1) Think of the whole server like a termite colony. Make sure that there are global tasks that many kinds of players can contribute to in their own way ( equal representation of combat and noncombat tasks) without direct competition for the mutual good of the server. Its important that players feel that they have contributed in their own way so these tasks should require huge amounts of players and resources to complete. There is nothing wrong with making these tasks very hard and require every skill in the game from combat to chopping wood to baking bread.
for instance why not allow players build a bridge to open a new cave( dungeon) on a cliff. The bridge can be defended while its being built, when its complete the dungeon becomes open to everyone. the bridge can be built by players and the building capacity can be buffed by players distributing cooking based goods. Combat players can help defend the bridge during its construction, and the wood has to come from the forest, iron parts made in the forge etc. When the dungeon is finally opened up, not only does it provide new combat for the combat players, but also new resources to noncombat players, Everyone feels good about accomplishing events such as these. Dont give away the content, make players earn it.
everyone comes away with a sense of accomplishment and the reward is the cave access.. something everyone can utilize.
2) make your game mechanics flow with good player behavior. see GW2. they have don a great job. Players helping other players is more important than phat l33t or experience. Make sure there are avenues to do this. Everyone being able to rez players is a good thing. Theres lots more!!!
3) Get rid of money. Money is killing our own world, why keeping putting it in games getting the same result. If we cant have utopia in games we have complete control over....there isnt much hope is there. rather if you want an item made, go collect the stuff and make an order through an order system and a crafter will make it for you. Be creative, no money is necessary. In nature systems feed off and regenerate eachother. Why cant they do it in a game. Heros dont need money.. they need someone take to make a sword out of this chunk of metal they found, they need someone to enchant it, they need an enemy to stick it into...they dont need to buy it at an auction house. Set up system that meets both the combat and crafting types half way. We need to make these worlds more principled than our own. Dont be afraid to lead by example.
4) Server based compeition is healthy competition. It promotes teamwork while provinging the necessary "Faceless enemy". You can combine this with number 1. Crafters can contribute to PVP!!! The three server model ill admit seems to be the best option available. Put some resources crafters need in pvp areas.
5) Maintain a presence: there is nothng wrong with three developers going into combat as superbeings every now and then gloating about it on these very boards. Maintain a presence on the boards. Doesnt matter if your popular or not! Stop being so diplomatic. Show that your humans like the rest of us ( well.. there may be a couple of robots here...). Tell me to screw off if you need to. Start a fight on the boards! You cant go wrong. blame everything on one guy on your team....
6) Get rid of the stats and disconnected views. They matter in ways most dont understand. If you want players to be connected to the world, they have to be able to see it as if was through their eyes in great detail. Your not supposed to see everything unless your a sattelite. Connect players back into the world. Its not that skyrim is so great, its that its first person, so you see all the detail. You just cant see it when your 50 feet away. Simple optics.
7) Do not discount the power of fluff. It is not a waste of resources. It makes your game alive and vibrant. Efficiency is the death of fun.
8) Get rid of exp and levels. They promote efficiency and efficiency is the bane of fun. Theres nothing wrong with players advancing, but make it interesting. Players will get to cap quickly anyhow, dont put them on that road. nobody quits mmos when they hit the cap. Not the good ones anyhow.
9) Make players build their forges, homes, spindels, weavers and the like. Make them community projects. give nothing away for free. its "content".
10) Remember voltron.. 5 cats make a robot. Thats what grouping should be like. 1 shared health bar (up to three players). Call it the link. no specific roles for each player. ( its self balancing at that number).
that should get you started!
I sincerely hope a game like this is made someday. As a personal preference for me, I would only add getting rid of General Chat and adding chat bubbles. This makes it feel like I am talking to someone directly, not just 'tweeting' someone, somewhere in the zone.
Design social spaces in such a way that player traffic is filtered into a primary intersection, so that as players run around said social space to take care of their business (depositing items in the bank, buying consumables at a merchant, visiting the AH, exiting the area, taking transport to a different area, visiting a trainer, etc.) they constantly pass by/through large groups of other players. This also creates a natural place for players to "hang out," mess around with emotes, conduct trades, etc. etc. etc.
Encountering large numbers of other players in the game is one of the most important factors to making the game FEEL like it has an active playerbase IMO. When a game feels active, it encourages other players to want to participate.
Similarly, an active chat contributes to that sense of an active community as well. That means making an economy that is actually dependent on players trading with each other. The trend has been to decrease reliance on other players to obtain desirable items because many players don't want to be bothered interacting with other players. This is one of the few cases where "I know what's best for you" should be employed. IMO, if you want a healthy community it's better to force players to interact with each other to get the rare and powerful items they want than let them play the game as an entirely solo experience.
In fact, WoW had a great thing going back when they required players of certain classes to seek help obtaining cool but nonessential class abilities/perks IMO. As fewer players played in "Old World" it became impractical, but Blizzard largely gave up on the idea after vanilla. I'm thinking in particular of the Paladin and Warlock level 60 mounts in vanilla. You helped other players with these quests because somebody once helped you with them (and maybe you got a little extra g for your time). That type of dynamic should be encouraged IMO, even though people who prefer to play solo will rail against it.
Promote faction pride. Reagardless of how many you have, factions should be as "equally cool" as you can make them, but that doesn't mean identical. Each faction should have cool things that differ greatly from the other, whether that's races, cities, powerful NPCs, modes of transportation, etc. etc. In terms of PVP, you want players to have the mentality that "No, you're not going to kill my faction leader or trash my faction's capital city." Offer world PVP opportunities that promote players of differing levels to encounter each other. Don't underestimate the "bonding element" of having your low-level areas being defended by high-level strangers from one's own faction.
Keep rare items rare. When a player sees a another player's mount, pet, piece of gear, etc. that looks unusual or neat, he or she should be encouraged to ask that player where he or she found them. Players like to show off things they feel are worth showing off, and that means they spend more time hanging around other players. In turn when players know who's who on their server -- the guy with the phoenix mount or the guy with the legendary sword -- it helps them identify as part of the community.
1) Think of the whole server like a termite colony. Make sure that there are global tasks that many kinds of players can contribute to in their own way ( equal representation of combat and noncombat tasks) without direct competition for the mutual good of the server. Its important that players feel that they have contributed in their own way so these tasks should require huge amounts of players and resources to complete. There is nothing wrong with making these tasks very hard and require every skill in the game from combat to chopping wood to baking bread.
for instance why not allow players build a bridge to open a new cave( dungeon) on a cliff. The bridge can be defended while its being built, when its complete the dungeon becomes open to everyone. the bridge can be built by players and the building capacity can be buffed by players distributing cooking based goods. Combat players can help defend the bridge during its construction, and the wood has to come from the forest, iron parts made in the forge etc. When the dungeon is finally opened up, not only does it provide new combat for the combat players, but also new resources to noncombat players, Everyone feels good about accomplishing events such as these. Dont give away the content, make players earn it.
everyone comes away with a sense of accomplishment and the reward is the cave access.. something everyone can utilize.
2) make your game mechanics flow with good player behavior. see GW2. they have don a great job. Players helping other players is more important than phat l33t or experience. Make sure there are avenues to do this. Everyone being able to rez players is a good thing. Theres lots more!!!
3) Get rid of money. Money is killing our own world, why keeping putting it in games getting the same result. If we cant have utopia in games we have complete control over....there isnt much hope is there. rather if you want an item made, go collect the stuff and make an order through an order system and a crafter will make it for you. Be creative, no money is necessary. In nature systems feed off and regenerate eachother. Why cant they do it in a game. Heros dont need money.. they need someone take to make a sword out of this chunk of metal they found, they need someone to enchant it, they need an enemy to stick it into...they dont need to buy it at an auction house. Set up system that meets both the combat and crafting types half way. We need to make these worlds more principled than our own. Dont be afraid to lead by example.
4) Server based compeition is healthy competition. It promotes teamwork while provinging the necessary "Faceless enemy". You can combine this with number 1. Crafters can contribute to PVP!!! The three server model ill admit seems to be the best option available. Put some resources crafters need in pvp areas.
5) Maintain a presence: there is nothng wrong with three developers going into combat as superbeings every now and then gloating about it on these very boards. Maintain a presence on the boards. Doesnt matter if your popular or not! Stop being so diplomatic. Show that your humans like the rest of us ( well.. there may be a couple of robots here...). Tell me to screw off if you need to. Start a fight on the boards! You cant go wrong. blame everything on one guy on your team....
6) Get rid of the stats and disconnected views. They matter in ways most dont understand. If you want players to be connected to the world, they have to be able to see it as if was through their eyes in great detail. Your not supposed to see everything unless your a sattelite. Connect players back into the world. Its not that skyrim is so great, its that its first person, so you see all the detail. You just cant see it when your 50 feet away. Simple optics.
7) Do not discount the power of fluff. It is not a waste of resources. It makes your game alive and vibrant. Efficiency is the death of fun.
8) Get rid of exp and levels. They promote efficiency and efficiency is the bane of fun. Theres nothing wrong with players advancing, but make it interesting. Players will get to cap quickly anyhow, dont put them on that road. nobody quits mmos when they hit the cap. Not the good ones anyhow.
9) Make players build their forges, homes, spindels, weavers and the like. Make them community projects. give nothing away for free. its "content".
10) Remember voltron.. 5 cats make a robot. Thats what grouping should be like. 1 shared health bar (up to three players). Call it the link. no specific roles for each player. ( its self balancing at that number).
that should get you started!
You're getting rid of experience , levels, money and stats. Sorry but you're no longer creating an RPG.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
i dont see any mention of stats, experience or levels there. I actually think roleplaying was one of the first things to go..lol
there are still levels, but you dont need to count them, there is still experience but you dont really need to count that either. As for money..heres how i would make it without money.
the game has something called "orders". There is an order for each type of profession whether it is a tailor, cook, fighter, mage, log cutter, or blacksmith.
the defining feature of the order is the request system. All the request system does is hook up combatants with crafters and vice versa to make equipment and supplies that are needed ingame.
as a fighter well say i can go out in the world and collect materials from monsters that i will need to make a sword. Ill take these materials and submit a request for fabrication. My request goes to the order, so every blacksmith in the game can see my request and fill my order. The reverse is also true. As a blacksmith i can put in an order to the fighters order for supplies needed to make a certain item, which i am capable of making..say that sword.
To the blacksmith all they see is " sword required for fighters order", and they complete the request. There would also be a failsafe after a couple of days so that an npc will complete your order should no make the sword.
this would not only apply to swords, but bridges, houses, castles, upgrades for pvp guards and anything in the game that needed creating. Think of the server more like an army if you will. They dont care about money, they want results on the battlefeild.
so in addition to player orders there would also always be npc orders for items to keep the system liquid and these items would upgrade town guards, castle guards, keep guards, pvp defences, and anything else that can be upgraded. Of course all these "tasks" require materials..
which leads me to the donation system. Since theres no money what will players do with all that treasure. Anything they dont need can be donated to the common good of the server. Each npc order will accept the types of materials required to make their specific items, and there will be other npc orders that will accept anything as a catch all. Donatins will improve your standing with whatever npc order you donating to, and this will improve the services that you can receive as a player.
no..this does not give you phat l33t likes wows faction grinds. This works by the incentive order system where the higher the standing the more incentive the other tradesman (or vice versa) is given to complete your order.
Each player will have tabs in their "book" once for each order, one for their guild and one for the server. Some orders may be merged for simplicity. This will ensure that players always have a large number of tasks they can accomplish (or ignore) if they wish to do so. No tasks is one way though. a blacksmith that completes an order for armor for the pvp keep indirectly helps the combat players to fight and pvp the opposite is also true.
i see advancing your character to utilize a similar system. Every player would simply have to find the particular skill scroll to get it going, and this could be found in a treasure chest, off a monster, could be crafted by the above system (if you have the correct ingredients) or simply learned by being repeatedly exposed to the skill. Once your figured out the skill it then simply becomes a use base ( and we dont care how you use it, thats your business) and it progresses slowly by use from beginner to grandmaster.
once you hit grandmaster in a skill, any skill, you get the ability for skill modulation. This means that you can change the parameters of the skill ( but not change the overall power of it.. think of everything as a ball that can be stretched but not changed ...its still a ball..adding more of something takes away from the rest). The modulation skill also progresses from beginner to grandmaster. So you might have to play a long time to completely unlock every skill and grandmaster it, and then grandmaster the modulation of it, but its still just a skill, and doesnt make you inherently more powerful than anyone else..just more flexible, which i believe is the key to long term playability.
I like the "anti-grieving" policies that GW2 have put into the mix for starts.
Increase CE staff size by at least an order of magnitude.
I know, as an industry you've worked very hard to make customers accept low levels of service and save cash; but improving the environment makes you some cash too.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Design social spaces in such a way that player traffic is filtered into a primary intersection, so that as players run around said social space to take care of their business (depositing items in the bank, buying consumables at a merchant, visiting the AH, exiting the area, taking transport to a different area, visiting a trainer, etc.) they constantly pass by/through large groups of other players. This also creates a natural place for players to "hang out," mess around with emotes, conduct trades, etc. etc. etc.
Encountering large numbers of other players in the game is one of the most important factors to making the game FEEL like it has an active playerbase IMO. When a game feels active, it encourages other players to want to participate.
Similarly, an active chat contributes to that sense of an active community as well. That means making an economy that is actually dependent on players trading with each other. The trend has been to decrease reliance on other players to obtain desirable items because many players don't want to be bothered interacting with other players. This is one of the few cases where "I know what's best for you" should be employed. IMO, if you want a healthy community it's better to force players to interact with each other to get the rare and powerful items they want than let them play the game as an entirely solo experience.
In fact, WoW had a great thing going back when they required players of certain classes to seek help obtaining cool but nonessential class abilities/perks IMO. As fewer players played in "Old World" it became impractical, but Blizzard largely gave up on the idea after vanilla. I'm thinking in particular of the Paladin and Warlock level 60 mounts in vanilla. You helped other players with these quests because somebody once helped you with them (and maybe you got a little extra g for your time). That type of dynamic should be encouraged IMO, even though people who prefer to play solo will rail against it.
Promote faction pride. Reagardless of how many you have, factions should be as "equally cool" as you can make them, but that doesn't mean identical. Each faction should have cool things that differ greatly from the other, whether that's races, cities, powerful NPCs, modes of transportation, etc. etc. In terms of PVP, you want players to have the mentality that "No, you're not going to kill my faction leader or trash my faction's capital city." Offer world PVP opportunities that promote players of differing levels to encounter each other. Don't underestimate the "bonding element" of having your low-level areas being defended by high-level strangers from one's own faction.
Keep rare items rare. When a player sees a another player's mount, pet, piece of gear, etc. that looks unusual or neat, he or she should be encouraged to ask that player where he or she found them. Players like to show off things they feel are worth showing off, and that means they spend more time hanging around other players. In turn when players know who's who on their server -- the guy with the phoenix mount or the guy with the legendary sword -- it helps them identify as part of the community.
These are some great ideas! Especially designing social spaces. Remember the player markets in EQ? (My server happened to be the tunnel to the commons.) Players made a market out of necessity and it worked.
Give choices back to the player instead of taking them away. Developers who try to cater to both the solo and group player equally, end up blurring the line and taking away a sense of community. Why group when you can do it yourself?
By implementing more content that is focused on team work, a community will automatically flourish. To use EQ again as an example (didnt play SWG), in order to level or actually see new content you had to group. People ended up knowing who was who on their server and so in this way, reputation built. There was a silent player policing if you will. If someone was an ass or a bad player, the word got out. This idea of reputation among players really helped solidify the feeling of community.
Comments
Give GMs arbitrary permanent ban power.
ALLOT OF MARIJUANA TONS OF IT!!!!
I sincerely hope a game like this is made someday. As a personal preference for me, I would only add getting rid of General Chat and adding chat bubbles. This makes it feel like I am talking to someone directly, not just 'tweeting' someone, somewhere in the zone.
Nice post.
Design social spaces in such a way that player traffic is filtered into a primary intersection, so that as players run around said social space to take care of their business (depositing items in the bank, buying consumables at a merchant, visiting the AH, exiting the area, taking transport to a different area, visiting a trainer, etc.) they constantly pass by/through large groups of other players. This also creates a natural place for players to "hang out," mess around with emotes, conduct trades, etc. etc. etc.
Encountering large numbers of other players in the game is one of the most important factors to making the game FEEL like it has an active playerbase IMO. When a game feels active, it encourages other players to want to participate.
Similarly, an active chat contributes to that sense of an active community as well. That means making an economy that is actually dependent on players trading with each other. The trend has been to decrease reliance on other players to obtain desirable items because many players don't want to be bothered interacting with other players. This is one of the few cases where "I know what's best for you" should be employed. IMO, if you want a healthy community it's better to force players to interact with each other to get the rare and powerful items they want than let them play the game as an entirely solo experience.
In fact, WoW had a great thing going back when they required players of certain classes to seek help obtaining cool but nonessential class abilities/perks IMO. As fewer players played in "Old World" it became impractical, but Blizzard largely gave up on the idea after vanilla. I'm thinking in particular of the Paladin and Warlock level 60 mounts in vanilla. You helped other players with these quests because somebody once helped you with them (and maybe you got a little extra g for your time). That type of dynamic should be encouraged IMO, even though people who prefer to play solo will rail against it.
Promote faction pride. Reagardless of how many you have, factions should be as "equally cool" as you can make them, but that doesn't mean identical. Each faction should have cool things that differ greatly from the other, whether that's races, cities, powerful NPCs, modes of transportation, etc. etc. In terms of PVP, you want players to have the mentality that "No, you're not going to kill my faction leader or trash my faction's capital city." Offer world PVP opportunities that promote players of differing levels to encounter each other. Don't underestimate the "bonding element" of having your low-level areas being defended by high-level strangers from one's own faction.
Keep rare items rare. When a player sees a another player's mount, pet, piece of gear, etc. that looks unusual or neat, he or she should be encouraged to ask that player where he or she found them. Players like to show off things they feel are worth showing off, and that means they spend more time hanging around other players. In turn when players know who's who on their server -- the guy with the phoenix mount or the guy with the legendary sword -- it helps them identify as part of the community.
You're getting rid of experience , levels, money and stats. Sorry but you're no longer creating an RPG.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
how so? Role-playing-game.
i dont see any mention of stats, experience or levels there. I actually think roleplaying was one of the first things to go..lol
there are still levels, but you dont need to count them, there is still experience but you dont really need to count that either. As for money..heres how i would make it without money.
the game has something called "orders". There is an order for each type of profession whether it is a tailor, cook, fighter, mage, log cutter, or blacksmith.
the defining feature of the order is the request system. All the request system does is hook up combatants with crafters and vice versa to make equipment and supplies that are needed ingame.
as a fighter well say i can go out in the world and collect materials from monsters that i will need to make a sword. Ill take these materials and submit a request for fabrication. My request goes to the order, so every blacksmith in the game can see my request and fill my order. The reverse is also true. As a blacksmith i can put in an order to the fighters order for supplies needed to make a certain item, which i am capable of making..say that sword.
To the blacksmith all they see is " sword required for fighters order", and they complete the request. There would also be a failsafe after a couple of days so that an npc will complete your order should no make the sword.
this would not only apply to swords, but bridges, houses, castles, upgrades for pvp guards and anything in the game that needed creating. Think of the server more like an army if you will. They dont care about money, they want results on the battlefeild.
so in addition to player orders there would also always be npc orders for items to keep the system liquid and these items would upgrade town guards, castle guards, keep guards, pvp defences, and anything else that can be upgraded. Of course all these "tasks" require materials..
which leads me to the donation system. Since theres no money what will players do with all that treasure. Anything they dont need can be donated to the common good of the server. Each npc order will accept the types of materials required to make their specific items, and there will be other npc orders that will accept anything as a catch all. Donatins will improve your standing with whatever npc order you donating to, and this will improve the services that you can receive as a player.
no..this does not give you phat l33t likes wows faction grinds. This works by the incentive order system where the higher the standing the more incentive the other tradesman (or vice versa) is given to complete your order.
Each player will have tabs in their "book" once for each order, one for their guild and one for the server. Some orders may be merged for simplicity. This will ensure that players always have a large number of tasks they can accomplish (or ignore) if they wish to do so. No tasks is one way though. a blacksmith that completes an order for armor for the pvp keep indirectly helps the combat players to fight and pvp the opposite is also true.
i see advancing your character to utilize a similar system. Every player would simply have to find the particular skill scroll to get it going, and this could be found in a treasure chest, off a monster, could be crafted by the above system (if you have the correct ingredients) or simply learned by being repeatedly exposed to the skill. Once your figured out the skill it then simply becomes a use base ( and we dont care how you use it, thats your business) and it progresses slowly by use from beginner to grandmaster.
once you hit grandmaster in a skill, any skill, you get the ability for skill modulation. This means that you can change the parameters of the skill ( but not change the overall power of it.. think of everything as a ball that can be stretched but not changed ...its still a ball..adding more of something takes away from the rest). The modulation skill also progresses from beginner to grandmaster. So you might have to play a long time to completely unlock every skill and grandmaster it, and then grandmaster the modulation of it, but its still just a skill, and doesnt make you inherently more powerful than anyone else..just more flexible, which i believe is the key to long term playability.
Increase CE staff size by at least an order of magnitude.
I know, as an industry you've worked very hard to make customers accept low levels of service and save cash; but improving the environment makes you some cash too.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Do not include any solo content in the game.
Implement the best Group finding tools you can design
Do not implement any form of communication between players.
This would be my perfect MMO.
These are some great ideas! Especially designing social spaces. Remember the player markets in EQ? (My server happened to be the tunnel to the commons.) Players made a market out of necessity and it worked.
Give choices back to the player instead of taking them away. Developers who try to cater to both the solo and group player equally, end up blurring the line and taking away a sense of community. Why group when you can do it yourself?
By implementing more content that is focused on team work, a community will automatically flourish. To use EQ again as an example (didnt play SWG), in order to level or actually see new content you had to group. People ended up knowing who was who on their server and so in this way, reputation built. There was a silent player policing if you will. If someone was an ass or a bad player, the word got out. This idea of reputation among players really helped solidify the feeling of community.
It depends on the complexity of the game.
SWTOR was developed for 6-12th graders. That's exactly what they got.