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Let me tell you a story.
Haites
Member Posts: 69
Once upon a time there were these people, lets call them freaks, geeks, and nerds. As a community, we fell in love with the aspects of fantasy that were encompassed in tabletop PNP RPGs like DnD. It allowed players to transcend reality for a little while, to become a character of their choosing to explore and adventure through worlds that were only limited by our imaginations. As time and technology progressed, we started to see that computers were opening up new doors, new ways of enjoying our passion. Many people began to transition to this new medium, and MUDs were born. (Ever wonder where the term MOB came from??)
MUDs allowed builders and dungeon masters to create and implement compelling content that could be accessed from anywhere on the planet by just about anyone with an internet connection. Global communities began to form and the seed of the MMO sprouted roots.
Technology continued to improve and we saw the birth of the legendary classic Ultima Online. UO literally broke new ground on what we believed was possible in gaming - a live, graphical online RPG that gave real "life" to the characters. We could now not only play with our characters, but we could see them, to see them realized as entities of their own. Interaction now functioned on a brand new level. The dream of a world that looked and felt real was one step closer to a reality. It would only be 2 years later in 1999 that the dream would be fully realized in Everquest, the first fully functional 3D MMORPG.
EQ was like nothing we had ever seen. The scale of the world was MASSIVE. It took actual time to cross through it. Players chose one MAIN character and that was their avatar in game. Anyone making an alt was generally doing so with the intent to completely reroll and start over. Dependency on others was crucially built into every aspect of the game, from leveling, to crafting, to questing, to raiding, to exploring. The result was a community where you knew just about everybody on your server and your server knew you. What you did in the world really made a difference and reputations were worth more than all the platinum or loot you could ever hope to acquire. Others started to take notice - the less nerdy, geeky people wanted in on the fun and as a collective, we began to lovingly refer to ourselves as "gamers".
During that time, many contenders came and fell to the might of the King: AO, AC, DAoC, L2 just to name a few. Though many were fantastic games in their own right, none could surpass what EQ had built. More than anything, the community cared deeply about the game and hung tight to EQ despite its increasingly dated look. Month after month, year after year, expansion after expansion EQ trudged on. As SoE made more and more changes to the gameplay, we realized that the game we fell in-love with and the game EQ had become were no longer the same. Enter Blizzard.
Blizzard knew that if it could only somehow get in on the MMO playerbase that EQ and others had built, that it could combine it with its own RTS fanbase to create something truly special. They recruited top members from the EQ community (like Tigole and Furor) to help bring those "lessons" from EQ forward. What we got was a game too good to pass up and in 2004 with the release of World of Warcraft, EQ officially met its match. Even still, many players like myself played BOTH games for a while because we didn't want to leave the community and our years of hard work behind.
Ultimately though, we learned that the barrier to entry simply was too high in EQ. In EQ, everytime a new expansion came out a user was almost compelled to buy newer, more expensive equipment to handle the increased demand. WoW removed that and out of the box in 2004 ran better on a mid to low-end machine than EQ did on the best machine. Some people complained about the cartoony look of the graphics, but we also learned that fancy graphics (like the abomination of Luclin) doesn't a better game make! Gameplay and community still trump all and WoW had such fun gameplay that eventually almost everybody stopped caring. On that same vein, with the advent of the AA system and the Flagging in Planes of Power and beyond, it became tedious and plain un-fun to begin the game as a newer player to try and catch up to current content.
We learned that solo play is desirable and a good thing, but that it shouldn't come at the total expense of group play. In EQ you needed a group for absolutely anything unless you were one of the few who could solo in certain areas. In WoW, questing became the norm instead of the exception and players now had more choices with regards to their playstyle. Those who wanted to play solo could do so at their leisure, but at the end of the day grouping was still by far the most essential component in game progression.
We already knew that the "glue" that kept a game together and going long past its prime (see EQ) is the player relationships that we formed along the way. What Blizzard couldn't have predicted (though they should have) was the toxicity that the RTS community would bring to the table. An impatient, smack-talking, disrespectful, and overall sense of entitlement permeated many facets of the game. Although somewhat avoidable in its earliest days, "Barrens Chat" became the standard for interaction and something important was lost: Reputations mattered less.
As Blizzard began to listen to its most vocal members (the upset ones screaming how unfair something was or how they shouldn't have to do X or Y to get Z), they changed direction for many aspects of the game. The lessons we learned from EQ were lost almost completely and instead Blizzard began writing a game for the least common denominator, the handheld casual player.
So where does that leave us now? Well Blizzard still holds over 7 million subscribers but their numbers are falling. New companies are skittish to create a game in a saturated market and even more skittish to create a game that breaks from the proven "mold". Consoles are nudging into the genre, bringing with it a more twitchy, Halo style of play and leaving out any sense of community, roleplay, or reason for anyone to invest their time into the game. Some companies like SoE and ESO are trying to dig up skeletons and build on the back of their own legacy, but what kind of MMO can a console-friendly game really be?
This thread isn't so much about how great EQ was (it wasn't always) or how bad WoW has become (it also wasn't always), but instead it is about helping those (newer players especially) understand that this genre has been a labor of love for literally DECADES for many of us. We already know a lot about what works and what doesn't. You can call something an old-school idea or out of fashion, but the reason those ideas existed and were implemented was because we found them to be critically important. If you don't want to be responsible for your reputation, if you don't want to group with others, if you don't want to embrace the lore, why play an MMORPG? There are so many games already that make YOU the hero of your own adventures. You never have to rely on a soul and nobody will ever ask you to log in and play with them when you don't feel like it.
Of course, this story has not ended yet and indeed there is so much yet left to be written. I am certainly hopeful for the future and eagerly look forward to each new game release. I refuse to believe that the genre is dead, but I look around and all I see are ghosts and wannabes. We as a community deserve better than what we are currently being fed as it was on our very backs that it was all built.
Comments
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/PerfArt
Played: Ultima Online - DaoC - WoW -
Interesting. You had me hooked pretty much up until you started referring to EQ as the "King". After that, your post took a turn toward "consoles are bad, Blizzard is bad" a little too much from my perspective.
I think technology has evolved, and so has the genre. It's going to be interesting to see where it's headed next. If I go to Google I can do a voice search for anything on the internet, so I don't think it will be long before we see games that translate voice-to-text in lieu of keyboard chat.
Let me qualify my statement by saying I too grew up in the era of MUDs (I can tell you where the term "mob" came from). Although I was a spry teenager, I learned how to code areas for my first MUD; I was into the whole mind's-eye, imagination is the only limit, boundary-less world concept.
For me, the biggest barrier to entry for graphical MMORPGs was the subscription cost, especially in the 90's. It wasn't until 2004 that I finally crossed that paywall for my first graphical MMORPG: Vendetta Online.
Today, I actually like the direction the genre is taking (especially when it comes to action-type combat, mobile devices, and virtual reality). As much as I dislike paying a subscription, I like the sale of virtual goods even less. I look at the subscription model as if I were subscribing to a magazine. It's affordable to me today. I really, really despise the thought of any sort of real currency granting gameplay advantages. It doesn't make sense to me, economically speaking. However, I feel this is starting to become a common sentiment.*
Anyway, that's my soapbox for the day.
* = "A Measured Defense of the Subscription Model", Gamasutra
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
I don't think there is any denying that EQ was the King for many years. It was the gold standard by which all other MMORPGs were measured and to that end, the sentiment fits for how it was used. Of course there were other great games available and some of them were successful in their own right, but they never had the leverage, influence, or playerbase that EQ had.
You say you like the direction that the genre is going and in the same breath talk about the F2P model with disdain. Aren't they one and the same? Companies are smart and have figured out that all they need to do is bait people to play long enough and they can start racking up their credit cards in-game. Really, anything acquired unnaturally during gameplay breaks down the foundation of risk vs. reward and motivation for people to put in the time to play.
As far as voice activation goes? I'll pass. I'd rather talk with guildmates or friends (or not at all while home with others around who might not want to hear me yelling out commands) while still maintaining the ability to operate my character. Not to mention that unless the game is going to come equipped with a keyboard and a mouse to plug into your console, you are going to be relying on an extremely small set of skills throughout the entire game.
Nonetheless I am looking forward with great hope. I never said that consoles are bad, but we have to ask ourselves what kind of MMORPG could be built using that platform? I miss the interdependence and community that the games cultivated. I miss the deep lore that made the games into living novels that we all helped to write.
I appreciate your comments though Phaser. I think the genre still has so much left to offer and I'm not giving up on it anytime soon. We just can't keep going down the path we're on.
Well I grew up playing D&D, even played some LARPs for a couple of years so I'm big fan of roleplaying games. When I first hear about EQ I automaticaly assumed it was for people like me who enjoy roleplaying games that like to create a character and slowly improve them by becoming more powerful. The community was built around like minded people because only a certain subculture (which I wonder if it still exists) got into these games. Most MMOs don't have roleplaying servers anymore. Remeber the out of character channel /ooc in EQ?
Imagine if you have a favorite punk rock bar. You like to hang out there with some of your friends and other people who are into the punk scene which brings certain values and norms of behavior. Slowly after a couple of years the music lineup starts to change ever so slightly which in turn brings in different types of people. The owner of the bar takes notice that certain types of bands bring in more business. Eventually the bar that only catered to the punk rockers eventually became something else due to the type of clientele changing the culture from within.
The only turn for the better I like how Mmorpgs are heading; is the graphics of course, less obxious grind(Although the game should not be a cake walk by any means) the better combat; Action tab targetting and my favorite, fps combat.
Once sandbox becomes mainstream once again and people start using fps combat with full loot, fully destrucible enviroment and characters having huge impacts in the world, I'll be happy. Just a shame darkfall online got much of that right, but too much wrong.
-----------
Runescape doesn't have millions of subs anymore, but its my favorite mmorpg followed by darkfall online. I still play Old school runescape, but their recent changes just ruined the game. Runescape for being a java based game has close to what a sandbox game should. Runescape player since 2002.
MurderHerd
Wow.... this is some really bizzare logic and just awesome entitlements thrown in.
'we what works and what doesn't'.
So... 1M subs for 'back in the day' compared to 10M now is 'knowing what works and what doesn't'? LOLWUT?
'Why play an MMORPG'?
Cause it is fun for me? The modern WOW might not be fun for you since fun is subjective, but there's 7.5M that say otherwise.
And the last of 'we as a community deserve better'.
Well, if that was true then how come this so called 'community' hasn't backed the 'old school MMOs' with their wallets?
The 'new post-WoW era' have. Here's a saying for you old-timer; Put your money where your mouth is.
And lastly, lets be honest, who really said 'I play MMO' back in the day?
I was a gamer and even I made fun of those guys!
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I really didn't create this to be a complete, comprehensive history of all MMOs that have ever existed. There have been a great many games that have done well and Runescape has indeed been around for a long time.
I appreciate your input and feedback green.
A good read, not altogether accurate IMO and I don't agree with all of it but a good read.
First EQ and L2 were both played on the world market and on the world market L2 destroyed EQ in terms of subs.
What I disagree with his the grouping part. The genre didn't start with the type of grouping (not forced but very encouraged anywya) that EQ has, EQ was the anomoly for grouping and alwasy has been. The majority of games at that time and now did not use it to the same extent that EQ did.
I would argue that EQ was a successfull game "Despite" the grouping mechanic, not because of it. It being the first 3D had a lot to do with it, as did it being many people's first MMO (mine included) where we had no expectations and we were at a younger, more naive, more energetic, possibly more positive place in our lives (Our outlook at the time IMO has an absolutely huge, the biggest actually, impact on how we view things, now I'm older, learned, more experienced more, not as naive, not as easily impressed...) and likely more reasons.
Again I say it was successfull not because of the grouping mechanic, but in spite of it. That level of grouping has always been the exception.
Yo listen up here's a story
About a little guy that lives in a blue world
And all day and all night and everything he sees
Is just blue like him inside and outside
Blue is his house with a blue little window
And a blue corvette
And everything is blue for him and himself
And everybody around
'cause he ain't got nobody to listen
I have a blue house with a blue window.
Blue is the colour of all that I wear.
Blue are the streets and all the trees are too.
I have a girlfriend and she is so blue.
Blue are the people here that walk around,
Blue like my corvette, it's standing outside.
Blue are the words I say and what I think.
Blue are the feelings that live inside me.
No but to tell that this 'genre' is 'built on our backsides' when the new generation actually made it a valid hobby by making it mainstream is history revisioning. You want to have an adult conversation? Stop lying.
MMOs are bigger than ever, making more money than ever; what slumping subs?
Oh noes! A game that is 9 years old (WoW) only has 7.5 M when it used to have 12M 4 years ago! Really? C'mon.
GW2 just made 200M in their first year.
Your perspective is wrong as you seem to remember things incorrectly.
I'm not, it was how it was. Lets not rewrite history that is less than a decade old cause gamers did something 'not nice'.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air
Now THAT is how you write a wall of text, people. Take note. Great post, O.P.! And of course I am on board with everything you said.
He's right. The OP doesn't give WoW the proper respect. Correcting that will increase your posts relevancy and credibility.
Hmm let me check out Runescape; sounds cool. Great post, Green!
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Don't harsh on their mellow, bro. If you're trying to have a meaningful discussion on the topic, this is not the thread for it.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
The older MMOs (UO, EQ, etc) did all sorts of things wrong. They are not some gilded perfection. But they were exploring the territory, so that's perfectly understandable. There are parts of their game design which absolutely needs to be thrown out, because they caused more trouble than they were worth, in the big scheme of things.
Developers have to parse out the parts of game design that will work well together. Like cooking, some great raw materials just don't work well together. And some parts may work well, but may not be worth the effort to implement.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Let's face it the vast majority of these boards are populated with variations of the same 6 or 7 threads. The OP has, in my opinion, a well written but poorly disguised Solo vs. Grouping post within a chronological construct.
'Why solo in an mmorpg?' This question has been asked and answered a thousand times here to various degrees of success and I don't believe that the community (yeah I said that word) assumes that 'the group' is necessarily always the better state of gaming.
At any rate, I guess I can acknowledge why some are bitter at the current trends in MMO gaming, as I started before UO in pnp and muds as well, but I can also see that people who frequent MMO gaming forums might be the outliers and don't represent much of the conventional thought on creating MMO worlds. (shrug)
No its not better graphics that ruined the game, but Andrew Gower selling the game to American suits whom started a cash shop, a gambling wheel to win prizes that you can buy tokens for, Evolution of combat that altered the combat intensively that ruined the game for many, overpowered weapons of the years, blantant cash grabs. Old school runescape is the same as it was in 2007, its great.
MurderHerd
I feel like the point of my argument was not just about solo vs. group, but about why having a tight-knit community is important to a game. Part of that does hearken back to why group play is important, but really it's because MMO's are supposed to be about a shared environment and shared experiences. To me a disturbing trend is taking place: that players no longer have to interact in any meaningful way to progress through games.