The Rise of Originality In MMOs 118
Karen Hertzberg writes "Over the last half decade, gamers have been forced to wander through familiar worlds and universes. Studios have been licensing IPs left and right, grabbing everything from the Wheel of Time to Star Trek. Originality seemed to be a lost art, and although these worlds were fun to adventure in, many didn't hold the same sort of magical spell that original titles like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot once enjoyed. But change is coming. Blizzard Entertainment revealed that their next MMO would be an original IP, and this year's E3 lineup featured more brand new games than titles derived from existing worlds. So, why the sudden shift? To answer that question, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody 'Micajah' Bye sent a number of questions to original IP development teams across the world."
Original? (Score:4, Interesting)
Can you say they are that original when they basically have AD&D/Lord of the Rings races in them?
Re:meh. (Score:4, Interesting)
That said, I'm actually curious if some of these titles wouldn't do better with regular wipes and refreshes. I have had a very hard time getting into any MMO after the original EQ in large part because I always feel like I'm diving into something that isn't new, it's all already been discovered, guides posted, etc. I think it would be nice to have some MMOs that have fixed time-lines or a clever way to regularly make everyone restart, etc.
I don't want original IP (Score:2, Interesting)
I want original content.
Seriously, I like the Warcraft IP, what I didn't like is that WoW was just a combined clone of every MMO that had existed before it, just like every other MMO now is a clone of WoW.
Until we can move away from the situation where enemies are more stupid than your average rock and quests are about as exciting as your weekly shopping trip to the supermarket (Well in fact less so, my average shopping list has more variation than your average quest task list) then I don't see anything to get excited about.
Apart from Eve I don't even see much variation in the style of MMOs we're getting - what happened to the old style isometric (or 3D isometric) style MMOs like UO or an FPS shooter MMO like Planetside?
The MMO market doesn't need new IP, existing IP is fine, it needs innovation and new ideas, or in some cases, to even bring back some of the old ideas that seem to be long forgotten. To twist a common saying, the originality of your IP doesn't matter, it's what you do with it that counts.
The WoW model works for first time MMO players, but chances are if you've played an MMO in the last 10years, with the exception of a few of them like Eve, then you've played every MMO in the last 10 years. Did you play Everquest back in 1999? Well, not much has really changed, graphics got better, Dark Age of Camelot bought some minor innovations to PvP and not a lot else has happened.
Re:meh. (Score:5, Interesting)
> I think it would be nice to have some MMOs that have fixed time-lines or a clever way to regularly make everyone restart, etc.
Currently what many do is go bankrupt and hold a final event.
I've played Archmage (a web and turn based online game) before, and ending was part of the game. You had people trying to get the game to end early (cast "armageddon") and people trying to stop them... Armageddon was inevitable though even if nobody casted it - the server would go into it eventually. Then the top 10 players end up on some "top ranking list".
http://wiki.the-reincarnation.org/index.php/Armageddon [the-reincarnation.org]
The big problem with "final events" (e.g. say a "final" huge war in WoW) is naturally very many players would want to play during them. Then the servers might fall over and everyone gets pissed off.
That's fine if you're intending to close down the game, but not fine if you're not :).
Re:meh. (Score:3, Interesting)
Not even a dice rolling game, unless you count the semi-random selection of NCP attacks, and loot drops. The actual mechanics of modern ORPGs don't have random factors, just "damage per second". Heroism by spreadsheet. Eventually all ORPGs will be Progress Quest [progressquest.com].
Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)
Have people become so ignorant to think EQ was original IP? No no it had no resembalance to Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, Conan, Authurian Legend, Dune, Arabian Knights, etc...
Original is hardly the word. I think kids these days call it a "Mashup" of existing IP.
Starcraft was dangerously close to directly lifting Warhammer 40k with Eldar=Protoss, Terran=Imperium, Zerg=Tyrannids.
WoW while building a decent mythology still is a rip off of most fantasy fiction that came before. In fact I cannot think of one original creation in it. I think the only remotely, and I do mean remotely unique thing WoW came up with was ummm... errr... shit...
Well anyway DAOC was British and Norse mythologies. It's IP was not all that original.
Conan was rather unique in putting together a period of time from which there was little documentation going that far back. (Cuniform anyone?)
Eve is hardly original, nor was planetfall. AO was cyberpunk pulled damn near out of several novels. Can't speak to Guild Wars or Shadowbane, didn't play either.
UO and Garriot's Ultima world was unique in the representation of gargoyles and the exploration of secular humanism as a religion. The world as best I can remember it lacked a real sense of high fantasy like Lord of the Rings. It was still fantasy but was a bit more low key.
The problem with developing new IP is that breaking from 'tradition' in fantasy can cause a good % of fans to say, "Elves would never act like that" kind of statement. If it's IP then it is a product and maximizing sales trumps creativity. I spent 15 years developing the MRL world and had 5 book agents complain after reading several drafts that, "I don't think fantasy readers are going to by a book that has evles as a bunch of slave owning, mercenary hiring, progressively going insaine butchers..."
IP as a concept means that your creation is a product and will be treated as such. They talk numbers, this type of story will move X units, you need these 7 characters to move an additional Y units, we need this type of cover art with these colors to get the book to stand out against the following J books that will be adjactent to it on Barnes and Nobles shelves.
Nothing feels worse then having a book agent tell you to rewrite the book because, "Demographics indicate you need a child to have effective interplay against your protaganist and the merchant in chapter 7 otherwise the reader will fatigue on the drama. Metrics also indicate that you are going to need some comic relief mid-way through chapters 4 and 9." That was the break point for me ever writing professionally.
The only ORIGINAL IP\games I've seen come out in the last 20 years was: Pixelart and Darwinia but nether have extensive Lore attached to the IP so far.
"We as a society have become so risk adverse we have made art and creativity a liability."
Original IP? Original Gameplay... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm happy with a high fantasy setting -- I like Paladins, am fond of Elves, have it in for Dwarves, and think Orcs should be pitied. So leave me with Western mythology, but change up the gameplay. More than anything I'd like a game where there's a slight learning curve for the controls and such, but there isn't a level distinction. Even Pippin and Merry were useful alongside the likes of Aragorn and Legolas -- but in most MMOs, the difference between a level 5 and a level 50 is between a tricycle and a battleship. Give me a game with lateral skills rather than vertical -- Pippin should be able to do some serious damage if Aragorn isn't paying attention. I'd rather see Aragorn's Battle Sense skill increase than just a number which means anyone 5 levels below can't lay a hand on him.
And don't get me started on the World with a Purpose, thing: wolf attacks on neighboring farms cause a shortage in food at the bakers so characters either need to protect the farms or learn to hunt or starve. Then the baker's daughter earns a crush on you so you get reduced prices on your gooseberry pies, but then an orc raid captures or kills her (if only you'd been there to save her!). And when you go to collect 10 Furry Feathers, it's not just to turn into a garrison guard for XP, but it's so the garrison can continue to make arrows against those orc raids that captured the baker's daughter. People can lose a city if they don't help defend it -- can you imagine if Freeport was overrun in EQ?