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Are MMOs focusing too much on FUN?
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
I remember old MMOs, they didn't focus on fun. There was no instances (at least in UO and Asheron's Call), no minigames (like in GW2)...they felt far more like worlds (at least the two I played back when). They didn't have a bunch of dailies, instead you just did whatever and made goals for yourself.
I remember grinding for 16 hours in the same spot in Asheron's Call, and while it wasn't fun...I ended up making a lot of friends as we brought mobs back to the area. It was more of a world, more of a social experience, than what current MMOs offer.
Is this why so many MMOs are failing? I know Vanguard was an attempt to not focus so much on fun (like dumb minigames and jumping puzzles, those don't belong in an MMO)...but more of a world and classic MMO experience. It is sad people didn't give it a chance, but was too buggy I guess and then updates stopped.
Now, fun MMOs...sure they are fun for a month to a few months...but then it just gets boring and too unrealistic. But, old classic MMOs? While they didn't focus on fun, it was far more social. It is even proven that people stuck with the SAME MMO for years to decades, and people still play UO and AC and have for longer than most MMOs have been alive.
I believe the reason for this is cause they don't do frivelous minigames, jumping puzzles, dailies and point a to b quests. But instead they bring players together to grind, socialize and be a part of the world.
I think future MMOs could do really well if they took out all the "fun" (minigames and what not) and brought back the WORLD and socializing aspects of an MMO.
Sorta TLDR
(edit: to expand that thought. In new MMOs, people rush everywhere as they do minigames, puzzles, instances and quests. No chance to make friends, like in old MMOs where people stood in an area and talked as they killed stuff. Much better chances of making friends in that way, than the new way of MMOs and felt far more like a world)
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
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Comments
The whole point of games is to have fun. Fun is completly subjective though, and it's not said anywhere that a game needs to have minigames or be casual to be considered fun. Everyone has their own definition of fun.
You are mistaking these two things.
Also, your wording is soon going to start a lot of flaming. lol
OP, I think you may have a point. Although may I disagree with you on Vanguard? SOE required the "funification" of Vanguard as part of the takeover. Quest hubs, no down time between fights, monty haul quest xp and loots, changing of aggro mobs to indifferent, etc., were mandated by SOE.
With its left hand, SOE rescued Vanguard from drowning and, with its right hand, they plunged a dagger deep into its heart.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Substitute the phrase "casual game play " everywhere you used the word "FUN" OP and your post will make much more sense.
But then your thread becomes very similar to about 3 or 4 others currently active on the forum and we're really re-treading the same old ground here.
Face it, a greater proportion of the MMO player base is not looking for more realistic, virtual worlds, they want to play MMO's with more casual game play mechanics, (fun for them) and that's what MMO's have largely become in response to their demands.
I'm with you, I don't like it, and I keep hoping the market changes in tastes as they tire of the current model and start demanding more varied game play experiences.
Until then, will have to keep hiding out in the last few refuges left to me until something better comes along.
Edit: But hey, at least I'm still having fun.
"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
Because playing games for fun is just bad business. Work all day at a job or sit in a class all day and want to come home and play an MMO for fun? Time for you to start kicking bricks, you are doing it all wrong!
Had to check my calendar, make sure it wasn't April 1st all over again...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
No.
They are focusing on entertainment.
Why would any rational thinking person, ever, spend any significant time on anything done for entertainment... if it wasn't entertaining them.
They should focus on entertainment. Thats all they shoudl focus on.
Focusing on anything other than entertainment will pull it out of the entertainment category.
Farming is typically considered not entertaining to most people, therefore most companies don't do it. They somehow think that farming the same instance is different.
They are starting to realise it isn't. It's still farming. Farming is typically considered not entertaining to most people, therefore more companies will stop it.
Wow, I did a double take on the title of this thread. I already work 50 hours a week so I'm one of the folks looking for fun out of a game rather than a grind.
Having said that, "fun" is completely subjective so while your idea of fun is not my idea of fun, fun is a good thing to discuss.
"Are MMOs focusing too much on FUN?"
This thread's title, combined with the fact that it was a serious post and not trolling, is a shining beacon, illuminating everything that is wrong with the massive pocket of crazy that goes on within these forum's digital walls.
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
If you play games that aren't fun, you are doing it wrong. They aren't designed to be an easy way to attract friends just because there is nothing better to do in the game but talk to others.
There isn't any barrier towards making friends in 'fun' games as is perfectly obvious from the friends people make in many healthy guilds or clans in any game. Some of the greatest social experiences I've had in MMOs were amid the fun of jumping puzzles, minigames, dungeon runs, or quests.Fun content is only a distraction from making friends if people have no interest in being your friend, and the solution to that is not to make all the content so boring or grindy that suddenly talking to you seems more interesting. Try developing enough social skills to befriend people while doing something fun instead of wanting everything else to be less appealing than socializing.
"fun" level is = to frustration level.
If it's alll "fun" (always winning) all the time the game will get boring quick.
Do you really believe that 'fun' = 'always winning'? Of course you don't.
/shameonyouforgoingthere
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
Are you just competing with the OP to say the most ridiculous thing possible?
Point of an mmorpg should be to get groups of people together for common goals. But welcome to our day and age when the personality quality of a ...and see there I go. I'll leave it at this.
Why would anybody play a game if it isn´t for fun?
uh? -.-
As opposed to what? People who play games because it makes them miserable? Why would any reasonable person do that?
Of course games should be fun. The hard part is figuring out what exactly people will think is fun and what they won't.
People forget that the only reason most of us did that very thing was because there weren't a bunch of alternatives that focused more on fun. They get all nostalgic about the fun they had talking to people while waiting for hours on end. F- that. F- all of that nonsense. It's like my dad claiming everything used to cost a nickel -- it was never true to start with.
People don't want fun, they would rather have fun.
Our language fails us in this conversation becasue we don't have a full lexicon of words to describe and communicate the subtle textures of our personal gut reactions to different experiences and memories.
OP reminds me of this dude.
'Back in my day, video games weren't fun! And that's the way we liked it!'
Maybe I should add a grumpy cat pic too.
Thanks,
Mike
Working on Social Strategy MMORTS (now Launched!) http://www.worldalpha.com
LOL!
There wae no hand holding, no telling you this is what you HAVE to do to be successful or have fun. What is missing in todays depthless games that those old games had was choice. Breadcrumb paths take you from glowing question mark to the ten objects you need to collect at your level, or ten monsters to kill. Once done return to guy with glowing icon via breadcrumb path. Exciting huh! So much fun doing that 10 million times to be like everyone else! Best of all its so boring it has to be free as no one will pay for the garbage experience! But its free so you can't complain too much about the price. Its a perfect model for the casual gamer who can't be bothered to think and want instant gratification and "fun," and only talk to others because they are were they happen to b3le, and mostly to troll.
Do you want to play a different way? Well you might have an option or two, but that is not the script, so your choices are limited severely. New content out? Yay, as you were bored with nothing to do as you killed the latest monsters 10 times and got all the newest 2% better loot to fight those newest monsters.
So, the new content is out and you have to help or hurt the pandas, go to the portals with all the other players on your server and close 5 of them, or farm the newest place that gives the best money to get that loot you want that you will never have any risk of losing or actually caring about other than your character and build are optimal for your job.
I think that is the longing he and other sandbox players miss, and all the community that came with it. You burned your friends and ruined your rep by being an @$$hat, well there go long time in game friendships. People who were by your side for successes and failures that created memories that you can think back on fondly. Should a game replace your real life? Never, but having fun and meaningful time in a game can be another great joy in a well lived life.