General Discussion

I've been thinking alot lately about what is really going on with this genre and why so many veteran MMO players are becoming dissapointed time and again. What happened to our worlds?

Well, I have a theory.

These games simply arent created for US anymore. They are made for a much bigger audience.

Originally computer gamers were more hobbyists and alot of the time we had to tweak our systems just to play games. Anyone else remember creating a boot disk to play a really rad new game?

Sadly we just arent the target audience anymore.

We played PC games before MMO's and FPS. We played Sierra adventure games. We played Sid Miers games and Populous. We loved X-wing and Rise of the Triad. This list could go on... 7th Guest and 11th Hour.

The reason Ultima Online was such a huge hit was that it had such a successful franchise behind it. We only knew it existed and might be good because of this. We are hobbyists and we watched everything on the horizon and thats how we even knew games would be comming out. Asherons Call is another example of this. The puplic had no real idea of these games at this point. The term MMO hadn't even been coined yet.

It was a different era. The word noobie hadn't been bastardized to the word nub. You actually had to know something about a PC to play PC games. Civilization rocked our worlds. I miss these days as do alot of my fellow veteran PC gamers and I think our time is almost up as far as games marketed that we will truly enjoy. The originality dies with us and its gonna be a long dry spell until it comes back around again.

Good post.

I think the bottom line is that everything is cool when it is new. When I see folks rhapsodize about EQ or UO, its not because the games were that great, its that it was the persons first experience with an MMO.

The first time is always the best for most every enjoyable experience.

Originally posted by Rumour

I've been thinking alot lately about what is really going on with this genre and why so many veteran MMO players are becoming dissapointed time and again. What happened to our worlds?

Well, I have a theory.

These games simply arent created for US anymore. They are made for a much bigger audience.

Originally computer gamers were more hobbyists and alot of the time we had to tweak our systems just to play games. Anyone else remember creating a boot disk to play a really rad new game?

Sadly we just arent the target audience anymore.

We played PC games before MMO's and FPS. We played Sierra adventure games. We played Sid Miers games and Populous. We loved X-wing and Rise of the Triad. This list could go on... 7th Guest and 11th Hour.

The reason Ultima Online was such a huge hit was that it had such a successful franchise behind it. We only knew it existed and might be good because of this. We are hobbyists and we watched everything on the horizon and thats how we even knew games would be comming out. Asherons Call is another example of this. The puplic had no real idea of these games at this point. The term MMO hadn't even been coined yet.

It was a different era. The word noobie hadn't been bastardized to the word nub. You actually had to know something about a PC to play PC games. Civilization rocked our worlds. I miss these days as do alot of my fellow veteran PC gamers and I think our time is almost up as far as games marketed that we will truly enjoy. The originality dies with us and its gonna be a long dry spell until it comes back around again.

 

I agree.
 

Originally, these games were made for nerds, and a certain amount of willing investment in the world and the people around you, steep learning curves that we had to communicate to overcome, the ability to accept failiure and it's costs and learn from it, and  was a given. 

And now they arnt.

There is simply more money in selling to non nerds then there is nerds.

What they don't get though it that the non nerds will move on, they only want short sweet fixes after all, while nerds will stick with what they love for years.

They all (and when I say 'they all' I mean the VCs and boardmembers) want profits MAXED and they want them NOW though, so all they can see to do is kill the goose and have a single big lavish dinner, instead of keeping it alive and  having golden eggs for years to come...

It's a shame.

Originally posted by orlac

Good post.

 

I think the bottom line is that everything is cool when it is new. When I see folks rhapsodize about EQ or UO, its not because the games were that great, its that it was the persons first experience with an MMO.

 

The first time is always the best for most every enjoyable experience.

/shrug

UO was my first MMORPG...

I fell in love with EQ.

Not sure what that says about that 'first game love' theory.

And yeah, take away the co-op play and community from EQ and it wasnt technically all that great... But you know what?

It was great for me :)

Well said. As someone that has been gaming since  before computers i couldn't agree more.  Yea i remember boot disks and moving memory blocks around in dos just to get a new game to run. No little marks over quest givers, no go to this spot on the map. Crap just getting out of a starter city you were gonna die at least once till you figured out the safe route.

Now gaming has gone main stream, my sons are grown and still enjoy trying to beat the ole man down in pvp. More to the truth, they grab the old man and run him through somewhere to grap some gear as they know i won't raid over and over again to do it.

Game devs design games for the present generation, I don't mind, thats the way of it. I play what I like and leave when it gets boring or the game falls short of MY expectations. I do hope for a game to come out that i will enjoy as much as AC or early Swg. or even mechwarrior on the zone. But till it does, i'm gonna game till i just don't want to.

Beware the old warrior, we just don't have that much to loose and we look foward to the last great battle. Our weapons are well oiled, our blades are sharp, and we've forgotten more than many know. Step up !

I'm with you 110%.  As a matter of fact I think it applies to any hobby that starts out small but begins attracting a large audience.   The original "cult" followers get left out as popularity increases.  In the end your game genre has a huge audience but is only a shadowy reflection of what you remember it as.

Originally posted by orlac

Good post.

 

I think the bottom line is that everything is cool when it is new. When I see folks rhapsodize about EQ or UO, its not because the games were that great, its that it was the persons first experience with an MMO.

 

The first time is always the best for most every enjoyable experience.

I strongly disagree with the last sentence (he says looking at the hot blond sitting on his bed)....

I have been playing online games since before there were MMOs.  And in my opinion the problem has always been that a lot of people from MUDs and first-gen MMOs are simply close minded. 

MUD players were not so bad as the MMO players.  But the ones that mostly stuck to one MUD were basically just as bad as many EQ players.  The ones that floated around across many MUDs tended to be a lot different even if they settled into one for years.  Much less constrained by the way things are "supposed to be".

I guess that is pretty blunt but that has been something that seemed pretty consistent from 15 years of playing these sorts of games.

I don't entirely agree with the first experience being the best theory.  My fondest memories are of EQ, but my first MMO was Ultima Oline. 

I never played the single player PC games that the poster talks about though.  Before I played MMOs I played games like Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Badlur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate2. 

The old days of MMOs was a lot different then it is today.  There weren't as many MMO players and it was a new experience for the people who did play.  The games were a lot more group oriented and a lot of people quit because of the time investment required to play the game.  Because of the time investment you grew more attached to your character and to other players in the game.

There was also a nice feeling of community.  In EQ buffs did a lot for a new player leveling their character.  People used to come to the newbie zones all the time to buff the newer players up and make their lives easier.  Druids were perticularly useful for this.

Travel was tedious, but there was always the option of paying someone who had a teleport spell to take you to different places.  You could also pay someone to buff you or bind you to an area.  This was all a part of the community building experience as you had to interact with others.  It also scared a lot of people away from playing the game that didn't want to interact with others.

Overall it was a different time and a different experience.  The only gold farmers were real players.  There were no asian companies setup to farm areas.  Now people attack games ecconomies as quickly as possible when they come out.