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A MMO for 'the rest of us'
beemer127
Member Posts: 7
Heyas;
I've been frustrated recently at not having enough time to spend on the gaming as I used to. More specifically, MMO's. I remember how i'd sit down and spend 20+ hours on everquest on the weekends, and not bat an eye. It wasn't power levelling, it was just FUN! Hanging out with friends, meeting new pple, going on Raid to PoF that would take an entire day almost...not to mention the jokes pple would crack about 'drunken trolls' when a certain halfling brewer master slipped me a nearly unlimited supply of ale...
Unfortunately, with career, family and other responsibilities, I find that I cannot really 'get into' an MMO game, or enjoy its community, as many times I only have 2 or 3 hours to play, and so with the exception of one game, which is fairly friendly to the casual gamer, I have had to leave behind friends with whom i've gamed with for years, much to my heartbreak. In my opinion, I believe that more and more MMO companies will find this to become a growing trend among its player base, and after careful consideration I've narrowed it down to two primary things that keep 'casual gamers' away from games. Especially those who were once hardcore, but cannot maintain the rights to that title as "real life" creeps in.
1. The time it takes to find & Organize groups: Many times, a casual gamer will not be 'plugged in' to the community. In fact, he's lucky if he gets in a guild with players of his level, as in most cases, players will out-level them. I speak from experience when I say that if it takes 45min to find a group, and then another 15 min to organize themselves, I've just wasted anywhere from 33% to 50% of my playtime! In fact, once I came to realize this frustration on various games - EQ2 being a good example - It was a real deal-breaker. I even tried to play a 'popular' class, such as a healer, but even then it still took a good 30 min to find/organize a group. The truth is, casual gamers want to be able to log in, and jump into the action in about 15 min. If it takes longer than that to find a group, organize it, and then find a 'hunting spot' then the developers need to try and figure out how they can help their community.
2. The time it takes to 'level up' - Now here I can imagine I'll get a lot of naysayers and critics, but the truth is, if it takes me 16 hours to get 1 bubble/bar/ball or whatever of experience as I am reaching a high-end game, forget it. At that rate, I'll reach the next level in three months. Granted, to the "hardcore" gamer it would take a week - I know, I've been there/done that, but the truth is, as someone who might play 2/3 days out of the week, for 2/3 hours at a time, this just isn't cool. WoW, in spite of all my dislike for it - has made some progress towards catering to the casual gamer through its experience system, but I feel there could be still more done. In fact, you could take a montage of techniques from various games, and apply them, and I believe the montage, and not each single feature of various games, would be sufficient to help the casual gamer.
Example: WoW gives you exp bonus based on the amount of time your character is logged out. DAoC gives a free level every (x) number of days, based on the population of your realm. CoH allows higher level characters to have "sidekicks"
Result: a game that gives you exp bonus based on the amount of time your character was logged out, and - depending on how long you've been absent - perhaps a free level to help prevent your friends from outlevelling you completely. In addition, your friends could make you a 'sidekick' enhancing your abilities so that you could affectively group with them.
Well, that's a general idea anyhow. It would need to be tweaked and balanced for gameplay, but I believe a majority will understand where I'm coming from. As always, responses and constructive criticism is welcome.
Comments
what about EvE online?
there are no levels and you can train even while offline
-Fenix
Guild Wars
The grind is fairly easy, the quest are short, sweet and plentiful. It is mainly story driven rather then level driven. (this makes it linear to a point) If you want you can skip the grind and create a maxed out character from the start but you can only PvP in that case.
Its a great casual gamers game and its free, no monthly fee.
The downside is the community.....any sterotype bad gamer thrives in GW. PUG's (pick up groups)usually end in disaster. This can be overcome by using NPC party members in a pinch.
Its worth a look, especially if you have a few friends to go in with you.
Yah, like you Torak i find i have MUCH less time to play which totally sucks. Thanks for the post, although no doubt some of the 'hardecore' would accuse these game of being 'carebear', they are as you rightly point out for the rest of us.
I have found GWars is more or less perfect in terms of allowing you to work your way up at your own pace, but ill try the others (where i havent already).
Actually I think Neverwinter Nights might be the thing. Also its free to play online. Man that game had me hooked for several months when it came out. Its cool to cuz of all the different storys you can follow, and alot of the fan created ones are great.
agreed,
If you go that route, there are a lot of PC games you could go with also.
Neverwinter Nights - so much created content, it will make your head spin (try your hand at creating something, the toolset is very easy to use)
Sacred - is a really good game (Diablo clone) and you can play it online for free.
Battlefield 2 is also playable online for free (as are most shooters) Its sort of a persistant character you have in the form of ranks.
Something I'm trying right now is Jedi Academy, its free and wayyyy better then Star Wars Galaxies. There is something called the "Battlemovie mod" that really brings alot to it. Its no MMORPG but its a heck of a lot of fun.
If you had found Asheron's Call (the first) when it was in it's prime, you would have had just what you are asking for.
Asheron's Call was a very solo and group friendly game, and the guilds were nearly all very family-like.