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Lack of any and all origionality in new MMO's
Keeblor
Member Posts: 8
Frankly im sisk and tired of hack and slash mmo's because they are all basicly the same. They add new insegnificant features but basicly there are all the same, they are diablo with a chatroom slaped on the side. They "claim" to have intracate mission systems, but all the missions end up "kill this monster in a cave". I had high hopes for SWG and played it for a month. It sounded like they were planing to add alot of interesting features, but a week into the game it became the same thing, go out and kill stuff. With games like this what is the point of making them online at all? So i think that new MMO's should take full advantage of having thousands of people online at the same time. One game i was thinking of was a pirate mmo. one where you can attack NCP ships, or other pirate ships, and a ship would need at least 10 people to sail it. One person to stear the ship, 2 people to man the sails, one person to watch out on the crows nest, 4 people to man the cannons, etc. There would be different pirate crews, and different aliances and so on. Then people would have a sence of being a small part of something bigger in the online world, which I think should be the whole idea of MMO's. Instead of taking a game that laready exists and make it work in an MMO environment, developers should start getting crative in ways that they can take advantage of having so meany people online at the same time and do something origional with it.
Comments
So much easier said than done.
I agree we are lacking original content in Massively Multiplayer games - but this is most companies first steps in to unknown territory, and in an industry where playing it safe is rewarded much more highly than originality.
With games costing millions to develop and thousands to maintain, and pressure to start recouping the investment as soon as possible most developers are forced to play it safe and get something in to the market place which they can build on. But that shouldn't be an excuse.
However, just like 'back in the day' where we saw little originality and much imitation - Pac-man, Manic Miner, Space Invaders all spawned hundreds of cash-in clones, eventually we'll have a couple of breakthrough titles as the MMO market matures.
For me the biggest problem is games being released before they are ready - I'm sure in 12 to 18 months time SWG will be almost unrecognisable to the game you played for a month. Many developers are trying to do something different, but when they are also trying to capture as many subscibers as possible and keep those people paying and make it easy for a casual gamer to progress as well as keep the interest of the hardcore gamer and make it accesible for everyone something has got to give - and that seems to be content and originality.
1. Everything is easier said then done....try saying something constructive for once. He isnt saying make virtual reality literally.
2. A pirate MMO would actually be easy, but would lack content would overall be disheartening, maybe interesting for a FPS, but MMORPG....Would have to go beyond that, such as life beyond your ship, and it wouldnt be a pirate game, but a game set in renaissance era europe, where you have the choice to be a pirate, but multiple other things.
"The greatest trick the devil played on humanity in the 20th century was convincing them that he didn't exist." (Paraphrasing) C.S. Lewis
"If a mother can kill her own child, what is left before I kill you and you kill me?" -Mother Teresa when talking about abortion after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
1)Yes the new mmorpgs are been lazy.They put all this nice graphics with no content and no imagination.If you played the old mmorpgs you would see that questing was actually good fun.Not so anymore it is just seek and destroy and so much information is given there is no need to use your grey matter called the brain anymore.In EQ of old even with spoilers you would have to think a lot.
Dungeons are basically caves that go round and round.This part suprises me totally because I mean surely if they could bother to programme so much in the landscape and character they could build a proper dungeon!Look at AC2,SB,SWG,horizons horrible dungeons if they have them at all!
2)There is a pirate game been made.Not sure of name now you can look it up in game list.However considering its about char development over years i dunno how well it would work out.Eve online is a bit similar to your idea just happens in space but for me at least the idea came out badly for a mmorpg.
3)Yeah most new mmorpg feels like you might as well play it offline but heck blame the players for moaning about ability to solo and easy leveling.MMORPGs are now so soloable no one bothers to group anymore or guild.Thus no more interaction thus mmorpg in single mode.
Lack of originality is not such a bad thing. You wouldn't want them to change the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. A game is still good even if all they do is improve on the original game by making some features better, and taking away features that nobody likes.
If you think that all games coming out lack originality, maybe it is because most people don't want it done any other way. Most game companies know this and that is why games do not change much.
I agree with everyone's points. They are all valid. But it is true that these games are costing millions to make. Probably a viable solution is to make only about a quarter to 1/2 of the zones in the game at first. That way they can prove to their investors that this game can make money. Most MMORPG's don't do this and instead begin with big ideas but never slim them down far enough. As a successful Game Designer, one has to learn to narrow the scope of the design (no MMORPG has ever done this) so that eventually someday, they can add those little parts in.
The MMORPG i've been making a Design Document for will have a quarter to 1/2 of the game done as far as the beta goes and every month a new zone or dungeon will be added. Every 2 months a new town with NPC's and Quests/Tasks will be added. This is so the game continues to make money while "evolving". Higher up levels (for example: the planes of power in eq) do not have to be completed pre-release because no one (except hard core junkies) will be able to reach the higher up places.
I wish I could tell you guys the idea and story for my game but I would have to get a copyright on it, but it's not like i don't trust ya, I just don't want someone making money off my 5 years project! But don't worry, you'll find out about it soon enough!.
-Mike
Ahh! But before there was only bread! then it was a sugar cookie, then it became chocolate chip. Now if they just stayed with bread! Oh, where would we be?!?!
See, so there is need for innovation, the recipe does need to be changed. At the moment we have the promise of sugar cookies, playing bread games, and no where near chocolate chip.
"The greatest trick the devil played on humanity in the 20th century was convincing them that he didn't exist." (Paraphrasing) C.S. Lewis
"If a mother can kill her own child, what is left before I kill you and you kill me?" -Mother Teresa when talking about abortion after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
Innovative, original ideas are all around you right now. The fringe games, the games with the small audiences and less-than-stellar statistics tend to have the edgy innovation that is hungered after in these thoughts. But they fail in other ways, and garner a smaller audience.
Large makers of games will very rarely gamble heavily on highly innovative ideas. They expect a return on investment, and you don't make multi-million dollar investments on an innovative idea that hasn't been vetted and proven a winner. Smaller developers and publishers will take those risks from time to time, and more frequently (although still somewhat rare) they will prove out an idea that is exceptional and unique...that idea being later adopted into the mainstream.
If you want to see more innovative ideas, support the smaller projects. That is where the innovation will be.
There, Finwe, does that qualify as a more constructive post?
eh... I mentioned it on some post before...because of this, I think the mmorpg's are getting crappier and crappier, we need something new, or some advancement in technology....
I wouldn't mind a hack n slash game one after the other if the graphics were like 3d(in .hack) why can't those bums finish and perfect this kind of thing, also the thing about controling stuff on a computer with brain waves.(and don't be stupid and post that this isn't possible, cuz people are already working on this and have been with some success)
Check out eve online then. I don't say it's better than the rest but it is totally different for sure.
You don't train skills with the typical grind but with time. You have a money earning grind tho.