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Garrett Fuller: Where Do MMOs Go Wrong?
Most forums related to MMOs these days contain thread after thread about the disa ointments many gamers experience when it comes to new and upcoming MMOs. Taking a break from his usual Friday TERA column, MMORPG.com Industry Relatio Manager Garrett Fuller asks our readers, "Where do MMOs go wrong?" Read Garrett's thoughts and then a wer the question in the comments below as it pertai to you.
Column By on January 28, 2011
I am taking a break from my TERA column this week to ask readers and users a simple question: Where do MMOs go wrong for you? There is a method to this article that I think will help all of us as players get the word out to developers as to why certain things in games work and fail. The market has been flooded with MMOs lately and there are many more on the way, the industry thinks players are becoming more picky. Well maybe it is because we have a lot to pick from. In an age with to of free to play games, more AAA titles coming this year, and the general shift to games in the online ace, it&rsquo about time we reopened the case file on why games can fail.
First impre io are critical with MMOs. As a buyer of an online game you i tantly know you have to invest time into the product. This is not some shooter you can pick up and put down at any time. You are buying the game with the idea that you will play for several hours just to see if you like the game. MMOs have gotten better at finding new ways to add dynamic content in the begi ing of the game, but they still follow the old RPG model of level one. Level one mea you are fighting gobli or im , or something easy. Basically, you enter the game with the point of view that, you are a noob and can only fight things that suck as well. This method is fail numero uno for MMOs. This is not D&am D. The DM ca ot create an intricate story line around saving a village from a tribe of gobli . In an MMO there is more at stake. You want to capture the player&rsquo attention quickly so they can move through the game, giving them something fun and exciting at the begi ing. The idea of, hey you just ent $50 and a su cription fee on an MMO to start off in the mud puddle killing rats... well it&rsquo just plain bad. Even though MMOs have gotten better at this, they still suffer from the low level blues.
The second way that MMOs can hit epic fail so quickly is by not su orting their community. As we move toward a social media world, communities will become critical to almost everything that games and popular culture create. The music industry died, movies are losing more money every year, and it&rsquo because of the fact that people have other forms of entertainment. In many ways this benefits us as a whole. If you like something, Conan the Barbarian or Knitting, you can join a community about it. These communities will eventually become the audiences of the future. Movies will su ort a ma ive community of super hero fa or sci-fi fa etc. Online games started this trend and yet many games do not su ort their communities well at all. MMOs have improved in this area too, but they also need a ton of work. Guilds are gaining more su ort, but servers are not. Server events should be mandatory in every game and players from that server should be encouraged to help each other. Players need a voice and developers should listen. Game forums work well but are filled with too much venom. This needs to change so that really positive changes start coming through. While the online world grows it creates these small pockets of fa . That is your audience. That is who you are building games for. That is who you need to listen to.
The third area of epic fail, and one that is becoming more of an i ue lately is the East and West of game design, but not in the way you think. There is a drastic difference in how the Eastern audience and Western audience react to games. There is a different mindset and philosophy that go with each. The epic fail comes into effect when many of these games simply do not tra late well with either audience. Some Eastern games are grind-fests to Western players, but that is a popular style of game play on the other side of the Pacific. In North America we are co tantly trying to get games oversees to tap into the huge audience that exists. In the end, there are still many bum and hurdles along the way. My attitude in this is that games should be made that a eal to a certain a ect of the market. See my above comments on community. If the game is designed well and players love the genre then it will easily cro cultural borders. If you are trying to force feed games overseas to players hoping to land a hit, well, that philosophy does not work for anyone. In the end games fail because they try to a eal to both, when really they should just try to a eal to their genre and the fa from both continents win out in the end.
So, in closing, these are my three theories on why games of late have failed so miserably. MMOs have come a long way, but companies still have a lot to learn from their players. It amazes me how much money is ent on games and how many of them fail. In your forum re o es, really try to think about where you see games failing lately. Who knows maybe your voice will be heard, and if so, hopefully we will see some changes in the online worlds we all love.
Author: Created: January 28, 2011
Comments: More Garrett Fuller Features:
Column added on Thursday July 07
Column added on Tuesday June 28
Column added on Friday June 17
More Colum :
Column added on Wednesday July 27
Column added on Wednesday July 27
Column added on Tuesday July 26
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General Article added on Wednesday July 27
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Column added on Wednesday July 27
writes:
Over promising and under delivering is my biggest turn-off for a game. Developers need to be honest and stay true to what their games are. Some developers simply lose touch with their audience and it all starts to fall apart. To the devs: Be honest with your game' faults, and be open in your communication with your player base. Do #39;t be afraid to say, yeah, we know that sucked. Honesty and 'human-ne #39; of developers go a long way.
1/28/11 11:50:36 AM
writes:
For me, the failure is in making 'Killer of Thing #39; the main path of progre ion, with any secondary paths completely shackled and restricted by the Killer of Things path. Couple that with junk loot (rusted pauldron chi , rat tails, ogre toenails, etc) with no actual in-game purpose and from Day One I have that I've already done this in every otehr MMO feeling. For me, that' where MMOs go wrong.
1/28/11 11:54:44 AM
writes:
The main reason MMOs fail is fairly straight forward; they're designed for the ma es. In order to make a profit, MMO devs have to make sure that a lot of people will play thier games. This automatically mea that the game has to a eal to your average MMO player. This i #39;t a problem if you're an average Joe, but for people like me, it mea every MMO is an i tant FAIL.
1/28/11 12:01:23 PM
writes:
You'd swear that the people designing the MMO' have never played one in their lives. If thousands of people can all say omg dont implement that... and they do it, what the hell are they thinking? I'd love to hear some of the round the table discu io they must have.
I think most of this community could sit down and concoct a pretty decent list of things a good MMO should and shouldnt have. Yet if we su lied it to a company to produce, they'd make it i tanced, they'd add a bloody cash shop, they'd make the world small and unintersting with pointle copy quests, their customer su ort would be crap, there would be lag and bugs but they'd say it was our computers and our co ectio that are at fault, they'd lock threads where people complained, there'd be bots but they'd claim that there wa #39;t and they'd ba ed them all.
The list could and would go on and on...
MMO' are 90% of the time a huge disa ointment, simply because the companies do #39;t deliver and they do #39;t listen to the people who know best, us!
1/28/11 12:02:10 PM
writes:
Dear devs &am publishers,
First: learn to give an a ropriate price to your games. There are several well estabilished AAA titles you are going agai t, so if your title i #39;t comparable, just accept it and act accordingly.
Second: Do #39;t overhype. Making promises you ca ot deliver is bad for busine . Start up with a small set of ope quot; features and grow over time. A player can be simply disa ointed with a mi ing feature he would like to see, but disa ointment will become rage if that feature was previously a ounced and expected.
Third: Try something new. Players are ha y to start in a familiar environment, but if 99% of everything is already seen, already done, that' bad.
Fourth: Invest on su ort and work on bug solving. Even if a game is not perfect and has a buggy release, players are far more forgiving if they see continued and fast su ort. Leave them without news (even a simple we're actually working on X and Y) for a couple days and you're ruined.
1/28/11 12:16:36 PM
writes:
They go wrong in simplistic un challenging PvE.
Werewood @ werewood.wordpre .com
1/28/11 12:20:13 PM
writes:
MMOs go wrong by almost rehashing the same ideas. It get' pretty boring. Some of the conepts might be different, but the basics of the gameplay are almost identical. I also think these devs are rushing their games i tead of trying to bring their true vision to life. I also feel that MMOs rely on levels too much. Everything has to be a grind. Some might enjoy it, but unle the level grind is hidden (leveling is so fun you do #39;t think about it) I do #39;t want to deal with it anymore. From character levels, to crafting, to gear... it all relies on levels or grinding and is usually a boring proce . I feel as if they do this to keep you playing and paying longer. If the game is fun enough I wo #39;t need levels to keep playing.
1/28/11 12:23:09 PM
writes:
This is not D&am D.
I mi the idea of the old pencil and paper RPGs that the players are the primary storytellers rather than pa ive co umers of content.
1/28/11 12:29:38 PM
writes:
paying for beta is my biggest turn off and a gigantic fail. almost every title out there goes thru a closed beta - open beta phase. yes, you are getting a bunch of freeloaders in that group, but you are also getting bug hunters, fa of a franchise, if it exists, experienced players looking to see if its worth sticking around, and paying for. when a game is released with glaring technical problems, mi ing content, poor tra latio , these are the basics that really need to be at 100% before i pay you monthly or visit your item shop. what it tells me is that the devs and more likely the money behind the game, wants to start getting roi before the game is ready for primetime. short sightedne motivated by money leads to a fail game. and to ignore the feedback of the people who think highly enough of you to end thier time submitting reports, and yet still release broken content.....words escape me here. the mindset of good enough to launch has got to stop. 1/28/11 1:06:21 PM
writes:
There are many ways I think games fail. As the article and others have said, trying to a eal to everyone for the sole reason of getting more money. I know it' a busine and making money is the goal but it' sad when it is placed before the game. It often seems that the direction of the game is focused with generating more money and a distant second is making the game better. Shortcuts in the game to make it 'easy'. In a dungeon, fought your way to the bottom... what' the easiest way out...die. Spend the 5 minutes with a small penalty hit and move on. On the other side of the world and want to get back... die. Need to kill that one beast in the middle of the other 5... run in and hope you kill it before they kill you... die and no big deal. Personally what will kill a game for me is when it becomes raid gear focused and anything short of that gear is pointle to play. I like PvP, I like the excitement, the challenge, the ru ing for my little too life to break up the boring as all hell grind. If you have a life and ca #39;t or a olutely no desire to end 7 hours in a raid with an anal retentive group to get the newest uber gear you are gimped by game design. Crafted gear should be better than drop. I think SWG had the most potential but became the biggest fail.
1/28/11 1:34:14 PM
writes:
MMOs suck because the people that make them are more skilled at technical logistics, corporatism, ootlicking, trying to act like they think they are the masters of the universe and office politics than i ovation and creativity. They also REFUSE TO PAY for good game ideas. If you send them something, and they like it, they still expect you to be ha y with a thanks in the credits i tead of even a design credit cuz THEN THEY'D H***E TO PAY YOU. Fortunately IF you e-mail them the idea they ca #39;t steal it because e-mail has an automatic copyright based on the berne convention, but only in countries they re ect that. They hope to make millio , and you get the shaft. I mean you think between all these players we have #39;t given them enough data to figure out the problem? It' not that mmos suck, the problem i that mmos suck because of WHO is making them. Just cuz someone has the money, wherewithall and technical expertise to make an mmo, doe #39;t mean they know how to make a good game.
1/28/11 1:38:36 PM
writes:
Make worlds with a game not just games pretending to be parts of a world. Ways to do this are, never use i tanced zones, use free roam persistent zones. Use housing and other methods of gameplay OTHER than combat. Make questing fun and worthwhile and have a purpose other than to fill some c' to do list for the day.
Throw in boats and boat building, mount collecting that is useful as well as fun and addictive, collectio , mini games, other than combat competitio like Fishing tournaments. Dynamic content will hopefully addre a lot of these i ues but just remember to give us optio and to of crap to do.
1/28/11 1:39:21 PM
writes:
Here are my list of reaso for where so many MMO' mi the mark:
1) Many of the people who run the companies that make them (not talking the designers down in the trenches, talking the studio/publisher head honcho' ) are #39;t gamers at heart, do #39;t enjoy playing the type of games they make or worse yet look down upon gamers. Many have #39;t even tried playing the products thier companies are producing. Really hard to make good decisio about how a product is made, if you have no practical experience or interest in actualy using that product yourself. 2) Loosing sight of good game design in the chase for your own marketing buzzwords. Pretty much any game who' developers use the words Iconic, Epic, Heroic or something similar is a sure bet ti run into problems. The only buzzword that should really be the focus of a Dev should be Fu quot;.....and fun really stems from solid game design. 3) Trying to be all things to all people. Yes, everyone wants to a eal to a good sized market...but the bottom line is that many things that different audience segments want are completely incompatible with each other. Dev needs to define thier target audience up front and the design a product that a eals to THAT audience....and NOT LOOSE FOCUS on that by chasing after other audience segments. 4) Understand the difference between an MMO and a SPRPG. SPRPG' you play by yourself and you play for a fixed period of time. With a SPRPG you can craft the game for the Player to be the main focus of the World...and you can tailor the tempo of the action to bring it to a dramatic climax. An MMO doe #39;t work like that.... being The ONE really doe #39;t work very well when there are 500,000 other players ru ing around in the environment who are also The ONE. Nor does killing the World-Eating Dragon of Ultimate Doom and gaining the Item of Ultimate Power in Chapter 10. That works perfectly fine in an SPRPG because after that ha e the Player rides off into the su et and the credits role. The MMORPG doe #39;t...so then the question becomes what ha e AFTER you do all that? Pretty soon the game becomes a farce of itself. 5) Sandbox != FFA full loot PvP. FFA full loot PvP = gank/greif fest 1/28/11 1:48:50 PM
writes:
Originally posted by maplestone
This is not D&am D.
I mi the idea of the old pencil and paper RPGs that the players are the primary storytellers rather than pa ive co umers of content.
1/28/11 1:59:44 PM
writes:
1. The people who makes these games are not gamers at heart. They are people who are only pa ionate about making money.
2. Been getting go kill 20 and go fetch quests since the days of DAOC. Nothing has changed.
3. Scared to i ovate because if they fail they do #39;t make as much money.
4. Catering to the ma es. Once a game goes mai tream the quality is lost. It is dumbed down so that a 10 year old can comprehend mmo gameplay.
Without giving it much thought these are just 4 that come ot mind.
1/28/11 2:11:19 PM
writes:
Today' MMOs fail for one single reason - WoW. Designers, bean counters, and everyone involved in the project see WoW, think they can mimic its succe by simply recreating it with minor differences, and they will be an overnight succe . Let me break it to anyone thinking this makes any se e at all - no one is leaving WoW for a WoW clone. It simply wo #39;t ha en. Guilds, grou of friends, and the millio of current and former su cribers will not jump to your game unle you su ly a drastically superior experience to Blizzard' offering, which you ca #39;t do. It' not po ible to out-WoW WoW.
If you really want to succeed - be different. Include more realistic physics (friendly fire, explosio that knock people around and set flammable armor on fire, etc.). Include a combat model other than tank/d /healer. For example, create a game with no healers, where healing i #39;t available during combat, or where fight outcomes are determined in such a short window of time that healing i #39;t practical during a fight. Use different races with powerful racial abilities - I'm tired of huma , elves, orcs, and dwarves - try something different (I'd love to play a draconian). Quests need to be unique. Every MMO has an overwhelming majority of the same 4 quests - pick up X things, kill X things, kill things and loot X items, give this to that NPC. Come up with something different that' fun and you'll have a lot of su cribers.
1/28/11 2:23:40 PM
writes:
They fail for me because it seems for almost every MMO that gets released, I have one on my hard drive/collecting dust in a drawer just like it... Yep, the graphics are updated, and the combat may be a lil better, there could even be a
slight in on the quests, but overall, I already bought this game....And i do #39;t feel the need to end another $50 on something pretty similiar.
1/28/11 2:32:13 PM
writes:
Thats easy. MMOs are being made first and foremost as combat/action games.
The virtual world and everything else in it is an afterthought. Thats where MMOs go wrong these days.
1/28/11 2:35:52 PM
writes:
I would agree with many of the opinio expre ed here. I would like to add mine...it all begi and ends with us, as gamers.
If you purchase a game, play it, dislike it...you end your sub and move on. Expre ing your di leasure on forums is normal, if unremarkable. Where we as gamers get into trouble is....it' generally the same 6-7 companies that continue over and over to produce/publish the same terrible crap.
It' very similiar to RMT sales. If no one bought in game currency/weapo /shi /mounts with real money, they would #39;t exist. I would say cla action lawsuits might help, but that would stifle an already struggling genre as is. I am of the thought that if you are unha y with a game, do #39;t play it. You single largest currency as a gamer is your SPENDING power.
If you do #39;t like EvE, Rift, Vanguard whatever....do #39;t pay for it. Attendance is the very first le on we all learned as children. It still a lies today. All the rage in the world is fixed...if you leave. Companies have customer service departments that are there for who? Their customers. No customers=no company, really it' that simple.
I think the layers of MMO players is so varied now, you will have a large group of them...therefore SIGNIFICANT group that will continue to su ort companies that put out crap b/c they want to believe it will get better or whatever.
I find most of my age range of MMO players have figured this out. We vote with our presence. If a game fails to deliver..I leave.
1/28/11 2:48:59 PM
writes:
For me, quests are the big me . I agree with everyone who has complained about the delivery quests, kill x, kill and loot x, etc. type of questing. Sure it' fine to have MINIMAL amounts of that, but when quests are reduced to PURELY that type of quest.....hell no. I'm immediately turned off. Oblivion comes to mind. There' one quest where you have to go i ide a painting to achieve your objective and the world i ide the painting LOOKS like an oil painting. Another quest where you have to infiltrate a faction and become friend quot; with the members only to have to betray them and kill them all later. These types of quests took some IMAGINATION. We NEED quests that are imaginative rather than generic. I enjoy questing and BAD questing rui a game for me rather quickly. Of course there are a lot of other things wrong with today' MMOs too, in my opinion, but this quest thing has got to be one of the most a oying things for me personally.
1/28/11 2:52:38 PM
writes:
A lot of them fail simply because they promise to deliver product A then you get product B i tead. Then over the years the Nerf it down to easy mode and make what was once fun a grind fest.
I agree trying to a ease the mindset of the east vs the west is always going to be a problem . Over here we like su criptio , in other countries they rent they computers by time so only play limited times, su criptio do #39;t work for them, and then you run into the huge problem of society, east vs west are very dynamic and very different cultures to their own and trying to play to both societies nobody is going to be ha y.
1/28/11 3:04:29 PM
writes:
I find it interesting that Fuller brings up This is not D&am D. The DM ca ot create an intricate story line around saving a village from a tribe of gobli .
I think it' true only because the companies use the mechanics, but not give the players the tools to do their own story telling. CoH/V has corrected this problem in my eyes with the architect patch. I would add a 4th to Fuller' list. Companies are afraid to i ovate. They are trying to be White Castle' McDonald' . Attempting to do what the first one did, but better. Well too bad. EQ was White Castle. and WoW is McDonald' . No one does better than McDonald' . That ship already sailed. Now people are trying to be Wendy' and burger King. Copy of a copy. So sad. Companies need to i ovate if they want to draw their own crowd. They need to stand out, Be the KFCs and Domino' . Games that are competition, but do #39;t use the same stuff as WoW. It' why I think Rift will have decent sales of boxes, but linger near death' door like Warhammer. Rift' too busy being a copy of a copy, to try and stand out with it' own flavor. After the initial shine of a new world to explore, players will find it'll taste too much like WoW.
1/28/11 3:14:27 PM
writes:
They 'go wrong' by letting sites like this one build up their games to the point where people are disa ointed when they play. DCUO has been pumped to the point where it wil explode, and when it finally came out only then did we get to here of the problems with the game, or how it actually played.
1/28/11 3:18:51 PM
writes:
Originally posted by travamars
They 'go wrong' by letting sites like this one build up their games to the point where people are disa ointed when they play.
Had you not posted this on the same day that the MMORPG.com staff posted the
that they did, you might have had a point. ;)
1/28/11 3:24:05 PM
writes:
Originally posted by SaintViktor
1. The people who makes these games are not gamers at heart. They are people who are only pa ionate about making money.
This is completely false.
You're thinking more along the lines of investors...and there's nothing wrong with wanting a good ROI.
1/28/11 3:28:16 PM
writes:
MMO' go wrong by a uming it' players have no imagination, and the ones who do, do #39;t want to use it.
And maybe they are right, maybe the imaginitive creative types are the under dogs, but we want something to play too.
1/28/11 3:40:30 PM
writes:
Originally posted by Loktofeit
Originally posted by travamars
They 'go wrong' by letting sites like this one build up their games to the point where people are disa ointed when they play.
Had you not posted this on the same day that the MMORPG.com staff posted the
that they did, you might have had a point. ;) Well as of this same day the game has already been released, bought and played. You conveniently left out the part of my post where i said when it came out only then did we hear of the problem quot;. They point out the problems because people already know them. It' not like we needed their OK to admit that something was wrong.
They build up the games to a potential that can be nothing but a disa ointment when you finally get to play them.
1/28/11 3:48:33 PM
writes:
MMOs fail because there is hardly any i ovation. The entire genre is stagnating. No matter which AAA mmo I try, it feels like I have played it a dozen times before.
On the other gand, you got smaller indie games that have a lot of " otential. Unfortunately, they never reach that potential or the level of hype they sometimes generate.
GW2 is the only that will probably get it right. At least one game to look forward to in 2011...
1/28/11 4:13:52 PM
writes:
MMO' are failing now because they now have a reputation for releasing unfinished and lacking in content. Co umers are finally clueing in and not buying what the publishers are feeding them (via sites like this one).
WoW is the number 1 most succe ful MMO for a bunch of reaso , but it' my firm belief that WoW was so well recieved because it launched with a very high level of polish (when compared to other products of the day).
Publishers are
only now
starting to realize that it' in their best interest
in the long run
to release a finished product (see the recent news about TOR being pushed back) . They can no longer operate under the a umption that they can launch and then release a 'hail mary' patch somewhere down the line (which has been a very popular tactic in recent years).
People say these forums, and many other game forums, are too full of negativity. I do #39;t agree. They are negative because the people here (and on other game forums) have been sold ake oil over and over again and are sick of it.
Where do MMO' go wrong? They are very rarely released in a finished polished state, with content worth paying for.
1/28/11 4:40:15 PM
writes:
well more or le everyone here forget to mention one imho major reason why MMOs ho wrong: us - the players.
most of the players are too focused on visual (come on, this doe t have better graphic that game X which is 4 years old!) and audio (what?!?!!? it doe t have full voiceover? EPIC FAIL!?!?!!11), that there are forcing developers to end i ane amount of time and money on that.
what does it mean? that developers are forced to seek outside investors, who in turn force them to focus on easy to sell features (thats what most of the players wants, so focus on that, it will sell the game) and to to away anything that could be risky (not to mention, that the pre from investors (and overall from financial side) is the main reason why most mmorpgs are released unifinished).
P.S. and no, i am not talking about those damned casual players who destroyed mmorpgs for us, hardcore quot; (as if there was something wrong with casual play for relaxation). i am a big fan of sandbox games, so i do ,among other things, end a lot of time reading different forum threads about them. they have highest concentration of so called (by themself) hardcore mmorpg player quot;, but gue what? i think there are really good/interesting sandbox games out there (more or le all of them are indie ones), but hey - what do i read in those forum threads most? thats right hardcore mmorpg player' quot; cry over how cra y is audiovisual side of those games.
1/28/11 4:43:31 PM
writes:
There' a concept in game design called player agency. E entially it describes the amount of freedom players have to a roach content in a game. But as the gaming industry has matured, developers have becme more control-freaks. They seem to need to control every a ect of your character -- afraid of exploits, RMTs, min-maxers, and a whole host of other bugaboos. Early EQ used to have a lot of player agency. Players could chain magic ells together to create unforseen effects (kiting is one example). They could gather 20+ people together to defeat a difficult foe (this is how 'raiding' started, as an exploit in EQ). They could choose the suckiest cla and race combination, and upon reaching high level be revered for being so unique.
Now, everything is result-oriented. You ca #39;t chain ells together in creative ways... ells are now discrete, limited, numbers in a predictive combination. Raids are now scripted, and need precise, choreographed moves to complete. And cla /race combinatio are decided for you by the all-knowing developer, because you really do #39;t want to play the Erudite Paladin. And why would you play the suckiest cla /race combination when the developers have engineered the outcome of quests so precisely that you need to take the best combinatio to succeed.
Developers have tra ed themselves in a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are so o e ed with control, that it' taking the fun out of the games. I once had a conversation with a Dev of LOTRO. He was lamenting the fact that the expanded, opened landscape areas around Bree saw so little player traffic. To him it was evidence that players do #39;t really want more freedom. I pointed out that his game holds players hand from the start -- i #39;t it any wonder that a game that teaches dependancy on the system, should then fail at providing more freedom? He had no re o e. And as long as I'm talking about LOTRO, let' give a simple example of player agency: Ranged attack. In DDO, it is perfectly legal to perch and pick off foes from a position from which they ca #39;t reach you. But in LOTRO, this same tactic triggers an exploit. The same company, two different systems. In fact, DDO goes a long way in capturing the irit of player agency throughout the game. Of course what kills this experience is the highly i tanced nature of its world. But to be honest, few games offer any meaningful degree of player agency. One last qualifier to the idea of player agency. It doe #39;t mean open world pvp, nor does it mean elimination of quests. It simply mea giving players as many ways to a roach content as po ible.
So to the developers reading this (likely none), I say this: Let go the levers of control!
1/28/11 4:59:03 PM
writes:
What tur me off on an MMO is a bad community. World of Warcraft is a prime example of it.
When I sit down and play an MMO, I do #39;t want to be forced to use another program to enjoy it. I do #39;t want to have to rely on hearing screechy kids or elitist 'hardcore #39;.
I am of course talking about ventrilo. Before I left WoW again, I actually had someone say that I could #39;t tank Tol Barad (after they forced me to join the group no le ) unle I logged on vent.
Their reason? ' ecuz therez a point where the tankz haz to swa #39;. My only reply was ' o, say swap? S W A P. Four letters. You hardly need to move your fingers.'
If one ca #39;t type between global cooldow or click while they're typing, they should #39;t be playing the game.
Another thing that co tantly tur me off toward MMOs, and again, this is aimed at the community- Co tant screaming and whining about a cla or skill being su osedly overpowered because they died to it. This has become the co tant in WoW. Everyone thinks, 'oh I ca #39;t po ibly die. It' never because that in this situation, I did something wrong and they did something right'. It' always 'OP OP OP'.
Lastly, I do #39;t like games to be too much of a grindfest. I enjoy questing, I enjoy grinding on occasion, but when I have to put weeks of my life to just get one piece of entry level gear in a profe ion that was aimed toward the common player, there' a problem.
I like the questing system we've currently got. Kill X, fetch Y, click on Z. It' old, it works, and it' better than going through a whole convoluted me to get a small sliver of experience.
Now that I'm thinking about it...Graphics are nice, but not nece ary. If you're going to make a graphically strong MMO, make sure that your 'low' option is low. Give me the ability to turn off a bunch of textures while still leaving effects on the ground that hurt or slow me.
Since the recent graphical updates of World of Warcraft, my performance has been a little stunted. Not much, but what was once 60 FPS in the overcrowded Dalaran has now become a 20-30 in Stormwind. I'm not playing a co ole shooter or something, I'm playing a ma ively multiplayer online roleplaying game. It needs to a eal to middle end computers aswell.
1/28/11 5:03:06 PM
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Grr. Would de erately love an edit button so I could put two line breaks so my post looks readable.
1/28/11 5:04:38 PM
writes:
oh, nice post Dredphyre. I can definately agree with that as another a ect of why new MMOs go wrong.
1/28/11 5:05:15 PM
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It' really simple to me. I want to live in a world not go on a ride at magic mountain. A few things have really killed it for me over the last few years. 1: The outdoor pve environment has become mind numbing to easy.
2: Crafting has taken a back seat to gear grind.
3: Housing has vanished for the most part.
4: Auction House
5: I tances every where you turn. 1/28/11 5:11:07 PM
writes:
I have to disagree with all three of Mister Fuller' points on MMO failures.
Point one is the case of having a slow and un-epic start to the game, where you kill minor enemies like rats and gobli . Question: what MMOs actually fail for this reason? This is a very common thing to have in an MMO, i #39;t it? I do #39;t know of very many where within the first couple hours of gameplay, you get to battle giants and drago . More importantly, I do #39;t know of
MMO players who would quit a game based on the fact that they could #39;t single-handedly to le an army of golems led by a mad archmage bent on world domination by the end of their first day of play. Even if having to start off on iders and akes is a oying for some, that' a far cry from calling it one of the major reaso that MMOs fail.
In fact, I would #39;t want to play a game that starts you off too soon with complex fights with impre ive enemies because there'd be nowhere to build to from there. And as far as story is concerned, the world feels fake if you're expected to accept the fact that you, a total novice, are being depended upon for dragon-wrangling and matters of national importance when you are literally surrounded on all sides at all times by
thousands
of other players who are much more powerful than you. Long story short, complaining about starting off killing mud rats makes se e for a single-player game but not as much se e for a ma ively multiplayer persistant world.
Point two is almost too vague to disagree with. Su ort your community is not self-explanatory. But the gist of the paragraph seems to be le about community and more about addre ing player complaints. While it' true that a game can bomb because the developers wo #39;t change things that people hate about it, the solution is not for the game makers to listen to what the majority of their players are saying. The majority of MMO players want WoW. Since only Blizzard can actually make a WoW worth playing, all the devs who cave to their playerbase' complaints end up pleasing nobody. The solution is for developers to have a strong vision for their game from the outset, build a game that caters to a su et of the MMO playerbase, and IGNORE the howling of butthurt su cribers who ca #39;t live with the fact that some games are #39;t tailor-made for them. It' amazing that there are still people who think that an ideal MMO can be made by a committee of MMO players, if only the hopele ly dumb developers would listen to them.
Point three also seems to have very little to do with why actual MMOs fail. If an Eastern MMO created for an Eastern audience is released to the Western market and does poorly, can you really say that it' an epic failure? No, it' still doing just fine in its home country. If this accusation of Epic Failure is aimed at games that are designed ecifically to cater to both audiences, you'd better explain a little more clearly what those Eastern and Western preferences are. Or ca #39;t you think of anything negative to say about Western tastes? Grind-fest i #39;t what I'd call a neutral term. This seems like a thinly-veiled way of saying that western games are better because there' le grinding, and you'd a reciate it if our market wa #39;t tainted with games that aim for a compromise.
1/28/11 5:20:19 PM
writes:
This is easy. I'm tired of quite a few things:
Boring combat:If I wanted to hit 2 butto and win then I would be playing a turn based game, give me something at least a little dynamic.
Forced repetition: I get it, killing 20 rats will net me faction points towards gear but the fact of the matter is I do #39;t care about killing rats because its i ignificant and feels like the questgiver is wasting my time.
Leveling as a chore: WTF? I play an RPG for the story and world, not for endle fetch quests followed by a gear treadmill.
Forced grouping: Some people like this, that is fine. I however like the idea of a world that is truly alive with people where interaction is merely a part of the world and not something forced on you.
100 skills on my bar: I do #39;t know why MMOs do this, it makes no se e. By max level an entire bar is loaded with skills that can be casted. This just makes the game needle ly complex and a lot of the skills are there to simply up the number. Make a small number of skills that have many uses and are never usele .
1/28/11 5:25:55 PM
writes:
Whiteblade, I see two contradicting statements in your post. How can you ' e bored with only 2 butto #39; and then complain about 'having a lot more complex skill #39;?
1/28/11 5:40:51 PM
writes:
This thread has had more interest for me than all of the games I have played in the last month. For me, the killers are:
1. grinding, e ecially random drop quest with very little chance of getting required items.
2. he who pays the most, wi 3. selling epic weapo (see point 2)
4. crafting sucks, when you have to buy item mall stuff (e ecially when the item mall things do not actually raise your chance of succe )
5. pvp could be good, but not when some prick 50 levels higher than you, raids a low level area and kills you with 1 hit.
6. lack of variety, kill 200 of the same mo ter or collect 200 (random drop) items.
There are lots of ways to improve the games, but developers will NOT listen.
For example:
1. there is more than one race, cla etc. why force the player to end all the budget on just one char, when they could be exploring the other optio as well.
2. dndo has puzzels in some quests, which are a great idea (pity the mechanics prevent you from healing you char till you get to a rest ot, and hp pots are usele (too expe ive for too little reward), also tra forming the grind into repeating that same quests, SUCKS, not just killing the same mo ter over and over, but killing the same set of mo ters over and over)
3. make item mall stuff actually worth buying, having a 3 hour xp bonus for what ever price, is just milking money out of the players. a low cost xp bonus should last at least a day, and this should not include time when the player is not online.
I could go on and on, but as developers are not likely to read this, let alone act on it, it is pointle to continue...
1/28/11 6:28:01 PM
writes:
I am taking a break from my TERA column this week...
... there' a weekly Tera column? did #39;t realize there was that much interest in a single game.
1/28/11 6:33:00 PM
writes:
Sorry, but that' a very bad article.
While the topic is certainly worth discu ing the a wers the author provided seem completely out of touch both with gamers and with the gaming industry. One can safely say that not a single MMO has ever failed due to the reaso mentioned in the article.
1/28/11 7:30:14 PM
writes:
When they try to cla balance for PvP and ruin the PvE side of the house.
1/28/11 7:39:41 PM
writes:
Originally posted by Larsa
Sorry, but that' a very bad article.
While the topic is certainly worth discu ing the a wers the author provided seem completely out of touch both with gamers and with the gaming industry. One can safely say that not a single MMO has ever failed due to the reaso mentioned in the article.
I had a similar reaction as well. He' entitled to his opinion, but I do #39;t think solving the i ues he mentio will in anyway revitalize the MMO industry.
And perha that' the problem. So many so-called experts, from journalists to bloggers to the devs themselves, just do #39;t seem able to identify the problem let alone advance a solution.
1/28/11 7:39:57 PM
writes:
I ent 20 minutes typing the way in which I see developers fail. Then I read
Dredphyre
post a couple of posts up, and thought Gee, I think they've nailed a lot of a ect quot;. There' a time and a place for hand-holding. A 'wa a be succe ful MMO' is not it. YOU the Developers try to market these games as MMO RPGs. In actual fact they're MMO pre-written stories. A story has a time and a place, it hel develop the lore within a game. But the ultimate play style and path should be left up to an individual player. Provide us with an element of choice in quests, particularly the primary story-line. We're all ha y to reach the same place eventually, but a lot of us would like to be able to do it differently to the next guy (or gal).
I ca #39;t nece arily blame developers though. The modern casual gamer (under the age of 16) is so focu ed on ' ower-gaming'. Its all about wanting the strongest cla that can beat the crap out of the next guy and obliterate solo mo quicker than they can click their mouse. Do you want to know one of the biggest reaso this has occurred - and again this is my opinion:
The majority of people want to level relatively quickly - its a sad fact. But lets remember, these games are not RPGs any more. They're just a player acting out a pre-determined sequence of events of a story - really nothing exciting about it, and no real reason to get excited. So much of the modern MMO has drifted toward the grind. EVERY single quest is the same in that it involves grinding mo . The quicker you can grind mo , the quicker you will level. It seems pretty basic, but this seems to be driving MMOs in the wrong direciton, and players into the wrong mindset.
Additionally, if we co ider each kill to provide a player with a se e of achievement, the quicker you kill a mob, the quicker you receive your 'hit of achievement'. When each mob takes at least 30 seconds to kill, things start to get dull. Whats more is, a player is unable to take on more than 1 mob at a time. If they do, things become too difficult and they die. Has no developer co idered a slight reduction in power (and hence xp received) to mo in order to allow a player to submerge themselves in an epic battle and take on 5, 6, 7, or even 10 mo at once? This could potentially satisfy the power gamers who want to obliterate their o onents, but allow people who wish to use a role-play cla (that may not be as powerful) and take on just a few mo at a time. It will also allow better players to a ly some interesting mob management and crowd control techniques when they decide to take on 20 mo at once (as o osed to 2 or 3 that a brave gamer in the current mindset of developers could take on).
Thanks to such tight control on how a player can battle, each battle is exactly the same. That' thousands of kills per player carried out in exactly the same ma er. I do #39;t know about you, but I'm yawning already.
A couple of other points below:
Crafting: Look at what Vanguard did (sorry, I was a fan). Item crafting should reward those willing to put in the effort. The most difficult and time co uming crafted items should be on-par with raid gear, or better (co idering in Vanguard, a top level crafter would have put in months + of crafting time to be able to craft such an item). But do #39;t make crafting a simple one-click and your done type event. I liked having to obtain crafting items, and legendary crafting items that provided crafting boosts. . Perhpas combine in a way of crafting tra ort as well: be it air, land or sea.
Skills/ ells/feats whatever you want to call them - utilise Feat Trees: Allow customisation! Do #39;t let every cleric, or every warrior, or every sorcerer or whatever the cla may be have exactly the same abilities and powers. This is something I loved in AoC, the ability to ec differently - and have been pleased to see it take a different route in the Beta of RIFT as well.
I prefer persistent worlds, but understand the benefits of I tances as well. I think both have a purpose and should be used accordingly. Sometimes, your group just wants to grind a dungeon for gear. Other times, it may be interesting to have guild grou come up agai t each other in a high level dungeon and battle it out for the right to raid a dungeon. I think its important to have both (if you want your MMO to be popular with all walks of life - the hard core gamer, and the casual gamer). This allows a place for hard core guilds and social guilds alike.
Graphics: For me personally, I have a rig that would blow a US Navy aircraft carrier out of the water. I love to immerse myself in a beatifully detailed world. Trees, gra , shadows, detailed armour, characters and mo ters. Realistic water effects, weather effects, rai , tornadoes whatever it may be. Do #39;t stop creating detailed worlds. BUT, a lot of gamers and RP fa are not like me. Remember, low graphic optio are su osed to allow a lower or mid end computer to run the game. When there' no difference in the proce ing power required to run low or Ultra graphic settings, then perah rethink the way the game has been coded.
Call me cynical, but I do #39;t think developers really care what a gamer wants - and are unlikely to pick up on any of our points raised in this forum. They just care about making some cash and selling a product they think the market wants. It seems as if a developer fails to make something the market wants, well tough luck. Its all that' available so the mentality of You will play it, and you will like it kicks in.
I may not ever see an MMORPG that I would give a 10/10 (at least in my life time) but I feel better for having been given the o ortunity to rant.
1/28/11 8:06:52 PM
writes:
For me MMO are blah because:
The everything must die mentality. Really the only way to be succe ful in your game is to slaughter shit from sun up to sun down.
Seriously this is what you think of non combat features? Do you even like non combat features?
Holy trinity. REALLY OMFG can we try something different people. If you ca #39;t manage to make a skill based game can we at least get some decent customizable characters?
1/28/11 8:17:21 PM
writes:
Failure mea not trying anything new or i ovative... I su ect the theme park is on its road to failure right now. At some point these sad games will hold nobody' attention, if only we had a fast forward through this period of online gaming history.
The introduction of more realistic and persistence worlds that actually contain the elements of a living breathing world would save a lot of MMO' .. and some original thought.
1/28/11 8:45:25 PM
writes:
Originally posted by Venger
For me MMO are blah because:
The everything must die mentality. Really the only way to be succe ful in your game is to slaughter shit from sun up to sun down.
Seriously this is what you think of non combat features? Do you even like non combat features?
Holy trinity. REALLY OMFG can we try something different people. If you ca #39;t manage to make a skill based game can we at least get some decent customizable characters? I agree with you completely.
1/28/11 8:45:57 PM
writes:
Well, they fail for 1000 reaso .
Give me a world, with the pvp setting of daoc, the living world of ultima, the quests of everquest with todays technology, a mature art style (no comicstyle with ridiculous overdone mean armors) some nice non combat activites, also a nice amount of erotic, bring back meaningfull riddles and puzzles, exploring, rejuvenate crafting and take SWG and the best other economy games as examples and merge all that into a versatile world of different regio with different settings of interactivity and security and keep pvp and pve seperated in the high order regio and let it be chaos in the low order regio and do not force players to participate or even visit each region but offer the Oportunity to do so. Then maybe its a good mmo again...
1/28/11 9:15:10 PM
writes:
Stop being copies of copies as has been said many times. Be creative create pride in whatever side or faction or realm the player decides to play. I enjoyed DAOC for that, sure it had lots of i ues but it i tilled realm pride in away that no other mmo has for me, most mmo' want replayability, when I think they should focus on making a player want to continue playing the caracter they create. Give players a reason to pvp and they will want to. I also belive that crafted items should be as good or better than dungeon raid item that are hard to get, also I think that a player should be able to craft items that are to the level of thier character, not as in most mmo' now where any item you craft while leveling is below the character that crafted it.
1/28/11 9:30:59 PM
writes:
Originally posted by TookyG Originally posted by SaintViktor
1. The people who makes these games are not gamers at heart. They are people who are only pa ionate about making money. This is completely false. You're thinking more along the lines of investors...and there' nothing wrong with wanting a good ROI. I'm glad somebody pointed this out. Reading through the posts and I do #39;t think enough people understand just how expe ive it is to create a software product such as a game. Then on top of that to add continued u ort &am development indefinitely. 1/28/11 9:48:36 PM
writes:
I think you hit that nail pretty much on the head. I'm completely tired of the rat race to push MMOs (among other games) out into the open market to learn all the hype was just a fat guy dancing in a tube top. Something, somewhere along the line has to change if us gamers are going to play anything worth a second of our time (or $60 + sub). If only gamers going into development could somehow remember all the times they shouted and slammed their keyboards for playing a game littered with mundane, bloody filth then, maybe then, could they i ert sanity into meaningful, long-lasting projects.
1/28/11 9:54:42 PM
writes:
How to prevent 99.9% of all new mmos end up being junk? Simple, STOP MAKING THEM FOR MONEY! Easy enough?
1/28/11 10:00:34 PM
writes:
Originally posted by SBFord
Most forums related to MMOs these days contain thread after thread about the disa ointments many gamers experience when it comes to new and upcoming MMOs. Taking a break from his usual Friday TERA column, MMORPG.com Industry Relatio Manager Garrett Fuller asks our readers, Where do MMOs go wrong? Read Garrett' thoughts and then a wer the question in the comments below as it pertai to you.
I am taking a break from my TERA column this week to ask readers and users a simple question: Where do MMOs go wrong for you? There is a method to this article that I think will help all of us as players get the word out to developers as to why certain things in games work and fail. The market has been flooded with MMOs lately and there are many more on the way, the industry thinks players are becoming more picky. Well maybe it is because we have a lot to pick from. In an age with to of free to play games, more AAA titles coming this year, and the general shift to games in the online ace, it&rsquo about time we reopened the case file on why games can fail.
Read more of Garrett Fuller' column, When I see that the developers put very little effort into the project, yet attempted to market it as something ground breaking. After Dark Age of Camelot, for example, how many fantasy mmorpgs have you all seen that have 24 character cla es and as many races? Three separate realms alone made them ahead of the genre - that' 3 factio at war. And finally, where is the meaningful pvp that Dark Age had?
Companies eye candy us with graphics or endle fat dungeo and gear sets. They leave out player housing, a se e of purpose in player conflict, and any se e of reality such as siege warfare and territorial aquisition. Looking on the horizon but I do #39;t see a single 3 faction mmorpg with completely separate cultures and handfuls of culturally relevant cla choices.
MEGA SIGH my 2 cents.
1/28/11 10:06:15 PM
writes:
WoW clones will all fail.
hey devs! IF PEOPLE WANT WOW THEY WILL PLAY WOW! Try to actually INNOVATE something.
1/28/11 10:49:46 PM
writes:
Wait....what? The music industry died?
When did that ha en? WTF is on my MP3 player then?
1/28/11 10:57:40 PM
writes:
big fail IMO - CASH SHOP in a p2p game
why the hell would i pay a monthly su cription then pay again for the cool stuff. prime example for me was fallen earth, a game i really liked.... but not enough to see where it was headed once the fluff in the cash shop was added. cash shop went in to the game, cancelled my sub the next day and uni talled.
1/28/11 11:04:05 PM
writes:
Originally posted by BenedictXV
How to prevent 99.9% of all new mmos end up being junk? Simple, STOP MAKING THEM FOR MONEY! Easy enough? Stop buying them would be best. If just once people didnt buy a game that wa t ready to launch and actually was different than their previous games it might wake them up.
But people still buy and they make money and they laugh all the way to the bank while they decide their next game..thats just like the last..except it has elf' that fly or something.
1/28/11 11:05:22 PM
writes:
For me, I need the thrill of either losing my things or hunting someone down, wi ing the battle, and then searching their cor e to see what kind of goodies I have earned. Make no mistake, its not just getting full loot right' on the fallen, it is knowing that if I lose this fight, they get my stuff. There is no other feeling I have had in a game than in full loot mmo' , it is like an
electric buzz ru ing through your body
. I too have felt the pain of losing something I ent hours or even days crafting, and I could see putting in an i urance system so that you could end a little coin and not lose your most valuable items. The cost of the i urance would even help the economy being an additional gold sink. In addition to this, I want housing, not i tanced housing, but a plot of land that I can build and show off to other players. I want crafting that is not just grinding but is challenging and rewarding. What current mmo' are mi ing is the thrill, and the social a ect that can only come from sitting in a friends Virtual Castle Living Room training skills or pla ing the next raid.... My 2 cents
1/28/11 11:15:37 PM
writes:
Originally posted by Foomerang
Thats easy. MMOs are being made first and foremost as combat/action games. The virtual world and everything else in it is an afterthought. Thats where MMOs go wrong these days. This above is why I feel these games indeed fail for me, I love games but alway' thought MMORPG go beyond that what we can find in single/multiplayer games. When I want to play a combat/action game I take my pick from all the single/multiplayer games that do offer this in a great way, when I want to play a MMORPG I want it to feel like a world where everything is po ible and not geared towards combat only, while combat should be a part of a MMORPG both pve and pvp-wise, there should also be the same amount of none combat activities that prolong our stay in that virtual world. Actually make a virtual living in a MMORPG, i tead of playing it like regular multiplayer games with a sub.
1/29/11 12:44:50 AM
writes:
To sum it up on most MMOs. There is no challange. They are all the same in one way shape or form. They are all cookie cutter clones of the basic Everquest/Ashero Call model, yes even WoW. 99% of the MMORPGs out there, are not MMORPGs, they are MMOThemeParks. There is NO end game for most of them, no risk vs reward. Not like the pen &am paper roleplaying games, where you ent months if not years building up a character with a party of friends adventuring through what ever game world you played in. Death was a BIG part of life in those times and games, if your character died, it was GONE, you erased the character sheet and started over. Currently I cant think of ONE MMO that has that feature, a real perma-death that is VERY real and can ha en. Sure there are a few token attempts, like in Face of Mankind, where if you run out of money and clones you perma-die, but it doe t hurt you, you dont lose any skills or anything, because there are no skills, levels, or attributes. Everyone is the same in that game. But if you played Face of Mankind for more than a month you will have so much money you wont ever have to worry about perma-death. Star Wars Galaxys had perma-death for one cla , but removed it because a small vocal minority cried loud enough to have it removed. So the game became Jedi vs Bounty online. Star Trek Online, went from having multiple people crew a ma ive starship, to a cheap bad knock off of Eve Online. From my point of view, a person who has been playing online games since the days of Kesmai' Multi-player Battletech:Solaris VII (aka VGA Battletech). And later into Ultima Online. There ha t been a game like either of those. I have watched mo ter companies like EA, come out with great concepts only to can them before they are released. Like Motor City Online, or Multi-player Battletech:3025. Or that sham of a Shadowrun game, that came out a while back. Need I meantion Matrix Online... oh god. 1/29/11 12:48:17 AM
writes: I was actually thinking about this today. I cut hair at a Great Cli , and I meet a lot of people... Roughly 20 a day. As an avid MMO player, I am always trying to get every nerdy-looking would-be MMO player to divulge the information to me that they do play an MMO of some sort. Nine times out of ten, they play WoW. There is nothing wrong with that. They feel they have found the best game for them. The important part of this story is that when they ask me if I play WoW, I have to say, No. Often times they want a reason. Every time I am asked why I do #39;t play WoW, which is a lot, I find myself scrambling through all of my thoughts so I can find a way to say it without making them feel put down for the game they've chosen and not letting myself just get too nostalgiac over the one or two games I've played that have pretty much shaped all of my expectatio for what every other MMO should be. (i.e. Ashero #39 Call) Today was important, though. Today I thought of why I ca #39;t stand the MMO market right now. It' the term endgame. Endgame, has, in my eyes, ruined the entire market. Endgame, mea carbon-copy cla es, weapo , mo ters, and entire gaming experiences. This term is litterally something I believe should not make its way into a fantastical setting. In the early years of MMOs there was no such concept, at least not initially. When MMOs were new, there were not people who were so used to playing these types of games that they just simply found a way to farm gold, hit max level, get great gear, etc. etc. etc. In this day and age there are those people. I am even one of those people from time to time, depending on the game. This has become the market though. As I read from game to game on these forums, the common denominator amongst all thing is, How long to hit endgame? Within a few weeks of a game being released, many people are readily available to a wer that with much accuracy. This is not fun. This is robotic. This is the same every time. Now, I digre to how an MMO could go right: bring back the excitement of adventure, mystery, and discovery. Take out level ca , stat ca , cla es, and most importantly take out big glowing quest ico with glowing trails of light that lead you to the next big glowing icon. You may say this has been done in this or that game, and these things have been done to an extent, but clearly not well enough to a eal to the ma ive community. You may believe that having a caple system would bring a great imbalance to a game; but how? The difference in power between a level 39 compared to a level 41 in the WoW nich is imme e. It would be no le fair in PvP or PvE if you had a level 1076 with i ane strength killing a level 1. It would feel pretty close to the same as that 2 or 3 level difference in most games. Cla es are an ever-so-important a ect in MMOs... a arently. I think more of a sandbox feeling for this could REALLY thrive if done correctly, though. Let players build their own characters. We are all smart people. Make a mostly seamle world. It co ects us all. Let someone else walk into a dungeon we ha en to be killing in. The greatest challenge in these games could be our fellow players. That' an entire other amount of content that does not have to be created simply because players would become more immersed in a game through vying for a piece of property. This encourages guilds, grouping, arguing, and PvP. It makes players feel entitled to something. Make gear with more random statistics and a earances. I do #39;t want to know that when I kill X-mo ter I will recieve X-gear. That is uninventive and boring. Actually my list could go on much further than anyone cares to read, and you may have sto ed caring by this point. The major idea here is: I want a game that FEELS limitle . I do #39;t want to imagine myself 40 hours of gameplay later doing the same thing I could have been doing in the last game I quit to play this one. I want to have no idea what I will be doing.
1/29/11 12:55:34 AM
writes:
Alot of mmo' just take the same concept of past fail mmo' and just duplicate it.
Some stuff is diffrent but the fail remai ...
1/29/11 2:23:37 AM
writes:
The biggest reason for games failing for me is that they are just too easy. It takes you weeks or max couple of months to see everything in the game and get to teh top level (if it has levels). Then it' just the same old boring stuff.
My first game was Everquest and in that game it took you forever to get to the max level and see all the zones and places, I loved that exploration even if it was boring grind from time to time.
Also the lack of events from developers and GM' is a show of no interest towards the current gaming population. You can only make so many alts until you get tired of the same old quests and mi io .
Just my 1.31415 cents of ideas
1/29/11 2:30:07 AM
writes:
There seem to be only be two real causes of MMO
going wrong:
Games are underdeveloped/unfinished
because of development team i ues (poor design, mi ing features) or production company i ues (pushed out too soon, i ufficient funding given, interference with development);
Games have poor su ort
because staff (GM, Tech, QA, et cetera) are overworked or lazy, the production company refuses to fund quality su ort or lacks funding for quality su ort, or the production company is ina ropriately (broadly eaking) utilising fund There is, however, a potential third cause where MMO
s can be co idered to go wrong:
Players refuse to acknowledge that the MMORPG genre is a sub-genre of the RPG genre
, wherein there is an ongoing narrative that the player participates in but in no real way controls (cf. manipulate v. control), and complain about various mechanisms of the game which look like problems but are not problems (or are significantly smaller problems than they are being made out to be).
In re ect to #3, the MMORPG genre needs to stop being shortened to 'MMO' because of the misunderstanding that has become standard. MMORPG stands for Ma ive(ly) Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, to use only the first three letters is to s