[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Dinosaurs evolve to chickens, MMOs evolve to massively single-player games

[Matt Owen]

I disagree here. MMOs still have their appeal even for solo players.
Even if you do play alone on say, WoW, the major difference compared to
a single player game is that there are other players around you
affecting the environment. 

Unlike a single player game, when I enter that zone to kill or talk to a
NPC there's no guarantee that NPC will be there; another player could
have killed it only a few minutes earlier. Also the MMO vendor
continually alters the environment so that you get a sense of an alive
world, not one that is static and frozen in time. I have Bioshock on my
Xbox, I love it as a game, but haven't played it in months, however I
know that if I dive in again, it will be EXACTLY how I left it, the same
cannot be said for an MMO I haven't played for a similar amount of time.

Additionally, single player (3rd person) games are still in the most
part level based, you progress through the game in a linear fashion -
Level 10 is locked out until you complete enough objectives on Level 9 -
MMOs are free roaming, leaving the player to choose how they play, or if
they play at all (some players simple just wander about sightseeing).

The 'massively' part is not forgone, it's an integral part of the draw.
Massively does not need to mean 'playing with others' - The Sahara
desert is massive, yet it's not full of people is it ?

There's more to an MMO than the other players, which is why a lot of the
player base choose to solo. 

I do agree with you regarding to how people interact on MMOs. Most
players want to play with friends, they don't want to play with a
different stranger every night which is an area MMO vendor need to
address. Yes most MMOs have guilds, but the better guilds are massive in
themselves containing a group of strangers with nothing more in common
than their guild name.

Do we all NEED to play with each other ? I don't think so. We don't
interact with all the people we see on our commutes to work, or in the
pub in the evening, so why should we in a virtual environment ? 

-Matt (Jaruzel)


On Thu 21/05/09 10:07, Mike Rozak said:
 
> Why do people forgoe the "massively" part of these games?

> [SNIP]

> Which leads me to conclude, the "massive" part of MMOs is going away.
The dinosaurs are shrinking to chickens.