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is it just me?
Rumour
Member Posts: 114
Something thats really been taking the steam outta my MMO love has been linear questing. I just cant seem to get into the "reporting to NPCs thing.
I was just wondering if anyone else misses the AC and UO type of game where you just go look around and kill things. AC had quests but it was mostly to get certain items, and it was done much differently. I guess im eluding to wanting a more "sandbox" experience.
Im not trying to put down anyone elses style of play or what they like, I just miss certain things about older MMOs.
I liked how in AC and UO both, that there was dungeons that didnt have a specific purpose. They were just there and you went in thinking "I wonder what the hells down here?" Then youd go down, down, down, fighting whatever it had to throw at you and then some badass guy comes up and your like "I bet if I kill this dude he'll drop some awsome loot." and you dont even necessarily know if you can. But you try because you want to see that sucker fall. No quest reason, no raid loot you know SHOULD drop. Just to see.
I really miss this kind of experience and i guess im just hoping someone out there relates. It was the best of times for me. All that mystery and wonder. I remember AC having some dungeons in the middle of no where and just so stoked to have a place to hunt im not even sure anyone has ever seen.
Hope you guys are all having fun.
-Rumour
Comments
bump
Sounds like your looking for more of a sandbox kind of MMO. Unfortunatly these are few and seems to be getting fewer (with the downfall of Ryzom...is it still in limbo?).
Consider EvE online?
Perhaps SWG, although it has gone mainstream linear as well it still holds some shadows of its sandbox past
Good Luck
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
I enjoy different parts in MMO's on any given day. Thus, I like having all the experiences in the game. Do as you want to an extent. Sometimes I quest, sometimes I just grind.
In particular I have taken hours just to run around WOW, etc. and look at the world, just seems entertaining to me. That is why I play MMO's to have fun, so I do what is going to make me happy at the end of the day.
"You dont win a war by dieing for your country, you win a war by getting the other poor bastards to die for theirs!"
-General Patton
one last bump to find like minded people.
I have this same problem. I hate reporting to an NPC and having him say, "Go kill 10x/collect 10x/report to x/bring me x." I played AC for a long, long time, and I loved the approach that it took to progression. There was no linear direction; from the time you first entered the game world, where you went, what you hunted, the quests you did, etc., was entirely case-specific. Sure, there were some places that were popular spots for certain level ranges, but there was also a nearly infinite number of other options. One of the joys of the game was to find a place to level that was relatively unknown.
Since I left AC, I've found that the MMOs I play are based on linear questing and a "quest system." It seems like an easy way to develop games and an easy way to give the games more mass appeal. But for me, it takes away the freedom of the sandbox experience. Sometimes I wish I didn't have the perspective of Asheron's Call, so I wouldn't be so bored by other games.
I guess I'm out of the same mold. In my case it's kind of a double whammy because not only had I played AC for years but it was my first MMORPG as well. The unfortunate reality is that a game with linear progression and questing is considered easier and is prefered by casual gamers. One ironic part to that for me is that in a "sandbox" type game, players end up taking more time to explore content rather then just running down the designated path. But ever since WoW showed companies that MMORPGs could be more then just niche games, but real money makers, they have (logically so from a business standpoint) gone for the the widest possible audience. Unfortunately that is also usually the lowest common denominator. But that is reality in more then just gaming.
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
~Omar Khayyam
The problem being, this is supposed to be a roleplaying game and one of the hallmarks of roleplaying games is that you make your own story, you don't follow someone else's. The only thing the WoW model has done is made online gaming attractive to the lazy and uncreative, which is about as stupid as trying to make playing sports attractive to the fat and lazy. Once you take away that element of creativity, you lose the whole concept of roleplaying.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Bah, I'm a sandbox gamer and I loved SWG. I've played so many MMOs I'm sick of em. I've played many P2P, F2P, beta tested ect nothing has had "it". I've pretty much given up on MMOs all together tbh. I've been messing around with making stuff in SL but that's pretty boring and there isn't any combat, just allot of chatting. Lately I've been doing mostly console gaming but even that is losing it's luster again. SWG was the perfect game and now it's not, so really there isn't anything for sandbox gamers. You can either just conform or deal with it.
Conform but don't convert.
It's the same thing for me, pre-NGE SWG was the longest time spent and most enjoyable MMO, to date. I'll try out anything new to see if I can get that satisfaction from a game but it hasn't happened.
My hopes, atm, rest on Earthrise and for the sake of conformity AoC will be my pass-time until Earthrise's release. .../crossfingers -- no vapourware whammies
* Life is not black or white, it's shades of grey. But, at it's best/worst, it hints at 32bit color. -Me (a.k.a. RuthlessTimes)
* I do not need to know how to make a better game than you. I just need to know how to cancel my subscription. -Antarious(a slight misquote but the sentiment remains)
If you want to just grind out levels with no quests or story or anything there are plenty of free to play MMOs you can try.
Also, just because there are quests to kill 10 whatever it doesn't mean you absolutely HAVE to do them. No one is forcing you to do quests. If you want to go and commit genocide on the countryside for no reason at all then go ahead.
I hate quests. You mentioned something about random dungeons being thrown in for apparantly no purpose and I have to say I went into that big cave in Felwood in warcraft all the way to the end where there was this big demon. I thought that was really neat to tool around in, later I had to go back there for my warlock horsie quest. I hate hate quests, I'm not going to grind all day in warcraft but I would grind all day long in warcraft in an instance if I had a party. Or if crafting was more complex and grinding mobs out in azeroth I could see grinding more out in the open for various crafting loot instead spending 2 hours and getting 2 greens and grey loot. I did 55-60 on my warlock just grinding and barely got 40 felcloth and maybe a couple blues.
I ran 4 accounts at once in warcraft for a while, I got my guys up to level 10 and then it was all instances from 10-44, zul farrak crushed my soul and I didn't feel like spending $60 to play warcraft anymore. I wish I wouldv'e figured that my machine could run 4 accounts before they nerfed one button mashers. It was awesome to see the quest log say you have no active quests.
I remember it being fun in Lineage 2 to just group up and grind, in some random dungeon.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
It's not just you.
I find quest grinding the bigest turn off in MMOs. If you're doing a quest or a mission it's really got to have some meaning.
These crappy kill X... quests and the FEDEX ones are just bollox. I'd rather level on mobs of my own choosing than alll this running back and forth to turn in quests even if it is a slower way to level I'm just fed up with lots of mindless running to another half baked quest.
Still, I'm currently playing FFXI, and although it's not exactly sand box there's none of this non-stop monodimensional questing shite.
I dont mind the linear quest depending on if there is a variety of questing out there. I dont mind the sandbox type of questing. Thats why im waiting for WAR and Playing EVE Online right now. If i enjoy the game im playing it really doesnt make a difference to me as long as im having fun.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD