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MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gameplay?

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:21 pm
by Verahta
I was hoping to solicit some tips and advice for designing MMO gameplay that is fun and fulfilling for both single players and multiplayers? What I mean is, what are some concepts to consider to make a MMO/MMORPG/PBBG browser game fun for both people who like to play alone, solo, and for others who want to play in a clan, faction, guild, whatever?

Got any advice/sage tips for making both playstyles happy in the same game?

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:00 am
by Callan S.
Just a small tip, but I'd avoid steady incrementalism. Occasional large spikes in gaining XP, gold or gear make play suddenly thrilling. You can even control it by perhaps the character having X number of spikes per level (resets on gaining a level) so they can't get too many (just about the amount they'd get in one levels time if gaining XP steadily)

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:47 am
by Verahta
Thanks for the tip Callan. My game isn't really going to have levels (but might have 'ranks'), as its more of a sandbox but I do plan on there being "suddenly thrilling bonanzas" but more in the range of the game economy (like common, uncommon, and rare profit opportunities), crafting (common, uncommon, rare, super rare results), and so on. There is nothing I hate more than pointless grinding, it's really a waste of life and time (IMHO).

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:07 pm
by Jackolantern
Honestly, pretty much every major MMORPG today is designed to appeal to both solo and team players. World of Warcraft really started that trend. Players can go out and play all the way to the level cap without ever teaming up with anyone. Rather, modern MMOs get their teamwork fix through dungeons, raids and epic encounters in the overworld.

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:33 pm
by Verahta
Thanks for the insight Jack, I will study that.

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:44 am
by Callan S.
I mostly played WOW solo. Back then they didn't really have the group forming functionality in the game. Otherwise I probably would have done more dungeons with a group.

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:05 pm
by Jackolantern
Callan S. wrote:I mostly played WOW solo. Back then they didn't really have the group forming functionality in the game. Otherwise I probably would have done more dungeons with a group.
[off-topic] I hated the bean-counting elements of WoW, so I also played it mostly solo when I played, and just chatted or did simple quests with friends. But dungeons, even fairly pedestrian ones with only rare loot drops, got far too serious. There was always someone in every group who had to have all of the stat-tracking addons, and would get on to DPS characters if their DPS fell for just a moment, or would lecture Priests on how much mana they wasted and wold chew-out everyone on their gear-related stats. It killed the fun completely for me when there was always a player who put in 40+ hours a week there to lecture more casual players that their gear wasn't up-to-par to output the damage they wanted, or how they needed to read a novel-sized guide on the most efficient Priest hotkey cycle.

It seriously made me wish for the FFXI days when pretty much all stats except how much you actually hit for or healed for were secret. We had no idea even how gear stats affected in-game performance. You could spot a particularly terrible player who likely just bought their high-level character, but for the most part, no one had enough info to lecture individual players and it created far more of a "the group lives or dies by the group" mentality. Instead, WoW seemed to have more of an "individual quarterly report card" mentality and I didn't find that fun at all.[/off-topic]

Who knows? Maybe something in there will be useful to the topic at hand lol. :?

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:14 pm
by ApaKhe
I think that INNOVATION is the best thing to do... Come up with something that you dont see in every MMO out there and make the best out of it

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:28 pm
by Verahta
Good grief Jack, I would have virtually punched those people in the face. :twisted:

Re: MMO TIPS how to design single player & multiplayer gamep

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 2:07 am
by Callan S.
Yeah, those people are poisonous.

Everyone just there like robots for them to collect points. Ghastly people.