5 Things to Fix in MMO Games

Despite its popularity, MMO genre is far from being perfect. MMO games don’t offer anything spectacular for some time. Instead, most of them are ultimately based on outdated and flawed gameplay mechanisms, like grinds, slow leveling, non-transparent combat, etc.
There are priorities however, and some of them are listed in this article. Also, this article is not directed against MMO games and their developers. It just gives a subjective overview of features that deserve to be fixed.

Subscriptions

We play because we pay. Most of MMOs are created for the primary purpose of getting players to play regularly and therefore to pay regularly. But what if we pay only one-time cost for a videogame? That is much more friendly to players who want to sample more games, and therefore much more friendly to the whole gaming industry.
It turns that players actually feel compelled to play because they're paying and not because they're actually enjoying certain MMO game.

Not to mention that subscriptions are unnecessary once you’ve paid for the game, and that they’re expensive for some players worldwide.
However, it’s not likely to expect that game developers will give up on this lucrative well, but at least they can make subscriptions a bit cheaper.


Static Content

When you kill a boss in game, soon you’ll figure out that nothing has changed. If you look better, you’ll see that he'll be respawned really soon. If you look behind you, you’ll notice other players waiting in a line to kill him.
Well, that’s the big curse of MMOs. They are frozen in a static state. The evil is never destroyed.
All players are apparently heroes, each unable to induce any sort of meaningful change in the world, forever unable to save it because that would just screw up everything for the next guy who waits in the line to finish same quest.
Maybe the answer lies in building the stronger bosses and forcing the grouping as a priority tool in solving particular quests and tasks in MMO games.


Grouping

Yes, grouping could be easier way to solve some important problems in MMO games, including that with the static content. But, grouping often isn’t a priority in MMOs, although in games that hold ‘massive’ and ‘multiplayer’ attributes, grouping should be a ‘must’. Groups should earn more experience, get more loot, fight more mobs, have bigger challenges and of course - be able to kill stronger bosses only when they work together. That could add special flavour to game experience. When a group completes one person’s quest, everyone should get the reward as if it was theirs. And bosses… They should stay dead.

Another thing that should be fixed regarding grouping is players’ ability to choose members of their groups. However, an average MMO makes very specific demands in terms of whom you can play with. Grouping depends heavily on what level you are. It's difficult to build an MMO community around people you know if they have different playing habits.
So instead of playing with their friends, MMO players are often forced to group with total strangers, which kill the spirit of the game and put off many of them from the further playing.


Customization Freedom

MMOs in their current state restrict their members in many ways. There are restrictions with names, customizations, server migrations and other changes, both big and small. However, players should have fully flexible and customizable UI. They should be able to move servers to play with their friends. Players should be able to pick any name and to change it whenever they want. Appearance should be customizable as well, as often as players like. Developers shouldn’t restrict players doing these things unless they have a very good reason. Also, players should be allowed to download the client rather than install from disc. And as a final demand, disc shouldn’t be in the drive during the gameplay.


Adding a Brain

You must agree that adding some ‘brain’ is not going to kill a game. It can only make it better. Two MMOs features that deserve to be smarter are combat and mobs.

Combat in MMOs is reduced on math. Players often deal with numbers for hit points, damage, refresh rate, mana, and so on, where real fight with the monsters loses its value. The typical MMO battle is more matter of staring at icons that indicates when your skill will refresh, than real combat. Players’ noses are shoved in, while all wonderful combat animation left practically unwatched.
All of this can be fixed with a simple row of assigned buttons or with flashing indicators when critical hit can be performed.

Second thing are mobs that stayed incredibly stupid since the days of old games.
Nothing has changed really - monsters are still unable to catch your presence even if they stay few feet from you. Even if they noticed you, they’d act totally unreasonable: rushing at you even if they’re outnumbered.
It would be really nice to see improvement here: smarter and unpredictable monsters working in groups, who are able to assess the current situation, i.e. they would take cover if they’re in danger, alarm their comrades when they spot you, they’d attack if there’s an opportunity to do so or they’d flee if you’re stronger side. That would be real challenge.



As said on beginning, this article provided only couple of suggestions on how MMOs can be improved. If you think something else should be added, please leave a comment.