What if an Aion launched with no UI? What if there was no grouping option in Warhammer Online? What if World of Warcraft only had stick figure combat and 2 buttons labeled "Kill" and "Heal"?
There are some mechanics that no game can do without, and then there are some which no game should do without. Lets take a look at some of these mechanics that get overlooked all too often.
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Simple gold spam mechanics can help keep a player from getting overwhelmed with spam.
Guild Mechanics
Everquest 2 (EQ2) set what I felt should be a standard to be adhered to for MMOGs guild mechanics. By providing players the ability to increase their guilds prestige, the developers introduced a whole new layer of gameplay to the genre. Unfortunately, as well designed and awesome a system this has been, it has only been introduced in a very basic manner with other MMOGs.
The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has a Kinship leveling system that allows guilds to level up and earn perks, but after level 8 its pretty much a static fixture in the game. While the perks are nice, other guild related content such as EQ2s heritage quests or status-based rewards would have been a welcome addition. However, what LotRO has introduced is still more than most other developers have added to their games.
Gold Spam Mechanics
By now this should just be a standard mechanic in any major MMOG that intends to launch. There is simply no excuse for a game to not launch with gold spam mechanics in place in this day and age of gaming. Gold spam has been around a while and it has only gotten worse. However, certain mechanics have been created that do an excellent job of helping keep a players screen clear of most spam. Vanguard, LotRO, EQ2, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (AoC), and Aion is just a short list of games that have suffered from the endless bombardment of flooding spam text that virtually destroys a chat channel, tell system, or anyone unfortunate enough to cross a zone chat border.
A simple mechanic used now by games like World of Warcraft and LotRO, and an effective one, is the ability to right click a name in a chat window and instantly report them. In doing so, said gold spammer is reported and instantly squelched by being added to your ignore all in a simple two clicks.
Simply put, this is a mechanic that no self respecting developer should let slip by before their game launches. I know there are pressing development issues with parts of the game, but think about the headache you will save yourselves later by making sure this goes in now. Because believe me, an angry gamer will give you a headache.
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style="font-style: italic;">Better tools for finding a group can keep a player from wondering too long without a group.
Effective Looking for Group Tools
The Looking for Group mechanics in many MMOGs are still just as basic as they were ten years ago. Im not sure if this is due to development time being spent elsewhere or just a shortage of good ideas, but WoW has taken a step in the right direction with their LFG tools. Players can choose to look for a group for a specific dungeon, a specific instance, or if theyre building a group, seek specific classes.
While WoW may not have a perfect system, its certainly a step up from the barebones essentials most games launch with. In some cases finding a group or looking for more players is more trouble than its worth as some people just give up fighting with the badly designed tools, while on the flipside, others simply get tired of sitting on a list without finding a group for hours. Both groups could be spared this frustration with effective grouping tools equivalent to or better than WoWs.
Another big kudos to grouping mechanics goes out to Warhammer Online. The EA Mythic team put together an excellent grouping mechanic with their open grouping system, allowing players to find open groups in an area and join up. This is perhaps one of the better ideas for a grouping system to come along in quite some time.
Chat Functionality
This one would seem like a natural thing to never forget. However, Aion forgot it. When youre playing an MMOG that a vast majority of the time relies on text-based chatting, its usually a good idea to make sure you have the necessary mechanics in place to support such a feature. One of the things that is just maddening about Aions chat window is the fact that you cant adjust the opacity to darken the often hard to read text.
Effective Friends List Tools
Finding friends or fellow guild members in a newly launched MMOG can be tough sometimes, so a good friends list is essential. For an example of not how to do this, we turn our eyes once more to Aion. When youre waiting for friends to get on so you can create your guild or just find some friends you know will be there, but arent sure when, a friends list is a great thing to make that very easy. At least it is when you can add friends who arent currently online so you know when they finally arrive. This is another thing I found disappointing about Aion, and it made catching guild members online a bit difficult. Luckily, this only impacted the launch time period of the game, but still, the ability to add friends who are offline should have been implemented.
Game development is a costly and time consuming process and that is likely why some of these smaller features get overlooked at launch. However, in some cases, such as basic chat functions and gold spam mechanics, developers should plan to have these in for launch to make everyones life a lot easier.
