Here is my little survey about MMORPG''s 1.What is your favorite aspect? a. Improving your character b. Finding items c. Killing other players d. Doing quests e. Exploring 2.When you die, what is your prefered method of reincarnation? a. Start in your "home" village b. Start the same "zone" you died in c. Start in the same starting spot as all players d. Come back as a ghost, must do something to be reincarnated e. Become the son/daughter of the dead character f. No reincarnation, you die, you make a new character 3.What would be your prefered penalty for dying? a. No penalty, keep everything b. Lose some items c. Lose some experience d. Lose all items e. Lose some items and some experience f. Lose sll items and some experience g. Same as #2, when you die, you die. 4.Which size world do you prefer? a. Fairly small, lots to do b. Medium size, some wandering, some interaction c. Large world to explore, with possible long periods of bordom in the wilderness 5.What do you think about logging out? a. Log out and save anytime b. Have to be in a certain place to log out c. Never log out, your character becomes ai while you are off (tries to stay alive and sleep as soon as possible) 6.How about eating? a. Important, should be realistic b. Not too much eating, mostly automatic c. Should never have to eat 7.Player-killing? a. No player killing at all b. PK players may only fight other PK players c. All PK with safe zones d. All PK period 8.Quests: a. I hardly ever do quests, they are pointless b. I like to do quests when I get bored c. Quests are the whole reason I play 9.Type of world a.Fantasy b.Modern c.Historical d.Futuristic e.Other (what?) 10.Setting? a.Space b.Earth c.Other planet d.Other (what?) 11.Any other issues with these kind of games:

a
f
g
c
a
a
d, as long as there are consequences
b
a (Yes, I know, not exactly original)
c


~~~~~~~~~~
Martee

1. c, e
2. f
3. g
4. c, without boredom (boredom reflects bad design)
5. a
6. b
7. d
8. d - none of the above. mandatory quests are a relic and should be abolished. I should be able to choose to do quests if I feel like doing them - whether or not I''m bored.
9. d. The rest have been overdone while futuristic has been done almost always with a fantasy eye.
10. d - it doesn''t matter. multiple locations. no location at all (a void). just make it worthwhile.

11. Categorization, which your survey has shown. Why does everything need to fit neatly into categories? Why don''t developers/designers just do what they want to and buck convention (I know, I know; publishers, money, etc - it was a rhetorical question). Why must a game have a location? Why not a bunch of locations, including somewhere that is actually nowhere? Why must large game worlds include boredom? (MMO)RPG designers, take this survey and make good use of it. Change the game.


People who can''t do shit, talk.
-Dwight Yorke, Manchester United

1.What is your favorite aspect?
none, I prefer decorating my house and character (buy buying new clothing), socializing with other players, making in-game items to sell to other players, and solving puzzles.
2.When you die, what is your prefered method of reincarnation?
I prefer not to die. If I'm tired of my character I'll make a new one.

3.What would be your prefered penalty for dying?
a

4.Which size world do you prefer?
b these should be arranged so that it is possible to entirely avoid wildernedd if you want to, or head right to a big patch of wilderness when you feel like exploring.

5.What do you think about logging out?
a

6.How about eating?
b

7.Player-killing?
b.

8.Quests:
b., but I prefer if the quest involves solving puzzles.


9.Type of world
e.Other Either completely alien, with a deep and interesting culture all its own, or so far in the future people have mastered matter duplication and are immortal and have lots of bodysculpting.

10.Setting?
c.

11.Any other issues with these kind of games:
I like to be able to create art like character clothing or house furnishings, import it into the game, and sell it at my shop.

I hate monster-killing as a basis for advancement.


Edited by - sunandshadow on July 16, 2001 11:39:08 PM

1. E and interacting with other players. I play a lot of games for the social element.

2. None of the above. Spawn at last save. Ties in with 3.

3. None. I''ve been considering another approach to this. You have three different levels of saves. All performed at a shrine or whatever fits with your world. And all of them cost money. One would just save your stats. No items. You respawn at the shrine. Two would aid you in finding your way back to your corpse to reclaim your items. Respawn at shrine. The last, and most expensive, would have you come back right where you died with everything still there.

4. C. I agree that boredom is a sign of bad design.

5. See 3. You must camp or something in order to logout.

6. B.

7. D with consequinces. Bounties, AI cops and player cops, etc.

8. B.

9. A. Sorry. Never enjoyed futuristic or historical.

10. Pick one. Any could be fun if done well. That''s what I''m after: Fun.

11. Yeah, they''re MMOQuake. Not many options except kill-the-NPC or kill-the-goblin. I''d like to see a system where advancement doesn''t depend on murder.

I would also like to see the traditional levels abolished. I think I''m gonna'' write a seperate topic about this.

A more player centric combat system. I think a system like the one used in Oni would be nice.

Sorry but the survey isn''t very good =) Doesn''t allow for innovation..

1.What is your favorite aspect?
d. Doing quests
If I had to pick. My favorite aspect is actually social interaction and roleplaying. The quests fits best because roleplaying well with other people/guilds seems like a quest even if it''s player-created. Game fiction and whatnot is also very important to me.

2.When you die, what is your prefered method of reincarnation?
None of those you listed. I haven''t seen a death model I''ve liked but the most tolerable would be UO''s where you''re a ghost. I have a system in my head which I like but that''s another post =p

3.What would be your prefered penalty for dying?
Same as above. First of all my ideal RPG has no ''experience'' and I don''t like automatically losing items. Again, most tolerable would be UO''s system where all items remain on corpse but may be looted.

4.Which size world do you prefer?
c. Large world to explore, with possible long periods of bordom in the wilderness
It''s up to the designer to make travelling in the wilderness exciting. My choice would be "Large world, exciting wilderness, long travel time between cities" to be VERY brief. The wilderness should be just as dangerous and exciting as any dungeon but again, another post..

5.What do you think about logging out?
b. Have to be in a certain place to log out
Inn, house, tavern, ground around a campfire. Not too limiting to make it much of a hassle but just enough to balance it so you can''t log out to avoid danger.

6.How about eating?
c. Should never have to eat
Not to survive but eating should be an option just as a form of social interaction.

7.Player-killing?
a. No player killing at all
Yet another question with no answers I like =p My ideal world encourages PvP but not PKing. Understand? Well, all battles even with monsters are rarely lethal. Fights will usually be until someone is knocked out, even with monsters. Eliminating PKing but allowing PvP. There are also certain rules I won''t go into detail here..

8.Quests:
c. Quests are the whole reason I play
Well, a large portion. Game ficiton is important and even quests that aren''t related to anything are really fun but nothing beats a quest organized and beaten by fellow players.

9.Type of world
a.Fantasy
b.Modern
c.Historical
d.Futuristic
e.Other (what?)
All of them! Whatever works I will play and enjoy if designed properly. The setting has little influence on me.

10.Setting?
a.Space
b.Earth
c.Other planet
d.Other (what?)
Same as above.

ugh that was me.

*eats his cookie*

Hey hey. It''s all coming out about how I thought it would. Kicking myself for leaving off social interaction on the first question, I was going to put it on there, but somehow it didn''t make it. I am slightly dissapointed in your answers to the eating question as it is quite important to my current design. My problem is that I need to devise a way to make eating enjoyable and have a real affect on the gameplay. I also like what someone said about player-vs-player without killing, which is also something I have been thinking about, although it doesn''t really fit my current design. Thanks for the help guys, and if anyone else wants to keep going, I''d appreciate it, although I will modify my survey to allow more flexibility.

1.What is your favorite part of playing a MMORPG?
2.How do you feel about eating in MMORPG''s? Are there any ways eating could be improved upon, made more interesting, while also making it more important?
3.If it were fairly easy to die, would you prefer to have some sort of reincarnation, or would you be happy to be forced to start over?
4.How important is the size of the world. It takes a lot of effort to make a large world that is exciting to play in. Is the size of the world a deciding factor in your decision to play, and continue to play, a particular game.
5.If you could only save after getting to a certain place, or accomplishing a certain task, would it be too obtrusive when you might have to play 2-3 hours in each play session?
7.In a game that is highly player-vs-player, a game in which some players must kill others to keep playing, should safe zones be allowed? What method of safety should "non-violent" players be granted. If any at all. Or would it be best to leave these players in the dust? Or is there another way this problem could be solved?
8.If there wasn''t a major reward for doing a quest, would you still attempt it for the fun of accomplishing something, maybe together with a group of friends, to be able to say, "Me and my group vanquished the evil foo" even with practically nothing to show for it?
9.If there were no quests at all, built-in anyway, but a system of gameplay that encouraged quest-like events occuring within real-life player interactions, would the lack of pre-built quests to attempt when boredom inevitably hits deter you from playing the game for an extended period of time?
10.If there is not much in the way of character improvement, if you can only increase certain skills somewhat, yet specializing in certain areas, but not able to keep racking up and racking up, would THAT deter you from playing the game?
11.Anything else?

I have more, but I think that''s enough for now.

10.Any other issues with these kind of games:

I don''t play any MMORPGs, but if I did...

1.What is your favorite aspect?
e. Exploring
and socialising.

2.When you die, what is your prefered method of reincarnation?
f. No reincarnation, you die, you make a new character
(note: the game has to be somewhat different to support this though)

3.What would be your prefered penalty for dying?
g. Same as #2, when you die, you die.

4.Which size world do you prefer?
c. Large world to explore, with possible long periods of bordom in the wilderness

5.What do you think about logging out?
a. Log out and save anytime

6.How about eating?
b. Not too much eating, mostly automatic

7.Player-killing?
a. No player killing at all
(actually, this should be ''no player killing, except for in very small redesignated PK areas, such as ''The Arena'')

8.Quests:
d. none of the above: would be nice to do more quests, not just when I''m bored, but they would never be the entire reason for playing.

9.Type of world
a.Fantasy

10.Setting?
c.Other planet

11.Any other issues with these kind of games:
It''s not just a game, it''s a community. Forget that, and your game is worthless.

Answers are to updated survey:

1) FAVORITE PART OF PLAYING MMORPG?
Creating a character. There''s none like me, I am me, me am I. PS Haven''t been able to do this yet, as there is just not enough freedom in character creation (usually a limited number of races, classes etc).

2) EATING?
I''ve never been much of a fan of eating. If other physical aspects of a ''human'' body haven''t been integrated into the design, why should digestion be included? To me, it''s usually mainly a hassle. I could do without. IF you make digestion a part of your strategy design though (don''t ask me how), that''s a different matter.

3) DEATH
If it''s easy to die, I think it''s best to have a player have an easy reincarnation (respawn).
If it''s hard to die, or the game is designed to give a real challenge (or force players to work together), permanent death becomes viable for me. And then there is everything in between.
To me, easy reincarnation (and easy death) comes with a low challenge, so it''s not my preferred way of playing MMORPG.

4) SIZE
IF the size of the world is large enough for me to know that no single person is ever going to be able to explore it all... then it becomes interesting. These days with internet spoiler sites, the world becomes fully explored in a matter of days. Now, I could just not visit those sites, but the mere knowledge that some characters in the virtual world know where everything is makes me not want to explore. I think the world should be truly big, with sites appearing and disappearing (following logic) so people can keep rediscovering the planet.

5) SAVING
I think players should be able to save anywhere, anytime. If you''re out in the wild, you''ll have a higher risk of logging in next time facing an attack by wild beasts. If you''re in an inn, you''ll have had a good night''s rest and will feel refreshed. If you CAN find a logical way of forcing players to save at waypoints only, that''ll work too. But you''ll have to balance the entire design to that. I usually played only 1 hour per session (pretty much 5 days a week) and wouldn''t like it if I had to start at a waypoint, travel 30 minutes, then travel 30 minutes back to the waypoint before logging out.

6) I completely disagree with this. This is just utter nonsense... oh wait... there IS no question 6

7) PvP SAFE ZONES?
I think that for PvP you can make the safezones an interesting part of your design. A system I set up is one where ''good'' players have a safe zone, because good players can''t attack other good players without becoming evil. Also, in the ''good'' zone, there is eternal light. Evil players would suffer from this light (much like vampires). The ''evil'' zone on the other hand would never be safe, as evil players can actually benefit from killing other evil players. So, the choice of play style (evil, neutral, good) would determine if the player has a safe zone.

8) QUEST REWARDS
The action that takes place during quest should be the main reward. I think that''s something that most players (designers?) tend to forget. Sure, it''s nice to get a little added boost afterwards, but the thrill should come from the actual action (be it combat, solving a puzzle, sneaking past the guards, etc)
I''d surely do quests even if there''s nothing to show for it afterwards, as long as I get my adrenaline rush during the quest.

9) NO AI QUESTS?
Not sure how this would work. You might have to explain this one before I can answer (or I might have to read better).

10) I don''t have to be all powerful, skilled to the max, I just want to be my own character. I don''t want to feel like ''just another fighter, with all combat skills maxed'' or ''just another mage, with all magic skills maxed''. I could live with having just one skill maxed (example: fireball skill) and being the only one out of 1000 players to have that skill maxed. Just as long as it''s a skill I can be proud of (I wouldn''t like to be the only one in 10.000 to have the skill ''create little puff of smoke coming from your ears'' maxed)

PS Answers to original survey: a, f, g, c, a, b, d, c (but quests need to be a whole lot better than they are now), a, c



Ol'' Silvermyst doesn''t even know how to program his own VCR, so take ANYthing he says with a big pile of salt...