State Of MMORPGs

[rig0r_m0rtis]

Let me preface by saying I don't think all MMORPGs should fall in line with what I miss, but I am saying is that all ORPGs have fallen in line with each other, and seem rather "cookie cutter" in regard to "story arcs". And it is what *I* miss about the genre. Chime in if you feel similarly.



I may be alone with my opinions, but my stance seems logical (to me).

My first foray into MMOs was Everquest in 1999 and played for about 7 years straight and almost religiously. The graphics by today?s standards were sub-par and it was quite challenging to level up. You needed to group in most instances, you had to socialize to accomplish tasks.

One such task spanned the life (at the time level 50) of your character? it was the epic quest line which took you from the start until you reached the highest level (50 at the time). This caused many positive aspects - You always had a purpose and a reason to explore new areas, it progressed an intricate storyline that would, from time to time, interweave with another story arch, and give your character substance and a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment.

MMOs seemed to have shied away from epic story-lines that made your character feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose. In early EQ, you started out with your trainer who told you to collect 4 snake skins to prove you were worthy to start with your beginner?s item (sash for the monk). Usually that also earned you a level. Upon handing the items in, you get the sash, but there?s another step - 2 orc scalps, spider legs, and a wolf pelt. You hand those in with your beginner?s sash, you get a new sash and usually another level. The experiences were scaled. As you went along, you had to do more traveling and investigating to progress your class quest in order to earn your epic item. But it scaled and gave a sense of purpose and connection with your character. In the end, you earned your class?s highest honor, the Epic Item. And with all the time, resources, and friendships made, it gave a greater weight to what you were doing.

To this day, I still love my EQ monk, I took my roll as a ?puller? seriously. I studied the game mechanics so thoroughly that I learned pathing and timing movement from ?mobs? in order to be more effective to my group and/or raid. It gave me a sense of duty and ,yes again, purpose. I had to work with precision, tactics or else the raid would wipe or the instance would take too long. I?m not feeling such a connection with any other characters in games I?ve played. I had even created ?FanFic? for my monk?s origin. And though the models for EQ were less varied and mostly generic, he was my own creation.

Sony, after buying EQ outright started launching expansion after expansion? monetarily it was annoying, but in hindsight, it was the smartest thing a developer could do? you had content on top of content and never had a moment to say ?I?m tired of raiding blah blah?, because you could always switch gears and raid another storyline.

Now, it could also be that I may have ?grown out of MMOs?, but I still pine after my days of grouping and raiding in EQ from time to time, and I have yet found a suitable replacement, though quite a few have come close.

I was a mob puller when I first started and I believe that art has been dismissed with the ?progression? of the MMO world and it makes me sad and out of place? forever wondering.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I'm not convinced by the cookie-cutter "in line with each other" analysis. Don't mistake me, I see where you're coming from and it's impossible to deny that MMOs have influenced each other (with WoW having the greatest influence by far). But influencing and homogenising are different things entirely. I believe games, once they have a large "core" community take on their own "identity" for lack of a better word. And it's the identity that is unique to the game and which the developers run with.

Age of Conan starts players off with a similar over-arching quest line to follow. The revelations, twists and interactions with it happen over the player's career, sometimes disappearing for a time but always returning. It generally happens in tandem in appropriately levelled zones. SWTOR has class specific plotlines that are always there and serve as the driving force to move players from one zone/planet to the next, and on a planet, from one quest hub to the next. I think they were done well insofar as they ducked and weaved alongside dungeons, unique planetary zones, cities and further offer some player choice (story only, obviously, nothing tangible).

Each game has its identity and community and the core things are added to over time. The two main kinds of MMO (namely Theme Park and Sandbox) are IMHO about as close as many are to each other. Again, many WoW clones have come and gone, some are still around. But there are many games that offer different twists which work for their respective communities. Secret World comes to mind, and so too would I have included City of Heroes/Villains before it's tragic passing.

If I had to miss one the most, it would probably be CoV (not because it was the best but likely because it's just not there anymore, despite that when it was I always had a love/hate relationship with it). The best character creation of any MMO I've played, well defined roles (in fact, roles were the essence of the archetypes) and the Sidekick/Exemplar system is an idea of sheer brilliance which I genuinely can't understand why every single MMO doesn't have it. Being able to team up with friends of any level and enjoy a challenge is more valuable to me than all the new raids, gear tiers and quest zones combined. Seriously, if they released an "expansion" that does nothing but add this one sorely missing feature to a contemporary MMO, it would be worth buying.

To sum up, I mourn for some things lost but there are MMOs out there to scratch almost any itch. Finding the right one is the challenge, particularly when so many are subpar (by any standards).

 

[rig0r_m0rtis]

I agree with a lot of your points; SWTOR for example, I love the progression of the storyline and how your own environment seems to evolve as you move along, but I feel less connected to my character. As frustrating as it was for my character in EQ to require grouping, I think it does pay off in a social aspect. In SWTOR, until I reached higher levels, I didn't feel a NEED or reason to go through flashpoints. Similar with WoW. I liked my characters, but ultimately didn't feel I needed to log in to do XYZ quest because it didn't get me anywhere. I'm not really looking for a "fat lootz" payoff, but more for a reason why I should care about my character.

It just seems, to me, that there are a lot of games that have a disconnect between story and your own character development and identity. And of course there will always be a core community that believes in the product and that is definitely something to be commended and something for developers to strive for, but the "personal story" with something to show for seems to be lacking for me. And I'm entirely willing to believe that I have the "those were the good ole days" point of view and nothing could bring it back for me. I've played a lot of MMOs: DAoC, CoV, CoH, etc. But I guess EQ will always be my first love

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I would add something about SWTOR, with regard to the storylines. We had a thread very recently from a player asking if it would be possible to play the game from start to finish with just following the class storyline, without ancillary activities or sidequesting/grinding (as an aside, the general concensus was "No"). They are a great aspect and do add gravitas to a genre that as you rightly describe, is otherwise quite lacking. If they weren't enough for you (particularly when you consider its ridiculous development budget, lofty ambitions and attention to detail (ie. every line is voice-acted)) then there's no MMO out there that can scratch your itch. ;-)

I think comparing things to EQ, most relevantly to EQ in 1999, years before MMOs boomed and current gen gaming, is perhaps unfair (in favour of EQ). Why? Because there was *nothing* else like it. It was new, it was a successful model and it scratched the itch people didn't even know they had. MMOs weren't shoehorned into the "Tank/Healer/DPS" mentality so you could have pullers, singers/dancers (SWG pre-screw up), Fixers and Traders (Anarchy Online) and so on.

You say you "didn't feel the need to log in to do XYZ quest" like it's a bad thing. I would argue it's the opposite. The moment you need to log in to complete a quest, check auction house, run dailies, etc, etc is the moment the game stops being fun and starts being a chore.

I suspect the biggest issue you have, is precisely the same with me. We're a few years older now and our tastes and wants have changed. In honesty, I couldn't (or at least don't really want to) go (back?) to any MMO and play it hardcore. I played Eve Online hardcore from Beta, builder, researcher and trader and made a fortune but (I became a victim of my success and) it became a chore, a job.

Now, I would prefer content I can dip in and out of solo (some quick, fun, balanced PvP matches, storyline quests like SWTOR) and content I can enjoy with friends, at our leisure in small groups (dungeons or multi-layered, multi-part quest lines) with individual roles, like story arcs in CoV (without having to fly from one end of Nerva to the other between missions!). Dungeons and Task Forces and the like I guess.

 

[UrinalDook]

I miss the very old days of Star Wars Galaxies. Up until several months after TOR went F2P, it was the only MMO I'd played. On the whole, the 'questing' aspect was pretty poor. But it did something that, to me, is what MMOs should be about, while very few are.

It let you be a person in that universe!

Up until they screwed it up with combat updates and horrible expansions, you could just be an average schmuck in the Star Wars universe, hanging out, going on adventures with your friends and saving up to buy a speeder so you could ball on down the streets of Tatooine. No Jedi, no saving the galaxy, no getting involved with the major war of the time (unless you wanted to); just armour-crafting, dancing and doctoring your way through the Star Wars galaxy.

To me, MMOs should be sandboxes that give you enough toys to make up your own fun with friends, or strangers who might become friends. It's what keeps drawing intriguing glances from me at EVE. Every time I hear a story about how some player characters committed long term industrial espionage on a player owned, staffed and run corporation to lead their prize, player-payed-for warship into an ambush of allied players looking to stiff the competition, I am utterly fascinated.

If the mechanics and the required level of grind didn't sound so fantastically dull, if there was any worth in actually creating an avatar for a game that sees you mostly staring at the bulky arse of a spaceship, I would join in seconds. From what I hear, EVE isn't about (or primarily about, anyway) getting matchmade with three other random people to go collect 10 Asteroid Dust for a generic sounding NPC, it's about making your own way in a dynamic universe that lets you play with toys utterly impossible to own in the real world.

 

[rig0r_m0rtis]

Most certainly, though I have time to invest in semi-hardcore. I loved raiding and the dynamic of it. SWTOR had their operations done right (for the most part). Everyone had their roll and a strategy within it. And it is definitely unfair to compare anything today with EQ '99. I'm currently looking at EQ Next with hopeful eyes that they can marry old and new. And it's quite possible at the time I was playing WoW, I wasn't feeling very social, so I'd ignore groups. Though, for a time, I did join a guild here and there to do some raiding, but I had no grouping skills. SWTOR made it easier to transition as many of the fighting mechanics worked with groups and/or raids. That may be where my core issue is... transitioning from solo to group, or saying to myself "meeting people is actually a good thing."

And for the record, I still love SWTOR and want it to get better, but I'm not a PvPer, it's a nice distraction from time to time, but it's just not my thing.