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Worst features of MMO's?
Dauntis
Member UncommonPosts: 600
What are some of the things that just make you completely turn away from a new MMO. Especially the ones that you get interested in at first then you hear about them but then something turns them into a "Hell Nope". And don't use F2P or Sub as I don't want this to turn into an economics lesson or debate.
Mine are:
#1 Point to click movement!
a newer one, the term "Action RPG"
Poor grammar or bad translation advertising, like all the League of Angels ads
MMO ads that use other games artwork... so hilarious
Top down views or 3 quarter views
$150 to play in our alpha
The term "WoW Killer"
Help support an artist and gamer who has lost his tools to create and play: http://www.gofundme.com/u63nzcgk
Comments
worse "feature" ....
staring at a spellbook in EQ. It is literally watching paint dry.
- classes
- skill reset for gold
- vertical progression
- faction lock
- full loot
Everyone got their own preferences, and dislikes
My biggest turnoff is buggy games that crash...
But thats not a feature
In general however i will not play MMo´s that are FFA PvP only..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Instances
classes
dungeon finder
non skill based combat
to much CC
stealth
general chat
quest hubs
easy leveling
all loot systems except asherons call
What is Asheron's Call's loot system like?
Help support an artist and gamer who has lost his tools to create and play: http://www.gofundme.com/u63nzcgk
1. Solo quest leveling
2. Fast Travel
3. Respawn at corpse when you die
4. PvP rewards
5. Auction Houses
6. Global Chat Channels
7. Non-combat Pets
8. Costumes / Appearance Slots
1. "action" combat
I can have this (and better action and combat) when I play fps games .. I just don't want it when playing mmorpg's. It's not why I play them.
2. a lot of cut scenes and voice overs
I don't want stories. I would rather read a book or watch a movie for a story. I prefer to explore a world and live the stories of interaction with other players .. believe me ... there is plenty of drama to be had there.
3. quest grinding
I like the idea of quests, but the ones they have in current games are not quests. They are errands. Errands are not fun.
4. no pve servers and especially full loot pvp only
It's just too annoying. I don't play games to be annoyed.
5. no pvp options
The ability to duel does not count as a pvp option. I like battlegrounds and pvp zones (and not just some arena zone). daily / weekly quests
I didn't like that either, but my reason was because I hated not seeing what was going on or if something was about to attack me. I don't think any games have that "feature" anymore and I highly doubt it would ever be implemented again.
Now the regen rate in EQ was definitely like watching paint dry .. if not worse.
Its Random loot, you can find the best loot in the game off mobs. Sure you find tons of junk loot that you wont use or you have out leveled, but what is junk to you could be great to sombody else.
and no items in the game are the same, even the spells on items are random, so for example lets say i find 2 swords, both are 20-50 damage. well one might have spells that add damage the other might add att speed, or defense. plus the modifiers will probably be different.
same goes for armor and jewelry in the game. its all random you never find " short sword 5-20 damage " over and over all the loot is different.
plus when you find somthing you think is good you will want to tink it ( that is AC crafting system ) you use materials you get to improve armor and weapons you have looted. and those materials come from breaking down the loot you thought was junk.
1. DAILY QUEST HUBS - created to substitute content with endless grind of the same couple of quests forever, usualy supported by the fact, that the new HUB offers significant boost for you character when you grind long enough
2. SPRAWLING ACHIEVMENT SYSTEMS - created to substitute content with demented task like "slay 10-100-1000" chickens in particular zone etc..
note: i dont mind achievments based on defeating hard game conten etc, im talking about achievments for every "fart" you made along the line
note2: I've seen guilds broken up over fact that some ppl wanted to do achievment hunting more then group activities
3. FLYING MOUNTS - a great way to throw all the magnificence of game world away, since from this moment on 90% of game population will just fly from A > B via direct line, land there, do what they come to do and progress flying from B > C
Sure - its pretty for couple of days to look at the game word from birds eye, until you realise this is how you wil forever see it from now on and all the magic is gone.
You can of course opt out - and move through deserted word where random world pvp encounters just dont happen anymore, since ppl flying their jets cant bump into each other on the road.
Sadly, most games have slaved themself to these features from the start, copying it from WoW and thinking this is what made WoW successfull. Wrong. This is what made many players to leave it.
Really?
Obvivously all massive general program shortcomings (horribly designed interface, too frequent crashes, etc)
Obviously free to play / pay to win / micro transactions / any such crap. Item shops for cosmetic stuff and convenience items, such as xp pots, are tolerable.
First person view (Quite frankly I rate any such game unplayable)
Lack of a challenge, or insanely hard challenges (kind of like Akande in Vanguard - you can only try to kill a mob for so many days until you're all out frustrated and giving up)
Realtime combat (i.e the player with the better internet connection wins)
Treatmill Gaming (working on staying in the same place vs working on progress)Seriously outdated / ugly graphics (I dont need best or close to best, but theres a limit of what I can bear)
Enforced realmbased PvP (vs player alliance PvP)
Free for all PvP, full loot, etc (I dont care for realism if it interferes with having fun)
Skillbased or worse levelless rule systems. Trivialized challengefree rulesystems in general. Obviously stupid rulesystems which have enforced multiclassing.
Instancing, soulbound items, and all other kinds of game mainstreaming and gaming trivialization.
Race restricted classes. It makes no sense sentient races cant be any class they want to be.Goldsellers, collapsed economies (how much this sucks depends upon how much you actually need said economy - this can completely break a game or just make you ignore the economy altogether)
Loading screens
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Worst features in an MMO? Everything
Best features in an MMO? Everything
Why do they fail? Because of the above.
Why do they succeed? Because of the above.
What shall we cover next?
Yeah, there is simply no reason to bore the audience intentionally. And you are right, no sane developers will ever put something like that in a game.
My worst features:
Linear world, linear questing, linear storylines.
2nd worst is:
Not having quality of life features such as Dungeon Finders, Auction Houses or Easily attainable mounts/fast travel.
3rd Worst:
PvP centric
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Any poorly implemented "Fatigue" System (Offenders: FFXIV 1.0's "Fatigue" system, Tibia's "Stamina" system)
Fatigue systems that fall in this category have a tendency to prevent progress or prevent you from playing. For Free to Play games I can kinda understand where this works (often times the intention is to fleece you of your finances), but when they want you to pay a monthly fee then I am turned away. This is especially bad when you begin to get invested or immersed into a game, only to find yourself stopped by an artificial wall and having to wait an huge amount of time to get it back. With FFXIV, it was once a week. Though switching to another class and doing combat or something restored another class's stamina, it was extremely slow and on your main class you can hit Fatigue in an hour of play--eventually hitting the point where you have no choice but to wait. In Tibia, it was just waiting. As for the argument of keeping Casual Players in line with Hardcore players, this doesn't even come close to doing that but instead creates a wider divide between the two with an artificial barrier.
I haven't played Star Wars Galaxies, but from what I hear of their "Fatigue" system they actually did it right.
Epic Weapon Quests (Offenders: FFXI)
Okay, I'm going to get a good few who disagree with me here but I just did not like the way Epic Weapon quests (In FFXI, it's called Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean Weapons) were implemented. Don't get me wrong, I'd totally be down for taking on difficult, time consuming, epic quests...to an extent. FFXI took it WAY beyond the next level, the quests requiring a combined time of a year or more (and if you're a casual player then multiply this by two or five) of grinding for items and currency. I don't have any experience with Everquest's Epic Weapon Quests but I hear they take around six months of grinding contested mobs. Sure, you feel accomplished but then you realized that you blew a year's worth of time and monthly fees on padding. FFXIV has a much better implementation of this, cutting the insane levels of padding and just giving you challenges to take on (The grind is still there with the tomes, but it doesn't require you to play the game as a second job).
Spawn Camping
...Honestly I don't like sitting around for hours in one spot staring at one spot for the chance to claim the mob that spawns once in twelve blue moons and the chance to claim it and the minute chance for a specific item to drop. This is especially bad when players bot and cheat their way to their claims, and if an item was required for doing endgame content (Remember the Ochiudo's Kote in FFXI and how it was a required item for SAMs?). The first part of the Empyrean Weapon quest involved lots of spawn camping and after one of the 15 minute lottery spawn mobs not spawning for 6 hours...yeah. Pass.
Honorable Mention: Vertical Progression
When done right, it gives a sense of achievement and progression and can bring a community together. When done wrong, it's an artificial barrier that creates whole new levels of frustration. This is a bit of a fuzzy one since, it's a tried and true formula and it does work. Yet, it's a double-edged sword since this also can REALLY divide a community and friends when haphazardly implemented, cause power creep, and can even render content obsolete. This also goes hand-in-hand with Gear Progression.
Honorable Mention: Forced Grouping to Progress
I love group play. No really, I love parties, raids, and everything in between. And hoo boy do I love playing the Healer. But when the implementation is sour, things can go really wrong. One that I think we all can relate to is waiting for that one tank, healer, or support class for hours while shouting in town. But there is another level of this that nobody seems to mention: when the game becomes top heavy. New players would have an extremely hard time finding people at level to progress, and are at the mercy of waiting for other people to be in your level range. I had experienced this in FFXI where I had to wait two weeks on a level 52 WHM due to the fact that there simply wasn't anyone at my level range (and the range of levels was 3 back then). I haven't played old Everquest, but I heard that you needed at party at level 1 to progress; I could only imagine the wait times for parties (though it would work if the level range for good EXP was huge. Otherwise said person was exaggerating heavily).
These are my opinions on the worst features of MMOs. Feel free to disagree or agree.
First: solo-axed levelling
Levelling should always be calibrated for a group of 2 players, so that it is doable as a solo player (but kinda hard), and push people to group together.
There should always be mandatory group content during the levelling. The levelling in general should be doable in solo, but difficult enough to be interesting for a group of 2 or 3 players.
Then, if the population drops, you do what Guild Wars did: you add a hero system so players can have a "follower" to help them during the levelling. You should always a design an MMO based on the fact there will be players (and thus, the player should group with other people), and not the other way.
Second: Solo-crafting
Crafting in MMO should never be solo-oriented (good example is ESO). Jobs should always depend of other jobs, a character should never be able to do everything by himself. Crafting should also be usefull in late games (Final stuff is obtained via crafting, with compo looted on bosses, for example)
Third: Fast-travel
Fast-travel breaks immersion, the feeling you're in a world and the feeling you're something tiny in a big world. Long-distance non-free non-instaneous travel should be offered to the player though.
Instanced battle grounds is the biggest insult to real PvP ever.
Then the PvP gear that goes along with it.
This feature ruined open style PvP. Ten years ago I used to spend hours doing open PvP. Now I am almost a strictly PvE player.
May be because many players don't like open style pvp that much.
In fact, the most popular pvp games are e-sports like LoL and WoT, with instanced battlegrounds without even pretending to have a virtual world.