Massively Singleplayer

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of Massively Multiplayer games.

The idea of a living, breathing world in which thousands of players can simultaneously exist in is something that has incredible potential for exciting game concepts that simply could not have been accomplished in the past. However, I’ve yet to see one truly take advantage of the format in ways that distinguish the genre from its less-than-massive counterparts.

World of Warcraft was the first massively multiplayer title I played, and it was a fantastic introduction to the concept. The world was both enormous and seamless, decorated with lovingly crafted architecture and populated by creative character models and non-player-characters. I had great fun running my Tauren through the lush green fields of his homeland, genuinely excited at the idea of exploring the vast regions of this virtual world. And yet, as I approached level twenty, the desire to continue simply faded. The fact that players were connected to this vast online space at the same time didn’t matter; there was no reason to group with anyone, unless you were both waiting for a boss to spawn. There was no need to interact with other players – even trading items was done through the faceless intermediary of the Auction House. This little room is where you’ll find the largest number of players in the same spot at any time in the game world, and none of them are interacting with each other. The world as static as it could be, and the only reward for leveling your character was the opportunity to grind a set of different coloured, slightly tougher enemies. Any wars that did take place were in battlegrounds separate to the rest of the world, and had no effect on it whatsoever. It is a game that could very easily have been small-scale multiplayer, a la Diablo.

I never made it to level sixty or seventy, but I understand the game takes on an entirely different mechanic at these milestones. Whether this is better than the core game up to this point is irrelevant; the mere fact that I would have to spend months of casual play working toward the “real” game (apparently World of Warcraft begins at sixty?) does not so much make the endgame content a reward but the early and midgame grind a chore.

From there I made my way to EvE Online, a game that I both dearly love and deeply despise. EvE had everything that World of Warcraft lacked; a single, dynamic world which is not just shaped by players but defined by them. Combat between players is real and meaningful, corporations of determined avatars can make an impact on the immense galaxy and communication between everyone was vital. There existed a quaint balance between the inner galaxy; where zones for new players were protected from the unchecked chaos of the outer rim, a lawless zero-space where anything goes. This is a game world where players could infiltrate their enemy, spend a year rising through their ranks and then covertly assassinate their leader, never once revealing their true allegiances until the final hour. The game’s economy was entirely player-controlled; everything on the market had at some point been manufactured by a player, and everything you sell will arrive in a real person’s inventory. This is what massively multiplayer games should be about.

Unfortunately EvE could not shake the few things about MMO’s that eventually lead to me cancelling my subscription. Though characters did not earn experience points, grinding was ever present. Skills were learned in real-time, with some of the tougher ones taking multiple weeks to complete. You could literally click a skill and have no reason to log in again until it was done. I understand why they did this – to prevent players from simply purchasing money and becoming instantly powerful – but it is a barrier to entry even larger than the grind in World of Warcraft. You cannot participate meaningfully in a player-versus-player battle in EvE without having spent a good year training skills. Since these are trained in real-time, there is no fast-track. For all the glorious emergent situations that could take place, the game required a commitment of both time and money that I could never afford. Someday I would like to ask one of those players who has put their life on hold to become a key player in EvE’s universe whether it was worth it. I can honestly see their answer going either way.

After saying my teary farewells to my missile boat I puttered around trying to find a massively multiplayer game that was as accessible as WoW and as dynamic as EvE. It wasn’t until I tried Pirates of the Burning Sea that I ever thought I would find something at all. Pirates has the slick, intuitive interface of Warcraft with a world that, whilst not as dynamic as EvE, is still entirely player-controlled. The main objective of each race is to conquer the Caribbean, a feat that requires weeks of strategic planning on behalf of each nation but is ultimately achievable. Ports can be taken over through coordinated group battles and claimed in the name of your King or Queen, allowing your empire to gradually expand and eventually push the other nations off the map. It is a giant, month-long game of Battlefield with cities and towns instead of control points. The economy is player-driven, nation’s societies must practice diplomacy, truces and alliances must be formed to defeat common enemies and the world constantly reflects the actions of players. Everything I’ve ever wanted from an MMO is here, except one thing. The ability to participate.

As a low-level character I am next to useless to my fellow Spaniards. To participate in the conquest of ports you must be the highest level in the game – much like Warcraft’s endgame raids. To get there you need to grind experience through completing missions, many of which can only be completed solo. It is the most frustrating thing to observe such a rich and dynamic global conquest system, only to be told I can’t come and play until I complete three weeks of repetitive single-player tasks. I simply do not understand the need to go through this process to then be granted access to the real massively multiplayer game.

Massively Multiplayer games have such potential for exploration of high-concept gameplay mechanics. Yet I cannot see any MMO in the near future that moves away from the concept of grinding entirely. It is an illogical mechanic that keeps players from experiencing the unique aspects of the game entirely, and defeats the purpose of the game being massive in the first place. Until something is released that isn’t designed to make me play for multiple months just to get anywhere, I’m quite prepared to give up on Massively Multiplayer games in their entirety.