I’ve never gotten into the MMORPG thing, mostly because I haven’t got the time or money to indulge my want. But one thing has always been askew in the view I have of these games.
That thing is that they are too contrived. Let’s face it, paper and pencil RPGs were all about a thin veneer built over the combat system that had the added bonus of facilitating the adolescent escapist tendencies of it’s players. These games may or may not be the same, like I’ve said, I haven’t played any of them. In fact, I pretty much just play egomania games – first person shooters, build your empire games, and the Sims. Oh, sure, I started out on Zork and Cosmic Osmo, but the veiled mystery game is a lot like a monster movie – some are good but most are bad. Egomania games, on the other hand, are all pretty basic, which means that there isn’t much difference between the best and the worst. In other words, game design isn’t as important – just give me the guns and count up the hit points and let me go, no veneer required.
And that is the point of this little though – game design (making the veneer) is so very important to the story driven game and the setting driven game – TSR was very good at the veneer, and they made a lot more off of the settings and contrivances then they did off of the game engines. I’d guess that the ‘world builders’ of these MMORPGs are the egomaniacs of the bunch, but if all that work is done when I buy the game, then what can I do? It’s like being late to the party.
Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash had a terrific model – the virtual world was smooth, empty, and dark. Some people had access to the guts of it, and everyone had to construct not only their avatar, but the setting itself. If someone were to make a game like that, with boundaries an order of magnitude greater than ‘conventional’ RPGs, so that I could focus my effort into getting little gnomes to clean up the parts of my vanquished foes and sweep them into trapdoors in the floor of the club, for example, that might get me to make some time to play.
A gamescape that morphed or evolved based on the actions of the players – like Black & White or Knights of the Old Republic II, would be interesting as well. “Wow, that mountain seems a lot higher today than yesterday.” or “Gosh this neighborhood seems to be decaying right in front of my eyes.”