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For THose that "Played them all" Question
zoey121
Member Posts: 926
Has there been a time in mmorpg history when a re do or (update) came out that changed everything from ai to ham bar, ?
Is that a diservice to those that liked the game and been there all along? Is the only option to cancle for a while, and see what else is out there?
Most of us have seen new content come out with publishes/patches/updates/ but what happens when a development team changes basic premise of major portions of the core game?
just wondering what thoughts and opinions are on this one..............
Comments
Just look at UO, that game has gone through more major changes than most if not every major MMORPG released. The current game is nothing like it was during its first years. I personaly like it when the change is for the better, but for me that wasnt the case with UO. I liked it the way it was and the cnages just didnt do it for me.
Since UO has been mentions-
Just look at WWIIO. That game came with 7 classes and a 1998 graphics engine. 5 years after its 2001 release, there have been countless updates on the graphics, over 25 classes added, and a stable player base. All started with 5 devs and a pot of coffee.
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"Whoever controls the media controls the mind..-'Jim Morrison"
"When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out." ~Abbie Hoffman
Major rewrites aren't typical in MMOGs. UO is a decent example because the advent of the Renaissance Age completely shattered the way that game played...nevertheless, at the core UO is still the same game and can be played by old rules on the Siege Perilous shard.
Typically, however, most MMOGs undergo large changes via the mechanism of expansions. There are only a handful of games that have been out long enough to see more than a token enhancement. Namely, they can be counted as UO, EQ, AO, AC, and DAoC. Arguably you can put more in that boat, such as SW:G or Lineage 2, but I'm looking at games that have had far more time to mature.
UO certainly had its largest metamorphosis with Renaissance, but it also underwent a massive change with the Age of Shadows. In that expansion the itemization of the game became paramount to success. UO once was a game where there were few modifiers on weapons...a GM blacksmith's Kryss or Katana were highly effective weapons. I'm not meaning to spend a lot of time on the idea, but the point is that it happens more than once.
EQ has had a number of fundamental changes since its release. Planes of Power was a dramatic shift in play from the relatively normal progression of release->Kunark->Velious. The game changed, and has changed again since then.
AO became almost an entirely different game in Shadowlands. For some it was a superb change, and for others it took a MMOG with its own style and made it more an EQ clone.
I can't speak much for DAoC or AC since I was never a very active player in those games.
Some people hate the changes, other people love them. I loved Trammel in UO, but hated Planes of Power in EQ. I didn't care much for Shadowlands, but I really enjoyed the extra itemization and Perk skills. Plenty of people line up on either side of that debate on any game.
It's all evolution. Part of the attraction of a MMOG is that it changes. While some people might expect that that means topographical changes, or political shifts, or some other form of a storyline drift, I think one element that is meaningful in any of these games is that the rules will change. To a large extent, they really need to. The games become extremely stale with nothing more than the same content multiplied over and over. After a period of time, a shakeup of the system wakes people up at the risk of turning others off.
UO lost players with Renaissance, but they gained many more than they lost (look at their subscription charts...they gained huge amounts of players with the change). I certainly understand PvP advocates who hated UO when Renaissance came along. It was especially horrible because there were so few MMOGs on the market that had any meaningful PvP. That has since changed, and there are plenty of options...but in the day, the change almost completely nullified a major gaming style for many. Without beating the UO horse into glue, the point is that you can dramatically altar a game and make it better...and obviously you can also make it worse.
For you, as the player, you have to make the decision whether you want it or not. One thing that is good about changes, it often lures old veterans back...and sometimes the changes really are for the better.
I would really just picture that the majority of MMORPGs are almost all the same with all those point and click controls, and a dice rolling combat system with just different art put into it.
And sadly, the brain dead kids would rather play games that you get more rewards for the more time you put in the game rather than having player skills as in twitch based to get more rewards.
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I would say the best example of major changes in an MMO right now is SWG. They have done major changes to how PVP is handled. The JTL expansion is a totally different game than the ground game in SWG since it's a 1st person space shooter when you launch into space. (Very cool btw). And now they're doing a total re-work of the Combat System (Ground Game) to make it more realistic, intuitive and more balanced.
UO made changes but, fundamentally, it's still the same game. SWG, on the other hand, is making fundamental changes to some of the game's aspects. They're even going to be changing how the skill trees work to make them more flexible.
So far I've been impressed with SWG's progress
Here's hoping that once all is finished the game is as improved as we all hope. The changes that have been added already have been fantastic so far.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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AO and SWG are probably the only games with real gameplay changes, not just content updates. Since if you played em all, you probably wouldnt care if the latest expansion added 20 more classes that is just like all the other classes but just does stuff a bit differently. The real expansion are the gameplay expansions that add new gameplay, not just content.
I would keep watch of SWG and AO since those 2 games have great expansions. The new swg expansion looks like just a content pack, but they are doing some decent gameplay changes to the core game right now.
I would state that this is because ROTW (Rage of the Wookies) is probably scheduled to hit right around may 19th
They haven't stated a 'date' yet but I bet you dollars to doughnuts that Lucas and SOE are planning something like that. Since it's just content it should be easy for them to push it out fast.
The REAL update to SWG is the combat and skill system revamp that's going on in the test servers now. The reason it's an UPDATE rather than an expansion is they want this to be free to their players. You won't have to go buy it. It's major. Just what they've leaked out on their own is pretty evident of that. I'm just hoping we see it in the near future
It'll be nice to have the skill trees be more versatile. Not to mention the rest of the combat revamp....
I tried AO... it's 'ok' but I could never get into it. It just never clicked for me. SWG has more to offer anyway.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas