Introduction
My dissertation proposes to tackle problems which prevent players from bonding in MMORPGs. However it is important to first confirm that these problems are actually real problems, therefore I will need to research and list these problems.
In the classical levelling based MMORPGs, players need to play together in order to experience most of the content available at endgame*. The problems that I speak of lie in the journey every character has to make before reaching the endgame, thus this is where my focus is directed.
*Endgame: This is the point at which the player has progressed through all or most of the zones in the game world and reached the game's maximum level. At this point, players have access to new activities which require social play.
Simon Ludgate (2012)'s article, mentions two types of segregation barriers which hinder people fun: Operational and design barriers.
Operational barriers refer to subscription fees, purchasable content and being placed on different servers from friends. These types of barriers can often be mitigated without affecting the game play as changing them would not require design changes to the actual game play.
On the other hand design barriers are often consequences which arise from desirable game play elements, which makes them harder to tackle.
Design Barriers Preventing Players From Bonding
Christina Lauro. (2014) Says it can be very hard to get your friends on board when you have already reached the level cap, though, since they won't want to play without you and you won't gain anything from running through level-inappropriate content with them. Guild Wars 2 is just one example of a game that has attempted to fix that problem by scaling your level down to suit the area you're currently grinding in, and it can even scale you up for certain events. Playing with friends of varying levels doesn't feel like a chore when all the content is gainful.
Dungeons and Dragons Online has a more permanent way for you to join your low-level friends through its reincarnation mechanic. In DDO, you have the ability to reset your character to level one with a few stat perks to aid you on your new journey if you meet the resurrection prerequisites and have some rare Heart of Wood. This offers you the chance to play through the game with a friend without sacrificing every shred of progress you have made, since you can potentially gain new ability points through some forms of reincarnation.
According to Simon Ludgate. (2012), the most important feature in any MMO is to build a strong player community. It doesn't matter how shiny or content-filled your game is: if it lacks in community, players will leave. Community makes or breaks an MMO
Player interdependence and the socialization that resulted was the glue the elevated almost all aspects of virtual world design into a new kind of synergistic experience.
Like in real life we bond through shared adversity.
Much of the current anti-social nature of MMOs lies in the fact that the current design paradigm deems that a successful MMO should be solo friendly. MMOs are trying to cast a big net to catch all of the fish in the ocean.
According to Tobold. (2008). the quest system in World of Warcraft showed one important flaw: In the current form it is anti-social. Most quests in World of Warcraft not only *can* be done alone, they *must* be done alone if the players want to maximize rewards. Two players of the same level in the same zone often end up having only a small percentage of quests in common, unless they played together from the start. One player went east first, the other went west first, so each one has mostly quests the other already did. Then there are quest chains, where players rarely are on the same step. And even if two players have the same quest, or it can be shared, it isn't necessarily an advantage to quest in a group. If the quest is "kill 10 foozles", then killing them in a group might be faster. But if the quest is "collect 10 foozle ears", two players need to kill twice as many foozles as one player, and in many cases they end up not getting enough foozle ears from killing all the foozles around and end up having to wait for respawns. And because the xp for each kill are divided by two and only a very small group bonus added, the experience points per hour gained by questing in group are lower than if they had soloed.
Many players simply solo all the way up to the level cap. Not because soloing is inherently more fun than playing together, but because the reward system steers you that way. Even very social players who would prefer to play with others, even if that cost them some efficiency, end up playing solo, because they simply can't find anyone interested.
Having a quest system is still helpful because it encourages players to go around the world instead of grinding the same camp of monsters repeatedly.
Dungeons and Dragons Online has a more permanent way for you to join your low-level friends through its reincarnation mechanic. In DDO, you have the ability to reset your character to level one with a few stat perks to aid you on your new journey if you meet the resurrection prerequisites and have some rare Heart of Wood. This offers you the chance to play through the game with a friend without sacrificing every shred of progress you have made, since you can potentially gain new ability points through some forms of reincarnation.
According to Simon Ludgate. (2012), the most important feature in any MMO is to build a strong player community. It doesn't matter how shiny or content-filled your game is: if it lacks in community, players will leave. Community makes or breaks an MMO
Simon Ludgate. (2012), also mentions an experience when he invited a friend to play Rift. Simon was level 50, doing 50 stuff, and his friend was starting out at 1, so Simon made a new character to accompany him.
And it was going well, but sometimes his friend would log in while he was in the middle of 50 stuff, so he'd level up ahead of Simon's alt, Due to this Simon had to level up his alt to get caught back up again, until his friend got so far ahead of his alt that he decided to wait until his friend leveled up enough to catch up to another alt, which then kind of teamed up with him again for a bit... and went through the same problem
Long story short, his friend quit before reaching endgame, since he never 'really' got to play with Simon.
He states that design barriers are trickier because: they're elements of the game that separate players. These are often desirable elements in a game, such as levels, because they give players a sense of accomplishment, of going some place they couldn't before. Getting enough gear to be able to face the bosses in a challenging raid is an example of a design barrier. So is being on the right stage of an epic quest to enter a particular dungeon.
But design barriers are also being challenged by game designers: games that offer players the ability to "mentor" "sidekick" or "level sync" overcomes the barrier presented to players of different levels, for example, and easily obtainable "welfare epics" allow games to distribute enough gear to get players into higher tier raids after lower tier raids have been abandoned.
In some games players are locked to only one raid instance a week to prevent them from getting too much loot, but this means they can't go back and help friends complete the instance
Simon argues that design barriers are generally a good thing. They let players feel a sense of accomplishment and are often the main goals players work towards overcoming in games. The problem is when they get in the way of players playing together.
He says there are two general ways of overcoming these barriers: the leg-up approach of letting players bypass the barriers, which is generally an unpopular approach, especially among those players who worked hard for the satisfaction of overcoming them legitimately; and the bribery approach of paying off players to go back down to that stuff they had done before, which is generally popular and, if well implemented, encourages building those lasting social community bonds that are so integral to building a strong game in the first place.
Beyond Bossfights Episode 7 - Barriers To Playing MMO's, video, Braxwolf Stormchaser, 02 July 2014, viewed 08 December 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtMeSAnaovY>.
In episode 7 of a radio show called Beyond Bossfights, the host talks about how difficult it is to play with friends in MMOs.
One of the problems that was discussed was that having to power level in order to play together with friends would hurt their experience. On the other hand, having to roll a low level character to play with them is not fun either as players would rather be progressing on their main character.
A few attempts by some designers to solve this were mentioned:
- Guild Wars 2 uses a down-level system so you get credit for helping friends
- Lord of the Rings Online is using purchasable levels (instantly set your level to 50) and also uses an uplevelling system for 'epic battles'.
Jeremy Parish. (2014). speaks from the perspective of an antisocial guy that wants to play alone.
He comments that FFXIV fosters a sort of hit-and-run cooperation, anonymous acts of kindness. While there's something in it for him when he helps kill a monster, he mostly just likes the sensation of doing something useful for a stranger with no expectation of gratitude. He can be friendly without having to be social and contribute to other people's play experience without the burden of having to play their way.
An interesting forum post I read raised another good point as to why questing can be anti-social.
The poster said "I may do only a single quest and then stand AFK for a while, or i want to poke around other things in between, both in-game and outside the game. that way, it feels really sub-optimal to team up most of the time in my case."
The poster said "I may do only a single quest and then stand AFK for a while, or i want to poke around other things in between, both in-game and outside the game. that way, it feels really sub-optimal to team up most of the time in my case."
Jeremy Stratton. (2012). talks about Guild Wars 2's design which implies: "Everyone gets his own stuff, so no worrying about waiting in line, node-jacking, or other people showing up to annoy you!"
Jeremy says that this is a problem in many MMOs that GW2 has tackled, questing and mob-killing with other people around is no longer frustrating.
Jeremy says that this is a problem in many MMOs that GW2 has tackled, questing and mob-killing with other people around is no longer frustrating.
Wolfshead. (2011). says when players don’t need each other it breeds anti-social behaviour and it results in the devaluation of other players. Players become nothing more than advanced NPCs.
Player interdependence and the socialization that resulted was the glue the elevated almost all aspects of virtual world design into a new kind of synergistic experience.
Like in real life we bond through shared adversity.
Much of the current anti-social nature of MMOs lies in the fact that the current design paradigm deems that a successful MMO should be solo friendly. MMOs are trying to cast a big net to catch all of the fish in the ocean.
According to Tobold. (2008). the quest system in World of Warcraft showed one important flaw: In the current form it is anti-social. Most quests in World of Warcraft not only *can* be done alone, they *must* be done alone if the players want to maximize rewards. Two players of the same level in the same zone often end up having only a small percentage of quests in common, unless they played together from the start. One player went east first, the other went west first, so each one has mostly quests the other already did. Then there are quest chains, where players rarely are on the same step. And even if two players have the same quest, or it can be shared, it isn't necessarily an advantage to quest in a group. If the quest is "kill 10 foozles", then killing them in a group might be faster. But if the quest is "collect 10 foozle ears", two players need to kill twice as many foozles as one player, and in many cases they end up not getting enough foozle ears from killing all the foozles around and end up having to wait for respawns. And because the xp for each kill are divided by two and only a very small group bonus added, the experience points per hour gained by questing in group are lower than if they had soloed.
Many players simply solo all the way up to the level cap. Not because soloing is inherently more fun than playing together, but because the reward system steers you that way. Even very social players who would prefer to play with others, even if that cost them some efficiency, end up playing solo, because they simply can't find anyone interested.
Having a quest system is still helpful because it encourages players to go around the world instead of grinding the same camp of monsters repeatedly.
Journey Game Creator Jenova Chen "Theories Behind Journey" - Full Keynote Speech, video, Variety, 08 February 2013, viewed 08 December 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S684RQHzmGA>.
Jenova Chen says in his speech "Theories Behind Journey" - Full Keynote Speech that he's the type that likes to stay inside and play games, but still seeks to have emotional connection with others in virtual worlds.
He says that players only care about beating bosses and sharing loot. This makes him feel lonely. To bind people together, people have to pay attention together so they can feel connected. Shifting the power from player to npc makes players want to collaborate to defeat the stronger npcs.
He also says that when too many things are happening, you don't have time to focus on the other players. Reducing the noise helps get players to focus on other players. Also, if there are too many people you will not know who to focus on, if there is only one other player with you, they will become your focus. With bigger groups, subgroups form and some people might end up alienated.
He also mentions that players don't want to be with other players because the other players might take resources that they want. In Journey he tackled this by making players who are next to each other, give each other benefits, this makes players like each other's presence.
Conclusion
Through my research I have confirmed that lack of player bonding is considered as a problem, which is caused by the following design barriers:
The Levelling System
- Players are not rewarded for completing lower level content with friends.
- It is very hard to stay on the same level when trying to play together.
- Making a low level character just to play with friends, isn't fun when you want to progress your main.
Gear / Stats
- Players sometimes need enough gear in order to face certain opponents which their friends are facing.
- Power levelling your friends hurts their player experience since they will not feel like they are contributing
Quests
- Being on different stages of a quest means you can't both progress on the same quest.
- Having completed different quests from other players results in the same problem.
- Players are unlikely to have many quests in common, even when they are in the same zone.
Restricted Access
- Players cannot play together because of level based zone restriction.
- Sometimes players need to be on or have completed a certain quest to access dungeon.
Solo Focused
- When players don't need each other it breeds anti social behaviour.
- If players are in control, they don't need each other.
Sharing Resources
- People care more about who is getting what item than about other people.
- It is sub-optimal to progress in a group when you don't have a lot of time.
- It is inefficient to quest with others, it slows you down if resources need to be shared.
Noise
- When too many things are happening, it will take focus away from other people.
- Big groups of people can alienate some of the people in the group.
The Next Step
Now that I have listed the main design barriers which hinder people fun during the player's journey to the endgame, I can move on to find a solution or a way around the design choices that cause them... Hopefully without having a negative impact on the desirable game play elements which they provide.
References / Bibliography
Christina Lauro. (2014). MMO Mechanics: Lowering the barriers to entry. Available: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/08/mmo-mechanics-lowering-the-barriers-to-entry/. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Simon Ludgate. (2012). Tearing Down Barriers: How to Bring MMO Players Together. Available: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/135077/tearing_down_barriers_how_to_.php?page=1. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Beyond Bossfights Episode 7 - Barriers To Playing MMO's, video, Braxwolf Stormchaser, 02 July 2014, viewed 08 December 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtMeSAnaovY>.
Jeremy Parish. (2014). Rule Gridania: How Final Fantasy XIV Won Over an Antisocial MMO-Hating Newbie. Available: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/rule-gridania-how-final-fantasy-xiv-won-over-an-antisocial-mmo-hating-newbie. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Jeremy Stratton. (2012). The Soapbox: 'L2P' and the antisocial MMO. Available: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/31/the-soapbox-l2p-and-the-antisocial-mmo/. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Wolfshead. (2011). MMOs Were Originally Designed to Be Shared Social Experiences. Available: http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/mmos-were-originally-designed-to-be-shared-social-experiences/#96378. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Tobold. (2008). Making quests less anti-social . Available: http://tobolds.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/making-quests-less-anti-social.html. Last accessed 08/12/2014.
Journey Game Creator Jenova Chen "Theories Behind Journey" - Full Keynote Speech, video, Variety, 08 February 2013, viewed 08 December 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S684RQHzmGA>.
