Found this interesting thread in the discussion forum of the MMORPG I'm awaiting:
So why do you play MMORPGs ?
Personally I dont really know whats my main reason. Theres multiple aspects why I'm attracted to MMORPGs:
1. I cant play a single player game for longer than about 3 months. Then I just cant continue, no matter how good it is. I'm just getting sick of it at this point. But MMORPGs, I can play them for years. The social aspects make that work.
This includes the aspects of crafting, raiding, and other things that wont be present or wont be as well developed in single player games. When Vanguard finished, I had seven maxlevel crafters - one of each trade and a second weapon smith because my new main was on the US server while the rest stayed on the EU server, so I made her a crafter, too.
2. MMORPGs are by design meant to run for years, if not decades. In this amount of time, its possible to refine their rulesystems to such a degree that they offer both complexity and balance. Meaning many different ways to build a viable, i.e. competitive character with a wide array of possible playstyles in each of these builds, thus allowing players with different tastes to enjoy playing such a character longterm.
In Vanguard for example I played Cleric for about four or five years. Even after years I still found new ways of playing. Then the EU server died down, but I didnt want to move my characters, hoping that the EU server would return. So I made a Dread Knight on the US server, and with time she became my new main, simply because it was so much easier to level a Dread Knight than a Cleric (much higher dps, and area of effect attacks). OK even faster leveling was with my Sorcerer but I never felt I was really good at playing my Sorcerer. Offline games only have this if they are based on good pen and paper systems. Namely D&D3. Otherwise their rulesystems will suck.
This of course also massively contributes to why one can play MMORPGs for years.
3. I hate Steam and consoles. MMORPGs are the only way to avoid both of them.
About Steam, its riddiculous to give a company such a monopoly, its riddiculous to give a company such power over your computer (its bad enough Microsoft has this kind of power), and it violates basic principles of computer security (so does the access Microsoft has, but at least theres a good reason for them to have it, which is bugfixes).
And about consoles, its a completely braindead and absurd concept to have a computer for nothing but gaming, if you could spent a little more instead and get a computer thats useable for anything. Nooo thank you. I dont actually hate my money with a passion and feel like throwing it away, thank you very much.
Other than that, theres sometimes games you can still get in a more regular way, but you can no longer buy them in shops, and I dont feel I actually own a game if I dont have the hardware proving it.
Comments
I was disappointed at first, realizing that programs can't react like human DMs can, but playing EQ was close enough for me. It was all of the other players in the game that got me to be a fan of this genre. Some of them also got me raging. Nothing is perfect, yet the good/fun far outweighed the bad/rage
EQ had actual GMs in the game that actually helped most players. EQ ran GM "events" every now and again, like Emporer Crush running rampant in Greater Feydark. Norrath was a world hat I felt I could live in. Not perfect by any stretch, but better than any single player game I had played to that point. It had deep character advancement, great, if a little wonky crafting (fish scales for a helmet?), it had questing if one wanted to seek them out (actually talking to NPCs to see what they to say), and the races and classes were so varied that my alt-o-holicism was satisfied with very varied (hee hee) experiences. I wanted to play the game and enjoyed paying every month my subscription fee.
Now, I realize that era is gone. The majority of players want something different. They don't care to have slow, redundant, not easy games where their precious time could be easily spent elsewhere. I hope, but it is such a small ember of light now... I just can't pour the water on it and move on
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Along with Archery, I'm also a Mage that could heal myself efficiently but not their yet on stronger heals for others....Need to concentrate on Archery anyway.
Spent all day Sunday on Discord getting to know the guild players. They joke a lot in a fun way and get offensive and kept asking me if I'm ok with that. Thats nice of them to be respectful like that as the core group had been playing together for years, and to ask a new player is great in my book
They raid most nights and told me they protect new players and I could come along anyway. However I like to hold my own (it's a personal thing), besides it would be a chore in itself learning the group dynamics of the game.
This is why I play mmorpg's... can't find this in modern games that are JUST Online.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
However equally as important is the co-op / online elements. Games are just more fun when played w/ others.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I just love to be immersed.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Of course, I feel like the genre dropped the ball making it all about combat and numbers. I simply enjoy doing that alone and with saves.
playing games together was always the most fun.
then came internet. there were games like age of empires or mech commander and so on, which you could play. and then i tried out anarchy online. a 3d world and there are other people too! it was exciting.
Playing with other people. just doing stuff together while also chatting (something what is gone over the years unfortunately). you also remembered the people....
playing against other people.
biu those days are long gone. now its just finding a game to play for jumping in casually, doing group finder stuff without speaking a word, doing battleground stuff, and logging out. last mmorpg good enough for calling itsel mmorpg was age of wushu. before that SWG, before that AO. (and i liked AoC too, nice classes and combat, and funny pvp)
I lost interest in consoles and single player games in my 20s. I grew up playing competitive sports and Role Playing Games like D&D and tactical board games.
MMORPGs interest me because they provide a social, cooperative, yet competitive environment.
Emphasis on SOCIAL.
Old School MMORPGs attracted a huge non-video gamer audience. Developers forgot about this and tossed that audience to the curb during their transition to RMT practices. Hence, the massively increasing interest in a return to subscription only MMORPGs (or at least highly restricted cash shops that don't corrupt the original game design).
You stay sassy!
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
None of the handful of people I knew IRL who played MMORPGs were nerds and they all had money. For me it was just realizing the dreams I had when I played D&D as an adolescent. It was a world I didn't have to imagine in my mind. It was being displayed on a screen in front of my eyes and there were so many places that I was eager to discover and visit. Dragons be damned
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
I want a Old AV like instanced Faction vs Faction mode, not the 3 world WvW system like GW2, I rather have two factions and each team being fixed number of either 40 or 50 players per group with a queue to let players replace players that leave. Single match last hours at a time if not more, with heavy hitting NPCs that can punch your face off or drop aerial bombs that blow the crap out your crew.
I want Dynamite Events like GW2 does especially for the Large scale fights in open world. At least 10 to 15 meta events rotated in on a timer. GW2 made the mistake here of not adding new meta events to the timer, and the ones they did they were only Temporary and never seen again.
If open world pvp is a thing I want reason for enemy factions to want to invade Capitol cities and cause a random rampage. I liked that in WoW. But want it more often but not like a everyday thing. Maybe a 3 times a week event on random timers or something.
I like character progression but I am good with the horizontal progression like Guild Wars 2 does and have new skins unlocked, but as for the main progression mechanics I would like this to be a group thing. Maybe Guild Progression, Faction Progression or PvE faction progression. But less individual progression here.
Also NO PLAYER LEVELS. This is a killer. To me at this point, levels are just a time sink. Leave levels to the group progression mechanics I mentioned above. But levels only divide the game community and the game world. I want the whole game to be Endgame, not just small high level areas. Look at GW2 for example, it has level scaling, and I play mostly as a max level on any of my slots. I can go anywhere and do anything. But when I am on a brand new alt I am limited to where I can go, and what I can do. As a max level, those levels mean nothing to me. I play just find. Get rid of them. They useless. Let me play the game like I already am at max level. Again make other forms of progression primary.
Group Trinity is a must but need some adjustments. I hate the non trinity combat design of GW2 Vanilla. I hate it. I also hated the WoW wait times of its Trinity design. Rift in my opinion did some things a bit better with the addition of the Support role. This is a major factor in improving the trinity in Pugs. I played a Healer in Vanilla WoW and Rift. And it's a role that places great pressure on that player. Having a side Support character in the group to help with the healing while still doing DPS (which is the one role everybody loves) took a lot of pressure off me as a healer. Also Support could sometimes off tank. It's been many years since I played Rift, but the Mage class had a Healer tree that healed the team through doing damage. That's the kind of change I am talking about. Make some healers heal through Dishing out DPS. As for Tanking I believe the problem isnt the lack of Tanks, it's the group sizes are too small per tank. 4:1 tank group ratio need to change to a standard 7 man group sizes. This way more dps players and healers and support players run with each individual tank player. This way no need to increase number of tanks in the game. Another thing, just because the group sizes are bigger doesnt mean this kind of content need to be on WoW Raid level difficulty. We talking about the same difficulty as any other normal 5 man dungeon just standard party size is 7 players instead of 5. Raid content can remain harder and require more players. Also I do feel Tanks should baseline get more UI tools ingame that normally be in add ons like Aggro meters and dungeon maps and stuff like that. Make it ingame exclusive UI features to people playing Tanks. Also a LFG tool should be standard by now. Stop with the fake ego stuff about being more social blahs blahs bah. Make it standard day one feature. Rift's developers Trion worlds was like this at first as well since many people felt back then LFG tool took a lot of flack in WoW for desocializing the game, but soon Trion changed their tune and realized just how important this feature is and perhaps why Blizzard added it in the first place.
The Sub for these MMOs also need to come down. Either go with the GW2 gem store B2P model or come down with the standard sub to 6$ per month. 15$a month is not going to cut it anymore. We have way more options today than the past. A free weekend or free to play Friday system would be nice to keep people playing and seeing what changes are made over updates. Keeps the population growing.
Player housing is a must. Open world kind could be nice but maybe in a separate part of the game world that can group as time progresses to make room for growing number of players. Fighting over land spots for such a good feature never works today. Archeage tried that. I say have it as a separate map of the game world if you plan to do this as a open world thing, if not just make it all instanced player housing like Rift did. This adds incredible amount of Dynamic content. Just make sure players can have more than one locations to build up for never ending content here.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
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I do enjoy "improving" my character (not me, per se) and when their progression is done, I roll a new character
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.