What MMO Players Want in 2009

HellForge brings us another MMO-focused article, this time speculating as to what gamers are looking for from some of the massively multiplayer titles scheduled for release this year. An RPG without a story?

One of the facets of MMORPG design that seems to be under a bit more scrutiny lately is that of story. Bioware, a company renowned for excellent world design and storytelling, is aiming to solve this problem with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Whether they succeed is anyone’s guess but at least they’ve taken note of the pathetic lack of story elements in current MMOs.

If telling a story via a game is different than telling a story via prose or screenplay, then telling a story via an MMO is different from telling one through a game. Confused? Apparently most developers are too. The problem is that in a single player game, once a player completes an objective – that problem is solved now and forever. In an MMO that problem must persist for future waves of players to solve over, and over, and over. So how can a story develop if the quests never change? The short answer is: it can’t.

The long answer involves ‘opportunity questing’ where events in the world allow players to complete a certain chain of quests for a limited amount of time that will then activate a fundamental change in the game world itself. In World of Warcraft this manifested as opening the gates of Ahn’Qiraj. Of course, the resource grindfest that was Ahn’Qiraj is not a model any developer should subscribe to. Still, the potential remains for interesting quests that evolve the world players participate in and give developers the opportunity to tell a story, and move the plot of the game. On a personal level, the branching questlines I mentioned would go a long way towards making each player’s experience unique without making it completely alien to fellow players. Even allowing players the option to create quests for each other is a viable option that is grossly underused.

Whatever developers decide, future MMOs are going to have to offer a bit more by way of plot if they want to hook a substantial batch of players.

Couldn’t there be some kind of a hybrid where the game has a “true” ending and the company just charges a fee for the server-side software? Why does every MMO have to be full of infinite adventure?