What I would like to do is discuss what people thing is the future direction of online role playing games, persistant world games or other virtual world games. Basically the future of online gaming in general but specifically games that create persistant worlds for players to adventure in.
I’ve been playing such games since the old MUDs and MOOs when the games were entirely or almost entirely text based. I’ve played several of the older 2D graphics online game, played UO the first really massive multiplayer graphic online role playing game, EQ, AC (I and II), DaoC, WWII Online, SWG (well, I downloaded the beta and tried it out), and I’m currently playing WoW (since Alpha II actually), the fastest growing and currently most popular MMORPG on the block (according to the articles I’ve read anyway…and I believe it). I’ve seen a steady progression in both the graphics, game play, NPC AI…and fun.
Where I think the industry is going is to even more complex and emersive game play. I think that eventually we’ll see single massive worlds instead of ‘shards’ or whatever buzzword a company uses to say that they have to split game play among multiple separate and isolated servers or it all crashes. As hardware improves and gets faster, as connection speeds to the internet get faster and more stable (well, in theory ) I’m sure things will move in this direction. The next big things will be to more fully emerse players in the gaming world. Fully deformable landscapes, buildings, etc, that are persistant (i.e. castles that can be damaged and much be repaired, trees or other resources that when used or destroyed stay destroyed, etc). Better AI I think is also coming…in fact I’ve seen a progression of better and better AI in the games I’ve played. Also, more ‘natural’ creatures and mobs…instead of spawned camps and renewable boss mobs, something that is more transparent. Hell, maybe eventually we’ll get real virtual interfaces that fully emerse us in the game play…PUT us in the gaming worlds.
Anyway, I’ll stop there with my own thoughts here. What I really want is other peoples thoughts on where the industry is going and what you think we’ll be seeing in the years to come. After seeing the massive enhancements in the last decade I can’t wait to see what is instore in the decades to come. Imagine what online gaming might be like in 20 years…or 50! Or perhaps some of you think its a fad and will fade away soon to be replaced by…what? I’m interested in everyones thoughts on this…feel free to go wild.
Some small things that would be great:
-Roleplaying. Incorporate a system of roleplaying similar to that in Planescape: Torment: quests can be solved through trickery, diplomacy, intimidation, and similar means, in addition to being solved through brute force.
-Moving NPCs. This might end up being really annoying, but if NPCs could move between cities, from their house to their workplace, and so forth, it might be pretty cool. You’d keep things under control by having most townspeople know where most other townspeople can be found at certain times: type “Niltoch” in a dialog box, and the NPC would answer, “Oh, Niltoch? You can find him at the graveyards most evenings.”
-Three-dimensional combat. This could be very difficult to implement well, but it’d be great if flying creatures could actually be way up in the air instead of flapping about three feet off the ground.
Heh, never played Morrowind, despite having heard how great it was; Daggerfall just annoyed me too much. So PS:T remains my holy grail of how to handle roleplaying in a CRPG.
Fair point–although I’m pretty sure that WoW already handles that well. (I don’t recall ever having been hit from an unreasonable distance by a creature, if you discount ranged attacks that hit my ghost three minutes after I’ve died).
Hopefully, as broadband becomes ubiquitous, we’ll see more twitch based combat. Button mashing is boring and predictable.
A move away from static worlds with endlessly respawning foozles (a la EQ/WoW etc) would be great too. WISH made very valiant efforts in that direction. Shame the rest of it was mediocre at best and it got shitcanned.
Not in this decade, I’m betting. You may get Morrowind: the MMORPG. You will not be getting PS:T so don’t wait for it. You realize you’re asking for something we can barely do in single-player games, and then only with huge amounts of piece-by-piece labor.
I want to see more realistic combat. First of all, your shield stays in front of you, dammit! It’s not a counterweight, you don’t swing it backwards to help you strike forwards with your sword. I dislike the concept of aggro control through taunts and such; if you want to protect your mage, you should have to form a shield wall around him. Different weapons should be effective against different armor types; katanas were not designed to penetrate heavy plate, but warhammers were. I also want to see true mounted combat, not this sillyness of using a massive barded warhorse like it was a bicycle, useless for fighting.
A game where being pure-tradeskill is possible. I fail to see the relation between the ability to kill a dragon singlehandedly and the ability to smith a perfect good platemail, but you tend to only get sizable amounts of XP from killing things, and there often are level requirements on getting skills above certain levels.
I agree with the OP that as technology improves, we will see the creation of a game with just one persistent world. I also see further fragmentation of the MMORPG market as developers branch away from the traditional sword and sorcery fare and move into more varied genres.
Perhaps there will be a trend where in-game behavior has an effect on the real world?
Everquest 2! I read that you can be soley a master of a trade if that is what interests you. You can gain as much experience as would on a quest. A high level swordsmith would be rich or wanted desperately by a group.
apparently they even made the actual crafting action based, so it is kind of fun to make the stuff. you can even die in the process!
anyway, I think EQ2 already did most everything mentioned here. Google for a FAQ or a guide.
Better hardware. At the moment, there is a new piece of almost-ready-for-primetime hardware that may be its own add-on card, or possibly it would piggyback onto a graphics accelerator card. This card handles the game’s physics calculations to free the CPU from that tedious and framerate-slowing chore. I believe strongly that the next move will be an AI Co-Processor that will relieve the CPU of the chore of calculating NPC behavior, making for more intelligent enemies. This will open up many new possibilities for NPC behavior and more accurately simulate “intelligence” and smart combat tactics.
Instanced servers. At the moment MMOs are realizing the benefit of giving players exclusive rights to a mission zone: only that player’s team can enter the mission and garner the rewards from it. This has effectively eliminated spawn camping that was rampant in previous generations of games: everybody would camp out near where the Fabled Turquoise Dragon of Tu’leet Phoru would pop ever 37.5 minutes, waiting in line for an opportunity to grab the Jeweled Blade of Ki Kuraz. Instanced missions also reduce the potential for kill-stealing and other unseemly behavior when multiple teams of players fight over limited resources. But why not instance the entire server? Now you and your closest 1-40 friends can have a persistent world all to yourselves and you are the only heroes in it. This would permit…
Players affecting worlds. If you instance the entire server, making you and your 40 friends the only heroes, the player need never complain about those annoying griefers or kill-stealers or foul-mouthed idiots. (This would be a big savings in Customer Service labor – fewer complaint tickets to answer.) More importantly, it would mean that you and your friends could actually affect the world in a permanent and persistent way without interfering with anyone else’s enjoyment. When you kill the Fabled Turquoise Dragon of Tu’leet Phoru, it is dead. No re-pop, no re-spawn, no second go. It’s gone and there’s only one Jeweled Blade of Ki Kuraz to go around. Or if your superhero destroys the intersection at 5th and Gorilla, it remains destroyed for the enjoyment of you and your friends. This builds into…
Consequences for actions. Instead of giving players linear missions, there could be consequences to choosing one thing over another. This would require a great deal of programming, but if your heroes choose to wage war against the Evil Dark Cheerleader Elves of Bouncy Bouncy, the Elves’ mortal enemies will expand their territory and encroach upon the Elves’ borders.
Yeah, instanced servers. I can see it now. Go go Moore’s Law!
Most people call this “Networked games” and Neverwinter Nights wasn’t that popular. Not an impossible idea, however.
They’ve aready done many different setings, inludinga couple that aren’t combat based. Early on, however, the setting was mere window-dressing for the same kind of action.
Someone is eventually going to figure out how to make a MMORPG where the players actions in the game associate with real world tasks that have value. The simplest example might be that the most successful commodity traders in a game will be actually trading real world commodities or their ability to recognize trends will feed into a model that drives real world buying and selling. This is a simplistic example, but eventually there will be a way to create a complex, well presented and changing virtual world that is driven by real world events or tasks to be completed. It would be presented in-game as a task or quest that players worked through in the context of a fantasy realm.
How the fantasy/fun-world is presented in relation to the real world problem will be a utterly complex problem to solve. I mean, the game needs to be fun and addictive. It will take a long time to develop the relationship between a fun game where people WANT to do things and some sort of tasks that actually have value (because people are doing something that computers cannot).
Whoever figures it out will have the best supply of free labor the world has ever seen :-).
In theory EQ2 lets you be a pure tradeskiller, but in practice you need adventurer levels so collecting raw materials isn’t too hazardous or you’ll be forever dirt poor paying other people to do it for you (if it’s even possible). Either that or have a high level adventuring alt to feed you cash and materials. A high level crafter will never be required, much less desperately sought, by a group. They have no useful combat abilities and can only craft in special crafting instances.
I’ve seen several people who do use pure tradeskill characters without feeding in raw resources from alts. They usually had some way of getting a bit of a start into the business, but don’t always look back from there. There are ways of getting materials.
) I’m sure things will move in this direction. The next big things will be to more fully emerse players in the gaming world. Fully deformable landscapes, buildings, etc, that are persistant (i.e. castles that can be damaged and much be repaired, trees or other resources that when used or destroyed stay destroyed, etc). Better AI I think is also coming…in fact I’ve seen a progression of better and better AI in the games I’ve played. Also, more ‘natural’ creatures and mobs…instead of spawned camps and renewable boss mobs, something that is more transparent. Hell, maybe eventually we’ll get real virtual interfaces that fully emerse us in the game play…PUT us in the gaming worlds.
