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

As the final note to this broad-sweeping look at levels vs. skills, I asked the developers what their thoughts were on the future of skill point-based games and whether there will ever be a game that smashes the level-based strangle hold on the market. Again, I'll let the developers speak for themselves.

Fallen Earth's Lee Hammock:

I think both skill- and level-based games will be around for the foreseeable future since they cater to different audiences generally.  As MMOs grow in popularity, which they seem to do, we’ll have a continually growing pool of both beginner and veteran gamers, each veering to level and skill games respectively.  I think in the long term some other design paradigm will take over MMO progression to remove numerical measures from the system since they feel very artificial (but are used because they are so easy to understand).  Much as the Natal Project at Microsoft hopes to change the way people play games by removing the intimidation of the controller, eventually MMOs will have to get rid of some of the math on the front end to make things more accessible.  

Earthrise's Atanas Atanasov:

While it is hard to predict the direction the genre is heading into, we believe gamers may look towards seeking some very strong skill-based games breaking the MMORPG stereotype.

EVE Online's Matt Woodward:

I genuinely hope that the future will see a gradual but persistent broadening of what’s viewed as an acceptable risk for a big-budget game, as more lower-budget titles push through and demonstrate that other approaches can sustain big-budget incomes. If the market keeps growing and broadening I think this is inevitable, and I do hope that a day will come when we can all look back and laugh at how silly the argument over whether to emulate UO or EQ seems, given the huge profusion of successful MMO models that look nothing like either.

There you have it folks! While we'll never be able to answer which of the systems is "better" for creating MMORPGs, we have delved - albeit briefly - into the reasons behind the sudden resurgence in skill-based games and why gamers may be itching for something beyond the standard leveling system. Keep your eyes peeled for next week's premium article as we continue to explore the MMO industry and get to the bottom of its many mysteries!