2) Social Investment
This brings me to my next topic, social investment in MMOs. It could be argued that a huge portion of whether or not players are socially invested in a game is fully dependent upon not only the player’s personality, but also the personality of those with which they play with. This is true, but game mechanics can encourage some things that could go towards creating a more open and hospitable environment that cultivates social interaction.
I’d love to see a game that brings back the desire to get invested in the game world, your character, other characters, and general immersion. It doesn’t have to be anything like the traditional perception of “roleplaying” but just enough to get people hooked on why they’re doing what they’re doing. Not everyone is going to want to take a vacation at a lake house and pretend to be a happy family inside the game like Kirito and Asuna, but not everyone is going to want to teabag raid bosses either. The eternal optimist in my heart hopes that a middle ground exists on the internet somewhere.
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1) Leave Some Things a Mystery
Finally, and this is the big one for me, SAO does an incredible job of leaving some parts of the world a mystery. When the players are initially trapped in the game, all that they know is that if they die in the game, they die for real, and to escape, the final level must be cleared. Exactly how the mechanics of the game work, what each level had in store, which items were available, what the best build was, and everything else was a complete mystery.
One of the facets that made some of the elite players of the game so well-known and respected, is that they possessed special abilities unlike any other player. Kirito for example could dual-wield swords, something that no one else could do. The ingot needed to craft that sword I mentioned before required embarking on an epic quest to fight a dragon. One character’s familiar dies (seemingly permanently) and Kirito helps her uncover the secret behind a legendary item that would restore the familiar back to life. Uncovering secrets through gameplay, rather than Wikis and YouTube videos, is something that gaming is missing nowadays. The media and community won’t change their ways by any means, but surely there’s a way to return to the age of mystery and discovery in our games – a topic I touched on in my wish list for 2015.
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Conclusion
Sword Art Online is one of the biggest and most popular animes on the market right now. It does a great job of delivering on all fronts, whether it be action, character development, humor, romance, or anything else you’d look for in your anime. Technology isn’t quite to the point it needs to be in order to replicate some of the ideas in the show, but we can still take some inspirations from how things work in the world of SAO.
What are some of your favorite moments from the anime, and what do you want to see emulated in modern MMO games?
