's have made the whole internet community a bunch of whiney cry babys who can't stop complaining about how their "valuable" characters have been shafted by the latest update. Seriously, find something better to waste 12+ hours a day on.

If you look where MMORPGs come from (MUDS, MOOs, MUSHs) then in effect they are glorified chat rooms. The best MUDs were created mainly in part by the interactions between people instead of static quests. A thorough grounding in code could allow anyone or a clever GM to rewrite stories, create their own plots, and make their own adventures. Creating static adventures or linear narratives will not do anything to add to MMORPG because ultimately it is given life only through its users.

@4

You may be right. But I'd like my roleplaying from Blizzard to last longer than 1 month.

What we really need is for someone to come out with novels for MMOs, that will expand on the backstory and ultimately connect quite a few quests. Sort of like the Halo books, but not only would the games influence the books, the books would influence the games as well( plot wise).

As much as I appreciate the rich world offered in WoW, it comes up short in comparison to single player RPGs and I don't blame it. The problem is that any story-driven events have no meaning at all. So your quest is to kill VanCleef who's the leader of the Defias Brotherhood. If you kill him you'll take out the Brotherhood and bring stability to the land, right? Wrong. See, you didn't actually kill him. He's always there. You just get the material rewards for killing him. The Defias Brotherhood will always be there and there's nothing you can do about it. Your actions have zero consequences, and that's why MMO's will never be on the same level as single player games.

There are two ways this could be remedied in the future. One is finding a balance between player based content creation, Game Master influence, and pre-scripted events. A clan of players finds a cave, fortifies it into a base, and organizes raids on local player-run towns which disrupts the local economy, and the players who run those towns could create quests for wandering adventurers, establish a reward by digging into the town's treasury, and get players to take on the clan in the cave. This could take a while but if it works, the lands would be safe again. While this scenario seems like an ideal MMO experience, the problem lies in the balance. How do you prevent people from exploiting the game's rules and content creation systems to create a no-win situation?

The second way is if you were to have the same situation, only the clan in the cave and the townspeople are controlled by sophisticated AI that's well beyond the technology available today. The NPC's would follow the rules of the game so everything would be fair, yet challenging. Unfortunately, there's no AI system out there that could dynamically generate balanced content like that. Maybe they're working on one.

My point is that the role playing elements that todays MMO's lack is definitely possible to achieve, though extremely difficult for both developers and players.

The last game i played with actual decent "Roleplay" in it was Anarchy Online. They did a great job of creating an immersive original storyscape that didn't break it's suspension of disbelief with silly pop-culture references or other immersion breaking "rip-offs" of other games. Very well done.

I enjoy playing mmo's for a short period of time. Most of them I have played have excellent backstory but has no actual story or defining reason for you to play other than leveling or shifting the economy in some small way.I actually preffer the japanese type of rpg. I notice alot of people whine about what the differences between rpg's are. You can say creating an avatar, and playing it in a fantasy setting is role playing. I hate to break it to you people but creating a digital version of "yourself" in a fantasy setting is not really role playing. I do know a few, and by few I mean one, person who actually creates an alternate persona and plays it out. But as I see in most MMO's I have played that is not the norm. People sometimes think that a ninja or a cleric is a role instead of a job/class. My idea of a Rpg is "any" game that forces you to assume the role of another character and think and act like how that character should to beat the game. I know that is a huge stroke across genre's but that is really what I believe. A Rpg is a Rpg regaurdless of the type of gameplay.

Guild Wars should be mentioned. Considering the fact that almost the entire world is instanced (your character and your allies are THE heroes of the story, and everyone else you see in towns and such are just common soldiers) it shouldn't be too difficult to role play. Your characters participate in cutscenes, and they interact with all sorts of Kings and Baddies.

Unfortunately, I noticed that most players (::read:: 13 year olds whose parents were attracted to the no monthly fee) tend to want to skip the story part, and instead try to get to Drokner's Forge as fast as they possibly can.

I strongly feel that Guild Wars has great role playing potential... it's just that players refuse to use it.

Good point, there. All MMORPGs are basically based on chatting, collecting stuff, upgrading them and thai characters and killing things.

There is no real sense of participiation in an actual evolving world, no riddles / puzzles to be solved ( my greatest issue with all MMORPGs; RPGs from Bard's tale to Eye of the beholder to.. well, just about anything that came out until a few years ago, were populated with puzzles that required thought and strategy to overcome ), no real challenge.

I was hoping DnD Online would bring some of that to the table, but to no avail. It seems it's just more of the same.

I hope someday something as 'well done' as WoW, with the right elements of puzzle solving, advancement and seperation from the chat-grind loop concept will come out. I hope Age of Conan will make an attempt to do so.

Most MMORPGs do not deserve the title, as a pen + paper RPGer for years I find there is no roleplaying in most of them. I took part in the DDO beta and was hugely dissapointed that one of my favourite RPGs had been converted so badly when you consider how good Neverwinter Nights is. In particular I could not understand their decision to not allow evil characters and PVP because they felt it wasn't in the spirit of D+D. Well I played D+D for decades and PVP often happened between players in our games. I'm glad to hear they've changed their minds but I doubt I'll try it again because the rest of the systm seemed so repetitive.

The only MMORPG I've found that is actually worthy of the name is EVE. Players can and do make the story and there is plenty of GM created story too. In EVE you can have a lasting impact on the universe by doing things like building your own space stations. Add the lack of level grind and it beats the competition hands down.

We have an MMORPG with a great story line you follow and character development with the whole RPG thing. The thing is with that is the greater community hates that game. Developers are gonna use their efforts to what the MMO community is use to and wants or thinks they want.

Really now, this MMORPG nonsense is getting old. Bring me Huxley NOW!

Anticrawl

What this lady is asking for is impossible. If lets say FFVII is a MMORPG and then one day comes the part where Midgar gets destroyed. Ok, so that happened months ago and now I purchase the game. WTF! There is no Midgar I missed the whole thing. I just got the game but is it fair for me to miss such a major event?

Everyone wants to be the hero of the game and do the exciting stuff. We should all get a chance at being a part of the major events no matter when we begin playing the game. The only alternative is for the AI of the game to constantly create new events and respond to the input of the entire population.

The only place I've seen that is in the Star Trek series where they roleplay in the holodeck. And of course the holodeck is smart enough to roleplay back with you and constantly respond to any input from the users. We are not at that stage in technology so we will have to settle for *instanced* stories in MMOs.

There are actually a few companies out there who are really trying to put the role playing aspect back into MMO's.

One game that comes to mind, and is really role playing-centric, is Seed (http://mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameID/157/setView/overView/). Seed has a small but loyal fan-base who are really interested in the community and cooperation aspect of the game. The developers even made sure that this game would be role playing driven by taking out combat and making it possible to interact with the NPCs, who have their own agendas. Plus there's a political system to boot.

But most MMO players would not be satisfied by this title because it doesn't have your standard hack and slash style of gameplay that most of the MMO market offers today.

No MMOGs out there are worth the time or money invested in them. Real story is weak to nonexistant, and the world is often static to the point of complete dullness. To a game, they are all basically single-player games in design with the technical capability of having multiple users play together - sometimes to disastrous effect.

None of them have dynamic player economies (supply + demand, lower prices for lesser-mined resources, etc.), migrating mob populations (dungeon to haven and back to dungeon again, or mobs that take over friendly towns), a political system in which players and NPCs can interact together, or a robust verb set (a la Chris Crawford's games) that allows for true expressiveness and interaction with the world. Most of them don't even have faction-related quests whereby the player can enhance their race, guild, or affiliation through questing.

EVE Online is better than most, but overall it's a dry, dry desert out there where your $15 / month gets you a handful of sand at most.

I agree with 19/Brian above. What I would consider a revolutionary (and necessary) step for MMORPGs is content and story that doesn't recycle after 15 minutes.

I label that the "sitcom syndrome" where everything ends up back at the status quo. Just like a Simpsons episode where Homer might win the lottery, but by the end of the episode everything will have returned to the original state with his fortune squandered. So too it is with seemingly every MMO. As posted above, killing Van Cleef ultimately is meaningless--hell, any mob, from the lowest grunt to Onyxia, they all just exist in a perpetually recycling state. It's as if time in the realm is frozen and the players are time phasing around. Which might make for an interesting game concept, except that is not at all what is being presented. Yet somehow the gamer just accepts this and goes to collect the loot.

How would you create a personal realm/storyline for 5 million players? I really don't know the solution, but when someone figures out how to really personalize a MMO, I'm there.

The mmoRPG that looks most promising is Trials of Ascension. Anyone interested in a -real- mmoRPG should look into it.