Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
You can play MMOs in different ways
alecbr
Member Posts: 64
I played a theme-park MMO like it was supposed to play - like almost all the other players did it. I got to level 63 and was bored to death. I tried some other MMOs and it was the same story all over again.
Then I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I don't have to play a MMO like it is supposed to play. I can play it my way - by my own rules. So I went back to my first theme-park MMO (it is the most attractive MMO of all that I tried) and I'm playing it now by my following rules:
1. I don't do instances and raides - they don't exist for me
2. I'm not a member of a guild and I'm not soloing. I'm interacting and grouping with other players dynamically in the game - on the fly.
3. I'm only chatting with other players that are around me and that I can see.
4. I don't play to level up. I get XP and I'm leveling up but I don't care about it - it's just something that's happening in the background. The only time that I'm thinking about my level is when I'm trying to find out if I'm strong enough to attack the mobs.
5. I turned off almost all the text that is appearing above other players or NPCs. If I want to see some information then I can look in a corner of my screen.
6. My camera is positioned right behind my characters head - almost first person view. I'm never using some far away bird view even if it would give me some tactical advances.
7. Of course I'm on a RP PVP server. I have my PVP flag on from the first minute that I started to play and it's always on even in protected zones. I'm getting ganked a lot, but I love the challenge of trying to avoid being ganked and the game world feels more much more real with ganking.
8. I use my mount and other quick transportations very rarely. I never use instant transportation because it's killing the immersion. I just love to wander slowly around the game world.
9. My only aim is to have some fun time while playing the MMO. I'm not interested in achievements in epic gear in high levels or some other accomplishments.
Now an example of how I'm playing:
....login....it's a nice evening with a beautiful moon..... there's a hill on my right, let's see what's the view from that hill......after some minutes.....yes I love the view... wait a minute, there's a camp of gnolls in that small valley, let's investigate it....checking the gnolls (their levels, numbers, how close together they are).... yes I can handle them....attacking....that was a nice bloody massacre, I killed them all, what a great feeling.....let's go down the valley...interesting, there's a farmhouse there and there's someone in front of it, let's visit him.......it look's like he has a problem, let me see if I can solve it................
And I'm now enjoying every minute that I play.
Comments
You sound like an oldschool MMORPG player. No wonder these shallow kiddie themepark games bore you. I WOULD suggest you a game, if the WoW clones hadn't dominated the industry and killed all the ones you would have liked.
Darkfall Travelogues!
If you're going to use your imagination and actually immerse yourself in the game world, why not play a single-player RPG that's actually good, or a tabletop RPG? They're far better suited to that sort of thing.
No offense intended (really), but it doesn't really speak well of the game that you have to invent a twelve-step program and force yourself to play differently than they encourage you to just to enjoy the game.
I mean, on the surface I agree with you: Immersion is good. But the endless repetitive tasks and tools jumping around saying "lolwut" or "WTS Flaming Thighboots of Nerdiness +10" really ruins the experience.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
Sounds fun.. but it's pretty hard to do that while others lvl like crazy and go groups etc. You know that you are / are going to be worse than them.
Because I like to play with other players and I love 3D game worlds.
Because, you can't change the mechanics of a game, but you can change how you play it. If players weren't meant to be allowed to play by turning names off, then it wouldn't an allowable option (for example).
Good post OP. It's a posotive post. Don't let it bother you if anyone else (no one in particular, just refering to anyone that might flame the OP for sharing thier ideas) has to throw something negative in the mix. You're not trolling or writing an ignorant review based on one sided opinionism. Sharing with others how you plan on enjoying a game is almost always a good thing. Keep it up.
A tiny mind is a tidy mind...
Because I like to play with other players and I love 3D game worlds.
It strikes me that a lot of what attracts the new generation of gamers to MMOs is that they can be approached much like a single player game, but with robust chat capabilities. In fact, I've often thought that if you take a really good single player rpg, such as Oblivion for instance, add a chat room, and matching for coop play, and you would have the perfect MMORPG for many people.
Going into an MMO with a set play and path basically kills me. I mean...you can't beat an MMO (even that korean player(s) ) so why even bother? Just enjoy the game, have fun, don't rush. Rushing kills the game. And don't play 24/7 and never have a life, go out...see some boobs....go on a date, shoot...even play a non-MMO game.
I understand your POV, OP.
I know that when I log in in my MMOs, I often get from guildmates "lol, you haven't progressed at all!". I don't care about normal leveling. I'd rather level my crafting professions. That takes a lot of time, it's still grindy, and it's not as useful to boast to others. But I like and enjoy playing that way, so stfu to anyone trying to force me into some other way of playing.
I'm not forcing anyone to like my style, I'd just like them to respect my choice.
This is sort of how I play.
I tend not to just log in grab a quest do it, come back, grab another, etc. The only difference is that in Lineage 2 I would log in and go to a hunting area, but as some of us know the game is not in the grinding but in the play vs player interaction so that was always interesting
But if there is a quest that I don't want to do and there is a nice reward attached to it I still won't do that quest. I hate crafting so I never do it. I rarely raid though enjoy it in small doses.
I only ever do what I want to do in games.
I've even had times when I went to new player areas, grabbed some new players, gave them money and gear and took them on a tour of the world into areas they might never see.
Whatever floats my boat. That's how I approach mmo's.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
No, you can't change the mechanics of a game. So why not a choose a game with mechanics that better suit your preferred playing style? It sounds like he's trying to shoe horn all the best aspects of the entire RPG genre into one game and if that works for him, great. But to me, it sounds like trying to jam a round peg into a square hole. He basically said that once he started to play immersively, he actually enjoyed the game. So why not play a game that's immersive by its very nature? I guess MMORPGs are his only option for that if he doesn't want to play traditional RPGs.
Am I allowed to have an opinion in this thread, too? Great! I play tabletop RPGs for the role-playing and socialization, I play single-player RPGs for the immersion and gameplay, and I play MMORPGs for the socialization and gameplay.
It's the classic "three options, pick any two" dilemma between those three broad types of RPGs, in my opinion. All of them have strong points and weak points. Immersion and "playing from moment to moment" is generally a serious weak point in MMORPGs.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
I think I was misunderstood a little bit. What I wanted to say was this:
MMOs are big worlds with very loose game mechanics and the game developers did not gave the players some specific instructions how to play the MMOs. For example how do most players play WOW:
1. level as quickly as you can
2. gear up in instances
3. raiding
I don't think that the developers of WOW ever wrote a manual or some instructions where they defined that this was the way WOW should be played. And I don't think that players were banned from WOW because they didn't play the game this way. Most players themselves choose to play WOW this way. But this was never intended to be the only way how WOW should be played.
Let me compare WOW and Modern Warfare. You can play modern warfare only in one way, you have absolutely no choices how to play it. But WOW you can play in different ways:
- level as quickly as you can, gear up in instances, raiding
- the way that I explained at the beginning of the thread
- you can do only battlegrounds
- you can do only in world PVP
- you can hang around in the city and chat all the time
- you can develop only professions
- you can buy and sell at the auction house all the time
- and probably a lot of other ways
And never did the developers say that only one way of playing is the right way of playing. And even if most players play it one way that doesn't mean that this is the right way to play it and that everybody else should find some other game to play.
OP, what was the point of thread topic compared to your post?
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
I don't get high before I play so I just play the game the way it's meant to be played. You are better off playing a sandbox MMO where many people share the same game qualities as you.
Some things you can compartmentalize, and some things you cannot.
If, for example, you play the game until you get to raids, and then either quit or start an alt, then the raid content will not really affect your game play.
But if, for example, you like PvP, and the best PvP gear comes from raids, then if you don't like raids, you are screwed because it does affect your game play.
Well OP I think you'd best hope for Mortal Online to succeed and get off the ground because the way in which you play your current MMO would fit directly into their game mechanics, no global chat, first person view, open world pvp, etc.
Though I do play Lotro very much as you described.
"I will not play it nor any other MMO until they make it possible to obtain the best gear without forcing people to group up to do so." SwampRob
And where is it written how MMOs are meant to be played. Please tell me where has Blizzard published instructions how WOW is meant to be played. I would love to read those instructions. Maybe in the End User License Agreement?
If Blizzard didn't publish the instructions who has the right to determine how WOW is meant to be played? Or are there maybe some international standards which exactly define how theme park MMOs are meant to be played.
Well, one can do that but doesn’t that feel like playing soccer on a tennis court? In fact there is a way developers mean the game to be played. One can play against that but there are many obstacles to work around and one is skipping much of the games content.
When I tried to roleplay in wow, I always thought why don’t we just stop that and move to playing tabletop-rp?
I agree with the OP, while there is pressure in MMOs to "go this way and do these things" if you break from that and do what you want without following the herd then you can make the game your own.
Of course not every MMO is going to allow this kind of play, and you may be missing out on some of the content, but if you have fun then only the fool would fault you for it.
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
Let's for a moment pretend that I agree with you. So for example there is a way how developers at Blizzard meant WOW to be played. I'm almost completely sure that it was never meant that players rushed to level 80 as quickly as possible.
If the developers would want the players to rush through the levels they wouldn't made the game world like it is. The game world of WOW is huge, it's very diverse, the landscapes are fantastic, there are tons and tons of missions. You can see that they put a lot of effort into creating the world. Why would they do it if they wanted the players to rush as quickly as possible to level 80. It would be much more wise to put all that effort into instances and raiding. So we would have a smaller and simpler world but much more instances and they could be larger and more spectacular.
If you are rushing through the levels how much of the world do you explore? Maybe 30%. What about the other 70%. I don't think that the developers made the other 70% just for fun, so that they had something to do. If WOW was meant to be played in a way it was never meant to be played in this way: leveling as quickly as possible, gearing in instances as quickly as possible, raiding.
So most players aren't playing WOW as it was meant to be played. So are we all wrong? Should we all leave WOW and play some other games?
I play Hello Kitty, but pretend it's Star Wars Galaxies before the NGE.
I don't know why all players don't just do that.