Today’s common content on the TenTonHammer network asks the question: how much should MMOs cater to the explorer segment of the player base?  Should developers constantly enlarge the world so that things stay fresh and new to players in the game?  What is the cost of this expansive space being used in the game in terms of loss of social contact between other players.   I also want to take a look at an issue that revolves around how much of the space available in games actually gets used.  It’s fine to have a huge world, but where do player congregate and how much space do you really need.  Also do players really want to explore?

To start looking at this issue you first have to understand a little about the explorer segment of players in MMOs.  These are players that get a thrill out of being a modern day digital Columbus.  They enjoy setting out across the digital frontier in search of a brave new land where no man has gone before…  Well, maybe just the devs, but in game terms they are God, so don’t really count as men.

Their thrill and drive in a game is to level so that they are able to get into new areas to explore the land and find out what is in every nook and cranny.  Often times pushing the edges and trying to find ways into unfinished areas, routes mistakenly left travelable between zones, and blank spaces into the digital either. Many of them do this to the point of getting into trouble with the game company, getting suspended or even banned in some cases.

To cater to this group several developers have created insanely large worlds.  At E3 this spring I heard many upcoming MMO developers bragging about the size of their virtual worlds.  A few of them claim to have worlds several orders of magnitude larger than anything done before.  It left me wondering if they were compensating for something.  Other developers feel that every expansion or patch must add on significant pieces to the existing world so that players can explore new areas as they level.

The logic to a large world works on a certain level, but falls apart on other levels.  The best argument that I have heard of to an insanely large world is that there would be no need for a realm system, everyone could play on the same world.  While in theory this is great as you can meet up with any of your friends in the game at any time without worrying which server they are on.  Pretty cool, hey? 

The problem with this is hardware support.  Big games break up their space so that it is easier to host on servers.  A server can only handle so much at one time, and in a huge world that would be broken up by zones, each server would handle specific zones and transfer you between them as you move between the zones (sometimes having load time).  What happens if all, or even most players in a game decided to go to one area, for example to raid a city.   If WoW was one giant landmass on one single realm, could any server handle several million players in one area?  Probably not.

There are also a few big problems that come about due to a large world MMO system.  The most important ones to me are travel times and socialization. 

In any MMO you need to travel from one area to another, and most of this travel is at real time.  There are the exceptions such as teleportation or speed up boat, zeppelin or in flight travel, but most travel is on foot or mount.  WoW has what is considered a fair size world and it still has some insanely long runs to some zones.  For example the insanely long run the first time you need to travel from Ironforge or Stormwind to Southshore… UGGG.  Can you imaging if the world was 2, 3, 4, or even 10 times larger?  That 30-40 minute run could easily take 5 to 6 hours.  What would be the point!  Yet you would still need to have quests that required you to do these kinds of runs, because if you made fast travel too easy, then you would just setup centers around cities that got explored and played in and no one would ever see the areas in-between.

The other big question is what would a huge world in an MMO do for socialization?  Sure you and your friends could in theory all play together, but what happens when you log on and find out that one friend is 3 travel hours away in one direction and a few others are 2 hours in another direction, and the quest or item you want is 2 hours away in a third direction.  So much for socialization!

With a huge server there is also a decrease in the population density, meaning it would be harder to find a pickup group in any specific area at any time.  Think of the earth with it’s billions and billions of people and from where I live I still need to travel 8 hours west, east or south to reach another city of any appreciable size.  There are games being planned with worlds as large as the earth.  WHY??  Do they really think that everyone will play them?  Unless it’s WoW2 or World of Starcraft that seems very unlikely.

If you can’t find other players to play with in the game, what happens to the social aspect of the MMO?  If you have to stay grouped with others at all times and can’t spread out to see the sights, then why have such a large world?  Hmm, catch 22.

The last question I asked at the beginning of the article was do players really want to explore.  I am unconvinced that many do, or even any significant percentage.  Look at the World of Warcraft as a prime example.  How many zones do we have available, how many quests, and what happens when most people make new characters?  They travel the exact same route as they did the first time because they are familiar with it and can get through the levels faster that way.

Most players the game is about finding good “grinding” spots to level as quickly as possible rather than finding new and interesting areas.  Many players do not even both with quests to level or lead them on an adventure through the lands, preferring to sit in a specific area and grind out experience from a group of relatively easily beaten MOBs that give good experience and loot.

In the end I feel that a mid sized world works best for most MMOs and most players as it allows some exploration, but still allows social contact, and reasonable exploration for players that do want to explore.   Although it would be nice at times to have space to explore, at other times it would be a pain.  I think most games have found a middle ground with world size and populations work best.  If you really are just in an MMO to explore, then I am sure there are games that will appeal to you, however realize that you will be forced to give up or limit one of the main reasons most people play an MMO, socialization.

With the upcoming expansion of World of Warcraft and the inclusion of what is to be essentially a third continent to the world, let’s hope that Blizzard takes the social aspect in mind and ups the players per server so that there are always players in every zone.  Otherwise we will see what amounts to a mass exodus from Azeroth to the outlands and no one will be left to defend Azeroth from her enemies.  We all know that most players will move up to the new lands, can Blizzard balance this and leave enough player behind so that the world still feels full?  Only time will tell.

I guess in the end bigger is not always better.

Thanks for reading! Have question or comments feel free to email me.