[MUD-Dev] Re: What is an MMOG? (was: MMO Communities)

[HRose]

ceo wrote:

> We at Grex classify Diablo2 as an MMOG, albeit a slender one. The
> key issue for us is whether the instances are linked, and to what
> extent. The facts that:

Well, it's a MPOG - multiplayer persistent online game Surely isn't
"massive", where the number of players is an element for the
gameplay. The persistence is also completely related to your own
character since the world outside doesn't exist.

When I think to a MMORPG I still have the old romantic idea of
crafting a world. So I consider D2 right out of the concept.

> However, your claim that it's not "massive" and hence not an MMOG
> is one I cannot understand. It would help if you defined what you
> meant by massive, since you obviously don't mean the physical term
> ;) and nor do you mean what I would mean - tens of thousands of
> players in the same game.

Both massive and persistent together. I think that the evolution
must be toward a completely different aim. Right now games are
focused on a personal power treadmill, your character is what
dynamically changes and also the whole purpose of the game. My idea
is about pushing the focus out of this context. Making the world
have a role and give players goals to achieve together, and not
strictly for themselves.

It's simply a situation where the environment and the community
aren't anymore a faked element. And I think it can be "easily"
provided by building a "structure" around the game where the players
will have a role.

> D2 still gets several things right that many MMOG's never have,
> and it should IMHO certainly not be regarded as a step "backwards"
> to borrow ideas from it.

It's a step backwards in the romantic attempt at crafting a world. I
think there's potential "in the other directions". Where what is
outside your character has a role.

>> what I still see is a leap backwards. Games like CoH represent
>> the failure of the MMOG ideal. They are successful because they
>> toss away what a MMOG is to go back to the fun, cooperative
>> arcade.

> I think what you mean is "because they toss away my personal
> narrow selfish view of what I want to play when I'm online". I
> don't mean those words insultingly, just literally (i.e. "selfish"
> in it's literal meaning, not as a character judgement!).

It's true. CoH is a good game but isn't a good MMORPG. It's
something else. It simply doesn't use any of the "features" that are
exclusive of the massive genre. Unused potential. I think there are
better solutions to bring MMOGs in the mass market, without
betraying their nature.

-HRose / Abalieno
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