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The world is the most important thing in an MMO
tixylix
Member UncommonPosts: 1,288
If the MMO has no world, it is dead from the get go, it stops being an MMO and just becomes an online game. SWTOR, AoC, Warhammer Online, The Elder Scrolls Online etc, they all suffer from it, there is no world. You just have a series of maps that are ordered in a linear fashion, you go from one to the other following a linear quest path until you finish in a hub altogether where you have nothing left to do. Basically right there you're playing a Single Player campaign, it's all split up between loading screens and instant warping to new locations and if you took the map away, you wouldn't care. Most people play them as Single Player games too, there is no reason to play with groups.
What defines an MMO from other games is the world, the zone transitions, the feeling of being part of a real place. You might say what is the difference between EverQuest and these newer games, EverQuest had loading screens right? For me the difference is the loading screens were like Half-Life's, you were kept in the game, it just froze up as you transitioned. That is acceptable to me, I hate having this actual screen like a chapter page which splits everything up, I hate clicking on a door and then being warped to the other side. The Elder Scrolls Online had the most pointless loading screen right from the get go, you're in a prison cell, you click on the door to get out, you hit a loading screen and suddenly you're on the other side....... like why? It is even rendered once you get to the other side, it is as if they couldn't be bothered making a door animate.
These older MMOs you had a sense of place, you had to travel everywhere, even WoW had this amazing seamless world. The only loading screens were the instances and those all existed in the world, you had to actually travel to them and they took up real world space. Most MMOs today have the Instance as this thing you get warped to, they do not bother to build it into the world, it all feels fake as a result. I hate this instant travel crap, WoW had a perfect compromise of the Griffins, you fast travelled, but you did it in real time! In The Elder Scrolls online you just warp from place to place, there is no sense of exploration and adventure.
I don' t understand why older MMOs were more ambitious than what we have today, especially since technology is better. I can only assume they want to dumb them all down so more people play, yet Minecraft, Dayz, Rust all sold millions and they're not casual games, they're hardcore. I want a AAA MMO with a proper world again, I do not want an indie developed MMO with crap graphics do it. Graphics are important to me as they make me want to explore and discover things. SWG, EVE Online, EverQuest blew me away graphically back in the day, EverQuest 2 came out and looked as good as Single Player games, my draw dropped. I want that experience again, not the experience I have today where it's "this is an MMO so it looks 10 years old or has cartoony graphics".
I just cannot stand MMOs today, SWTOR had these massive epic looking cities, but they're all in the skybox. Yet the most impressive ones were on Tatooine, they were fully 3D and were perfectly suited to be big player hubs. I was instantly reminded me of SWG and really tried to make Anchorhead (one of the cities) a hub in SWTOR, but there was just no point. Sadly the developers ruined it by having this stupid Taxi ride from the city to the actual planet....... like why? There could have been amazing PVP without that. Also though they decided to put this horribly generic Fleet Station hub in the game, which took everyone out of the planets and made them all dead, suddenly the cities might as well not be there, it just turned into a hub based instanced game.
Give me a proper world, I want to feel attached to a world again like I was with Norrath or Azeroth... what MMO can you say that about today? None, they don't have worlds any more.
Comments
But the majority are not looking for MMORPGS like these. (Still going)
Perhaps an indie will hit it big, or SOE will get it right, but we won't soon see a large studio support such designs because the MOBAS are winning the fight. (The end)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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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
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
It isn't the gameplay or the combat, so many MMOs have nailed that aspect, what they get wrong always these days is the world, without the world people get bored and quit. The world offers so much of the game, it gives it the potential, it gives you social interaction, it gives you exploration, a sense of having a home and pride in what you're playing. The world also makes the game dynamic, it creates a sandbox and not a linear Single Player game, it allows you to go wherever you want.
The world is an MMO and without it you have a failure, no MMO in years has been a hit, not since 2004 with WoW, the last MMO. I can speak to people about the genre and the last one they liked is always WoW, they always say the same thing "I tried that MMO but it was like a worse WoW" and it is always because there was no world.
Fun is the most important.
World ... if it is in the way of fun, get rid of it .. or side-step it. That is why LFD, LFR, fast travel are so popular.
In fact, i prefer MMOs with no worlds (or worlds that are not important) like DDO, Marvel Heroes and STO.
Those aren't MMOs, they're glorified hub games, back in the day developers never even bothered calling them MMOs, Guild Wars was never called one, they never even had it on their website.
If you take the world away you take away so much dynamic content, you get rid of it altogether and ruin a massive experience. Imagine if Dayz had fast travel, it would ruin the whole game, that is what developers do to their MMOs when they put it in. If you want no world, why do you want an MMO? Makes no sense to me, clearly this isn't the genre you want, you want an online game.
Most important thing in a MMO role playing (or whatever) GAME are GAMEPLAY.
The world are stage build for that gameplay.
To a game , gameplay are core , are physics law of "world"
Without gameplay , "game world" can't form .
I prefer having "world" as a platform first and then build gameplay on top of it. The world itself should already have core function that make things around them feel alive, allow players to settle in and explore. Function weather that affect the land, fully function migration system of the NPC creatures, day and night. Each NPC has their own live within the world, born live and die through time. You can actually follow each NPC all day and see how they're going with their live. Lots of emote and vanity item for players to role-play. A virtual reality social media platform of sort where it focus on the genre and lore that it set to be.
Example gameplay part that can then be expand to:
People get bored because gameplay has remained virtually unchanged for the past 10-15 years. They get a new game every now and again, but its not really new.
Most MMORPGs have interesting worlds however their presentation varies greatly. It is not the main selling point though because if you don't get your gameplay and moment-to-moment fun in order, no one is going to stay to see how amazing your world might be.
A world cannot save an otherwise bad game. Good gameplay just might.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Pretty much this.
For him, you and me but not for some others.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think it's a mix of both. Lots of games have exactly what I'm looking for in game play but I still got bored. Firefall is a great example of that for me. I love...love...love the game play. It's what I really want in an mmos combat system. The world is interesting but small with not enough to do so I get bored and quit every time I come back.
If firefall had a wow sized world I've live in that game forever!
The world, for me, is both THE foundation stone in the building of the MMORPG AND the mortar that keeps all the other blocks bound.
The very first thing a dev should do is create their world. That will define every other aspect of the game.
Then, as they work on other aspects (combat, crafting, lore, dungeons), the world is what binds them together.
Without a world, you don't have a complete game. Instead, you have:
- Fighting simulators
- Crafting simulators
- Dungeon Crawlers
What's the point, then?
As others have pointed out, players today do not want this kind of game. They show developers with each and every new release that makes LOADS of cash. So, the developers have absolutely no inclination to change a damn thing.
- 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
Worlds are coming back. This is at least going to be 400 sq. km with no zoning all open world and no fast travel unless you call a horse fast. A 1km draw distance for everything including other players. You can actually walk or ride your horse to the mountains in the backround of this shot. http://lifeisfeudal.com/
Life IS Feudal
I agree with that.. and i even agree that for MMORPGs combat gameplay is most probably the most important one, even for sandbox game where you have other things to do.. nevertheless combat will always be the one thing you do most.
But... why if that is true... combat in every mmo just sucks? And does still have no world, which actually does mmos set apart from all other games.. all those massive features you can't have in any game.
With that said.. most MMOs fail with that said in different categories.. they don't deliver any massive features(like a world) nowadays, which could set them apart from all other games, and still deliver combat, which usually sucks in comparsion to other games.
@OP: I do agree, and it is not just the world alone.. basicly it is every feature you can just do in a massive multiplayer game, and is either not possible or not available in multiplayer nor single player games.. but what we see are more single player features, and simple multiplayer features to get more shaped out, and neglect almost all massive features.
But it looks like that this trend may change.. almost all new announced MMOs(granted, most are indy or kickstarter games) try to bring back more world, bring back more massive features, and try to deliver a world, which someone can interact more with(sandboxy). So not all hope is lost.. and if one of those will become very successfull the AAA developers will follow.
And it will get really old, really fast. The first time you have to ride to the mountains might be fun. Maybe even the second or third. But when you have to do it 40-50 times, you'll be begging for fast travel because nothing between here and there ever changes.
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Just semantics.
This site even listed D3 and LoL as MMOs.
To have fun, of course.
You know there are fighting simulator games, crafting simulator games, and dungeon crawler games out there right?
Lol .. this is a GAME? Is this a riding simulator?
I will pass. Looks very boring to me.
Obviously you didn't read anything about it and I thought fast tavel and hubs were boring lol not even a good troll, try again and be more creative.
Life IS Feudal
This is a sandbox so you would only go if there was a reason. Lol a city or kingdom could pop up between here and the mountain being a terraforming sandbox so the phrase "nothing between here and there never changes " tells me you have no idea what you are even posting about. This is a world that the op was afraid weren't being made anymore.
Do better research so you don't look so silly next time.
Life IS Feudal
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It looks at least 1000 times better than wurm and the engine is torque 3d and not java and the systems in this make wurm look like a early 90s game. Considering wurm is almost 10 years old the looks like wurm thing was funny.
Life IS Feudal
Wurm Online got a massive graphic update about a year ago. Its much better now.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
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My wife has friends there and still has an active account and I know firsthand wurm looks nothing like the screenshot I posted.
Maybe I'm wrong if you could post a screenie so we can do a side by side.
Life IS Feudal
to be clear when I say 'looks like' what I mean is the feature set.
I love Wurm Online
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me