MMOs are like fastfood restaurants ...
While reading all the news about Bioware's big announcement, I was thinking about the differences in gaming experiences - between MMORPGs and single player games.
MMORPGs are like fastfood restaurants: lots of people, noisy - but plastic sporks and food that's functional. Their aim is to deliver a efficient, fuss-free meal experience to as many people as possible in a day. You order at a counter, bring your own food to the table, and clean up after you're done (not everyone cleans up though, here in Singapore).
The single-player game experience is like dining in a posh restaurant with personalised service. You can ask for the waiter's recommendations, mull over your menu choices, in an environment that makes you feel exclusive. Your threshold for disturbances is much lower than in a fastfood restaurant because you are paying good money for the service, food and ambience after all.
One is not necessarily better than the other - since they serve very different needs while satisfying the same basic need for food. There will be occasions where you just need something to line your stomach. There will also be times where you want to be pampered, to be made to feel that you are the centre of the universe.
Bringing this analogy back to the context of games, MMORPGs and single player games both entertain - but they do it in very different ways. There is no way a team of developers can meet the content needs of the many players an MMO can potentially have - so gameplay has to be pared down to a low denominator, and timesinks need to be built in.
I'm not saying that MMORPGs are inherently un-fun - the social and boisterous atmosphere can be appealing sometimes, especially when we don't really care about what we're eating and just want to enjoy the company of friends and (lots of) people.
To ask for a single player style of gaming experience in an MMORPG is like McDonald's trying to promise you the ambience, food and service of a more exclusive restaurant. The fastfood joint can throw in niceties like gourmet coffee and fancy mood lighting, but ultimately the business model is built on selling as many cheap meals to as many people as possible.
Perhaps Bioware will get it right, but building a small, exclusive mom-and-pop takes - ironically - less resources than an international fastfood franchise.
MMORPGs are like fastfood restaurants: lots of people, noisy - but plastic sporks and food that's functional. Their aim is to deliver a efficient, fuss-free meal experience to as many people as possible in a day. You order at a counter, bring your own food to the table, and clean up after you're done (not everyone cleans up though, here in Singapore).
The single-player game experience is like dining in a posh restaurant with personalised service. You can ask for the waiter's recommendations, mull over your menu choices, in an environment that makes you feel exclusive. Your threshold for disturbances is much lower than in a fastfood restaurant because you are paying good money for the service, food and ambience after all.
One is not necessarily better than the other - since they serve very different needs while satisfying the same basic need for food. There will be occasions where you just need something to line your stomach. There will also be times where you want to be pampered, to be made to feel that you are the centre of the universe.
Bringing this analogy back to the context of games, MMORPGs and single player games both entertain - but they do it in very different ways. There is no way a team of developers can meet the content needs of the many players an MMO can potentially have - so gameplay has to be pared down to a low denominator, and timesinks need to be built in.
I'm not saying that MMORPGs are inherently un-fun - the social and boisterous atmosphere can be appealing sometimes, especially when we don't really care about what we're eating and just want to enjoy the company of friends and (lots of) people.
To ask for a single player style of gaming experience in an MMORPG is like McDonald's trying to promise you the ambience, food and service of a more exclusive restaurant. The fastfood joint can throw in niceties like gourmet coffee and fancy mood lighting, but ultimately the business model is built on selling as many cheap meals to as many people as possible.
Perhaps Bioware will get it right, but building a small, exclusive mom-and-pop takes - ironically - less resources than an international fastfood franchise.
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