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In the second installation of Making the next MMO, we’ll discuss solo content and a dynamic group system.

It seems contradictory to have solo content in a massively mulitplayer game; but it’s part of the game everyone takes part in and it is sorely overlooked. In WoW, it is the equivalent of questing alone. While some story lines are engaging, the battles that take place are trivial. You don’t have that sense of accomplishment when you wipe the floor with a supposed badass in mere seconds; but you do after an epic battle in a large group at the highest levels. To have engaging solo content, you need to capture that group feeling.

All end game content, or the real satisfying fights, are built around team dynamics. Or the MMO Triangle of gameplay: Tank, Heal, Damage. All roles, filled by a real person. If you can not find people for those 3 roles, then you can’t engage group play with success. If developers added a Dynamic Group System that places NPC’s in empty spots, then players would not need to spend hours looking for people. This system can also be used to create solo content, and create tutorials to teach players how to perform their role in a group.

Reducing the time to find a group.

Most people don’t like waiting around for an hour or more looking for enough people just to play the game they pay monthly to play. All the good stories are told through group content, and many players miss out on great stories and good battles by not being able to find people to play. New players don’t get much of a chance to experience old content, adding this dynamic group system would allow new players to see all the content. It would give value to content that is just taking up space on the server, and people can play the game on their schedule.

Solo Content

Since you are no longer limited to a specific number of players for group content, you can view group content as solo content. If one players wants to do an unpopular instance or they are undergeared to do the instances everyone else is doing, they can group with npc’s and gear up without needing other players. This system also encourages designers to create better content rather than just having mosnter’s that are easy enough to kill by yourself.

Role Tutorial

One issue when first starting a new character, you don’t have any idea how to switch from leveling mode into group mode and perform your role. I would also like to see solo content that teaches new players how to perform their roles for group play. A player would join a team of NPC’s to defeat a powerful enemy. The purpose is not only to defeat the enemy but to also perform your duties. If you’re a healer you have to keep your tank alive, if you’re a tank you have to learn how to hold the monsters attention, or as dps you have to learn to control your character so you don’t take the enemies attention, but not go so slow where your tank dies. Support characters would have objectives like keeping everyone but the tank alive, using the right buffs, interupting spells and etc. It could also be used so that new players can determine if they like their role before investing months into leveling their character. No one wants to invest that much time to figure out which class they like.

So by adding this dynamic group system, designers could make content to teach players their roles for group play, create solo content, and reuse old content once ignored by not being able to find other players.