MMORPG Thoughts and Other things that I can't get out of My Head

As a disciple of the MMORPG system, I offer my humble thoughts in this blog.

Author: fansede

MMO development and launch is always a high stakes business.  Every team and investor prays that their product becomes a successful venture with subscribers and followers galore. However, many of us who explore the genre as much as we do know that MMOs fail. So when an annual anniversary comes around it is an achievement worth touting to the public. The topic of my thoughts today..

What MMO Anniversaries were worth it? In other words, what ones either a) made you want to resubscribe or buy the game or b) what ones made you log back in to check things out 

MMO Pets 

There isn't a MMO out there that  doesn't give a proverbial carrot to players in the form of a pet. A mini thing or persona that follows you around. Maybe gives a bonus. However, I personally don't care if I get a mini puffie to follow me around. It has never been a reason for me to come back to your game.

Explorable Content

My guess is that most of you just rather play a mini expansion for an Anniversary Celebration. The only thing I say to criticize this is that are you (the game designer) recruiting new players or are you getting old dusty accounts to log in for a few weeks? It may be worth it to existing players and may even bring back some lost accounts, but I am not sure if you will get new ones or ones that were frustrated with your original game.

Game fixes/ Upgrades

Would you come back to a game if they announced all major bugs were fixed?  No additional content . What if there was an Anniversary Celebration event called : "It Bugs Me" - if players report a bug or problem and it cannot be fixed in one hour, the player gets a free month of game time or x amount of cash shop coins, etc. If the bug gets fixed, the area drops a small trinket when picked up by anyone immortalizes the player - L3golass was here and smashed a bug. The player may also get a bug pet of his/her choice..

talk about incentive to fix a game! 

Game Enhancements

Everyone can be a Jedi now! No, just kidding. As an Anniversary Celebration, new skill trees, new hobbies, new skill here and there. Again, wonderful for existing players, maybe some old players, but will it make someone who never played your game to give it a go?

Free to Play / Cash Shop discounts

When I see subscription games go free to play, it tells me in some way the game is falling short of expectations. Maybe the value of the gaming experience was not there in the first place, maybe the pricing model was wrong, or maybe the game needs an overhaul or major upgrade. So if a game announces as an Anniversary Celebration they are now going to free to play when they were not before, I am skeptical. Now if the game was always F2P, then obviously this type of promo does not exist. same sort of idea for cash shop discounts. If I am not playing your game now, cash shop discounts in your store aint gonna do it for me, either.

Below I listed a couple popular past Anniversary Promos - Please let me know what ones were memorable to you!

LORTO Anniverssary Promos

http://www.qj.net/mmorpg/news/lord-of-the-rings-online-first-anniversary-promos-announced.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/163804/lord_of_the_rings_online_second_anniversary_promo.html

World of Tanks - cash shop discounts

http://game.worldoftanks.com/news/general_news/tanks-hit-1st-anniversary

EVE - nuthin

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/54684/EVE-Online-Celebrates-Anniversary

COH/ COV - 

http://blog.swagvault.com/2011/04/06/city-of-heroes-issue-20-incarnates-7th-anniversary/

EQ - gives away 12 subscriptions

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/04/everquest-giving-away-12-one-year-subscriptions-for-its-12th-ann/

EQ 10th anniversary - lots of stuff - much of it promoting the card game

http://www.everquest.com/eq10th/#events

WOW - a multi billion dollar cash cow -  gives you a feat of strength in achievements

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/1136962

http://www.curse.com/articles/world-of-warcraft-news/874681.aspx - pet

The recent information listed in the blog Talk Tyria has generated a lot a good information for the highly anticipated MMO GW2.  Most discussion posts are addressing the guild membership aspects of things but what set a fire in my brain was one single suggested feature:

+ Specific guilds will be able to capture keeps within WvWvW PvP, and be able to use their Influence to create upgrades to those keeps.

I believe there is a TON of potential to be considered here. The "Capture the Keep" feature in MMOs is not new. Games dating back to Dark Age of Camelot have it. Concept is simple enough- overrun the keeps defenses. Beat the boss and pound your chest for a time.

For the longest time I have wondering if there was a possibility to bridge a RTS game (where you "own" a castle, build it up, then attack others with your troops, etc. with a MMO. I think the key is something like Dynamic Events. 

What if...

You unlock the ability to build and run your own castle that can be set up in this WvWvW zone. You can gather resoruces you need throughout the game on your journey (from sturdy wood, mine stone/iron, etc. you can build structures to attract units or recruit them in your travels (rescue a guard, help out a humanoid creature, sway a centaur to join you, etc.)These units act as your army to defend or assault other keeps. When you get to the point where your keep is "raidable" you can choose to raid other player run or guild run keeps. An attack is executed and when the troops reach their destination an dynamic event unfolds. Much like NPCs raiding that village you started out at. Except you decide which troops will be used at certain points of the DE. 

For example: Player A has a keep and wants to raid Player B village for loot. He has acquired from his travels and dealings about 300 troops. 50 are foot soliders 50 are ranged archers 50 are casters 50 are healers and the remaining troops are humanoid monster variety . The player run DE assault system pops up and gives Player A is choices:

Event 1: Siege 10 minutes - Objective: Set up weapons/ protect from destruction. Player A must bring his weapons up and protect them from the castle defender. Whatever weapons are up when time runs out are usable for the assault. Up to 50 units can be deployed in this stage. Whatever units remain after the event can rollover to Event 2

Event 2: Barrier assault - 20 minutes - Objective: Gain access/entry to the inside of the enemy fort. Up to 100 units can be deployed. Players will use units to smash doors, try to scale walls, assist in breaking weakened walls from siege hits, etc. Defender uses wall defenses (oil, ballista, etc) and/or a counter assault (up to 100 defender npcs) to thwart the effort. Whatever units remain can be utilized for final phase of DE.

Event 3: Raid/Pillage 20-30 minutes - Objective : units must plunder and bring loot to caravan. Up to 150 units plus Boss allowed. units will go to various structures and 'attack them" and loot gathered is dependent on structural damage inflicted. Defender tries to thwart this raiding. A Boss type is introduced and must be defeated as well. 

Now, can other players participate in this event or is it just 1 cast army vs. another? 

WHAT IF YOU COULD? - Like the GW Map - the village raid is a place that is labeled as an event. If players decide to join in they will asked to join the attacker or join the defender. Rewards are standard like any other DE, but you also get influence from the castle owners. The more influence you earn for other players, the better stuff you could get from that castle vendors, maybe rare stuff! 

Just like a DE, the event can scale to the amount of players involved.

If you want to provide this feature for guild run castles instead of player run - no problem. you can still use this RTS style of play. The NPC units can keep smaller guilds more competitive with the larger  guilds.

WIN-WIN

A-net gets another new feature to their game. Its like 2 games for the price of 1. More PvP content. Expansion Box opportunity - Border Wars. Potential for the holy Grail of MMOs - Player run content!

Cash Shop items - speed ups for structures, troop recruitment, movements, vanity items, fortress skins, specialty units and Bosses.

Players experience an optional RTS system within a MMO - a type of player who enjoys to manage a village, fort, compound, wizard tower, subterranean hovel, mountain hall, treetop base, underwater kingdom, etc. 

Guild Halls can have bases which can be upgraded and protected. Perhaps if guilds reach a level of growth and dominance, then it can become a source for quests and missions in the area.

It is fruit for the taking. An Anet just be the compant to pull it off.