Future of MMORPGs: The Rise of the "Independent Funtractor"

[Omedon]

In the days of EverQuest's unchallenged dominance, and influence on the direction of MMOs (including WoW), if you wanted to "be a somebody", it wasn't as much your own skill that mattered (but it still did), as it was who you knew. Guilds, raid teams, even looser-knit circles of recurring play-partners were key to getting anything "of note" done. Indeed, at the onset of the MMO's emergence, the novelty, and a huge "feature", was the ability to play with other people. Because of this, people tolerated (to varying degrees) and gravitated to microcosmic concepts of community co-dependence and things like guild loyalty, consideration of your neighbor's time, and the impact you had on it, which were addressed and handled at varying degrees of success. Things like group-earned loot and the "trinity" of tank/heal/damage added spice to the soup, and group/guild leaders succeeded and failed at the social minigame that was just as important to killing dragons as individual player competence.

The novelty of this "cool, we can play together over the Internet!" sensation was bound to wear off, and it did. It's still a draw, to this day, but it can't be used as a huge pillar to sell a game anymore. Stripped of novelty, a lot of glaring holes can be seen in this monolith of gaming standards we have enshrined.

First off, the fact that no matter how good the game is, a bad experience with another player can do lasting damage to your success or enjoyment is a horrible business model, when selling to the individual: the only sales pitch that matters. To tell someone "to see the end of the story, bring 24 friends, and make sure X number of them are willing/able to do the high pressure roles", is not a pitch that today's consumer will generally tolerate in an RPG with story that starts as a personal, solo pursuit.

Story is a huge part of any RPG. You create a character, and have fun exposing that character to a world, its story, and often the other people "living" there. The developers of the world can control one of those two important variables, and as trends have indicated over the years, it's important to rein in the negative influence of the other (the community) over your fun, since the developer generally can't control it. It's an axiom I've applied to LARPing in the past:

"The problem arises out of the fact that many of the features of the product are or are enabled by the customers themselves, who often exercise their paid right to refuse to be the product, because they are customers."

When this circle inevitably presents itself, the MMO, as we know it, starts to crumble. Game designers can dull the impact of this cycle, even prevent it from manifesting, to a degree, by slashing certain elements of co-dependence, and they have already begun.

In WoW: Continuing the ethic that gave birth to the dungeon finder, the raid finder puts the final nail in the coffin of "needing an army" to finish the story you started by leveling solo.

In SWTOR: The fact that the game itself is "online, parallel dragon age in space" as it relates to its story is right in line with this "selling to the individual" ideal.

In GW2: The personal story, the exterior, open world dynamic events, the home instance: everything is pointed at the individual player interfacing with the game in a way of their choosing. In fact, the ONLY feature that necessitates co-dependence is the dungeon content, and even that is smoothed by the absence of "the trinity".

Online communities can and will still form in our favourite MMORPGs, it would be kind of silly if they couldn't, but more than ever, games are marketing to and designing for players one at a time.

A common complaint aimed to this line of thinking (particularly the dungeon finder type features) is that it kills the sense of community, and that's a fair point, but my respectful rebuttal is that the worst sides of each other that we see in the more "gear treadmill" type games (like WoW) are brought to the surface by the idea that there are two kinds of content:

1) "Grind content", whether it means leveling faster, gearing faster, maxing rep or chasing achievements, it's easy to see "the journey" in the common MMO as something to be pursued with personal efficiency, even when grouped, (this is why "hard heroics" failed in Cataclysm: it's grind content, not seen as the place to be hindered by another player's reflexes) because this isn't "the real game", this is somewhere that other people tend only to "get in each other's" way on the way to...

2) The endgame. You're done, you're there, now it's about competing to get loot, competing for DPS, competing in PVP, etcetera. Again, we're either in each other's way, or holding each other back, OR we're in the perfect group. If not in said perfect group, you're paying for a product you're potentially not as happy with as you should be, and it's all because of an element of the product that the developer has little or no control over. This actually has less to do with the "looking for" features, and more to do with the overall design of the game itself: empowering "them" to dictate "your" game.

This is why the MMORPG of the future needs to be less about "them" and more about you. The more happy, self-empowered "independent funtractors" are drawn to an individually engaging game, the more will be around to deal with group undertakings, which then turn into opportunities to meet people that WANT to be there, as opposed to players using each other to reach an objective that "you'd better not cost them".

A community that doesn't "need" each other is then freed up to "want" each other. And if they don't, they're welcome to that too, because if they don't need each other, they won't inhibit the folks that would rather want each other.

One of the only votes against all of this is the indirectly and unfortunately cultivated desire to "control" each other's progress, be it through shunning someone with a bad reputation, or perhaps "the only tank" dictating the pace of the whole guild/raid's pace of enjoyment. I'm afraid it's not in the best interest of the MMORPG industry to leave these "sacred cows" of social policing alive, they need to die, because that guy with the bad rep, and those guildies hoping that the tank makes up with the guild leader should not have the quality of their own funtime dictated by others that didn't pay for those other players' subscription/game. The ones providing the service (the developers) need to lessen the impact of these scenarios, because even an MMO is populated one player at a time.

Don't need your gaming community, want it, because if you don't want it, you certainly don't need it. The games out there are slowly enabling this for you, so capitalize!

If you're still here, thank you for reading, and be mindful of how you can be an independent funtractor in your MMORPG of choice, because it's not about them, they're not paying for your subscription/game, it's about you, and you, and you...

[Zeek Daniels]

Don't need your gaming community, want it, because if you don't want it, you certainly don't need it. The games out there are slowly enabling this for you, so capitalize!

Actually WoW has been slowly driving its gaming community apart with things like dungeon finder, looking for raid, and cross realm dungeons. From having set raid sizes to fiddleing around with 2 and then coming to the 10/25 model they have now. The community has been falling apart during these changes and LFR is not helping. Alot of WoW players like getting their gear then getting out.

Didnt really read all of what you wrote but Some games (Guild Wars 2) is all about the community of players you play with and i hope to God they dont add LFR system cuz with the multi guild system it should be hard to find 4 other people.

[Lucky_]

Actually WoW has been slowly driving its gaming community apart with things like dungeon finder, looking for raid, and cross realm dungeons. From having set raid sizes to fiddleing around with 2 and then coming to the 10/25 model they have now. The community has been falling apart during these changes and LFR is not helping. Alot of WoW players like getting their gear then getting out.

Didnt really read all of what you wrote but Some games (Guild Wars 2) is all about the community of players you play with and i hope to God they dont add LFR system cuz with the multi guild system it should be hard to find 4 other people.

Actually, they have been driving the community apart so that people who hate each other's guts (like hardcore arena players and average raiders who don't want to PvP at all) meet as little as possible in the game. Everyone ends up mostly in their happy little bubble, gets enough content to be content and keeps on subbing. It also helps community-building, because it makes it easier to build guilds and communities around activities.

People who are "jacks of all trades" like myself tend to dislike this specialization trend, but it's not really all that annoying as to stop subbing. Boredom is, as is having to constantly play with people who have to do one activity just to be able to participate in the other like TBC PvPers that had to have raid gear, and after getting it basically ragequit the PvE guild to join a PvP one.

WoW now has rated BG for one kind of PvPers, rated arena for other, 3 raid difficulties for different types of raiders and finally a very solid questing and grinding experience for those who enjoy those. Sure, this splits people, but in a good way - by letting people to focus on what they like and allowing them to not do what they don't like and not be gimped (within reason).

[Omedon]

In keeping with the theme of the post, the greatest advantage of LFD and especially LFR is we are no longer forced into harmful guild marriages with people we can't stand, just to see content. This ethic of independence is not as ingrained in WoW as it is in THE ENTIRETY OF GW2, but it's a step in the right direction. If I don't like you, I don't need you, everyone wins.

Release tier and Troll heroics weren't built for the "it's grind content" ethic that holds up the dungeon finder. Hour of Twilight and MoP heroics (supposedly) are moving back toward treating grind content like grind content, (inevitably completed, challenging enough to be worth paying attention) and the access level of LFD and LFR will let people complete stories, and optionally seek out challenges (normal raiding and up, challenge mode) with set groups if they so desire, but not a single bit of instance map or the story behind them will be kept from someone for not working with people they can't stand.

Essentially, you stay alone until you find people you like, people you WANT to work with, and the game is viably letting you complete the story in the meantime. That's how it should be. That's also how GW2 will work from top to bottom, the only exception being dungeons which, as you say, Zeek, will be easy to fill out manually.

LFR and LFD have their downsides, not going to deny it, but it's WoW's way of moving toward the personal empowerment that is at the core of GW2 at launch.

[LonestarHero]

Screw the "community".

I'm playing SWTOR now and if I want to find a dungeon group I have to do the general chat "Op Healer LFG, all HM's except for BT" hell hole. I prefer to get my gear/badges/daily and never see the folks I was grouped with again.

Community is code for the buggy whip maker lobby. This is 2012, I prefer not to go back to 2009.

[Lucky_]

Screw the "community".

I'm playing SWTOR now and if I want to find a dungeon group I have to do the general chat "Op Healer LFG, all HM's except for BT" hell hole. I prefer to get my gear/badges/daily and never see the folks I was grouped with again.

Community is code for the buggy whip maker lobby. This is 2012, I prefer not to go back to 2009.

Community are people you actually want to play with. One of the things LFG enables is to not require you to either look for group yourself of have to bother other people you normally play with you join you for something you really don't like doing, but have to because of rewards. So in WoW, you run your daily crap with LFG, and then go raiding/PvPing/cybering/whatever floats your boat with the community that you want to play with.

P.S. Pun was not intended.

[LonestarHero]

Community are people you actually want to play with. One of the things LFG enables is to not require you to either look for group yourself of have to bother other people you normally play with you join you for something you really don't like doing, but have to because of rewards. So in WoW, you run your daily crap with LFG, and then go raiding/PvPing/cybering/whatever floats your boat with the community that you want to play with.

P.S. Pun was not intended.

That is what guilds are for.

When I hear "community" I think of the other schmucks on my server who are not in my guild that I could really care less about.

[Omedon]

I'm playing SWTOR now and if I want to find a dungeon group I have to do the general chat "Op Healer LFG, all HM's except for BT" hell hole.

I will fully admit that this is a weakness of SWTOR. Trinity games really should have a dungeon finder these days, as that slightly lowers the social "power" of tanks and healers. With DPS being the vastly preferred role (I mean, come on, you can't heal things or endure things to death), manual group assembling in a trinity setting is only exacerbating the biggest anti-community element of the outdated MMO model: Don't have friends, have the right "friends". That's broken.

---------- Post added 2012-01-24 at 12:37 AM ----------

That is what guilds are for.

Not even that, guilds are for like minded individuals. If none of those like minded individuals wants to play a tank or healer (in a trinity setting), you're back at square one.

[Ihsatakar]

That is what guilds are for.

When I hear "community" I think of the other schmucks on my server who are not in my guild that I could really care less about.

Glad to see you care about your server community, then.

I kid.

[Omedon]

Glad to see you care about your server community, then.

I kid.

To be fair, as blunt as he's being, he's only proving my point.

Truthfully, the "server community" is not the responsibility of any one player (product being the customer being the product and all), so the game needs to give the player the freedom, without being gimped, to pursue its core content in a way that isn't getting in anyone else's way, while you stay out of their way (as they would like it), because clearly you aren't compatible, and shouldn't control each other's experience in any way. If you are compatible, you might just meet up , and hit it off, but your success or failure should not be tied to that happenstance at all, as you didn't pay for "hope you meet this person".

GW2 has this at launch. WoW has jury-rigged it with LFD and LFR, to varying degrees of success.

[mercutiouk]

Actually, they have been driving the community apart so that people who hate each other's guts (like hardcore arena players and average raiders who don't want to PvP at all) meet as little as possible in the game. Everyone ends up mostly in their happy little bubble, gets enough content to be content and keeps on subbing. It also helps community-building, because it makes it easier to build guilds and communities around activities.

People who are "jacks of all trades" like myself tend to dislike this specialization trend, but it's not really all that annoying as to stop subbing. Boredom is, as is having to constantly play with people who have to do one activity just to be able to participate in the other like TBC PvPers that had to have raid gear, and after getting it basically ragequit the PvE guild to join a PvP one.

WoW now has rated BG for one kind of PvPers, rated arena for other, 3 raid difficulties for different types of raiders and finally a very solid questing and grinding experience for those who enjoy those. Sure, this splits people, but in a good way - by letting people to focus on what they like and allowing them to not do what they don't like and not be gimped (within reason).

I'd agree with the bubble thing. It's amazed me a few times to bump into pvper's who can tell me what cooldowns I didn't pop and why I should put abilities in this order to stop them screwing me but have NO IDEA where X instance is. Sometimes even to the point of "nope, deadmines, no idea what that is" (until the re-hash of course).

[LonestarHero]

To be fair, as blunt as he's being, he's only proving my point.

Truthfully, the "server community" is not the responsibility of any one player (product being the customer being the product and all), so the game needs to give the player the freedom, without being gimped, to pursue its core content in a way that isn't getting in anyone else's way, while you stay out of their way (as they would like it), because clearly you aren't compatible, and shouldn't control each other's experience in any way. If you are compatible, you might just meet up , and hit it off, but your success or failure should not be tied to that happenstance at all, as you didn't pay for "hope you meet this person".

GW2 has this at launch. WoW has jury-rigged it with LFD and LFR, to varying degrees of success.

I think RIFT juggled it best of all. The zone-wide invasion events with people on your server for quick 20-man grouping, the dungeonfinder for anonymous getting daily crap done, server pugs/guilds for raids and one/two player chronicle dungeons. Hopefully GW2 expands upon this, no fear though as Arenanet will be getting my money.

[Omedon]

I think RIFT juggled it best of all. The zone-wide invasion events with people on your server for quick 20-man grouping...

RIFT invasions were an excellent idea in this vein, with two annoying sticking points (when I was playing anyway)

1) Groups being full (really only an issue while leveling). This won't happen in GW2.

2) Puresource has a "need" button. Serious pet peeve of mine, because you're gimping yourself if you don't hit it, but (at least on the server I was on) it was seen as a "blacklistable" act of greed. This won't happen in GW2.

[Edge-]

I think RIFT juggled it best of all. The zone-wide invasion events with people on your server for quick 20-man grouping, the dungeonfinder for anonymous getting daily crap done, server pugs/guilds for raids and one/two player chronicle dungeons. Hopefully GW2 expands upon this, no fear though as Arenanet will be getting my money.

I doubt they will, because the LFG system is less about running the dungeons to run them with people and more about to run them for the express purpose of getting gear. Anet seems to be doing as much as possible to get people to interact with each other and work together again, something that's been lost over the years. Almost everything they are doing is reinforcing a sense of server identity and community, getting people to interact with each other.

LFG system was created more because of the limitations of the trinity (i.e. dependent on how many people are available that fill the needed roles), and works out VERY well for dealing with the supply/demand problems that arise with that system. Remove this supply/demand and now finding a group is less dependent on "which roles are available right now" to "are there (competent) people available", significantly expanding the potential player pool.

[Omedon]

LFG system was created more because of the limitations of the trinity (i.e. dependent on how many people are available that fill the needed roles), and works out VERY well for dealing with the supply/demand problems that arise with that system. Remove this supply/demand and now finding a group is less dependent on "which roles are available right now" to "are there (competent) people available", significantly expanding the potential player pool.

I agree very much. You can populate a friends list (and guild/guilds) of "people I like" and not worry if that one tank you know is online. GW2 doesn't really need LFG for this reason.

I think, LonestarHero, you will be very much a "dynamic event" kind of player in GW2, and that's perfectly viable and awesome.

[Destruktion]

MMORPGs don't have a future, especially with your line of thinking. Instant gratification and single-player-like individuality (what you are advocating) are not supported by this genre. They will weigh it down and kill it off given enough time.

[Omedon]

MMORPGs don't have a future, especially with your line of thinking. Instant gratification and single-player-like individuality (what you are advocating) are not supported by this genre. They will weigh it down and kill it off given enough time.

The ideal MMO in 2012 functions like a single player game when you want it to (you bought it, it should work for you first and foremost), and a group activity when you want it to (there are people you might like and meet, you should be able to play with them), and neither option when you don't want them. This describes GW2 fairly consistently.

Countering individuality and fostering co-dependency just creates a "community" of individually impotent sycophants. Like any healthy relationship, you must be two (or many) wholes to contribute to a single whole collective happiness.

[Zeek Daniels]

To be fair, as blunt as he's being, he's only proving my point.

Truthfully, the "server community" is not the responsibility of any one player (product being the customer being the product and all), so the game needs to give the player the freedom, without being gimped, to pursue its core content in a way that isn't getting in anyone else's way, while you stay out of their way (as they would like it), because clearly you aren't compatible, and shouldn't control each other's experience in any way. If you are compatible, you might just meet up , and hit it off, but your success or failure should not be tied to that happenstance at all, as you didn't pay for "hope you meet this person".

GW2 has this at launch. WoW has jury-rigged it with LFD and LFR, to varying degrees of success.

I dont think your getting it. The server community is what keeps the game going. WoW is driving the community apart because players dont have that sense of family anymore. When you used to look in trade for a group you met other players that you sometimes saw day in and day out and you formed bonds with those players, some positive some negative. But the LFG system provides no bonds because you will rarely see those players ever again. How can a game keep you coming back to it if your only reason to play that game is get gear then get out. No friendships No Bonds No family = No Subs

WoW cant keep its community together because it put systems in place that drove the "community" aspect of the game apart. So you want to play your game privately that just makes it easier to quit. But when you have 20-30 friends maybe more that you love to be around who you have played with for 1-2 years it makes it that much harder to quit.

Now GW2 isnt about subs so this doesnt matter but for games like WoW, Swtor, and Rift the community is whats going to bring in the $$$.

[Balfire]

You don't find it sad the community has been stripped from WoW? I used to have fun spamming LFG chatting with randoms chatting with the 3 I had in party while we looked for a final companion, riding together to the instance, I used to build friendships random people I would group we by chance once or twice and had a huge friends list full of fun talkative and competent players I knew would be up for anything anytime.

When the LFD system was first launched I didn't really notice, I still ran with mostly those people on my friends list or those of my guildm but slowly and surely that was phased out; people quit or gave up on asking, my group of friends slowly disappeared from the game and I was forced to use LFD.

I don't know about everyone, but at that point WoW was almost a single player experience for me Que roflstomp dungeon, que roflstomp dungeon, repeat.

Long gone are the days of knowing the goods and the bads of your server, of player respect in dungeons, of any sort of reputation, long gone is the any sense of community from the MMO giant. If you aren't raiding in a well established guild WoW is now a single player game of grinding, purples, and stat sheets.


I can't wait for a sense of server pride and the chance to build up a reputation again.

[Omedon]

I can't wait for a sense of server pride and the chance to build up a reputation again.

In the context of a non-trinity game, I couldn't agree more.

The "community" of WoW gone by was based, largely, on two things:

1) The novelty of "We can play over the internet! WOOO NEAT!" This has faded. It wouldn't be coming back without LFD, people would just unsub as "have nots" that can't get a dungeon done because of...

2) The sycophantic relationships of the trinity. DPS grow on trees, but that tank, be nice to him. I play a tank, and this dynamic disgusts me.

"The bads" of your server being reliant on you not seeing them as bads is a broken system (and a crappy business model), especially in the context of the trinity and specific co-dependent roles. In GW2, these players can still seek out their own fun, even take part in mass group content, and you have no power to stop them. In this "forced acceptance", they just might meet people of like mind. Everyone wins.