I think it absolutely does. My first MMO was ffxi, and I loved it and played it for like 7 months straight.
Really though it's just the fact that the game was online and I could interact with people. The game itself was a pretty terrible grind, at least when I played it.
I think people remember their first MMOs way too fondly, and many of them were hardcore as fuck. I think if those kinds of games were released today after experiencing newer MMOs they wouldn't actually enjoy them.
I know I wouldn't enjoy grinding for 6 hours in a party on the same mobs to gain one level nowadays, or camp out a spawn point to try to get the first hit on something that's on a daily random respawn timer, or mine a volcano with horrendous droprates and insta-kill mobs just for a chance at something worth selling.
I think it absolutely does. My first MMO was ffxi, and I loved it and played it for like 7 months straight.
Really though it's just the fact that the game was online and I could interact with people. The game itself was a pretty terrible grind, at least when I played it.
I think people remember their first MMOs way too fondly, and many of them were hardcore as fuck. I think if those kinds of games were released today after experiencing newer MMOs they wouldn't actually enjoy them.
I know I wouldn't enjoy grinding for 6 hours in a party on the same mobs to gain one level nowadays, or camp out a spawn point to try to get the first hit on something that's on a daily random respawn timer, or mine a volcano with horrendous droprates and insta-kill mobs just for a chance at something worth selling.
Yet I did so at the time and really enjoyed it.
I remember playing shadowbane (loved that game) and near the beginning, there was a large snake that would appear. People would be huddled around the tree waiting for it to pop up and get a hit before it was killed. Was fun, but don't know if i would wait there for x amount of time.
For me personally, no it doesn't stop me from enjoying games. What tends to stop me from enjoying most newer games is 1 or a mix of the following:
It's basically the same exact game I played 10 years ago, just with better / different "shinies" (nice graphics or effects) which stop mattering after a few hours of playing. Practically the same exact combat, features, mechanics. I already mastered this crap many times over. Why do I want to start all over again when I could go do something new elsewhere?
Features / mechanics in the game which WOULD make the game enjoyable are either broken / buggy or implemented in a half-assed fashion and never improved or expanded upon.
Too much grind / tedium. I have no problem investing lots of time into developing my character, but when 90% of the game consists of just repetitious mob killing or recycled and unoriginal quests (especially without some great lore behind them) I quickly grow bored. This is made even worse by games that just recycle mobs many times throughout the game. Oh hey, you're 10 levels higher. Now you get to go kill 100 more of this same monster but NOW it has blue skin instead of red yaaaaaaay so fresh and exciting!
Games designed with the philosophy of "The game begins at end game". If I'm forced to play through a bunch of pointless crap that is no fun to play through just to get to the final stages of the game and finally start having some "fun", then I will most likely not bother playing long enough to find out if it the end game actually is better. A game like WAR for example, I could jump in and experience both PvE and several forms of PvP (on a somewhat level playing field due to tiered RvR and SCs) right from the start of the game, and more option became available later on (such as Fortresses) as well as the scale of PvP increasing (from simple battlefield objectives in Tier1 to larger zones as well as keeps in T2, to even larger zones and larger keeps in T3 and T4). I didn't have to mindlessly grind through 40 levels of PvE to start having some fun in PvP.
Do I have nostalgia for the old games? Of course I do.
But I don't compare the newer games to the older games. They are, quite simply, not MMORPGs in my book. I compare them to action/adventure titles or dungeon crawlers, and judge them on those merits.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Comes down to the differentiation between nostalgia and memory.
I have nostalgia for a couple of points in my gaming history and I'd love to go back and recapture those times again, but I recognise it isn't possible, those times have passed.
However, whenever I play a new game, I can't help but use my life experiences when judging that game. With each new game I play, I learn something new and I use that knowledge to judge what I'm playing and make predictions about my enjoyment. For example, I hate vertical gear progression at endgame in MMOs. Having only had negative experiences of vertical progression, and having only had positive experiences of horizontal progression, I am now extremely wary of playing any MMO with vertical endgame gear progression.
I wouldn't call this nostalgia, I'd just say I'm using past experience to influence future decisions. Which is what we all do.....all the time.......I think its called learning?
What I would say has changed most, for me, is my tolerance of bad games. When I was younger and knew less, I'd tolerate a lot of shit from games because I knew no better. Having grown up and experienced some truely amazing games, I am now less tolerant of shit games and am quicker to quit games once I encounter poor design decisions or sloppy coding.
Yes and no. Everquest had lot of depth many games don't have. There have been few newer elements in the newer games that I do like but I want more depth. More zones to explore, rare mobs to find, more quests to unlock not just go to X collect X and get crap rewards, more group play that is rewarding, and more end game. People get so bored so easy these days "including myself". I don't think I could grind the same way I used to. Kinda been there done that kind of thing. Biggest thing I feel is things should feel rewarding but not to point where everything is given to you to easy. Hard thing to balance since people feel different about it. Anyways enough of my rant.
I voted no for me personally, but I've seen plenty of cases where people will say "if x game doesn't have y features I won't play it", thus ignoring several games that could have the potential to be something they would enjoy.
I think it's hard to re-create that feeling of the first MMORPG you play because it's such an experience, but if you truly enjoy the genre I think people tend to overlook games they wouldn't normally give a chance. My first MMORPG was FFXI and I only tried it because I am a fan of that IP. Since then I've only played two other MMORPGs for more than 30 minutes: WoW and FFXIV, and again, that's because I like both of those IPs.
Once I no longer want to play FFXIV I'm pretty sure I'll be done with MMORPGs on the whole. There's plenty of single player games I've overlooked playing since I got drug into playing MMOs almost 15 years ago.
Comes down to the differentiation between nostalgia and memory.
I have nostalgia for a couple of points in my gaming history and I'd love to go back and recapture those times again, but I recognise it isn't possible, those times have passed.
However, whenever I play a new game, I can't help but use my life experiences when judging that game. With each new game I play, I learn something new and I use that knowledge to judge what I'm playing and make predictions about my enjoyment. For example, I hate vertical gear progression at endgame in MMOs. Having only had negative experiences of vertical progression, and having only had positive experiences of horizontal progression, I am now extremely wary of playing any MMO with vertical endgame gear progression.
I wouldn't call this nostalgia, I'd just say I'm using past experience to influence future decisions. Which is what we all do.....all the time.......I think its called learning?
What I would say has changed most, for me, is my tolerance of bad games. When I was younger and knew less, I'd tolerate a lot of shit from games because I knew no better. Having grown up and experienced some truely amazing games, I am now less tolerant of shit games and am quicker to quit games once I encounter poor design decisions or sloppy coding.
I think that is a normal way of looking at things. Your past experiences influence the present. However, I know people who it seems that they look at their past MMOs as utopian and instead of incorporating it into their current experience they get sort of stuck. This is fine, you're not hurting anybody, but I think it holds some people back from having good experiences in the here and now. This isn't a new phenomenon, but its usually associated with 70 and 80 year olds. With the new connected verse, its happening to 30 year olds
I love Grand Strategy Games. When I started playing Medieval Total War by CA in 2003 I falled in love. Currently, I love playing Paradox games like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV and, on the other hand, I cannot help but profoundly despise Rome II by CA. My enjoyment of Paradox products and my hate for latest CA products is not hindered by my nostalgia of Medieval Total War. Paradox games are just better.
I love city building and simulation game. Same story here for Simcity 4, Cities Skylines and, on the other side, Simcity 2013, which is crap.
I used to love MMORPGs. And same story again, which in fact is a sadder one. My nostalgia of UO or SWG doesn't hinder me my enjoyment of current MMORPGs. In fact I don't play any, there's nothing in current MMORPGs that grabs my eye. I find them boring, prosaic, functionally shallow, predictable and deprived of purpose in terms of RPG.
Nostalgia is nothing but a narrative created by a group of people to defend (who knows why) a gaming design model that is the equivalent of food-pellet to videogames.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
When I fire up DAOC, I get those feelings of the ol' magic back again. Not so with EQ, but that's because the games graphics are too dated and the gameplay has been changed too much over the years.
But, DAOC has it, so I think nostalgia is not the issue. Designing a world instead of a shallow setting is the issue.
It's quite amusing to read someone pretending a game designed with three artificially separated realms, with artificially separated PvP areas, was designed as "a world". UO, AC1 and SWG were worlds, and to a lesser extent EQ1 and its heavily zoned design. But definitely not DAoC.
They may be separate, but when playing the game it felt like a connected world at war. No game has felt more like a world TO ME then DAOC, a close second was FFXI. It too had zoning yet felt more like a world TO ME.
I would say no. Todays games are better games and worst MMO. Meaning that things MMO offer that are unique to the genre are minimized for things I can do else where better. Its as simple as that.
Comments
Really though it's just the fact that the game was online and I could interact with people. The game itself was a pretty terrible grind, at least when I played it.
I think people remember their first MMOs way too fondly, and many of them were hardcore as fuck. I think if those kinds of games were released today after experiencing newer MMOs they wouldn't actually enjoy them.
I know I wouldn't enjoy grinding for 6 hours in a party on the same mobs to gain one level nowadays, or camp out a spawn point to try to get the first hit on something that's on a daily random respawn timer, or mine a volcano with horrendous droprates and insta-kill mobs just for a chance at something worth selling.
Yet I did so at the time and really enjoyed it.
I self identify as a monkey.
But I don't compare the newer games to the older games. They are, quite simply, not MMORPGs in my book. I compare them to action/adventure titles or dungeon crawlers, and judge them on those merits.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
I have nostalgia for a couple of points in my gaming history and I'd love to go back and recapture those times again, but I recognise it isn't possible, those times have passed.
However, whenever I play a new game, I can't help but use my life experiences when judging that game. With each new game I play, I learn something new and I use that knowledge to judge what I'm playing and make predictions about my enjoyment. For example, I hate vertical gear progression at endgame in MMOs. Having only had negative experiences of vertical progression, and having only had positive experiences of horizontal progression, I am now extremely wary of playing any MMO with vertical endgame gear progression.
I wouldn't call this nostalgia, I'd just say I'm using past experience to influence future decisions. Which is what we all do.....all the time.......I think its called learning?
What I would say has changed most, for me, is my tolerance of bad games. When I was younger and knew less, I'd tolerate a lot of shit from games because I knew no better. Having grown up and experienced some truely amazing games, I am now less tolerant of shit games and am quicker to quit games once I encounter poor design decisions or sloppy coding.
I think it's hard to re-create that feeling of the first MMORPG you play because it's such an experience, but if you truly enjoy the genre I think people tend to overlook games they wouldn't normally give a chance. My first MMORPG was FFXI and I only tried it because I am a fan of that IP. Since then I've only played two other MMORPGs for more than 30 minutes: WoW and FFXIV, and again, that's because I like both of those IPs.
Once I no longer want to play FFXIV I'm pretty sure I'll be done with MMORPGs on the whole. There's plenty of single player games I've overlooked playing since I got drug into playing MMOs almost 15 years ago.
I self identify as a monkey.
I love Grand Strategy Games. When I started playing Medieval Total War by CA in 2003 I falled in love. Currently, I love playing Paradox games like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV and, on the other hand, I cannot help but profoundly despise Rome II by CA. My enjoyment of Paradox products and my hate for latest CA products is not hindered by my nostalgia of Medieval Total War. Paradox games are just better.
I love city building and simulation game. Same story here for Simcity 4, Cities Skylines and, on the other side, Simcity 2013, which is crap.
I used to love MMORPGs. And same story again, which in fact is a sadder one. My nostalgia of UO or SWG doesn't hinder me my enjoyment of current MMORPGs. In fact I don't play any, there's nothing in current MMORPGs that grabs my eye. I find them boring, prosaic, functionally shallow, predictable and deprived of purpose in terms of RPG.
Nostalgia is nothing but a narrative created by a group of people to defend (who knows why) a gaming design model that is the equivalent of food-pellet to videogames.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.