First of all, your question "Why have Massively Multiplayer games?" deserves to be addressed. Why have freeways, roads? Because we can Seriously... if you don''t want to play these types of games, you don''t have to (period). Noone is forcing you to play them (if you are) and noone is going to make you play them (if you are not).

Your second question (marked 1.) is somewhat confusing. 50,000 players in one game can/will have a massive impact on game play. No game comes close to that now, but I suspect that within a few years there will be. How does this make the experience greater for the players? One though I have on that is this example.
I had been playing UO for about 14 months, my character was well established and I had a guild of players that I played with nightly. I met a friend who lived near me. We started talking and the subject of UO popped up. He had been playing for a few months too, but on a different server. If either of us wanted to play with the other we would have to change servers and start over.... A larger base of players in a server ''might'' reduce this kind of thing. How does that increase the experience? Playing with real friends, people that you know.
As for the voice recognition... I dont think that that has anything to do with MMORPGs. Although in the future, you may be able to just talk to other players using some sort of streaming technology. But voice recognition plays no role in MMORPGs currently (EQ has tried to implement it for the UI, and failed).

I don''t think there really is an objective in these types of games. What I mean is that these games are so wide open that there really isn''t a supreme objective. There are quest to complete but for the most part they are single player quest. I''m not sure if this is a valid question but... have you played an MMORPG before????

--------
I''ve read another of your post where you say:

quote:
Also I''ve not often heard of a bunch of experienced (read GOOD) players taking one total newbie stranger into their group. Not that it hasn''t ever happened, just that it isn''t real common. People who play a lot tend to try to stick together, because they know that they are all experienced and can do well.

While I was playing UO, my quild ( there were 6 founding members, I was one) started a subsidary guild. It''s express purpose was to train new players and get them far enough in the game so that they could come into the parent guild. How did we train them? Well we set up a mentoring system, a guild member would sponsor the new player, they were responsible for making sure the player had the type of personality, and same ideals that we had. They were allowed to go on hunts with us and do pretty much everything with us. We did this for about a year and we started doing it about a year and half after we formed our guild... so what you had was some real experienced players, teaching new players how to play. And as Simagery stated PKs were rampant on UO (right about this time) which made being in a group much more appealing than being a loner

Now, for other types of games (Non-RPG). I think the sky is the limit... what can/will be done in the next few years with MMPOGs (Massively Multi-Player Online Games). And there are going to be developers that design soley for Online. Having said that, I think that the market for single player games is going to still be there, in fact, hard core gamers want both.

I for one still enjoy single player games as much as MMPOGs.


Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

Check Out: GreatShot.com

quote: Original post by Shelrem
(snip)
I am both a punk and a teenager, and that does NOT mean that i am a bad influence on the game world. I do not appriciate the prejudices expressed here to "keep out the teenagers" and keep these games "adults only." "25+." How would it sound if we were talking about "whites only," or "keep out those troublesome colored people?" How about "I''ve never met a woman who was abusing other players, so we should keep out the men?" What you have to realize is that young people have exactly the same control over their situation as all the above mentioned groups, and it is UNACCEPTABLE to lump them all together because there is a higher rate of "bad" behaviour from their statistical group.

That having been said, i will attest that from the huge amount of time i spent playing one MMORPG, yes, these players who got their entertainment from annoying and harassing other players were more often than not in this age group, although CERTAINLY not exclusively, but that does not give anyone the right to make a value judgement on the age group as a whole. Again, just because in the US, more crimes (at least ones that are caught) are comitted by african-americans does not give ANYONE the right to make a value judgement on everyone of african decent!
(snip)

Your right Shelrem, when something bad happens most peoples first response (reflex?) is to blame somebody. I''ve posted on this before (see some of my other rants about imaginary lines etc...).

The problem wasn''t that young people were doing it... the problem was that there were no real rules or deterents to this type of behavior. Society would be just as bad if we had such limited rules (I''ve also ranted on politicians relaxing these rules, but I''ll stay off of that).

The next "big thing" in MMORPGs will be a system of laws that deters people from commiting murders. When someone does, they will be punished. PKing will not vaninsh from MMORPGs in fact I think it is an important element in these types of games. Running around killing other monsters is all fun and games, but when your out and another player (non-AI) is hunting you... it adds another element to the game.

I envision possies hunting down murderers And we all know that when a possie killed a murderer... no harm was done

One thing that I have suggested is players becoming monsters when the murder, you can read about it here and
here

Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

Check Out: GreatShot.com

why make a MMOG? one word: money.

quote: why make a MMOG? one word: money. - Stalax

- Yea, but whose money? Players'' or venture capitalists''? MMOLG''s are going to need considerable online resources to operate (especially if the game won''t work at all offline), and I smell another "new economy" myth falling to pieces here: Company A publishes MMOG to lure people to its (costly to operate, but free to the players) game servers, to promote interest in - Company A''s next MMOG. Something tells me the $50 shrinkwrap price is not gonna cover both the cost of the CD and of players being on the server for 5000 hours a year. As far as I''ve heard, most pay-to-play game servers haven''t worked out real well. I haven''t heard of any making huge profits, but feel free to point out any that are. - Lubb

To answer Lubb''s most recent post: Ultima Online started turning a profit in late 1997 or early 1998, I believe. It makes money hand over fist and I haven''t heard that this income stream is drying up.

To respond to the question that started this topic: Massively multi-player is just another format. A few years ago, everyone and their dog was making a 3D first-person shooter. Now those same sheep (baaa...) are all making massively multi-player games...and if you protest the word "sheep", I point out that nearly every massively multiplayer game current under development is an RPG...sheesh. Talk about a rut...

In the end, it will be merely another "superset" of games, each with its own genre...MMPG RPGs, MMPG RTSs, MMPG parlor games, etc.

Just like the latest music style on the radio, the biggest new idea gets the hell played/developed out of it for a while. Then it becomes "pop" along with everything that came before it...

As for people spending all their lives online playing some game or the other...how is this different from people who used to spend 8-10 hours a day watching television? At least multi-player games involve *some* form of communication with another person. So, all in all, I would say it''s a step forward for modern man... ;-)

I find it annoying when people deride other people for "wasting their lives"...everyone''s different, everyone has different needs at different times in their lives. Realize that you enjoyed doing what you were doing at the time you were doing it. If you learned that you overdid, chalk it up as a character-building experience and move on. Trying to feel superior to the person who just fragged you in Quake by saying that you "have a life and can''t spend all day getting better at some stupid game" just makes you look whiney.



DavidRM
Samu Games

Allow me to be the first to applaud you. That was a very inspiring message. I am fully behind your wholesome reasoning. It is very true with the analogies that you drew. You should be a lawyer

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"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy"
IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production
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Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

I don''t agree with people spending 10 hours in front of the telly either, just so you know... but I don''t look down on people who do spend their lives hidden away from the real world. Whats the point? If they think it is more fun than real life, hey, go ahead, but you''re going to have to pay for that broadband internet some way or other. ( Now of course, they''ll come up with a "full time gamer" job description, and enter every competition where you can win money.. *sigh* )

The reason I posted, is because I''ve BEEN there, and I''ve been through the process of trying to kick the habit. I was seriously addicted to being online about 2-3 years ago, and I couldn''t imagine anything to be more fun. I was wrong, and I want to prevent, or at least warn, the people in this community from making more media to drag ordinary people away from their ordinary lives into a fantasy world.
I have seen too many lives destroyed by it. ( And no, I''m not being melodramatic, if you want to know, ask me privately ).


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~

quote: I find it annoying when people deride other people for "wasting their lives"...everyone''s different, everyone has different needs at different times in their lives. Realize that you enjoyed doing what you were doing at the time you were doing it. If you learned that you overdid, chalk it up as a character-building experience and move on. Trying to feel superior to the person who just fragged you in Quake by saying that you "have a life and can''t spend all day getting better at some stupid game" just makes you look whiney.



DavidRM
Samu Games

Amen.
Kressilac

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Derek Licciardi

VP Product Development
Check out www.greatshot.com

- Another analogy would be that you can go to a rock concert that draws 50,000 people, yet what most of those people say or do doesn''t affect you at all because you never get the chance to interact with them directly or anything they''ve done in any way. - Lubb