Sierra Kilo

This is the first in probably a long series of posts titled “MMO Ideas”. My brain is always spinning, dreaming up software, particularly games. Most often, I am dreaming up features of an MMO that I would design one day. I hereby claim intellectual property on all content contained within these posts, so if you copy me, I will own you. Maybe not, but for you game companies out there, if you like what you see, I’m always open for new opportunities, especially if they pursue me. So, without further ado…

Today’s idea is the basis of my ultimate MMORPG. Instead of dividing up characters by classes (fighter, mage, thief, rogue, etc) that have a specific skillset, just allow anyone to learn any skill. There’s no reason why a character couldn’t be great with swords AND great at picking locks. Not only that, but get rid of levels and experience, too.

That’s not a completely original idea, of course. Star Wars Galaxies began with a similar idea. Your class was based on the set of skills you chose to learn, and you gained experience for each skill set by using them. So, basically, instead of levelling your character, you levelled your skills. The metrics behind this were visible to the player, though: “You need 453 Crafting experience to learn the next skill.” By exposing the metrics, you subconsciously trigger a need for the player to grind. “Grinding” is doing the same action over and over with the sole intention of getting experience for the next level…and the level after that…and the one after that…and… Some might consider this “practicing” or “training”. After all, practice makes perfect, right? Well, there’s certainly no problem with that. If you have nothing better to do with your days than juggle 3 apples, you’ll become the best juggler around very quickly. The difference is that if you’re doing that all day, every day, then you’re allowing your other skills to atrophy. That leads me to another part of this idea.

Skills atrophy from non-use. If you don’t use a skill enough, you will eventually forget how to do part of it. The saying “it’s like riding a bike” is not completely true, you know? I used to ride my bike all of the time, but I didn’t for a while, and my first time back on it felt really odd. I still remembered the basics, but I forgot how to do certain things. Sure, age and common sense keep me from jumping over cars now (not that I ever could), but the basic skill of riding, pedalling, and turning took a tiny bit of getting used-to. It’s the same way with any skill. It doesn’t take as much practice to get back to your peak, but you do need some. It would be the same way in my ultimate MMORPG. The atrophy rate would be slow, and could be based on other factors: age, intelligence, focus on an opposite or tangent skill (like using your left hand instead of your right), etc.

The same idea could be applied to character attributes (strength, intelligence, dexterity, etc). At first, you’d be able to choose your attribute scores since you would start the game as somewhat of an adult. Everyone would start with the same scores and be given X amount of points to increase or decrease their scores depending on what kind of focus the character had during his adolescent development (more points on strength, less on intelligence, etc). These attributes could also be trained and would atrophy. If your character spent his days in the library, his strength would atrophy and he wouldn’t be able to lift 500lbs anymore, but he would be much smarter.

So, the most well-rounded character would be the one who is mediocre at everything because he devotes the same amount of time to each skill and attribute. Of course, some skills may be harder to learn than others, and some may atrophy faster than others. Performing some skills may help other skills and may increase attributes. The advantage to this is that everyone would have the opportunity to customize their character according to their play style. Those who want to craft would spend their days crafting. Their ability to craft a sword would be great, their strength may be high (from swinging the hammer at the anvil), their skill at sword combat may even be high (from testing their wares), but their skill at horsemanship would be bad.

The rate of advancement should be slow enough to allow the player to grow, but fast enough to keep the player from being bored. There are 8760 hours in a year. If a powergamer played 16 hours each day for the entire year, he would play 5840 of those hours. You would want him to enjoy his time. A casual gamer may play 6-8 hours a week, around an hour a day. You would want him to enjoy his time, too. If the casual gamer could max a character out (be average at every skill) in 2 years, that is 730 hours. 5840/730 = 8, which means that a powergamer would max a character out 8 times as fast as a casual gamer. That puts the mark around a month and a half for a powergamer. This is somewhat typical. So, for a casual gamer to max a character out who is customized for his play style (say 70% combat, 20% crafter, 10% socializer), it would take the same amount as it would to be average at everything. That’s balance, baby. And it’s all done abstract from the player, allowing him to play the game and have fun without having to grind up to a reasonable level as fast as he can.