September 2007

• Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
  On 8/29/07, Aurel Mihai <aurel.gets.mail@gmail.com> wrote:
  >
  > On a different note.. the current trend of MMO gaming seems to be
  > bigger is better. WoW certainly sees this effect with its huge raids.
  > Even in EVE, bigger blobs are required to defend and conquer
  > territory. Sure, a couple casual gamers are discouraged because they
  > don't have 5 hours to devote to an action (of which 4 hours are
  > undoubtedly regrouping, recruiting, and generally waiting), but these
  > games are all growing which means more and more people are getting
  > sucked into these huge events. It's just natural, isn't it? Everyone
  > wants to be a part of something big. What's going to turn this around
  > and convince everyone that it's better now to have small group actions
  > contributing to a large group that nobody sees around all at once
  > anymore?
  >
  
  A good MMO design has many different game elements, each of which
  scale for different levels of investment and time allocations. For example,
  in WoW, quests usually take <15 minutes, Battlegrounds take 15-30
  minutes, 5-man Instances take 1-2 hours, and Raids take 4-5 hours.
  Players can pretty much tailor their nightly activities based upon how
  much time they have available, which is good.
  
  There are some variances in there. For example, the Eye of the Storm
  battleground usually takes 10 minutes to complete, whereas Alterac
  Valley can often take 30-45. There are raid instances that take less
  than an hour to complete - Magtheridon's Lair, for example, has only
  one boss in it. However, the natural inclination for a raiding guild is
  to do two of those shorter raids in a night, since the logistics for getting
  all of those players logged on and ready to go is a pain in the butt.
  
  I think many designers and observers underestimate the power and
  importance of a high level, large-group endgame such as raiding or
  sieging. Such gameplay is, to most players, the horizon - the true
  promise of what massively multiplayer gameplay is all about. Saying
  "what if there was a monster that took FORTY of us to take down?"
  is a uniquely evocative statement. It is, as you state, an earnest
  desire to be part of something big. It's big, and it's visceral. Having
  your small 5-man squad win a battle which adds a few points to some
  global scoreboard is interesting, in a fantasy football sort of way, but
  what players want from their massively multiplayer games are actions
  which are viscerally... well... massively multiplayer.
  
  ---d
• • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Aurel Mihai
  • • [DESIGN] Where massive? John Buehler
    • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Damion Schubert
      • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Aurel Mihai
        • • [DESIGN] Where massive? Richard A. Bartle
          • [DESIGN] Where massive? Damion Schubert
    • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
    • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Roger Hicks
      • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Christopher Lloyd
      • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
      • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
        • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Damion Schubert
          • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Michael Hartman
            • • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore andMMOs) Mike Sellers
              • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) Vincent Archer
              • Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs) John Buehler
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• • [DESIGN] Character Growth Models (Was: Removing the almighty experience point...) Aurel Mihai
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• [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs Michael Hartman