Cause of MMO Stagnation: Mob Tagging, Competition, and Anti-Social Attitude

The genre of Massively Multi-player Online Video Games (MMO) has become one of the most popular genres in video games. There are countless of developers out there trying to cash in on this popularity with Zenimax and Bethesda being the most recent to announce an MMO for their popular franchise Elder Scrolls. The entire concept behind the genre is to create large game worlds that bring thousands of players together so they can interact with one another socially. Unfortunately, even though this is still the concept behind the genre, this isn't normally the case. The many mechanics, the MMO Model, in place with in the genre is now making this less and less the case and is also leading to the genre stagnating.

One of these mechanics that is making the genre less about social interactivity is enemy tagging, also known as mob tagging. Mob tagging is a mechanic that was created to actually prevent another problem. During the early days of the genre, before mob tagging was created, there arose the issue of stealing the items, loot, from the mobs that players killed. As you can imagine it frustrated much of the player base and created a bitter competition between players as to who could kill and loot the mob quicker than the other player.

This is why mob tagging was created to prevent this one issue of loot and mob stealing by attempting to make matters in the genre more fair for all players. Unfortunately, this method has failed the genre miserably and its original intention of being a game about social interactivity. The issue of mob tagging and why it has failed genre is also closely linked to another game mechanic, questing. Questing is as its name implies is, the ability to receive quests from characters in the game and fulfill what ever task that they give to the player. There are generally four types of quest. The only one that is pertinent to this matter of mob tagging is the one that is the most common in the genre, the kill quest. These quests usually come in three different varieties. The kill a set number of mob type in a specified area, kill and collect a specified number of items from a mob, or kill a mob with a specific name, commonly called a named mob quest.

Through this version of questing and the invention of mob tagging, what has occurred in the genre is the exact opposite of its stated intention. Instead of seeing players interacting together with one another socially and cooperating to get quests done, players instead fear seeing another player in the area where they are trying to complete a quest. The reason this is the case is that there are only a limited number of mobs in the giving small restricted quest area where quest completion is possible. What happens is that once more a fierce competition takes place between players in a crowded area. Since it then takes time for a killed mob to come back, it increases the amount of time a player has to spend to finish any giving quest. This takes away the enjoyment a player might have while playing the game and ruins the experience and immersion the player might have for the game. Furthermore, instead of seeing another player as a potential ally, the player sees the other player as an enemy because it is the other player who is taking away from his enjoyment of the game.Thus, instead of trying to complete a quest when other players are present and not wishing to deal with the competition that comes with this, the player goes in search of another quest that the player can complete quests without having to deal with the other players. Alternately, when a player might see another player possibly taking one more mobs than he can handle a kill, the other player ignores this and watches the player die. Instead of helping the player overcome the struggle and offer aid, it is more beneficial to the player who is watching this to let the player die so that is one less competitor for the mobs in that area.

Unfortunately, what happens is through this competition that is bred while questing the player base gets fractured into two different sub groups. These subgroups come into play at the end of the game when the game all of sudden tries to get people to cooperate with one another while completing the large group content of dungeons and raids. The first sub group are those players who decided to actually group up and do this content, but what occurs is that through the competition that was inbred into the player from the start of the game, this makes these endeavors one large competition as well. Even though this content is supposed to foster a sense of community for players, the whole reason that most players do this content is to get the special loot that drops from this content. What often occurs is that a player is still seen as a competitor regardless of them being in a group. Yet, instead of competing for mobs, the competition is now for the loot that drops from these encounters. This can cause all matters of drama and disliking towards another player as a player gets a piece of loot that another wants or vice versa. There are even instances of players stealing a piece of loot they want and then leaves the group, or if the piece of loot they didn't want doesn't drop leaves the group.

The other subgroup of players that are created is the group who want nothing to do with other people and grouping. These are the the anti social people that have cropped up due the issues that mob tagging and the same competition that is then brought later to grouping content of the game. It is the feeling of these players that they have been dealing with other people through out the game who have ruined the game experience for them. This then translates in not wanting to deal with people at all no matter what.

The MMO genre is one that attempts to foster a sense of community among the player base. Unfortunately, mob tagging and the kill quests have done the exact opposite. It has created a player base that is hostile towards one another with players seeing one another player as nothing more than an enemy competitor. The illusion of community is completely lost thanks to mob tagging. Hopefully, Zenimax and Bethesda will take note and take the approach of recent developers like Sony Online Entertainment and Arena Net who have removed mob tagging from their already released and forthcoming title.