作者：Craig Ellsworth

我不喜欢同陌生人玩电子游戏。陌生人出言不逊会影响到游戏的趣味性。在游戏屏幕上看到脏字已经足够令人难受，更不用说亲耳听到。有时在MMORPG中，玩家都是善意和友好的，但对游戏体验的无意影响仍有可能出现，比如受到公会邀请、组队邀请和交易请求的骚扰。

所以当我在玩MMO时，我要么选择同已经认识的人组队，要么就独自玩游戏。

当独自玩游戏时，会发现MMO游戏开发商似乎并没有花时间来构建良好的个人体验。确实，单人体验从某种程度上来说确实与MMO游戏的设计初衷不符。但是我觉得，如果对玩家来说是个可选项（游戏邦注：单人玩MMO游戏确实是个可选项），那么开发商就应当投入时间和精力。

WoW-Chat(from insidesocialgames.com)

所以，本文将要阐述的是，带有理想单人体验的MMO游戏的设计方式。这种体验不会给游戏带来很大的改变，只需要调整几个地方即可。

比如，让我们假设MMO提供既带有城市也含有副本/关卡的标准布局。这些副本是相互独立的，处在相同副本中的玩家看不见彼此。但是，玩家在城市中可以看见其他玩家，可以进行交易和对话。

这种设计已经出现在某些MMO中，但是许多游戏仍未采纳这种设计。

当然，游戏确实应该允许玩家组队，但这应当只是个可选项。这可以防止那些想要组队的玩家骚扰那些不想组队的玩家，减少游戏中的冒犯情况，避免浪费双方时间。

限制性功能应当设置成：想要组队的玩家无法邀请想要独自玩游戏的玩家进入队伍。不可出现打扰“独行侠”玩家的事物（游戏邦注：独立玩家根本不知道组队玩家已经发送了邀请），如果该选项是个图标的话，应当设置组队者无法点击独立者的邀请按键。如果邀请是个热键，那么就会弹出“这个玩家不接受邀请”的消息。

如果要实现上述目标，可以在菜单中设置激活组队游戏的选项，或者不会被意外选中的热键和按键组合，比如Shift+Scroll Lock等。

我还考虑过将独立者和组队者分为不同的服务器，但许多MMO不允许玩家转换角色的服务器或允许玩家支付小笔费用来转换角色服务器。对我来说，转换服务器应当是个免费的做法，但是如果的确存在技术限制，我也不希望那些刚开始想独立玩游戏但后期想加入公会的玩家感到失望。

所以，这个选项应当存在，但玩家在进入游戏世界后可以根据自己的意愿选择是否激活公会和组队选项。

除此之外，在设计任务、副本和关卡时也应当同时考虑到独立玩家和组队玩家。如果设计师想要制作一个需要玩家组队的关卡，那么这个关卡应当设置成独立者不可进入。

不可让独立者觉得他们因选择这种玩法而被游戏所抛弃，所以游戏不应只有适用于组队者的内容。应让独立玩家感觉组队内容从未出现，或者以增加某些只适合独立者的内容取而代之。

反之亦然，这样组队者就不会意外接触到适合独立者的内容，感觉因自己的游戏风格选择而被游戏所遗忘。

通过与上文所述激活组队玩法相同的选项或快捷键组合就可以实现这个目标。一旦玩家激活组队玩法，所以的独立任务就此消失，被完全替换成组队任务。

但是，还有个可行的解决方案，那就是制作同时适合两种人群的关卡，这种做法还能够降低游戏的开发成本。

比如，假设某个关卡设计成需要两个玩家同时站在不同的开关上才能打开门，那么独立者的版本可以设计成与此相同，但在关卡中增加一个箱子，玩家可以移动箱子来压住另一个开关。

但是，这并非总是种可行的设计方法，在某些需要让玩家感到每个团队成员都有其价值的关卡中尤其如此，这时便无法简单地把玩家替换成箱子。

有个可行但是并不好的解决方案，就是让独立者同可作为其他组队成员替身的AI角色配合。这是较为糟糕的想法，原因如下：AI无法恰当地与玩家配合；独立玩家的体验不应该有AI参与；独立玩家也不希望有个AI援助者。

任何组队成员，无论是真正的玩家还是机器人，都会彻底破坏独自玩游戏这个目标。独立者希望证明自己是无需援助者的英雄，他们只需要自己。毕竟没有Robin跟随的蝙蝠侠显得更酷。

所以，为让各种玩家从游戏中获得乐趣，最佳的设计策略是制作分别针对独立者或组队者的关卡，当玩家取消激活相应内容时让它们消失。但是考虑到开发成本，最好的设计策略是制作可同时满足两类玩家的关卡。

除了关卡设计外，MMO游戏的其他层面也需要改进，使得游戏更适合独立者。

当然，角色自定义是最需要优先考虑的内容。独立者希望感觉到自己与众不同，而不是克隆品，所以如果玩家在游戏中看到与自己角色完全相同的角色，其体验便会受到影响。

针对这个问题，游戏需要提供丰富的自定义方式，比如不同的服装、护甲和武器等内容，因而应当为同种类型的装备设计种类丰富的模型。

比如，假设玩家完成某次任务会得到+2防御的护甲道具。如果这件护甲是有着固定名称的单一道具，那么每个完成任务的独立者获得的都将是相同的道具。独立者在城市中会看到其他使用相同道具的玩家，那么他们成为与众不同角色的愿望便会落空。

要解决这个问题，要么提供视觉效果不同的道具（游戏邦注：玩家可以选择黑色、棕色或红色的道具），要么提供相同效果但不同类型的道具（游戏邦注：玩家可以选择+2防御的上衣、裤子或鞋子）。提供这样的视觉多样性可以防止城市中出现大量完全相同的角色，有助于让独立者沉浸于游戏。

要获得最佳的玩家体验，可以提供属性相同的多种不同类型装备。如果要节省开发成本，提供不同颜色的装备即可。

这些只是有助于改善MMO独立玩法和独立者沉浸感的一小部分内容。有些改变只需要略微调整即可，最好的解决方案则需要更多的开发时间。

有些MMO中并不含有此类功能，这时常让我感觉独立者被MMO开发商所抛弃，好似他们并非开发商的理想玩家，因而不值得耗费时间和精力为其开发内容。

但是，通常情况下，刚进入游戏的新玩家想要花些时间独自探索，或在进入更庞大的世界之前需要封闭式的教程指导。虽然MMO游戏开发商无需为其大费周章地制作精细的教程手册，但是同样应当关注构建单人游戏体验的重要性。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Crafting a Massively Single-Player Online Experience

Craig Ellsworth

I don’t like playing videogames with strangers. Nothing ruins fun like a stranger getting in your face and calling you a n00b or a fagit (sic). It’s bad enough to see it on a screen, and all the worse when it’s assaulting my ears.

Other times, like in MMORPGs, players are well-meaning and friendly, but are unintentionally harming the experience, either by role-playing just the wrong amount (too little breaks the mood, too much is hokey), or by harassing me with guild invites, party invites, requests to trade, etc.

So when I play MMOs, I either wish to personally know the player I am in a party with so we know we mesh well beforehand, or I just prefer to play alone.

When it comes to playing alone, it seems MMOs don’t spend the time to craft great solo experiences. True, playing solo in some ways defeats the purpose of MMOs, but I like think that if the option is available (and it usually is), time and care should be spent on it.

So this article is going to be a thought experiment in what an MMO with an ideal (or at least decent) solo experience might look like. It won’t change the game very much; it’ll just take a couple of tweaks to go a long way.

For instance, let us suppose an MMO offers a standard layout of populated cities along with instanced dungeons/levels. These dungeons would be instanced on an individual basis, so that one player does not see another while in a dungeon, but players see each other in cities, where trade and dialogue can occur.

This already happens in some MMOs, but in others this feature is surprisingly missing.

Of course, party play should certainly be allowed, but this should be an option that is opt-in. This prevents players who want to play in parties from harassing those who don’t, decreasing aggravation and wasted time on both sides.

All that the restriction feature would entail is: players who want to play in a party cannot invite soloers to join their party. Nothing would interrupt the soloer (in fact the soloer would have no idea the invitation was sent), and if the option were an icon, the partier would be unable to click the invite button. If invitations were a hotkey, a message would pop up saying “This player is not accepting invites.”

A simple checkbox in a menu to enable party play is all that is necessary, or perhaps a hotkey/combo that is not likely to be accidentally struck, like Shift + Scroll Lock or something.

I hesitate to say that soloers and partiers should have separate servers, because for some reason many MMOs do not allow players to switch a character’s server, or do allow switching but charge a fee for it. To me switching servers should be a free and automatic exchange, but if there is a technical restriction, I would not want a player who begins as a soloer and wants to join a guild later to be screwed.

So the option should always exist, but players enter the world as individuals and can enable guilds and parties at their will.

Beyond that, quests/missions and dungeons/levels should be designed with both solo and party play in mind. If the designers want to create a level that requires a party, that level should be non-existent to a soloer.

A soloer should never feel left out of content because of their play choice, so party-only content should never come up. It should seem to the solo player as though such content was never created, or solo-only content replaces the multiplayer content.

The same should occur in the reverse, so that partiers do not accidentally begin a solo quest or feel as though they are missing out on content because of their own play style choice.

This can be accomplished by that same simple checkbox/hotkey that enables party play. Once the player enables party play, all solo quests disappear and are replaced by party quests.

Another solution, however, is to simply create levels that are designed for both, which has the added bonus of avoiding doubling the cost of development.

If a level is designed to require two players to stand on separate switches to open a door, for instance, the solo version could be identical but for an additional crate that the player can move onto one of the switches.

This is not always a feasible design, however, especially with party-designed levels that need to feel as though every member of the team is valuable, and can’t just be replaced by a crate.

A possible, but terrible, solution to this is to have soloers be accompanied by an AI character that can fill the role of another party member. This is an awful idea for two reasons: 1.) AI is not where we need it to be for a solid experience; and 2.) A soloer is not going to want an AI helper.

Any party member, whether an actual player or a bot, entirely defeats the purpose of solo play. A soloer wants to feel as though they are a hero without a sidekick; someone who needs only himself. Batman is so much cooler when Robin isn’t tagging along.
So the best design strategy for players’ enjoyment is to create levels specifically for solo or party play, and hide them when the player has disabled them; but for development costs, the best design strategy is to create levels that can do double duty.

Beyond level design, other aspects of an MMO go a long way to help a soloer get the flow:

Certainly, character customization becomes a high, high priority. Soloers want to feel like individuals, not clones, so if a player sees a clone of his character in the game, it breaks the experience.

Along with that, if the game offers ways to further customize characters in-game, such as changing clothing, armor, weapons, and the like, then there should be a sufficient variety of models of the same kinds of equipment.

For instance, suppose completing a particular quest rewards a player with an armor item that adds +2 defense. If that piece of armor were a single, invariable item with a specific name (Leather Jerkin of Defense), every soloer who completes the quest will receive the same item. Then a soloer will spot another player in a town with that item, and the illusion of being the only one to go on that quest (and therefore a unique hero in the world) is lost.

To fix this, either offer visual swaps of the item (the player can choose between a black, brown, or red Leather Jerkin of Defense), or offer equal stat-ed items (the player can choose between a +2 Jerkin, +2 Pants, or +2 Boots). Offering such visual variety prevents a city of clones, and helps with immersion.

For the best player experience, offer multiple types of equipment with the same stats; but for development costs, offer palette-swapped equipment.

These are only a couple of tweaks that would help solo playing and soloer immersion in an MMO. Some of these are simple tweaks, although the best solutions require more development time.

Without features such as these, I often feel that soloers are given the backhand by MMO developers, as though they are not the ideal player, and therefore do not warrant such time and effort in developing for.

However, often players who are new to a game want to spend some time exploring on their own, or need a closed-off tutorial for a short time before entering the larger world, and there is no shortage of solo tutorial stages in MMOs. While the hand-holding aspect of those tutorials can be eliminated, the same attention should be paid to crafting the single-player experience throughout the MMO.

Thought of any other minor tweaks (or huge overhauls) that could greatly improve the solo experience? Leave a comment. (Source: Gamasutra)