Your Next: Genre Defining
What if 'MMO' was not a genre, but instead, an idea?
As some of you know, I'll be getting married next week. She's cool—you’d like her. At times like this one's thoughts can't help but turn to the nature and idea of commitment.
It's something that's always struck me about the MMO genre, if it is a genre, these games are made with the hope that we'll be playing them for years to come. Many of us have, or still are.
We're all aware of how much competition there is for our valuable free time these days. With the rise of quality free-to-play titles, the Steam Sale and the Humble Bundle, the barrier of entry for the best gaming has to offer drops lower by the day.
It seems like an insurmountable task for a developer to create one game that could hold our interest for any length of time, let alone years.
Could this be it? Could MMOs soon be relegated to a niche curiosity with the odd nostalgia product aimed at an aging, dwindling crowd?
As with any question worth asking, the answer is yes, no and maybe. Regular readers will be familiar with my belief that the time of the 'me-too' money crowd buzzing around MMOs is at an end. We're certainly seeing some nostalgia fueled attempts at our interest, and the new generation of PC gamers are mostly playing League of Legends, just as a few years ago they were all playing World of Warcraft. Kids, hey?
So the in-crowd moves on and we're no longer the belle of the ball. How can the MMO win back the old crowd and attract the new blood?
For me, the problem starts with the idea that the MMO is a genre and not just a part of a description of a game.
Why don't we ever ask what it is that an MMO can give us that other games can't? Is it trinity combat? Dungeons? Story and lore? Of course not, these systems are based on easily interchangeable mechanics, to say nothing of games like PlanetSide 2 or the upcoming H1Z1.
I always try to avoid using the word 'should' when discussing ideas, but I hope you'll permit me to indulge here; it's taken me a long time to come to this conclusion and I need it to add weight.
An MMO should be a stage; it should play the host and the canvas for the human drama to unfold upon it. An MMO should not be a host to a set of derivative and unremarkable mechanics, it should be a virtual world in which the players tell the game what it is.
A rather grandiose sentiment, I'm sure you'll agree, but now that we are free from the grasp of the big money hunters I'd like to get back to changing the way people view the virtual world, thank you very much.
Wasn't this the point all along? If this had been the goal of MMO developers and publishers in the last 15 years, the way we think about how we interact online could have been dramatically different.
I imagine many of you reading this will have high hopes for what EverQuest Next can do for the MMORPG genre. I'm confident that it will be a step forward in terms of bringing a fantasy role playing game to our PCs. The design goals, along with the new technologies being developed, are enough to be a breath of fresh air for a still hungry playerbase. I'm really looking forward to playing it, and I cannot wait to hear the news in Vegas.When I think about the future of the MMO as a concept, however, I think of Landmark.
While EverQuest Next offers us a world of adventure with unprecedented scope and possibility, that potential is utterly dwarfed by what Landmark is intended to be.
I was lucky enough this week to speak with Director of Development Dave Georgeson and Senior Producer Terry Michaels on behalf of ZAM, and if there was one thing to take away from that conversation, it's that using Landmark as a tool to build EQN is only the first step in what SOE hopes will be a long journey for Landmark.
When you think about it, why should Landmark stop with EQN? Why should it ever be limited to the tools we need to build a certain kind of fantasy game? Once it is up to scratch for EQN, SOE would surely start to look at the framework to see what else could be thrown into the mix.
Frankly, I'd be extremely surprised if they aren't already throwing ideas around for the next game they could build with Landmark.
That may never happen though, if all goes according to plan. If the tools are user friendly enough and the user-generated content is compelling enough, there's no reason why Landmark could not hold host to an incredible wealth of content, and operate as a distribution platform like we've never seen before.
This is an idea I want to catch on.
So when you hear the folks at SOE saying Landmark is in its early days, they really mean it. Where it ends up as is largely in our hands as players, and our experiences in it will be shaped by those around us, just as an MMO should be.
LockSixTime
PS: As I said, I'm getting married in a few days, so you may have to cope without this column for a couple of weeks while I work out how to be a husband. We'll have plenty of coverage of SOE Live though, and we should have a lot to talk about when I return!
See you in Vegas.