In games, everyone is a hero. And most of them are not.
But that's ok, because all of their players believe they're pro and most of them are not.
That won't stop them from building an entire culture around establishing "leet"within the nerd hierarchy, though.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Is it really the stories and the quests that are the problem or the way world design's primary function is to cater to easy to understand progression and convenience?
I am tired of being a "hero". I want to be the soldier thrown in prison for deserting and given the choice of fight or die. Make me the begger who happens upon some knowledge or item that elevates me just enough that I can take on an adventure for even more power. Really just give me anything but a goody-goody hero, or at least make me an unwilling hero.
I agree that the focus of "A Lone Hero" in a world of many is a problem in MMOs. It's counterintuitive to the genre, and sets the tone of "me" from day 1.
MMOs should not be about "me", they should be about "we".
However, that's just one problem plaguing the genre. There's plenty other problems as well. MMOs as a whole have been going down the wrong path for almost a decade now. It looks like we're starting to see a sea change, and a turn in the right direction. That depends on who gets to set "the new trends" now, though.
You're spot on about one thing though... developers have forgotten - or perhaps never even knew - what MMOs are. Some of us have been saying that for years now, while being told the genre we claimed to remember "never existed". Only it did. It's just been forgotten by many, and has never even been experienced by many more.
I don't believe for a moment that when all these companies decided to try and get into MMO development that they were trying to make great MMOs, or that they did much to understand the genre at all. I think they were just trying to hop on Blizzard's coat-tails as quickly as they could to cash in on the crumbs of its success.
One small correction, though...
In your sentence: "Or have developers forgotten the key tenants of the genre somewhere in the past few years?"
I believe the word you were looking for was "tenets", not "tenants"
Originally posted by DeanGrey I am tired of being a "hero". I want to be the soldier thrown in prison for deserting and given the choice of fight or die. Make me the begger who happens upon some knowledge or item that elevates me just enough that I can take on an adventure for even more power. Really just give me anything but a goody-goody hero, or at least make me an unwilling hero.
I play EVE, the game that doesn't tell you you're special; it tells you that you're a worthless piece of crap, takes your drink and walks off with your girlfriend and what are you going to do about it, loser?
I agree completely. A character's reputation or perceived "greatness" should be derived from how he or she plays the game, not some contrived third-rate storyline in-game.
Kind of wish some D&D story writers or Star Wars authors helped out with stories in MMOs depending on the genre.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
It does not matter what a game does,the majority and i mean LARGE majority will still only play the game one way,to attain max level and get the best gear.I get little impression that players actually like playing their games,they seem to only want to race through levels and get angry if they die or don't get enough xp fast enough.
Even the developers are admitting their own games are not fun,they are tying to remove any organized group play,ALWAYS worried about time restraints.This mentality boggles me,when me and my friends get a pickup football game or hockey game together,we don't contemplate on what doesn't work good enough,we just enjoy getting out and playing.We don't care if we score touchdowns every time we get the ball,it is just fun to hangout and play.I do not get that same feeling in games,everyone seems in a rush.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
when me and my friends get a pickup football game or hockey game together,we don't contemplate on what doesn't work good enough,we just enjoy getting out and playing.We don't care if we score touchdowns every time we get the ball,it is just fun to hangout and play.I do not get that same feeling in games,everyone seems in a rush.
+1 Wisdom
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
when me and my friends get a pickup football game or hockey game together,we don't contemplate on what doesn't work good enough,we just enjoy getting out and playing.We don't care if we score touchdowns every time we get the ball,it is just fun to hangout and play.I do not get that same feeling in games,everyone seems in a rush.
+1 Wisdom
This is exactly it.
I've played MMOs for more years than I can remember, might 12 might be 15. I dunno. In all that time I can safely say that I don't remember a single achievement I made in any of those games. Reaching level cap, beating epic bosses, conquering dungeons, winning PvP battles - none of it. It's all blah on top of blah.
What I do remember are the laughs, banter and shared sense of fun and adventure with other players. All of my standout moments in MMOs have been that.
The sad thing about the last few years worth of MMOs is that they get in the way of all that goods stuff. They make efficient levelling and paced loot advancement the whole game, and make it impossible to sit around a camp fire on a lonely mesa with a few friends and just shoot the shyit.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be all the gamey stuff that they're giving us now, just that there needs to be a balance and that balance isn't there anymore. Quest hubs, short travel times, dungeon finders, insta-group tools, mobs everywhere... all of these things have taken from MMOs the very thing that made them awesome to start with.
That simplest of things - having fun with your mates in a big virtual world.
It does not matter what a game does,the majority and i mean LARGE majority will still only play the game one way,to attain max level and get the best gear.I get little impression that players actually like playing their games,they seem to only want to race through levels and get angry if they die or don't get enough xp fast enough.
Even the developers are admitting their own games are not fun,they are tying to remove any organized group play,ALWAYS worried about time restraints.This mentality boggles me,when me and my friends get a pickup football game or hockey game together,we don't contemplate on what doesn't work good enough,we just enjoy getting out and playing.We don't care if we score touchdowns every time we get the ball,it is just fun to hangout and play.I do not get that same feeling in games,everyone seems in a rush.
Totally agree, to me this is the biggest issue with MMOs currently. There is such a broad audience that those who want a game to play for immersion, interaction and long term investments are getting severely drowned out by fast content consuming, number/stat chasing, megalomaniacs with short attention spans. The problem is, thats not the consumer base you want to target your MMO toward (all the time). They will suck down your game faster than you can create new content, label your game a failure and leave you for the next shiny theme park in town.
When your prime motivation for playing a game is "Im going to be level 50 first and better than everyone else" and not "This world intrigues me, I would like to experience it", the game becomes interchangeable and trivial.
Originally posted by Shadowguy64 To be fair, and to maintain realism, mobs shouldn't respawn either. once someone clears out all the mobs, they should be gone forever until migration, reinforcements or mother nature repopulates the area. That should take days or weeks at a minimum.
With 1000s of people running around the servers killing things, all mobs would be extinct in a day, then what?
MMOs should not be about "me", they should be about "we".
...
Very true.
A lot of game companies simply do not know how to make a good MMO. At their heart they should be about working together in a dangerous world to overcome difficulties, whatever form they take. They should not be about this self-centered, egotistical drive to make one's character better than everyone elses that many games have turned into.
In fact these days many MMOs have regressed to the point that the sole focus in the game seems to be to level your character and make them as powerful/heroic as possible to show off how much better you are than everyone else. That's not working together, that's working against others. These games put in place mechanisms at their very core that drive the community apart, not bring them together.
Comments
But that's ok, because all of their players believe they're pro and most of them are not.
That won't stop them from building an entire culture around establishing "leet"within the nerd hierarchy, though.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Good article, Adam.
I agree that the focus of "A Lone Hero" in a world of many is a problem in MMOs. It's counterintuitive to the genre, and sets the tone of "me" from day 1.
MMOs should not be about "me", they should be about "we".
However, that's just one problem plaguing the genre. There's plenty other problems as well. MMOs as a whole have been going down the wrong path for almost a decade now. It looks like we're starting to see a sea change, and a turn in the right direction. That depends on who gets to set "the new trends" now, though.
You're spot on about one thing though... developers have forgotten - or perhaps never even knew - what MMOs are. Some of us have been saying that for years now, while being told the genre we claimed to remember "never existed". Only it did. It's just been forgotten by many, and has never even been experienced by many more.
I don't believe for a moment that when all these companies decided to try and get into MMO development that they were trying to make great MMOs, or that they did much to understand the genre at all. I think they were just trying to hop on Blizzard's coat-tails as quickly as they could to cash in on the crumbs of its success.
One small correction, though...
In your sentence: "Or have developers forgotten the key tenants of the genre somewhere in the past few years?"
I believe the word you were looking for was "tenets", not "tenants"
I play EVE, the game that doesn't tell you you're special; it tells you that you're a worthless piece of crap, takes your drink and walks off with your girlfriend and what are you going to do about it, loser?
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
It does not matter what a game does,the majority and i mean LARGE majority will still only play the game one way,to attain max level and get the best gear.I get little impression that players actually like playing their games,they seem to only want to race through levels and get angry if they die or don't get enough xp fast enough.
Even the developers are admitting their own games are not fun,they are tying to remove any organized group play,ALWAYS worried about time restraints.This mentality boggles me,when me and my friends get a pickup football game or hockey game together,we don't contemplate on what doesn't work good enough,we just enjoy getting out and playing.We don't care if we score touchdowns every time we get the ball,it is just fun to hangout and play.I do not get that same feeling in games,everyone seems in a rush.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
+1 Wisdom
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
This is exactly it.
I've played MMOs for more years than I can remember, might 12 might be 15. I dunno. In all that time I can safely say that I don't remember a single achievement I made in any of those games. Reaching level cap, beating epic bosses, conquering dungeons, winning PvP battles - none of it. It's all blah on top of blah.
What I do remember are the laughs, banter and shared sense of fun and adventure with other players. All of my standout moments in MMOs have been that.
The sad thing about the last few years worth of MMOs is that they get in the way of all that goods stuff. They make efficient levelling and paced loot advancement the whole game, and make it impossible to sit around a camp fire on a lonely mesa with a few friends and just shoot the shyit.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be all the gamey stuff that they're giving us now, just that there needs to be a balance and that balance isn't there anymore. Quest hubs, short travel times, dungeon finders, insta-group tools, mobs everywhere... all of these things have taken from MMOs the very thing that made them awesome to start with.
That simplest of things - having fun with your mates in a big virtual world.
Totally agree, to me this is the biggest issue with MMOs currently. There is such a broad audience that those who want a game to play for immersion, interaction and long term investments are getting severely drowned out by fast content consuming, number/stat chasing, megalomaniacs with short attention spans. The problem is, thats not the consumer base you want to target your MMO toward (all the time). They will suck down your game faster than you can create new content, label your game a failure and leave you for the next shiny theme park in town.
When your prime motivation for playing a game is "Im going to be level 50 first and better than everyone else" and not "This world intrigues me, I would like to experience it", the game becomes interchangeable and trivial.
Canabalism? Soilent Green?
Very good article. And true, I agree and relate much.
Cheers!
Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
Very true.
A lot of game companies simply do not know how to make a good MMO. At their heart they should be about working together in a dangerous world to overcome difficulties, whatever form they take. They should not be about this self-centered, egotistical drive to make one's character better than everyone elses that many games have turned into.
In fact these days many MMOs have regressed to the point that the sole focus in the game seems to be to level your character and make them as powerful/heroic as possible to show off how much better you are than everyone else. That's not working together, that's working against others. These games put in place mechanisms at their very core that drive the community apart, not bring them together.
It's so sad to see.