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Fluff and housing is lost
Torgrim
Member CommonPosts: 2,088
Most older MMOs had pretty much fluff and pretty advance form of housing such as UO, SWG and alike.
How come these things are not important anymore as it used to be?
Endgame for some are raids for pretty snowflakes while others treasure a nice looking home decorated from floor to sealing with a nice looking garden with trophies collected during your travels.
I am talking about games that is new not old ones like Vanguard,EQ2 and alike and yes I know about RIFT effort in doing it and I do find that fun that some tries to breath some light to this forgotten aspect in a game.
Look at NWN,TESO,GW2,TOR(yes tor has some of it not all)
We need more fluff, housing,cloathing,games, fishing, hunting, anything that will not include killing mobs.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Comments
why?
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
I don't get it myself. I used to spend hours decorating and rearranging furniture in my mog house in FFXI.
We need more non-combat content and housing seems to me the easiest way to achieve that.
so say we all
Is it a new game or is a game that release soon?
I hope you get my point.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Housing and fluff are making a return over this coming year. FFXIV and Wildstar both feature housing and it's a safe bet to assume EQ:N will as well. FFXIV is also to feature chocobo raising.
I actually blame the singleminded focus on combat for much of the trouble with MMOs becoming boring so quickly lately. Non-combat systems like housing give players an open-ended system to spend time on and become more invested in the game and its world. All the games that have held my attention for long periods of time have had housing systems.
I'd like to see a return of the EQ-style fluff abilities as well; skills that had no real combat use but allowed you to do interesting things, like the shapeshifting skills and different 'vision' abilities.
Just to list a few games you might like that have these options but also carry open world pvp anf full loot, which is not for everyone.
Mortal Online (build your own house, workshop, etc. Fish, hunt, mine etc)
Xyson ( do whatever you like)
Istaria (great crafting, housing, city building)
Darkfall (dominantly PVP based but has fishing, hunting and housing)
Perpetuum (nice sandbox with player owned stations)
But i think the game you want to play when it someday comes to North America is Arche Age.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
They tend to consume a lot more resources. A model and textures, especially with today's multilayer stuff, take up a lot more memory and processing than a flat sprite.
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
I don't really agree with this entire post. Of course the combat needs to be polished and such, but non-combat fun is also very important to players.
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
Most older MMO's did not have housing. Housing has always been rare.
They all have fluff, old and new.
But yes we could always use more.
Combat might sell boxes but alone it's clearly done an abysmal job of retaining players. Giving players alternatives to constantly fighting makes them much less likely to burn out on the game, and systems like housing are open ended meaning that once they're in it takes very few developer resources to keep it fresh (just need to add a few new housing objects every now and then).
Your post sounds more like an 'I don't like it so no one else can have it' attitude. Judging by the slew of games on the way featuring housing I think it could be argued that devs actually think it will sell now.
I LOVE fluff in MMOs. Without fluff, I don't get immersed, and if I don't get immersed I won't play for long.
Fluff is also love for detail, which is sorely missing in newer MMOs
Fluff is VITAL
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
That's the irony though; extensive open-ended features like housing would actually make those players less likely to move on so soon as it's not the sort of thing that can be 'finished'. The solution to the 'content locust' plague is actually to offer them open systems that can't be completed. When there's no end in sight there's less compulsion to run through it as fast as you can.
I hope this is sarcasm, otherwise I could just as easily say if all you want is combat go play CoD and leave the virtual worlds to rpgers...
Yea you're right. Because the Sims wasn't one of the best selling games of all time. A game that was nearly entirely nothing but fluff, housing, etc. Woops.
Your point is now dead. You're welcome.
Exactly, the irony is MMOs used to be a lot more 'fluffy' with lots to do besides combat. Players telling us to go play something else when we ask for things like housing are completely oblivious to the fact that THEY are the ones in the wrong genre... MMOs were not always about only combat and more combat.
Its not ironic because it does not happen. Those who actually enjoy that type of gameplay as their main form of entertainment are the huge minority, and always have been. Even in UO and SWG. If it were not the case then there would have been noticable uptick in their sub numbers after WoW launched instead of the massive fall off that never came even close to returning.
Sure it is, just like every single game ever should become Minecraft right? Generally speaking those who go to mmorpgs are not actively looking for that type of gameplay. Its much the same reason why generally sandbox games do not do well. With computer use suplanting tv usage many mmos are filling that same niche. Ie sitcoms. Its a large part of the reason why WoW has grown in the way it has, and maintained the subs that it does. Not to say that there are not players looking for other kinds of entertainment, nor that those forms of entertainment should be catered to in one form or another, merely that expecting every single game that comes out to be your next paradise is stupid when you consider just how expensive and difficult it is to get many of them going.
I did battle with ignorance today, and ignorance won.
To exercise power costs effort and demands courage. That is why so many fail to assert rights to which they are perfectly entitled - because a right is a kind of power but they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise it. The virtues which cloak these faults are called patience and forbearance.
Not quite, even Koster came out and said that UO at its hight only had 30% of its population focusing on noncombat activity.
I did battle with ignorance today, and ignorance won.
To exercise power costs effort and demands courage. That is why so many fail to assert rights to which they are perfectly entitled - because a right is a kind of power but they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise it. The virtues which cloak these faults are called patience and forbearance.
You proved his point nicely there Jim. Well done!
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
'Focusing' implies that's almost all they did. In other words a lot more than 30% actually made use of non-combat features. Even I primarily focus on combat as the main progression system in MMOs, but I would dabble in other systems all the time, to give variety and have more fun.
I imagine most players in UO made use of the housing features in some way and it enriched their experience playing the game. A player does not have to exclusively do one thing all the time for it to be worthwhile...
EDIT: Come to think of it, 30% of players focusing entirely on non-combat activities... 30% is a very BIG chunk of the population and that's a 30% that modern MMOs aren't appealing to at all.