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When Is The Last Time An MMO Surprised You?
soulrain
Member Posts: 1
More specifically, during gameplay when did something happen that elecited true surprise? I find this interesting because surprise is such a key component of what most people would label as "fun." Fighting a mob or boss, the outcome of life or death is unknown as well as if it will drop the item you have been looking for for months and if you will win the roll. Also can you enchant such and such item to such and such a level. Many of these "surprises" have not changed in many mmo game iterations, so I am curious when is the last time and what was it that caused you to be genuinely surprised in an mmo?
For me I think it was Aion and being one of the first people on my factions side to get into the inner core in the Abyss. Grinding mobs while worrying about getting ganked did create heightened game play. Seeing another player or seeing their combat spam as I was grinding away mobs definitely caused me surprise and sometimes worry/anxiety. Besides this I would have to go all the way back to Asheron's Call and some of my adventures there.
What was your latest surpsing experience?
Comments
Playing TERA didn't surprise me - the combat was pretty fun I suppose but since I read up about it a lot, it just...just everything peopel said it would be.
GW2 beta weekend actually surprised me even if I watched probably hours of gameplay videos and more articles than I care to count - the cooperation between players actually had me go "why doesn't every MMO do this?". I would just run around and help everyone kill mobs I encounter and I loved to go to places with tons of people because everything was shared.
Now I go back to other MMOs and go to some leveling zones and go "ugh...someone taking my mobs". In those same MMOs I avoid places with tons of people leveling. I used to want to play solo on MMOs (going to less populated channels) while leveling so I don't encounter other peopel stealing my kills. And now I wish every MMO was done so that loot and exp was shared between players. Such a simple concept made such a huge difference in gaming.
Well, in SWTOR I was surpised by how hollow the game was outside its amazing story which came off much better than I expected(didnt think fully voiced with a great story would make a difference) and was surprised by how such a bland overall game like Tera got hyped the way it did just because of a dodge ability which REALLY IS the only difference in its action combat that is almost a copy of other action MMOs.
Does that count?
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
The last game that surprised me in a positive way was SWG (Pre-CU).
For all it had against it, it did a lot of things right, and is still one of the standards that I hold MMO's against.
It made me think in a way no mmo has. It took well over 2 hours to figure put the whole thing, probably closer to 3. I couldn't believe I had just spent nearly 3 hours on one quest.
It was very satisfying to complete. I felt a strong sense of accomplishment.
Say what you want about the game, but that mechanic is simply amazing to me right now.
Other then that, I would have to say Planetside. Pretty much everything that happened in that game.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
My latest surprising experience is by playing GW2.
I never died as much as any other MMO than I did from GW2 from level 1 - 10.
I broke my armor twice and was running naked in the noob zone lol.
Once my brain start to repogrammed from the WOWish brainwash to GW2 combat gameplay,
my survivality rate went up.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
Last night while playing The secret world, some great stuff in there. Before that I would say it had been years.
Mortal Online, when I accidently ate undead carcas and started puking. Also when I went down to the river and gathered water from it and drank it. And when I rode a horse for the first time.
Dragon Nest. Probably because I had very low expectations. It looks like its made for kids but its a solid game.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
GW2. I was thinking people didn't make good MMOs anymore.
Playing The Secret World, doing investigation quests. Not only does it require thought but i read alot of cool history (history buff). Before that it was playing Vanguard for the first time and seeing the huge open world.
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
Playing GW2. The game never ceased to amaze me.
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
Guild Wars 2 beta
The combat really surprised me , I know I had read this and that about how they where trying to get away from the mold. It's just the fact that I had to reprogram my brain. Every other mmo I've played (except maybe UO) my brain goes on auto pilot, so much so that I do other things while fighting bad guys, like chatting or looking at something in my second monitor. If I tried that in Guild Wars 2 I suspect I'd be dead real fast.
EDIT: Not to mention playing Warrior and missing my leap, was so used to "if I can hit the button I'm in range" really caught me off guard.
I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed TERA. I was also very surprised on how little I enjoyed TSW.
I cannot really say that I have experienced a positive surprise in any MMO.
I have enjoyed some, disliked others, and so on. But the sort of surprise you describe...not so much.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
Uh-hu.
Every new raidboss I faced in Vanguard was a surprise .. ?
AC2 where I could setup turrets to farm spawning monster camps and get XP while in town crafting. It was hilarious.
Yes its been a while since an MMO has suprised me :P
Ultima Online - Logged in for the first time and was in shock and awe at the sheer amount of things to accomplish, and oddly enough it had nothing to do with rushing to endgame for wicked loot.
oh boy, i feel a GW2 rush comming this way
hehe
Last time i was REALY immpressed......was WOW.......at that time it was realy new and exciting.
Actually while the game didn't knock my socks off, when I first logged in and the size of the game hit me...was pretty cool. Plus it was my first 3D mmorpg.
I was surprised at how fun WoW was to play with RL friends at first. Before that the Everquest roleplaying server surprised me with a D&D feeling no game has matched since, including DDO and neverwinter nights. At first of course, good luck getting any positive feelings from either game nowadays
I can't recall being surprised by a game in a really long time.
There have been moments and game mechanics from one game or another but a complete package has been elusive for a long time.
The reason is probably me.
I don't want to:
Grind. (I mean really grind, old school it takes 80 hours a level grind.)
Pointlessly craft useless items that no one wants or needs.
Farm resources for hours on end competeing for nodes with the rest of the world.
Be forced to raid for gear while avoiding Ninjas, theives, liars, and greeders.
Raid like a bot on steroids and three Redbulls or get booted from a group.
Pvp in a fishbowl sized map with a fixed number of people ignoring objectives in order to get coms/medals/credits etc.
Spend countless hours creating and role playing my characters just to turn them into another cookie cutter build in order to fit in with everyone else.
I know I could be a really long time waiting for the Holy Grail of MMOs. In the mean time I will suffer with dignity.
It all really comes down to what level of "surprise" one is talking about.
The last really huge surprise in a MMO was to me definitely how uber complex Vanguard was. I clearly remember being completely overwhelmed by it in the first month or so of playing.
The previous really huge surprise in a MMO to me was that, despite the fact I dislike static classes in theory, and the concept of static item lists, Lineage 2 turned out to be quite fun to play.
Just a couple months ago with Vanguard.
I played it in Beta and hated it.
I played it at release and hated it.
Stopped back in a couple times over the years and still hated.
My biggest issues were the poor performance, glitches and bugs.
Stopped back in again a couple of months ago and have not had an interest in logging into another game since.The game performs very well and the bugs that do remain are easily ignored. These are being worked on as it reches F2P as well.
This ended up being the first game in a long time I have a riculously hard time logging off of. Its an MMO based on the older template like EQ1 and DAoC (which is what I prefer). Its a massive world where you would literally need to play multiple characters over an extended period of time and go well out of your way with each to see it all.
In depth crafting system.
Unique Diplomacy system I have never seen in any other game.
After years of playing every release of hot garbage coming out looking for a new home the last thing I expected was to go back in time and find one. This is probably not one for the folks who require the flash bang effects of modern MMOs and need a hand held through each individual step of the game, but I am loving it.
I am still waiting to be surprised.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
at start i died a lot, too. even if i am used to EQ1 and EVE, where it is neccesary to plan your attacks carefully and look behind you all day long. but i was surprised that $hit could happen in a modern theme-park. however, after switching to the correct mindset, i recognized soon, that this is still a theme-park with somewhat repetitive gameplay, linear zone-design and a hell of handholding and instantly rewarding micromangament by the devs. not as bad as your usual theme-park, but just a step into the right direction. not less, but also not more. not far enough to call it a sandpark, which should imho be the goal for theme-parks as well as sandboxes coming from different directions.
generally speaking, my last real big surprise was EVE, which i picked up in 2005. i just could not understand, why the hell did I not find this great game 2 years earlier.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds