Why a Non-Linear Game Would Fail

[Fireforge]

You're level 50.

You log in tomorrow.

You are now level 26 and the opposite faction.

Your spellbook is different. You aren't even the same class.

You have no idea where you are and the map is foreign to you.

You close a rift and you lose a level.

You are puzzled now. Bewildered you look at your screenshots from yesterday. You could swear you were level 50. You were. You send in a ticket to petition.

"Hello,

This is GM <fill in the blank>. We have found that the game was too linear. You could go from point A to point B in a very predictable fashion. You could do the same quests over and over and we have decided to make it interesting for you. Tomorrow when you log in you could be a level 6 or a level 48. This is what we feel will help make your experience non-linear. The quests will not be found in the same place from day to day. The rewards will never be the same. Every day we will change the level requirement and the levels of the mobs inside a dungeon. Sometimes when you kill stuff, you might lose a level. We feel that this will help you never feel like you have the same experience twice. We hope you enjoy this new non-linear progression.

Thanks,

GM <fill in the blank>"

Honestly. I don't know what you expect from a scripted computer program.

[Haseno]

....really?

[Fireforge]

Yeah. Linear games are predictable.

[Fernt]

aww but those are all the bad scenarios

i expected your focus to be about a sandbox instead of literal linear progression
there are ways around that - they just require SIDEgrades instead of UPgrades

thats when decisions are important

[Fireforge]

So now we are choosy about linear. You want different then you can have it. Pandora's Box is open.

[Fernt]

So now we are choosy about linear. You want different then you can have it. Pandora's Box is open.

<respectfully closes the box for another time>
Tired now, gotta work in the am

[Arare]

......Pancakes?

[Fireforge]

......Pancakes?

and bacon.

[Haseno]

Yeah. Linear games are predictable.

Since when is predictability an admirable trait for a game's content?

I would find games to be boring if I knew what was always going to happen next. Which is the case in Rift...

I group up with my buddies and farm content over and over, knowing we barely die and even if we do there is no consequence.

[Fireforge]

Since when is predictability an admirable trait for a game's content?

I would find games to be boring if I knew what was always going to happen next. Which is the case in Rift...

I group up with my buddies and farm content over and over, knowing we barely die and even if we do there is no consequence.

Admit it. You came for the bacon.

[Warfister]

You'd be hard pressed to find an MMO that isn't predictable after you have been at the level cap for a while.The entire genre itself is predictable, and it works. It's why they keep making them with no great deviation from the norm, because people keep buying them. Until people (majority) stop disliking change they will likely remain this way, or until something so amazing comes along that people don't care if it's drastically different. So far, any true innovation in the genre has met with dismal failure.

[Haseno]

You'd be hard pressed to find an MMO that isn't predictable after you have been at the level cap for a while.The entire genre itself is predictable, and it works. It's why they keep making them with no great deviation from the norm, because people keep buying them. Until people (majority) stop disliking change they will likely remain this way, or until something so amazing comes along that people don't care if it's drastically different. So far, any true innovation in the genre has met with dismal failure.

Those games didn't fail because they were different, they failed because they were launched incomplete. Or simply to far into a niche market.

The genre doesn't need a full-fledged sandbox MMORPG. This genre would vastly improve and evolve with just a Semi-Sandbox MMORPG.

[Fireforge]

You'd be hard pressed to find an MMO that isn't predictable after you have been at the level cap for a while.The entire genre itself is predictable, and it works. It's why they keep making them with no great deviation from the norm, because people keep buying them. Until people (majority) stop disliking change they will likely remain this way, or until something so amazing comes along that people don't care if it's drastically different. So far, any true innovation in the genre has met with dismal failure.

I agree with your post wholeheartedly. I'm not sure where this desire to make things non-linear came into play. I have always played games for one thing - repetition.

[Warfister]

I agree with your post wholeheartedly. I'm not sure where this desire to make things non-linear came into play. I have always played games for one thing - repetition.

Personally, I play them for fun. I don't take them as seriously as I used to back when I was playing EQ 1. I could envision some pretty crazy games but I just don't see them happening anytime soon. Limited by technology and people's ingrained dislike of change.

[Arare]

Those games didn't fail because they were different, they failed because they were launched incomplete. Or simply to far into a niche market.

The genre doesn't need a full-fledged sandbox MMORPG. This genre would vastly improve and evolve with just a Semi-Sandbox MMORPG.

Therein lies the problem.Being a sandbox,there is just such as vast amount of detail and work that needs to go into the game that most companies find it near impossible to complete it by launch.Big gaming companies are already having headaches with bug and content holes during their release launches,imagine the headache smaller companies are going to have with their sandbox.

EvE managed it,but just like WoW,it is an anomaly in the MMO market . CCP and Blizzard ,in my opinion are the only ones in the market,who might succeed in attempting a fully sandbox MMO.