Last week, in his Ready Player One piece from GDC, MOP’s Andrew paraphrased something from Darewise’s Randy Smith that stuck out to me.
“[T]hemepark development is also more segregated. While it’s good for spreading players out into the world, it also tends to make your content linear, sending people into different zones that you’re constantly having to create. Instead, [Smith] suggested a focus on more ‘spiral’ style gameplay, where you revisit and redo things in a different way. Think of sandbox games where all your supplies are scattered around the game world. You start off with what you need, have a reason to go out and explore, but also a reason to come back.”
I loved this phrase – spiral gameplay – and was thinking about the MMOs that do this best. The one that popped immediately to mind was actually classic Guild Wars, even though it’s not a sandbox. I was always a big fan of how the game would send you through a map on an instanced mission, and then set you free in an explorable version of the same map with a much looser goal, giving you a chance to experience the same area with slightly different content.
Where else have you seen this philosophy in play? Which MMORPG offers the best “spiral” gameplay?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
