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Where are the scary/original monsters in most mmorpgs?
Maquiame
Member UncommonPosts: 1,073
I gotta say one thing that I've been noticing alot is the complete lack of scary monsters in most mmo's nowadays. I mean monsters that are a real threat and made you RUN from them because they were so horrible. Or what they did was so terrible that you paused before you fought them.
Remember the one hit kill monsters from EQ like the Gryphon or the Sand Giants? Or even the skeletons that came out and ran a train on your butt at night? Game designers seemingly have gotten pretty lazy with their monster designs. There is no longer any fear seeing anything in most mmorpgs. Its like most beasties are just there to kill and move on to the next part of your quest. When are monsters going to be given the love that they deserver again. When are we going to see new monsters from cultures that have not been done to death? There are alot of damn good beasties out there that could be put into a game. One's that if done right can really be memorable. Russian Demons, real vampires that actually can do what vampires do. Godzila sized Giants that cause mini tremors in an area. Rocs! Humongous winged birds that were able to pick up and fly off with elephants in myth.
Where are these creatures? And more so when is there going to be a game that acknowledges their awesomeness. Especially in a fantasy mmorpg? I would pay good money for a monster that was unbeatable. Hell give me a basilisk that could turn me to stone and its an instakill. Or some giant/automaton/colossus thing that would instakill if it stepped on you. Where are those guys?
Let me hear your thoughts on this. And list down the monsters you thought were scary in ANY mmorpg (I still remember peeing in my pants having a mob of Rikti chase me down in Perez Park and I had to run all the way to zone to flee them. This was in COX Rikti were the end all be all baddies at the time and Perez Park is a lowbie zone, so I had no chance in winning that fight and it was all random, they normally do not appear in that area at all.)
Personally I am a bit tired of dragons they appear to often for my tastes. We need more than them, and definitely need more care given to monsters in mmos that make them more than just another thing to kill.
So again put down any monster that you feel needs to be done right in an mmo and that can give that "oh shit run!" feeling, or the scariest monster that you remember in an mmo that you've played. Any mmorpg.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Comments
You know what I don't buy this. Hard elites that can instakill have nothing to do with how easy a game is. They can be there just so that the game can remind you every now and then that you can get your ass kicked in this world. COX is not a hard mode game, and it had random spawnings of high monsters in lowbie areas.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
You know what I don't buy this. Hard elites that can instakill have nothing to do with how easy a game is. They can be there just so that the game can remind you every now and then that you can get your ass kicked in this world. COX is not a hard mode game, and it had random spawnings of high monsters in lowbie areas.
They can be, but they are not.True.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I agree that monsters in MMOs usually lack some imagination. Most of the monsters and humanoid races are in 90% of all MMOs. We have dragons and elves, griffons and dwarfs, giants and gnomes.
It is a little sad, not only do most devs only invite a few monsters themselves, when they do they reuse them over and over with some different colors like Wows merlocks. They could at least steal different mythological creatures, even in western mythology there are plenty of nasty beasts that rarely makes into a MMO, like perygons, fylgjas, manticores and many more.
As for scary I agree. A few monsters that are scary and a bit tougher than everything else in the zone is fun. Like those shelobs (giant spiders) in Lineage, all never players feared them. They looked scary and were though, not impossible to kill but you needed a few people of the standard level in the zone to take one down.
They doesn´t even have to be many, but a lone manticore that is hard to take down in the zone and player knowing that manticores are bad@ss would make the game more fun.
Yes, it would be cool to have these sorts of monsters.
Actually Loko* linked a Dungeon Explore game: http://www.grimrock.net/ eg Dungeon Master where that claustrophobic, something surprises/scares/jumps you around the next corner...
This is missing in mmorgps. It could be 1-hit monsters, or more serious penalty type of attack as well as scary visuals. But it's the fear of loss/surprise sharp turn of events that is missing perhaps?
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
In TTS I am going to have all the standard monsters but also some newer scarier ones. Horrors, but actually horrible and not just a cartoon sphere with 5 mouths and random feet sticking out, and some insectoid stuff that is quite scary and some other stuff.
Also a selection of monsters from the overarching Children of the Thousand Suns campaign within which TTS is contained. None of the really epic stuff, because TTS is post Fall and so those mostly don't exist anymore, but still some creepy and scary stuff. Maybe a couple remnants if I get around to it.
Just imagine blizzard would put a death panalty in wow , lets say lose of 10% exp.
I bet they would lose like 80% of their subscribers in on month.
Death panalty is a relict of the past and have no role to play in the mmo of the future. Even for hardcore players it sucks, in daoc it was the reason why not goups with some newbies were disbanded, cousing hate for newbies. Sure for soloplay it can creates a more dangerous feeling and can be exiting, but we dont play solo games here.
Nevertheless monsters can be scary, its the job of the developers to make them scary. I remeber those stealth spider that are running around WOW-BC, they surprised with an scary noisy sound... the first time they did this I almost get an heart attack.
Final Fantasy XIV proved that having 90% of the accessible monsters in the game kill you in one hit was a terrible game mechanic and did not excuse bland, generic creature design. I want to control a hero, not some featherweight with a wooden stick who can't fight anything but giant rats. Developers in these types of games are clearly too lazy to make monster fights actually require skill rather than just a huge player mob.
Second, the monsters you cited earlier do not qualify as "original" by a long shot. They're generic fantasy creatures with no interesting lore and no explanation of how they came to exist. I appreciate interactivity, but originality means having to move beyond the standard D&D archetypes. Deathclaws in Fallout 2 were original. The Krogan in Mass Effect were original. Heck, even the Koopas in Super Mario Bros were an original concept and design. The 40 year old generic fantasy monster kit we expect in all MMOs is not original in any form.
You would expect that as graphical capabilities increase, the scariness of monsters will increase but the hypothesis is clearly failing.
I think it's becuase ever since WoW, games are seeking after this cartoonish art style which I don't particularly prefer; high in contrast, bright, and overexadurated..
FEEL THE FULL
FREE-TO-FLAME
FANTASY.
No MMO is going to be scary if they continue to make it so easy to win you can do it while eight boxing a 20 man raid, and don't even care if you you fail because its just a trip to the respawn and a few gold in EQ repair.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
tha's why I like EVE, the monsters are the other players and some of them are downright homicidal.
Currently bored with MMO's.
Fel Reavers. Giant mechanized machines of death that roamed around Hellfire Peninsula, smashing hapless players into a fine paste. Hearing that strange, mechanical roar and seeing the screen begin to shake as you're fighting a quest mob used to be quite the cure for constipation. I'd imagine it still is.
There are other areas in WoW with those types of mobs in them (memory is kinda rusty though), and some of those zones were incredibly fun to play in. Sadly, that kind of thing fell by the wayside when WotLK and Cataclysm were released.
Nowadays players probably just bitch and moan about them so much that companies have decided it's just not worth it to use mobs like that anymore. For shame.
My faves were the very large dragons that roamed around. One in Duskwood, One in the Hinterlands, One in Feralas , One in Ashenvale. The huge Lava golem in Burning Steppes was awesome. I saw a dude get his ass crushed by him LOL.
Guess what game is already planning on doing that Ref
>.>
<.<
Well actually I think the monsters in Tera are quite fresh in many cases, at least the ones in Poporia are nice but i doubt they have as goal to scare people and the fact that you got scared was probably because you had something to lose from dying which you dont nowadays.
While those might not be very original there are some more original types in game but I find those the most interesting, probably due to my love for horror.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/10/26/tera-creeps-us-out-with-a-monster-movie/
Perfect!
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
From vids I've seen, I think TERA has some cool monsters. They actually look monsterous.
Yeah but is there any reason to fear them? I mean you can replace the boars in WoW with the biggest ugliest monster in the mmorpg genre it isn't going to change much. You kill them in 2-3 shots and they have no chance at killing you.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Well that is more the fault of Games today in general, as I stated you dont fear them because dying has no meaning you just spawn and walk back.
you know when you go see an horror movie!and they want to scare you they have tactic!it can be done but the issue start when parent hop inb and complain!WHY DID YOU MAKE WOW PG 21!MY 9 YEAR OLD KID WANT TO PLAY ALSO BUT I DONT WANT HIM TO HAVE NIGHTMARE !PLEASE THROTTLE THIS DOWN TO PG 3 (CHINA PRETTY MUCH DID THIS TO WOW)
SO IN THE FUTUR EVEN MAX SETTING WONT BE ENND ALL BE ALL!YOU LL HAVE AN OPTIONAL PG21 WITH THE GORRY SCARY STUFF AND ALL AND THE GAME WILL CHECK THE AGE LIMIT ON YOUR COMPUTER IF IT SAY PG9 IT WILL AUTO LIMIT IT TOO PG9
but if it is pg21 then it will max everything !(when i say futur i mean in a about a millenia)
When I think of frightening monsters, the first thing that comes to mind are the Wallmasters from the Legend of Zelda games. When you were in a room where you knew Wallmasters lurked, it made you paranoid.
After the first time they get you, you know they're there...it's being able to reproduce that sense of foreboding on subsequent visits that signifies a well-designed monster IMO, and that includes not just it's visual design and difficulty, but also its AI and aggro mechanics as well.
In WoW the Fel Reaver fits that description. The elite Sons of Arugal that used to roam Tirisfal Glades, the Dragonmaw Ascendants on Netherwing Ledge, and the Monstrous Kaliri in Skettis offer the same sort of dynamic. In the case of the last one in particular people complained so much that the mechanic got changed so that the sense of foreboding was lost.
I love entering a game world where you have to be verycarefull not to aggro a mob or you die. A dangerous world where its not safe is much more fun to play then majority of todays games with all the safezones 90% of gameworld bah:(
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
The wallmasters? Yea they were quite creepy but fuck the redeads scream still make me shiver. ;S
(N64 ones).