Snaffy's Space | MMO Fansites

I wrote up a Daily Grind question over at Massively this morning but I thought it might be fun to discuss the same idea from a slightly different angle with you. My question to our readers was "Once you've played (and enjoyed) MMORPGs, can you ever go back to (and enjoy) single-player RPGs?"

When I look at both RPG-types, I see three S's and three C's that differentiate them:

SPRPGs emphasize story, stats, and strategy
MMORPGs emphasize community, collaboration, and competition

Due to their more limited focus, SRPGs tend to really excel at the three S's. Have you ever had the story in an MMO actually bring tears to your eyes or really evoke any other strong emotion (other than anger and frustration due to bugs or imbalance)? SRPGs really let you dig into your character as well, micromanaging stats, abilities, and characteristics to a greater degree than most MMORPGs. Finally, the PvE strategies for boss fights generally trump those found in most MMORPGs, however, I might call this a draw if the MMO supports PvP/RvR and PvE (e.g., WoW).

MMORPGs have all three S's found in SRPGs, but usually to a lesser degree. To make up for this, they focus on three C's. Your only friends in an SRPG tend to be NPCs whereas MMORPGs give you real live players to interact and bond with in game and out (e.g., guilds and alliances). Collaboration takes this a step further by allowing you to actually work with others towards a common goal. Competition allows you to take your stats, strategy, community, and collaboration and test it out against others, while the only competition in SRPGs tends to be against yourself (e.g., beating FFVII in 45 hours vs. 70, while unlocking entirely new zones, summons, and chocobos *bwwwwark*).

Another major difference is a sense of accomplishment versus a sense of the "Neverending Story." It felt great beating a game like FFVII but I also felt like I had wasted an immense amount of time because I completed it completely alone in my parent's basement (hey, I was a teenager!). There really is no end-game in an MMORPG and any time you reach the cap it is usually only temporary as they unlock new content and challenges for you to experience. Don't take that comment to mean I'm a fan of vertical progression/mudflation as an expansion strategy, because I believe you can accomplish the same thing with horizontal expansion.

This is all basically coming down to the same conclusion as my Daily Grind piece, which is that I really can't bring myself to play SRPGs now that I've experienced MMORPGs. It's all fine and good until you consider the final difference I see between both game-types. MMORPGs always seem to suffer from polish issues, which I see as a huge flaw with the genre. I realize the complexities of MMORPGs, but I still believe we can improve in this area by leaps and bounds.

I think there will always be a place for SRPGs but as more and more folks get online, I predict MMORPGs will eventually take over as the dominant form. The only thing really holding them back right now is story and polish, but once developers can crack that nut, I think the floodgates will open. As instances, zone phasing, and solo viability become more mainstream in MMORPGs, why would anyone but the most introverted "hardcore" person bother playing an SRPG anymore? Heck, I'd even call myself pretty introverted and a mostly solo gamer and I still play MMORPGs over SRPGs.

I'm looking at you to prove me right, BioWare! *cough cough*