average age of a MMO gamer I think is 35 for f8ck sake!
Ehh perhaps 5-6 years ago.. now its closer to 12... If you look at wow (and how can you not with 10mill+ subs) im pretty sure the average age you gave there is true cus half is 12 years old and the other half is 50 year old single mom's...
Actually the article I read was numbers from 2011...
Like TV, the content doesnt really represent the actual age of the players.
did you know the average age of a TV viewer is in thier 50s but the content is aimed for adults under 21.
Having said that, its becoming harder and harder for me to be truly interested in an MMO these days. In fact, I'm going on ~6 months w/out subbing to an MMO.
1) Controls/Combat: The moment to moment fun is high if the combat is good, assuming combat is the main aim, or other type of activity eg minecraft smashing bricks.
2) Sandbox: Alternatively you are in a world and you can just go do what you want and lose track of time.
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Both get you in the zone which is a good "gut feeling" for the measure of a game. If you are not seeing either, then the game no matter what features or content it has, it does not work for me.
Any rumors of pay2win usually send me packing... although this is increasingly becoming synonymous with every game with some sort of cash shop (ie players now saying GW2 is pay2win).... hyperbole much?
Exactly when if any of these nay sayers did their homework they would actually see that their math is severely off.
They pounce on anything that has a shop of anykind and call foul when really all they are worried about is that a game like GW2 will make everyone equal and they can't stand the thought of being on the same level as a casual player.
I believe this to be the most truthful comment I've seen around here for days.
This excludes me from playing many MMOs Out there but this is my main deal breaker. Games with non-active combat I.E. you trade blows with your enemy till someone dies, I want to be able to actively move around and dodge hits. I so far only know of 4 games that allow you to do this sadly. but here are just a few more Deal breakers I have normally.
1. Low character customization, I dont want a twin I didn't even know about 2. Pay 2 win (GW2 is not pay 2 win, Doom-bringers go back to your holes) 3. crappy graphics (excluding Minecraft, because Minecraft is awesome and the graphics add a bit of charm) 4. Too easy content/too hard content, I want a challenge but nothing over the to or something I can just faceroll and win without a scratch.
Fun and responsive combat with legitimate choices for customization. If you can't get that right, why even bother.
After that, it really depends on how much the game costs. A subscription based game better offer:
1) Great leveling experience with choices of where to quest at most levels. ie. not the SWTOR model
2) Group finder tools for dungeons and pvp with reasonable wait times
F2P games have never gotten any cash from me but I gladly leveled in them for free until I get bored. If they offered something more I might have paid cash, but the only one that qualified for that is LOTRO and I already have a lifetime account.
B2P games can not have a store like F2P games do. No EXP boosts, lottery boxes or store only exclusives. That's a big turnoff for me right now. If it's not pure fluff, ie. cosmetic, I don't want to see it in a store for a game I bought.I'd rather just play an existing subscription based game than one that seeks to nickle and dime customers and allows players to level faster or craft better.
FFA open world pvp is the most important aspect of an mmorpg for me. Without it I will either not play it or will quit after a week and smack myself for buying something i knew i wouldn't like. I hate instanced pvp, don't particularly enjoy doing quests, but do occasionally enjoy small group pve. Too much instancing is also a deal breaker for me. I also don't like artificial restrictions to open world pvp. Plus a game needs to have some sort of serious death penalty.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now! I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
I'm pretty open-minded, but I really look for novelty. If a game looks like a carbon copy of one I've already played, then I'm not really interested.
I'm basically open to anything fun, but it has to be at least somewhat novel.
I almost fall into this category. I'm probably less tolerant of clones though.
One caveat is first person view is an immediate no-go.
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
The fit and feel of a game are most important to me, so the specifics vary. A few I do look for follow...
Character Customization. The more customization the better.
Subscription. I've tried F2P games and just don't get into them. The most fun games I've played had subs, so I look for subs. I enjoy paying a flat monthly fee for the WHOLE game. Much easier to budget.
Cash Shops. They are a big turn off for me, yet are so common that it is not a deal breaker as much as I'd like to say they are.
Fantasy Setting. I'm not into guns or tanks or spaceships.
Good Quests. I need reasons to do the things I do in game. Questing just to level is the fine line I don't like to cross. Grinding mobs to level also is a big turn off.
No PvP. I don't like the "PvP crowd" that I have encountered in the games I've tried PvP in. It also brings in class balance issues when rock defeats scissors, paper defeats rock, and scissors defeat paper. Not a deal breaker for me, though.
Tab Target Combat. Trying to click on something with my mouse in the middle of a fight gets me killed every time. And mouse button mashing is more boring than any rotation fights I've been in. Having to face the right way seems to get interesting when your attack animations put you behind a foe after a move.
Down Time. That's when friends are made.
A few more than I thought I'd have.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Deal breakers for MMOs. I will never again play any MMO if any of the following are true:
1) There is no open world PVP
2) There is a cash shop that sells ANY form of in game advantage
3) The leveling/skill system doesn't allows somebody starting later to catch up those who have been in the game longer
Never, never, never will I play that game. EVER.
GW2 "built from the ground up with microtransactions in mind" 1) Cash->Gems->Gold->Influence->WvWvWBoosts = PAY2WIN 2) Mystic Chests = Crass in-game cash shop advertisements
Any rumors of pay2win usually send me packing... although this is increasingly becoming synonymous with every game with some sort of cash shop (ie players now saying GW2 is pay2win).... hyperbole much?
That is because common sense is not so common with most people. People link a game and a cash shop that is P2W and then any other game with one is also P2W. CoH has a cash shop and is so far from P2W. But alas most people are lemmings and lobotamized ones at that.
Any rumors of pay2win usually send me packing... although this is increasingly becoming synonymous with every game with some sort of cash shop (ie players now saying GW2 is pay2win).... hyperbole much?
That is because common sense is not so common with most people. People link a game and a cash shop that is P2W and then any other game with one is also P2W. CoH has a cash shop and is so far from P2W. But alas most people are lemmings and lobotamized ones at that.
^^^This
Cash Shop =/= Pay To Win.
Pay to Win = Everyone starts with crappy pistol. For $10 you get AK47. For $25 you get AK47 + Infinite Ammo. For $50 you get a tank. For $100 you get a nuclear weapon.
Cash Shop = Can include pay-to-win but also things that don't effect PvP. Maybe XP bonuses for PvE or a cool hat.
I love Achaea because it has a cash shop but you can earn everything you can buy in the cash shop in the game. For example you can buy a cash shop sword, or you can spend 2 hours Blacksmithing and make one that's just as good. The cash shop exists for people who want the best gear RIGHT NOW but you can not spend any money and have an equally good char with a little time.
Cash Shop: I don't care what it sells, all of them kill communities, why get your buddy supplies or protect him while he gets supplies for that sword/hat you want when you can just buy something as good for a dollar?
Instance Gear Grinding PvP: When I pvp in an MMO I want to be fighting for my faction or guild not for pvp points.
Crappy Useless Crafting
Soloing = Best way to level
Lack of anything to do outside of combat
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
bad game play is subjective but the most widely aggreeable trait
lacking polish could be graphical, but is more often nonsensical mechanics, or bad immersion.
mechanic diversity is how many vallid viable ways to play a game. it could be about class count, or whether there is both pve and pvp, or most commonly if the questing is limited.
MMOs are syposed to be many playered games, if there isn't community from character creation, i'm gone.
eq 2 had a lot of poorly coded and outright ugly mechanics. the inventory system was bad, harvesting was bad, quest approach was bad. it is a truely grind-rpg, but with too much nonsense to tollerate. lke coffee beans and tea leafs and other plants from a single bush/node.
an mmo should do what ever it seeks to do, well. if you want a FPSMMO you should have shooter mechanics on par with, if not better than, old school single player games.
For me it works one of two ways, either the more I hear the more I like, or the more I hear the more I don't like.
It's funny, but sometimes it seems like companies go out of their way to design the way I won't like it. I really dislike the direction this industry is headed.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
1. Payment type, I don't generally play free to play games, even if it isn't pay to win, I do not often trust that it will remain that way, and I am often too skeptical to try it and believe...I generally play a mmo for 1+ years easy (although Rift/SWTOR were 3 and 1 months), so I look for something I can play for a long time, and hope to get 3-5 years out of...Although the 'dry' market has made me give in on occasion...
2. Mechanics for PvE, Crafting, Harvesting, PvP...I prefer more open worlds, not instanced to death, and all those phases to be viable throughout game and character levels.
3. If it looks like it would be fun and worth the time and I could see myself playing it for a while, atleast on information I have available and is known.
Basically those are the big things, Rift was hope for a new company and I was on a long break after leaving Vanguard, but it became apparant even before launch that they were more clone, less innovation...Trion does seem like a good/solid company, that has good customer service...Just wasn't my thing, but I won't bad mouth the company.
SWTOR was to play with friends, got my money out of it imo, but a bad meshing of mmo/rpg imo, I went into it figuring I wouldn't like it, but I gave it a shot for some friends...
Last MMO that I believed hype on was WAR, and it was unfinished with crafting in name only, but I like the table top game, I had a lot of friends that were playing, and I was excited that something may give me the DAoC experience again...Played for a while, but it was just poorly thought out.
Comments
Vicarious living.
My list of MMO deal breakers (in no particular order):
Limited character development choices.
Non-Consensual PvP.
Anime art style graphics.
Crafting being an afterthought.
Predetermined path of progression.
Global timers for skill cooldowns
Repetitive button mashing: 1-2-3, wait, 1-2-3, wait, 1-2-3....
Having said that, its becoming harder and harder for me to be truly interested in an MMO these days. In fact, I'm going on ~6 months w/out subbing to an MMO.
I'm not creative enough to have a signature
2 Primary things I look at above all:
1) Controls/Combat: The moment to moment fun is high if the combat is good, assuming combat is the main aim, or other type of activity eg minecraft smashing bricks.
2) Sandbox: Alternatively you are in a world and you can just go do what you want and lose track of time.
---------------------
Both get you in the zone which is a good "gut feeling" for the measure of a game. If you are not seeing either, then the game no matter what features or content it has, it does not work for me.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I believe this to be the most truthful comment I've seen around here for days.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
This excludes me from playing many MMOs Out there but this is my main deal breaker. Games with non-active combat I.E. you trade blows with your enemy till someone dies, I want to be able to actively move around and dodge hits. I so far only know of 4 games that allow you to do this sadly.
but here are just a few more Deal breakers I have normally.
1. Low character customization, I dont want a twin I didn't even know about
2. Pay 2 win (GW2 is not pay 2 win, Doom-bringers go back to your holes)
3. crappy graphics (excluding Minecraft, because Minecraft is awesome and the graphics add a bit of charm)
4. Too easy content/too hard content, I want a challenge but nothing over the to or something I can just faceroll and win without a scratch.
Fun and responsive combat with legitimate choices for customization. If you can't get that right, why even bother.
After that, it really depends on how much the game costs. A subscription based game better offer:
1) Great leveling experience with choices of where to quest at most levels. ie. not the SWTOR model
2) Group finder tools for dungeons and pvp with reasonable wait times
F2P games have never gotten any cash from me but I gladly leveled in them for free until I get bored. If they offered something more I might have paid cash, but the only one that qualified for that is LOTRO and I already have a lifetime account.
B2P games can not have a store like F2P games do. No EXP boosts, lottery boxes or store only exclusives. That's a big turnoff for me right now. If it's not pure fluff, ie. cosmetic, I don't want to see it in a store for a game I bought. I'd rather just play an existing subscription based game than one that seeks to nickle and dime customers and allows players to level faster or craft better.
FFA open world pvp is the most important aspect of an mmorpg for me. Without it I will either not play it or will quit after a week and smack myself for buying something i knew i wouldn't like. I hate instanced pvp, don't particularly enjoy doing quests, but do occasionally enjoy small group pve. Too much instancing is also a deal breaker for me. I also don't like artificial restrictions to open world pvp. Plus a game needs to have some sort of serious death penalty.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
Has to have either some sort of rvr setup or robust guild vs guild mechanics
Mini games in a tupperware box and flip a switch "pvp" servers just don't cut it
The things (not limited to this list) that catch my interest are:
No sub + decent cash shop: Good
sub + box + xpak + cash shop + paid services : Bad
Third person view(standard in mmos): Good
First person view (MO and DF): Bad
tab target (standard): Good
ground target (GW2): Good
"action" mouse mashing combat: Bad
Quest progression: Good
Quest Grind for the sake of leveling: Bad
Good Graphics: Good
SMooth Mechanics: Good
i look up those things. the "bads" kill a game for me while the "goods" are what keep me playing
I will not play any MMO that has any of these "features"
Korean or anime-style characters
Buy clothes from cash shop or stuck with ugly pants/shirt
Free PK + Corpse loot
Retail Box price + Subscription fee
Item Grinding Quests (kill 30 wolves for 10 pelts)
Huge group PvE + Huge monsters. 40 people vs 70-foot troll is stupid
VIP areas or membership-only dungeons
Pay-to-Win Store Imbalances Game ($50 Sword of Unholy DPS vs. non-payers get wooden swords)
I almost fall into this category. I'm probably less tolerant of clones though.
One caveat is first person view is an immediate no-go.
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
It's tough to pinpoint...
The fit and feel of a game are most important to me, so the specifics vary. A few I do look for follow...
A few more than I thought I'd have.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Deal breakers for MMOs. I will never again play any MMO if any of the following are true:
1) There is no open world PVP
2) There is a cash shop that sells ANY form of in game advantage
3) The leveling/skill system doesn't allows somebody starting later to catch up those who have been in the game longer
Never, never, never will I play that game. EVER.
GW2 "built from the ground up with microtransactions in mind"
1) Cash->Gems->Gold->Influence->WvWvWBoosts = PAY2WIN
2) Mystic Chests = Crass in-game cash shop advertisements
I won't ever play a game that uses Random Number Generators for enchantment.
Exactly. Although I have other "insta-no" triggers.....
Anime - hate it
No sense of discovery and loads of invisible barriers in the game world
Combat that isn't smooth
Linear to the point of being literally a line you must follow
The same ol' same ol' stats-gear grind treadmill....I am so sick of this I could literally SCREAM (add formal raiding to this)
I could think of other things, for sure, but I'm busy at the moment. Just wanted to shoot out a quick post.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
No deal breakers per se, just strong negatives.
Non consensual PVP. (I don't care about PVP at all, but if I can't ignore it, thats a big strike against.)
Bad interface. (If you are going to make continual small irritations required to play the game, I'm way less likely to play the game.)
Poor character customization. (No excuse for this nowadays. Other than lazy developers.)
Bad story and background. (Yes, I do read all the text. If you don't have the feel of a real world, I'll end up going somewhere that does it better.)
Excessive Grind and Raiding. (Though if you can make it fun enough to repeat endlessly, I'll happily go there)
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
not really a deal breaker but am fed up with the lazyness.
Dungeons passing as content for 2 level ranges, but this one I can.. somewhat except.
Raids, 1 zone 4 different difficulty levels. Seriously? 1 zone has to pass as 4 different tier lvls of raiding?
Passing a revamp as expantion.
The lack of proper story and background in MMO's is a major negative for me.
That is because common sense is not so common with most people. People link a game and a cash shop that is P2W and then any other game with one is also P2W. CoH has a cash shop and is so far from P2W. But alas most people are lemmings and lobotamized ones at that.
^^^This
Cash Shop =/= Pay To Win.
Pay to Win = Everyone starts with crappy pistol. For $10 you get AK47. For $25 you get AK47 + Infinite Ammo. For $50 you get a tank. For $100 you get a nuclear weapon.
Cash Shop = Can include pay-to-win but also things that don't effect PvP. Maybe XP bonuses for PvE or a cool hat.
I love Achaea because it has a cash shop but you can earn everything you can buy in the cash shop in the game. For example you can buy a cash shop sword, or you can spend 2 hours Blacksmithing and make one that's just as good. The cash shop exists for people who want the best gear RIGHT NOW but you can not spend any money and have an equally good char with a little time.
Deal breaks for me:
Cash Shop: I don't care what it sells, all of them kill communities, why get your buddy supplies or protect him while he gets supplies for that sword/hat you want when you can just buy something as good for a dollar?
Instance Gear Grinding PvP: When I pvp in an MMO I want to be fighting for my faction or guild not for pvp points.
Crappy Useless Crafting
Soloing = Best way to level
Lack of anything to do outside of combat
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
my list:
bad game play
lacking polish
lacking mechanic diversity
poor/dead community.
reprehensible mechanics
brand/identity confusion
identity confusion.
bad game play is subjective but the most widely aggreeable trait
lacking polish could be graphical, but is more often nonsensical mechanics, or bad immersion.
mechanic diversity is how many vallid viable ways to play a game. it could be about class count, or whether there is both pve and pvp, or most commonly if the questing is limited.
MMOs are syposed to be many playered games, if there isn't community from character creation, i'm gone.
eq 2 had a lot of poorly coded and outright ugly mechanics. the inventory system was bad, harvesting was bad, quest approach was bad. it is a truely grind-rpg, but with too much nonsense to tollerate. lke coffee beans and tea leafs and other plants from a single bush/node.
an mmo should do what ever it seeks to do, well. if you want a FPSMMO you should have shooter mechanics on par with, if not better than, old school single player games.
For me it works one of two ways, either the more I hear the more I like, or the more I hear the more I don't like.
It's funny, but sometimes it seems like companies go out of their way to design the way I won't like it. I really dislike the direction this industry is headed.
1. Payment type, I don't generally play free to play games, even if it isn't pay to win, I do not often trust that it will remain that way, and I am often too skeptical to try it and believe...I generally play a mmo for 1+ years easy (although Rift/SWTOR were 3 and 1 months), so I look for something I can play for a long time, and hope to get 3-5 years out of...Although the 'dry' market has made me give in on occasion...
2. Mechanics for PvE, Crafting, Harvesting, PvP...I prefer more open worlds, not instanced to death, and all those phases to be viable throughout game and character levels.
3. If it looks like it would be fun and worth the time and I could see myself playing it for a while, atleast on information I have available and is known.
Basically those are the big things, Rift was hope for a new company and I was on a long break after leaving Vanguard, but it became apparant even before launch that they were more clone, less innovation...Trion does seem like a good/solid company, that has good customer service...Just wasn't my thing, but I won't bad mouth the company.
SWTOR was to play with friends, got my money out of it imo, but a bad meshing of mmo/rpg imo, I went into it figuring I wouldn't like it, but I gave it a shot for some friends...
Last MMO that I believed hype on was WAR, and it was unfinished with crafting in name only, but I like the table top game, I had a lot of friends that were playing, and I was excited that something may give me the DAoC experience again...Played for a while, but it was just poorly thought out.
MMORPG forums remind me of the bible belt in America.
Oh and weapon enhancement systems that break your gear.