Raph has a post up entitled “What are the lessons of MMORPGs today?” As a commenter says, it’s a ‘whats wrong with those damned renderMUDs nowadays’ post, and it comes off as kinda cranky. Or, at least it makes me a little cranky. Witness my crank-fu after the cut.

Raph’s list goes over the elements of MMOGs that are (in many ways) lamentable. The thing of it, though, is that I don’t see a problem with many of his comments. ”Telepathy is normal” will always be the case in Massive games, because /tells are probably not going anywhere. In fact, if DDO and Planetside are any indication, there will likely be VOIP-like elements to tomorrows games. I think most folks who aren’t ‘play to crush’ types can agree that ”Killing is the only real way to gain people’s admiration” is a confining hold-over from less sophisticated game-thinking. The MUD-like elements that allow for crafting have been poorly imitated in modern Massive games; Star Wars Galaxies and ATITD are the best on offer, and even those have their problems. Just the same, he goes a little overboard with some of his statements.

• ”You never, ever, ever change jobs. If you want to, you probably need to die.” Final Fantasy XI has a great job system, one that I think should definitely be imitated by more titles. A single character can utilize one of the base classes at a time. The ability to mix two classes, and open ones beyond the basic ‘Black Mage/Fighter’, is also available at higher levels.While it would be nice to be able to change your role while maintaining your relative power-level, the fact that you can keep your character and switch up your role is a wonderful way to get a player connected with a character.
• ”You not only can’t go home again, you probably don’t have one. If you do, it’s mostly to store stuff, not to live in. You never have people over.” I’ve played your game, Raph! Star Wars Galaxies, at one time and in that place, had living and breathing communities. People made works of art in their homes, and invited people over to enjoy them. Even just the skill involved in a craftsman’s workshop in these post-NGE days can be something to behold. Garva’s Homeshow has plenty of arguments against this particular point.
• ”If you don’t keep up with the Joneses, you will never see them again. In fact, if you don’t keep up with your friends, you will never see them again either. You should not associate with those of lower social standing than yourself.” City of Heroes/Villains allows and encourages the sort of intermingling he’s bemoaning here. The Sidekick system is a ‘duh’ development in the genre; A simple decision to not put friends in the position Raph is talking about here. Final Fantasy XI, too, encourages players with different levels of skill at the game to play together through use of its job system. With level-based characters (whose abilities are easily quantified and understood), the only thing standing in the way of options like this is developer prejudice and production time.
• ”All women are beautiful and all men are either handsome or darkly mysterious.” Trust me, that’s not the case. City of Heroes and Star Wars Galaxies allows far, far too much customization. The first time I re-entered Galaxies with my newest PC rig, I encountered an old friend on the Starsider server. He was a big flabby Mon Calamari, and I’d always enjoyed hanging out with him. With the added detail of a better video card and more RAM, though, I could hardly look at him. He jiggled so…
• ”Death doesn’t really sting. Nerf, however, is incredibly painful … in general, taking your time is counterproductive. The tide never washes in and out. The birds never migrate. Strawberries are never in season. Night’s really short.” I have a real problem with these complaints. The generally accepted name of the genre is ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game’. That last word is the reason why I play these things. I know that Raph’s view is that MMOGs are all just virtual worlds with ’stuff’ in them, and some of that stuff is ‘gamestuff’. To be honest, though, Paragon City and Azeroth are not interesting enough to me without that gamestuff for me to have visited those places as much as I have. As such, the simple simulation of certain elements of reality are more than acceptable to me. Would it be cool to note that birds migrate? Would I love NPCs to have lives of their own in the vein of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion? Of course. Would I rather game developers spend their time balancing classes and producing new content rather than spending time on these elements? Definitely.
• ”There is art and beauty in the world, but you can’t be responsible for any of it.” I would argue that the homebuilding of Star Wars Galaxies is a great example of how this isn’t true. Above and beyond that, A Tale in the Desert’s Art Test is the purest example of art for art’s sake in a virtual world. I recently had a long discussion with a friend about the Massively Multiplayer Dance game that just went into beta in Korea. There’s art to be had in all sorts of Massive games.

The “problem” with this last issue is that for the most part gamers don’t think that online art creation is a fun way to pass time. Generally speaking, people want more of what they already have, only slightly different. Over the last two years we’ve seen incremental but influential changes to Massive gaming as a genre. All of the heavy hitters and new titles have made inroads, changing the way that people view MMOGs. While right now I don’t see an art-heavy MMOG making it big in the west, who knows what could be true even five years from now?

While I understand where these complaints come from, I think Raph’s list was nit-picking for the sake of picking nits. Massive games aren’t perfect, to be sure, but three years ago when I was writing for MMORPGDot I couldn’t have imagined in the size of World of Warcraft’s audience, the re-envisioning of EQII or SWG, or the innovations that Guild Wars, DDO, and Tabula Rasa would be bringing to the stage. Three years ago I was wondering whether I’d even remember Massive games when I hit 30. Now I find myself talking with my wife about groundrules for MMOGs if we have kids. I think we need shades, not mourner’s caps. The future is bright from where I’m standing.