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Most immersive gameworld and why
spydermr2
Member Posts: 336
Okay. Been debating this for a while. Let's see what the general public (or at least these boards) comes up with:
What is the most immersive MMORPG out there, and why do you think that? I'm not looking for "-x- is great 'caus I can pWN! you" junk, or mindless drivel of "'cause I say so" (and saying this invariably means there'll be smart-asses who now post exactly that, but oh well). Nor does "most immersive" or "best" have anything to do with subscriptions (that's like saying GM makes the best cars 'cause they're the market-share leader worldwide).
I'm curious. My definition of immersive, which may not agree with yours, is that the game be consistent to its lore (no out-of-gameworld references in the quests/info), try to minimize the intrusion of the game mechanics into the game environment (keeping the environment as believable and consistent as possible), and offer roleplaying structures (quests, guilds, factions, reputation, etc., etc.) that create a dynamic adventuring environment. Doesn't mean that's anyone else's.
??
BTW, no poll. It would take too long to list all the games out there, and sure as I come up with 10 there's gonna be excellent ones left off. Just looking for replies and comments.
Comments
I would have to say DAoC, cause i said so
But seriously, i think its immersive because some of the landscapes are so gorgeous you just get lost in them. I remember wandering through a forest, just taking in the scenery. I was so sucked into, i didn't even realize that i had spent a total of 1 and 1/2 hours just staring at it all. RPing is great (on the RP servers). Community is great, you wont run into some guy who repeatedly spams "h4h4h4h4h 1 pwn 4ll 0f j00 b33-y4+ches111!1!!1" Just really immersive IMO.
98% of the teenage population does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this in your signature.
Until you realise that every zone in each respective realm looks pretty much identical.
98% of the teenage population does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this in your signature.
Until you realise that every zone in each respective realm looks pretty much identical.
Okay, Tithrielle, step up and tell us what you regard as the most immersive game and why you call it that? Instead of just taunting someone else?
I think all games have their awe-inspiring environments, or least most do. The swamps outside the Froglok camp in EQ1 are to this day the best "swamp" environment I can think of, visually- and aurally- speaking.
Taunting someone else? Surely you can't fail to notice the reuse of artwork, mob models, the fact that hibernia is basically a big golf course. In the original game at least.
As for my vote, I'd have to go for EQ1... perhaps because it was one of the first I played, but no other games have recreated a world that seemed so 'magical'. Perhaps SWG, but that's already set in a well-established universe from the films.
World of Warcraft. It is beautiful and solid as a rock. Movement is fluid which is key in immersion. The under-water swimming is extremely well done and unique to MMORPGS(Maybe not by being first, but by being solid and having a point). The cities are not just random building but works or art themselves. If there were such a thing as dwarf city in a mountain I would assume it would like like IronForge. Built for function as much as eyecandy.
When playing you can go anywhere from the dark (purple-hued) Elf Forests with their vine covered marble. Or you can head out to a massive savannah, arctic region, or scorched desert. Also plenty of tropical and swamp locations. The sky and cloud cover is different in each place to match the mood of the surrounding environment. Going into the Dwarf part of Stormwind is like entering a whole new city with its thick haze that is the result of blacksmithing and metallurgy.
I am not saying WoW is the best game out there, but it is the only one so far which makes you feel like you are in the screen with your char rather than just staring at the screen. When I say this I mean it. There must be some kind of psychological explanation to explain the fact that your brain seems to take the screen and wrap it around you. Virtual Reality is just fooling the brain, like any other trick. This may not be as big a ruse, but it is one just the same.
Also the sound goes a long way to help the immersive experience.
Saga of Ryzom.
The world makes you believe in it and everything else stems from that. It's plausible and consistent in its feel. You 'live' it.
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the most immersive gameworld will be Vanguard? Why just check out the forums, the emphasis is on creating this immersive gameworld because this is what the original eq was like before major developers left.
www.vanguardsoh.com to read more. Only downside if you are considering this game will be its hardcoreness.
EQ1. Even though the graphics are a bit outdated and the economy structure needs a revamp, EQ1 held me like no other game.
In EQ1, hunting orcs outside Crushbone felt real. In the woods between Felwith and Crushbone, it was classic elf verses orc. That very zone could stand alone as a game in and of itself. The orc tents, the two guards at the entrance to crushbone. The run between Feltwith and Crushbone. Hiding in the woods waiting to pick out the lone orc that conned white for the best exp return.....
Man, do I hate how Sony screwed EQ1 up. That game should still rule. Kill the books that transport to POK, change the classes back to the point where only wizards and druids can gate, remove the rez from the Pally......
And I might actually go back.
nonjoron check out Vanguard. A few of the original eq developers are behind that.
We can all agree that there are awe-inspiring visual moments and visual immersiveness in most of these games (hopefully). I can come up with awe-inspiring moments in most of the (too long) list of games I've played. It does seem to be the rule that the first game we play contains the "best recollection" of visual immersiveness -- most of my "wow, that was so cool, I got lost for hours" recollections are to EQ1. Played UO, but the 3/4 perspective doesn't really create memorable visual moments for me. AC1 brought some cool things, like the no-loading-zones aspect, that brought up a "holy cow, i'm sitting by the inland sea as the sun goes down"..
Anyway. Let me try to rephrase the original question I posed. I'm interested in what people think is the most immersive game -- not solely from the visual perspective, but the game mechanic perspective, from the "roleplay" aspect. The abliity to "be" in the gameworld, to "live" the experience, to feel like you're actually doing something that affects the world. I have my own opinions, but I'm mostly interested in what people think offers the most Complete (visual plus game-mechanic immersiveness) immersive quality.
Thanks to all responders, to those already and those yet to come!
Yup. Totally agree. There's a reason that originally only druids and wizards could gate: to offer actually unique powers to classes, and because it was consistent in their own lore. It created a certain flavor to the community, having to (if you weren't playing one) find a guy or gal who could "gate" you someplace else. Now that you just run to the book, zap up to the library, and zap to any of the other zones... it shrank an otherwise awesomely huge world. Bit disturbed by the trend that says there's no value to having a "huge world" to explore and all the grumbling about having to "walk so far to do things". Exploring is part of the concept behind an MMORPG (hence the RPG part), when they put in the books they ruined the awesome "hugeness" of the game.
98% of the teenage population does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this in your signature.
WoW. I loved exploring stuff in that game, I found the landscapes to actually be 'pretty' and I loved the lore. I visited areas that I remembered from WCIII and it just brought back a lot of fond memories
I was definatly 'very' immersed into that WoW world. The backround from other warcraft games helped a lot too!
So from a visual, story, and simply loving the models aspects, I think WoW is top for me in how immersed I was
Okay heres my opinion. Ive played many mmo's but my favorite are swg and daoc. daoc by the way doesnt look the same in each realm. ive played all 3 realms and for a long time. they may share some dungeon layouts but thats it. im giong to speak about awg however. There are tons of content in swg but none of it affects the enviroment or game. The biggest joy in most swg gamers is the fact that you dont have to waste months grinding to get to the good stuff. You can hit max level in 1 week if you played hard. about a year to full template jedi. Also the economy is player ran and you can create a guild, have a guild hall, start a city and have a city hall, cantina(bar/club), malls..etc....
there are actual people who can run for mayor in the player cities and crafters that have factories. you have hospitals ran my doctors. you have guilds that roleplay only and others that are l33t speakers. So basically i think this game is what you describe but its done by the players and not by the developers. the community creates the gaming experience and not the world they live in. if a player wants to do something they can just do it or you could roleplay and pretty much actually do what your roleplaying in the game. for me i recreated the sith order. i read the sith history and all about them and recreated their order exactly the way it was before the old republic. we then roleplay our sith characters and can feel like we are actually living their lives in the game. all this takes maturity and roleplaying though and not all of the community will cooperate with you. thats why you form your own guild of roleplayers and play just with them or with other roleplayer guilds.
i have no idea if this answered your question nor did i actually understand what you were asking. if this post sucks im sorry just skip over it.
id have to agree with WoW. Altough i didnt like the game itself, i couldnt help but love the game world. Seems teh developers manually crafted every inch of the world.
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Actually, your post is the most spot-on so far to what I was trying to get at. I think being immersed in a gameworld means being believably transported to this "other world" and then being able to feel like you're there, to be able to do things that have an impact within the environment. In order for players to be able to start a city, bar, mall, etc, the game has to have the mechanics in place to allow that sort of flexibility -- and it's precisely that flexibility, that creativity, that creates a sense of immersion. The players actions aren't something strictly dictated by the devs. Being immersed requires the devs to create the game with a recognition of the need to give the players the flexibility to actually do things, to make a difference, to affect the environment, etc.
On a simplistic level, look at a game that frankly isn't the greatest in the world, Horizons. Sub-par adventuring side... but the crafting side is incredible. Vast array of materials, "techniques" that you can add into each and every construction that let you customize the item through bonuses or colors or other design decisions -- you build things that are customized, that are "unique", instead of cranking out the same recipe that the other 4 million players are doing. It also fully realised within the environment player housing (not instanced, actual structures, like AC1's), but went beyond that by building a system where the players can build their own housing, see that construction taking place over time, or cooperate with others to make it go faster. And not just housing, but bridges, etc. Crafting is one place where the player can achieve things that leave a mark, so to speak -- and short of building structures, a good crafting side should encourage not just the repetitive replication of the same item over and over again, but the creation of unique items (it may be a sword made with copper like other copper swords, but I added a frost-bonus to it, and a frosty look to go with it, and I tinted the blade a deeper hue of orange).
I found SWG a very immersive game, a flexible game that had the mechanics in place to let the players have the flexibility to do things you described. Didn't care for the combat changes (that puts me in company with many, many thousands of others, if the signed petitions are to be believed)... but that's neither here nor there.
I actually agree that the most immersive MMORPG thus far is EQ1.
I believe part of it was (as mentioned) indeed the style of the graphics (yes dated now) BUT the most important thing, in my opinion, the thing that made EQ1 VERY immersive was the many factions the game implemented.
It was pure beauty how the game mechanics would use these factions to enforce the lore. I mean one could not ignore the lore, it would catch up with him pretty quick anyway. For example if you created an iksar, you'd understand what being an iksar meant sooner or later.
Same with a dark elf, or Troll or Ogre.
Sometimes I wonder how many factions there were and how complex the system might have been, well EQ1 had its time, same wouldn't work today Im sure.
Intead of addressing the real problems the game had, corpse runs and the most severe death penalty ever, they changed what they didnt have to... Fodder for another thread Im afraid...
Totally agree, Acaeus. That's one of the keys, I think, that holds up EQ1 as being the memorable, immersive, interesting place that it was, even at launch: the game mechanics in EQ1 enforce(d) the lore, constantly bring you back to the game's lore, the game's story, the game's environment.
Saga of Ryzom
None come even half as immersive
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lol
Since my original post didn't send I'll just say Roma Victor. Go to romavictor.com
Its not out yet though.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
Hands down WoW
its got the most background and lore of any mmorpg ive evere played.
If you followed the series or read the books you would notice many of the npcs in the game and even some of the stories.
Its a solid game, and its just fun to play. Besides Im willing to bet your friends already play it.. just ask them.
edit: typos ftl
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
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I'd have to say EQ pre-Velious and all that expansion crap where everyone 'really' relied on each other and everything was new to my eyes. If there was a pool of water, you could fish in it and forage for food so you'd never have to return to town. The landscapes were absolutely gorgeous back then, and while SOE effed it up big time, it'll always be one of my favorites.