Comments on: We Need A Mutant MMO

By: MMOs: Living games » Systemic Babble

MMOs: Living games » Systemic Babble — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:53:56 +0000

[...] on by an excellent article by Psychochild, Gordon recently wrote an post connecting MMOs to genetic programming in which he asserted that these large games needed to [...]

By: Evolution? Standards v Principles « The Edge of gaming

Evolution? Standards v Principles « The Edge of gaming — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:03:06 +0000

[...] We Need a Mutant MMO The Innovation Paradox Thats a Terrible Idea: The Immitation Rut We’re Working Backwards WoW is the iPhone, not Walmart [...]

By: Nollind Whachell

Nollind Whachell — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:44:28 +0000

I’m looking for something with an “evolutionary leap” to it as well, that’s “radically different”. In effect, think of all the standard norms within MMOs today and imagine if you created a game without some of those standards. A good example that I always use is character levels. It’s pretty much the norm today but what if you created an MMO without character levels, what would happen? In effect, think of all the issues that character levels cause (i.e. social barrier between friends, splintering of pvp population, etc) and imagine those issues gone. At the same time though, issues arise from the solution itself. How would you help people get over this radical paradigm shift of not having levels within an MMO? How could you create the content so it’s still engaging? And so on…

By: Late Night Post, Which Way To Rivendell Again?

Late Night Post, Which Way To Rivendell Again? — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:54:04 +0000

[...] always in that good, innovative way. Over the next couple of months, we will see what the gating of ICC means for the raiding guilds [...]

By: Game by Night » Did we give up on the “next-gen” MMO?

Game by Night » Did we give up on the “next-gen” MMO? — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:05:15 +0000

[...] years ago would have accepted as movement. It’s slow, a progressive mutation similar to what Gordon talked about, except what’s mutating isn’t any one game, but, rather, the glossy sheen of each card we’ve [...]

By: Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:11:35 +0000

We just need more “ooze” to mutate the games to our liking

By: Tesh

Tesh — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:53:43 +0000

Aw, and here I was thinking this article was about taking the TMNT Palladium tabletop RPG IP and making something in the MMO space with it. Pfft.

On topic, though, I’m all for some baseline mutation. That’s what I write about often enough.

By: The Innovation Apocalypse « Aim for the Head

The Innovation Apocalypse « Aim for the Head — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:27:05 +0000

[...] Innovation Apocalypse Everyone these days seems to be talking about innovation (every letter is a link there). And by innovation they mean games doing something [...]

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:46:05 +0000

The principle behind mutation (I guess – need to check with a real biologist ) is randomess. As you said, it’s often not good but it’s still absolutely necessary in order to stop gene pool stagnating and inbreeding.

I guess my analogy is kinda similar to your concept of questioning the fundamentals – if we just keep evolving what we already have in small iterations, we will never achieve a refreshing take on the current solutions. What we really need to do is take a step back, take some risks, and try some larger variations in the hope of success.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:42:14 +0000

Interesting stuff, thanks I thought mutation was more of a random element, necessary in order to keep the gene pool fresh. I imagined the features in WoW have evolved through a process of trial and error in order to create a better, fitter product rather than sheer mutation. My thinking – although the analogy may not be correct – is that we need some more randomness and radical innovation in order to achieve the radically different ideas which may challenge the current MMORPG status quo.