[KeillRandor]

For part 1, go here: http://rpgforumsonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20613

For the rest of this paper, I’d like to go through a number of area that I feel have some problems in current RPG’s, (and especially MMORPG’s). Again, I’ll be touching upon my game and system idea as I do…

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Randomness and its Role in RPG’s

A degree of randomness in any RPG, is always a good idea – without it, the player would always have a good idea or know exactly what was going to happen next, and then the game would lose a lot of its challenge and eventually become too repetitive. (Though a fully PvP game, where the players add the randomness, instead of the game-system, might get away with it). Again, boring a player is a bad thing. In P&P based RPG’s, the randomness is generally gained through two avenues: the ideas of the game master, and rolling dice…

Since the computer game itself takes the place of a game master, the main area of randomness we’re looking at, is that within the game system itself, and generally presented by the rolling of 'virtual' dice…

The main areas where this is used in the game, and game-systems, are when the character is generated, needs to use any abilities and skills, and especially in combat. The two main conditions within the two aforementioned areas, to which this element of chance is added to, are when using a skill and ability, and its eventual effects... For example, whether or not a character is able to cast a healing spell or hit another character with its weapon, and how much is healed or damage is caused when this happens.

However, it must be understood, that ANY randomness included in the game, always takes power and control away from the player. Because of this, it must be carefully built and included into the game, understanding just how and why this is happening and its eventual effects upon the player...

Unfortunately, a lot of computer-based RPG’s, (though not all), don’t follow the lead of the pen-and-paper (P&P) based games they are ultimately derived from: The main reason the randomness works so well in those games, is that A) it’s the player who is rolling the dice, so they have some, (or the illusion of some), influence over the randomness, and B) the underlying game-systems of P&P based RPG’s, by their very nature, must be open and fully understood by the players. Both of these points mean that the randomness in P&P based RPG’s never takes too much power and control away from the players. I wish I could say the same about some computer-based RPG’s…

Since computer programs automate most of the systems in an RPG, which would have to be done manually in a P&P based game, any randomness, tends to be fully automated too – (‘virtual’ dice rolling). This means that the player never has much in the way of direct influence over it – only indirectly based on the skills and attributes and equipment of his character, rather than the systems using it… Even then, it depends on how much the players influence over his skills and attributes have on the randomness. If it’s not that much, which is typical for most computer RPG’s, then there’s quite a lot of the game the player has no real influence over. This sounds bad, and it is, for an RPG, (though fine for an adventure game, with or without RPG elements).

Unfortunately, it gets even worse… The next problem, is that the underlying game systems of a lot of computer based RPG’s are relatively unknown and not fully understood by the player – (and one of the reasons for that is because they tend to be pretty, if not overly complicated). When these two problems come together, you wind up with some really serious problems, which, unfortunately, seem to be ‘normal’ for many computer RPG’s – (and especially MMORPG’s it seems).

The main area, where this proves really problematic, and frustrating, is in the combat system – for instance, if I can’t hit and get killed by a lower level character, I generally won’t know why I couldn’t hit him – (assuming it wasn’t because of any beneficial spells or effects my opponent had (buffs) etc. – and if he had any of those, then I should know that he’s had some kind of support, even if I don’t know exactly what). Not only that, but there won’t be much that I could do to learn from it, and develop my character to influence the result to make sure it doesn’t happen again (or happen as badly)… Again, it’s taken too much power and influence away from me, the player…

This is a symptom of having too much power and control over the character and also within the character, being transferred away from the player and character in a game, to the underlying game system, and their equipment etc. - whereas, in my opinion, an RPG should be all, (well, mostly), about the opposite! Of course, as I’ve said before, the problem with that, is that the mainstream market doesn’t like it.

This is another reason, why, I feel, that RPG’s and adventure games, (and AGRE’s) are completely different genre’s, since this matter also has a large direct bearing on the game-play…

However, I think it’s possible to make a system that can give the player as much or as little control and influence over how their character develops and functions as they wish. And also to make these compatible and balanced, so that different players can play the same game in different ways… If one wants a full RPG, or one wants an adventure game, (though probably an AGRE), or varying degrees in-between the two, then they can play it as such…

The whole reason for my RPG system, (and the main reason I’m concentrating on that rather than my game idea), is to give as much influence as possible in a game, back to the player and the character(s) they control, and then enable them to automate as little or as much of it as they wish…

How do I do this? By taking (most/all?) the randomness in the game-system and placing it directly in the skills of the character, as-well as adding more flexibility to the characters skills and abilities, allowing the player to have some direct influence over them – (though not full control – that still lies with the underlying system).

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Attributes, Skills, Abilities - the Core of any RPG.

Since the primary reason for making an RPG is to give the player control over how their character(s) develop(s), (that he/she is playing as), throughout the game - there needs to be an easily understood method of not only conveying all the information to the player about their character(s), along with the impact of any decisions they make governing their development, but also storing, and manipulating the information within the game, (and code) itself…

Since we are dealing with computers here – (overgrown calculators) – it generally helps a lot if most of the information needed is in the form of numbers, and since numbers are also easy to convey and store, it’s not surprising (a major understatement) that every(?) RPG has taken this approach.

Because of this, there are two parts to the core of any RPG system – the numbers, and the algorithms that manipulate them. For now, I’ll start with the numbers themselves…

Most computer-based RPG’s are ‘level based’ similar to a lot of the P&P RPG’s they’re developed from. Basically, a ‘level’ is a marker by which the game system regulates the progress and development of any/all objects/characters in the game. Increasing the level of any character or object, when playing the game, (if possible), will generally require a set number of actions to be completed. Most games generally tie all the character development directly to the level value. This ‘level’ value, lets the game and player know just how far they have progressed and developed, so they can both act and react accordingly. The main things about level based RPG’s, is that the level generally only increases, and that there is (generally) only a finite number. A problem this causes, is that if the player makes any decisions about their character that they don’t like, they generally only have a few, limited, ways of fixing it, (if at all)…

A big issue with most level-based games, though, is that, since the only time a player can generally develop his character is when a new level has been gained – and since the gap between each level tends to increase exponentially, rather than be linear - it can also add to any repetitiveness the game-play has. This issue is pretty easy to fix, though I’m surprised that only one game I’ve seen so far has used a similar idea to the one I have – (and unfortunately, that game had a lot of other problems, though it still proved to me that the idea works, and works well).

Although every object in a computer game is represented by a number, those governing the capabilities of a character under the players control, seem to have generally split into 3 areas…


Attributes:

Attributes, are the values and names given to the characters basic physiological structure and capability – for instance its strength, dexterity, intelligence etc. The amount of these, and their names, do of course vary from game to game, with some of the ‘lighter’ RPG’s having as little as 3 basic attributes, with more in-depth games having as much as 10, (or more), and for some games, attributes might not even be necessary…

The important thing with attributes, is to make it clear what each attribute does – what impact altering and increasing it will have on the character, (and hopefully game-play).

Since there generally aren’t many attributes, and their impact needs to be consistent throughout the game, and that they’re generally only part (but an important part) of the source for most of the algorithms – just having an RPG using attributes as the only player directed development, would, again, be rather boring, and would need to be ‘propped’ up by any items or equipment the player would gain by playing the game. (A good example of this is Blizzard Entertainment’s original Diablo).

Since their impact would still be rather limited, and most of its repercussions will still be outside of the players real influence, as well as the fact that introducing new attributes later, to continue developing the character in new ways as they play through the game, can be problematic – (how does a player ‘gain’ the attribute of intelligence?) – there is another area governing the ability to do just that:

Skills:

A skill, is a capability the character can learn as it progresses through the game, and maybe also continue to develop and improve upon, once learned. Because skills can and will be learned during the game, especially if it’s by choice, these are (generally) the main method by which most, (and sometimes all), character development takes place…

The reason for this, is that skills can cover almost any capability a character can learn to accomplish – from such things as simple as reading, to using a weapon, playing a musical instrument, or picking locks, to name just a few. If it’s a method or process that can be learned, it can be a skill. And, as I said, there’s no reason why skills can’t be developed further once learned, whether its simply increasing one overall value for the skill, or one of a number of values representing different areas of specialisation within the skill itself. (Sometimes, skills might also be able to be ‘forgotten’ too, though, again, if only using one character, I feel that this starts to place more emphasis on specialisation, (which leads back to more illusions and less freedom)). The overall capability and ‘level’ of the skills are generally linked with either/both the characters attributes, and/or overall level.

Since it can only take 1 skill to affect the game-play of the character, (and if there any other decisions that can be made when developing it further, which can further influence the game-play of the skill itself, and therefore the character), these are simply the MOST powerful, and interesting way of changing and developing the game-play within an RPG. It is also, without a doubt, the main area with the most potential in RPG’s, and especially MMORPG’s for development overall. Again, it’s an area which my game idea tries to get more out of than current games.

For an MMORPG, though, building a modular skill system, should be a must – the ability to add more skills as the game develops overall HAS to be a priority in it’s overall design, precisely for all these reasons…

Abilities:

An ability, (though they tend to have other labels in games, such as Perk etc.), is like an inherent skill a character can be given when created, or gain later, to give the player more options and depth when creating and developing their character, such as night-vision, or lycanthropy, or vampirism. These aren’t the sort of things that a player can really develop, or ‘learn or unlearn’, (they either have them or they don’t), which is why they’re not really skills, but still more than attributes… (My game idea uses some abilities too, but I’ll admit that they deserve more thinking about).

These are the main areas I’ve come across dealing with the capabilities of a character in RPG’s, and that I consider the core values of any RPG system, though they’re definitely not the only values of importance… Of course, any other living entity in the game, will need some values governing its capabilities too, though these should be similar to the players – in fact, it’s often best to duplicate a small part of the player controlled system to cut down on the time/effort/problems caused when creating a new system from scratch and trying to match it with another, different system.

The other main set of values in the game, that the player may/should have some influence over, are those governing their characters equipment…


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Equipment and Items (a.k.a. Gear)

Out of all the MMORPG’s I’ve played (which is quite a few), I’ve generally noticed two types: Character-Skill-based games, and Gear-based games. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen the two mixed together properly in a successful manner – (though it’s been tried). (And I’m trying as well with my game idea, though I’m emphasising the character skill side more).

(There is also another type of game, in addition to this, though it tends not to be used so much in an MMORPG, and is used more in the single-player side of things, where balance is less of an issue: that’s one which emphasises player-skill, more than character skill… The reason why player skill isn’t emphasised so much in MMORPG’s, (apart from lag and connection issues and requirements), is that it’s incredibly hard to balance out a players skill – (which is always an unknown quantity, and can vary by an enormous amount) – with the capabilities of the character, which should still be the main focus of the game. Because of this, any game which does focus on player skill, generally just uses the RPG side of things to add new capabilities to the character, which the player can then use, rather than develop existing ones. (Again, width, rather than depth). For RPG’s which are level based, though, this is very hard to do, since these are generally about developing existing attributes and skills, making a level 50 character much better than a level 10 character, for instance. As soon as player skill has to be taken into account, though, a lot can, and will, change – and it’s very hard for the developers of this sort of system to then make the game fair, which is why it’s generally not been done (yet). (Of course, it depends if you want a fair ‘game’ to begin with…? )).

Whereas (character) skill-based games are concerned more about the character and his development and how the player uses and develops it - gear-based games, tend to be (nearly) all about what equipment your player is using instead - though they may also require some decisions about how to develop what skills and attributes there are, they’re not it’s primary focus – in fact, one of the main reasons why they focus on items and equipment, is to make up for any bad choices and decisions the player has made about their characters development as they play the game.

Because of this, gear-based games actually tend to be fairly simple on the RPG-side, but because of the subsequent emphasis on playing the game, (i.e. the basic game-play), to get and find the best equipment – (to make up for the lack of character development) – they tend to be rather popular, though still relatively shallow and linear compared to some of the more involving character-skill-based games – (unfortunately, the gear in these games tends to suffer from the-same-thing-but-better syndrome all too often) – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the mainstream market – (unfortunately, it is for the market I’m in…).

The main reason for the focus on equipment and items, (namely weapons and armour), (and therefore eventually combat), rather than skills, is because it’s a LOT simpler to implement, and scale to what’s needed, especially if going for ‘the-same-thing-but-better’. For instance, you’d think that balancing out each similar - (usually split into two groups – melee and ranged) - weapon against each other for each ‘level’ would be quite easy, wouldn’t you? Making sure each weapon does the same amount of damage over the same amount of time, (damage-pre-second (DPS)), before each characters skills and attributes get taken into account, should be as simple as drawing/calculating a (straight!) line on a graph – yet I’ve ran into games which couldn’t seem to even do THAT right…

(Melee and ranged weapons do need to be treated slightly differently from each other, though. I feel that the best way of dealing with balancing between both, (which, again, some games find it hard to do), is to pick a certain range, and make it so that they both do the same DPS at that range, then the ranged will do more at longer range, and the melee will do more at shorter range – the trick, really, is just making sure that this range is correct, or can easily be changed if not, (and yes, I know that being able to do that means designing the entire system in a certain way, but it’s not that hard)).

Don’t get me wrong, having items that are needed or are just wanted to be found in a RPG, is necessary, but I still consider it just a part of the game, rather than its main tenet. Another big problem, is that most games that are gear-based, take it to the extreme, so that if your character doesn’t have the best gear, he’ll be useless at some point in the game, and that, I think, (in my opinion) is too much. The problem with focusing on gear, is that it, again, removes choices from the player, since generally, there’s really only just a few pieces of (viable) gear the player really needs, so they spend most of their time just trying to get them, rather than having a choice about what gear they’d like, since they already have what they need. Also, because the amount of varieties of gear in any game has to be finite, even if randomly generated, the player has less input into what his equipment can do, and you wind up with far more players with identical equipment, (which goes against the ‘uniqueness’ which should be something to aim for, especially in an MMORPG).

Another problem with gear-based games, is that a lot of the numbers needed for the algorithms, again get transferred to the equipment, rather than the character - again, taking power and influence away from the character and player – which is the opposite of what I’m looking to do…

Having said all that, if done correctly, the gear can have just as much influence on the game as the skills that character can use, and can even be used in a similar fashion. However, since the player will need to rely on the game to get, (and also improve upon, if possible), these items, and the fact that individual items and equipment are usually only temporarily under the characters influence, rather than permanent additions, like skills – they are not, really, one of the central tenets that makes an RPG – but they are useful, and as I said before, can be just as powerful if done correctly…

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Economics in MMO’s/MMORPG’s – Money/Resource Generation and Removal

Although the economics in an MMORPG, is really, again, down to the implementation of the system, rather than the system itself, I still wish to talk about it since a few games seem to have problems with it…

The basics of economics in MMO’s and MMORPG’s, are exactly that, basic… It’s all about three things – money/resource generation, change/transfer and removal. Just because it’s basic, though, doesn’t mean it’s easy… Balancing out the generation with the removal, (generators and sinks), is probably the hardest thing of all – if you get it wrong, the world stagnates, either because everyone can afford everything they want, or because they can’t afford everything they need – trying to get the right balance in-between, or just on the side of prosperity can take a lot of testing to get right. If it was only about the generation of items and money, and the direct use and spending thereof, it would be easier to deal with - unfortunately, players will always transfer and move the resources and money around, (and horde it!), making it harder to keep track of, and it’s this, that makes in-game economics very interesting, but also tricky. Again, it’s something that really has to be dealt with both at the design phase, (to ensure that you can add or remove/change resource generators/sinks if needed), and in the implementation of the game-systems when building the game, and designing the game world. (Making sure all the money/resources don’t/shouldn’t wind up in one little area). As in real life, though, it’s in the developers interests to keep the money moving as much as possible – giving the players as much reason to spend the money and use any resources/items they get, then go out and find more, rather than sitting on them and hoarding it. I generally judge the economics in a game by two things – do I ever need to think about money? – (or do I get too much to make it worth forgetting about) – and what can I do if I’m broke/bust? – am I really limited, or not – (how many different ways are there to earn more money from scratch?)…

I tend to view money in game in a similar way to gear. If you have it, using it should speed things up, and if you don’t it should slow them down, but not too much in either direction… Unfortunately, there have been a couple of games which almost stopped when I ran out of cash, and I didn’t think that really worked too well…

One other thing about in-game economics, which I’ve had problems with before, is that if it’s possible to build and make items in the game from other resources, (i.e. changing resources), then it should [i]always be possible to do so for a (small) profit.[/u] (Since you’ve spent the time doing it, you deserve a reward). Unfortunately, again, I’ve played games where this wasn’t the case either, which made a large part of them relatively pointless – (removing choice again). Another thing to go on here, is that in some games, having an almost completely player run economy really doesn’t work. Unfortunately, if an alternative isn’t offered, then this can really cause some problems. (If only players can make certain items, but they’re not important enough to make any money or have any real use, and there’s no computer-controlled way to sell and get rid of them for even a small profit, then what’s the point in them existing?).

Again, most of this is down to the game, and how the economic side of things have been implemented, rather than the system underpinning it.

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One more thing to mention, is an area where gear and the economy overlaps – for better, or (more generally) for worse, depending on whether or not the game has been designed to take it into account:

Buying/Selling in-game items/cash for real-world money…

This ONLY happens if the game is designed to make it so… In other words, if you design a game that makes it so that the main bottlenecks in its game-play are equipment or money, then obviously, this equipment or money will carry some value, and this value WILL transfer to the outside world. Any methods used to try and stop it, are simply doomed to failure, (though, like any other ‘crime’, it can be limited to a certain degree through effective policing). If your game is designed in such a way as to make this a likely outcome and you’ve chosen to ignore it, or simply outlaw it – then you’ve made a mistake… It IS possible, however, to USE this fact for the game-owners own gain – by allowing people to buy items from them, using real-world money. It still has to be carefully done, though, to make sure it doesn’t imbalance the game too much for anyone who chooses not to take part – (though, of course, if a game is free to play, and the game is designed to ‘make’ you buy the items and equipment from them using real money in order to progress, then it’s in the owners interest to unbalance things to a certain degree, and it does seem to work – as evidenced by a lot of MMORPG’s coming from the far-east (mainly Korea) at this time…).

The main reason why having items that are so valuable to be found in-game, (rather than bought from the owner), is a bad thing, however, is because it then becomes possible to make money by getting as many of the valuable items as possible… Unfortunately, because such a thing is generally quite easy, it becomes possible for large groups of people to do this deliberately, (‘farmers’), and make lots of money from doing so… If you get too many people doing this, then the legitimate players using the normal methods of gaining these items may find it impossible to play properly, and if the only way to get the items you need is to buy it from a ‘farmer’ then you know the game is broken…

Of course, ‘farming’ is generally illegal, and breaking the EULA/T&C’s of the game, but, again, if the rewards are great enough – it’ll always happen and cannot, realistically be stopped, (just limited). All you can do is lessen its likelihood, the rewards for doing so, and its effects.

My game is designed to lessen this problem as much as possible, in that, in my game – it’s the characters (or account) the player is using that has the most value, and not it’s equipment – (though the equipment WILL have some value to the character that found/bought it, its value won’t be so great to any other). You may think, or feel, that buying/selling/transferring accounts, and the characters they contain, to be as bad as selling in game items - but it’s not. Since the account is in full control by the owner of the RPG, aswell as the ‘user’, such transfers can be easily monitored, and also ‘taxed’ (if they so wish), and, since the transfer will have no real, meaningful impact on the game for anyone else – it’s really not a problem…

Again, I have no doubt that some players won’t like the idea that it’s not the items that count for so much – but there’s a reason for it – the game-play in my game simply doesn’t require it like a lot of current games do…

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Well – that’s the end of this part – lets hope I can finish the next one in any meaningful period of time… Since it’s easily the part with the largest amount of content, though, and the fact that I’m currently finding it hard to explain a few things, it may take a little longer to complete…
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Darren Tomlyn
Tune-writer / Fiddle-player
http://www.myspace.com/darrentomlyn