News - MMO's (for Dummies)

Massive Multiplayer Online games have been around for quite some time now,

I'm not gonna go back to the times of World of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004) in this article, I'm more focused on the future. Especially the future of upcoming and present console titles that, for some reason or another, are somehow forgetting what - to me - is a very basic and simple formula.

All MMO's from Destiny (2014) to The Division (2016), follow the same chart and they all look a little bit like this:

Open world

It can be a the planet or map where you're free to roam and explore. It can be divided into areas or be one gigantic location all together. In this open  world you'll find some NPC's, Hidden Chests and Resources to help you upgrade weapons or gear. The Wither 3 even had a very cool mini-card-game called Gwent that was so much a success that it was made into a full title afterwards. This idea could transpire into future MMO's so that, even outside the main game, you could still interact with your MMO's world.

The Witcher 3 is a great example of an exploration oriented Open World and Gwent was the cherry top on that cake.

Side Missions

Sometimes provided by NPC's like vendors or other main characters, sometimes from new-found locations or engaging enemies, they help you go deeper into the game's narrative and lore. They can provide a new item or a new-found gameplay or puzzle, they're not mandatory but they can help the gamer go deeper into the worlds backstory and setting. After the main quest is done, Hunts (High Value Target in The Division) or Public Events are provided to the player, so that it will have an activity he can do solo for leveling up and win more powerful items.

While Destiny provides public events to engage with players, The Division has HVT to keep players interested outside the main quest.

Player Vs Enemies (PvE)

This comprises the main event missions and, once that's done, Strikes - that are basically tougher missions with a higher level weapon/armor drops. Once your level can allow it, you can access the Nightfall/Legendary missions, these are kind of a "nightmare" version of strikes that either provide much harder to kill enemies or - sometimes - even a surprise boss/modifier in the mission itself.

Following the difficulty ladder you have Incursions or Mini-Raids. These can be in a area or several but are completely different from the missions you do on Strikes. This is a whole new level with different mechanics and enemies. While communication is not required between players, coordination is a must.

Make no mistake, if you wanna finish some Incursions or Raids, team communication and cooperation is the only solution.

Raids are the top of the PvE events of any MMO. You'll need a wide variety of armor and weapons, as well as coordination and communication between the entire team to be successful in completing them. Destiny one had the best example of raids and they even introduced challenges to keep players engaged for longer periods of time. Something that didn't always worked since most casual players didn't even get a chance to try them.

Player Vs Player (PvP)

Although most MMO's now try and provide a player vs player environment, this is not always easy to achieve since - in some cases like Warframe - the game is so much tailored for PvE, that balancing the weapons and gear for PvP proves itself ineffective. Modes like simple 4x4 or 6x6 are now common to most games. After that, some will provide other modes like "Capture the Flag", Survival, Mayhem (were supers and abilities are enhanced) or "Race against time" (first team to achieve a certain number of points or kills wins). I up Battle Royal on difficulty since most players are free to get in but only skilled players will win in the end.

Only a selected few ever saw the flawless screen on Destiny and in (The Division's) Last Stand - besides it's flaws - it will still work for most PvP players.

The epitome of PvP - to me - is Trials! For those who don't know Trials, it's when you have to communicate and cooperate with a team to try and achieve a certain number of consecutive wins. On Destiny 1 it was nine but that got nerfed to seven on Destiny 2. Never the less, you'll need a weapon/gear coordinated team if you have any hopes to make it to the end!

Endless

Know as Challenge of Elders (Destiny) or Resistance (The Division) it's when you go to an area or "dungeon" and simply kill waves upon waves of enemies, some with bosses battles, in hopes to make it to the end or to the highest level you can achieve. Diablo 3 (2012) did an excellent job at this with Rifts that would allow you to begin at higher levels for increase enemies and item drops. The most difficult in any endless mode would be the boss upon boss levels, where not only each boss kill mechanic would be different, so the team had to change strategy to defeat it, it would also mean communication and cooperation between the entire team. This has not been made into any game yet, so maybe hopefully it will become a reality soon.

While in Resistance (The Division) you just need a good enough team in Challenge of Elders (Destiny) some Bosses will provide you with a mortal defiance before you can beat them.

And there you go! What any developer or game enthusiast would want or expect from a present day MMO title. Simpler activities for solo casuals and more rewarding difficult tasks for expert teamwork players. It looks simple and somehow I still get surprised how many developers got it wrong. I'm looking at you Bungie!

Hope you've enjoyed the read and I'll see you next news. Cheers!

Discloser: This article contains a lot of references to games like Destiny (Bungie, 2014), Warframe (Digital Extremes, 2013), The Division (Ubisoft, 2016), Wither 3 (DC Project Red, 2015),  or Diablo 3 (Blizzard, 2012) so, if you're unfamiliar with some terms or denominations, I tried my best to clarify them for you. This is for "dummies" after all.