Wondering about Wonder? MMOs are not RPGs.

I was reading Syp’s blog about this and I decided i had too much to say and that I better just write a blog entry instead.

I think that in the reason we don’t experience any wonder in MMOs anymore is because its a numbers game. Its human nature to figure out numbers and to find what will get you a reward the most efficiently. There is no mystery to be had nor any thinking involved its a game of efficiency that rewards best use of number with better numbers and quite frankly that’s all we are trained to do in theses games. That’s all we can do because that feature by our nature takes precedence over all else. If it weren’t so we wouldn’t be living in this amazing modern world. That’s it plain and simple.

One way to get out of the numbers game is for a game to never show you numbers. It would be great! have all the gear and crafting etc but have no numerical value attached to them. Have no numbers flying over a mobs head. Because if there is numbers and a way to see it, it is also human nature to figure those numbers out and find whats most efficient. You can’t have it both ways. This is part of the reason why I at lest feel more immersed in single player games.

I think in old Pen and Paper games that modern MMOs are based on you can have those numbers both because they are needed for the game systems and die rolls to actually play. Where as on a PC you can hide all rolls and still play; but even more it’s that you are not asked to use your imagination in an MMO. MMOs present you with everything you need and no reason for your mind to create anything. You already see the landscape and your characters face on the screen and not in your mind’s eye. That’s great! But after an initial reveal coupled with the fact that everything is already created for you, your choices have zero impact on the world of other players what is there to draw you in? Quests I suppose but there goes the numbers again “Kill X wolves for 100xp and 2 silver coins”. This is not wondrous and ties into the numbers game. MMOs are not RPGs they are a numbers game. I recall with AoC they did a review of the gear and called it their “RPG system”.

role-play
   /ˈroʊlˌpleɪ/ Show Spelled[rohl-pley] Show IPA
–verb (used with object)
1.
to assume the attitudes, actions, and discourse of (another), especially in a make-believe situation in an effort to understand a differing point of view or social interaction: Management trainees were given a chance to role-play labor negotiators.
2.
to experiment with or experience (a situation or viewpoint) by playing a role: trainees role-playing management positions.

OK so now that we have a definition of Role Play we can ask; how the hell is upgrading gear and forever increasing skill numbers as a mean of character progression considered the role-playing? Yes traditionally RPGs have a means of progression and this is done with numbers but it wasn’t the sole point of the game. In MMOs you are not asked to make-believe anything, and you are certainly not asked to see another point of view, you in most cases aren’t even ask to interact socially anymore.

Imagine if you will sitting around a table with your friends playing AD&D talking and telling each other what you are doing and why in combat, speaking to NPCs as if you were that person to resolve situations, imagining the environment and how you can interact with it dynamically changing with every word your friends and your DM speak.

Now imagine the same scenario but if it were played like an MMO. Instead your DM holds up a picture of a grassy meadow with some wolves and a boy at the other side and you are told to kill X number of them to rescue the boy on the other side of this picture and that’s your only option to resolve the situation. (No descriptions are given no questions are asked no dilemmas to solve other that rolling a die to get a number.) You must kill the wolves to same the boy by whacking them over and over or you and all your friends might as well go home because that’s all your DM will let you do. You all then proceed to rolling dice for to hit and damage calculations without speaking and afterwords given loot and your XP to record on your character sheet.

Man that sounds boring restrictive and immersive; that’s what MMOS are.

The reason we all loved our first MMOs is no mystery. We were fresh to the technology and the systems involved. We still wondered at being able to interact with other people and kill wolves together online. We didn’t need any stimulation besides that because your first MMO at least for a bit has your imagination engaged by all this cool new stuff and technology etc. The newness was there; we had never killed a digital dragon before.

But the dragon after we first kill it ceases to become real because after that we aren’t amazed and we see it for what it really is. Its a just symbol for a dragon and we realize if we hit the number pad we have a skill that does damage maybe even a few of them with different graphics but all they really are, are numbers. We end up seeing that all we are doing is smashing a key for a random number generator to kill a symbol representing a dragon with no thought or care for it besides the fact that we get a few numbers on our character sheets.

Man that sounds boring restrictive and immersive; that’s what MMOS are.

If we were able remove the numbers from the game so we can no longer see them we make players have to ask questions and engage them at least a small bit more. Instead of killing those wolves for so much xp and a sword that does an extra 10 dps why are we killing them? To save the boy i guess, for all we know it gives no XP we cant see it! Why do i need this sword is it better than my other one? Maybe maybe not you have to try it out it’s a mystery; at least it might look cooler. If the numbers hid everything we would have to respond only to the way our characters in these games felt and looked with no regard to what gives XP or what does the best dps. That would add a sense of connection to the game again instead of seeing at numbers and pixellated symbols for objects that have yet another number values connected to them. It would force us at least a small bit more to make-believe and ask why we do things in a game and occupy our minds with stories and the environment.

It’s not a full solution but its a start. It sounds a little less boring and slightly more immersive; That’s where MMOs can go.

Take for instance playing a Mass Effect game. We do missions and we know there numbers and that doing things increases them but that isn’t the goal (at least not for me) I’m enjoying it for being in another world and seeing the story. If i could see the numbers and given lists of tasks to complete just to get those numbers in a repetitive fashion i think i wouldn’t care where I was I would be thinking that i needed to get the number because that’s what the point of the game was.

Anyhow by this point I’m rambling and you get the point…