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Something I learned about my play style and MMO's from AoC
jiveturkey12
Member CommonPosts: 1,262
I have been playing AoC since launch day, and let me tell you, I have been having a blast. The combat has me on the edge of my seat, and I have never had more fun with a guild before, than in this game.
Creating cities, and PvPing in Tesso is one hell of a time.
There was one thing though that AoC made me realize though.... Im not a quest person!
To be honest, as great as some quest are "Destiny Quests for example" most others, I could care less about. I love the combat system in AoC, I think they did an amazing job with it, which is why i think its funny that they give you more exp from questing than from just killing.
It made me remember SWG alot, like when I would just go around with friends and kill things for the fun of it, because we all loved the combat. We never had to worry about doing quests, or missions, we made our own up.
If we walked up to a bandit lair, and attacked them, we had our own story in our minds, it was Halas Were, the pistoleer Zabrak, and Tradosk the Trandoshan Trader/Ranger fighting some bad guys, trying to make a few credits in a galaxy far far away. Of course Ill never get hat back again, but AoC made me realize that the difference between playing a game like AoC and SWG, isnt about the graphics, or the combat.
It isnt about the community, or the tools set up for the community,
It isnt about the leveling or skill based systems.
Its about imagination, its about feeling like a little kid again, in SWG all I had was a stick and a forest, and in my mind i was shooting down hordes of enemies, and fighting for myself on a galaxy far far away.
In AoC im given a entire playset, with elaborate weapons and armor, directions around every corner saying "Dragon Ahead" or "turn here" and an inflatable dragon at the end, that i always get to kill.
-Jive
Comments
That's because every mmorpg all the quests are "kill 10 of these" and they arn't any fun but if a mmorpg had a storyline say as good as Mass Effect then you'd love quests but you can't have like hundreds of 20 hour long quests lol. I will say even though EQ2 had horrible graphics it had some of the best quests I've ever done in a mmorpg which were really involving like having to stack boxes up to jump over a wall.
Speaking only for myself, I couldn't care less about the game's storyline. All I care about is the storyline of my character as directed by me. What makes a game interesting to me is the longterm and shorterm choices that I get to make and how those effect me. Naturally, I'm not much in favor of being railroaded.
I also have to admit i dont care for quests. Even in AoC Night time play i found that i was wishing every cutscene that could skip it and get on with my character. I dont like being told where to play, how to play, and when i can do stuff. Of course there is cahracter development and limitations...but let me find them and define them by my decisions. Be it my skills, the amount of time i spend with my characters skills or what type of skills playstyle i choose to have. I dont like being set along a path that limits my own exploration and use of the game world provided.
The cut scenes really do need an option to skip, I agree. I think most players tend to role several characters to get an idea of which one suits their playstyle the best and to have to sit through the same cinematics every time gets old in a hurry.
As for the linear aspects of the AoC, I am curious how many people who have stated their disappointment about Conan have played past 20. Once you get out of Tortage, the game really opens up. There's all kinds of places you can go and do things in. But it is very quest driven and starts to feel very "warcrafty" after a while. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a warcraft basher and I think it was a fun game, but it was very simplistic in its play. It's huge success is being felt in many other games for better or for worse. Having a great big "!" telling you this guy has a quest, then arrows pointing where to go for the quest, with giant "?'s" telling you who to talk to next really removes the need to even read what you have to do. To me this makes playing these games over simplified, almost like a fisher-price approach to online gaming.
That being said, the melee combat aspect of Conan is still the most enjoyable for me of all the mmorpg's I've played. I think AoC and Ryzom are the only mmo's I've played that the combat kept me playing regardless of the content because the action was so cool. I guess I'm hoping for the social aspects of an mmo coupled with the over the top action of God of War... however if it had that kind of action I'd probably end up ignoring the social aspect anyway!
Speaking of Ryzom, that game reminded me a lot of Star Wars in it's open ended, non linear approach. I haven't played it in a long time though so I don't even know if it's around anymore. I'm a hopeless mmorpg junky that plays everything at least once, still looking for that "OMG COOL! " aspect of seeing EQ for the first time without having the "OMG I HATE THIS GAME!" feeling that it so often brought lol.
Let me be the voice of opposition here. I LOVE quests! and the ones in AoC are done really well, I actually enjoy reading them, and have been pleasantly surprised at the end of many. Are there the cookie cutter quests like go here deliver this, go collect these many etc., sure. But they are quick easy, and mainly are there to help you explore the surrounding area. The rest of the quests, like the ones for Sanctum really throw a ton of Lore at you and are a blast.
Sure I like a sandbox atmosphere at times, but I also want to follow a great story too. Main reason I didn't like SWG so much was the lack of a good storyline that I was involved in. Sorry, I come from the Final Fantasy side of gaming where interactive stories are what I crave.
Oh I agree, don't get me wrong, I want good quests too and I think AoC has some good ones as well. I do often read them too. It's just the layout of the quests and the map that can remove the need to even pay attention to what's said. I suppose that fills both sides of differing playstyles. You can read it if you want or just grab it and go if you don't want to read it. And honestly, finding out my destiny questline couldn't be picked up again until 50 after finishing the level 30 one was disappointing to me. But I'm a big hypocrite and I know it lol. I hate that it's made so obvious what you have to do but then again I hated EQ1 where you had to talk to every npc in the zone to figure out if one had a quest for you or not, and even then you had to respond with the right keywords in order to get more information out of them. I guess nothing will ever satisfy me lol.
I think the whole point of my post was that games are just loosing there "Adventure" the exploration and the unpredictability that we all love about real life.
Take another example of mine, WWE Smackdown 2 for the Playstation.
When I was young I was a huge wrestling fan, but the one thing i loved the most was "The royal Rumble" it was 30 guys, all at random, going into the ring, and the last person standing won.
Well in Smackdown 2, you actually got a random number, and when people entered the ring, as soon as they got in, you could hit them right out if you timed it right. It wasnt hard, to get knocked out but it was hard to stay in, the eway it should be.
Now all you have in royal rumbles in video game, is first you have to beat away at the enemy ofr a ocuple few minutes, then finally you get to throw them out, but sitll they have a chance to stay in.
Its all too god damn fair, and predictable now adays!
-Jive
You're right about that. That's one thing that was so fun in Shadowbane... when it worked anyway. Seiges were so crazy and unpredictable that it made it more fun. Too bad the rubberbanding was so terrible that you ended up dead before you even saw anyone attacking you half the time. That was some of the best pvp when it was working and it was pretty massive!
The only thing in AoC that reminds me of the good ol' days of SWG is the community. A few known guilds from way back when.
Other than that, it feels like a boring grind. Maybe im just bored being a caster...