Will it be ever possible to have a MMORPG that would require to use tactics like we have seen them in history ?

PART I

And no I am not thinking about a RTS or a PVP type of MMORPG but more like a MMORPG that requires players to work together and dynamicaly adjust there groups and roles.

But let me try to give a example what I mean take your typical Raid boss/event in an MMORPG.

The typical time to figure out a tactic for a raid boss or event usualy takes from a few hours to a week for the players to figure out how to handle the event or the boss.

Once the first players that attempt the event or boss find a basic tactic that would work for em they will spend maybe a few more weeks or maybe a month to fine tune it by upgrading there members gear, fighting the boss in a different spot,haveing specific members/classes/roles at different spots, trying to recruite specific roles/classes or just upgrading members gear from places that are on farm already.

So lets assume that before a difficult boss/event is considered as farm status it will take aprox 2 - 3 month depending how often those players are willing to attempt and or able due to limitations of the encounter. But lets assume the normal time to achieve a farm status is 3 month , which means that after 3 month you have for a specific group of players you will have a basicaly flawless tactic for a specific boss/event at the same time or possible before you will find information in form of forum posts/guides or videos on several websites.

From that time on other guilds or groups of players will use the same or adjusted tactics over and over.

But what would be now if the boss/event dynamically changes so that you just cant use the same tactic over and over ?

I am sure developers would be able to do it however how would the majority of the player base accept it ? Which is i believe sadly to say the main problem for todays MMORPG's you have on one hand the Hard Core players and on the other side the Casuals personally I consider myself as a Causal Hard Core cause Hard Core raiding and family don't work to well.

For the Hard Core player base a dynamically boss or event wouldn't be the biggest issue but for the Casual who seems usually nowadays the majority of MMORPG's it would be possible a big issue since those who are considered Casual just can't afford or don't want to spend to much time on games.

So what could be a possible a way for a Developer to implement a challenging but not to challenging way to implement dynamical bosses or events for everyone?

Lets take World of Warcraft for an example WoW while not really got dynamically encounters , however tries to give Hard Core and Casual gamers the option to do Raid content on either Hard or Normal setting other games have the same or some system in effect that works more or less the same.

So what does this difficulty setting in those games do now ? Basically the difference is that those encounters are on any settings more or less the same but on the more difficult settings usually the bosses/events have higher stats,more health,additional abilities .......... , also the rewards on the more difficult settings are higher.

What is now the difference between a normal encounter and a dynamic encounter ?

Let me try to give a example , lets say we have a Zone/Area called Bleh in a normal encounter now the Zone would have always the same NPCs and Bosses in the same specific areas doing and reacting to everything you throw at em all the time the same they did before.

In a dynamical version of Bleh however well besides dynamical layout generation that we know from other games like Coh/CoV, Diablo , .... the Encounter could also be different each time you attempt it.

Lets say the first time a group attempts the big boss in Bleh lets call him Bob, Bob will hit back and throws some insults at the players and after a while he finishes the last player.

The next time the players attempt him Bob thinks to himself I gonna take a nap so let my friends handle the players before I take care of em, well few more attempts later and each time Bob reacts different at each attempt the players throw at him.

Or how about another way to implement a dynamic encounter why not give the npc's a more or less intelligent bot behavior or how about give npc's the ability to learn in the same way A.L.I.C.E

works, just instead of learning from chatting it would learn player behavior and would the next time or after the Boss/Encounter was beaten add what it learned so the same players that did it before would get a little surprise.

So please MMORPG developers get some fresh ideas and give the current big titles and maybe coming titles interesting and challenging content without that some players who beat a encounter basically give after they have it on farm hand out a How to beat Boss/Encounter X in 3 steps out.

Part II comming soon