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I play Open ended games because I hate mmo game mechanics.
metalhead980
Member Posts: 2,658
Last night while playing Ryzom something came over me.
I finally realized why I play these open ended games that basically let me do what I want. It's due to hating mmo mechanics.
Like progression systems that lead me around, mandatory quest hubs, required faction gains and the other horrid carrot on a stick mechanics every mmo uses.
Why is it that I would rather wander around a game world just killing shit instead of doing the quests and make my life easier? Because quests in MMOs are bloody aweful!
Why dont I just join the millions of players the like carrot on a stick mechanics? Its easy enough the devs set a goal, the goal is clear and easy to understand and I just follow it, right? Maybe it's due to the entire system being horrible and repetitive, only put in the game to keep me playing longer?
This is me in a new mmo, First i already read a game guide so I skip the tutorial since its 99% of the time aweful. Then I skip quests and just explore. If I find a carrot mechanic in the game I do my best to avoid this.
If a game has a forced mechanic i try my hardest to go against that system, This is in every game mind you.
I must just hate everything about todays MMOs (every game thats still running).
Why else would someone prefer a game thats big and empty with no direction at all?
Ever eat some bad food and get sick? then a month or so later see that food and feel off? That feeling comes over me when I play a game like WoW or Lotro that just fill a quest log and force all these mechanics on me. Seriously I just glanced at WoW the other day on my brothers computer and felt sick. Just the though of having to farm heroics and raids for set after set after set after set after set makes me ill.
Problem is every game is like that. unless you do what I do and find a game that has 100% craftable items then you could get around mechanics and just buy the best shit on your terms. But even then we have another type of carrot mechanic pushed in front of us.
So after evaluating everything, I've decided that mmos fucking suck and I only still play them because in open ended games its easier to avoid these terrible mechanics.
I know I'm nuts but anyone else feel like I do.
Anyone else log into a current mmo and see the quest log full and just lose all motivation? Anyone read about how you need to farm lock out raids or instanced pvp for items over and over and feel sick?
I'm probably the only one.
Anyway thanks for reading.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Comments
I'm with ya. I think that's why Dust 514 looks great. It's open ended and player driven. I've personally stopped playing MMO's for the last year and have stuck to FPS games. Maybe I'll come back Eve in anticipation of Dust 514...
This is why I like what the solo folks call "forced grouping".
This changes the entire dynamic of the game.
It can be open ended or quest driven, but the focus becomes more about getting a group together and working efficiently as a team, rather than just following the linear game.
Yes, the game can still be linear, but a bunch of people you are playing the game with never is.
Yup- give me a world to make my OWN adventure in- Not some linear "world" where all players evolve essentailly along the same path.
Unfortunatly- WE are the outsiders here as most people wont stick with a game like this long enough to "grow" a proper game world... Ryzom is absoulutly FANTASTIC but lacks a player base to really make the world work a a virtual world needs to- It is really kinda sad.
see ya back in 20 years
seriously, i belive its genre IS evolving, but it will need more time to evolve tecnology to allow all this freedom (money too).
Right now im playing RISEN, u cook, make potion, craft swords, take bath, broom the dust, saw, mine... an even in a sigle player game there is some glitches and performance issues ( gothic 3 vietnam flashbacks) so lets give it more time and NOT BUY unfinished games so dev get the message
i bet´ya gonna play Dragon Age: Origins? =p
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
There is a lot to be learned from a game like Risen. The questing in Risen feels more natural. Risen is a questing themepark, but it feels like a sandbox. There are a bunch of features of Risen that contribute to this.
There are probably a few more things that MMOG developers could learn from Risen but those are the ones that really stood out when I was playing the game.
MMORPG guess what are the words you should be focus on,The most games forgot that MMO that quest are suppose to move along the story and make you feel apart of world not something you do progress and level up.I am going to disagree open end mmo are just as bad and linear mmo.If the community is not great then game will suck.
Take darkfall for example,what if i don't want to kill people what else is their to do?A good dungeon from time to is great distraction and it is nice from time to feel like you have done something in world.When done right a good story and quest will only help the game.
I don't want one or the other.I want both.I have played Oblivion and all i have wish was to play mmo built like that where you could do compeling quests or go on your own path.
There's nothing wrong with optional features in a game like a dungeon system or missions to grab when I fell like it.
My issue is with Endgames being hamster wheels put in a game to make me play longer and the quests and zone to zone to zone progression that gives me no choice in how I want to do things.
A person could only take so much from a game thats supposed to be fun leading him around like a dog.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
I actually love both mechanics, but placed appropriately. I understand how the "themepark" can be bad at end game, which is where I think the sandbox belongs. But I also love the telling a story aproach that many adventure and action games have. Where my character evolves through a story where the world around me is being defined as my character is as well.
Now if I could just have those elements where I could progress through the game in a somewhat linear fashion (but also retain the ability to solve puzzles and bosses my own way) and then open up into a world that is completely open ended and governed by player relationships than I will have found home.
leveling up in a themepark game like WoW (except without any kind of grind) where the focus is more on telling a story rather than killing 10 rats so I can progress to the next level would be great. If then, after my character has learned his place in this fantasy world I could then set out on my own journey ripe with player interaction and obstacles set by other players, I believe we could all be happy with it. Now we just have to wait for this game.....
MMOs played: Horizons, Auto Assault, Ryzom, EVE, WAR, WoW, EQ2, LotRO, GW, DAoC, Aion, Requiem, Atlantica, DDO, Allods, Earth Eternal, Fallen Earth, Rift
Willing to try anything new
Absolutely. I don't think I can properly express how much I hate that crap. I don't want to be told what to do. I don't want to be told where to go. I don't want to be babied and coddled. All they need to do is create a virtual world, fill it with content, and then let me go find it for myself.
Honest to God, I don't need or want to be led around by the nose. Developers want me to find that cool dungeon they built? Just let me explore on my own and I'll find it. If I don't find it it's probably because I found something else I thought was cool and hung around in that other place too much.
When I find things for myself it's much more satisfying. I get drawn into the world so much more. When the entire experience consists of following a pointer on a mini-map which leads from one quest objective to the next and the next and the next it sucks all the fun out of the game and makes it feel like I'm paying money to do an endless series of trivial chores. So yeah, when I try one of those types of games (every game nowdays it seems) I might try to stick with it for a while but very quickly I'm like; f--k this, I ain't doing this shit.
Sorry to see you feel that way bud. I'm having the most fun I've had in a long time with my current MMO. The trick for me has been to take my time and not take anything too seriously. It is a video game after all.....lol
Good luck!!
"I play Tera for the gameplay"
You and me both. ::sigh::
No worries bro, Im just expressing myself. I still play Eve and Ryzom while looking forward to Earthrise and having Darkfall and Fallen Earth on the back burner.
These games atleast give me the freedom to avoid the bullshit that almost every other mmo tosses at me.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
metalhead,
Get a hobby besides MMORPGs, because you're not going to find any special diamond in the rough in this genre. Not right now, anyways.
If you want to play a non-linear game, pick up yourself some old copies of DnD 3.5e and DM with friends. If none of your friends are interested, go buy Photoshop or Flash or FL Studio and make stuff - or get a compiler and code your own games. I'm not kidding.
Go tackle something completely non-linear and design your own things, trust me, you'll have a lot more fun than playing what other people have designed.
Agreed.
Having a good group can make all the difference.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
I have other hobbies, game design isn't one of them but I'm pretty well rounded when it comes to the shit im into.
As for satisfying my appetite for non-linear games I often mess with old Free roam Rpgs.
MMOs havent totally failed me, I still have Eve and other games that offer freedom it would be nice if we had a bit more variety in the genre but what little we do have is decent.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
I've never really liked quests that much, especially as the main path of progression. The only quests I ever liked were the epic long quests that were impossible to do alone like the epic weapons one in EQ, or the armor ones in daoc. Even wow had a quest or 2 I liked, such as the thunderfury line.
I like variety and options in my games. A nice dungeon crawl with a group, a quest here and there, something epic at one point, casual soloing the next day. Maybe crafting one day, or fixing up my house, hehe. A raid, some pvp, just don't want to have a lot of limitations.
It is kind of sad, but I'll go back to games that are 7+ years old and have more fun than anything that has been out in the last 5 years. The problem with that though is the population is small, or limitations with mechanics. I get use to it, but after a while I just get tired of that dated feeling.
After months of not playing MMOs, longer really, I get that feeling to just play something and end up disappointed. I have tons of other things I do, but still get the urge to play an MMO. At least I get almost a month of some fun from these newer games coming out that I don't feel cheated, just disappointed overall that I won't be continuing.
Honestly, I feel the same way. There will be those who disagree with me, but I miss the freedoms and consequences that used to exist. Some of my favorite moments in EverQuest are my worse. I hated them at first, but grew from them.
Once I bound myself in Kedgekeep at the Phinegal Spawn so I could have easy access to check when he was up. I was far too arrogant to believe I would ever actually die, much less think about the consequences of said action. One day-several minutes later- I actually manage to get myself killed with a bad snare (Wizards had an AE snare that if the mob was too close, you'd also snare yourself...) and lo and behold I respawn...at the bottom of an UNDERWATER dungeon. Luckily, I was a wizard and after about 3 or 4 drowning deaths I managed to memorize Nek Gate and actually cast it before I died again.
I had a buddy offer to swim down and resurrect me, but I declined and took the experience loss as a reminder to always be mindful of the consequences of my actions.
Things like that really make a game for me. Especially the little things. Having to Rememorize Spells for instance, or being able to set your respawn point almost anywhere, and having to rely on other members of your community. Having to memorize spells added a small, but personal touch that I feel is gone today. Spells that were greatly beneficial, but could turn against you just as readily added to the thrill of the game. I wish I could remember the number of times I let Skelly form kill me on my Necromancer or the number of times I snared myself on my Wizard.
In order to keep myself from rambling anymore, let me just say. I'm in the same boat as you.
Metal me and you have very similar views and choices, the best thing ive personally come up with too solve my dilema is to have a mix of sandbox and themepark gameplay....a big open world, skill based progression, an interactive combat system, loads of quests to do and a rather social game. Hopefully one day a game with a blend of these 2 different gameplay types would come out.
A new Hybrid mmo would be cool.
I play Anarchy Online on a Froob account (f2p) that game has everything from a skill system under the hood to deep, complex mechanics, single player dungeons, raid progression and a Massive world to explore. its dated looking but I have yet to find a themeparkish MMO as good, I would go as far to say that AO was an even better game than DAoC (most peoples favorite themepark)
The other game I mess with isnt really a MMO to most people but I consider it one. Guild wars, The duel class system, stat allocation, A massive game world that could be switched to hardmode so 100% of the game is useful at cap. Great pvp and awesome pve if you can get into a active guild. Just the shear number of available spells for each class blows me away.
Im sure you played both games a lot but honestly you cant get better than those two games when it comes to themepark or hybrid mmo.
You know how I feel about Sandbox games but if you ever want a break from the open ended games mess with GW and AO.
If I had a choice to play two mmos forever and had only five to pick from between GW, AO, WoW, WAR and Aion I would take AO and GW in a second.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
I agree Guild wars was quite a unique experience maybe devs should just look at how that game pulled 7 million sold copies and not go for the bigger number with wow. AO and AC are two games i've heard quite alot about and i kinda wished i could get into them but for AO the population when i tried it was really low and the people that were there were pretty much near cap plus im kinda waiting for them to do the graphical update whereas AC we have the same population problem and im sorry but i just couldn't handle the graphics. Also for some odd reason, i dno even know why but i think blizzard's next MMO might be what i want here.
I recently logged into RK-2 in Anarchy Online and the game was more populated around cities than AoC and WARs cities combined. While I agree the game is quite top heavy I stilll enjoy it. If you could get around the graphics and really start playing with the mechanics the game is very rewarding even for Froob accounts. The graphics revamp will bring back older players and a few open minded players to AO but other than that it will remain a small community.
Anyway, Earthrise is looking decent right now but that game wont be released until 2010 easily. From a few of my buddies its being dubbed AO 2.0 with elements of Eve. Could be good.
I honeslty have no comment on AC, I played it for about six months and prefered AO. I dont really know the state of the game. At the time of its release I was kind of burnt out on fantasy mmos from UO and EQ so I didnt last long.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
What you hate is Linear games, Linear mechanics.
Ive wrote a lot about that.