General Discussion

To me MMORPG use to be about exploring, carving your own path into the world, getting to learn HOW everything works in that virtual world.

These day's we get a guide "how to lvl one lvl", "how to move", how to walk from one quest to another", how and what do do in specific area's", We have markers that exactly tell you where to go.

But........

Every MMORPG I ever have played there was no need to actually be guided as everything can/could be simply learned in-game by actually playing the game. If you did not yet know or understand how to lvl/move/explore, the game will provide you with everything to know how to do it, yet we keep seeing guide after guide after guide being published. WHY?

Are MMORPG really that hard to play or understand, or do the masses really don't like to figure things out for themselves?

And yes I know players also happen to create guides aswell, many often guild/clan related.

But overall my question is do we really need that much guides when these games already hold pretty much your hand till endgame?

IMO, yes I do believed that we need such if we are playing mmorpg, since it will serve as our own guidelines to success in playing the game. If it is a newly published or released game of course, guidelines wouldn't be at any help at all since you'll be the one doing the exploring and in the end you'll be the one providing everyone or the newbies of this guidelines. Guidelines are just there to be our way but it will always be still up to the player if he/she will use those guidelines.

Guides wouldn't be so popular if the path of discovery was as interesting as the final destination.

I don't think you do, as you said games are becoming easier and easier these days with the way the game practically holds your hands through it.

Back when I was playing a game like Eq1 I needed a guide, hell I needed an atlas. These days I don't buy them anymore, as they usually don't have any information that you pick up just playing the game.

I think you're missing the point. Guilds are social networks within the game and serve on most occasions to only band togetehr like minded individuals and give them a common identity. Personally I think Guilds are fantastic and developers could do a lot more to make them more of they're own entity, like WAR.

Occasionally there's a small part of a quest that is kinda silly and you're given no hint how to do it.   But since those kind of quests no longer exsist they're mostly pointless.

Originally posted by Speedhaak

I think you're missing the point. Guilds are social networks within the game and serve on most occasions to only band togetehr like minded individuals and give them a common identity. Personally I think Guilds are fantastic and developers could do a lot more to make them more of they're own entity, like WAR.

Not sure if you meant me with "missing the point" but if it was towards my topic then you kinda are missing the point as I was talking about GUIDE, not guild. That is if the comment was meant for me.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

I don't think you do, as you said games are becoming easier and easier these days with the way the game practically holds your hands through it.

Back when I was playing a game like Eq1 I needed a guide, hell I needed an atlas. These days I don't buy them anymore, as they usually don't have any information that you pick up just playing the game.

Know what you mean hehe, noticed this with many players with pre-cu SWG as many where really overwhelmed with the game at the time. So was I but still I preferred exploring everything myself or with friends/guilds, did use a few website for resource spawns, which only gave you the planet where you still had to find the right spot to start harvesting.
 

Whether or not "we" need guides depends on the definition of "we." We being the majority of players may need the guides in order for them skip through all experimentation stages and go straight to the good stuff: meaning the best builds, the best spots for hunting, and the best crafts that make gold. Meanwhile "we" being the rare intellectual player doesn't really need guides, probably because he himself makes them or he's insightful enough to go through the game without too much mistakes. And there are a lot of definitions we can put on that "we." If you ask me, I think everything in MMO is being spoonfed to you most of the time, and because of that guides aren't really needed.

I'm one of the wretched minority that hates guides with a passion.

I love exploring but there's barely any point these days. If there is some hidden pool where you can fish for golden fish or some lower level mobs that drop diamonds you can guarantee there'll be a crowd of other players that have read in the guide books they should hunt there.

Over the last few years I just feel that MMOs have ONLY become about the rush to max level. Unfortunately as they are group games it is difficult to buck the trend. If you join a group without the absolute most appropriate gear then someone will tell you, and you might even find it hard to get a party.

For me the only solution is to play games with a lower number of players, in this case there is not actually a guide for every single thing you