The Answer to Content Consumption problems

[Zooch]

The rate at which players consume content can be easily regarded as the number one obstacle plaguing MMO developers today. I believe that developers are finally beginning to realize that there is no financially prudent way of curbing this insatiable hunger in house, so it is time to give the power to players, as cheesy as this sounds. What do I mean? I'm talking about Player Created Content (PCC).

PCC has been around for decades now, and who better to comprehend its success than Blizzard Entertainment, the same company that implemented PCC tools in their RTS games, which not only gave games like Starcraft and Warcraft III obscene longevity, but from this "foundry" (Neverwinter term) of PCC emerged an ENTIRE GENRE of new games, which we now call MOBA's (based on Warcraft III's Defense of The Ancients mod, an original PCC).

I used the term foundry above because Perfect World has already implemented such a feature into their new MMO, Neverwinter. As far as I'm aware, players can create their own quests and dungeons that reap experience and loot (not entirely sure about the loot). These quests and dungeons are then rated and made publicly available for players to experience. Obviously, as more time is spent improving the foundry system and the tools and breadth of power it gives players to manipulate environments, the higher the quality of content will be produced. Eventually, I forsee a lot of players opting to engage in PCC more so than the general quest lines of the game, similarly to how we saw so many Warcraft III players forgo playing standard RTS campaign and engage in awesome bouts of Footmen Wars, Mauls, and DOTA.


Blizzard has the tools and staff to make their own version of a "foundry" that would be more inclusive and diverse than anything a new MMO could offer. And who said it had to stop at quests and dungeons? What about player created BG's, Raids, and scenarios? Challenge Modes? Etc.?

By implementing a system that allows the user base to create content, Blizzard has essentially employed 8.3 million subscribers at zero cost, and may have successfully solved the most common issue in the MMO market today. Who knows, maybe a shining emerald emerges with its own genre through this "foundry", similarly to how DOTA did. The ball is in your court, and all we ask you to do is pass. Give us a chance to improve the game the way we want to, and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results, as we will be.

[Tomana]

The problem is that it is very complicated to create PCCs in a game such as WoW, the tools etc. are too complicated.

What I would do, on the other had, would be to define some framework for quests (basically a text file) which would allow players to imagine their own quests. And the "best" ones would be put in the game by the devs. This would be quicker but would still be verified by the developers.

[La]

That opens up a whole new gateway of problems on top of the technical limitations and how long it would even take to do. Neverwinter was built at the start as a game that intended that kind of feature, to encourage it (even though the reality is it's pretty unrewarding in every single aspect). I suppose my first point would probably be: what would players get from doing such things? Most people don't care about new quests or dungeons if there isn't some sort of reward that in the end justifies it all. I don't really think something like Foundry would work with WoW.

[Zooch]

Tomana, I like your alternative solution, and while I would have agreed with you that this might be too complicated for an MMO a few months ago, Neverwinter has seemingly proved us both wrong. Not only can it be done, it has been done, and apparently with good starting success. In my opinion, something like this would be a worthy investment. We'll see what Blizzard decides to do.

[Tomana]

Tomana, I like your alternative solution, and while I would have agreed with you that this might be too complicated for an MMO a few months ago, Neverwinter has seemingly proved us both wrong. Not only can it be done, it has been done, and apparently with good starting success. In my opinion, something like this would be a worthy investment. We'll see what Blizzard decides to do.

I don't play Neverwinter, but I would guess that if you develop the game on a newer architecture with PCC in mind, it is certainly possible. WoW "insides" may simply be too old and hence too complicated for that (not to mention the horrifying stratigraphy of 10 years of code).

[Vulpei]

PCC is crap 99.9% of the time. There is the one piece in a thousand that is almost playable, and one in ten thousand that you can call good. keep it out of WoW at all costs.

[Zooch]

While I understand your concerns, and I do agree to the fact that the vast majority of PCC is substandard content, a rating system would seem to resolve this issue. I remember back in the Warcraft III days you would join custom maps and just leave after realizing the objectives were so stupid or the map was essentially broken. Eventually, however, fan favorites like Footmen Wars, Mauls, tower Defenses, DOTA, Hero Wars, etc. emerged and added a lot of depth to the game at large. Out of the thousands of maps created, maybe only 10-20 of them and their successors were fun, but I think it was definitely worth it.

[NotLuto]

I don't want to raid SERPHYRIOTS LAYER and get CLOUDS AWESOME BIG SWORD in WoW.