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Does this genre need saving?
DarkHigh
Member UncommonPosts: 157
At any given time you can look through this forum and see countless posts about how bad every game out is. You can see people posting the games in open beta, closed beta, alpha, you name it they are terrible. For one reason or another every game out is trash. Look on the front page of this site and see previews for upcoming games, the ones no ones actually played yet and you will see the same people calling these games the savior of the MMORPG genre. Even tonight late as it may be people are still discussing the next big game that will save the genre.
So what am I getting at? Maybe the genre doesn't need saving... Maybe the things you hate about every game that is available to play TODAY is that you're not playing it. Maybe you don't have anyone to play with or you just can't get into it. Whatever it may be please realize that these are YOUR problems. This genre has went from a handful of games that everyone played and a community that couldn't even populate all of those servers, to one that is massive, tons of games to choose from, tons of quests to complete, stories to tell, events to be a part of.
Somehow this is not enough for us. We still look to the stars for something innovative, beautiful, apparently this year we are all starting to look for a sandbox, name that buzz word and we want it in the next big mmo. I think we are all getting a little too cynical in our old age.
Remember the old days? When the games we played had mechanics that we hated, we got killed in the open world, camped, hunted, griefed, fell through the floor(everquest), couldn't quest (because there was no real questing(lineage 2)), couldn't leave town because of all the pkers waiting to kill people(countless pvp games), witnessed a murder of an invincible being (ultima), log in to see your account had been swept clean by hackers(maybe you did some of the scamming, I know I did in old school Mu Online). These aren't positives you would normally bring up about the old school MMOs but they did happen/exist. We never played a PERFECT mmo, but we had a blast. We logged in every day with friends who lived close by or far away, we discovered new things, spells, monsters, quests, cinematics, game mechanics(holding control lets me kill people?! NO WAY), Consequences (shit why is my name red) , even the hated event known as GRINDING used to be fun for us, we did it for hours, laughed in voice chat (battle com, early versions of vent, yahoo voice for some of us) .
So why are all these things we used to enjoy in games suddenly not fun anymore? We just did them too much? Who knows, I feel it to, something just isn't the same. I think it may be because of our age, we are just out of place here now days. The people in chat you can bet are younger than you, we used to have in game people we looked up to, clan/guild/legion/alliance leaders that we could say wow I want to be like that.
I guess what I'm getting at is this genre is doing great, it doesn't need a savior, there are tons of games to play and tons of people to play them with. Everything has its ups and downs and that's always going to be a part of playing games on this scale. Give it a chance before talking trash about new releases. I'm not asking you to play from level 1 to 10 then bash it either. Work as a part of the community talk to people, quest with people, grind with people, pvp with people, voice chat, get to know the people you are playing with, truly try these new games and let your self live again like we used to.
TL:DR
MMORPG's don't need a savior
Comments
The MMORPG genre is like baseball.
Yes, the fans are growing.
Yes, the revenues are up.
But when you look around and compare it to rest of its peers, it looks archiac and outdated. It doesn't need a savior, it needs to get with the times.
Why is it every other genre can gives us games with scaling difficulty meanwhile MMOs are still putting out the one difficulty fits all.
Why is it every other genre gives us the ability to create games around the amount of players we have meanwhile MMOs force us to stick to a set number of players
One of the huge draws of MOBAs is that you start every game fresh so if you fell behind last game you're not hindered forever. Why don't MMOs give us servers that constantly wipe player stats/gear monthly. If you want to keep your character, move him off to a permanent server. Path of Exile employs this strategy, it's great, why don't MMOs?
Old......
I see what you're saying OP, and maybe there's a lot of people out there that are content and happy. Many are not. I'm in a different camp entirely. I agree with you. The genre doesn't need saving. Let it die. I have been so immensely disappointed with the last few that I've lost hope in it. No truly interesting things are on the horizon. Archeage, Black Desert, Bless, and EQNext. After that is a barren wasteland. Maybe this genre has run it's course.
Unless the products are getting progressively worse...oh wait!
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The genre needs no saving. It needs the instant gratification and FPS/PvP players to go back to their games.
Er, where are all these better products you speak of, I haven't seen any recently, in oh, say, 8 or 9 years perhaps.
This genre (MMORPG's) needs to crash and burn into the ground, drive out of it all of the players who helped turn it in the direction it went and from the ashes go back to being designed for those that originally enjoyed it.
"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
Listen to this cat, it speaks the truth!
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... and that's coming from a mouse.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
The genre does not need saving, although if you look at the 'newer' games i can understand why someone might think it is in need of saving, or in fact, in decline. Expansion, briefly put, the genre as a whole is a hell of a lot bigger now than it was 10 years ago, more people participate, there are a huge number of games out there, and various payment models in use which sometimes are a bit questionable, its kind of inevitable with the sheer growth of the genre that supply and demand will be out of kilter, and in this case the supply (players) and the demand (MMO's) is disproportionate, there are just so many MMO's around that the number of players is not always sufficient to support a game financially. Whether a game is P2P, or B2P or even F2P makes no difference, each one needs players to not just play them, but to pay them. Inevitably MMO's that arent able to maintain sufficient player numbers are shut down or wound down till their running with little in the way of bug fixing or game improvements/developments taking place, examples of this could be Earth and Beyond (EA) COH/COV (NcSoft) Matrix Online/Vanguard/Pirates of the Burning Sea, Starwars Galaxies (SOE), and possibly ESO (Zenimax)
Okay maybe not the last one yet, but the sheer number of games that are doing well, even World of Warcraft after so many years, is surely a sign that the genre itself is alive and kicking, and still, despite a few games recent 'issues' still growing. If anything players are just less likely to put up with mediocre games anymore, and because there are so many MMO's these days, they expect the things to work as described - or just work for that matter, without having to file multiple bug reports, or help requests/petitions in game to sort out issues that inhibit gameplay.
The genre does not need saving, but any MMO developer releasing shoddy or mediocre games will find the water is in fact, filled with some very large sharks, and once there is blood in the water, its pretty much all over for them.
So says the jaded vet segment. Alas, the genre doesn't cater to us anymore. So we either enjoy whats out there for what it is or we leave the genre. Either way, it doesn't need "saving" from anything but individuals expectations/likes...
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...