Civilization V and MMO's

"Man, Civilization V is an amazing game. I can't stop playing it."

"Welcome to 2010."

"Thanks, Matt."

This was a conversation I had the other day with Matt Miller. I recently picked up Civilization V during the Steam "give us all your money and we'll give you more games than you can imagine" Sale, and I'm absolutely loving it. Granted, I am incredibly late to the party (my next post will be about this cool game called Fallout: New Vegas. Has anyone heard ofi t?) of Civilization V, but I figured better late than never. However, playing Civilization V got me thinking about ways that the design of that game can be an example of how to improve designs in future MMO's. This is post is just completely theory, but it's something I love thinking about when picking up new games.

What I find so fascinating about Civilization V is the AI system of the other civilizations, specifically the way they react to both my actions and the actions of civilizations around them. It feels like I have control over the world, while also making the game feel different each time, something which could be credited towards having so many different world leaders (and my own desire to hit the random button on my own leader). It's one of those games where the story is being crafted around me based off of how the AI reacts to my actions; denouncing one civilization could cause another to get angry at me, or one to like me. However, that doesn't last for very long depending on how that AI works.

One quick story from my recent game as an example. I'm (attempting) to play a completely peaceful civilization who just trades and does culture. I'm fairly far from other cities due to luck of the draw. There is Japan, the Huns, and the Netherlands nearby. I became friends with Japan and the Netherlands, which created a makeshift alliance, as they also liked each other. However, none of them particularly cared for the Huns. Both went to war against the Huns at various points and asked me to join, but I declined without insulting them. Japan eventually triumphed over the Huns and took their land. A few turns later, the Netherlands came to me asking for help in a war against Japan. I refused, and now Japan and the Netherlands, once former allies tied to me, are now at war, presumably over the extra land that Japan has. In  the meantime, I'm continuing to trade goods with them and convert them to my religion, while I sit back and watch the chaos unfold.

This example was one that really fascinated at me, as I did nothing but sit back and watch everything unfold around me, yet I was still able to participate in a way. This scenario wasn't a specific one set up by a game designer, but rather one of a myriad of possibilities created due to intelligent AI behavior that was set up, and it's this particular thing that I think can be helpful to MMO's. Someone wrote an article on gamasutra about it once, and I wish I could find it, but the long and short of it was that more games should have AI that have more diverse reactions to players and to other AI actions.

The original EverQuest is a great example - guards in Freeport would attack rats etc., but then if a Dark Elf, Troll, or Ogre player walked by, they would also attack them, unless they did something to build up their rank to walk by. This is a more mundane example, sure, but the interesting part here was that the opposing players could do something to change the way the AI looked at them.

I don't have a great example of how this could be used in modern MMO's, but it's something that I'm going to be thinking about going down the road. Perhaps it's not applicable to things like short story arcs, like the ones I did on City of Heroes. This could be something more tuned to overworld zone events, like the ones in Guild Wars 2, which I feel does a good job of putting a little of this into practice. It could also just be something that won't work in an MMO setting, period. However, for me, it's exciting to play a game and think to myself, "How can I use the design in this game to improve my own designs?". If that leads to nothing, then that's fine, but there's always a chance of learning something new in any game I play, even if it's something that feels like it has nothing to do with an MMO.