Yess all of us need to make money. This is not about folks being paid to program a game. This is about game companies in general producing the same old stuff over and over. I have not seen much inovation in the past 3 years, just lots of lets copy the other guys widget.
If you generalise enough, everything WILL seem the same. Being a similar product is NOT a bad thing. That is what being in a genre is all about. Tried and tested concepts get used because people have more confidence in them than unfamiliar and potentially flawed ones. AOC is NOT a clone of WoW. EQ2 is NOT a clone of WoW either. Each have their own attractions and innovations. However, where each go wrong is actually in capturing the very essence that made WoW the leading product: polish and refinement.
After a while companies that have been around a while start to dumb down the content. I will point at eq2, lotro, wow. Used to take a good while to level. Nowdays in eq2 a full month bam level 90, lotro I can grow a level 65 in under 2 weeks. Wow same thing. All of this made possible to placate the crying little babies going omg the game is to hard, and the companies willing to nerf down the content to keep the child who at the end of the week goes to another game anyway. A lot of these whiney little kids move on to other games and have no sence of loyatly to the company,
As much as I agree to a point, I feel that you are in fact exaggerating things. "Power leveling" in WoW to 80 will take approximately 12 days "PLAYED" time (I know that because I've done it). That differs to ACTUAL time that a player will take to get to max level. 12 days = 24 x 12 = 288 hours worth of gameplay. Now, lets use the "average" gameplay time of 4 hours per day, that means that an "average" game player will ACTUALLY take approximately 72 days to get to 80. If they play 8 hours per day, then it will take them 36 days. The point is that you cannot claim that a typical player can get to 80 in WoW in 2 weeks flat. Because that character would have to be leveling up 24/7 constantly for 2 weeks to do it.
So yes getting paid to do your job great, turning out the same out trash not so good. All the game companies producing almost the same kind of product and calling it inovative is bad.
Like I said before, a product can be in the same category / genre of others and still be innovative.
However it seams the masses will accept anything handed to them, and go ohh good i my shiney new pony, or i got my shiney new backpack, or gee were going free to play Im so happy I will not have to sub again.
You see, that's where YOUR expectations differ to others. YOU want an ENTIRE product to be innovative, whereas others want something that is relatively familiar but still innovative in its own right. Can you provide an example of what sort of innovation would suit your taste?
What really bothers me is the companies make tons of cash, and based on the dev cycle I been seeing I dont see the cash being re-invested into the product, because it it was you would have tons of updates (points at lotro 9 months no content other than fluff festales).
Now to some degree, I agree with you. However, you and I don't know just what exactly the costs are these days in running a successful MMO.
Just a quick opinion here. When people talk about "a WoW clone" they are using this term somewhat loosely in terms of game specifics. Where the term is more focused is in the game play. These "WoW clones" all have the same level grind game play, and the rest of the game is tailored around that (zones, item upgrades, vaste power gaps, etc.) .
Just a quick opinion here. When people talk about "a WoW clone" they are using this term somewhat loosely in terms of game specifics. Where the term is more focused is in the game play. These "WoW clones" all have the same level grind game play, and the rest of the game is tailored around that (zones, item upgrades, etc.) .
Its nonsense to use the term "clone" to "loosely" describe something. That's an oxymoron. The term clone is a specific term used to describe the entire essence of something. It is used to describe how something is, to all intents, an exact replica of something else (aside from defects). And that's where many go wrong. They the use of the term "clone" to describe a product that is in the same genre as others. And its in the same genre because it shows similar attributes. It's not exactly the same, but its attributes are nonetheless similar in many respects.
Its like saying that the entire causasian race is a "clone" purely on the grounds that each person shares characteristics, whilst not being an exact replica. Its a contradiction. Therefore, you cannot have a "clone" that is actually different in some characteristics. In short, something is either a "clone" or it isn't.
To quote from the link in my sig:
"By far the most over and misused word in the MMO dictionary. In theory, the term WoW Clone refers to a game that so closely resembles World of Warcraft that it could have been grown from its very DNA.
In recent years, this term has been applied to almost every single P2P MMO either in production or released. It is applied to any game, it seems, that makes use of: an RPG style user interface, quests, level progression, guilds, instances, zones, swords, the list goes on.
While World of Warcraft does indeed make use of all of the above mentioned elements and more, the fact of the matter is that they were not the first, and they will not be the last. Many of the elements that are pointed to as evidence of a WoW clone are rather fingerprints of the genre as a whole. Quests, for example, have been an integral part of not just MMOs, but of RPGs from the very beginning, the same goes for concepts like level progression, guilds and the fantasy setting. While Blizzard may have created a formula that improved the way that these elements are presented, World of Warcraft remains just a stepping stone in the overall evolution of the genre.
It is certainly easy to understand a desire, amongst players and developers alike, for change and innovation within the genre, but labeling each and every new MMO release a WoW Clone in the way that some people have been serves to do nothing but reduce the entire genre (both pre and post World of Warcraft) to a single game.
It isn’t necessarily a departure from the conventions of the genre that people are looking for so much as it is a bit of obvious innovation."
In 2000 there was 350-450 Million or so internet users
2004 there were around 856 million internet users worldwide and approximately 772 million PC users
2008 1.584 Billion and 1.4 Billion PC users
2009 1.8 Billion.
MMO gaming while having grown by leaps and bounds and gaming in general, there are alot more console gamers that are playing on PC now too. Gamers are but a fraction of the internet growth on a whole, but it all comes down to profitability and the masses.
MMOs are lame because its no longer about making a good game, its about using a formula to make money off of people who become addicted to these types of games.
Wouldn't that be a good game though? I mean that logic doesn't work. If a game is making money and has good numbers then some consumers like the game. It may not be your cup of tea, but no game will ever appeal to the entire market over X amount of time?
Games in our genre do have to make money to sustain the fun.
This is always an interesting debate hehe.
"Nobody eats at that restaurant. It's too crowded." -Yogi Berra
Burnout. . You can get burnedout on anything. MMOs are no exception. . Burnout is nature's way of getting us to try new things. . It's summer. Go outside and take a walk. Stay away from MMOs for a couple of months or so. They'll seem a lot better when you return.
You can get burnedout on anything. MMOs are no exception.
.
Burnout is nature's way of getting us to try new things.
.
It's summer. Go outside and take a walk. Stay away from MMOs for a couple of months or so. They'll seem a lot better when you return.
What is this "outside" concept you are talking about?
Kidding aside , he's right. though i think it's sad you can get a burn out of an entire "genre" , seems to simply prove how much diversification it lacks. Me being an RTS player i've yet to get burnt out of the genre and this after 9 years of playing it. Just so many good RTS's out there . But i guess the MMO genre is still relatively young as well , they can still afford to make cheap rip offs of other MMo's and still find costumers, can't wait for the market to get saturated and developers being forced to become "innovative" .
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
Originally posted by Marcus- Originally posted by uquipu Burnout. . You can get burnedout on anything. MMOs are no exception. . Burnout is nature's way of getting us to try new things. . It's summer. Go outside and take a walk. Stay away from MMOs for a couple of months or so. They'll seem a lot better when you return.
For me its not burnout, its mediocre games, my opinion of course.
I took some time off from MMOs, they werent any better when i returned.
You can get burnedout on anything. MMOs are no exception.
.
Burnout is nature's way of getting us to try new things.
.
It's summer. Go outside and take a walk. Stay away from MMOs for a couple of months or so. They'll seem a lot better when you return.
For me its not burnout, its mediocre games, my opinion of course.
I took some time off from MMOs, they werent any better when i returned.
/shrug
.
You can also outgrow them. Become jaded.
Perhaps...
Without turning this into a long-winded post about "the good ol days" that we have seen countless times, I'll just leave it as MMOs are "big business" now, and everyone wants their piece of the pie...
Its really evident with every purchase of an MMO that i make, and especially the purchases I won't make. In my ridiculous opinion, the genre' has suffered some because of it. Most seem very generic.
I have my eye on a few upcoming releases, so i'm hopining.
I have however, for the first time since '93-'94 gone through some long stretches of not being subbed to an MMO. I use it for entertainment, and no longer consider myself a hardcore gamer, yet i find myself relatively bored with whatever i play after a very short order.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as calling MMOs lame as much as they are all the same old thing wrapped in a new package. Having played many over the years, its all the same. We need a production with something so new it blows our minds away. Games are also too focused on trying to accomodate too many types of players. Why can't some be PvP focused and others focused on the more casual gamer. I've seen some try but they most always seem to end up trying to meld toward both later on because of forum feedback. It's time to begin thinking about out of the box concepts of game design.
Devs dont need to be innovative, they dont have to think "outside the box" or try to actually do anything original or "Next Gen".
They just have to squeeze out the same crap they have been for years because they have learned that we will scoop it up and devour it every time.
Sure, players will bitch and whine about how much the game is fail (even though the hype level is 8.9 and everyone has been saying its a "Breath of Fresh Air" and "The New Hawtness") and Reviewers will post about how much the game sucks (even after posting for years about how this is the most anticipated game in gaming history), but you know what? Next year another slew of crappy games will release.
As long as Players keep buying the same lame crap, MMO Companies keep churning it out.
Why have MMOs become so lame? Because we keep buying lame MMOs.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
MMOs are “age discriminant” to some extend: I don’t think that an adult male would seriously play Ragnarok Online or Florensia Online. But that is age itself what is really “discriminant”.
MMOs are not “lame”. When there is a choice there will be always people who start to complain: this game has feature such and such, why that one does not have this feature, etc. Don’t like do not buy, why to cry. Feel competent enough create your own perfect game and see how many of your friends call it wow clone.
The fact of the matter is we are at the point of change in the MMO world.
When Ultima Online first came out it pretty much launched the genre of MMO, the genre grew when Everquest came out, than it just went uphill, than when WoW came out it took off, the MMO genre sky rocketed and developers saw what WoW did (took all the good parts from other games but made constant quests for players and leveling easier than with games like Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot) than everyone wanted in on it. There were alot of failures and alot of companies lost money but some were successful, not as much as WoW but they were up there.
But now that type of gameplay isnt what it used to be, gameplay changes, more games come out and players are tired of the same gameplay with polished graphics. For example when you start in WoW you kill 10 of some creature (wolves, boars, rats) and a few quests like that, in Aion, a game released 5 years after WoW your first quest is to kill 10 of a creature. I have nothing against that I am just stating that these companies just take what WAS successful and try to add their changes, now people expect alot of quests, they expect to go to a trainer in a town and get new powers every other level, to get gear, to do instanced raids, everything has become a break off of the past games and people are getting to where they have played it enough and want something new.
Developers are starting to see that and responding, the games coming out soon are looking to change the traditional gameplay as we know it, Guild Wars 2 is changing the traditional questing system, DC Universe Online is changing the traditional combat mechanic, Final Fantasy XIV is looking to improve on the ground FFXI set for it, the traditional MMO is a dying breed, in fact I think the majority of people who play WoW are only still playing because they have so much time invested in it that if they started over they would have wasted years of their lives.
MMOs are “age discriminant” to some extend: I don’t think that an adult male would seriously play Ragnarok Online or Florensia Online. But that is age itself what is really “discriminant”.
MMOs are not “lame”. When there is a choice there will be always people who start to complain: this game has feature such and such, why that one does not have this feature, etc. Don’t like do not buy, why to cry. Feel competent enough create your own perfect game and see how many of your friends call it wow clone.
Because some games may or may not be geared toward a certain age group, hardly makes the entire genre' age discriminant.
I agree but theres little light at the end of the tunnel. Wargamin.net lastest MMO called World of Tanks is here. They're aiming to be biggest wargame company out there with 12 year experience.No lame shit from here.
Hater of hater of World of Tank. Latest wargame from wargaming.net.
Everyone's been trying to chase WoW's success, mimicking it. It's why you hear of alot of new MMOs that people describe as something "like WoW." I recall years ago, just when WoW became King of the Hill, some people were concerned that later MMORPGs would all play the same. Dev teams would figure that if they make their game just like WoW, it'll be just as popular as it. I'm positive it wasn't Blizzard's intent, but with WoW's insane success, innovation has gone out the window in MMORPGs. Either that, or devs make bold, grand promotions of an upcoming title in a bid to be the "WoW-Killer" but never, ever come out that way.
Oh, Age of Conan, nice of you to pass by!
The MMORPGs that I've been recently trying just don't grab me or drive me insane from a variety of factors. The MMORPG that I have been playing for 3 years now is about to go to the sh*tters, so I cancelled.
For the first time in YEARS, I have no subscription to an MMORPG. I'm not even trying a F2P one. For the here and now, and for the foreseeable future, I am not or will not be playing an MMORPG (though I do check on the gaming sites for news about them like here). Because they're not to my liking by either development design, community, or where the game is going.
For me, these are very dark times in MMORPG gaming.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Just like many relationships starting out, theres magic in the air. That first kiss, that first all nighter... The excitement of discovering new and fun things, the adventure and happiness and memories gained. Doing quests for the first time and reading all the text and feeling like that quest accomplished something besides raising an XP bar.
10 years+ of doing that exact same thing... Now it feels like you're hammering away at a corpse with magic mouth cast on it.
Single Command Actions. Simple Movement. RNG. Skinner Box implementation becoming more and more opaque.
As the curtain falls, and the graphics and sounds peel back and we are left looking at it from a mechanical side that players are finally focusing more on. We see NOTHING HAS CHANGED. We're becoming more aware of our surroundings and looking past the illusions.
Alot of us can look back and say "What the FSCK have we been doing these last 10 years?!".
Now every new MMO feels just like the last. Like Yellow and White American cheese. You swear they're different, but its just the food coloring, and after tasting them back to back you realize it's exactly the same.
When will they break the mold and give us complexity, physics, and dynamic events that will become a new standard? Where everytime you log in something is different. Where every character actually has a different story to tell.
Alot of us can look back and say "What the FSCK have we been doing these last 10 years?!".
Now every new MMO feels just like the last. Like Yellow and White American cheese. You swear they're different, but its just the food coloring, and after tasting them back to back you realize it's exactly the same.
When will they break the mold and give us complexity, physics, and dynamic events that will become a new standard? Where everytime you log in something is different. Where every character actually has a different story to tell.
You'll have a tough time seeing something new in gameplay, at least still for a few MORE years to come. Why? Such design is deemed to risky. Any MMORPG that doesn't play like WoW is instantly deemed risky, going for too small a "niche" gaming population.
Again, ever since '04, the glorious lady called "Innovation" had died.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I can't seem to enjoy any quest-based, instanced MMOs (-> WoW). The most important thing is PVP, uninstanced, territorial PVP if you ask me.
Haven't seen any game lately that implemented that to my satisfaction. There a couple of old ones that have done it right but I also can't start playing one of those again simply because I have played them for too long and I really would like to see something new.
There is EVE, but I don't like point & click controls.
Comments
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Just a quick opinion here. When people talk about "a WoW clone" they are using this term somewhat loosely in terms of game specifics. Where the term is more focused is in the game play. These "WoW clones" all have the same level grind game play, and the rest of the game is tailored around that (zones, item upgrades, vaste power gaps, etc.) .
(Note, WoW was once called an "EQ clone".)
Once upon a time....
Its nonsense to use the term "clone" to "loosely" describe something. That's an oxymoron. The term clone is a specific term used to describe the entire essence of something. It is used to describe how something is, to all intents, an exact replica of something else (aside from defects). And that's where many go wrong. They the use of the term "clone" to describe a product that is in the same genre as others. And its in the same genre because it shows similar attributes. It's not exactly the same, but its attributes are nonetheless similar in many respects.
Its like saying that the entire causasian race is a "clone" purely on the grounds that each person shares characteristics, whilst not being an exact replica. Its a contradiction. Therefore, you cannot have a "clone" that is actually different in some characteristics. In short, something is either a "clone" or it isn't.
To quote from the link in my sig:
"By far the most over and misused word in the MMO dictionary. In theory, the term WoW Clone refers to a game that so closely resembles World of Warcraft that it could have been grown from its very DNA.
In recent years, this term has been applied to almost every single P2P MMO either in production or released. It is applied to any game, it seems, that makes use of: an RPG style user interface, quests, level progression, guilds, instances, zones, swords, the list goes on.
While World of Warcraft does indeed make use of all of the above mentioned elements and more, the fact of the matter is that they were not the first, and they will not be the last. Many of the elements that are pointed to as evidence of a WoW clone are rather fingerprints of the genre as a whole. Quests, for example, have been an integral part of not just MMOs, but of RPGs from the very beginning, the same goes for concepts like level progression, guilds and the fantasy setting. While Blizzard may have created a formula that improved the way that these elements are presented, World of Warcraft remains just a stepping stone in the overall evolution of the genre.
It is certainly easy to understand a desire, amongst players and developers alike, for change and innovation within the genre, but labeling each and every new MMO release a WoW Clone in the way that some people have been serves to do nothing but reduce the entire genre (both pre and post World of Warcraft) to a single game.
It isn’t necessarily a departure from the conventions of the genre that people are looking for so much as it is a bit of obvious innovation."
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Answer is simple numbers.
In 2000 there was 350-450 Million or so internet users
2004 there were around 856 million internet users worldwide and approximately 772 million PC users
2008 1.584 Billion and 1.4 Billion PC users
2009 1.8 Billion.
MMO gaming while having grown by leaps and bounds and gaming in general, there are alot more console gamers that are playing on PC now too. Gamers are but a fraction of the internet growth on a whole, but it all comes down to profitability and the masses.
"Nobody eats at that restaurant. It's too crowded." -Yogi Berra
Burnout.
.
You can get burnedout on anything. MMOs are no exception.
.
Burnout is nature's way of getting us to try new things.
.
It's summer. Go outside and take a walk. Stay away from MMOs for a couple of months or so. They'll seem a lot better when you return.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
What is this "outside" concept you are talking about?
Kidding aside , he's right. though i think it's sad you can get a burn out of an entire "genre" , seems to simply prove how much diversification it lacks. Me being an RTS player i've yet to get burnt out of the genre and this after 9 years of playing it. Just so many good RTS's out there . But i guess the MMO genre is still relatively young as well , they can still afford to make cheap rip offs of other MMo's and still find costumers, can't wait for the market to get saturated and developers being forced to become "innovative" .
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
For me its not burnout, its mediocre games, my opinion of course.
I took some time off from MMOs, they werent any better when i returned.
/shrug
I took some time off from MMOs, they werent any better when i returned.
/shrug
.
You can also outgrow them. Become jaded.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
I put 99% of the blame on the players.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as calling MMOs lame as much as they are all the same old thing wrapped in a new package. Having played many over the years, its all the same. We need a production with something so new it blows our minds away. Games are also too focused on trying to accomodate too many types of players. Why can't some be PvP focused and others focused on the more casual gamer. I've seen some try but they most always seem to end up trying to meld toward both later on because of forum feedback. It's time to begin thinking about out of the box concepts of game design.
No kidding, hard to explain to m grandkids a time when video games didn't exist.
I never knew MMOs were age discriminant..
and so many other forms of entertainment are not...
hmphhh...
I wouldn't say MMOs are age discriminant, it's more like playing Pong in color, what a marvel idea that would be.
heh..
well done sir....
Devs dont need to be innovative, they dont have to think "outside the box" or try to actually do anything original or "Next Gen".
They just have to squeeze out the same crap they have been for years because they have learned that we will scoop it up and devour it every time.
Sure, players will bitch and whine about how much the game is fail (even though the hype level is 8.9 and everyone has been saying its a "Breath of Fresh Air" and "The New Hawtness") and Reviewers will post about how much the game sucks (even after posting for years about how this is the most anticipated game in gaming history), but you know what? Next year another slew of crappy games will release.
As long as Players keep buying the same lame crap, MMO Companies keep churning it out.
Why have MMOs become so lame? Because we keep buying lame MMOs.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
MMOs are “age discriminant” to some extend: I don’t think that an adult male would seriously play Ragnarok Online or Florensia Online. But that is age itself what is really “discriminant”.
MMOs are not “lame”. When there is a choice there will be always people who start to complain: this game has feature such and such, why that one does not have this feature, etc. Don’t like do not buy, why to cry. Feel competent enough create your own perfect game and see how many of your friends call it wow clone.
The fact of the matter is we are at the point of change in the MMO world.
When Ultima Online first came out it pretty much launched the genre of MMO, the genre grew when Everquest came out, than it just went uphill, than when WoW came out it took off, the MMO genre sky rocketed and developers saw what WoW did (took all the good parts from other games but made constant quests for players and leveling easier than with games like Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot) than everyone wanted in on it. There were alot of failures and alot of companies lost money but some were successful, not as much as WoW but they were up there.
But now that type of gameplay isnt what it used to be, gameplay changes, more games come out and players are tired of the same gameplay with polished graphics. For example when you start in WoW you kill 10 of some creature (wolves, boars, rats) and a few quests like that, in Aion, a game released 5 years after WoW your first quest is to kill 10 of a creature. I have nothing against that I am just stating that these companies just take what WAS successful and try to add their changes, now people expect alot of quests, they expect to go to a trainer in a town and get new powers every other level, to get gear, to do instanced raids, everything has become a break off of the past games and people are getting to where they have played it enough and want something new.
Developers are starting to see that and responding, the games coming out soon are looking to change the traditional gameplay as we know it, Guild Wars 2 is changing the traditional questing system, DC Universe Online is changing the traditional combat mechanic, Final Fantasy XIV is looking to improve on the ground FFXI set for it, the traditional MMO is a dying breed, in fact I think the majority of people who play WoW are only still playing because they have so much time invested in it that if they started over they would have wasted years of their lives.
That is my take on things anyways.
Mystery Bounty
Because some games may or may not be geared toward a certain age group, hardly makes the entire genre' age discriminant.
I agree but theres little light at the end of the tunnel. Wargamin.net lastest MMO called World of Tanks is here. They're aiming to be biggest wargame company out there with 12 year experience.No lame shit from here.
Hater of hater of World of Tank. Latest wargame from wargaming.net.
OP: I'll tell you why MMOs have become so lame.
Everyone's been trying to chase WoW's success, mimicking it. It's why you hear of alot of new MMOs that people describe as something "like WoW." I recall years ago, just when WoW became King of the Hill, some people were concerned that later MMORPGs would all play the same. Dev teams would figure that if they make their game just like WoW, it'll be just as popular as it. I'm positive it wasn't Blizzard's intent, but with WoW's insane success, innovation has gone out the window in MMORPGs. Either that, or devs make bold, grand promotions of an upcoming title in a bid to be the "WoW-Killer" but never, ever come out that way.
Oh, Age of Conan, nice of you to pass by!
The MMORPGs that I've been recently trying just don't grab me or drive me insane from a variety of factors. The MMORPG that I have been playing for 3 years now is about to go to the sh*tters, so I cancelled.
For the first time in YEARS, I have no subscription to an MMORPG. I'm not even trying a F2P one. For the here and now, and for the foreseeable future, I am not or will not be playing an MMORPG (though I do check on the gaming sites for news about them like here). Because they're not to my liking by either development design, community, or where the game is going.
For me, these are very dark times in MMORPG gaming.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Just like many relationships starting out, theres magic in the air. That first kiss, that first all nighter... The excitement of discovering new and fun things, the adventure and happiness and memories gained. Doing quests for the first time and reading all the text and feeling like that quest accomplished something besides raising an XP bar.
10 years+ of doing that exact same thing... Now it feels like you're hammering away at a corpse with magic mouth cast on it.
Single Command Actions. Simple Movement. RNG. Skinner Box implementation becoming more and more opaque.
As the curtain falls, and the graphics and sounds peel back and we are left looking at it from a mechanical side that players are finally focusing more on. We see NOTHING HAS CHANGED. We're becoming more aware of our surroundings and looking past the illusions.
Alot of us can look back and say "What the FSCK have we been doing these last 10 years?!".
Now every new MMO feels just like the last. Like Yellow and White American cheese. You swear they're different, but its just the food coloring, and after tasting them back to back you realize it's exactly the same.
When will they break the mold and give us complexity, physics, and dynamic events that will become a new standard? Where everytime you log in something is different. Where every character actually has a different story to tell.
You'll have a tough time seeing something new in gameplay, at least still for a few MORE years to come. Why? Such design is deemed to risky. Any MMORPG that doesn't play like WoW is instantly deemed risky, going for too small a "niche" gaming population.
Again, ever since '04, the glorious lady called "Innovation" had died.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I can't seem to enjoy any quest-based, instanced MMOs (-> WoW). The most important thing is PVP, uninstanced, territorial PVP if you ask me.
Haven't seen any game lately that implemented that to my satisfaction. There a couple of old ones that have done it right but I also can't start playing one of those again simply because I have played them for too long and I really would like to see something new.
There is EVE, but I don't like point & click controls.