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What is the most improved mmo?
FomaldehydeJim
Member UncommonPosts: 673
I want to divide this question into three categories, as follows: -
1) Games that have been patched into a much better condition now than at release, examples might be ESO or SWTOR.
2) Games that have been through a hiatus either of the devloper's own doing or due to circumstances outside of their control, examples might be FFARR or APB.
3) Games that have been improved by a specific expansion, this does not need to be the most recent expansion, but just the one you feel improved the game, examples might be GW1 Nightfall or WOW WotLK.
The examples I use above are for illustration purposes only.
Here is my list: -
1) ESO. The improvement over the horribly buggy and bot-ridden unplayable mess at release is immense.
2) This is a very limited category and FFARR is the only game I can think of that went through such a hiatus and came back considerably stronger.
3) While I would count GW1 Nightfall and EotN as my favourite expansions of all time, the base game was frankly superb, so I cannot include them in this list. Frankly I am struggling to think of any mmo that has been improved by an expansion. I'm going to have to go with GW1 Nightfall despite my above statement. Strike that, it is AoC RotG.
Please share your own.
Comments
I can imagine that FFARR would top most peoples list. I have never heard of a game actually shutting down after a horrible reception and returning as a much more popular and now thriving iteration.
From games that I have played, ESO would be my choice. As an admittedly very casual player, even I found ESO unworthy of my time on release. I am far from the most discerning gamer. In fact I often find even small details done well to be enough to keep my interest at least for a short time. After playing ESO beta for a few weeks it was just far too frustrating an experience for me to buy the game. Even after a friend purchased the game for me I still could not bring myself to load it up until nearly 6 months after release. For the time being its become my main game albeit still outside my all-time top 5 list.
As a runner up I would say Anarchy Online. At launch it was absolutely unplayable for lots of technical reasons. I don't remember how long it shut down before returning but it was at least a few days if not a week or more. Ultimately Funcom spent some 6 months retooling the game before "relaunching" its "fixed" version. Unfortunately it lost its small window of opportunity to become the bigger hit it should have been. The fact that it is still around today speaks volumes of its innovative and immersive game play.
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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It certainly expanded the PvE; probably marked the end of the original vision though. Once groups (50+) were in the new dungeons and the call came that Keep X was under attack people were no longer prepared to "die" to get themselves quickly to the portal.
Was a big step forward in PvE though.
Possibly on some servers, and realms. I know Mid Guin we still mass suicided when our realm was being attacked. Didn t matter if it was TG or DF, made no difference.
That wasnt the question.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Those who say ESO has improved the most must not have played it at launch.
At launch there were only a few bugs, and the biggest issue were bots. I can recall about 2-3 quests that were commonly bugged, and as for the bots, it was easy to work around. Basically they fixed those two things and suddenly all the people who typically jump on the bandwagon to pretend they were there too, say "Its the most improved!".
There have been more changes since, but nothing drastic. To say the game is the most improved is a major exaggeration. Damn newbies and bandwagon hoppers.
My vote for most improved would be Marvel Heroes. They fixed XP requirements, added a lot more collectible type stuff, ironed out some details, change menu's, improved some quests and added a ton more content.
I don't really thing that counts man.
I think we are looking for games that have improved from release! Because if we are looking at things from alpha and so on, there are a lot of contenders.
ESO has not changed that much, animations are still shit and the combat boring as fuck.
Lol how dumb is this post, feck me I could bring up numerous MMO's that have changed from alpha to release.Not too many games improve from an expansion. Burning Crusade - World of Warcraft maybe?
FFXIV too.
ESO, yeah but it's still a big boring grindfest.
Everything else, nope. Which is quite sad really.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
I wish I could say AOC.
1. Games that have been patched into a better state
Without a doubt, this would go to Rift who originally looked like nothing that it does now (which is for the better). The game offers players so much more and continues to expand upon content.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
This is a tricky question. Out of all the games that I've played I've seen some aspects of the game get better over time while other aspects got worse.
I wouldn't say that any MMORPG I've played has ever consistently improved. I can only say that every MMORPG I've ever played has consistently changed. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not.
For instance, EVE is my favorite MMORPG. Over the years we have received more ships, more modules, more ways to modify ships, more space, more things to build, more things to destroy, better graphics, better ways of viewing and interpreting the environment, more ways to interact with the environment.... all of which have been great.
On the other hand, the core game mechanics, that I was perfectly fine with in 2007, have also completely changed. My preferred method of PVP has been exterminated with extreme prejudice as CCP keeps chasing what I call the "Headline Battles". CCP only gives a crap about the giant battles with thousands of dollars worth of ships getting blown up. The kinds of battles that end up on being reported in Forbes and/or other media publications. They've driven game design in that direction, and catered to the mega coalitions, for so long that the lowly solo PVP'er has been utterly screwed.
I could give other examples for all the other MMO's I've ever played. Not one has ever consistently improved.
I've never played an expansion that has improved a game.
In my experience, expansions involve level cap increases, which reduces the amount of available content. Expansions also tend to dumb-down underlying systems in an effort to "improve accessibility", which also reduces the fun. Also, if numbers have been dropping for a while, developers often try to shoe-horn in shit features from other games. This usually ruins the feel of a game.
The best experience I've had, in terms of updates and content patches, was the first year of Lord of the Rings Online.
The game was launched with a fantastic underlying design: interesting combat mechanics, hard fights, lots and lots of group content right from the start. Horizontal gear progression at endgame. No skill trees. Support classes. Hell, they even got PvP vaguely right for a while!
The only thing LOTRO really missed was endgame content and alternate leveling routes (in case you couldn't find a group). For the first year of LOTRO, this is what they kept adding. They added the best raid I've ever done (The Rift), massive new zones for leveling, a load of endgame dungeons, hell, they even added some interesting features to PvP, including the most important one of all for a 2 faction game: a self-balancing mechanism.
Of course, Turbine got cold feet and started dumbing it down, making it more linear, changing gear progression, dividing the community and so most of us left, but the original game was hands down the best themepark I've played.
its a common theme, if it's horizontal or offers an AA advancement then it adds to the game then it's enriching the experience, if it's themepark and mearly adding levels and tiers then it's making all content before it redundant, and probably a net loss in terms of content.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D