The State of the MMO: Building a World, Part 1
By
Kevin VanOrd, Senior Editor
In the first part of an ongoing series, multiple MMOG developers dissect the creative effort that goes into building a persistent world.
This is the nitty gritty of world design. There are artists to consult, assets to request, and considerations that the uninitiated would never stop to consider. Chris Pierson at Turbine laid out the process in plain terms, and even then, it was clear that a staggering amount of effort and teamwork goes into crafting a digital paradise.
"To do a chunk of a world, I figure out what needs to go where, in a very broad sense, by painting over a scaled map of the area in Photoshop," Pierson says. "Once that's done I'll use licensed terrain-building software to block out and develop a basic heightmap, while also figuring out what biomes we're going to need, requesting the necessary assets (trees, rocks, ruins, waterfalls, etc.) from our art studio, and deciding what existing assets we can use as placeholders for both ground textures and scenery. I check out the heightmap in the engine and iterate a bunch of times over several weeks, adjusting stuff here and there, then divide the world-chunk into smaller pieces and doing a more detailed pass on each of these in turn within our worldbuilder tool. By the time this is done, the piece will have a first pass on texturing and scenery-asset placement done, at which point I (and whoever might have been doing it with me, because I always have some help) hand the piece over to whoever our lead has assigned to that piece. They then polish the region and build out the towns, monster camps, and other details, and just keep refining until we hit deadline. Along the way our requested assets come in from art, and we incorporate those as we go (as well as making suggestions for polish)."
As you can imagine, there are a lot of kinks that must be ironed out. These kinks aren't necessarily bugs, but entire game systems that might not turn out as intended, or that don't work harmoniously with other aspects of the design. ArenaNet's Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda knows a thing or two about ideas that just don't work the way they were meant to. "When we were working on actually starting to build out personal story content, and looking back on early drafts for missions that were written before the other systems really came online, there was more than once that we went 'Whoa, okay, this isn't going to work!' Or we'd implement it and it wasn't nearly as fun as we thought it would be."
Mitsoda's colleague, Steve Hwang, offers a specific example of a system that just wasn't working. "At one point in development, to make the world feel alive, dynamic events were visible to players from a very long distance. This had the effect of cluttering the compass with icons and players would often see an event and head to it, but because it was so far away they wouldn't arrive in time, or would show up just as the event ended, which was disappointing to players."
I think I want a mix of 'yeah, that's what I thought that looked like' and 'so that's what that looked like,' with a dash of 'holy shit' mixed in now and then.
Almost everyone we spoke to agreed that the key to success was remaining flexible--and to be ready to throw an idea out if it wasn't working, no matter how much you adore it. "One of the largest adventure zones in the game, for example--the Besieged Farmlands in Transylvania--was built and rebuilt from scratch three times before we landed on what we have today," says Funcom's Ragnar Tornquist. "Gameplay changes, performance issues, art direction, testing and feedback--all of it affects the world we've built, and we need to be very flexible. It's dangerous to get too invested in how things look, and a willingness to change and discard and redo is something we instill in everyone."
At ArenaNet, Kim Kirsch echoed Tornquist's sentiments. "When you build something, it's easy to fall in love with some tricky thing you came up with on the backend, or to miss the fact that you aren't explaining or messaging things properly because you already know how everything works. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of the player, and the ability to receive and use feedback, are irreplaceable things that every developer should be mindful of."
Each developer made vast changes to their worlds over the course of development, either throwing out entire areas, or redesigning them so drastically that they took on new properties. Not every region you explore in Star Wars: The Old Republic is the same as when it started, for instance. Says James Ohlen: "The first world we built, Korriban, probably went through the most revision. Initial builds were too claustrophobic and felt more like a fantasy world than a Star Wars world. The final version that appears in the game has more open spaces and feels like it belongs in the Star Wars universe."
These steps are only the beginning to creating an online world, and our world designers had a lot more to say. Next week, the developers talk about first impressions, and taking old fantasy standards and making them new again. We also get a peek into the future. Could there yet be an Anarchy Online 2 in the future? Ragnar Tornquist gives us the scoop.
By
Kevin VanOrd, Senior Editor
Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
76 comments
It's sad to see a game like GW2 already slipping off the charts and it hasn't even been out for a month yet. Some of the regions are like ghost towns. Some of the bugs are so apparent that it's hard to believe the developer even missed them. For me, MMO's are running out of gas. GW2 was to be the next step, but I think I'm going to ditch them completely.
It's sad to see a game like GW2 already slipping off the charts and it hasn't even been out for a month yet. Some of the regions are like ghost towns. Some of the bugs are so apparent that it's hard to believe the developer even missed them. For me, MMO's are running out of gas. GW2 was to be the next step, but I think I'm going to ditch them completely.
1 Like Best lore: Warhammer Online
Best pvp: Warhammer Online
Worst management: Warhammer Online
@InsidiousNature Well, Warhammer had some decent Lore, but ive found WoW to have the best so far. Ive read all the novels out so far, and there is just a crapload of content/story, even more if u read the quests.
I also hated the way warhammer did the PvP, rock>paper>scissors is not a great way to build a mmo
I agree with the last part though lol
@greendude123 WoW has crappy lore but even crappier pvp system. WAR still has the best pvp of all active MMORPGS, shame about the devs trying to cripple that. Oodles party combinations, a group people who know what they're doing are able to mop the floor with three or four times their number of pugs so no mindless facerolling is allowed. Lots of learning curves, sure, but that's one of the appeals of the game. Of course, I'm excluding DAoC because it's hardly active nowadays. But has to be noted that DAoC had THE best pvp of all games of all times, period.
That is correct, more's the pity. Still around 3-400 subs and 2 servers active, one EU the other US. But it's declining rapidly due to horrible decisions above.
@InsidiousNature except u forgot one part..no one plays Warhammer anymore. the servers are dead.
2 Like I love MMOs and have pretty much played most of them over time. The thing I would really like to see is MMOs take a step towards actually dropping the pen-n-paper paradigm and actually incorporating more action and real world elements into the game. What I mean by this is MMOs were originally designed as graphical representations of pnp D&D with stats and rng. I would like to see MMOs actually use visceral effects and actions instead of actually relying on stats/min-maxing. Stats could still exist but they should be in the background. I would like to see players actually have to experiment with items they find in the world. For example, the sword you find seems like a normal sword but glows blue near orcs and does more damage versus them. You would only know this thru experimenting with it.
I would also like to see MMOs actually moving away from levels and loot acquisition as the main for of progression. Instead, MMOs should be based on skill acquisition. Instead of doing quests just to get purple gear, you should be motivated by interacting with the story. For example, Anakin Skywalker's motive for pursuing the dark side wasnt just to be 'leet' his final motivation that pushed him over the side was the promise that he could find a skill that would prevent his love from dying. Loot can be a determining factor but the primary reason to get loot should be the abilities that it gives not just a carrot on a stick treadmill.
Another thing that I would really like to see is MMOs get rid of a lot of the unnecessary time sinks. This like vendor trash and armor repairs are a waste of time and just add tedium to the game. Instead of wasting time on these things they could make things like crafting more robust like FFXI's crafting system that relied on time of day and availability of components.
The players should be the quest givers not random npcs asking for 10 widgets. Expert crafting players send othre players on quests for dragon scales to create the fantastic armor set for example.
Outstanding article, can't wait for part 2. Really makes it clear what a labour of love it is to create compelling persistent game worlds on such a vast scale.
Even tho I don't really like MMO's, this article was really good.
I really hope some of the future parts will cover characters, monsters and bosses.
1 Like Having played everything from Meridian59, I think I am finally over the genre for now. I just finished with SWTOR which I have to say I enjoyed immensely and the way you have a consistent storyline from 1-50 that you can always return to when your not grouping makes SWTOR just about best in show for me. However too many years in EQ and EQ2 and well as an 18 month stint in WoW have left me kind of worn out on the whole thing. I had no interest in GW2 for that reason even though it looks like a good game. Funcom did me a favour with TSW because it is sooo bad, I basically said thats my last MMO, be intersting to see if anything can lure me back.
1 Like I may be interested to play again a MMO, especially a MMORPG when...
- They'll stop making static and 'feeling-of-no-progress' worlds... You killed a boss, only to see it respawn a bit later so it's available for the next players...
- No subscription... ever... I don't want to pay for the right to play a MMO when I'm playing something else for more than half a month...
- No boring quests like get me 10 magic things or kill 15 rabid wolves... Rinse and repeat ad nauseam...
- No more stuck in one role... You're a tank, and you can only play as such...
So far, the only MMOs I'm interested/already playing are: League of Legends, World of Tanks and MechWarrior Online... I find them fun probably because they're so far from the classic WoW formula...
As for RPG, I prefer singleplayer or classic multiplayer games like Fallout, Skyrim, Borderland or Torchlight, where I have the feeling of changing the world around me. Far more than any MMO to date...
very informative article, the last mmo I really enjoyed and got into was the first guild wars, recently tried rift but didn't feel anything there, might give guild wars 2 a shot,
anyway I have a question for you kevin, what is your all time favorite MMO?
1 Like @ali_manslayer My all-time favorite MMO is Anarchy Online. It connected with me for a lot of reasons. It had a world so different from any other online world at that point; it had endless customization options, so each time you gained a level, it was exciting; it had amazing sound design; it had a backstory that interested in me, and made me feel like part of a conflict that mattered; it constantly surprised me: lightning storms just outside of West Athens, little secrets and hideaways off in the distance, and so on. It also made it easy to log in for a little while, do a mission or two, and log out. You even got a home of your own, right off the bat. It felt less like a game to be played, and more like an actual place--different enough to be unique, yet grounded in political conflicts that resonated.
1 Like MMORPG :> Massively Monotonous Openworld Role Playing game.
Even Knights of the old republic feels more alive in the cities and towns with things going on, than SWTOR.
@MooncalfReviews You sound like someone fresh off a TOR rage quit who would probably troll any article involving MMOs.
I wasn't aware that it was trolling to say MMOs suck. I thought that was the more popular opinion, in this case.
@MooncalfReviews Posting in an article about MMOs that MMOs suck is the very definition of trolling.
Kevin VanOrd is the only reason i keep reading Gamespot. That other reviewer Carol Petit is horrible.
As usual, VanOrd knows how to write a damn good article.
On a personal level I'm kind of burnt out on MMO's lately, I was a raider in Vanilla and BC WoW, played Guild Wars, LotRO and The Old Republic (along with a few other short lived ones) and I think this is true of a lot of people.
It's not that MMO's are getting stale, it's just that a lot of people are getting worn out on the constant grind for leveling and gear, especially those who have played things like WoW for almost 8 years straight now.
@BuBsay That's why I love GW2. As a vet, there's nothing more refreshing than an MMO experience that, for me, lacks the overall gear/grind pressure prevalent in most competitive mmo's. That said, the hardcore element feels slightly less intense as a result. But hey, I'm barely 40 in game :P
@BuBsay I agree. Not only have people been tired of the constant grind for years, personally, I've been tired of the dungeon grind in particular. Even the MMOs that try to be different end up with the same old dungeon grind on lockout - raid on lockout. GW2 is on my radar because the pvp looks good enough to be endgame.
@BuBsay There's also a gap from those just coming into the game from those who have played for years. It can be a little daunting.
You play SWGalaxies? I would think you would have tried that being a vanilla veteran and Guild Wars I player.
3 Like Hey, wait a minute. This article smacks of, I dunno, real journalism or something. Nice work, VanOrd.
3 Like @vishisluv7 :) I am used to information presented to me in a dry if efficient manner.
Good article Kevin, as always. One question though: You of course mentioned that Secret World was not Funcoms first MMO, however we never got to see any more opinions on Age of Conan. Im assuming this is because the article is being based on newer MMOs instead of all of them in general?
AoC had one of the best world atmospheres of any game i ever played. Aside from being EXTREMELY detailed, their sizes were just amazing. Especially when you stepped into cities. And their source material is more than 3 times that much more than LOTR. Now, their game content has faltered over the years, but i believe that if LOTRO could get a mention, AoC wouldve fallen in there too.
@CarlitosWay Ragnar focused mostly on Secret World, but he did touch on both AO and Age of Conan. They'll both appear in part 2 :)
AOC was a greta looking MMO but, it's technical problem at release was horrible. It took a major fall back then.
3 Like I just hope GUILD WARS 2/ArenaNet prevail like the "second best" MMO or something like that.
When companies reach the top there ego explodes and they just unlearn it all.
5 Like I think there is too much pressure on the new MMO game, the WoW killer that everyone expects there to be.The fact of the matter is that there probably won't be one game that complete redefines the genre. WoW was a huge leap for its time and did something that not many other games in the genre could achieve. It was an addictive game for many years and yea it required a monthly deposit but so what? Can we really expect one game to completely fulfill out bottomless desire of new innovative content without a monthly deposit?
How many single player stories keep us satiated as consumes for multiple years at a time? Can you honestly name one that you could play for hours every day and still be having a great time years later? I can't. I think it is great what they did with guild wars 2. I'm glad that there are companies that ambitious. Did I expect to approach the game and be completely blown away by something I've never seen? No, i didn't. But for a game that is only 60 bucks, I don't think we, as consumers, could ask for much more. Game developers are people, just like the consumers, and they want to play a the games just as much as we do.
It's time for people to stop expecting something that will completely redefine how we spend our time gaming and realize that this genre is too demanding for it's own good. I'm grateful that these companies work to make a new experience for us. And if they want to make some money while they are doing it, then that's good for them.
6 Like The #1 reason that I didn't like SWTOR was because the world felt lifeless, bland, fragmented, uninspired, and linear. Also no day / night cycle was a huge letdown, I could never get immersed in that game. Too bad because I liked most everything else well enough.
1 Like i kind of liked the SWtOR ... maybe i will go back to it once free2play is activated
@LegendaryFightz @diabolik_023 Only free to 15 right now, but in a few months it will be free all the way to 50.
9 Like The SWtOR developers should be thankful for being included in this article.
Listen, I'm not one of those rabid TOR haters; I think they did a lot of things extremely well, but where they failed miserably was in creating a living, breathing world (or worlds in this case) with believable scale.
In this area, I believe GW2 has set a new standard. Never has a world felt so...alive. And that archtecture and art style...wow.
6 Like @befo72 GW2 really set a new standard in a lot of areas in terms of an MMO. The overall leveling experience (how everything gives you at least a little xp), the auto scaling to area (play with your friends regardless of level, get loot of your level), the crafting discovery system, dynamic events, the living breathing world (and awesome incentive to explore it to 100%)....
Not saying GW2 will be the one to rule them all, the overall gameplay is sort of niche. But I would be very surprised if all future MMOs didn't steal 2-3 of these ideas every game.
2 Like @befo72 yeah TOR was very linear. However I don't believe GW2 has set anything. It is the same type of linearity but a bit more free in how you level.
3 Like GW2 is only linear in that areas have different level content and you need to stay near your character's level on the way up. Beyond that, with the level scaling you can go back to lower level areas that you've never visited and have as much fun as you do in the higher level ones. There is no nudging/shoving you from one quest hub to another and no quest log keeping track of everything you do and making sure you do it in order. That's the kind of linearity WoW introduced, and that I'm tired of in LoTRO and that detracted a lot from Tera's potential. GW2 feels very different.
6 Like @MoreThot @befo72 I think vishi is looking specifically at TOR's level design. Compared to most themepark MMOs, Guild Wars 2 is much more free and open. Any game that has a path--leveling, storytelling, and so on--could be called "linear" to some extent. In terms of world design specifically, TOR is much more linear than is Guild Wars 2.
1 Like @befo72 Despite ToRs flaws, the talent behind it are very qualified to speak on the subject matter. The world was all corridors rather than a living world though, point taken there.
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Table of Contents
Guild Wars 2
Not Following
-
PC, MAC
- Publisher:
- NCSOFT
- Category:
- Role-Playing
- Release:
- Aug 28, 2012
- ESRB:
- T
