I forewarn you: this post is theorycraft; if you don’t like MMOs read a book!
Let it be known to the world that I read Tobold’s MMO blog. I almost always find his insights on the mark and well thought out. If only someone would hire him as an MMO designer! 
However, sometimes he doesn’t go far enough (usually when it comes to WoW). I’d like to discuss this recent post of his: Tobold on Horizontal Expansions to Vertical Games. I highly suggest you read it; it’s full of good stuff.
I’d like to offer a little background of my MMO career. I started in Ultima Online, had a jolly good time crafting (didn’t do much combat). From UO I played Anarchy Online for a time and didn’t really ‘accomplish’ (in the MMO sense) much. This was the end of 8thgrade, before I went to high school (yeah I’m young!); this summer would change my life in terms of gaming. During that academic year, I got accepted into the SWG beta and immediately invited my friend to join me (he’s also a Star Wars fanatic). Needless to say, years later we were still playing this game. I still consider it the pinnacle of MMO design — but not without faults. I like to view it as a flawed masterpiece; you can see the potential, but for whatever reason it’s not fully realized. What kept me going in this game? PvP! It was exciting, fun, filled with random encounters and epic battles; it was a challenge that never ended so long as other players populated the servers. I could gush more about SWG, but I suppose I could save that for another time.
For many months I thoroughly enjoyed my playtime (even during the Jedi fascination). This was before the dark times…before the EmpireWorld of Warcraft (dun dun dun). I think I put equal amount of time into SWG and WoW and explored the end game of both. I had a level 60 Orc Shaman, complete with top-tier healing gear, spellcasting gear, and melee gear (Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros + Windfury = Holocaust of mages). I was in a leading guild on the server, complete with influential leaders (let’s just say he works at Bungie now).
I do not look back upon my time with WoW as fondly as I do SWG. Why? The vertical nature of the game. This is what Tobold doesn’t explore — why the vertical design is flawed.
What was the point of the game levels 1-59? To get to 60. What was the point at 60? To increase my stats (i.e., get phat loot). What was the point of the game when I had phat loot? PvP. It all seems to circle back to PvP. I still also enjoyed helping my guildmates get their loot, so I’m not a giant prick. The game, while massive, is completely exhausted once you reach your hard-caps (levels) or soft-caps (gear). Sure you can make alts, but really it’s just same shit different day. Blizzard, instead of addressing these shortcomings, ran along with it and dangled newer carrots (or honey sticks) in front of us. PvP was not a game of skill like SWG arguably was (yes there was some loot, but it was incredibly rare and never overpowered; even the best looted items could still be overcome). This carrot-theory of game design, while lucrative, involves massive efforts by the developers to produce ongoing content instead of just letting the game play (you can’t just let WoW stagnate in terms of content; people get bored with raid bosses or everyone has the best gear). It’s taxing for both the developers and the players. I quit WoW mainly because I wasn’t having fun when BC hit and all my effort for the past couple of years were nothing (also I really neglected my social life, and I didn’t want to be a hermit in college). I’m sometimes tempted to go back, mostly by friends, but I’d sooner eat broken glass.
I agree with his points that you can’t make WoW a horizontal game, at least not anymore. It’s stuck in a rut and you can’t really innovate, only iterate. WotLK’s PvP zones seem like a joke. Blizzard doesn’t understand that you can’t have e-sports in an MMO unless there’s a level playing ground. Well, let me rephrase — they might understand, but at this point WoW cannot really change drastically. All of the most popular games are mainly horizontal in nature. Counter-Strike (and other FPSs) can be expanded with new maps; Warcraft can spawn minigames like Defense of the Ancients. Guild Wars is more about the builds and skills than the level or gear.
This is where I think WAR will shine. WAR, while having levels, is focused on RvR and PvP. They see Blizzard. They see the arena bullshit and the lacking-substance PvP. They had a blockbuster PvP game with DAoC, which I’ve heard nothing but good things (at least until the PvE expansion). They’ve learned from their mistakes (I hope). PvPers won’t mind not having expansions that increase levels, they’ll accept the horizontal endgame. I’m speaking from personal experience here, but when it comes to PvP the player is more focused on the challenge at hand than the gear in hand. They crave the random and unique challenge only a human mind can bring. Mythic needs to do a good job of constructing RvR so it’s accessible early and often to capture the more casual interests (that means minimize the effect of gear). I’m confident they can do that — they’re experts in the PvP design of MMOs. I, like Tobold, am looking forward to trying this out; I hope it can give me the same amount of PvP fun I had from SWG…otherwise there’s always the SWGEmu.
Well this ends today’s theorycrafting, hope I didn’t make your eyes bleed or brain hemorrhage or anything of that nature. I have no off-topic blogservations for today; I mainly woke up in a pissed off state and completely zoned out into my music on my iPhone during the commute.
Addendum:
I was reading the comments on this particular post and noticed many that mentioned no liking of PvP, only liking of PvE, achievers, etc. I’d like to address these as well, lest I be seen as a close-minded individual (never!!).
I think in order to have a horizontal PvE game, you need to have a well established economy (no, WoW does not count). I’m thinking more along the lines of SWG and EVE. Here, you have robust (relatively speaking) crafting, resources, and economies. PvE, at least in SWG, was mainly used to fuel the crafting process. PvE in EVE is a different story, but there are similarities that overlap. Here, you can introduce new PvE experiences and expand horizontally. You can offer new items that add new abilities to items once crafted — not necessarily stronger than before but different.
If you say, “well why not just introduce new and better gear?!” I will throw my orange hammer on your feet. This is vertical expansion disguised as horizontal expansion, nothing more and nothing less. The whole point of horizontal expansion is to not make content obsolete, but to culture your game and enhance it.
And for the achievers that play MMOs, I don’t really know what you want outside of the social aspect. Badges/titles/achievements can easily be added; additonally, I like WAR’s Tome of Knowledge (at least from what I’ve read about it). If you could elucidate what you’re looking for in the game that cannot be found easily elsewhere (achievements…I submit you XBox’s achievement points), I would greatly appreciate it.
