My fondest memories in MMO's have one aspect in common

R.Lima

Just to list a few:

• Completing my first Dragon raid and Titan raid in Dungeons and Dragons Online as the designated rogue having to disable all traps or risk the lives of the 11 other people who were all coordinating through voice chat
• Winning a dueling tournament in Star Wars: The Old Republic with my Jedi Sage organized by some random, but generous rich player in front of Coruscant's gargantuan Senate Tower
• Getting 1st place in World of Warcraft's Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza with a low level Night Elf druid while avoiding certain death at the hands of several max level Horde players preying on the weak
• Venturing forth deep into the Wilderness of RuneScape with two of my best buddies wearing valuable Rune armor and getting lost and split up on the way back, leading to an incredibly tense and frightening journey
• Forging a full set of armor with my Armorsmith/Warcaller Cleric in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and selling it for a large sum of gold to a player who requested the services of a craftsman in Tursh Village

Even though all these moments involved vastly different activities and games, they all shared one element: Playing with others. Yes, many MMO's now possess interesting solo-driven content that I admit to having enjoyed as well. Yet, the impact these single-player stories had in me pale in comparison to the experiences I lived through the interactions with other players. 

The one feature that defines MMO's and allows them to be unique among all other genres is multiplayer massiveness. So why is it that developers are not playing as much to the genre's greatest strengths? 

Just some food for thought. Think of your most memorable MMO moments and analyze which of them were only possible because you had to interact with other players.

Loke666

Agreed, I can't think of even one solo-moment in a MMO I remember fondly. Singleplayer games always done those better, the best (and worst) in MMOs is together with other players. It is the strenght of the genre.

Albatroes

Devs are just too scared to lock certain content away behind a large number. Everything has to be accessible by everyone at any given time. When you have options like that, the majority just dont bother doing anything more difficult because they dont feel its worth the effort or just dont see the value in it if future content will be the same way. It would be nice if content went back to one difficulty and required you to forge bonds with people and actually remember their names for longer than it takes to clear something LFR or DF but that's not the 'future.' The future is 'me, myself and I' with a potential 'my friend' tossed in. Gone are the days of helping others cause it ultimately helps you. Getting people things because they are good at the class they play and you want them better so it helps the group. Thoughts like that are just seen as 'a waste of time' because 'i can get this done when i want.'

Bluehound17

Aion Online!

The Fact that questing in open world requires your full attention, doing dailies with friends is fun and very rewarding!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQIIe8QIuI&list=LLHlaSIH7MdzAt5LklAHXwxQ&index=9



New mmos should always have open world pvp! It forces you to interact with other players, nowadays games are way too easy! you can solo any dungeon, you can play any class and there wont be any repercussion in doing so!


Games that offers different classes should have Specific Roles! If you a tank you shoudn't be able to DPS/Heal/Tank all at the same time same goes for healer!


Thats why games like Tera and Aion lasted a long while! Unlike most mmos nowadays.. They lose all the hype after 2 months!

Nilden

Loke666 said:

Agreed, I can't think of even one solo-moment in a MMO I remember fondly. Singleplayer games always done those better, the best (and worst) in MMOs is together with other players. It is the strenght of the genre.

You would think that when they design these games they would cater to the strength of the genre, instead we get linear single player MMORPGs that don't take advantage of the genres main strength and end up being lackluster single player games with a log in screen and cash shop.

H0urg1ass

All of my fondest memories in MMO's, and I have quite a few, were all centered around one thing:  The friends that I was playing with at the time, just like the OP.

Good people to play with can make anything more enjoyable.

Same goes with 40k games.  I used to play at this place in Monterey California called The Game Habitat.  It had the best people on earth and it was just a fantastic place to play.  Then I moved to San Angelo Texas for a while and the store there was absolutely garbage.  The same at Ft. Hood, the people here are just ultra competitive, hostile and not very fun to be around.

When the players were great, the game was great.

cameltosis

In the same boat as the OP, all my fondest MMO memories are playing with other people. 

cheyane

It is true my best memories are from Everquest, early WoW, Anarchy Online and FFXI but my friends from those games are no longer playing so these days I play alone and when I party with people I meet it never is like playing with my friends.

So I would qualify what you wrote to 'play with friends' not just 'others'.

delete5230

My first Dungeon in Vanilla WoW.  I had no one to talk to about the game, I had to figure out everything on my own

A group asked me to do Shadowfang Keep.  I didn't even know their were Dungeons, and how to play as a group at first.

Doing Zul'Farrak then coming out and the group decided to go for the Zul'farrak hammer in the Hunterlands, then we went back and did the other path in Zul'Farrak.

We spent hours as a well oiled team

Amathe

My fondest memories are of things I did with friends. 

VestigeGamer

Group activities for me, too.  Some solo play was good, like finally getting past the Moonkin for my Night Elf's Bear Form in WoW.  That took some doing.

Really, though, it is not the "events" or "activities" that are so memorable, but rather who you do them with.  It's the group chat.  Making plans.  Figuring out strategies.  Telling jokes and poking fun at each other.  Those are the memorable times for me.

waynejr2

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

There are some solo events I remember fondly too.

Like finishing the epic bow quest for my hunter in vanilla WoW.
People could help with buffs, but once you started the combats you had to win, nobody could help you or you failed. It was basically all about showing your skill with the class.

Another fond memory is my first solo run of the Aerfalle quest in Asheron's Call. That was a challenge.

But yeah, otherwise, most of my good memories come from group achievements.

I fondly recall Wow' ony attunement where the walk through stormwind happened.  A top mmoRPG memory.

Loke666

Nilden said:

Loke666 said:

Agreed, I can't think of even one solo-moment in a MMO I remember fondly. Singleplayer games always done those better, the best (and worst) in MMOs is together with other players. It is the strenght of the genre.

You would think that when they design these games they would cater to the strength of the genre, instead we get linear single player MMORPGs that don't take advantage of the genres main strength and end up being lackluster single player games with a log in screen and cash shop.

My thoughts exactly. No MMO can compete in solo experience with games like Witcher and Elder scrolls so why bother when MMOs do other things far better? Dungeons in singleplayer games can never measure up to running a full group of real players through one for instance.

The people who enjoy single player games are more then the multiplayer crowd, but certainly part of that reason is that MMOs today focus on getting the singleplayer crowd like them, but they usually leave fast. It is the multiplayer group that stays a long time, give us at least a few good games.

Hariken

Has anyone noticed the OP fondest memories are from a time when playing with people in mmo's was good some of the time. He listed all older games. The fact is the genre today is filled with jerks and that's why the games have solo content for people that don't want to deal with these people. Mmo's today have to cater to everyone not just people looking for group play. AAA companies don't want to waste anymore money on this genre because you can't please everyone so its just not worth anymore. Just how well do you guys think an mmo with only group content would fair today. I bet it wouldn't do well. Even if you guys don't want to admit it. I'M pretty sure all of you have fond memories of things you did solo as well.

Kyleran

waynejr2 said:

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

There are some solo events I remember fondly too.

Like finishing the epic bow quest for my hunter in vanilla WoW.
People could help with buffs, but once you started the combats you had to win, nobody could help you or you failed. It was basically all about showing your skill with the class.

Another fond memory is my first solo run of the Aerfalle quest in Asheron's Call. That was a challenge.

But yeah, otherwise, most of my good memories come from group achievements.

I fondly recall Wow' ony attunement where the walk through stormwind happened.  A top mmoRPG memory.

Yes, that's one of the few I recall over the years, probably one of the best I suppose.

rodingo

R.Lima said:

Just to list a few:

• Completing my first Dragon raid and Titan raid in Dungeons and Dragons Online as the designated rogue having to disable all traps or risk the lives of the 11 other people who were all coordinating through voice chat
• Winning a dueling tournament in Star Wars: The Old Republic with my Jedi Sage organized by some random, but generous rich player in front of Coruscant's gargantuan Senate Tower
• Getting 1st place in World of Warcraft's Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza with a low level Night Elf druid while avoiding certain death at the hands of several max level Horde players preying on the weak
• Venturing forth deep into the Wilderness of RuneScape with two of my best buddies wearing valuable Rune armor and getting lost and split up on the way back, leading to an incredibly tense and frightening journey
• Forging a full set of armor with my Armorsmith/Warcaller Cleric in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and selling it for a large sum of gold to a player who requested the services of a craftsman in Tursh Village

Even though all these moments involved vastly different activities and games, they all shared one element: Playing with others. Yes, many MMO's now possess interesting solo-driven content that I admit to having enjoyed as well. Yet, the impact these single-player stories had in me pale in comparison to the experiences I lived through the interactions with other players. 

The one feature that defines MMO's and allows them to be unique among all other genres is multiplayer massiveness. So why is it that developers are not playing as much to the genre's greatest strengths? 

Just some food for thought. Think of your most memorable MMO moments and analyze which of them were only possible because you had to interact with other players.

Not to nitpick too much, but looking at your bullet list I only see one thing that was purposely designed by Devs to require more than one person to complete. The raid.  The other four items on your list where organized by the players themselves.  Those same four items can still be done in pretty much every MMO out there in some form or another. 

So do you want the Devs to make a Looking For Fishing Tournament Tool or Looking For Dueling Tournament Tool?  Of course you don't.  What made those things happen were players taking the initiative and interacting with out the need of Dev intervention. Seems like all you need to keep doing those things you listed is a keyboard and some initiative or at least someone else with initiative to create something for you to participate in.

francis3343

My most memorable time was in my first ever mmo, Horizon, now Istaria, groups working together to build bridges to unlock new locations. Repair mines to gain access to higher tier ore. Building guild towns and the best event is when they merged servers. Everyone working together to build this time machine (crafters) and some protecting it from being destroyed by spawns. Once activated after the countdown everything went black and servers were shut down for merge. We had successfully build the time machine to port us to a new beginning. Man I still have goose bumps talking about it!

I miss those crafting events!

ceratop001

My most fondest moment was when I realized it wasn't important for me to have the best gear, or the be a high level too have fun. Not sure what game that actually was

heerobya

MMOs haven't gotten less social - people have. The MMOs have stopped forcing it all the time, this is true, instead giving more and more options for solo play, but they haven't done one thing not ONE to prevent people from socializing and playing together.

No the REAL problem is too much throw-away story and "progression" content. Too much linear, one-tme consumable quest/story content.

Give us worlds to play in, activities to do together (and alone) and carrots to chase.

Even WoW is finally picking up on this. In the new expansion, the new zones can be completed in any order, and the content all scales per player - meaning you could be level 102 in a zone and your buddy level 108 in the same zone, playing together, and both of you would have the same experience together so your damage/healing/etc. and that of the mobs is scaled to/for each of you individually.

The more MMOs can do to keep players together, to break down the barrier for playing together (oh I'm not on that quest, or I'm too high level blah etc.) the better!

I think that's one of the things GW2 did so well, they just did too many other things poorly/wrong IMO.

If it works out and is well received, I see WoW either A) making the whole game scale like that in every zone or B ) just doing it again the same way in the next xpac

Gear score / item level is the new "level" and traditional levels and such are an archaic throwback to classic RPG mechanics that do nothing but separate players.

waynejr2

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

waynejr2 said:

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

There are some solo events I remember fondly too.

Like finishing the epic bow quest for my hunter in vanilla WoW.
People could help with buffs, but once you started the combats you had to win, nobody could help you or you failed. It was basically all about showing your skill with the class.

Another fond memory is my first solo run of the Aerfalle quest in Asheron's Call. That was a challenge.

But yeah, otherwise, most of my good memories come from group achievements.

I fondly recall Wow' ony attunement where the walk through stormwind happened.  A top mmoRPG memory.

Heh, that one was great

Yes, I remember friends joining me during the walk.  We had a big group. Naturally they removed it.

I also fondly remember the Scholo attunement.  Actually, I like attunements.

Octagon7711

I must admit some of my most fun moments in MMO's were with other players, a few were personal goals of soloing bosses and some really fun solo questing.

waynejr2

heerobya said:

MMOs haven't gotten less social - people have. The MMOs have stopped forcing it all the time, this is true, instead giving more and more options for solo play, but they haven't done one thing not ONE to prevent people from socializing and playing together.

No the REAL problem is too much throw-away story and "progression" content. Too much linear, one-tme consumable quest/story content.

Give us worlds to play in, activities to do together (and alone) and carrots to chase.

Even WoW is finally picking up on this. In the new expansion, the new zones can be completed in any order, and the content all scales per player - meaning you could be level 102 in a zone and your buddy level 108 in the same zone, playing together, and both of you would have the same experience together so your damage/healing/etc. and that of the mobs is scaled to/for each of you individually.

The more MMOs can do to keep players together, to break down the barrier for playing together (oh I'm not on that quest, or I'm too high level blah etc.) the better!

I think that's one of the things GW2 did so well, they just did too many other things poorly/wrong IMO.

If it works out and is well received, I see WoW either A) making the whole game scale like that in every zone or B ) just doing it again the same way in the next xpac

Gear score / item level is the new "level" and traditional levels and such are an archaic throwback to classic RPG mechanics that do nothing but separate players.

I hated that about GW2.  GW2 sucked.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

waynejr2

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

blueturtle13 said:

Mine would be in Asheron's Call. The Soul Crystals. All of us were like "What the hell are those?!" Towns were destroyed and every part of the community was involved. It was awesome.

That was amazing too. I was there

Remember when games used to do fun stuff.

When wow did the Zombie Plague for the Wrath of the Lich King and people were running around as ghouls there were so many people complaining on the forums about this.  It ruined the normal questing they had access to for years.  Bummer.........

scorpex-x

R.Lima said:

Even though all these moments involved vastly different activities and games, they all shared one element: Playing with others. Yes, many MMO's now possess interesting solo-driven content that I admit to having enjoyed as well. Yet, the impact these single-player stories had in me pale in comparison to the experiences I lived through the interactions with other players. 

The one feature that defines MMO's and allows them to be unique among all other genres is multiplayer massiveness. So why is it that developers are not playing as much to the genre's greatest strengths? 

Just some food for thought. Think of your most memorable MMO moments and analyze which of them were only possible because you had to interact with other players.

For you.  That is not the same for others, the only reason the market can sustain the number of titles we have is because it had to stretch to reach a wider audience.  Many of which don't like group play,  most of these people get enough interaction irl and don't need it in their games.

VestigeGamer

Another thing that MMOs have lost are GM events.  I recall being in Greater Faydark (EQ1) when the sky turned blood red.  As I neared Kelethin, I noticed a whole bunch of people running about.  My guildmate and I took a closer look and Emperor Crush was wreaking havoc at the base of Kelethin.

Another cost-cutting practice to put more money into advertising.