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Looking for a new game to play and I need your help...
Rihahn
Member Posts: 146
So, I’m looking for a game… To qualify this a bit, here’s my list of strengths and weaknesses in the games I’ve played in the past:
WoW: It’s a great game, but I quit for a while and my guild changed to the Alliance and hit 70… So I’ve spent the last two weeks soloing, made it to 40, and, well, I just can’t do it *again*. I’m burnt out and need something new.
Strengths: Good game design, plenty of polish, plenty of players…
Weaknesses: WoW is the short-bus game of the decade – the game is so well designed, polished, and accessible that *anyone* with the IQ of a turnip and the ability to move a mouse can play it, and while there’s lots of players, the majority are 8-12, type like they’re texting someone on the cell phone, and just generally aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
V:SoH: Don’t get me started… It starts with Brad McQuaid and his “Vision” that requires punishing paying customers and ends with general SOE ineptitude.
EVE Online: The pinnacle of character leveling schemes. EVE equalizes the lifeless basement-dwellers with infinite time for playing with working-class players who only get a handful of hours a week to play.
Strengths: Time based skill system, excellent crafting system.
Weaknesses: Players who have been playing longer than you will forever be better than you… Eve needs yearly or bi-yearly server resets to even the play field.
CoV: Another great game, but once you’ve beat the tar out of some gangster thugs about 1x10^32 times you want something more.
Strengths: Character design. You can create *exactly* the look you want – trust me.
Weaknesses: Lack of itemization in the game, lack of content.
New Turbine Games (LotR:O, DDO): Sorry, Turbine just can’t make a game with a soul. LotR:O is just missing *something* that makes it immersive, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the game is just ‘flat’ and lacks life. And I beat DDO in a little over a week… MMOs aren’t supposed to be ‘beaten’.
Strengths: As a minion of Microsoft, Turbine has the funding to pick up (and mutilate) good IPs like Dungeons and Dragons or the works of Tolkien.
Weaknesses: Turbine just can’t make a good MMO… The industry has tried for years to figure out why, but as of yet no answers have been found. LotR:O might actually make it because it’s not really a Turbine game – it’s WoW lite.
EQ2: Another failed SOE experiment in “future proofing” a game by having extreme system requirements. When it was released it required a super computer to run and therefore no one really bought into it. With the release of ‘Faydwer’ things have picked up a bit, but the damage has already been done and the game is pretty much a shambling zombie of an MMO kept alive by consuming the souls of Station Access folks.
Strengths: Established IP and comes with a built in user base, looks really good.
Weaknesses: Lack of players, lack of SOE commitment.
Horizons: On paper this was the best game EVAR, the problem is reality (and business partners) suck.
Strengths: Player housing, the benchmark of crafting systems, playable dragons.
Weaknesses: The developer and corporate corruption.
Shadowbane: PvP for folks who think Attila the Hun and Vlad the Impaler were pansies.
Strengths: PvP with a purpose – to take and hold land, build defenses on it, and defend it from those who would try and take it from you. From a strategic combat and building point of view, Shadowbane was the best MMO ever made. Had interesting character races not seen in other MMOs.
Weaknesses: The interface was clunky, the game is not new-player friendly, and the template character system is very unforgiving – allowing you to create 10 gimps for every decent build.
Everything else (EQ, UO) were the progenitors of the genre and can’t really be used for examples.
So, what I’m looking for is a game with excellent character creation capabilities in design and race, PvP with a purpose (FFA need not apply), player housing and crafting that drive the economy. I also want a game that doesn’t punish me for my professional and social life and runs well on my, albeit powerful, gaming laptop.
Any suggestions?
Comments
Sorry to say this, but it almost sounds like you should be developing the game yourself? Maybe wait till Curt Shilling's 38 Studios produces an MMO in about 2012? If none of those can do it for you than it seems unlikely the current crop of games could produce anything that met your requirements...
I do tend to play a lot of games, after all - I'm in the industry.
I was just curious if there was something on the horizon I hadn't heard of yet... I track the US titles pretty closely but a lot of the asian market sneaks by me.
I still have high hopes for Warhammer Online... I never really got connected with DAOC when it came out and a few moths ago I downloaded it and all of the extras - but I still couldn't connect with the game. I think it's the MMO 'treadmill' that I'm just sick to death of.
There has to be another method for time-sinking your player base... Well, there is. EVE does it - which is why I still give them $15 a month most likely.
EVE's issue is that to really play it, you need someone to give you a few hundred million ISK, and spend six months hiding in a station skilling before ever setting off into space - just so it takes a minute or two to get blown up so you can actually learn something about the game.
The problem with MMOs these days can be boiled down to one thing: art assets.
To create an environment with the level of detail gamers desire takes a 30-40 person team of artists years to generate, and art folks aren't cheap.
Gamers buy box art - it's a proven fact. You can't judge game play from a screen shot or a 30 second divx, so over the years gamers have learned to hype games based on graphics because it's the only choice... Unfortunately the suits in the marketing departments have figured this out and games now spend 70-80 percent of thier budget on art assets rather than game design.
So you end up with things like Vanguard, which is a stunningly beautiful game, but it has absolutely zero playability, because *all* of the work went into the graphics and it's pretty much a failure of an MMO. And the list goes on... DDO: graphically pretty, abysmal playability and failed as an MMO - EQ2: graphically pretty, abysmal playability and failed as an MMO, AutoAssault: graphically pretty, abysmal playability and failed as an MMO...
You'd think all of these publishers and developers would get together at GDC and figure out "Hey, we spent millions of art and no one plays the game, maybe we're missing something?" ... But they don't.
Then you get something like WoW, which comparitively sucks in the graphics department but the playability is there in spades - and it's the 800 pound gorilla in the MMO space. Even something like "RuneQuest", which arguably has zero money in art assets, has more players than DDO and EQ2 combined.
Fortunately some of the 'old school' MUD developers are now stepping into the MMO scene. Iron Realms, one of the bigger MUD developers, is currently working on an MMO and their focus is on the game play - but they need to get over the 'furry' stygma, so we'll see what happens.
My suggestion would be to ignore current crop of mmorpgs completely. Go to your local comic bookstore or gaming supply store, look at the bulliten board and look for ole fashion pen/paper dice games (d &d) genra or check out folks groups that have there own made up role playing games in your area. We have a group that we grew up with and still game together the ole fashion way about 2 times a month. No pc game could hope to compete with that type of dice gaming and own imgination.....
Besides being social, it brings together folks with same interests and allows for the imgination to run free without the confines of lag, pc configurations, grapcis or a corporation watch dog.
Or if have to have a mmorpg pick the least offencive to you on the list and assume it will not be a 2 + year investment but if it entertains you for a few months then that is ok too.....
I'm in two gaming groups now (both once a month deals), run a PBEM game, and play tabletop wargames (miniatures) one might a week, which is primarily why I don't have the time to dedicate to a traditional treadmill MMO.
As for picking the best of the worst, I currently have active subscriptions to WoW and EVE... I think I'm just looking for something to look forward to.
I almost completely agree with everything you wrote. there just doesnt seem to be any decent MMO out there at the moment.
Ive been playing Eve but like you said i cant catch up and the whole space theme isnt what im looking for anyways.
There are some games that had most of the aspects that i look for in a MMO to bad they are now way to old and outdated. (Lineage1, Legend of Mir)
I geuss Lineage2 came close to it but with all the cheating and bots and in a lesser way the forced grouping really anoyed me.
What im looking for is a game where you can PVP almost everywhere (but with penalties ofcourse for the person who PK's someone) so when someone is pissing you off you can kill them. I also like it when im not forced to go in party's, the development of "instancing" is also something I dont like. I think its cool if you have to beat others to a boss. Or that you can try and stop them from killing it. Things like a level cap is also a feature I really dont like. In the past I always had the feeling that you could compete with others but today the MMO's seem to be build around "playing together" while that usually is boring. I enjoyed being more clever/better then others and thus having a lvl/ money advantage over them. The prospect of everyone hitting the lvl cap at xx amount of time and then everyone is basically the same is not something that attracts me.
you could go ahead and try FFXI. im sure some people dont like it and some do but i really enjoyed it. FFXI has an extremely friendly community.. ive never met one person i didnt like while playing it.
I think I do know. I've bin playing mmo's for 7 years now. If you read my post you would know i played atleast 5 of them.
Lineage1
Myth of soma
legend of mir 2 and 3
Redmoon
Hellbreath
Lineage 2
Anarchy online
Auto Assault
WoW
EVE
and some other small Asian MMorpgs that i forgot the names of
Anyways i think i do know what I talk about and its my opinion that the games of these days are not up to standard.
MMORPGs are virtual skinner boxes.
http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/skinner.html
i geuss so. I just feel nostalgic about the "old games" i played. I geuss other people also have this about there first MMO thinking back how great it was. I geuss im spoiled now and expect to much. I just dont like the latest developments where PVP always is consentual and there is no penalty's on death making the games no longer a real challenge (same with single player games, these days you finish them within a few hours and its way to easy...) Ahwell games like warhammer and conan sound good on paper might check those out.