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State of the Genre
Bonemail
Member Posts: 11
To everyone reading this,
I think many of you are just like me when it comes to MMOs. You want creativity, exploration, customization, and epic grip on you from start to finish. Also like me I am sure many of you feel that MMOs are at the lowest point they have been since you started playing them all those years ago. Every time you turn on your computer you look at your old stand by MMO that leaves you wanting to play but only for the sake of having something to play. Why is it though that we feel like our entertainment is now most frustrating then our actual work? I believe it is solely because the MMO industry has mixed up this key phrase: Creativity follows the money.
Now while many of you feel that this is very much the truth in all things we must remember it is not. When Apple realized the ipod it was the first of it's kind and Apple has only kept it's edge over the competition though their creativity. Their OS is easy to use on almost all their current products and yet have so much depth to them in terms of available content and this is something that could be copied by the MMO industry.
Many developers have forgotten this principle of building the better mouse trap and instead seem to view us, the consumer, as the mouse and if only they can make us think it's not like that other mouse trap that got us last time then they can trap us and hold our subscriptions. Another key concept that seems to be lost and maybe for good reason is that I feel I am no longer treated like an adult but rather a child who needs my hand held through everything from character customization to PvP. ( Side note: RvR > PvP anyday) They have mixed up "ease of play" and "easy to play". The last great rpg I played was a single player rpg, Oblivion.
So many good things were said about Oblivion and yet no one to my knowledge has taken a good look at how it was constructed and adapted it for an MMO setting. Oblivion allowed for the easy to use combat and yet had so much depth. The spell system had hundreds of potential mix and matches for your character and yet could be hot keyed up in a matter of seconds allowing for the ease in using such a vast system. The freedom it allowed made YOU (believe it or not) have to choose between upgrading a castle you rescued and now owned, fighting in the arena, progressing the main story line, or just exploring the amazing landscape. Oblivion is in essence what a good MMO should be just without friends to join you. Anyone who has played Oblivion as well I am sure has thought "Damn I wish I could have my friend join me!"
In the end I want to leave with this point: Money follows creativity and the best kind of creativity is when you leave it up to the player. Give me some tools, supplies, and some friends and let me build a few houses with a small wall in the middle of a forest, allow me to play as a nomad with my pack animals just trading the goods I hunt between major cities, let me sign up to play alongside the AI army and fight AI invasions along the farthest reaches of the realm. Give me the tools to let me be me and I will give you a lifetime subscription at and I am very sure so will many of you.
Sincerely,
A concerned fan - Bonemail
Comments
My expectations to an average MMO player is zero.Sooner or later, if you give them a chance to do something they'll exploit it. If you give them too much freedom they will ruin the game for others. It is a double edged sword. I think best immersion is achieved in a single player game.
Many of us are just looking for good games not a virtual reality. MMOs have gone more and more to a "gamey" direction and I am happy with it.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I can see why you would enjoy a "gamey" sort of MMO because it's the same reason why I love to play games like Sly Cooper and good fun games. In the end though MMOs are about games mixed with people and if people are seen only as things that will break the game not things that make the game then the formula for making a lasting game is lost. There can be good fun found in a "theme park" MMO but many people I know just get bored with the limited options on what to do and THAT is when you go breaking the game on purpose. This in turn just makes them limit you more and that is why so many people playing WoW are always looking for the next best thing. All these companies though copy WoW and players are looking for something that is not WoW.