01-19-2005, 07:16 PM
I don't think we'll ever see widespread player-affecting-the-environment effects in a MMORPG, since that goes against the massively multi-player elements. If a village is burned down, sure it was neat for the 5 people who burned it down, but what about the 2,000 other people who needed that area for quest givers, and the quest givers are all dead? If rebuilding the village is fun for 105 people, how fun is it for the 1,900 people who never got to use the village before it was destroyed? If killing a centaur leader makes the Barrens safe, that's fun for the 5 people who saved the Barrens, but the other 2,000 people are deprived of the event forever. Etc. Environment-wide effects are much better suited to personal games (solo, or no bigger than D2-level) than to massive ones.
The exceptions are player-implemented epic triggers. If 5 warlocks open a gate and then the rest of the server has to deal with a demonic invasion because of it, those warlocks will become notorious and legendary on their server. They'll have lots of friends and enemies due to their actions, and won't be forgotten. But the impacting events have to be big, otherwise they don't matter; and they have to be prepared for. Otherwise, you'd need a team of 100 programmers frantically trying to keep up with a dozen players, while ignoring the needs of the other thousands. "Hey, Frank and Sally killed so-and-so last night, we have to write some new script changes for everyone by tomorrow and re-design the lair!" Not practical. Cool, but never practical. :)
The advantage of a massive game isn't the player impact on the world, it's the social aspect in a huge setting. There's thousands of people to get to know and to fight against, and an entire world to explore. I think that will always be the primary appeal.
The exceptions are player-implemented epic triggers. If 5 warlocks open a gate and then the rest of the server has to deal with a demonic invasion because of it, those warlocks will become notorious and legendary on their server. They'll have lots of friends and enemies due to their actions, and won't be forgotten. But the impacting events have to be big, otherwise they don't matter; and they have to be prepared for. Otherwise, you'd need a team of 100 programmers frantically trying to keep up with a dozen players, while ignoring the needs of the other thousands. "Hey, Frank and Sally killed so-and-so last night, we have to write some new script changes for everyone by tomorrow and re-design the lair!" Not practical. Cool, but never practical. :)
The advantage of a massive game isn't the player impact on the world, it's the social aspect in a huge setting. There's thousands of people to get to know and to fight against, and an entire world to explore. I think that will always be the primary appeal.