Profile: Jonsus
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• • The Genre Feels Stale (A Veteran's Ramblings)

  • Originally posted by Zayne3145
    

    Originally posted by TheHavok
    

    Golden age according to dictionary.com:

    "the most flourishing period in the history of a nation, literature, etc."

     

    EQ1 is still around, UO is still around, AC aswell as many other titles are still around.  Wow and warhammer are doing great, along with EQ2 and LOTRO.  Many games are doing fine.  Aion is around the corner, darkfall is around the corner, aswell as many other titles.

    This is the golden age of mmorpgs and will remain that way until the community starts shrinking and/or publishers stop making games.

     

    I'd say the Golden Age is yet to come.

    UO, EQ1, DAoC etc were the pioneers. Then came King Warcraft who assumed the throne with sheer brute force. WAR and AoC were pretenders to the throne, but failed to mount a succesful coup. 2009 will be the peasants revolt that will bring about the revolution, leading us into the Golden Age...

    I hope the best is yet to come.

    I would like a game that draws the best elements from all of those that came before it. In my opinion, the perfect MMO would have all of the following.

    - A large, detailed, seamless world/dungeons

    - Graphically interesting (dosent have to be the most beautiful thing in the world, but cant be below current industry standards)

    - Stable gameplay/performance

    - Wide variety of races/classes/appearances/armor/weapons so you arent just another clone

    - Non-linear gameplay

    - Challenging content/quests/experiences/combat

    - Player housing

    - Roleplaying elements (emotes/animations etc)

    - Less reliance on gear without making gear completely worthless (gear should give an edge, but not an overwhelming one)

    - A good measure of reliance on other players that forces the playerbase to cohere and build a community.

    - PvP rewards/consequences/incentives (hasnt been a game yet that gets this 100% right, though a few do come close in certain aspects)

    - Better use of AI for NPC encounters (have mobs take cover when under ranged fire, get help if help is nearby, attack in certain ways against certain classes etc)

     

    Pipedreaming is fun 

  • Posted: 11/12/08 8:00 AM
    General Discussion
• • The Genre Feels Stale (A Veteran's Ramblings)

  • http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Gam...e-110860.phtml

    I thoroughly agree with alot that this game-blogger has to say about the nature of the genre in today's online gaming marketplace.

    I myself was an EQ1 addict way back in the day. It was my first true foray into online gaming, and it had me, hook line and sinker, for five years straight.

    Since I left EQ1 ive hopped from game to game, trying desperately to find the same sort of feeling/experience that I had while running around in Norrath... but alas, few games can actually hold my attention.

    EQ2 and SWG (pre-NGE) managed to grab me for awhile, and games like CoH/CoV, Eve Online, WoW, Saga of Ryzom, Lineage 2, and even the newer ones like WAR and Age of Conan have their merits, and managed to interest me for a time in their own ways. However, I have yet to find another MMO that truly grabs me and has the ability to hold my interest for an extended period of time.

    I suppose the closest ive found since EQ1 was EQ2, which has gotten very big and very polished over the years. I may go back to it at some point if WAR doesnt make some big strides in the near future.

    In my opinion, for an MMO to have staying power it requires a few core things that games trying to be like WoW, and even WoW itself, have tossed aside in favor of appealing to a mass audience.

    1) A wide selection of classes/races, unique appearances/armor styles

    Gamers, especially in the MMO genre, enjoy being unique. EQ1 had what is still one of the largest pools of classes/races to choose from. Later on in its life it even adapted armor dyes that allowed players to customize how their avatars looked even further. People dont like looking like everyone else, its a big draw to be able to stand out in these online virtual games. Some of the second gen MMOs manage this (Vanguard/EQ2/Pre-NGE SWG are the first that pop to mind), but many have tried to streamline to mimick WoW.

    2) Size/diversity of the world/environments

    Though few games can really manage the seamless world concept well (The best example of a seamless world game that ive played is Lineage 2. Very little zoning and the world was huge.) Alot of MMOs have had to resort to using zones, but in earlier games, even the zones gave a sense of immensity and scale, they were huge.

    3) Challenge/complexity of quests/content

    WoW and the games that have followed in its profitable, albeit shallow, footsteps seem to be lacking in this field. While older games like EQ1 didnt necessarily have the most innovative quest systems, they at least demanded more involvement from their players than "Click on the conveniently marked quest-giving npc, then scroll down past the text to accept the quest. After the quest is accepted, follow the radar/map directions to the place you needed to go."

    One of the major reasons people are becoming bored with MMOs in general, I think, is a lack of depth and complexity. There is far too much hand-holding now, and though it may appeal to casual gamers who are used to being handed everything for nothing, it leaves little in the sense of being rewarded for effort put in. If you barely have to work for anything, you wont really appreciate anything you get as a result.

    4) Community

    This is a big one. Games these days, especially ones like WAR, seem to be closing people off from each other. There is no reason to speak to another player at all, there is no reason to be a part of a cohesive community. You can basically run WAR in singleplayer mode by just queueing for scenarios and interacting with NPCs, never speaking to another player, and get to max level doing so.

    While the ability to solo now and then in a game is nice, the genre itself is what it is BECAUSE the games that launched it gave people a sense of community, it was the social aspect of MMOs that made them interesting and addictive (for me at least, feel free to disagree).

    Before the Bazaar zone was created in EQ1, people actually had to stand around in the Eastern Commons auctioning their wares by shouting in the tunnel to the desert. The zone was always busy, it always had people coming and going, people would haggle, interact, meet... that sort of thing creates a community. It gives people a strong want/need/reason to interact with each other.

    Older games demanded interaction, newer games seem to be shunning it... I dunno, its one of the reasons the genre feels stale these days. Everything is instanced, everything is long distance tells/messages. Its too easy to walk through anything without needing to interact with others.

    5) A sense of wonder/non-linear gameplay

    I dont get this anymore. There was a time that I could move through a gameworld and be awed by it. Now, in games like WoW and WAR, there is little that serves to evoke that feeling. Sometimes ill go "Oh, thats kinda cool" or "Hey, thats neat", but there is no more true reaction in me when I play the game. Im not just jaded though, there are still games that bring me back to that place (Most recent one being Fallout 3). I get the feeling that everything is rushed now, there is no beauty or depth because the beauty and depth were always in the details, and many WoWesque games lack exactly that. Detail.

    Also, the ability to go anywhere/do anything without the game holding your hand or giving you a convenient arrow on your radarmap that tells you "GO HERE NEXT!" was nice because it tied into the whole challenge thing. Someone described WAR as a single road that you run along from level 1-40. It just has different chapters along said road. Very linear, eventually boring.

    I dunno, I tend to ramble, im an MMO vet and spend a great deal of time pining for the golden age of EQ1/Ultima Online... a couple of the new sandboxy ones coming out have my interest piqued (Darkfall/Mortal Online) but they may vapor, or lose their way. Im very hesitant to get my hopes up these days.

    Also, keep in mind that this is all just my opinion. I dont expect everyone to agree with me.

    This is all my 2 cents I suppose. For what its worth, I hope the 4th gen games are a return to the primitive. Because the new age ones are so very small and limited and linear it hurts.

  • Posted: 11/12/08 7:28 AM
    General Discussion
• • WAR is here! Now what?

  • I, for one, am interested in seeing where the Devs will take this game from its current state. What kind of improvements/features are planned/being considered? Will they simply rest on their laurels and let this game stagnate? Are there more classes/races on the horizon?

    Whats everyones opinion on this?

    Personally, I love the game for what it is and what it does. Its a fun fantasy PvP romp in a Warhammer setting. The classes "feel" unique (even if some of them are just mirrors of each other), and the landscape and settings really bring you into the world (insofar as ive found).

    I would really love to see more progress on the actual roleplay elements of this game, but I, as a roleplayer, am biased towards this (my kingdom for a /sit animation). Id also like to see more in the way of class progression diversity, maybe a fourth path for each class... I dunno.

    Overall im caught up in the WAAAAAAAGH! (Go go black orc powah! )

    Hows about the rest of you?

  • Posted: 9/22/08 11:30 AM
    WAR (Warhammer Online)
• • Roleplayer looking for other roleplayers to game with!

  • Ive been having alot of trouble locating other roleplayers ingame on roleplay servers so im throwing this out here. If there are any medium -> heavy Order-side roleplaying guilds out there, please let me know where you are so I can roll on that server and contact you :).

    Also, if there are other roleplayers having the same problem as me, and are unable to locate other members of the roleplaying WAR community, please post in this thread and we can coordinate an effort to band together on a single server to increase its RP population.

  • Posted: 9/20/08 1:30 PM
    WAR (Warhammer Online)
• • Servers merged in under two months?

  • Originally posted by Douhk
    

    Originally posted by Jonsus
    

    Originally posted by Xtort
    

    No server merges. The OP is clearly a WoW fan who loves his night elf chick.

    Stop BSing. Move along...

     

    
     

    Actually, im currently between MMO's because AoC failed to hold my attention. I had just heard rumors of a server merge happening and was hoping for confirmation.

    
     

    Just noticed this... in regards to that, why is the title of this thread still "servers merged in under two months..."? You heard rumors in the first place that even a sensible person who dislikes the game would realize are not true (if the game was doing that bad in the first place, which it isn't, from a marketting sense server merges are certainly not going to help make the game look successful). If it was just a rumor and you are so disinterested in the game then why would you make such a ridiculous claim as truth?

    I'd have to call BS as well. I dislike the game, but it's really just nonsensical when you hate the game for no reason. These threads have the opposite effect on what you are trying to accomplish.

     

    The fact that you've obviously read none of my replies to comments similar to yours in this already 4 page thread is very clear. I am not completely disinterested in AoC. I do not hate the game. If I was, or if I did, I would not be frequenting these forums. The GAMEPLAY failed to hold my interest, and the way that Funcom is running things is horrible. However, the game's progress and state are of great interest to me because I see this as a major point in the progression in MMORPGs.

    Things like the SWG-NGE fiasco, HG:L and Tabula Rasa launches, the abominable DnL launch... all of these moments in MMORPG history are interesting to me, because these online games are my hobby. How AoC fares come October, when other games like Aion and WAR are set to be released/beta, will be another benchmark in the progression of this genre of games that I love. If the game tanks, it will be a lesson to Funcom and other gaming companies not to release a buggy unfinished game, and then blatantly treat your customerbase like crap until they leave you.

    In hindsight though, perhaps I should have just put a damned question mark at the end of this thread's title to discourage the rabid fanbois who see the topic and post crap like "OMGWTF!?! YOU THINK SERVERS ARE MERGING?! U R STOOPIDZ!"

    "Servers merged in under two months?"

    Better? More clear? 

  • Posted: 7/07/08 8:33 PM
    Age of Conan