BioWare: MMORPGs Have "No Point"
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
Blizzard, a well-experienced RTS-maker managed to make WoW.
I wonder what Bio Ware will be able to do? With them being extremely experienced RPG-makers and all.
My only fear would be Ea rushing it out, leaving it unfinished by the great people of Bio Ware.
I wonder what Bio Ware will be able to do? With them being extremely experienced RPG-makers and all.
My only fear would be Ea rushing it out, leaving it unfinished by the great people of Bio Ware.
Completely agree with him. I've played both FFXI and WOW but ended up quitting on both of them because I never got any sense of progression or satisfaction in terms of a story. Sure, they both have some great environments etc, but the amount of time spent on it for a game with no real integral story just feels sort of empty. To me anyway. I hope The Old Republic can change that.
I am surprised no one is familiar with LoTRO or mentioned it. I found it's story to be among the best of MMO's on the market today. If I were to go back to MMO's that is the one I would probably go to. How this pertains is the fact that I can't stand WoW, I think it is terrible and could only stand to play it for about a week through curtousy of a friend of mine wanting me to give it a shot. I find WoW inescapably painful to play. However LoTRO, often refferred to as a WoW clone, I enjoyed quite a bit when I played it. Admittedly the graphics were more to my tastes than WoW is but the part that really captured me was the story. I actually found myself giving a crap about these NPC's throwing these quests at me. I was curious as to whatthe next series of events would be. I actually felt like I was "role playing" - a crucial part of a "Role Playing Game" I would say. Most MMO's on the markets should just be referred to as MMOG's and not RPGs. I would not discredit LoTRO as one of these however. The story is involving and many other adjectives not worth going into because the reason for this is because it has a novel series (OF which I haven't read) and movie trilogy (of which I didn't care for) backing it up.
I say all this to make the point that a story in an MMORPG is still a relatively untapped market. Players effecting the outcome is a great gimmick and useful tool but is not mandatory in a story. I may be the "lame-o" that actually reads the dialogue in boxes instead of just hitting "Accept quest" but as that person, I feel I have some kind of valuable input into how many games out there actually fail(many)/succeed(very few) in this endeavor.
That said, IMO, the most important aspect of any MMO is end game content. I think every MMO should be built from the ground up (or design centered around) based on its end game content. Or built in reverse I guess. This is ironically how most of the best stories are usually constructed. (From the ending towards the beginning) I would love to see players be able to influence the story through in game action as it is a cool idea, however, it is not necessary.
I say all this to make the point that a story in an MMORPG is still a relatively untapped market. Players effecting the outcome is a great gimmick and useful tool but is not mandatory in a story. I may be the "lame-o" that actually reads the dialogue in boxes instead of just hitting "Accept quest" but as that person, I feel I have some kind of valuable input into how many games out there actually fail(many)/succeed(very few) in this endeavor.
That said, IMO, the most important aspect of any MMO is end game content. I think every MMO should be built from the ground up (or design centered around) based on its end game content. Or built in reverse I guess. This is ironically how most of the best stories are usually constructed. (From the ending towards the beginning) I would love to see players be able to influence the story through in game action as it is a cool idea, however, it is not necessary.
I think the main thing to do to keep great story telling and end game multiplayer, you can release patches to put on new content (added stories/continued storyline). However, if they were to do something like the WAR Update in TF2, where the most demos/soldiers killed got a 4th item.
The developers simply have to create a new PvP environment. Depending on how different factions win, can affect the world for the next patch. For example, using WoW:
Alliance vs. Horde in some battlefield for territory, or whatever. After 2 months of PvP, a new patch would be released. If Horde won the most matches, they could have a new town of shops there, with new quests. Alliance would then retreat to another area, and get new quests to do with the loss - sabotage missions on the Horde captured area, for example - and possibly get control of the area again.
Adding things like that would increase competitiveness, give a reason to keep playing - for new content based on the player's actions, as well as constant new stories and quests that actually involve the player.
tl;dr Make new arenas. If Team X win, they get new stuff. If Team X lose, they still get stuff, but have a spin on their storyline.
The developers simply have to create a new PvP environment. Depending on how different factions win, can affect the world for the next patch. For example, using WoW:
Alliance vs. Horde in some battlefield for territory, or whatever. After 2 months of PvP, a new patch would be released. If Horde won the most matches, they could have a new town of shops there, with new quests. Alliance would then retreat to another area, and get new quests to do with the loss - sabotage missions on the Horde captured area, for example - and possibly get control of the area again.
Adding things like that would increase competitiveness, give a reason to keep playing - for new content based on the player's actions, as well as constant new stories and quests that actually involve the player.
tl;dr Make new arenas. If Team X win, they get new stuff. If Team X lose, they still get stuff, but have a spin on their storyline.
I personally predict that over the next few years MMOs will take one of two tracks:
1. The Bioware or Guild Wars 2 track with a fully developed storyline and interactive quests where how you complete the quest has ramifications just like in a single-player RPG.
2. The Eve Online track where the developers simply provide tools and the players control just about everything else.
My only concern is that Bioware is great at crafting cool storylines, but not world building. In Dragon Age, you get random encounters when you travel from one area to the next. This won't work in an MMOG where players demand open worlds and free exploration.
1. The Bioware or Guild Wars 2 track with a fully developed storyline and interactive quests where how you complete the quest has ramifications just like in a single-player RPG.
2. The Eve Online track where the developers simply provide tools and the players control just about everything else.
My only concern is that Bioware is great at crafting cool storylines, but not world building. In Dragon Age, you get random encounters when you travel from one area to the next. This won't work in an MMOG where players demand open worlds and free exploration.
I don't really think it will work. Being the only person who can save the galaxy kind of loses its edge when their are a million other people doing the exact same thing. I just don't see it working.