MMO Weekly: Virtual Worlds and Their Impact on MMOs

20 Jul 2010 at 13:41:54 by Jeff Hollis

Hello there, fellow gamers, and welcome to this week's edition of MMO Weekly.  In this week's installment, we'll explore a rather curious cousin to the MMO, one that often causes confusion in the mind of the typical gamer.  Of course, I'm referring  the virtual world. 

You may find yourself wondering, “What's the difference?”  You are not alone.  Most gamers, even MMO veterans, consider MMOs and virtual worlds to be virtually synonymous terms.  However, there are important differences, and these will probably have a big impact the future of the the MMO genre.   

An MMO is, at its heart, an online version of the early tabletop RPG, Dungeons and Dragons. You pick a race, pick a class, go clear out an instance, and level up.  Each level makes you significantly more powerful.  As you gain levels, you are also picking your talents from the talent tree(s), thus customizing your character to suit your particular play style.  Along the way, you gear up your toon with a +5 sword of nasty lacerating, a +2 helmet of thick headedness, and some very fashionable boots of speed.  Even after you hit the level cap, you keep on questing.  At the endgame, you are on the treadmill, always seeking to get one more slightly better piece of gear.

A virtual world is, in appearance, very much like an MMO.  You log into the game, you design your avatar, and then you head out of the starter zone to have some fun.  This is where the differences lie.  A virtual world is actually substantially different from an MMO in a number of ways.  Although the below list contains generalities, the variants are few and not particularly meaningful.

• A virtual world has no levels.  You'll never reach the level cap, because there isn't one. 
• A virtual world has no concept of “gear progression”.  Although this varies, for the most part your gear is simply a fashion statement with no stats on it.
• Your character will generally differ from every other character in the game only in appearance.  In other words, your avatar might be an ogre, but you won't be any stronger or tougher than your sister, who plays a cute little penguin. 
• There might be a talent tree in the game, so you can customize some of your abilities.  Generally though, this isn't the case.
• Most gear that can be obtained in the game is available to everyone. 
• There are few instances or combat zones.
• There may be missions or quests.
• There are lots of mini games.

So let's consider a couple of examples of virtual worlds.  First up:  Second Life.

Second Life is odd, because Second Life is a very early version of a virtual world.  Second Life is also odd, simply because it's Second Life.  SL is one weird 'game'.

Except that it's not actually a game.  You don't do anything in SL  You don't log in, look at your quest log, and head out to kill 10 gnarly myrmidons.  No, you log in, and then...well, you basically just hang out.  You might fly (every character can fly) over to visit the new island set up by the Obama administration, or you might take a look at the new art gallery set up by an acclaimed real world artist.  Or you might dress up as a gigantic phallus and go protest BP.  (Yes, Second Life is that weird.)

In complete contrast to SL, the vast majority of virtual worlds are often called “kids MMOs”.  These online worlds are designed for the 9-14 year olds, and they feature activities that the juvenile demographic will enjoy.  For example, characters can be dressed any way the players like, have cool pets, and have fun, unusual gear.  However, the primary activities include decorating your house, and playing mini games (soccer, racing, and various platformers) of various kinds.  In essence, these virtual worlds are gigantic chat rooms, with lots of side activities to keep everyone happy.

Some of these child-oriented MMOs incorporate *some* of the qualites of true MMOs.  Free Realms, for example, allows players to go on adventures and slay monsters.  However, the playing field remains very flat, in that no character can become significantly more powerful than another.  Fusion Fall, another pre-teen virtual world, allows players to collect pets which help them fight.  The locating and equipping of a powerful pet does, in this case, help a character become a bit more powerful than his or her friends.  However, this is a really understated effect.  The overall emphasis of these child-oriented virtual worlds is on hanging out, having fun, chatting with your friends, and purchasing small items via microtransactions.  Quite frankly, almost all virtual worlds survive by microtransactions.

The reason I'm discussing the whole “virtual worlds” concept today is because they may soon impact the design of future MMOs.  This is particularly true in that virtual world characters are much more normalized; they're skills and abilities are significantly “flatter” than those in traditional MMOs.  A level 80 player in WoW may have tens of thousands of hit points more than a level 1 player, will have far superior gear, and many, many more abilities. A level 1 player and a level 80 player cannot possibly adventure together.  In a virtual world, a very experienced character may have unlocked more talents than a new player, and he might have a few more powerful items, but the two will still be relative equals.  Because it has a lot of advantages, this “flatter” style, one copied from virtual worlds, may be the wave of the future. 

Consider the  advantages of keeping player abilities, as well as the gear they can acquire, within predetermined parameters. First, almost everyone will be able to play together.  No longer will level 80 players have to wait months to play with a friend who just got the game. They can adventure together almost right away.  Further, consider the advantage from a design perspective:  every instance is end-game content.  Designers never have to design zones, maps, or dungeons for low, middle, and high-level characters.  Just consider this from a player's perspective for a moment.  For one, you'll never have to grind out another alt to get them up to the level cap again.  What's more, at every turn, all of the energy of the design team will be focused on designing and improving the game for you. Not for end-game raiders, not for noobs, but for players of every level.

I do not think that MMO designers will suddenly abandon the concepts found in contemporary MMOs, and suddenly design games that are radically flatter and more normalized.  However, I do see this as a trend that may soon be upon us, at least in fits and starts.  Flatter characters have been the hallmark of virtual worlds for years now, and flatter characters have proven to be fun in online games.  What's more, a flatter design saves on development costs.  The key factor is whether MMO developers can design characters, within pre-determined parameters, that are as much fun to play as the current batch of geared up, level 80, super-powered characters are today. 

On that curious bit of speculation and prognostication, my fellow game geeks, we bring this week's edition of MMO Weekly to a close.  If you enjoyed our little foray into all things MMOish, feel free to join us over at Coolorama.com, where we probe the soft underbelly of virtual gaming (and a lot of other geeky things) every day.  For now, ciao!

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