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General: Asian MMOs are Bad
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
There is no question that the Asian MMO market is storming Western shores with a vengeance. Prevailing wisdom here is, however, less than charitable to most games coming out of Asia. In today's Devil's Advocate, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy argues the opposing viewpoint and suggests that Asian MMOs are categorically NOT bad. Read on and then lend your voice to the discussion in the comments.
There's a big tendency in our western MMO-loving way to simply write off all Asian-imported games. I can understand why. Traditionally, they're little more than carbon copies of one another. But this has been changing now for the past few years. Japanese console developers have long been discussing how their Western counterparts managed to scream far ahead of them in terms of design, and it seems they've actively been trying to catch up in recent years, or at the very least shake up their own preconceived notions of what a game should be.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The Devil's Advocate: Asian MMOs are Bad.
Comments
If ArcheAge truly is the combination of UO and L2 that I'm hoping for then I'll be playing it for a very long time.
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76)
Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
The article lose coherence when it comes to games that are not out yet.
So first we are to blame for believing Aion's marketing campaign, and then it's all roses and rainbows when it comes to TERA and ArchAge?
I have lived in Asia for nearly 10 years, and I think it's clearly a cultural thing. Games are considered strictly for kids here. Any adult who plays games is pretty much considered a loser. So, designers don't really give a hoot about story or depth when they go to make a game. It's about whatever the teenage boys in the target market are into. That would be anime girl toons in high heels and playing with their friends in a "cyber-cafe."
If Asian designers want to tap western markets, they will slap on some story and do their best to figure out what they guess western players will want. They are doing it purely for cash via cash shop sales, so you won't find what a lot of western gamers might call "soul" in Asian games. In other words, they are not games designed by gamers for gamers for the love of a great game concept. They don't have a D&D history. They just copied the template and monetized it.
Western game designers have kind of fallen into this same mould with all the f2p game design in my opinion.
Traditionally, they're little more than carbon copies of one another.
Talking about western games now, yes?
Agreed, Asian MMOs are becoming more versatile than their western counterparts (which are almost all WoW esque), even if the quality isn't there now, it will be soon.
I agree with something: Aion is getting better and better. But then, patch 3.0 will be just another new game i believe.
There is no kinka about it, large wester developers long ago turned from creating fun games first and profit second to profit at all costs. Look at EA 10-15 years ago compared to today and the kinds of games they put out then for a prime example of this change. Of course when a game costs 20-100 million with todays high rez graphics taking chances like fun is harder and harder to justify.
Interesting perspective on this issue thanks for the post, these are my major gripes with Asian MMOs but I never bothered to think why they might be so prevalent - just assumed it was due to taste.
There is much I find admirable about Asian culture, but that does not include their games. I find them shalow and childish and a waste of time. I wish MMORPG would put country of orign in their games list, and save us all some time.
same people that initially headed AION and made all them promises are heading up TERA and making the same promises(but the head honchos are already leaving EME/BHS before the game hits western shores) and AION did GREAT oversees while TERA is flat out dying over in korea, everyone may as well cross it off their list. as bad as AION was at US launch, TERA clearly is going to be quite a bit worse.
"asian games lack soul" i couldnt of summed it up any better. if your older than 30 check out "good old games. com" they have all the classic pc games from when developers had imagination
Never seen so much bullshit in 1 post.
indeed.
Yep. Almost as much hasty generalization as the original article.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
It's not so much the Titles you listed above, as they are presumed to be AAA MMORPG's.
It is the endless onslaught of crap asian F2P games that are produced and then smattered all over this sight and many other MMO sites. As I write this there is a huge Remnant Knights banner across the top of the screen, it is the constant wave of crap games like this that are the issue.
Games that tickle under your chin until you reach about lvl 10-20 (depending on the game) then grind to a halt (pun intended) bottlenecking you into the cash shop with need of +weapon upgrade mods, or XP pots, or death sickness erasers etc.
It's the crap like this that floods the market and dilutes the fact that there are good asain games out there.
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
I am not biased against Asia, I am a huge anime fan and love some Asia single player games. BUT: in MMOs all Asia MMOs I tried were bad. Boring.
And ArchAge died for me when I heard of PK, full loot and prison penalities. NO WAI.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
What? Do you... What?
Are you...
It is best for the industry the MMO throne remains an dusty empty seat never to be filled.
What kind of argument is one WoW clone, one okay game and two overhyped games that haven't been released yet?
I am so disappointed that the title of this piece stopped at "are bad", and didn't follow with "mmmm, kay?"
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
"More so, the game’s visuals are continually update to keep the game looking stunning"
update = updated
I'm most excited for ArcheAge BUT...it's so far away from localization that I don't see the point in getting excited just yet
Western games haven't been too hot either so I wouldn't poo-poo on Asian games.
Asian games focus more on group features whereas Western games tend to cater more to the "me-me" crowd.
Also the "every person is equal" mantra. Every person is a winner, every person gets an epic.
"asian mmogs are bad" - its a cliche, but one with a big element of truth. there are around 10 acceptable asian mmogs against hundreds of brain- and soulless ones. and to pick some of the few acceptable ones and present them as counter-argument only shows us that there might be an exception of the rule. there is no need to be a 'devils advocate', because the cliche is solid. but please feel free to come back if the good and the bad (and the ugly) balance each other.
I still contend it's a matter of what game was your first MMO. You develope a taste for that type of game knowing or unknowing. For example I started with Lineage 2 staying years.. and never hitting level cap.. loved most my time there. Would I go back and do it again? Nope but I'm much more forgiving towards certain things than many others. I still miss many things that that game had that no other does at the moment. No Asian AAA MMOs aren't all bad(most f2ps are just cookie cutter though) but you won't find the same things you will in western MMOs. It's all in what you look for.
Acceptable to who, you? Just because a game doesn't appeal to you or me doesn't make it a bad game. Eve Online doesn't appeal to me but I appreciate that its a good game never the less.
Let's take a handful of these so called "good" FTPs.
1. Perfect World
2. Forsaken World
3. Atlantica Online
4. Allods Online
5. Shaiya
I'll stop there, since it would redundant to put any others here. Of the above, besides a few very small differences in delivery and combat and classes, what makes them stand apart? I literally have played each and every one listed here and I swear I was playing the exact same game every single time. Atlantica Online was the exception ONLY due to the turn based combat, but everything else in it felt exactly like every other game.
THIS is my issue with Asian FTPs.
Aion....just about fits into the above mold and is why it didn't do as well as everyone hoped.
ArcheAge is the only hope I see of them truly changing their games around. Maybe even that Age of Wulin game. If they don't, well then I just don't know what to tell you.