The next great MMO: SWTOR adds passive gathering and crafting
I’m starting a new column to talk a little bit about the next great MMO. When I’m playing WoW regularly, I can’t help but think about what’s coming next in the MMO world. It’s a conversation I have often with my gaming friends, and I’ve talked with them about starting this column for a long time.
There are a lot of games in development that might finally try to be something other than a WoW-clone. Most every major MMO I’ve seen since WoW has failed because it tried to emulate the industry’s gorilla. The latest batch looks like it will break that mold, which can only mean good things for us players. If you’ve seen any of the Guild Wars 2 development videos, you know developers are at least thinking about ways to re-imagine virtual worlds that characteristically function and persist without interaction from the player (If you head back to the Alliance starting area, you’ll still find Hogger milling about, despite the millions of times he’s been killed and, if you kill him, he’ll keep coming back).
I woke up the day after Christmas to find the latest installment in BioWare’s teaser series for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. It included a look at another class, the Trooper, but more interesting (to me, anyway) was the section on Crew Skills. Crew Skills give you access to the profession system in SWTOR without requiring you to spend time building those things up. Some of you probably read that last sentence and cringed. Part of what makes the world engaging is that you spend time doing things and then see the fruits of your efforts. I agree with that to a degree, and I’ll probably do a bit of the profession work myself if/when (more likely when) I play SWTOR, at least for my first character. Past that point, though, professions can be a bit of a chore. It’s annoying to fly around for an hour or two just to farm up some ore. Automating that process means I’ll be able to see the benefits of my professions more quickly, and I get to keep doing the stuff I love while I play. I’m going to spare you my own description of the Crew Skills at work and trust that you’ll just watch the video.
I love the concept, and it’s nice that BioWare has finally given us something other than lightsabers and wristrockets to get excited about in SWTOR. The next great MMO isn’t going to have shinier purples, it’s going to have a more streamlined player experience, aimed at keeping your character solvent even if you can only play a couple hours a week.
The GW2 stuff has definitely got me looking forward to it.
I think it’s impossible to get me to care about a SW game though.
My poor rebel heart…you’re breaking it
Neat concept. I’d like to point out that many MMO’s have made claims to be the next “genre breakthrough”. Warhammer, for instance, made that claim with Public Quests. While it was true that it was a great change for MMOs in general, it didn’t make the game a breakthrough. I think in order to achieve that status, a game has to be goundbreaking on multiple levels. WoW was groundbreaking on multiple levels when it first came out, which is why it got a huge following and essentially snowballed into the perpetual leader of MMOs.
I’m not saying that Star Wars or Guild Wars 2 will or won’t be the next number 1, but I would honestly hedge my bets on Titan (the ultra secret next gen mmo from blizzard, supposedly due for release in 2013). If only because they will be spending an ungodly amount of money on creating it, with the experienced team to back it up.
Me personally, I won’t ever be able to jump back into MMOs like I did with WoW back in the day. The time input required is waaaay to high for me anymore. The nextgen MMO will probably have to find a way to incorporate people like me into it (those who can only play for 5-10 hours a week, tops, but still be able to experience end-game content).
I think it would be interesting if other players could interact with your crew,maybe kill them or incapacitate them?
Anyway,i’m waiting for a beta invite so i can make mah Sith Inquisitor
Crew? RPG? Shooting stuff? Mass Effect 2 among the greatest games ever made; if Bioware can transfer what made that game so incredible to an online setting, could be a truly incredible game…
I hope some MMO will once again provide some depth. Depth and challenge make these games fun for me. I love WoW but am dying for some other MMO to come out and grab me. WoW has been so watered down through the years that it’s almost annoying. And sadly enough, a lot of new games, especially MMOs, are all dumbed down. Nobody wants a challenge, and game makers seem to “build in” stuff to your characters that are automated so that you get benefits without really working hard for them. Like the post I read above…where the guy wants a game where people who can only play 5 to 10 hours a week…can still reap all the benefits and be running end game content right next to the guy who has been playing 24/7 for the past few months…ugh! That’s lame, go play a shooter then. Warcraft used to be a game where things were rare and had to be worked for if you wanted it bad enough. Cataclysm is so watered down, they’re just giving gear away. I was almost fully raid geared with only having killed a couple raid bosses. The game should not be like that. /cry
I actually think a lot of players want a challenge, but MMO development to this point, even in WoW, has not been about challenge, it’s been about time investment. I raided all the high end content in Burning Crusade except Sunwell, and none of it was actually hard, it was just a time commitment. More time farming shadow resist gear, more time farming for elixirs, more time trying to organize 25 people to do what they need to do. MMOs aren’t difficult, they just aren’t, but that’s not what they’re about either.
MMOs are about experience, about persistent worlds and personal development of one character over a period of time. I think where a lot of MMOs miss the boat is by worrying too much that the player won’t feel “heroic” enough if he can’t take on 3-4 enemies at a time from level 1 onward so they become a grindy mess.
The basic design of most MMOs is really flawed from an experience standpoint. They tell you you’re going to do something great to save the world, you do it, and the world doesn’t change. Your character might change if you get a lucky drop, but you are not a unique snowflake and everyone will be saving the same people over and over again.
For the most part, there isn’t a way around this, but I think there could be for some of the end game content. I would love to see a developer have the balls to make a timeline based game. When the game opens, let’s say a dragon has been tormenting the world. Over the next three months as players level, the devs are putting together world events that will only happen once on any server. That’s it. One day, either you’re playing or you aren’t and if you miss it you better be ready to go to a new server. Next day? World is different because of large group action that was taken. It would be such a different experience and could feel so much more alive. The developers could also take usage stats and use them to develop areas with high population. Imagine if over the course of three months Stranglethorn Vale transformed, gaining faction strongholds and maybe some world events focused on gathering resources for each faction. That would be awesome.
I think developers have to do away with the conflicting goals of the player feeling like the biggest baddest guy on the planet but playing alongside thousands of people at a time. Those ideas just don’t work together. Make a game that depends on the thousands of players and makes community development and teamwork the pinnacle of design and you’ll have an amazing game experience.