Everyone has a particular field of interest in their life and mine is video games. Everything about them completely enthralls me: how they are made, the industry, the artistic value and just plain old fun.
My particular poison is the MMO genre. Massively Multi-player Online. The key word here is massively. While many games have online multiplayer an MMO takes that to the extreme. We're talking hundreds to thousands of players interacting on screen at once.
There are three things that help me decide if an MMO is good or bad: How the game plays, how much there is to do and how much do I have to pay?
Two recent MMO games which I have recently participated in beta testing for are: Wildstar and The Elder Scrolls Online. These are a perfect exampleson what is a good MMO and what is a bad MMO based on how the game plays, the content progression and the overall business model. Both are MMO-RPGs and are set to release this year.
What can you do in an MMO?
To support those massive numbers an MMO will often times have one large persistent world that players can interact with in a meaningful way. Often times this will mean teaming up to defeat challenges in the game world like powerful bosses or random events or teaming up to fight against other players in potentially massive battles. The terms Player Versus Environment (PVE) and Player Versus Player (PVP) are commonly used terms that describe the former.
Wildstar takes a fresh take on how MMO-RPGs are played by innovating in both PVP, PVE and player customization.
The PVE encounters are fast paced and exciting with players having to constantly keep maneuvering and adapting to the enemies' mechanics and is a refreshing change the standards for such encounters. The new telegraph and nontraditional crowd control abilities make PVP more enjoyable and less frustrating than most titles in this genre. There is also a large amount of customization options for characters that allows you to be rewarded based n what you enjoy doing in game whether it be exploring, fighting or crafting items for yourself and your friends.
The Elder Scrolls on the other hand is less than inspired. The PVE encounters are boring and repetitive and feels like combat from a 90's MMO-RPG. The PVP is the games strong suite, but laggy and unresponsive and most of the mechanics are borrowed from older titles like Dark Age of Camelot. At release the game restricts your customization and crafting options unless you pay an extra $20 dollars on the special edition.
Progression, Content and Social Interactions
An MMO game will often time have some sort of progression system for players to spend time on. Players who spend more time on the game unlock newer features, abilities and become more powerful in the in-game world. This encourages players to keep playing the game and in turn paying money, but often times is a very rewarding system in which players feel the direct effects of their time invested playing the game.
But the biggest part of playing an MMO will ultimately be the social aspect. Players come to play the game but stay for the friends and enemies they make in the game world. Successful MMOs encourage players to team up in PVE and compete in PVP. Many MMOs require you to team up to experience the highest level of content and will often split the player base into factions to give them a little bit of rivalry straight from the get go.
Wildstar has a lot of refreshing innovations when it comes to progression, content and social interactions within the game. Players can pick and choose what they want to spend their time doing and get rewarded for it via the Path system. The game encourages player interaction from the get go by offering opportunities to work together in the game world straight from the get go. The developers have also announced that they already have a year's worth of extra content ready to go for the final release.
Its a shame that The Elder Scrolls Online falls short on all three of these aspects. The progression is slow, repetitive and boring. It tries desperately to cling to the success of it's source material, so much that it fails at being a good MMO or a good Elder Scrolls game. The social interaction of the game is also a total mess making it so players who want to play with their friends are phased in and out at random intervals, can't get credit for working on quests together and overall completely defeats the purpose of an MMO.
Business Models
Creating and sustaining such a massive game world and keeping players interested in the game are two of the most vital parts of an MMO game. It is both expensive and difficult to keep game servers running 24/7 and this is oftentimes reflected in an MMOs business model.
Many MMOs will require purchase of the game and then an additional subscription fee each month. The amount paid for the subscription can vary but is generally $5-$15 dollars monthly. To justify this added costs subscription based MMOs will usually add additional content to keep players entertained and discourage them from unsubscribing.
Another commonly used alternative business model is to instead have a micro-transaction store in the game where players can buy items to boost progression, provide cosmetic effects and other miscellaneous perks to enhance their experience, but not give them any unfair advantage.
Many games will also have a free-to-play model where they provide limited access to certain content or features until players purchase content through a micro-transaction or sign up for a subscription to get full access.
Both Wildstar and The Elder Scrolls Online come at an standard $60 release price with an additional $15 a month subscription fee.
Unfortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online charges an additional fee if you want full access to all available content and already has a micro-transaction model on release. Many people, such as Gamespot Staff Member Eddie Makuch and YouTube personality Joe Vargas (Angry Joe) think that the game will be forced to enter a Free-To-Play business model like other recent subscription based MMOs.
Some Additional Perspectives
Angry Joe's Elder Scrolls Review
Angry Joe's Wildstar Impressions
Jesse Cox's Youtube Channel
At a glance
Taking a look at Massively Multiplayer Online games.
What makes them good or bad?
Wildstar Vs. The Elder Scrolls Online
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