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When did Instant Gratification Usurp Adventure?
farginwar
Member Posts: 134
When did Instant Gratification Usurp Adventure?
SgtFrog's post “Why do people have such a big issue with P2P+CS for vanity items?”, which I admit I rudely shrugged off at first, got me thinking about my feelings on Pay to Play plus Cash Shop Vanity items and on Cash Shops in general. My ideas wandered a bit wide of SgtFrog's question so I decided to make this into a new post.
First off I'll say that I detest Cash Shops in games that have a monthly fee whether they are vanity items or not. I also disagree that fluff vanity items do not effect the games quality or my entertainment value of said game.
Here's why.
First let's take a look at role-playing games. Either table top or MMO the biggest reason to play is to interact with the game world and advance our characters. This is an ongoing process and requires quite of bit of time spent adventuring hence the reason for the game to have a set monthly fee. We pay for the time we take up in game and we also pay for the game creators to keep coming up with new content for our characters to explore, defeat, collect, and be entertained by. The fun comes from pitting out skills against adversity and winning. Just tossing the developers some cash and getting items handed to us, even purely decorative items, defeats the main purpose of the games very existence. I crave adventure. When I purchase and log into a MMO I want to be able to pretend to be Conan, or Merlin, or Luke Skywalker for awhile. I don't want just an online version of the rather mundane, real life Walmart, or Tescos.
Purchasing an item in an Online Game, no matter what its effect on the game world, is just as absurd as instead of having your table top game GM run your group a challenging and fun adventure, you just all hand him a ten spot and he gives you your Cloak of Spider Climbing, or your plus six Frost Brand Sword. Where the hell is the fun in that? What is the point?
When the hell did THIS
Become more desirable than THIS?
Have the game creators and the game players forgotten why we play these games in the first place. Have we forgotten how they even came to be?
Why are players letting game makers turn them into this?
Now to address the idea that vanity items do not effect anyone else in the game in any way.
When developers can put in minimal effort and still make money, in some games money on top of their already substantial monthly fees, by adding content players can collect just by doing THIS
Why on earth would they keep spending more money, more time, and more effort on continuing to bring players THIS?
And when players can get new toys by doing THIS
Why should they bother finding a group of other like minded people and doing THIS?
Think I'm wrong? Think I'm crazy? Then take a good look at the current state of MMOs. Wow can be played by just sitting on your ass in a tavern and never leaving town. And heaven help you if you don't measure up against the epeen yard stick of Gear Score. Warhammer Online is the same way. You can just level your way up the chain by repeatedly running instanced battlegrounds. Dungeons and Dragons Online, a terribly made game that by all rights should have died, is now thriving by this method. LOTOR and EQ2 are turning to this model soon. My God. Look at anything produced by Cryptic. Their games have about as much mental nourishment as a bowl full of gravel, but that doesn't stop them from puting the most effort into items they sell in the C-Store.
If we aren't careful and keep allowing companies to let us and themselves take the easy way out with MMOs, pretty soon all of us adventure seekers are going to start looking like THIS.
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, riddle 'em with bullets
Comments
Because "adventure" is far better done in your own head (via a book or movie etc) than killing monsters over and over, and hence therefore "adventure" is so diluted that progression (be it in the form of shiny things or an arbitrary number on a character display) become the name of the game, and as a species humans like saving time and having all the shinies, so we pay for shit.
RIFT was a *crushing* disappointment; a shallow, loveless, generic MMO the likes of which hasn't been seen in a P2P format since, well, forever.
Eagerly awaiting: World of Darkness, ArcheAge.
Very nice write up OP
Very sad state mmo's have fallen into lately. :[
When MMOs became more about solo progression rather than social achievement. In the original p&p D&D, I play to get together with friends and have a good time. We played the original Wizardry (and its green screen) together. The original MMOs were about social interaction and group achievements and as time has worn on it has become about solo (individual) progression. It is easier to prgram it this way, a simple cut-and-paste rather than actual content.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
The entitlement mentality. Its not new its just more widespread, more now than ever before. Ive seen people on this site make fun of people who find satisfaction in aquiring an item through gameplay. They honestly do not see anything wrong with P2W. I agree with your points each and everyone of them but playing MMO's is fast becoming a contest in who can have the cool stuff fastest with no thought to playing for gain. Getting through doing is old fashioned thinking. Sadly people do not realize what they are giving up. Oh and one of the justifications for this is the " I dont have time to play the game, so I should be able to buy the item" excuse. Give it to me now damn it, im entitled.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
I use to jump from game to game looking for adventure and exploration but as time has gone by they are getting more and more shallow. Now the demand to make money is so over driving they are releasing MMOs that should still be in closed beta or even alpha. Player base desires are ignored in favor of cheap additions to bring a short burst in subs. This all started when the gaming industry started tooting that it was as big as music and movies. Now investors have made it just like music-find a blonde, put on stage, hand her music and turn crank for money. The last great movie was Empire Strikes Back. Then everything started including Ewoks and Jar Jars.
Indie developers gave some people hope but what they fail to realize is they are to small to make epic code at any kind of acceptable rate. So, I have pretty much gave up on the MMO. I just play DF until it finally runs out of money and closes it's doors. So, sad not only is money the root of all evil it also appears to be the end of the MMORPG.
It really is getting out of control anymore. The thing that mainly bothers me about this whole instant gratification mentality is the adverse effect it has made on the mmo community as a whole.
People unwilling to help new players
Scoffing at people geared lower or maybe not at the same skill level as themselves
Wanting to finish a dungeon as fast as possible skipping as much as possible
Doing everything possible to avoid grouping as much as possible
etc.
The list goes on and on. It used to be such a close knit community. Not that there weren't ever drama queens or harassers but damn...
...times have changed I suppose
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
when ritalin became the drug of choice for disciplining teenagers.
Good post, OP. Adventure should be a lot more than the static quests, carrots on a stick, too. It seems that adventure has been replaced with carrots of all kinds.
Once upon a time....
Great post and it puts into words and images something I've been feeling for some time now, I want to have adventures again, I want to feel a sense of danger exploring parts of the world again, I want to just go out wandering and find things off the beaten track that made you think 'awesome'
Most of all, more than any of those I am sick and tired of playing MMOS where no-one wants to group up, where it's just one mad rush to level cap then grind the same dungeons again and again to get a weapon that does 4 damage more than your currently equipped weapon. I'm sick and tired of games being too easy and as a result there is no sense of achievement when you take down a boss or get the afore mentioned new weapon.
I agree with the OP that cash shops are absurd substitutions for content and adventure.
I also think his use of pictures in a post was the best ever.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
No, I just think you're wrong.
.
Fun replaced tedium. If you're a fan of tedium, I can see why you're upset.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Considering all the posters previous to you seem to agree with me, it seems that tedium as you call it, must have quite a following.
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, riddle 'em with bullets
To be completely honest, I'd take a credit card with that InCard Technology over an MMO any day. Take a picture of my credit card, post it on MMO forums and be safe? I'd trade both children for that.
I love your OP.
The bottom line is when WoW blew the doors off an underground hobby and let the masses in.
For the rest, blame the accoutants for demanding it and the devs for selling us all out for a bonus.
Yes, we must remember, WoW brought millions of players into the MMO scene for the first time. These players, being new, didn't know how boring WoW would become. While a good number still enjoy the WoW style game, we can thank Blizzard for opening the eyes of a great many more. I'd bet that some who posted in this thread are among them.
Call it "evolution". Someone just recently posted about this evolution of gamers new to the massive game play. It probably had to happen this way to get to the next step.
Once upon a time....
what next step? the pit we are in now, constantly waiting hoping for the next game we are following to save us?
I have a feeling that we would have seen far more evolution in this hobby if it had stayed underground and for the nerds.
1) There were 11 posters up to that point, 12 counting yourself. With those numbers, that's a "following" that I think game developers will tend to overlook.
2) You admitted it is a tedium.
I have nothing to add, but must give props to the OP for a great read
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
No, he actually said it was tedium 'as you call it'. Not the same thing.
Cheap shot at a point tbh.
Agreed. Devs knew what gamers liked and made games accordingly. Now they know what will make a quick buck and make games accordingly. Im playing single player games at the moment and honestly dont see much coming up to pull me back into the MMO market. Im seriously thinking on some P&P action but the collectables store that hoasts these events in my area is quite a drive from where I am. Maybe its time to start tracking down some like minded people. I was enolved with D&D in the early 80's but people go their seperate ways.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
1) You clearly understand nothing about statistics and demographics.
2) Reading comprehension for the win. I said tedium as HE calls it. HIS opinion, not mine.
So do you have anything relevant to add to the conversation or do you and uquipu just enjoy trolling threads where the posters don't slavishly kiss the current version of Wow's sacred buttocks?
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, riddle 'em with bullets
Uh oh. You poked a stick into the eye of the WOW faithful, now your in for it
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
World
of
Warcraft
He who keeps his cool best wins.
LOL. Funnily enough I was one of the Wow faithful up until WOTLK. Went from DAOC to Shadowbane to SWG to Wow.
I wasn't incredibly thrilled with about half of what The Burning Crusade added to the game, and when WOTLK added the complete easy mode Death Knight class I felt the game had finally jumped the proverbial shark.
I have no problems with people still enjoying Wow when I don't. I do however take offense when they come into threads and instead of posting arguments on why their opinion differs from mine, and actually backing it up with some kind of logic, they instead just spend their entire time condescendingly telling me that my opinion is wrong without trying to justify what they are saying in any way.
I'd like to thank all the posters who gave me a thumbs up for the post. I've been lurking on this site since before LOTRO launched. I finally decided to jump in and get my feet wet. I'm tickled to death my first original thread has met with so much success.
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, riddle 'em with bullets
Evolution infers that the genre has evolved it is devolving, what it is devolving into some people may like but they aren't MMORPGs; anymore. MMORPGs are not what they were by definition and all we have being developed are whack a mole Arena games, the worlds are false and easy.
Barring a few (MMOROG) games that have some substance the genre is pretty much dead. We can only hope that Copernicus / SWTOR and games like Citadel of Sorcery... Have some hidden depth that get groups of people playing together again for fun and some community develops. Removing Auction Houses / Guilds and auto mail would be the first step to getting the genre back on track all 3 of the above are community killers.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel