MMORPGs – Where Do They Go From Here?

So, I’ve been a WoW player for about 4 years now. What has kept me in WoW was the social aspect of it, along with the gameplay, which has changed quite a bit since I first started playing. However, after so many changes to the gameplay, I feel that WoW is turning into a game that I can no longer enjoy. Not to say that WoW is turning into a bad game. It’s just a matter of opinion. You see, my favorite class has always been the rogue, and so I always try to play one in any game I play. The problem is that it’s difficult and/or pointless to play a rogue like a…well…rogue. Allow me to take a or two paragraph to describe my rogue experiences to set up the rest of the post.

You see, I enjoy being sneaky and stealthy, and I like launching attacks from unconventional angles, hence why I play a rogue. My first experience as a rogue in an MMORPG would be in Everquest. Rogues could hide, sneak, backstab, pick pocket, all the standardy rogue stuff you expect to have. In combat, rogues pretty much stood behind mobs and continually backstabbed when possible. Not particularly interesting. EQ itself was not a particularly interesting game, yet when I think back on all the PvE experiences I’ve had, EQ was possibly still the most fun I had as a rogue ever. Why? Because I was able to do in raids what rogues were meant to do. Scout. Ok, so some people play rogues out to be assassiny characters, but I feel stabbing someone in the back while he’s fighting 39 other people isn’t particularly an exciting assassination scenario. I liked that my place in a raid was away from the fighting and informing the puller where the next target is and when to grab it. In EQ2, rogues seemed to have gained some more tricks and such, but gameplay wise it wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as WoW rogues.

WoW introduced a new concept to rogues: Pushing buttons during a fight that wasn’t backstab. It satisfied my urge for a more actiony RPG, and was more in tune with my image of how a rogue should fight. The problem with WoW rogues was actually not a problem in the beginning, but more so in the end. Traps? What traps? Unless you pvp, you will probably never disarm a trap. If you pvp, you will probably only disarm a trap because you’re bored. Pick locks? It was useful originally, but as expansions passed, more and more doors were magically locked. Sapping? Back in the day, lessening the number of mobs you fought at once was a key tactical element in getting through dungeons. Now? I wouldn’t be surprised if there are rogues that have never used sap ever. Now, in EQ, rogues could wear some decent armor and survive alright during fights. In WoW, the only reason rogues survive longer than clothie mages is because rogues don’t draw insane AE aggro. Now, seeing as rogues were weak, in the first place, they generally deal more damage than more durable classes to compensate. This was balance. This is the not the type of balance WoW uses anymore. Now all classes are capable of dealing the same amount of damage as a rogue, except for maybe a priest.

Anyway, I don’t mind the changes. In fact, I like that they’re using a new system of balance. The problem lies in the fact that they didn’t go all the way with it. If warriors, paladins, death knights can all DPS just as well as a rogues, mages, and hunters, why shouldn’t rogues, mages, and hunters be able to tank? Maybe not tank as well as tanking classes, but at least to some degree right? Well, the issue could lie in the fact that the standard tank, healer, 3 dps group formula requires more dps than anything else, but let’s face it, when is there ever a shortage on dps?

It may sound like I’m talking a lot about WoW, but now I’m talking about the bigger MMO picture here. How long are MMORPGs going to use the same tank, healer, 3 dps formula for their groups? I remember when people picked classes because they liked the class, not because the class filled a particular role. To some of you, this may be viewed as a complaint, but the way I see it is that this is the direction MMORPGs need to go. Having a tank and a healer shouldn’t trivialize a dungeon, and having no tank and no heals shouldn’t prevent you from completing it. How does one achieve this balance? That is the true question. How does one achieve such a balance? Well, let’s see…

First of all, it’s a particularly difficult balance to achieve when it’s very common for a single enemy to one shot anyone who isn’t a tank. It becomes even worse in cases where enemies can reflect attacks back at players and they end upone shotting themselves. Giving the players a larger health pool or lowering enemy damage, may make healers lose a sense of urgency in their roles, but on the other hand, it opens up the ability to let them do stuff other than heal.

Combat itself is starting to feel stale. Sure each class is played differently, but the real question is, how often do you play the same class differently? If I use attack 1-2-3 to kill enemy A, will I use attack 4-5-6 to kill enemy B? Chances are, you will be using the same chain of skills to combat any number of enemies, in which case it doesn’t matter how actiony the combat is, it will feel stale. The term skill rotation is used for this, and in WoW it leads to “one button” gaming since you can macro a sequence of skills into one button.

Let’s take a look at this trailer for the MMORPG Tera:

I’m not sure how much of this transfers over to actual gameplay, but first thing I noticed is player positioning. Players aren’t bunched up together all the time. This is good. Player attacks propel them forward so they aren’t always standing in one spot. This is great! In one scene, the rogue looking girl leaps over a bunch of enemies. This isawesome! I feel player positioning in combat has been neglected for too long. One of my favorite WoW boss fights is Heigan in Naxxramas, because that fight is about positioning and timing. It was a nice break from just sitting there mashing buttons in front of a mob.

So, how do we make positioning important in normal fights without turning them into a huge boss-like ordeal? Well, in order to make the positioning of players important, the position of enemies need to be so as well. While it’s understandable that making players unable to pass through each other or enemies contributes to lag issues, I feel it adds a needed element to gameplay. No more of this 20 people in one spot business! If anything, the 20 people should be stacked on top of each other to reach a target that’s high up! Now that would be an interesting fight.

Enemies themselves need to be smarter. If the entire player group skips the “tank” mobs to go straight for the enemy archers, then the other mobs should also skip the tanks and go straight for the healer! Having player collision will make such skipping a lot harder to accomplish, and thus makes skills that jump or knock enemies back far more useful. One of my favorite rogue skills in WoW was shadowstep, which teleports you behind an enemy, but since enemies instantly face towards you if they’re fighting you, it had little use in PvE.

Then there’s that scene in the trailer where they fight that big rock thing and the soldiers plant their shields into the ground forming a shield wall. Of course, the rock thing just knocks them all off their feet, but I could see how awesome this would be against smaller foes where they can’t get past the shield wall. Remember that phalanx thing you learned in history class? Why aren’t we seeing that in MMORPGs yet?

Also, I mentioned earlier about players stacking to reach something. How awesome would it be to fight something large and be able to jump on it and attack a vulnerable spot? I want to see more fights where players get knocked around more and you can actually jump on enemies to fight them.

Enough about combat, let’s talk about the last thing brought to my attention in the trailer. Wall climbing. Seriously, why haven’t we seen this before? Of the time I spent in WoW, one of my favorite activities was climbing walls to get to places you weren’t supposed to. Why? Because it gave a sense of exploration and accomplishment. Also, it’s just fun. I don’t want to spend the entire duration of my time in an MMORPG grinding to high levels, I also want to reach high places environmentally, and just take in the scenery of the fantasy world I’m supposedly saving and/or dooming. I’d really like to see some assassin’s creed style free running in MMORPGs. Of course, it’d be crazy to just see everyone doing it, so maybe make it a  mid-end game skill that requires sacrificing some other major combat skill to obtain, and perhaps limit it to rogues.

Anyway, I still have a lot to talk about but I realize this post is going on far longer than I expected already so I’ll cut it off here and maybe continue later and leave you with one question: Where do you want to see MMORPGs go from here?