The Marker Moved
There’s no hard and fast definition for massive. I’m not sure it is a raw number anyway. It terms of gaming, I’d suggest it’s fair that the number be compared to the size of the content map. Player to content density seems more appropriate. That said, for me to consider a game to be MMO, I need the following:
- With the exception of instanced dungeons, large numbers of players share the same map locations. If I’m in location XYZ, everyone else who’s in location XYZ is accessible to me OR I have a way of changing to their session of location XYZ. EQ2, Aion, Terra implement multiple copies of locations to manage load but players can freely traverse them.
- Towns aren’t a game lobby where everyone is accessible but once you leave the lobby, you can only see the people in your party. The DDO and GW1 approach, which for me, negates being massive player content experiences.
- I will encounter other players unattached to me in any way out in the world.
- I can group up with a couple dozen or more players to do non-instanced content.
- My character and her state are preserved across gaming sessions.
- The state of the server I’m on is preserved and persists even when my character isn’t there.
- If the game supports player created content (housing, guildhalls, farms, etc.) that content is preserved.
For me, the above describes a persistent multi-player world I’d classify as MMO. Times change. Games change. I’d consider a private Minecraft server that supports 100 or more players to be on the lower end of the sandbox MMO scale, as compared to the traditional WOW type of MMO, where thousands of players exist on the same server.
Why so low? Meaningful Contact and Reality of Massive
The reality is, 1k players or not, I’m not likely to ever see that many players simultaneously in the same location. I’ll never interact with 1K players at the same time. Hell – in most MMOs, the environment would collapse before it was possible. GW2 stuttered into slideshow mode with less than 100 players fighting the same boss or combating each other in WvW.
I know there are exceptions. Perhaps Planetside 2 supports large numbers players on the same map but I’ve not played it. EVE can scale battles into the hundreds without falling over. Even so, this isn’t the average MMORPG experience. This isn’t what I experience when I’m playing any of the many MMOs I’ve chronicled on this blog. 500 players can be sitting or jumping around with me in Stormwind – great. But there aren’t and never have been, that many running around with me in a questing zone. You might see that many at once launch day in a starter zone or new zone in an expansion on day one. But really, often does that occur in the life of the average MMO? You can count them on your fingers.
Star Citizen has confirmed it will segment simultaneous player sessions in an area to around 50. You won’t see EVE scale battles in SC. And yet, I’d have a hard time not classifying its persistent universe as MMO. The needle has moved for me. It’s been redefined as the genre has matured and broadened.
H1Z1 is MMO Enough to Me
There hasn’t been a single moment in H1Z1 where I didn’t feel as though I was playing an MMO. I always saw other players who had no connection to me, out in the environment, competing for the same content and resources I was after. I could interact with them, speak to them, and work with or against them. Anything I did for them, to them or with them, would persist when I logged out of the game and vice versa. Without a formal party system, I've seen people working in groups as small as two, up to a couple dozen as roaming gangs. AND there are no loading screens once logged into the game. It's a seamless world. If you can see it, there's a way for you to get to it.
When’s the last time outside of instanced PVP maps and instanced dungeons, have you rolled with 24+ players doing content in any MMO? Outside of instanced PVP maps, the only one I can think of is GW2 with its flavor of public quests, which draw people together for timed events. After which, people split off into smaller groups or alone, to do other content until the next event they want to complete.
I’m playing on a PVE server that is medium population during off hours and high during NA prime time. The major roads into Pleasant Valley are walled off with player created shacks. Intersections around the apartment complex have been walled off to prevent vehicle access. If you go into the apartment parking lot area to cook food or hang out, you can see a few dozen players milling around or passing through. I’m sorry that’s MMO enough to me. That's about the same number of players I encounter in questing in areas in WOW, which is by all standards, the mac-daddy MMO. You’d see way less doing quests in EQ2. You see way less when you’re actually flying around in EVE – aka not docked in a station or roaming as a big group trying to find another big group.
My point is, by and large, we’re rarely playing with massive amounts of other players at any given time, in any of the undisputed MMOs. Yes, there are exceptions but they’re not the rule based on my experiences. And playing through H1Z1 hasn’t felt any different to me. Not a fanboy. This isn't my genre and I'm not sure I'll play after it goes live. It's fun for now. And I feel like I'm playing an MMO when I'm logged into the game.
Could they do more? Absolutely
Would I like each server to support more players – move toward the upper end of the massive scale? Honestly, I’m not sure. It might detract from the feeling of urgent survival if there are hundreds of me in the same area at a time. What would I fear? With dozens of players in every direction, I'd simply run to a pack of players to avoid death. That or they'd have to increase the number of threats to the point of silliness. I don't want to play a shooting gallery game. I don't want an arcade type experience. A few more zombies, which we know are coming, will fit the current player density nicely.
I’ve seen suggestions to implement public quests where zombies swarm the cities at varying intervals to encourage larger player count encounters. We need a better communication system than we have in place now first. However, I think that would be fun and would feel like GW2 world bosses. Afterward, I’d expect people to do what happens in most cases now. They scatter off in smaller groups to do other more personal/party objectives. Either way, this mirrors my experiences in other MMOs so I’m not sure what all the bluster is about debating the merits of H1Z1 being called an MMO. It certainly feels like one to me.
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