So, why is a MMO Traveller game a bad idea?

The main reason is that there will be way different mechanics involved when it comes to game play. There are certain elements that most Traveller gamers will expect to find in a online Traveller game.

I would expect to find the following items myself are (but not limited to):

• Some level of gearheading
• Deckplans
• modding of starships
• worlds to explore
• FPS style gameplay when it comes to combat
• Please no levels

Of the few SciFi MMOs I have tried has not had any of these items. However, Star Wars Galaxies has several worlds you may visit, but I found the game play so confusing that I quit after 3 weeks.

The now defunct Tabula Rasa had something which was close to a FPS game style, but it suffered under a severe case of grinding. There wasn't much in the way of depth to the game. However, it has some unique features I have never seen before or later. There is one element to Traveller space travel that would be almost impossible to transfer to a MMO, but which are essential for the setting. Communication between systems are at a speed of one jump per 7 days (more or less). Limiting an online game to seven day onboard a starship will drive most gamers away. A shorter delay is needed, but how short?

But to bring this article back to its title origin, why I primarily don't play MMO games. Grinding and very little unique in the way of game play. In a pen and paper role playing game you may do anything that would be possible within the frame of the game. Let me give you an example from a D&D game I participated in a few months ago.

The party I was playing with was checking out some caves in search of troublemakers that had been terrorizing the local population. We soon game into battle with some goblins. As we was inside the cave and my character had cast some sort of light spell on a rock to give us some illumination we where bathing in light while the goblins was taking potshots at us from the dark. SO to turn the table I decided to throw the rock towards the goblins to illuminate them and in the same process hide us in the dark. Such an tactic I have never seen be possible in a computer game

My second reason for rejecting MMOs are the grinding and the constant need of grinding and pressure to go up in level. I find it tiresome that when you attain a few levels, most of your equipment are more or less useless and you need to find new weapons and armor.

My third and maybe strongest reason for not playing MMOs are the lack of actual depth to a game. Very little is unique and you are more or less doing the same thing as everyone else has been doing in the past. The element of exploration will soon be lost. Want to break into the secret ancient site on Knorbes? Read a guide on the net about how to get to it.

Granted that MMOs has a lot of potential, but they rarely have much depth. If a Traveller MMO ever come about (which will many years from now as development will takes sseveral years), it should ofer more than just lvel up to get the next überweapon to kill the next boss so you can get an even better über thingie to advance you even further.

A Traveller which are a cross between Mass Effect and Elite would come far. It would be single player, but would offer a lot to a player. Expansive modules and a multiplayer option for mercenary missions like Counterstrike would probably even make the game better.

But until that happens. I'll await Mass Effect 2 and play X3-Reunion. And of course keep on with pen and paper roleplaying games.