Aspirational Ideas for Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG)
NOTE: I have personally never used any VR technologies nor played any VR games that are currently in existence. I am writing this blog post from an aspirational perspective without thinking of any current technological limitations that VR products have today.
The MMORPG industry today has lost their knack for innovation. Most MMORPG games in existence have been following the same formula for years. Consumers continue to embrace this model of gameplay although there is a rising voice from disgruntled gamers (like myself) demanding more unique and innovative games to be released. I have lost faith in these traditional companies to take risks and innovate. The last bastion of hope for true innovation lies in the Virtual Reality space.
If you have not been following this space, you probably wouldn’t know that there has already been a few VR MMORPG games released. The one I hear the most about is Orbus VR. Zenith, the last city, also seems to have some potential among early access users. I point these out as a reference for you to see what some of the current game developers are trying. However, I am noticing some glaring omissions in what I would want in an aspirational MMORPG VR game.
NOTE: For purposes of the next portion of this blog, I will refer to the game that I am describing as my game (even though I am not creating it).
The following principles will be paramount in creating a VR MMORPG game worth playing:
- Blending gaming and fitness
- Addiction factor
- Freedom of camera (1st / 3rd Person VR)
- Quality of craftsmanship
- High fantasy theme
- Intelligent artificial intelligence (AI)
- One open world global server (where everyone has good ping)
A basic principle that I would want to have in my game would be a leveling system that took into account IRL motions and movements that would need to be performed precisely in order to count towards in game progression. What I am hoping for such a system to achieve is to blend gaming and fitness together, encouraging players to get healthier in their real lives so they can get stronger in their virtual lives. I can’t stress enough the precision that will be needed for this because if it is easy to bypass the system, the entire point of the game is diminished.
The key to such a leveling system would be the addiction factor, which is our next principle in my game. So many MMORPG games are missing the mark in the most important thing necessary for success: A massive addiction from the consumer base who can’t wait to constantly play the game. What I believe is the most addicting type of gameplay is one where you see the progress being made in every action that is taken. Swing your imaginary sword? Your sword skill goes up. Climb an imaginary hill? Your climbing skill goes up. These are just basic examples of the type of Virtual Reality Progression that I would like to see in my game.
The next principle in my game would be freedom of camera selection. What I mean by this is, most VR games today are only in first person. I would like to see the option for 3rd person VR gaming to be implemented for those who enjoy that point of view. Again, this perspective is from not knowing the current limitations on VR games, but I am surprised that I have not seen 3rd person games yet. I think this would help to bridge the gap between traditional and VR gamers.
Quality of craftsmanship should go without saying, but many games right now are releasing minimal viable products instead of full fledged VR MMORPG games. The disgruntled gaming community has high standards already for the current MMORPG games they play. Not only would VR MMORPG games have to revolutionize gameplay, they would still need to have the level of quality necessary for gamers to forego their current quality games they are playing. Quality of craftsmanship costs money and many of these indie VR MMORPG games lack that.
The theme of the VR MMORPG should be one that synergizes well with our first principle of blending gaming and fitness. I believe that the high fantasy genre in which guns did not exist would best serve to synergize in such a capacity. Pulling a trigger is far less strenuous than drawing a bow for instance. The high fantasy genre allows for use of more privative weapons that require much more movement to execute than todays modern warfare. I also believe that gamers play games as a temporary escape from their real world troubles, and making the game setting high fantasy allows gamers to meet that goal.
As funny as this sounds, intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) is our next principle in my game. The intelligence must be able to mimic real user movements in order to match the skill of players at differing levels of their virtual character development. The amount of data needed for this type of artificial intelligence will be immense. Varying test subjects would have to be monitored and their movements translated into AI mobs that we would see in the game. This data could also come from cross promotional partnerships with health organizations and fitness clubs in order to amass the large amount of data required for this intelligent AI to operate effectively. If this is done right, each battle should feel like a PvP battle if the AI can mimic real world user movements while it fights a player, essentially using mobs as copies of similar level players.
Last but certainly not least, the final basic principle of my game is the desire for a single global open world server where every user (regardless of their location in the world) has the same fast and stable ping. This is something that even traditional MMORPG games have yet to accomplish and remains a massive technological roadblock, however, we are talking aspiration here and I do believe that eventually something will come along that will make this possible. Why an open world? Virtual Reality should be an all encompassing experience with seamless transitions from one piece of content to the other. Anything less than that would take away from the immersion and addiction that this game hopes to have.
Although I have personally never tried VR MMORPG games, or any VR game for that matter, I believe that with enough time, investment, and care, such a game that I am describing will one day be brought into this world and I believe it will be done during my lifetime. It will be so globally revolutionary that consumers who never played these types of games would instantly see the real world positive consequences of playing it, specifically for the fitness component. To whoever reads this and receives a spark of inspiration to start working on such an endeavor, I would be happy to lend my mind and brainstorm with you on how to make this happen.
I would love for anyone with any comments to please do so below and feel free to drop by my twitch live stream to discuss this further.
Kind Regards,
Blackboa