Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
MMOs designed for specific age ranges. It kind of already exists but what if it was official?
Toxicmoon
Member Posts: 23
MMO’s designed for specific age ranges. It kind of already exists but what if it was official?
I started my first mmo around 1998, but I really didn’t get in to them until 2003. For some of the old time MMO players can relate on what a difference compared to today.
Sure the older games were harder but there was one thing consistent with old games, just like the new ones. The big ones are difficulty and naturally close to follow due to difficulty level Age and maturity.
Difficulty, age and maturity tie in closely with the debate of why people play solo in Massive Multiplayer games in my opinion. Personally I love to group, it’s what makes an mmo so enticing; however I only enjoy it in good company, herein lies the issue.
Going back in time EQ, FFXI to name a couple. When you joined a group, conversation would follow. Objectives were discussed and off you guys went as a whole. You’d actually work an hour or two solely for someone else’s objective. These are grind games by comparison to today’s standards but more often than none, at least for me I’d forget about the grind due to the decent company. The Exp went fast; you may have made a few friends and had a great time. At the end of the day you felt like that level or item was truly a nice accomplishment due to the time invested in to said goal.
Fast forward to the present. You join a group “gogogo!!!!!!!!!!! Hurry now, wtf, come-on noob” “lol you need X ability X item why are you using/wearing that retard, quick someone kick him”. Conduct is at an all-time low. At times it gets a bit extreme with the amount of trolling. You’ll have some that will roll on gear they already have or it’s not even useful for their class just to troll you. I’m not saying all experiences are like this, but sadly I’ll say a large portion of it is like this.
Why? Well for starters the difficulty of the game is a bit light, thus the user is spoon fed rewards at a high rate. Anything that requires just a little bit of work is taxing after being hand held the entire time.
Without manually having to put a group together or entering a Q all the work is taken out of it. The wealth of group no longer has value. People do not bring there A game because you can just get another group instantly. The way you conduct yourself has no value, it’s likely you’ll never see them again.
With a community like this it’s hard to stomach grouping. This lead me to 5 box for a while, you can find my guides on the how to’s over on duel-boxing under my forum name Bradster.
Multiboxing was rewarding at first not having to experience communities like that. But it lacked the reason I started playing mmo’s in the first place and ultimately I stopped playing mmo’s for several years entirely.
Case in point it’s no wonder people push/want solo content. To subject yourself to that on a daily bases isn’t what I’d at least consider fun.
I experimented with a few mmo’s coming back. Mainly EVE and EQ2 and I was quite surprised with what I found. While both don’t necessarily fit on what I’m exactly looking for out of an mmo in terms of content, appearance or objectives. The community on both on the other hand felt flimilar. I started grouping again the thing I was taught to loath. I was having a good time, great conversation. It wasn’t long before I had a large friend list and people sending me messages as soon as I logon asking if I wanted to hang out and do something. That’s not to say all of the groups are like that, you still get some bad apples, perhaps a bit more than the old days as it were but what a vast improvement.
Why the improvement? Difficulty level thus increasing the age range, with that in some cases also the maturity. Like how I said some? 
Don’t take me out of context here this isn’t a dig or shot at you for playing X game. But Wow would be a good example of a game designed for the younger crowd with the candy land like appearance and cartoon pandas and such. While it’s true when it first came out it was quite good and the community was actually decent too. But the decrease in difficulty, exp curves and adding things like pandas and such really focused the direction for a younger generation.
My question is, would it be so bad to have a game with a age requirement? 18+, 25+? 30+? Never mind that this could be circumvented with mommy’s credit card. But content and group experiences designed to length, community and friends. Something not spoon fed, something the typical younger generation couldn’t handle with no instant reward and leave. Or perhaps a nice side effect, grow up and conduct yourself accordingly. How many people would come back to mmo’s to experience that? I guess in the end that’s the million dollar question on development costs. It would certainly be the first game I ever preordered. Also the first time I break my rule, try before you buy.
Comments
On another hand, i joined a "mature 21+" corp and they were the worst bunch of elitist d bags ive ever encountered.
It wouldnt be bad to have the age requirement but i dont think it will solve your issues.
Also, what do you think of my little pony? Becase there is quite a big adult auience following that.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
( o.o)
(")(")
**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
You know you do bring a valid point to the table. Been in “adult” guild/corps and had bad experiences too. Perhaps then I’ll be more focused on my position. A game where the way you conduct yourself has value in short and/or repercussions again.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
You mean games like Wizard 101, which was designed specifically with younger players in mind?
They already exist out there if you care to look. Specifying age above 18+ however is kinda pointless.
DarkSpace Developer - Play DarkSpace - Play For Free!
Medusa Engine SDK - Free MMO Game Engine
Hampton Roads/East Coast Video Gamers Association
I apologize; I need to work on my skill to communicate my position clearly. I’m actually inquisitive on the subject weather or not this is something that would be more appealing. In my mind it would be, however with the track record and current state of them now, this can't be what everyone wants. But is there enough people out there to get a devolpers attention from a fiscal standpoint? I think it would be interesting to see.
What you're describing isn't due to age, it is due to MMOs (and video games as a whole) going mainstream.
Back in the day MMOs were considered nerdy and geeky by a lot of people. That led to MMOs community being comprised by a very specific group. I played back in those days too (I started with The Realm, the actual longest running MMO, and went on to UO, EQ, AC, DAoC etc) and the community truly was 10x better than it is today.
Setting an age range won't solve the problem, designing a game that isn't targetting the LCD to get the widest possible audience will solve a lot of the issue. Companies don't want to do that because they all want to go after the largest audience possible for the biggest monetary gains.
LotRO before it went F2P was the only modern MMO I've played that actually had a nice, respectful and helpful community. I think a lot of this was due to the fact PvP and other "hardcore" elements didn't exist. Don't get me wrong, I love PvP and hardcore elements, but they do tend to attract a lot of douches to a game. Now that LotRO is F2P I don't know what the community is like, but I don't see how it could be exactly as good as before since a barrier of entry was removed. It could still be very good though.
Take a game like Darkfall. The biggest reason for it not being a success was the community. It wasn't that it was full on FFA PvP, although that does lessen the audience size. It was that the community purposely bullied and abused people to the point of quitting for their own amusement and then sat and wondered why no one was playing their game. A mature community would, for example, not typically sit around newbie areas and gank people as they know there is little to be gained and will hurt the game they like more than anything else. A douche on the other hand will do it for 5 hours straight every day because smashing the little guy is amusing to him no matter what the result is.
TL:DR version: Age restriction will not at all solve the problem you find with communities. Making a product that doesn't target the mainstream, LCD, crowd will help the problem as will removing certain features which promote douchery in the first place.
Age limit has never been done before, so we can’t say with certainty what the results would actually be. However, Mmo’s going mainstream happened due to wow. A game designed for whom? With a difficult level of? Dev’s making copycat sandboxes of? With the same difficulty and age range of? In fact due to mainstream the same content is repeated in any mmo today.
But something you said rains supreme, making it to target the widest audience.
The question is, in the long run if all of the above were changed and restricted would the numbers and the longevity of the community make it a success? Hard to say. Out of the box thinking, sure. But there can be great success from being a pioneer of something new. Like EQ or wow did.
But at this rate how could it hurt to try? With so many failing right at launch because it’s a repeat of main stream theme park ideas. Something different is in order at the very least
.
Age restrictions didn't stop millions of kids from playing Grand Theft Auto , and I doubt it would have any effect on MMOs , or games in general to be honest.
I mean sure, if something's really racy it might get pulled off the shelves of WalMart, but whatever
The above is my personal opinion. Anyone displaying a view contrary to my opinion is obviously WRONG and should STHU. (neener neener)
-The MMO Forum Community
We can say with certainty because plenty of the douches in these MMOs are 18+ there are ones 30+ and 40+ so sticking an age range on it isn't going to get rid of all the immaturity. Unfortunately in modern times immaturity is extremely common in adults who should know better.
No question of age. At all.
All you gotta do is increase peer pressure again. By a huge margin. I remember when the bugs at the gates of qeynos were group mobs. Without a group, you couldn't advance. Period. No questions asked.
The moment you need the server community to be successful is the moment a server community finally starts breathing again.
Easy enough. As long as you hand out stuff for free, nobody will bother.
M
I see where you are coming from but I think it isn't age restriction.
It is Maturity that is key and the older games had so much player interdependence that immaturity was a bad thing that made it though to be successful since nobody wanted to play with you.
There doesn't seem to be a simple system or limit that can be placed on a game to get what your looking for, I think it would require a complete redesign of a game from the ground up to build in a deep level of player interdependence and reputation.
if you ever find such a game , sign me up.
I agree that there are many 18+ older douches out there. But it’s always been like that, even the pioneer days of EQ. The difference is it’s a lot less compared.
While not intentional let’s look at both EQ and EQ2 along with EVE. These games were not by design to target any specific age group. However all of them are 18 and older dominate compared to competitors. While age limitations do not guarantee removal of ass hats it does reduce the amount by a great deal.
For arguments sake and to credit some of your points. It’s hard to use EQ as a reference towards this. Mainly because it was a pioneer, mostly older played the game and everyone didn’t realize that the internet makes it ok to be a troll.
EQ2 would be better example of this. But how is EQ2 doing? It started out quite booming and died off a great deal. I honestly believe it’s because of the direction and discussions or lack thereof the dev. teams have made. Yet some can argue that’s its mainly older generation dominate because it was too hard for the younger. Which in turn became its slow downward spiral? Which is it exactly? I’m not sure but it would illustrate a clear example IF something like this would work.
Eve on the other hand is quite booming but it’s so far out there it’s really hard to put it in the group of hack and slash mmos to do a side by side comparison to see if something like this could work. Least it makes my brain hurt.
Just to touch base on something people have mentioned, an age limit would not limit younger from playing it. All they need is there parent’s credit card afterall. But the idea behind it is expectation on conduct so to speak Man that last sentence just makes you laugh doesn’t it? But time has shown that the older the crowd the more mature the game and the community is in nature with the expection of the standard douches of course, but lacking thereof of the majority of the younger ones however.
Appealing? I speak for my self but I think it would be awesome. Could it be sucessful? There are equal points that both support or deny the possibility. As for any dev company to have the stones to try it, I doubt in my lift time but perhaps one day.
YES! That's one of the big ones. Its gone, totally removed from most mmo's today. I want it back, badly.
You know the only way you're going to do that? Run a guild and be extremely selective on who you let in. They act immature? Booted, no questions asked. Then only play with your guild.
The problem is, a lot of people already do this which removes even more of the mature good players from the general community so the general community seems even more filled with the douches.
In order to truly curb it, a company would essentially need a no troll, no immature, no asshatry police that was well policed. So they would monitor the serves and ban anyone who broke this rule. A short ban the first time to get the point across, a permanent ban the next time to remove someone who isn't capable of becoming mature.
No game will ever do that though. Too high of a cost for that much enforcement. Too many headaches from people trying to say they were wronged and were only roleplaying a douche, etc. It just wouldn't happen, but it is the only true method that would get you the mature community you desire.
For that to have an effect you need a small playerbase or a small server where you know most people. there are games like this still out there, but dont count on a new game releasing with this in mind. simply not enough money in few players since players want everything for free and then you need to bring down the cost of each player to something as low as possible.
I will also say this is the reason I have gone as a solo player for the past 5-6 years in MMOs. Before that I was all about guilds and PUGs and going out of my way to help a person who couldn't get to their corpse in a game like EQ. Over the years the immaturity and the overall ridiculous amount of guild drama from people who considered MMOs real life got to me and I finally just turned into a solo player.
In a lot of games I even skip the group necessary dungeons until either 1)I've outleveled them so far that I can solo them or 2) I absolutly need to get it done and join a PUG with a solid leader and I simply follow his/her directions and otherwise don't talk with the group.
I join PvP as solo person and follow the general strategy being talked about in the team chat if it is a sound strategy or if it is a clueless strategy just go off and do my own thing.
I would love to feel like a game had a good community that I wanted to interact with but it generally just doesn't exist. It isn't even just MMOs. In multiplayer FPS games back in the day everyone used to talk and work together. Now no one talks to each other they just play their game but on a team. Or they do like I do and in games like Halo only play 2v2 with a friend or if it is a game where 2v2 isn't possible, setup a private XBox chat channel for you and your friend(s) so you don't have to listen to anyone else in the game.
LotRO was the only game (I haven't played since F2P) where I felt the community was generally good. And for that reason I used to go back to lower level areas and offer people I didn't know help just for the sake of helping. If there was a dungeon I knew was hard to get a PUG for I would go back as a much higher level and offer to bring anyone who needed it through the dungeon.
Server wide community is dead in MMOs and likely won't ever come back. Best to find a big guild you reall click well with who like to play a lot of different games so you can stick with them and ignore the rest of the community like everyone else does.