Releasing an expansion has some plus points, aside from cynically milking even more money from the players. One of them is the opportunity to generate a load of publicity for free, which is probably why the devs release expansions as a whole rather than through regular game updates. For some of the more marginal MMOs, it's the only time they ever make the front (or second page) of any of the big games sites. It also allows the devs to make larger changes to the game mechanics that they wouldn't normally be able to do, and also to beta test the whole shebang so it works properly, so there are some plus points to go with the obvious negative points.
For the good of your sanity, don't work out how much it's cost you to play MMOs during your life. For me, the answer looks a bit like this.
Overall, though, they seem to encourage the wrong kind of thinking. There seems to be plenty of wrong thinking in the genre anyway, like the fact that development companies seem to think an MMO is finished on release day and reassign the vast majority of the dev team. Given that most companies will work on an offline game for a year or two and then sell it for £35, I don't see why a game that makes £35 out of its players every three months doesn't deserve a full-strength dev team (I can't see why it wouldn't be economically justifiable too).
More specifically, though, expansions always seem to entail a new continent appearing in the game world, with far more powerful creatures and amazing loot than the old world had to offer. The problem with this, in game terms, is that it leads to things being seriously disjointed. This is most obviously visible in EQ2, which is an utter train wreck in that particular respect, but WoW is starting to look much the same. These two examples will serve quite well, actually, because they've both fallen afoul of the same trap but done so in different ways.
EQ2 (unlike WoW) was a horrible game when it came out. The zone and quest design was atrocious, and while the standard has improved over time, the devs haven't gone back to improve the old zones - they've just released new ones. This leaves the game feeling very disjointed, with adjoining zones of similar level ranges often providing completely different levels of loot quality, quest experience and the toughness of mobs. In the older zones, my Shadowknight could easily solo a mob ten levels higher than him, whereas in the newest ones it's a genuine struggle to kill one a single level above. Similarly, the most recent starting zones have quest gear for levels 10-20 that's better than anything you'll find in the old world until after level 30.
To make matters even worse, to please the existing players, the expansions concentrate on the higher levels and the very earliest players, which means there's some excellent starting zones and some good high-end content, but then the middle-game is truly shocking. Geographically, too, it means that vast swathes of the game are completely abandoned. And leaving them in is stupid, really - it just makes the game overly bloated and, as well as being confusing for newbies, is a constant reminder about how crap the game used to be. I don't know about you, but that's not something I really want to be continually reminded of.
In World of Warcraft, the opposite has happened. World of Warcraft was an extremely polished game when it was released, with a great deal of truly superb zones in it. The second expansion is
coming out shortly (EQ2 will have pumped out five in the same period), and they probably provide better value than most MMO expansions do, so I really can't criticise Blizzard too much on that count. The problem with the way WoW's developed, though, is the fact that the new content is almost exclusively aimed at endgame. Raiders are generally the most vocal part of any community, so it's easy to be blinded by their views when devs try to talk to the community, but it's a mistake to concentrate soley on the raiders.
From what I hear, the zones that made up the original release WoW are essentially ghost towns now. With the Burning Crusade, the pre-60 levelling was dramatically sped up to rush people to max level more quickly. In WotLK, the Death Knight will be introduced, which can start at level 70, and that entirely cuts out any need to play any part of the game released before that expansion. This is a HUGE waste of the developer time spent on the pre-70 zones, and basically represents the fact that Blizzard has accepted that WoW has now reached critical mass and it is more important to keep hold of existing endgame players than to attract new players, since all the new content is so endgame-centric.
If you weren't playing WoW 3 years ago, you won't have seen this guy the way he was meant to be seen. And, sadly, you'l never have the chance.
It's a shame to think that all of the zones I played through when I was a WoW subscriber are now unused, even the big raid zones like Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, which can now be 5-10 manned. It does make me wonder whether raising the level cap is worth it, at the end of the day. Instead of this continual drive toward more loot and higher levels, I'd like to paint a picture of a different type of expansion. Admittedly, it's not ideally suited to WoW as that's a game where people are rushing to the endgame with more intensity than in any other MMO I've seen, so the 'journey' there is less than in other MMOs.
I'm a big fan of cohesiveness in MMOs. I don't think changing the world too much is a great idea. I think adding lots of new zones is a great idea, but I don't like the idea of separate new continents appearing in expansions. At least, not on their own. I think a lot of the new zones need to be mixed into the old world continents, to keep those areas busy. That means that new players will be able to enjoy them because there'll be other players there too. Devs need to get out of the mindset that because experienced players have played through all the lowbie zones, that part of the game is dead. New players coming into the game for the first time will find them just as engaging as older players did when they first played through them, so there's no point getting rid of a useful resource.
Instead, the expansion needs to add a new zone for every level range, thereby improving the experience for new players but also encouraging existing players to level another character up to endgame to experience all the new content. This also helps to keep the newbie zones busy. The second thing to keep the game fresh for newbies is to AVOID SCREWING UP THE ITEM PROGRESSION. Don't just create a new starting zone with uber quest rewards, because there's no point to that except unbalancing the game. By all means add new items, but they should be of similar quality to those of equal level already existing in the game world. You don't need to lure people into new zones with great items, they'll go there anyway just to experience the content. All in all, equal attention needs to be paid to the early to mid-game as to the endgame itself if the game wants to continue to attract new players and not become ridiculously top-heavy like WoW.
As far as endgame goes, raising the level cap is a poor idea. Why? Because it makes zones obsolete in a way that renders them even less useful than dated early/mid-game zones. Why? Dated newbie zones, for example, still provide some experience and entertainment. Obsolete dungeons and raid zones don't even do that, as they are designed to provide good loot and a challenge to keep endgame players occupied. As soon as the level range goes up, all the loot becomes completely worthless as there's now a whole tier of items above it, and the challenge becomes obsolete as the increased level cap makes the challenge laughable. So formerly great zones and loot become completely worthless and forgotten, which is not only sad but a tremendous waste of existing resources (so very, very bad management).
Instead, add more horizontal progression. After Molten Core came Blackwing Lair, for example. The level cap didn't go up, but the gear from MC allowed guilds to sink their teeth into BWL. Now, the argument against this is simply that raiding guilds who started later than other guilds can never really catch those ahead of them without a level cap increase (which equalises everyone again), and that only the elite players ever see the newest content. But again, that's a silly argument. If you're not one of the elite you won't be seeing the NEWEST content, but as you progress up the hierarchy of raid zones you'll still be seeing new content you've not played through before.
At the end of the day, though, giving the raiders endlessly more zones to grind through is somewhat missing the point. An MMO won't last forever, and eventually you have to realise you've done the vast majority of what's available and simply move on from it. New players coming in to experience all the content for the first time will replace them, and so it's far healthier for a game to devote equal attention to all level ranges in the game (albeit with a slight emphasis on the endgame). That way, it'll ensure a newbie friendly, well-balanced game where it actually will be worth creating a second character and levelling them, because you wouldn't be able to see all the content with one character.
And it'd create a memorable, large and above all unified world that would stick in your mind. Everquest 1 did it with its first three expansions, but that too fell foul of endlessly innovating and catering for its existing fanbase rather than trying to attract new ones. Just once, I'd like to see a MMO try and stick to its principles rather than its players.
1 comment:
Great article! Raising level cap isn't everything. In actuality, it's like the developer is telling the player that his/her previous hard work and accomplishments are nothing because that player has another ten levels to go. MMOs need to stop increasing level cap, they need to add new gameplay features instead. I like your idea of adding new contents in existing zones throughout all level range. It would create a much interesting low level - high level community interaction.
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