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Top-5 List - Things Driving Burnout in MMORPGs
KenFisher
Member UncommonPosts: 5,035
Burnouts, let's hear your list.
Top-5 things driving burnout in MMORPGs:
1. Tedius questing. Every quest hub is the same, just reskinned. Quests feel meaningless.
2. No variety in combat. Attack every mob the same way over and over.
3. Useless crafting. Spend time and earnings leveling crafting only to find out later that it achieved nothing.
4. Ultra low drop rate quest items. Kill 15 boars get 1 boar meat.
5. Slow respawns. Quest is to kill 10 snargletooths, there are only 8 and there's a 10 minute respawn.
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.
Comments
1. getting older, start to realize video game is for kid
2. find out about real life
3. realize every video game created now is the same as every game you used to enjoy, and stopped enjoying
4. realized your a losser in real life from playing too much video game
5. find out video game really isn't that fun
1. heavy heavy story driven mmos (developer made stories)
2. 90% combat focused with afterthought crafting and shallow "mini games" to convince people its an mmorpg
3. games made tedious so you can buy convenience in a cash shop
4. esport and the never ending quest for class balance
5. getting rewarded for the slightest fart of an accomplishment
1. Listening to jaded forum users, whose bitter jaded opinions plant seeds of doubt in everyone's minds and perpetuate negative feelings about every game that people might otherwise enjoy
2. Too short of a leveling curve and everyone reaching max level in several weeks only to find there's nothing to do other than to repeat the max level content over and over again
3. Items #1 and #2 driving the in-game community to quit, leaving those that still enjoy the game with much fewer people to play with
4. Not enough meaningful non-combat things to do while leveling and at max level. Crafting, exploration, housing are either poorly done or left out complately
5. Technology limitations that make the diveristy of MMORGS to be pretty limited. There's only so much you can do with a mouse and keyboard. And example of what I mean would be: New game "Pong"...oooh...new game "hockey"...oh...new game..."soccer"...all using the same pong interface
Can't believe no one said "Google". The ability to solve any quest by typing a few words into a search engine really takes a bite out of the game and leads to burnout.
Forums come a close second. I'm glad everyone gets a chance to express themselves but you can get stuck in the forum madness and suddenly find fault with everything.
Shoddy design, when you see the same NPC in every city. If you hear the same dialogue every time you pass a certain area. When you walk into an invisible wall all these things contribute ot burnout.
Constant class balancing. If you have to balance more then half of the classes then you did something wrong. Absolutely nothing worse then getting into a character only to have its powers gutted and leads to burnout.
Refugee from UO,EQ,AC,AC2,AO,DAOC,L2,SB,HZ,CoH,PT,EQ2,WoW,VG,SWG,EVE,WAR,DF,MO,AI,GA,LOTRO, SWTOR... Gw2 on Deck
1. EA
2. People that require that you play the game the way they do.
3. Gear Score
4. In game shops
5. Solo centric MMOs
Wait, aren't items 2 and 4 somewhat a contradiction? If a game was more group centric, then you'd be forcing someone to play in a manner they don't want to.
Sometimes it's good to be forced to do things we don't like as we don't always know what's best for us.
Anyways, here's my list
1) Participating in beta testing. So many people spend months in beta testing and by time the game launches they've either already consumed most of the content, or are able to just burn through it at launch (perhaps experiencing it for the umpteenth time) and again, finding the overall title to be unsatisfactory.
I avoid them these days however another consequence is that when I want to take my time and enjoy the content for the 1st time, these former beta testers have seen it all before and want to just rush, rush, rush through everything and become impatient with me. (if it was a FFA PVP environment I'd probably gank them when their back was turned)
2) End games without some aspect of PVP territory control/resource denial. DAOC proved theme parks can have a solid PVP endgame, more sandbox like titles such as EVE have a built in system for the most part. It doesn't have to be mandatory, but it should be available, and it should be fairly massive, and not some small battleground like affair.
3) Progression that comes to an end. Most people play MMO's because they enjoy progressing a character from lower levels to higher. Once they start to think progression has come to an end it frequently results in players want to quit and move on. There are multiple ways to accomplish this, and picking only one form (i.e. gear grinding) probably hastens burn out and should be avoided.
4) As others have mentioned, overly short leveling curves is probably not a good thing, but is also one of the hardest to get right. For the hardcore players, they can tolerate Lineage 2 style leveling, while to this day there are players who find WOW's leveling to be a bit too slow for their liking. Finding the sweet spot is probably one of the most difficult challenges out there. Of course, you can always do away with levels and solve part of this problem, but it opens up a few more as well.
5) Over focus on combat as part of the game's design. Seems like many players don't like to always "fight, fight, fight" so having fun, creative activities besides killing stuff will go a long way to increasing a game's longevity
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
1 - The amount of new games that seem to follow the WoW formula of going from quest hub to quest hub to reach max level.
2 - Crafting and gathering (and other non-combat systems) being almost an afterthought, and provides no real meaning at endgame.
3 - The term endgame. Even moreso when people associate tiered raids and PVP battlegrounds with it.
4 - No player variety, set classes. A max level x class will be just like the other maxed leveled characters of that class.
5 - Getting old, like post #2 said.
There's only one thing that causes MMO burnout. That's playing too much. MMO gamers are not known for playing in moderation. Repeating that ad nauseam over x amount of years jumping into every new MMO with the same mindset.
All of these are good. Number 1 is superb. Seriously, every day I spend on here makes me hate gaming a little more. That poisonous negativity that is all over this site is contagious and deadly. I think it's spirit crushing to a gamer. I do so much better when I spend less time around here. I'm just in a better mood and also more apt to be actively enjoying a game.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
True. I'm taking this thread as "5 things your tired of seeing in MMO's". You can't have burnout from a game that has new mechanics, but only for those you've played already.
Agree with this completely.
1. Quest gps, mini-maps tags, highlighted things and game spitting objectives and arrows in my face. Hand-holding.
2. Cash Shops and RMAH ideas and existence in game I play.
3. Combat, combat and combat only with everything else totally neglected.
4. Automatic systems and tools creating matchmaking lobby experience. AH, cross-server LFG and so on.
5. 95% of end-game in instances of some kind. Be it instanced dungeon, instanced arena or battleground or instances raids. They are nice, but too much focus on them.
So basically WoW / D3 / Blizzard.
Yeah.
I still enjoy occasional Warcraft 3 game on battle.net after all those years, but that is lobby rts game not a mmorpg and actually my only rts game I play.
Aside of that - preety much yes.
WoW Vanilla was fun for a fw months cause of it quality and few news things, but it quickly start to felt very limited in non-combat department (previous mmorpg was UO)+ by the time of BC it was kinda obvious where game was going so I left and I don't regret it.
Overally yes - Blizzard just does not make games I like anymore, I don't like automation&hand holding systems developed or embraced by it and impact it has on mmorpg genre.
1. Voice acting. Not just voice acting, anything like it that I view as frivolous. Only recently has this become an issue for me since I see it as a plague that is using up valuable resources that can be better spent elsewhere. I never had any problem actually reading things and my imagination will always do a better job of it.
2. Combat. I can still play turn-based games without an issue. Fast paced, devote all your attention to, combat is nice in theory but not for MMOs since you can't be social and have all your attention on combat at the same time. I want something more tactical, not twitchier.
3. Solo content. Everything being solo friendly. I would say upwards of 70% of content that is released in MMOs now is for solo play. It takes the need for the first part of (MMO)RPG out of the genre.
4. Grinding or lack of. Lack of content was always an issue but at least before this was lessened by making you play for much longer periods of time to achieve the same result. When you can reach cap and are done with your character in a week, why are you trying to charge a monthly fee? There may be a set of graphs and charts out there showing that all you need is box sales to support an MMORPG since that is all they seem to be accomplishing lately.
5. Dev team. A balls to the wall development team post launch. Trion is one of the few that seems to get this. They actually work for the money you are giving them. All the others so far just seem to be charging us for bug fixes.
Great Expectations – allowing yourself to get swept along on the hype wave of the latest game, becoming disappointed and disillusioned when the reality fails to match your inflated expectations and frothing with the rest of the indignant quitters on the inevitable backwash.
The Road To Damascus Experience – having a belated epiphany as it finally hits you that the sum of your virtual heroics is of next to no worth in the real world and that you’re still on noob island in the Game of Life. Often accompanied by some life-changing, real-world occurrence such as the birth of a child, the death of a relative or the end of a relationship.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt – same sh*t, different world. You’ve been around the block too many times to ever hope to recapture that sense of wonder and novelty that first hooked you all those years ago. But you keep hoping, even though you know it’s as futile as trying to recapture the magic of Christmas long after you’ve found out that Santa isn’t real.
The Mr Creosote Playstyle – consuming content without savour in a headlong rush to an unsatisfying end game. And then vomiting the remnants of your half-digested game experience all over the forums before exploding with impotent nerd rage.
Conspiracy Theory – believing that EA/Marketing/’Suits’ or other manifestations of the Man are out to suck the goodness out of gaming just to make a quick buck.
You give the "bitter jaded" players way too much credit. Is your opinion that easily swayed by negative reviews on the internet? Not to mention I doubt a large number of players read forum reviews.
Number 2 and 4 I strongly agree with you.
That last item I partly blame on the players themselves. They want the same interface so it doesn't require anything new to learn. I'm not sure if an mmorpg would work using a Wii controller or the XBox Kinect. Maybe voice recognition could be interesting.
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
Good list. Especially "Conspiracy Theory" and "The Mr Creosote Playstyle" points.
My Top Five of Things
1. Games that follow the WoW/Blizzard approach! (loved it then but too much a good thing leaves a bad taste in your mouth)
2. Watered down PvP. No real objectives other than doing it to get last season's PvP gear.
3. Lazy Devs and Corporate Suits! <--- Is pretty much self explainatory!
4. Gear grinds, Gear Scores, Best gear only obtained in instances and not crafted from hard working crafters, thus making most crafts useless other than alchemey and cooking! ( I hate crafting )
5. Wife aggro...........! LoL j/K, Mostly Hype of a game that does a #1 on my plate and above!
Below is where we can disscuss and come up with new ideas for Sandparks!
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5164689#5164689
1. No Endgame
2. Obvious flaws fixable by a programming intern in alpha stage, e.g resolution changes screwing up interface changes, etc.
3. Overlooked mechanic fails, game launching with 2 sec ability delay on 15 ping
4. Forced Questing(98% of MMO's)
5. Kiddy nonsense thrown in serious environment, think Bleach anime
2. Levels - if I want to level up, I will play a traditional RPGs on playstation. A traditional rpg has leveling, buying gear, a story line, and some of them have endgame content. I play mmos to be part of a virtual world, I want to spend time working on my woodcutting skill, not spending 6-8 hours trying to reach level 60.
3. Lack of adventure - the current system doesn't let you create your own adventure, the tools aren't there. Back when I played uo you could make up a quest and play it out.
4. Meaningless crafting - there is next to no point crafting anything today cause you can get better on the auction house, or from quests.
5. The idea of endgame content - the whole game should be endgame.
iPad won't let me break it up.
1. Sexual Intercoarse w/ women
2. Jobs.
3. Money
4. Time
5. Coronary Artery Disease
I can actually only think of three words that sums up my top-5 list.
1-5. Lack of variety.
6. Over Exposure over the course of many years, the same thing that normally drives burnout.
Not much new wisdom to be gained from this thread, is there?
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.
2 copying everquest
3 copying wow
4 copying everquest
5 copying wow
1) WoW-like questing
2) Instanced PvE/PvP
3) Item grind
4) No reward for world pvp
5) 2 factions instead of 3 or FFA PvP
bonus) Everything is soloable and there is no reason to group with people
my review of GW2