Solo Instances?

Listening to some podcasts recently a topic was brought up that discussed instances, weighing up the pros and cons of playing in a dungeon or part of the world that is cut off from the rest of the community.

I'd like to take up the discussion, share some of their observations and some of my own.

For anyone that isn't familiar with how an instance works let me give you a brief explanation pulling from a handful of games I've played. World of Warcraft call their instances 'dungeons' which can be found throughout the world of Azeroth. They vary in level requirements and complexity, the most complex dungeons currently require Twenty-five players and maximum level cap to enter.

Smaller dungeon exist and cater for five man groups, these are a good place to start if you wish to gear up your character before progressing into bigger instances.

In Guild Wars the world itself is an instance with the main cities providing the hub to mix with the community. Any time you leave a city you enter the world on your own or with the people you're grouped with. Recent expansions have seen players start to mix in these instances, 'Factions' suggests that players will work against each other to achieve their own agenda. Unfortunately I have not experienced this side of Guild Wars so I'm poorly equipped to discuss this with any real depth.

Meanwhile Tabula Rasa adopts a similar approach to WoW with instances found in the world that require groups to complete effectively. A game that appears to stand out as unique is Everquest 2 (which I have never played) which present their bosses in the open world where anyone can come together to take on the challenge.

So there you have a number of ways that an MMO presents its content, let's discuss which of these work.

World of Warcraft seems the best place to start, with over ten million subscribers clearly Blizzard have done something right when it comes to playing an MMO. Their dungeons are celebrated as well thought out encounters, superbly designed and once settled they are well balanced. If we're to criticise WoW though we should look at what their dungeons miss out on...

Entering an instance in WoW does cut you off from the world of players, it's just you and the friends you take with you. This limits what can happen in that instance, you'll throw yourself into an encounter and you will either beat it or it will beat you - that's all there is. Imagine if the instance was played out in the world of players, or in other words imagine the world bosses that are available in WoW. If you were to take on an encounter in such an open environment then there is the possibility of unexpected surprises that could affect your encounter.

You might have almost killed a boss, your players are dropping like flies and you think the battle is lost but out of the blue a group of players that happened to be passing by chip into the fight and help you finish off the boss. You've snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and thank the players that came to your aid.

Equally of course this has the chance to go sour, you've almost killed a boss and from out the ether a rogue saps your tank or your healers and control is lost. A gang of opposing players may swoop down in the middle of your fight and claim the victory as their own.

These sort of stories are a staple of Everquest 2 where open world bosses make up the game's raid content. This lends itself to a dynamic experience as you can never predict how something will turn out on the day.

Is that fun though?

In WoW you're spared the opportunity of being griefed but at the cost of that dynamic 'anything could happen'. Arguably this makes the experience quite clinical, if you have the gear and the competence then the encounter should be straight forward.

I think that's a harsh way of viewing an instance though, but it does challenge Blizzard to make their encounters as diverse as possible. They know that when you put a boss on farm then it becomes routine to kill it week in and week out, so to combat this you need to throw in some curve balls that keep players on their toes.

Agro reset, random spawns and hot spots keep a raid moving and focused on the fight. One person that takes their eye off the ball can be enough to wipe the raid, look at Hydross in SSC and Leothoras as such examples. Lady Vashj requires you to move and work as a team, Al'ar in The Eye will force your raid to spread out and keep moving.

Could you do such things in open world combat? Having not played Everquest 2 I can't say (perhaps you can) but I would argue that surely the open world bosses have to be easier to manage because you just don't know how a team will approach this boss. If you bring 120 players to an encounter then do tactics really count? I'd hate to try and organise so many people so how much of a challenge would it be to create a boss that caters to such a group?

With WoW Blizzard set their own standards, they know what your setup is likely to be and so they're free to play with that. Arguably you could say they are confined to this setup, they know you'll have a tank and healers in your group but they can't count on your having a mage or a hunter...

That opens up a whole new topic though, how can Blizzard balance their encounters and is it fair to force your group into a particular setup. I know Blizzard don't like that idea, say that you need a Mage in your group, but we can get into that in another blog.

To wrap this up I need to spend a few minutes on Guild Wars. Personally I think this game failed in the way ithandled its content. Playing in the world on your own is hard work, especially as you hit the level cap. Monsters become too numerous and too hard to take on by yourself, so you're limited in what you can achieve if you don't group up.

Should you mingle with the community you'll likely find it very immature. It's a free game to play which attracts the younger audience which unfortunately means you're likely to end up with some idiots...Some effort is made to help the single players, AI characters can be hired to help you out but they really are next to useless.

Out in the world alone also defeats the essence of a 'Massively Multiplayer' game, where is the multiplayer in an empty world? Factions I guess goes some way to address this, but it falls far short of a world such as WoW. Players will never grief you or rescue you in Guild Wars which is kind of shallow. I guess if you have a group of friends to play this with then the experiene would be wholly different, if you don't though then this world is not satisfying.

It may seems that I've trumpeted Blizzard's horn in this blog, I don't wish to unfairly criticise other games so I should point out my experience with other MMOs is limited. However I do think my arguments for WoW are fair, as long as Blizzard stay on top of their game when they draw up an encounter then WoW will continue to be the best experience in the market. If you'd care to disagree then have your say!

Melk.