Ever noticed that MMORPG’s (and RPG’s in general) seem to have a certain “sameness” about them? Let me put it like this…Ethic didn’t just come up with the name “Kill Ten Rats” for his blog out of thin air.

IGN put up a list last week of “RPG Cliche’s“, and it’s dead on target, from Fed-Ex missions to my personal favorite, “Humble Beginnings”.

Hey Paw…ah et th’ pig again.

Admittedly, there are limitations in telling a story…no one would become absorbed by the storyline of a game that featured a cost accountant as your starting character, with the quests being spreadsheets and quadratic equations to solve. You have to introduce a dramatic element…one that a player can not only identify with in some way, but one that the player wants to identify with. “Humble Beginnings” are common because they do just that…everyone likes to think they can be something more than they are. That’s why the concept is scattered throughout literature, theater and gaming.

Also, if you vary too far from the forumlas that people really identify with, guess what? You’re not going to be as financially successful as someone that makes yet another game following the same patterns. A perfect example is Eve Online. Eve is one heck of a game…it’s deep, it’s beautiful to look at, and features almost none of the trite old concepts that IGN mocks so accurately in their list…the things you hear gamers complain about repeatedly. And Eve is a successful game, make no mistake about it.

But why doesn’t Eve have the most subscribers of any MMO on the market, if those cliche gameplay and storyline elements are so annoying?

I can hear you now…”It’s a niche game.”…”There aren’t any avatars…I don’t want to just be a ship!”…”I don’t like science fiction.” And those are all valid reasons why you wouldn’t play Eve.

I would suggest, however, that it hasn’t had the mainstream gaming popularity of WoW, EQII or LOTRO for an additional reason.

It’s not formulaic enough.

People scream that they want change…and then the majority stay in their comfort zone. It’s just human nature.