Why Dragon Age would NOT be a good MMORPG

Fuerchtegott

In the last few days there have been several threads wishing for MMORPGs to be more like Dragon Age: Origins.

I am not saying the game is bad, I enjoy it quite a lot actually, but here are my reasons why DA:O would fail as a MMORPG, and why we gamers would totally trash it if it was.

- lack of an open world. When AoC came out and used instances instead of an open world, it was hugely criticized. People trashed it for having invisible walls and not being able to climb the highest mountains. In DA:O it’s even worse, sometimes the slightest bump in the landscape proves to insurmountable.

- Linearity of the areas. This point locks directly into the one above.

- No jumping. Guild Wars has no jumping and there are ppl who simply don’t play it because of the lack of it. FE is lacking a ATV physics engine and ppl are leaving the game because of it.

- No swimming/walking in water. Was it WAR who lacked that lately? And I read threads were ppl complained about that.

- Crafting: Simple one click crafting. Crafting enthusiasts would trash this system immediately in an MMORPG.

- Char Customization: FE, Aion, AoC have far better customization.

- Combat is based on the classic click on skill-System, we are all familiar with. No twitch-based combat system.

- Regen. rate. I run out of mana so many times during combat. If this happened in a MMORPG ppl would be furious.

- Quests. This is an ambiguous point. There are a lot of great quests here. But then also some Kill X of creature A quests. They are just formulated differently. Like “Go north find corpse”. And when you go there you find the corpse surrounded by a pack of wolves. This is a point MMORPG content developers could learn something from. If the package is nice we have nothing against Killing X mobs. Just not simply make us kill them for the sake of it.

I may have missed out a point or two, but those are the points that come to mind immediately. Still gamers are having feverish dreams about this game being a MMORPG.

The reason for it’s great success imho are the following:

- outstanding storyline, and dialogue system, which would be hard to reproduce in a MMORPG. Once you are in the game you feel you entered more than a cinematic experience.

- Another one is the great char development. There are so many ways one can skill a class, and since we don’t have to worry about PvP, there is no need for class balance.

- Mature atmosphere without being immature. AoC equalled maturiy with nudity and cursing, that is quite the opposite of mature. Mature means mature themes, existential topics, themes of morality and ethics (which often enough includes sexuality).

- The difficulty of combat. It’s really tough since you have no one or two hit attacks and you really have to manage your resources. When was the last time you really were worried during standard fights about Mana in a MMORPG? Combats are a challenge.

- All of that adds up to us gamers being emotionally involved.

So, in conclusion, I can say that in our enthusiasm over the story of DA:O, we totally forget the more than lacking features above, which in other games would have led to an outrage of the community.

 

Shadowist

You're missing the point. 

 

People are basically saying they want an MMO that is as Graphically pleasing and Immersive as Dragon Age.   Much about the game is awe-inspiring.  You can't say that about 99% of the MMO's on the market.

 

So many of them feel, look and play like shoddy pieces of crap, unlike Dragon Age which provides an amazing gaming experience that really draws you in.

 

 

Fuerchtegott

Originally posted by Shadowist


You're missing the point. 
 
People are basically saying they want an MMO that is as Graphically pleasing and Immersive as Dragon Age.   Much about the game is awe-inspiring.  You can't say that about 99% of the MMO's on the market.
 
The graphics are not a problem, immersion the DA:O way however is. In DA:O repeatability is not a problem since there is no repeatibility besides rolling a new char and starting the game from new. In MMORPG the need for repeatibility kills immersion. Now imagine you are only allowed to enter every dungeon and instance only once with every char you have. It would add a lot of immersion, but is just not possible in MMORPGs.
That's why ppl tend to focus more on the game mechanics of an MMORPG. So, ppl who wish DA:O was a MMORPG must also consider that part of the game. My post was directed towards that. 
So many of them feel, look and play like shoddy pieces of crap, unlike Dragon Age which provides an amazing gaming experience that really draws you in.
 
 

 

Lowdos

Dragon Age was always designed around a single player campaign.

Hard to imagine, but this would be the number one reason why DA:O would make for a useless MMO.

thark

I Think you have misunderstood this..

People do not want to convert the current DA:O to a MMORPG..

They wan't the essence that is DA:O made into a MMO..Not technically speaking...

They want the feel and immersion

Atleast this would be my guess..

/junker

Unknown

About lack of an open world. If they did design a DA:O MMO this would surely be addressed. It serves its purpose for a single player game. Jumping could always be implimented into an MMO. Once again, if they turned DA:O into a mmo they would change game mechanics. Just like going from KOTOR to SW:ToR.  Dragon Age is just the IP.  You dont just take the game as it is now and throw thousands of players in it. And for Char customization it has more than most MMO's have already. When people say it would make a good mmo they are not talking about the game as it is. they are talking about the world, story, history, and everyting else with the IP. Like I said, if they made it a MMO the mechanics would  change to suit a online world.

Precusor

DA:O can be an awesome mmo.

Unknown

Agreed. Dragon Age would be an awesome setting for an MMO. Obviously the single player game wouldn't work as an MMO, since it's designed around being a single player game (duh). If SW:ToR turns out to be a success we might see a Dragon Age MMO further down the road.

Josher

 If its just the tone of the game people want, AOC has the adult, bloody theme down already.  It didn't help;)

Its certainly not the combat.  Nothing revolutionary in DA.  

The world is linear, not very MMO like.

The races are certainly nothing special.  Human, Elf, Dwarf.... YAWN!!!

The story has been nice so far, but you can't take a single player game story and plop it into a MMO.  It doesn't quite work.  Sure, it'll give you a single player game within a MMO, but then whats the point?

Anyone raving about the graphics hasn't played any top AAA titles lately on a PC.  DA looks nice, but its NOTHING special at all.   Crysis and a few others blow DA's graphics away.  Gears of War or Far Cry 2 on the PC are more impressive considering the similar gritty themes.  DA has a big problem with its textures.  VERY inconsistent.

DA just doesn't translate into a MMO.   I could see some sort of co-op online play with it though....without the pause button=)

 

 

 

 

Illyssia

 Dragon Age is a great RPG, but that's all it is for now. Fantastic if you like playing uber mage archetypes. I ran around with 3 mages: main an all conquering dps-tank of an arcane warrior, healer mage and dps caster mage. It says a lot that the arcane mage can out-tank anything in the game pretty much. In an MMO Mage class would pwn everything else.

Nesrie

Originally posted by Fuerchtegott


- No swimming/walking in water. Was it WAR who lacked that lately? And I read threads were ppl complained about that.
Personally, in this date and age I do find water as a barrier to be a little dated.


- Regen. rate. I run out of mana so many times during combat. If this happened in a MMORPG ppl would be furious.
This might make me seem a little old school, but going oom was always a part of a good mmorpg to me. It was how you could tell the difference between a run of the mill combat and a strategic battle. I sort of miss that actually, where you have casters who have to time and actually use their spells very carefully.


- Quests. This is an ambiguous point. There are a lot of great quests here. But then also some Kill X of creature A quests. They are just formulated differently. Like “Go north find corpse”. And when you go there you find the corpse surrounded by a pack of wolves. This is a point MMORPG content developers could learn something from.
Not sure how this different from most MMORPG. If they tell you go find Mr. Smith in the forest, he's usually not alone or you might even have one of those "nice" escort quests started. 
So, in conclusion, I can say that in our enthusiasm over the story of DA:O, we totally forget the more than lacking features above, which in other games would have led to an outrage of the community.
I think you are going overboard with the outrage part here. There are an endless stream of MMORPGs that have different features, and why Dragon Age wouldn't work as an MMORPG because it was never meant to be anything but a singleplayer RPG. It's not even multiplayer friendly and MMORPGs aren't less because they have different features than an RPG. They are different, as in different genre's entirely. I am not going to compare Diablo III to DA either... one's an ActionRPG (presumably) and the other is not.

 

 

Sovrath

Originally posted by Fuerchtegott


In the last few days there have been several threads wishing for MMORPGs to be more like Dragon Age: Origins.

I am not saying the game is bad, I enjoy it quite a lot actually, but here are my reasons why DA:O would fail as a MMORPG, and why we gamers would totally trash it if it was.
- lack of an open world. When AoC came out and used instances instead of an open world, it was hugely criticized. People trashed it for having invisible walls and not being able to climb the highest mountains. In DA:O it’s even worse, sometimes the slightest bump in the landscape proves to insurmountable.

- Linearity of the areas. This point locks directly into the one above.

- No jumping. Guild Wars has no jumping and there are ppl who simply don’t play it because of the lack of it. FE is lacking a ATV physics engine and ppl are leaving the game because of it.

- No swimming/walking in water. Was it WAR who lacked that lately? And I read threads were ppl complained about that.

- Crafting: Simple one click crafting. Crafting enthusiasts would trash this system immediately in an MMORPG.

- Char Customization: FE, Aion, AoC have far better customization.

- Combat is based on the classic click on skill-System, we are all familiar with. No twitch-based combat system.

- Regen. rate. I run out of mana so many times during combat. If this happened in a MMORPG ppl would be furious.

- Quests. This is an ambiguous point. There are a lot of great quests here. But then also some Kill X of creature A quests. They are just formulated differently. Like “Go north find corpse”. And when you go there you find the corpse surrounded by a pack of wolves. This is a point MMORPG content developers could learn something from. If the package is nice we have nothing against Killing X mobs. Just not simply make us kill them for the sake of it.
I may have missed out a point or two, but those are the points that come to mind immediately. Still gamers are having feverish dreams about this game being a MMORPG.

The reason for it’s great success imho are the following:

- outstanding storyline, and dialogue system, which would be hard to reproduce in a MMORPG. Once you are in the game you feel you entered more than a cinematic experience.

- Another one is the great char development. There are so many ways one can skill a class, and since we don’t have to worry about PvP, there is no need for class balance.

- Mature atmosphere without being immature. AoC equalled maturiy with nudity and cursing, that is quite the opposite of mature. Mature means mature themes, existential topics, themes of morality and ethics (which often enough includes sexuality).

- The difficulty of combat. It’s really tough since you have no one or two hit attacks and you really have to manage your resources. When was the last time you really were worried during standard fights about Mana in a MMORPG? Combats are a challenge.

- All of that adds up to us gamers being emotionally involved.
So, in conclusion, I can say that in our enthusiasm over the story of DA:O, we totally forget the more than lacking features above, which in other games would have led to an outrage of the community.

 

 

Many of your reasons really don't resonate with me.

I know that bioware's star wars mmo will have a dialogue system between the party members and quest npc's. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. Personally I don't mind a more cinematic experience. Heck, there are cinematics used in mmo's and even AoC utilizes them during game play.

Not all mmo's have to have pvp so the balancing doesn't have to be a huge issue. oh, I think some form of pvp should be in every mmo, but I don't believe it's an issue for a primarily pve mmo.

I don't see why you can't have mature themes in an mmo.

As far as things like mana, I had worried about mana during Lineage 2. Perhaps some modern games have more forgiving systems but I don't see where it is a bad thing to manage your resources.

Your reasons really don't work. No Jumping? Ok, well to me, having played an mmo with no jumping, it was a non issue. But ok, just "add jumping'. Problem solved. Though if people are thinking about the no jumping issue with respects to pvp I say "jumping", makes everyone look like jumping jacks. It's terrible. So I have no problem excluding it unless they included a stamina system where they can jump but it affects their stamina and thus combat power.

As far as linearity, games like oblivion or morrowind, with regards to the main storyline are just as linear. The main storyline for lotro is linear.

It just seems that your issues either fall to preference which means that there are peopel who won't mind them or to things that can be added or changed. So make the customization better. problem solved.

I think what people want out of Dragon Age as an mmo is the rich world and better stories/quests.

I'm convinced that for my tastes that an open world mmo just doesnt' do story telling very well in conjunction with immersion.

coming back from slaying a dragon and saving a town only to go into the player city and have people dancing on top of mailboxes and talking about sports and why x game is better/is not better than wow does not really fulfill the immersion criteria.

Dueling in a warehouse in the middle of everybody also ruins a bit of the immersion. Take it outside if you want satisfaction.

The issue with mmo's is that they try to be everything to all people and because of this fail on several levels. They are more about social game play as opposed to great story telling and immersion.

 

libranim

- All of that adds up to us gamers being emotionally involved.
So, in conclusion, I can say that in our enthusiasm over the story of DA:O, we totally forget the more than lacking features above, which in other games would have led to an outrage of the community.

 

As previous posters stated the MMO community (cough), doesn't want a DIRECT translation of the single player mechanics, instead it could be changed so that it would fit an MMO scheme.

But.

 the positive aspects that you pointed out in the game, most especially the story and immersion level, cannot be, at least in my opinion, turned into an MMO.

There would be too much different factors that'd have to play into the game to allow a story-line or character development as in-depth... for supposedly millions who would rush into the game.