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It's been a good eleven years but I'm just not liking the direction MMOs are going in.
Aletto
Member Posts: 3
I remember the first time I logged into Everquest. Even though the only thing onscreen was a flat field with a few cardboard-cutout trees rising out of it, the experience was so much more meaningful. I remember taking an excited, shuddering breath as I processed it all in my mind.
Right now, there are dozens - no, hundreds - no, thousands of other players in this virtual world with me. It's a world. It's a living, breathing world.
I did a lot of people-watching. It thrilled me to see other players going about their business. It was such a departure from the video games I had played beforehand. Even though early MMOs were almost ruthlessly difficult to advance in without making a massive time commitment, things were fair. Everything was obtainable ingame once you paid for the game itself and kept up its subscription fee. For a square $15 a month, the entire world was at your fingertips. Some things were extremely difficult to get, so difficult I'd never have a chance at it, but I didn't mind. It made sense to me. Not everyone could wield Excalibur or ride Shadowfax.
As time went on, MMORPGs became friendlier beasts. This was a divisive development. Personally, I quite liked it. My fondest MMO memories are from the middle of the decade, when World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, City of Heroes, and Guild Wars were all fresh and new. The frustrations I had often felt while playing games like Everquest and Final Fantasy XI were no longer weighing me down. I could log in and strike out on my own, without having to sit around in a town hoping a group would form so I could do something as basic as go out and level up. Things were still fair in those days. For a time it looked like MMORPGs might actually get cheaper instead of more expensive, due to the success of Guild Wars. I know a lot of people were hoping monthly fees might become a thing of the past.
It wasn't to be, however. We now find ourselves in the thick of the age of cash shops and RMT. An age where having complete and total access to your MMORPG of choice is more expensive than ever. An age where the game's rarest treasure were not hidden away in the world's most dangerous dungeons and wielded by the most dedicated (or obsessed) players, but instead purchasable with real-world currency and wielded by those with the most disposable income.
I can't do it anymore. The immersion and the joy of the genre has been sucked out of me.
What's worse, even non-MMOs are doing it with their constant streams of DLC. The days where you could buy a game (and/or subscribe to it) for a flat price are over. Pieces of content, ranging in size from entire new regions and play modes to cosmetic additions like pets and alternate costumes are constantly being released. The worst thing of all is that it's working. People are eating it up. There is a large crowd out there that doesn't care when developers excise content from their own game to sell it seperately, often at very high prices.
There was once a time where alternate costumes and stages were part of the flat-rate package you purchased, and you unlocked them by showing skill or spending time playing the game. Today they are sold in DLC packs that are often 1/5th the price of the core game. Going back to MMOs, I'm finding that developers are charging ludicrous prices for things that used to be part of the flat-rate package.
All of this would be easier to swallow if it seemed like all this DLC and microtransaction stuff was content that simply wouldn't fit into the core product. This doesn't look to be the case to me, though. MMOs are releasing less content less often these days, and yet they continue to increase the rate at which they pump out DLC and microtransaction items. These things aren't leftovers from the design process - developers are actively and intentionally spending less effort on the core game and more effort on the cash shops and downloadable content. The degree to which they favor one or the other depends on the developer, but the vast majority appear to be whole-heartedly chasing after the DLC and RMT models, because they make more money.
There was once a time where the entrance fee was all you needed to experience the entirety of a game. Now, most MMOs are like a theme park that charges you to ride some of the attractions on top of having you pay the entry fee. Some people have yet to realize just how lucrative cash shops can be. A single player who spends $60 a month in the cash shop is worth four players who only pay the $15 monthly fee. These players exist. I've been running into them every day - the players with the Double XP Buff, the Double Reputation Buff, the No Cooldown Health Potions, the full collection of faction mounts which you can either buy with real-life money or spend two weeks grinding a faction's reputation to obtain each.
There was once a time where every item, pet, mount, consumable, and buff was available for that same flat price. There were often interesting and challenging ways to obtain that item. They were often woven into the lore of the game in fascinating ways. Today, they're in the cash shop, an immersion-breaking window you can bring up and spend real money in. Excalibur is on sale right now for 1950 Store Points. Shadowfax, Gandalf's one-of-a-kind mount, is 1730 Store Points. Alternatively, you can grind Maiar reputation two hours a day for three weeks to get it.
To those who don't have a problem with this - that's grand and I'm genuinely happy for you. I wish I didn't care so much. I wish it didn't matter so much to me that the coolest and rarest items are no longer earned by playing the game they are in but by wiring money to the developer. Unfortunately, I do. They did it right for so many years that I've grown weary of their new approach.
There was once a time where games felt like living, breathing worlds rife with opportunity. There was an in-game path to everything - every weapon, item, and companion. Now games are starting to feel more and more like half-filled display cases, with plenty of slots and spaces just waiting to filled - if you've got the money to spare.
Comments
You're not alone.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who pick their nose.. and liars.
He is far from alone.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Agreed.
Monetarization and greed, f2p/freemium, rmt, microtransaction beast is out there and this keep pushing me from mmorpg's more and more, close to breaking point here.
AND
They are getting cookie cutter, 'story on rails', simple, too easy, forgiving games.
+
Do not feel like living, breathing worlds anymore.
So it might be 'long break' (like years) for people like me and propably you OP, till you see bigger, non indie-hobbyst titles that resemble those old titles a bit. If ever.
Sometimes I wonder if this genre will crash like video gaming did in the states back in 83. The situations are becoming similar in many ways. No one thought it would happen leading up to 83. I also wonder if the genre wouldn't be better off if it did crash. Would it come back better?
I always thought more MMO's would be a good thing but as time goes on we have more games yet fewer options. They are all so similar these days. I'm with you OP. The direction they are all going is not what I see as gaming euphoria thats for sure.
100% agree with you here.
I decided to go back to EQ on a progression server, yeah theres a cash shop. but not for anything that changes your stats or changes the game in any way....maybe some vanity items...
Subscriptions have been 15 bucks a month for almost a decade and in virtually every p2p and all freemium games you still get access to the entire game without a cash shop. You just pay for expansions - the same as it has always been for almost all p2p games.
The living breathing worlds are still there, they are not even hidden. Literally everything you did in EQ you can do in modern MMO's and a great many more things too.
It's just your perception, you need to take a break for awhile. It happens to us all.
Venge
Good post OP,
there are alternatives to this sad trend though
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Playing : Uncharted Waters Online
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I recently deplugged (as i have every 2 months or so for the last few year), but I think it may be permanent now. I will keep an eye on a few games, but I suspect the genre is truely dead. Problem is for gamers like me (many of us) is there is no substitute.
I miss EQ, I miss it's massive appeal. I miss many of the same sort of feelings of participation and ownership that the OP noted. It's been a long road ever since with only occasional success since (DAOC really being the only one that gave it a good go).
I just have no interest in being disappointed anymore. I won't pay for content. I expect a game to whoo me, i.e. surprise and delight me. $ Transactions Never do that. Never have. Won't in the future.
I expect a gamer will some day get the funds and where-withall to reintroduce a worthy replacement to those legendary early games, but will any of the players recognize it? Will they whine it to oblivion? Will the devs chase after the lowest common denominators? Will it be created by those that will never understand what makes these games fun to play? I would only be surprised if even a single answer to these possibilities did not contribute to its eventual / immediate ruin.
I'm convinced the issue is the generation that came after us. The devs that were promoted and to use a crude, lazy description "turned corporate". The passion is dead. The sense of can we really do that -- no longer tried. The only formulas that matter are those that lead to $/player generated, fees/system garnered, # of transactions invoked. Those are all but four-letter words waiting to be coined as such.
Now comes the worst of all soul rips from the genre -- the arrival of politicial correctness. Oh it's been here nearly forever, but in only the most basic of ways. No overly crude drawings (PG13 maybe TV14 at worse), got at least three identities? Yeah, Ok. Got some things to keep the girls playing? Yeah, Great (actually quite awesome). But now we have to cater to each nationality, each approved scene, got your hipster? rapper? Goth? Skin? Tats anyone? We got your wrapper here come join us we do not disapprove... heck no... we cater to you wanna be accepted come, come, come freak out here. We love it. Don't worry we don't really moderate anything so no worries. Carry on.
The poster that linked this genre's cycle to that of the arcade failure of the mid-80s is pretty spot on, but I do not believe arcade games really came back better in many cases. They did for a time, but are themselves dying again in many sub-genres with only war combat / pvp enjoying any real successes. RPGs? Simulations? True Arcade? They are released limp and reeking on the vine with no lasting power beyond word of next week's maybe-this-is-it release.
I hope I can deplug for a year or two. Maybe the revival will happen, but if not, I am not sure I will cry over it anymore.
Wish those of us leaving luck.
Yup, and the genre kept dying and dying and dying up to 12+ million subscribers.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
The genre IS dead. Just because one game has an absurb amount of people playing it doesn't mean everything else is perfectly fine.
Not all games are suited towards your personal taste OP.
MMOs are doing great and will continue to do great.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Agree with topic. Same with music, every now and then the popular genre (Or how it is spelled) change. MMO's is now at there POP genre.
Zoos the Slacker
You're partially wrong. All the games being produced are clones of the "one" that had a fluke success and are chasing a pipe-dream that is unobtainable (it was right place, right time, right gimmicks). The very few that deviate are small teams, underfunded or just amateurish in general and wouldn't matter if it was an identical game style to that successful type, it would still fail.
Not all games are suited to one person's style, but almost ALL games being produced are suited to only one play style. That's the problem.
Yes, what this guy said. I spent a few minutes typing a diatribe that eventually lead to this conclusion, decided it was too confusing, and back pedaled to the thread to read any new replies to find this, which is essentially what I was trying to get at.
It's true. There really is only one play style that's being represented in this genre right now, and to say that it wouldn't be profitable or beneficial for everyone to expand into other types of MMO's is like saying that the only movies which should be produced are popcorn action flicks, or the only type of television anyone should bother creating is reality TV, because they've proven on paper to return investments. Why try new things, or to improve old things, right?
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
I must have missed the note that said games like 'Ryzom' / 'A tale in the desert' / EVE-Online / Wurm Online etc all closed down cause no one would play them. /sarcasm
There are different variety of MMOs out there, just because someone doesn't know they exists doesn't mean they don't.
The games I listed actually turn a profit last I checked and 'turn a profit' = success.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
You're right, it's not perfectly fine. It's predominantly fine.
You can't make a genre dead by disliking it. It has to actually be dead to be dead (as in: few releases and low profits.) And it's clearly not.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I won't say the genre is dead but it is stagnant.
I also miss the experience that the OP is describing, while the watered down monstrosity that exist today exist.
there are several reasons for this decline though mainly these reason:
1. Soloing -- If im going to log into an online game that a community i want to group, raid, sell stuff to, buy stuff from, and have events with, etc. One of the things i like about EQ was the fact that classes were dependant on each other but a few could run around on their, ie necro, chanter, druid, and wizard. that way the people who wanted to solo could do so and the people who want group could as well. I know alot of people why cry about this saying well i only have a few hours a day and i want to make them count, yet it speaks to me that this should be your thing thing.
2. I WIN THE GAME! -- or to better put it the attitudes of the community nowadays. This game doesnt have an ending there is no screen where the credits roll and you get a pat on the back. And beggars/apathetic people mean there are lazy people who need their hand held or people who just do care. While my time in EQ wasnt all roses and not everyone was holding hands i would say that they worked together better than now.
3. Crafting -- Seriously i think most games put this in as an afterthought as a time sink. Why make anything when an epic purple just dropped of a random mob while your are leveling or why make anything at all when you can just save up your points and get raid level gear. I think crafting should count for alot more than it does but there is no way that while happen while MMORPG's is in it ADHD ritalin popping phase.
4. Immersion -- Face it, the immersion in MMO's are slacking. Log in do your dailies (ugh) do some instance pvp or pve, and now in wow's case que up for raid (which won't work that well, people fail at 5 mans all the time and they think it will work with 10). When i say immersion im not talking about RP just the ability of the game to pull you in and forget your surroundings.
5. Dual Classing -- This is the worse thing they could do to a ROLE playing game. I know people like it alot because "oh now i dont have to wait so long to find what we dont have" but i believe it has the side effect of people not learning to play their class that well. Certain classes have this ability which are called hybrids but they were designed to able to do both but not as well as the classes who specializes in that role.
6. Innovation -- this genre is really lacking in innovation. There is some but its moving at a glacier's pace. Companies as just to scared of losing what they have to create new ideas the make the experience better. Bug fixes are not innovations and neither are nerfs. In fact i have rarely seen few features or ideas these days that made me think oh that was clever. speaking of nerfs, nerfs are the worse and class balancing is too. It's one thing to change something because its unintential, but seeing things changed because a few people learn to excel at their class should be prohibitted.
I'm sure there are more things to this list and alot of people probably won't agree with alot of the things i have said here. But whatever.
Who knew entire genre could die on basis of personal opinions of few. MMORPGs are more successul and popular than ever. But i gues hyperbole is a common way to express opinions on these forums.
you guys just dont look hard enough. Of ocurse indie mmos will never have the polish of blizzard or the finances. They are the ones who try to innovate as opposed to imitate. Some examples of very different MMOs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQZqhv2dKM -eve online, heavy emphasis on trade and economoics, pvp and politics, in a space setting. can be quite dull at times for those who prefer action but a real slow burner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzc8oPKXqvo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxctAqDcFFQ- mortal online, medieval first person mmo with fps style combat. in a seamless world with full loot full pvp and many crafting proffesions, fishing, butchery, woodcutting etc. buggy but very original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01p4M-SKB_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYYT6Wg3Gg-darkfall heavily pvp focused mmo with a huge open world, naval battles play in both first and thirdperson viewpoint with twitch based combat. graphics look a little dated and quite grindy but like Mortal offers something quite different to the norm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_v4NgvqTjg
there are 2 types of mmo, imitators and innovaters.
sucsess and popularity aren't any sign of quality, quite the contrary. fast food, reality and casting shows, elections, music and how commercial and the media manipulate the masses are evidence enough. i really don't want ro condemn them for beeing .... well human, but this leaves upcoming mmorpgs with two options: short term success - high box sells, good amount of subscribers the first three months and then stable at 25-50k users because the masses are playing the next one or long term sucess - niche game with stable subscribers numbers over the 2-4 years. it would be interesting if games like aion, warhammer or rift will generate more money over 5 years than eve online did.
i'm honest with you, i enjoyed playing dcuo, aion, rift and sto this year so far, but the publishers really don't have to expect from me that i will stay for more than 2-3 months, because all these games do not have the substance to offer me - for my taste - longevity. i like challenges, but running the same dungeon 100 times to get the 'mighty sword of the universe +100 on every stats' isn't a challenge (after how many runs i will go nuts) i seek.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
This is what you get when things get to large. Not just MMO's but gameing in general. Playing video games is no longer only for thoes of us who flew our nerdism flag proudly. Video games are now mainstream. From the most dedicated FPS player to the most dedicated MMO player to the random house wife playing ummm the sims? on the WII. Add into that humans basic addictive nature and you have the perfect storm for gaming companies.
Its not just limited to cash shops and DLC though. Look at how many diffrent exclusive offers you can get depending on where you purchase your game. Nearly every game in the last couple years have exclusive offers for buying from one place or another. Sometimes its something so minor people overlook it but its getting worse and the incentives are getting more and more gamechanging. Just like I noticed with the new Batman game if you buy it from bestbuy (i think it was) you get access to a couple of exclusive maps AND the robin character. Now personally I dont give 2 craps about playing Robin but others do and if they want that they are forced to buy it from a company that maybe they really dont like. My parents for example where treated horribly at a bestbuy a few years ago and refuse to ever go back there.
In short games are no longer made by people for the people. They are made by corperations where the bottom dollar is all that matters. Before a game like everquest or Asherons call where developed by people who love games and wanted to show off there work. Yes, they wanted to make money but it was more about pride. Today even developers like that need big money backing them to even compete. And once you have big money backing you, you have to play by big money rules.
Thats why I try to support good indie games. They are generally cheaper quality graphically and cheaper on the pocketbook even though they do have DLC ect. The biggest diffrence is MOST good indie developers are still about doing it because they enjoy it. They are the developers that, while they are still in it to make money, only want to do so because of there ideas not because EA or Activision told them they have to do it a certain way.
Unfortunately, unless you've played every game ever conceived you can not simply generalize like this. The stores are a wonderful thing if the companies keep gear and crafting resources out of the stores. The Freemium model has been done right on many a game. Including everyone on the same servers as P2P, cosmetics and pets/mounts only in stores, options for P2P, deep world where you earn what you want. Lotro seems to have the best model of this i've seen so far. EQ did have a good set of options but they separated the f2p and p2p servers simply because they wanted to add high end crafting resources from the store. Eventually every game is going to go F2P or Freemium. It's inevitable in this type of economic downturn, if the economy recovers the majority will regain the disposable income needed for P2P so it's more a show of the times we live in rather then executive greed which is kind of ironic in itself because we got here due to executive greed in the first place. I like the freemium model because it means i spend very little money to go back and forth between about five games keeps my interest peeked until GW2 and such will be released.
I'm not typical tho in that i refuse to pay a sub for any future game until execs allow devs to do what GW2 and Rift devs have promised keep content fresh, fast updates, big worlds, dynamic worlds. Unfortunately, Rift wasn't dynamic enough for me, i couldn't even tame pets as a ranged/pet class.
True, saying that older games feels more alive than newer is generalizing a bit too much.
What isn't generazing though is to say that older games were more innovative, they tried different and new things in a way that is really rare today. Games like Meridian 59, Asherons call, UO, DaoC and many more all tried to do their own things instead of just using exactly the same mechanics everyone else already do.
That is the difference.
World size have also gone down, but that is more because of economical factors, making a huge game today cost a lot more than it did in 1996.
Sadly do many people think that MMOs should start copying the mechanics from older games instead of doing what actually made those games unique: innovation.
It seems like a few games now like GW2, TSW and WoDO actually try to do new stuff again and I hope that works out. But what I really hope is that the other devs will get the point and try new stuff themselves instead of just change which game they want to sopy.
You see problem is that.
EVE Online while a great game does NOT have appeal to many cause it is spaceship game.
Darkfall and MO - sorry they are borked, bugged, First person perspective games that are solely focused on PVP fest / sieges. Nothing interesting to do there is you not heavily intrested in PvP.
Not to mention that , ok noone expects Blizzard level of polish, but gap with them is TOO big.
Unfortunatelly indie games won't do for many people.
EvE is not indie anymore, but it is very specific game. Not to mention legitimate ISK buying that drives away some players as well.
Thing is there are players that look non-indie game, that is pure p2p, and at same time challanging and create world.
Since there is no game like that, that's WHY for many people PERSONALLY genre is dying, cause mmorpg genre does not provide what they used to provide with games like UO, EQ1, SWG, heck even vanilla WoW.
Well mmorpg industry will live better and for worse, and it changed like all things change, but it changed into a direction some players don't like, while not leaving alternatives (sorry pvp fest, feature-less, indie are not what I am looking for, even though I am sure many ppl enjoy).
Guess players like that, just have to accept and stop playing mmorpg's. Accept that genre changed, and if they feel like it check genre every year or two if anything changed.
Maybe in few years or more, there'll be something interesting for them, as genre is changing and hard to tell what games / business models will be offered in let's say 4-5 years from now on. There is also possibility that there will be nothing for them as well.