Resort vs. Sandbox MMOG Design Part 1 - Immersion

As my adventures in Darkfall continue, so does the analyzing of its design concepts. This post was actually started several days ago, and has been slowly germinating ever since. Now it's just too big for its pot, so I'll be splitting it into two parts. Part 1 will venture into the systems which make players attempt to have fun, in Darkfall Online and World of Warcraft. Part 2 will contrast the risk and reward circuits between both games. 

Despite Aventurine's self-destructive attitude towards its community, they are in fact continuing to make Darkfall Online a functioning game. Cities finally have gates to go with their gatehouses. They've balanced out more pseudo-exploits that take advantage of the macro mindset. More people have successfully purchased it. However, they still don't give warning before server restarts, even though players can lose their mounts or rafts when that happens. They say they're working on a fix for that, but in the meantime they give the cold shoulder to unfortunate players. Apparently, a clan managed to bring the entire server down just by building a guard tower, which was glitched to the point it attacked its makers. Two steps forward, one step backward, apparently.

They may not know what they're doing on a Public Relations level, but Aventurine did pretty well for themselves by designing a world system that empowers its playerbase to make their own fun. Experienced players are self-guided in their playspace, as they don't need missions or quests in order to procure a productive experience. Instead, other players and player-driven situations provide opportunities.

Darkfall, simply stated, relies heavily on players being responsible for their own immersion.

A game like World of Warcraft, however, makes the player into a tourist.  They're shuffled from one location to the next activity, towards bigger and cooler locations, to more awesome drinks and fireworks.  They can give themselves up, and go with the flow.  The sweet, turn-off-your-brain river of repetition and reward.

Residents of Agon are left to their own devices, with little guidance outside of other players. They become engaged beyond the aesthetics and simple mechanics, quickly joining the rain of pebbles descending on the pond, each attempting to push back the waves from enemy players.  In Darkfall, even a newbie can help influence the world stage, if they're at the right spot at the right time.  That's pretty exhilirating. 

For example, you start off in one of the racial starting cities - one of three surrounding fortresses per race Capitol.  Quickly getting ordered to kill goblins, you run out with your newbie weapon and start the difficult fight, slowly collecting crappy armor as you watch your skill go up with the weapon.  Passing by the city is a small patrol of a large clan, who you strike up a conversation with.  Impressed with your outlook, they give you a mount so you can follow them to their home city.  Along the way, you manage to spot a large enemy force stalking your party, and you alert your new allies.  They quickly alert their clan on Ventrilo, and set up an ambush. 

Because of you, 10 players lost everything on their characters. And it's your first day.

By limiting the game-driven influence on a player, they allow the user to take a larger ownership - and investment - in the game experience itself. 

Contrast this with something like World of Warcraft, which is designed around holding the player's hand as their character simply follows the giant glowing exclamation marks to their next activity. Naturally more options become available to a player later on the game, concerning what they want to do in Azeroth, just as return visitors know what rides to attend or avoid when they go to Disneyworld.

This isn't inherently bad design, as WoW's success can attest.  I do wonder, however, if people in Azeroth become more mesmerized than immersed in the world.  I've heard somewhere that the human brain easily goes into auto-pilot when in a sensory-collection mode, as if in a grocery store.  

Due to the ever-changing conditions that lie just under the surface of Darkfall, though, I find myself almost always engaged on a higher level.

Feeling like a Hero

Those who have known me for any reasonable amount of time would nod in agreement when I admit to having a hero complex. I often imagine situations where I put myself in harms way in order to protect the people around me. While I do have an ego, and will readily surrender to being fawned over, I don't believe this mentality is primarily for social reasons. Deep down, I believe that having heroes in the world is important, and that people must step up when the need arises.

Last night, I was playing on a private server of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. Having just started, I was still getting the hang of the proto-Fable combat style when my two-person team stumbled upon a Dragon's lair. My barely-equipped sword-swinging male avatar, and a slightly lower level, quite cute and short, female mage. Against a big huge dragon.

Now, this fight didn't pan out exactly like other MMORPGs. Normally you just run up and start attacking the dragon itself in those. In PSO, however, it was much more like a multiplayer Legend of Zelda boss. You had to attack its feet, until it fell over, when you could attack its head. When it flew into the air, you had to try and avoid its firebreathing. When it dove underground, you had to avoid its lava-burrowing "hax." Then restart the cycle.

After a few false-starts (as I learned how to fight the thing) the two of us found ourselves locked in a lasting fight with the beast. However, the mage's lack of health made it easy prey for one-shot KOs, and my character spent most of the battle fighting alone.

Well, not alone, as the situation translated as such: The dashing swordsman risks life and limb to fell an epic beast, racing against time as his companion watches, bleeding out on the sidelines.

The fight became not only a game-event, but it became a performance as well. This single addition made the experience more rewarding than any quest I had ever done in WoW, or EVE, and probably other traditional MMOGs.

I feel as though the key difference is that I, personally, had a higher stake in the fight. It wasn't just 'shin-kicking combat,' but an actual engagement. You tend to already have an audience in games like Guild Wars, but I never felt impressed by someone taking out a monster. I knew the mechanics behind the fight relied primarily on arbitrary numbers, instead of actual player skill.

My fight with the Dragon of Forest II had more than just stats involved. Knowing when to go all out with attacks, and from what angle to attack from, all played a part. It was much more fast-paced than the boss battles I've seen in WoW. I feel as though if I was in the mage's place, laying on the ground with a perpendicular view to the world - watching my partner in single combat in this game - I would have been just as impressed as she was.

The point being, I really don't like what combat has become in most online games. Yes, simplicity is very important, but there's the danger of detachment as well. I wonder if most MMOG players have simply come to accept detachment from their characters.

Or, am I just tainted by consideration of mechanics, when playing these kinds of games? If you play WoW, or EVE, or another shin-kicking combat MMOG, do you wish the combat had something more to it?