Loading... The Win Condition

Tags: in

Posted Mon, Oct 12, 2009 by Ethec

Welcome to the 1,185th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

In the beginning, MMORPGs were social experiences. Then came the idea of "playing alone together" and group support took a back seat to a polished solo experience in many MMOs. Continuing last week's thoughts on the renaissance of grouped play in MMOs, today's column calls not for a return to clueless PUGs and lengthy grouped sessions where nothing gets done, but for a new wave of group support tools that make low- and mid-level grouping fun and worthwhile again. It's all in Loading... The Win Condition.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers this week:

Star Trek Online (UP 37 to #10)
DUST 514 (UP 13 to #15)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (down 5 to #17)

Recent MMO Releases

8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (release date)
9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/8 - Cities XL (release date)

Upcoming Releases

11/3 - Dragon Age: Origins (release date)
12/1 - LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Important Dates

10/23 - 10/24 - Hero-Con

Loading... Daily

Maybe you've had this conversation. I was trying to explain MMORPGs to an older relative over the weekend, and we just couldn't get past this question: "How do you win? How do you know who won?" You don't have to be someone's grandma to think that the win condition is probably the most indispensable in all of games design. Why compete or adventure at all without a big overarching goal in mind? Single player games, however sandboxey, always have a point at which you're the winner or loser. But MMOs are alone in intentionally never allowing you to win once and for all.

That doesn't stop MMO players from trying to win. Every WoW content patch and expansion brings another wave of malcontents that somehow, against all prior evidence, thought that their hard-won gear would remain the best forever. Epics are made to be broken, however, and all that the endgame rushers do is suck the joy out of the level-up game. There's little permanent distinction available for any but the most hardcore raiders, who are the only ones who have a shot at server and world firsts.

So why play a game we can never really win? Are MMO fans just a bunch of masochists piloting the Kobayashi Maru? No, MMOs offer a more mature premise that appeals to a more mature gamer, because just as in real life, winning is a fleeting and largely subjective thing. The winner of American Idol is a has-been in three years' time. No one but Steelers fans care who won last year's Vince Lombardi trophy. UEFA teams go from winners to losers on the trade of a single player. Multiplayer game matches might have a winner this time around, but if you want to climb the leaderboards you're in for an impossible grind.

This ties into today's epic thread and Martuk's article on five indispensible social mechanics, but I'd like to see MMOs get back to the days of the private win. You know, when it was a successful night when someone finally retrieved their corpse from Lower Guk or someone got one single component they needed for a quest. Or when things went unspeakably bad, so bad that they're the stuff of stories five and ten years later. The overarching goal, grandma, was to get together with some friends, tool around, and have fun, just like in the pen and paper days. And if you've stepped off the achievement treadmill long enough to enjoy this kind of gameplay, you know that it beats the instant and fast-fading thrill you get from a puple drop.

While soloing has gotten a ton of attention in every game since WoW, Martuk's article on five indispensible social mechanics shows that little to nothing has changed in terms of group support. Instead of improving grouped play, devs have opted to make it obsolete (in favor of soloing) for all but the endgame. This kind of approach, in my opinion, threw out the baby with the bathwater. The solo MMORPG came about because of inattention to the needs and wants of co-op gamers, rather than a driving popular desire. Playing along together is just wasting bandwidth, and doesn't nearly tap into the kind of experiences MMOs are capable of.

There's two things that people hate about groups: 1) the time it takes to form a group and get something accomplished, and 2) poor quality PUGs where no one knows what they're doing. We can work with these problems by providing: mechanics that auto-assign roles and teach us how to excel at them early in the game (with dramatic xp bonuses for playing your role well); more teleportation and group-summon abilities; better interfaces, visuals, and audio that tell us who is doing what and who is getting hit; more short term group goals; more synergy bonuses; and so on.

If MMOs did a better job with supporting grouped play, I think we'd see the kind of renaissance Machail (and a number of you) were pleading for last week. Think so too? Disagree? Have your say in the Loading... forums.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Tavern of the Ten Ton Hammer forum

End game? Why not the adventure...

"Are you adventurous?" asks our forum regular, Khalus. "[Do you[ enjoy a good story and the lore it's wrapped within, or do you only care about the end game and want to get there as fast as possible?"

I consider myself a casual gamer by design, but not necessarily by choice. While I do like a good story, and I do have fun exploring, I'm also very competitive and I don't like being left behind the other members of my guild who set their sites on the end game and never look back. But I've learned to accept that having a busy career and family life precludes me being an end game rock star.

The answers to the "end game or adventure" question are many and varied, and discussions of this topic are always interesting. Which direction do you head in a MMOG? Do you head straight for the top, or do you enjoy the ride? Discuss!

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"I'm looking forward to the journey through SWTOR. The destination can wait."

-AngryBeaver
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

6 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 55 in October! 2,003 in 2009!

Today's New Features & Guides

Editorial: Mechanics No MMOG Should Launch Without

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75400

Aion Editorial: Adds and Changes Needed for the Game

http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/editorials

WoW Editorial - Facerolling is Bad M’kay

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75376

Aion Manastone Basics Guide

http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/manastonebasics

Champions Online : B.A.S.H. Basics

http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/bashpvp

Hottest Content: