Emergent Future

A Web 2.0 View on Customizable Interface Design in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
By Sean Bulger

Introduction

The interface of a game is how your player interacts with the world you have created. Any game that lacks a solid interface for its users loses any greatness that it may hold in its gameplay and features. This is not restricted to just game design, much less Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs) alone, but is true throughout all of software development industries. Yet, within MMOs, there are plenty of examples of interfaces gone astray.

Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), a MMO developed by Turbine Entertainment, suffered from such a problem. This game featured a built in voice chat client, allowing members of a group to speak to each other with a microphone instead of a keyboard. However, regardless of this feature being implemented, many players did not make use of it. This was not because players dislike voice chat—third-party voice chat software has been used extensively for other games—but the problem was that Turbine did not explicitly show that the feature existed in the game and players had no idea it existed (1).

In much the same way, DDO offered players a somewhat customizable interface, but again, this was not explicitly shown to the players, and instead looked as if it were static and unchangeable. How much difference did this poor interface make on the opinion of players of the game? That may be difficult to say, but it was met with a great deal of complaints during the testing phases and into release, and many players on their official forums stated it was a primary reason for them leaving the game (2).

Interface is important. It cannot be left as a second thought during the development of a game. A poor design can hide features of a game—and even features of the interface itself. Any online game would do well to invest some time in ensuring that their interface was up to par, so that their player-base will have that much better time in their game.

Of course, it takes a lot more than simply designing a good interface these days. The Internet has been changing of late and evolving into a new form; a form that has been called Web 2.0. This new version of the Internet has empowered users and is changing the vast landscape of the Web at an alarming rate. MMOs should expect to be seeing this change integrating into them as well, as no corner of the Internet will likely be safe from these changes.

To truly make an interface for players that will be usable for them, it will take a great deal more than merely figuring out how to structure the Character Sheet window, or where to place the Health Bars. Instead, interface developers will need to look into ways that will bring customizable and player-created interfaces into the forefront.

To gain an understanding of where interface design in MMOs is heading and how to properly create a system of tools for players to use, we will first need to take a look at what exactly Web 2.0 is and how it applies to interface design. After this, we will need to look back into the past, to the early days of online gaming, and how current trends have evolved from there. Once we gain an understanding of how customization has been done in prior games, we can inspect the problems that have arises in some systems, and how to overcome those problems by using the principles of Web 2.0.

What is Web 2.0?

Of course, if we are going to explore how to create an interface using the principles of Web 2.0, it would be best to have a solid understanding of what Web 2.0 is. The best way of explaining it is through example. Thus perform the following steps:

1. Access a computer and make sure it is turned on and booted to the operating system

2. Open up a web browser

3. In the address bar, type in the following URL: http://www.youtube.com

4. In the search box near the top, type in the following: “Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us” and click the search button

5. Click on the very top video link

6. Watch the video when the page loads

7. Read some of the comments left by users below the video

Now, not only have you seen an excellent video of what Web 2.0 is, but you have also experienced Web 2.0 yourself. YouTube is an example of a website that employs the principles of this new Internet. The video that you watched was created not by the staff at YouTube, but by a user of the website—it is user-generated content. The comments that are left below the video are also examples of user-generated content, which are also an example of Web 2.0's ability to empower users by giving them the ability to comment on other content and share their thoughts.

Web 2.0 is about linking people together, about sharing information, and about allowing people to create content without having a strong technical background. Because of this, we have seen the rise of a great number of new websites that allow people to communicate easily over the Internet. YouTube, Kongregate, Flickr, Wikipedia, Digg, thousands of Blogs, and more, are just a few examples of Web 2.0 at work. (3)

How Does Web 2.0 Apply?

It's not to difficult to see how current technologies and trends are affecting the Internet. The Web has been changing dramatically in recent history and it is continuing to evolve as time goes on. Web 2.0 is just starting to truly take its hold as it revolutionizes the way in which people interact with the Internet and with each other.

Yet, what exactly does that have to do with game development, much less interface development? MMO designs, themselves, are going to be bringing the principles of Web 2.0 into the gameplay (4) and according to Richard Vogal of BioWare, community sites that are not built with Web 2.0 in mind, will fall behind (5). Interface design is no different. The way in which people play games will evolve, the ways in which users interact with the game development companies will evolve, thus the ways in which players interact with the games will also likely evolve.

The key to a solid user interface will remain the same as it ever was in the past, except with a few new additions. While the information included in the design, its over all placement, and its aesthetics that are present by default will always be important—and I do not mean to suggest otherwise—there will be another few requirements that designers must meet before their interface can be considered truly good. These requirements will be customization by the user, and how easy it is to customize, as well as how easily users can share their interfaces with each other.

As game designers have been learning recently, those working to develop games need to relinquish the concept that they have control over what players do. Instead, we need to realize that players are the ones who are truly in control of what happens within a game.

“Any notion of control we have is an illusion... managing is a generous word for what we do with communities. I prefer to call it community relations because it is a lot more like a relationship, occasionally an abusive one... it's about acknowledging that the control is in their hands in the first place.” —Raph Koster(7)

In that same sense, we need to break away from the concept of creating just a static user interface for players, and instead give them something to customize and share with others. We also need to do it in a way that is far easier than how it has been done in the past. They may be the ones in control, but their ability to shape the world is limited by the tools that we provide them.

These will be the principles that drive the future of interface design in online games. Yet, at the same time, interfaces have been customized by players for years, even back during the first generation of MMOs. It is from that time past that we must look back to, so that we may see how interface customization has developed.

A Look at Past Online Games

Players have been customizing interfaces as far back as the days of the original EverQuest, released eight years ago (6). This is not entirely a new concept, and people have been sharing their custom interfaces for MMOs for quite a long time now. In that sense, as things like this have happened on the Internet before, some people have claimed Web 2.0 to be merely a buzz-word with little real meaning behind it. Yet, it lies in the ease of customization that shows the difference between the old and the new.

EverQuest was not truly designed with the idea of user created interfaces. In fact, some of the early customization in that game was actually done by the developers themselves, who altered their original user interface—one which took up most of the screen, giving a small view box for players to see the world—to something that resembled what we commonly see in modern day MMOs. Yet, players were able to eventually create their own, and sites like EQInterface began to surface. This happened after EverQuest adopted XML for their interface coding.

A good example of a game that first started to bring about much more customization in its interface would be Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). Much like prior games, DAoC started with very little interface moding capability. In fact, there was very little that could be altered and changed around at all. However, after the release of the Shrouded Isles expansion pack, Mythic adopted XML for their user interface. This allowed players to edit the XML files and create their own unique looks, layouts, and more.

At the same time, not every game has adopted the concept of allowing player customization of interfaces. Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XI gave players absolutely no tools to use for interface modifications, and in fact, the team has banned people for making such modifications with third-party tools that hack the game client. Of course, this is arguably because the game was essentially a direct port from the PlayStation 2 version. and Square-Enix did not want to allow PC users to have an upper hand over the PlayStation 2 players.

For the most part, many MMOs have seen websites rise that allow players to share their customized interfaces. Although in many of those cases, the communities developing new interfaces were fairly small in number and not terribly far reaching. Unless a player was somewhat familiar with some technologies used by the development team, creating a new interface would be difficult, and unless a player knew were to look for modifications, it would be unlikely that they would find them.

Current Trends In Customization

The trend for user interface customization has grown in the last few years. We will take a look at three major games that have included different forms of user interface customization, and take a look at how they pulled off their current systems. We will also take a look at the flaws of their practices as well.

World of WarCraft (WoW), the current largest MMO to date with up to 8 million people playing world wide (4), has had a fairly strong user interface modification community. Users have created a large number of modifications to the WoW interface, which are free for download on the Internet. These modifications can be anything from changing the layout of the interface, the looks of it, and even so far as to including information in the interface that players are not normally able to see—and even tot he point where people have created interfaces that essentially enables the interface to play for the player.

WoW has been able to provide users with such extreme levels of customization through the use of XML—one of the primary tools of what separates Web 2.0 from the older iteration of the Internet. It is also the tool that prior games also used to allow user customization.

Of course, WoW has been met with a fair amount of criticism as well. With such extensive customization possible in its interface, users with specific mods are able to know things about the game that the developers did not intend the players to know—further removing that illusion that game developers are the ones in control. It also meant that certain players with specific modifications would be better informed, and be able to play better than players without them. It is possible that this game went to far with its ability to allow players to create.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes , recently released by Sigil Games Online, also has a similar system as WoW. Players are provided easy access to the XML documents that they are then freely able to alter to create new interface 'shells'. The design used by Sigil does not allow players to easily show information that is not readably available in the current interface, so players are not able to get to much of an edge from these modifications. Rather these files allow for the extensive rearrangement of windows, new skins for UI elements, and even the creation of new UI elements to display information. Many of these interface modifications can be found on third party websites such as VgsohInterface.com (which is actually supported by Sigil) (8).

Beyond the ability to change the interface in that way, Vanguard also provides a 'layout mode' in its options menu. When enabled, players are able to freely move UI elements and reposition them in whatever way they wish. Players are also able to create new chat windows and direct different chat channels to the windows they wish (9).

In a similar respect to Vanguard's in-game customization, EverQuest 2 (EQ2), developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) had an in-game customization system far beyond anything seen prior to its release—and after thus far. Players were able to reposition windows at will, change the sizes of windows, tweak the transparency of multiple aspects of single windows, and even change the shape of hotbars from just horizontal or vertical lines, to boxes, or similar shapes, among other possibilities (10

EQ2 presented the easiest system for interface customization. It took absolutely no prior knowledge of XML or any other technologies to simply move windows around, reposition them, and change a few properties in user-friendly menu systems. This system lacked the ability to add new skins or looks to the interface like the other two examples however, but it still allowed powerful tools for even normal, non-tech-obsessed users to play with and tweak to their wishes.

Making Interface Customization Easier

While steps have been made to make interface modification easier for players over the years, we still have lessons we can learn from Web 2.0 that can elevate interfaces in MMOs to a higher level. To do this, we need to make the systems for interface customization more accessible more people. A few lessons can be learned from EverQuest 2's method of customization, which can then be expanded upon to create a system that can drive interface customization and design into the future.

What worked so well for EQ2 was the ease in which users could change their interface. It was all graphical, all done in game, using simple menu systems and sliders to adjust values. Players didn't have to go through text files of XML code, trying to decipher what was being said, just to modify their interface.

That is what is key. Content management systems use XML, which is what allows just about anyone to create a blog and begin creating their content on the web. However, it is the XML that is the key, its the content management system that runs over XML, protecting users for the confusion of a text document, and instead presenting them with text boxes to fill out, and other, easier, methods of creating a web page.

XML or not, right now user interfaces in MMOs are stuck in the old days of the Web, where users have to essentially hand code everything. Tools need to be developed, similar to content management systems for websites, that enable players to easily create their modifications without needing to delve into XML files and hand coding everything. This should be done in a more visual, less abstract way than simply looking at letters and numbers to figure out what will be displayed on a screen.

At the same time, while EQ2 was able to provide players with something similar to this, it needs to go much further than what was offered in the game. Players could move around windows, and tweak things to a fair extent, but they also could not easily reskin windows, or create new UI elements (save chat boxes and hotbars) with ease.

With a system that enables users to easily create their own interfaces, more people will be willing to try and change things around—in much the same way that more people are willing to put up web pages now than they were before with the advent of blogging software. Users enjoy creating content and they enjoy sharing it on the web. “Users pursuing their own 'selfish' interests build collective value as an automatic byproduct” (3). Because users create for their own enjoyment, because they share it with the world, other people are able to also enjoy their creations.

Making Sharing Interfaces Easier

Sharing the products that players create is an important aspect of Web 2.0 though, and it should be an important aspect of user interface customization as well. While EQ2 may have done well by giving players the ability to easily modify their interface, it did not provide them any way to export that interface and share it with others—save with a screenshot. To truly bring interface customization to a new level, it will take even more than the simple ability to easily customize it. It lies in sharing those creations with other player

Any MMO with a system that allows players to create their own interfaces needs to let those players export that interface so that it can be distributed for others. Ideally, in whatever program the players are doing the modifications in, should be able to export a small file containing all of the information required, in a handy .exe that other players simply need to click on to install. This then should be able to be easily uploaded to the website of the MMO developer.

Right now, MMO websites were players can share interface files are third party websites. They are not run by the company that developed the MMO. As such, it is not readably available for new players who do not know where to search for interface modifications—and may well not be aware that they exist at all. This is very similar to the problem that DDO had with players unaware of the Voice Chat feature in its interface. Instead of relying on third-party websites, MMO development companies will need to begin hosting these files and directing players towards the modifications, making this feature of their game much more explicit than it previously was. “The service automatically gets better the more people use it.” (3) Thus, the more people who can find the location of those files, the more people will use it, and more content will be created, and the service will become better as a result of simply existing.

There are several important things to keep in mind when running a site such as this though. Those are simply the three Rs of Web 2.0: Ratings, Rankings, and Reputation (3). 90% of everything created is crap (3), and most of the user interfaces uploaded to the site will not likely be good. Yet, with a system of ratings and rankings, those good interfaces will be easier to spot, and the people who create some of the best will gain reputation. People want that recognition, and it'll drive them to create more and to innovate more. Other users will want to make a name for themselves, so they'll also want to get involved and start making their own modifications and then share them.

By creating a centralized location for players to share their creations, as opposed to forcing them to transverse the Internet to discover other places were they can, more people will be willing to involve themselves in interface customization. It will also help to develop a community around your website and draw players in closer together as they become more attached to the community, and more likely to continue to play your game. It can be surprising just how attached people can come to be to a place where they can share their thoughts. Even after the video blog called The Show done by ZeFrank aired its final episode, users still frequent the site and the ORG—a Web 2.0 site related to The Show that allows users to upload files and collaborate on projects—and will likely continue to do so long into the future (11).

Conclusion

As online environment continues to evolve int the future, developing into what has become known as Web 2.0, the development of Online Games will also find themselves affected. Already major names in MMO Development have begun planning for a new wave of online games that take advantage of the concepts of Web 2.0. In the same vein, aspects such as interface design can learn a great deal about how to take these principles and incorporate them in their designs.

The design of an interface for a game is very important. The more effective a design is, the happier the players tend to be with the game, and a bad design can be very costly to a game. User customizable interfaces have been very popular amongst the players of online games, and the development of customizable interfaces has grown slowly over the last eight years. Yet, this slow growth has left designers still working in a Web 1.0 mindset.

XML may be part of the key to why users can so easily create websites, but it is through content management systems that normal, non-tech-savvy people are able to put their content on the web. Content management systems, in a way, need to be developed for the XML files that user interfaces use in games.

Users need to be able to create their own interfaces without the need to resort to poking through XML files without a graphical front-end to them. By providing the tools to enable players to do this, more people will be willing to create their own interfaces as opposed to just dealing with the defaults.

When users are able to create their own interfaces, they should be able to share them easily. They need to be able to export those files so that they can be distributed to other players—and they need to be able to do this th rough the official website of the game, as opposed to searching for third-party sites instead.

MMO websites need to support the player community by allowing for a place for users to upload their content, and allow other players to obtain it, to rate it, and to give their comments. This allows for a community to build up, and for the better interfaces to be pushed up front, and allow individuals to build up their reputations as good interface moders. This is already being done on third party sites.

Online games are just that—online games. The online environment is changing at a rapid pace, and developers will have to match that pace.

Works Cited

1. Snow, Steve. “Identifying and Measuring Risk in MMO Development.” Game Developers Conference, May 5th 2007.
   

2. Dungeons and Dragons Online Official Forums. May 19th, 2007. Turbine Entertainment. May 19th, 2007. <http://www.ddo.com/forums>.
   

3. Koster, Raph. “Where Game Meets the Web.” Game Developers Conference, May 6th 2007.
   

4. “MMOs Past, Present, and Future.” Game Developers Conference, May 6th 2007.
   

5. Vogal, Richard “” Game Developers Conference, May 7th 2007.
   

6. WarCry article on EQ becoming eight.
   

7. Koster, Raph “Sharing Control.” Game Developers Conference, May 7th 2007.
   

8. Vanguard Players Links. May 19th, 2007. Sigil Games Online, Sony Online Entertainment. May 19th, 2007. <http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/links.vm>
   

9. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Sigil Games Online. January 30th, 2007.
   

10. EverQuest 2. Sony Online Entertainment. November 8th, 2004.
    

11. The Show with ZeFrank. May 17th, 2007. ZeFrank. May 19th, 2007. <http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/>.