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MMORPGs Are Dead -- How to Resurrect the Genre
ColumbiaTrue
Member Posts: 47
The quest. The journey. The world. The community. The essential ingredients combined to create an enriching, complex, and satisfying---indeed memorable---MMORPG experience. Today's games fall sort of creating lasting, lifelong memories. Instead, they are designed to provide temporary, fleeting contentment.
An MMORPG should not just be about the game itself. An MMORPG is more than gaming. It is about building genuine, authentic relationships in an environment conducive to building bonds of friendship.
An MMORPG world has to feel rich, diverse, and dynamic. Most MMORPG worlds are so static and stale that I cannot bear to play them --- even for free.
The journey. An individual, unique, and customized character. Different from but similar to others. A part of the world and a part of a community. However, the opportunity to define one's own destiny, choose a path (create a path).
"The truth is EA lies." - Youtube User
Sim City. Everquest. Civilization. Dungeon Keeper. Vampire: The Masquerade. These are the games that I love and cherish.
Comments
Well said, agree with you on all points, who no's maybe one day there will be a gem amongst all this garbage.
The reason MMORPG's are dead is because of all the ignorant developers in general I have played like every MMORPG Out there of what is classified as such and the experience is dead in my eyes.
True MMORPG's was back when Infantry Online, and T4C were around 200 players on small maps massively playing the game with PVP Combat, Games like EVE, DarkFall, Guild Wars are examples of real MMORPG's.
All these Free 2 Play so called MMORPG's by Gamers First, Nexon, Perfect World are complete crap, StarTrek online, and APB Reloaded has great potential but over 7 players I have spoken to say the games suck because of the companies running them which IMO is true.
The only way to revive MMORPG's is to get Rid of all the ignorant developers, get rid of the Pay 2 Enjoy, and Pay 2 Win Scheme and make actual MMORPG's from passionate developers who want to offer more for the buck and great premium MMORPG service then focus on cash shop, for example Guild Wars 2 does this, except only thing I don't like about Guild Wars I wish they allowed unlimited make-over other than that you can get it FREE, other MMORPG you can't.
The only way to revive the Generate is making a new term like MMORPG, but changing it and Copy-Righting it so that no one can use that term for their games without lawsuit in U.S then release a new type of totally created Combat Game that actually allows great customization, and Game Play beyond click to target, or Tab Target similar to TERA, or Blade & Soul but give it a different type of Genre other than MMORPG.
Never Winter, another example of a disaster in the DDO series, I like Dragons & Dungeons, I enjoyed the movie too but I can't understand how PWI got rights to both Never Winter & StarTrek Online and ruin them.
In other words, make MMOs that actually deserve to be self-sustaining P2P.
How does one resurrect something that's not dead? If you remove personal preference from the equation, there are virtually no indicators to say that the genre is dead, dying, or even is suffering from a head cold. There are more games than ever, the production quality of F2P games has gone upwards rather than downwards compared to previous years, there are more publishers and devs creating games, and there are more gamers playing MMOs than ever before. Real "dead" genres are dead easy to spot without bringing preferences to play. How long was the adventure game drought before Telltale Games came on the scene? How robustly were tactical turn-based shooters selling before the XCOM remake? How many text-based games is Steam pushing out the door?
I don't mean to discount the OP's opinions on the direction the genre has taken; I understand and can even agree with some of them. But there's a clear difference between feeling like a genre has passed you by and seeing that genre simply wither and die as has been suggested.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
You mean, they changed into games that could actually make money for the developers, which is what all companies are in business to do. There just aren't enough "demanding, old fashioned gamers" out there to make money.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Shovelware.
Interesting and well put , after playing a few ftp mmos lately I can honestly say I have not actually met a single person in the game who I remember or even share a bond with .
It's like no one talks anymore because no one cares .
for some reason i cant get the thought out of my head
"Just because there's bacteria on a corpse, doesn't mean the mans alive."
You realize they actually put a lot more money into these games now right?
This is the problem, most who want something else rarely express themselves properly. It's all laced with this overall tone. Just look at the posts that followed this one. It all goes down hill from here, you don't get anywhere by simply attacking current games, those who play them, or their mentality. There's no message taken from this to the eye that matters. It just looks like petty dung flinging.
Yes lets just continue to create white-noise. We'll get there someday, not by our own doing of course that would take actual thought and tact.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
MMOs aren't dead. We're just stuck in a lame transition phase from themepark to sandbox.
The WoW clone model has been proven a failure time and time again. The final nail in the coffin to that type of game was SWTOR. Now we just have to sit back and wait for the triple A next gen sandbox games to arrive and reignite interest. The bad news is it's probably gonna be at least a couple more years before that happens.
You don't resurrect something that isn't dead.
If something could be considered dead here, it is you and alike player type. Then again, your burnout isn't anyone else issue but yours. Find a new hobby.
You could have just put this in the, "I WANT A SANDBOX! WAAH" thread. But I do thank you for your opinion.
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Money equals better game-play in most comparisons. Past games focused on allowing communities to make their game (what {insert} eventually became). Modern AAA titles essentially are all about upping the quality of game-play at the expense of freedoms and "community depth". Depth comes from developed systems, rather than open-ended options given to players.
A good example of this is a comparison between SWG and SWTOR. Both were buggy, not so well received Star Wars games, that had numerous issues but devoted fans.
SWG's depth was in it's skill system, community system and it's profession paths. All of it was layered in a way to make a community dependent on one another for everything to work. This is the old many of us want back.
TOR"S depth lied in it's production values, which I have to say were all but destroyed by their engine choice. Graphics had to be toned down,original planned combat system had to be scraped etc..Still it had high production values, voice acting, tight combat (when it works)<- IE ability delays.
Community depth was completely ignored, just like many other titles since 04. WOW made people want good game-play. I think people are now realizing that was the wrong choice, and it's a little late. I wanted that community depth, after SWG's community all but died (04), haven't found it since, and really don't plan to. As I doubt we'll see it again.
Anyway, point is community is rather low costs in terms of feature planning, you just need layers upon layers of it. That's what brings overall game-play quality down. When players begin to accept large amounts of bugs (as TES fans do), not so great animations, not so cutting edge GFX, etc... We'll see MMO's heading in that direction again. While players want shiny GFX, great combat, etc, etc. we'll continue to see most MMO's focusing on those things.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Its fact.
It's a fact. What percentage of all MMO players do you think constantly whine on various forums about how the genre is dying?Contrast that with the amount of players who happily go about their playtime without a care in the world as to what is happening to the genre.
Ahhh its always that bunch of jaded MMO gamers that spent way too much portion of their free time playing MMOs (multiple years, generally) but couldn't understand why they don't derive the same enjoyment anymore. I hate to repeat what you already heard so many times but just couldn't accept. Its called burnt out.
And since they don't have fun anymore, how dare anyone else actually still have fun with the genre and declare otherwise.
Take a break guys, seriously. The problem isn't with the games, its you. In fact, some of you may actually need to consider moving on with your lives and find new hobbies.
What they're doing is spending money, that's the only thing that matters. It's obvious what they're spending it on BTW, there are plenty of threads around here on the subject, people love showing their graphs.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
yeah well.
with all the money made today on terrible games, imagine if they made a good one.
companies overcompensate frequently. upon the success of WoW game companies put aside innovation to try to piggy-back on the unprecedented success of WoW. keep in mind wow was a success on such a monumental level when it burst onto the scene that it likely literally knocked businessmen off their chairs.
now the pendulum is swinging back, as we see that on the horizon are very different games such as star citizen, repop, EQN being reworked to be more sandboxy, CU, archeage, as well as games which depart from the typical combat model, such as tera, dragon's prophet and ofc darkfall.
so in other words your ressurection is already on its way, have faith.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
I believe the word is something called 'free market' and how there are more MMO players than ever before.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
OMG love that responce
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I believe that people are pretty flexible. I might not be a huge fan of FPS for example, but I still enjoy a good one. I don't think an MMO needs to try and cater to everyone but, whatever it does, it needs to do it well.
Take Neverwinter for example. I was expecting a lot more. I think I finished it today - its instanced, linear and total inflexible, very few quests in each instance(zone). Lots of people are already saying at level 60 (the cap) that there's nothing to do - and it only takes a couple weeks to get there. Compared to the years of gameplay I got out of Perfect World, Neverwinter really boggles the mind - like, they spend who knows how much time and money coming up with a game that lasts a month??? Have a look at the crafting system in Neverwinter - like really, just delete the code from the game and no one would know it was ever there - its totally pointless.
Compare again to that (kiddies?) game - Minecraft. The gameplay is literally endless - for what its trying to be - it might be an almost perfect example.
If companies think they will get away with a game like Neverwinter and clever marketing, I think they will be very surprised at how wrong they are and how quickly they fail.
If games are going to be successful I believe its a two part equation - 1/ - the journey to end-game must be challenging and immersive make you feel the time and effort you put in, is something you don't want to lost by just quitting; and 2/ -the end game must be something to keep people active and continually developing irrespective the epicness of your gears. How they do this is up to better minds than mine .... but I think of housing/crafting/land ownership as an end-game subject which is underdeveloped.
EDIT - looking at my two equations above - Perfect World - great journey, end-game is b2w. Nothing can be obtained by effort/crating that cant be obtained with a credit card; Neverwinter - journey was fast and totally unimersive. Some awesome graphics/layouts/environments but that's it; end-game - there doesn't appear to be one. Minecraft - no journey at all; end-game is the same as the start and you can totally change your world environment.
Surely with all the things people love about mmo's and with all the things people loath, someone can develop a great game...