Player vs. Everything: Learning by doing
Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Player vs. Everything
In most MMORPGs, it's practically considered a right of passage to learn advanced concepts by the sweat of your brow and with a big helping of independent research. We're MMO players, after all! We don't need tutorials guiding us through the advanced aspects of the game. Right? They're for the weak and lowly fans of single player and casual games. We rely almost solely on forum information, lessons from more advanced players, and learning by doing (and we're darn proud of it). And as Tobold discussed a few weeks ago, you really have to do that stuff if you want to be a successful player.While raiding Karazhan last weekend, my guild brought a relatively newbish hunter along for the ride. Her spec wasn't terrible, and she brought a number of epics (albeit PvP epics) to the table, so we figured, "What the heck?" We didn't even get too worried when her DPS wasn't up to par. Things were going just fine until we got to the second boss fight and needed her to do a little chain trapping. A few wipes later, we realized that she had absolutely no idea how to use her frost traps effectively-- a core mechanic of her class. What was the problem there?
Well, there's no game tutorial that comes in, holds your hand, and says, "Hey, pal. You're going to need to use frost trap effectively in the end game. Let's practice it a little until you get the hang of it." Most MMOGs just teach you the bare-bones basics of the game (like running, moving, and auto-attack) before they abandon you to the wild. You're expected to figure out the rest on your own, and eventually to hit up sites like Elitist Jerks or the World of Warcraft class forums to make sure that you're being all that you can be. Is this necessarily the best way to do things, though?
What Peggle and Puzzle Quest Can Teach You
I think it might be beneficial, and less painful for everyone involved, if MMOGs took a little lesson from casual game developers here. Ironically, the mantra of almost every casual game is the same truism that the guys at Blizzard like to repeat over and over: "Easy to learn, difficult to master." Most of them start you out with a very basic game and then begin adding elements one by one until the games get pretty complex and interesting.However, they don't just assume that you'll be able to learn on the fly. That's frustrating and punishing-- casual games are all about being fun and approachable. Instead, they explain every single game mechanic that you're going to encounter as you encounter it. This accomplishes a number of things for them.
First, they don't overwhelm the players with information. If you tried to teach the player everything about the game at once, you'd scare them off. After all, if you're not going to be encountering spinning balls of doom for 50 levels, why do you need to learn about them before then? By teaching players what they need to know when they need to know it, they keep the game information relevant, manageable, and immediately applicable.
Second, a tutorial gives the players a safe way to test the new mechanics they're learning in a consequence-free setting. Nothing is on the line, no one is watching them, and they can practice until they feel confident with this new aspect of the game. How would you rather learn a concept that was completely foreign to you? With the success of your group's instance run at stake, with everyone watching you and depending on you to do something you've never done before (or even knew you could do)? Or in a neutral, NPC-driven tutorial setting with no penalty for messing up and no one to give you a hard time for failing?
Finally, having advanced tutorials gives you all the tools you need to be successful at the game. If you ignore them and just try to learn on your own, that's fine-but then it's your own fault for failing. You can't claim ignorance because "No one ever told you you'd need to do this." You don't need to seek outside help, or go digging through forums. Not everyone is internet-savvy or ambitious enough to do that. Tutorials make learning how to be a good player part of the game.
Practical Application: Why Should You Care and What Could We Do?
In MMOG's, players often have many skills that they have no idea how to use. That's because these games rarely explain how to make effective use of your skills. The tooltips tell you what they do-- not why that's handy. I'll bet that there are plenty of WoW mages out there who took one look at their Polymorph spell and said, "Why would I ever want to turn my opponent into a regenerating sheep?" That's just one example.So how can we work this idea of advanced-concept training tutorials into MMOGs without being overbearing or irritating for players? I have a few good suggestions:
The first is by abolishing the traditional idea you probably have about tutorials and making them into quests instead, a mechanic that many MMOGs use today. Every time you learn a new skill that isn't something very obvious (like a fireball), there should be an associated quest, obtainable right there at the trainer, to go use it. It could be something as basic as, "Here's how you use this skill. Use it on that guy, right there. See how that was useful?" This would also give class trainers something useful to do instead of just standing there and dispensing new skills to you.
The second is by taking that first skill quest completion and opening up a skill quest chain that teaches you all of the advanced mechanics with similar quests: "So you've learned how to sheep. Now let's practice sheeping high-priority targets!" You can reward players for completing these in the same way you reward them for other quests. Give them money, items, and a big pile of experience points. That's all the incentive most people will need to learn to use their skills.
Finally, give them an account flag when they complete these tutorial quests that other players can look at. It's one more thing for players to "collect," there's a social incentive to complete the quest (since players can see whether you've done the basic learning required for your class), and you don't have to do the quests again on subsequent characters (or different servers) unless you want to for the XP and loot.
Call me crazy, but I'd much rather learn my class that way than fumbling through pages and pages of messy forums, and I'd much rather everyone else learned their classes that way instead of not learning them at all.
EA purchases the Rupture social networking site
Blizzard unleashes a storm of Lich King information
All Points Bulletin to become Grand Theft Auto Online?
CoX Issue 12: Midnight Hour enters Open Beta!
Massive PvP battle to end the Age of Conan Open Beta
The week in Massively features
Rogue Signal: EVE Online's gear progression
Under The Hood: Stories and Lore
The Digital Continuum: The Lich King made me do it
MMOG Podcast Roundup: Apr. 25th - May 9th
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-14-2008 @ 12:17PM
Adam Tiler said...
It's Freezing Trap, not Frost Trap.
Noob.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 12:21PM
Cameron Sorden said...
I don't play hunters. I just kill them.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 6:30PM
MarcNottke said...
LOL =)
4-14-2008 @ 12:24PM
Lemmo said...
I'd argue that at the point you noticed she didn't know how to use Freezing Trap properly, you could have shown her and been the next step in this whole 'passing of knowledge' mechanic. Hopefully that's what you did.
I'd probably be just like that noob you picked up if I didn't have my brother teaching me how to play a Mage as if I signed up for a seminar. Every night isn't just running instances and killing things, it's like a training session for a tech job. I'm okay with that, though. Whatever he doesn't teach me, I've learned through trial and error.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 12:34PM
mirilene said...
Some basic tutorials might be in line, but there is already a game mechanic in place to teach people how to play. Dungeons.
The problem is that after 3 years, fewer and fewer people are running legitimate 5 man instances as they level up. There is almost always a high level friend (or a paid escort) bombing through the instance while the new player or alt (who probably doesnt really know the class well yet) pick up the loot.
I had the fortune of running with a pack of 5 friends on 2 seperate alts and the experience (not xp) i gained from doing Zul'Farak, Uldaman, Sunken Temple, and BRD really improved my understanding of how my alts played out.
You cant do easy leveling from 1-70 as a shadow priest and then expect to go into kara for some healing. It just isnt going to work.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 12:39PM
William said...
I'd love to see a whole set of "LTP" quests. It would be great to see some quests about grouping and other game mechanics as well. I've run into a lot of players that have missed some significant part of the game, maybe they solo'ed to 70, maybe they only grouped, maybe they never did any pvp, whatever. Those people often wind up missing out out of many of the wide variety of aspects of the game and it usually presents itself in awkward situations. Most of the time its in crowd control. I've seen hunters who cant trap, locks who cant seduce (banish is an easier to manage mechanic and I havent run into anyone who has a real hard time with it), or mages who cant sheep. And thats just a small example. Are you putting up the right debuffs for the group composition? All these things make for smoother grouping and better solo play plus they give you a better sense of what your character can do.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 1:48PM
Cameron Sorden said...
Yes, we did try to teach her, but ultimately it was faster to just adapt our strategy. (Kara isn't really the place to be learning to play)
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 5:50PM
Scott Hartsman said...
To an extent, this already exists for hunters in WoW.
I've joked with friends that the Pre-BC hunter epic bow/staff quest series should be required to level past 60. The line teaches a bunch of advanced skills that come in very useful later on.
It's just that no one sees it anymore as the starter drops in Molten Core, and it doesn't cover post-BC topics like repeat trap timing or weaving steady shots.
While it does have its flaws (e.g. no pets), it's a great attempt at the basic idea of teaching advanced tactics and learning-while-doing, getting an amazing reward for the effort, and not at all feeling like a tutorial.
Updating the quest to the modern state of the post-level-62 class and getting the starter out of MC would make for a great rite of passage.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 11:47PM
Cameron Sorden said...
I think that both the hunter and priest "epic weapon" chains were awesome. As much as it would be blatantly ripping off certain other games and their epic quests, I really wish WoW would do something similar. Getting epic loot of bosses is just fine, but it's kind of cool to do a massive quest that you can solo most of for a hard-earned, ridiculously awesome weapon.
I also want more fun clicky items, but that's a whol different topic.
Reply
4-16-2008 @ 12:25AM
Roshak said...
You bring up a good point with the tutorials, however there are several counterarguments that I would like to bring up.
Firstly: The amount of extra work that would need to be put in to complete a full tutorial for every ability for every class would be a monumental effort. Do you want that new content?
Secondly: Using your example of the hunter with freezing trap, if you had two hunters in the raid. One in full purples, but can’t trap, and the other in blues and greens, but can chain trap effectively, which one would you be more inclined to take back next week if you had room for only one?
Being able to play your class is a badge of honour (just like what you suggested for completing the quests), but it’s forged through trial and blood. I personally believe that it’s worth more as it is, then what it would be worth with a quest system.
My main character is a Night Elf, Hunter. I learnt how to trap the slow way, and I worked very hard to get as good as I possibly could be. One particular event in Shattered Halls, where I managed to save a party wipe through good trapping, kiting and pet control, earned me the title of hunter leader in my guild. Since I was given the title, the hunters in my guild have improved their trapping immensely.
The point of this story is that sometimes you need someone who is doing better then you to show you what you can achieve. If everyone had trapping training through a tutorial, then the exceptional people would be diminished.
I hope I have brought up several points for people to think about.
Reply
4-16-2008 @ 8:09AM
Wolfshead said...
I completely agree that new skills and other vital mechanics should be taught via quests. I'm not a big fan of tutorials in games as they destroy the immersion.
Actually Blizzard has started to do this with the blood elf racial abilities in the BC expansion. You are given a quest that requires you to use your mana draining skills. They really should go back and do a pass on all classes and ensure that starting players have quests for those special abilities.
Where Blizzard drops the ball is teaching players how to use their core class abilities in groups and in raids. It is just assumed that other players will teach you or that you will learn yourself. Given the casual/solo friendly nature of WoW many players never learn how to really play their class as they sail from level 1 to 70. Good game design prepares players for the challenges ahead. Bad game design leaves players twisting in the wind.
I wrote an article about this on my website which discusses this the issue in greater detail:
http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/?p=108
Scott, I agree that the pre-BC hunter epic quest was amazing was a mini-hunter boot camp for ensuring that hunters at level 60 had those core abilities. Sadly, given the disposable nature of WoW content that quest is now obselete. At least one great thing about EverQuest was that the content didn't go obselete like WoW and I believe that's due to the community building fact of having non-instanced content.
Reply
4-30-2008 @ 5:57PM
quiltmage said...
When I was bringing up my main, after training I'd go out and kill something I was familiar with to see what the new skill/cast whatever was like and how it fit into what I had. Call me crazy!
But then I got to 70 and was sort of stuck. I started a new mage and discovered a lot of stuff I missed because I was too new to understand what it was all about at the beginning. People thought I was crazy to create a "duplicate" of my main's class, but she taught me (and my main) a lot.
Reply