MMORPG.com Correspondent Beau Turkey writes this article focusing on the importance of what he calls "life skills" in an MMORPG.
I have grown to love games that have some kind of "life skill" available. I don't want to think of my character as one-dimensional, but as someone (or something) that does other things besides killing monsters. For the record, here are some examples of "life skills:" Cooking: Some games like Free Realms and Mabinogi are making cooking not only enjoyable, but full of benefits as well! I like to see cooking that really makes a difference, and can have interesting side effects. A great example of how cooking should be done is Free Realms, which makes you smash, dice, and slice items by using your mouse. Think Cooking Mama online.
Read Life Skills in MMOs
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Jon Wood
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These were the reasons I loved Star Wars Galaxies. You could go fishing, cook food, make clothes, build furniture, and many other things.
Man do I miss that game (but not its current incarnation).
Waiting For: something good
Games Tried: SWTOR, Star Trek Online, EQ, EQ2, Earth and Beyond, Planetside, Lineage 2, Eve Online, WoW, City of Heroes, City of Villians, Auto Assault, Fallen Earth
Star Wars: Galaxies - Ibra Olasi (Valcyn Server) [Dead, screw you SOE]
life skills got me into Ultima Online, i was a cartogropher...PKs killing my unarmed peaceful map maker and woodsmith got me out. now i enjoy making virtual words int hte architect system inside City of Heroes
This is one of the biggest reasons LotRO pulled me back in, and got me to pay for the lifetime subscription. One of my favorites is the music system in LotRO. I love finding new stuff to play, as well as composing new and original tunes to play for people. On Landroval, there is a kinship called "The Hobbiton Philharmonic" that plans concerts for anyone to attend. And they do a really good job.
LotRO is the closest to a real-life type of setting that I have found in an MMO yet, and it just keeps getting better as I learn more about the "life skills" that are there.
First a BIG welcome to IMRAEL you should love it here it can be a fun group. HMMMM I gave it some thought and the ONLY reason why I would play LIFE skills is because I am FORCED to. I feel this way well LETS take WoW for instance it would be LESS tedious if we did not have to spend HOURS fishing. I am more of a ACTION player. BUT I would not of been as RICH if I did NOT spend those hours of fishing. LETS face it everyone knows that those HIGH end buffs sell very WELL at the AH.
When it comes right DOWN to it. I would if I could pass on these life SKILLS only because I would rather be RAIDING or PVPing or just plain questing.
LOTRO has some great crafting opportunities, but, to be honest...it takes (what feels like) FOREVER to master enough tiers to make high-level items. I know the reasons, I just dont have those kind of hours to spare! I turned most of my alts into "Explorers" (gathering ore and wood) and not worrying about crit recipes or single-use recipes.
It makes sense, but it definitely skews against the casual gamer who may only spend an hour a night on an MMO.
But then, the world of LOTRO is so fun, I cant imagine "living" anywhere else!
I pretty much agree with you Beau. Life skills, the ones that would be a boon to players claiming they don't have hours to play, give them a whole bunch of ne meaningful methods of gameplay to accomplish something in their limited time. I may need to read it again, but one point I didn't see made (and it maybe because you disagree with it) is that those same life skills are getting less and less development in more and more MMOs are being made, in particular with the top development houses.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I just started playing LOTRO again... The first time i played it way back when,, i didn't really get into it or the crafting all that much,,but then again,, i didn't spend much time on it before i let it go.. However, this time around i spent some more time and tried more of it out...and i am loving it so far!! The world they have created is very in depth and does a good job of recreating Tolkien's lore and feel.. The crafting is different and a little more complex than the easy grind craft system in WoW (not a fan of their crafting system)... It does take some time for some of the proffesions but i really have been enjoying it. The music you can make is awesome and a wonderful touch to the game for relaxing and just having some fun... I haven't tried the fishing hobby yet, but i plan on testing that out soon, and hopefully get a home to decorate.. LOTRO has got my vote though for a well done universe that has everything!! not just go there kill that stuff..
Yep, for a couple reasons:
- pandering to the Action formula is safe
- devs tend to make things they like playing themselves
- life skill systems take thought and effort to integrate into the rest of the world
There's also something deeper going on, a cultural dichotomy over what is deemed to be fun and worthwhile. In short, the rising tide of attention deficit dullards (both in the general public and among devs) has no patience or appreciation for the subtle satisfaction of crafting or building vs. the rinse and repeat adrenaline slam of ME SMASH!
Hopefully the one notable exception to this will be Bioware's upcoming KOTOR MMO. I expect a fairly extensive life skill system will be present in that game.
I enjoyed going exploring in WoW, and I enjoyed making sets of armor to look certain ways, but I was never much of a role player. That being said, though, I do enjoy a good, intuitive crafting system.
I like being able to do things somewhat passively in-game that you would expect to be doing. This was one of the downers for my in WAR, because I could not scavenge as well as butcher. Seemed a little odd that you couldn't do both...
And, while I would like to defend the idea of "life skills" in games, I agree with Flummoxed in that developers don't want to spend money on something that wouldn't particularly pander to the masses and thus make more money than what they spent.
The masses are the big target, which I would assume is why World of Warcraft has been dumbed down oh so much over the years. Oh well, hey, it's cool.
I think vgcats.com has a comic, their latest, which is probably a big reason why developers are being so mean to the truer gamer.
bleehhhhh.... I'm ranting.
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
You all need to learn to spell.
Yep, for a couple reasons:
- pandering to the Action formula is safe
- devs tend to make things they like playing themselves
- life skill systems take thought and effort to integrate into the rest of the world
There's also something deeper going on, a cultural dichotomy over what is deemed to be fun and worthwhile. In short, the rising tide of attention deficit dullards (both in the general public and among devs) has no patience or appreciation for the subtle satisfaction of crafting or building vs. the rinse and repeat adrenaline slam of ME SMASH!
Hopefully the one notable exception to this will be Bioware's upcoming KOTOR MMO. I expect a fairly extensive life skill system will be present in that game.
Oh, I agree with you 100%. Add to that the CEOs and shareholders wanting to turn a quick buck and you arrive at where we are today.
I'm a hughe SW fan. I have loved every Bioware computer game I've touched. That said, I don't share the level of optimism you have about TOR. The interviews with Walton and Vogel that I've read...paint a different picture for me. Statements like not wanting crafting to get in the way of being heroic and such are off putting for me. I'll keep an eye on it, but it certainly, is not on my radar to pre-order or even buy at the moment. If they change their stance and release details about such systems that exhibit a vast level of depth, and their are post-nda verification of such, then maybe I'll buy. If not, c'est la vie.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I don't have anything to actually base this on - no surveys and whatnot - just my own observations, which are of course subjective ^^
It seems to me that it tends to be the older generations of gamers who enjoy the life skills, where the younger generations of gamers are more into the whole instant gratification/ instant action that most current games seem to cater to. This was also one of the major factors in the SWG make over - as I understood it (going by memory) - the developers consulted with some of the largest guilds playing, which were the PvP guilds and part of the instant gratification crowd. ((How they could take that to be a representation of the entire game populace baffles me, however... ))
While there're still a lot of old generation gamers around, there're getting fewer and fewer of them, and more and more of the newer generations of gamers. So a natural cause for the devs are of course to cater to them, which does mean a watering out of game content not related to fighting.
It's either that, or gamers in general old as new, are getting impatient and entering into the instant gratification crowd - seeing as the games that cater to this crowd are the ones that're most successful, and the deeper games with actual content go bottom-up or scrape by with a small, but loyal fan/ player base.
"So I contend that the player stories will always be more powerful than the scripted stories that we try to tell the players."
- Will Wright
I had to put my BIFOCALS on to read this then TURN up my hearing aid. LMAO OMG you just did not start the AGE war on this THREAD. I am 40 TRUST me I dont plan on LEAVING MMO or MMORPG games soon. GUESS what I love to PVP and PVP very very very WELL I bet I soooo PAWN most YOUNGER PVPers just because I have the skill LONG before most younger players KNEW what pvping ment. AND to IMPLY that we are getting IMPATIENT hell I did mention I HATE to fish but I WILL do it for the G YOU know you have a lot of NERVE saying that WE are NOT loyal to the GAME.
*smiles a little* I said it was my own observation - which as it implies is what I observe around me when I play - and I said that it tended to be, not that it was always the case.
And no place did I claim that you were not loyal to your game. I said there were small games with more and deeper content than simple fighting which either died or scraped along with the help of a small group of devoted fans.
Would you like me to spell out more before you get your panties in another twist? ^^
"So I contend that the player stories will always be more powerful than the scripted stories that we try to tell the players."
- Will Wright
That sounds pretty painful! I never really thought about that phrase until just now. Hmm.
What Happened With SWG Went Down YEARS AGO! Please Try To Stop Whining About It In Every Thread I Read. Mourn It, And Finally MOVE ON With Your Lives! Thanks A Heap.
Very good artcle!
With Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, life skills are a must. I like making my own gear as it is much cheaper than buying them (of course you do get the occassional gear drop, but all the same, it's FREE). Life skills add more depth to a character and I can't imagine playing an MMORPG without them. (Sure, you're a big strong warrior who can knock out dozens of enemies in one sitting, but can you cook a mean set of barbecue ribs? Or sew your own gloves? Or craft your own weapon that beats out the competition?) There's something to be said when your character can make its own provisions instead of relying on shop NPCs like most people.
My favorite life skill to do is fishing in Final Fantasy XI. The developers made fishing into an actual mini-game so I never get tired of it. Plus, I get loads of free fish I can cook up and munch on to keep my character going.
Thanks for the comments guys. I was away and didn't get to respond until now.
I think that life skills are actually becoming more common, as far as my experience. I play many, many games (too many! ) and although I see more development in the F2P areas, those games are coming up faster than anything.
Almost every F2P title I get into has at the very least crafting, but plenty of them have fishing, marriage, housing, and other forms of life skills. The North American market seems to be a little dry on these skills, though. (But not entirely, of course! )
Anyway, interesting thoughts, so thanks again!
Beau
Listen to the Spouse Aggro podcast at spouseaggro.com. Twitter: spouseaggro
Sorry, but the very fact that games are even considering launching without these 'Life Skills' is a travesty. They're simply unfinished games making it to market, and that's unacceptable.
I've been saying it for years - put Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Pokemon, Jade Cocoon, and Baldur's Gate into a blender, (substitute FallOut in place of BG as desired, or really any other RPG) , blend until frothy and well mixed, polish and launch, and you'll have people paying your company money for years.
The whole point being, MMORPGs these days are barely, *barely* RPGs. They're really just hack and grind games that a lot of people play together. Gah. You've touched on a nerve here, and to save myself from spewing a page and half of nerdrage, I'm just gonna shut my mouth.