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Do people really play MMOs anymore....
Dedthom
Member Posts: 541
Does anyone really play MMOs anymore or do they just start them, race to the top level, get nerfed by the devs, have there gamed changed in some major (or minor) way and then quit after a few month come here and bitch about it how "this was a great game until" or in light of recent releases "this game sux because" and of course the best "no one should play this game and teach the producer a lesson because....".
Really does anyone just PLAY these games with out tearing apart every particle, reading every word in print and watching /looking every video/pic looking for a reason to hate a game? We are killing games that haven't even come out yet. Most of the post for games that are in developement are very negative, by reading the posts here all the games coming out are going to launch like V:SoH, crash like DnL, and be relegated to F2P because no sane person would pay to play this cookie cutter piece of WoW wannabe crap.
Who here actually spends time playing an MMO, enjoying it, adapting to changes the devs make, building the community, and general glad to do it?
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
Comments
I would say i actually play them... I always get caught up in exploring instead of doing quests i should be doing.
I'm not playing mmos at the moment. Fan of them but can't play them forever!
It seems hard to imagine, but I'm sure some do - myself included. I recently attended the SOE Fan Faire and seemed out my element in the discussion panels, mainly because all anyone talked about were the calculations and technical functions of the different aspects of the games. I felt lost because those are the things I don't care nor think about when I'm playing a game - I just play it.
I don't know if that makes me a minority or not, but I just don't like getting to know the technical and indepth aspects of the games I play. /shrug
"Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received
with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him."
- Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
It's in the humans nature to find faults, especially on the intrawebz. I think a bigger problem is that some people aren't open to the possibility of having many MMORPGs in the market. Like with the AoC and WAR war. They choose one MMORPG and start bashing the other because... Well, I don't know why they do it. To those people: If you don't like the other game and think it's going to go straight west for some irrelevant reason, we don't really care.
I am actually trying to do "spends time playing an MMO, enjoying it, adapting to changes the devs make, building the community, and general glad to do it?" with TCoS, and probably will play that for quite some time, unless of course I really don't like it.
I certainly wish that most threads run this well. I agree that to many MMOs are about the numbers and think this plays right into the personality that "Chooses an MMO and bashes the others". When I first started with EQ it was about playing for me and my friends but it is odd how people get into the numbers and the raiding and the uber loot, that it is just no fun anymore. Of course they leave you behind because you are more intrested in the game. I am glad to see that some people still "Just want to play a game".
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
The problem is developers are not making games to be "just played" anymore, they are making them to be addicting, number crunching, and generally dull until you reach the higher level. We are being programed to believe that the good part is just around the corner but when we finally get to that point we find it not as appealing as they said it was, and either leave the game or sit around and mope waiting for the next big addition so we can race once again to the "fun part".
While this is the case, this doesn't mean at any point in time that MMORPGs were really fun. When MMORPGs were new we let our imaginations fill in the missing pieces (well I did), but now that we are passed that stage developers have to add real content and most are just not up to that challenge. They will continue to let the new player pool run dry and once that's gone we'll see a huge change in developers thinking that will most likely come from a massive drop in players from the community.
Yeh mmorpg.com forums level up your avatar to 100 and get 5 stars.
I'm a level 83 spammer
Lately, it DOES seem that I like researching, reading about, and trying new games more than I do actually playing them.
MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan
2moons FTW wahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo(and guildwars maybe). otherwise, no i kust play guitar hero(its SAVAGE)
Honestly, I can't even bother playing other genre's anymore. Something about the fact that you get to keep what you earn and the community keeps me from playing anything but MMO's.
Due to the insane time commitment necessary (in many mmorpgs) to accomplish seemingly minor steps forward in the development of your character or the completion of a goal many people start getting into the 'numbers' and website research in order to save time. Saving time in a setting that wants to suck away all of your time seems logical enough especially when the leveling time ramps up.
As you say, it just might be sucking away all of the fun at the same time however. Although obviously for many people the numbers game is their version of fun. shrug
In many ways the options your character has to distinguish him/herself are far too limited. Some class/race options so you can be one of a thousand similar templates and then, of course, the big definer EQUIPMENT. Ugh. Your actions do not mean anything and your moral code, your allegiances, your history mean little. In most systems your level and gear are all that 'separate you from the masses'. blah
Carrot on a stick gaming still hasn't left us.
Yeah yeah. EVE this and that blah, leveling fast not slow blah, skills not levels blah, pvp blah, etc.
I'm only playing the old ones, and even then that's like 5 logins per month. The tedium is too obvious by now, if not by dumb fun.
There are better communities in forums if you ask me. Also more lulzy drama.
I remeber starting EQ and thinking the fact that if you kill this thing you gain and lose faction was cool. Coming from the PNP RPG communities I was looking for the same thing, of course in the end it was just grinding and raiding and falling behind the curve. Seems to me that many MMOs now are like having a job. Gotta do this that and the other thing and not living the epic life. Some MMOs break the mold and have things other than questing and raiding but they are few and far between and lack in other areas.
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
I "do" the first part of your sentence, (just start the games), then see how mindless this or that new game actually is, how moronic, rude, infantile, etc, the community is, then uninstall it as fast as I can.
If you want to play any new games (grinders), which is most to all new games (anything released in the last year or two), to succeed, you are pretty much required to do some research on the best char builds, and so forth. Personally, I won't play a grinder, and it's not really an MMORPG. Every teeniebopper infests the game on a mission to get to the highest level possible as quickly as possible for basically NO reason at all, besides for the sake of just doing it. Seriously, what's the point? Also, what's all the buzz about 2Moons. It's just another grinder with great graphics. I was bored to tears when my char neared 20. Surprised I made it that far.
What happened to *exploring*, epic quests, organized monster attacks/raids on players/towns/etc (really never existed), REAL quests, factions, searching for monsters to kill, etc. I'm disgusted by the current state of the "MMO" market. The magic that EQ and UO started has pretty much disappeared (not that I didn't have serious issues with EQ).
There's NO game anymore, it's all about fluff like your "uber" loot, build, level, etc. What happened to the game??
But the issue of the current MMos begs the question: if a company came out with a truely original game where the players had a direct effect on the game world, were the quest really followed a story line that had a beginning middle and end that meant something, were cities rose and fell and the players had tons of new stuff to do, a crafting system that was realistic and game play that was challenging would anyone really play it? I would and I think many others would but as a whole how would the community accept it? How long before some players would find the holes in the economy, world, NPCs, and begin to exploit them? One of the problems I see in MMOs today is the race to end game. How do you make a game with out end game? Can devs and the game system really be ever changing?
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
Woohoo /high five!
I PLAY them too 
I try to exhaust all areas before getting sick of a game. EQ2 and many that i've played in the past always have many different areas that you can go to. Go explore! Run and meet new players, try out a different kind of server if you are sick of the old one, dabble in OOC or lvl chat or craft! Harvest? See theres ton 
You have to want to keep yourself busy in the game or your paying for nothing.
Ignore my code...I couldnt help it, it just slipped out
I'm not subscribed to anything anymore. I did download and play 2moons last night. Once I turned the the graphics settinmgs up. The game actually looks quite nice. I'm only level 8, so I'm no expert., but it appears to be the same ol grind. the npc 's cuss alot, it's kinda fun.The only game I ever played that didn't have the grind was Eve. Unfortunately Eve actually takes over your life even more than the grinding games. Anyone who has ever been and important member of a corp, knows what I'm talking about. Maybe WAR's public quest system is the answer I dunno. I just don't like there art direction. I've seen it before. The new spy games coming out sound like something different and Aion has huge potential if NCSoft doesn't screw it up.
For me for now, I'll just stay in the gym and keep losing all of my Eve and Wow fat, LOL.
im subscribed only to lineage 2 now. yes it is a crazy grinder and there are bots in the game, but nonetheless i enjoy playing the game. the main aspect is the clan stuff for me. i really enjoy the interaction with my clan, although this game does represent all the problems in the mmo market.
the best game by far, which encompassed all the positives everyone is mentioning above was SWG. it had all the faction stuff, pvp, great exploration, player cities and bases, customizable professions, great crafting, you actually impacted the planets u were on, the best IP ever and a mature community. the game was perfect and i really hope a dev out there can this game or a similar game with the same qualities back to this starving community.
Favourite Game
SWG - Sabanak, Retired Jedi, Bria
Playing: Nothing
Waiting for: SWG Pre-CU
Retired: SWG, CoX, Vanguard, MxO, Guildwars, Archlord, Auto Assault, EQ2, Final Fantasy XI,
Lineage 2, Saga of Ryzom, DAOC, WoW, AOC, WAR
I pay for 2 Everquest 2 accounts (mine and son's), 1 Vanguard account (just mine), 2 City of Heroes accounts(mine and son's).
I am thinking about dropping all of them. They are all great games. But the money I would save could be put to other games that we cold play together. Like I could buy 2 copies of Two Worlds, then we could play together.
When in game I am either soloing, exploring or playing with my son.
I'm not currently playing any MMOs. I consider all MMOs to have a beginning and an for each person. For me that means I will continue to play the game until it's not fun anymore. When I get to things like needing to raid to advance advance then I generally stop playing the game. Now I'm waiting for something new. New is always exciting and taking a break for a while helps to make the experience of the new game more enjoyable when it comes out.
P.S. I am not dismissing the reasons many people here are unhappy. I understand most of those reasons and share at least some of them. But I'm still on the "having a fine time" side of the balance and expect to be there for quite a while.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - These games need Dungeonmasters. Leave the geek reference aside and note that I mean that an mmorpg that allows for direct intervention will curtail loopholes in economy and combat and create an element of surprise within the system you are advocating. Many people would find it frustrating but change always creates controversy. If someone creates a monopoly through economic 'loopholes' perhaps that server's 'DM' decides the local Thieves Guild will pay him a visit and demand protection money. Perhaps the local government gets involved with new tax laws, etc. Entire guilds may be marked for banishment.
Storylines on the fly, city attacks, large groups of players in one area might attract 'attention', governments change hands - perhaps with the help of player actions, etc. Different servers would become known for their level of intervention and style.
Shouldn't you expect change if you return to your gaming world after a month? Imagine the forums on such a game
I think you may be right in that people wouldn't put up with a 'moving' world however. Take away one of their toys and the crying won't stop.