An interesting comment over at Bio Break from bhagpuss:
"Instant adventures? About as welcome as Instant Tea. I’ll find my own adventures, thanks. I bet there’s one right over that hill."
I understand the sentiment, and I wish it would be like that. But in an average MMO, what you find behind the hill is usually a bunch of wolves and some harvest nodes, and that's it. It may be an adventure the first time, but after going behind the second or the third hill you just realize that there is no content there.
For years now a lot of new MMOs were marketed as having "a living, changing world". Yet, this is something I miss from them: to have small events in the world which are just happening, you may or may not observe them while they are lasting, and recognize or not their importance, and do something about them, if you wish, or simply ignore them.
Here is an example: While travelling across a valley, you notice that there are a lot of fish going upriver. As a seasoned adventurer you know that the salmon are migrating, and that someone may be interested about this in the village at the end of the valley. So you go there, talk to someone, and if you are quick enough, they may just reward you for this.
Or you might just notice some horse tracks, which you choose to ignore. Later you may find out that those marks were made by centaurs, and it means that they are planning to move into the valley, and what you have seen was left by their scouts.
The possibilities are endless. The system itself is somewhat tricky to put together, especially that you want to make sure that not every sign has a significant meaning, but some might lead to big events in the world. Also, it would probably worth to separate these kind of things into an independent Explorer sphere, with its own advancement system and rewards - ie, as a more seasoned explorer, your overland, out-of-combat movement speed might be improved, or you might have specific skills which help you with survival and gathering resources, or simply a lore skill that helps you to understand the signs better. It would be open for everyone, but the players could simply ignore the whole sphere if they want.
I'd like to have such a system in place. It would certainly make your time spent with exploring worthwhile.
For years now a lot of new MMOs were marketed as having "a living, changing world". Yet, this is something I miss from them: to have small events in the world which are just happening, you may or may not observe them while they are lasting, and recognize or not their importance, and do something about them, if you wish, or simply ignore them.
Here is an example: While travelling across a valley, you notice that there are a lot of fish going upriver. As a seasoned adventurer you know that the salmon are migrating, and that someone may be interested about this in the village at the end of the valley. So you go there, talk to someone, and if you are quick enough, they may just reward you for this.
Or you might just notice some horse tracks, which you choose to ignore. Later you may find out that those marks were made by centaurs, and it means that they are planning to move into the valley, and what you have seen was left by their scouts.
The possibilities are endless. The system itself is somewhat tricky to put together, especially that you want to make sure that not every sign has a significant meaning, but some might lead to big events in the world. Also, it would probably worth to separate these kind of things into an independent Explorer sphere, with its own advancement system and rewards - ie, as a more seasoned explorer, your overland, out-of-combat movement speed might be improved, or you might have specific skills which help you with survival and gathering resources, or simply a lore skill that helps you to understand the signs better. It would be open for everyone, but the players could simply ignore the whole sphere if they want.
I'd like to have such a system in place. It would certainly make your time spent with exploring worthwhile.
It's an interesting idea, making exploring either a skill or a new 'sphere' of play. Vanguard could probably add this since that game has diplomacy as a model separate, and unique playstyle.
ReplyDeleteWildstar will probably be the first MMO to emphasize exploration through it's system, though I'm unsure how that will turn out.
I do wonder whether exploration would encourage 'lone-wolf' gameplay or maybe gel well with hunter/killer types? Would it be wise to design for scout/hunter teams exploring the situations you describe above? Maybe exploration could specifically develop combat avoidance skills (stealth, camouflage etc) to allow for solo play in this sphere.
These are valid points.
ReplyDeleteAs about "encouraging" the solo gameplay, I don't think that would be an issue. There are a lot of casual players around who almost never do group content, for different reasons. This would be ideal for them. On the other hand, those who do care about group content would not go to explore if there is a group to play with.
Scout/Hunter teams: Exploration quest could be a logical follow up, especially in the case when the small event can escalate to a larger one, or there is a need for further investigation. Sending a whole team to investigate migrating salmons may be a stupid idea, but in case of the centaurs, it would make sense, as it may suddenly become dangerous. But that quest may be offered as a classical adventuring quest, with the usual rewards, instead of exploration ones.
Combat avoidance skills: That is one way to approach this, I like the idea. Might even offer some temporary speed buff/damage mitigation combo skills, or similar.
It really is like that for me. I can log onto EQ or EQ2 or Vanguard, just to name some MMOs I've played for literally thousands of hours, go to a zone I've been in hundreds and hundreds of times, start exploring it and have an adventure. That's just how my mind works.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in a village on the outskirts of a large city and I grew up an explorer of the trivial, both rural and urban. A typical day in my childhood would see me leave the house after breakfast and not be back until dusk. I'd explore woods, fields, streets, caves, rivers, farmland, museums, you name it. I'd go through the same places time and time again and it would always be the same and always different.
When I found Everquest in 1999 it was like finding my childhood all over again and that's how it's been ever since. I made my own adventures then from a stick to swish, a tree to climb and a river to fall in, and I'd meet up with other kids as I explored and we'd all have adventures together. Next day and the day after that we'd have the same different adventures all over again. That's why MMOs work for me - I was raised to see treasure everywhere, like Calvin.
That said, I am 100% in favor of MMO designers doing everything they can to create a living, breathing, changing world. If they can animate the backdrop convincingly that's wonderful. What I don't need them to do is give me loads of tick-boxes to fill out or a to-do list, which is what Rift's Instant Adventures amount to.