Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
This is how you make a good "MMO"
Kaabulk
Member Posts: 670
Hello, I have posted on this account years ago and abandoned it years ago. I have been interested in SWTOR and have looked throughout the far reaches of the internet, with my travels bringing me back here. Let me begin that I have noticed the obvious fan wars and many arguments including the "WoW clones" such as as the alledged SWTOR. I have not played WoW in years and have not played SWTOR as of yet. I have watched and read alot on SWTOR in recent days and not on WoW and I did not talk about WoW very much in my arguments as I feel so out of line with the game during the absence of it in so many years.
I have recently been raging silently at myself because for reason one I believe that all of these games have it wrong. I will use SWTOR heavily throughout this paragraph, arguing how it could be improved into my concept of a "Game". The SWTOR immersive story is something to die for in this industry, but there is what I believe to be one fundamental flaw with this game and countless others. First off why limit the powers of the Jedi/Sith lightsabers to the point they are not able to cut raw flesh or metal in general? It would effectively not be an RP game, and with that concept planted in your mind let me continue before reaching any judgement. Make lasers kill Jedi/Sith in one hit. Let everything be fast paced combat. Make it difficult to block with lightsabers to make it a role to master. This way anyone can feel the power of the Force in full strength yet make it difficult to master such as the struggling young Padawans. Yes hell let it be similar gameplay to an FPS with the addition of light sabers and have it be an "MMO". With the immersive story it would be the Star Wars game. Reason two that I have silently been raging at myself is that I see that no one else that I have seen throughout the thousands if not tens of thousands of paragraphs or the few thousand on SWTOR I have read share this same concept with I. I want to convince people otherwise.
Enforcing the will of such a concept in material is another story and I am sure there are countless arguments against it. Maybe one of these arguments will be that it would strain the available bandwidth. Ahem watch the link below from 1:11 - 2:27. This guy makes the argument for me that bandwidth is not such an expense.
http://youtu.be/ns-IIn-DG-c?t=1m11s
Another forseeable argument is that such fast-paced gameplay may produce too much stress on client side computers. My early answers to this are either use the power of the cloud or make your foray into the console market. I think that the console are the poor gamer's alternative to the computer, and would rightly be ridiculous to think of a business model concept standard in the MMORPG industry, but it doesn't have to be an MMORPG and my concept dictates that it isn't. Hell adopt the same business model as the "Call of Duty" franchise. It would technectly be a yearly subscription with your money actually going far more into production assuming they spend a good percentage of it on production lest not forget the team working on it can produce good content worthy of the free market.
Now that the basic groundwork for this philosophy and some early arguments against it have been thought out and responded to, I would like to detail the "Kill x rats" quest systems that is prevalent in this industry and how this so far only addressed to PvP concept can positively affect the standard quest system. First one of my early thoughts on this matter is make the creatures more difficult not in the sense that they can survive a light saber slash to the cerebral cortex, but make them produce a real fight. Either that or increase their numbers and also possibly throw in a slightly less experience gain if combat is still too easy for either. Yes it will be standard hack and slash, maybe colorful with the right investment on production, yet please ask yourself do you like the WoW/SWTOR combat or do you want combat similar to the Elder Scrolls? I like how attacks can be chained in either MMORPG, but they do not give breath to the game. My earlier not a Jedi/Sith argument is my thought for the matter and as for a WoWesque type game just make it Elder Scrolls type combat FFS. I suppose this could be an end to raid bosses, but that is something I never liked nor enjoyed. I would prefer to have real PvP battles over PvE mega bosses anyday, and it is not something I have thought out because it is not something I would enjoy thinking about.
Maybe I am just a lone voice among the NTSE dominated internet zone. Maybe I have changed public oppinion somewhat, or maybe you as a consumer will decide that such a concept is not worth your dime and it will never materialize.
Comments
Well, I think I understand where you are coming from.
You would like less mobs but more strategy in a single fight ?....If that's so, then this had been done with Age of Conan and Elder Scrolls Skyrim I believe, I'm not sure because I never played them
Understand that balancing classes would become harder. Your example used malee combat, but you have to factor in ranged combat such as Mage and Ranger's, and this could be complicated. It can be done,Yes. Just hard to do.
I'm by far not a game programmer but making an mmo is extremely hard as it is, and requires a lot of money....Skyrim took years to make, just think how long if you introduced multi player. It sounds good on paper but to implement it is a new ball game. After years of development we would end up with a half done mmo on rails with high system requirements just like Age of Conan.
My prescription: Pacing + Making sense
Alternatively, he could play Jedi Knight if he wanted a fantastic multiplayer FPS about Star Wars.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Not exactly less mobs just a game that doesn't really use so much hotkeys and the 20 slashes of a lightsaber kill. As for range combat I realize this was not detailed very well in my OP, but say for SWTOR it would be balanced if lasers could take Jedi in turn in a single hit or two and the Jedi can just block it. The Jedi would be overpowered undoubtedly, and this simplified summary would be more extensively complicated when you make roles such as the Jedi/Sith difficult to master so as to prevent their widespread domination. In a sense it would be a sort of TDM MMO with lasers, rockets, lightsabers, etc, but with more people and quests. I never played Age of Conan, but I believe it didn't do so well. They must of done something wrong or the free market was just not ready for it. And as for the money if EA wanted to get this done with that $134 million or whatever it was then they could and SWTOR would not be accused of being such a WoW clone.
Now as for the high system requirements I believe this is where the cloud begins. If say OnLive where to distribute this service then it would not be such a problem running it on client side computers from your house. If that is not something that whoever employs such a concept does not want to take then their is always consoles and the risk of being labelled an "MMO Call of Duty".