by Ron Keith
If you were the great MMO god on-high, the lord arbiter of your virtual world, what would you change?
If only, huh? If only you got to make the decisions about what to fix and what to add to your MMO... Just for one day. Well, maybe a month or two. Wouldn't that be awesome?
You've got a list. Everyone who plays an MMO has one of those lists. There are more than a few things you'd like to change.
It's the nature of gods and humans: You want to remake things in your image. Whether it's school, work, or MMOs, you want to pick up the Promethean clay and mold your own creation. If you were in charge of the universe you certainly wouldn't make something as ridiculous as a duck-billed platypus, would you?
But you're probably not in charge. You're probably not a decision maker. You probably feel like just another voice lost in the cacophony of the teeming masses. No one except your buddies on Vent hear what you have to say. You've got all these great ideas for this MMO you love, all these great ways to make it better.
How can you get your ideas heard? How can you change your MMO?
1. Be active in the official forums.
If you want to change your MMO, if you want to get your ideas out there to the community, you have to start somewhere. And there's no better place than your MMO's forums.
In the forums, you can talk about anything that concerns you – class problems, combat, dungeons – whatever is on your mind. Don't bother with the secondary forums, though, such as the Curse network forums – you'll just be part of the noise in those forums. Use the official game forums.
Sure, the official forums usually aren't as much fun – they're tend to be more restrictive (Sorry, no boob pictures.), but it's the MMO's forums, the official forums. That means the designers and developers are more likely to be reading those forums. Some MMOs actually have developer forums, where developers actually respond to players. Unless you get their cell number, it doesn't get much more direct than that.
2. Use the in-game support.
In-game support varies greatly from MMO to MMO. Some games have actual game masters who will talk to you about problems, some have an in-game reporting mechanism, and some have slightly less than nothing.
If your game has in-game support, it's a good way to alert the developers to bugs, exploits, and, even, cheating (Cheating in MMOs? That's absurd.) that might be undermining their game. Use it. Don't rely on someone else to report problems you discover.
An MMO's support can be fantastic, so-so, or it can suck. If it's fantastic, definitely use it. If it's so-so, it's your call. If it sucks, don't waste your time.
How do you know if your MMO's support sucks? Do you wait days for a response? Do you get a form letter response to all your problem reports? If so, their support sucks. Don't waste your time reporting problems this way.
3. Volunteer for the test server.
Want to have a direct impact on changes to your MMO? Sign up for the test server.
Nearly every MMO has a test server where upgrades and patches are first tested before they go live. Normal players like you are usually the guinea pigs. All you have to do is sign up for this server and you become a full-fledged tester for your MMO. Your feedback about the patches, expansions, and upgrades goes directly to the developers.
Perhaps more than any other way, participating on the beta server will have a direct impact on the future of your game.
4. Respond to producer updates and posts.
Many of the producers and lead designers of MMOs post regularly on their game's website. These posts take varying forms, from ongoing blog posts to just informational letters. In many cases you can even post your own replies to these producer updates either directly or in the forums. Do it. Give the producers your feedback. Let them know what you think.
Do you think the producers don't read your comments? Ask yourself this: If you post something in the forums, do you go back and read responses to your post? Hah! Of course you do and so do they. They're just as interested in what people are saying about what they're saying.
5. Organize in-game events.
Okay, this one's a little tougher and is going to take a bit more effort on your part, but it might be worth it. Let's face it, sometimes the designer events are pretty lame. Yeah, yeah, go hunt the rabbit eggs. Done that. Been there. Got the t-shirt.
So organize your own events. What sort of events? MMOs give you so much leeway the choices are almost endless. You can have competitions to see which parties can run a dungeon the fastest. Who can get the best loot in a 24 hour period? Who can kill the most opposing players in a day? Who's the best duelist? There are plenty of choices.
Advertise your event in the forums, talk it up in region chat, and you'll be surprised how many people you can get to show up for an impromptu event.
In Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, for instance, there's no dueling system (Yes, quite strange for a PvP/RvR game.), yet, players regularly organize their own duels. They get around the lack of a dueling system by meeting up in the RvR areas and just having one-on-one fights. These events are advertised in the forums and lots of people show up for them.
If you start organizing events and you get lots of participants, developers might take notice. Maybe they'll have similar events or change the game to accommodate your event's style of gameplay. Even if they don't you're still playing the game the way you want it to be played.
Bottom line: Get involved! Nothing is going to change in your MMO, no one is going to hear your suggestions, unless you get involved.
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