Some Changes for the MMORPG Genre

Hey everyone, Nathias here, I’m still alive and kicking. I’ve had some thoughts on the current status of the MMORPG genre and what I would like to see in the future.

I’m sure most gamers have at least heard of the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) genre. You either enjoy them and continue playing them and migrate like a nomad from one MMO to the next searching for “the one” that has the same feeling you originally got while playing your first MMO. Or, you really hate MMOs and despise their very existence, cursing gaming companies for charging their $14.95/month fees. If you are of the later group…you probably won’t be interested in this article, so feel free to a) expand your mind and continue reading or b) go to 4chan or some other site that isn’t nearly as interesting as this one.

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel the MMO genre is getting a bit stale and needs a bit of updating. It’s not about the game setting; swords & sorcery, aliens, real world, etc – that has nothing to do with it. Here are three things game developers can look into implementing in their future online games:

1. Ditch the monthly fees and turn to player hosting

Most of the time, I only want to game with people I know. I have a group of friends, guild, etc that I will game with regularly. I don’t want to deal with other people that I don’t know “camping” in front of me, acting like a tool, player killing, etc. If a game is being hosted by someone I know, they control who has access to the server, and these concerns are put to rest.

Personal computers are even getting more powerful with dual/quad core CPUs and 64-bit operating systems becoming more popular for stability (uptime) and the ability to take advantage of additional RAM. These both add up to decent servers for hosted games.

This isn’t to say game developers can’t offer to host gaming servers for an additional source of revenue. Say a large guild wants to have a server for 1000+ players. Perhaps the bandwidth/server requirements are too much for them to provide for their players. You can charge them a monthly fee and they can deal with collecting money from guild mates, etc.

Another option is if someone is hosting their own server, you can charge them an optional listing fee and you can list their server in a “server browser” so new players can find it and register with them, etc. This will help guilds and player servers expand. Maybe as part of the server install, it’ll install some web framework so people can have a decent guild website portal; an easy way to post news, guild rules, etc.

2. Don’t focus on large amounts of players
We see this time and time again…developers making HUGE worlds because they need to anticipate large amounts of players and don’t want over crowding. What happens when the game becomes less popular? The world feels empty, people can’t form groups to accomplish tasks in the game due to the lack of people playing and eventually developers are forced to consolidate servers to increase overall population per server.

How about tailoring a game for 50-500 people? Since players would be hosting the game for their own guild mates and friends, you wouldn’t need huge landmasses. You can focus on a smaller world with more detail. I haven’t seen that many MMO guilds that have numbers of more than 500 members that would be playing all at the same time. Another thought on this, is when users are configuring their server…allow them to enter in how many people they estimate will be playing over and at any given time. Using these numbers…the game server will customize the HP larger enemies to account for more/less players so they won’t be overly easy/hard.

Another thought is to allow players to adjust the XP rate. It’s their server, if they want to level up faster so they can advance faster, let them. I know I have less free time to grind levels, so letting me advance faster so I can experience all the game has to offer would be great!

3. Where does the money come from?
I know I know….everyone needs to make money. Game development and support cost millions of dollars. Who is going to pay for it? Gamers, of course! First off, you’ll be getting money from retail sales of the initial game. I’ve already talked about additional revenue source from hosting game servers, advertising guild servers, etc. But the next big revenue source would be from retail sales of expansion packs. Guild Wars currently does this and is very successful. A player or guild can make the decision if they want to upgrade their server to the latest expansion and maybe code it in so people aren’t required to have the expansion pack to connect, but to play the new content, they obviously will need it.

Here is something I don’t want to see…charging for the server software. Just include it with every retail copy of the game. Charging an extra fee is just going to turn people off and if it’s a low fee for a server…it’s honestly not worth it.

Also, be fair with expansion pack pricing. $19-$25 is probably fair in my world. Offer enough new content per expansion pack and don’t make users wait too long for new content (6 months-1 year). Make sure your releases have enough content to last to the next release.

These are just three of my initial thoughts on getting this “sub-genre” going. Maybe we can call it PHORPG (Player Hosted Online Role-Playing Game). I know a break from the current pricing model for MMORPGs would be welcomed by the gaming community and giving players more control of the worlds that they inhabit, might be just what gamers and guilds are looking for!

If anyone has a boatload of money they would like to invest into this type of game, I would be happy to take the money and get to work on it.