Brainstorming a Next-Gen MMO

                                                      Brainstorming a Next-Gen MMO

The recent announcement that Blizzard is taking project Titan back to the drawing board comes with little surprise to anyone.  Over the past few years MMO’s have become a dying breed with each new release seemingly performing worst than the last.  They struggle to hold on to player subscriptions, quickly moving into mediocre F2P models just to generate a player base.  MMO gameplay has become routine and stale, compounding the problems generated by the “grind” model of design so prevalent within them.
Curious, and always up for trying my hand at design concepts, I've spent some time brainstorming what I believe to be some needed steps in creating a successful Next-Generation MMO.  There are four major issues to be looked at – Combat Design, the Grind, Endgame Content, and Social Aspects.  Aside from those, there are still many other design points to be looked at as well as the marketing issues.

Combat Design
In my mind, the most important aspect in any potential Next-Gen MMO will be the system of combat.  The vast majority of a player’s time in an MMO will be spent in combat.  It could be said that combat is the only portion of an MMO that is actual game-play, while everything else is just the game-experience.  Creating an engaging system that is both easy to learn, but difficult to master is going to be key for the future existence of MMOs.
Combat Design in MMOs is currently modeled after traditional turn-based RPG’s.  While nostalgic, this model has been in decline for years.  Compare the combat gameplay of all but the most recent Final Fantasy games to the Tales series, particularly the newer ones like Tales of Graces (if you've never played it, I highly recommend you check out the combat system design), and it’s easy to see which system is more engaging and full of potential.  While today’s MMOs have been changing and updating their combat systems as time goes by, the base system of design hasn't changed and that’s what needs to.  The days of auto-targeted, pre-programmed skill casting are long gone and while casting rotations, sub-routines, resource management, and dodging enemy spells have done a lot to make the combat more engaging, almost all of the current MMO’s combat can be boiled down and controlled by simple logic clauses and loops that could almost be executed more efficiently by a program than a person (Healbot anyone?).
So how do we create a more engaging combat system while still staying true to the RPG model?  The answer is quite simple, though the application of it is a little more difficult.  Rather than using the turn-based RPG model as the systems foundation, use a different foundation model and add the RPG elements to it.  Because news about Titan inspired me to work on this article and because I think it is also the right direction for a large-scale MMO to head, I will be using the Shooter system as the basis for my Next-Gen MMO combat design.

A  Brief Note
If you haven’t played Global Agenda or Smite by Hi-Rez Studios I suggest that you do so.  While not attempting to be MMORPGs, there are several gameplay elements within them that I believe are heading in the direction that a Next-Gen MMORPG should be.  I will stealing/adapting some of their designs as well as referencing them as an existing base example as I outline a conceptual combat system.

View Frame
A First-Person viewpoint is unlikely to be ideal for an MMORPG game.  Increasing the vision range and options a player has allows for more information to be given to and processed by a player, allowing for a greater range of informed choices.  On top of this, players enjoy seeing their character and the changes that new gear brings.  Using a Second-Person or Third-Person camera view is much more ideal.  This is already a common practice, but deserves to at least be noted.

Freedom of Movement
One of the most important aspects of a Shooter is a player’s freedom of movement and creating as much of a free range of movement for players will need to be the base of any Next-Gen MMO.  Movement is an extremely simple concept for players to understand while also potentially being one of the hardest to master as players discover the potential uses of it.  The wider the range of movement that players have, the more options open up for them.  Creating a free range of movement, as well as multiple ways for players to move within that free range allows players to choose, when and how to act preemptively or react to any situation.
A great showcase of the potential of movement can be seen in the comparison of Street Fighter to Smash Brother’s Melee made in this video, The Street Fighters Guide to Smash (http://crosscounter.tv/the-street-fighters-guide-to-smash/).  Make particular note of these time stamps.

1:45-3:30: Explains the difference between the Digital movement of Street Fighter and the Analog movement of Smash Brothers.  This is the difference between limited movement and free range of movement.
4:55-5:20: Show’s that the movement system allows movement in one direction while attacks in another.
8:25-9:30: Showcases various movement options other than Control Stick movement.
13:10-18:05: Displays advanced techniques of movement and character control, the options it opens up for offense and defense, as well as ways to counterattack this movement.

The greater the freedom of movement, and the greater the options of that movement (walk, jog, run, sprint, and dash for example), the more potential for control a player has over their character.  The more control a player has over their character, the more options for attack and defense, for preemptive action and reaction they have.  The more ways a player has to move, the more the need for a player to be able to read situations and react to them properly.  This raises the skill cap of a game that can be and is learned through playing and practicing rather than by researching technical information that much of the current MMO learning is about.

3D Combat
While not a requirement of a Next-Gen Combat system, it is a potential one.  A few, such as Aion, have tried unsuccessfully to incorporate all three dimensions into the combat systems of the game.  The major problem with this is that since MMO combat system are primarily devoid of aiming; the increase in movement range is mostly a gimmick, offering little to nothing in terms of practical use.  With the Shooter combat base though, 3D movement offers more directions in which to move, dodge, and aim.  While having constant 3D movement may require too many movement options to keep the system simple, a short burst full movement system can work extremely well.  Global Agenda is a great example of this.  The use of the short duration, recharging jetpacks allow for 3D movement and combat without it becoming overwhelming

Shooter Mechanics in an RPG Model
        While a Shooter base will be great for a Next-Gen MMO, not every mechanic of the genre is viable in an RPG context.  Mechanics such as precise hitboxes, headshots, or area specific damage will be more limiting to an RPG system than beneficial.  Movement, skill usage, dodging, and reactionary gameplay should be vastly more important than the need to hit small targets in precisely the right place.  So how do we chose what Shooter Mechanics and which RPG mechanics to use and when and how to combine them?

        Aiming
            Players would use a targeting receptacle like any normal shooter and would have to aim and fire at their targets (this would be a players auto or basic attack).  Enemies, and perhaps players, would not have precision hit-boxes however, but the hit-boxes would extend in a small area around the character model.  Any attacks that hit this area would be considered a hit.  For instance, shooting between the legs of a character model would still result in a hit.  This would make it so players would not have to focus to intensely at being 100% precise in their aiming, but rather that aiming at a target would be enough to deal damage.  This keeps the gameplay similar to the RPG "auto-targeting" while still retaining a good measure of the engaging and skillful play of managing movement with aiming.  In addition, with all the other elements that must be managed that come from MMORPG combat (skill use, resource management, group needs, etc.), not requiring precision aiming cuts down the required "player processing needs" to a manageable level.

    Vicinity Aiming
            Some skills and abilities in RPG's need to almost be guaranteed to hit their target; the best example of this is healing.  Players would throw a fit if heals could miss in MMOs.  In a Shooter Model however, its a little more difficult to make these things hit when you have to aim.  That's where Vicinity Aiming comes in.  Vicinity Aiming does not require you to actually hit your target, but to have aimed in an area near enough to the target to be considered accepted.  This adds at lot more leeway for extremely important things like healing, especially when movement is going to be a highly necessary part of combat.
Global Agenda is a great example of this with its Medic class.  When you are using your healing weapon, as long as you are aiming near to your target, you will auto-aim to hit it.  Additionally, the beam heal will stay on your target as long as you hold the fire button and are in range, allowing the player to further move and look around.

    Traditional MMORPG Targeting
         Traditional mob targeting would be less important with a Shooter model as the base design.  Floating hit-point boxes, or some other form of instant life recognition, would be used to inform the player on the fly about the current status of mobs.  On top of this your current target would show up in the traditional HUD targeted box with more detailed information.  Additionally, players should use (and be taught to use) focus target(s) to keep track of more important targets such as Bosses or CC targets.  Skills that do not need to be aimed should be able to easily be setup to fire at any of the specific focus targets or primary target.
For the most part, HUD targeting would be used primarily to keep track of important information about X target rather than as a means to target a mob with abilities.  A key press could also briefly highlight X target as a means to quickly find it in a hectic battle.

Skills Usage: Skill Shots
Just like your normal attacks, based on a Shooter model the player would have to aim a majority of their skills.  In the MOBA genre, these are referred to as skill-shots.  Be it something players are used to like a lobbed grenade, or something more difficult to hit such as a curved attack with a cast time, making players have to actively aim their abilities adds to engaging gameplay.  Nothing would be made overly hard, but it would be a player skill that they could learn and improve, outside of just game stats.  A good example is the heal grenades in Global Agenda.  Like most grenades they have a small delay and do not blow up on contact.   If they or their allies are moving, they must time the explosion to where they will be.  Poor aiming or communication could result in a missed heal or buff.  The explosion radius is quite large, however, making sure that being in vicinity is enough, not requiring a precise hit.  This can be compared to skills like Healing Rain in World of Warcraft.

Skill Usage: Lock-on – Cast Time vs. No Cast Time
Some skills will be guaranteed to hit your target when cast, as long as a target is in your targeting receptacle at the time.  These skills can be considered to have locked-on to your target.  They may instantly hit or chase down the target until impact or timing out.  For instant cast abilities, this is simple, but some variation can be added when cast time becomes involved.  Skills could be required to start and/or end with the target under the players aiming receptacle or have been targeted for a duration of the cast time for the skill to have been considered locked-on.  Variation adds a learning cap and keeps gameplay changing and engaging.  However, you would have to make sure that any system used would not overly interfere with a players ability to move.

Skill Usage: Targeted Skills
It will probably be necessary (or to just add variety) to have some skills be easily cast on your focus target(s) without having to aim.  While potentially unnecessary, Crowd Control skills, buffs,  heals, debuffs, agro control, and more may need to be handled in this way.

All the RPG Rest
While the combat gameplay in this concept for a Next-Gen MMORPG will be majorly changing, the rest of the mechanics will be handled primarily how MMOs already handle them.  Stat calculations, status effects, damage and healing numbers; everything will be pretty standard to your normal RPG.

Combat Wrap-up
MMORPG combat has always been very stale and as the genre has become played through, the majority of combat has been boiled down to math formulas.  The recent rise of competitive gaming, e-sports, and the MOBA genre have players engaged in way in which this generation of MMORPGs have been unable to match.  I believe the problem can be fixed by changing the underlying Combat Model (Turn-based RPGs) into one that is more engaging and proactive in creating and recognizing player skill.  In this case, I have set the Shooter combat style as the base, upon which we would build RPG elements into.  In doing so, we can create combat gameplay that keeps players constantly active and recognizes player ability while still keeping true to what makes an MMORPG an MMORPG.

The Grind
The majority of players hate the grind that accompanies your average MMO.  It’s time consuming, highly repetitive, often times mindless, and worst of all rarely engaging.  A lot of this can be changed by creating an engaging and active combat system, but there are a few key points in the Grind itself to take a look at.

Leveling Up
The largest grind in an MMO and one that has a love/hate relationship with most players.  Finding that right balance between not long enough and too long is hard when the right duration could take days worth of time.  As the current MMOs have built up expansions, leveling up from 1 to the max can take 100+ hours.  Time however, is a number that can be altered and while finding the right amount is important, what is more important is the experience that players have during that time.  What if the leveling experience of an MMO was so good, that players would play it for the sake of that experience alone rather than simply to get through the leveling process?  That is what a Next-Gen MMO needs to do.

Game Within a Game
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic had a great idea for the leveling grind.  They turned the leveling experience of an MMO into a story driven experience.  While the story was enjoyable however, the leveling process was still very grindy.  Long pauses between the main story, non-engaging side quests, and a few planets that felt disconnected from your character’s main story broke the experience’s cohesion and the suspension of disbelief of the story.  Coupled with a players desire to quickly level, the story itself was often times skipped.
The SW:KotOR team is on the right track however.  A story driven leveling experience can very well be the key to turning a grind into a glorious experience.  It is a monumental task however.  Crafting a story that crosses a multitude of zones, takes multiple leveling paths into consideration, balances dungeon and pvp experience, incorporates race/class/gender, considers solo/group play, and deals with player interactions in an open world would be a work of art, a masterpiece of storytelling and game design.  Maybe even multiple masterpieces.  It is possible though and for a Next-Gen MMO to truly be Next-Gen, maybe even necessary.  I will only attempt to scratch the surface of a few potential ways that this can be accomplished and be as brief as possible.  The design of this task alone would take great work.

+ Voice Acting - The majority of the lore and story of an MMO is told through the quests.  The problem, however, is that more often than not the quests go unread, only the objective being noted.  The solution to this is easy, though potentially expensive.  All quests would need to be voice-acted and accessible to listen to while a player is on the move.  Think of Bioshock.  Players would pick up a recording and could listen to it as they continued to play the game.  The same should be done in any Next-Gen MMO.  It’s an unobtrusive solution that doesn't slowdown the leveling process while increasing the gameplay experience.
+ Phasing – World of Warcraft has been using it for the past few expansions and it is a great way to tell a story, have zone/world altering changes, and limit player interaction while still keeping to the traditional open world of MMOs.  Phasing could be used extensively in a Next-Gen MMO in the telling of the leveling up story.
+ Story Zones – Used in SW:KotOR, story zones are smaller phased areas that only a player and his party can be in.  You will never run into another PC while in these zones.  This allows for small controlled environments perfect for storytelling.
+ Dungeons – Harder to incorporate into a storyline are dungeons.  Generally they are not forced upon a player (though that doesn't mean they can’t be).  A lot will have to be taken into consideration on how they interact with the leveling experience.  They could be completely stand alone and have no interaction or they could be pointed to for side quests.  Player’s first time through (or when the story called for it) could also be accompanied by an NPC “pet” that only they can see, who talks to them much like a quest would.
+ Exp Issues – Through dungeons, running around, battlegrounds, and whatever other thing in X MMO gives exp, the level range of a player’s current story arc often gets surpassed.  This causes the story to hiccup or to be crafted in a way to allow hiccuping, both of which draw a player out of the experience.  There is no way to craft a leveling experience where the player is always the level of his current story position, however this issue can be circumvented.  Through the use of Phasing it would be possible to scale the level of the enemies to match the player.  Small level ranges would be used to determine what phase a player resides in, or possibly the whole zone would be a phase just for them (this kinda runs counter to MMO philosophy though).  While you should be the max level when the story ends, that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the story while at max level.  It could potentially be possible to level to max doing very little of the story, then going back and experiencing it scaled to you.
+ Group Play – When questing in “story” mode as a party, one player will be designated the “story leader.”  The story being told would be theirs alone, and would only progress for that player.  The only exception would be if both players were on the same arc (this might require the same race/class/gender too).  For the most party, anyone not the story leader would be watching in on the story.

Professions and Raid Preparation
Another grind, though smaller, is the one to level up professions.  SW:KotOR’s system of crew member gathering is a nice addition to the standard professions collection/leveling process.  Players can send idle crew on missions to gather materials or to craft items.  The same materials can also be gathered or crafted by the player in the world.  This created two ways in which a player could level their professions.  One happened as you played and the other way you could force it.  This extra option to the gather/craft grind cycle was a welcome addition to players, cutting out a players downtime, especially when it came to collecting materials in preparation for raids.  With this players, could essentially prep while running dungeons, competing in PvP, or simply lounging around.  This same concept should be present in a Next-Gen MMO.  Anything to cut down the grind, while still keeping as much of the MMO experience is a good thing.
Another interesting option for profession gathering could be in the building of your own personal home/farm/colony.  Much like the highly popular city management or farm management games that flood Facebook, an upgradable home area that produces materials for a player could be a workable idea.  It would just be another option for players to use and in no way a necessary one.  For instance, a fully upgraded “home” could provide you in a week, the materials necessary to craft enough items for an average raid schedule.

Gear Grinding
This is just part of what an MMO is about.  It’s expected and desired by players.  However we can improve the experience.  By improving the experience of the Endgame content we automatically improve the experience of gear grinding.  If Dungeons, PvP, Dailies, and Raids are all enjoyable experiences (more on that later), then gear grinding is more of a reward than a chore.

Closing the Grind Story
The grind will always be prevalent in MMORPGs.  It’s part of what makes them an MMORPG and without it, it becomes a different type of game.  There are things we can do to make the grind an enjoyable experience.  A well crafted world and story, told through the clever use of design mechanics can potentially turn the question “Have you made it to max level yet?” into “Have you played through the story yet?”  By making the leveling experience engaging and entertaining, almost like a game within a game, we can hide the grind behind a pleasurable journey.
The same goes for the other grind aspects of an MMO, by changing the experience that surrounds them; we remove the feeling that they are a grind.  Providing multiple ways to accomplish a single task keeps things fresh while providing rewards not connected to the grind we can change the focus to something more enjoyable.

Social Aspects
The social aspects of a Next-Gen MMO can be boiled into one phrase, “Get players in touch and playing together.”  WoW has gone leaps ahead of the rest of the MMOs out there when it comes to this.  The LFG system is a great example of this.  It gets players into raids and in their desired roles as quickly as can be.  Simple and convenient systems such as this will be paramount to the success of any Next-Gen MMO.  The better these systems work, the quicker players can get into the multiplayer/social/driving aspects of MMOs.

+ Dungeon/Raid Groups – WoW already has a great system in place, just steal it and improve upon it.  Ban lists, player notes/commendations, performance ratings, item level parameters, and more options can be added or removed by players to increase/decrease their wait time and improve their experience.
+ Finding a Guild – A good system needs to be in place for advertising and finding a guild.  Options for guild leaders to display needs, requirements, play times, and guild purpose will be needed.  Those looking for a Guild should be able to search using a large variety of filters to match them to the right group of players.
+ Finding a Service – Say you want an enchantment but no one you know has the specific one you want.  You could pull up a list of services offered, type in the enchant name, and a list would show you players who have that enchantment and whether they are offline or online.  Now you’re connected to what you are looking for.  Players could also advertise a little bit on their “service” profile to easier communicate things like price or availability.  Players could also opt out of being found this way, choosing not to appear on the list when searched.  Services could extend past crafting to also offer more mercenary things like tanking/healing a dungeon or raid, raid leading, gathering materials, joining a PvP group, or anything else players could potentially think of.
+ Class Roles – Not actually a system of use, but rather a class design aspect.  The roles that each class can play are as much a social issue as what role you play is a personal one.  If every class had the ability to perform the standard 3 roles, Tank/Heal/DPS, then everyone would have the option to perform one of the lesser played roles.  This could potentially reduce queue time problems in the LFG systems.  An easy way to accomplish this is to provide 4 (or more) specializations for each class, one spec for each role and then a 4th spec in X role.  This would still create class uniqueness while providing more role options.

Get Connected
A huge appeal of MMOs is playing and connecting with others.  The more ways we can connect players and the easier it is to use the systems that connect them and get them playing, the better.  Driving players to interact and form friendships will increase both the longevity and the enjoyment of the game.

Endgame Content
A big problem with endgame content in current MMOs is replay-ability.  Once you have your gear, there’s no incentive (unless the gameplay is just plain fun) of replaying the endgame content.  Dungeons in particular lose their appeal once raids become an option for players.  A Next-Gen MMORPG needs ways to combat this problem and provide replay options that players would like to engage in, primarily when it comes to dungeons.  I’ll only briefly touch on a few potentials here.  In my next article “Creating Competitive PvE” I’ll be taking a deeper look at how to provide replay incentives for the endgame content of MMORPGs both in a competitive and non-competitive way.
+ Challenges – Small changes to existing dungeons that make them harder or put special conditions on accomplishing them.  Offers a new way to experience something you've played through multiple times.  Could be time trials, harder enemies, more enemies, player debuffs, death limits, etc.  Quick and easy to create, as their balance does not need to be precise (too hard might be a good thing) and its just tweaking existing content.
+ Records – A simple way to allow players to challenge themselves in something they have already completed.  Examples include time taken, damage dealt, damage taken, death counters, time spent out of combat (longest combo), etc.  Players can attempt to beat a personal best or the top records could be shown publicly for them to try to overcome.
+ Mercenary Runs – For players who do not need gear from a dungeon.  They can opt out of gear rolls, instead earning extra gold for participating; a way to encourage more people joining the queue, particularly the underrepresented roles.
+ Raid Downtime – As raids are the primary endgame of MMORPGs, a Next-Gen game might consider changing the way raid downtime works.  Aside from freely resetting the raids, or putting them on shorter cooldowns, raids could be reset by either the weekly (timed) reset or reset once a player has completed the raid.  Quicker raid resets could potentially change the whole feel of MMORPG endgame and research/testing would have to be done to reach the right balance point

Closing Downtime
The primary endgame of MMORPG’s are raids.  Raids however, have a lot of downtime and while removing or lessening that downtime is an option, it may not be the best one.  Creating additional incentive outside of loot for players to engage in the endgame options is a great way to fill that downtime and create “more” endgame content for little cost.  Getting players to compete against each other or themselves for records provides a more intangible incentive that can always be improved upon.

A Marketing Note
Most current MMOs are having a hard time keeping player subscriptions and the majority has switched to F2P models that are generally very frustrating and play on inconveniences and limitations to the player.  Micro-transactions are becoming a huge staple of sustained income for online games.  In the article linked below, I propose a F2P micro-transaction model to replace subscription fees, as well as providing additional sources of income.
MMO-RPG’s – An F2P Renting Model Idea
(http://snowspotsgamedesign.blogspot.com/2013/02/mmo-rpgs-f2p-renting-model-idea.html)

Closing
MMORPG’s are a dying breed searching for a breath of fresh life.  Many games have attempted to become the Next-Gen MMO, but they have all fallen short.  With the redesign announcement of Project Titan made by Blizzard we know that even they recognize the genre needs to change.  I propose that by re-looking at the base design model of the combat system is the first place to start.  If an engaging and skillful combat system can be built, then many of the rest of an MMOs design challenges will become easier.  After revamping combat, dealing with the grind, particularly by creating a masterful leveling experience, and increasing endgame replay-ability is next.  Once the game is set, systems for enhancing the social aspects of an MMO need to be put into place and streamlined.  These four things are an absolute necessity for creating the Next-Gen MMORPG.