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How MMO's ruin your life.
maskmurda
Member UncommonPosts: 80
Is it just me or do some people take some ideas and stretch them so far out that people forget what it was about in the first place?
I played quite a few MMO's and recently stopped playing most because they became either to boring/repetative or design flaws/business practices ruined the game for me. So far I've been trying to figure out wether or not I should buy Tera and play it and can't find a single conclusive reason to buy it or not to buy it. Every video I watch says the looks amazing, with certain flaws, but worth a play for a while. When I read post online, they either call it a rehashed game or it's filled with fanboism. And I started thinking; is it the MMO's that make the community bad and ruin experiences for players, or is it the companies? I mean, so far I've played the GW2 beta and I don't care what anyone else says, I'm going to buy it and support A-net. But I like competition and PvP so I wanted to try it out because it's released. And Tera was the closest thing to that out now that. but it's more like politics for gamers. People get so caught up in something and advocate it so much that they can't help but sound like a fan boy.
I get alot of people have the same thoughts and fallow the same practices(which is why there were 1 million and 2 post about X cash shop item and X game design in GW2 and even more complaints about TESO before gameplay is even release). People just set their expectations waaay to high for this industry and the result is just waves of reused ideas(I.E. WoW Clone) or flaming. People are hungering for something new and exciting, but is it really gonna happen? Once in a while you get something that tries to break the mold, and succeeds(rarely), or fails because when you reinvent the wheel it's job is to still roll. I feel that publishers use this to fuel gamers. Because our market loves familiarity. Games like COD are living proof of that. So why should they try and do somthing new when they could reuse the same ideas and try and be successful?
But I see it as, why change the way you fight if your doing the same meaningless task? If you don't change what players do while they fight then it's just the same old crap to me. And devs know they can hook people in with visuals, and make their money that way. Box sales makes money, Subs fuel future development. So if they sell 5 million copies and only retain about 1 million players, they are making more money then they invested and can spew out garbage expansions and such.
So I know somethings may have been pointed out prior, but I feel that people just overlook the important stuff in games and get caught up in the small stuff. Sweat the big stuff. This is just a thought I had and I just wanted to get this out. I used GW2 and Tera for this post because these are the 2 biggest games out right now that people are discussing, with TESO. I tried to generalize it as much as I could, with a catchy title.
The title is just a title, try and look beyond that. Thanks for reading.
Comments
The games themselves or the corporations behind them don't ruin the community. The community ruins itself.
The first thing everyone does is compare it to "X"
If the game is exaclty like X, then they laugh and sneer and bleat "X CLONE! X CLONE! ITS GONNA FAIL LOL"
if the game 'isn't' exactly like X, then they whine and bawww that things are 'too' different from what they wanted. The game didn't meet thier fairytale expectations. Repeat the above mantra accordingly.
Also, the more popular things are, the more popular it is to hate on it.
Some people honestly don't like seeing other people have fun.
...I seriously believe this.
It bothers them that they can't have fun too, so they sit back in thier chairs and whine and piss and moan as loudly as they can until the whole thing is ruined for everyone.
Tl;dr - Mmo's don't ruin your life.
The playerbase does.
the only thing standing in the way of progress is the fear of losing money.
Soon there will be enough technology in place that youll pay your money up front based on a basic premise of a game ( i.e sandbox AAA fantasy title with x number of required features. ) before the game is designed, and youll have transparent access of the game cycle to get in your two cents worth. The players themselves will become the investors because they want good games, not to make money.
I think you truelly hit the mark.
Though some companies ruin their games due to bad judgements, what really ends up messing things up are the players in the comunity.
Some people become too obsessive over something so simple has a game and imo even if you consider the fact that some games have a monthly fee isn't enough to act like some do. Games are supose to be fun above all and in the middle of playing some people end up forgetting that.
On a side note to me the perfect game would be something in between Archage (sand box with loads of class choises) and GW2 (PVP based on player skill not button mashing)
It's not just you. Your question applies to quite a bit more than just MMOs, too. This seems to be a running trend in just about every form of media available today. People just don't know when to stop. Sometimes I think they just don't want to. Plus, change scares people, even gamers.
True. Thats why there are so many problems. Unrelated, the Zimmerman case was all over the media, while a new form of SOPA was being passed... People need to stop worrying about things that aren't that important and find importance in things that matter. MMOs should be diffrent an offer a variety of features to players. Problem is; the industry is lacking originality and promoting mindless task and reused ideas. Just like politics and the media. It's sad that the one thing we use to escape reality finds a way to pull us right back in it.
There are lots of people that choose a game for it's franchising brand and not so much for it's content quality and potential, in case of MMOs.
Hey, i was Diablo 3 biased when i watched Lineage Eternal. Then this friend watched it too and was amazed. After that i watched it again and saw many many things i didn't want to see in the first place. And was amazed at how biased i was, to the point i got blind to other games that could actually compete or even surpass Diablo 3. Currently i'm not inteending in playing D3 anymore.
Take this scenario:
a) The actual game content you call Guild Wars 2 is now called TERA.
b) The actual game content you call TERA is now called Guild Wars 2.
Are you going to play TERA (previously GW2) or are you going to play GW2 (previously TERA)?
If you say TERA or GW2 all the way, then game content doesnt really matter to you anyway, and that's fine, may people just want to play with friends that are all coming to a specific MMO, regardless of game quality.
Of course if you flame and slander a game, there is a good chance that either you are payed to do so or you feel the game you are flaming to be a direct threat to the game you are a fan of, and therefore you might be biased. I sure was in the case of Lineage Eternal. Still am a bit in the case of TERA, i have to admit... so bare with me.
I personaly am a fan of TERA, wrote a review of the game here on mmorpg.com as well as gamespot. I fel in love with the game the fist time i layed eyes on it, but also got to a point where i said to my self "you know what? you should check out GW 2 beta". I did not play GW2, watched it on twitch.tv but i knew right from the start that the unreal engine 3 and specially the combat system on TERA were the deal breaker for me, those 2 combined. I am not willing to go back to a MMO outside the the innovative combat system TERA has introduced, because it just feels like the same MMO over and over again. Any less than what TERA offers in regard to combat dynamics i'm not that interested (yet...)
There is also something that's attracting me, which is the supscription fee. I feel that a game where you pay a subscription will always have better support and better patching that a game that is F2P. Although GW2 will benefit also from item purchases and all that. But then again TERA has a system that allows you to use in game gold to buy real gameplay time. I lean towards TERA, again.
The dynamic event questing on GW2 sounded promissing aswell. The ability to lower you level to play with friends was also a cool add on behalf of GW2, although i see no obstacle about creating aditional characters to keep your friend company while they level up. It's a great way to try out aditional classes.
Also, do you know about the story that the guys from TERA used NCsoft software codes to create TERA and that TERA is what was supposed to be Lineage 3 from NCsoft? And all the lawsuits around this ? And i may not be 100% right on this but there's something to it for sure. NCsoft is, by the way, Aion, Lineage and GUILD WARS. Now things would be even more interesting if Bluehole studio was just a branch of NCsoft and in reality TERA and GW2 were just 2 games from the same root company... ... ...Ok, but enough daydreaming or delusions... ... ...
Cheers.
Since you decided to go deep........
I think it's simple actually. People just want to put their hope in something. And since society, govt, industry business and the economy are all going to hell in a hand basket, it seems escapism is all that's left. And now even that sucks.
But that's just my opinion.
Personaly, i think the game companies are giving out to much info about the games while they are under development. Just think about all they great titles we all fell in love with UO, EQ, DAoC. We knew nothing about how the interface was gunna work or look like, we didnt know what classes were available and what spells they all would have. The only info we got was from the cover box when buying it at the store (i know, im old).
But I think this info we are getting now is hyping the games up in our own heads on how we think its going to play, to just have it fail because its not what we imagined. There is something fun about playing in a world thats completly new to you, and the joy of figuring it out on your own instead of being told where to go and what to do next.
Incoming "I remember when" post in 3... 2... 1... liftoff!
I remember when video games (in general) used to be about fun and MMOs in my mind used to be about adventure and exploration and virtual worlds. Now it's about stats, dps counters, scheduled raids, rated arenas and static content. I didn't ever imagine that an entire genre of video games could actually go backwards in both fun and innovation at the same time. I realize many won't agree with me here, but I don't really care at this point. I'm hoping GW2 brings back some fun since it looks like a cooperative and interactive game, but I will be cautious... and even if it just helps me pass the time until ArcheAge hits NA I will be happy.
That's the end of my mini-rant.
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.