If 2008 was the year of the MMO Crash then 2009 is the year of MMO Doubt. It seems improbable, if not impossible, for most developers to put out a good MMO. And that is to say nothing of the finer points of game design such as balanced combat, stable economy and, you know, making the game fun to play. The sad part is, the average player is prepared to be dissatisfied by future MMO offerings.

Every year we see dozens of games sit unnoticed on store shelves, but these titles pale in comparison to the failure an MMO is capable of. Lack of success for an MMO doesn't just mean the game isn't fun - it means that the game is fated to be never played again, by anyone. Servers close up shop, players move to greener pastures and sooner or later the last light blinks off and the game is pronounced dead.

It is with this weight on their shoulders that MMO developers build their games and that is a plight that can be viewed with at least some sympathy. However, that doesn't mean much to a playerbase that is primed for disappointment. To say it plainly, most of the people building MMOs don't seem to have any idea of what players are looking for and when they do understand they rarely have the ability to follow through on what they promise. They would rather boast of features such as: Hundreds of Monsters, Largest Game World Ever, and 12 Playable Classes! As though they don't realize that the very same marketing print can be found on the the box of any MMO in stores, and many many more located exclusively online.

What are we looking for? Allow me to list them:

More Content, Fewer Bugs

This desire is probably the hardest to fulfill from a technical perspective. Players want to be thrust into a world (or worlds) they couldn't possibly hope to explore in an afternoon. The sense of adventure should extend beyond the surface as well. Varied textures are pleasing aesthetically but the need for exploration that goes beyond the reskinning of terrain is a necessity. Exploring a 'zone' is something players should get tired of doing rather than something they can canvas in an hour or two before getting bored and moving on. The world can't just be big - it has to be deep.

Classes are good, but abilities and skills are better. Often classes are used as a ruse to distract us from the fact that the list of skills is incredibly narrow and unimaginative. When every caster gets a ranged spell for X damage and only the color changes sooner or later we realize that something is up. The same goes for killing increasingly larger versions of the exact same monster. Its not enough for content to have different names,sizes and colors, it needs to function differently as well.

If delivering a world with both scale and depth is a difficult task; delivering it free of bugs is all but impossible. However, MMOs are notorious for being bug ridden (possibly due to the 'we'll fix it in a patch' mentality) and that is one of the major contributing factors to MMO doubts. Of course, this is probably the most well known of issues among developers and players alike.

A Social World

While knowing players want more content and fewer bugs may be at the top of the developer to-do list, recent titles have shown that making a world socially interesting is near the bottom. Despite the wild success of games like The Sims and Second Life developers continually miss the punch on delivering a world that encourages and invigorates social interaction.

Everything from the hamfisted chat interface of Age of Conan to the appalling 'sameness' of Warhammer classes speaks volumes to where developer focus is not. Even the big one, World of Warcraft, has not done nearly what they could have in this department. Whatever happened to player housing? Where are the flashy collectible items? An otherwise mediocre game, City of Heroes, made an immediate impact on new players simply because of how strong its character creation was. Meanwhile, I couldn't tell the difference between myself and any other Dwarven Rune priest while wandering through Warhammer Online.

It seems like giving players the ability to be unique in an MMO is something that has gone the way of the dinosaur. Games like Ultima Online made original MMOers fall in love with their custom decorated villa or tower, extensive wardrobe, and collection of rare and unique items and weapons. Now we're given worlds where not only is looking the same likely, its encouraged through gear sets. Sameness may be king when it comes to socializing in the real world, but online - its just the opposite.

Point, Click, Repeat - Delete

Lets face it, in the world of video games MMOs are a yawnfest to play. If it weren't for the social interaction and the general feeling having made 'progress' no one would be interested in them. People love repetition but there is a time for mindless grinding and there is a time for fun, MMOs seem to be missing out on the latter. Lacking the story driven entertainment of normal RPGs, the action of FPS and adventure games, the strategy of RTS, and even the depth of simulation; what exactly do MMOs have to offer? Well, the aforementioned wealth of content is a start, but what really needs to happen is an escape from mindless repetition prevalent in MMOs.

There should be paths of ease for casual players who just want to explore, but gamers that are gamers beyond MMOs (who often comprise the necessary core of any game's fanbase) need something more. And why shouldn't they get it? Aren't they the very reason these games exist in the first place? Darkfall may be the answer for these players but its uncertain if that game will ever throw off the stigma of vaporware.

Unfortunately, MMOs have become more similar to television than other video games. Next to nothing is required from players in the realm of critical thinking, fast reactions aren't at all necessary, and strategy is only ever employed by hardcore raiders and PvPers. MMOs don't even necessarily need to be harder, they just need to offer a wider variety of options for achieving goals. How often do we see quests that can be completed in multiple ways - possibly each with different outcomes? Why is there really only one way to deal with enemies  - why is everything you are able to do in game determined at the character creation screen and not by the choices you make while playing?

An RPG Without a Story

One of the facets of MMORPG design that seems to be under a bit more scrutiny lately is that of story. Bioware, a company renowned for excellent world design and storytelling, is aiming to solve this problem with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Whether they succeed is anyone's guess  but at least they've taken note of the pathetic lack of story elements in current MMOs.

If telling a story via a game is different than telling a story via prose or screenplay, then telling a story via an MMO is different from telling one through a game. Confused? Apparently most developers are too. The problem is that in a single player game, once a player completes an objective - that problem is solved now and forever. In an MMO that problem must persist for future waves of players to solve over, and over, and over. So how can a story develop if the quests never change? The short answer is: it can't.

The long answer involves 'opportunity questing' where events in the world allow players to complete a certain chain of quests for a limited amount of time that will then activate a fundamental change in the game world itself. In World of Warcraft this manifested as opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. Of course, the resource grindfest that was Ahn'Qiraj is not a model any developer should subscribe to. Still, the potential remains for interesting quests that evolve the world players participate in and give developers the opportunity to tell a story, and move the plot of the game.On a personal level, the branching questlines I mentioned would go a long way towards making each player's experience unique without making it completely alien to fellow players. Even allowing players the option to create quests for each other is a viable option that is grossly underused.

Whatever developers decide, future MMOs are going to have to offer a bit more by way of plot if they want to hook a substantial batch of players.

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The above points may seem incredibly basic when layed out like that but again and again developers are failing to deliver on one or all of those critical areas. MMOs don't need perfectly balanced classes, they don't need incredible boss encounters, they don't even need an incredibly innovative fighting system (that will end up as repetitive as every other fighting system). They just need to refine these basic principles and, if they can manage it, package it with a well loved franchise.

Developer's need to remember that MMOs are first and foremost a social experience and as long as they are providing good social tools, plenty of places for players to explore, differing courses of action for players to discuss, and some sort of story to get people logging in for big events - they'll have a winner on their hands.

Here's to hoping they figure it out, and that 2009 & beyond is a better year for MMOs.