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MMORPG gamers are brainwashed
Rekindle
Member UncommonPosts: 1,206
Thats right! Everyone don their tin foil hats I'm convinced that Aliens have taken over as execs at EA, SOE and are trying to get everyone to conform to their psionic mind control parameters so we will continue to pay them money for the trash they are spewing out and hoping they can spin off more advertising revenue so we will buy more /pizza. No game maker out there today cares about making a R P G -- they just want to cash in by making generic games based on a preconceived model.
Seriously though, I logged onto a particular beta account last night frustrated to find yet another MMORPG in the making where my great hero in training needed to run out and kill 6 wolf pups to rid the poor world of the pending threat. There has always been a question : How do MMORPG designers make players feel heroic when everyone is a hero.....their answer, to date, has been to collect Boar snouts.
I voiced my disdain (politely) in the chat channel for this particular game. I made a comment like "sigh, yet another MMORPG game based on collecting rat meat and wolf fur to grind us up the levels". The response given got me thinking: "Well afterall this IS a mmorpg game. what more do you expect...maybe you should go play a RPG game."
Now my real point:
somewhere along the line MMO's became less about doing RPG like things and more like MMO type things. I for one think this is a demonstration of a clear lack of innovation in game titles. I don't think every quest should be about killing a dragon but my goodness, isn't there something more important to do then to step 10 feet outside of town to kill respawning wolf pups? What happened to going on the big long 50 part quest to go to the_cave_of_far_away_evil to go deep down to the bottom to get the trinket_of_asswhooping so you can get part 1/500 for the epic_im gonna_wtfpwn_everything sword that talks to me and scratches my back glows in the dark and plays songs?
Somewhere along the line we've all been 'groomed' into thinking that there is some type of recipe for MMOS that everytitle is measured against. First EQ, then WoW have supplied us with models by which all other titles measure up against. I think its time that we expect more then tutle meat collection quests to grant us a feeling that we're doing something heroic.
The problem with this type of thinking is it actually means we have an expectation on the quest designers to make meaningful quest chains instead of filling our quest logs with dog meat requests and fedex style deliverys and making us want to poke our eyes out with the fun we're having! Is this genre dead or what?
All the games coming out (save one) appear to be complete clone GARBAGE. If you can't make the avatars look like they are running without a board up their ass - STOP - make the avatars run properly, swing properly, look proper, before going any further - really. Its clear that all anyone is interested in doing these days is tapping into some of the players that have left wow or that are considering it.
And thus endeth the 'golden age' of MMOs?
Comments
Seriously who cares.
Look at how many people come in here like "I need something to play."
I think at this point, players play MMORPG's out of habit. Like drug addicts they "need something to play."
They're bored with WoW yet still login every day, cuz most of em have nothing else going on in their life.
Either they're broke students who can't afford to have real entertainment, or they're fat adults who live in their mother's basement and play WoW 12 hours a day.
Nice post, I can't even respond. You made a great point with MMOs and RPGs.
/clap
FPS gamers go out play a game that gains nothing more than a change on thier stats
Sports gamers are the same as FPS gamers with perhaps a little more persistant world
I think that if someone is having fun that is all that matters.....
Going out and collecting 6 boar snouts so that you can collect prize X is boring at times but the quest to collect them can also be exciting. Perhaps the fun is leveling up high enough to where you have to group and then deal with trying to get that perfect group to slay mega-boss XXX and then deal with the "Leeroys" in the group and perhaps discover that you are a "Leeroy" yourself and learning from that.
So if people have fun doing what you consider mindless drivel... leave them alone, they are having fun.
I know people that still play games from 5 years ago......
Witty saying to amuse you goes here.
I don't think there is a problem with that type of game, it's just that almost all of the MMO's today use the same concept and therefore almost all of them will fail. I'm wondering how many developers can think outside the box and if they can be able to get the resources to develop their ideas.
For example Eve Online thinks outside the box and it is a game that is still growing subscriber wise a few years after release. SWG pre-cu was very different and when SOE changed the game to conform more to the generic recipe of MMO's, its subscriber base dropped off the cliff.
IMO what makes WoW so successful is Blizzard. They didn't create the genre, just like they didn't create the genre in any other of their games, they did make it better. In their case they make WoW easy to play. IMO it was a fun game until endgame. Why create a WoW (EQ) clone? If I wanted that, I will go back and play WoW. Just like if I want to play an action RPG, Diablo II is the answer, or Starcraft when playing RTS.
I've tried almost every major MMO and except for Eve Online, all the games are very similar. In this way I've given up on the genre and have gone back to playing RPG's. At least in RPG's there's some innovation and not the generic style of kill x wolf pups and acquire y boar snouts to receive z. Or FedEx quests (even Eve has this type of quest and it is extremely boring). I also notice the time sinks built into games. The longer it takes someone to get somewhere, or the longer it takes to finish quests, the longer someone's subscription will stay active. Other than maybe Pirates of the Burning Sea or Uru Live (no NPC's, it's a puzzle solving MMO base on the Myst series), I don't see any difference in the upcoming MMO's. I'll probably spend my time playing NWN2 when it is released.
If you don't like the games being made, don't buy them.
Your wallet speaks infinitely louder than pontification in a forum. Your wallet is all gaming companies care about.
Personally, I've been enjoying these games for years and continue to see improvements. But I know I'm in a vocal minority in that view.
To some extent yes.
I'm about to detrail my own thread here but --
Am I the only one who remembers how there was going to be this battle for subs between Eq2 and WoW and how each said they were going to out do the other? Now that WoW has blown Eq2 right out of the water, the ocean and the planet, SOE has changed their tone.
The point is MMORPG games aren't just successful because the consumer speaks with their dollar. Consumers get backed into a corner because there is no real alternative to WoW (just like there wasnt to eq for years) unless you enjoy smashing your head off of a table and playing cheap rip off clone games.
To some extent thats being a bit opinionated but if you're saying people "spoke" with their dollars and bought wow because it was a better game I'd say better than what? Its not like people picked WoW's questing system over some unique alternative - there is /was no alternative.
Your deduction is flawed to suggest that gamers pick games with stupid questing systems because al lwe're offered are stupid questing systems.
Rikindle, I've always enjoyed reading your posts (well the majority of them). ^_^
In my experience, most 'themepark' MMOs (and some 'sandbox' MMOs), such as EQ and WoW, do offer both quick 'kill n of x' and multi-tiered quests. For example, in WoW the Onyxia Attunement Quest Line or the tier 0.5 Item quests.
Although this doesn't concern combat xp, but I did like the initial concept of crafting xp in SWG. A crafter would gain xp by selling items, and how often said items were used. Perhaps a similar combat xp system could be created.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
(Slow-motion replay) Sweat flew off his face with explosive force as Rekindle's open hand made contact with fizzle322's fleshy cheek.
That merely shows that gamers like to play games with quests and "things to do". On that front I will agree but that doesn't mean the things to do have to be so tedius. I'll even go as far as to say that perhaps there was a time when collecting turtle meat was novel and fun to do. However, I can say that and still stick to my guns with the notion that this does not have to be the model people expect from now on.
Giving players something to do is one thing, having that 'something to do' be collection quests for 60 -100 levels is quite another.
Maybe I'm part of the minority on this one, I dunno.
Also, semi-pro FPS teams who compete in ladder competitions are out there to win the league championships. Winning big will get you more honor and respect among your peers than any MMORPG guild has every gotten from their's. And, if your crew is really awesome you might be looking at a deal from Nike or Alien Computers. These are some of the the reasons why FPSers play. They are not lofty goals, not even good goals, but there's more to playing FPS games than you might realize. Nope, not even close, see above. Let me add that "sports" gamers should to be rounded up and brought to a gym or ball field, and offered a choice: death by firing squad or they must actually play some football or basketball, etc.
and i think you are right, even though we can decide to say "no, i am not gonna pay for this" - let's be honest, mmos are becomeing a big chunk of the (pc) game market - and everyone wants to at least check things out for themselves. e.g. i subscribed to swg even right around cu, even though everyone told me not to; but i wanted to be part of this swg experience, so i didn't care - and as a noob one is naiv and enjoys a lot anyway, until you figure out all the common problems....
so yes, we are brainwashed. especially if we still stick around and say "oh, well go and play something else" *goes back to killing 20 bears"....
and let me guess - you played archlord beta - and if not, one of the other korean style mmos that are currently in beta
Fuuny how we all seem to be in this perpetual state of looking for the next greatest game. I'm starting to wonder if there will ever be one that will fill the void.
Perhaps i'm an addict and I won't settle for anything less than greater and greater stimuli until, finally, my brain is in a jar with SOE electric prods sticking into my brain.
No, we never will, because we all define greatest differently. Despite being slammed here, WOW right now is argueably one of the more popular MMO's out today. Doesn't make it good, or a favorite for everyone. But there are a lot of people who do enjoy it.... (they are too busy to post on these forums) just as most other games have their fans.
I just hope we keep getting a diverse selection of games and keep looking for that one game that someday will come out...that will be truely different.
On a related note...from what I understand... Autoassault is different..and is totally tanking... too strange for people I guess...same with games like Planetside....... as consumers we seem to insist on a standard model... sort of like movies...so games that deviate from the model are rare...too expensive to fail.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Although I totally agree with you that there are different tastes in games, I still maintain the success of WoW is distorted. Don't get me wrong: its the perfect storm for a game. It can run on relatively low end systems, its can be quick, you can accomplish something in a small period of time. It draws pretty lines in crayons for all to understand.....WoW is not necessairly always easy, but its not complicated.
The problem is everyone seems to think that because a lot of people are playing it that everything about the game is what players want. In reality, there is a large portion of the WoW demographic that is just playing this game for the same reason they were playing eq 3 years ago - there is no modern alternative that measures up in overall game quality. People would rather collect turtle meat with decent looking character models that look like they really mean to swing that axe, and fireballs that really look like they pwn than play game clients that cause their hard drives to grind like sandpaper in character models that run, swing and cast like they're constipated.
We call become convinced that WoW is the new paradigm for MMORPG games and that true RPG is something you do outside of a MMO. If FED-ex and collection quests are the way of the future in MMO games then I guess I'm all washed up.
All three games I've seen [public domain movies of] in beta right now have terrible character animations, offer nothing truly different than wow and spec for computers your grandchildern may one day own.....it will be the developers of these three games that will be shaking their head in confusion 3 months after launch wondering why they don't have the next great thing.
Go figure: Wow collection quests are a "success"?
And for thsoe who want mass market share its not a bad idea. The fact is a minority of people are "self starters". Sandbox style games defintely require self-starter type people. It may be possible to have a bit of both, I guess you could say GW Prophecies campaign is like that to some degree where you can do the linear storyline missions or you can go off and do whatever you like. I think a more fleshed out version applied to a persistent world MMO might work ok. But since EQ set the standard for a "game sets the goal" model most companies just follow that. Most of the "player sets the goal" model games are branch offs of UO (either former devs or former players) as well. Which is basically what happens in a lot of markets.
Would we as a customer deal with 36 hours down time of no aircondition, electricity cable internet? Mind you that 36 hours hit 3 times in one month almost 13 days of non playable axcess.
Would we accept, buying a hdtv from best buy , they deliever it set up and it doesn't turn on? Would we fight for our funds back or fight for customer service? What happens if the customer service is so bad we have no resoulution to the case or a working TV?
It seems as we are continuing to pay for the privelge of sloppy buggy game play bad customer service and no help when issues arrises. i.e. it is always our fault if someone hacks our account ( even if a month latter opsey we found a nasty key logger program be careful) .
The standards are so low in this industry that we allowed it to happen because we are addicted to continue to pay to play.
I truely believe unless we get these companies to provide min service that we pay for then things will not change.
While some argue 15 a month is no big deal, i wonder if it was a needed service that had that sloppy of customer service would they put up with it or find something else?
Strangely its linked to my current 'crusade', getting a straight answer out of SOE EQ2 Customer Support.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/97082
Some people just dont get it, its not about the money or being told 'no', its about being given respect as a customer, and the basic right to have a simple question answered, not being fobbed off with unrelated, cut and paste answers.
I'm not sure if it is that we are being brainwashed or that it is merely the games are slowly pushing the technical boundaries of a mmorpg game.
Retard.
Starwars Galaxies, An Empier Diveded, That's what it says on my box anyway.