I Have a Dream
Sandbox gamer

I noticed a lot of confusion all around mmorpg.com forums and my recent blog what a "TankMage" really is. What a darn shame man this concept has been around since Pen & Paper predating Ultima Online and Meridian 59.

So time for a history lesson... In MUDs, TankMages were a combination of different Classes. Here is what one MUD in particular allowed players to do:

You would have all the basic Primary Classes available like a traditional Diku-MUD:

Rogue

Mage

Warrior

Priest

Okay where things got interesting players could assign in which area they wanted to specialize like so:

Rogue 10%

Mage 60%

Warrior 20%

Priest 10%

So, you essentially took 100 points skill point cap and distributed this over the various disciplines. That was one way to arrive at a TankMage.

The other format was give players a pool of skill points and as they grind out the skill points you allow them to distribute their skill points into the desired areas. But the more you invested into a skill, the more diminishing returns resulted.

Before all that we had GURPS and HERO systems (Champions Online will use HERO system). They also used the Skill Point system, allowing players to distribute skill-points into their desired areas.

MMOs that were Tank-Magey were Ultima Online, Meridian 59, Asheron's Call, and City of Heroes. I will focus on City of heroes because that's a current MMO. What they did was interesting. Right before release at E3, Jack (CEO) decided to drastically simplify the game and changed it from a skill-based system into a Class based system. See, their fanbase they attracted were players from Everquest 1 (EQ). EQ players expect simple, clear Class based systems. So this is what Cryptic did. They got rid of their diverse skill-based system and went Class based route. However, unlike EQ2 and their ilk, City of Heroes was very freeform allowing players to combine powersets to create their own superhero. City of Heroes was very, very much like EQ we even had XP Debt penalty (for a small time in PVP there was XP debt penalty as well if another player blasted you off a building that was hella funny)

So you have Rogue (Stalker), Tank (Tanker), Mage (Blaster) in CoX games however you can pick a generic new archetype they introduced called Defender (Hero side / blue) or Corrupter (Villian / red). Also, they allowed players to grab powers from a generic pool. This allowed a Tanker for example to grab a long range eye beam skill so he can be like Superman. So common powers any hero should have like Teleport, Superspeed, Superjump, punches, kicks, etc were all available in the common pool. Lastly, they placed a 'power cap' in which forced players to limit their builds. The original intent though was that Defender was supposed to be a support type. Their buffs wouldn't benefit themselves but rather other players. They are not supposed to be big damage dealers either. Corrupters (Villian side) was supposed to be a Damage primary (Mage) and Priest/Buffer secondary (Priest).

How did players turn this into a TankMage- an all powerful entity? Read on.....

So here we have different types of TankMages. Everyone has their own specialties. There were some types of Defender that could heal really well (Empaths). There were other types that could Debuff really awesome. There were other Classes of Defenders that were excellent at both worlds (Debuff, Healing, etc). So within an Archetype, you see players could mix powersets to develop their favorite hero.

Somewhere along the line. Players discovered they could 'overlap' buffs. I dont know when this was introduced. Maybe this feature always existed. But via overlapping buffs these young supermen discovered they could push their fellow squishies into *GodHood*. See, CoX games have a cap for resistances and such. So take a Sonic/Bubble Defender. Some of his buffs was already making this squishy a mini-tank to begin with. Now add another Bubble Defender to the team and there- we got crazy overlap. Now add in a Kinetics defender in which can keep your mana regen (STamina its called in CoX). Now we got that whole covered. Add in an Empath Defender now we got crazy heals and even more mana. Add in a Radiation Defender now we got crazy debuffs and even more heals and more damage output. If you get a chance try to find an SG vs SG PVP film on youtube. You will literally see players sit there and overlap buffs on each for a few minutes before they start fighting lol. This is how PVE worked too.

TankMages were born. Defenders could cover each other's holes and buff each other through the roof!

Now, I covered blue side but I was a Villian primarily. So red side we had Corrupters. However, the Devs gave our Corrupters some powers from defender side. TankMage born. To make things even more tasty, we had great AOE. But there was a problem....

Corrupters were weaker then blues (Defenders). Corrupters were supposed to be Damage dealers however the Devs made Defenders so damn good us Corrupters were being *outdamaged* by them. You could take a Sonic/Rad Corrutper and do a Rad/Sonic Defender comparison. Defender side was doing more damage. Add to that- Defenders got better 'epic' level powers. Add to that, Defenders got crazy bonuses in PVP. Villains got decimated in PVP.

So, what drove me away from City of Heroes ultimately was the PVP balance between Hero and Villian. However, I still highly recommend that title was fun times man. For endgame encounter I kid you not we took only 1 Brute (Tank type) and 7 Corrupters. That was most optimal but we could bring 8-Corrupters if we had too. We had it all worked out as a Science and we had endgame content on farm status

Was this boring? Hell no we still had clearly defined roles you see and more tactical options opened up because everyone could essentially 'don armor'. We had Corrupters hovering to reduce aggro, snares (Snowstorms) to slowdown mobs, and everyone was long range so we could kite. Was great times and good fun. But as you see- this caused some serious envy amongst the other Classes because they got 'optional' slots in some groups. Not saying Masterminds or the other Class types are not good but just telling it how I experienced things for over a year when I played (pre-Invention). I was there pre-ED and long after post-ed.

Hopefully soon they will release Champions Online which will be even more Tank-Magey because its based on HERO system. Until then you can try City of Heroes

FAQ

1. Wasn't it boring to have a Team of TankMages?

You obviously didnt play City of Heroes. Just because you were a Defender didnt mean we all had the same build. There are many types of Tankmages in that game. Solo, you might not be a true TankMage. What turned you into one was being 'buffed' by a fellow hero in which turned you into an effective TankMage.

2. In World of Warcraft they have Shaman is that a TankMage? It can heal, toss bolts, and even self rez like Jesus!

I played that Class in World of Warcraft for a long time. Fun times. But to be a really good TankMage you need to have the best buffs in the game I would say. This way you can buff another player and essentially "give him armor" so he can Tank. In World of Warcraft my Shaman couldnt take much punishment. But a Druid....... When you have a TankMage on your hands you will know because you can slice up any encounter with them. You are all the same 'Class'. So if you see a raid full of Druids takedown raid instances you know you have a TankMage on your hands.

That's the key- if a Class is so diverse they can overlap buffs and reduce the need for other Classes

3. Didn't this suck for the other Classes?

In City of Heroes players considered it a challenge to take a one Class 8-man through an instance. Part of the fun was optimizing our team distribution and figuring what mix of powersets could do it. I saw All 8-Dominator teams popup to do endgame instances. Not sure if they made it. Dont think they did but they tried! You also had All 8-Mastermind groups try.

The key to making a Class diverse enough to become a true TankMage is have powerful support. That is #1. Next, have decent damage potential. But if we can buff that like we did in CoX games then you might have a true TankMage.

4. Wasn't the TankMage imbalanced?

Not really. Solo, no one was a complete TankMage. But with a buff from a fellow Corrupter/Defender, you could become a true TankMage. Since all endgame content is done with teams- this is how TankMages popped up. However, I would admit some Solo builds were pretty TankMagey though like Ice/Rad build using an Epic power that gave them great shields

I Have a Dream. I dream of the day when we can all don armor and fight together side-by-side the way God intended wars to be fought. No longer will our groups fall apart because the only healer we had in our group has to go. There will be overlap, plenty of it. No more waiting 2 hours to find a healer. There will be plenty of overlap.

Everyone will have some tanking ability. If a mob wants to target one team member in our group then everyone else can start sending some heals his way in a pinch

We will all be TankMages and our roles will be dictated by the arrangements of the groups in the 'army'

Imagine, a unit of 50 TankMages go to kill a Dragon. So, there will be 'squads' within this unit. Each squad contains 5 members. Only 1 person in a squad is the BACKUP 'Healer'. He has a star by his name indicating he volunteers for this role. But this is a backup role. We only heal in a pinch.

Note, a TankMage game wont have grouping restrictions. We decided ourselves to form a group of 50 because thats all we need to storm the Castle or aggressive enemy NPC town.

When the mobs decide to focus fire on a target, the backup healer will help heal that target. The aggressed Tankmage will also try to heal himself or attack. Just whatever they decide is the best strategy to storm the enemy NPC city

Notice we are not raiding a dungeon here- we are raiding a populated NPC city complete with guards and really tough mobs that dybnamically seekout the weakest target and destroys them utterly.

Imagine PVP- and loot everywhere. It's no longer about our gear our player skill can come into play. Perhaps in this title the armor you wear provides you benefits in a specific area. Perhaps in this title armor is just armor- thats it. It merely provides more protection and takes durability loss over time. Perhaps in this title Guilds work together to takeover resource nodes and we can employ NPCs to do the boring resource gathering

Imagine character progression. Be anything you want to be- pure crafter or a form of TankMage. Every player can learn to Tank because that is basic common sense every soldier in an army wears Armor. Anything else has no place here. Then you can pick to specialize in magic branches. Whether you learn new skills through skill-based progression or XP makes no huge difference too me. Whatever is the most fun and works for that title. as long as we can explore the ultimate potential- become a TankMage

The time of TankMages needs to return. I think the one MMO that nails this formula right will be a huge success. Right now we see WELL Online, Earthrise, LinkRealms, and others  promising to come out soon. Let's hope TankMages time will return and it will be done right!

One thing I want to make clear right fast- I am a bonified EVE Online fanboi. No mmorpg has won my heart like this one. I hate it intensely sometimes when disaster strikes but I love it for what they have created. Make no mistake they created this mmorpg for me.

I vote EVE Online the Ultimate Team MMO. Perhaps, its the only real mmorpg out there (I mean this literally we all exist on one server for English speakers)

When you join a player run corporation out there in 0.0 they become family. You live together, rat together (kill NPCs), mine together, fight together, cry together when tragedy strikes (like losing a POS), and you lick your wounds and work hard to rebuild your empire. You do everything together. You build equipment for each other and you work hard to achieve goals for your Corporation. Can you guys that dont play EVE Online even imagine? We can build the best equipment for each other given we have the blueprints. Can you imagine not even having access to a local trade hub unless you defend it?

I have never felt a bond like this before. I recall in other games you would occasionally see a guildmate out in a town or maybe do a scheduled event together (like raid). But in EVE Online everything you do you do with your brothers and sisters in your guild. Even the defense of your space - you depend on each other. It's that hardcore. You might not even be able to acquire an item or make a trip to a local trade hub without assistance

So I am sorry if I come across biased but EVE Online is the only real MMO out there for me for the time being. I have some hope for Age of Conan because they focusing on Guilds as well if I understand but they understand what "living out a virtual life together with a Clan means"? Do they?

In eVE Online the very defense of your space relies on your fellow man. Everyone posts Intel in local fleet channels so you know when a hostile is nearing your space. This is serious stuff and I adore it

Sometimes hostiles can totally screw you over and disable operations for that day. You have to work hard together as a team to overcome all challenges.

Anyway I know players that have never made it into 0.0 (EVE's endgame) can no doubt never comprehend what I'm blogging on but I just want to give fair warning to all when you see me post in forums or blog on different topics rest assure this sandbox gamer has found true love....

Was reading a blog by heero today:
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/heerobya/042008/1590_Thoughts-on-the-Grouping

While reading this piece it hit me. This is why I cant stand traditional PVE anymore it all boils down to the same crap rerolled: Tank, Mage, and Healer. Nevermind in real life everyone wears armor in a war and if you dont you're really gonna get it when shot.... So there is no such thing as a clothie period- beyond a dead one.

Seriously, every MMORPG pretty much to date reuses this formula over and over for PVE and it makes no sense period. Why the hell would you just sit there and keep attacking a Tank while he is being healed by a caster? Wouldnt you go kill that caster NO MATTER WHAT? After all, this is how PVP works, players target the healers/rezzers first. Next we kill the mages. Next and very last, the Warriors. Under no circumstance ever in ANY PVP in *any MMO* have we ever targeted the Tankers first. Why cant Group PVE be half this intelligent?

This is one of the reasons it all falls down for me. It's the same old retarded stuff being reused without any change. The only MMO/MMO-lite (or whatever you call it) I've seen differ was Guild Wars where we saw the mobs go after Healers til no tomorrow. The rangers and such actually had to trap the mobs to prevent the clothies from being slaughtered. I know I played a monk in prophecies campaign and I remember packing snares to slowdown the mobs in emergencies...

Still, I find it moronic I cant wear armor to a war. Seriously, can someone please explain to my why on earth would a medic wear robes unto a battlefield ever? If he's such an awesome wizard that he can wear robes to a war then surely- his magic is much more protective to lethal damage then armor? That is the only thing that would make sense- my magic is so strong then I dont need armor. At least in D&D they tried to make it logical- armor inteferes with magic. But in mmorpgs of today they discarded all explanation and reason....


Solution:

Simple, at least make these mobs go straight for the healer as soon as he tries to heal someone. There is no way ever in PVP players let healers live. If players want to prevent this from happening then they will need their snares and mezzes. If they cant prevent the mobs from taking out the healer then its a wipe, that simple.

Next, Warriors. Taunt. Very stupid. What would be better is have actual server side collision. If players want to protect their healers they can form a wall around the healer. Now the mobs cant get to them. you can turn off collision between players if you must but at very least we need collision for PVE. It cant be hard the older gen MMORPGs had it.... WOW! Now Warriors can really be warriors and *protect* vital assets.

There, simple, only took me 1 minute to conceive. I'm sure with another few minutes you could solve other issues as well.

I've been meaning to cover this one for quite awhile in more detail. Awhile back, I came across a 2d MMO that I really got hooked on for a bit and that was Starport: http://www.starportgame.com/

First off, let me explain there are many different server types like Hardcore, Casual, and Mid way. I spent my time on Begininer's Galaxy however- the PVP server for begininers. Now here is the twist on this server: its a limited time span server. You have a fixed length of time to explore the universe and conquer it then the world is reset. I spoke to one of the devs about which server I should tryout and he strongly suggested this server.

It seemed odd too me at first- to toss newbies on a cutthroat server with full open pvp and limtied time span. But immediately I realized the benefits. Whether veteran or newbie- we are all the same! It's like playing an mmorpg at launch which is some of the most fun times for almost any mmorpg (besides the bugs). Normally in games like EVE Online, World of Warcraft, or what have you Guilds have requirements and criteria you must met before joining. Almost always it boils down to "Time". Well all of this is removed. It's all player skill and how much you want to win. 

It's a persistant world though. You explore the universe, visit stations, run Quests (like taxi cab), and colonize worlds. You colonize worlds by finding a suitable planet to sustain a colony then dropping a bioglobe there. Then you go to space stations and find people that want to find a home. You grab these colonists and drop them off at a Colony that you own. The more colonists, the more money they make you even while you're offline sleeping!

Combat

It's not all roses. Begininers Galaxy is 100% open PVP. But here is the good news. Starport is all 100% player skill. You fire your own turrets and dodge fireballs yourself. So even if confronted by a veteran because your player skill is a factor, you can survive.

Progression

Did I mention there is no grinding for skills or levels? You can earn money to buy more weapons, more bioglobes, and better ships but its player skill that will determine victory first and foremost- the way PVP should be if you ask me.

Items

All ships/items are viable here from what I've noticed. Newbie ships- the very first ship you get is the fastest ship in the game but has light damage. As you progress, you can purchase other ships.

Penalty

Starport is a 100% persistant game on Begininer's Galaxy. Mind you I played on the hardcore server- so please no knee jerking here. Anyway, when you logout everything is still online. I mean everything. Your ship is still online, your colonies, your possessions, everything. It costs money to logout in the safe zone haha. The taxes are crazy. So most people I think park out in open PVP zones. You can build turrets and such to protect your planet and colonies.

This is where 'sleeper ganking' comes into play. If some clever theif makes it in, he can end your life. Doesnt matter if you were offline or playing with your kids or at work.... Doesnt matter. You better setup great defenses.

When you die, you lose your ship and you receive insurance. But your cargo and such is lootable. Your colonies can be stolen too. You can lose it all on the hardcore server fast. This is the strategy of the game- finding distant planets and setting up defenses to protect everything.

Community

The community seemed really nice and mature. Since there are many different flavors (hardcore open PK and the other light server options I didnt even read about haha)- we all share common interests. IT's all wolves hunting wolves and very few tears. I vastly preferred this community over most bigger titles that had a huge range of people with totally different agendas. At least in this one- its all Lions fighting for control of the Jungle.

PvE

Sandbox like PVE. Sure, you can do "Quests" like escourting NPCs and such. But really I term this sort of PVE as "Sandbox PVE". Nothing is forced on you. If you feel like questing you can. If you want to explore, you can cash in big on discovering wormholes, rare resources, and awesome planets to setup a financial venture. You can also disocver enemy planets of course. And this is how PVE comes into play. PVE/PVP is blended together here cohesively. An enemy player can setup a Colony on a planet and logout. This is your time to strike. Thieves might try to sneak in and get the colony without destroying anything. But you can also use brute force and raze it all.

This is the beauty. When you takeover a planet its all yours. Now you can proceed to kill all the NPCs on that planet and they STAY DEAD. They wont come back once you take the planet and make it yours....

Anyway I know this sort of gameplay is not for everyone but it was a totally awesome MMO when I last played it. It's worth a try f you are burned out on the treadmill and need a break. Also recall I covered one server type here- the hardcore server which is highly populated. There are also persistant servers as well but I can only imagine Time plays a huge factor on those. Begininer's Galaxy is a great way to get your feet wet. The Limited timespan for the server really helps keep the playing field balanced.

As many of you know I have been playing EVE Online hardcore again. I have some points I want to cover about this title so I'll merge them into one blog:

1) Even when you have no Levels, there are still Levels.....

EVE Online is very sandboxy. Technically there is no end to character development (maybe after 40+ years someone computed?). Anyway, a funny thing happened to my avatar. I originally registered to play the game a long time ago but I quit for a bit to play other games being the explorer I am. Anyway now that I have returned players think I have years of experience and tons of skill points. The interesting thing, all players see in your bio is when you started so they try to guess from there. Everyone thinks I'm this uber vet that can fly any ship....

EVE Online is a very vertical game actually. Sure, newbies in frigates can gang up on a vet but there is still a vertical progression factor

2) ETC. For the first time I've been engaged into RMT (correction its not really RMT per se). Most gamers dont know this- but in EVE Online you can buy a timecode. After you purchase this timecode you can then go to the forums and 'trade' it for ingame money legally. I was kinda low on ingame funds and really wanted to buy some implants for my character so with my new found wealth I was now able to..... The person that pays you ingame money for your timecode gets subscription time for free... Nice. One could almost say EVE Online has no grind at all if your pockets are deep.

3) But with ETC.... Since EVE Online has pretty harsh death penalty I dread the thought of taking my new implants into 0.0 (pvp zones). Now I make liberal use of jump clones so that I can protect my investment. Think about it- if a PKer takes me out I've just lost some RL money.....

4) Time based training. I really really really dont like Time Based Training. I like the benefits that I can do whatever I want and still progress but waiting on skills to train requires a lot of patience... This is one area where other MMOs sort of shine. You have the freedom to grind up to cap. Not so here. Sometimes I get itch to play a level grinder to get that nice feeling of "instant gratification" which can feel so gooooodd sometimes.....

5) Defining EVE Online is Tricky. It's tricky to call it a grind when you see Vets jump into their fancy recon ships, explore new areas, and find priceless blueprints that sell for almost a billion. It's tricky to call it a grind when you see a newbie hop into a Destroyer, get lucky and showup at the conclusion of a fleet battle, and come back with a huge haul worth a fortune.

6) Risk versus Reward can be stressful. I thought I was a hardcore PVPer but the thought of losing my ship in EVE Online makes me sweat. Maybe I feel more alive then ever, searching my local chat for reports of hostiles. It can be stressful. I might be too old for this.

7) Taxes. I hate paying Guild taxes. My corp taxes us over 10% which means 10% is gone everytime I kill a rat and collect a bounty or decide to run an agent mission. Its not fun at all paying taxes in RL so I hate it when games have this. However I must admit my corp puts my funds to really great use. But what if I had the misfortune to join a crooked Chinese run farmer corp I would be screwed outta 10%. Anyway, I'm just selfish and stingy with my ingame money. For a guy that promotes selfless game goals I can be really stingy :(

8) Pvpers seem really broke. It might be possible to make a living from all PVP but that seems tricky. Never seen so many pvpers so happy to engage in PVE. I guess this is what it all boils down too. We're not 100% killers here. PVE'ers are needed for any Corp.

9) Players can build anything... This is what I love about this game players can build Stations, ships, weapons, etc just anything... Other night I flew to our player owned structure and was amazed by the majesty of it all! The devs didnt make this- WE DID. It's great to see my taxes getting put to good use yo

10) PVP here is not Casual. Other night we had a MANDATORY Fleet OP. As soon as I logged in I was told I would get disciplined if I didnt participate in the fleet op to defend our space. What made it worse I just got home from work and felt sort of sick. It was days like this I could appreciate Battlegrounds and the fun Casual Random Arenas from Guild Wars. I really think this sort of avenue that EVE Online provides is needed though. But I also think games like World of Warcraft can be GOOD too for those that have no time to put up with the demands of a Guild that threatens to shoot ya down if they catch ya killing NPCs during a fleet op :(

Just read a good blog here at http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/FlyingSquid/042008/1468_The-illusive-fanboi-and-the-haters

I thought this author had great points and I'm glad he hit the point on haters that see almost every MMO as looking too similar to World of Warcraft. I'm kind of one of those haters but instead of voicing my opinions on games I don't care for I pretty much remain silent in respect of the gamers that really look forward to that title. Why discourage these players hell I wish I could become a noob again and be excited about every MMO under the Sun too.

But unfortunately that time has passed for many of us and we are recognizing bad "genes" being passed from MMO to MMO with minor deviation.

Anyway, from the perspective of a hardcore gamer that has hit Max Level in many MMOs they all share this in common:

1) Levels. Levels are useful to communicate how "veteran" a gamer is we all know. But what makes it all fall down for those of us that's been around the block too much is that its the EXACT SAME for every Linear MMO. You kill mobs, Level up, kill mobs, level up, and hit max cap. From Rappelz to City of Heroes to World of Warcraft to Tabula Rasa to Lord of The Rings Online its the same exact process. If I want to just craft- too bad I gotta kill some rats til I hit Level 50. Now I can make some really great equipment....

2) Classes. Warrior, Mage, Healer with little deviation. Even in City of Heroes our healers were Defenders, our Nukers were Blasters, and Warriors were Tankers. We even got rogues in City of Villains. Someone should sue. Almost every MMO relies on this tried-and-true sports gaming formula and rest assure the new upcoming linear MMOs will all have these uninspired roles as well.....

3) Items. I think really the only MMO that strayed from heavy itemization was Guild Wars. But wait- most mmorpg.com fans claim Guild Wars is -NOT- an MMO. So there goes that. In these grinders most items cannot be produced by players. Instead I have the honor of grouping with others and repeating content over and over to acquire rare items.

4) Static Worlds. Everything is so static about these MMORPGs you really cant change anything. I can help an NPC named Dave rescue his son and moments later I see Dave has lost his son again....

5) Pointless World PVP. Lack of victory conditions in the world itself really blows. There is no point in having PVP if you have no consequence, no reward.... Even in FPS we have *gasp* Time Limits, travel times, respawn penalties, and victory conditions.

6) Centralized Economy. When you have "localized economies" spread out over the world interesting new professions will emerge. Haulers, Traders, etc will all popup and this becomes a business in itself. But because these titles are so focused on sports gaming we lose that

7) Sports gaming. Not only are we all bound by developer-created roles because all of our challenges in PVE is known we optimize our team distributions to face them. That means certain Classes becoming bad choices for certain encounters because we've min/max'ed ourselves into a hole...

8) Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds wouldnt be so bad if players could switch to their alts easily. This way they can dynamically optimize their teams for PVP. But because the Developers suck so bad when it comes to PVP they disallow the ability for us to switch to our alts thus PUBs (pubbies) get steamrolled by any organized team that opimized their team composition (in WoW they are called Premades ironically). Now thanks to Blizz we will also see crap like Capture the Flag popping up in other MMOs too rather then see Developers challenge themselves to bring us *exciting* World PVP with Victory conditions. But instead, we will most likely pushed off into an Instance....

9) Aiming for the Low Denominator. And I dont mean just optimizing the game to run on low end machines either.... Newbies will be happy to see things like Classes but for veterans this is nothing new. We've seen the Warrior/Mage/Healer thing for many decades now. It is time to see more interesting new concepts to be played around with here. You would think it is logical many players would like to experiement with creating their own unique character in a virtual world....

10) Thousands of Quests. I wonder how can gamers expect quality quests when they demand thousands and thousands of them? Sooner or Later time constraints will probably demand many kill X type of quests to be generated. The nice thing about Quests it allows gamers to use other areas of their brains other then just combat. The bad- in their current form they tend to not encourage heavy grouping.

Anyway this is why many players gripe and moan on the forums that MMO X looks like World of Warcraft. Of course, some might argue this was established by Everquest 1 but I would argue EQ1 never ever got close to WoW's critical mass success. So that's why gamers say it looks like WoW instead of EQ1 or Diku-MUDs

On one hand I adore "Gated" content or at least the idea of it. First let's cover what "Gated" content is. Quite simply friends its a 'flip switch". If you do not meet the prerequisites to enter the gate, you're locked out. Programmers we think of a gate as a Binary operator (0 or 1) which is the foundation of Computer Science.

In mmorpg space "gated content" appears in the form of Levels, Classes, keys needed to enter a Dungeon, Item restrictions tied to Levels and Classes, uber mobs that one shot lowbie players to keep them out of areas they dont belong, etc. The list is near infinite.

This brings me to the crux of this article, short though it may be. I dont think MMORPGs as a whole are really using the gates properly. Right now mainstream is really trying to simplify their games for their audiences. Thus, now a new buzz term is allowing a player to create a "blank slate". You get to sample powers a bit from each branch and then once you decide Developers flip the magic switch and you become a "Warrior", etc. Tabula Rasa players might recognize this as the branching specialization trees the game presented for instance. At each branch of development you made key choices which career path to follow and the game flipped the switches for you.

Take Guild Wars or Everquest 2. Ingame, NPC teachers teach ya about the different Classes and try to give you an idea of what choice would be best for you. GW went so far as to let you sample the Classes and then once you decided you become locked in to that choice or you could just choose to not pickup a Secondary altogether.

What I think would be optimal is not to force newbies to make any decisions at all. The gates can be opened naturally through gameplay. MMORPGs could try giving newbies a small set of powers from each discipline and then gradually observe the powers you enjoy using. As you progress through the game content, the game can slowly flip the gate switches.

If you got the concept you can stop reading right here. That's the concept. Havent seen it in either single player RPGs or MMORPG space full fledged. Everyone is so busy copying the shit out of each other original concepts usually just dont make it into mainstream products.

Okay the Breakdown:

Our hypothetical game has 5 Disciplines: Warrior, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth

At character creation you merely focus on designing your avatar and a Bio then bam you get dropped into the world with 2-3 powers from each discipline. The game observes how you use abilities and then slowly flips gate switches allowing you to dynamically build your own unique avatar. Perhaps a noob might become a combo of Warrior / Fire or a diverse mix of everything. The game could  silently adjust your avatar attributes to keep you naturally balanced mathematically (gamers can intervene of course and have a more direct hand in character development).

Anyway, since diminishing returns should of course be in play- you cant be uber in all disciplines. I'm not going to elaborate on diminishing retuns in this piece but to get an understanding of diminishing returns pull out your calculator and hit the Square Root button. The higher the number you put in, the less you get out. Diminishing returns.

Skill-Based mmorpgs --->

These titles are the closest to proper use of gated content however most still force newbies to make critical decisions at Character Creation. Crackdown xbox 360 was a great coop RPG that didnt force newbies to make critical decisions. I hope these devs bring this to All Points Bullentin as well (in which I think they confirmed they will)

 http://crackdownoncrime.com/ [download the free demo from Xbox Live]

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1880/All-Points-Bulletin/p1/ [Preview]

MMORPG players I think is perhaps the only genre that complains about "Grinding" wholesale. I've been a bit bitchy too so not pointing fingers from a pedestal.

Let's be brief: When is Grinding Too Much? How can Game Developers tweak this mathematical property to be more enjoyable for us?

The responses will be different depending on the gamer's preference. PVPers enjoy quick ramp up in order to combat effectively on the battlefield.... PVE'ers feel the "grind" when the content gets too repetitive. Socalizers / role players seem too me to be happy as long as they have a good chat interface and friends to enjoy the game with (I'm raising my hand here I love being in a Guild I seek them out ASAP).

I think this problem is unique to mmorpg space because of the "global" ruleset. In a single player RPG, like Mass Effect, we usually don't feel any grind because we dont feel pressured to hit Max Level and there is a good storyline that keeps us going. In FPS, I dont feel pressured to hit Max Level because if I'm missing a few skills no big deal. In Guild Wars I've never felt pressured to hit max level post "Faction earning patch" because I could create an avatar at max level and unlock any skill from PVP.

There really is no magic button here. Without a bit of progression we might not feel like we're going through a "journey". Plus, progression can make effective use of "gating" slowly unlocking branches of development as you progress. That's a topic in itself that I'll cover later

Warhammer Online / Mythic anwser is to allow PVPers to pvp Day #1 and progress that way. That might work really well I think it might be fun for gamers that enjoy linear-type MMOs to really enjoy at launch. There might be a few risks here and there that is beyond the depth of this article but if they maintain a steady influx of new characters (whether rerolls or new blood coming in) I think they'll be okay. We will have to see though its not here yet....

I'm not too sure what to do about pure PVE'ers. I'm a mix myself. City of Heroes tried "Sidekicking" for PVE which works okay but because of the firm use of "Gated" content in CoX, sidekicks are still missing critical powers. So we never really brought nubs to high level content unless we were helping them level up (powerlevel to be frank).

Sorry for the spam these few days but Tatum inspired me to blog on this. I know I praise skill-based RPGs alot and might seem to condemn levels. But in reality, I'm more eager to see a "no" progression scheme.

In a "no" progression scheme you don't have to grind creatures for XP. You kill them for money perhaps or because they are in the way (like a critter).

I'm going to breakdown how I envision a "no" progression scheme MMO:

- Sandbox gameplay. This is the only model that can hope to support this. This means totally tossing away the model setup by WoW. Gasp yeah I said it there's nothing much we can take from it.

- Some linear gameplay. I hate quests the way they are now but I still feel they have immense, untapped potential. I'd have them however they will be much fewer in number but still contain an epic feel and nice aura of completion about them.

- Items are just "tools". Yeah I know this is a foreign concept for mainstream but not everyone lives and dies for virtual loot. All items should be viable here. Newbies can craft nice items.

- WYSIWYG Loot. What you see is what you get. You see an NPC guard wearing some fancy guns you'd like to have? Just kill him and take it. None of this BS where I cant loot what I see. Will take a lot of work to make this scheme work however. there can be a chance for random pieces too though like jewelry or slightly more durable armor (higher quality then normal)

- Classes. Screw Classes. Freeform, be anything you want but players will know what you can do perhaps visually. A really strong guy will be huge or want to wear really good protection. Mage types will have staffs. Classes is here in a way but way less restrictive.

- No raids. Well ever wondered why my blogs omit all mention of raiding? Cause I hate raiding. F--- dungeons. Yeah I said it, to hell with that. Instead, you work together with the community to build cities. PVE will all happen naturally and be fairly unique to the region you live in.

- Rich PVP everywhere. Yep, this is a niche MMO all the way. Focused entirely on PvEvP. dont want to get ganked? Better hire more guards to protect your lands. But I do adore you PVE types in EVE Online that loves to reduce your risks so I would toss you guys a few NPC run cities with guards. And you could enjoy great PVE there. But I might toss some carrots out there to lure you to player run city. But heck this a sandbox so you could just stay in 'governed' lands and hf.

- Faction vs Faction PVP + Friendly Fire. Successful FPS games like Call of Duty, Rainbow 6, Halo, etc all have friendly fire. It's also FFA all the way. You can make your own factions and go to war

- 100% Player created items but it will be done the old ways- like Classic UO pre-AoS. All items viable. Uber loot will be siege equipment

- Item decay, looting. Yep not up for debate (so please no whining about it). However, since I dont care for items too much anyway it might only be backpack looting because armor/weapons wont mean anything at all. Player skill ftw- not gear. The uber equipment is the siege equipment that takes an army to use.

- Positive and Negative Sum PVP. Players fight for land. Once land is owned cities can be built. Crafting will be handled totally different from this grind and grind to improve experience we have now. Boring things will be handled by NPC workers. You focus on the exciting parts. Even though looting is here it will also be possible to acquire all items via PVP within one fell swoop. PVP will be profitable. There will be objectives and riches you can earn via all PVP. PVP is my thing and thats all I'd focus on designing with sandbox PVE sprinkled in. I say let WoW be WoW. This would be different and nichey.

- Victory Conditions everywhere. No need for lame instancing we can have victory conditions all over the map. Entire NPC cities can change hands. Player run cities we can handle this many different ways and get a great player dependency relationship happening.

- Progression. Yeah screw that. You spawn with all skills you need based on a fully specced template. Want to be unique? Yeah then maybe there will a minor, fast ramp up to respec via a skill-based + XP system. Yep, I dont care if all you did was run errands and you respecced into a strong warrior. Not everyone wants to roleplay. But if you want to to roleplay, you can stick to 100% skill-based ftw. Freeform. Earn XP or quickly reskill via skill-based. Or hell, maybe I'd just say screw it let people respec at will. IT's a sandbox game after all, pure sandbox. Not a grinder....

Would you play this MMO? If you hate Sandbox games then I dont care anyway this game isn't for you but I'd be interested in sharing ideas with other sandbox gamers.....