146103-the-classic-blunder-of-mmo-design

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The most pressing issue of the MMO in general these days has been WoW, or more specifically, everyone trying to be WoW.  However, that is only a symptom of a far more deep problem with the economy in general.  Over the last decade or so companies have been slowly taken over by their accounting departments.  As the quest for the bottom line becomes more fierce, executives become subservient to accountants.  Since accountants have all of the creativity centers of their brains surgically removed upon graduation, this stiffles all attempts at innovation.  In the world of MMOs this turns into the endlessly repeating scenario of this:
 
Acct: "We've been looking at the charts and we notice that WoW still has all the money.  Therefore, we conclude that our goal should be to become as much like them as possible without getting sued."Dev: "What about people who don't like WoW?  That's a completely untapped demographic we could tap into."
Acct: "I do not see such a group on this chart, therefore they must not exist.  The chart is everything.  It is all.  There is no knowledge save for the chart."
Dev: Well, I've got a few original ide-"
Acct: "SILENCE!  Originality is risk!  We do not tolerate risk here!  You have your orders!"
Dev: "Boss, can you help me out here?"
Exec: "Well, um..."
Acct: "Tell the sub-unit to obey!"
Exec: "You have to do what he says."
 
So you have this template mentality wherein the same game gets slightly tweaked and redressed over & over again, but the core mechanics of that game never, ever change.  Now I will say that this model isn't inherently bad, but it has it's flaws.  Lots of them, in fact.  And not that I'm not talking about Wildstar specifically, I'm talking about a broad general game development philosophy that a lot of Wildstar just happens to fall into.
 
1st: There are only two levels, MAX and NOOB.  Anything below Max is automatically Noob.  Is the Max on your game level 50?  Then 49 and below is Noob.  Is it 80?  Then everything from 79 on down is Noob.  And the reason for that is...
 
2nd: We launched with a full game, but everything since launch has been end-game only.  MMOs will launch with huge worlds with multiple play areas for every level, rich in lore and background and creatures and stuff galore.  And three days later all of the people living under a protective shell of MtDew bottles and old pizza boxes will have hit Max, gotten all the uberloot, and will be whining that they're going to unsub because the game is boring now.  This is why once a MMO has been established for any length of time the ratio of new content becomes more and more tilted towards the endgame, Max players. 
 
The problem with this is not only does it alienate everyone else (read: Noobs) but it really does nothing to satisfy these people because you'll spend months developing the new content and they'll obsessively burn through it all in a single day.  It does not address the pathological power-gamer mentality at work here, which really isn't interested in new content at all.  The only thing they really want is "Moar Uberloot Naow!"  If everyone else has a +500 Whatever then theirs must be +501.  It's all about the e-peen and the concept of "enough" bounces off their brains like a superball hitting tungsten.  Here is an important general life lesson, kids: There are some people you just can't please, and the only solution to them is don't waste your time trying.
 
3rd: This is only sustainable when you use subscriptions.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm a freebie player myself.  I like being a freebie player.  You know why?  Because if I don't log in for a week, it doesn't matter.  Now I know a lot eyeballs just popped out when I said that but a lot of other people nodded their heads, too.  This is something that MMO developers have either yet to catch up on or have deliberately ignored: The average gamer is over 30.  That means they don't have time to sit and mindlessly macro-grind for sixteen hours a day.  They have jobs.  Families.  Real life crap to attend.  They've only got a few hours a day, at best, and they sure as heck don't have seven days a week to pour into a game.  Which is the real reason why F2P has become so popular lately.
 
I'll say that again and elaborate on it: The real reason that F2P has become so popular is that gamers have lives, now, and we like being able to just step away from a game for indeterminate amounts of time without consequence.  When you've got a subscription based MMO that follows this template then you know have an investment.  When you are charged the same amount, be it $15 or $20, whether you log in or not then you are create an impetus for obsessively long play cycles.  We don't like that.  Now games like EvE Online, which are subscription based but don't follow the Industry Standard MMO Template, get around this by allowing you to still "level up" characters even when not online.  Therefore you $15 is still worth just as much, in terms of character growth, whether you play 4 hours a week or 40.
 
The problem comes when this laid back style of gaming comes into collision with the out-dated, retro gamer image that still exists in some numbers.  Ergo, the teenage "Leet-Max Everything" powergamers mentioned above.  You know, they guys who end up with 90% of the content written just for them?  See, the thing is... when you've gone F2P what you've really done is gone causual.  I know that's a dirty word to some people but there it is.  You're looking at people who won't be max level in three days.  In fact, they probably won't be max level for three years.  And they're fine with that.  Mostly.
 
But here is the where it gets funny.  Of these two groups, which do you think has the most money to drop on the game?  Right.  And which group are you writing most of your content for?  Yeah... see the problem, yet?
 
What's more is that while "Das Uberloot" keeps getting bigger, shinier, and now with even higher numbers... the rest of the game ends up falling behind.  Ever wonder why so many play MMOs completely solo?  Why so many people never even bother joining guilds?  It's not because of a lack of buffs, bonuses or other enhancements.  It's because the real social aspect isn't there.  I'm not going to go into what a real social aspect is - let me just say talk to someone who played (or still plays) Star Wars Galaxies and they can explain it to you.  It's complicated but it's real.
 
Anyway, with subscriptions and a hard-core fan base of obsessives who will happily fork over $15 a month each for the promise of regular uberloot pellets to feed their addiction, you can actually make this work... provided that you really do manage to get cook up new batches of uberloot to feed your captive audience of power-addicts.  But once you go F2P casual then your whole income model just got really crazy and forever more you'll be constantly tempted to just start skipping all the bullcrap middlemen and just start selling golden bullets in the cash shop.  Time and time again we've seen MMOs promise "it will be vanity items only" and then, a year or two down the road, their front page is just a giant billboard of "cash 4 powerups."  Once you start down that path, forever will it control your destiny.  And the powergamers resent that most of all, interestingly enough, because they like to believe that it is their obsess, er I mean "leet skills" that are the real font of their rewards.  Once you take that prize and put a price tag on it, all appeal is gone for them.
 
4th: The best story is the player's own.  This one really comes down to "sandbox vs themepark," but it's not even a debate.  Ask anyone, even people who love their themepark MMOs, which they'd rather be in and everyone over 15 years of age is going to say "sandbox."  Which makes me have to ask why hardly anyone does them anymore?  Not that sandboxes don't have their own issues - they do, but all of those issues (mostly that catching up with more veteran players is neigh impossible) are present in themepark MMOs as well, which, in turn, pile even more problems to the list (see above).  Yet when you tell everyone that they're the chosen one you reduce the new value of that title to nothing.  It's meaningless.  Think about that for a second: Being the hero of the story has no meaning at all!  Why?  Because so is everyone else and everyone else is going to go through the exact same dungeons, fight the exact same monsters, defeat the same boss, and get more or less the same amount of loot & xp for it.  You're a hero and there is absolutely nothing special about you.  At all.
 
Again, going back to SWG, if you decide to become the best Chef on the server and open your own Cantina with vendors, then join a band and do live shows when you're not tending bar, guess what?  You're somebody.  You are someone that other people - a lot of other people - knows.  On a first name basis.  They remember you.  They mention you to their friends.  You're that guy who throws the fun parties and tells bad jokes at that Cantina over in such-and-such town.  Are you a hero?  No!  Are you the chosen one?  Heck no!  You're just that really interesting guy that everybody knows.  You know, someone who actually matters?  Someone who actually has a distinct personality and story?  Someone who is more than just a pile of stats buried under a pile of armor & weapons that makes it look like he's trying to wear a freight train for a coat?
 
In the words of TotalBiscuit: "Your artistic vision is not the priority of the consumer.  The consumer wishes to consume their content on their terms."
 
There is a reason why half of the games on Steam are all crafting themed games (even if the other half is just more zombie crap).  There is a reason why The Sims is still raking in cash for EA games.  This is why I enjoy the new F2P, even if it comes at the devs expense (sorry, but it's true).  I like being able to log in when I want... and to not have any pressure to log in when I don't want to.  It brings the game a little closer to my terms.
 
5th: Death is slow and painful,  And now we come full circle back to the accounting department.  The problem with this template is that it starts off by trying to leech away WoW players, never stopping to consider that WoW players are quite happy playing WoW all day and it leaves the people who don't like WoW with nothing to do.  Meanwhile, F2P becomes the End All Solution to Everything because the guys in accounting said so, and they say so because they read it in an article that the skimmed over while on the toilet once.  If that doesn't work then, by order of the accountants, the death of the MMO in question becomes an overly lengthy and depressing process, because if there is anything an accountant fears more than thinking outside the box it's admitting that they're wrong.  So even once a template MMO goes F2P and starts to bleed money as the repetitive boredom slowly drives away everyone, they continue to order the company to keep it going.  At some point they'll make one last giant content patch before going under once and for all.  Yet they won't innovate anything truly revolutionary nor will they call it quits while they can still salvage any dignity out of it, all because everything was completely beholden to the guys in accounting... many of whom have never even played a video game in their lives.  A little imagination and, more importantly, a little courage can go a long way towards making a MMO endure.
			
				
	Edited November 3, 2015 by DarthBastard	
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alot of this could be quotes from me from my blogging on other people's sites across the internet over the past 3-5 years. oO except i'm not sure how it applies to wildstar in it's current incarnation particularly well, with what does apply being rather late to the party and no longer being worth mentioning except in passing or as asides perhaps.
 
 
:S	
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2 words....
 
Share Holders
 
Accountants have nothing to do with it. 
			
				
	Edited November 3, 2015 by Mozno1	
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1. This is a thought process and is not necessarily a games fault.  People look at it that way.  People always find a way to form clicks/groups and to separate the players into us and them.  Even a game with no levels, players would find a way to say "THIS is where you have to be and everyone else is NOOBs".
 
2. In most MMOs (and W* for sure) there are all kinds of stuff to do as you level up.  There is a broad swath of content to play.  The thing is, eventually, everyone hits cap.  Everyone exept the few who get to a certain level below cap and delets the character to start over.  The odds say a huge percentage of your players will not be that person and will eventually hit cap.
 
Thus when the bulk of your players will actually be at max level what do you do? You need content for them to absorb, content for them to play and enjoy so that they stay with your game.  That is why you see so much end game stuff coming out, the new players and low level people HAVE a crap ton of content already, it is the players who hit cap that you are trying to keep. Some games do better than others, but content really does need to be focused *MOSTLY* on higher level content at a certain point.
 
3.  Many companies are seeing the F2P as a very lucrative market.  The cash store brings in way more money than Subscriptions do.  Have a way to have both (IE a hybrid f2p model) and you get the best of both worlds.  The problem is making a model that is not P2Win, while still encouraging players to spend that money.  I think Carbine needs to work on its model a bit as they were VERY generous and the desire to spend is pretty low for a lot of players.  Subscriptions giving omnibit stipends, making omnibit purchases single character only while cash purchase would be for acct wide, etc. would really help.
 
The rest of your point 3 is/was moot, it comes across as someone who does not belive in spending the time to get the 'uberloot' and not liking those who do, thus blaming a design process for why that is so. P2Win is not a good thing, ever.  Pay for convenience is not bad.  
 
4.  Sandbox games are often times highly romanticized by players but in the end they are actually really REALLY boring.  I played SWG.  I look at it with rose colored glasses 90% of the time.  But the truth is - it was boring a LOT of the time.  I enjoyed the theme park parts of the game (emperors retreat on naboo for example).  I loved the crafting and resource gathering.  But for what to do - boring.  ALL sandboxes end up that way.  There are die hard players that love them and keep trying to bring the concept back, but they fail for a reason.  
 
What MMOs need is a hybrid of sandbox/themepark.  Have a path you can jump in and out of, have deep crafting for those who love it.  Make crafting = to ANY world drop based on materials, crafting level, etc.  Have nodes in Raids/dungeons that you ONLY find there that are needed to craft that level of gear, etc.  Have a reason for social interaction = such as player buffs.  SWTOR started with a concept of that, but you could unlock them all on your own acct.  SWG had chefs and entertainers who could buff you, again hybrid system would be cool.
 
5. Many games that almost failed are now profit making juggernauts.  Look at DDO as an example.  It had dropped to somewhere south of 50k subscribers before the F2P change, and has been going strong for years.  In fact it was pointed at for a long time as a major success in the f2p model.  So no, not all games that go f2p die.  It depends on the f2p model and the game TBH. 	
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To address just one point -- how can a game be F2P and still make enough money to survive without being P2W? I suggest that the housing model in addition to vanity, mounts, and pets may be the answer. Wildstar has a good housing model and it will only get better. Mount customization also can add $$$ -- especially for machine mounts.
 
So potentially Wildstar can make decent income without having to become P2W.	
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No offense, but new players don't need the developers to add new content for them. They still have content to blow through. I say this as somebody who isn't max level-- I'm still only level 29, myself-- and I still have about a bajillion quests to do and a hundred areas to visit, not counting the hours I'll continue to sink into playing Challenges and Housing and playing Dress-Up. To a new player, old content is new content, period. And when they reach 50, all the actual new content that's been pumped out for the older players will be just as new to them as the quest they got at level 25 where they ran over a bunch of squid-zombies with a rocket-powered unicycle.
 
Granted, I already have my endgame planned out. I call it "spend all my money and renown and elder gems on my Housing Plot and finally incorporate myself into the WildStar roleplay community." Still, I don't think it's a bad idea to continue building content for endgame players, because not everybody will enjoy the sort of self-sustainable endgame that I enjoy.	
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			Great post, +1.  Ex-SWG player here who kicked and screamed throughout the whole downfall.  I think a big part of the issue is MMORPGs are either sandbox or cookie-cutter.  WoW streamlined the cookie-cutter design and it proved to be more addictive and make more money.  Now the sandboxes are going the way of the dinosaur for the most part, and with it a lot of the casual aspects.  This is my own personal issue with the current direction things are going, anyway.	
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As another poster said and as a corporate accountant myself...bottom line has nothing to do with accounting departments taking over :P Bottom line is a higher up worry like CFO/CEO level.
 
Anyway, I do not agree that development needs to be spent on the leveling process post launch, are people who are brand new to the game (who they should be marketing to) going to all of a sudden join because there is even more leveling content that they haven't experienced? New leveling content would only be aimed at people's alts leveling up to experience it which really isn't that many people who would take advantage of that. I certainly don't agree with the premise with don't waste your time trying to please some players, especially if they fit the vision of the direction you want the game to go.	
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The most pressing issue of the MMO in general these days has been WoW, or more specifically, everyone trying to be WoW. 
 
1st: There are only two levels, MAX and NOOB.  
 
2nd: We launched with a full game, but everything since launch has been end-game only.  
 
3rd: This is only sustainable when you use subscriptions.  
 
4th: The best story is the player's own.  
 
5th: Death is slow and painful,
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It's hard to improve whats already been done.
 
Until VR MMO's become a thing, nothing new will come to MMO's.	
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{| class="blockquote"
It's hard to improve whats already been done.
 
Until VR MMO's become a thing, nothing new will come to MMO's.
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I'll say that again and elaborate on it: The real reason that F2P has become so popular is that gamers have lives, now, and we like being able to just step away from a game for indeterminate amounts of time without consequence.  When you've got a subscription based MMO that follows this template then you know have an investment.  When you are charged the same amount, be it $15 or $20, whether you log in or not then you are create an impetus for obsessively long play cycles.  We don't like that. 
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4th: The best story is the player's own.  This one really comes down to "sandbox vs themepark," but it's not even a debate.  Ask anyone, even people who love their themepark MMOs, which they'd rather be in and everyone over 15 years of age is going to say "sandbox."
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@OP:
 
I dunno, I think you are maybe just over-thinking this stuff...and MMO players have become a little too prone to over-thinking this stuff.
 
This game has my attention right now, I think it's great...and the MMO I am crossing over from playing the last several years off and on is EVE Online.(The NOOB vs. MAX factor you mention is waaaaaaay more prominent in sandbox games btw, especially in EVE) Sometimes franchises like WoW or EVE just "catch lightning in a bottle" and take off regardless of what the game is actually doing right or wrong. I don't know why WS isn't more popular- other than the MMO market is saturated, and people who have invested heavily into one MMO may not want to start over on a new one. (even if they just stand around and gripe about how bored they are half the time.)
 
I'll finish by saying quit hating on my uber-loots...you were expecting me to beat around the weeds in Deradune for months looking for small animals to farm for copper pieces, and call that compelling game play? You should maybe give EVE a try if you think "making your own story" by being a mere scrub for months upon years sounds outrageously fun. (I had a lot of fun with it, but I'm here playing WS now, because EVE is too serious  all the time and progression is slow...WS is an excellent change of pace for me coming over from that environment.)
			
				
	Edited November 4, 2015 by Pygar Jetrunner	
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 I don't know why WS isn't more popular- other than the MMO market is saturated, and people who have invested heavily into one MMO may not want to start over on a new one. (even if they just stand around and gripe about how bored they are half the time.)
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			You make a lot of good points, but I'm replying just to tell you I loved the mock conversation at the beginning.	
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{| class="blockquote"
 EVE Online.(The NOOB vs. MAX factor you mention is waaaaaaay more prominent in sandbox games btw, especially in EVE) 
 
You should maybe give EVE a try if you think "making your own story" by being a mere scrub for months upon years sounds outrageously fun. (I had a lot of fun with it, but I'm here playing WS now, because EVE is too serious all the time and progression is slow...WS is an excellent change of pace for me coming over from that environment.)
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			http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-01-red-5-studios-ceo-i-think-wow-killed-a-genre	
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(Edit: I should mention that GW2 lost the wife and I with Heart of Thorns, but the reasons are another topic. Just wanted to note that although what I mentioned for GW2 was true pre-expansion, the game lost us post expansion.)
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I don't really get why companies spend 90% of the development, budget, creativity, experience, etc. on the lvl 1 to max zones.  All anyone wants anymore is rush to end game.  Maybe not all, but a vast vast majority.  They spend 90% of everything on content that takes 1 week max to become irrelevant.
 
Make an MMO with:
 
Zero levels
Spend ALL development/money on "endgame" pvp/pve content
Not a MOBA
 
I don't know...like make a game that comes out with 50 dungeons/10 raids and for PvP, 3 open world PvP zones with objectives/10 BGs, different arenas.....everyone wants to play for a gear grind more than a leveling experience.
 
Screw the huge open world that you are dying to go to the next zone, RPers and lore fanatics literally make up less than .000001% of the market.  If you are an RPer or lore fanatic, sorry, but seriously, almost all players want a rush to endgame with max content.  If you want immersion, go play a single player RPG, and MMO should not have any of that and none of them do.  They can't.	
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Interesting brain fodder. 
 
I will say though that I find sandbox uninspiring and boring. Also as a completionist, sandbox just hurts. 
There's also the too much symptom that games like oblivion suffer from.	
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No offense, but new players don't need the developers to add new content for them. They still have content to blow through. I say this as somebody who isn't max level-- I'm still only level 29, myself-- and I still have about a bajillion quests to do and a hundred areas to visit, not counting the hours I'll continue to sink into playing Challenges and Housing and playing Dress-Up. To a new player, old content is new content, period. And when they reach 50, all the actual new content that's been pumped out for the older players will be just as new to them as the quest they got at level 25 where they ran over a bunch of squid-zombies with a rocket-powered unicycle.
 
Granted, I already have my endgame planned out. I call it "spend all my money and renown and elder gems on my Housing Plot and finally incorporate myself into the WildStar roleplay community." Still, I don't think it's a bad idea to continue building content for endgame players, because not everybody will enjoy the sort of self-sustainable endgame that I enjoy.
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Responding to OP:
 
F2P is a direct result of low subscribers.  It has nothing to do with play types and changing.  MMO's make a TON of cash with sub models, and not as much with F2P.. When subs die to the point of killing profits, then F2P comes into play.
 
Next I see the one flaw in your opinions; I am the posterboy for a casual player, I will never be leet or mega awesome, but yet I still play.  I am the guy that the leets kick out of dungeon groups because I am not in the top 50% damage dealers.  Whatever.   Point is that no matter how I play, there will come a time when I reach max level and stand on the same platform as the leet-max-level-kidz.  At that time I will find out the same thing they found out a long time ago; "Theres nothing to do now"
 
So yeah, I would appreciate more endgame content. 	
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{| class="blockquote"
I don't really get why companies spend 90% of the development, budget, creativity, experience, etc. on the lvl 1 to max zones.  All anyone wants anymore is rush to end game.  Maybe not all, but a vast vast majority.  They spend 90% of everything on content that takes 1 week max to become irrelevant.
 
Make an MMO with:
 
Zero levels
Spend ALL development/money on "endgame" pvp/pve content
Not a MOBA
 
I don't know...like make a game that comes out with 50 dungeons/10 raids and for PvP, 3 open world PvP zones with objectives/10 BGs, different arenas.....everyone wants to play for a gear grind more than a leveling experience.
 
Screw the huge open world that you are dying to go to the next zone, RPers and lore fanatics literally make up less than .000001% of the market.  If you are an RPer or lore fanatic, sorry, but seriously, almost all players want a rush to endgame with max content.  If you want immersion, go play a single player RPG, and MMO should not have any of that and none of them do.  They can't.
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{| class="blockquote"
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-01-red-5-studios-ceo-i-think-wow-killed-a-genre
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{| class="blockquote"
 To a new player, old content is new content, period. And when they reach 50, all the actual new content that's been pumped out for the older players will be just as new to them as the quest they got at level 25 where they ran over a bunch of squid-zombies with a rocket-powered unicycle.
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I both agree and disagree, and I think some clarification might be needed here.
 
I think that when he says 'Noob vs Max' he's talking about the difference in gameplay. For a lot of MMOs the game changes drastically the moment you hit level cap, often unlocking core gameplay and mechanics that aren't available before that point.
 
This often means that no matter how good you are personally, if you don't have a level-capped character you're a scrub. And it doesn't need to be a level. It could be a key skill or piece of equipment that drastically alters the effectiveness of a character. That happened a LOT in WoW hardcore raiding.
 
So this is where I disagree about EVE. There are a few breakpoints on skills to perform certain specialized roles, such as certain ships needing months of prerequisite skills before you can even step into the cockpit, much less properly outfit it.
 
But for the most part you can be doing gate camps as part of a fleet in the first week, and be flying a battleship or battlecruiser effectively by the end of your first month of you have someone to show you the ropes.
 
There are no points in EVE where the game mechanics stop you from going out and doing something. The only limits are if you know how to do it, if you can afford to do it, and if anyone will stop you.
 
That's a hell of a lot different from a game which only let's you win once a week, but also randomly doesn't give you anything for winning, and requires you to be "Max level" before you can even try.
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Right, and this goes to the point I was trying to make about true MMO endgame and player longevety really being rooted in social and community interaction- your friends in EVE can definately help you get places faster...and without friends vast swaths of the game will be pretty much inaccessable to you, regardless of skill points. (I mean, you can go places...but you will probably get killed unless you are in a cloaky scout)
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			The real thing that's turned me off of so many MMOs is that you can't play with your friends unless you are endgame. I am 30, with a full time job, two kids, and a spouse. My best friend has a job, but no family. We can hardly play together because, unless he intentionally doesn't log in unless I'm on, we are never the same level, never in the same area. By the time I get to endgame he'll be doing the next level of content over what I can do because he got some nice stuff while I was on the way there. This is one of the reasons I loved EVE so much. Having to logout to make dinner and get the kids in bed didn't mean I lost progression. Even though I had tens of millions of SP more than my friend, he could still come to the same content I was doing and contribute meaningfully. WildStar has proven to have an interesting set of tools to try to help deal with this. Also, since it's much more exciting than a lot of the point and click games I've tried out, I don't mind replaying dungeons and stuff I've already completed, because it's still exciting.	
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