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Has Anyone Else Noticed...
kimmar
Member Posts: 446
I'm relatively new to the online gaming scene, but there is something that I've noticed.
I started out breaking in my teeth (as I'm sure many have) with World of Warcraft. It was fun for a while but I got kind of bored. I wanted to try out some of the other online games because I got hooked on the social aspect of the genre.
I decided to try out a couple of other games I've read about. I picked up DAoC and Everquest. I really like the fantasy genre and wanted to try some of the older games for the promise of more complexity.
I noticed something right off the bat though. Loneliness.
I am not a game developer, so I can't claim to have their immense wisdom and genius, but something occurred to me as I sat alone in these new worlds pondering. I wonder if it would have been a good idea to keep the lower levels a quick scheme just to let a person get to know their character for a short while. Maybe something like a casual player having to spend at the most 2-3 days through those "noob" levels. Then, all that later content could be for everyone to explore.
It's just that everyone is so spread out. And not only that, but who in their right mind is going to want to get to the max level in one of these games and then want to go through all of that again? Apparently nobody. That's why no one is in these newer player zones.
I think what ultimately ends up happening is that new players come in, consider the game to be pretty interesting (like I did), but leave out of depression from loneliness. I wanted to play Everquest really bad. I still do. But I just had such a hard time finding someone to play with. And DAoC? It was even worse.
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It all seems so stupid
It makes me want to give up
But why should I give up
When it all seems so stupid
Comments
Well, allow me to once again Pimp My Game LOL! DDO is, in fact, faulted a lot of times for not supporting solo play and "forced grouping". Free 10 day trial, fantastic grouping UI, give it a shot. In fact, their first commercial was this
Does it have the complexity that I am looking for? That's one of the things I got so sick of in WoW was the simplicity of the game. I want there to be some challenge. I'm not afraid of it and actually find it fun.
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It all seems so stupid
It makes me want to give up
But why should I give up
When it all seems so stupid
I think so, but I'm definitely a "fanboi" of the game. The combat system is, IMO, the best out there and definitely 100% different from WoW and the character customization is...well, it's DnD...so it's about as in depth as you'll find.
Hey, for 10 free days, what do you have to lose? LOL!
Download is <modedit>
That's a referral link, fool.
This is the link to the main Ddo page. Go from there, the download seems to be 19.95$
really? fool?
What I linked is this:
"This free download of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is for users who have a 10-Day Free Trial account, or who do not have a DVD-ROM drive available."
Yes, you'll need to actually activate a 10 day free trial account as well...but that's the download.
19.95 is the purchase.
literacy FTW!
I know what you mean. I feel the same way about games like that. But you wanna know a game you will never get left out on, and you will always have friends online and other people to play with... Runescape. I know most people aren't fond of it at all. But it is a great game for beginners of the gaming world. It is user friendly, have a great social, economic, and combat system. There is also so much to do besides combat and talk/merchant. There are skills like mining, fishing, firemaking, crafting, ect. Hopefully you haven't already tried this game out because then this psot would have been kind of worthless... but I hope this helps otherwise.
Please reply to this and tell me what you think. Sorry, I don't know what you think as challenging, but I think this could get challenging.
Kingdom Hearts ---- Best Single Player Game Ever Made.
Here are the MMO games I have played/tried:
Runescape, Silkroad, Xiah, Hero, Rakion, Diablo 2, Gunz, WoW, Maple Story, Dungeon Runners, Flyff, 9Dragons, Astonia III, Last Chaos, GW:Nightfall, Hellgate London, Knight Online, Perfect World, Thang, and sadly Puzzle Pirates.
I wanted to make a thread somewhere along these lines, but instead I'll just post here. One thing I hate about the current MMO community is that all they do is solo play. That's why WoW is so popular: it caters to the soloers. Sure, I am just like everyone else... I don't have 10 hours in a row to play just to get a level, but that doesn't mean I want the game to be so gimped that everything is done solo.
I loved playing FFXI back when I was in High School because I had plenty of free time and the forced grouping made the game so fun and rewarding, despite the huge time sink and the lack of solo play. In todays games, everyone would rather solo than group because it is more effective leveling wise.
Maybe I'm crazy to ask for mostly forced group content, but hey, I thought we were playing MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER online role playing games, not single player games with a monthly fee.
It's a fine line though, because when you "force" group content...you also have to have kickass grouping UI AND make sure you've got a server pop that is steady and level rich enough to support it.
DDO learned that the hard way, although it was rectified with the server merge a few months ago.
Wow, what the ****, you can do a hole bunch of grouped activities in World of Warcraft.
Kingdom Hearts ---- Best Single Player Game Ever Made.
Here are the MMO games I have played/tried:
Runescape, Silkroad, Xiah, Hero, Rakion, Diablo 2, Gunz, WoW, Maple Story, Dungeon Runners, Flyff, 9Dragons, Astonia III, Last Chaos, GW:Nightfall, Hellgate London, Knight Online, Perfect World, Thang, and sadly Puzzle Pirates.
As you can clearly see by my Xfire signature, I've played plenty of WoW. I realize there is a lot of group content. What I meant, however, is that from 1-60 (and now, 1-70), everyone is so solo-focused that the only time you get groups is for instances. And, if you're following a leveling guide which so many people seem to do now, they skip instances all together because they are not "efficient" enough. This kills grouping while leveling up, and is a serious game breaker for me. Am I still playing it? Of course I am, as you can see. However, that doesn't mean I wish there was more CHALLENGING group content while leveling (not just instances).
For a better idea of population numbers, check out http://mmogdata.voig.com/
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
For a better idea of population numbers, check out http://mmogdata.voig.com/
No offense intended, but that site has always been a joke. They post totally unsubstantiated numbers (by their own admission) and make them look official because they have Microsoft Office.
No offense taken heh. There used to be http://www.mmogchart.com/ and then http://mmogdata.voig.com/ picked it up. They also have a section describing how confident the numbers are for each game, as some are from 3rd party, and some are from official press releases. But it's the best thing I have found out there as far as number comparisons go
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
Play Final Fantasy 11 if you want forced grouping and great community.
EQ Classic (circa 2000, when I joined) had the best grouping game I've ever found.
Blackburrow FTW.
so you also noticed it but all MMos are not like that
And when you do get a group in WoW, likely it's just for a particular quest, and then a lot of people leave the group immediately when the quest is done, without even saying goodbye. It's like we twisted their arm and forced them to group with us, and when they no longer have to, they're off.
Yeah, welcome to grouping in WoW. It's nothing like the glory days of EQ, when you could group with the same players for days, and really get to know them. These days that only really happens in guilds.
And when you do get a group in WoW, likely it's just for a particular quest, and then a lot of people leave the group immediately when the quest is done, without even saying goodbye. It's like we twisted their arm and forced them to group with us, and when they no longer have to, they're off.
Yeah, welcome to grouping in WoW. It's nothing like the glory days of EQ, when you could group with the same players for days, and really get to know them. These days that only really happens in guilds.
I think one of the detriments to grouping in WoW was how long it took them to get integrated voice chat. That really does make grouping a lot more fun, IMO.
And when you do get a group in WoW, likely it's just for a particular quest, and then a lot of people leave the group immediately when the quest is done, without even saying goodbye. It's like we twisted their arm and forced them to group with us, and when they no longer have to, they're off.
Yeah, welcome to grouping in WoW. It's nothing like the glory days of EQ, when you could group with the same players for days, and really get to know them. These days that only really happens in guilds.
A)There's better places to look on the internet for friends
B)There's much better places than the internet to look for friends
My youtube MMO gaming channel
My point is, that grouping in WoW made me feel dirty. These other guys would join you, probably stay silent the whole time, loot some stuff/ finish a quest then silently remove themselves and leave.
Now, seriously, is that what you'd call grouping?
My point is, that grouping in WoW made me feel dirty. These other guys would join you, probably stay silent the whole time, loot some stuff/ finish a quest then silently remove themselves and leave.
Now, seriously, is that what you'd call grouping?
Are you one of those people who won't shut up during a movie? Just because you're sitting in the middle of a big group of people doesn't mean you have to talk to everybody. You're allowed to just sit back and be entertained by the movie for a couple hours.
Apparently there's alot of people who just want to game when they're gaming. It's not a date. How much do you see chess players talking during a match?
Most games are not a outlet for socializing and never have been.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
I couldn't disagree with this more strongly. I think the social and community aspects of MMOs are a huge part of what makes them successful.
Let's face it the reality is games are meant to be played until you get bored. What makes a game fun? The challenges and the new things to be processed by the brain, according to Raph Koster's book "A Theory of Fun", once the brain runs out of new interesting challenging things to process, it starts to go idle and craves for new input hence generating the feeling of "boredom". I think what the OP meant was that he cannot find anyone else to play with, the thing is once a game has been out for a while most players in the game would have moved on to the top level (aka end-game portion) of the game. It's a repeatitive cycle of hitting the ceiling as the game continues to expand and new content being added by the developers (hence this is also the reason why developers loathe to develop new content for low level players esp if the game has been out for a long time -- they know their efforts would only reach a few players for their efforts and for a better phrase they're not having the "best bang out of the buck")
ok ppl before this gets outta hand, let me explain something. givin the fact that not only have i played american MMO's, i played korean and japanese ones as well ( yes i know both languages
) i would have to agree that the communication aspects of the games make it worth while. im playijng SUN right now and let me tell u. korean gamers LOVE to communicate. this game is a huge success soley on the communication between the people. i was a noob for about 3 hours when i had already 5 people who i could call friends ( and let me tell u, i dont use that word loosely like most people do. ) i was taught the ins and outs of that game real quick and since i travel alot i was invited into a korean guild even though they knew i was black. come on, who wants to solo in a game?? just kicking back and having a nice conversation is a real winner when it comes to MMOS but the american game developers lost track of that years ago sadly 
anyway hope i didnt bore u with my " lecture "
kill, kill , kill some more, go to sleep, wake up, rinse, lather repeat