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Five reasons MMOs are Broken
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
I found this interesting article posted on massively.com. What do you guys think ?
30
Comments
He didn't offer any solutions to the problems he presented.
number 5 and number 1 are the only ones I agree with.
I sort of have a solution to number 1. It's a rather simple design.
Give higher levels a reward for helping lower levels. Have a scale down option that lets you go down to the normal level range of the quest or dungeon they are on. Once you are that level...your group mate will share the quest they are on and you will get something in your quest log called a 'Helper Quest" (I know...not very imaginative name
) Once you help them complete the objective, you will get a quest helper point. Once you save enough of these up, you could get some cool gadgets or a special mount.
now of course thats really a simple design. I don't feel like going into detail how it all work. I realize that lowbies could abuse the system and what not. It's just a basic idea.
number 5...I don't have a solution to either. Good luck with that one
the other three are just personal nit-picks of the writer.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Well, you'd have to say they're good points, especially 1-3.
3) With 4,000 abilities and cool downs, yea, combat is pretty much nothing but playing the UI. Personally, I'd rather see things trimmed down and more about paying attention to the action.
2) It's all been said before and it's still true. So far, only the player driven games have found any kind of solution.
1) Big problem that people just sort of ignore. Don't see why this one is so hard to solve. Either get rid of the level system or just flatten out the progression curve.
I don't agree with Number 5 because subscription fees are on nearly everything these days, not just MMORPGs. It's become a way of life really and I understand why. Subscription is needed so that the developers get paid, so that the servers get paid, so that any other bills get PAID. What, does this guy think money grows on trees (technically it does) and that everyone can just pull off however much they like? Pfft, I wish.
The only problem I have with subscription fees is the price. $15 USD/mo may not sound like a much to those who live in America but to those who don't it can be quite annoying. And this is because of exchange rates (screw you Wall Street!).
Let's start with a few that aren't the worst I've seen, in fact, I wish I was paying this in my own currency.
$15 USD = 11.42 EUR
$15 USD = £10.56 GPB
These two aren't the worst, hell they're CHEAPER then what the Americans pay. And quite frankly, I wish I was paying this much in my own currency.
$15 USD = $18.26 CAD
$15 USD = $22.62 AUD
$15 USD = $28.79 NZD
Note that I'm using fairly common currencies (so in my examples I'm using Euros, British Pounds, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars). I have to pay more than any of those countries (I live in New Zealand). Do you know how annoying it is to have to pay nearly $30 when I know people are paying half as much as I am?
I wish developers would think about the exchange rates when dealing with prices so that countries like New Zealand and Australia arn't being ripped off. I used to pay $20, that was good. But noooo, Wall Street had to get goddamn greedy on us and now look what I pay (I don't blame the developers for that, but they can change their own prices).
Number 4
How the hell is aggro a problem? I'm pretty sure in real-life if some random come running through your home with a giant weapon killing all your family you'd at least question WHY they're doing it, wouldn't you? "Aggro" exists in real-life, ever hear attacks which have happened in the wilderness in real-life? That's basically the real worlds version of "aggro".
If you don't f*** with nature, nature won't f*** with you. Simple.
Number 3
This I do agree with but meh, I'm used to it. I would however, like a game which plays like World of Warcraft (in terms of the games 3rd person camera angle) but I can attack like in Oblivion (so no auto-attack).
Number 2
Huh? He doesn't like static worlds? Too bad. How else does he want it? It wouldn't be much of a game if, once one person has done a dungeon, no one else can do it. And, the only way to fix it would be to make one quest per person, one mob per person and one dungeon per raid/party.
Now, to make matters worse. That could not just be ONE quest/mob/item etc, per person. It would have to be individual quests/mobs/items until they got to the level cap. So that's X amount of quests (that would get you to the cap) per person. So if took you 100,000 quests to level to let's say, 50. That's 100,000 INDIVIDUAL quests per person.
Yes, because that's totally achievable without breaks or an incredibly high cost. If this guy doesn't like it he CAN fix it: Stop playing MMOs and go back to single player games.
Number 1
I say bull**** to that! You're level 70 and wanna group with a bunch of level 10s? THEN GO AHEAD DAMMIT. There is no restrictions to who you can level with, just what level a dungeon is.
Oh I have a Number 0 problem for him too.
Number 0
He has all these problems but can't fix them himself. Half of his "problems" are just stupid and, like I said, he can't think of a damn problem to fix it.
The whole point of a game is to play it and have fun, if he doesn't like it then he doesn't have to play them. And constructive critism is fine but his isn't constructive because he's too lazy to think of methods to fix the problems he hates.
So, exactly which reason hasn't always been a staple of MMORPGs? And they're broken? WoW is broken? Don't tell the 11 million playing the game, they might cancel their subscriptions.
The main problem I have with MMO's is they all bore me after so many months of playing. But I think is just me. Years ago I could sit on my ass and play games all day, now I just get bored.
Is something wrong with me? THERE IS ISN'T THERE?! TELL ME IT AIN'T SO.
1. Economics. The publishers and stockholders demand a wow-killer. Brilliant devs not left alone to be brilliant.
2. Economics. The publishers and stockholders decide when a product needs to be on the shelf. If the product isn't ready, oh well. patch it on the go.
3. Economics. The publishers, eager for a wow-killer, would rather back new games based on popular IP's rather than trust a brillian dev team to develop a new innovative IP.
4. Economics. Publishers and stockholders desiring enormous and instant return on their investments want games to appeal to the largest possible audience. Devs are forced to simplify their games, make them accessible possibly on a console. Resulting product is watered down and bleah.
He did, but they where really bad fixes imo
Currently restarting World of Warcraft
The problem: 99% of MMORPG players like something differnt than what I want in an MMORPG.
The solution: STFU and go play single player games.
This was like listening to someone complain that trees are too leafy.
5) "I've never heard of Free to Play MMOs."
4) OK - I'll give him this one, I've never seen or even heard of any MMO that has combat that doesn't have some kind of non-intuitive / doesn't make a whole lot of sense aggro mechanics for the NPCs.
3) "I want twitch combat but I want it in WoW, not any of the games that it already works in right now."
2) "I've never heard of sandbox games. Or I want this style of gameplay, but in WoW"
1) See #2
This article is fail. The pictures say it all. He's not complaining about his top 5 problems with MMOs in general, he's complaining about his top 5 problems with WoW and maybe a clone or two he's tried and (rightly) ditched and gone back to the real thing.
If he wants to get away from the WoW paradigm he first needs to figure out that there are other MMOs out there that don't follow the WoW method, and figure out that it doesn't matter if you're playing with 100,000 people instead of 10+ million if you're still having fun.
CoH solves the problem of not being able to play with friends. Sidekicking is something all MMO's should consider
That was a very lame article in my oppinion.
That is just an ex-SWG player bashing on linear progression MMOs, speciailly WoW.
The solution to four of his five problems is a true sandbox MMO and he knows it.
good article- he's right imo. If mmos are to improve then those points are interesting to look at, though as he says with subscription fees being ludicrous for companies why would they want to change that?
5) True. This is why game developers concentrate on quantity rather than quality.
4) True. While this makes playing the healer a bit more interesting, I wish that mobs would just attack "on sight". The aggro system must be hidden.
3) True. It's just hard to make something else that works as well.
2) True. It's the main downfall of mmorpgs.
1) True. But some games have systems which make grouping easier.
The author knows the problems but not the solutions. I don't pretend to know them myself but few games have come around those problems. For example: EQ2's mentor system for #1, GW for #5, AoC tries to get over #3 etc. Alas there's no game that has none of these problems.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I also think the tank, healer, dps - argo system is crap.
I have a great solution for it, have a MMO with no healing. So you'll need a DPS, DPS DPS and DPS. There problem solved.
Another burnt-out MMO veteran rant bemoaning WoW as the cause of all ills.
As long as Blizz don't start killing kittens to make their games, I will continue to enjoy WoW, whether this guy deems it 'broken' or not.
What a crock. I could point him in the direction of some truly broken games.
He wants fantasy sandbox MMO which currently doesnt exist, thats why he gives example with best themepark MMO.Having in mind he is ex-SWG player, he has reasons to hate wow because of wow SWG its what it is now.
nice thought
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Corpus Callosum
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5) The problem: subscription fees
Solution: Subscription fees are NOT an issue. The reasoning behind them is the issue, and that causes problems. Companies have grown lazy and uninspired because they only merely need to come up with reasons for people to continue playing, and this complacency is enough to drive everyone who cares mad. However, this will not change until we find a company with deep pockets that is willing to make an MMO that means something, rather than throw something out for the masses to attempt, ala WoW-clone.
4) The problem: aggro
Solution: The fool who wrote the article apparently does not understand mechanics of the real world, which as someone pointed out, does have aggro. However, there is a noticeable foolish idea involved in how aggro currently works. Let us say that I have a lvl 10 Warrior running around in a group of lvl 10 Orcs at their camp. The con is even, and their aggro is limited to about 30 meters. Suppose I am lvl 20 though, and all of a sudden they have no aggro....hmmm.....and if I am lvl 5, their aggro is 50 meters....hmm!!
This brings into light the silliness of the aggro system itself. Think of it this way, how does aggro of most creatures really work? Well, that answer lies in the creatures personality. This is a variable. Given that orcs are usually nasty brutes that care for carnage, they are likely going to aggro on you *from* sight, no matter the level. In a case like this though, I think a powerful character might make them run away or cower if he/she happens to LOOK powerful, or uses some ability or spell that makes them seem powerful. Again, its all in the display.
Of course, most animals should be governed by other things. Deer should never aggro, (unless they are demonic or something), and instead run away. Something like a wolf should run away, unless its in a pack, in which case it should almost always aggro on sight.
So that is how aggro should be handled, not any of the current shit that plagues our games.
3) The problem: button lock
Solution: Currently, abilities are indeed locked to a lot of button pressing. This is fine for certain games, but for others is quickly remedied by having abilities no longer have cool-downs. Who the hell implemented the CD anyways? Let's think of it this way, using a set of spells, for example. Again, let us suppose that we have a powerful wizard, who has 3 spells at his disposal: Fiery Blast, Levitation, and Hurricane. Each should have different modes of casting. Fiery Blast should be a quick burst of mana use. For this argument, this wizard shall have 1000 mana. Fiery Blast costs him 50 a burst at lets say 300 damage, which at some point, when the spell was learned, originally did only 150 damage at 25 a burst. However, as the wizards skill grew, so did his ability to concentrate more energy at once for greater damage. No CD, can be spammed. However, all spells should have an induction time to cast, at least. Instant spells should not be particularly powerful, ever, or should have a certain use. All spells should have some interrupt, as well.
Hurricane, however, should have a much higher amount of damage, require some rare reagent, and have the effect of a constant storm for some period of time that wreaks so much havoc, that the people near should have cause to fear it. But what keeps people from using that a ton?? Lots of things, if this idea is done right. For one, it should leave a wizard weakened after doing it, possibly through a debuff that lasts a while and affects mana regen. Second, it should be a channeled effect, meaning it can be broken, and the storm should leave a tracer to the wizard, (unless we have ourselves a storm that was sent somewhere, although this kind of spell should be legendary). Lastly, the spells effects should have negative connotations. If you have a game with trees as resources, they should be destroyed. If there are factions, there should be faction hits for areas affected by the storm, and so on.
Levitation is an easy one. It should slowly drain mana, and should be channeled. So we don't have wizards floating about and casting spells everywhere without being able to be hit by any sword-wielding maniacs.
Cooldowns are the responsible party for button management, mainly. Although my example was of magic, these same concepts should apply to other class structures as well.
2) The problem: static worlds
Solution: There are multiple solutions to this, actually. This depends on perspective. On one hand, we can make a world large enough with a decent amount of population contained within it that you can have enough renewable content that allows for a world to dynamically progress without people feeling leftout. This type of game should have, however, a few things to make up for it: Player-driven content (Towns, quests, government, etc.), writable history, records of deeds and monsters that have acceptable spawn patterns (i.e., similar to population controls that mimic reality).
That is one solution. The other is simpler, or can be, at least. Progressive servers. You have your game world complete with its problems and quests, and everyone can do them. Then, when a player has completed a certain series of quests together, he/she can move on to another server (same world, different timeframe) where all the quests have been completed and different problems are arising. This should be an optional move, always, and should be reversible, should the player want to go back to help newer characters or alts.
1) The problem: you can't play with the people you want to play with
Solution: This isn't so much a game problem as it is a people problem. Most people simply do not like playing with friends if they are lower-level. I have friends like this, and I am sure most people do. No matter what system you put in, progression is progression. We would need to see a completely different type of MMO to come out to get beyond this, one that creates a living, breathing world where progression is not always the answer. Remember, not everyone needs to be driven to some end, but games where progression is it, lacks these players.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
The Problem: I have simply outgrown MMOs.
Seriously, MMOs have remained fundamentally unchanged since pen and paper days, maybe it is you that is different now.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
$15/mo is change, try putting $15/day in space invaders to see some real cost. Aggro is peripheral, if the game was fun you could easily learn to deal with that. Button lock isn't fun, that's true but the solution isn't to get rid of buttons, it's to make it fun to figure out which buttons to push. A static world, that is fun would be good. Playing with friends is nice, finding new friends is too, but it's peripheral to the problem.
The five solutions
To make a game fun they have to go back to the drawing board. Look at the games that capture peoples attention, such as Tetris or Rubik's cube. Make the game interesting to play, look outside what's being done. Tiny changes to the same form won't change it.
Dev's need to focus on what they want, and take the audience it garners. Don't go for the WoW crowd, instead focus on a game that you find fun and think a large group will find fun.
Dev's should accept the game length they can create. Stretching things out (grind) is a sure fail. A good, but short game is better than a stretched out game. Add new material later in expansions, just be sure that it is a good game and not an abreviated game that's still boring. Going with this is to create a world that is the size of the game. Bigger isn't always better, if you want interaction then make it a small game. It can always grow later.
Real beta's again. Require that people that play in betas write reports. If they don't put someone else in their place. Beta's are now hurting the game. People are seeing them as free play time. Plus, drop NDA from all of them. Make it transparent. People will want to play any new MMO that has some creativity in a way that interests them. Focus less on matching expectations and more on creatively making a fun game.
There's a lot of ideas out there, before a game is developed they should try and expand their ideas of what's possible. Incorporate sounds and vision in ways that haven't been done. Instead of fighting the players urge to create embrace it. I'm not talking about complete freedom, and I'm certainly not talking about reality, I'm talking about allowing creativity.
Asdar
MMO's are working as designed. Unless we're taking sandbox games like EVE which play quite a bit differently and don't sufffer from the same playstyles.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
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