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Ideal MMO Group Size

June 15, 2013 by 10 Comments

What is the ideal MMO group size?  I’ve been giving raids a lot of thought lately, but the most enjoyment I get out of MMOs comes from a really good group.  I was talking to Graev tonight, and we both prefer groups in the 6-8 member range.

More Group Variety

Having 6-8 members of a group means that every spot isn’t met with the same scrutiny as a group having to truly choose how to fill only five slots.   Larger groups can take a support class, more DPS and less heals, or more heals and less DPS.  Group balance becomes an art, and customizable.

When groups are larger, classes can be more unique.  I’m a fan of specialization, and I really hate homogenization.  I want to see every position in a group filled by someone bringing entirely unique skills.  Fewer slots in a group means that classes have to begin filling more roles.

To go against what I just said, larger groups also allow hybrids to shine.  In LotRO I played a Captain, and a group of six had that extra spot to let me be that class who made all the other members of the group perform better.

How many MMOs these days recruit a class to be the puller, or the buffer, or the debuffer?

Dungeon and Content Challenges

Groups were subjected to rigorous challenges, and often impossible odds when group sizes were larger. This makes sense, though.  A group of 6-8 people is right between enough to increase the challenge, and few enough to prevent zerg mechanics.  Content can still be difficult with fewer people, but overcoming that challenge is extremely different when there are fewer players — this goes back to having less to go on because of group variety being narrow.

I remember the holy trinity used to be Tank, Heals, and Crowd-control.  I don’t know if this can be backed by anything other than my observation, but the smaller groups have been simplified to emphasize DPS over control.

I like off-healers and backup healers.  I like off-tanks and contingency plans.  I like room for error and having the ability to adapt.  The flexibility and options come more naturally to a larger group of players.

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WildStar Raids Won’t Be Vanilla WoW

June 9, 2013 by 36 Comments

WildStar 40 man raids

The topic of 40-man raids came up on our gaming community forums the other day when someone mentioned that WildStar might be trying to attract the ‘vanilla’ WoW crowd.  Everything I’ve seen from Wildstar screams accessibility, and everything I know about vanilla WoW the opposite.

I was the leader of two guilds on separate servers that got server first kills on all Molten Core, Black Wing Lair, Onyxia, and AQ 40 bosses.  I was an officer in a third.  Suffice it to say I have too much experience with 40-man raids.  The thought of doing any of that again nauseates me.  Raids would go on for 5-6 hours a night, 5+ nights a week and sometimes more if we felt pressed to get the server first.  Raiding in WoW was my full time job.  There wasn’t time to do much else, and eating happened at the keyboard every meal.  I am embarrassed by it, not proud.

The difficulty of the fights was nothing compared to the mechanics of raiding in WoW today.  The worst thing we had to worry about was cleansing quick enough, and moving out of fire in the right direction. Organizing 40 people was the problem.  How do you coordinate 40 people to log in on time and execute flawlessly? Heck, how do you even get 40 people? Once you have 40 people, you have to train their bladders so that you’re not constantly stopping.  You have to find people who are too afraid of losing their spot in one of two guilds on the server who can actually raid so that they don’t miss a night to go to their kid’s recital.

When someone tells me that WildStar is going to attract the vanilla WoW crowd with 40-man raids and tough bosses, I can’t help but chortle.  Vanilla WoW had its moments, but 40-man raids aren’t one of them.  I’m in no rush to revisit 40-man raids, and I think the WildStar devs aren’t stupid enough to think that type of gameplay will sell boxes. Creating content that less than 5% of your players will see doesn’t make sense anymore.

If WildStar makes 40-man raids the focus of their game, the raids will be accessible.  The content will be closer to something we see in WoW’s Looking For Raid or 10-mans, and nothing like the 40-man raids that required you to give up your life to participate.  And that makes sense to me.  Lots of people getting together to fight a boss sounds fun. Knowing I can do it in a way that allows me to come home from work, jump on and participate is precisely what I want in a themepark MMO.

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ZeniMax: TESO not a MMO … sorta

June 5, 2013 by 21 Comments

This is why community managers are so important: The Elder Scrolls Online Game Director Matt Firor is quoted in an interview today saying the following:

“This is more a multiplayer Elder Scrolls game than an MMO. [You'll see] very limited UI, nice and clean, not a lot of bars.. the combat system is very much action-based. It’s also soloable… you can solo almost the entire game. [...]” [Source]

TESO not MMO

Solo the entire game in this mostly multiplayer RPG MMO.

He has a point.  TESO has already been outed as highly-instanced, and that’s not the first time Firor has come out to saying the entire game is soloable.  The thought crossed my mind to go to their site and look for any references at all to TESO being a MMO, and sure enough I wasn’t able to find a single reference; not that there’s much info on their site at all, though.  But they haven’t really been honest in their marketing either.  ZeniMax has taken every opportunity to feed major MMO sites with TESO info, their videos emphasize MMO, and the beta application is clearly MMO bait.  Ask 9/10 people and they’ll tell you TESO is going to be a MMO.

I should be really happy, though.  I don’t want TESO to be an MMO.  TESO should never even have hinted at MMO design, even in the vaguest possible sense.  They should have always marketed and designed TESO to be a multiplayer RPG.  If TESO even smells like a MMO then it will be judged like one, and I can already tell you the crippling wave of fear is settling in on the ZeniMax team, likely fueling the backpeddaling, that being a MMO and falling short of the mark will be the kiss of death.

Someone needs to take charge and get the MMO community some much needed clarification.  You’re confusing the hell out of people, Zenimax.  You’re sending mixed messages, designing it like a themepark MMO, but calling it multiplayer RPG.  TESO has SWTOR written all over it, and that’s horrifying.

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MMO Mounts

May 31, 2013 by 22 Comments
MMO mounts

Many players in the WildStar community want mounts limited to ground only.

I can remember when mounts were only something we dreamed about in MMOs. I think I was playing Dark Age of Camelot one night, probably in a group without a bard, and I had the thought that it would be awesome to see an army of mounted players riding into battle on the backs of mighty steeds. The visual is awe-inspiring, but I’ve learned over the years that I might prefer everyone on foot.

Like my post about MMO alts yesterday, I’m conflicted about mounts.  I think they’ve become status symbols like luxury vehicles. Heck, some of them, even in medieval fantasy games, ARE vehicles. Runspeed buffs in games without mounts are coveted — highly sought after — and not 100% available all the time.  MMO Mounts are common, mandatory, and everyone has one.  When everyone had a mount, the dream was the go faster.  Epic mounts were introduced.  Then we thought… wouldn’t it be awesome if we could FLY?!  Then flying mounts, epic flying mounts, rare mounts, cash shop mounts, and somewhere in the middle mounts became so worthless that we just teleport everywhere.  It’s now inconvenient to even leave a town to go to a dungeon.  Players are spoiled, and games are dumbed down.

Now there’s a growing trend to get rid of flying mounts.  Heck, I’d be in favor of getting rid of mounts entirely.  Bring back traveling by foot and having to rely on the players who play classes who are designed to provide speed boosts.  Make the worlds feel bigger again, and give people a reason to leave town.  If MMOs have to have mounts, perhaps someone can be innovative and come up with a new way of implementing them.  Maybe give them abilities or tie them into your class.  Require them to be stored at a stable or garage. I want them to be more than these tokens in my bag that instantly appear out of thin air and simply make me go way too fast for the world to support.

MMO mounts are a perfect example of a really cool idea taken way too far, but still a really cool idea if someone can manage to rein them in and do something new.

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