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POLL: Are You Happy with Today's MMORPGs?
declaredemer
Member Posts: 2,698
The MMORPG industry has taken a creative direction that less interesting and more predictable; it is designed to obtain the most amount of subscribers, in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Frankly, and this perhaps exposes my ignorance, I do not understand, comprehend, or even believe the "development costs" of today's MMORPGs. What in God's name are you people spending all of this (millions) money on? Where is the innovation? Where is the business strategy to distinguish yourself from your competitor (WoW)? Where is appeal that makes YOU different? Taking WoW features and elements, slapping a different name on it with some changes, ain't gonna make you different!
Is it me, though? I mean, really? Have I changed? Do I expect too much? I have no intention to make this personal, but I have never been less satisified, or happy, with MMORPGs in my life as I am right now. Most games I buy, today, are buggy, incomplete, and spy on me while I play (even GTA IV spies on me!).
But, what say you? Are you happy with your MMORPG, and if so what game(s)?
Comments
Well, I totally agree. There's WoW and then there's the hundreds of wannebe-WoWs.
How's this for a useless poll: do you wish that games were better or not? Of course I'd prefer that there were more, better games out there.
I'm actually amazed that we haven't seen more improvement in the genre. I remember like 5 years ago when I thought to myself: "Damn, MMOs are going to be imba in a couple of years." And yet, here we are...
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. - Carl Sagan
well people dont understand the risks companies take to even begin to put together a mmo. there is millions of dollars invested before they even see one bit of profit. so yeah if i was in a business and invested millions of dollars in something, i would do what i think would make the most profit. this is a business first before anything else. 2nd of all when some games do something different people complain about that it sucks. Mortal Online is going to first person and people are complaining how stupid of an idea that is. AOC does a different combat system and people complain that it sucks. i think we should welcome differences in games even if we personally dont like the idea.
Most of the people that say, "NO! Of course I'm not satisfied with games nowadays!!"
Will absolutely never, in a million years, find a game that you can enjoy without b$%^&ing about something.
You will never be satisfied and thats why your here. And thats why i feel sorry for you, you pessimistic spoiled brats.
I am also amazed by the lack of innovation in this industry. I have said that developers need to stand-outside of the long and dark shadow casted by WoW.
Developers need to think outside of the WoW-box and think in terms of creativity, community, customization, world immersion, and so forth; think in terms of the features that WoW lacks.
We want to explore, and they give us instanteous travel options. We want customizations, and they give us linear specialization. We want a world, and they give us a game.
I was completely satisfied with SWG until it was ripped from me. That is why I'm here. It's the ONLY reason I am here(just look at my join date, less than a month after SWG died).
But then, I must question, why are you here?
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
the last mmo i was happy with was wow for the first few months until they staryed making huge changes.
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
Well, if wanting a bit more than carebear/"hold my hand the whole game" style gameplay makes me a spoiled brat, sign me up. I've been playing MMORPG's since UO, had some experience with MUDs before that, and I can say that except for some nice flashy gfx improvements and some new bells and whistles, the gameplay itself has steadily gotten worse and worse as games are geared more toward casual style play.
It's not even that casual play ruins a game, it's how devs are making games so freaking easy there's just no reason to play. You know, some of the "pessimists" are just players who enjoy challenges and like to actually have to think and somewhat fear their decision to venture into a dangerous area or attempt a risky synth... not just "run to point A, collect 100 Y's, and bring them back + here's a cool new weapon, now wasn't that fun?!"...
If I'm a spoiled brat for wanting a game that is hard, is deep with a well developed world that you *WANT* to immerse yourself in, and has a lot of group + soloable content to keep you busy while you are exploring/crafting/whatever... well, then so be it. FFXI is the last game I've played where I felt like the devs pushed any limits whatsoever... Granted, there were serious problems with RMT and the economy and many aspects of the game where way too hard for a mainstream audience... Yet, I could still see an improvement over what came before. Most importantly, I could tell the devs had looked at previous MMORPG's and tried to learn from the earlier games' successes/failures. I don't see the same type of creative trouble-shooting/planning in the current crop of releases. Just recycled sludge....
Many feel WoW improved many features from earlier games too, but considering how long it came out after FFXI, I've always felt like WoW was a cheap/cartoony imitator that coddles its players and sacrifices hard work and real emotional investment in a character/guild/task/whatever and replaces it with supposedly "fun" hand holding. FFXI isn't terribly original given that many of its better features are just streamlined improvements taken from other games...
So, back to the poll... I put a solid "Not Really" because considering the current crop of games, there just is very little out there that goes beyond the basic formula. For a long time, I've felt like MMO's are limited by the technology limitations of their users and while many of the ideas, the IP dev, the game engines, etc. = great, by and large the actual execution sucks so badly that current MMORPG's are doing a poor job carrying the mantle forward for the next few years.
Save SE's "Rapture," nothing right now interests me. EVE Online has the challenge I crave (and deep economy), but some of the immersion I'd like is lacking. WoW is just too easy and I don't feel like I've achieved anything when I play it, whereas FFXI left me w00t'ing it up when I got one lousy ding... even at early levels. Then, that leaves scores of faceless, recycled ideas that mostly share their mediocrity and their haphazard implementation (not to mention the fact that they just aren't very fun).
Always with the great concepts/ideas, but the execution is lacking. It reminds me of what game companies did right before the huge industry crash in the 80's. Spend your money on marketing, creating (or buying) an IP, and make your money back + profit off the suckers who buy your title before playing it. Rinse and repeat.... rinse and repeat (that is until people wise up, stop buying, and then your whole industry almost collapses).
I fear we're not seeing progress and, in fact, we're seeing a real digression in MMORPG's. Unless some of the newer games by SE or some of the other major players like Blizzard or Bioware get back to dynamic gameplay and worlds that we want to immerse ourselves in, well... stick a fork in this genre, 'cause it's done.
Are you happy with todays MMORPG? sometimes, sometimes not. But what I'm really unhappy with is the hordes of people that make mmo communities look bad and it seems to be getting progressively worse for each new mmo. Early mmos did well because they had a community that was more connected. I dunno...
mmoguy that is sorta the ops point. What made the communites more connected way back when? Part of it was the game play was designed for group play, Social interaction as well as team play. Part of the issue today is the ez mode folks are talking about.
However on the flip side even with the ones that add free new content how soon is a walk through posted online in a data base and other comments added to it? It is more then just the sameness it is the lack of wanting to go get 10 of this 15 of that or esscort so and so. Then see the same mobs repeated in every zone with a different name.
I can remember way back when you pretty much knew about a game even if you did not play it. Daoc was pvp (rvr) ao was sci fi and Eq was hard and spawn sitting. While today we have many more choices just look at the list , Is there that many real differences in elfs dwarfs fantasy games at this point? The answer is not really at this time. Whacking a mole is the same any where just a matter of where you choose to do it and if you are still enjoying it while doing it
i find them insulting to my intelligences.
Depends on which you are talking about (P2P or F2P). For the P2P MMORPGS, I guess I am, wish their were more "Dark Fantasy" MMORPGS out there. For the F2P...um, not so much as satisfied but what can you expect from a game that intakes money from item shops *sigh*...
Backup Your Videogame CD's
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
You are right about the lack of group-cooperative gameplay in MMORPGs.
You also make a great point of how people want to log-in a MMORPG and socialize but the MMORPG world is not designed for this kind of interaction, save for a few games such as SWG. It is not a part of the lore, or world, to socially interact. In fact, there are classes, literall, in SWG just designed for social interaction; and these classes can do all the things that the other classes can do.
We really are screaming mad and desperate at this point. Some people are even asking MMORPG firms to release the old MMORPGs because the new MMORPGs are THAT bad!
Is it that hard to be creative? Is it that hard to innovate?
Why is world immersion, that total MMORPG experience, so difficult to implement?
We got linear content (yes, we do); we got plenty of linear raiding (tiers for gear, tiers for levels, tiers for everything).
WE WANT A WORLD !
People ask me what do I have against WoW:
www.youtube.com/watch
Imagine you had never played any MMO-style game at all. Or even better, imagine that there had never existed a game which would fill the requirements to become listed on this site. And then came the first MMO ever as an exact replica of a game you look down upon today. (Whether it be WoW or Darkfall or whatever, point is you don't like it today.) Wouldn't you play it thinking it was fun as hell?
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. - Carl Sagan
I do not think I would play any of them because they are designed in a way that does not interest me.
I was in a Warcraft II guild when I first heard about "Everquest" from rivals. The FIRST Everquest screen shot I obtained was the photo of an ogre who was drunk. I remember the person explaining to me you could drink in the game. Then I think I heard about how you could make your own ale, and I just thought that was amazing. I remember an in-game wedding, officiated by a GM, in the Mountains of Rathe. What an experience.
I do not play MMORPGs to (a) raid to (b) gear-up to (c) level-up and so-forth, although those are all features I enjoy. I play MMORPGs to (a) explore a world and (b) develop a UNIQUE character and (c) socialize and so forth.
I voted "somewhat" because I am currently playing EVE, Linkrealms, and DFO. So I am content for time being...
I try to support the innovative games with my money so they can expand and make new games like what CCP is doing with World of Darkness and other IPs
From my understanding there are many options to choose from(many derivative many not) compared to the past. Those options are also increasing much much faster than they have in the past, and developers are actually learning(slowly) from their past mistakes when they do release MMOs.
All in all, I'm playing MMOs and having a good time at it. Sure I'm not playing like I would have a couple years ago(mass quantity), but that's actually a benefit since games last longer.
I have very few complaints(Give me more crafting and crafting truely intergrated with the game), and I think that there are and will be only better options in the future.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
The MMORPGs are insulting to our intelligence.
What happened to brilliant lore and deep story, and Questing in which you really felt you were accomplishing something greater than yourself and immersed in the game/world?
The lack of depth in MMORPGs has me actually playing SINGLE-PLAYER RPGs, and I used to never play SINGLE-PLAYER RPGs because they lacked depth, exploration, and felt like they were pre-packaged linear adventures.
I do miss my old MMO's, and I believe that today's are far to cookie cutter. I played LOTRO for over a year hoping it would move past and develop more of a personality, but eventually left after seeing it was far tomuch like WoW. It should have been more immersive, felt more like another world, but overall it did not.
Major or Current Characters
AC - The Brute lvl 85 macer -HG (retired)
SWG - Lihone Su'alkn Master Ranger/ MCH - Flurry (Retired)
EVE - Sulone - Cruiser Lover (Retired)
LOTRO - Sandric lvl 50 Burg (and others)- Brandywine (Retired)
GW2 - Sandric lvl 80 Thief - Dragonbrand (Retired)
NeverWinter - Sandric lvl 60 Rogue - Dragonshard (Retired)
Archage - Sandric lvl 50 everything - Naima (Active)
Others (Lots) (Retired)
Yes. Guild Wars is fun and may have some flaws, but it's still a good enough game for me. If there were three or five different MMOs that interested me I'd have problems with choosing which one to play, and probably more problems with managing to pay for all, so I'd rather have only one - Guild Wars.
What the money is being spent on? Just a short list off the top of my head: world designers, system designers, content designers, server programmers, game system programmers, graphics programmers, sound programmers, tools programmers, creative writers, technical writers, project managers, team leads, concept artists, graphic artists, animators, composers, sound technicians, voice actors, game testers, system technicians, and network engineers. That's just development side. Add billing support, tech support, in-game support (GMs), community, sales management, financial management, public relations, marketing, legal and probably a few more once you're closing in on launch. And that's just paychecks.
Then add office space, office hardware, office software, physical server space, server hardware, server software, bandwidth allocation, database licenses, power bill, transportation and travel, etc.
That quickly adds up to a few millions, I guess. The days of two friends making a successful game at home disappeared with the C64.
Innovation? You can find that among those who do not have to deal with all of the above, but only parts of it: indie developers. If you want innovation on titles that budget for more than 100k subscribers, I'm afraid you will be disappointed.
Business strategy to dodge being a WoW clone and be different? Post-WoW examples are Pirates of the Burning Seas are Age of Conan, while pre-WoW (post-EQ) ones are Anarchy Online, EVE, Ryzom and City of Heroes. Varying execution and success.
Not meaning to pick on you here, mind you. Just trying to answer the questions, as I think people don't seem to get what a task it is to make an MMO.
We have the adventure, linear gameplay, specialized character. WE GOT THAT. WE GOT TOO MUCH OF THAT.
These development companies would be far wise to stop spending money on copying WoW's gameplay features --this "Quest" to this "Quest" and PvP-focus, etc.-- and return to the origins of MMORPGs: a deep, fun, exciting world to explore with actual roleplay opportunities (own a house, own a merchant vessel, own a bakery, own a town; explore dungeons; actually be a villian, etc.).
Then again, developers are not business people.
Why do people think all games are WOW clones ?
First off the only things original in WOW is LORE( some might disagree being that it was a Warhammer ripoff) and the stupid achievement system.
I am currently playing and not resubbing. The more I play the more I see taken from other games
The lore in WOTLK screams LOTR wanabee
You people that have only played WOW or started in WOW need to get a clue
WoW-clone is another way to described the predominant features of MMORPGs that most of us dislike, but it is easy to develop them (requires limited thinking):