Recent MMORPGs have situated the starter city within a more broadly conceived starter zone. Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa (hereafter Tabula Rasa), takes place in a world where humanity has been driven from Earth and where every single person is now of necessity a soldier [1]. The game is a very different kind of MMORPG in that it plays like a hybrid of the most intense first person shooter and a role-playing game; it lacks all but the most rudimentary crafting and economic elements that are a staple of “traditional” MMORPGs and at this writing lacks a PvP or factional conflict mode. The game is built around a linear progression from zone to zone, and, therefore, player choice is initially restricted: there is only one starting point. While the linear progression continues, the zones gradually become larger and offer players a steadily broadening range of options for how much of each world to explore, how many missions to undertake and the order and method for tackling them. Pirates of the Burning Sea (hereafter POTBS), by contrast, offers an experience that has more familiar MMORPG elements (extensive player choice in terms of where to travel and what to do; PvP and RvR options, an extensive production and economy model) but offers a very different gaming environment (a four-way struggle between the British, French, Spanish and Pirate factions for the Caribbean circa 1720) [2]. The combat model is also innovative in that the organization of the game around naval combat means that combat is much less-focused on “twitch” reactions, but fosters instead a tactical approach. After working through a short tutorial players are deposited in a starter city appropriate to their nation; these cities are located in “starter regions” that are relatively far from the areas that are the focus of the most intense combat [3].
The games themselves are still at a relatively immature stage in their development cycles having been released in November 2007 (Tabula Rasa) and January 2008 (POTBS); such games are never really finished, but continue to evolve over the course of many years. They are nevertheless instances of a mature MMORPG design philosophy and enable us to look at how such games function as effective learning environments. The fundamental insight concerning games and learning that occurred to Gee (2003) after playing a computer game was based on a realization that is strikingly at odds with the popular stereotype of games: many electronic games are very difficult.
So here we have something that is long, hard, and challenging. However you cannot play a game if you cannot learn it. If no one plays a game, it does not sell, and the company that makes it goes broke. Of course, designers could keep making the games shorter and simpler to facilitate learning. That’s often what schools do. But no, in this case, game designers keep making the games longer and more challenging (and introduce new things in new ones), and still manage to get them learned. How?” (p. 6) [4]
People play games for all kinds of reasons, and to learn something is rarely the explicit goal (although it may be a tangential one in some genres such as historical simulations); paradoxically, they willingly submit to what can, as Gee demonstrates, be a remarkably demanding learning environment. And they enjoy it. This is, as Gee points out, a marked contrast to dedicated educational institutions: people are compelled to participate in these, rarely enjoy them, and they don’t work all that well.
It’s important to note that Gee developed his theory of games as learning environments largely through an engagement with single-player games. If such games are analogous to a high school course, then MMORPGs in terms of both their complexity and the time commitment they demand of players can be the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of university study (or even that required for an entire degree). Some players participate in an MMORPG for a longer period than any student will spend at university. Given this complexity and the expectation of an extended commitment, designers of MMORPGs have understood that the starter city is the key not simply in helping players learn some aspects of the game, but in helping them learn to learn.
At minimum, a starter city or zone accomplishes the following:
1. Familiarizes the player with the interface. This aspect of the game is often handled in the tutorial section and Tabula Rasa and POTBS are no exception in this regard. Both games ensure that players understand the organizational principles behind the use of screen real estate. The tutorial in an MMORPG as in most single-player games is often the most directive and dogmatic element of the game. The tutorial will often ask for input (to press a particular screen icon or key, for example) and then will not move on until you have done the right thing. For games that are based on maximizing player choice and initiative this might seem like a potentially counterproductive way to begin the game: does it send the wrong message to start players off with something so restrictive? On the contrary, the designers of MMORPGs recognize that if frustration is to be avoided later on when the stakes are higher a player needs to have mastered basic functions: you can't sink any ships in POTBS if you can't figure out how to fire the cannons. More than this, however, the tutorial will often illustrate the relative importance of various elements, highlighting those that a player is likely to use most often or which provide him or her with critical information [5].
2. Highlights the core progress mechanic. As a general rule MMORPGs allow you to accumulate experience (expressed as points) which players can then use to increase their skills in specific areas as they choose. Many games now have settled on the model of "leveling" in which points scored as a result of player activities accumulate to a specific point after which the player is rewarded, and then embarks on the next level. In POTBS points are directed into two primary areas: ship combat skills and dueling skills, while gaining new levels also brings with it additional abilities (captaining larger ships, enhanced economic abilities, etc.). In Tabula Rasa, the situation is slightly more complex: the player gains two different kinds of experience points that can be applied to general physical attributes (health, etc.) or to specific skills and abilities. The interface usually includes a visible marker (a progress bar, etc.) that indicates how far the player has progressed along the path to the next achievement point. The tutorial and starter missions will indicate what are the primary mechanisms by which the player will accumulate experience points. Usually points are acquired through killing enemies or completing specific missions or quests; some games also award points based on economic activity.
3. Introduce the core gameplay systems. Just as players need to know how to understand and manipulate interface elements, they also need to know how to access and use the activities that will constitute the experiential core of the game. This kind of learning begins with the tutorial but because of the complexity of an MMORPG typically does not end there. Players can expect that in the early stages of an MMORPG they will receive a variety of quests or missions whose main purpose will be gradually to deepen their understanding of the kinds of tasks they will be undertaking in the world. Thus in Tabula Rasa the tutorial introduces players to the basics of the combat system (how to fire weapons, how to switch weapons, different classes of weaponry and so on). But it is the player's participation in the early stages of the game that teaches them the different combat roles that are available to them and the influence this has on their character development and the developing world: exploring underground caves, defending or assaulting enemy firebases, undertaking spiritual quests for the planet's native inhabitants, recreational hunting of planetary wildlife, accepting special high risk missions, and so on. In POTBS the tutorial teaches a player the basics of ship combat. Once in the starter town, however, a series of missions introduces players to important characters (the harbor master, for example, who is used to outfit your ship) and broadens your range of abilities (the introduction to the complex production and auctioning system is established through a series of quests).
4. Make the player feel as if they are part of a world. Both the tutorial and the starter zone share all the functional, visual, and aural characteristics of the rest of the game. The goal is not simply to train the player but to establish atmosphere and allow the player to see the behavioral and emotional dynamics of their environment. This is a key point of difference between single-player (or simple multiplayer) games and MMORPGs. However immersive the worlds created in single-player games, the player is essentially just passing through. In MMORPGs, by contrast, the player inhabits the world, and therefore the sense of that space as an environment that is acting upon him or her is all important. The world of Tabula Rasa is one where humanity has been hounded across the galaxy and pushed to the point of extinction. War is the only thing the survivors have known. Yet humanity is struggling not to be completely brutalized by the experience, and as the player progresses through the game the ethical and moral complexity of that world begins to evolve (you start to encounter soldiers mutinying against the overly strict military authority, groups of human who have adopted nonviolent tactics, others who wonder if what they have been told about the "alien horde" is really true. . .and so on). The player's starting location is therefore a military camp that conveys all the tense, driven orderliness of the military but also constitutes something of a peaceful idyll compared with the other locations in the starting zone. POTBS, with an explicit historical referent, works hard to ensure players feel they are inhabiting a version of the 1720s Caribbean through architectural details, overheard snatches of conversation and so on. More importantly, the vision of the world is one where ordinary people are trying to make their living despite the European power struggles that rack the region and the ever-present threat of piracy. Therefore, the starter towns are filled with AI characters going about their business: dueling, prostitution, arranging commercial deals, sweeping the porch of their shops, and so on.
5. Allow players immediate and consequential participation in the world. It is not enough for the world to be convincing for the player. The starter zone must establish as soon as possible that the player can act on the world and exert an influence on its development. Fundamentally, players do not want to be spectators: they want to be participants. The tutorial for POTBS, for example, opens with your character on board a ship that is under attack by pirates. The captain has been killed and you are now in charge. You must fight off the pirates who have boarded your ship, then sink the attacking vessels. The game immediately gives the player something fun and exciting to do—and in the process manages to achieve to a large degree objectives 1-4. In Tabula Rasa the process is just as marked and just as successful. The tutorial provides you with some simple combat before sending you to the starter zone. The starting location, the military camp at Alia Das, seems like a zone of peace and order. As soon as a player steps outside the boundaries of the camp, however, alien drop ships descend and deposit squads of enemy troops. Not only is the player abruptly fighting for his or her life in a way that feels fun and dramatic, but such a tactic effectively reinforces the game's overarching narrative framework: that humanity is constantly in peril and any sense of peace and calm is fragile and probably illusory.
6. Provide players with a grasp of the geographical layout of the game space. This geographical sense is not, however, a conventional "mapped" view of the game world (players usually have access to a variety of maps that will tell them where they are and where they need to go). Rather the starter zone aims to provide the player with a sense of the scale of the world, and the ways that you can move around in the world. Very early on in POTBS, therefore, you are given missions that require you to sail between ports in order to get a sense of the distance between towns, how to use the wind on the open sea, and so on. In Tabula Rasa you rapidly figure out that a series of paths connect the different military bases on any given map, and if you take these you won't get lost; they tend to be well-traveled by players and non-player characters. They are usually more circuitous routes, however, and enemy soldiers frequently use the paths to set up ambushes. Traveling overland, by contrast, can be a lot faster, but you are often at the mercy of packs of wild animals with no one to help you.
7. Provide players with immediate affirmation. Most MMORPGs have adopted a graduated advancement structure that allows the player to progress very quickly at the beginning, with each level becoming progressively more difficult and time-consuming to achieve. The maximum level a player can achieve in POTBS, for example, is 50, but the new player can reach level 5 in little more than an hour of ordinary play. To reach level 50, however, takes many weeks or months, depending on how much time the player spends with the game. This has proven an effective structure for drawing players into the game, but the early success model also helps to demonstrate that challenges in the game can be surmounted, and that even if progress is apparently slow, it will still be rewarded.
8. Allow players to achieve a level sufficient to tackle the more complex tasks in the game. By the time the player leaves the starter city or the starter zone they should feel confident that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle the rest of what the game has to offer. They should not, however, feel that they have mastered the game. No designer wants a player to give up on a game either because it is too hard or because it is insufficiently challenging. Tabula Rasa is effectively designed in this regard. By the time players leave the starting zone (the Wilderness) they have had the opportunity to complete sufficient missions to enable them to acquire and customize several skills and to achieve their first major career milestones at Levels 5 and 15 (the game features a system where you can progressively specialize your profession). However, some of the special operations even in the starter zone are quite challenging. The game, therefore, adopts an overlapping skill-building structure. Many of the missions in the next zone (the Divide) are slightly easier than the harder missions in the starter zone but carry greater experience rewards. Therefore, the player can, if necessary, make their character stronger on the next level, before returning to the starter zone to finish some of the hardest tasks.
9. Indicate how the game will support a variety of play styles.
Every player has their own preferred way of playing a game. At the extremes,
these preferences can lead to players adopting partisan allegiances to
particular gaming genres. But within the world of MMORPGs, part of establishing
a convincing complexity of a player-built environment is seen by designers
to reside in allowing as broad a range of approaches to involvement in
the world as possible. POTBS allows people to choose national affiliation
and broad profession (Freetrader, Privateer, Naval Officer) at the beginning
of the game. But the skill selection system allows for considerable flexibility.
A freetrader player, for example, could choose to develop his or her character
as an effective support element in PvP combat by selecting the
appropriate skills; another player might choose to focus on the skills
that permit manipulation of production; still another might choose to
make money
by transport rather than production and will therefore choose skills that
allow the player to move swiftly and undetected on the open sea.
10. Provide inducement to move out of the starter zone. Game designers
want players to progress and to feel the need to progress. They want them
to move outside the comfort zones they establish and to continue to challenge
themselves, and most players want this also. Therefore, MMORPGs will adopt
a series of inducements for players to continually challenge themselves
with higher level content. In Tabula Rasa, for example, as with
many MMORPGs, the amount of experience that you gain for killing enemies
in the starter zone progressively decreases as your own character becomes
more powerful. After a while, it becomes not worth the effort and a player
seeks out more challenging enemies in search of greater rewards.
1. Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. (2007). Destination Games. NCSoft.
2. Pirates of the Burning Sea. (2008). Flying Lab Software.
3. This is important because even though players in POTBS can elect not to be marked as a Player versus Player participant, the region around any port can be destabilized by military activity resulting in a zone where any player can be attacked by another; a non-PvP player who has to journey through this area (or has their production facilities located at that port) is fair game.
4. Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
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