I blame the whole move from Sub to F2p w/cash shop.
At that point, the underlying design of the game is dictated by paywalls and inserting opportunities to spend real money instead of strait up gameplay. And resources were pushed into how can we make the game fun enough to play but lacking enough to entice a shop purchase.
true enough, I would admit that the sub way does keep out a huge portion of casual/farmbille players, and would send MMO's back to a niche genre. But I'd prefer that than a vanilla/super-mart for the masses version. And in most of our memories, most of the 'good times' were during those 'niche' days, imho.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
There is your problem.
Anyone focused only on endgame needs to be someone that loves grinding the same things over and over again...you are, after-all focused on about 3% of the game. If you are ignoring the 97% it takes to get there, how CAN you have any fun?
Try getting into a RPing guild and play with people actually trying to live in the world by doing things others are not. Enjoying themselves, their characters and the story they are creating themselves. This wont make all MMOs better, some MMOs are just plain crap period.
But if you wait for the developers to keep your interest, don't expect to be playing MMOs for long periods of time if you don't like boring ass repetition.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
There is your problem.
Anyone focused only on endgame needs to be someone that loves grinding the same things over and over again...you are, after-all focused on about 3% of the game. If you are ignoring the 97% it takes to get there, how CAN you have any fun?
Try getting into a RPing guild and play with people actually trying to live in the world by doing things others are not. Enjoying themselves, their characters and the story they are creating themselves. This wont make all MMOs better, some MMOs are just plain crap period.
But if you wait for the developers to keep your interest, don't expect to be playing MMOs for long periods of time if you don't like boring ass repetition.
That is indeed a problem current MMO designs (focussed on vertical progression) face.
Most of the content is breezed through once or twice by a player (or even outright skipped by PLing, etc.) and you end up with a tiny portion of your content having to entertain people for hundreds of hours. Ofcourse it will be repetitive.
I hope we will see some innovation in these areas.
As a game designer you can also not put the burden on the players (telling them to level slower, enjoy the journey etc.). It is your job to entertain and guide them. You must come up with solutions that the players will want to use.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
MMO's have evolved, its just away from what you wanted in them. Everything you hate about modern MMO's is them evolving into a form more acceptable by the masses and to complete with things like FPS and mobile games. I don't like a lot of the direction this industry is headed as well but change is change for good or bad.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
You're suffering from what I think that a large percentage of MMO fans is struggling with. For the last ten years, the same game has been remade over and over. It almost doesn't matter which MMO you log into, you're almost always doing the same exact things. Once WoW hit the jackpot, MMO developers caught a whiff of that cash and said, "Ah, that's how to do it!" In their mind, why take a risk when we can go for the sure thing. Experimentation halted, creativity waned and all we had were just different iterations of basically the same game.
That being said, with the struggles of nearly every single game that targeted either WoW players or disgruntled WoW players (WildStar according to Jeremy Gaffney) a new crop of more creative and innovative MMO's are starting to crop up. The best example of these, in my humble opinion, is Crowfall. For years, Gordon Walton has complated that WoW sucked the creativity out of the MMO space and that getting publishers to take risks wasn't happening. Gordon, of course, was on UO and SWG. When he lead SWTOR, we know what his directions were from EA & Bioware. Ombwah from Revival talks about all the creativity he wanted to put into RIFT was taken out (for example, Rifts weren't supposed to start in the same place all the time - they were supposed to be able to start anywhere). WildStar even came out specifically saying that they were started from a team of 17 WoW devs and wanted to do it better - we see how that's worked out. Same game with different frosting.
Games like Crowfall, Revival, Shroud of the Avatar, Camelot Unchained may not blow up the genre like a $100M+ AAA MMORPG, but for long time MMO players who are ready for a change, it's coming - the only question is will we accept the new ideas and creativity from niche games from smaller studios or will be continue to wait for the next failed "Big Thing"?
I would play an HD 2D MMO (no sprites like UO had) if the game had more of a niche appeal. The combat would have to be decent though. There would have to be a lot more to do then just combat as well. There were some really neat things about 2D games that 3D games lack. You felt like you were watching everything play out from above. The characters weren't quite as detailed so it was easy to imagine what you wanted them to be. Emotes were a lot more fun in most cases. Watching things play out was like watching a puppet show. At any rate it doesn't have to be 2D. I'm just saying I would be open to playing something 2D if it was fun to me and was easier for the developers to make with all the features people want from old school games.
Less quest, quest not tied to "The One of thousands" story lines, quest not tied to progression or at least not level treadmills would help the genre. Developers wanted to control player content and wanted to ensure everyone saw each quest they made. So there is very little race/class/religion etc blocks on taking classes. There are no more quest that are subtle to find. There is very little mystery to solving quest. Just follow GPS kill/click and quest is done.
Reading or listening to the quest becomes a chore rather than something to enjoy. There are just too many quest and too little reason to pay attention. Lastly it becomes a road block to the "real game." Quest should not be a road block to a greater game. Quest presented as a story should give you reasons to want to know the story. If you don't have to think about the quest or story and its a road block to the end game of course people are just going to click through everything. They're going to follow gps and mindlessly kill whatever. Quest become filler.
The game design, world design based around quest hubs vertical progression are easier to control. They also make the world smaller and less meaningful long term. World of Warcraft has some creative and beautiful zones and areas. The problem is most of those areas are empty because the majority out leveled them. I always pictured MMORPG worlds where dangers remained even to the experienced adventure in some places no matter what. There could always be reason to revisit areas that you know are going to be extremely tough. You're skill and experience as a player allowed you to adventure there. Imagine how big WoW would feel if quest sent you all over the world instead of just pushing you expansion area to expansion area?
Less quest, quest not tied to "The One of thousands" story lines, quest not tied to progression or at least not level treadmills would help the genre. Developers wanted to control player content and wanted to ensure everyone saw each quest they made. So there is very little race/class/religion etc blocks on taking classes. There are no more quest that are subtle to find. There is very little mystery to solving quest. Just follow GPS kill/click and quest is done.
Reading or listening to the quest becomes a chore rather than something to enjoy. There are just too many quest and too little reason to pay attention. Lastly it becomes a road block to the "real game." Quest should not be a road block to a greater game. Quest presented as a story should give you reasons to want to know the story. If you don't have to think about the quest or story and its a road block to the end game of course people are just going to click through everything. They're going to follow gps and mindlessly kill whatever. Quest become filler.
The game design, world design based around quest hubs vertical progression are easier to control. They also make the world smaller and less meaningful long term. World of Warcraft has some creative and beautiful zones and areas. The problem is most of those areas are empty because the majority out leveled them. I always pictured MMORPG worlds where dangers remained even to the experienced adventure in some places no matter what. There could always be reason to revisit areas that you know are going to be extremely tough. You're skill and experience as a player allowed you to adventure there. Imagine how big WoW would feel if quest sent you all over the world instead of just pushing you expansion area to expansion area?
Older MMOs were like that. Aside from newbie zones there always seemed to be the possibility of death even to a few lower level mobs. I know I used to camp low level dungeons in EQ solo and would die a fair amount. There were also the wandering nasty mobs that would be encountered along the way.
I agree on the questing and the GPS. I don't believe it is a good way to do questing in general (in any game), but people like because it's fairly easy to do and gets them to max level without to much repetition in terms of killing. Having to do one quest killing a few things is less then having to kill something a 1000 times for the same experience. I'm not sure either method is good, but something is used like in some old RPGs where you have to talk to all NPCs and one or two will give you general hints to follow. There might be a map, but not quest log or GPS to help you along.
They build you this big open world in which to quest and explore only to funnel you down into a small room with a very big boss in it and then tell you to kill it. Seems to me, it should be the other way around...
In my opinion the one thing missing from almost every MMO on the market that was present 10 years ago was community.
Almost all the new MMOs are designed like a single player game with a chat box tacked onto it. They keep trying to sandwich RPGs and multiplayer together, which in turn usually turns out to be an isolating, very poorly written RPG. I've played a lot of the new MMOs out right now and all of them except for maybe Darkfall and Archeage are single player games that have lobby style grouping mechanics. I can pretty much never have to group with players in most MMOs these days and the ones that do have raiding or dungeons can be completed with total strangers with a quick click of a menu button. I don't have to put any effort into forming relationships or finding a decent guild in order to play most of the new MMOs now.
This in my opinion is what has made MMOs an isolating boring experience because we all know that MMOs suck at conveying story. We played these games because of the social interactions they provided.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
Just keep looking forward in hopes to stubble upon that game that gives back that feeling you seek. But I couldn't really make out what it really is your looking for that would give you your "point of playing"?
I understand the sentiment and also have my own wishes of what I want from a MMORPG but I don't let my wishes stand in the way to play games. I just play games for what they give.
As for your topic tittle, MMO's have evolved, they might not have evolved in the way you, me and others might have wished for but it's a fact it has evolved. And the point of playing a MMORPG is what you the player make of it if you can look beyond your own wishes.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
So why do you keep themeparks when you don't like the linear grind and endgame?
I've played themeparks and sandbox. Sure sandbox games may be seem to be open world at first, but eventually you get funneled into the same routines, objectives, areas and builds. Unlinear gameplay is an illusion. I didn't say I don't like endgame. What I'm trying to get across is that no mmorpgs endgame gameplay is worth the grind compared to games in other genres that don't require a grind.
Basically, mmorpg gameplay is lacking compared to other genres because they focus so much on the grind, journey or rpg element that is perhaps fun the first time through, but not the second, third... 20th time through.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
So why do you keep themeparks when you don't like the linear grind and endgame?
I've played themeparks and sandbox. Sure sandbox games may be seem to be open world at first, but eventually you get funneled into the same routines, objectives, areas and builds. Unlinear gameplay is an illusion. I didn't say I don't like endgame. What I'm trying to get across is that no mmorpgs endgame gameplay is worth the grind compared to games in other genres that don't require a grind.
Basically, mmorpg gameplay is lacking compared to other genres because they focus so much on the grind, journey or rpg element that is perhaps fun the first time through, but not the second, third... 20th time through.
If you look at how many people quit when they reach "endgame", youll see that its majority. people dont like grinds or exterme time sinks. In modern games that happens in endgame and in "old school" games that was whole game.
But yah, it all falls back to combat grinding, wheter "old school" or "endgame".
And theres really nothing wrong about wanting more other than simple mob extreme grinds/time sinks out of the games you play, ESPECIALLY if they want mandatory 15$/month just for "privilege" of playing a game.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
There is your problem.
Anyone focused only on endgame needs to be someone that loves grinding the same things over and over again...you are, after-all focused on about 3% of the game. If you are ignoring the 97% it takes to get there, how CAN you have any fun?
Try getting into a RPing guild and play with people actually trying to live in the world by doing things others are not. Enjoying themselves, their characters and the story they are creating themselves. This wont make all MMOs better, some MMOs are just plain crap period.
But if you wait for the developers to keep your interest, don't expect to be playing MMOs for long periods of time if you don't like boring ass repetition.
That is indeed a problem current MMO designs (focussed on vertical progression) face.
Most of the content is breezed through once or twice by a player (or even outright skipped by PLing, etc.) and you end up with a tiny portion of your content having to entertain people for hundreds of hours. Ofcourse it will be repetitive.
I hope we will see some innovation in these areas.
As a game designer you can also not put the burden on the players (telling them to level slower, enjoy the journey etc.). It is your job to entertain and guide them. You must come up with solutions that the players will want to use.
Agreed.
If people are given easy options, they will take them. Lets pretend for a second that you can even play modern mmos like older mmorpgs (you can't), most people won't put themselves in a place of disadvantage and pretend its just the way the game works.
Its up to developers to make this change, or keep suffering the loss of half your playerbase a few weeks after launch.
Lately I've been having some trouble seeing the point in playing mmorpgs. I grew up on mmorpgs.. but I think I might have outgrown them. Basically this is a rant about endgame, and the road to it.
I find myself quitting mmorpgs when I come to the realization that i'm only grinding mobs or quests with bad storylines to get to endgame. Usually the endgame is less rewarding than games that have no grind. Sometimes I get stuck in an mmorpg because of the completionist in me, but that never lasts. Sometimes I get sucked in by character and template designs, but even in classless skill based mmorpgs it eventually becomes linear after you scratch the surface.
So what's the point? I want to love mmorpgs again, but I constantly find myself logging off and playing something fun like team fortress 2.
There is your problem.
Anyone focused only on endgame needs to be someone that loves grinding the same things over and over again...you are, after-all focused on about 3% of the game. If you are ignoring the 97% it takes to get there, how CAN you have any fun?
Try getting into a RPing guild and play with people actually trying to live in the world by doing things others are not. Enjoying themselves, their characters and the story they are creating themselves. This wont make all MMOs better, some MMOs are just plain crap period.
But if you wait for the developers to keep your interest, don't expect to be playing MMOs for long periods of time if you don't like boring ass repetition.
That is indeed a problem current MMO designs (focussed on vertical progression) face.
Most of the content is breezed through once or twice by a player (or even outright skipped by PLing, etc.) and you end up with a tiny portion of your content having to entertain people for hundreds of hours. Ofcourse it will be repetitive.
I hope we will see some innovation in these areas.
As a game designer you can also not put the burden on the players (telling them to level slower, enjoy the journey etc.). It is your job to entertain and guide them. You must come up with solutions that the players will want to use.
Agreed.
If people are given easy options, they will take them. Lets pretend for a second that you can even play modern mmos like older mmorpgs (you can't), most people won't put themselves in a place of disadvantage and pretend its just the way the game works.
Its up to developers to make this change, or keep suffering the loss of half your playerbase a few weeks after launch.
Yes, losing 90-95% is much much better option....*cough*....WS.....*cough*
All AAA needs to follow WS example, listen to few vocal people, and well have awesome games.....that, by some coincidence, noone wants to play....not even those few vocal people lol
Comments
I blame the whole move from Sub to F2p w/cash shop.
At that point, the underlying design of the game is dictated by paywalls and inserting opportunities to spend real money instead of strait up gameplay. And resources were pushed into how can we make the game fun enough to play but lacking enough to entice a shop purchase.
true enough, I would admit that the sub way does keep out a huge portion of casual/farmbille players, and would send MMO's back to a niche genre. But I'd prefer that than a vanilla/super-mart for the masses version. And in most of our memories, most of the 'good times' were during those 'niche' days, imho.
There is your problem.
Anyone focused only on endgame needs to be someone that loves grinding the same things over and over again...you are, after-all focused on about 3% of the game. If you are ignoring the 97% it takes to get there, how CAN you have any fun?
Try getting into a RPing guild and play with people actually trying to live in the world by doing things others are not. Enjoying themselves, their characters and the story they are creating themselves. This wont make all MMOs better, some MMOs are just plain crap period.
But if you wait for the developers to keep your interest, don't expect to be playing MMOs for long periods of time if you don't like boring ass repetition.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
That is indeed a problem current MMO designs (focussed on vertical progression) face.
Most of the content is breezed through once or twice by a player (or even outright skipped by PLing, etc.) and you end up with a tiny portion of your content having to entertain people for hundreds of hours. Ofcourse it will be repetitive.
I hope we will see some innovation in these areas.
As a game designer you can also not put the burden on the players (telling them to level slower, enjoy the journey etc.). It is your job to entertain and guide them. You must come up with solutions that the players will want to use.
MMO's have evolved, its just away from what you wanted in them. Everything you hate about modern MMO's is them evolving into a form more acceptable by the masses and to complete with things like FPS and mobile games. I don't like a lot of the direction this industry is headed as well but change is change for good or bad.
I would play an HD 2D MMO (no sprites like UO had) if the game had more of a niche appeal. The combat would have to be decent though. There would have to be a lot more to do then just combat as well. There were some really neat things about 2D games that 3D games lack. You felt like you were watching everything play out from above. The characters weren't quite as detailed so it was easy to imagine what you wanted them to be. Emotes were a lot more fun in most cases. Watching things play out was like watching a puppet show. At any rate it doesn't have to be 2D. I'm just saying I would be open to playing something 2D if it was fun to me and was easier for the developers to make with all the features people want from old school games.
Less quest, quest not tied to "The One of thousands" story lines, quest not tied to progression or at least not level treadmills would help the genre. Developers wanted to control player content and wanted to ensure everyone saw each quest they made. So there is very little race/class/religion etc blocks on taking classes. There are no more quest that are subtle to find. There is very little mystery to solving quest. Just follow GPS kill/click and quest is done.
Reading or listening to the quest becomes a chore rather than something to enjoy. There are just too many quest and too little reason to pay attention. Lastly it becomes a road block to the "real game." Quest should not be a road block to a greater game. Quest presented as a story should give you reasons to want to know the story. If you don't have to think about the quest or story and its a road block to the end game of course people are just going to click through everything. They're going to follow gps and mindlessly kill whatever. Quest become filler.
The game design, world design based around quest hubs vertical progression are easier to control. They also make the world smaller and less meaningful long term. World of Warcraft has some creative and beautiful zones and areas. The problem is most of those areas are empty because the majority out leveled them. I always pictured MMORPG worlds where dangers remained even to the experienced adventure in some places no matter what. There could always be reason to revisit areas that you know are going to be extremely tough. You're skill and experience as a player allowed you to adventure there. Imagine how big WoW would feel if quest sent you all over the world instead of just pushing you expansion area to expansion area?
Older MMOs were like that. Aside from newbie zones there always seemed to be the possibility of death even to a few lower level mobs. I know I used to camp low level dungeons in EQ solo and would die a fair amount. There were also the wandering nasty mobs that would be encountered along the way.
I agree on the questing and the GPS. I don't believe it is a good way to do questing in general (in any game), but people like because it's fairly easy to do and gets them to max level without to much repetition in terms of killing. Having to do one quest killing a few things is less then having to kill something a 1000 times for the same experience. I'm not sure either method is good, but something is used like in some old RPGs where you have to talk to all NPCs and one or two will give you general hints to follow. There might be a map, but not quest log or GPS to help you along.
In my opinion the one thing missing from almost every MMO on the market that was present 10 years ago was community.
Almost all the new MMOs are designed like a single player game with a chat box tacked onto it. They keep trying to sandwich RPGs and multiplayer together, which in turn usually turns out to be an isolating, very poorly written RPG. I've played a lot of the new MMOs out right now and all of them except for maybe Darkfall and Archeage are single player games that have lobby style grouping mechanics. I can pretty much never have to group with players in most MMOs these days and the ones that do have raiding or dungeons can be completed with total strangers with a quick click of a menu button. I don't have to put any effort into forming relationships or finding a decent guild in order to play most of the new MMOs now.
This in my opinion is what has made MMOs an isolating boring experience because we all know that MMOs suck at conveying story. We played these games because of the social interactions they provided.
Just keep looking forward in hopes to stubble upon that game that gives back that feeling you seek. But I couldn't really make out what it really is your looking for that would give you your "point of playing"?
I understand the sentiment and also have my own wishes of what I want from a MMORPG but I don't let my wishes stand in the way to play games. I just play games for what they give.
As for your topic tittle, MMO's have evolved, they might not have evolved in the way you, me and others might have wished for but it's a fact it has evolved. And the point of playing a MMORPG is what you the player make of it if you can look beyond your own wishes.
I've played themeparks and sandbox. Sure sandbox games may be seem to be open world at first, but eventually you get funneled into the same routines, objectives, areas and builds. Unlinear gameplay is an illusion. I didn't say I don't like endgame. What I'm trying to get across is that no mmorpgs endgame gameplay is worth the grind compared to games in other genres that don't require a grind.
Basically, mmorpg gameplay is lacking compared to other genres because they focus so much on the grind, journey or rpg element that is perhaps fun the first time through, but not the second, third... 20th time through.
If you look at how many people quit when they reach "endgame", youll see that its majority. people dont like grinds or exterme time sinks. In modern games that happens in endgame and in "old school" games that was whole game.
But yah, it all falls back to combat grinding, wheter "old school" or "endgame".
And theres really nothing wrong about wanting more other than simple mob extreme grinds/time sinks out of the games you play, ESPECIALLY if they want mandatory 15$/month just for "privilege" of playing a game.
Agreed.
If people are given easy options, they will take them. Lets pretend for a second that you can even play modern mmos like older mmorpgs (you can't), most people won't put themselves in a place of disadvantage and pretend its just the way the game works.
Its up to developers to make this change, or keep suffering the loss of half your playerbase a few weeks after launch.
Yes, losing 90-95% is much much better option....*cough*....WS.....*cough*
All AAA needs to follow WS example, listen to few vocal people, and well have awesome games.....that, by some coincidence, noone wants to play....not even those few vocal people lol