Thoughts on mmo games...

[wrestlingfan1]

Be it MMORPG, MMORG, MMOFPS etc, etc. What are your thoughts on them? Do you play any? If yes, which ones do you play?

 

I play a couple of them. Free MMO's though. I play Last Chaos (mmorpg), Project Torque (mmorg{racing game}) gets the most attention, Dragon Oath and my dirty little secret Pokemon Online.

 

Things I like the best about MMO games:

 

1. Ability to constantly expand adding an almost limitless list of things to accomplish.

 

2. Interaction with people from around the world.

 

3. There's always someone there to play with which is a nice change from when I play console games alone about 70% of the time.

 

Things I despise about MMO games:

 

1. Pay to play. I can't see myself paying $50, $60 + for a brand new game just to have to turn around and pay an additional $5, $10, $15 or what have you (monthly) just to be able to play something I already bought. Granted some of the game companies have gotten smarter and you can now download the game client for free. ( I find this ironic because i usually donate more than that to the Free To Play games.)

 

2. With the constant upgrades they make to the games they usually change something that screws you one way or another, which I guess ties into the old addage of " You can make some of the people happy some of the time. You can make all the people sometimes. But you can't make all of the people happy all of the time.

 

3. Quite possibly the thing I absolutely DESPISE about playing MMO games. Everytime I see this word pop up even when not directed towards me is a four letter worse that should be banned under every language filter... that word is noob. Its a nonsensical, imaginary word that is supposed to be used to degrate someone. This is the reason why I hate that word so much: Spell NEW, now spell NEWBIE, where in the H E double hockey sticks do people get to O's out of that??? Ok i need to stop there before this becomes the focal point of the topic.

 

SO what do you play? What is it that you like and don't like about MMO's?

[Self]

I had a very pleasant couple of years playing World of Warcraft. It was a quality game, and the subscription fee was perfectly acceptable to me. Instead of buying a new game for £30 every month, I was spending like £9 a month to keep playing WoW. For me, not a huge gamer, it worked out cheaper.

 

I like the competitiveness of online games. Non-online games just feel kind of hollow to me now. If I got really good at Assassin's Creed, that's kinda nice, but when I got really good at healing in Warcraft it was a whole new sense of accomplishment because PEOPLE CARED. I got a lot of respect and responsibility in my guild, had other guilds sending me feelers for a potential move, had random players inspecting my shiny gear and complimenting it. It was a sense of accomplishment that I was lacking at that point in my life, and non-online games can't compete with that in my book.

 

WoW has spoiled the MMO world for me though. I don't think I'll ever play another one. WoW was it for me. I had a wonderful two years, and that time is over. I'm cool with that.

 

I'm not too fond of the 'noob' thing either. Whenever my guild brought in new blood, who weren't familiar with the high-end content, that term was bandied about a lot. I preferred calling them 'rookies'. Felt friendlier.

[Clarity]

My MMO experience is solely on games like WoW, Champions Online and Warhammer Online and each one had the same trend.

 

Few 20 levels where you breeze along learning new skills and seeing places was fun and cutting your teeth so to speak. Its fun and you think 'This is the one'

 

Then you hit that moment... suddenly the bubs take longer to get, your quests want you to trek half way around the world just to talk to one bloke and come back, and it begins to feel like a grind. You then start venturing into PVP areas and get gankted by a stealthed baddie after you've barely survived a mass mob fight.

 

Maybe its my own fault. Maybe because i dont like grouping with random people and NEVER use a mike to chat that makes it a lonelier experience but slowly days begin to creep past between plays until that moment i realise that i have paid for a month and never played it at all, forcing me to cancel my sub.

[Irish Wolf]

I started way back on Asheron's Call although I only played the briefly before getting into Everquest. I have to say I loved EQ, I made a lot of great friends that I still have to this day. I tried Star Wars Galaxies which I loved in its first incarnation but after the overhauled it, it sucked. I played Anarchy Online for a little bit and that was an interesting concept with horrible execution. The I got into WoW to hang out with friends, the problem is all my friends play on different servers so I have like 15 characters spread out all over the place. I liked WoW I played for years it was fun. Then they nerfed the XP and made it so you could blow through level 40 in less then a week and all my quests would grey out because I insisted on finishing all the quests in every zone available to me because I really enjoyed the rich story of the game, so I stopped playing. I picked it up again recently and now you can turn off XP gain which is kinda nice except it sucks that it costs gold. Really I have to pay you to stop letting me level. So after 2 weeks I was level 40 and bored out of my mind so I quit again. But cataclysm is coming out soon and I may start up again just to see all the new quests. I also recently picked up DDO now that its free and that was kinda fun. Its a great concept you get a lot of you can do for a free but if you want the really cool stuff you have to pay. This way it caters to a lot of players. There was a great interview on charlie rose with the president of Zygna who talks about games on social networks like face book and how although only 1 or 2% of players actually use the options for paid content its still a 2 billion dollar business. DDO uses these same concepts on their MMO service.

 

My problem tends to be I'm not the core group of people MMOs are aiming towards. I'm not gunho about end game content and I prefer to play alone. I pretty much Solo in WoW unless I have to instance and by the time you get to end game its all instances and I just stop playing.

 

That's about it I know its long, tangental and lacking any structure but I'm at work typing fast and I just wanted to get my thoughts out.

[BurningHamster]

MMOs are the devil.

 

That is all.

[sabataged]

I do sports ones...mainly goallineblitz

[Genadi]

Good MMO games....

 

Ultima Online

Asheron's Call

Everquest

SWG

Dark Age Of Camelot

Eve

 

Only MMO I play thesedays even though still in beta, it's a true MMORPG sandbox.

 

http://www.mortalonline.com

[Self]

Maybe its my own fault. Maybe because i dont like grouping with random people and NEVER use a mike to chat that makes it a lonelier experience

 

I was the same way. Luckily I was involved in an awesome guild that always gave me non-randoms to play with. The talking with a microphone thing was always a problem for me. I'm just not that kinda guy. That's actually what brought an end to my WoWing. I'd been a loyal soldier in my guild for years, but I wanted a leadership role as a new challenge. I was powerful and beloved by my fellow healers, but I was declined because I didn't/couldn't/wouldn't talk with a microphone. Which is fair enough, but it made it clear that I'd gotten as high as I could with the game. Within a month I had graciously resigned my post and cancelled my subscription.

[Remianen]

Heh, I'm an MMO fiend. Right now, I have active accounts (often more than one in each game, being a chronic boxer) in EVE Online, EQ1, WoW, Lineage 2, Runes of Magic, Atlantica Online, Champions Online, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes/Villains, Star Trek Online (beta), and a friends & family alpha account in an MMO by a famous pitcher. It's mainly all that I play since console games don't appeal to me (by and large) and there aren't any really good PC games that come out often enough to hold my attention like an MMO does.

 

Nowadays, I prefer the subscription plus microtransaction thing. I'm kinda odd in that I have several friends who are MMO developers so I see what their concerns are as well as my own preferences. Plus, I absolutely hate people who think their subscription should entitle them to anything but the ability to log in to a server (read the EULA sometime). Besides, I think people should have to pay for the extras they want since those things cost money to develop. I don't freakin' care if you want a bow for your toon's hair as long as my raid encounters don't suffer because art/development time had to be diverted to make it. I love Champions' model for that very reason (and even SOE's Station Cash thing). The only thing I don't like about SOE's version is that the same developers who create weapon models and graphics for the main game are the same ones who make it for the Station Marketplace, which is basically an incentive to make CRAP graphics for the main game to funnel people to the Marketplace (which is what happens in EQ1). I like how City of Heroes does it with their booster packs (which are largely consisted of graphics and items that were made but didn't fit the main game as much as a booster pack). Their art staff is usually producing so much stuff, it sits on an internal server for sometimes months before being released to the game or a booster pack (like the recent Ninja costume elements, which sat for almost a year).

 

Granted, I'm a very hardcore player (in playtime and often, focus) but most of my friends are casual types. None of them think paying a monthly fee should allow them to walk up to a mob, smack it one time and have it die and drop raid level gear. Perhaps because they realize that if that's the case, nothing is going to be hard (or EVERYTHING is going to be impossible to do/kill without a crew).

 

My problem is, I'm a snob. Well, not really, I just like to hang with people with similar playstyles. So someone who has to AFK every 10-15 minutes all the time isn't generally a part of my usual circle. I don't guild much anymore simply because in most guilds, you have a handful of people who are doing things and everyone else just hitches their wagon to those people. Usually being one of those 'doing things' people, I don't like people riding my coattails, though I often wind up as a raid leader for guilds I'm in because I'm out of my mind and really deep into 'the numbers' side of games and familiar/in touch with most raid mechanics (so I figure things out quickly). Herding cats gets tiresome very quickly.

 

But MMOs are my deal. I don't think I'll ever be able to move away from them, unless Bioware and Bethesda start coming out with 5-6 titles a year.

[Craig Edwards]

I've played a Few MMORPGs, Started with EQ1 got a ranger to 20 but then SWG came out and played that from start until they screwed the game with NGE. Then moved to WoW after that. Just Quit WoW after 4 years of playing off and on. Waiting for Stars Wars: The Old Republic to come hoping to get into beta but for some reason when the site goes to scan my laptop it gets an error.

[Condors]

I have been playing mmo since gemstone (pay to play mud basically). Ultima online, everquest 1 &2, asherons call, modeus operendi, wow, coh/cov, champions, warhammer, lotr, and a bunch of others. I play Eve online pretty much daily. I have been playing it for 4 years. I will try any other game but they don't seem to keep my interest. With EVE there is loss associated with pvp. It is not just a corpse run. For most players losing a battleship is 10+ hours of money making gone. If you lose your pod and ship it can be the sort of thing that make people stop playing (at least for a little while). The player driven sandbox is awsome. You can make a few friends who play when you do, form a corperation and focus on industry, pirating, try to claim space and build an empire. Its all 1 server and skills are learned in real time. That means your reputation is something that will stay with you.

 

Any mmo can be fun depending on who your playing with. Your company is more important than the content.

[Comradebot]

I've spent a great deal of time in both WoW and CoH/CoV. Hard to say which I preferred, as I've had a great deal of fun with both of them.

 

I actually enjoyed my main character being on a PvP server since launch day, as it was quite the unique experience back then. There wasn't much more than a handful of people at max level then, so most of my random PvP encounters were against other people in the exact same position and a similar level to myself... it was fun. Heck, it was fun when massive PvP raids would go down and a few of those "name" max level players would show up.

 

Even with BC I was enjoying it, though a few changes did bug me, mostly in regards to PvP. I'll admit it was an unusual adjustment when I felt like I HAD to start using a microphone, but honestly most of it was just getting into the vent channel for show, and it IS faster to explain a raid that way. Heck, up until my last day I ALWAYS got complimented for my skills with my Hunter... though admittingly, the bar for a "good" Hunter is always set pretty low. As long as you don't get the whole team killed, you're doing okay.

 

But back to those changes... I hated what came of PvP in big part thanks to the Arena rewards. The first people with it became nigh unkillable in combat against those who didn't, which meant it was just that much harder to obtain it in reasonable time. Before then, ANY fight with a person of comparable level could go either way. Even super awesome raid gear just gave you a really good edge, though didn't make you invincible. When I realized I basically had to start grinding the Arena just to have fun, random world PvP, I was done.

 

And I guess that's why I kept going back to CoH... super fun PvE (go go ragdoll physics and feeling geniunely "heroic"), and friends I made then I still have today. While I missed the random PvP fights offered in WoW, I still felt a great deal of accomplishment when I designed a character that was effective, cool looking, and had an awesome back story (including my namesake, Comradebot, the heroic Soviet cyborg!). So what if it didn't have crazy endgame raid content? It was fun just to run the missions, more than I can say for looking for Aged Gorilla Senew while the local Alliance gank guild is combing the area...

 

And next I plan to try STO. I like the awesome character creation, I'm a Trekkie, space combat looks EXACTLY as it should, and heck... most of the features have me interested. Miffed about the Klingon faction as I originally planned to main a Gorn, buuuut... I'll see how the rest of the game feels to me first.

[mjdgoldeneye]

I like RPG's and the idea of an MMO is good to me, but I don't like the gameplay of pretty much every MMO I've looked into.

 

I don't deny there is strategy and some level of dexterity needed to play most MMO's, but I don't like "press a hotkey, watch animation, see damage, repeat (or, probably more accurately, do other relevant things concurrently)" sorts of combat.

 

I know that that is the standard MMO paradigm and that when you have the number of players most MMO's have, you can't do much better and still have a game that flows somewhat naturally, but I am a fan of gameplay that allows for one to do whatever they deem intuitively to be the best course of action.

 

I like to feel like I'm actually in control of the body of who I'm play as and not so much moving a pawn in a real-time board game.

 

(This relates to my disdain for games that restrict or remove your ability to jump when the environment clearly consists of varying heights. I don't care abut what's prudent or necessary, I like to know I can TRY something, not be forced by what I deem as unnatural barriers to follow the game's intended path. If the character can feasibly do something, I want to be able to do it! Certainly there should be limits, but if I ever come to the point where something would be mind-numbingly easy in the game simply if one could perform an action I can without any effort and instead I'm forced to do something less obvious, I feel like the game has missed the point. But, I clearly digress...)

 

If they released a well made MMO with gameplay equivalent to the average FPS or RPG like Oblivion, and it was relevant to my interests, I'd play it.

 

Regardless of the seemingly standard MMO gameplay of it, The Old Republic looks good. (Then again, I wasn't a fan of KotOR, so i don't know...)

[Genadi]

 

If they released a well made MMO with gameplay equivalent to the average FPS or RPG like Oblivion, and it was relevant to my interests, I'd play it.

 

Check out the link I provided above, the game's still rough in beta stage atm but the concept is a dream come true for rpg'ers like myself.