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We are the pioneers of this genre. What will be our legacy?
Amathe
Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
Games are at least 5000 years old. Videogames are obviously much more recent, and mmorpgs more recent still.
Many of the people on this website played the first commercially available videogames ever made. Almost all of us have played and are playing some of the first mmorpgs. This genre has only been around since 1991.
So we are the pioneers. It's kind of exciting when you think about it. How often in life do you get to be among the first people to do something? It's even more exciting when you consider that we are the first visitors to these virtual lands. We are, in a virtual sense, Lewis and Clark.
Most gamers feel like no one listens to them. They give their opinions and make their gaming choices, and think it's all just noise on the vast internet. But I don't believe that. The things we say and do, the choices we make, what games we play and what ones we shun - all of that will have a ripple effect on this type of gaming that could last for a very long time.
Of course mmorpgs will change and evolve. They will change to the point we may someday not even recognize them anymore. But the idea of people coming together to play, where that play is made possible by technology, that's not going away for probably many generations, if ever.
And you were here when it began.
The question is, what shape will our choices give to the future of this medium?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Comments
Well… it is long and thin like a line, it bends around and meets together sort of like in a circle. Then at the bottom right there is an appendage that sort of hangs out. Oh and the construct always comes in pairs to make a statement. That’s what they will see in the vast hidden game forum archives among the ruins of our ancient civilization
I don’t know about you, but I’m biding my time until we can just jack in. In the meantime I’ll just fire up my app and crank out models for it
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
I do think that as a game, MMOs feel to me like the logical commercialization of pencil and paper RPGs and I actually have more fondness for the legacy of being in the first generation rolling dice in a hand-crafted story than I do for the sort of sterile, but addictively polished and persistant mass-medium online worlds.
I fear that I suspect that for all my ranting and brainstorming and commenting across various forums, everything I have ever said has probably vanished into the background noise. Deep down I suspect I will look back at my younger self not as a pioneer consumer of a new simulation/game medium, but as one of the early couch potatoes of tv's equally-vacuous successor.
( er ... hmm ... I seem to be well on my way to being a bitter old cynic
)
Our legacy is that we where around when mmorpg's where wounderful not the crap under the sink like todays game's. New generation can have there WoW type crap But we had UO . DAoC , EQ , SB thats good enuf for me.
It's about time for the 1st gen to give up our dreams of looking for a game of old type game coming out and live knowing we had the best game's and they rest will never see them in there prime.
Hey, that's one of the reasons I got my first computer, a Commodore, to use the printer to make materials for P&P RPG's
...including graphical maps that I had to program pixel by pixel lol Few know how any of that really works now even though they may edit graphics every day.
Who would have ever thought back then that BBS games would turn into MUD's and MUD's into MMORPG's and MMORPG's into... Tron?
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
I saw the whole thing
Back in the early 80s as I made little dungeon-sims on my Vic-20, I used to have vivid dreams about Traveller RPGs being played on interconnected arcade machines with sophisticated space combat sims, mining and resource management with massive numbers of players in a neverending game. My dreams were almost identical to what a game like EVE is today except I imaged playing in a big oversized arcade chair with joysticks, buttons and little screens all around me instead of sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse.
I just lacked the courage of my convictions to be the one to make my dreams come true.
Can I have your stuff?
Oy I was the first Scalper to walk the virual MMO world and FPS multi play world. Heck offline I already used that nick 16 years old that time.
Now a days you see many more scalpers walking around, all probably once touched bt one of my headshots or crazy antics, at least I like to believe that.
I was also one of the first (did see noone else before do it) in FPS doing the run around in crowd with nade cocked allowing team all try shoot me forcing them to teamkill each other and eventually blowing myself up killing the survivors. Probably I was not the first doing that online, was in a mod for half life 1 called firearms, 10 some years ago or longer.
Every antic those that came first(us) did will have been picked up by peers and the newbies. All we may have done online there will be at least one person telling our tale.
I've seen crazy mf in my time doing there shit or played against those that ended becoming icons in prof gaming. It's nice having blown up the likes of Fatality, or however he called himself mow, with a rocket. A great feat cause those guys are sooo good.
Tron - Now you are talking, glowing armour and lines of light, I can remember thinking what on earth! The height of virtualised reality. Its all fluffy bunnies and big swords these days.
Your legacy will be the same as the people who read the first books or the people who listened to the first radio shows or the people who watched the first TV shows.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Our legacy?-look to wow it is filled with sniveling snot nosed spoon fed trash talkers-that's our legacy
So I guess you came from WoW....
This is our legacy... whiners and whining.
Our legacy? Easy. "You can milk them for cash to no end, they just keep on giving and giving to gain absolutly nothing!"
Not the original MMOers.. the new nintendo MMO generation. The original MMOers are leaving in droves
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Sad but truth, senseless constant whining make the player feedback almost useless, so gaming companies goes for a cheaper and safer approach. Funny that leads to even more whining creating a bad circle. Until vocal mmo crowd matures, I can only see Farmville as a legacy
I remember my adventures in Ultima Online and EverQuest.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
The answer is quite simple. It is the same thing that drives games now. It is unfortunate but most game are now driven by the now me crowd. I have watched good games get turned into mush by it.
Take for instance SWG, it was an ok game until all the kids started screaming we want light sabers now. Then at that point lucas arts told soe you guys need to do this. I know a lot of folks blame SOE for that choice, but honestly lucas arts had a hand in that due to the numbers of the game and it not producing enough sales.
Take for instance LOTRO, it was a great little nitch game, untill a bunch of complainer kept going, this game has this this game had that. An in an effort to appease everybody they added factors from wow, guild wars and all. Now that game is a former shadow of itself. Trying to be something to everybody and failing on all accounts. Thus the reason they are working on a new mmo, and shifted most of the dev resources to DDO.
Take a look at FE Fallen Earth this game started out great, the last few updats have been total crud, and they even fired 75% of the staff as they bled subs after the crafting nerf. I had a 6 month sub to this game but with the crafting nerf and that was handed out due to all the winers has really taken a lot from the game, at least they tried to make up with it in adding extra quests. Something I really did not want to see was more and more ners and that is what the last update did by not allowing stacked active buff's. FE is giong down the tubes I am afraid.
I could point out other games as well, but every game now days seams to be driven by the mightly dollar count at the end of the day, and the decisions of the company to do what it takes to have the highest sub count, instead of delivering a truely great game.
I found myself going back to eq2, while it is SOE product it still has the tase of back in the day for me that other games now lack.
The 25-35 year olds who actually played MMO's 10 years ago are.
You can see it all around you...
Trolls on some backwater internet forum, that's what ;p
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
See, I dont have a desire to turn the clock back to mud's, pre-trammel uo or anything else dated. They were fun and new; the establishment of the emergent games.
I'm not a "horse-rider", stuck on that mode of transportation when "steam-power" proves to be more versatile and efficient. The problem is partly players, though, subscribing to something for the sake of nothing better to play. I dont subscribe to anything right now, but not to say I aint looking to some new potentials.
Our legacy will be one of regression (time-lines are generalities, not limits of the game lifes for sampled MMO's):
1970's: Offline roleplaying (pencil and paper)
1980's: Online linear single player game (i.e., "A Bard's Tale")
1990's: Single player game with some limited multi-user (LAN) plan (i.e., "Diablo")
1999 - 2003: Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (i.e., "Everquest", "Ultima Online", "Dark Age of Camelot", "Asheron's Call", etc.). Arguably, the "Golden Age" of MMORPG design.
2004 - 2007: Spoon-fed MMORPG's (i.e, "WOW" and clones)
2007 - Present: Heavily Instanced and linear MMORPG's (i.e., "Age of Conan", "LOTRO")
Future?: Offline leveling MMORPG's (soon to come)
So, basically, game design is running full circle, at least back to the 1980's. It's kind of like those adventure books, choose Action A, go to page 53, choose Action B, go to page 97, but those are all of your choices; the choices and freedom are becoming much more limited as dev's essentially play your character for you.
The basic cause of this regression is game design is:
1) Business Managers of game companies want to capture the non-gaming base and feel those folks are too challenged by all but the most simple premises and require much hand-holding and direction.
2) Graphics-intensive games challenge machines, creating lag, so instancing resolves some of this. Plus, the efforts placed into graphics take away resources for content. You end up with pretty games that are hollow inside.
3) Dev's have a mistaken belief that "path of least resistance" = "most fun". While players will choose "path of least resistance", this does not always equate with the most enjoyable gaming experiences. The thrill of overcoming a heart-pounding challenge is lost, because dev's wrongly assume that overcoming obstacles is not fun. (I think game companies almost need to hire a psychologist or two for their design teams; dev's are really missing the mark on assessing human nature.)
1993-2003 golden age? maybe for the few players that used to play MMOS during those years but it surely wasn't a golden age for MMO companies.
How is any of that your legacy?
.
You just played the game. Are you in the industry?
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
If you will read the OP's post, it is implying that gamers have their own legacy, and certainly their demands, requests, and dollar-spending influence devs. I'm just answering the OP. Go read that initial post again.
Well, we did immortalize Chuck Norris.
I suppose we can put that feather in our caps.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Well, you did give them some money, I guess.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren