The Return

Welcome back.

I don’t know if this is going to go anywhere. I’m waxing nostalgic and Endless-Online is one of those things you just don’t quit. So I’m going to blog a bit and we’ll see what happens with it.

A couple quick shout-outs.

First – to “The Remaining Endless-Online Society” – if you’re not there right now head on over at http://www.treos.org/ and hook up with the forums. There are familiar faces there, moderation is good, and if you’ve missed the old EO community – well they’re capturing it pretty well.

Second to Stava. The EO Main Server is still at http://www.endless-online.com/ but it’s filled with botters and account sellers. Stava’s got the best team together and I think he’s got a chance of developing something special there.  (http://treos.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=870)

And it wouldn’t be a blog without some actual content. This one is directed at anyone who is thinking about developing an MMORPG. A philosophy of sorts based on psychology, economics, and the ranting of your resident expert on these sorts of things.

So you wanna create an MMO…

Example: Storyboarding

Charaters level 0-4 (Newb tutorials)

What they need – positive first impression. a reason to care. basic game dynamics. some quick accomplishments to feel some positive self image. Something unique to let them stand out.

Time for the characters to be there: No more than 2 hours. Any more and they will leave.

Game begins: basic character creation is done – introduce the story. (cut scene? or! NPC interaction through the tutorial – YES! it will immerse in the story interactively). Character awakens in a dark cave. Dialogue box “You hear a voice from the outside – “I think someone is in there.” Dialogue 2 “<Move with arrow keys>”

Exiting the cave – the player will find two NPCs. Olga and Helga. They’re going to introduce the world…”after the necromancer came…” more on that later. Quests – 1. clothing 2. basic combat 3. first weapon 4. second combat 5. journey to town (LEVEL UP TO ONE BEFORE ARRIVAL). Time: 10 minutes…

Scene 2: Newbshire – level 1 quests. Meets NPC AIMEE at the gate. Quest: Ruined wool. (Collect 10 sheep wools) Experience for the quest 25 + ~ 20 for the sheep (50% drop rate, 1 exp each, 1 damage, 6 sheep respawn 30 seconds, keep it quick. no more than 10 minutes) Level 2 will be at 400 exp. This quest will be ~10% of level. (5 more quests to level 2).

And so on…

1. Successful MMO design begins by planning the experience
The catastrophic failure of most independent games happens because players have to think too much. And not in the right way. It’s one thing to ask: “How do I solve this?” and another to ask existential questions like: “What the fuck am I doing here?” If they’re asking question 2 then you’ve already failed.

You can have great art – a fantastic concept – an innovative design. You can have quests, and jobs, and pets, and guilds. You can expand and expand and expand. None of that matters if there isn’t a subtle narrative – an invisible driving force – a predestined will shepherding them into greener pastures.

MMO failure begins when the developer says “People are bored. Let’s build a castle. Castles are cool.” Instead of asking a question like – “Where do I want my level 10-15s to be, how many level 10-15s do I want in one place at one time and for how long do I want to keep them there.” The former creates a clusterfuck. The latter creates an experience that players are going to keep coming back for.

The key is storyboarding. This is the process of writing down a character’s story. This can be multifaceted – if you have multiple character classes, careers, karmic balances, etc. – then you have to write out a number of stories. But the point is this: you have to know what a player is going to go through before he or she goes through it. A good storyteller will make it feel like they’ve decided their own fate even though they haven’t – It seems counterintuitive in the MMO genre but players aren’t that smart and they don’t want to be. (See “What the fuck am I doing here?”)

2. Successful MMO design comes from economic planning

Hyperinflation and scarcity/overabundance of resources kill MMO worlds. If there is too much of something the market collapses and there is no retained value for later players. If there is too little or supply is held by those with higher levels and equipment there will be no growth from the bottom.

The economy needs to be carefully managed so that there is always something new to buy, ways to cash out that don’t require player interaction (limited pvp economies are good – free markets are bad). Make it easy to sell most things at a fair price back to the system. Keep stats so that you can adjust prices for balance. Make drop rates for some items based on a player’s level so that high level players have no economic motivation to “slum”.

(BTW – I’m always a fan of the “it only takes one lucky punch” system. A level 100 player against a level 1 goat, for example, put in a random critical strike for when the goat horn slices through a hole in the armour. <1% chance – but you could die and lose everything fighting mobs that are 20 levels below you.)

The economy should also be balanced to move people from place to place. Money, level, difficulty and story – they all go hand in hand to keep your people where you want them. A level 20 shouldn’t want level 10 items. A level 1 shouldn’t be able to get level 30 stuff.

3. Successful MMO design plans for volume

It’s easy to get caught up in the glory and revelry of hard-core players. They will worship you as long as you cater to them. They will not, however, pay the bills.

This seems counterintuitive but if you plan and build around them you’ll be stuck paying for a 30 person server forever. You’ll pixel yourself into a heart attack. The thing you love and want to share with the world will remain an obscure oddity.

But that guy who logs in 18 hours a day – to him you’re a god. Until he has everything – and demands that you make something new. You are the creator. He is not. Fuck that guy.

The majority MMO gamer spends between 3 and 5 hours a week on gaming. Plan around her (definitely her – she will spend real life money. He will not.) You want the pacing of the game to be geared around her life so that she wants to spend her precious spare time coming back.

You want to give her just enough to be satisfied. Leave her just a little frustrated to come back for some more. And then offer both rewards – and a few “real-life cash” solutions for those times when she’s stuck or wants to treat herself.

Balance between quick quest pacing – and longer involved ones for variety. Maybe the first 10 levels are quick quests – and then all of a sudden levels 10-14 are an epic tale that they get caught up in. Then a little grinding. Then back to some quick rewards. (this is useful advice elsewhere)

If you plan for this type of player your servers will go from 30 person indies to 300 person break-out successes. You can reward your hard core gamers in other ways – but ultimately let those selfish pricks moan on the WoW boards – they don’t really love you.

4. Successful MMO design builds a community

It does this by putting people in one place at one time. There is tremendous value in the central city. You do want to plan so that people get to experience new things – but you want to bring people back together.

PVP arenas, marketplaces, hangout spots, jobs, standard equipment, and some general quests. So that lower players can see where they might get to and higher players can have their egos stroked.

“Where’d you get those boots?” is one of the most important questions you’ll hear. Plan around it. There has to be a balance of coming and going. Old and new. It will keep folks coming back for more.

I’m going to leave it at that since we’re already in TL;DR territory. My focus is going to be on SEO related stuff but I’ll comment generally on things.

Comments below.

Keep it real.

Wikky