Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Since Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of leveling and raising skills has been synonymous with RPGs of every kind. Although MMORPGs don't follow the same standard rules as their single player compatriots, the style of progression hasn't really changed since its inception so many decades ago.

But the developers of today are the best and the brightest that the world has to offer, and if anyone can think up a new system, its the men that I  queried to complete this article.

And unlike the previous answers, the responses I received to this question varied greatly in direction and tone. EVE Online's Matt Woodward, for example, seemed genuinely open minded about alternative methods of progression.

"Even assuming that you need a clear progression mechanic, I think it’s safe to say that there’s more than two ways to skin a cat," he said. "Are there more viable approaches? I’d say yes. Should a team try something different? That’s up for each team to decide on their own. If we’re self-selecting for AAA titles here (a thorough discussion of /all/ MMO and MMO-like titles would reveal a lot more variation than we’re discussing here), we’re also self-selecting for conservativeness. That is I suspect the answer to a lot of “why aren’t MMOs more innovative”-type questions – there are innovative MMOs, and there are big-budget MMOs, but there are very few innovative, big-budget MMOs. It took EVE three or four years of solid growth to get into a position where people would even consider it worthy of discussion as a mainstream game, and under the hood we’re still reasonably conservative."

From the other end of the world, the Seattle-based Guild Wars developer answered the question succinctly, but with a clear emphasis on execution. "There are all sorts of different systems that can be used for achievement in games—skill usage, collection, power over time played, power over real-world time, skill over time, and a handful of others," Cartwright stated. "I don’t expect innovation in every aspect of every game I play, but if you’re going to do something new, make sure you do it well."

Peterscheck, on the other hand, was much more hesitant to simply accept that other advancement systems are even necessary when creating these sort of games. And it's a pertinent question; why change a system that isn't really broken at all. You need numbers and a way to represent a player's advancement, so why muddle with the tried-and-true formula?

"There's probably all kinds of methods that could be tried, bt the question is to what end?" Hermann discussed. "Levels are nice because everyone understands what level 10 vs. level 20 means - that is that level 20 is higher than level 10. It's also a nice way to be able to present progression. In any kind of game where you have to compare ability and power you need some kind of relative measurement - that's all that "level" really is. I think people make a big deal about it, but it really is that simple. Ultima Online had a skill based advancement system that went from 0% to 100% and that worked as well. At the end of the day if your game has some kind of progression you need to have some kind of number that goes up as you advance or get better. So yeah, we can spruce it up all we want, but at the end of the day, that's all it is. The other reason for just using level is that I think innovating just for the sake of being different is silly. If people understand something and it does what it's supposed to do, why change it? You don't see every band and symphony inventing all their own instruments and notation just to be different, so why should game developers do it?"

The Earthrise CEO had a similarly cautious response, although his mind also seems open for other ways of advancement. Perhaps some that aren't so divergent from the norm to appear confusing? Or maybe just systems that utilize technologies that aren't necessarily a part of MMO structures at this point?

"While those aforementioned advancement systems are most familiar to the players and proven to work very well in many titles, there's still a ground for experimenting and implementing new, exciting ways of character development. For example, offline character development takes into account even the time that a player is not logged in the game, but could interact with the game in new ways using various emerging technologies - web or mobile access. "

Finally we return to Fallen Earth's Hammock who, like Woodward, believes that there are innumerable possibilities for games to break out of the D&D mold. Here's what he had to say:


Strangely enough, it appears that gamers also have a divergent level of thinking when it comes to breaking out of a level/skill mold. Progression is always a mainstay in MMOs, and finding a functional system without progression is incredibly hard to do. Gating off access to particular areas of the world, without a mechanical number to help players, can be disastrous as gamers run into monsters that are much too high for their level.

Still, the day will eventually come where a developer creates a new "norm" and every subsequent MMO will follow their lead.