Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) had an almost overwhelming array of interesting sights to see and discussions to hear this year, but one of the most interesting was the Q&A discussion with a panel consisting of some of the luminaries of the MMO industry.

Although the discussion was supposed to focus on where the genre is headed, questions ranged far and wide when the audience got going.

The panel was made up of Kevin Maginn – Lead Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea, Matt Miller – Lead Designer for City of Heroes and City of Villains, Ed Stark – the former Lead Designer for Dungeons & Dragons and now the World Designer for an unannounced MMO, Chris McKibbin – Executive Producer on Gods and Heroes, and Noah Ward – Lead Designer for EVE Online. The discussion was technically moderated by Jason Justice from Ntreev USA, although since the crowd was quite respectful and things moved along quickly, he served more as an additional (if quiet) panel member and a timekeeper than anything else. Each question will be listed individually, followed by an overview of the responses by the panel members.

Q: Why don’t we see more balanced classes instead of hyper-specialists?

Stark started off by referring back to Dungeons & Dragons, linking this trend to that game. He said that when designing D&D, they wanted to give everyone their spotlight, they’re time to shine, so they developed classes that were extremely specialized. He mentioned that he’s not sure whether or not this was a mistake, and wondered if it might be better to give everyone broader capabilities, with just a few areas in which they’re better than everyone else. That way, they would still get their spotlights, but they would also be capable at other specialties.

Maginn chimed in at this point and noted that he likes to design games where you never have to make a choice that you can’t take back at a later date, either by re-specing or by some other method. He noted that there is always a tension between a character having a specific identity (the tanker, the DPSer, etc) and being able to have some competency in most areas.

Q: Why are MMOs slower paced than one player games (particularly FPSes)?

Miller said that this was in part because MMO designers have to worry about how fast someone’s Internet connection is—although hopefully this will become less of a problem as time goes on. They also put skill cool-downs and casting-delays in to ensure that “button-mashers” won’t be able to prosper all that much, to ensure that it takes skill rather than quick reactions to create a powerful character. He mentioned that designers sometimes “solve” the slow pace of MMOs by throwing multiple enemies at players at once, but although this helps, it certainly doesn’t solve the problem.

Q: Why is it so popular to have linear leveling with a distinct endpoint to character development? Why not have spots where your character chooses a new specialty and you become a “novice” again? An international release was mentioned as an example, a game where they player fights on land, air, and sea, and has to master new skills each time.

Stark started off by mentioning that most players want to be able to “master” the game. They don’t want to be told, “Okay, you’ve reached the maximum level, now start over.”

Maginn added that some games out there, like EVE Online, don’t have the grinding that makes linear leveling so annoying at times, and have other ways to achieve mastery of and with your character.

Q: Why isn’t there more organic growth of the world and characters? Why are MMOs so linear and level-based?

Ward immediately mentioned that EVE Online doesn’t have levels, and that characters just increase their skills instead.

Miller noted that a great deal of this tendency comes from trying to hook people who play one player games with a more directed experience. He suggested that maybe there’s a way to have things open up partway through the game and to have the world, storyline, and character become more organic at that point.

Maginn had a return question: “Who creates this content?” He stated that MMO developers would love to have huge worlds with a ton of content that isn’t linear, but that they don’t have the time or money to put all that content in. He said that player-generated content is definitely going to allow MMOs to expand their worlds.

McKibbin added that levels provide a good way to compare characters. Telling someone that “He’s level X” is better than saying “He’s a Warlock with Curse of Agony, Death Coil, and Emberstorm all at 73%.” Levels—and the linear game-play that supports them—creates a shared vocabulary for players to discuss their characters. He did, however, note that as players get more comfortable with the MMO genre, it may be possible, even probable, that levels will disappear.

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