Why traditional MUDs/MMORPGs work

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19 May 2005

by Mike Rozak

This writeup is a rehash many of the thought experiments I've had in the past year, and explains why (I think) traditional MUDs and MMORPGs "work". If you haven't read other parts of my search for other genres, you might wish to do that now.

The quest

Before I talk about traditional MUDs and MMORPGs, I'll explain why single-player CRPGs work. However, to explain why CRPGs work, I first need to explain how quests work, since CRPGs are basically a series of quests.

A quest is:

1. A series of sub-games, such as combat, travel, searching, puzzle solving, and talking with NPCs. The sub-games should be reasonably fun in themselves. (See Raph Koster's book, "A theory of fun".)
   
   
2. The sub-games are tied together by a narrative that explains why the specific sub-games are to be played, and which often explains the order they're played in.
   
   
3. The narrative provides a motivation for the player's character to undertake the quest, such as "To rescue the princess."
   
   
4. The quest also provides a motivation for the player, such as "Find the sword +5 of demon slaying."

Combining a series of sub-games together into a quest, and providing a reason for the sub-games to be played, introduces some story into the world., and makes the experience more fun. Quests also prevent players from overdosing on any particular sub-game to the point being sick of it.

Single-player CRPGs

Single-player CRPGs are basically a series of quests that ultimately lead to a grand finale.

CRPGs work because:

1. Quests are fun.
   
   
2. The variable reinforcement scheme of experience points and loot encourage play.
   
   
3. As characters level up (and become more powerful), the sub-games are changed with the addition of new skills, magic spells, items, and monsters. These changes prevent the player from getting bored.
   
   
4. Character levels and meta-quests provide goals that go beyond just finishing the shorter quests.
   
   
5. Other sub-games appear when the players get loot and experience points from quests, such as resource allocation.
   
   
6. CRPGs provide a sense of advancement, self-worth, completion, and escapism.
   
   
7. Plus, they're a great time waster.

Traditional MUDs and MMORPGs

Traditional MUDs and MMORPGs "work" because:

1. They're CRPGs, and are successful for the same reasons that CRPGs are successful.
   
   
2. MUDs and MMORPGs allow people to play with their friends, or meet new friends.
   
   
3. Because thousands of players exist in the same world, new sub-games appear. These include trading, crafting, castle sieges, ship-to-ship combat with a crew, etc.
   
   
4. Competing against other players is more challenging, and much less mind-numbing that computer AIs.
   
   
5. In CRPGs, players kill monsters and collect loot so they can level up, get new skills, and fight new monsters... which basically results in interesting changes to the sub-game just as they were getting bored. MUDs and MMORPGs also take advantage of this connection between level and evolving the sub-games.
   
   However MUDs and MMORPGs also use monster slaying for the "grind", along with crafting and some other sub-games. The grind is a mechanism that determines how much power a player will have relative to (and to be used against) other players. Basically, the more work a player puts into their character, the more power they have, and the better able they are to outrank other players and fulfil their desires.
   
   
6. MUDs and MMORPGs provide ways for players to wield their power and fulfil their social desires. These include: PvP combat and various rankings (alpha-male syndrome), running guilds, controlling cities, organizing events, playing politics, etc.
   
   
7. Players vary in how much they care about the social (power) aspects of the game. Some just want a single-player game or just want to play with friends. Others have desires that can only be met by having other players around. See The player pyramid.
   
   To handle this dichotomy, many traditional MUDs and MMORGs create two games in one. The first involves lots of quests and is basically a single-player CRPG that can be played with friends. The second layer, often referred to as "the elder game", is about the power aspects of the world. Those players who are not interested in the power plays (or long-term socialisation) leave when they run out of CRPG content. The elder game won't work without non-power players around, so players interested in the elder game must play in worlds with single player CRPGs. They simply find a way to get through the CRPG aspects of the game as quickly as possible. Often this includes buying in-game power with real-life currency.

Why adventure-game virtual worlds don't work

In The trouble with explorers, I tried to determine why Uru Live failed. The culmination of all my thought experiments (to date) provides the following explanation.

1. Adventure games are also based on quests. However, adventure-game quests use a large variety of puzzles instead of a few sub-games. CRPGs repeat the same sub-game over and over again. Adventure games try to make every sub-game unique.
   
   
2. The problem with puzzles (of the adventure game variety) is that once they're solved, they're solved. They can only be played through once, and their solutions are quickly posted on web pages.
   
   This characteristic has many ramifications for a virtual world...
   
   
3. CRPG combat is more fun when played with a group of friends, or against real people. Solving adventure game puzzles with friends it not necessarily more fun, and often it's less fun, since one player seems to come up with most of the solutions, leaving the other players as dead-weight.
   
   
4. If player A plays alone and solves all the puzzles in a quest, he cannot replay the quest with player B (who has never played it), because A already knows the solutions to all the puzzles, and has to spend his time trying not to look impatient.
   
   
5. Since puzzles are inherently about the player's intellect, and not about something the player's character knows, adventure games don't include "levels", losing one of the devices that make CRPGs fun.
   
   
6. Because the solutions to adventure game puzzles can be posted on the web, they cannot be used for "the grind", and thus can't be used to control which players have power. Without a device to acquire power, the elder game isn't viable. If another device is added for the elder game, such as resource gathering, then the two games become completely different and disjoint; they might as well be in completely different worlds.

Basically, adventure games don't become any more fun when played with friends, and there's no way to use an adventure game as a base for the elder game. You can create a virtual world based on an adventure game, but players will play through the content in 20-50 hours, mostly in isolation, and then leave because there's no elder game.

Note: Puzzle Pirates includes puzzles, but is not an adventure game. It uses a handful of puzzles to create "the grind", instead of relying on the combat sub-game. Other than the substitution of sub-games, it follows the same formula as traditional MUDs and MMORPGs.

Some thoughts to take away

A traditional MUD/MMORPG is written to the following formula:

1. Figure out a set of desires that players have which can only be met by a virtual world with thousands of other players. Not surprisingly, these desires are usually social in nature, such as running a guild, being number one in a player ranking, or being able to beat up on other people. (The top of the player pyramid.)
   
   
2. Create a game (or activity) that is fun to play single-player, and even more fun to play with a group of friends. The game must also withstand Internet latency and bandwidth, and satisfy condition 3. Ideally the game should lead to new sub-games (like economics) when used in a world with thousands of players. (The bottom of the player pyramid.)
   
   
3. Figure out how to use the game as a mechanism to determine how much power players at the top of the pyramid get. Players use their power to out-rank other players to control resources they need to fulfil their desires. Thus, produce "the grind", where the player with the most time (or money) on his hands wins.
   
   
4. Produce a win-win relationship that binds the top of the pyramid to the bottom. The top of the pyramid must offer something that the bottom wants, and vice versa. In many virtual worlds, the players at the top subsidise play for players at the bottom.

Some virtual worlds seem to put more emphasis in #3 and skimp on #4, or vice versa. For example, a traditional MUD/MMORPG is almost all #3. Second Life is almost all #4. I'm not sure why this tradeoff exists.