How the Road to Massivity Killed Massive Multiplayer Online Games

IRVINE, Calif. July 1 - The growth and apparent demise of World of Warcraft are both driven by Blizzard's decision to replace a challenging experience for an easier, casual friendly one, according to Red 5 Studios founder and former World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern. A move, Kern believes, that has created a consequence of an extraordinarily grave degree - "I think we killed a genre", he wrote in a guest blog on MMORPG.com.

"As WoW grew in population, reaching ever more casual gamers, new expansions introduced even more refinements. Quest trackers were added, and xp was increased so that it was easier to level through all the old content to get to the 'new stuff' of the expansion. Gear from the new expansions first quests made raid gear from previous expansions a joke. And the level curve became faster and faster until we reached a point where everyone is just in a race to get to max level, and damn everything else in between. Why care about level 20 gear when you would blow by levels so fast it was obsolete before you even logged off for the night?"

According to Kern, the qualities that drove the WoW's form of ideal authenticity were abandoned.

"You should feel like you could live your whole life there, not by having infinite quests, but by having a living world that makes you feel good just for being in it and experiencing all it has to offer at your own pace," Kern wrote. "It's not about the competition to max out your character, it's about a way of life and a long term hobby with enduring friends."

The 9 year old MMO has hit a boiling point, Kern forebode. "As content gets easier in order to appeal to a wider market, it at some point also pushes that market away. We feel bored by the same formula over and over. We never explore the world, having been indoctrinated to just follow a laundry list of tasks. There is no thinking, and not much choice, as the ideal path is spoon fed to you in a linear fashion."

The veteran developer admitted that Blizzard's method may be great "for relaxing and having a couple hours of gameplay", but such a superficial appeal "doesn't last".

Painting with teary optimism, Kern outlined what makes a great MMO great - " An MMO should be savored, a lifetime of experiences contained within a single, beautifully crafted world. The moment to moment gameplay should be its own reward. You should feel like you could live your whole life there, not by having infinite quests, but by having a living world that makes you feel good just for being in it and experiencing all it has to offer at your own pace. Its not about the competition to max out your character, its about a way of life and a long term hobby with enduring friends."

Firefall, Red 5 Studios' upcoming MMO that combines FPS and RPG elements, is focused in capturing Kern's vision. " We try to focus on the journey, not the end," Kern explained. "We work hard to create a beautiful world, and you never out-level a zone since the dynamic events scale to players. Our quests and missions are dynamic, letting us put more work into making the event fun to do and letting you do it as often as you like and because you are challenged by them. Our combat focus is tuned for skill and moment to moment fun, and because it require dexterity and aiming, you can always challenge yourself to do better. We also have an intricate progressions system, one that focuses on lots of tinkering on the journey to maximizing your battleframes. Our crafting and resource system is one of the deepest and most complex of any MMO, having more in common with the well loved crafting system of the original Star Wars Galaxies than the simplified crafting systems of current MMOs."

Kern hopes that by injecting the spark of challenge into an increasingly languid genre may resucitate MMOs from death.

SOURCE: MMORPG