It’s funny to be 33 years of age and starting to feel really old in the MMORPG community. Sitting below me are at least one, and probably two, new generations of gamers, all with their own ideas on what makes for a good MMORPG – and all of these ideas are wildly different to my own.
This is causing a serious disconnect in the industry as games developers, to my mind, try and chase the future and what they think “the kids” want to do in the year(s) ahead. And, in doing so, they are neglecting the game mechanics that my generation still believes would be the best underpinning for MMORPGs in the future.
OK, so it’s a lot more complex than this but, to paint it in broad brushstrokes, games developers are looking at the generation below mine which seems to think that an MMO: allows you to be the hero; allows you to level fast; shouldn’t be a “quest grind”; and is essentially about reaching a level cap and end-game content comprising raids and PvP, preferably for unique loot to deck out their characters. Because that’s an MMORPG, right? Not to my mind.
My generation, I feel, is more about: you don’t need to be “the” hero; you don’t need to have levels, but rather, skills that you can advance through use; and an end-game that is less about raids and PvP and more about continuing the journey, particularly via the use of sandbox tools and an imagination. And do you know WHY I think this is?
It’s really simple when you think about it. You see, my generation remembers a time when PCs and consoles WEREN’T in everyone’s home and, shock horror, we used to make our own fun with anything from action figures through to actual pen and paper RPGs, sitting around a table with our friends and families, socialising.
That’s why I feel the generation below me tends to treat MMORPGs like games that exist to be defeated, whereas my generation (and those older, too), wants to treat MMORPGs like virtual worlds that we are actually living in, where our level progression, loot, ability to raid, etc, is secondary to community and story and “being there”.
What do you think? Am I over-simplifying things too much? Or is there something to this? And, if there is, will we ever see a developer come up with a great concept and then stand tall and have the balls to say, “You know what? Our game isn’t about levelling and raiding and PvP… it’s about getting back to the roots of what an RPG is…”?
I hope so. But I’m not holding my breath, either.
[...] gap is forming among MMORPG players. I’ve tried to squeeze this into a user-friendly post and tossed it online at MMOCrunch. Have a read. Whaddaya think? … my generation remembers a time when PCs and consoles [...]
July 24th, 2008 at 8:36 pmQuote
Awesome post. I think that there is definately a generation gap when it comes to MMOs. Even though I’m only 20 my thoughts and feelings fall more in line with the older generation, where I feel that it isn’t necessary to be the hero in a story, just a common joe living in the universe is fine with me. My favorite character from any game that I’ve played is my Master Architect from SWG. He wasn’t out fighting for glory, he was out gathering resources and making goods for other players.
I know most of my friends that I play MMOs with are all about leveling quick and getting straight to the end-game raiding. Heck, they’ve even gone as far as saying that MMOs aren’t for me when I leave a game like Age of Conan because all it is is leveling and raiding with really no social interactions and a lack of a good crafting system. They may be right in the sense that the current generation isn’t right for me as I look back at games like SWG and UO as being great games for allowing the sandbox style of gaming.
I say developers should focus on making a spectacular well thought out universe with some good storylines for the players to live in and don’t necessarily have to be the hero.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pmQuote
I agree with you completely.
The way I’ve began to view it is that there are really two crowds. Those who want an mmoRPG and those who want and MMO(with or without the rpg). And the dividing line between those two crowds does seem to fall on the age gap as well. Those of us that played RPGs, when they weren’t MMOs, want that same RPG aspect brought into our MMOs so that we can share that experience with our friends whether they are at the same table as us or across the world. But the “kids” that grew up on fast paced multiplayer games where victory was determined in short rounds, and dominance was won or lost every few minutes, they seem to not care a squat about character advancement unless it increases their chances of “winning”.
Well written, and spot on if’n ya ask me.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:21 pmQuote
I’m not sure there isn’t an evolution of gamer development going on here. Certainly certain games tend to appeal to different age gamers. EvE Online for example tends to attract an older audience. WoW on average a younger one initial (Barrens chat anyone?) then it ages slightly as you get to the serious raiding groups.
The only generational issue I really see is MMOs as an entertainment medium. Certainly amongst people my age and older a lot of people who don’t game treat MMO players as social outcasts from “normal society”. It’s a bit of the old “don’t want my kids listening to rock and roll music” attitude back in the 50′s. A lot of them are uncomfortable with the cross generation effect that MMOs tend to have.
I find it highly amusing that whenever studies look at the number of hours Gamers spend online they don’t look at the number of hours these people spend watching Television, a much more passive medium.
But I can distinctly remember stages back in the day when the “beat the game” attitude was prevalent. Remember when the first videos came out showing how to beat Doom in under 20 minutes? I think what you’re feeling is more of a gradual “well I’ve beaten other games, and it was kinda hollow feeling afterward, maybe this time I’ll stop and smell the pixels as I go”. This type of attitude comes with general maturity (as a gamer) and is probably not a generational thing per see.
Besides as a community we have yet to truly delve into all that MMOs as a genre have to offer. Just look at EvE online and the way a lot of it’s features differ from the “traditional” MMO and you can see there’s probably TONS of possibilities that have not even been explored yet.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:24 pmQuote
Totally agree with you. I’m 37 and been playing MMOs since EQ1. I never even reach level cap in that game even though I played it every day. The reason I quit WoW is there is little to do at top level other than raid or PVP. I actually want to have a life and regular raiding is impossible now. I’m looking for a game where the journey doesn’t end once you are level 80.
Tried EVE, but I’m a fantasy freak. So we we need EVE with Dragons!
July 25th, 2008 at 3:17 amQuote
world where you can live in..
I remember standing in our swg guild cantina, just chatting with other guildies around, doing some 1on1s, defending our city/base and just having a great time without the feeling that I HAVE to raid, have to grind to advance etc..
July 25th, 2008 at 5:14 amQuote
Well, kudos to the writing, but I’m afraid I’m the polar opposite of you and the majority of those who post on the bioware forums. It sounds, to me anyway, that most of you want SWG2, and sadly, for you guys anyway, that is not what bioware is developing. So far from what we know lets take a look at what SWG and this new bioware game have in common. 1) It’s set in the SW universe. 2) It’s an MMO ….. That’s it, but that is neither here nor there though, the point is I, myself, am a bit shy of a decade younger than you, so you and I have seen MMORPGs develop the same. As for pen and paper I played quite a bit of D&D in my younger years. That being said I’m tired of grinding. Killing a million different monsters in 16 different worlds to get to potentially the same point to stand around loitering to say “look how cool I am” is outright boring now. Bioware is about story driven games, and I think this is going to be the first online experience in MMO history where you feel like you’re a part of something more. I think when this game launches all the original SWG players ( I was one myself, and yes the community in there was great, but the game itself wasn’t that impressive) will play for a month, realize its the polar opposite of it, quit, and sit around for the next 10 years waiting for SOE to pick up the ball and make SWG2.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pmQuote
This is an interesting analysis, and thanks for taking the time to articulate it for us. I’d have to basically agree with you, though I’ll share where my opinion differs from yours.
Like you, I am not in the up-and-coming generation of MMO players. I’m in my late 30′s, and thrive on pencil and paper games. I wanted the MMO to be the natural extension of the gaming table into the virtual world. MMO’s, in my mind, would have been about players grouping and working together to defeat the evils programmed into the worlds, to experience the storyline, to develop their characters, to customize, discover, and adventure.
My first experience of being PK’ed in Ultima Online was a real wake-up call for me. While PvP seemed some kind of great fun for some players, I never connected enjoyment with pitting my skill and character against theirs. That, to me, was the biggest generation gap I had to face.
Sure, games like Doom and Duke Nuke’em allowed the ever-popular “deathmatch”, and from time to time a jaunt onto a network server with friends to waste a few hours of mindless fun blowing each other away was good therapy. But an MMO designed with this feature seemed alien to me, and I think for crowds of my age-group (there are of course exceptions) not worth the code they are written in.
While I agree that our generation, for the most part, looks for an MMO to allow them freedom to develop their characters and story, I disagree that they do not have a primary interest in being a hero. PnP games are all about being a hero, in your party’s own special way. PnP games are ego-centric, and customized around the players’ desires to live out the roles of heroes adventuring in fantastic worlds, playing their versions of heroes like Aragorn, Obi-wan Kenobi, or Indiana Jones.
In the MMO world, there is still that desire, but these games are very poor about making the effects “ego-centric”. Defeat a named mob and it just respawns. Find a special weapon as a result of a quest, and discover so have every other player on your server. Finish a quest to alter a story arc, and the NPC is back again asking for the same help.
This is where I agree with sandbox tools, so players can create their own enduring stories, provide their own monsters, and even spawn their own loot. Clearly these things require the utmost of care to balance, lest the seedier side of the player base take advantage of it and exploit it for one of many reasons.
Younger players seem more concerned with proving themselves against their peers. They wish to finish a quest-arc first. Be the first to the level cap. Have the best equipment. Win the most battles. Fight everybody they come across to prove their superiority. It is almost a rite of passage. Guilds form to carve out their territory and declare themselves the biggest and the baddest. And then inevitably lock horns with other youngsters trying to do the same.
And there, to me, is the difference. Younger players seem obsessed with measuring themselves against other players. Older players are more interested in measuring themselves against their own objectives, and possibly the game story itself.
And of course, this is generalizations. Clearly you can find players in each group that don’t fit my mold of them.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pmQuote
The players haven’t changed. The technology, economics, and developer philosophies have changed.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:18 pmQuote
I agree with the article completely. MMOs have lost something over the years. Damn ipod generation….
July 25th, 2008 at 4:26 pmQuote
I was moved to comment on your article. I wrote an article in response, with quotes of this one. I agree there is a gender gap in what younger players like. I just disagree somewhat on why!
July 28th, 2008 at 2:07 pmhttp://www.morninglark.com/older-players-in-mmorpgs-clashing-with-younger.html#more-80
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I am 36 years of age. Been playing since UO but EQ1 was my first real MMO passion. Been playing WoW a lot these last few years. Lemme tell yall something. Try EQ2. It is as close as we are gonna get to something like the OP described. At least for now. I have now switched to it and am very much enjoying myself.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pmQuote