Massively Multiplayer Online Future

{sidebar id=3}{sidebar id=1}On our quest to uncover the future of MMO games, AbleGamers picked the brains of Carbine Studios' Timothy Cain and Mitch Ferguson. Cain, design director of Fallout fame, and Ferguson, lead systems designer who has worked on The Sims Online, discuss MMO games concerning possible changes, improvements as well as how disabled gamers fit into the equation.

AbleGamers: MMO games have an extensive fan base. What would you say contributes to its success with millions of gamers?

Tim Cain: I think the popularity of MMOs boils down to the fun of playing games with people. You do not even have to be directly competing with them. There is just the joy of knowing many people are doing what you are doing. Sure, someone might "win" by reaching the level cap before you do, but in time, you will get there too. Mostly it is about the fun you have along the way. MMOs are kind of like bingo in that way.

Mitch Ferguson: It is tribal. Your actions do not count for much if no one else sees you, or your accomplishments. I do not even believe speaking, or fighting with other players is as important as their existence in a shared space is.

AG: MMO games are hugely popular among the disabled gaming community. What sorts of features might we see to make these games more accessible to gamers with disabilities?

Cain: There are many things that MMO designers (and all game designers for that matter) can do to make their games more accessible to everyone. In addition to supporting alternative input devices like trackballs and joysticks, one feature that every game should support is user-modifiable interfaces. Letting the player change the location, opacity, font size, shape and information display on the game interface is a really powerful tool. Besides, there will always be a subset of your player base, disabled or not, that does not like how the game UI is laid out and wants to do it better. I say give them the tools and let them do it!

Personally, I was happy to see Blizzard add color-blindness options to World of Warcraft. I am slowly losing my color vision and that game was becoming hard to play for me. It uses color to deliver a lot of information to the player and I had to ignore that information, or get a friend to help me. The new option makes the game, especially the trade skills, something I can play solo again.

Ferguson: I recently met with a group of developers specializing in "augmented reality." They worked on goggles, helmets, GPS and such. I can easily imagine some of this stuff slowly leaking into the MMO space.

One difference between MMOs and single-player games is their longevity. These products live and grow. They are modified and expanded. This gives great opportunity for communities of any type to improve the game to fit their needs. In the fast and furious initial development for these games, we will almost always overlook smaller communities of players, but we try to design things to be flexible. So, when hobbyists or third parties want to add their mods they will be successful.

AG: With technology constantly evolving, where do you see MMO games headed in the next few years?

Cain: I think we will be able to eliminate the exposure of different servers to the player and just let him or her log in to their favorite game and play with their friends. Eve Online has had this feature for years. All of their players play on the same server. FreeRealms lets you make a character independent of a server too, but you still have to choose a server to play on each time you log on.

I see a day in the near future where if you and a friend want to play an online game, you just log on and get together no matter when or where you made your characters.

Ferguson: I think there is an interesting time coming soon for MMOs. There has been a crazy diversification of platforms recently: Wii, phones, consoles, etc. Developers big and small are scrambling to innovate for all of these. MMOs both good and horrible will spill out all over the place, but I think the really great MMOs will come after the necessary consolidation phase after this. Something that combines the best from all of these platforms.

AG: How many players can a typical server handle? How many do you think a typical server will be able to handle in the next few years?

Cain: These days, servers handle two or three thousand players. Over the next few years, I expect this to double and eventually expect the server limitation to disappear. The game should appear to handle any number of players and the actual servers should be hidden behind the game's gateway.

Ferguson: Interestingly, players-per-server is not the challenge anymore. Its how many people can the games are designed to handle. How many people do you want to compete with for resources, kills, etc? How many people do you want standing around that vendor? We want it to be crowded, but not so crowded that it is annoying. I do not think technology is an issue any longer.

AG: What is the best feature of MMO games and how might that feature develop in the future?

Cain: I think the best feature of MMO is letting people play together in a big, dynamic world. It is always hard to predict how something will improve over time, but I imagine that we will see our worlds get larger, and see the content become more dynamic and responsive to the player's actions. For example, when you rescue a princess, it would be nice to be knighted, get a seat at the knight's table, get more quests offered to you because of your new status, have the villain swear revenge and have new villains appear who vow to bring you down. I am just not sure how we will see this accomplished.

Ferguson: The reduction in the minimum required play session to feel accomplishment. I love MMOs, but I can't play for four hours straight. This generation of MMOs under development all have great opportunities for ways to get in, play, and get out in shorter time frames. I personally love this and hope to see options for all styles of players in the future.

AG: What, if anything, do you think MMO games are missing? What are some things you would like to see added/improved upon?

Cain: I really want to see a good storyline in an MMO. Most of them play like a big sandbox game, but we have seen good stories in the single-player genre. It is time for MMOs to do the same.

Ferguson: Tactics. I am an old turn-based person. I have not found an AAA quality MMO that fills that role quite yet.

AG: MMORPGs are insanely popular. Do we see any other genres of MMO games gaining popularity in the near future?

Cain: I think MMORTS' are the next big thing. Imagine a game like Starcraft being played on an enormous scale with hundreds, or thousands of players, and you can see what real-time strategy games of the future might be like. Team Fortress 2 properly scaled up could become the basis of a MMOFPS. Mark my words and watch for these!

Ferguson: Every genre is getting an MMO version. I have heard of game show MMOs, MMOFPS', MMORTS', MMO mini-games, social MMO games and more. I think that the popular genre will ebb and flow, just as they have with single-player games.

AG: Is there a possibility that some day all video games will be MMO and the single-player experience will become obsolete?

Cain: I hope not! There will always be room for single-player games. There is a reason handheld games have exploded, both on portables and on cell phones. It is because people will always want a simple diversion like Tetris, or Bejeweled. We may be playing them on retinal implants someday, but there is no reason I can see that will make them disappear.

Ferguson: There is something extra casual about single-player games, which is important. For the same reason that MMO games are strangely compelling also makes them less of a pure escape.

There is a kind of pressure when you share the world with others. Single-player games do not have that pressure. You can use your cheats, or shut off your game and reboot.

There is no one to know about it and that is good sometimes.

MMO games are constantly evolving in an attempt to draw in millions of new gamers while remaining faithful to its loyal followers. Only time will tell if we will have seamless transitions into the game world, more successful genres with the MMO stamp, mobile MMO games, and more accessibility options to make these games enjoyable for all.

What are your thoughts on the future of MMO games?