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What was the level of expectations for the MMOs...

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  • aleosaleos Member UncommonPosts: 1,942
    I'd say the direction we were heading by now we should have already had a themepark sandbox that catered to everyone.
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,897

    My expectation for UO was that it would be stable and polished given that they were charging a monthly fee.  I didn't buy the game at launch as I was never an Ultima player, but I saw how bad the launch was and was glad I skipped it.  I wasn't aware of EQ when it released.

     

    I had low expectations for WOW but tried it on the open beta right before launch and loved it.  It exceeded my expectations as I hated the gameplay of EQ when I watched friends play it.

     

    Themeparks post WOW needed to meet the standards of WOW if I was going to pay a sub.  The only game that didn't but still got me to pay was LOTRO based mostly on the IP and the fact that they didn't totally ruin the world.  It was extremely boring to play though.

     

    Themeparks today releasing without multiple factions, group finders, polished pvp, achievements and fluid gameplay are shooting themselves in the foot.  They just don't "get it" and deserve their failure.

  • hardiconhardicon Member UncommonPosts: 335

    i started playing mmos in general with ac, and have recently returned to my roots to play ac again and still love the game just as much as I did back in 2002 when i started it. 

    What made me love that game back then was the persistant world, housing in the real world not locked away into an instance.  when you go into a dungeon there might be other people there.  The community and the feeling that I was part of a world and that i could shape that world (even though I knew I couldnt, the feeling was there).  My expectations as technology grew and mmo gaming grew is we would keep those worlds and that feeling and expand on it to have virtual worlds that you could change with your actions.  wow came out and promised a game with a great war between two opposing factions as well as a war with evils in the world itself.  it promised to take out alot of the boring tasks that were in previous mmos, it promised action instead of endless grinding just to get powerful enough to do something.  no more slaying rats or mosswarts forever just to get somewhere.  vanilla wow was a great compromise between too boring and too fast advancement.  it still took a while to get somewhere in vanilla wow but you could still get there while maintaining a job and getting laid every so often.

     

    then wow changed and catered to the add crowd and the crack baby crowd.  everything was made easier, too easy, there is no longer a feeling of accomplishment in wow and current games.  most games a hardcore gamer can get to max level in 4 days, a casual gamer in two weeks, a extremely casual gamer in 4 weeks. 

    mmos went from massively multiplayer to single player with other people and the boredom set in, the communities became non existent, the feeling of accomplishment dissappeared.  that is what is wrong with current games imo.

     

  • Trudge34Trudge34 Member UncommonPosts: 392

    All I want from my MMO is something to keep me invested in my character development and interdependability.

    I don't really have many specifics about it, but I loved pre-PoP EverQuest, even PoP wasn't too terrible although it could have been implemented a bit better to lessen the impact it had on the rest of the world. I know I see achievements and daillies and hings like them as sort of a meaningless filler to just keep you busy. 

    I know I enjoyed the slower progression, hell levels, the AA exp and the not over the top boosts you got from each one along with flags for higher PoP zones with the PoJ trials, BoT key quest ect, keys for Sebillis, Howling Stones, Veeshan's Peak and others.

    Factions, dieties and everything that went along with it in EQ. Specific armor you could get crafted because of your diety, certain zones and quests you could explore and get because of your faction work (Velious armor comes to mind.) 

    Even the slower combat was nice. As a tank, instead of watching hotbars and cooldowns I'm watching for pathers, watching my party's HP, managing the positioning of the mob due to the push that was in the game and directing the puller on when to bring that next one if we're chain pulling and grabbing that 2nd mob while the 1st is still beating on me. Mobs don't even last long enough these days to be able to do any of that.

    Crafting was even pretty usefull. Rings and earrings made by crafters were sought out by many that weren't in the highest teir raiding guilds, diety armor for Rallos Zek was pretty awesome as well just thinking off the top of my head.

    Quests that were actually quests and not that feeling they're just easy tasks or running errands for this guy you just met who promises to give you this sweet breastplate after bringing him 10 giant wasp wings that, amazingly, only drop when you have that quest active. Much rather have similar quests like the Crushbone Belt, Bandit Sash or Gnoll Ear quests that pay bounties for proving you're killing an enemy along with coin and gaining faction.

    Would also love to see the return of player run services. Need a lift? Wizard or Druid can help you with that, need to run somewhere a bit quicker? Pay up a few plat for a SoW from a Ranger, Druid or Shaman. Mana regen? Chanter can help ya there. The plus about these is that none of these buffs were absolutely necessary, but they did help quite a bit.

    I guess to sum it up (wrote way more than I inteded) the biggest thing missing like I've said in a seperate post is the biggest thing missing from MMOs these days is conflict and adversity. Without much or any conflict or adversity, you really don't have a whole lot of accomplishment either. Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.

    Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
    Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
    Currently Playing: GW2

    Nytlok Sylas
    80 Sylvari Ranger

  • zekeofevzekeofev Member UncommonPosts: 240

    I expected fear of the world/enviroment back in the golden age.

     

    In Everquest I could get lost or go into a zone totally inappropriate for me. I would then have to corpse run a long way to get back my things only to be met with an xp penalty. We quickly learned that was bad.

     

    The result was banding together with other players to try and brave the enviroment with shared effort. Sometimes that banding took the form of grouping to fight mobs together or sometimes advice about how to get to somewhere or a suggestion about where to go.

     

    In Asheron's Call a system was set up to encourage players to associate with each other called the fealty and vasal system. I distinctly remember a few GM run world events where elemental monsters would raid the cities and the playerbase had to rally together to defeat them over the course of many days.

     

    Now days everything is easy and I get a questmarker telling me exactly where to go and what to do next. Its effective I guess it just sucks the soul out of everything I liked about old school games. Now I can look online for the locations of everything in the game and I need not interact with anyone.

     

    What happened to the reasons to positively interact with other players? When that comes back, we will be in our second golden age.

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