Player Made Content in MMOs

There are some game designers out there, usually the exception to the rule, that hold fast to the belief that gamers enjoy themselves most when they are given as much creative control over their character and the game world as possible. Will Wright, the man behind the now legendary “Sim” game franchise, comes to mind immediately, as do a few others like Peter Molyneux, and various, assorted small game studios that are mostly defunct and long gone. This philosophy has carried over into the MMO market in a small number of games, though in the vast majority of titles, true customization begins and ends with the character creator (and usually, even that is a fairly weak exercise of one’s creative energy).

Perfect World – Excellent character customization, but customization ends there.

Recently I began playing City of Heroes / Villains again with the release of their “Going Rogue” expansion, which allows players to explore the gray areas of their character’s morality, and even switch sides, becoming a reformed villain gone hero, or a hero gone dark. It intrigues me, the way City of Heroes prioritizes content which adds options in roleplaying a character’s journey with others, and even alone, rather than simply focusing on the expansion of mechanical content, like dungeons, raids, and level caps. It’s a game that has a very powerful base-building tool available to individuals and groups, for the purpose of creating housing and lairs, and even puts a toolset into the hands of the players in the form of the “architect” mission creator. This means that if you have a story to tell with your character, you can script and lay out custom maps and missions, creating everything from NPCs to their dialogue and difficulty. The only other game I can think of that provides this level of player customization is Ryzom.

City of Heroes Gameplay Screenshot

Why is it that things like this are so rare in games? It’s easy to point the blame, as so many often do, at the success of World of Warcraft for giving so many developers a bad case of MMO fever, and driving them to mimicry of that streamlined, simple, user-friendly style that WoW so successfully fed to the masses. We can simply blame the success of one game for single-handedly slaying imagination in the gaming industry, certainly, but we’d only be half right, at best. The real culprit behind the lack of player-driven customization in games is that the majority of people simply don’t care. The imagination of the gaming industry isn’t lacking, it’s the imagination of the players, and the players shape the demand placed on developers. If people don’t have the creative muscles to truly take advantage of something like quest designer, house builder, or storytelling tool, then why even bother making it in the first place?

Ryzom Gameplay Screenshot

Of course, I’m not claiming everyone is unimaginative. I think everyone has an imagination, and plenty of creative energy – how many of us as children played pretend, and made up stories? My guess is, probably the vast majority. There is something about the act of growing up and being socialized that discourages people from exercising their imaginations, and I think that’s a bit sad, personally. The solution to this dilemma, perhaps, is a bit beyond us at the moment, but perhaps it might be best if every MMORPG tried to provide their players with at least a little bit of control over their world. Give them a since of belonging, and perhaps they will belong to your game longer than you anticipated.

Second Life – One of the few MMOs with tons of player made content

What are your experiences with customization tools, outside of character creation, within an MMO? Is it something you feel you absolutely must have, or could you care less? Why or why not? There really isn’t a right or wrong answer here, though I think we all know my opinion on the general state of imagination in the world. Everyone’s needs are different. What are your needs?

By, B. Olivia