The Unenviable Position - Why MMO's Suck

Let me be frank here - MMO's are terrible. They waste precious time & money over random rolls on a loot table. They are dull and tedious grind fests, where we rush around seeking this random piece of dreck for this other guy across a dozen all too similar environments. They offer terrifically shallow gameplay of beating up this dude because your numbers are better this their numbers.

Yet we continue to play them - shelling out hundreds of dollars a year for the same game, day in and out.

The Old Republic is my poison of choice, followed by Lord of the Rings Online. I don't play very often, but when I do, I shell out my money like anyone else for a few months before once again remembering why I stopped playing in the first place. Its always for the same reasons....

The reason's I quit World of Warcraft.

Yes, I played WoW and Everyquest.. And yes even that most ancient of MMO's 'The Realm'. Before that it was MUD's and MUSH's - indulging in the classic dungeon crawl and roleplaying via text. The transition from those primitive and early text-driven efforts, to the sleek graphical offerings was exciting - to see the breathtaking magic of worlds brought to life. To see them actually live and breath in glorious 3-D was a pleasure I still remember.

The simple joys or hitting level 10 for the first time.. or crafting your first worthy object.. or killing that monster that always used to antagonize you.. These were all reasons I kept playing, going deeper - leaving behind the early levels of the beginner for the big cities and terrifying dark citadels. It is this sense of advancement and achievement that drives you on - wanting to see what is next, wanting to do what you keep hearing about all those others have already done...

At least until you realize the awful and rather hideous truth, but I will get to that.

I was level 31 in WoW, having been playing for several months. I had been playing almost non-stop, conquering every monster that lay before me - and had even joined a guild for some the bigger quests. All was bright and exciting, and it seemed like that would never end.

Until it suddenly stopped being fun.

The game became too much of a grind, demanded too much of my free time. Trying to stay on par with some of my guild mates became too time consuming. I dropped out the guild after a bunch of players quit to go off elsewhere, and just on the brink of level 33 I stopped playing altogether.

After having played though about half the playable levels (at that time anyway), I stopped with the quests undone and the adventure incomplete. I never would make 60 - even after playing again on and off for a while. Starting a new character was no help - the once exciting narratives that drove me on had already happened, and were dull and tedious. The quests, which I had pursued with relish, were boring.

At that point it was easy to just walk away.

Then came Lord of the Rings Online - it looked fun and, while very similar to WoW, it was set in the far more interesting world of Tolkien. I dived in and traveled my character extensively, going to some of the wonderful places from the books. This time I almost entirely solo'd the game, making temporary groupings but never committing. I got to about level 28 and heading east... And then again I stopped.

Leveling was taking a bit of time, but was not too bad. But the lack of companions was hurting me, and the solo experience was just not all that exciting. The story quests, while good, were not terribly engaging after a time - taking far too long to get into. Add to that the usual gamut of Free-to-Play issues (I was primarily a Free-To-Play player- though I did purchase a few of the Turbine points now and again), and it just got dull and tedious again. It was just WoW in Middle-Earth, albeit in many ways far superior to that old title.

The next MMO I would play would be 'The Old Republic', and that was better than both of those previous games put together. But I got to the mid-30's and guess what? I think you see the pattern here.

Now I still play the Old Republic, its probably the only game I really have any actual investment in. Its also got the most to do, is the most immersive, and offers a lot of opportunity to play it the way you want to. The solid writing and voice acting don't hurt either.

But at its core - underneath all the glitter - its yet again, just another WoW-clone. Completely superior in every way, but at its core - its still the same game with all the same problems. Its not a 'good' game.

The harsh truth is, no MMO is a good game. Some are adequate, some are moderately interesting - but none are good. No MMO is going to leave your breathless and excited to play it, savouring every minute of the experience. No MMO is going to make you really wonder what could happen next.

There are no great revelations. There are no incredible Journeys into the unknown. There is just endless vista's of more of the same. There is no true 'accomplishment'. There is no changing of scope, or real progress. You just getting better at killing things with other things - using most of the same things you used before, just better - or a bare handful of new abilities, again just for defeating the same banal enemies with slightly different colours over and over again.

MMO's are just a $15 a month money sink, designed strictly to take as long as possible so the company in question can make more money. Even the good ones like 'The Old Republic' are the same. There is no real creativity going on, or any particular innovation. It is a genre that is as jaded and cynical as the suits responsible for keeping these games alive.

You see, WoW was just too successful. Blizzard found the best way to make money and keep people coming back. They had studied at the feet of Everquest and used that knowledge to create the next step, fixing the problems of that earlier title to create their own better game. It was fundamentally perfect - capturing the popularity of the Warcraft series and merging it with the opportunity to 'live' within it. Yet it also had a sustainable business model, requiring people to keep shelling out money and to play for perhaps a year to get to the most interesting bits. It also encouraged people to invite their friends to the game so they could play together. It was a complete success - and 10 years later, people are STILL playing it.

And it utterly destroyed the MMO market.

WoW killed any and all innovation - and instead of MMO's growing to be dynamic and interesting things, they all became dead bland clones. Some offer shinier bits then others, but at the end of the day it all came down to game companies keep a constant stream of money going into their coffers. Take WoW's base, add a nifty piece or two and VIOLA - you have a revenue stream.

Now, this is not me 'bashing' companies making money - I feel that if you release a good product you should make money for it. But MMO's are not 'good'. They are not special. They are ultimately lazy. People flock to the next one, hoping beyond hope that it will be something new and fresh. In the end they are disappointed, because nobody wants to take a risk on changing the rules. And that is sad.

You see, for all my bashing of them - I WANT MMO's to work. The idea of building virtual societies and realities is intriguing for me. There is some powerful potential there - and as of yet, all is not yet lost.

First off - EVE exists.

Now I don't like EVE much, its very much the arm-chair accountants game and requires a killer ruthlessness I do not enjoy. But right now its the most dynamic and fascinating game out there. Entirely cultures and powers have risen and fell within the game, great wars have been fought - entire armies and time and effort have been obliterated in an instant. Its exciting, and you never know what will happen next.

Why? Because the game is simply a trading simulator. That is it. There are no quests, (though you can do missions - they are not the same thing), there is really no goal except to make lots of money and buy bigger ships. Everything else is driven by the players, and it is because of them the game is exciting. CCP, the company that owns and developes EVE, has taken a hands off approach to disciplining the player base. while simply adding more and more to do and buy. This lets the players creativity free to flourish and has created some of the craziest stories out of EVE.

Lets not sugarcoat this though. EVE is no picnic. The players are some of the most ruthless bastards on the planet, and the hands-off approach of CCP leads to constant abuses of power by veteran players. Given that there are some serious real-time components to EVE, this is a game that demands your attention. But if you get into it - its a place where anything can happen.

Now in most MMO's the experience is sanitized entirely. PvP is limited to voluntary status, and theft is non-existent. EVE throws all that out the window (yes I know that this is not 'technically' true - but as Goon Squad keeps proving you are never safe no matter where you are), and that is something I do not like. Spending hours doing your own thing, only to suddenly have everything taken from you by someone with a bigger stick is not 'fun' to most people. Likewise the difficulty of trying to get certain items in many MMO's makes the ideas of stealing or losing all your possessions unappealing for any MMO developer because it risks the loss of players.

As a result, the WoW model is risk-free. There is no penalty other then maybe losing a little money to death - you can't be captured and your stuff is completely safe. While this is appealing in principal - this diminishes the accomplishment and eliminates any reason to be cautious. It also limits player interactions, since players can freely ignore one another without penalty.

Now I am not saying that an MMO should be turned into a free-for-all - these are games after all and games should be fun. But bringing risk back into the game is not a bad thing - having there being a price for death or carelessness can change the mentality of many players in the game. EVE handles this cleverly with tying risk to rewards. In essence, there is nothing stopping you from playing the it 'safe' in High Security sectors making a little ISK. However, to really make the mega-ISK and become powerful you have to head-out into areas with a lower security rating and thus less safety. Since security ratings work on a sliding scale, you can gradually up your risk - and maybe you won't fully go all the way out, maybe you will. Its up to you, and brings player initiative back to the forefront.

Unfortunately, there is no way to graft this kind of approach into the WoW model. Part of the reason that the risk in EVE works is because all players, even experienced ones, are vulnerable. A new player with a bit luck can take out on old player. In WoW and its ilk, this is virtually impossible thanks to the leveling system. Imagine a level 10 trying to take on a level 30, or even a level 20 or 15. The level 10 can never win. This is enforced by the limitations of equipment and grinding required to get good equipment, and the binding system preventing old equipment from being shared. As a result, you can't afford to let the gloves off even a little because powerful players will simply destroy less powerful ones with no penalty or risk. (As happened in the much earlier MMO - Ultima Online).

I could go on about EVE, the good and bad, but that would take far too long. So lets just say there is a LOT to watch for in EVE that has the potential to shake up a world where 'Collect 10 Rat tails' is still commonplace.

Now EVE is is not the only place to look out for. The other is that legend of the RPG world - Richard Garriot.

A few years ago, I sat at a panel he was hosting about MMOs. He talked about some of his new projects. He spoke plainly about Ultima Online and the failures and successes there. In particular was his bringing up of the concept on the 'non-combat' MMO player. In Ultima Online, you could simply sit back and create a fantasy business and make furniture, or weapons,  or magic items for the adventuring players to use. While it was not the majority, around a third of the player base engaged in that kind of play. In many cases, it was the most lucrative and you could make a small fortune.

Now, this entire style has completely vanished from the MMO world. 'Crafting' skills are basically a distraction and time sink, for the possibility of being able to get 'decent/good' equipment far down the line. Garriot saw an opportunity to tap into that kind of player again, and allow the MMO to be far more then just a 'killing monsters jamboree' (My words not his).

Fast-forward to today, and Garriot's successful Kickstarter 'Shroud of the Avatar'. Its a potential new hybrid MMO/Singleplayer game trying to bring back a lot of the things that made Ultima Online great. I am excited by this - but also apprehensive.

Let me be blunt here: I love his Ultima Series, and back in the day Garriot was one of the greats with some of the best game examples out there. That said, the last real games he pretty much hands on worked on were back in the mid-90's. Hes been a producer since there, mostly in the MMO sphere on games for NcSoft. Admittedly the games were not your standard WoW clones, but that was because most of them debuted before or around WoW's dominance. One of the latest of these, Tabula Rasa, a game with his fingerprints all over it, was interesting but ultimately a dud.

Now, Richard is still a formidable personality and he obviously cares a lot about the industry, gaming at large, and his fans. But does that mean he can still make it? Or is he more like a washed up rockstar trying to cling desperately to his glory days with that one last hurrah?

I've looked at the 'Shroud of the Avatar' videos and checked the updates (I have yet to donate money to it, but I may) - and while I am impressed by the list of promises, I am also forced to ask - Is this all smoke? Will this game have all the wonderful things being promised? Or will they be 'Features for the next release'. A LOT is riding on this for him, including his credibility - He has raised over $4 million dollars from crowd-sourcing due to his name and reputation. But can he deliver? Or will this be an example of 'Molyneuxesque' overreach?

My first impressions were admittedly not great - the game looks ugly as hell, but its still early and the potential is great. Only time will tell, here and I remain hopeful that Richard will knock this one out of the park and prove once again worthy of his title of 'Game God'.

Alright, I've ranted long enough - in conclusion: MMO's remain a land of untapped potential. WoW is the dead-end that will hopefully be someday forgotten, and other more worthy titles are on the horizon. Will we see innovation or just more stagnation? Only time will tell.