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... that are touted as "The Golden Age MMOs?"
Because maybe it's just me, but expectations for many MMOs seem to have skyrocketed to the point that I don't think any MMO, Sandbox, Themepark, or whatever term you use to label them could posssibly hope to meet those expectations. Do you think this might be part of the reason for MMO burnout in general, not including incompetence and meddling?
Comments
Very strange notions. Why would any "belong" to a genre? These are games. You either play it, or not. There is no such thing as "belong to the genre". Don't tell me you "belong" to MMO, and you are forbidden to play other games.
I don't think everyone agrees on what the Golden Age is. In my opinion, it was 2003. It was a time when advances, diversity and innovation were at their highest point. Much like golden ages in history, the following period has been MMOs that are, for the most part, derivative and less inspired.
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
Well I did say in my OP that this was not taking into consideration incompetence or executive meddling.
Well there are still those MMOs that were great, fallen out of favor, but are still around like..
Maple Story
Ragnarok Online..
Lineage (2)
ect..
(Funny how I'm listing all Korean grinders).
These all came out 2002/2003.. While not as wildly successful as the likes of EQ or WoW...
They were quite good at bringing people together, and not being particularly theme park. They had just the right mix of MMO, and RPG..
I'm only mentioning these because nobody ever seems to.. (Perhaps for good reason, perhaps not)
Let us reference a great quote from the 1995 movie Casino by the character Pat Webb:
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor."
Tread lightly, my friend. Tread lightly
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
And no one mentioned the latest big successes? LOL and WOT? You don't even need a world to be successful.
Neither of which are MMOs, so why on Earth would they be mentioned? Do you care to discuss and debate my plans to restore my '73 Trans Am?
Probably not.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I'd add Dofus to that list, however it was only the french version that was released in 03-04 (english version came a little later). Still, one of the few P2P MMOs to hit over 1 million subscribers at one point in it's life.
There's also Runescape that came out around that time no?
Golden Age MMOs were expected to push technology, and be almost entirely unique in all its game mechanics. The expectations were much MUCH higher.
Nowadays, the things that would in the past be called "clones" and "knock offs" are touted as being innovative. And tech hasn't been pushed at all.
Depends. Is it running the standard 455 or the SD?
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
The golden age of MMO's consisted of the pre WoW genre where you had to work your ass off for what you had and the rewards were Playing with your friends and sharing in the hardships of the game.
When you have to camp a mob for day after day to get a rare item that is still viable 50 levels later the feeling of accomplishment when people compliment you on your gear is priceless especially between people that take gaming as seriously as you do.
That is missing in todays mmo's of instant gratification.
Vanilla WoW was still tough to be at the top of the game and took dedication and thus garnering the admiration of less serious gamers which propelled them toward their goal of being that decked out dude running the toughest dungeons. Then WoW started catering to the instant gratification crack babies that don't belong to the genre.
The point is the genre changed and the games we loved IE UO/Everquest/FFXI are gone. It saddens us.
The baulk of modern gamers will never have their expectations met by the MMO genre. MMO's have been shoe horned into a design to appeal to them but it has not worked. It does get the company short term profit, but then they have to downsize and change revenue options.
The level of expectation is one that expects a MMO to generate a new games worth of content every month. That is not going to happen this side of an AI being built which can create game content. So they will not stay, no matter how much gaming companies twist and deform MMO's from the long term community games they once where.
I think the expectations were high because the world has never seen an 'MMO' before.
It was new so it was exciting.
Nowadays, most businesses accept that they will lose more than half of the subs within the first 6 months.
That's actually pretty okay as businesses can now plan properly and not over-spend.
We (the content locust) will keep on buying and disgarding video games cause we treat video games as disposable entertainment products.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
but when you golden age mmo gamers get a game that you all been screaming about, you turn your back on it and dont show support. (Darkfall comes to mind, Vanguard, even your precious GW2.)
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
If a butterfly learnt to speak, to live in human society, paid its bills, had a job, lived in a fancy house and married a human, is it human?
Now what if that same butterfly knew how to write code better than any human and had years of experience in the game industry, would that make it a game designer?
If u wouldn't let a construction worker design your house, then why let a programmer design your world?
An indie game made by 20 devs in Greece, a AAA MMO that was never finished and then dropped by SoE, and a game that is nothing like golden age MMOs?
This was said beautifully, The accomplishment factor was huge back pre-wow. Now these games just hand you things, no real time and effort required. To get to max level there was time and dedication now in a month or two you are finished and on to the next one. Camping mobs and required partying were what made these games fun, where you could look at a character and judging by his level and gear you could appreciate him for what he has accomplished. Now anyone with a week off of work can get that same thing, but like grndzro states its the "instant gratification" factor.
So very, very true.
You know, I agree almost entirely, but I would not dare suggest we take away the instant gratification games for those who enjoy it. The market just went a little hay-wire and forgot the roots they were built on. But like other industries, sometimes they make a bad call and need to return to their roots. They obviously all jumped on this bandwagon WAY to fast.
The market of video games is fast changing. I don't think holding onto the "roots" is a virtue. Do you still want to play text only games? Most don't. That is the root of computer games, you know.
Text is for whippersnappers
I prefer roots that mean "imaginative" and "thought trough", as opposed to the current "throw random things at it and see what sticks" approach.
Flame on!
Funny... I had a home in MMORPGs called SWG. That is, until SOE took the "Welcome" rug from underneath existing players. We've been clamoring about that since 2005.
I know that it's never coming back, but we're still complaining about that series of unfortuate events for more than a handful of years now, still going.
THAT is support for the game, at least the game that existed before the massive changes. Don't be going around talking like "Golden Age MMO Gamers" don't support their titles.
Also, just to get this out of the way, there's a difference in supporting a game that we've been playing or clamored for, and supporting a game that was drastically changed from what its original vision was.
Also, as a consumer, I don't buy into half-a**ed products, regardless of what we're talking about. I have better things to spend my precious time and hard earned money on.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
The MMOs back in the day didn't have any expectations. I think the problem with modern MMOs is WoW. I truly do. WoW was the last game that exceeded what the community was expecting. I remember when they first announced it, I was expecting something like an EQ clone with warcraft lore in it. While it did kinda do that, while playing it, WoW didn't feel like EQ. The UI was very well done (and players themselves could customize every single bit of it). I never felt lost in the game either. In older MMOs they gave you a map that you had to open every few minutes to get your heading, unless you were following a road. I ran into orgrimmar for the first time and was speechless. I ran into Thrall, Vol'jin, Rexxar, and was speechless. It was what everyone wanted since Warcraft Orcs and Humans, and then some. The only problem I had with the launch was the servers crashing for the overflow of players, but it was still so great I sat at my computer waiting for Blizz to bring them back up so I could play for my 5 minutes until I got disconnected again lol.
Edit: And Blizz did something that no other company today would probably do. They gave away free time because the servers were down.
Sticking to your roots is not always a good thing. I am not implying that we should have never changed or advanced MMO's, I was attempting to imply that they have gone to far from the original path for ALL MMO's. They saw something that garnered attention and almost everyone jumped on that one path. Basically, IMO it is totally acceptable that WoW has a bunch of clones, I just wish that some went a different path. Thankfully that is starting to happen, but we are only just at the beginning.
Would of been nice to see some take the path of WoW, some to take the Path of UO, some take other paths I can't even imagine and whatever else may be.
MMOExposed also fails to realize that just because an MMO comes out that has some of the elements we like, doesn't mean that we are going to like the game as a whole. There are a bunch of cookie cutter WoW games yet not everyone likes them all equally. So its a bit ridiculous to think that just because someone enjoyed an open PvP game like UO, they are going to go crazy over a totally different game such as Darkfall. Why he even brought up GW2 as its a WoW clone.... Ill never know.