An in-depth look at class design in favor of the hybrid

by Shawn Schuster Apr 18th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Classes, Game mechanics, Academic, Education

When it comes to choosing your class, we don't usually think much past the basics of the class's design, and of course how awesome you'll look in your favorite armor. But there's so much more to designing a balanced character class in an MMO than you might expect.

Recently, in a wonderful article at Gamasutra, John Hopson takes a look at the importance of designing a class from the most effective standpoint needed in an MMO. It doesn't have to do with the most efficient design, or the most powerfully specialized, but it's more about the situation you're in at that time. This is why his argument in favor of a hybrid class design is so compelling. Approached as a comparison to economics, it all makes perfect sense, and it will certainly open your eyes to what class designers are focusing on in current MMOs, and more importantly, future MMOs.

Tags: balance, class, classes, design, gamasutra, game-design, hybrid, professions

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lemmo said on 12:12AM 4-19-2008

Hopefully future MMOs will have more dynamic character creation, and not all be bound by a 40 year old class mechanic.

Slogo said on 12:04PM 4-19-2008

I enjoyed this article but I really think it seems out of date. The author doesn't seem to really focus as much on some of the more ingenious ways of making hybrids more balanced. Newer mechanics like allowing druids to switch from tanking -> dps fair well or forcing a healer to engage in combat to make their healing efforts efficient (Warhammer) really open up a lot of doors for creating hybrid classes in a way that's balanced and fun.

Additionally he doesn't seem to think about PvP at all. In a PvP environment there is much less need for specialization and in such a place hybrid classes are really allowed to make use of all their abilities during the course of a fight.