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MMO Immersion: 2d and beyond


We often talk about MMO gameplay mechanics and whether they are "dumbed down" or for the hardcore. We discuss at length whether item malls are ruining the future of gaming. Let's take a step back and think through some fundamentals.


 


I'd like to present some thoughts regarding our gaming transition from 2d to 3d and how it has impacted gameplay. As UO tends to come to mind when I think of 2d and MMO together many of these points will draw from that.


 


The immersion of 2d


- Items can be physically placed into the game world, whether you're dropping a chair in the middle of town or a semi-permanent castle in the wilderness. If you want to get rid of a sword you don't drag and drop it out of your inventory and have it vanish, instead it lays on the ground, can be stacked, and even prevent movement. World clutter is handled by removing items after a set period of time ... that's only if a player character or mob hasn't already snatched the item up.


 


- When you chat you don't necessarily need to have a chat window. Instead of publicly announcing your messages to your channel you instead create a text message above your head that only those within range of you can read. Combine this system with external utilities like Ventrilo and you can save a lot of screen real estate and increase the immersion factor. The life of spammers and gold sellers becomes significantly more difficult because it's harder to reach a large audience. Towns and marketplaces will become the most attractive spam locations, but with proper spam reporting tools the banning process will be more efficient and localized.


 


- Characters, animations, and environments can be meticulously crafted by artists. There is a big difference between a world created by a graphic artist and a world created by a technically-inclined, artistic 3d modeler. To put it another way: it's like having the greatest painter in the world offer to create a large painting to hang on your wall but instead you ask him to paint a tiny version of his painting and have it photocopied into various scales and dimensions so that you can tape it up all over your house in different ways.


The level of detail in a game such as Baldur's Gate is still greater than many modern MMOs. Obviously, those pre-rendered scenes aren't as dynamic as a 3d world, but I still personally prefer exploring an artist's vision as opposed to a forest with SpeedTree, SpeedGrass, SpeedTerrain, SpeedXYZ, etc.


 


- I never feel the desire to jump everywhere, nor do I see others jumping on top of roofs, lightposts, fences, and other objects that could never support them.


 


Final thoughts: I am not suggesting developers should move from 3d to 2d. I simply think there are lessons to be drawn from what 2d games of the past did really, really well. If a developer sets out with their primary goal being to create an immersive world then the game becomes less about classes, balance, leveling, skills, crafting, grinding, pvp, pve, etc... and becomes more about just being excited to login and see what's happening in the world.


 


My question to you is: What kind of immersion are you missing from today's MMOs? (Feel free to build on your experience in 2d games, text-based games, or anything else you can think of) 

Comments

  • ReklawReklaw Member UncommonPosts: 6,495


    Even tho I like your idea's they are nothing new, we already had 3d MMORPG doing excactly what you said and even more, just one to mention Star Wars Galaxies, you could drop items, move them around, mind you you had to be inside your house, which offered all sorts of creativity from the community, not only did we use pre-made (crafted) furniture, we also made things that wern't made to be furniture, personaly don't want to go back to 2d as for me (personaly) it lessons the immersion factor. Ad already had my fair share of 2d games in the past, we have to move on, remember what we had and evolve from that., meaning not given less options but give players more options, sure in the past this might not have worked for the majority of people trying to play these games, but I hope that those who complained or where overwelmed by all the options the games of hte past offered have matured and might be able to coop with more options today. 

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