Your Next: GLHF

Part 1: Does traditional storytelling have a place in MMOs?

A game called The Elder Scrolls Online launched recently—you may have heard of it. While you may not have heard me make mention of it, I have been pretty critical of the game for some time. There are some things about it that, in my opinion, are simply broken, but you could say that about many games, MMOs in particular. So this week after much goading by friends I decided to give the game a fair shake—many people are enjoying it, after all.

So off on an Elder Scrolls adventure I went, willing to put a whole week of my gaming time on it in the name of research, hoping to be proven wrong. I tried to look past the things I disliked and to enjoy the experience for what it was, and play the game in the way it was intended.

While there are some things that I was too critical of, and other areas that I think are quite good, on the whole I had a terrible time.

When I said before I was willing to put a whole week of gaming time into it, I should have said I failed to put more than a couple of days into it. I am purposefully being as vague as possible about what it is I like and don't like about the game; this isn't a review and the specifics are unimportant.

What it boils down to is that I wasn't having any fun playing the game. I was having fun chatting and joking around on Skype, but the game itself did nothing for me. I'll make it clear at this point—it’s fine if you like the game, I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm just making the point that it's not for me.

When push comes to shove, I think the phrase 'it isn't fun' is the most damning thing you can say about a game. While you could write thousands of words explaining in detail why you believed it (just be glad I didn't) the phrase cuts so violently to the core of the issue. It isn't fun.

Of course, fun isn't the only thing games can try to be – the developer CCP maintains that fun is only a very small part of a user's experience, so there's little benefit in trying to design for it. But then, they would say that, they make the utterly brilliant but not obviously 'fun' EVE Online.

So I've been thinking a lot this week about fun - what it is and why it's important in games, particualrly MMOs, and specifically EverQuest Next and Landmark.

The way I see it, MMO games are fighting a losing battle against player expectations. In single player games the story and setting can be tailored to the player in a way that cannot be replicated in an MMO (without resorting to instancing or phasing, and if you're doing that, why is it an MMO?) this means that like a good book you can immerse yourself in the experience and be swept along with the story. If you frequent RPG forums, you might think this was the sole purpose of games as a medium. MMOs will try, but for me it comes across like a David Cage game that would rather be a movie, it doesn't play to the strengths of the genre and ends up being a weak version of two things.

But what if we started with the notion that an MMO should not attempt to allow the player to immerse themselves through the story? What if instead, an MMO gave players the tools and motivations to create their own narrative not by playing a character, but through their own actions? There are many ways a game can be enjoyable, or 'fun' if you prefer, and creating a compelling narrative is just one option.

This is the obvious point to bring up the distinction between themepark and sandbox MMOs, but for me it holds true for most multiplayer experiences. Multiplayer can have great story, but without the tools to deliver it effectively and convincingly, it falls flat. Conversely, multiplayer has the ability to support emergent experiences that a heavily controlled single player title cannot. Even a game as deep and sprawling as Skyrim cannot compete with the possibility space of a game of Dota 2. So why do we insist on forcing a round peg into a square hole?

I imagine most people reading this are veteran MMO players, and I would be willing to bet that for the vast majority of you, your most memorable experiences in your favourite MMO were not plot points. I bet they were times that you overcame a challenge, achieved something you didn't think you could, or when you were just hanging out with your favourite guildies. Those are the stories you remember, even if you weren't playing a sandbox game.

This is a point I've made before, and I'm sure I will again. Most likely next week, when we will continue our discussion on fun, this time focussing on mechanics!

I could put some awful comment about having fun reading this here, but I won't.

LockSixTime

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Comments

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Fun and Interesting
# Apr 28 2014 at 6:55 PM Rating: Decent
Despite the bugs, I love the mixing up of solo/group play in TESO.
Much more immersive than, say, FFXIV, crafts are interesting and mean something, story-line is fantastic and it feels much better than Skyrim (more like Morrowind).

I'm happy to pay 15.00 a month and already re-subbed :)

That Tattoo Doe
# Apr 27 2014 at 11:57 AM Rating: Decent
Can I just say that tattoo is very unfortunate....
You're*
unless you're trying to say like "your next favorite game", but I doubt that's what you were going for.
That Tattoo Doe
# May 10 2014 at 3:51 PM Rating: Decent
Pretty sure Lock knows the difference
That Tattoo Doe
# May 10 2014 at 3:51 PM Rating: Decent
Pretty sure Lock knows the difference hehe.
It's all about the fun
# Apr 27 2014 at 3:36 AM Rating: Decent
37 posts
Fun is the single most important thing to a game IMHO. Setting, story, environment, and the culture that is encouraged or discourage by the games rules and mechanics all play into this.

I think too many MMOs that try to do story try to do it by making the player be a pivotal role in the story. I think this is a mistake. I remember the days of playing pnp D&D, there was tons of great story in our adventures but we weren't saving the universe everytime we turned a corner. You can tell a great story without making the players play a key role. Then you have games like Wildstar where arguably has alot of great story and lore in the game, but it doesn't really go out of the way to show it to you. I think that is an extreme in the other direction. We don't need 100% voice over full CGI cutscenes every 5 seconds, but occasionally it would be nice to be talking to an NPC and have them actually interact with you and instead of playing some predetermined audio.

For me one of the biggest aspects of what can make or break a game for me is the environment and the culture. Players will often blame other players for rude/bad behavior, exploiting, botting etc... The reality is how players act in a game world is largely affected by how the game world encourages or discourages certain behavior. It is extremely subtle, so I can understand how people don't pick up on it. However even the seemingly smallest decisions can have a ripple affect on how players treat others in the game. The key to good design is setting up rules and mechanics, reward and penalty mechanisms that nudge players into behaving the way you want them to without making them feel like they are being forced or caged in.

You have to get all these subtle things right or at least good enough so that you can establish a solid foundation to build the rest of the game on. You can have super fun combat mechanics in your game, for example, but as an MMO if the community is horrible people aren't going to stick around that long. Also if reward, progression mechanics(doesn't have to be gear but has to be something) aren't well designed you will see people hitting a wall and leaving.
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