Elements that make an MMORPG successful

Considering that you already know the genre or know me, I will point out not all but some of the main points for building an MMORPG.

It is notable in the MMORPG market various errors related to game administration. What I mean is that an MMORPG needs enormous administrative attention. You need to maintain the team, create content, solve problems, and keep the game fun and immersive over time. The MMORPG is a genre where the game goes beyond its release, so it's no use launching a masterpiece if you have no intention of maintaining it.

A player looking for an MMORPG is looking for a game with a very rich world, with plenty of exploration, progression, immersion, art that pleases them, interactions, and mechanics that keep them engaged in the gameplay.

There are several ways to create a game; you can mix various concepts and create a game, you can create a new mechanic that nobody has experienced, and that can be the main point of the game that will attract and keep players. Still, even these games execute main concepts that do not deviate from the genre. In this sense, I will list several points that should be taken into consideration in the creation of an MMORPG.

Main points:

• Gameplay: An MMORPG must offer fun, interesting gameplay with a sense of action, bringing excitement to the player. It is one of the reasons that the "action" mechanic is growing exponentially over the years, and the target mechanic is losing market share, as it is a gameplay that is much more restrictive, with lower action content where the player does not feel the applicability of their own skills. A hybrid mechanic is emerging that is a mixture of the two, targeting the audience of both mechanics. It is very important to know which combat mechanic you will adopt in your game.

• Customization: In my view, it is essential that there is complexity either in character creation or build construction, having a skill tree with several options allows the player to create their own style, besides various equipment, classes, and abilities that will make the MMORPG even more freedom-oriented. Moving more towards the UX area, it is very interesting to include several things that can be personalized by the player, such as the interface, character, equipment, inventory, and map, for example, making the experience unique for each player.

• Progression: The progression system must be well-designed because an MMORPG's progression wants the player to feel motivated to progress and not be stuck. A good way to deliver the feeling of progression to the player is to deliver it visibly and felt in combat. You can adopt skill points for building the skill tree, attribute points, experience points, and equipment upgrades. And also in crafting and collecting, progression will be done so that the more the player exercises that work, the more proficient they become and able to create and collect higher-level items.

• Audiovisual: Audio and visual art are essential in a game that has a digital world. An MMORPG must offer a complete experience of a medieval or fantasy world, creating an immersive and enjoyable experience is a very strong point to hit in an MMORPG. Players expect a world with a well-defined and polished aesthetic; they expect to feel the atmosphere of the game with well-constructed sounds. As in cinema, audio plays an extremely important role in conveying feeling and atmosphere, and visuals will arouse visual pleasure and capture the player's attention. An MMORPG that has a well-constructed audiovisual structure will deliver beautiful sound and visual effects to players and not only construct art and sounds to be appreciated but also make sense and have context in the virtual world

• Content: If you know the MMORPG genre, you must know that players of this genre are very dedicated and engaged. The content of an MMORPG is responsible for keeping players coming back to play the game. The content can include new areas to explore, quests, special events, classes, equipment, and other features that expand and enrich the gameplay experience. This point is directly related to post-production, as many MMORPGs fail to maintain an innovative content structure and keep the game up to date.

• Community: The community and social interaction are crucial in an MMORPG because these games are designed to be played with other people, and building social relationships is one of the main motivations for many players. The diversity of the community can include players of different ages, backgrounds, and countries. Social interaction provides players with a sense of belonging and identity within the game, allowing them to form guilds or clans, work together, share resources, and influence the market, creating a sense of community and connection. (It is very interesting to create an in-game platform as a social network for players to relate, connect and share experiences within the digital world).

• World: This is the heart of an MMORPG as it is where the player will be. The digital world will provide all the experiences of exploring the universe and atmosphere. Player interaction with the world is essential; it needs to be vast, rich, and above all, cohesive. The game designer must work hard to ensure that the player always has the spark of discovery lit. The world needs to communicate to the player that there are various possibilities, paths, stories, quests, adventures, resource spots, caves, dungeons, sea routes, islands, mountains, hidden monsters, and landscapes. The more stories, legends, and even religions you integrate into the world, the richer it becomes.

• Interaction: I know what you're thinking, why didn't I include this in "community"? Well, the interactions I want to address here are the interactions of the player with the world. An MMORPG has many players playing mutually and exploring the world in real-time. In this sense, it is very interesting for players' actions to influence the world and other players in some way, such as disappearing a resource after being collected or fluctuating prices in the market. These interactions make the world much more immersive and dynamic, so it is essential to include various ways for players to interact with the world and other players.

• Monetization: There are various ways to monetize a game. You can use a one-time purchase form, subscription, free-to-play and monetize within the game with consumables, appearances, microtransactions. Some games use pay-to-win or pay-to-play. My view of an MMORPG is that everything should be earned within the game and not influenced by the real world. In my opinion, the ideal use of monetization within an MMORPG is with only visual goods. A small subscription form can be added for those who want to experience other mechanics within the game, such as saving build arrangements, UI settings, UI customization, and being able to use an application on their phone that will notify them about various things within the game. Therefore, several forms of monetization can be explored within an MMORPG. In my opinion, it should be done subtly and offer some aesthetic resource or some type of engagement in the real world, rather than giving power to those who have more in the real world.

This post was very interesting to write because I was able to share some of my opinions. Of course, my opinion is not absolute, and I tried not to delve too deeply into the topic. I will create other posts with more in-depth subjects.