Mixed Thoughts on WAR's Open Dungeons

Read an article today about the Warhammer : Age of Reckoning dungeon experience. Evidently WAR is mostly going to use the conventional "open world" dungeons, instead of the "instanced" dungeons that are heavily used in other MMORPG's, WoW being a notable example.

Open World Dungeons and Instanced Dungeons

Open World dungeons are dungeons that are part of the game world. Since they are part of the game world, there is just one version of each dungeon per server, so everyone on a server who goes to a particular dungeon (for better or worse) ends up playing with everyone else in that dungeon.

Instanced dungeons are dungeons that are separated from the game world by a zone border. Typically developers will use instancing to allow multiple "instances" of a dungeon, so that multiple parties can each progress through their own unique version.

Mythic is going to use open dungeons at least in part, but with two important improvements. First, open dungeons (or at least the ones in the article) will have public quests, which will allow large numbers of people to cooperate together (instead of compete). Second, there will be instanced bosses so players (again) are not competing against each other.

Why Open Dungeons Have Sucked

This competition is one of the biggest reasons that open dungeons never worked in the first place. Everyone would go into the same dungeon, kill the same monsters, and then wait for the "Rare Spawn" (that was the goal of the dungeon) to appear. In games like EQ or FFXI, the best loot drops often came from these rare spawns. Rare Spawns are probably the worst game mechanic ever used in an MMORPG, and that's pretty special in a genre overflowing with awful, awful mechanics.

Here's how they work : about every n hours this uber monster would appear, and whoever killed the monster had a chance at some uber loot. n could range from an hour to several days, but was usually at least a few hours. So not only were players "playing" the game by sitting around and waiting (sometimes for literal days on end), they are also in cutthroat competition with each other. Only one player or group of players will kill the beast, and only those people have a chance at loot.

Rare Spawns are a triple threat : they are time-consuming, boring, and they encourage (and reward) antisocial behavior.

(Humorously, you'll occasionally hear old-school massive gamers complain about how "easy" games have become since this mechanic has been eliminated. You know, since sitting on your behind for 30 hours waiting for one minute of combat requires way more skill than constantly fighting during an 8-hour raid. It's not just old massive gamers either, many other gamers also see bad game design and think "This game is hard, awesome!".)

An Open Dungeon Alone in a world of Instanced Dungeons

Then WoW came riding in a white horse and single-handedly slew the Rare Spawn beast, probably after pulling an all-nighter waiting for it to show up. WoW did this by having practically none of the best loot come from rare spawns. Rare spawns still exist in World of Warcraft, and they are fun, but their importance is greatly diminished.

So, anyway, here comes Mythic, back with the open dungeons, hopefully having solved many of the problems that plagued them in the past. Open dungeons certainly suit WAR, which seems to encourage a much more casual approach to PvE. You'll be able to wander into a dungeon and hopefully find a group to play with. But will they solve the problems?

I think WAR's open dungeons will work out better than the failed open dungeons of the past. Whether they truly work, however, depends on design decisions we have not yet seen. Will there still be rare spawns? Will players be fighting over quest mobs? Will you be competing against players from the other realm, and if so, is the dungeon more fun or less fun? Is Mythic going to universally provide public quests and instanced bosses in every dungeon? I guess we'll find out soon.