So after having played dozens of MMORPgs, having watched their progression since 2001 i have come to some specific conclusions which are arguably not really popular to the community currently but i still think they make some solid points.
I believe that that mmorpgs the last years are trying way to much to be innovative on certain aspects of the game that completely mess up core elements of mmorpgs, that it is individuality(in terms of char aspects) socializing(grouping/raiding) and being rewarding, in my opinion if an MMORGP doesnt contain those 3 in a high level its doomed to fail, being generic is not the big issue of the mmos currently, i still beileve that a generic mmo with very strong those 3 aspects would do fantastic
Individuality
Where is the individuality in the last 2-3 years of mmos, its awfull the RPG aspect of an MMO its different of a non MMO, its about playing with friends but be different from them in way more than 1 way.
But lets go to the simple things why mmos recently dont even bother making armors and beautifull ones or a wide range through leveling, we went from games(for e.x) that u could change 10 different shoulder armors in a range of 20-25 levels to games that either the armor is very similar looking untill u hit max cap or games that u change armor 4-5 times, and recently games that u dont change armor at all (but u do change costumes if u buy them ) imo this is horrible.
Also where is the individuality in terms of pvp/profs and many other things, thats the beauty of playing an mmorpg to be different from the other in more than a single way( not just class/proff for example)
Socializing(grouping/raiding)
One of the biggest issues lately in the MMORPG's is grouping with a friend or freinds in order to either join a dungeon or compelte quests.2 Of the latest AAA+ MMorgps that have been released in 2015 had huge issues(i dont want to name them because it is not my intention to compare games but if u have played them u will understand for which i am talking about) in the first one fantastic world excellent rpg experience and when u were trying to group with a friend u were encountering huge problems sometimes instances of a specifc part of a quest should be done solo , some other times quests were bugging especially when u were grouping, some other u had to do them each one solo for no particular reason.Also the other big mmorpg it might had slightly better grouping system but it was still bad( u had to relog to be shown in the same place with your friennd-UI didnt show the quests shared and many others).
As for raiding things are getting worse, u going from easy soloing everything untill u max -cap level and u usually u go straight into epic hardcore difficulty raiding. Just put 3-4 god damn raids with different difficulty each they dont have to be huge, and not the same raid with different diffculty(or at least have 1 more) . TBC expantion is the ultymate perfect example about how an MMORPG game raid system. You had gruul -Maghteridon..later on Kharazhan that could be puged or done even by not hard raiding guilds, then u were moving to SSC and then to bigger difficulty raids BT SP and many other.
Game being rewarding
THats another very simple aspect of the game but so much vital and important, making a quest or a series of quest and getting rewarded respectively its huge, it gives u joy and a feeling of satisfaction and urge to continue playing the game.MMORPGs lately dont bother being rewarding in any aspect
SUmming up i beleive companies are trying way too hard to be innovative that ignore core elements of the MMOrpg genre, before people try to make new things please make sure u have the basic mmorpg elements well made, i mean why bother making a beautifull made world with extreme details if i cant bloody group up and enjoying leveling with a friend!
THis is what i wanted to say, sorry for my horrible english
Comments
One of the biggest problems with MMO's today is the lack of content for a big crowd. The only content we see for more than 25 or 30 people is always PvP.
I'd like to see someone put the Massively back into MMO.
It's ok if your game requires skill. It's not ok if you need no lifers to progress.
No idea how the game is doing these days, but prior to going F2P it wasn't in a very happy place.
A great deal of people were also painfully reminded just how much of a hassle it is to organize those things.
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https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Move that to TBC and it gets worse, you get 28 players and 3 miss out, you have 12 and 2 get left out. If you had the original 40 players that's 15 that can't go so they try and start a 10 man and if they're lucky with classes they might get away with it, but that all depends on having a tank and enough healers. Still there's 5 left out in the cold. Sorry guys, you can't go. Absolute bollocks in a game claiming to be Massively multiplayer.
The thing is that we know content scaling works. Why these restrictions are still enforced I don't know.
* Why on Earth people always think that devs want to do that anyway? Do they really think that developers are such idiots that they piss off those paying their wages just for shits and giggles?
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Developers are aware their players think the game starts at max level, but instead of figuring out the reasons for this they simply allow them to get there faster, which makes the early game and its content more or less pointless. This means it would be waste of resources and dev time to create armor sets or group content for anything else than the part where 'the game starts'. It's also more lucrative for companies if their players pay for less and are ok with the fast-food content they have to go through to get to the meat of the game after 2-3 days long SPG. Some companies even sell options to skip this SPG so their customers can get straight to the mini-game they are interested in.
The bottom line is these companies give what we (as a gaming audience) want and are willing to pay for. They don't care for innovations, only quick and easy money, and as long as there are people paying for these conveniences this will be the only kind of non-indie mmo format in existence. And if for some reason the gaming crowd got back to their senses, the companies would come to a conclusion we're not interested in mmos anymore, and started to develope something else.
name 1 game trying to add socializing and grouping?
Name 1 game that goes beyond a visual slider characterization screen?
Point 3 you got right.That is all developers are doing is EASY rewards,step here get free xp,go run to npc get xp,it's a holiday get 3x xp,do meaningless quest get xp and loot,instant level 90 players,instant travel,give us money get a ship get a mount no need to play the game and earn it,we give it to you.
Lost....immersion...forget about it,we have both arrows and yellow markers to hold your hand directly where you need to go and if your REALLY lazy,we even have auto pilot or auto travel.
This whole era of gaming to me is like someone standing out front of a large store chain with coupons to entice you to come in the store right before they jack up the prices and rip you off.
Whoa whoa ,,,excuse me sir this coupon said 50% off,well 50% off of 600 means i still have to buy this ship for 300 dollars?I can buy better net door for 200 bucks.Pfft forget about it,our model has fixed every known problem this item has had and we'll even throw in some free xp pots for buying from us.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Not beeing able to play the whole game with a friend is just not right imo. Why should anything be forced solo in a mmo ? That just doesn't make sense. I'm not saying it cant have a solo option, but forced solo is just as bad as forced grouping. Might even be worse considering were talking mmorpg's not singleplayer rpg's.
First and all mmo's need to fokus on what mmo's does best. Dont try to be something you're not. Expand on guildtools and social tools. Ex. It should be possible to improve on the basic groupfinder tool.
I'm not saying mmo's have to be all about raids or huge pvp battles. You can invent some other type of social game. What's i'm saying is dont make solo content at the expense of groupcontent. Dont make solo content you cant play in a group. Some people actually like playing with friends and/or family and beeing forced to solo is a detractor for most of thoose people.
THey should also upgrade the role of the guilds/pacts or whatsoever they can be called. Automaticly finding groups for raids/dungeons destroyed the purpose of being in a good guild or the purpose of trying to improve it. From fantastic open area PvP like DAOC offered some lnog time ago to the PvE peak of guilds in TBC/WoTLK(still remember i had to read more than 15-20 applications in a point a day as recruit officer)
No it certainly stopped idle chatter, but the group finding did way more good then bad.
The real problem is the notion of a dungeon and "raids", what would they mean to developers outside the blizzard sphere?
The template is nothing but a man made invention, It's time to throw it away and or improve on it...I understand the concept of a game dungeon stretches as far back as the invention of the computer, but there was no such thing as one kind of implementation.
Even a level based mmo is a figment of one persons imagination that became a norm, so much falsities lol.
PvP, seemingly everyone wants it but they want it in a 'certain' way. ANY form of PvP that can be created exists already, so pick a game and look at it. You cannot reinvent PvP. It is what it is. PvP comes down to a couple things...'balance' and how 'hardcore' is it. It will never ever be balanced in any game so stop trying. Not many people want hardcore but they do want some from of open world PvP and a (decent)risk reward situation. (THAT might not exist in any MMOs right now)
Character diversity. THAT does exist, basically every game has in depth and intricate options for people to create characters, but you know what happens? You get a thousand people asking "whats the best build for such and such a class' or a hundred youtube videos of people showing insane amounts of damage or healing or whatever and people want to know the EXACT spec and gear. Or you have simple guides telling people where to put points how to do rotations and where to find gear. And if they put a single point into a 'wrong' tree they either reroll or whine and cry about it.
'End game'/progression/rewards Tougher nut to crack. The ONLY way youre going to keep this stuff from being steamrolled through by guys who can play 24/7 is to lock it behind timers or make it so to advance each member needs a certain piece of equipment (that you cant farm endlessly until everyone has it) or you make it so difficult the gear is a must to get past certain areas. None of those people like. No one likes lock outs, no one likes the RNG, and people cringe at stuff being a challenge let alone difficult enough to require certain gear pieces to advance. Basically two of three of those become 'hardcore' versus 'casual' issues.
In the end there is one game that does actually do most of the stuff 'necessary' to fit the needs of most (PvE) gamers, thats Lotro. Except that it is so dumbed down and easy these days it takes only a week or two for even the most casual of casual to have the top end items in the game. Plus its older than dirt.
In the end an MMO that is going to get the most out of itself, has to be fun, it has to offer enough things to the different factions of MMO players that still exist to interest a wide range of play styles tp keep a healthy amount of people playing, it has to keep people attention s long enough to keep them logging in every day and working towards things and then with updates or expansions time it so the game progresses at a time when people are ready for it and not when too many people have left and just hope they get a surge of people coming back.
You know what would be a radical and I am sure unpopular option that would fulfill a lot of things? Time limits on how long accounts could stay online. So when the game launches you dont have the typical 200 hours (and gone through mot of the content) in 2 weeks. An account gets 30 hours a week max, or X amount of consecutive hours per day. That would obviously be the ultimate timer lock out but it would also protect people from themselves and the burn out. People would also have to learn how to manage their time again and schedule 'special' things like grouping ot whatever. Obviously no game would ever do that but IMO people would eventually get used to it and they might even like it. I mean go to any of the 'popular' games (what few there are) that people arent burnt out on yet or moved on from, if the servers are down for whatever reason the forums are on fire with complaints because they want to actually log in. If games started having scheduled downtimes (not for maintenance or anything else, just to basically slow people down) imagine how rabid it would keep players (longer).
tl;dr I know but it addresses most of the issues MMOs face these days with truly radical and unpopular options that are so crazy they would probably work.
My enh shammy back then had bigger burst than my ele shammy, that being said the majority of the boses required my ele shammy since they were more aoe focused and with spawns.
Proffetions, how beautifull was the diversity in TBC 7-8 proffs with 2-3 sub proffs for example alchemy(elixir master-potion master--transmog everyone was needed in a guild, if a game is really deep with great balance and synergy between different aspects diversity is easily achieved.Even though i didnt want to talk a bout specific games in this post, WoW did many things so incredibly right in a specific era.
Imo dont really agree with time limitations, i still beileve that if someone wants to spent huge amounts of time he should be rewarded in different case most of the people will have the same progress, that being said it wouldnt matter because the msot important achievements comes through raids and grouping...hell 40 ppl were working all together for a month in order our rogue to get the thudnerfurry back in times.
I miss RNG to be honest, it was perfect because it led to another innovation by the guilds that enhanced the game and i talk about the DKP system, you want loots sir?Sure but u have to participate in conistent rate to gather points and manage to get your item .Now everyone gets 2-3 drops per run, get instantly geared a fter 2 weeks ''Hey man we got raids scheduled for this week'' noo... i'll pass thank sorry bye.SO many runs in MC i took in total 3 items.SO fuking what?When i took them the feeling was orgasmic, such satisfaction
The newer generation, and you know who they are because you have zero frame of reference with them on any level, don't see games the same way you do. What you see as utopia is utterly boring to them. It's why games that feature nostalgic elements often fail.
Try mentioning Billy Beer to someone born in the 80s... they have zero frame of reference to it. Games are no different... as time goes on, games change because the people playing them have. You may wish to stay in the past, but the world around you doesn't stand still. Hence your belief that there is a problem with MMOs. A good number of people don't see them as problems... they also don't visit sites such as this. Your preaching to the choir... most of the peeps here are older than dirt as their kids would say and dinosaurs by their own definition.
It is not about what you want ... but what audience the devs want to cater to. It is their choice.
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MOBAs were new when LoL was first launched.
Destiny was a new try, although not reviewed well.
Blizz is trying a different kind of online shooter.
Wargaming net became successful in doing WW2 based instanced pvp.
Marvel Heroes blends ARPG & MMORPG with a great IP license.
....
anyway, thanks for clarifying.
on thing though, Destiny was not in innovation in MMORPGs. it was a marketing rip off
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LoL is the first commercial MOBA. But even if LoL is the second one .. it is still new compared to many mmorpgs.
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These are games which are abstractions and are all made up. DERP.
As to dungeons, just look back at dnd and their modules. That is where gaming got dungeons.
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Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Most may not have 3, 4, 5+ millions players but the only true indication that they failed is if they shut down and I have not seen many "newer" MMOs shut down in the past year.
I agree with Pepeq, us older players remember things we liked about mmos from the past and we may not like how a lot of mmos have been developed recently but they are being developed for what the majority of people want now not what the nostalgic group (us) wants. Bottom line, companies are making money on what is being put out and as long as they are the will continue with it.
We can rebel with not buying mmos and sure if enough do that then they might decide that mmos are done and start developing some other type of game and we can sit in forums moaning about there being no mmos.
So even though I may not like everything in the "new" mmos, I still like mmos and still play them and will play them until the day they all stop or the day I am unable to play (death).