The perils of railroading in MMOs

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 8th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion

If your gaming origins consist of old-school tabletop gaming, you most likely know and fear the term railroading. It's used to describe an innocent-enough formulation that begins in a large number of games, usually run by younger players, wherein players are more or less forced along a preset path no matter what they might choose to do. That's a Terrible Idea recently took certain parts of the MMO world to task for this as well, as offering precisely that -- a game streamlined so effectively that you have no choices to be made. In particular it cites Aion as an example of a game offering a straight-line, no-thought approach to the genre.

Certainly one of the common criticisms of some newer games, such as Aion and Champions Online, is that you find yourself pushed along on a narrow set of tracksw toward an inevitable conclusion, without many choices to be made in terms of gameplay. On the flip side, of course, it's hard to argue that a certain amount of streamlining is a good thing -- we might miss the sensation of wondering what we should do next, but not the sensation of having no idea what comes next. But there's an argument to be made that streamlining too far removes the whole reason we play the game, and it certainly destroys any hope of meaningful immersion when all your choices have already been made.

Tags: aion, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, champions-online, co, culture, game-mechanics, linear-games, opinion, railroad, railroading, streamlining, thats-a-terrible-idea

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ethereal.wolf said on 8:07PM 11-08-2009

this is why the sandbox mmo is the best.

Dave said on 8:22PM 11-08-2009

Maybe so, but sandbox is so difficult to get right. For some reason having an open world to play in as opposed to a 90% scripted one is beyond the technical grasp of many companies.

Dymphna said on 8:27PM 11-08-2009

I actually disagree, maybe it's just me but I LIKE railroading in my RPGs. It's why I don't like games like Dragon's Age or Fallout (or any other WRPG) and love JRPGs like Final Fantasy.

My problem with Aion is there didn't seem to be enough railroading, a lot of times I felt kinda stranded in areas without any real guide as to where I was "supposed to be".

Clockwork said on 9:00PM 11-08-2009

I think the key is to have just the right amount of railroading.

On one hand, I don't want to be told, "THIS IS WHERE YOU MUST GO NEXT, YOU HAVE NO SAY." But on the other, I don't want to just be left wondering what the hell I'm supposed to be doing and if I'm in the right place. I think it's good that the player has options, but that game somehow tells the player - via quest chains or what have you - what those options are so that they can choose accordingly.

Origosis said on 11:29AM 11-09-2009

I agree I felt Aion was very open and I got lost a lot, not knowing where to go next. even the Newbie zone opened up mid way through, heck you did not have to even finish the newbie zone if you did not want to, that's how open it was. there were always 2-3 paths to take to gain the next 3-5 levels... Infact there were plenty of time s I picked one area over another cause I prefered it for leveling or grinding... gee wiz. I have to say it was Very open compared to my experience with LoTRO, or WoW, and i love WoW and LoTRO, but the felt way more like I was on a specific path.

Darren Chan said on 8:35PM 11-08-2009

The competitive nature of MMOs leads people to always choose the path that yields the most experience and reward in the quickest time. So unless you have a true sandbox MMO pretty soon a guide is going to come out about how to power level the fastest anyway.

ethereal.wolf said on 8:49PM 11-08-2009

i think in a good sandbox mmo, there are no levels, only the goals the player chooses, which also in a good sandbox are numerous to choose from. Puzzle Pirates excels at this.

Yoh said on 8:49PM 11-08-2009

I think there is a time and place for all things.

RPG's work well with railroad story lines.
However, they have one thing that MMORPG's can never have.
Characters.

By which I mean, pre made characters, which have personality, and actually contribute to the story in a productive manner.

MMO's by contrast, cannot have these kinds of characters, as players are the ones who take that position by default, and they are the ones who define the personality of their character, if they even have one.

Any attempts to jar in player made characters into the story, makes them come across as lifeless and dull, without any defining characteristics.

And as such, a story without characters, is very dull indeed.

So in that respect, I'd rather they didn't try, and let me make the decisions.

~Yoh

Solude said on 9:08PM 11-08-2009

Railroading or linear gameplay is definitely a killer and yes Aion was on rails. CO is not though, in any area really. Your character isn't a preset, your skills aren't defined by any set rules, their enhancements are yours to choose, the zone you level in is somewhat railroaded but no the area since the world is wide open 3D including the Z axis, all the time and no invisible walls =O

Aion, WAR, GW among others are too much on rails for me. Of course others suffer from rubber banding where from one quest to the other you are crossing the entire zone or worse zones, ala CoX before police scanner missions.

Anyway rails bad, rubber banding bad.

Angel said on 9:11PM 11-08-2009

I believe you can have both sandbox and "railroad" in the same world. I wrote a paper that is also a section of my upcoming Masters Thesis that does describe how this can work. I have posted a version of it on my blog, if you care to take a look at it.

http://wetwyered.com/wordpress/?p=102

Nadril said on 2:14AM 11-09-2009

I didn't read the paper but I do agree with you. I think an excellent example would be to look at Oblivion. It very much is a mix of a sandbox and a railroad. You have standard quest lines you can go through and an eventual plot you can do but you don't have to ever do that. There is a lot to do to advance aside from that. I really think it's a good way to go.

Personally I think that full sandbox games just are not a very sensible idea from a design perspective. Sure, one can argue that too much of a linear path can get boring and predictable but there is nothing more boring than just sort of standing around with no real guidance. It's fun to explore and look around but from my perspective I really think a strong sense of a path is very important. It doesn't even have to be very defined or the same for everyone.

The other good thing about having some railroads in a sandbox is that it may very much lead you to interesting areas you wouldn't have seen otherwise and most importantly it allows you to create a strong narrative and game because you can sort of balance all of the highs and lows.

Arbor Hawk said on 10:31PM 11-08-2009

This is exactly why I won't play Aion. Hopefully Champions will fix this issue with future content.

Dymphna said on 3:03AM 11-09-2009

The opposite extreme of too much railroading is a game like EVE.

I love the idea of the depth and sandbox natures of the game, but there is such a lack of...purpose there. There doesn't feel like any real progression to me. I don't degrade the folks who like it but, there just doesn't seem to me to be much in the ways of goals in that game.

Jeromai said on 3:39AM 11-09-2009

I do wonder where this hatred of railroading stems from. Could it be that folks are finally tired of linearity and have veered in preference towards sandboxes, or is it just an excuse to rationalize away a game you do not like?

I admit, I was quite bitter about the handheld railroading of the newbie experience in WoW for a long time (lvls 1-15 in Barrens *sighs*) until I bit the bullet, became one with QuestHelper and got to see the world open up a little more with the various areas you could go to after that.

But from a game design standpoint, WoW was bringing in people who had never played an MMO before, so it does make sense to coddle them through it, even though I felt patronized as a more experienced gamer. But was railroading the real problem, or the fact that I just didn't enjoy the gameplay that it was building up to?

I complained that the crafting was simplistic and boring, do an action, get an almost guaranteed skill point. The weapons found in the newbie shops were itemized to the point of next upgrade between one quest and the other, and per class, you got the one obvious pick. Ditto armor - 3 types, go get the best your class can wear. Totally brainless, no meaningful choice. But really, should I have expected there to be 5-10 different choices to weigh and pick from in WoW's newbie zone?

I don't see Aion as any different. Lowbie zone = limited choice, with the world's areas opening up more as you progress. I could say the same for City of Heroes and Champions Online, one just has a smaller newbie zone than the other, and more numerous but smaller in size zones.

How about Torchlight? One dungeon, go deeper and deeper. Isn't that linear and railroaded?

If you dislike the level or map design - too closed in, or too much instancing, too few players in the world around you, too -many- players in the world around you, then say so. If it's something else that bugs you, try and nail down the specifics of it.

To me, railroading is a cop-out term unless you truly hate all forms of linear gameplay, including those found in singleplayer games (FPSes, RPGs, adventure) as well.

K1LLSWITCH said on 3:41AM 11-09-2009

I personally would rather have an open-world feel to my MMO or RPG, especially if I'm subscribing monthly to the game. Options is welcomed and highly encouraged to get the best bang for my buck. Without it I might as well purchase a Final Fantasy game. It'll be cheaper in the long run.

mailhierher said on 7:30AM 11-09-2009

WoW is also a very railroaded game: no matter wich faction or class you choose you end up at the same place, doing the same things. At least it has some side tracks along the way which give a slightly different experience

Jeremy S. said on 9:12AM 11-09-2009

The more options, the more fun I have.

I love WoW, don't get me wrong, but my first experience with it was not the best. After playing some truly open games before going to WoW, I saw right away all these little tied together annoyances when I started a Draenai Shaman.

I love Draenai Shamans too, but to this day I cringe at the thought of starting a new one and being forced to do all those lame quests just to get my totems.

The biggest thing however, is that my craft level is tied to my character level. "Sorry, you can't craft anymore till you go level" What?....(growls, then pouts)

redrinn said on 9:42AM 11-09-2009

Its not the landmass that counts - its content. You can have a world like Vanguard or Darkfall offers, but if all you're doing is running from empty mob camp to empty quest hub, whats the point? Might as well play an offline RPG. Can't speak for CO, but Aion offers a perfect balance between varied content and world size.

Heraclea said on 11:52AM 11-09-2009

The problem is not so much railroading as it is lack of multiple paths. Back when I played WoW, a low level human Alliance character had the choice of levelling up in Ellwyn Forest or the Dwarf zone outside Ironforge whose name now escapes me --- or making a hazardous hike and levelling in the Night Elf or Draenei lowbie areas. If you had friends working through those levels there, might be worth it, Now the thrill of a Wetlands trek at level 5 is not even needed to do that any more.

By contrast, in Champions Online, the choice offered between the desert and Canada to level 5 characters was entirely illusory. You'd run out of content in one place and have to finish the other before being strong enough to move on.