Are MMOs truly as persistent as they claim?
by Brooke Pilley 
May 30th 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion
The two biggest differences between single player RPGs and massively multiplayer online RPGs are the MMO and persistent components found in the latter. Player vs. Developer has a thought-provoking blog post up claiming that MMOs are not as persistent as they claim to be."Persistent" can be defined as "continuing without change in function or structure," which when you really think about it doesn't quite fit with how it is employed in most MMORPGs. Many MMOs claim to have a "persistent struggle," or "persistent world," which is only half true. Developers are constantly changing their MMOs and it impacts how we play.
What happens at the end of an expansion cycle? Often, players stop trying to progress and wait for the new content that makes old content obsolete. What happens when classes undergo constant balance shifts? Players are forced to compete on uneven playing fields. What happens when some gamers benefit from bugs or exploits before they are fixed? It can hurt player morale.
Many of these changes are for the best, but it does illustrate that MMOs are not truly as persistent as they claim.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tenjin said on 3:21PM 5-30-2009
And what happens when developers demonstrate no interest in making a level playing field, almost as if they want to leave in an unbalanced class or classes? Guess which game I'm talking about.
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Myria said on 4:03PM 5-30-2009
Mostly that post is a poorly played game of semantics.
What exactly does "persistent" mean in the context of MMOs? In general usage it simply means that the game world is there whether you are or not -- nothing more, nothing less. To pick the most fitting dictionary.com definition, "existing or continuing for a long time" (although some might say "remaining infective for a relatively long time in a vector after an initial period of incubation" is more fitting).
Persistent does not mean unchanging. It does not mean existing forever. It does not mean meta-gems cannot be nerfed or the game isn't persistent anymore.
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NT_ said on 4:49PM 5-30-2009
My sentiments exactly. That (source) blog post was an excellent example of taking a single word completely out of context and then beating it into a pixelated pulp.
Kdolo said on 4:54PM 5-30-2009
"Contribute" can be defined as "giving or supplying in common with others; give to a common fund or for a common purpose" Which when you really think about it doesn't quite fit with this article. Many writers claim to be "contributors," which is only half true, in the sense that something is submitted for publication. Writers are constantly submitting inane, obtuse, semantic arguments without actually contributing anything of value.
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neododge said on 5:03PM 5-30-2009
And how persistent do you call a world where a major character respawns each time it's downed ? That's a persistent bastard, not a persistent world :D
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JoeH said on 2:44AM 5-31-2009
And then you get games where the entire gameplay system get's entirely nerfed, where just anyone can become a Jedi!
Yea ok so that wasn't really subtle...
Personally I find games like DarkFall, EVE and SWG to be the most persistant due to the fact that players can actually affect the world. They can build cities/stations, they can wage wars, take systems/planets. This ultimately shows that these games evolve beyond MMORPGs and become MMO worlds.
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OrganiClockwork said on 4:15AM 5-31-2009
Are MMOs persistent? Yes. Are they persistent in a good way? No.
They are persistent in the worst possible way. No matter what a player does, the world will persist as it currently is. Persistent in a good way would be, for instance, if players were to kill the raiders in a town overrun with them, then the town would resume operation - villagers would move back in, and it would become an operational town - until the raiders decided to attack again. But as it stands, the world is persistent despite what the players choose to do.
Games are entirely persistent, but they are persistent in that they are persistent around the players, and none of the results of the players' actions persist at all. And that is bad. Bad bad bad.
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