Robo_Doc said:
So would you say then that the exploration-based gameplay/reward system of URU had a weakness in amount of content or substantial value in its rewards (unlocking Ages/Worlds, story content discovered)? What makes me interested in this particular game is the fact that:
To most people's perception of gameplay-reward functions, yes. Being able to read a few more books doesn't appeal to a whole lot of gamers. (It does to me, because Myst is like heroin to me.) Yet, as a whole, the thrill of unlocking new Ages at the moment is hard for a lot of new players to really identify with.
Secondly, there's not much sense of character advancement, apart from being able to go to new places (and since Ages can be shared, even that gets simmered down a bit) and some new outfits. (Though I do love my GoW (Guild of Writers used it first) shirt).
1) URU did go under twice (like you said) and now in this game market is online again as an open-source project.
Thrice, if you count the last time it was free.
And unfortunately, the source still hasn't gone open, it's still Cyan running (and straining) some servers owned by Amazon.
2) URU Presents an experience that seems to be inline with what John Funk was seeking through the Star Trek IP to an extent (Exploration, Peace-Making, Conflict that is not centered around combat). Though this is not the strongest parallel, it still works to an extent, and
The lack of conflict, I think, is what denegrates MO:ULa in the eyes of many gamers. Because the Ages are all uninhabited, there's nothing to resolve, apart from solving the puzzles.
The whole appeal of the game is exploration, but without much tangible reward to exploration (at the moment), the exploration seems quite shallow. As my wife said while playing it, "Why?"
3) What does it mean to have "something to do?" Action-Adventure MMOs such as WoW, Conan, and even PSO centered their content around equipment upgrades, content unlocking, and advancement in some sort of statistical way. Multi-player raiding also played a role in the progression of the content, emphasizing teamwork and socializing. While these relationships with content are tangible, they are only tangible within the mechanics of the game. Looking back at URU, it achieves similar goals by providing payers with puzzles that, when solved, unlock avatar clothing items, early enhancements to some device that is on the avatar's hand (used for chat and group invites), unlocking new ages based on the progression of previous ones (which even intersect at points), and overall build a library in your home area for easy transportation and grouping. Even through the multi-player, many avatars can get together to tackle tough puzzles and explore these worlds together. Again, these benefits, while tangible, are only tangible within the mechanics of this particular game. Excluding the meta-game involved, the rewards are only deeply related to its game's goals. Does this mean that players seek more combat-oriented conflicts to experience rather than the ones presented by URU? Maybe it is this combat/looting/light exploration that WoW presents that are elements already familiar to today's gamers. The whole exploration-mechanic driven game "died out" with many adventure games. Then again, adventure games are also on the rise again thanks to digital distribution and episodic delivery.
Okay, here's the fun part.
To most familiar with MMOs, finding a new T-shirt or funky hat isn't a strong appeal to scour every corner of a game. Not unless there's actually a benefit to having said T-shirt or funky hat. Also, as gradually more and more of the content is discovered, the player can feel as if there efforts are actually removing individualization of their explorer. The best rewards to be found in my opinion are the Relto pages, which, after discovering more and more of those, essentially allow your Relto to look like everyone else's, or else appear barren.
Having not played much of the new content, I don't yet know how much the Ages intersect, though the game still has the feel of "Okay, this is Uru. This is To D'ni. This is Path of the Shell."
I do think that fans of adventure games will feel that the rewards in MO:ULa will be worthwhile, but as far as appealing to the MMO audience, I believe it will be unfortunately lacking until something more substantial (for lack of a better word), is provided.
However, Uru's gameplay might not appeal to adventure game fans either. Jumping puzzles + wonky controls = frustration. Frustrating elements, while enhancing challenge in the actual game aspect, can really turn people away from the game's social nature.
What could be the future state of the MMO? At some point, it will escape the model the WoW has established so well. Maybe concepts like URU are truly dead for a while, yet a need also seems to be there for that kind of exploratory experience. Your thoughts?
I think, an exploratory game would still need to have some element of risk/reward other than trial-and-error. Not necessarily risk in the form of combat, but something. Something tangible. In Uru, thankfully, you cannot die. But it actually in some ways increases frustration - miss a jump, back to Relto, link back, try again. That's two loading screens (at least), for every mis-step. There's a particular Relto page to be found that requires an extremely finesse jump to be made, and it also involves quite a bit of plodding back to get to it should you miss.
A frustrating variant on die-respawn-corpse drag, but to be frank, a typical respawn mechanism would actually keep the game more accessible, while disrupting flow a bit, probably not as much as the load screens.
Going back to my prior statement, to focus heavily on exploration, there needs to be, in my opinion, to establish a risk element - resources to be expended, a sense of danger, and the possibility of disappointing spoils. Yes, people hate lousy rewards for what they've accomplished, but to really capture the explorative nature, there has to be a chance that while you're looking for the Fountain of Youth, you're going to find the Fountain of Ordinary Tap Water.
I think CivNet has a very good chance of creating this effect to some extent, while still having combat in it obviously, being Civ, by nature may also have that explorer's edge to it.
