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I don't like FPS being associated with MMORPG.
CalmOceans
Member UncommonPosts: 2,437
MMORPG is one of the few genres that never gets named when people talk about violent video games.
Even though there is a lot of sword fighting and magic and killing, it is all set in a fantasy setting that has no equal in real-life. The games are social and don't glorify violence, there is no blood or gore or anything of the sorts in most MMO.
FPS used to be more fantasy like, now they are portrayals of real-life with real guns with real names of guns with realisic killings, I was shocked at last year's E3, how much violence was glorified as if it is some good thing. Many people after E3 were really upset at how gaming companies went about promoting their products.
I would really hate if MMO started to get a bad repuation because people would associate MMOFPS with MMORPG, they are different games and I hope they are not compared, I feel uncomfortable just looking at some trailers of current FPS games, I have never felt that looking at MMORPG games.
Comments
Video games are in no way associated with violence. If someone is violent during or after playing video games it's because they are a violent person, not because they played a video game.
Edit: Spelling
I don't want to argue that since that would get into politics which isn't allowed on the forum.
I just don't want MMORPG to go the way FPS went, violence is not glorified in MMO, it is a means to an end because it lends itself to engaging gameplay. But FPS took this too far, they glorify violence, from the box art to the trailers, you are encouraged to like violence, games make killings as realistic as possible. Hopefully this isn't the path MMO take and hopefully people do not put MMORPG and MMOFPS under the same bracket.
I've committed massive genocide in multiple mmorpgs.
You're free to disagree with me but there is nothing wrong with my topic. I'm allowed to discuss violence in games, thank you very much.
Ah I remember that. It's an interesting thing to think about I suppose.
Truthfully, I think RPGs in general have already been going that direction for awhile now. Both MMO's and single player games, based off recent games in the past two years.
edit: It's funny, this kind of thing never really bothers me until I think about it.
WoW, which is an MMORPG as we know, as been brought up dozens of times in debates, articles... in regards to violence in video games and desensitization...
No I'm not saying there is a link between violence in games and violence in the world but the premise that MMORPG are never or rarely brought up in regards to violence is false.
Just a quick 2 second search:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7414943468
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/is-world-of-warcraft-just-mindless-violence-1024311.html
http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/violence/
edit - I was reading about violence and youth a decade ago in regards to EQ.
Yeah how dare he discuss MMORPGs and actual things that happen in games and with people who play them. Where does he think he posted this, an mmorpg forum or something? sheesh.
On topic - I'm not sure of any of those "violent video games thnk of the children oh my" people have heard about this, but there have been things such as wars, crusades, torture, murders long before there were even video games at all.
Nobody condemed Shakespeare for his Julius Caeser play as far as I know.
Some of these Christians who believe this violent video game thing should look in their own book, and see a story of murder between two brothers, you know Cain and Abel. Not sure if that was fueld by Gears of War or not.
I definately want to see more FPS in mmorpgs, right now the genre is stalling in place and the same shit in different wrapping gets released year after year. The genre needs badly new ways to present gameplay and it also needs badly to move out from the sickly narrow handheld way of linearity, or at least offer some alternatives, one being first person or third person aim based gameplay regardless of some specific title being any more or less violent.
Personally I dont think that the blood splatters makes that much difference, the biggest mass murderings of all time that I have commited in videogames have happened in mmorpgs. I need to mass murder people or creatures to gain just some arbitary item or standing. Yeah, it's not so bad when the term "mass murdering" has been replaced with "farming" and the death animations are not so visual?
"Daily quest; Quest giver: Kill 25 herp-wood's townfolk and bring their eyes, ears, and scalps to me!"
Ummmm......no. They certainly get talked about in regards to violence.
Google it. It's easy.
Don't even get me started on WoW. A guy choked his own mom, and her husband got a hand gun to try to protect his wife from her derranged WoW addicted son after she asked him twice to stop playing the game.
If you were hoping mmo's didn't get associated with violence, real world or otherwise, its far, far, far too late for that I'm afraid.
Quest: Convince Farmer Bill to Relinquish Farm Deed
Objectives:
Thats not entirely true. True that no credible and duplicated study (there have been a few but they have been heavily criiticized for methodolgy flaws). But there have been a couple that have shown a temporary increases in aggression. However if I recall from my classes, it wasn't any greater than the temporary excitement found when listening to stimulating music or watching sports.
I happen to agree that FPS and RPG should be on opposite ends of the spectrum. It is not really the violence aspect for me, though, for RPGs are quite violent, themselves. It is the style of play and the players those differing styles attract.
For me, WoW brought in a lot of FPSers to the RPG game. It was popular and FPSers, in general, will try anything that is popular. Since WoW, MMORPGs have been getting more action oriented with every new release. This is what the influx of all the FPSers into the genre want. What many may not realize, or may be coming to realize, is that the 2 genres do not mix well.
RPGs are not about combat. They are about characters. FPS games are all about combat. Combat, combat, and more combat.
Questing? "Boring!"
Crafting? "Boring!"
Housing? "Why on earth would anyone want a house in a game? Boring!"
Socializing? "Why? I have RL friends!"
Insta-travel? "Gotta have it! I don't want to have to walk (or run) around everywhere! BORING!"
Look at the games today and see what they offer players to keep playing:
1) PvP (combat)
2) Raiding (combat)
3) Gear Grind (combat)
Is it any wonder they last 1-3 months and move on?
As far as violence goes, if a player cannot discern fantasy (pixels in gaming) from reality, it matters not what vehicle the fantasy presents itself. The vitriol gamers show in games and on forums does get me worrying about society as a whole, though. On the other hand, I'd much rather they displayed their violent tendencies in a game rather than real life
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
This made me laugh, but also reminded me of an experience I had in SWTOR. I had a quest to stop a "bad guy" (don't even remember why). So I break into the guys compound, kill him, beat up his son and wife to within an inch of their lives, and then sleep with the wife while I made my companion Vette watch us doing the deed.....and somehow I got light side points for it although I lost affection with Vette, go figure
There's plenty of violence in MMORPGs. They may have escaped the publics eye, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.
Desensitisation dosen't come into it at all you think?
Can we see the reading you have done on the matter and the evidence to support what you say though? I am interested in what studies you base your firm set in stone statement on.
...and the same player that numbly does all this then gets all outraged as soon as a bit of tit cleavage goes on display or a skirt is above the character's knees in the game...
Well of course. Who would want to see cleavage on a dude and why is he wearing a skirt at all?
Had a good laugh at this!!
So its ok for me to go club 50 baby seals in a mmorpg, but not shoot 10 guys in a fps match?
Which is worse? I know i know, its a shame when a baby seal dies
But in a sense, i agree that FPS should never be associated with MMO's or MMORPG's. They are leeching off another genre/industry to get more players.
Well just think, some companies have pretty much commit genocide.
You know, when they kill the entire MMO itself. All NPCs and their families in it are dead forever, the player's characters are dead too, and there is no respawning.
Those corporations are the real threats.
I actually came to this thread agreeing with the premsie. However we've reached the same conclusion for different reasons. As others have pointed out MMORPGs aren't immune to this type of reactionary b.s. They have been blamed for violent kids and maladjusts for over a decade now.
I am concerned about the genre moving towards FPS playstyle because I generally hate FPS games. Borderlands represented the only FPS I've enjoyed playing since the original DOOM. But that's because everything in the game is well designed and well written, but once I completed the storyline it had zero replayability. The game play of FPS games though, that stopped being fun a long time ago for me, but millions of dollars get thrown at companies making the same game over and over again so I'm obviously a minority. In any case this is my fear, that someone is going to make a popular MMORPG that uses FPS mechanics, and that will ruin the genre for me.
I don't want to see MMORPGs get a bad reputation either.
The worst I've seen so far is that employers will shy away from an applicant who is a hardcore (many hours a week) gamer, and that MMORPG players are nuts because they pay real money for in-game items (this was 10+ years ago in EQ when someone paid something like a thousand bucks for a sword).
I'm hoping the industry will avoid being sucked into a 1984 scenario.