Final Year Research Dissertation

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“Incorporating Dynamic Design into the Design of Next Generation Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Environments”

Entertainment Research Dissertation

Rebecca Louise Sutcliffe (su002102)

Supervisor: Yvan Cartwright

Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology – Staffordshire University

BEng(Hons) in Computer Games Design

April 2010

Abstract

The motivation for this design is to create a new player experience in the genre of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game environments. This genre is a popular one with gamers in general, with frontrunners such as Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” attracting over eleven million yearly subscribers, at £8.99 a month.

However, only a small percentage of MMORPGs that are developed continue to be successful, and even those that are successful struggle to continue to hold their players in the player life cycle.

The main complaints that are focused around this genre are:

• That even the end game content is too easy.
• That although MMORPGs are inherently social games, social interaction between players is not encouraged enough.
• That a deeper and more emergent narrative structure would help players to feel more involved.
• That the games are not immersive enough, reducing player experience overall, especially for role playing games where feeling in touch with your character is a key idea.

This design will address these important points and improve the social experience and player experience in general – with the overall aim of attracting more players to the MMORPG genre, and maintaining their interest so as to keep them in the player lifecycle by providing a challenging and rewarding party experiences.

These problems, that the design aims to solve, addresses the overall concept of

How can designers provide “Dynamic” content, in both a narratological and ludological context in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Environments?

The way in which these problems were approached were by analysing current dungeon design principles, and assessing how these could be altered and improved to create a more challenging and rewarding experience.

Using these principles, a Design Document was constructed (See Appendices) to test the techniques, and applied to a Dungeons and Dragons™ campaign situation to test these principles on prototype players with boss encounters adapted to suit the testing. Furthermore, careful consideration has been taken to use narrative theory to create an in depth emergent narrative which the players can really get involved in. World mechanics have been omitted, since the design focuses on the dungeon experience alone – but it is suggested that the design takes place in a persistent game world similar to an average popular MMORPG.

The results found were that adapting current principles and incorporating narrative theory can result in a playable dungeon which incorporates ludonarratological theory – integrating both fun gameplay mechanics and emergent narrative. This means that theory applied to different current MMOs can be combined to create a player experience that is stronger than both separately, attracting new players and providing ample challenge for current players that will return them to the beginning of the player life cycle, increasing the chance that they will become loyal members of the game’s fanbase.

In conclusion, using the result of this study can be applied to future designs for MMORPG grouped encounters and instanced situations to create an immersive, fun and interesting player experience. This will be significant to designers of this genre, as these theories can be applied to future designs to replicate the results. Furthermore, it shows that the use of prototype dungeons such as those created using Dungeons and Dragons™ methodologies can be used in an industry setting to test dungeon designs in a cheaper, easier and more time efficient way that will quickly determine the success rate of a dungeon in a group situation.

Introduction

Massively Multiplayer Games have been around only since the 1990’s in the form that we are familiar with – but their history spans back much further to the first multi user games which were introduced as early as the 1970s – one of the first being “MUD” – a multi user dungeon adventure game developed by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw in 1978.
There is no doubt that Massively Multiplayer Games have come a long way since then, and are stronger today than they’ve ever been – with suggestions that they may now make up to 25% of all game industry sales.

“Lazard Capital‘s Colin Sebastian reckons that online games will generate upwards of $11 billion of revenue this year, thereby making up 25 per cent of total industry earnings. “We estimate that online video games will generate more than $11 billion in revenues this year, up from $3 billion in 2005, and account for roughly 25% of industry game sales worldwide,” said Sebastian“. (Anon., n.d.)
Since this genre of gaming is becoming so popular and widespread throughout the world, it is a very interesting subject, and one which brings up many issues. One of the main issues is the replay-ability factor of certain zones in MMOs such as dungeons. Even end game dungeons in most of the more popular MMOs such as Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” have little replay-ability except for the need to play again to get a certain piece of loot which may not have dropped last time. The fact that the dungeon experience has little or no difference each time you play it reduces not only the replay-ability but also the level of immersion and excitement for the player.
Furthermore, for the majority of MMO dungeons there is only a few simple tactics that are required to beat a boss character. More often than not, it only takes a “Tank” character – someone who can take lots of damage and make the enemy attack them, a “Healer” – to prevent people from dying, and “DPS” – or “Damage Per Second” characters which continuously damage the enemy until it dies. This set of tactics is sometimes called “Tank and Spank”.

“Tank and Spank is the most common type of PvE fight. Tank holds aggro, DPS nuke the mob(s), healers keep the tank alive. The only common complication in fights of this type is aggro - damage dealers must be careful not to generate more threat than the tank.
The expression is sometimes used derogatorily, meaning that the essential battle tactics for a boss are pitifully simple…” (Anon., n.d.)

Basic Principles of Dungeon Design

First of all it was necessary to research the background principles of Dungeon Design, taking inspiration from past and current existing massively multiplayer online role playing games, game design theory and traditional gaming elements such as Dungeons and Dragons.

Below is a list of basic principles of MMO dungeon design as outlined in a content design document for the popular modern MMO “World of Warcraft” (Kennerly, 2007):

• Progression
• Pace of the dungeon, and the pace of the mobs including bosses
• Varying points of interest
• Making every class have an important role in the dungeon
• Showing off the skills of the more experienced players, whilst still encouraging new players and not making them feel alienated.
• Use of Easter Eggs
• Build in “Cheats” which make the player feel as though they are “Beating the Game”

Also to be taken into account is the role of the player, including player archetypes such as Killer, Achiever, Socialiser and Explorer (Bartle, 1996) and defined class roles, which encompass the skills and abilities that the player has – which take their roots from game design theory and traditional table top gaming such as Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax, 1978). These class roles will be looked into in more detail in the “Classes in MMOs” section. (See Below).

Progression

Progression plays a very important role in the design of MMO dungeons, if only from a theory point of view to create a real “adventure” for the players. There are many things which can be covered by the word “Progression”, including:

• Dungeon progression, including the length of the dungeon and the way the player “progresses” through the dungeon
  • There are many different methods in which dungeon designers place their dungeon layouts – choosing carefully for length and setup in order to provide interesting adventures for the players, and for something which is going to be a challenge but not too long, hard or boring.
  • Player progression, or the way in which the player learns their way around the dungeon, and the patterns involved in fighting the mobs.
    • This again is somewhat involved in the setup and layout of the dungeon, again at the designer’s discretion.  It can span across a wide range of layouts, from one extreme of wide open spaces which are easy to navigate, to small winding labyrinths of corridors which are there to bewilder and confuse the player.
    • Enemy progression, including the sequence in which the player beats the mobs, and how far they get through the dungeon, including the difficulty curve.
      • The main focus of this point is how difficult the mobs are and how the curve of their difficulty is organized. For example how much harder is one mob than the last as the player progresses through the dungeon? How difficult are the bosses? How many players does it take to beat the bosses, and how well geared do they have to be? What level do they have to be, or is it an end game dungeon? These questions need to be addressed in the design of the dungeon in order to assure good progression for the player, who can then be properly equipped for the dungeon, and find it interesting and challenging without being completely out of the loop.

Pacing

Pacing of the dungeon is also a vital point to consider, since it can change the entire feel and ambiance of a dungeon. If it is a slow, long dungeon with not many mobs, it can cause a few different emotions in a player – it can either cause tension because they are expecting something to happen, or become boring because there isn’t much going on – meaning the players will be more likely to rush through the dungeon and miss most of it. However, on the other side of things a smaller dungeon with more roaming mobs can have another few types of emotions – the players rush through the mobs, and since there is no down time for them to sit back and look back at “what just happened” they may not take any notice of the dungeon itself, and so it will rather become just a place where a group of people fight together. It could also on the other hand provide a sense of chaos, which could make the dungeon more exciting and fun. Either way it is important to maintain a good balance.

Pacing mainly takes into account the placement of the mobs, how frequently they occur and the difficulty curve of the mobs encountered, and therefore pacing goes hand in hand with the progression of the dungeon, since one affects the other.

Furthermore the close relationship of the dungeon layout and the number, placement and difficulty of the enemies must be decided carefully in the dungeon design.

Varying Points of Interest

In order to make an interesting dungeon experience, it is a good idea to provide varying points of interest which can engage the player, and distract from the main combat. Providing a good story, or puzzle solving elements will make the dungeon much more fun and immersive. Points of interest can cover many things which are out of the ordinary, including things such as:

• Interesting architecture
  • This could include architecture which differs from the rest of the game, or architecture which follows a certain theme. 
  • Puzzles
    • This can mean anything which requires a certain task to be completed before the character can progress, for example a intellectual riddle to solve, or physical challenge.
    • Obstacles
      • This includes anything which blocks the character’s path. So a world feature, including architecture, or physical feature such as mob which will not let the character past or requires fighting before the character can progress.
      • Narrative and Lore references
        • This could include key story characters, references from NPCs relating to or mentioning lore or key characters, or architectural elements which relate to these, for example memorial plates or environments which are relevant to missions or quests.
        • Out-of-the-ordinary combat stances and sequences
          • This could include unusual tactics or skills used in a certain order to obtain a certain effect.
          • Important boss characters
            • This could include general boss characters which are harder than other mobs, narrative and lore reference characters, or characters which require out-of-the-ordinary tactics and combat sequences to defeat.
            • Non-Player-Characters
              • This can include Lore and Narrative references, Quest Givers and combat partners. Non-player characters are usually used as tools for furthering the story or creating atmosphere.
              • Atmosphere and Environment Effects
                • This can include Environment effects such as weather (rain, fog etc) or special effects.

Class Roles

“Role Playing is King: Co-operative Challenges Are Most Effective when Players have Specialist Roles to fulfill.” (Alexander, 2003)

In massively multiplayer role playing game environments, the role of the character is very important and helps to define the player in a world with massive amounts of players.

The role of a player can be assigned or discovered by first establishing what the motives and motivations of the player are. It is also defines by what abilities they are given – so spells and actions available in the game – and how they choose to use these abilities to act in a certain way.

The abilities that the player is provided with usually are encompassed by the character class that the player chooses. A character class is the way in which players are separated depending on the skills and abilities that they have, or what role they play in the group, whether it be Attack, Defense, Support, or any combination of these options. Although many of the character classes in modern MMOs are very variable, most can be filtered into three categories – Attack, Defense, and Support. This is demonstrated not just in modern gaming but also traditional gaming such as Dungeons and Dragons, who’s first three classes were the Cleric, the Fighting Man and the Magic User – with the Cleric as healing/support, the Fighting Man for defense, to protect the Magic User while he dealt high damage from far away. (Gygax, 1978)

Another way in which players are defined is the role that they choose to play. This is not confined to the character class, but more the areas of the game in which the player is interested in, or what he spends most of his time doing. One such way of defining players in this way is outlined by Richard Bartle, in a paper in which he states that there are four different archetypes of players (Bartle, 1996) – or at the very least that all players can be allocated a space in one of these slots. These four different types of players can be analogized as the four suits in a deck of cards –

• Hearts – Socialisers: These players play the game for the social aspect, and will prefer to spend time getting to know players or helping others.
• Diamonds – Achievers: These players seek new challenges all the time, and wish to achieve things not attained by other players before. This can include dungeons, bosses or in-game achievements as provided by the developers.
• Spades – Explorers: These players like to dig around for information in the game, and find secrets in the hard to reach corners of the game world. These players will often spend hours to explore the world, often with no obvious material reward.
• Clubs – Killers: These players take solace in killing other players, or at the very least causing great trouble for them. This could be through Player vs. Player combat, tricking other players, or travelling to enemy areas to defeat NPCs of the opposite faction.

Catering for New & Experienced Players

Another issue that developers face is the recruitment of new players to the game, whilst also maintaining the satisfaction of the existing players. This requires careful balancing of the difficulty curve in the game, since it must be syncronised with the player life cycle.

(Yee, 2007)

Keeping this lifecycle in mind when designing content will ensure the maximum player base satisfaction – for example providing novel and easy content for beginners, whilst easing in the concepts of party mechanics, and providing challenging and interesting end game content for experienced players which reinforces the importance of guilds, and providing big rewards for remaining active and logging on regularly.

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs are usually more of afterthought to provide entertainment, immersion and an element of the metagame to the dungeon, and will also usually tie in to the narrative and lore of the dungeon. They are simple secret elements to the dungeon which make the player feel as though he has found something secret and special. Existing Easter eggs can be things such as side quests, non-player characters, chests and secret treasures, or rare enemies with rare rewards!

They can take many forms, and although they often provide no great material value to the player, the novelty value means they are often highly sought after. Some examples of Easter Eggs are:

• In Game Events – Events which correspond with real world events such as Christmas, Easter and Halloween. These often incorporate things such as special quests, bosses and aesthetic changes to the game world and the player character.
• Popular Culture References – These can be simple things such as NPCs with names parodying those of real life characters – such as “Haris Pilton” – a character in World of Warcraft, who sells relatively useless items at highly inflated prices, and a group of Forsaken characters in the Undercity, named Tyler, Edward, Marla and Chloe, seemingly acting out a scene from the book and film, “Fight Club”. These references can also come in the form of quests, such as a quest in World of Warcraft given by a character named Harrison Jones – a parody of Harrison Ford’s character Indiana Jones – simply named “Dun-da-Dun-tah!”, in which Harrison Jones will help you escape some catacombs.
• Novelty Items – These are often items which have a relatively low drop rate, or drop from a special mob – they tend to either provide some form of aesthetic alteration to the player character, or, in the sense of WoW’s “Piccolo of the Flaming Fire” – which forces all party members around you to start dancing – items which not only have novelty value, but also provide a source of social interaction with other players and draws attention to the player.

Easter Eggs help to make the game enjoyable to play since they add a bit of harmless fun to the game and help to mask and distract the player from the grinding of experience points and advancement. It also helps to engage the character on another level – and shows how popular culture can influence game lore, and the other way round – how player culture can transfer to real life situations.

“Cheats”

Another of the Dungeon Design principles taking from the Warcraft Content Design is that sometimes it is a good idea to put in “Cheats that are Okay”. This doesn’t necessarily mean unbalances or bugs in the mechanics, but rather allowing the player to take a shortcut to a goal which makes them think that they are “Beating the Game” and gives them a huge degree of satisfaction. In the world of MMOs, the taboo of cheating is seen very different to real life. Whilst in real life cheaters will be looked down upon and shunned, in MMOs the player may be put on a pedestal, and other players will request that the player to help them to beat the game too. In this sense, it appears that the players see the game as a common enemy – working together to find shortcuts and easy ways to complete goals.

Genres and Themes in MMOs

Throughout the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming genre, there are many different genres of gameplay, and many different types of themes represented. The most common themes represented in MMOs are usually those surrounding fantasy and traditional subjects – swords, shields, knights and wizards travelling together on epic adventures to battle dragons and other untold terrors. These themes are usually set in environments comparable to those associated with Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax, 1978). Other themes have been explored in more modern MMOs, such as space and science fiction (EveOnline, 2003), crime and law (APB, 2009), and superheroes (CoH, 2004), although most if not all follow the same structure of completing quests for non-player characters, fighting enemies and leveling up in a persistent world..

Considering a chart of the top selling MMOGs in the current market and their genres:

(See Appendix 1)

From these statistics seen in the graph it is easy to deduce that Fantasy is the most common and popular genre for modern MMOGs. The reason why fantasy MMOGs are so popular is similar to why anything of the fantasy genre – including films and books – are so popular. The key to this is escapism.

“The reason that fantasy is so popular for both adults and children alike is that they offer escapism from work or school into a different realm. If you`re reading about elves or magic then the worries of business, homework or housework are forgotten and everyone can let their imagination run wild. This is probably the reason that fantasy is such a broad category and unites almost everyone, from the elderly to those just starting to read, or to take an interest in films.”

(FantasyBookReview, 2008)

The concept of escapism holds the key for choosing themes and genres for new MMOGs, with focus on enabling the player to feel a connection with the character and the world around them. The main way in which a player develops a connection to a character and feels more immersed in the game world is for the player to experience events in the game which makes them feel like a “hero” – especially events which tie in greatly with the spine narrative of the game. This is also demonstrated in many famous and popular movies – such as “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” – which, according to Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, all share a similar structure known as the “Monomyth”:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of

supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and

a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this

mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

(Campbell, 1968)

This is relevant to a player character, since the journey of a Character from level 1 to the level cap (or to the max level of character advancement, no matter what form it comes in) has many similarities with the monomyth – with 5 basic stages that the player experiences being very similar to Campbell’s theory:

• A Call to Adventure – The discovery of a quest.
• A Road of Trials – The challenge of the quest.
• The Goal – Completing the Quest.
• The Return to the Ordinary World – Returning to town to hand in the Quest.
• The Application of the Goal – Receiving a reward in terms of character advancement for completing the quest, or accepting the following quest in a chain.

The fact that these can be applied to MMO player characters helps to greatly increase the level of immersion and familiarity that a player feels towards their character – and means they are much more likely to keep playing! World of Warcraft manages to incorporate this theory while still keeping it simple -  making the player feel like the hero and as though they are each individually contributing to the spine narrative of the game.

Another main theme that is incorporated into modern MMOGs is the idea of war and conflict. Most if not all MMOGs have the concept of a common enemy, whether it be that the players are united against that enemy, or if faction based combat exists, even between players. On a basic level, if there must be enemies for the player to defeat, there must be reasoning behind this – and so some form of conflict or war must exist. Many of the more successful MMOs do not have a clear cut “good guys vs. bad guys” situation, in order to encourage players to be more likely to defend their faction, and allow a deeper and more complex conflict to develop. This can be seen in action in games such as World of Warcraft, who, on the surface, have the Alliance and the Horde who are opposing factions – but are both against the Burning Legion, a demonic force who threaten to destroy the planet. This leads to an uneasy truce between factions. This is also depicted by main cities which have opened up, such as Dalaran, which is a “sanctuary” and so forbids any Player vs. Player combat between factions within their walls. Furthermore, it has been shown that many Role Play scenarios created by player characters as implicit narrative have been said to show a pattern of more inter-guild conflicts than conflicts between the Alliance and the Horde.  However, it seems that Blizzard have found it difficult to represent this “uneasy truce” and cater for the player’s will to kill opposing players, which is arguably a very rewarding experience, presenting them with Experience Points as part of Character Advancement, Reputation with certain factions and access to rare items. (WoWWiki, 2010) (MacCallum-Stewart, 2008).

The concept of war in “Warcraft” is very complex considering the cartoony art direction and simplistic game mechanics – as soon as the player enters the game, there are hints of conflict and uneasy truces – with references to “foul mongrels”, not-so-subtle bitterness towards the horde and even talk of “traitors wishing to destroy Stormwind from within” – even in the very first cinematic that any player creating a Human character will see.  (Unsupported source type (Misc) for source Bli05.) This creates a feeling of unease and suspicious of all characters in Azeroth, even the supposedly safe starting areas. Furthermore, the connotations that the player will pick up when creating a character rely on references from traditional gaming and popular culture, such as Lord of the Rings (Tolkien, 1954)  and Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax, 1974), in the sense that Humans are a noble race, usually fighting for good but with questionable methods, and races such as Orcs and Trolls are usually savage, misunderstood beings fighting for their right to the land, but are generally portrayed as the “bad guys” – with the Orcs being “a non-playable race, described in the Monster Manual as “aggressive humanoids that raid, pillage and battle other creatures”.”. (MacCallum-Stewart, 2008) (Cook, 2000). The point of this is that if the player has any kind of fantasy or role playing experience at all in the past, they will pick up on these tropes, and they will alter their opinion of the races portrayed in Warcraft, whether the developers meant for it to be that way or not.

Narratology and Lore in MMOs

One main device used to increase the level of immersion in MMOs and allows the player to feel a new level of connection to the game – experiencing real adventures and challenges with their friends. Big world events taking place in an MMO environment can help the player feel part of a bigger machine, and encourages players to work together – and since the social aspect is one thing which separates Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games from generic Role Playing Games, this is a very important factor. (Conjecture, 2003)

One argument between Ludologists and Narratologists exists as to whether MMOs are defined by the gameplay, or a series of intertwining narratives which the player experiences. What is closer to the truth is that a successful MMO is a combination of both – where the player experiences and acts out gameplay which surrounds the existing back story (Sklar, 2009).

Another consideration to be made involving the lore of MMOs is whether or not it will be pre-determined by developers, or created by the users. Due to the nature of MMOs, it is unlikely there will be any clear end to the story when the game is launched. This is because the aim of any successful Massively Multiplayer Online game is to be ever-changing and evolving to player’s needs, along with creating new content for not only new players, but also players who have completed all the end game content. This prevents the player from reaching the “Burnout” stage of the player life cycle, and brings them back to the Practice stage, as they learn about the new narrative devices and lore elements (Yee, 2007). It is therefore necessary, when creating a next generation MMO, to consider the storyline and lore elements for the MMO and what progression the story will have for the future to encourage replay-ability and player immersion.

It has become apparent from past released MMOGs that narrative content of these games is a very important – if not THE most important factor in creating a successful game. Despite some bad reviews, one main thing that Tabula Rasa boasted was “storyline…well-crafted, carried along by a variety of interesting mission objectives” (CommonSenseMedia, 2007). This is a prime example of a storyline negatively affected by gameplay.

This example brings forth the argument of Ludology vs. Narratology – or rather the question of which is more important – the Gameplay, or the Narrative. This is a big area of research and debate in games studies, with academics such as Espen Aarseth and Jesper Jules arguing the case for either side. Furthermore, the issue of Implicit and Emergent narrative comes to light – more specifically whether or not the player can create their own content. There are many different types of narrative within the MMOG genre, with something like EVE Online at one end – with player driven narrative – and something like Tabula Rasa at the other end with set narrative which is unchangeable. The question is –

How much power do players have to affect the narrative of Massively Multiplayer Online Games?

The ability for players to affect narrative is obviously very important, and millions of players log in to MMOGs every day to create their own story. It is still necessary, however to maintain a balance between giving control of the narrative to the players and providing an engaging and immersive spine narrative. It is often difficult to create deep and meaningful characters without forcing the narrative on the player too much. This is where the technique of “Directed Gameplay” becomes apparent. A term coined by Jeff Kaplan, lead game designer of World of Warcraft – Directed Gameplay is the way in which “design of WoW was [used] to improve immersion within the context of an open-world design.” (Unsupported source type (Interview) for source Placeholder1.). Using this method when designing Quests and Achievements helps the designers to maintain control over the fabula and the narrative experience that the player has. If the player has control over the fabula, they become their own narrators, and this could result in a less immersive or realistic experience than intended. It is beneficial to have an engaging story from the developer’s point of view, because it gives it a feeling of a TV series, in the sense that the player wants to stay tuned in to the narrative, and furthermore the narrative can be changed it needs to be, which is very important in an ever changing persistent world.

Having a set spine narrative increases the emotional connection to the game – and this in turn increases immersion, having an effect similar to that of a soap opera – where the player doesn’t want to miss what will happen next! This added emotional effect also helps to build up the lore around the game world, and also encourage a loyal player base to develop (PopularVirtualWorlds, 2010).

A general rule of thumb for character design in general, not just for MMOGs, is to encourage the player to empathize and relate to the character. A sense of familiarity and relation helps to immerse the character and so increase interest in the narrative and lore of the game world.

There are many narrative techniques that developers use in order to create engaging narrative and help the player feel a connection with their character – while still enforcing the principles of Directed Gameplay. The use of these principles gives the player the illusion of freedom, including free will and complex choices. The theme of Illusion however is not just limited to the gameplay mechanics, but also stretches to the geography and level design of the world. An example of such an illusion would be the fact that there are many Non-player characters in the world of Azeroth, each with a purpose that adds to the narrative and even some with complex back stories and relationships. What they don’t have, however, are homes – as seen here as one the unwritten rules of Warcraft:

“5. The Bubble-Hearth Housing Market
The population of any major city is listed as being in the hundreds of thousands,

but you can only find 12 actual houses or homes in it.”

[“This is a list of hyperbolically-stated truths making fun of everything from raid progression to role-playing, to the players behind the characters, to the various classes, to quests, to game physics, to PvP … and more!” - (DwarfPriest, 2009)]

A lot of work is put into the NPCs of WoW in order to increase the player’s engagement in the narrative, and they do add a lot to the game experience – especially for Role Players who actively converse and interact with Non-player characters in a big way. However, the fact that there are no homes for the people breaks this immersion somewhat – as it doesn’t seem realistic. Furthermore, the fact that they do not have realistic life schedules – for example, a Pie Seller in Ironforge will walk the same path selling pies no matter what time of day it is – shows more cracks in the illusion.

The back story and lore surrounding the world of Azeroth is a long and complex one – but one main way that it appeals to so many player types is that the player can take what they want from the story. In order to give the player the basic storyline lots of kernals are used so they can understand what is going on at all times, and perhaps give helpful hints for more difficult quests. Dynamic satellites are also used in order to provide more in-depth information – for players who wish to learn more about the universe – since some players will wish to grind through the quests without reading the back-story, but some will wish to get more involved. This usually depends on the target player types of the game, but since WoW caters for such a varied audience, more options are needed. The use of these techniques results in a basic fabula which runs as the spine narrative throughout the game, but a more complex sjuzet and focalization depending on the point of view the player chooses to take on. No matter what take on narrative the player chooses to take one matter remains constant – the narrative is formal, and is arguably unaffected by player interaction. This could be seen as a bad thing, if you consider another successful MMMOG such as EVE Online – which has a very loyal, although smaller player base, and allows players to affect and change narrative – but remains so because of the fact that the WoW player base is so huge – it would be difficult to allow players to all have an impact.  It is possible for the players to create their own narrative, as mentioned before, but the spine narrative is constant and developer-set.

Directed Gameplay is also enforced by the use of Quests, and the hubs in which these quests are found by the player. The quests fill in the lore as the player levels and results in a further knowledge of the narrative by the time the player reaches the level cap. The quests also teach the player how to travel throughout the world, and funnel the player from hub to hub – using a technique known as “Breadcrumbing” – with the use of different types of quests which lead the player to new locations. Breadcrumbing helps to keep the player on an optimal path through the game zones, and reduces the chance of too many players ending up questing in the same places – moving the players along a metaphorical production line from starting areas to end-game content.  The level design on zones also contributes to this, with elements such as cliffs and water bodies preventing the character from travelling to places they shouldn’t be yet, or moving from the optimal path. Warcraft was also intentionally designed so that the “Quest Log” is never empty – making sure the player always has something to do, and won’t get bored – this is following a complaint from Beta Testers that the quest logs were “Broken” because they were empty (Unsupported source type (Interview) for source Placeholder1.), leading Blizzard developers to realize that empty quest logs reduce the bread crumbing effect and lead players off the optimal path. As the player advances in level, the quests may become sparser, but may also become much harder, and will often also push for interaction with other players. This encourages Guild Mechanics, such as grouping together and helping each other out to advance – or dungeons and raids which further increase social interaction in gameplay.

Another feature in WoW which was different to most MMOGs on release was the fact that there is only a very small penalty for character death. Moreover, there is no penalty for death in Battlegrounds at all – except for vengeance against the player who killed you – resulting in the desirable consequence of increased social interaction and an aspiration to play more to get even. This feature was very intentional by the developers, and the reason for this is explained in the WoW frequently asked questions:

“…We felt that the challenges in the game should come from interesting, complex encounters and events, not from forcing players to lose one to eight hours of progress when their characters die and making them recoup any experience or equipment they had earned previously…”

(Blizzard, n.d.)

Therefore this helps to maintain a balance between the game being challenging and rewarding without making it too difficult and reducing any of the fun aspects of the game.

Quest Chains in MMO Dungeons

It is fair to say that playing a Multiplayer game is no longer simply about the gameplay – it is also about the metagame, including skills, achievements, levels, stats and quests that the player has or has completed. This, although arguably a shallow element of the gameplay, is very important to the players to the extent that if the metagame is good, it may sell the game solely on this (Unsupported source type (Interview) for source Dav10.). Since this is quite a controversial issue, and somewhat divides players in their opinions, it is important to maintain a good balance of this, and provide as much of this as possible. This again refers to the Bartle theory of player archetypes, since each element of the metagame appeals to a different player type (Bartle, 1996).

Quest chains are one element of the metagame, and provide a tool for character advancement in the fact that they give a reason for the character to perform certain tasks. For example, in a game which uses Experience Points as a way of advancing the character (such as World of Warcraft) the quests will give an extra award for completing an action – such as killing a certain number of mobs? Therefore the player will gain the advancement from the action of killing the mobs, but also a reward from the Non-player character for completing the quest. Quest chains can also link in heavily with the narrative and lore of the game, again helping the immersion and desire to play.

Therefore deciding on the style and content of quest chains is integral to the design of next generation MMOs.

Dynamic Design: Quest Design

Quests are a useful device used by MMORPG designers for many other reasons that to just give the player something to do. They also are useful as a disguised aid for players, especially in starting areas to teach the player what they should do and how they should be doing it.

Quests can also serve as level design elements, in the sense that they can lead the players to new areas which may be more appropriate for their level. This technique is coined by Warcraft’s Blizzard as the “Breadcrumbing” method, slowly leading players to new areas, usually by an escort quest or a delivery quest, which requires the player to speak to someone in the next town.

There are many different types of quests that exist at the moment in MMO worlds, although there is opportunity to create new ones or even combination quests which take into account two or more of these types.

• Puzzle Quests – Puzzle quests usually have a fixed location and/or solution. They are usually pretty simple to figure out so as not to annoy the player, but then because of this they can lose their appeal pretty quickly, since they aren’t very challenging. In terms of the narrative of these types of Quests, they usually have a predetermined narrative which cannot be altered in any way by the player. For this reason they can also be a part of the main spine narrative of the MMO in general, since the designer can directly control the narrative and outcome of the quest.
• Static Quests – Static Quests will have a standard general location but will provide some degree of open ended-ness. For example, they may be similar to a puzzle quest, but will distract the player’s attention by something like another quest in the area for them to pick up, or some other form of object of interest. These are similar to Puzzle Quests in the sense that they can be controlled by the designers, and can contain any amount of spine narrative, since the outcome is always the same.
• Dynamic Quests – These are quests which can change location or goal at any time, and hence will not contain any spine narrative, since the designers cannot directly control the outcome of the quests and the actions of the player.
• Chained Quests – These are often used by companies such as Blizzard as a device for feeding narrative to the player in manageable chunks. They also help to lead the player in a certain direction or to encourage a certain relationship with a particular faction. These can be very effective in providing narrative to the player, since it can be filtered over a number of quests and areas, and – if long enough – over a number of levels. One example of this can be seen in World of Warcraft, where hints to higher level bosses are seen in the lower level quests, such as for Onyxia (The end-game dragon) or Shadowfang Keep (a mid-level dungeon which houses werewolves). They have a great scope for narrative and new content, and can be used to justify anything new being added to the game narrative.
• Player Quests – Player Quests are those which the designer has no control over at all. This is usually because they are designed and initiated completely by the players or groups of players such as guilds.
• Gimmick/Secret Quests – Secret quests are usually those which can be referred to as “Easter Eggs”. They provide rewards which are often aesthetic or novel – in summary, provide no actual benefit to the character except for “Hey Look at this awesome thing I got!”. They also are usually out of the way and have no chain quests linked to them, so when the player stumbles upon them accidently it makes it more of an achievement and a pleasant surprise.

At GDC ’09 Blizzard discussed a term they had coined called “DIRECTED GAMEPLAY”. Directed Gameplay is the process by which they improve immersion in the World of Warcraft by Quests (the primary Directed Gameplay method), achievements, UI elements and tutorials. The main aim of Directed Gameplay is to gently direct the player, while still giving them the impression that they are in an “Open World”. (Unsupported source type (Interview) for source Jef09.)

He also went on to explain how the World of Warcraft is designed so that the quest log is never “empty”, so the player has something to do at all times. This was established as a problem after the Alpha testing revealed players complaining that the Quest Log was “broken” any time that there were no quests in it. Furthermore, Warcraft designers follow a formal narrative and design philosophy which stipulates the formation of the quests and what rewards should be given, whether it be Items, Experience Points (or other appropriate character advancement) and/or In-Game currency.

Throughout the life of World of Warcraft, testing and analysis has been conducted on player behaviors in order to provide the most appealing gameplay `and have established a list of problems that they encounter when designing Directed Gameplay for MMOs, and how they intend to solve them and maintain some element of control over what the character does and experiences. Although Blizzard strived to solve a lot of these with the most recent expansion – “Wrath of the Lich King” – it is suggested that if most of these rules are followed when designing MMOs it will provide the best experience for the player.

Most of these are concerned with quests, and are listed as follows:

• THE CHRISTMAS TREE EFFECT – This is a term to describe an effect where a player walks into a zone and the mini-map (or equivalent) lights up like a Christmas Tree in the sense of there being so many quests in an area that the player doesn’t know which to pick first, so just picks up all of them up at once. This seems like a good thing from the point of view of the player since there is a lot to do, but from the point of view of the developer they then lose all control over the narrative and player experience since the player can complete them in any order they choose.

One way to solve this issue could be to use a series of chain quests, so they need to be completed in a certain order, or to just have a couple of quest givers which give more than one quest.

A good balance needs to be maintained however in order to keep the player under the impression that they have free reign over their actions, and have some influence over the narrative experience that they discover.

• THE “TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ IT” EFFECT – This effect is essentially just what it says. Through research and investigation Blizzard discovered that players weren’t really concerned with the narrative of the quests, only what reward they will receive for completing the quest and what they have to do to get it.

For this reason the data entry for quest text in the WoW Editor is now limited to 511 characters – thought to be a good compromise since it is short enough for the players to read but still allows the designer to portray any important narrative which accompanies the quests. The reason that any quest text at all is necessary is that it immerses players and encourages them to continue playing. The journey from Aporia to Epiphony becomes a reward for the player when they discover new narrative for themselves. Quest narratives build the anticipation of emergent narrative and of getting to the end (the revelation of all quest narrative), but then of course the very nature of MMOs is that they will have no end.

• MEDIUM ENVY – This is a noticeable factor in some quest narratives in MMOs where they use popular culture references in order to establish a level of familiarity with the player. Medium Envy sometimes fails in the sense that players may not understand the reference. This in a way links in with the problems with Gimmick Quests.

In an attempt to solve problems with popular culture references, games such as WoW often use symbolism to hint at a reference but not actually make it. One example of this is a quest which takes place in an undead infested tomb, where the player encounters an NPC named “Harrison Jones”, who then provides a quest called “Dun da dun dahhh…” – a reference to the characters and theme tune of the movie series “Indiana Jones”. These references are not completely obvious, but at the same time are recognizable to fans of the movies.

• MYSTERY – A good balance of mystery and knowledge is needed where the narrative is concerned, since if too much mystery is used the player can feel cast out with no idea of what’s going on.
• POORLY PLACED CHAIN QUESTS – This problem again is concerned with balance, but this time with the level of difficulty of the quests. In order for the player to enjoy the game, they must be able to trust the narrative. This means they must be able to trust that the quests they are given will not be too hard for them, or lead them into an area where they are not meant to be. This may happen sometimes in MMOs in a quest hub with “The Christmas Tree Effect”, since the player may pick up quests in an order that they are not meant to.
• GIMMICK QUESTS – This can sometimes happen when the designers make the mistake of writing for the designers instead of the players. Gimmick quests are fun for the player when they understand the joke. If the quest is too nonsensical, it becomes too stupid and silly. Again this is case of balance.
• BAD NARRATIVE FLOW – This problem is perhaps the most important one to consider for this investigation, since this can greatly affect the replay-ability of the dungeon. As part of the presentation Jeff Kaplan suggested that you should never have too many of the same types of quests in a row.  With varying types of quests, different routes are possible for completing the quests. This allows for a different flow each time the player completes them, greatly increasing the replay-ability of the zones, and the MMO in general, since the player can have a new experience if/when they create a new character.

These issues, based on investigations into player data of the highly successful game World of Warcraft, show that the narrative content in MMOs and more specifically the quests in said MMOs is a very important factor in how immersive and replayable the MMO is.

Player versus Player Combat in MMOs

Player versus Player combat is a very popular element of modern MMOs, and can often be a major selling point, if done in the right way. This is evident from the fact that there are entire player communities based on player vs. player combat, and how to be successful, and some players will even create characters equipped with the best PvP gear; funded by higher level characters; in order to play PvP only areas (known as “Battlegrounds” in World of Warcraft) and become famous on their server, or earn large rewards. This act of funding lower level characters with existing characters is known as the act of “Twinking” (Koster, 2009).

PvP combat significantly changes the balance of the game since a human enemy character will be much more intelligent and unpredictable than the enemy characters with artificial intelligence, or at least are at this moment in time and level of technological advancement. It is because of this that fighting a player character can sometimes shock a new player because it is so different, and so MMOs such as World of Warcraft often have help pages on their websites to guide the player in this new and exciting combat experience (Blizzard, 2009).

This issue is being considered for this research project since it is an important task for the developers to consider the balancing of the character classes to ensure that all encounters between the players are fair and balanced (Alexander, 2005). It is also fair to say that since player vs. player combat is so much harder, and the advantages of winning are so great, the player will find any and all ways of gaining an advantage over the other players – therefore making the other players really angry!

There are many different types of existing player versus player combat, including Battlegrounds (mentioned before) – instanced areas where team based games occur, usually based on territory gain or flag captures, and open world PvP, which means any player can attack any player on the opposing team or faction at any time – although with some constraints and issues such as PvP “Flagging” (Blizzard, 2009).  The Player vs. Player combat in a zone greatly ties in with not only the class balances, but also the dungeon types and level design which is present in that zone.

Different Dungeon Types

Since the aim of this research project is not to discover the best way to create a dynamic MMO, but a dynamic dungeon design, it is important to consider what type of dungeon this will be. Not only is there the factor of whether it will be “Wandering Line” (square rooms and corridors) or “Random” (literally anything goes) (Godsland, 2007), but also what access other players outside of the party will have to the dungeon. For example, some different types of dungeons could be:

• Shared Dungeons
• Private Dungeons (Instanced)
• Public Dungeons
• Combination Dungeons including one or more of the above

(Relmstein, 2008)

Combining a selection of these dungeon types makes for a varied and interesting player experience – creating a more realistic and appealing dungeon at the same time. See Appendix 2 for a chart of the advantages and disadvantages of the uses of each types of dungeon

As the table shows, all forms of dungeons obviously have their advantages and disadvantages – and although the most common type of dungeon in modern MMOs is the instanced dungeon, varying these styles can help to increase the social interaction in the dungeon, therefore escalating the level of player co-operation and immersion in the dungeon. Furthermore, using Shared or Public dungeons can result in drawing in different player types to experiences that they wouldn’t normally try. For example, the integration of the new Battleground “Wintergrasp” to World of Warcraft encourages players interested in Player vs. Player combat to try dungeon combats and vice versa . The way in which this is achieved in this specific battleground is incorporating a PvE dungeon hidden in the contested keep, which the players must fight for control over. Therefore once the PvP battle for the territory has been completed, the players who own the territory can complete the dungeon – encouraging PvP players to “have a go” at PvE, and PvE players to engage in PvP in order to win ownership of the territory to have an attempt at the dungeon.

Since the main aim of this study is to increase player interaction and an enjoyable experience overall, a combination dungeon will be the most sensible choice – using both Shared/Public zones and Instanced zones for more focused party combat. This allows for large groups to form in free-roaming areas, but takes away the issue of griefing of other players for the main bosses of the dungeon. Furthermore, this arrangement of types results in an ideal end-game encounter, which is extensive and engaging.

The types of dungeons in a zone will also affect the path which the player will take through the zone. The linearity, or rather, how much freedom the player has in the zone can have a huge impact on the player’s experience.

The current trend is to dismiss linear games for being too restrictive and praise free-roaming ones for their innovation and impressive wealth of choice. It’s the age of the sandbox experience. (Giddens, 2009)

Taking into account both Directed Gameplay and the argument of Ludology vs. Narratology, the level design of the dungeon needs to consider a balance of storytelling mechanics and the illusion of player choice and freewill. The main word to focus on here is Illusion. In order to maintain Directed Gameplay, or the subtle control of player actions, the developer must use tools such as level design, quests, and achievements to “breadcrumb” the player along a path. If the player feels that they do not have freedom in a level, however, the level of fun will decrease and this will discourage the player, and reinforce the fact that this is a game with set outcomes – reducing immersion dramatically. With the Illusion of Freedom, the player will feel as though each choice they make is their own, unaffected by the game design, and will create a more enjoyable experience overall. From the list (Appendix 3) of the most popular dungeons in World of Warcraft (Pre-Wrath of the Lich King Expansion), it is possible to see some patterns in the most favoured dungeons in players.

(Selin, 2008)

With a staggering 42.3% of all the votes, Old Hilsbrad Foothills – a part of the Caverns of Time instances, won. The main reasons that players gave for this was the story, the fun bosses, seeing main lore characters in an environment you know from the normal game – but most of all, being “able to experience some of the great atmosphere and lore without having to slaughter it all, or even form a group” (Unsupported source type (Misc) for source Ten08.), and the “Endless Possibilities” with “much to discover”. This is the proof that  the feeling of discovering things for themselves, and having many non-linear paths to follow in the dungeon, add to the success and positive experiences of that dungeon overall.

IMMERSION AND ROLEPLAYING in MMOs

INFORMATION vs. IMMERSION (Bartle, 2004)

Another important issue for developers to consider is how much of the “behind the scenes” the character will be able to see. This is the difference between “fighting an ogre and knowing that you hit him really hard” and “fighting an ogre and knowing that you dealt 25 damage to him”.

This is a choice that can greatly impact the player, and although most would claim to prefer the latter of these examples, Role Playing is a now common trend that could benefit greatly from the “Immersion” side of this argument. Role Playing is a practice taken upon by some players who prefer to make the game much more immersive and focus on the story and lore of the MMO. They will often take on the role of the character in the environment, and act out that character’s actions, rarely speaking of the “real world” where they and the character are totally separate. This convention is now so popular there are realms on popular MMOs such as World of Warcraft which are totally dedicated to this phenomenon.

The developer faces a decision when designing the MMO and more specifically their dungeons, how it will stand on the scale of Information vs. Immersion. Some choices are outlined below:

• Immersion – Players don’t get to see any code which dictates the actions of the AI
• Players Choose – Some will see it as “The Red Bag”, others will see it as “Bag 002”.
• Information – You’re told the name of the nearby character whether you’ve met them before or not.

(Bartle, 2004)

Classes in MMOs

Most classes in modern MMOs are based on traditional tabletop gaming, such as Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax, 1978), in which all classes were derived from three –

• The Fighting Man (Defence)
• Cleric (Support)
• Magic User (Attack)

This pattern of Attack, Defence and Support is still used in most multiplayer games, including MOGs such as “Team Fortress 2” in which the classes are as follows:

• Soldier (Attack)
• Engineer (Defence)
• Heavy (Defence)
• Medic (Support)
• Pyro (Attack)
• Spy (Support)
• Sniper (Support)
• Demo Man (Defence)
• Scout (Attack)

(www.WeGame.com, 2009)

This shows that this tradition practice is still influencing modern games, and that this tried and tested method seems to be one that works. Although different classes have been experimented with, this basic pattern is kept in most popular next gen games. It is important for the developer to consider these and decide whether to stick with this pattern or not, and also what design the classes themselves.

One other debate which has been considered for many years now in the genre of character skill customization in MMOs is Class Systems vs. Skill Systems. This is a discussion of which method is better; giving the player set player types to choose from, or allowing them to completely customize their skills – despite running the risk of the creation of “Jack of All Trades” characters.

It could be argued that set Classes are the best choice for a modern MMO, since they conform to the themes set in the game world by the developers – for example, if the game is a fantasy RPG, infused with themes of Gygax and Tolkien, it would be unrealistic to allow a character who is primarily a holy magic user, to use a dark magic spell – and this would break the immersion for the player – conflicting  with one of the main aims of this study.

Level Design and Changeable Zone Layouts

The main focus of the research for this project is the fact that one criticism of modern dungeons is that they are not replayable and offer no unpredictability or chance for the use of real tactics. In order to solve this problem research will be made into randomized dungeon solutions such as modular design; which is mainly used in 3D dungeon crawling games in order to create vast dungeons. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this however, including the fact that it is quick and easy, but is often obvious when it has been used due to the blending methods that must be used.

Randomized dungeons are an idea which appeals greatly to both the player and the developer. From the Player’s point of view they get a unique experience every time and this extends the amount of gameplay they are getting for their money, and from the developers point of view, much of the level layouts are generated by a program – resulting in much less work overall in relation to productivity. However, it isn’t always as simple as that. The design of a level is a huge factor in how much control the developer has over the player experience, and using randomized dungeons can be risky, and can result in fantastic unique levels, but could also be boring and badly set-out.

“A player has to get from point A to point B. By hand-designing a level, a designer can craft something that is both interesting and functional and then hand it over to level artists to make the design look impressive. A random dungeon pretty much stops at the first step, though since it’s impossible (as of now) to design a computer than can artfully craft a level, not only for functionality but for interest and excitement and do it instantly, random dungeons pretty much just work and little else.”

(Ariza, 2009)

While this method of designing dungeons may be fine for Dungeon-Crawling games with little lore and Directed Gameplay, this method is not suitable for an MMO environment, where some elements need to remain constant in order for balance and flow to be maintainined. The aim of a good randomized dungeon is to feel “moderately unique while not alienating the player.” (Anon., n.d.) This is a compromise which must be aimed for by developers, especially in Multiplayer situations.

There are two main basic ways in which developers create randomly generated content:

• “Place the rooms first, and then attempt to connect them via corridors.”
• “Place the corridors using a maze generation algorithm, and then unify sections of the maze to form rooms.”

(Anon., 2009)

Out of these methods, the first is much more common, but can result in some rooms of the dungeon not being connected, or needlessly complex, on top of the issues with balance and flow that were mentioned before. In order to avoid these problems, the best method would be something similar to those used by multiplayer games in the past.

One of the most popular multiplayer randomly generated dungeon crawlers is “Diablo II”. This may be because is doesn’t completely rely on the random generation – allowing the more important aspects of the level to be static, and the dungeon to be built around them. For example, the “boss is not located in a fixed direction from your starting point. His platform, however, is identical no matter what side of the level he’s located on, as is the cluster of enemies surrounding him.” (Anon., n.d.). Using this method allows the balance of feeling “moderately unique while not alienating the player” (Anon., n.d.) to really come into play.

Furthermore, this issue of randomization links in with the types of dungeon used within a zone – for example, the public areas of the dungeon could not be randomized, since new players would be entering and leaving frequently throughout an encounter – but the instanced areas could easily be processed on loading and then be locked to that instanced version of the dungeon for that party. This means that each time the player enters the depths of the dungeons, where the big bosses – and therefore big treasure – are, a different experience will be had each time.

The effect that the level design has on the player experience and pathing through the level is not constricted to the geometry of the level. Other factors, such as lighting effects used to direct and influence the player. Not only does lighting add to the realism of a scene, but different colours of lighting can also influence the player on a psychological level.

“The color wheel is set up to show 12 important colors. 3 are primary, 3 are secondary (mixing the primary colors) and 6 tertiary colors (created by mixing primary and secondary colors). The primary colors form a triangle, (Yellow, Blue and Red). The secondary colors (Green, Purple and Orange are directly in between the primary colors). These also form an upside down triangle. The tertiary colors are in between the primary and secondary colors and will provide the shades of colors. This is important because of how people perceive color combinations.”

(ValveCommunity, n.d.)

Using the rules of colour theory, lighting can be used to set a scene or suggest tropes of a certain emotion. For example,  the use of red lighting can suggest danger, blood or unease – or, depending on the context, passion; romance and warmth. (ValveCommunity, n.d.) Furthermore, we can see the use of these techniques in games such as “Half Life 2” – who use pale blue lights to create a cold feeling in the “Combine Citadel”, whilst using warm yellow lights to create a comfortable feeling inside “the Black Mesa East.” (ValveCommunity, n.d.)

Moreover, examples of lighting used to lead a player can be seen in modern games such as 2K Games’ “Bioshock”. Bioshock was praised not only for its unique art style, but also for innovative use of lighting. In the picture below, it is possible to see quite a complex lighting set up, in order to draw the player’s eye to the Big Daddy, and create a sense of awe as he is introduced. The use of green, purple and blue set a fantastical feel to the scene, and can be seen in classical animation such as the work of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland”.

Furthermore , the use of light to direct a player can also be seen in Bioshock. Using the stark contrast of warm oranges and cool blues can help to show the player where they should be and where they should be going next. In this case, the player instinctively looks to the orange lit area, noticing the enemy standing there – but also subconsciously notes that the cool blue areas are the directions in which they should be travelling next. All of these techniques can be used to build up the illusion of freewill, but subtlety lead the player in a direction which provides the best player experience and narrative set up.

Mobs and Enemies

Without mobs or enemies, the dungeon would be useless! No one to die and drop treasure for the adventurers, and no one to provide a challenge for any of Bartle’s Achiever archetypes. The design of the mobs and enemies in the dungeon really ties in with the narrative and lore of the game, and so must be designed in according order.

In order for the dungeon to be both challenging and rewarding, the enemies need to be designed carefully to take into account the player’s abilities and the rewards that they will receive for defeating these enemies.

Not only must the treasure received be of a high standard to meet the difficulty curve of dungeons, it must also be distinguishable and recognizable by other players on sight as to how rare it is and how skilled the player must be in order to attain that goal.

Creation of Dungeon Design

Effective Ways of Producing a Concise and Compelling Design Document

One of the aims of this project, as outlined in the Project Proposal is to create a Game Design document for a MMO dungeon based on the research prepared. However, in order for the design document to fulfill its purpose effectively, it must be concise, compelling and to the point, whilst also conveying the design in the best way, especially for an industry level design where all roles are completed by different positions in the company.

Along with the design document, one amendment to the original proposal is that a Dungeons and Dragons style prototype campaign will be created from the design document complete with dungeon tiles, in order to help the developers visualize the dungeon and experience an example of what could be created using my methods.

In this instance, example industry standard Design Documents will be studied and used as templates to create the Dungeon Design Document.

Conclusion

Using dungeon design principles and research into narrative theory, a definitive list of the best methods for creating a rewarding yet challenging dungeon which is immersive, interesting and fun has been compiled.

By using a combination of techniques such as:

• Tried and Tested themes presented in a new and interesting way
• Deep emergent Narrative to make the player feel part of a bigger machine
• Different dungeon styles to encourage party collaboration
• Encouraging Role Playing in synchronization with the Narrative to increase immersion
• Traditional Class roles with customizable changes to ensure the player does not get confused but can make subtle changes to make them feel unique
• Challenging Mobs and Enemies with complex tactics to encourage party co-operation

A whole new level of player experience can be achieved. Balancing deep narrative with complex gameplay mechanics is an intricate process, which mirrors the on-going debate of Narratology versus. Ludology – but using these techniques a dungeon which combines both can be created – embracing the concept of Ludonarratology – a harmonious relationship between the two fields of research.

This allows for a dungeon creation with a narrative encounter comparable to that of a single player role playing game, but with the social aspects of an MMORPG, made better by the fact that the complex tactics force players to work together to achieve a common goal.

Furthermore, the introduction of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign as a means of testing Dungeon Design Documents (See Appendices) performs well as it allows designers to experience firsthand the experience the players will have, and to test the level design and enemy encounters in a cheap, easy and time efficient way – all imperative qualities in an industry which works to deadlines and budgets.

Some challenges faced when designing this dungeon included the balancing of the dungeon for end-game combat, without designing the rest of the MMORPG world as well. In an attempt to solve this issue, a basic MMORPG world was taken as an example for this, using traits that an average MMORPG in the current market has. The design may have been more effective when discussed in a more focused context, where attributes of the game world were set.

Furthermore, this affected the ability to design quests, without designing a quest mechanic and what properties the Non-player characters would have – meaning that the narrative structure of the dungeon may have been impaired by the lack of deep and meaningful quest chains.

Moreover, some elements which may have affected the overall feel of the dungeon, such as the atmosphere and environment effects present, were difficult to determine without first-of-all knowing the aims of the overall MMO design – for example, whether it is a game which will run on low end computers, or a more graphically detailed style.

Some challenges faced when designing the Dungeons and Dragons campaign were, for example, finding suitable characters to represent the characters and monsters in the dungeon from the monster manual. Although it is possible to create your own enemies, in order to maintain balance, a select few were chosen from the manual, and then edited to fit the dungeon style, and tested with a prototype party with a generic party set-up of Tank, Healer and three Damage Dealing characters. (See Appendices)

Overall, the design presents itself as a useful tool as a stand-alone concept for creating immersive dungeons, but would be better when applied to an already existing game world, to ensure that it fits with the context and style of the particular game world. The design itself has set a precedence for future dungeon designs, proving that Ludology and Narratology can complement each other to create challenging, rewarding and immersive player experience, even in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Environments.

Recommendations

Some recommendations for further study in this area, which were either dismissed as not completely relevant or due to complications like context of game world (as discussed in conclusion) are found here:

• Applying this research to an already existing game world to see if that would prove more successful and allow more areas of research to be developed.
• Looking into the development of Quest Chains and developing immersive narrative through these devices for the dungeon, in an already existent game world.
• Research into the integration of Achievements for the dungeon, based on the achievement system already in place in a game world.
• Research into the incorporation of more types of player combat, with enough focus on balancing issues – such as Player versus. Player combat in dungeons.
• Research into applying this model to a larger dungeon size, of up to 50 or more party members, to test party mechanics in a larger group.

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Appendices

Appendix 1:

MMO	GENRE
Star Trek Online	Science Fiction
Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate	Fantasy
Champions Online	Science Fiction
Aion	Fantasy
World of Warcraft	Fantasy
Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria	Fantasy
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning	Fantasy
Everquest II: The Shadow Odyssey	Fantasy
Final Fantasy XI Vana’diel Collection 2008	Fantasy
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures	Fantasy
Lineage II: Fourth Anniversary Edition	Fantasy
Dungeon Runners	Fantasy
Pirates of the Burning Sea	Fantasy
Everquest II: Rise of Kunark	Fantasy
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess	Fantasy
Eve Online	Science Fiction

Appendix 2:

Dungeon Type	Advantages	Disadvantages
Shared Dungeons	Vast open dungeons. Large amount of bosses “to provide content for more than a few groups”. Gives opportunities for large social interaction and collaboration. Could use PvP to your advantage, in a situation like Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft, where the opposing faction prevent the player from reaching the final boss first, or have them as “Contested Areas” where the players have to fight for ownership of the dungeon.	Bad for games with PvP mechanics – players of opposing factions would make it impossible to complete.
Instanced Dungeons	Allows players to “work through at their own pace without other player intervention”. Require less work to create for developers. Much better “polished” experience, where the Developer has more control over Directed Gameplay. Very common usage in modern MMOs – makes for a less unique dungeon experience Tend to be linear. Usually smaller and have less players in co-operation/
Public Dungeons	Bigger and less linear than Instanced Dungeons Uses infrequent instances to control player population in certain areas of the dungeon. Encourages interaction between players but discourages conflict over who boss fights and treasure. PvP issues could be solved by disabling it in dungeon environments? Same problem as Shared Dungeons in the sense that it wouldn’t work in PvP situations.

Appendix 3:

Rating	Dungeon Name	% of Player Votes
1	Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad Foothills	42.3%
2	Caverns of Time: The Black Morass	19/05%
3	Hellfire Citadel: The Shattered Halls	6.2%
4	Auchindoun: Shadow Labyrinth	5.29%
5	Hellfire Citadel: Hellfire Ramparts	5.29%
6	Tempest Keep: The Arcatraz	4.47%
7	Tempest Keep: The Mechanar	4.28%
8	Tempest Keep: The Botanica	2.28%
9	Coilfang Reservoir: The Underbog	2.19%
10	Coilfang Reservoir: The Steamvault	2.19%
11	Hellfire Citadel: The Blood Furnace	2.01%
12	Coilfang Reservoir: The Slave Pens	1.46%
13	Auchindoun: Mana-Tombs	1.46%
14	Auchindoun: Sethekk Halls	1.09%
15	Auchindoun: Auchenai Crypts	0.46%