More so than other games, most MMOPGs, especially those with recurring subscription, must be designed such as to attract players to return again and again. That is where most of their revenue is from. This is true even for F2P or free to play games. No coincidentally, a good game can also be critiqued according to the 3 definitions of fun I previously gave: Intelligient, Dynamic and Exciting, plus also in addition, since I am using MMORPGs as examples, a motivation for players to continue to roleplay their virtual lives.
I will be using the 4 stages of how stories are built up in superhero comics: Birth, Exploration and Growth, Challenge and Resolution, instead of the usually 4-Act structure used in story writing.
Birth is the creation and Introduction of the original character, world and story.
Exploration and Growth is the process whereby the player explores or builds up the character’s ability, and also where more of the world is discovered.
Challenge, or conflict, is where the player pits the game character against the various challenges, and ultimately the big boss or foozle
Resolution and continuation is what happens after the different Challenges/conflicts
For this case study, I will use 3 MMOGs which I play, Maple Story, Granado Espada and Guild Wars to analyze how successful they have been in this 4-act structure of comic books, and how they way they implemented it affected the fun factor in the game.
+++ Maple Story +++
Brief Description: You are a lone character making your way around the world of the cartoony 2D world of Maple Story and its various continents. You select a basic character, level up, improve your stats and earn money to upgrade equipment, level up, make money and upgrade equipment, etc…… Along the way, you are given quests and can join guilds to build up some community spirit (usually in the collect/kill X numbers of Y), or go to some place to talk with a certain persons, though the story lines behind these quests are very simple…. i.e. I want to make a coat, help me collect 200 pelts….
Birth:
A simple process, Upon the start of the game, you pick a hair style and color of the clothes of your basic character, select between a knife or axe for the 1st weapon, then roll the stats of your basic avatar. No introduction to what is happening in the world or why you are there. You are just THERE….
Exploration:
The whole thing about this game is to build up the character via leveling and upgrading equipments in order to tackle tougher areas and monsters for greater experience and rewards, which allows you to upgrade and level even more…. Repeat as often as you like. The thing is there is actually not much variety or discovery in the process. With only 4 classes which splits into 10 at the end of the spectrum (11 if you count “class-less” as one class), and only a set variety of skill and equipment for each class, there is only so many (actually few) ways you can develop your character. In terms of skill specialization, there are only a few so called “good” ways to customize your character, and it is recommended to stick with these, as the monsters are so predictable. The only variety is cosmetic in that one can access “cash-shops” to purchase “skins” to change the look of your character and weapons.
Challenge
If there is any challenge in this game, it is that it is an ultimate test in patience. Grinding is the only way to level up, and rarely is any strategy involved, though had-eye coordination is a good asset. Most monsters can be killed if you are high leveled enough, and you are occasionally rewarded with a cool item and decent experience points, but that is it. There is no reason for you give at all to kill a particular mob except for the fact that it is just there, and you know it may drop something useful for you. These challenges do not help in any plot development (erm, what plot?), and the only good thing is that killing high level monsters usually give you bragging rights to boast in front of the newer players.
Resolution and continuation
MMORPGS are built in such a way that there is no clear resolution so that people keep playing. But Maple Story takes it to the extreme by not even giving you much milestones to measure any challenges (other than the plot quests that allow you to reah new destinations or level up your class). You just keep playing and leveling……
Assessment:
Playing Maple Story is just like visiting a fun fair, you’re just there for simple thrills and challenging yourself to take the scary rides, but after that initial kick, there is usually not much to keep players in the game except the community. But if the gameplay is lackluster, the community will leave eventually (i.e. in my most recent visit to the game 6 months after I left, ! was the only 1 of 2 persons left out of a 100 strong guild of previously active players). But yet its player numbers are in the millions. I can only attribute that to the fact that it is free to play and people actually have multiple accounts (usually as mule storage), and that the numbers include many inactive players as well, since beyond adding the occasional new territory catered to lower-mid leveled characters, there is nothing much to keep the higher level players playing. As an MMOPG it encourages “cliques”, where oyu are either part of a group, or you get bullied by another group when you accidentally offend someone…. Not exactly healthy community spirit.
Intelligent: Low: AI is pure rush and attack, and quests are simple. The game is really tailored for kids and above.
Dynamic: Low/Normal Other than the colorful worlds and monsters, and the cosmetic purchaseables, everything else is pure grind.
Exciting: One time only. Good for a first runthrough to high level, and that’s if you are patient enough. There is no story to keep you in the game…
+++ Granado Espada +++
This PVP/PVE (you can select one type of server or another) game is pretty interesting. Very nice pseudo realistic graphics! Using a re-imagining of the discovery of the Americas in a slightly fantasy backdrop, you play as a pioneering family tasked with exploring the new world. You are initially limited to creating a stock character out of 5 available classes, being able to choose your name and gender. The unique thing is that you will eventually “recruit” more NPCs as playable characters, and can bring and control up to 3 characters into the game. If you think of it, your “character” in this game is this three-person” group, so the lack of variety is not as bad as it sounds.
Although there are only 5 classes, skills are based on books, and any class can learn every single skill-book available to their class, giving them access to potentially 20 to 50+ skills at any one time. That’s a whole lot of skills and variety! (provided you have the patience to train all the skills up). The only limitation is that skills are only available depending on the weapon equipped, so if you have the “cash”, you’re in for a lot of variety. Plus since you are using 3 characters at one time, that gives you a high number of combinations and skills to work with.
One unique thing about the game is that it allows its own form of “botting”, where players can set their characters to automatic attack mode to kill all hostiles nearby indefinitely. Its still grinding, but at least you don’t have to babysit everyone while you do it!
Birth
As mentioned, you start with creating one standard stock class character (no visual or stats customization at all), then are sent through a brief tutorial to get the basic controls right. You’ll soon be able to use the full 3-person grouping, and start following more quests to explore the world
Exploration and Growth
So many skills to pick from, so little time and money to work with! Although taken by themselves the individual characters may seem boring, the three person group dynamics really bring out the skill exploration and growth of your characters into prominence. I.e. using your fighter to “provoke” all nearby enemies to attacking him, then using your wizard to cast “sleep” on all the lured enemies to render them helpless, then use your marksman to take them all down since they are now lined up properly for him. In fact, other than exploring the beautifully rendered world, a great part of the game is in trying out and finding good attack combinations, whether it be for PVP or PVE purposes.
Another thing about the game is that exploration never feels forced, as the storylines and quests are really well written so that you WANT to complete the quests to see what happens. For example, a father wants to build a “automaton” of his daughter to remember her after her death, and you have to find the parts in a particular dungeon. Other games simply say “go find me X number of Y”, but this game packages it in good story writing, and so players will follow quests to see what happens. Indirectly, it also leads players to explore the places they have to explore to accomplish their tasks, so they can return at their own leisure knowing what to expect.
Challenge
This game rewards smart players. A good part of the game is finding good team and skill combinations to take down the enemies, and the quests are no pushover. There are a number of inevitable fetch quests, but also some multiple stage quests of increasing difficult that serves to develop the quest storyline. Another problem is that some high level players have a bad habit of playing nasty pranks by releasing or summoning high leveled enemies in low level areas just to watch the ensuing slaughter……
Resolution and Continuation
The quests are well written and some are truly epic, sometimes I feel sad that the quests are over because I have to get back to the main game, because there is just not much background story that makes me stay interested…. In fact, I feel that the quests have gotten more attention than building a world that players would want to explore. One can already travel to most parts of the “world” at the beginning of the game (whether you survive is another matter), so exploration is somehow less exciting. Does that mean game/storywise it is bad? No, because I end up looking forward to leveling up my character to take on the next epic quest!
Assessment
Granado Espada does have potential as a long lasting game, with its strong stories and interesting gameplay. However, only the gameplay will help it keep the players in the game, as once you know the stories, replaying them becomes a chore. Stories rarely stay interesting beyond the first telling, and there is no over-arching big storyline quest ion the world (an inherent problem with most MMOGs), but the first run through will give most players a good time. The problem is that it is Free to Play for now, meaning most players would have already gone through most of the quests by the time it goes pay to play, so it might have some negative effects.
However, gameplay wise the game come in Aces. The three player system adds more strategy and than variety than most games, and experimentation with skill and character combinations is a good part of the game. With new skills being tweaked and new strategies still being found all the time (the game still being relatively young), and players wanting to experiment and customise skills to their own liking, the gameplay factor definitely ensures high replay value.
As an MMOG however it seems to fail from what I have seen, as players can easily complete quests themselves without much outside assistance. Faction/Colony quests are basically ways to gain reputation and slight bonuses, but have no far-reaching game effects. Although groups/guilds have access to special quests, I foresee players will likely solo all the way as far as they can, then only join a guild when they get bored.
Intelligent: - Very, especially in encouraging players to experiment with different elements of game play. Strong intelligent storylines as well,
Dynamic: - Not bad, the higher level monsters definitely behave differently from the lower level ones, not just in endurance and looks, and new areas and quests are still being released occasionally.
Exciting: - Yes, with the three player system, you know that a solution to tackling an area/enemy/boss is there, you just have to find it. With so many ways to take down large numbers of enemies, and having been in big battles battling 40+ enemies at a single go (and zooming in to see the action up close), the adrenaline is definitely pumped!
Next….. Guild Wars. This will deserve an entry all by itself, as I go into an indepth study of how its game level design makes it what I think is one of the best designed MMOGs I have ever played.
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