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MMOs used to be unique

MagiknightMagiknight Member CommonPosts: 782

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/technology/voyager-to-a-strange-planet.html

This article describe the life of a person who played Anarchy Online around.....2002 (I think). You wont find this kind of stuff in new MMOs.

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Comments

  • DibdabsDibdabs Member RarePosts: 3,203
    It was an interesting and innovative game and it's still around so there's nothing stopping anyone giving it a try.  I wouldn't go back to it myself though due to the "been there, done that" thing.  Ahh, those heady days in the Subway...
  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935

    I firmly believe we will begin to see more and more sandbox features in games.  The themepark is over done and studios are going to catch on.

    Hell, Archeage is right around the corner and think what you will of it... but I'm hearing it has more sand in it  than a lot of the recent releases.

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by grimal

    I firmly believe we will begin to see more and more sandbox features in games.  The themepark is over done and studios are going to catch on.

    nah .. sandbox ideas (like those in UO) were even older, and less popular.

    Studios are going to do new stuff like Destiny, not going back to tried and failed ideas.

  • SpiiderSpiider Member RarePosts: 1,135

    MMOs used to be unique when there was 10 of them and the industry was new. Now they are all a copy of each other which is natural development for any industry that attracts money. Music is now not unique (all the mainstream artists sound alike) and movies are the crappiest in a long long time. XMEN meet Batman meet Cr4pman meet JayZ meet Beyonce meet Cardashian clan meet WHO CARES!

    Just trying to say that you are complaning about the nature of the beast. Big money = mediocrity.

    No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.

  • YaevinduskYaevindusk Member RarePosts: 2,094
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by grimal

    I firmly believe we will begin to see more and more sandbox features in games.  The themepark is over done and studios are going to catch on.

    nah .. sandbox ideas (like those in UO) were even older, and less popular.

    Studios are going to do new stuff like Destiny, not going back to tried and failed ideas.

     

    The inevitability of more sandbox features is already in motion.  Even now we're seeing old games implement Housing, and newer games have it right out of the box.  Though there has yet to be a good Sandbox game since pretty much Ultima Online.  Those mentioned in this thread, and even SWG didn't quite live up to it's full potential -- even UO didn't achieve such.

     

    Everquest Next is actually taking a lot of ideas that were present in UO way back in the day.  It's kind've ironic that one of the first "Themepark" franchises is even becoming what I consider to be a vastly superior game design that requires more player interaction and retention than just a game on rails via Themeparks with set everything. 

     

    It's about time we make and earn everything in a game once again; since WoW exploded in popularity, people only saw dollar signs before the true potential of the genre could be realized as a whole.  Everything became known as a WoW clone as neither UO nor Everquest had enough players to consider the genre anything less than a minor one in the grand scheme of things.

    Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing).  German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century.  Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now).  I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things).  In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while.  If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.

    Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this.  If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own.  Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis.  Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by Spiider

    MMOs used to be unique when there was 10 of them and the industry was new. Now they are all a copy of each other which is natural development for any industry that attracts money. Music is now not unique (all the mainstream artists sound alike) and movies are the crappiest in a long long time. XMEN meet Batman meet Cr4pman meet JayZ meet Beyonce meet Cardashian clan meet WHO CARES!

    Just trying to say that you are complaning about the nature of the beast. Big money = mediocrity.

    nah .. avenger, great movie, big money.

    Cap Am 2, great movie, big money.

    .. plenty of big money = great entertainment examples.

     

  • maybebakedmaybebaked Member UncommonPosts: 305
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.
  • MagiknightMagiknight Member CommonPosts: 782
    Everquest, AO, and FFXI all had quite a bit of money thrown into them when they started. They're all junk now and have had money thrown at them. I'm not sure that's the issue.
  • MagiknightMagiknight Member CommonPosts: 782
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Many books, TV SHows, and movies are still unique

  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by grimal

    I firmly believe we will begin to see more and more sandbox features in games.  The themepark is over done and studios are going to catch on.

    nah .. sandbox ideas (like those in UO) were even older, and less popular.

    Studios are going to do new stuff like Destiny, not going back to tried and failed ideas.

    There is a much bigger audience to draw from now.  "Tried and failed ideas?"  ever heard of Minecraft?

  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Are you kidding me?  It's the golden age of television right now.  We are seeing a level of televised entertainment of a quality never before realized in mass numbers.

  • LacedOpiumLacedOpium Member EpicPosts: 2,327

     

    The genre is going through a natural process of evolution.  Nothing more, nothing less.  These decline, rose colored glasses, where have you gone, I miss you so much, type threads are starting to become a bit redundant.

     

  • Vermillion_RaventhalVermillion_Raventhal Member EpicPosts: 4,198
    Originally posted by grimal
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Are you kidding me?  It's the golden age of television right now.  We are seeing a level of televised entertainment of a quality never before realized in mass numbers.

    And also a golden of trash TV to balance it out.  

  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
    Originally posted by Vermillion_Raventhal
    Originally posted by grimal
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Are you kidding me?  It's the golden age of television right now.  We are seeing a level of televised entertainment of a quality never before realized in mass numbers.

    And also a golden of trash TV to balance it out.  

    True but I find it hard to swallow that television is no longer unique.  With shows like Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, True Detective it's a rather odd thing to say.

  • LacedOpiumLacedOpium Member EpicPosts: 2,327
    Originally posted by grimal
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Are you kidding me?  It's the golden age of television right now.  We are seeing a level of televised entertainment of a quality never before realized in mass numbers.

     

    This has to be sarcasm.

  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
    Originally posted by LacedOpium
    Originally posted by grimal
    Originally posted by maybebaked
    Movies, books and TV shows used to be unique too.

    Are you kidding me?  It's the golden age of television right now.  We are seeing a level of televised entertainment of a quality never before realized in mass numbers.

     

    This has to be sarcasm.

    Nope.  Does it blow your mind that someone has a wildly different opinion than you?

    Edit: I'm not sure when you grew up, but when I did there wasn't a lot of quality television on. We had MASH, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and some other sitcoms.  Every now and then a good miniseries (North and South, I, Claudius) but on a whole not a lot of stuff outside of sitcoms or soap operas.

    Sure, we do have a lot of reality tv garbage right now but we had horrible stuff back then, too.

    This past decade or so has seem some of the greatest quality it has ever seen.  Sopranos, Mad Men, True Detective, Game of Thrones, The Shield, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Hannibal, Fargo, House of Cards, etc, etc.  The quality of these programs is rivaling and in many ways surpassing that of which you would catch on the big screen.  Anthony Hopkins has gone on record as saying the acting in Breaking Bad is some of the best acting he has ever seen.  Top Billed actors are returning to television because it not only a more stable medium, but the quality of some of the writing and direction is becoming so rich.

    So, no, I am not being sarcastic.

  • sunandshadowsunandshadow Member RarePosts: 1,985
    Every time I see someone asking for games that are unique, with no other qualifiers, I want to say, "Put your money in my hand then; if there's one single quality I could guarantee would be in a game I produced, uniqueness is it.  In fact the uniqueness of a game concept is usually the factor that prevents it from getting funded.
    I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story.  So PM me if you are starting one.
  • MagiknightMagiknight Member CommonPosts: 782
    Originally posted by LacedOpium

     

    The genre is going through a natural process of evolution.  Nothing more, nothing less.  These decline, rose colored glasses, where have you gone, I miss you so much, type threads are starting to become a bit redundant.

     

    Evolution is not improvement

     

  • MagiknightMagiknight Member CommonPosts: 782
    Originally posted by Gorwe
    As for the movies: really? I'll give one rather banal example. Hercules. Truthfully, did you expect TitanQuest:Herc edition when going in? I certainly did not and thought it as a very imaginative use of classic mythology. It was anything but a copy. If it was the Main antagonist would be either Zeus/Hera or Nemean Lion(lol!). See how crappy the copy sounds? That was that former "Legend of Herc"-really crappy and pointless movie.

    As for games:

    This argument is starting to get on my nerves. If you want to play old games-GO PLAY OLD GAMES! I am currently playing NWN and love every minute of it! You certainly won't catch me crying how RPGs aren't what "they used to be"(whatever that may be). And after trying Diablo 2 after playing Diablo 3, I really have to say that in some cases nostalgia for better/happier times(when you coincidentally used to play said game) REALLY distorts the vision of a game. Does D3 need some changes? Yes. Is it better than D2? Yes. Is D2 present if you want to play it? Yes. All these arguments apply to most MMOs. Ok not for SWG or WAR or Vanguard, but at least two of those three will be fixed in a due time. You can pay almost ANY game ANY way you want(free, p2p, legit, private, as any role on one char, etc) and the complaining is still around?

    Learn to let the past go. That's one of Keys to happiness(true happiness).

    You CANT played old school MMOs. They've all changed. there are some small private servers, but that's another story.

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937

    In truth I found the article sad.

    This person says that most people are "asleep" but I don't see what he is doing as anything more than another flavor of "being asleep".

    He doesn't like where he lives or his community? Put money aside and move. People do it all the time.

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  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937
    Originally posted by Magiknight
     

    You CANT played old school MMOs. They've all changed. there are some small private servers, but that's another story.

    That's true, many of the older mmo's have changed. Even removing, changing things that made them special.

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    Try the "Special Edition." 'Cause it's "Special." https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64878/?tab=description

    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • Righteous_RockRighteous_Rock Member RarePosts: 1,234

    With the web, twitch, youtube, and all the like, the magic of mmo's has vanished. You used to have to play the game to see what was around the corner, now you can watch beta testing on twitch and clearly see that you have been there and done that sort of thing before and there is nothing unique about the experience you're about to embark on, and furthermore it would clearly be a waste of your time to do something that has been done a million times already.

    Being creative has gone out of the window as well, there are too many strategy guides and this and that scenario and how to handle this situation or that situation - the world has become one big cookie cut themepark.

    Even your sandboxes can't save you because it won't be long and that sandbox will be filled with all the things you have already seen.

     

  • grimalgrimal Member UncommonPosts: 2,935
    Originally posted by Magiknight
    Originally posted by LacedOpium

     

    The genre is going through a natural process of evolution.  Nothing more, nothing less.  These decline, rose colored glasses, where have you gone, I miss you so much, type threads are starting to become a bit redundant.

     

    Evolution is not improvement

     

    Actually, it is.

    Evolution: The gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form.

    (Oxford Dictionary)

  • Sevenstar61Sevenstar61 Member UncommonPosts: 1,686

    I think some MMOs are pretty unique, maybe not all aspects but some of them. For example: SWTOR ands TSW have outstanding questing - each in it's own style, which is not comparable to any other MMOs. That is unique in my opinion.

    Also - unique MMO does not have to be for everybody's taste and does not have to be sandbox.


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  • iridescenceiridescence Member UncommonPosts: 1,552
    Originally posted by grimal

    Evolution is not improvement

     

    Actually, it is.

    Evolution: The gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form.

    (Oxford Dictionary)

    Yes, but devolution is also a thing.

     

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