MMOGology: Phasing phwns the phuture
by Marc Nottke 
Feb 23rd 2009 at 10:00AM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Game mechanics, Opinion, MMOGology
It's been fascinating to watch MMOGs evolve over the past fifteen years I've been playing them. They started out as text based worlds populated by a few hundred people with over-active imaginations. Today they're a mainstream hobby endorsed by celebrities like Mr. T and William Shatner. Whoulda thunk?
As the genre has matured so have the parameters of what defines an MMOG. One of my biggest gripes with them has always been that the worlds we play in are too often static and unchanging. You feel as though your character and his actions never have any real or lasting effect on the world around him.
Thankfully that has begun to change with the recent advent of a technology dubbed as "phasing". For those of you that haven't played Blizard's Wrath of the Lich King, phasing allows players to view a changed version of their world based on triggering events like the completion of quests. It's amazing that it isn't more talked about because phasing has and will continue to change the way we experience dynamic storytelling in MMOGs.
Zack Yonzon over at WoW Insider rightly claims that, "phasing is the new instancing." The advent of instances in MMOGs was groundbreaking. Prior to their introduction players had to cram into open-world dungeons together, falling all over each other in massive raids, camping mobs, and waiting in lines for a turn to kill the baddie. Nothing screams immersion like waiting in a line. Instancing has allowed us to experience more tightly scripted content geared toward a specific and more realistic number of fellow dungeon runners. It also allows a level of storytelling to occur in those dungeons that simply wasn't possible in open world environments.
Blizzard's phasing concept brings similar ideas behind instancing to the shared overworld that all players view simultaneously. Certain "trigger events" (like quest turn-ins) activate "world state" changes, but only for the player that triggers them. These events happen seamlessly without the need for a loading screen. This provides developers with a new sense of freedom when it comes to storytelling. That town you just defended from a marauding dragon might now have a crowd cheering you on as they dance around its corpse. Whereas before phasing, the dragon's body vanished and the citizens of the town still worried about an impending attack. Phasing personalizes the experience and lends an epic, consequential feel to your in-game actions.
[SPOILER ALERT] One of my favorite examples of phasing in Northrend is the Wrath Gate chain of quests in Dragonblight. This quest chain culminates in the massacre of combined Horde and Alliance forces near Fordragon Hold at the Court of Skulls. Here, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon of the Alliance and Saurfang the Younger of the Horde meet a grisly demise at the hands of the Forsaken. The subsequent destruction of the Forsaken army by Alexstrasza and her dragons not only makes for a cool cut-scene, but also permanently changes the world around the Wrath Gate. At the end of the event Fordragon Hold is completely abandoned and its inhabitants run screaming from their fortress. The Court of Skulls is doused in flames and the ground around Alexstrasza and her consort sprouts new, exotic life.
Unlike instances, you can't go back to a Fordragon Hold that isn't destroyed unless you visit with another
character that hasn't yet triggered the event. [END SPOILER] This means that there are permanent consequences to player actions, even if they are not truly game changing. That concept is pretty new to the static theme-park atmosphere of MMOGs. There are a few exceptions of course (think Archet burning in Lord of the Rings Online – done via an instance), but they are few and far between. The net effect of phasing is that you feel like you've directly affected the world around you. Your actions resulted in a change to your world. That's powerful stuff. The phasing we've seen in WoW is just the tip of the iceberg. We're going to see this technology used in amazing ways in future MMOGs. Player choice might finally factor into the version of the world that your character sees and interacts with. What if, for example, after making a momentous choice between good or evil in a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic, the world itself appeared forever changed based on that moral decision? You might actually feel as though you were shaping the world based on your choices. The fact that such a decision might be irreversible could influence your choice. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure novel where you can't flip back and redo your choice. The use of phasing for dynamic storytelling seems limitless and that's something to be excited about.
Aside from gameplay itself, storytelling is one of the most crucial aspects in crafting a memorable game. The advent of phasing will push the possibilities of storytelling to new, dynamic and exciting levels. One of my favorite gaming journalists of all time, Jeff Green, said in his blog Greenspeak, "I think [phasing is] going to go down as a landmark in MMO design and will influence games (and maybe not just MMOs) for years to come." I couldn't agree more. It's an exciting time to be an MMOG player and I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.
* * *
I'm sad to announce that this is the last article I'm writing for Massively; at least for a while. My wife and I recently had a son and between the new addition and a demanding full time job, I'm finding less time to devote to writing. Rather than let the quality of MMOGology suffer, I'm passing the torch to my colleagues. I'll enjoy watching them continue to create the quality content you've come to expect at Massively. It has always been one of my dreams to contribute in some small way to gaming journalism and hopefully you've enjoyed some of my work here over the last year. The staff of Massively are truly a great group of people and it's been an honor to work with all of them.
Thanks also to you readers, without whom, none of us would be here! It will be fascinating to watch what innovations our favorite genre has in store for us. You never know what waits around the corner to surprise us and push the envelope of our expectations. Here's to the future!
MMOGology [mŏg-ol-uh-jee] – noun – The study of massively multiplayer online games via the slightly warped perspective of Marc Nottke.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Celestro said on 10:14AM 2-23-2009
Take care, Marc. Thanks for the great articles.
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Marc Nottke said on 11:08PM 2-23-2009
Thanks for the well wishes Celestro! It's been fun!
Temploiter said on 10:14AM 2-23-2009
Thanks for the good articles Marc and good luck with RL!
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Marc Nottke said on 11:09PM 2-23-2009
Thank you Temploiter!
Kaamos said on 10:28AM 2-23-2009
Going to miss your writing sir, good luck.
Also, the phasing has its disadvantages, you cannot physically interact with someone who's in a different phase/instanced part of an area, and to meet you both need to leave the area.
Futhermore, the Hodir quests change the mobs nearby from a profitable elemental drop to a non profitable one, also the non profitable phased/instance is usually full of the opposing faction grinding for rep.
A suggestion: Go inscription and for extra money you now have an area to grind eternal fires without the bothersome other faction competing for the kills/loot.
(and hodir is/was a pain to grind.)
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Marc Nottke said on 11:09PM 2-23-2009
I appreciate the kind words Kaamos.
Crymorenoob said on 10:29AM 2-23-2009
>>
activate "world state" changes, but only for the player that triggers them.
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xtrmlybad said on 10:30AM 2-23-2009
Good luck Marc!
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Marc Nottke said on 11:10PM 2-23-2009
Thanks a bunch xtrmlybad!
Holgar said on 11:04AM 2-23-2009
I'm tempted to say you just hate it because you hate Blizzard. At anyrate not only can you see, interact with group with anyone on the same phase as you the phasing only effects a small area of the world.
Phases are usually associated with quests and questing areas so it dose NOT take away from the massively experience anymore than not allowing you to redo a quest you have already done with your friend.
In short you don't know what your talking about, go suck on Adventurine's tit like the other "I hate world of warcraft and anyone who plays it." types.
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danarchy said on 11:31AM 2-23-2009
I think phasing is the coolest concept to come out in online gaming in a loooong time. I was really surprised when I completed a quest and a cool cutscene kicked off! I think its a great idea, and I hope to see more areas that use it
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thud said on 11:41AM 2-23-2009
Hate to break it to you, but WoW didn't originate this concept in MMOs. In fact, everyone's least favorite game, Runescape, has been doing it for years! Runescape has quests that change the game world (by rebuilding a town, destroying other buildings, and stealing a statue to name a few) and a skill (farming) that exemplifies this concept.
...of course if Runescape did it, it's not cool and innovative... It's just stupid Runescape, right?
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Holgar said on 12:24PM 2-23-2009
Seriously?
I wasn't aware of runescape having phasing byond the primitive version in Underground pass with the unicorn cage.....
It HAS come a long way hasn't it?
I'm sure the soul distroying grind is still there in force though. Grind 10000000 of X to get 99 stat
Dlangar said on 11:49AM 2-23-2009
Phasing has actually been talked about extensively in the past few months. And while it definitely provides for some very cool story moments, it also brings a number of problems as well. I'm not convinced it's the end-all be-all of new MMO technologies.
For one, as someone has mentioned earlier, phasing provides more barriers to playing with your friends. Once you've gone past a certain point in the story, you can't go back to help friends with pre-even quests, and they can't come forward to help you with post-event quests.
Second, WoW's phases still drop everyone who's in the same phase as you into your phase. Can't say how many story-moments were ruined by random people dropping into my phase, or how many quests were made impossible by entering a phase to already find the monster or encounter triggered by people there before me. In both of these cases, instances would have better served the purpose, imho.
If you're interested, I blogged more of my thoughts and other comments on MMO innovations in 2008 over here:
http://ofcourseillplayit.com/?p=48
Cheers,
Dlangar
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Crymorenoob said on 11:54AM 2-23-2009
Illiterate trolls are funny.
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Kyoji said on 12:04PM 2-23-2009
I think phasing is an excellent technology, and is a nice stop-gap between a completely open world and a heavily instanced one. While there are disadvantages, most of which Dlangar pointed out, I believe they could easily be worked around as the use of the technology becomes more widespread in more games.
While I love open worlds, I'm also a huge, huge fan of games like Guild Wars or Phantasy Star Universe where the only places you see players not in your group are "lobbies." In fact my optimum MMO would be on the whole a single-player experience, with the ability to add players any time you'd like. Phasing could be used to essentially eliminate the "gates" featured in most games that are heavily instanced, providing the illusion of a seamless world but giving the player the choice of who they want to interact with outside of main player hubs.
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rayrayob said on 12:50PM 2-23-2009
It really saddens me to see so many fans of mmo's so stubborn and against change. The genre HAS to evolve or it will die and though it may not be perfect yet, phasing will help immersion and will get better the more its implemented. For the genre to make money and grow you'll just have to expect change and DEAL with it.
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Greeen said on 12:59PM 2-23-2009
Oh yes, I agree, I love the phasing in WOTLK.
Too bad it is only in Northrend. I don't think it will lead to more solo with multiplayer chat than we are already seeing. It is still an attitude thing.
I e.g. am more of a solo player, but esp. for elite quests/when I have plenty of time I like to group and search for fellow players. And what answer do you get?
"You can solo him/her". Doooh, if I want to solo, I would have asked "Can I solo boss XZY", or simply not asked at all.
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Mr. Pickles said on 1:08PM 2-23-2009
Sadly, I'm bound to agree with Crymorenoob. This is by no means a "major feat" for an MMORPG. Phasing is honestly the cheap singleplayer PvE equivalent of zone domination for DAoC and/or Warhammer Online.
Those games have the massively multiplayer part down great, as it takes whole large groups of players to do these events and siege keeps, fortresses, and cities instead of a single individual against a bunch of NPCs.
Also, I honestly think that Public Quests are far more innovative and interesting than phasing for the progression of MMO games. The reason: There's hard ones and easy ones, practically one for every type of gamer; they're easy to jump into and join, even if a groups 1/2way through already, they have a fair distribution of "loots" because of the influence system tacked onto the bosses treasure chest drop. And, the reset rather quickly so that if one is entertaining and fun enough, a player may partipate in it again in the near future. AND, even some PvE PQs implement some PvP ideals as there's quite a few that require a player to do stage one or stage two faster and before the enemy realm. Most of those types are in the Dwarf vs. Greenskin section where it's mostly fighting enemy armies, but they're still a blast.
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danarchy said on 1:15PM 2-23-2009
As mr crymore whatever up there proves green there will always be asshats in the mmo community. Give an idiot a microphone and he will shout his idiocy to the world. I am lucky in that I can solo most of the elite quest mobs, but I still holler to zone to see if anyone else needs to finish the quest while im at it. I can do it solo but its more fun with other people. I do get the responses though, thankfully the ignore list has been expanded and I have not yet filled it up again.
As a basic rule for every 4 normal people there seem to be 1 clown. Pretty good ods really (unless your on a pvp "hardcore!1!" server/game then the ratio is reversed)
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