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Left Behind - The "Rapture" of MMO's.
gnomexxx
Member Posts: 2,920
Ever get the feeling that the rapture has occurred in your MMO? You look around and find that you've been left behind. You're the only one standing there other than some scritped but otherwise mindless NPC's looking at you like robotic mannaquins.
Why is it that the developers have not figured out a way to keep people together? Why must we always be spread out and alone? And why do I have to go through hell and back to find a group to do a quest that was put in before the umpteenth expansion that came out for a game?
It seems that at some point someone would have learned that if you keep adding expansions that introduce more land area just for higher level players, you're going to lose your new players. It's just an undeniable thing that is going to happen. Do you want your game to grow and survive.
And that leads me to another thing. It seems like I'm always the one that is so low on the level scale. I thought I played games a pretty good bit. More than I probably should. Where the hell does everyone else get all this time to spend playing MMO's and how dare you leave me behind? I'm lonely without you. Slow down and let me catch up.
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Comments
Because people want new areas, new content and progression. By trying to keep everyone together, that means the vets are put up with the newbs and they are doing the same area/content as the lesser experienced players.
I do agree however that there should be more thought put into account about trying to return the vets to an older area. For exemple, (sorry for the WoW exemples but..) when TBC came out, IF and Ogr. were completely deserted and now Shat was the new marketplace. I think that this was a negative effect on the community. They should of kept the main areas of IF and Ogr. and maybe spruced those up a bit to keep people interested in staying in that area. This gives the lower level people a chance to be with the more experienced players and really give a sens of community in the game.
Dragon1613 says:asdfasdfafsdfw111111123123123213
-server-Dragon1613 has died
It may sound funny, but I tend to underestimate myself when it comes to MMOs. Let's take WoW for example. I've played over 600 hours and still don't have a max level char! I've got two that are almost there...I don't know where the time I spend goes to.
Also, when I come across another player on a PvP server, I expect myself to lose for some reason. I just automatically assume that they'll be better than me.
Now this isn't some emo rant of mine. I think it ties in with the fact that as a new player one tends to feel left behind. Devs have a way of shoving the awesomeness of max-level in your face, yet keeping that goal so far away. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to grind and personally hate levels, but it feels that if you want to be a *proper* part of the community you need to be up there with the best of them.
What I'm getting at is that devs usually create low-level cities as central hubs where high levels come to trade and low levels come to trade and quest. As a result, low levels are constantly seeing these high level characters, yet let them walk outside the bounds of the city and they're basically in no-man's land.
If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm in a strange mood
Yeah that comes with the territory of a hierarchical, game design. When the game is built around constantly making your level/skill/gear better/higher you get choke points where the majority of the community is at the cap, so every one that isn't there doesn't have many people to play with, then to keep people playing you have to add more levels/skills/gear to pacify them for a while.
I am never where the majority of players are either.
Personally I don't care for hierarchy, if your character never got statitically better that wouldn't bother me, I prefer customization to progression anyway. I would rather get new abilities than better ones. Hierarchy also creates problems in PvP.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
lol, great analogy
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Two words:
Levels suck
Unless you have a constant stream of new players into the game, the lower level zones become ghost towns while everyone who has leveled up is out raiding.
Furthermore, the intense desire to make sure lowbies stay in their place does not help at all.
The fear of the developer is that if you allow experienced players to help the n00bs they'll move up too fast and thus get bored of the game sooner, which may lead to them unsubscribing a few months earlier than planned.
A skill based game with lots of content that everyone from n00b to grizzled vet can experience and enjoy is frankly "too hard" for the devs, because they'd have to, you know, develop content all the time.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
QFT
...except for the last sentence...
A skill based game with lots of content that everyone from n00b to grizzled vet can experience and enjoy is frankly "too hard" for the devs, because they'd have to, you know, give players the freedom to create content for each other... and we know that the great unwashed shouldn't be given that kind of power.
IMO Spore, if it succeeds, will pave the way for the true next gen MMOs... Spore is fantastic - simply by playing the game the players are continuously and automatically creating content for other players. It is staggering that this came from a single player game rather than a MMO... it just shows what a bunch of farts rule this genre...
I'm not sure if it is the developers fault or the player bases fault.
The developers provide a fantasy/sci-fi etc. world to play in. They don't say you need to get to the highest level to have fun. They do say go enjoy what the world has to offer, and it is up to us the player base to figure out how we want to play in it.
I am always seeing players saying "You need to get to end game for (fill in the blanks)", but never the devs. But once all these players who rushed to end game and find little to do, then they cry for more content, so the devs are forced to provide the content or lose players.
So because of this the new player base, always seems like they are left behind. So they rush to catch up to the rest and it becomes a cycle, not a good one mind you but one none the less. So In my opinion if players would just slow down and enjoy the games for what they are.... A fantasy world, then I think most new players would not feel left behind.
I have been playing EQ2 now for over 3 years, and still don't have a toon at max level. I enjoy the world and the story and people in it. Almost everyone in my guild is like me, and yes, we are small because of this. Weare all more interested in the story and living fantasy lives then rushing to end game. We enjoy our times playing, and to us that is all that matters.
I'm not saying there is a right way to play just that there should be different ways to enjoy the game with out listening to the ones in a rush to end game.
Sorry about the rant. But feels good to say the things I said
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Point well taken.
One of Raph Koster's ideas with SWG was that the players themselves will create a lot of the content.
Of course, if you don't give them tools to do this (which SWG was very reluctant to do until recently) it kind of puts the kibosh on the concept. But the early SWG players, well, some of them, certainly did try to do all sorts of roleplay things in the world they were invited to play in.
One does run into players who for reasons I can't comprehend loathe role play and roleplayers. I mean, people who would get bent out of shape if you used "May the Force be with you" as a substitute for "Goodbye".
Part of the problem seems to be that developers just do not want mere players to have that sort of creative power within their worlds.
The idea is supposed to be, build a sandbox and invite the neighbor kids to come on over and play.
But MMO developers seem to have some sort of problem with this. Or the publishers do...
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
There was some talk of allowing the players to create missions in CoX at some point. Haven't heard much about that lately. I think CO may go somewhere with that idea. With the archnemesis system, they already have... kind of.
It does seem like most if not all of the attention in games goes to the max level characters. It's almost like they are trying to lay rail for a train that is steaming along at an unbearable pace.
Why not put more content for the lower levels, then people might be tempted to go back and reroll a new character knowing that they are not going to have to do completely the same content they did before. That, in turn, would give the new people someone to play with who can welcome them and teach them the ropes.
I have no incentive to make new characters in the games I play. I've tried it and got bored very quickly. I ended up running back to my highest level character each time.
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All Rights Reversed
i never reach the higher lvls or the cap in these traditional mmorpgs that i played because i always get bored of grinding and there is no one at the lower lvls, so thats why lots of ppl are waiting for the new gen. mmogs, for instance darkfall, huxley?, stargate and jumpgate which i think has no lvls and is based on skill
I think the best example that I can come up with about what the OP is describing is DAoC.
I feel so sorry for that game. It has the greatest the offer once you get to the RvR part of the game, but I do not see how anyone trying that game out for the first time these days could ever stay. It's a lonely venture and only doable if you have friends that start with you. And making a new character to level up, noooooo way.
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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 most mmos are like the anti-christ of community effort. lol They give you levels and promote it as a multi player game. Invite your friends, or join your friends! And then when you do finally join, they are max level and the game is gimped in regards to helping your friends level up to your area. *looks pointedly at warcraft*
So in a way, certain mmos do not make the game multi-player friendly. Its basically a single player game with multiplayer elements and a 15$ a month chatroom.
You said it perfectly. I've gone through this. You get a game, you like it, you are at the game store one day and talk your friend into playing. Then, what is the first thing you have to do to play with him? Stop playing your character that you were playing and create a brand new one. Then you've got these two characters that you've got to split your time up between. And if someone else joins to play with you later, it's the same scenario over again, except this time you've got two people starting all over from scratch.
I'm not a game developer, I've not got the creativity that it takes to do that. But if that's what we're paying them for is their creativity and expertise, then I'm saddened that they have not solved this problem for us yet!!!!!!!!
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All Rights Reversed
Myself and many others were raptured away from SWG in November 2005...all I can do is pray for the poor bastards who have been left behind.
Wow its early.....I thought this was a post about a game called "left behind" and in setting of bioshock rapture.
(must still be dreaming)
Anyways its players fault for buying level based games.... like wow, with such an elitest setting (only a few actually do the raids) I dont see why so many people play it.
Own, Mine, Defend, Attack, 24/7
There has to be a reason for older players to go back to old areas of the game. One of the nice things about Everquest was that buffs were not scaled through most of it's early existence. This meant older players would come back into the newbie areas and help them out with buffs and sometimes even give them some equipment as there was no level requirement on items at the time. They got rid of all these things in the name of balance and to stop power leveling of players. This is good in some ways, but IMO the bad outweighs the good as you don't see people coming back to help out new players as they don't have the ability to do so anymore.
Another nice thing about EQ was monsters were very difficult to kill. Many times I was killed by a nasty mob like Dvinn in Crushbone and went back at high level for revenge. I would through some buffs on newbies and sometimes let them join my group while I killed the mob and allowed them to loot it.
As you can see there were some pluses to the so called downsides of first generation MMOs. In games like WoW there is no reasons to go back to the newbie areas or to help a newb out because your spells will be equivalent to level whatever level they are in terms of helping them out so it wont be much help in otherwords. The equipment is easy to acquire so who cares is someone gives you something? Dungeons are instanced so you wont be meeting up with a solo higher level player in a lower level dungeon who might help you out. This all leads to a lot of segregation of the playerbase.