One of the things that bothers me about the current MMORPG climate is the lack of tools that allow for players to design content for either their friends or for random passers by. With perhaps the exception of Ryzom, which was widely heralded for their recently released toolset enabling the creation and publishing of player-designed zone instances, most current MMORPGs don’t seem to be putting in the time and effort or are perhaps simply not seeing the value in allowing the creative members of the player populace to design socially-driven events and games-within-the-game.

It would be fair to say that a creative player will find innovative ways to have fun within the confines of what is granted to them by the rules of the game, which is true, but I’m of the mindset that believes the rules are a bit too locked down in existing worlds. Of course, completely freedom and flexibility for the user has it’s place in MMOG worlds such as Second Life, which are PRIMARILY driven by community-generated content, and would not really apply well at all to worlds such as EverQuest II or World of Warcraft. With that said, there is plenty of room for additional player flexibility in a CONTROLLED manner within these types of MMORPGs.

Take EverQuest II for example.. The realm of Norrath has a coliseum structure in Qeynos Harbor (and somewhere in Freeport I assume as well, though I never played an “evil” character to know for sure) that at release time, had no use at all. Players could not even zone into the coliseum and it existed mostly for show. Later on, with the release of the 2nd EQ2 Expansion: Kingdom of Sky, the area was FINALLY put to use as a place for various “champions” to compete in controlled PvP battles, or at least, much more controlled than the original “arena” in EQ1. Now, there was certainly a demand for PvP in EQ2 and this does do the job of fulfilling that demand while giving players more options as far ways to spend their valuable time in-game, but I’d like to present a bit more of an out-of-the-box idea for how it could have been put to more creative use…

Envision a coliseum that existed solely for the purpose of PLAYER-driven event content. There could be a poster on a lamp or a community bulletin board in-game listing upcoming events and NPCs that could sell “tickets” to the event to those who would to either spectate or participate, for a cost paid directly to the hosting player or guild. The hosting player/guild could set the # of tickets to be sold, designate participants, and create a whole write up for the event to take place.

What kinds of events you ask?

Well let’s start with one of the most common events in Norrath…. WEDDINGS! Sure, maybe you wouldn’t necessarily sell tickets to spectators for this, but to be able to reserve a place to host such an event would drive the interest in them one-hundred-fold. Now, let’s take it a step further… How about this “zone” is broken into two sections, spectators and the main event-area. So people can come and watch, but are unable to interfere with the event if not designated as participants. (Sorry, no nekkid gnome streaking here!) More than that, entire event-area starts out as empty and must be customized by the player or designated members of the guild hosting the event. What do I mean by customized? Well, players could choose from any number of sets of place-able entities for decoration or utility, similar to how items are placed in a house-instance currently in the game. So, in our first scenario, the wedding, there could be white or colored streamers, tables with tablecloths (note that crafted placeables could also be used for more customization options and to provide incentive for crafters to pursue their…umm.. craft..), perhaps white decorative columns, a platform with stairs for the wedding to take place on… a heart shaped decoration, and of course lots and lots of flowers! All of this would require time for the hosting player, but for the could easily result in a high-quality role playing event that many would enjoy.. but let’s not limit this to weddings shall we?

Moving on to our next example of possibilities for such socially-driven events.. how about an obstacle course? Ropes, climbing, crawling, dodging, all of that.. It could be a sudo game show with hosting player-provided prizes and paid spectators. How about a fish toss? Yes.. a fish toss.. or maybe an archery competition? Crafting product showcase? Halloween costume contest? Completely player-created and run, the hosting player would benefit from successful design, implementation, and promotion of these mini-games through having paid spectators and thus have the incentive to continue to come up with creative events that other players would be excited about. Players could really make a name for themselves by putting on fantastic events!

..but that’s not all!

Why limit the possibilities to those using entity sets and crafted items? Players could also run full on gladiator battles by allowing for a designated player acting as a GM of sorts to spawn creatures from a limited set of choices (different choices could be available at different costs when reserving the arena for an event), or perhaps this type of event could be more automated outside of the visual appearance of the arena itself, which would be customized…

But how would this be controlled?

Each arena would have limited available time slots for purchase. Players would pay a fee to reserve the arena, choosing from the available time slots at that moment. Events could last anywhere from 15mins to two hours, with some of the time allocated specifically for setup (the player would choose when to “unlock the doors” for spectators). Once purchased, players could then buy various entity sets for placement or choose from available event templates (pre-decorated versions of the zone to start with). They could also purchase various NPC “spawns” for the event, or a limited number of NPC “heralds” that would walk around Qeynos or Freeport advertising their event aloud and sell tickets. (There would always be a “box-office” NPC that people could buy tickets from, regardless of whether or not the hosting player buys heralds or not).

Once the slot has been purchased and entity sets/spawns have been purchased, at any time before the event the player and designated additional players (up to 2 or maybe 3) can zone into an instance of the arena and design the environment for their event, but there would be limitations. Spawn points could be set for spawns, but NPCs will not actually appear until the event is “live”, as well as no combat may take place during design time. The instance is strictly for decorating and perhaps dress rehearsals of the sort. Once the zone is decorated to taste, the hosting player may “save” the configuration server side to be loaded at event time.

Meanwhile, players are advertising around the world, perhaps NPC heralds are making their rounds throughout the cities promoting the event and selling tickets. The hosting player can query the box-office at any time to find out how many tickets have been sold to-date. Additionally, since this is player-driven content, promotion could occur out of the game as well on various message boards, guild websites, etc.

The whole point of all this..

..is that MMORPG games have options when it comes to enabling players to play the way that they want to play. While development resources are limited for designing and implementing new content and game mechanics, I think there is great value in setting aside time to come up with tools to leverage your creative player-base to make the game even more exciting than the limited bounds of the design, without giving them complete control to disrupt the rules of the world as they exist. Socially-driven content has the great potential to provide even more interesting things to do in the world for your players beyond the norm, whether they’re creating the content themselves, or checking out the latest comedy night on friday night at the coliseum.