Weekend Confirmed 124 - Army of Two, The Old Republic, Deadlight

Great episode guys!

Twice during the episode today, I found myself thinking about Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode, and how it might be relevant to your topics of conversation.

1. Micro Transactions / Free-to-Play

ME3's multiplayer mode is perhaps the most well executed FtP model I have ever personally played. Yes, I'm aware that it is part of a $60 boxed game, but go with me here for a minute :)

Bioware created a fun, engaging, and narrow-focused multiplayer mode. The entire game system has great monetization hooks built right in. Players can earn in-game credits to buy replenishment packs (which contain new guns, new character unlocks, or weapon and power upgrades). You can earn enough credits simply by playing to purchase a decent amount of packs and get some cool stuff. Or, you can spend MS points on the packs to unlock them without "earning" the in-game credits.

It's a balanced, in-obtrusive system. At no point do I feel handicapped for not spending money. I get all I want out of the game simply by playing.

But here's where the particularly clever part comes in: "Free" DLC.

Bioware has already released 2 (maybe 3? can't remember) Free DLC packs for ME3 multiplayer. These DLC packs include new characters to use in multiplayer, each with their own unique set of powers (so they're not simply re-skins of existing characters). The packs are free to download..... but that doesn't get you the characters. It just means they are available to unlock from the replenishment packs, just like all the original characters. So you might be able to unlock them if you buy enough packs, but I'm certain that the desire to use the sweet new characters leads to a heavy spike in MS point purchases of packs. There is a great incentive for players to drop a little extra cash to see the new content as fast as possible.

The other brilliant thing behind this model is that it prevents fragmentation of the player base. Most other online multiplayer games end up splitting their player base into 2 groups: those who have the DLC and those who don't. But with ME3's DLC being "Free", all players are able to download the assets and have the new characters in their game, even if they haven't personally unlocked them yet. This also equates to free advertising. If you jump into a match and see your teammates running around using cool characters that you don't have access to, it could easily push some people into splurging on some packs.


2) MMO Combat design.

I loved the idea of focusing less on the player vs enemy dynamic and shifting the focus of design to the way the different player classes fit and combine together. Once again, this is the beauty of ME3's multiplayer. Every time I start to feel like the game is beginning to wear a little thin, I switch to a new character class and force myself to learn a new set of abilities. This is a very complex and satisfying process, because learning to use a new character is more about learning how they fit with the other classes than how to fight the enemies. How does this character's powers react to the abilities of my teammates? What combos are effective against different forms of shields or barriers?

I constantly play with my brother and a few friends, and we have turned the art of "squad building" into a form of meta-game. We might try to design a squad around a specific concept, like a "Biotic combo" squad, or a "Melee" squad. We'll put a squad together with the idea of great mobility, so we can quickly move around the map together. Or we might design a squad with defensive positioning in mind.

This nature of design expands the replayability of the game to an incredible degree. It doesn't matter that your fighting the same enemies with the same objectives over and over again. There are just so many different ways to approach combat, that the players are capable of making it fresh.

I'd love to see more of this sort of design in the MMO space. Or if there are MMOs that already do this, maybe we should be looking a little more closely at them :)