MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz has been playing online role-playing games for over 20 years and misses the heyday of the genre, when the hype train would race through the internet several times a year. What would a MMORPG need to bring to make the genre veteran completely excited again? What about you?
Were you also there during the heyday of online role-playing games, when exciting MMORPGs were announced or launched almost quarterly? Popular franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer, Conan, Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls were set to get large online worlds – how cool is THAT?!
Notable developers and publishers were involved, such as Bioware, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Funcom, and Square Enix. Many of these projects were aimed at the Western market and modeled after World of Warcraft. Often a AAA budget went into the development.
I personally miss this time. In the past ten years, only a few new releases have been able to create comparable hype. Instead, it was often clear long before the launch that the next online role-playing game would face various problems or, at best, appeal to a niche.
I build my dream MMORPG
What would an online role-playing game have to look like to get the old grumpy guy in me excited for the launch and make himself comfortable at the front of the hype train? That’s what this column is about. Please tell me in the comments how your dream MMORPG looks!
A first warning: Since there are currently very many genre representatives that offer enormously many options for almost every player type and can be played well alone, I wish for an ambitious theme park MMORPG that wants to highlight the special and unique strengths of the genre around cooperation and competition.
The first dispute: the payment model
In my experience, even the fairest free-to-play model negatively affects game design and player experience. Somehow, players need to be encouraged to visit the shop and spend money there. Moreover, purely cosmetic items sold for money automatically devalue the rewards that can be earned.
Therefore, I prefer – and this certainly won’t please everyone – an MMORPG with a buy-to-play model and subscription (and completely without shop and microtransactions), where developers can focus entirely on providing the best possible player experience.
Free-to-play MMORPGs like Lost Ark can never offer the best possible player experience.
From my perspective, designers should feel free to experiment with subscription prices. Who actually decided that such an MMORPG subscription must cost between ten and thirteen euros per month? Why not try five to seven euros and see how that is received?
Oh, and please no release for mobile devices. That would also have an immediately noticeable negative effect on the versions for PC and consoles – for example in terms of interface, number of available skills, or through some automation functions that make the MMORPG play itself.
The setting: Western and with a large IP
Even though completely new universes have their charm, I usually find it much more exciting to travel through virtual worlds that I already know well from books, movies, series, or other games. Four franchises that I would find particularly exciting for a new MMORPG project have already been mentioned in this column:
Basically, I am also open to other IPs. In the field of fantasy and sci-fi novels, there is certainly still one or the other exciting universe that has not yet been blessed with a game adaptation – off the top of my head, I think of Joe Abercrombie’s fantastic “First Law” / blade world series.
However, what is important to me is that the MMORPG is designed with a view to character design, graphics, races, menus, and so on aimed at the Western market. I do not need scantily clad schoolgirls trying to be world saviors, gender locks in class selection, or an interface cluttered with flashing pop-ups and texts.
Equally off-putting to me as the generic look of many Asian online games is the simple yet bright style of smaller projects that simply do not have the budget for more. However, one upcoming MMORPG project that already delights me with its graphics is Ashes of Creation:
The setup of the servers
I am firmly convinced that the best possible MMORPG player experience is only possible if developers offer language realms for the largest countries. Only in this way can server communities be created where players and guilds can build relationships and rivalries that matter.
Only on such servers can one make a name for oneself, for example as the player who has learned the best enchanting recipes. Or as the guild that you have to pass by if you are keen on world boss loot.
The best possible cooperation and competition, as well as the most beautiful role-playing moments, can also only be experienced if there are no language barriers. The individual servers, however, should accommodate more players than is the case in New World.
An active population of about 3,500 to 6,000 characters per server is optimal; this is at least my experience from the first years of WoW and WoW Classic.
WoW Classic has impressively shown how important language servers are for the MMO experience.
The focus on socializing
In order for players to come together in MMORPGs, developers must ensure that cooperation provides clear benefits.
Who voluntarily quests with a stranger if they can reach their goal more efficiently alone? Why search for players for raids and dungeons when there are automated group searches and easy difficulty levels that can be mastered completely without communication or even solo?
My dream MMORPG therefore focuses on cooperative PvE challenges (dungeons, raids, scenarios) and competitive PvP content (arena, battlegrounds, contested areas in the open world), in which players must take on essential tasks with their classes and roles and coordinate with each other.
Interested parties organize themselves within the guild, via Discord servers, chat channels, and bulletin boards in the game. Guilds can be leveled to unlock passive buffs and various advantages for all members – such as larger vaults, access to a guild hall, or reduced cooldowns for essential skills.
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