make players sit through some of their routes

I can see why the game designers might want to make players sit through some of their routes. They can, after all, be scenic views of some of the games finest panoramic displays, especially if the mount is avian. The first time I traveled from the Moonglade to Darnassus I thoroughly enjoyed the gryphon soaring over the tall mountain ranges and then plunging down to skim across the sea. But by the tenth trip, I was alt-tabbing to check e-mail till I got there. If that is the devs' intent, then make us sit through the first trip, but after that give the option of cutting it short and just jump us to our destination.

The final major travel technique is gained through class skills such as the WoW mage's ability to portal themselves and others to major cities and the LOTRO hunter's skill that allows them to instantly jump to various towns and settlements. Is there some reason only a few character classes are worthy of having their time saved? Half the reason I enjoyed playing a hunter in LOTRO was the massive amount of tedium I skipped. This may be some twisted technique to encourage players to group together. If that's the case, though, why can mages and hunters do it on their own? Also, why not parcel it out so that mages can portal to some places, rogues to others, and hunters to still others? That would be more fair. Or better yet, find other ways to encourage grouping and treat all players like their time is important.

One of the greatest perks of MMO games are the massive worlds they offer for gamers to play in. But when it takes so much time to get anywhere, the game can become frustrating. Not everyone has six hours to devote in one sitting to play. If I'm picking up a book or alt-tabbing to web surf or check e-mail instead of playing the game then there is something wrong with the dynamics. The fixes are simple and yet if we are growing closer, it is at a snail's crawl.

We are now in our third installment on the discussion of the effects of victory in gaming. In the first article, we investigated how player victories yield tangible results for the gamer, but have negligible impact on the organization that actually gave the task in the first place. Last time, we reviewed player defeat, the gradually diminishing impact of character death, and how player failure has no impact on the factions they represent. This week it's time to turn the tables and look at victory and defeat from the PvE opponent's perspective.

Like players, monsters have levels, skills, and often classes. Unlike players, they tend to be sedentary. If they move, it tends to be very local and random, or along a predesignated route. They are blissfully ignorant when players are beyond a specific aggro range, often completely unaware of their compatriots being slaughtered one by one a short distance away. Without an incredible leapt forward in AI, we cannot expect their behavior to markedly improve. If it did improve, monster density, respawn rates, and a host of other issues would have to be revisited as well.

Because the nature of current MMOs is very little removed from single-player games, i.e. a gamer goes to a particular area for an assigned quest (or quests), slaughters the appropriate monsters, recovers the needed items, and leaves (often never to return), the ability of games to impart lasting effects for monsters in their triumph or defeat is difficult. In essence, there is a stream of characters performing the same quests in similar sequence, occasionally being defeated, but generally trouncing the poor abused monsters over and over again, sometimes individually and sometimes in groups. The environment gives some perception of worldliness given its size and population, but it is a stagnant world. Because this is the standard template, any long term effect would destabilize the whole system. If, by the Clausewitzian model, monsters who are repeatedly defeated become gradually less and less combat effective, then later players would have no challenge in completing the same quest. On the other hand, difficult quests where the monsters were victorious over and over would render the creatures so powerful that quest completion would require skills far beyond the character level expected to perform the quest.

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8:26 AM - 29/12/2008