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Devs Lack of imagination?
fixif
Member UncommonPosts: 180
I just simply dont get. Is there a massive eclipse in the world of devs? cause every new game that comes out is same old same old. same quests, same environment, same sh1t over and over and over again. why? millions spent on game that fails immidiately after launch? whats up with that?
lets just take the SIMPLIEST thing in one mmo thats is not very demanding to achieve but u have to have atleast a bit of imagination.
environment: U can do all kinds of wierd stuff in there. but no. devs limit themselves to so games end up looking like this: 20% jungle, 10% meadows, 10%cities. and about 60% wast, unused deserts.. WHY? i dont feel like doing nothing there even for an hour let alone to level there..... i come from aion.. and that game is advertised as visually stunning...hmmm. there is nothing stunning there.. environment is fugly as hell.. there is not one sigle area that impressed me. big world..89% scorched crap. dark. fire. rocks. ppl in there have wings, but environment is like they r humans..devs are tied to Earths laws of physics..i hope u know what am i trying to say
or quests.. lets say u have to gather 10 something for some npc. and u gather it. thats how it works now.. but why not give this npcs a purpose. so they wouldnt stand there with fucking question mark over theirs head but would actually do something..like building additional houses, expanding the village, that would led to additional quests or rewards or something. and hostile npcs should not stand in an area and walk around mindlessly. why not give them a purpose. example. mines are fairly common place in mmos.. why wouldnt npcs try to build their own village or camp and u try to stop them. or they dig dig dig and collapse a part of them area and new quests can be born form that. save survivors, pick up left cargo or something..
these r only examples that poped to my head now.. im just frustrated with whole mmo industry. one would think that mmos companies strictly hire mentally challenged ppl// altho probably even they have more imagination than devs
i think major companies should hire james cameron to do environment for them.. avatar is pure example how one fantasy world should look like. without that industry crap
sry for my bad english/ i hope u understood what i was trying to say.
Comments
Developers aren't paid to try new and imaginative things, they're paid to appease investors and get customers.
Someone way back when was trying new things and came up with the concept of the traditional MMORPG model you see everywhere. It is flawed, but functional. Many have adopted it as the standard. That standard has become the target of developer's minds everywhere, it is a functional fixation to them: "I should not deviate from what works, because it isn't broken." Thank Ford for that foolish philosophy.
So it's no small wonder that we get a half-assed been-there-done-that sort of variety to choose from. Investors want a sure bet. Game developers want to survive by doing what they love. Naturally, with such powerful extrinsic motivation AGAINST experimentation, you're going to get creative stagnation.
Welcome to American capitalism.
And I quote my response from another thread...
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3295273#3295273
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
It isn't just MMOs, it is the world of entertainment in general.
Hollywood, producers, and devs alike seek money generating formulas that are most likely to generate the most money as possible. Thus, if a Intellectual property does well, they sequel and remake it to death.
The downside to something new, is that it is untested and has not proven to be a "hit" elsewhere and thus investors are shy about putting money in such projects. This creates a vicious cycle of garbage begetting garbage where once cool stories and Ip's are recycled so much that anything like them is just blah.
The innovation is out there: Pen and Paper GM's routinely blow Hollywood out of the water week after week on their kitchen tables. Amateur artists produce works that rival any studio and post them on the net. RPers create characters and worlds that far more interesting than any movie studio in the course of a couple of RP sessions.
The creativity is out there, but the desire to finance this massive well of talent is not.
Until the money folks open their eyes to risk and dare to look towards new and non traditional idea sources, you can kiss most innovation goodbye.
Sounds like you are looking for the adventures and entertainment in a game.
Unfortunately mmorpg developers don't care much about your immersion and enjoyment nowadays.
But no! Not all of them are like that. Runescape is an adventure. When your quest NPC is killed they are gone from the game. When you dig a hole on the ground you can climb down the hole to the underground level.
All kinds of things that make your game more like an adventure can be done, although not with ease. The game developers aren't lack of imagination. They just don't want to spend money and time to developer a better systems. They only care about getting the games out so they can start making money.
That's not devs. Small indie companies where devs have a lot more to say are trying something new and fresh. Big companies are lead by old grandpa investors that heard how much cash WoW is doing so they think copying all the features would lead to even more $$. Devs have nothing to say here.
By devs I meant the "the big bass of the game developers". Of course they make the final decision and it all back to the root of all evil. I am sure a lot of game designers will like to make their games more like adventures than just grinds and end game raids but the big bass just want the money.
Its not the MMO industry, its all industries, from music to tv to cinema. the safest bet is always trying to get a piece of the existing cake, rather than cooking your own new cake.
if YOU were in charge of 100 million dollars, were pressured to make a profit and your house your family and your dog depended on you succeeding, Im sure you would also want to invest that money in something that has been proved to yield benefits, rather than experimenting new ways to tenfold that money, which 99/100 times work as well as throwing that cash directly down the toilet.
You thought Avatar was imaginative ironically avatar story is very close Dances with wolves and Ferngully.James Cameron also borrowed liberially from himself from Abyss,T2 and aliens.I have him credit for creating a vivid world but creative not so much.
i meant environment.not storyline. cause that was what i can call visually impressive. not graphics ofc..but the whole idea of the world there.
i really dont think that money granpas r making the game. they do invest but devs r making the game. and so far look of mmos is bound to earths looks and physics which i found very unimaginitive and uterly moneystealing. i would play rl if i want some of that. i want to play in a visually fantastic and impressive world.. an active world. not scorched lands. 60% of all mobs zombies and skeletons... fuck that
if 90% of MMORPG gamers hates real RPG´s
me thinks MMO devs are doing great job.
Generation P
u completely missed my point. devs have to deliver unreal rpg. but they failed to deliver every single time since eq.
You thought Avatar was imaginative ironically avatar story is very close Dances with wolves and Ferngully.James Cameron also borrowed liberially from himself from Abyss,T2 and aliens.I have him credit for creating a vivid world but creative not so much.
He's talking about Avatar's environment....not the actual story. I'm kind of tired of people trying to not conform to the tiny craze of Avatar by saying "Oh it's just a Dances with Wolves movie". The movie was fine, who gives a fuck. Sorry, continue on subject :P
See Avatar.. amazing graphics, boring plot. Same is happening all over. Why? Better graphics will make 100% of the audience willing to buy it. An innovative gameplay is very expensive to polish and make it work well, and good luck if it's anything interesting at all. And if you are really good and did it well, maybe 50% of the audience will consider it a worth thing to buy.
im talking about the whole world. not even about graphics but how should fantasy world look like. aion for instance has wings implemented. but what use of them? environment hasnt changed a bit to mmos that dont have wings. aion could have 2 more lvls of environment atleast. ..but i guess thats too much work to be done..or maybe that requires some actual thinking. so they pass on that and make same old fking world all over again. and thats happening with quest, combat system...etc etc. since wow was the "revolutionary" thing in mmo industry i think ill have to w8 until blizzard announces their new mmo..
devs could atleast visit mmorpg.com now and then and they would get billion fresh new ideas.. but.....