It’s been a while, since starting my new job sucked away much of my time, and Oblivion recently finishing it off.. Alas, tonight, many months from my last post, I felt the need to offer my two copper. This time my inspiration comes from Coltrane and this post by Moorgard.

Ok.. I have to bite the bullet a bit here and just spout off a bit.. Yes, there’s something to be learned from studying past iterations of game design in general, or MMO-specific. It’s good to know what were good design decisions and what were bad. It’s good to know how to crawl before you walk, walk before you run, etc.

That said, you have to be very careful to not approach everything as a derivative of the previous concept or idea. Certainly you can abstract tons of meaningful psychological analysis from how people react to various mechanics to identify what is fun and why, but that doesn’t make it a mathematical algorithm that works in every case. I’m not saying that YOU believe this is so, but I felt it should be stated none the less.

As a matter of fact, it’s quite likely that the repetition of many patterns in games, MMO or otherwise, will eventually leave the player unfulfilled. New patterns must be presented to the player to prevent boredom. Derivatives of previous mechanics that remain too familiar to the old concept, or are just the old concept re-dressed in a pretty package might work in the short-term, but do not hold interest for long, unless of course the player is new and has not mastered these patterns already.

The games that find new ways to engage the player are the ones that will be remembered as great, as has always been the case. Super Mario Bros, Half-life 2, Oblivion, even EverQuest when it first arrived are all good examples.

Like Coltrane.. learn the basics for sure, but only so you can shed them entirely and begin to truly feel the music.

My two copper…