For me, being the emo little gamer momma that I am....there is a big difference between a game that "disappointed" me and one that "broke my heart."
Warhammer and Aion were disappointments. I never let myself get "involved" enough with those games to be "heartbroken." WoW....broke my heart. Now before you go all psycho on me wanting to know why on EARTH I would allow a game like WoW (lame as it is today) to "break my heart," let me explain.
WoW started out with random elites roaming around (always a bit scary to be out running about the zones), epic gear that was actually epically difficult to get (in comparison to now), PvP that was NOT in arenas and battlegrounds but fought in sneak city raids sometimes with 200 people who enjoyed hating the "other side" and could actually keep quiet about a raid and surprise the opposing faction. There were dishonorable and honorable kills, many things that required groups, and a community that seemed to really enjoy grouping and "growing up" in the game together, and were either very loyal and proud to be Horde...or to be Alliance. And if they roleplayed nothing else...they roleplayed THAT much.
WoW became a self-absorbed solo fest, where it is RARE rare rare to run into an elite mob wandering around regular zones, almost all PvP, outside of city raids that are only done to get an "achievement," is done in instanced battlegrounds, arenas, or WG, there is no more PvP for the "fun of it," no Southshore/TM "football games"....there is no honor (of character, not a gameplay system), only instances require groups (with a FEW quest exceptions), and they're most often randomly thrown together, so no one speaks or gets to know anyone, and the community is overall unaccountable, lacking good character and consideration for others, socially anonymous and inept, and most often rude and crude not only in chat, but in other areas of the game. And there is no faction loyalty whatsoever any more.
Some of this...is Blizzard's fault. Some is the fault of the community itself, which changed a great deal, due in part to Blizzard's changes within the game. So....maybe it's just Blizzard's fault, when you come right down to it. But the fault doesn't matter that much to me.
I really love whimsical colorful games with quirky characters, dances, quests and NPC comments that make you chuckle. All the tiny little added extras that aren't "important" but add to the comedic qualities of a game, but all the cuteness or comedy bits in the world could not save what WoW became. My family and I shared countless hours of fun playing WoW, but it devolved rather than evolving. Oh sure...some technology "evolved" (or more like revolved), but the game as a whole slid backwards on the evolution scale. And that....broke my heart.
Shadowbane kinda broke my heart. I had such high hopes and the beta was relatively smooth. The game concept and mechanics implementation seemed to be there, but then release day came and the engine suffered terminal incontinence. I've beta'd a lot of games and I never saw a games performance take a huge hit between beta and release.
Flyff - It looked like so much fun. Anime style, riding around on brooms and hoverboards, aerial combat, great music. But then you play it, and find that it completely and utterly sucks.
Mabinogi - Hey, something different! Until you realize that suddenly you're doing 'work/jobs' in a game. And I don't mean grinding, I mean literal jobs. I already have one of those, thanks.
Also, unlike most here....I'm perfectly happy with Aion. It's what I expected, and I don't expect it to be anything different that what it is. Which is why other people were heartbroken - they wanted it to be something it's not.
I've been disappointed by a few - first Mortal Online for hinting at so much potential, but not really having the depth or the sense of purpose that is necessary (early days yet I guess). Asheron's Call for being probably the best MMO to date, but having such antiquated server connection technology that I can't connect to it
But guys, girls - did a game really break your heart? There's been some very eloquent responses about people's feelings here when their one true digital love didn't deliver, but honestly, (let's queue Ben Affleck's "Fictional characters..." speech from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) if a game has broken your heart, you really need to get out more!
All things in balance ansd all that, kick a ball, read a book, make a new friend....
Its prolly more of dissapointed when you sometimes follow a game for years in development and when launch is there it did not deliver then your sick about thats healthy.
These days its also to easy used by some when your emotional attached by a game you dont come out much and thats not true for most i gues becouse that dont mean your 24/7 behins your pc hehe.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Dark and Light - Everything a fantasy mmorpg should be. At least that was what was promised. Almost preordered, but I wasn't able due to extremely lagging server. Guess that was a good thing.
hah, I was wondering if DnL would come up. I have to echo your comment and be glad that I never pre-ordered.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
This one is easy - Vanguard. I followed it for years, waiting, hoping. Early beta was cool, and I looked forward to it improving into awesomely cool, but then it got worse.. and worse.. and then sold out to SoE.. and got worse... and worse... and I quit. I went back to it a while later just to see, because I'd heard it was a much better game, but it was horrid, with all the changes SoE had worked into it since I'd left.
Someone said earlier that it was amazing how it had managed to get worse throughout the beta, play worse, look worse, and run worse, and I pretty much agree. If only they'd stuck to their guns and tried to improve what they'd had at the start, instead of rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.
WoW became a self-absorbed solo fest, where it is RARE rare rare to run into an elite mob wandering around regular zones, almost all PvP, outside of city raids that are only done to get an "achievement," is done in instanced battlegrounds, arenas, or WG, there is no more PvP for the "fun of it," no Southshore/TM "football games"....there is no honor (of character, not a gameplay system), only instances require groups (with a FEW quest exceptions), and they're most often randomly thrown together, so no one speaks or gets to know anyone, and the community is overall unaccountable, lacking good character and consideration for others, socially anonymous and inept, and most often rude and crude not only in chat, but in other areas of the game. And there is no faction loyalty whatsoever any more.
Just one opinion.
This is the best description of why WOW has gone down the tubes. Very well said.
Pretty much all of them over the last 10 yrs. Loved UO and EQ-fun and great communities, then they started dumbing the games down to attract more casual gamers (can't blame them-money is money). The graphics and mechanics (ie options for devs to make great games) has increased so much over the see 3 mobs, kill repeat process, yet the fun factor hasn't increased. They do the least risky concepts (or too risky and don't deliver) and then rush them out not ready to make a quick buck, then subs falter and the game lingers on. For me AoC was most disappointing-beautiful graphics, fun combat, but buggy and undelivered promises ruined it. Also, SWG, STO, DDO, etc.
I would not say any game has broken my heart. That concept just seems odd to me. Several game companies have broken my trust and led to decisions not to purchase any games from them in the MMO genre - EA, Sony, etc. Oddly enough, those companies have not failed to disappoint in the years since...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Yeah, I wouldn't exactly say 'broke my heart'... more like 'p1$$ed me off something fierce, and destroyed all trust in SOE forever more'... of course it's another vote for SWG.
Rose tinted shades or not, NO game has ever come close to how I felt when logged into that game. And then it was gone...
This just goes to show that many in this thread have not been playing mmorpg beyond the last five years. Their is one MMORPG that really had it all, it had the biggest seamless world ever seen in a mmorpg 15.000 Sq miles. It also had PVP that most would die for and it had by far the best weather system seen in any mmorpg, it was what mmorpg should of been.
I was in beta and it needed work but with the legal case it could not be done.
The problem was the devs stole the world and could not work on the game properly or fix the bugs. Up until 1 year ago it was still FTP but now it lays dormant.
As for Vanguard, well it was buggy 3.5 years ago but now it is easily the best PVE game out their, it really beats all. Yes it has a low pop but since the last server merge we have 4000 players on that one server so it's okay.
Roma Victor: such a great idea for a game with the potential it had deserved so much more than what it was given by a small scale incompetent dev team. When I think how good that game could have been, it makes me so sad :S.
Commander Jim
Were all living on knife's edge when will you fall off?
Comments
For me, being the emo little gamer momma that I am....there is a big difference between a game that "disappointed" me and one that "broke my heart."
Warhammer and Aion were disappointments. I never let myself get "involved" enough with those games to be "heartbroken." WoW....broke my heart. Now before you go all psycho on me wanting to know why on EARTH I would allow a game like WoW (lame as it is today) to "break my heart," let me explain.
WoW started out with random elites roaming around (always a bit scary to be out running about the zones), epic gear that was actually epically difficult to get (in comparison to now), PvP that was NOT in arenas and battlegrounds but fought in sneak city raids sometimes with 200 people who enjoyed hating the "other side" and could actually keep quiet about a raid and surprise the opposing faction. There were dishonorable and honorable kills, many things that required groups, and a community that seemed to really enjoy grouping and "growing up" in the game together, and were either very loyal and proud to be Horde...or to be Alliance. And if they roleplayed nothing else...they roleplayed THAT much.
WoW became a self-absorbed solo fest, where it is RARE rare rare to run into an elite mob wandering around regular zones, almost all PvP, outside of city raids that are only done to get an "achievement," is done in instanced battlegrounds, arenas, or WG, there is no more PvP for the "fun of it," no Southshore/TM "football games"....there is no honor (of character, not a gameplay system), only instances require groups (with a FEW quest exceptions), and they're most often randomly thrown together, so no one speaks or gets to know anyone, and the community is overall unaccountable, lacking good character and consideration for others, socially anonymous and inept, and most often rude and crude not only in chat, but in other areas of the game. And there is no faction loyalty whatsoever any more.
Some of this...is Blizzard's fault. Some is the fault of the community itself, which changed a great deal, due in part to Blizzard's changes within the game. So....maybe it's just Blizzard's fault, when you come right down to it. But the fault doesn't matter that much to me.
I really love whimsical colorful games with quirky characters, dances, quests and NPC comments that make you chuckle. All the tiny little added extras that aren't "important" but add to the comedic qualities of a game, but all the cuteness or comedy bits in the world could not save what WoW became. My family and I shared countless hours of fun playing WoW, but it devolved rather than evolving. Oh sure...some technology "evolved" (or more like revolved), but the game as a whole slid backwards on the evolution scale. And that....broke my heart.
Just one opinion.
Shadowbane kinda broke my heart. I had such high hopes and the beta was relatively smooth. The game concept and mechanics implementation seemed to be there, but then release day came and the engine suffered terminal incontinence. I've beta'd a lot of games and I never saw a games performance take a huge hit between beta and release.
For me, there were two.
Flyff - It looked like so much fun. Anime style, riding around on brooms and hoverboards, aerial combat, great music. But then you play it, and find that it completely and utterly sucks.
Mabinogi - Hey, something different! Until you realize that suddenly you're doing 'work/jobs' in a game. And I don't mean grinding, I mean literal jobs. I already have one of those, thanks.
Also, unlike most here....I'm perfectly happy with Aion. It's what I expected, and I don't expect it to be anything different that what it is. Which is why other people were heartbroken - they wanted it to be something it's not.
Its prolly more of dissapointed when you sometimes follow a game for years in development and when launch is there it did not deliver then your sick about thats healthy.
These days its also to easy used by some when your emotional attached by a game you dont come out much and thats not true for most i gues becouse that dont mean your 24/7 behins your pc hehe.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
SWG - im sure someone posted the same reasons i have earlier in this thread.
hah, I was wondering if DnL would come up. I have to echo your comment and be glad that I never pre-ordered.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
This one is easy - Vanguard. I followed it for years, waiting, hoping. Early beta was cool, and I looked forward to it improving into awesomely cool, but then it got worse.. and worse.. and then sold out to SoE.. and got worse... and worse... and I quit. I went back to it a while later just to see, because I'd heard it was a much better game, but it was horrid, with all the changes SoE had worked into it since I'd left.
Someone said earlier that it was amazing how it had managed to get worse throughout the beta, play worse, look worse, and run worse, and I pretty much agree. If only they'd stuck to their guns and tried to improve what they'd had at the start, instead of rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.
Age of Conan. I've re-subbed to that game three times now. Hard to explain. I want it to be so much more than it actually is.
Tabula Rasa. So much promise, so great a failure.
Starwars Galaxies - I miss my MCH/MDoc and MBio/MRanger!, no other company has single handedly destroyed a game like Sony did to SWG!
Ultima Online,
The whole Trammel fiasco and housing.
I never played Star Wars galaxy but can feel your pain.
DAOC with Trials of Atlantis.
WAR, AION, Guild Wars, Tabulsa Rasa, City of heros, others were just big letdowns.
SWG
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
This is the best description of why WOW has gone down the tubes. Very well said.
I alpha and beta'd this all the way to end game. Then you know who decides he will send a random person to space while his game goes to shat.
"Yea, I've been drinking again.."
swg:(
for me it was horizons and swg
SWG - Hands down. Such a great game with so much more potential at launch. Completely ruined by 2 major overhauls to the game. F.U. SOE
Pretty much all of them over the last 10 yrs. Loved UO and EQ-fun and great communities, then they started dumbing the games down to attract more casual gamers (can't blame them-money is money). The graphics and mechanics (ie options for devs to make great games) has increased so much over the see 3 mobs, kill repeat process, yet the fun factor hasn't increased. They do the least risky concepts (or too risky and don't deliver) and then rush them out not ready to make a quick buck, then subs falter and the game lingers on. For me AoC was most disappointing-beautiful graphics, fun combat, but buggy and undelivered promises ruined it. Also, SWG, STO, DDO, etc.
SWG AOC STO
I would not say any game has broken my heart. That concept just seems odd to me. Several game companies have broken my trust and led to decisions not to purchase any games from them in the MMO genre - EA, Sony, etc. Oddly enough, those companies have not failed to disappoint in the years since...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Yeah, I wouldn't exactly say 'broke my heart'... more like 'p1$$ed me off something fierce, and destroyed all trust in SOE forever more'... of course it's another vote for SWG.
Rose tinted shades or not, NO game has ever come close to how I felt when logged into that game. And then it was gone...
This just goes to show that many in this thread have not been playing mmorpg beyond the last five years. Their is one MMORPG that really had it all, it had the biggest seamless world ever seen in a mmorpg 15.000 Sq miles. It also had PVP that most would die for and it had by far the best weather system seen in any mmorpg, it was what mmorpg should of been.
I was in beta and it needed work but with the legal case it could not be done.
The problem was the devs stole the world and could not work on the game properly or fix the bugs. Up until 1 year ago it was still FTP but now it lays dormant.
Only two people have mentioned it in this thread.
It was called Dark&Light. http://www.darkandlight.com/en/
Just look at the VIDS for this game.. http://www.darkandlight.com/en/gallery/video.html
As for Vanguard, well it was buggy 3.5 years ago but now it is easily the best PVE game out their, it really beats all. Yes it has a low pop but since the last server merge we have 4000 players on that one server so it's okay.
Roma Victor: such a great idea for a game with the potential it had deserved so much more than what it was given by a small scale incompetent dev team. When I think how good that game could have been, it makes me so sad :S.
Commander Jim
Were all living on knife's edge when will you fall off?
SWG by 12 parsecs.
STO too but I knew that would suck so there's no comparison.
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.