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Ekim's Gamer View: Player-Controlled Persistence Michel "Ekim" Veilleux The second MMORPG of the year will finally be available to us by the end of this month, and the very first one (ATITD) has already been released for a couple of weeks now. It seems that for a big year in MMORPG history it's starting rather slow. Eve Online's ship date has been pushed back, SWG is still slated to ship on April 15th, yet many people doubt that this will be even possible. Freelancer just came out too… oh wait! Freelancer isn't an MMORPG now, is it? Single Player… MMORPG? Well, maybe it isn't but here is a game that quietly sneaked in under my radar. I stayed away from all the hype surrounding this title, and only started to read anything related to it this week as it was made available on store shelves. One of this game's features that I had never read about before made me curious : the multiplayer aspect of Freelancer is strangely akin to the description of an MMORPG (read the official text here). Reportedly, there are already people out there offering persistent worlds on their private server where you can log in and fly the universe with live friends or even foes - free of charge. Now, I don't want to make this article too much about Freelancer itself as I haven't played enough of the game to form a good opinion of it yet. But this kind of feature made me reflect on some aspects of the MMORPG genre. Lately there have been many discussions about the genre, how some people just don't want to pay monthly fees to enjoy their games, or how some enjoy playing solo while others don't understand such a need in multiplayer games. And here Freelancer falls in my lap and makes me wonder if this type of player-controlled persistent world isn't the answer to many of our problems. Since a Freelancer, or even a NWN persistent server is player-controlled - and owned - there are no fees to play on them. These servers are often very limited in the number of players they can accommodate, but even a handful of players can sometimes make en experience more worthwhile than some MMORPGs I've played before. Also, since a game such as Freelancer was designed as a single-player game, solo play can certainly be enjoyed without too much hassle, even while friends fly the same universe on the same server. Of course there's the question of updates and dynamic addition of content by the developers of some MMORPGs which you don't usually find on regular single-player games. That's true, but couldn't it be easily done with such a game as Freelancer? Isn't it done right now with NWN? It would certainly be feasible, but the economic model of a single-player game can be compared to a "fire-and-forget" missile, where developers launch the game, patch it a few times to correct its aim while it's tracking its target, and then forget about it because it's cruising well on its own.Free to play, Pay for support and content Here's the big question : Would you pay a monthly fee for a multiplayer game to which the developer would make regular updates but who's servers would strictly be player-owned and controlled? Would you accept that the developer supports the product for both server owners and players alike without them actually having any say on what happens on each individual server? Would you accept to pay for continued support and regular updates? Think about it. You would have the option of playing on many servers around the world, servers that would offer different types of playing style that you could choose from and adhere to. If you had a problem with the game you could still contact the developer's customer support, and so could the server owner if he found himself in such a situation. Updates would bring in new monsters, new land masses, everything that current MMORPGs offer right now. But the freedom of choosing the community, style of play, PvP status and so on would be completely open to you. And don't worry, there are people out there who are ready to open up servers like this. Much like there are players out there who are willing to spend the time and create lengthy modules for NWN. Yes, there would be issues. Servers would pop in and out of our existence, some would have more reliable hardware than others. Many more would not take good care of the players that want to play on their servers… It's a model that has many flaws, many potholes, I agree. But then again there would be very many people who might do a better job at it than some so-called "professionals" out there simply because they would be passionate about the game, simply because they don't need to be paid to enjoy what they're doing.Another sub-genre I wonder if this type of game, the "Player-Controlled Multiplayer Role-Playing Game" (or PCMRPG for short :p), couldn't be a true MMORPG hybrid, the new sub-genre of a fledgling genre. Why not? Every other genre is being segmented in so many other sub-genres these days anyway! I wonder if a good portion of players wouldn't be happier with this type of setup. The developer could keep polls on different existing servers and their quality, they could offer assistance to those wanting to start a new server of their own. The money and energy some developers are wasting in keeping their massive servers up and running smoothly could be spent in so many other ways. I'm just shooting an idea out there. Maybe it's a very, very bad one. But maybe it's not such a bad idea at all. Some companies already do it, and many players are already hosting games here and there. As bandwidths and the power of home PCs are rising exponentially every year, I don't see why the developers couldn't put total control in our hands. Maybe then it would give a real reason for players to complain, but then again it might create a community even better suited to answer to the high demands of the RPG gamers. Because we know how demanding we really are. |
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