How to save MMOs (sorta)

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Poomanchu745

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Sep 11, 2009
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Obviously saving or getting MMOs back to where I want them to be is a broad topic and has many different facets that need to be addressed but I want to address the one that seems to be the biggest concern when it comes to the gaming community as a whole. Basically one of the biggest reasons people are turned off from MMOs; and that would be the community.

Its hard to really get immersed in a game when every other minute someone is yelling at you for not playing exactly the way he wants you to play or someone is just being a general douche is general chat. Fixing this is not easy as free speech plays a large part in most games as you don't want the game to hinder you from playing the way you want. But at some point we need to draw a line of what is appropriate and what is hurting the community as a whole. And I think the way we do this is tighter GM regulation of the community.

This would be accomplished by GMs monitoring chats and complaints as much as possible and dolling out warnings and account suspensions based on the severity of the douche-baggery. By this I don't mean someone yells at a kid once for being a complete idiot but more of a repeat offender situation. And then on the other hand, GMs can hand out small rewards for anyone helping the community by offering to help new players or just being generally helpful. This would mean a greater commitment by GMs to not just address game issue but people issues as well. In the long run I think you would see a pavlov like response: less negative behavior and greater good will due to random rewards by GMs.

While many people would not like this due to a restraint on being an asshole I think it would draw a crowd that has been put off by the community found in current MMOs and be a big factor in drawing in a nice and healthy community.
 

Crouton

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Oct 20, 2009
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I highly doubt setting up a 1984 setting would make gameplay anymore fun.

I believe what your really looking for is the following.

1. True cosmetic customization. Where the things people see on you is for cosmetic purposes only, while the stuff your smuggling in your over sized coat is whats giving you the stats/juice/skills/whathaveyou. Customization is a sense of style, because someone likes it. It helps give that "umph" to immersion.

2. Balanced skills. Most of this boils down to the developers needing to have really played other games. Starting a conversation on skills, abilities and gameplay with "it would be cool if...." is fine, but ending it with the same sentence is an awful lapse in game design. often I believe developers miss asking the questions like "How would the player getting roflstomped feel? How is this fair to other class/groups? Is this a needed mechanic, or can people skirt around it>:

I believe much of the problem with MMOs isn't the community, but the game design itself. Good Community follows Good Design.
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Sep 3, 2008
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The community currently is the reason MMO's continue to thrive. Very few people continue to play any of these games for months on end if there aren't other people holding them to the game. The quest for marginally better loot does eventually lose steam and the core mechanics run out of fun long before people cancel a subscription.

Personally, it seems the best way for games to continue on is to produce mechanics that actually stand up to the test of time. I didn't play tribes for a year because of community OR loot - I stuck around because the actual game portion of it all had enough depth and complexity to keep me around that long. I had high hopes for Fallen Earth, but a few hours inside the Trial convinced me that the game desperately need a lot more time in the oven before I'd consider playing it.
 

SimuLord

Whom Gods Annoy
Aug 20, 2008
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The kinds of people who play MMOs are the kinds of people who WANT a community like that. I don't play them because the underlying game mechanics are too dull to hold my interest. I'm not a social creature and as such I don't want to deal with people when I'm engaging in the hobby that I've chosen largely because it allows me to get away from other humans for awhile.

It doesn't matter HOW good the community is; I will always be a singleplayer kind of gamer.
 

irbullz

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May 12, 2009
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for imersion you play bad games with server rp!!!

comunity you see bad because big cominuty are "hardcore"! very enjoy harder coentent such like big raid or large pvps

sorry my english :)
 

SimuLord

Whom Gods Annoy
Aug 20, 2008
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irbullz said:
for imersion you play bad games with server rp!!!

comunity you see bad because big cominuty are "hardcore"! very enjoy harder coentent such like big raid or large pvps

sorry my english :)
I couldn't read this without for to picturing Borat or Niko Bellic speaking in Englishing for delivering this dialogue of post.

(sorry. Couldn't resist.)