If an enemy exists in an MMORPG that you are supposed to kill in some fashion, it is going to offer you some kind of reward. This is compounded in the case of big enemies, which you frequently need a party to kill. Yes, this can mean bosses, but it can also mean big enemies just existing out in the open world. The point is that you are meant to engage with this particular enemy in some fashion and killing this enemy provides you with a reward. If you can make its health drop, its health is supposed to drop to zero.
Over the years, MMORPGs have come up with a variety of different reasons to get people to kill a big thing when they might otherwise be disinclined to do so. For example, if there’s a gigantic dragon that breathes a death cloud sitting on a pile of skulls, the logical response to that situation might not be “let’s kill the dragon” but instead “let’s go around.” But if the designers made a fight with the dragon, they want you to take part in it. So how do they reward you for doing that?
1. Progression
Single-player games have a bit of an advantage here because usually they have a very, very easy time convincing you to kill a big plot-appropriate target. Why do you need to set this doom-lizard on fire? Because that’s the only way to get to the next level, doy. This is even true in the vast majority of computer RPGs. Oh, sure, there are some boss fights that you might be able to evade with dialogue options, but as a general rule, the designers want you to actually fight the bosses.
In MMORPGs this can be done, and some games do make use of it! It tends to be relatively uncommon, though. And even when it is used, it has the real problem of making players want to fight the thing only once. You’ve progressed past it. Why would you fight it again?
2. Gear
Oh, right, killing this thing literally gives you stronger equipment. Yes, directly. It just happens to be holding gear that you can then immediately put on. Add in a melange of different items for people of different classes and types, and you now have a reason for people to keep killing this boss! Of course, the randomness involved is pretty annoying here, and as soon as a more powerful boss comes along, players are just going to go kill that instead. But this is a pretty straightforward motivator.
3. Upgrade tokens
Let’s take a step back. If your boss drops the Shoulders Of Puissant Spork-Flinging, that is going to make Spork-Flingers want to fight the boss, but all of your other players are going to be less attracted to the boss. “I need a shoulder upgrade,” explains the Fork-Jabber. “This doesn’t help me. But what if instead, the boss drops a Fragment of Shoulder Upgradiness? Then Spork-Flingers and Fork-Jabbers and Spoon-Hurlers and all the various utensil-based classes will want that fragment, attracting more players for a longer span of time!
There are, however, two downsides here. The first is that either the upgrades work only in a certain band or they’re useful forever; the latter means getting upgrades becomes steadily easier and less a challenge, and the former means that it is basically just a slower process to irrelevance. And the other downside is that some people are going to be annoyed they can’t just get their puissant shoulders from the boss and have to jump through hoops.
4. Currency
What if all you get is just a kind of currency you can spend on a bunch of things, though? This has the obvious utility of making the reward much more open-ended. This boss just rewards currency, which you can spend on whatever rewards you need, so there’s no need to balance one specific reward table for power! All good… except for when you consider that if currency rewards remain static, players are almost certainly going to gravitate toward the easiest ways to get currency as fast as possible. As such, currency works better as a secondary reward for other elements here.
5. Cosmetic gear
Dropping pieces of cosmetic gear is a time-honored strategy that works even with pure power gear. After all, if players seek the appearance of gear even after it’s no longer the most powerful, you’re off to the races, baby! The downside, however, is that not everyone weights cosmetic gear the same. A good look for one character might not work for another. There’s also a risk of overload. If you’ve offered seven different kinds of trailing long coat for a cosmetic piece, for example, an eighth is unlikely to shock and delight.
6. Vanity pets
You can add a great deal of value to any boss by having it offer players a cat. Unlike cosmetic gear, new vanity pets can often be a strict value add. Players love having little non-combat pets following around while they do things, and that’s cool. Plus, it’s usually easier to change your pet than your whole appearance. Everybody wins!
Well, except when you consider that if the pet drop is a certain thing, players aren’t necessarily going to come back for this week after week; it’s quite possible to get it early and then peace out almost immediately. By contrast, if it’s a random drop, people will keep trying for a while but will eventually wait until it’s almost trivially easy to farm.
7. Housing items
Why in the actual world is a dragon hauling around an entire dresser? We’re probably better off not knowing. The bright side to this particular reward option is that it’s more likely to be useful in multiples. Sure, you can wear only one set of cosmetic gear at a time, but you can at least theoretically have a few dressers in your house. The down side, of course, is that if you thought farming for a drop once was annoying, this gets even worse… and your game also needs to have housing, which isn’t always a given. (It should be, but it isn’t.)
8. Mounts
Whatever you get to ride around on in-game is often afforded an outsized importance, and bosses dropping mounts as a low chance reward is a time-honored tradition. All of this is fine and expected. What may not be as expected is why this one is rated a bit lower, and the reason is simply that said outsized importance can make this particular option far more annoying to others. Do you want to run the same boss for days, weeks, and months on end looking for a minute drop chance? Probably not. It’s a quick way for people to get more annoyed with rewards.
9. Crafting goods
Let me make something clear here. If a given boss drops a crafting material that can be used to make only one thing, it is functionally identical to just dropping the thing directly. But if the boss drops an item that can be used to make a mount or furniture or cosmetic gear? Then that’s a viable reward people can potentially wind up farming for years down the line. Of course, that also inherits all of the problems with all of the other rewards listed here, except now you have the extra issue that said crafting goods might be rare and thus desirable for people who want nothing more than the money for selling it. But… that’s also a potential problem, isn’t it?
10. Esoteric progression
Last but not least, you could reward a player with progression again, but not in a straightforward fashion. Instead of having to beat a boss to move forward, you have to beat a boss within a certain time limit in order to clear part of an achievement that eventually rewards something. This potentially can allow pure progression-related gates to be reused, but it still falls into the same boolean done-or-not field, with the added drawback that it might be hard to get a more esoteric clear with people just looking to be done with the boss in the most efficient way possible.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
