Wolfshead has an article up today explaining why he believes that game developers’ recent emphasis on “fun” is destroying the MMO genre. Instead, he recommends a return to the good old days when multiplayer online roleplaying games focused on “adventure”. “Mature adults”, Wolfshead asserts, want their entertainment to be adventure-based, not fun-based. (Quoted terms are all his; your mileage may vary based on how you interpret “fun”, “adventure”, and “mature adult”.)
While I agree in principle that modern MMOs are too focused on instant gratification and are heavily skewed towards fun (and thus away from adventure), I believe that the games that Wolfshead is imagining when he argues against “WoWville” styled titles are not palatable ideas for the majority of “mature adults”.
What follows is a fisking of Wolfshead’s article, which is entitled The Emasculation of MMOs: Part 2 – Fun is for Children, Adventure is for Adults. I recommend that you read his entire piece, and not just the segments that I have quoted below.
Experiencing fun for its own sake is shallow, meaningless and lacks purpose and possibility.
Wrong. Many so-called mature adults work hard all day, and when they come home they just want to kick up their feet and relax for a few minutes. For some of us, that means stepping into our favorite virtual world to relieve the stresses of a difficult day. If everything was the high stakes adventure that Wolfshead claims adults should want, then MMOs would become far less relaxing than they currently can be.
MMOs should support both breezy fun and high stakes adventure. It should be up to individual players to decide what they want to experience in a given play session.
It’s a violation of the basic law of the universe that says there can be no pleasure without pain, no light without darkness, no harvest without planting, no reward without risk.
I love hyperbole as much as the next guy, but this line is a little too over-the-top even for me. Fun for fun’s sake does not violate any universal law. I’m sure with a little creative thought you anyone can come up with any number of pleasurable activities that can be enjoyed in a pain free manner.
Contrast [fun] with the notion of adventure which is often thrust upon both willing and unwilling adults.
I’m sorry, but most days I don’t want anything thrust upon me unwillingly; especially not when I’m trying to relax. This is not to say that I always avoid adventure, but rather that I want to be able to choose where and when I have my adventure, without every single moment in a game world being a fight for survival, or an epic quest.
Nobody goes on a quest to amuse themselves.
This statement is so out of touch with the vast majority of MMO player bases that I don’t know where to start. Millions of people go on virtual quests to amuse themselves every single day.
The MMO experience that kept us playing for hours on the edge of our chairs got replaced in a bait and switch scheme concocted by a new breed of MMO companies like Blizzard.
And here is the big problem, emphasis mine. Most “mature adults” don’t have hours to be kept playing a game. The reason that I left EQ back when it was a big deal was precisely because that, even as a university student, I didn’t reliably have consecutive blocks of hours to spend sitting in front of my screen slaying virtual enemies. EverQuest was not sufficiently pick-up-and-play for me to consume.
World of Warcraft, which I got into years later, was much easier to integrate into my life as a “mature adult”. I could set aside a few weekly chunks of time for progression raiding, but aside from that I could pop online for as little or as long as I wanted and still get things done, go on adventures, and feel some sense of accomplishment.
Mature adults may crave adventure, but most of us don’t have the time to be online for hours every play session. Games that don’t understand this concept are destined to be niche titles.
Making a game is far less lofty process than making a virtual world. When you create a game it absolves the creators of the higher responsibility inherent in creating a world. Tolkien created a world, Blizzard created a game.
The claim that Azeroth is less of a world that Tolkien’s Middle Earth is, simply put, a pile of rubbish. As much as I’ve fallen out of love with their MMO, I cannot deny that Blizzard created a gorgeous living world, and spared no expense on lavishing incredible amounts of detail on almost everything.
Further, I can’t help but point out that, in many places, Tolkien’s writing gets dry and boring for long spells; especially when you read outside of the Lord of the Rings series. Azeroth, on the other hand, is not a “dull read”.
This [focus on fun] is precisely why WoW is completely different than EverQuest. Both were designed with vastly different goals in mind by people with different visions, outlooks and backgrounds.
And that is exactly why Blizzard is printing money while EverQuest is languishing in the pile of second or third rate MMOs. World of Warcraft is the expression of what many mature adults want: a fun virtual world to explore at their own pace.
But let’s accept that many adults today are chasing the dragon of fun; at least they have thousands of video game titles from which to satiate their hunger. Yet for those of us that seek high stakes online adventure there are barely any choices.
For me this is boils down to the failure of broadly targeted MMOs to appeal to mature adults.
Throughout his article, Wolfshead continually equates himself to an average “mature adult”, and yet the things that he is demanding from MMOs are not in line with the lifestyle that many/most mature adults lead. Perhaps Wolfshead simply leads a life that shares very little in common from the vast majority of mature adults who are clambering to fill up the Warcraft servers night in and night out. The ability and/or willingness to sink hundreds of hours into a game and live a virtual life of high adventure in a sandbox world is not typical.
The simple fact is that players who want time intensive high stakes MMOs are in the minority, and game developers realize that. A few niche titles exist to cater to Wolfshead’s crowd – EVE Online springs to mind – however there is no market appetite for big budget life-eating games. The MMOs of today must support casual play in addition to any hardcore elements that they incorporate.
Somehow every other form of entertainment including broadcasting and publishing has expanded by offering a myriad of choices and niches for people to explore — all except the MMO industry.
The reason for this is trivially easy to identify: the MMO industry is infinitesimally small compared to the broadcast or publishing industries. In fact, the MMO industry is a drop of water when compared to the ocean that is the entire gaming industry. World of Warcraft is an aberration in this respect; remove blizzard’s juggernaut from the equation and the disparity becomes mind-boggling.
The truth is that Wolfshead is a niche player in a niche market. As such, it is ridiculous to expect many companies to cater exclusively to such a tiny minority, because it won’t happen often.
There is something unseemly about the pursuit of fun by grown adults. As a MMO veteran of 11 years, this is not what I signed up for. Part this problem is societal and a reflection of the pervasiveness of our youth culture where people today just refuse to grow up — aided and abetted by their enablers in the entertainment industry. Somehow the purpose of life has been reduced to finding ways to endlessly amuse oneself. Regrettably, our generation seems to be trapped in a culture of perpetual adolescence.
Grown adults are allowed to have fun too. Life is serious enough, why deride someone for wanting to relax now and then? Even in the past adults were seen having fun in their off hours; this isn’t a new phenomenon, and is not a product of modern society. (Even in the trenches of our planet’s most brutal wars soldiers have eked out moments of relaxation and pure pleasure, so why the fuss when a modern citizen does the same from the comfort of his own home?)
Perhaps gamers have more time to relax in 2010, and perhaps our relaxation options are more varied, but neither of these facts means that we are somehow unique in our desire and ability to enjoy ourselves when we get a chance.
Today, it’s all backwards in the MMO game industry. MMOs are primarily designed to appeal to wide demographics with the goal of making money first and making a masterpiece second. I’m sorry but I don’t find a mass market McDonald’s hamburger appealing when what I really want is filet mignon.
This analogy is all wrong:
Modern MMOs may be McDonald’s hamburgers, but the hardcore adventure-based sandbox MMOs that Wolfshead asking for are more akin to a piece of over cooked steak: tough and leathery, with very little flavor unless you pile on the BBQ sauce.
13 Responses to “Of McD’s burgers and overcooked steak”
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Everyone seems to be working hard nowadays. OK, let’s assume we do work hard.
But this does not mean I am too exhausted to have more challenging combat and quests? That I crave for easy entertainment?
The average person – is a damn casual? Who works so hard that he can log in for 30 minutes per week only to play a MMO?
I just wonder why he is playing a MMO then and not Casualville, because this is the game for this kind of player.
You just want *simple* fun? There is longer lasting fun and satisfaction that is not delivered with a MMO aiming for the very very lowest common denominator.
Are you really content with World of Warcraft and similar breeds of MMO? I am not, and I wonder that people can be satisfied with that in the long run.
By the way, you are twisting the anology which is perfectly fine and fill it with your meaning which actually is all wrong:
The opposite of the fun and instant gratification world is not barren and devoid of fun. And no, it is not hardcore pvp like Darkfall as some carebears like to claim.
I wonder if it is a cultural trend, as even single player games nowadays often totally give up on more than a very basic difficulty, which actually adds some spice to the game. You know that, you know a lot of older games and their appeal does not derive from the fact that they had harsh penalties, but there was joy in playing/winning especially because it was not that easy.
“let’s assume we do work hard. But this does not mean I am too exhausted to have more challenging combat and quests? That I crave for easy entertainment?”
Of course not. However can you honestly state that every time you log in to your MMO of choice that you want to be forced to play for 1-3 hours and be challenged the entire time in order to achieve anything?
MMOs should support easy breezy fun along side deep adventures. The two are not inherently incompatible within the same game framework.
“The average person – is a damn casual? Who works so hard that he can log in for 30 minutes per week only to play a MMO? I just wonder why he is playing a MMO then and not Casualville, because this is the game for this kind of player.”
Easy: because he wants to be a part of a community, and experience a virtual world at his own pace. He doesn’t want to feel like playing in 30m bursts most nights will keep him stuck as a worthless noob forever.
“You just want *simple* fun? ”
Nope, I want the ability to have just simple fun sometimes, and deep adventure others – depending on my mood and availability. I assert that you can have both in a single game, and point to WoW as the closest example we have so far. (Although it is far far far from ideal or perfect.)
“Are you really content with World of Warcraft and similar breeds of MMO? ”
Not at all, after all I quit WoW, and then tried & quit a number of other games that were far too similar to WoW. Now I only play Wizard101, and only then because it’s time with my godson. The current crop of MMOs does nothing for me.
I’ll write soon on what I think needs to change in MMOs – I can’t always tear up other people’s ideas. =)
“The opposite of the fun and instant gratification world is not barren and devoid of fun. And no, it is not hardcore pvp like Darkfall as some carebears like to claim.”
I think, like another commenter pointed out, that adventures ARE fun. That’s where Wolfshead’s semantics get a little odd. He sets up a “fun” vs “adventure” dichotomy that doesn’t really exist.
But I assert that the overcooked steak analogy IS appropriate in the context of what he was asking for in his article. He wants a time-investment heavy game that caters to people like himself. Fair enough; but that’s going to suck all the juice out of the game for players like me (or those more casual).
“You know that, you know a lot of older games and their appeal does not derive from the fact that they had harsh penalties, but there was joy in playing/winning especially because it was not that easy.”
You bet – I love a good challenge, and games that appeal to an older aesthetic are often steeped in difficulty. But just because I love a challenge does not mean that every time I sit down to play a game I WANT to be challenged, or have time for a deep experience. Sometimes all I want is some breezy fun with friends.
I think the false dichotomy of fun : adventure was often criticized and I agree, he wrote too much like these terms would describe polar opposites.
The tone was also quite condescending and many have not taken that well.
But I agree to the theme park observation. This is also why I did not really got into Eric Heimburg’s latest article. I think he did not intend that, but to me it read like he was trying to optimize the last remaining little danger out of the gameplay, read the Fel Reaver in the Hellfire Peninsula.
I am against the lowest difficulty mobs in the world. If they want people to level fast, then let them start at level 60, how about that ?!
Heirloom gear and massive level 80 main char support make it easy for veterans to level, and for new players nothing is wrong with a little challenge. Unless they go to Stormwind and ask for up to one hour for someone to powerlevel them. But these are probably alts. :(
Damn, I would like a totally unfair and nasty “Monster zone of the week”: Let something like monster-sized ant-lions spawn and drag them underground if people stray too far from roads in the zone. xD
The general design credo that people are dumb sheep has to end. I do not want my games to be dumbed down that much. :(
I do have to wonder exactly what is meant by mature adult in the context of Wolfshead’s arcticle and your own personal definition. It seems you are both describing the same type of person just have different views on what that person might be.
At 21 I consider myself a “mature adult” – I have a full time job and still continue my education living on my own, but I certainly enjoy both aspects of MMOs (re. WoW). Of course I like to have fun, but at the same time if you don’t have to work at it there is very little sense of accomplishment and that of course is the diving force that keeps an MMO subscriber subscribing.
Is this definition of a mature adult based more on what type of person they are in real life and how that stacks up to what they like in a game, or is more about what type of person they are in real life and how that doesn’t stack up to what they want their game to be..
“I do have to wonder exactly what is meant by mature adult in the context of Wolfshead’s arcticle and your own personal definition.”
I can’t speak for Wolfshead since he doesn’t ever define the term, but here’s my own definition as it pertains to the gaming discussion:
A typical “mature adult” is someone who works/studies ~40 hours a week and has at least one dependent (spouse, child, live-in parent, etc).
Note: this doesn’t mean that someone who falls outside of this definition is not an adult, or not mature; merely that they are not a member of the majority group that we’re trying to discuss.
“Is this definition of a mature adult based more on what type of person they are in real life and how that stacks up to what they like in a game, or is more about what type of person they are in real life and how that doesn’t stack up to what they want their game to be..”
To me the definition is more about the type of time commitments a person has, as well as their priorities. Generally mature adults (in my view) are focused on (in this order) their family, their work, then finally their hobbies.
As I said at the outset of my article though, your mileage may vary depending on how you define any of the terms that Wolfshead chose to use in his post.
I don’t think I’m going to be as through at a fisking as you were (boy, that sounds dirty), but let me address some of your points.
[Saying nobody goes out on a quest to amuse themselves] is so out of touch with the vast majority of MMO player bases that I don’t know where to start. Millions of people go on virtual quests to amuse themselves every single day.
Yes, people in MMOs go on “quests” to amuse themselves, but I don’t think that’s what Wolfshead meant. He was talking about quests in the grander sense. As he points out, Frodo didn’t go to Mt. Doom for kicks and giggles, he went to do the heroic thing that he knew he was the best able to do. Luke didn’t traipse all around the galaxy on a drunken space spring break, the went because that’s what was required of him to save the galaxy. Harry Potter didn’t set off to avenge Dumbledor and defeat Valdemort because he had some time to kill.
It’s an issue of vocabulary: to call digging around in piles of poop the same thing as confronting a great evil to save Middle Earth doesn’t seem right.
The claim that Azeroth is less of a world that Tolkien’s Middle Earth is, simply put, a pile of rubbish.
Oh, really? I seemed to have missed the part in The Lord of the Rings where Sauron repopped so that the next part could throw in their quest items like what happens with VanCleef on a regular basis. How long have the Defias been threatening Stormwind?
Anyway, Wolfshead didn’t claim that Blizzard hadn’t created a world, but that they focused on the game first and foremost. And, they did. This is why VanCleef respawns and why the Defias are never defeated despite the fact that a single max-level character could wipe out every single Defias in under an hour. And, yes, Warcraft’s world is a lot better than what we typically get, but let’s not pretend that it’s the same caliber as Middle Earth.
The truth is that Wolfshead is a niche player in a niche market.
I will agree here. As I said in a comment the people who read and got into The Lord of the Rings books weren’t your average person, they were the rarefied geeks who had the imagination to handle the books.
Here’s the thing, though: if it’s so niche, why spend so much time tearing apart what he’s saying? Why not accept that he may be trying to represent a group smaller than he might think it is?
Let me give another analogy. Games like what Wolfshead wants are like epic fantasy literature like The Lord of the Rings books: long, complicated, has some dull parts, requires dedication, but absolutely filled with a vibrant and exciting world. Games like WoW are like romance novels: cheap, easy, mindless, specific, fun, popular. Romance novels sell so much better than fantasy books.
So, imagine that Wolfshead is asking why writers don’t write more epic fantasy and less romance novels. Yes, the audiences are different and fantasy geeks are a minority. Epic fantasy is a niche interest. But, can you understand his complaint more? Just because romance novels sell so much better doesn’t mean that it’s the best form of literature available for everyone. Asking for more epic fantasy trilogies doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be less romance novels written, or that your favorite author is going to give up ripped bodices and flowing locks of hair for the clang of steel and the smell of brimstone.
To go alone with Brian’s points I wanted to say a few things.
I’m not certain it is fair to say that Wolf and I are niche players. We most likely are but lets ask the honest question. Who has tested this? You have an ENTIRE generation of MMO players that have NEVER played a game like we want. Everyone just assumes that since “WoW as is” is successful that is what people want. Sometimes people don’t know that they could have something better. Essentially, to use the same metaphor, that is like saying someone who picks McDonalds every day only likes McDonalds. What if they have never heard of filet? What if they’ve never been to Taco Bell. You could walk them in and they may never eat McDonalds again.
Lets also remember that WoW started off completely differently than it is today and was still VERY popular. We just haven’t had a true test of a hardcore game since then that isn’t PvP driven. Those terms got linked somewhere and that is unfortunate. I liked EQ1′s hardcore nature. I didn’t like UOs. They’re different types.
To assume that WoW as is is what people want isn’t always fair when they’ve never had the opportunity to experience something widely different and lets be honest. Since WoW became a money printing service we have yet to have something widely different.
I’m not certain it is fair to say that Wolf and I are niche players.
You are. That’s not a bad thing. “Niche” tends to have a negative connotation to most people, but for business people “niche” usually means “opportunity”, especially if it’s underserved. The trick is to find a way to serve this niche in a way that other companies won’t (or can’t) that still keeps the audience happy.
I have to say, my biggest problem with Wolfshead’s write-up is the idea that an adventure isn’t “fun”. The very definition he quotes says that fun is something “enjoyable”. People don’t typically take part in things that they don’t find enjoyable, unless it is for money.
And I see Brian above stating that what Frodo did wasn’t enjoyable. Fine, but you aren’t Frodo and there is no magical ring. You are not under the same pressure as he was under as you are, at the base of it all, still just playing a video game. There is no possibility of losing your life from failing at a quest or anything and so to say that the game shouldn’t be “fun” because Frodo wasn’t having fun is just silly.
So I wonder what Wolfshead, Brian, etc would do in order to make these games less enjoyable for themselves. No in-game death penalty, regardless of how strict, is the same as someone dying. You can get up and walk away from your computer quite easily. So, would they accept maybe an addition to their monthly subscription fees for every time they died? Technically they are dead and no longer exist and so have to be recreated. How about a $0.50 per death fee? OR… even better… you want an adventure? How about an addon that is used in conjunction with an electrical device. Every time you get critted by a mob or boss, you get a jolt. If you die, you basically get tasered.
I find my job to be “fun”. I do research. It’s challenging, but enjoyable. I find knitting, hiking, snorkling, and rock climbing “fun”. As the definition of fun is something you enjoy. I guess these are all childish hobbies and jobs I should put away???
Wolfshead (nor I) never said that you can’t have fun, he said that your *only* motivation shouldn’t be purely for fun. Game designers should make games that aren’t just about “fun” or “coolness”. I mean, if I (as a player) wanted to not have fun, I can think of a lot easier ways to not have fun than to spend a monthly subscription fee!
Let’s take a look at Melissa’s list of things she finds fun. Does she only go to work fr fun? Or does she also make money, enjoy the challenge, really want to find new solutions to existing problems, etc? Does she go hiking or snorkeling just for fun, or is it the opportunities to see and do new places that also motivates her? Is it sharing an experience with someone else? Does she climb rocks simply for some abstract concept or is it an opportunity to challenge herself physically? Is knitting only for fun, or does it let you practice manual dexterity and make sweaters for family members who will be too embarrassed to wear them? ;) All these things have other motivations besides just “fun”.
Now, let’s consider a child running around screaming at the top of his or her lungs. Why is he or she doing that? Not because they want exercise or to increase lung capacity, but because “it’s fun.” That’s the only reason. An adult deciding to run around and scream gets looks because that’s not appropriate. Yet, when we dive into games “I’m here only because it’s fun” is the reason most people give, and that’s acceptable.
As an aside, I think this is one reason why I don’t embrace that MMOs should be entirely soloable. It seems to remove another motivation, spending time with friends, for MMOs and reduces the reasons back down to only “fun”.
So, if we want to torture another metaphor, Wolfshead sees a lot of players running around and screaming their heads off, primarily because the biggest game seems to encourage this type of behavior. So, he asks, why not channel all that energy into something like hiking so that people can go out and experience the majesty of nature as well as occupy their time?
“Does she go hiking or snorkeling just for fun, or is it the opportunities to see and do new places that also motivates her? Is it sharing an experience with someone else? Does she climb rocks simply for some abstract concept or is it an opportunity to challenge herself physically? Is knitting only for fun, or does it let you practice manual dexterity and make sweaters for family members who will be too embarrassed to wear them? ;) All these things have other motivations besides just “fun”.
”
Honestly??? I do them because I enjoy them. Period. I don’t think about manual dexterity. And to me, seeing new places is “fun”. I think the definition of “fun” and trying to say that these cannot be one and the same is the problem I have. To me, they are still under the umbrella of “fun” as I enjoy them.
So my problem is saying that anything fun must be childish. I think you can make distinctions in mature forms of “fun” and immature forms of fun, but that’s not what was done in that post.
And for the record, I’m no teen… I’m almost 40. I’ve had plenty of time to decide what I enjoy and why I enjoy it. And yes, I get money for work, but I wouldn’t be doing it if i didn’t enjoy it. I actually delegate the work I don’t enjoy and yet I still get paid.
I do agree on the MMO”s not being soloable part. I love group content. It’s a challenge… and to me, challenges are “fun”.
I was going to say something to this effect before you posted, but yeah enjoying something normally inherently means that it’s fun.
So if Melissa enjoys work and hiking and exploring, regardless if she enjoys it for other reasons as well she enjoys it because it’s fun.
The word fun is clumped into anything that you don’t hate in the sense that were using it to describe why someone plays a game.
Simple as that.
Quick note:
Due to the thoughtful nature of the replies everyone left I’ve been delayed in addressing everyone’s comments.
That said, I’ve responded to two comments, and intend to respond to them all. Unfortunately things are really busy today, so I know I won’t get to them until tomorrow.
Sorry!