I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Personally it's a good move forward.
Last mmorpg I played besides GW2 I found people randomly helping me was in WoW when you died. In GW2 people will randomly join the quest and despite not technically in a group, you could work together.
What GW2 did wrong imo, is how rewards are dictated. Instead of having a set of points to reach to get the best loot, it was the highest dealing players get gold while the rest get silver or bronze or nothing. It shouldn't focus around players, it should be a fixed amount you need to surpass to get the better loot.
I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Because it is so fun to have to be the first to tag a mob or have to wait for the next spawn to get a chance at it again.
Because its so fun Zerging and being one of 30 throwing rocks at a giant , or better yet watching the 8 idiots sit on there mounts and not help , that also looks fun.. .. And another note Rifts/PQs etc were not meant to relieve/alleviate the issue of mob tagging or waiting for respawn , they were PUBLIC quests those mobs were intended for large groups , the solo/small group quests and mobs assaociated with still suffered from the same problem (if you want to consider it a problem) I dont , never really had that problem , was a simple thing of looking elsewhere or asking to join up , or doing something else and checking back later rinse repeat , in over 20 years of MMO i never , didnt get the kill/kills i needed , the ones who dont were a lack of effort or just generally whiny twats...
My favorite gameplay mechanic was from the Original Guild Wars...
With the exception of Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North was mostly content for capped characters. Basically the leveling between 1 - 20 was to get an idea of how the game functioned, but the game was intended for players to be at cap and think of their ways to run together through an area by working with their builds covering skills, weapons and armor (and their mods) and their synergy with other players.
It was something I really enjoyed since I hardly ever needed to think about gearing and could think more about just playing the game with others.
Runner up is Crafting in FF XI.
While I despised mechanics as "face a certain direction while crafting under a certain crystal and day to lower your chances of failing" attitude, I liked the fact that crafting in the endgame mattered at one point. I absolutely hate crafting systems where one spends night and day trying to flesh them out and level them to be given a big kick in the ass saying "All your crafting is useless since the best is always in raids!"
To me, If a game's crafting system does not stretch to the endgame, its just a shore to waste time and not worth getting into if it can't compete with the endgame.
My favorite gameplay mechanic was from the Original Guild Wars...
With the exception of Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North was mostly content for capped characters. Basically the leveling between 1 - 20 was to get an idea of how the game functioned, but the game was intended for players to be at cap and think of their ways to run together through an area by working with their builds covering skills, weapons and armor (and their mods) and their synergy with other players.
It was something I really enjoyed since I hardly ever needed to think about gearing and could think more about just playing the game with others.
Runner up is Crafting in FF XI.
While I despised mechanics as "face a certain direction while crafting under a certain crystal and day to lower your chances of failing" attitude, I liked the fact that crafting in the endgame mattered at one point. I absolutely hate crafting systems where one spends night and day trying to flesh them out and level them to be given a big kick in the ass saying "All your crafting is useless since the best is always in raids!"
To me, If a game's crafting system does not stretch to the endgame, its just a shore to waste time and not worth getting into if it can't compete with the endgame.
Regarding crafting, I have a slightly different view: I agree that it needs to be viable at end game, but find it frustrating that in many mmos crafting is basically useless until it is leveled to max (and even then, as you point out, it sometimes lacks at endgame).
For that reason ESO's crafting is another one of my favorite gameplay mechanics/ideas in mmos because it is very useful right from level 1, offers massive customization, and is kind of fun/interesting in its own right.
I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Like some others around here you seem to equate socializing in MMOs in the days before social media with "good design." One has nothing to do with the other.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
That's an interesting view, and I can see where you are coming from. Personally, I ended up meeting people a lot with the Rifts and public quests (WAR/GW2/Rift). In a way they are kind of like world bosses or BAMs (great idea from Tera) which often require a group to take down.
I am not sure whether spamming chat for a group, using a LFG tool, or the easy drop-in/out style system in Rift etc is the better way to go: each system has its pros and cons, and whether I am social or not seems to also depend on other factors.
The thing I like specifically about rifts (in Rift) though was the potential they had to impact the world. Also the way they could organically grow into massive invasions, it just made the world seem so alive/dynamic. I was extremely excited about EQN mainly because I thought it would take this idea to a whole new level.
I was extremely excited about EQN mainly because I thought it would take this idea to a whole new level.
That was exactly my main interest in EQN also.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I hate to tell you this OP but RIft stole their idea from Warhammers public quests...In fact they stole alot of things, but because most people are inexperienced in MMOs they think they are unique to each MMO.
"Stole" lol. They took one thing that Warhammer did, static self-contained PQs, and took it to a whole different level.
I bet you think the Tesla "stole" everything from the Model T.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Personally it's a good move forward.
Last mmorpg I played besides GW2 I found people randomly helping me was in WoW when you died. In GW2 people will randomly join the quest and despite not technically in a group, you could work together.
What GW2 did wrong imo, is how rewards are dictated. Instead of having a set of points to reach to get the best loot, it was the highest dealing players get gold while the rest get silver or bronze or nothing. It shouldn't focus around players, it should be a fixed amount you need to surpass to get the better loot.
This is worth quoting just to note twice in thread, because I think you have a good point here: rewards for cooperative actions should always be given on a total group level, as opposed to an individual level, to avoid competition where cooperation should be the order of the day.
I'm as competitive as the next bloke, but when I'm working with other players towards a goal, it feels counter-productive to me to be competing against my group or realm mates.
Obviously, this system would need to take into account that players will attempt to rig the system into the best payout for the least amount of work, but I don't think we should sacrifice the feeling of cooperation in an attempt to prevent a certain portion of the population from fooling the system (a certain portion will always, always find or attempt to find ways to cheat a system when there's a benefit to be had from doing so). Build as many failsafes as you like, but don't compromise the entire point of these group events in the process by making them competitive rather than cooperative.
I personally hated both versions. To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping. Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one. Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Because it is so fun to have to be the first to tag a mob or have to wait for the next spawn to get a chance at it again.
Or maybe just get a real group and do stuff together? I know, scary thought.
Like some others around here you seem to equate socializing in MMOs in the days before social media with "good design." One has nothing to do with the other.
I really don't see the connection between socializing in a game and socializing on Facebook. Two totally different things.
It's not like people in 2002 were playing MMOs because there was no Facebook. They were playing MMOs because they liked to play games with others......it was a digital version of Dungeon and Dragons table top, where you play with others and have fun with others.
Facebook is about taking pictures of your penis and accidentally sending it to all your friends. Yes it's fun, but not the same kind of social interaction.
My favorite gameplay mechanic was from the Original Guild Wars...
With the exception of Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North was mostly content for capped characters. Basically the leveling between 1 - 20 was to get an idea of how the game functioned, but the game was intended for players to be at cap and think of their ways to run together through an area by working with their builds covering skills, weapons and armor (and their mods) and their synergy with other players.
It was something I really enjoyed since I hardly ever needed to think about gearing and could think more about just playing the game with others.
Runner up is Crafting in FF XI.
While I despised mechanics as "face a certain direction while crafting under a certain crystal and day to lower your chances of failing" attitude, I liked the fact that crafting in the endgame mattered at one point. I absolutely hate crafting systems where one spends night and day trying to flesh them out and level them to be given a big kick in the ass saying "All your crafting is useless since the best is always in raids!"
To me, If a game's crafting system does not stretch to the endgame, its just a shore to waste time and not worth getting into if it can't compete with the endgame.
Regarding crafting, I have a slightly different view: I agree that it needs to be viable at end game, but find it frustrating that in many mmos crafting is basically useless until it is leveled to max (and even then, as you point out, it sometimes lacks at endgame).
For that reason ESO's crafting is another one of my favorite gameplay mechanics/ideas in mmos because it is very useful right from level 1, offers massive customization, and is kind of fun/interesting in its own right.
I agree with the idea of crafting systems having to be viable regardless of your point in the game. To clarify, I mean the idea that we bring all crafting classes to maximum in a game regardless if its all in one character or across several characters and we hit a dead wall...
...A point comes where a player simply can not craft equipment on par with end-game equipment.
This makes me upset due to the fact that in today's world of gaming, it takes a weekend to cap a character but a much longer time to get crafting up to maximum across anywhere from 3 - 8 professions in different games, and of course lets not count out what we have to do for Gathering Classes (if any) as well as gathering materials to make the craft work.
In short, by the time a master crafter emerges in most games... Who cares?
Your non-crafting gaming character is already capped and geared in a week beyond anything possible in crafting! Now what they put are cosmetics for endgame crafting, and they tend to be idiotic too....
Sometimes the recipes at their level make no sense....
I remember cooking in FF XIV as an example
Duck Broth --- Level 50*** (So eating a duck, and then cooling the remains... and then warming up a pot, putting in vegetables along with the bones and turning it into a broth requires that high of a level?)
Bacon Broth --- Level 50**** (I fail to see what is so hard about putting cooked bacon in a pan, and then mixing water with seasoning and a bit of oil... and then adding the mixture into the pan at medium heat until the bacon becomes one with the water)
Spiced Cider --- Level 60*** (Don't get me started on this one.......)
Like some others around here you seem to equate socializing in MMOs in the days before social media with "good design." One has nothing to do with the other.
I really don't see the connection between socializing in a game and socializing on Facebook. Two totally different things.
It's not like people in 2002 were playing MMOs because there was no Facebook. They were playing MMOs because they liked to play games with others......it was a digital version of Dungeon and Dragons table top, where you play with others and have fun with others.
Facebook is about taking pictures of your penis and accidentally sending it to all your friends. Yes it's fun, but not the same kind of social interaction.
It's very simple. In 1999 we didn't socialize online a whole lot. Spending time in MMOs created online relationships that were new and shiny things for most people at that time. In 2017 those online relationships are not quite as new or shiny so that feature of MMOs does not have the same appeal it once did.
Creating deliberately slow game play with lots of downtime in order to "enable" or "force", depending on your perspective, those interactions is, IMO, a misguided attempt to recreate something that was very appealing and somewhat rare once upon a time and is very commonplace today. Hence my skepticism about the potential mass appeal of slow games in 2017.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
It's very simple. In 1999 we didn't socialize online a whole lot. Spending time in MMOs created online relationships that were new and shiny things for most people at that time. In 2017 those online relationships are not quite as new or shiny so that feature of MMOs does not have the same appeal it once did.
Creating deliberately slow game play with lots of downtime in order to "enable" or "force", depending on your perspective, those interactions is, IMO, a misguided attempt to recreate something that was very appealing and somewhat rare once upon a time and is very commonplace today. Hence my skepticism about the potential mass appeal of slow games in 2017.
Nope we are still not on the same page. I chose the DnD example on purpose. An MMORPG Dungeon/Raid was a digital version of a DnD session where you play together with other people to achieve a common goal and have fun. It was a group activity just like it is a team sport or a music band or a school play. These are hobbies or activities that involve socializing.
Facebook or other Social media are just communication tools that don't serve any other purpose than talking about trivial stuff, they don't involve any meaningful activity, unless you count sending selfies of yourself as one.
Facebook didn't kill football teams, music bands, or school plays, and certainly didn't make social MMOs obsolete as it is not the same kind of animal. Facebook is more like school gossip (it actually started for that purpose), we always had that shit, except now it's gone digital.
Old School MMORPG involves Team Play, and that willl never go out of fashion. That's what is missing in modern MMOs, and it's not Facebook fault.
It's very simple. In 1999 we didn't socialize online a whole lot. Spending time in MMOs created online relationships that were new and shiny things for most people at that time. In 2017 those online relationships are not quite as new or shiny so that feature of MMOs does not have the same appeal it once did.
Creating deliberately slow game play with lots of downtime in order to "enable" or "force", depending on your perspective, those interactions is, IMO, a misguided attempt to recreate something that was very appealing and somewhat rare once upon a time and is very commonplace today. Hence my skepticism about the potential mass appeal of slow games in 2017.
Nope we are still not on the same page. I chose the DnD example on purpose. An MMORPG Dungeon/Raid was a digital version of a DnD session where you play together with other people to achieve a common goal and have fun. It was a group activity just like it is a team sport or a music band or a school play. These are hobbies or activities that involve socializing.
Facebook or other Social media are just communication tools that don't serve any other purpose than talking about trivial stuff, they don't involve any meaningful activity, unless you count sending selfies of yourself as one.
Facebook didn't kill football teams, music bands, or school plays, and certainly didn't make social MMOs obsolete as it is not the same kind of animal. Facebook is more like school gossip (it actually started for that purpose), we always had that shit, except now it's gone digital.
Old School MMORPG involves Team Play, and that willl never go out of fashion. That's what is missing in modern MMOs, and it's not Facebook fault.
Ha! As an old school D&D player I'd have to say Old School MMORPGs aren't anything like PnP games. You don't have to wait for a certain class to show up. You don't need certain numbers. If your DM is good she will cater the encounters to something your group can handle. Your magic boots would maybe give you a run speed boost, or allow you to jump higher, not give you +int. Your race mattered, A LOT. No corpse runs. Your DM would tell you where you were on the map if your character would know. If you fight something it's for a reason. There were no tanks. AoE was actually effective and could kill hoards of monsters in one shot, and your fiends if you didn't plan right. Your mount didn't store in your buttocks. You didn't have to role play in real time searching for small forest animals to full fill a side quest. Quests didn't' grant XP. I could go on and on I'm sure.
So no, old school MMORPGs didn't do a good job of digitalizing PnP games. They were pretty lame attempts actually. The fact not much has been done to improve on them doesn't mean they are the pinnacle of the genre.
CoH was the only game that I know of that managed to strike a good balance of team vs solo play. And it wasn't some magic incomprehensible method either. The basic game play was soloable by default, and it was beneficial to group and all content scaled up. And that was the most social game I've ever played. Hopefully in the next 50 years or so some other companies will catch on, but I'm not going to hold my breath. (for 50 years XD)
So on subject Coh grouping! I thought Firefall missions/events had potential as well, if only they scaled and required more of a team effort.
Various ways of playing the game. It always feels good to go from DPSing to healing to tanking. Or to go PvPing. Or even just trying to accomplish something new like making a lot of money.
It's true that MMOs have been like that for a long time, and it kinda sucks that we don't have radically new ways of playing (I think EvE is different but I've never tried it).
The only one that mattered, and that has vanished.... make the gameplay social...
The whole reason online games exist is to play with other people... why game devs started creating content that catered to people playing solo...
No. This line of thinking may have been true in the past when there were specialised multiplayer / online games, but nowadays when even singleplayer games use online connection as a form of DRM...in short playing with others should be a CHOICE. Not necessity. Because if you go overboard and extravert the media too much(the world's extraverted enough), you alienate introverts. And without them(the natural inhabitants of games)...it all quickly loses steam. As always, "the poison's in the dose".
Thats why i think integrated systems behind combat should require people. Forced grouping is just annoying for most players. Situational forced grouping is fine. Not many want to wait around for combat groups thst could fall apart.
Most people who play non combat roles usually already are interested interactions. Those who want to do solo combat rely on others after the fact makes it more approachable. Like i need to see someone to get my armor repaired or buy stuff.
Yeah, that's a nice idea. But it already exists, it's just that everyone so obsessed with PvE vs PvP debate, where it should be PvE AND PvP(kinda like EvE). The name? RvR. But as long as people keep flogging that laughable farce known as Warhammer Online under "RvR" guise...people won't understand. RvR is about UNIFIED systems where each system feeds directly into another(and vice versa). WAR? That shit was so fragmented it's laughable. How were solo PvE, group PvE, lake PvP and Scenario PvP linked? Not to mention crafting, harvesting etc. They WEREN'T. So, how's that "RvR"? fml...
The problem is you really don't need other players for stuff outside of combat. Having a slow accumulating need from other players would go along way.
I love how in Black Desert, which is a PvP game, you can choose NOT to finish the level 50 quest and not participate in PvP. This allows me to play the way I want, when I want. I have a level-49 life skill toon I use when I want to relax and fish or go exploring and I have a level 53 toon I use to PvP with my guild. I dont understand why a game would force you to chose or restrict certain areas/activities to PvP only. If they need to do this to encourage PvP, they are doing something wrong.
The crafting system in the old SWG. Every 7 to 10 days the stats on resource qualities would change as well as their locations. This meant as a master weapon-smith, you could make better weapons with higher stats if you had mined the best "iron" back a year ago when it popped. It gave long time master weapon-smiths an edge against brand new weapon-smiths. You only had a few days to mine it so you always had limited quantities when you did get it so you were not just pumping out awesome weapon after awesome weapon. People knew who the best weapon-smiths were on their servers, they didnt just run to the auction house and buy a quality weapon.
Rift, I loved the rifts but they never really did anything with them while I played. It was always the same old ones in the same old spots. This was a big missed opportunity for Trion.
Water/boating - Archeage and BDO have fantastic boat-play. I give the edge to Archeage on this one, once they fixed the "gliding 10 miles to land on your boat" thing with turbulence, they now have the best water/boating mechanics out there.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
What do you folk think are the best/most interesting gameplay elements that have emerged in mmos over the years?
For me I think the rifts/invasions in Rift take the cake. I just loved how they bought this feeling of randomness and life to the game. Most mmo worlds are pretty static- there might be some phasing technology that lets the world change in the players' eyes depending on what quests they do (like in ESO), but to have random(ish) npc driven invasions that had real consequences on the game world (killing quest givers, stores etc), which encouraged the community to band together to defeat them and created hotspots for pvp was pretty awesome.
Thoughts?
I like the dynamic events in GW2. I've played since the game started and still have my favorites that I repeat a lot on different characters. It's one of those things that never gets old for me. I also really like the way WoW did them with the last expansion, all factions coming together to fight a greater evil. Good times.
"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
I love the companies that integrate their games into different platforms. It would be nice to log into your game on PC, consoles, tablet, or cell as a standard thing. At least to change stats or gear on character, manage inventory and buy/sale at the auction houses, and check out fluff in the cash shop.
"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
Progressing action combat. I cant wait to see what new combat systems come out. Mount and Blade is my favorite combat system so far. I imagine the future MMOs to be something like Overwatch tbh.
Comments
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To me PQs and later the Rifts has been the start of the anti-social grouping.
Just tag along no question asked, collect your loot and move on to the next event.
If there was a feature I would erase from MMORPG history it would be this one.
Shame on you Mark Jacobs, hope there is none of this non sense in CU.
Last mmorpg I played besides GW2 I found people randomly helping me was in WoW when you died. In GW2 people will randomly join the quest and despite not technically in a group, you could work together.
What GW2 did wrong imo, is how rewards are dictated. Instead of having a set of points to reach to get the best loot, it was the highest dealing players get gold while the rest get silver or bronze or nothing. It shouldn't focus around players, it should be a fixed amount you need to surpass to get the better loot.
With the exception of Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North was mostly content for capped characters. Basically the leveling between 1 - 20 was to get an idea of how the game functioned, but the game was intended for players to be at cap and think of their ways to run together through an area by working with their builds covering skills, weapons and armor (and their mods) and their synergy with other players.
It was something I really enjoyed since I hardly ever needed to think about gearing and could think more about just playing the game with others.
Runner up is Crafting in FF XI.
While I despised mechanics as "face a certain direction while crafting under a certain crystal and day to lower your chances of failing" attitude, I liked the fact that crafting in the endgame mattered at one point. I absolutely hate crafting systems where one spends night and day trying to flesh them out and level them to be given a big kick in the ass saying "All your crafting is useless since the best is always in raids!"
To me,
If a game's crafting system does not stretch to the endgame, its just a shore to waste time and not worth getting into if it can't compete with the endgame.
For that reason ESO's crafting is another one of my favorite gameplay mechanics/ideas in mmos because it is very useful right from level 1, offers massive customization, and is kind of fun/interesting in its own right.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I am not sure whether spamming chat for a group, using a LFG tool, or the easy drop-in/out style system in Rift etc is the better way to go: each system has its pros and cons, and whether I am social or not seems to also depend on other factors.
The thing I like specifically about rifts (in Rift) though was the potential they had to impact the world. Also the way they could organically grow into massive invasions, it just made the world seem so alive/dynamic. I was extremely excited about EQN mainly because I thought it would take this idea to a whole new level.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I'm as competitive as the next bloke, but when I'm working with other players towards a goal, it feels counter-productive to me to be competing against my group or realm mates.
Obviously, this system would need to take into account that players will attempt to rig the system into the best payout for the least amount of work, but I don't think we should sacrifice the feeling of cooperation in an attempt to prevent a certain portion of the population from fooling the system (a certain portion will always, always find or attempt to find ways to cheat a system when there's a benefit to be had from doing so). Build as many failsafes as you like, but don't compromise the entire point of these group events in the process by making them competitive rather than cooperative.
I know, scary thought.
I really don't see the connection between socializing in a game and socializing on Facebook.
Two totally different things.
It's not like people in 2002 were playing MMOs because there was no Facebook.
They were playing MMOs because they liked to play games with others......it was a digital version of Dungeon and Dragons table top, where you play with others and have fun with others.
Facebook is about taking pictures of your penis and accidentally sending it to all your friends.
Yes it's fun, but not the same kind of social interaction.
...A point comes where a player simply can not craft equipment on par with end-game equipment.
This makes me upset due to the fact that in today's world of gaming, it takes a weekend to cap a character but a much longer time to get crafting up to maximum across anywhere from 3 - 8 professions in different games, and of course lets not count out what we have to do for Gathering Classes (if any) as well as gathering materials to make the craft work.
In short, by the time a master crafter emerges in most games...
Who cares?
Your non-crafting gaming character is already capped and geared in a week beyond anything possible in crafting! Now what they put are cosmetics for endgame crafting, and they tend to be idiotic too....
Sometimes the recipes at their level make no sense....
I remember cooking in FF XIV as an example
Duck Broth --- Level 50***
(So eating a duck, and then cooling the remains... and then warming up a pot, putting in vegetables along with the bones and turning it into a broth requires that high of a level?)
Bacon Broth --- Level 50****
(I fail to see what is so hard about putting cooked bacon in a pan, and then mixing water with seasoning and a bit of oil... and then adding the mixture into the pan at medium heat until the bacon becomes one with the water)
Spiced Cider --- Level 60***
(Don't get me started on this one.......)
27 levels to learn how to fry an egg!
But now I am just nitpicking.
Creating deliberately slow game play with lots of downtime in order to "enable" or "force", depending on your perspective, those interactions is, IMO, a misguided attempt to recreate something that was very appealing and somewhat rare once upon a time and is very commonplace today. Hence my skepticism about the potential mass appeal of slow games in 2017.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I chose the DnD example on purpose.
An MMORPG Dungeon/Raid was a digital version of a DnD session where you play together with other people to achieve a common goal and have fun.
It was a group activity just like it is a team sport or a music band or a school play.
These are hobbies or activities that involve socializing.
Facebook or other Social media are just communication tools that don't serve any other purpose than talking about trivial stuff, they don't involve any meaningful activity, unless you count sending selfies of yourself as one.
Facebook didn't kill football teams, music bands, or school plays, and certainly didn't make social MMOs obsolete as it is not the same kind of animal.
Facebook is more like school gossip (it actually started for that purpose), we always had that shit, except now it's gone digital.
Old School MMORPG involves Team Play, and that willl never go out of fashion.
That's what is missing in modern MMOs, and it's not Facebook fault.
So no, old school MMORPGs didn't do a good job of digitalizing PnP games. They were pretty lame attempts actually. The fact not much has been done to improve on them doesn't mean they are the pinnacle of the genre.
CoH was the only game that I know of that managed to strike a good balance of team vs solo play. And it wasn't some magic incomprehensible method either. The basic game play was soloable by default, and it was beneficial to group and all content scaled up. And that was the most social game I've ever played. Hopefully in the next 50 years or so some other companies will catch on, but I'm not going to hold my breath. (for 50 years XD)
So on subject Coh grouping!
I thought Firefall missions/events had potential as well, if only they scaled and required more of a team effort.
It's true that MMOs have been like that for a long time, and it kinda sucks that we don't have radically new ways of playing (I think EvE is different but I've never tried it).
and for this one, i'm surprised nobody mentioned it : sidekick system in CoX ! that thing was incredible to try out content with friends/guildies.
The crafting system in the old SWG. Every 7 to 10 days the stats on resource qualities would change as well as their locations. This meant as a master weapon-smith, you could make better weapons with higher stats if you had mined the best "iron" back a year ago when it popped. It gave long time master weapon-smiths an edge against brand new weapon-smiths. You only had a few days to mine it so you always had limited quantities when you did get it so you were not just pumping out awesome weapon after awesome weapon. People knew who the best weapon-smiths were on their servers, they didnt just run to the auction house and buy a quality weapon.
Rift, I loved the rifts but they never really did anything with them while I played. It was always the same old ones in the same old spots. This was a big missed opportunity for Trion.
Water/boating - Archeage and BDO have fantastic boat-play. I give the edge to Archeage on this one, once they fixed the "gliding 10 miles to land on your boat" thing with turbulence, they now have the best water/boating mechanics out there.
"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
Players voting to affect potentially world shaking events in the game. Only one MMO has done this and it is awesome. I am however biased.
http://baronsofthegalaxy.com/
http://baronsofthegalaxy.com/ An MMO game I created, solo. It's live now and absolutely free to play!
"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