Oblivion gobbling up MMO players?

carbonel · April 2006

"Quietly and without fanfare players are vanishing from their favorite virtual worlds. Rapture-like, they are abandoning their bodies and ascending to another realm.

Last weekend, perceptibly fewer adventurers wandered the roads of Tyria (Guild Wars), Azeroth (World of Warcraft), and Norrath (Everquest II). In Paragon City (City of Heroes), there were not as many superheroes fighting the tide of villainy. Even the planets of Tatooine, Endor, and Naboo (Star Wars Galaxies) as well as the Minmatar Republic (Eve Online) were affected.

Now, this was not a mass migration in the traditional sense. Players were not defecting from their homelands forever. They were just spending time in an alternate universe that is characterized by different rules.

After all, in gaming — as in the so-called real world — everyone needs a vacation..."

(Continued at: http://www.sacurrent.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16429627&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=484045&rfi=6)

DamonVile · April 2006

Most of the people I know who left to play it are already back. They said it was a great game but with no one else in the world with you, doing anything feels hollow. I guess no matter how great a game is once you get hooked on MMOs it's hard to get off them.

Telekinetik · April 2006

I was under the impression that Oblivion was an MMO? Being able to interact with other users 'n' all. I really need to read up about this game.

Dasharr · April 2006

Originally posted by Telekinetik

I was under the impression that Oblivion was an MMO? Being able to interact with other users 'n' all. I really need to read up about this game.

No, Oblivion is 100% single-player, though players can create and share "mods" for the game, courtesy of the Contruction Set (on the PC version). Both the PC and XBox360 can get official mods, but they're pay-to-download.

Oblivion is a good game, but I don't think that MMO server populations will be suffering for too long. Unlike it's predecessor (Morrowind), I can't see Oblivion having very long-lasting appeal.

ianubisi · April 2006

Originally posted by Dasharr
Unlike it's predecessor (Morrowind), I can't see Oblivion having very long-lasting appeal.

That makes absolutely no sense to me. Oblivion dramatically improves on every aspect of its predecessors in every way.

SpiritofGame · April 2006

Yes, I remember years ago when the same thing happened as Diablo II was released.

Many players were noticibly absent from MMORPGs for about a month -- only to return when they "beat" the game.

Benden · April 2006

Busted !

Yes, Morrowing was a great game, Oblivion is even better : very good rpg (just suck you can go down to 9 fps with amd64 3200+ and geforece 6800 gt

) But the game is beautifull. I have to suspend my coh/cov suscription for oblivion lol.

Faemus · April 2006

yah, oblivion got me, and I didn't know this until I talked to him on the phone yesterday, but it got my brother as well.

hercules · April 2006

The mere fact ita single person means it will never hold a mmorpg player for long.

But considering the success of WoW based mainly on its warcraft series name and success i am wondering how long before we see a oblivion aka elder scroll mmorpg?

I am sure it will do extremely well.

vladww · April 2006

Originally posted by Dasharr
Unlike it's predecessor (Morrowind), I can't see Oblivion having very long-lasting appeal.

Very true.

Apart from much nicer graphics, Oblivion is nothing but dumb compared to Morrowind, or even Daggerfall :

- Less geographical variety

- Less skills

- Terrible scaling system ( leveling your character can actually make the game harder ! )

- Less loot variety

- Less quests

- Less guilds to join

etc.. etc..

I got bored with Oblivion in a couple of weeks, i'm still playing Morrowind after 3 years, that sum it up

No way Oblivion will gobble up MMO players once the dust settle after a few weeks

Hotcell · April 2006

Tag.

Oblivion is a great game, but like someone said earlier, a single player game feels shallow after a while.

The world is huge, there are many quests, but all of them seem very pointless After playing WoW 1-60, I'm seriously addicted to it. I cant get any enjoyment from other MMO or single player game for long now.

But Oblivion worth every hour I spent on it. Truly a great game.

Mysk · April 2006

The only thing that Oblivion has that's better than Morrowind is graphics. You can wander the wilderness (NOT the roads) for quite a bit of time without encountering a single monster. Deers, yes, monsters no.

Taken on its own it's a pretty good game, but when compared to Morrowind I'm pretty disappointed in it. Oblivion won't hold people's attention for near as long as its predecessor.

Those who get off on graphics will think that it's the best thing since sliced bread, though. It sure makes pretty desktop wallpaper.

Xenduli · April 2006

Pretty good read: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3148996. I'd hate for Oblivion to be the last of these type of games.

qotsa · April 2006

Originally posted by vladww

- Less geographical variety

Hmm, I must be playing different versions of these games. Because everything looked the same in Morrowind to me.....Brown. Everything is a shade of brown in that game. The character models were horrible, the buildings all looked the same. To me it seemed like there were only three or four different kinds of things to kill in Morrowind. Not to mention, if it wasn't on a road you couldn't get to it. It felt restrictive to me. Not to mention, everything is a shade of brown, kinda like EQ2.

Concerning gameplay, not too sure on Morrowind really. Other than going through the main quest and add-ons, Morrowind just couldn't hold my interest for very long. In Oblivion, I played 60+ hours and didn't even touch the main quest.

I'm not going to say which is better, because they were both fun. All I know is I've had more fun in Oblivion. The graphics look beter....I'm not confined to roads.....they threw a few colors, other than brown into the mix.

But Oblivion isn't eating up all the MMO players. Blame the lack of innovation for that. All these games are the same, they never really change, other than getting easier and more dumbed down. It's why I really don't play any of these games right now.

Zwerchfell · April 2006

Originally posted by Mysk
The only thing that Oblivion has that's better than Morrowind is graphics. You can wander the wilderness (NOT the roads) for quite a bit of time without encountering a single monster. Deers, yes, monsters no.

Taken on its own it's a pretty good game, but when compared to Morrowind I'm pretty disappointed in it. Oblivion won't hold people's attention for near as long as its predecessor.

Those who get off on graphics will think that it's the best thing since sliced bread, though. It sure makes pretty desktop wallpaper.

Morrowind had a very bad combat system it was so boring and dull. While Oblivion doesn't have as many skills/armor pieces etc. it is so much more fun to play.

GIRO · April 2006

played both and as much as i respect your opinion and fun memorys of morrowind....oblivion completely supercedes it in a way that half life 2 superceded half life. dont complain about progress when its good progress

Orcc · April 2006

Ya, Morrowind definatly had some good points, but the combat (which really, is what the game is all about) sucked. Hard. While they say Cyrodiil is bigger than Morrowind, id have to say Morrowind felt a lot bigger, maybe because you didnt run as fast... im not sure (and no it doesnt have to do with fast travel, Morrowind had boats and Silt Striders afterall). On the other hand, Oblivions dungeons/caves are SO much better. Basically, as good as Morrowind was, due to combat and pacing, I woudlnt go back to it now that Oblivion is out. Especially with the Oblivion mod community being as a diligent as they are!

M1sf1t · April 2006

Well it doesn't feel as big as Morrowind if you use the fast travel mode a lot. Now if you ride around or walk then yes it really is bigger then Morrowind. Also the view of the game world is as far as you can see in any given direction. Which means you can see the main city from a great distance since there is none of that ub3r gaming fog that pops up in a lot games. You can reduce the view distance and get that fog effect back if want you want.

Aseenus · April 2006

oblivions= rpg meaning it has an end

after people clock it 1-2 times they will quit and back to mmo's

TormentTom · April 2006

I am getting it this week

Will it affect DAOC for a while? Yes. Will I quit DAOC? God no.

amark_8 · April 2006

I think that the makers of Oblivion should design an mmo for multiple consoles. It would probably work out rly well.

Hibame · April 2006

For all of you that have not figured it out yet. Oblivion is lacking in content so modders can do their magic. There are tons of items in the game like the paint supplies that are there for modders to use. The world, oh god, what the game uses is only a fraction of what is there.

bhug · April 2006

06.04.16

Quite a few sources consider ES4:Oblivion the #1 game PC and about #3 console title.
Performance reference
xbox vs PC comparison
Oblivion guide

Countown to the 10 May E3 in LA... swag, swag, swag ::::14:: and booth babes ::::06::

edit:

Minimum System Requirements
Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows XP 64-bit
512MB System RAM
2Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
8x DVD-ROM Drive
4.6GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c (included)
ATI Radeon X600 series, Radeon 9500 series, Nvidia GeForce 6200 series, or GeForce FX series and higher video cards
DirectX 8.1 Compatible Sound Card
Keyboard, Mouse

Recommended System Requirements
3.0Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD Athlon 64 processor
1GB System RAM
ATI Radeon X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Tyrgris · April 2006

Also what needs to be mentioned about TESIV is that it isn't really just a SP game. It is a toolset and game engine. So complaining about the content, landsize and quests along with most of the other rants are just irrelavant when you can add, change or even modify what is there.

I see one mention here about it not being as large as TESIII however you have to realize in contrast it is actually the same size according to the Continent. Now in TESIII Morrowind or otherwords Vvardenfell seemed pretty larger. However in TESIV the whole Continent has been rescaled., hopefully due to future expansions as I will express more in this post.

If you look at Hammerfell or even High Rock alone in TESII Daggerfall, it makes Vvardenfell look like childs play.

What I am getting at is, if you all truly knew about what long term attempts with TESIII mods like tamriel rebuild seemed to be a never finishing project. Now with the new landscape engine Bethesda has, not only is this now feasible. I wouldn't doubt if Bethesda has long term plans for multiple expansions where each one includes a whole province. Plus in addition to all the single quests they are starting to sell on the net. The fast travel and horseback are just two things I can think of that shows they plan to one day have us travel all of tamriel. They wouldn't be able to do this with the scale size being like TESIII: Morrowind is or even worse like TESII: Daggerfall. If they did all of Tamriel with the scale size of TESII, I think all of Tamriel would be approx. the size of DnL if not larger.

I think Tood Howard learned something from John Smedley and it isn't that MMO's are where the money is, but Expansion packs and adventure packs are where you keep your game alive.

On another note:

I wouldn't doubt that the MMO communities don't start becoming less occupied especially when NwN2 hits the shelves. I think a lot of us have gotten tired of the idiots that are starting to plague the MMO worlds, especially WoW. With games like TESIV, everyone is IC (of course hehe *sarcasm* but true). In games like NwN, the shard is small enough for the DM to see a prick right off the bat. Then we all get to watch the DM drop the little bastard in a camp fire and watch him burn and then get banned by his Bioware account.

Not only the rehash of the same ol same ol is killing the MMO communities, but the crap you have to tolerate in these communities are becoming intolerable and a lot of people are getting sick of seeing it and not seeing anything happen, briskly.

So far, I have only seen Turbine being the only Dev that are taking action on this which if you do some research you will see that they have already implemented it in DDO and will have even more strict rules once LOTRO is out. Too bad they will be the only ones so far taking this sort of action. Maybe other communities will learn from it as well before theirs are only filled with annoying little pricks that don't know how to control themselves.

EDITED: Sorry. Typos to correct.

Haplos · April 2006

mmorpg's are in for the long haul and the benefit is the continued revenue, which to be significant needs to maintain a good fan base.

The main competition from games like Oblivion is that if they start coming out with new and inovative games they have the potential to be a better revenue source than the others, as you have to buy the game each time.

I don't think the addons to these games will ever compare to the original games, but if the mmorpgs stay as unimaginative as they have been, it could cut into the mmorpg market significantly enough to hurt funding for new projects as that funding would be redirected to single player games..

I played Oblivian and it was not end of the world, but was a fun game that kept me entertained for quite a while and I still haven't seen a mmorpg that i'm ready to commit to yet so would play another if I saw one that looked interesting.

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