Introduction

Throughout MMORPG history, game designers and programmers have had most difficulty in making the game timeless and perpetuate among ongoing competition.  As a result, companies are constantly attempting to developing novel and innovative forms of game play to satisfy their player base.  Updates and expansions are released periodically to prolong its appeal to the individuals engaging in these virtual realities.  Therefore, improvements to MMORPGs are necessary in order to satisfy the continually evolving needs of players.

Synopsis

The inadequacies and shortfalls of MMORPGs must be examined to fully understand how improvements can be made.  Although there are many constructs within the game to foster social collaboration and cooperation among players, there are still insufficiencies.  Everquest, the most successful and popular MMORPG from 1999 to 2004, set a precedent for the genre of online games.  As result, the MMORPGs that proceeded were very similar and were dubbed “everquest clones” by critics, as they desired to be just as successful.  However, this led to deficiencies in game design, such as a lack of riveting and alluring storylines with complex, yet appealing tasks to accomplish.  In addition, MMORPG designers often believe that by providing incentives in-game, they can prolong the appeal of the game to players.  But, in actuality, they are oftentimes burdening players with mundane and repetitious quests.  Moreover, many MMORPGs are ineffective at providing unique and exceptional experiences while in-game.  Every player intends to have their avatar progress and acquire stronger attributes.  This is accomplished by a series of interactions, cooperation and collaboration between players while engaging in difficult and complex tasks.  As a result, these required processes can become extremely tedious.

Suggestions

Although MMORPGs are currently extremely complex in regards to game design and allowing players the ability to frequently collaborate with each other freely, there will always be room for improvement.  Every MMORPG consists of mythological lore and intricate storylines.  However, they often lack originality and fail to captivate the full interest of the player.  Moreover, many choose to ignore the storylines and instead opt to abstain from doing anything related to the game’s lore.  Therefore, future MMORPG companies should develop much more alluring storylines that will have long lasting appeal to the player base.  In addition, the game lore should be intertwined more effectively with game play, making each session online a tantalizing and enthralling experience.  In addition, the questing system, which assigns tasks for players to accomplish, must be revamped and improved to eliminate the repetitiousness.  Furthermore, these quests must incorporate innovative ideas that will make carrying out game-assigned tasks memorable and enjoyable.  Lastly, MMORPG designers should evaluate the text-chat interface and improve on its mechanics to allow players to communicate more efficiently.  Due to the fact that there are players from all parts of the globe converging into one virtual world, there are language barriers that need to be overcome.  MMORPGs should perhaps incorporate translators with more languages into the interface, just as FFXI Online (Final Fantasy Eleven) does with English and Japanese.   This will foster more social collaboration and allow for an optimal amount of cooperative interactions. (Shi & Huang, 2004).