Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
MMO, original meaning lost in Instances
Jetsonix
Member Posts: 38
Case in point...Age of Conan Online. Look at all the instancing going on. Just like Guild Wars you got instances being shoved down your throat at every turn which takes away from the ONE WORLD ONE SERVER holy grail that was originally intended to begin with
People, what happened? How did we come to this? You mean to tell me we STILL do not have the technology to get EVERYBODY on one server and one map? Of course we do not, can you imagine 15,000 people standing in front of one NPC asking for a quest???
So, to sum up...MMO is really a pipe dream. There never was a holy grail , never was the reality of everybody playing together on one server, ONE SERVER and EVERYONE there at SAME TIME
No sorry, sadly it was all a pipe dream and we all are relegated to this....INSTANCING. MMO gaming is a joke and it always has been.
I feel like I am a million miles away from the real game while i am leveling up in Tortage City, the noobie island. The immersion factor is NOT THERE. Where is everybody else? I would like to know people that are playing in the real game are near me somewhere. Where are they!!!!!!!!!!!!!???
To me this point is critical. Fun Com blew it with the newbie zone. My suggestion...STOP the game and reorganize the newbie zone so that it is on the same map as the real game, so we can run over and see high lvl players doing whatever. As it is now, there is no immersion into this supposedly huge game...only immersion i have received so far is being trapped inside a box
So go ahead and rationalize and tell me why everything is okay as it is, hehehe. Make excuses for Age of Conan..can't wait to read your replies
Enjoy!
Comments
instancing has been hapning for years...
its instances are nothing like guild wars
The OP is clearly uninformed on how zones instances are implemented in the games that use them (notably AO, EQ2, AoC).
The effect of them is also exagerated by the haters. So far noone on any server confirmed the existence of an instanced zone in areas outside the tutorial area (Tortage) and the starter cities. Not that it can't happen, but it's rare enough to not be visible so far.
So having the ability and using the ability to instance the zones is something different.
Wow a first post and such a big issue, im stunned...
Back on topic.. You say aoc isnt an mmo because of all the instances. Lets sum it up:
MMORPG, or Massiveley Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
is it massive? Yes.
is it a multiplayer? Yes.
Is it Online? Yes.
is it Roleplaying? Yes.
and is it a Game? Well duh!
The problem you are having is that its not an open-world-where-everyone-are-on-the-same-server TYPE of mmo. I understand your problem believe me but its not a dealbreaker for me.... not in anyway... You should enjoy this game because of what it is and not because of something you thought it should have been... yes i know many of you are dissapointed because of "all the instances" but come on... so what? Im not gonna forfeit a fun game because i get a 5 secs loading screen every one hour... thats ridiculous..
you can try to figure out what the "g" is on your own
Just wait a few more years. Quantum PCs will make all your gaming dreams a reality!
You all making excuses for the MMO failure to deliver...in fact it was NEVER delivered. So over time.... we have accepted things as they are and they BLOW, ....Massively Blow
You all RATIONALIZING
Oh, it delivered all right. So much that Blizzard had to make a statement on a graphics engine update (finally) for the expansion coming after the Lich King (too late?).
Even if your post is trollish in nature I agree with some of your points.
AoC has created a wonderful semi singleplayer game with Tortage level 1-20. While it is nicely done, it breaks immersion and the mmo feeling. Zones as such are not great. I remember being in White Isles and having to change instances to meet with a couple of guild mates.
Also it poses problems with one starter area like this. For me the "roleplay" part of it dies when all characters created have the same background story. And when you want an alt or change your main you have to redo the same stuff over and over.
AoC is fun for me right now, but I doubt its longevity. While fun at the moment I can't say for sure it will be fun a few months from now.
Essentially AoC = WoW 2.0. They copied everything from green, blue items; raid centric; battlegrounds; zones work pretty much the same except the potential to split up into different instances (epic and normal for example. They also include a totally same talent system.
I have played many mmos and I know WoW wasn't the first to include these things. But AoC has copied so much I wanna puke. Sure they graphics are better, the music is fantastic, but essentially is still WoW 2.0 when you remove the skin. It will be fun for a while, but I think it will lose something over time as the game is too much of the same old.
The zones are smaller in AoC too.
It remains to be seen how fun it will be, but if this becomes yet another raidfest or if sieges will be limited to a few, few people, or not fun, then I will leave the game...
For now I have fun as it is though a strong feeling of deja vu...
____________________________
CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
____________________________
Go back under your bridge troll. We don't need your kind here bashing with no real reasons. Ktxhbb
The speed of the mole and the power of steel is my weapon
Try playing Eve. One universe, no instances.
Try going to a system called Jita, which is the main trade hub for the entire universe. You get to the gate to jump in the system and find out your number 40 something in the line and you should be able to enter in about 5 min or so. Why? Because there are normally between 400 and 1000 people in the system.
The entire one world one server idea is great on paper. But can you imagine the first day, when everyone is Lvl 6 and 20000 people all have to go out and kill X number of mob Y?
How about this one. You get your raid together and spend 2 hours hacking your way through a dungeon. Your buffing up to hit the last boss, and have the group thats been trailing you, blow past, go in and take him out.
Instancing and open world both have good and bad. Its just a matter of finding a happy medium.
Silly... you people have no imagination..
If there was more than 1 Y and more than one starter area, the problem wouldn't be that big...
____________________________
CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
____________________________
might be they really did the instancing mainly for the beginning.. who knows maybe in a few months they will remove some of the instancing... at least this isnt something they cant change
FunCom INVENTED the instance with Anarchy Online. WOW took al the ideas you mentioned from other games. What made WOW succesful? Hitting the market at a point where many people were just getting broadband, and having a game engine that can run on a Comodore 64. (looks like it too) It's a great beginer MMO. But to think it broke any new territory is to show how noobish your perspective is. The instances in AOC are full of people. The instances however prevent over population which is fine by me. On my server alone there are nearly 200 people from my guild already. I dont want to bump tits with them every time I turn around.
You just don't realize that it is NOT possible to make an entire world on one server.
Two Words - Asheron's Call. No instancing, none, zero. Some dungeons are accessed by 'portal', but anyone can go in there together, there are no separate instances of them. AC is probably the only 'true sandbox' type game left on the market (maybe Eve is one too, I've never played but I've heard great things)
Asheron's call has everything everyone seems to clamber for on these forums - no instancing, 'sandbox' world, meaningful PVP (you can loot the corpses of your victims and take their stuff - now THAT is a death penalty), no 'classes' - you can take and train in any combination of skills imaginable, wear any armor you can carry, a deep and complex crafting system, free monthly updates, etc.... and Turbine pulled that off nearly a decade ago and has been going strong ever since. The problem is that people seem to want all that 'stuff' plus amazing mindblowing state of the art graphics, which just isn't feasible with event he most up to date high-end hardware. So AoC had to compromise and give us pretty amazing graphics (not nearly as good as LOTRO, IMHO, but that's a personal opinion based on asthetics, not technical fact) and decent gameplay but instance it so that 400 people going to the same quest giver didn't crash the whole system.
I think FC did a pretty good job, and though the game really isn't for me, it's a good game that seems pretty stable and has some decent innovation. Combat is 'new' but seems more applicable to a console gaming pad than a keyboard, and I STILL think DDOs combat is the best on the market today, but AoC is a decent, solid game and FC did a good job.
When scary things get scared, that's bad...
FunCom INVENTED the instance with Anarchy Online. WOW took al the ideas you mentioned from other games. What made WOW succesful? Hitting the market at a point where many people were just getting broadband, and having a game engine that can run on a Comodore 64. (looks like it too) It's a great beginer MMO. But to think it broke any new territory is to show how noobish your perspective is. The instances in AOC are full of people. The instances however prevent over population which is fine by me. On my server alone there are nearly 200 people from my guild already. I dont want to bump tits with them every time I turn around.
jupp Anarchy Online invented alot of ideas.. i think they even had the talent system before WoW had it... i just wish there would be an improved mission system like Anarchy Online had... questing isnt really my thing lol
Lol, Eve Online, i knew you fans of that game would jump in here and comment. Answer me this Eve players....When was last time you actually saw your body and watched yourself walk around in the game and actually meet other players standing next to you?
ROFL Because you DONT EXIST in the game! Only your ship does! Only way they can play that game on One Server, lol
Go back to Vanguard
Ohh -- wait the game was a train wreck ... I wonder why ...
I agree with your points whole heartly; you're exactly right.
IMO,
Tauceti
You are confused.
A game can have avatar-based gameplay and be setup just like EVE, all players in a single unique "open world".
The only thing you need to do is create enough unique discrete rooms (or zones) connected by portals and some kind of a justification for being able to continuously add new rooms following population growth.
EvE online is lucky because it is space based and it is quite "logical" that star systems are effecitvely isolated from each other and that new ones can be "discovered" at any time.
Being unable to walk around has nothing to do with EVE's open-world. Ambulation hasn't been implemented yet because of massive amount of new graphics and content that has to be generated for something that is basically just a cosmetic enhancement to the game.
Try reading my entire post instead of just the first line please.
This is the third threads i have seen on the topic, and I've finally got a decent comeback up my sleeve. If you want to complain about your "open World" and zoning... Then why not complain that there are to many servers. Maybe there should only be one game server that all subscribers play on, becuz until that happens there really is no open world with everyone in it. Regardless of what game you play, there are servers that divide players and it is there for a reason.
Holy whinning!
AoC has instances, but the lands are also pretty large in size so zoning isn't that bad of an issue, and if you have 5000 people on the server and 2000 are in your zone, how the hell do you expect to get anything done?
Silly... you people have no imagination..
If there was more than 1 Y and more than one starter area, the problem wouldn't be that big...
I agree that if you had more starter area and server, that would lessen thestated problem. However, I've played enough MMORPGs in my time at higher levels that I still run into the same problems mentioned above. So, I agree a system that has a well balanced mix of open gme play and instances is the best solution.
Anyhow, so far the only game that came close to doing what we're talking about was SWG-PerCU it was an open zone with a few instances and it was great. It had many of the suggestion you stated, however you still had the issue of camping a site and the other issue as stated by Reiketsu which is why instancing helped.
Its to bad we have all these WoW clones coming out and no-one really trying to come-up with somethign better.
IMO,
Tauceti
OMG WHAT WOULD WE DO IF WE WERE ALL IN THE SAME PLACE?!?
LOL!
If Funcom made an original game that would not have all the people start in the same place and would allow all the players to develop and track their own storyline instead of "you are the chosen one" x 500,000 we would not be having this discussion. AoC MUST BE INSTANCED becouse it's limited by it's design. Making it a non-instanced game would render it unplayable.
EVE is an open world becouse it's design allows it. So is Entropia Universe (get away from that one though). But even so those worlds would struggle under the 1,000,000 players that WOW can deliver for example, and maybe soon AoC will be delivering.
It's all a matter of taste. I prefer open worlds that allow free roaming with no limitations. AoC and WOW are not like that. I even resent multiple servers of a game. But that is a matter of taste. AoC is a fine game for what it was made to do. Not a revolutionary one though. It's Anarchy Online in a new coating.
So hold your horses people, there is no reason to get upset becouse AoC is not original. WOW was never an original game yet that never prevented millions to enjoy it. EVE is an orginal game but it attracts less players then WOW or AoC despite the open world. I repeat, its all a matter of personal preference until technology allows us huge open worlds.
No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.