Indie game designer calls MMOs "empty," craves something more

"If World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online didn't have levels or gear, would you still play?"

Depends upon the gameplay. I mean if they didn't have those things, they'd have to change the gameplay. For example, Warbirds (WWII online flight sim) and Allegiance (sci-fi MMO-like game) both didn't have levels or equipment that you purchased, yet both games were great and allowed tons of people to play online together. Actually that had some of the best community and teamwork environments around because of it.

"Would you still spend several hours fighting Murlocs or servants of the White Hand if the point was the battle itself, and not the XP and loot rewards?"

Most definitely. It is the experience of the game that attracts most people. The grind only entices for so long before it becomes a bore. Those unique experiences you get within the game though are what keep you coming back and what you talk about years later when reliving memories and experiences of the game to your friends.

Here's a quick example. Think of Warcraft II, the game that really made people notice Blizzard. In that game it's more RTS based and you control units to build up your side. However, imagine if each of those units where actually people. So that peon is a player and that soldier is a player. So in this MMO game, you wouldn't get to purchase anything, you'd only get what the community provided to you. So how do you get better equipment? You help the community around you? If you're peon and you want to help the soldiers out, you'd help build a barracks, blacksmith, and stables. All of these would give the soldiers more abilities and yet they wouldn't have to purchase anything. That's because the focus of the game isn't about the grind for better skills or equipment, it's about the real experience of the battle itself (not the game XP).

"People report that after they’ve played this a long time, they learn something about life and the universe."

Jonathan's quote above is dead on and I couldn't agree more. Games have the potential to teach us so much more about life, since these online virtual worlds give us the opportunity to explore and take risks that we couldn't normally do in the real world. Therefore, just like a fox cub playfully chases a butterfly to hunt, so to can we experiment with different social structures and communities within games so that we can learn to coexist and understand each other in better ways.

"All games teach," Blow stressed again. "But if they’re going to be one of the foundations of human thought, we need to think about what those games are teaching. Games by definition teach, the only question is – what?"

Again I couldn't agree more. If you had never seen Counter-Strike before, you'd probably say that games taught people to be assholes who swear profusely and use racist remarks often. Is that directly because of the game though? Not at all. It's because of the indirect culture that the people relay within the game. A more positive culture can be created though but only if you have people who can uphold this positive culture (i.e. server admins, etc) and have consequences for those who don't (i.e. get kick from the server). If there are no consequences, then people will do whatever and act however they want, even if they know it's wrong.

"As game designers, we don’t know how to make food, so we resort to drugs all the time."

Great metaphor!

"When tens of millions of people buy our game, we are pumping a mental substance into the mental environment – it’s a public mental health issue – it’s kind of scary, but it’s kind of cool because we have the power to shape humanity."

Dead on. Just as we ourselves can influence the culture around us, so too can the culture around us influence us in turn. Basically your environments, especially over extended periods, can definitely influence and alter you.

""As a designer I want to see us harness that power to transform,"

Ditto. I believe games can be so much more and have the power to help us see the world differently, in a positive way. But who cares about that when you can make millions getting people addicted to grinding skills and equipment? :)

All in all, an excellent article and thanks for mentioning it here. I think his description of "meaningful games" really sums it up. The idea is to create something that the experience of the game is it's own reward because it helps us to realize things and perceive things from viewpoints we may not have otherwise had the opportunity to do. Pretty much how books do but in a format that is much more immersive and interactive.

I'm all for curing the worlds ills and exploring mankind like never before, but sometimes a man just gotta punch another man off a building.

Also whats up with the preaching about fast food, drugs, smoking, and world of warcraft. Last I checked, one of these things wants completely not like the other.

Seriously, people make to big a fuss over fast food.

ziiing!

Thank you folks, I'll be here all night!

This article is really timely. I'm burning out on all the MMOs I'm playing or have tried of late. Tired of grind, grind, grind.

I want to have fun, not run quests to level up.

Can't I go have adventures and level up as I play?

I think Fable actually did it well and I wish there was an MMO like that... just play and your skills will reflect your actions...

Right now, every MMO seems to just be about math and FedEx quests. I want a break from work when I play!

Are there ANY MMOs out there that are just about fun not the grind???

They need to just come to me for some ideas, and give me a team of artists, developers, etc... I'll come up with something.

What ever happened to all these companies that were supposed to be licensing Project Offset's engine? I know Red5 did, but haven't seen anything from them lately...

It would be great to come up with a list of games/virtual worlds that offer (to some degree) an alternate to grinding. Off hand, I can think of:

- Eve Online (as you mentioned)
- Guild Wars (you can make a max level char off the bat for pvp)
- City of Heroes (if you have a high-level friend you can participate in higher-level content)
- Second Life (obvious)
- Puzzle Pirates? (only played a little but think it fits)
- Myst Online (again, only played a little but think it fits)
- Ultima Online (I might be wrong, but in UO I recall you could pick the skills you wanted to raise and then just go out and play and they would rise from use)

Any others?

I remember before SOE screwed up Star Wars:Galaxies, there really wasn't a level system, per se. Yes you increased skills, but you didn't look at someone and see a level 45 Pistoleer. I wish more games had the old leveling system they had. It was kind of nice to be able to re-imagine a character by just deciding to change professions.