General Discussion

Who would have known back in 2004 that the market was going to spew out WoW clone after WoW clone for the next four full years?  I get to be a nerd of distinction all my life because I know that 2004 was the peak of the first age of mmorpg gaming and it was in this year that the 2nd age was born.

In the last 15 years I've gone from being a pen and paper gamer turned mmo gamer with only an abstract concept of terms such as "end game content" and "fedex" ....to being able to completely establish  super human understanding of a game when I read a review that uses words like "its a kill x fedex f2p medeval pre industrial post modern asian grinder wow clone with hi poly count graphics".

I sit here looking at game after game, having played many of them, wondering why each of these games wouldn't be considered the best thing I've ever played outright.  Look at the graphics of EQ2! Why am I not glued to it? Look at all the people playing WoW ....why aren't I pugging with them?

Many of us speak of a day gone by in mmo gaming when we had something that we no longer have.  Its somehow missing from modern games. Pages of text are available on the internet on this subject and there are lots of opinions out there. 

We can't set back the clock and tolerate 4 polys / screen graphics anymore.  We have been desensitizied.

We can't go back to playing  mud with 3d graphics, crappy ui and hell levels....because a lot of us older farts have kids now so risk vs. reward has to be balanced.  We want some of the bliss from the old days but we dont really know what it is we want.

If there is one distinct property of the new games that keeps me from enjoying all this marvel of innovation its the progression vechicle....that is the biggest difference for me above all else.  The fact that each one of these games inserts their finger in my nose at level 1 and drags me along the world for the rest of my time there processing each zone/area/chunk before moving on to the next in the tier.......thats the part where I draw the line and say no way.

This is what UO did not do. This is what EQ did not do and that is why I'll be playing Eve for the next little while I wait with degrading faith that any publisher is going to figure it out. 

Originally posted by Rekindle

If there is one distinct property of the new games that keeps me from enjoying all this marvel of innovation its the progression vechicle....that is the biggest difference for me above all else.  The fact that each one of these games inserts their finger in my nose at level 1 and drags me along the world for the rest of my time there processing each zone/area/chunk before moving on to the next in the tier.......thats the part where I draw the line and say no way.

This is what UO did not do. This is what EQ did not do and that is why I'll be playing Eve for the next little while I wait with degrading faith that any publisher is going to figure it out. 

 

I didn't  Play UO, so I don't know about that one, but how did EQ not drag you from zone to zone? That's pretty much what you did. Quest and grind in a zone till you leveled out of it, and then went to the next zone.

They follow 2 basic concepts.

1. See the money

2. Copy it as close as possible without getting a lawsuit.

Ye i agree! EQ had very limited quests and wgat they did have were for rewards not exp, ok yes you gained a slight bit of exp but once you hit mid level you hardly noticed your exp bar move after hand ins.

OK new EQ is different in the fact that they smothered it with quests for exp but not the first 7 years of EQ :)

Now we see a pattern QUESTS! all these games these days seem to be loaded with quest after quest after quest, no need to go explore anymore, the next quest will lead you there. EQ ( up to velious ) is still the most enjoyable mmo experience for me :)

On the point of sandbox though...i had a go at Ryzom and that has put me of a little, i know you have to use your imagination a bit but why do i need to play a game for that? i need games where there are things i can effect like factions etc. ok it would be nice to be able to choose my path in a game with limitations but dont go full sandbox please..they are just dull.

Unless of course i just havent tried the right ones, which i am open to suggestions.

This is all old news nothing to see here.

Originally posted by donjn

This is all old news nothing to see here.

I think it's only fair that since I got flack for doing this yesterday I'll give some flack back.

You were complaining about this forum being full of trolls yet here you are doing no better then I was yesterday.  So now I'm starting to believe that the forum is not full of trolls but rather hypocrites which IMO is worse.

Seems the most of the older gamers want to star seeing the market flooded with sandbox games again, we're seeing that finally hopefully these small indie companies with all these sandbox MMO's in development deliver the goods, cause it seems there is a rising number of people that want something different these days sides the same ol' same ol, the includes the flying in combat (gimmick),

Originally posted by Illius

Originally posted by donjn

This is all old news nothing to see here.

I think it's only fair that since I got flack for doing this yesterday I'll give some flack back.

You were complaining about this forum being full of trolls yet here you are doing no better then I was yesterday.  So now I'm starting to believe that the forum is not full of trolls but rather hypocrites which IMO is worse.

I guess the standard for what we call "trolling" has been lowered. What I wrote was based on the 1,000 posts a day about Sandbox this, sandbox that, and how all companies copy WoW, etc, etc.

There was some meat behind what I wrote. It was not a random troll post like yours seemed to be.

Although I found your posts quite witty and I even mentioned that. You seem to forget that though huh?

I know what you mean about the extreme linear design.  It's one of the biggest hang-ups for me too.