Applying sandbox ideology to MMO architecture

A Casual Gaming Approach to the Power Gaming of MMO “Questing.”

or

Applying sandbox ideology to MMO architecture.

The casual gaming space has exploded over the last few years, in no small part to giants like Facebook, but also with the advent of “browser games” that plug straight into things like Chrome and Firefox.  In some aspects this is a wonderful thing as it brings more and more people into the fold of “gaming” even though they may not consider themselves gamers.  Of course, the MMO scene while not taking a direct hit, has suffered from the number of casual games that are now available.  Why?  Simply because they are very low entry point and you don’t have to invest hours at a time to get anything done.

A big attraction with casual games is that you can play them for 15 minutes, get something done which gives you that feeling of “completion” and then off you go to do something else. Or, you keep playing, completing the next step, or quest, or journal entry, another 15 minutes or so.  There are people out there who play these casual games in a way that would scare the so called hardcore gamers with their dedication and the amount of time the spend in these browser based environments.  I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories of the high flying executives who have to quickly duck out of a meeting to take an important call - only to head back to their office so they can logon to Farmville and harvest their crops in order to plant more so they can get that new shiny limited edition something or other.  And then they head back to the meeting, no one any wiser.

The other big attraction of the casual game is the social aspect.  You jump in, you can see all your friends listed who play (along with a number who don’t which you are prompted to invite).  You get little notes about who has been at your location and helped you out, messages offering you a gift or asking for your assistance with a particular item.  This sort of help costs you nothing, it’s a simple click to accept and then you are into your farm, or city, or kitchen to do your own thing.  The real advantage of this is of course that you don’t have to be active in the game at the time the message is sent in order to receive it.  Hell, you don’t even have to be online!  Of course if you’ve been anywhere near Facebook you are already well aware of this.  But how does this relate to the world of MMO’s, fetch quests, fedex quests and kill 10 rats and I’ll give you this rat fur cap quests?

To address this I think we need to look at some of the core mechanics of MMO’s (in general) and make some changes to that architecture.  

I think we can all agree that the quest system in the majority of MMO’s today is pretty simple.  It’s also pretty dull.  In essence, you find someone with some sort of indicator on them (be it a ? or ! over their head, a glowing ring around their feet or something of that nature) and you interact with them.  They give you some flavour dialogue and then present you with the option to accept their request or deny it.  And that’s it. You may get options to continue the dialogue, but in the end you either accept what they want you to do and do it, or you don’t accept it and you go in search of someone else to give you a job.   In some cases you may encounter something out in the big wide digital world that will start the process, but once started the steps remain the same.  You do this job for an NPC and they reward you with something - money, an item or that rat fur cap I mentioned earlier.

What I’m suggesting is a system that reduces the “linearity” in the MMO quest, and instead replaces it with some sociability.  This proposal would work best I believe in a current day/sci-fi/cyberpunk style MMO though there is no reason why with a bit of tweaking it couldn’t be implemented into your (non)standard fantasy universe.  In essence it is simply this - what if instead of you searching for the NPC’s who would give you your next job, they came to you with a proposal of work.  And so did your fellow players.  Radical I know, but stay with me.  

Picture this...  You are a character living in a dystopian cyberpunk environment, you work and travel in the shadows between the shining lights of the rich and powerful and the cesspit at the bottom of humanity.  You have a very important role to play in this society.  You can do the things that the people in the steel and glass towers cannot - you can deal with the sludge of society to get done the things they need.  You can get the information they want, you can find the goods and provide the services they need, you can break the rules in order for them not to.  Sure, you might not ever get to live in one of those steel and glass towers, but that’s ok, cause the people who do live there pay pretty well for the skills you have or have access to.

You get a message from some guy calling himself Johnson or Johnston or something.  Seems he heard your name from some local fence and a couple of quick financial incentives later said fence passed on your number.  This guy has a job that might interest you.  The pay’s not brilliant, but it’s been a while since you had more than a few Yuan to rub together.  You watch the fuzzy  recording with the obvious voice masking.  It’s a simple job really, go to a local neighbourhood, collect a portable trideo unit that has been stolen and return it.  Of course, your employer has neglected to tell you that the neighbourhood you have to go to is run by one of the wildest “go gangs” in that part of the sprawl.  So you make your way over there and how you get the trideo back is up to you.  Of course, there will probably be a few firefights and some hand to hand combat  - this is an MMO after all.

You get the trideo and return it for your payment.  Unfortunately for your employer, the memory chip that was supposed to be in the trideo has been removed.  Seems they have another job for you.  Go back to the ganger's and find the chip.  And while you are there he’d like you to teach them a lesson - that while stealing is bad, stealing from him is infinitely worse, and far more painful.

Hang on a second though I can hear you saying.  That’s just a cheap fetch quest, followed up by another fetch quest with a rat quest tacked on the back.  You go back to the neighbourhood, get to the chip from the gang leader in whatever way you deem suitable and take it to the drop.  When you get there you are approached by someone who passes on a message from your current employer asking you to destroy the chip as it is “no longer viable” along with your payment.  Now you can destroy the chip and move on, but knowledge is power in the sprawl and obviously this chip must contain something pretty powerful that your employer would send you in twice to get it and now wants it destroyed.  Depending on what archetype you chose at the start, you may be able to slot the chip into your deck and check it out yourself.  If not, then you need to find someone who can - and that’s where the social aspect of casual gaming collides with the MMO world - you can do it all yourself, but you can do it faster if you get help.  

We’ll say that you didn’t choose a tech class and you can’t see what is on the chip yourself, so who are you going to get to help you find out what is on it?  Well, you could do it the hard way, by yourself, slogging through the sprawl until you can find an NPC who’ll talk to you and can, for a price, slot the chip and check out what it contains, of course, the price may be more than you are willing to pay or can afford.  Or, if one or more of your friends has started a tech class, then maybe they could do it for you, all you would need to do is send them a message which they would get next time they logon.  The message could contain a self deleting copy of the chip which they could slot to identify and extract the contents before sending them back to you.  Depending on their skill level, their hardware and the programs they use, this could take only a few seconds for rudimentary encryption or longer if there is high level encryption and ICe (Intrusion Countermeasures).  If you don’t have any friends who are able (or willing) to help you and you can’t find an NPC who will either, your last option may be the UnderNet.  You logon through one of the many shadow servers that are throughout the sprawl and post a message with the job you have, what you need and how much you are willing to pay.  Anyone else who logs into UnderNet can accept that job offer, making you their employer.  Once the job is completed you get your information and they get their money.  Simple, and social.  Offer up enough of the right work and you could start to make a name for yourself in the sprawl.  Of course, sometimes being known could get you the wrong sort of attention from the cops, the corps or someone else who just doesn’t like you.  You could also use UnderNet to take jobs yourself to earn some quick cash.

I believe that a mechanic of this kind would give the MMO genre a significant “social” boost and has the potential to revolutionise how we not only play the games, but what else we do in them
once we log in.