Sam Maxted takes a look at some of the elements that helps with the "retention" of players within an MMO.

You need to perform repetitive tasks, sometimes for hours a day, at times unable to do what you want because others won't lend a hand. Other people even try to stop you from achieving your goal, then laugh and cheer if they're successful. Even if you manage what you set out to do, you might have only a small chance of getting something in return. Oh, and you won't get paid for this. Instead, you'll need to pay a fee in order to do it.

Sound like fun? No, I thought not, but it's what we as MMO gamers do on a regular basis. And not only that, we enjoy it. So what is it that keeps us playing our favourite games, to the bewilderment of family and friends? There are plenty of theories out there, and developers and publishers alike are always looking to improve what they call "retention", or making sure that you keep paying your monthly fee. Keeping us playing is the Holy Grail for the industry, because while box sales are great, it's monthly fees and micropayments that really bring in the cash.

Raph Koster, one of the people behind Ultima Online, Everquest II and Star Wars Galaxies, recognises the importance of keeping your customers happy (although SWG players might have something to say about this) and he has a number of theories on why people leave MMOs. He makes a good point about games' difficulty curves, saying that the transitions between being a newbie, grouping, running instances and completing high-end content should be made as seamless as possible. If there's a gap between any of these stages - or the game's hard to get into in the first place - frustration could make people stop playing it. After all, how many of us have tried EVE Online only to encounter a two-hour tutorial and utter confusion? Granted, those who persevere and really get into the game can become hooked, but there's no denying that being thrown in at the deep end presents a real barrier to entry.

There's also the obvious issue of gameplay - is it enjoyable, or boring and derivative? Both types of MMO are out there (and some games in the second category stubbornly refuse to die), but the obvious example of an MMO done right is World of Warcraft. WoW succeeded partly because it stole the best elements from other MMOs, improved on them and melded them into a single package. Can any of us really say that Blizzard did anything massively new or innovative, which hadn't been done before? WoW's tries to provide something for everyone, which it's head and shoulders above most of its competitors at doing. It seems to have been designed from the ground up with different types of content in mind, rather than tacking things onto it as an afterthought. After all, I don't think anyone really bought City of Heroes for its PvP.

WoW's early success came from turning an already-popular franchise into an MMO, being easy to get into and catering to all types of gamer. They've also added new content over time, for the most part listening to their players when doing so and plugging the few gaps that were there at launch. However, this doesn't fully explain WoW's success. There are plenty of other good MMOs out there, so why have subscriber numbers dropped off elsewhere while WoW has gone from strength to strength?

In researching this article, I spoke to players from a number of different MMOs about what keeps them playing their current game. Regardless of the game, one answer came out ahead of all the others: the social aspect. Surprisingly few people cited PvP or raiding as a reason for keeping their subscriptions going, and rewards for being a long-term subscriber weren't mentioned by anyone. Coming in some way behind social reasons were experiencing new content, having a strong feeling of progression, and the game's lore or overall storyline.

As well as describing a sense of progression in general, a good number of those polled said they liked being able to progress even though they couldn't commit to playing for very long at a time. This seems to be borne out by modern MMO design, which is - for the most part - more solo-friendly than it was in the past. It used to be that you needed a group in order to do anything meaningful, with the original Everquest being a classic example of this. It simply wasn't possible to solo past a certain level, at least for the majority of classes.

Since EQ's heyday, most MMOs have provided a lot more solo content, aimed at the casual player. That's not to say that group content isn't there - it's just not compulsory in order to continue playing. I have to say that this was one of the main reasons I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI - being unable to find a group in an almost entirely group-oriented game. I soon realised that the time I spent going "LFG" could be used for other things, like actually having fun. Since I stopped playing Square Enix has introduced more solo content, which seems to indicate that I wasn't the only one who left for this reason. However, FFXI isn't the only game that's moved towards a more casual play style. Everquest 2 did this within its first year, when the developers removed the need for a permanent group after hitting level 20. Put simply, the inability to progress - or not feeling that you're progressing - can push players into leaving their current MMO.

One of the more recent moves to giving players a sense of purpose of progression is Blizzard's theft of Xbox Live's "Achievements" system. Other games would do well to follow WoW's lead as far as this is concerned. For those of us who play WoW, how many characters have you seen running around with Achievement-based titles like "Explorer" or "Merrymaker"? It's unlikely that anyone other than the most obsessive-compulsive player would uncover every section of map in the game without the Achievements system being in place.

The level of importance some people place on their MMO's story or lore surprised me, as it's not something I would've listed highly in the makeup of the average player. However, maybe it's something I should have expected: Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online and WoW are three of the most popular MMOs out there right now and all of them have well-established lore surrounding them. Even EVE has a storyline, but it differs in that it's largely created by the players instead of the developers. For example, I'm sure that by now many of us have heard of how EVE's "Band of Brothers" corporation was brought down from the inside. Some people may dismiss this as "guild drama", but when it happens to a group of players in command of such a large chunk of the game world, it crosses over into "story". So I guess in cases where there's established lore or the storyline is constantly changing and evolving, it really can be a factor in whether or not someone stays with the MMO they're playing.

The second most common reason for playing that people gave me was simple: content. Namely, experiencing content for the first time, having a wide range of different types of content, or the regular content updates that some MMOs receive. This one's something of a no-brainer, as people can stop playing video games of all types once they've been completed, or they've done everything there is to do. There are only so many times that people can tread the same ground before becoming bored. Perhaps this was one of the reasons for experience gain in WoW being increased before level 60. The addition of new content - whether in free updates or in expansion packs - is something that nearly all MMOs try to achieve. After all, City of Heroes has been going for nearly 5 years now. I doubt many people care about or still play single-player games like Manhunt, which were released around the same time. Sure, some single-player games from around that time can be considered classics, but it doesn't mean that many people will play them on a consistent basis for this length of time.

However, while the points I've discussed so far are all good reasons for sticking with an MMO, it seems to be the genre's social aspects that have captured our imaginations. People mentioned everything from playing with existing friends and family, to making strong in-game friends or being a member of an active guild. Regardless of the exact situation, it seems our relationships with other players are what bind most of us to MMOs. Even if we're not looking to group with anyone, it's still good to have someone to talk to. Game publishers recognise this too; Warhammer Online offered a "Guild Beta" where entire guilds were given the option to try the game as a group, with the aim of getting them to leave their current game and join WAR en masse.

This isn't to say that a game with a great social / guild system will win out regardless of gameplay - developers and publishers alike need to work on all the major aspects listed above to keep their players happy. However, the best thing they could do would be to actively encourage social interaction and the development of friendship groups, while at the same time not making it required to continue. The easier it is for us to find like-minded players in our MMOs, the more likely it is that we'll stay with them and keep paying those all-important subscription fees.

Sam "azerian" Maxted
Editor
ZAM.com