Pretty in Purple

Will visual upgrades be enough to satisfy players of next-generation MMOs?

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By John Gillooly on 9 June, 2009

World of Warcraft (WoW) has shaped and moulded a generation of ‘loot whores,’ forming the very definition of the word ‘progression’ in the minds of players. By taking the Diablo loot model and shaping it to fit the game balance needs of WoW, Blizzard has made gear upgrades core to how people progress their characters. Be it through raiding or player versus player combat, success allows access to better gear, which directly translates into how powerful one is.

This works for WoW, but for a new generation of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) it creates problems. If designers intend for any interaction between characters of different levels, there cannot be a massive disparity brought by gear. As some segments of the MMO market move away from the level-based paradigm that has dominated the genre to date, this problem becomes greater. Not only do you need to ensure that new players live long enough to work out if they enjoy the game, the high level players have to feel appropriately rewarded for the efforts.

This kind of progression model is highlighted in an interview by Massively with the developers of the soon-to-be-released MMO shooter, CrimeCraft. When queried about level disparity, associate producer Aaron Krasnov says “As we made the game, we wanted complete parity between a level one player and level 15 in the actual shooter itself. We don’t want a level 15 wiping the floor with a level one character. A level 50 character with max gear can only be twice as good as a level one character, so we’re able to show the players that this is a game about skill. This isn’t a game about leveling up.”

We’ve seen this kind of focus away from the impact of gear with Age of Conan (AoC). By trying to minimise the effect gearing has on abilities, Funcom ended up with a lot of underwhelmed players. Level up enough and eventually the gear started looking cooler, but upgrading didn’t translate into the tangible leap in effectiveness that WoW-based expectations bring.

AoC also brings us to perhaps the most burning question facing MMOs. Does looking cool equate to a satisfied player? I’ve often joked that the key to Diablo’s success was that Blizzard perfected accessorisation for men. This seems to come down to the delicate balance between looking good and kicking arse. After all, isn’t the search for prettier items the key draw of franchises like The Sims? The next big challenge facing MMO developers is being able to make visual upgrades important enough that people see them in and of themselves as a reward, not something attached to uber stats.

One of the best received games of E3, Realtime Worlds’s APB, is putting a lot of stock in visuals as a reward. While the game already has insanely detailed character creation tools, access to visual upgrades is used as an in-game reward. From the accounts coming out of E3, there is an ability to unlock new clothes, vehicles, and tattoos as one progresses, with rare items that allow for changes to a character’s basic look mentioned as well (think of it as virtual plastic surgery vouchers). It was also revealed that the crafting system would allow players to make and sell visual upgrades, like clothing, using the game’s auction house.

This then flows into probably the biggest untested territory for upcoming MMOs. It is often postulated that games based on micro-transactions need to avoid the trap of charging for items that confer an in-game advantage. Create a $50 ‘axe of one-shotting’ and you’ll soon find those without the cash leaving the game. So, one of the most commonly used examples of acceptable micro-transactions is through the purchase of vanity items. In this case, there needs to be enough of a desire to spend on something purely cosmetic – again, difficult with an audience attuned to visual splendour equating to in-game potency.

We have seen the massive initial sales of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online reinforce how players want a new title to draw them in. However, these games have also shown us how quickly players turn off when the incentives dwindle. The next big test for the MMO space is whether players will accept that, after months in a game, they are only fractionally more powerful than when they began. And more importantly, whether becoming more visually impressive will compensate for the poor inflation of stats.

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