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Your Biggest Gripe
twstdstrange
Member Posts: 474
Hey, guys.
Just curious as to what exactly is your biggest issue with MMO's today.
And I mean issue as in it drives you up the wall, that most of the MMO's you have played seem to be plagued by it, etc.
Mine would have to be blatant grind.
Comments
I think the biggest issue there days is to many devs seem afraid to build the world and let players make things happen. It is most likely due to the costs of development rising, just like with movies. The more expensive these things are to produce the less open to taking risks the developers are so there ends up being a race to the bottom in terms of them trying and trying and trying to control the expereince and, ultimately, just making things so guided and constrained that they just don't end up being very interesting beyond a few weeks or maybe a month or two. It is just hard to take chances when you spend so much to develop these games, they are afraid to say no to any player segment and as a reuslt I think things get dumbed down to the point of being bland and unappealing overall. You just cannot develop these games with the idea of not turning anyone away and I think, ultimately, that is what is driving development today - trying to be all things to everyone and ending up being too little to most people.
I think today's grinds are an example of this, to an extent. Developers have made these very scripted type MMOs of late which is all fine and dandy early on and maybe through mid game but towards end game when there is no more character to develop all they have is grind. They cannot make enough steered content to keep people busy and there is no more character development to keep things interesting so they end up coming up with a few good carrots to stick at the end of a very long stick to get people to do the same things over and over because they never built a world or tools for people to make their own things to do and enjoy.
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Achiever 60.00%, Socializer 53.00%, Killer 47.00%, Explorer 40.00%
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The lack of MMOs actually feeling like virtual worlds.
There's countless reasons for the above, mostly to do with dumbing things down, restricting players in several ways, instancing, lack of mechanic diversity and/or depth, etc...
What I just find somewhat sad, is that UO, a 10+ year old game, had 10 times more features than most MMOs do today, at release.
Genre stagnation. I know that's a large umbrella and could apply to any and all gameplay mechanics in a given MMO, but I want to see something new and different. Maybe that something new and different isn't always better, but at least I'd know someone is trying to innovate instead of emulate.
Current game communities and their ability to drive this genre the direction that is IMO turning MMO's in to online single player games. Not only that but the communities have steadily spiraled downward into a pit of beligerence, hostility, and all things unsavory.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
My biggest gripe is with the other players, they just seems to take pride in being stupid and with the same manners as a chimp.
Nah, chimps have better manners.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
I am with the MIB, companies seems afraid to try something new resorting to us basically playing a 13 year old game with jazzed up graphic.
The possibilities of MMOs are almost endless and yet almost all games turn out to be a new version of EQ.
/agreed. And most of them inhabit this site to mouth off about any game that is out there.
For the most part my biggest complaint is lack of sandbox style of play. A good mix of questing and non-questing would be nice. Something along the lines of here is the world go run with it.
I like it when quests are not the main service of the game but, are more for some of the local history or lore of the game or environment you are in. Nowadays questing is elevated to the status of the only way to advance. Most people complain whine or moan if there is something they have to read.
They want a floaty over the quester head that says they got a quest, a map that tells them how to get to the quest objective. Red dots on the map to point out the exact spot of where to go! Sad....
So sad that the quest giver needs another floaty over his head of a different color that tells you to click on him to get reward and xp. NOT COMPLETE THE QUEST.
Just click on em until you hear a ding.....
Follow map until it dings or you kill everything that attacks until you here the ding.......
Go back to the guy with the green floaty and click on him until you hear a ding.
Rinse, repeat.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
[grind] is a mindstate. You don't know you are experiencing it until someone tells you that you are, you'd be enjoying the game until the thought creeps into your head. The fact is that people *want to* see the grind in order to rationalize a reason to stop back out from playing something. It's the thought of "I don't wanna do this again", regardless of if you have done it before, or just see yourself doing it twice and opting out prematurely.
It's not even about repetition, because some people find that fun, and everyone else can be convinced it's not - and has been. Nobody gave a crap 6 years ago, then the term got popular, now it might as well be on t-shirts or bumper stickers. We all know how easy it is to live by a slogan.
So my biggest gripe; MEMES
They change lives and perspectives into one giant retarded monster that screams "I HaZ ChEeZbuurGerZ". Everyone has to be like the dumb kids, and repeating what they say is was the first step to making *everything grind*.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
It's only a grind when it has become boring and why play when you are feeling bored?
Log off and do something out in the sun.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
Toss up between stagnant gameplay mechanics, or lack of deep world to get absorbed into. The new trend of putting you in a valley really bothers me. I don't need a huge world, but I don't like the feeling of being funneled into things.
I just wants something that can stand alone as a game, plus has a world you can really get absorbed into.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
People can convince you that you are bored long before it actually happens. All you need is a roudy chatline and a bunch of hatemongerers.
I was bored it my first moments with games I don't like, it didn't have to crawl on me later.
First moment in WAr, bored. First moment in Aion, bored, but most people would like to blame grind for just how boring and unappealing the gameplay is to begin with. Just a rationalization.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
All level based games are grinds. Your grinding xp to level up. Some games hide it better than others with interesting quests or good rewards but its still about grinding the xp.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Again, it's all in your head. Some people enjoy it, but you're going into the game with the mindset that it's going to be grind, long before having a hands-on. It's easy to rationalize it like that, but it's ruining your gaming experience. You're just setting yourself up for disaster with anything you choose to play.
If levels are killing games, then go play Face of Mankind and tell me what being grindless does for gameplay longevity. Great game for PvP, but absolutely nothing to do otherwise.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Genre Stagnation I'd agree with. I wouldn't mind an incredibly polished new game based on tried and true models (and maybe TOR will provide that) but I'm definitely looking more towards things like APB which break out of the normal formulas to offer something I (maybe*?) haven't played before.
(*honestly haven't researched APB to know if it's actually providing me with an interesting new experience or not, but certainly going to try it.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
My main gripe is definitely the grind. From levels to gear, to rep, etc. I'm just tired of it all. I haven't really played a MMO in months.
My others would be lack of originality and horrible AI.
Right then.
Another problem I have is walking into a populated area and seeing a bunch of clones with "!"'s (or what have you) hovering about their skulls, simply standing there like plants waiting for someone to come by and pick up their laundry for them. I think we have the technology now to have these NPC's on at least a simple rotation.
And does it bother anyone else that in most MMO's every shop is open... 24/7? Might just be me.
Quest Chains! Pleeeeease no more quest chains! I hate it. Make me a world and let me play in it, don't design a path for me to walk along. Stop it, Developers! STOP IT!
And does it bother anyone else that in most MMO's every shop is open... 24/7? Might just be me.
That would be really cool, to have a proper day/night cycle, where you can sit and watch as they put their things away and make their way home at night, maybe even randomly stopping to talk to other NPCs along the way. And then in the morning they come back and set things up all over again.
A bit of realism is what I'm asking for, I guess. Make it seem less like a game.
That has bothered me a lot. I always thought it would help socialization if you could only vend and access certain NPCs at certain hours in some cities. And maybe contraband only at night or away from guards. Would definitely need the accellerated day cycle most game have anyway.
I was very excited when I first played AoC and you couldn't shop at night - a bit dissapointed when I realized that was only in the starter zone.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
1. Gold beggers. Absolute easiest way onto my ignore list.
2. Self-righteous "experts" who have nothing better to do that criticize every build that they see.
First 3 posts are right on the money. Quit trying to JUST make a buck and make a quality game instead. Quality will bring the bucks, so take the time to make the dang game and don't do it half assed. (ahem, Cryptic, ahem)
My #1 gripe for the last few years has been the lack of innovation. Dev companies are too content to just take the existing structure of current games, and then overlay their tweaks onto them. I have referred to this as basically "reskinning." For example, LOTRO is fundamentally (if you look at how the game plays, how the interface works, how the controls work, how the game plays) just a re-skin of World of Warcraft. The games are nearly identical except for the worlds/themes they present to you.
World and theme are important but I submit that they are not enough. I know MMOs are too similar when I can download almost any one out there, install the client, connect to the game, and in less than an afternoon, without a single glance at the game manual (assuming there even is one), know just about all I need to know to play the game successfully.
If a game were innovative, I'd need more than an afternoon and my pre-existing knowledge of other MMOs. But I don't, because they're all basically the same. And that's really disappointing to me.
C
the players take the games too seriously. unless you work in the industry, MMO pixels are really not serious business.
announcing games 3 years in advance, when they are but a twinkle in daddie's eye
would much prefer game announcements 6 month's before release,
hype be damned
"All expectation leads to suffering" Buhhda
More and more I think I agree with this. So tired of being strung along for years only to have a game release and it be complete crap(ahem, Warhammer, ahem Cryptic games).