MMOs vs RPGs - Player Versus Player at MMORPG.com

SBFord · August 2015

MMOs vs RPGs - Player Versus Player at MMORPG.com

Here at MMORPG.com, we cover both MMOs and RPGs, but sometimes, you have to pit the things you love against each other just to see who’s the cream of the crop. This week we bring you the debate long in the making: MMOs versus RPGs!

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Slapshot1188 · August 2015

Personally, I think the best thing right now are MPRPGS. Multiplayer RPGS. This way I can get all the benefits of the RPG world, but play with the social benefits of friends. This is why games like SCL are high on my hope list.

jmcdermottuk · August 2015

A few years ago I would have had no hesitation saying MMO's but the most recent crop have disappointed, that and the use of the term MMO being applied to practically any game with an online presence has all but destroyed the genre for me. Over the last couple of years I've found myself devoting far more time to single player games than MMO's. They're just not as good as they used to be. Toxic communities, action combat, rediculously fast levelling, linear quest hubs to the cap, it's all turned to a big pile of donkey shit. Single player RPG's on the other hand have just gotten better and better over the years. From Skyrim to Shadows of Mordor and Witcher 3, we've seen some great titles coming out. Sadly I have to say RPG's are a better way to spend my time, but that's just me.

meonthissite · August 2015

Multiplayer RPGs are the best on PC right now because MMORPGs have become stagnant with lack of quality of life updates or draconian pay to progress models based off of the latest craze in the mobile market for microtransactions locked behind a paywall to do anything at all meaningful in the game, and RPGs can only go so far before loneliness sets in unless you are an extreme hard core introvert it just doesn't work for the masses.

karat76 · August 2015

I love the rpg part. I love the lore of the world and a reason behind the questing. Not every quest has to be Homer's Odyssey but a good story is always welcome. I'll be honest if I could play Skyrim or Fallout 3 online with even a handful of people it would be awesome.

tupodawg999 · August 2015

Single player open world RPGs have gradually become more like old school MMORPGs except with much better implementation.

Octagon7711 · August 2015

I like and play them both. Which is better? Depends on the game.

laserit · August 2015

DMKano said:

MMOs all the way for me. Questing is something I abhor, story is something I have zero interest in when I play MMOs with my guild. If I want RPG with a good story - I play single player games. I am just thankful that devs are still making MMOs without quest NPCs and lore being shoved down your throat.

You should give paintball a try. It's pvp is vastly superior in so many ways.

Siphaed · August 2015

The problem with Chris's "one and done" to going into the next game is the $$$. You're talking of dumping $50-60 on a single RPG for dozens of hours (if lucky), to be done with in just a few short weeks. At least with an MMORPG, that initial purchase price sticks with the whole month (and no, by month's end, the whole game has not been completed). Depending on the pricing model of the game, a player could have $15 to continue on each month for whatever updates come (subscription), no cost moving forward until the next expansion (buy 2 play), or the game could have never cost them a cent (free 2 play).

eddieg50 · August 2015

mmo's are dumbed down RPG's

Belgaraath · August 2015

MMORPGs had my undivided attention most of the last 11-12 years. I loved that they exist in fantasy worlds I love coupled with the randomness of other player's actions and social aspects via guilds, world, chat, etc. However, over the last 6-9 months, for the first time in ages (other than Skyrim), I find myself focusing on single player RPGs like the 130 or so hours I put into Dragon Age Inquisition. One of the reasons is that I love immersion and the graphics on my Titan X PC push the graphics to the max. The other is that the story or world itself just feels more alive and complex and that makes a difference. The story and world in an MMO is somewhat a slightly simplified version of a single player to accommodate the fact that 1000s of others share that world. Yes phasing helps, but it still doesn't feel as in depth as a single player game's changing world. Also, the NPCs in single player games tend to be 'smarter' in combat which makes the combat feel more interesting as well. Right now for the first time ever, I have taken a break from all games as I read the Witcher books. I'm on Book 3, Blood of Elves. This is because I know that reading up on this without having played the first 2 will make the game's story even more immersive on top of an already beautiful setting. ESO is my favorite MMO and I'll go back to try it one day, but one of the reasons I haven't been playing is that the world doesn't feel dynamic enough, anchors are static and meaningless, and there aren't enough side RPGs activities to make it feel like a living breathing world (horse racing, card games, a variety of instruments where you actually can construct the song, etc). The dye system and the justice system were a big step in the right direction, but the game needs a lot more. I see myself coming back when the release spell crafting, dark brotherhood, etc. Both genres are excellent, both with their strengths, I think its more about the mood of the player over a period of time (plus how much free time they have).

yokki_gr · August 2015

Ryan: You’re definition of “raiding” makes me sad this "you're" is burning my eyes. please correct it.

ApollosWill · August 2015

It's funny. For less than a week ago, me and my better half, decided that we are done with MMORPGs (at least until something that take a complete opposite direction than where we are at now), and just play co-rpgs. I will of course still lurk in here, in hope that some developer is actually going to breath some new life in to the genre, but until than, I will be on the RPG side. Perhaps the next elder scroll game will have co-op implemented in it (like Divinity: Original Sin), and we most likely will never look back. My perfect game right now would be a Skyrim with co-op and continued additions of DLCs for years to come, and heck, I would even pay $15 a month for that. Think about a deal, devs. $15 a month and you wouldn't even have to maintain servers. That money could be used to add new content.

Malabooga · August 2015

Cant play RPGs with friends? Ill refresh your memory a bit: I played BG/BG2 IWD 1/2 almost 20 years ago online with friends. Ill not even mention NWN 1/2, module building and servers that beat most of MMOs. http://forum.bioware.com/forum/174-persistent-worlds-multiplayer/ You can even throw diablo in there (even if its not RPG) Your argument is pretty much null and void.

Mitara · August 2015

I absolutetly detest that RPGs, players who play RPGs and sites that just insists on covering them when they could cover great MMORPGs instead...

ranghar · August 2015

I don't really understand this article. RPGs are traditionally multiplayer. That is the whole point of them. They were created so that a group of friends could play the role of a character with other friends. As for the MMO vs RPG argument. I do get that modern MMOs don't have roleplaying innately, but it wasn't always that way. Ultima Online was definitely an RPG as you pick a role, and played it in the world provided with thousands of other "role players". If you wanted to be a Mage, Lumberjack, Tanner, Thief, or whatever else. It was designed as a "role playing game". That was why they added those different options. It wasn't until people cried that some people "role played" a murderer and was allowed to kill whoever whenever(for roleplaying purposes) that the two genres split. You can even kill your friends in a pen and paper game of dungeons and dragons. So at this point in the MMO time line developers decided that people CAN'T play the game the way they want to play it because other people get butthurt when someone role-plays an evil character and takes their shiny loots. The only reason that MMOs are not roleplaying games anymore is because the player base cried too much. In Ultima Online you could roleplay a bounty hunter that hunted these evil guys. It provided such a better gameplay experience allowing all different types of people to live in a world with so many different types. That being said....BRING BACK MMO(RPGs)!

Loke666 · August 2015

karat76 said:

I love the rpg part. I love the lore of the world and a reason behind the questing. Not every quest has to be Homer's Odyssey but a good story is always welcome. I'll be honest if I could play Skyrim or Fallout 3 online with even a handful of people it would be awesome.

Well, they don't have to be a great work of litterature but far too many of them feels more like badly written tweetes.

Personally do I not play single player games that often no matter what type it is, playing together with others (or against) just make any game more fun to me.

The problem with MMOs is that they often have hard to tell a good story, they try to tell it just like a single player game instead of focusing on the story of the group. Storytelling tactics that work on one players just ain't the same as when you have a group to run. I think a lot of the popularity of MMO soloplay is due to that.

When you play pen and paper games the story focuses on a few heroes who work together, a small band of adventurers, and I think the MMOs never really been able to do that for some reason.MMOs tend to tell a story about you as the hero (other players are just extras to you) instead of your adventurer group or guild.

I am not really sure why they always do that, the advantage MMOs have to single player games really is the other players and working together. If the games story is that you are the hero then you could as well play a single player game, they do that better.

GameByNight · August 2015

Hey guys! I just wanted to jump in and thank you all for your comments. This was a fun one to write since both Ryan and I love RPGs and MMOs. They're not mutually exclusive, but sometimes it's fun to pick a child and call it your favorite. Just don't tell my wife I said that ;-)

Nitetasia · August 2015

DMKano said:

MMOs all the way for me. Questing is something I abhor, story is something I have zero interest in when I play MMOs with my guild. If I want RPG with a good story - I play single player games. I am just thankful that devs are still making MMOs without quest NPCs and lore being shoved down your throat.

Tree Of Savior

Boardwalker · August 2015

I started playing computer games on my C-64 back in 1983. Back then, all graphical games were single player (some hotseat was available) . Fast forward 15 years later and online games started slowly becoming a reality. 15 years of only being able to play SP games was enough for me. I'm never going back. MMORPGs or bust.

West_Lightz · August 2015

Siphaed said:

The problem with Chris's "one and done" to going into the next game is the $$$. You're talking of dumping $50-60 on a single RPG for dozens of hours (if lucky), to be done with in just a few short weeks. At least with an MMORPG, that initial purchase price sticks with the whole month (and no, by month's end, the whole game has not been completed). Depending on the pricing model of the game, a player could have $15 to continue on each month for whatever updates come (subscription), no cost moving forward until the next expansion (buy 2 play), or the game could have never cost them a cent (free 2 play).

I think it really depends on your value of time. For myself I'd rather have a tight, cohesive, action filled 20 hour game over an mmo where I need to spend hundreds of hours of mind numbing (just my opinion obviously) fetch quests/raids. I have a hard time justifying my time spent there killing boars and collecting pelts. So yeah I think it just comes down to how much time you have to kill etc

jbombard · August 2015

MMORPGs probably have the potential to better than a straight up RPGs but they always fail at either the MMO part or the RPG part, and often both. I have never played an online RPG that came close to recreating the D&D pen and paper experience. Hell Baldur's gate in multiplayer mode over a LAN did a better job of this way back then.

There are a number of fundamental problems with the format such as lack of permanence, continual respawning, lack of impact of decisions. Also a big problem is that in Pen and Paper the dungeon master had full control to utterly destroy somebody acting like an asshole, yet it seems like people harassing other players is a hobby for some people in MMORPGs. In the end MMORPGs often fail to tell a convincing and engaging story, and fail to offer the feeling of actual roleplaying.

I can kind of forgive this, if I accept MMORPGs as not really being true RPGs but kind of their own thing. I find it much harder to accept MMORPGs not being very massive. Sticking people in tiny 5-20 man instances just feels like more of a lobby game than a real world, but it is common place. The reality is most console games with a multiplayer mode offer similar or more massive multiplayer experiences than you will find in your average MMO.

Nanfoodle · August 2015

MMO, I play them to play with people. If they have some great RPG elements like great story, awesome. As long as all that is optional. If you are going to have 1/2 ass stuff like story, pls dont bother adding it or like Skyforge let me skip it.

Archlyte · August 2015

MMOs seem to envy the surety and static nature of RPGs, and have labored to become SPRPGs with more people on parallel paths. Somewhere along the line MMOs have missed the chance to evolve into more interactive worlds and instead seem to be copying RPG linearity. Meanwhile SPRPGs have pushed the envelope and become more interactive within the constraints of being one-player games. MMO developers have become the dregs of the gaming industry because they had an opportunity to shine, but just opted to take the money instead.

Lyrian · August 2015

I am a MMORPG person through and through. While I enjoy single player games for the story, I like the sense of community and the crafting aspect which I will never find in a single player game.

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"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey