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I have been having a huge problem with people cheapening MMOs. In my opinion the majority of the MMO players are people who really are geared for things like Halo, and CS. You get the majority of your PvPers there. All of the arguments that they make, can be fulfilled by just moving over to a FPS or a hack and slash. A lot of the so called "casual players" dont want to play an MMO at all, they want a game that gives instant gratification.
What you really need to do is go back to the whole idea of an MMO. Im not just talking about MMORPG's or anything im talking about anything that is massively multiplayer. Wherever you have lots of people anywhere there will be a lot of competition, and you will have people who rise above because they put in the time, and effort, and people that are the losers, and the losers will always bitch and moan till they get what they want, and what the devs are doing is listening to the people who arent on top, and making games that losers can excel at.
In my opinion this is one of the worst things you can do. You are making the game so that the people who arent good at it, can be just as good as the people who are good at it. You will have your PvP and your PvE people, but in either case the people who put in the time and effort should ALWAYS come out on top because they know what they are doing, and they took the time to learn it.
I've been a casual gamer, and a hardcore gamer. Ive focused PvP, and focused PvE on more then 1 game in the 5 years ive been doing MMO's and ive seen a shift where the dev's have been listening to the losers too much, and thats not a good thing. Its really cheapening the MMOs
MMOs arent about instant gratification, 1 player games are. If you want your instant gratification go play assasins creed, its a really great game, but i play MMOs because you have thousands of other people that are better then you are, and always will, and you can play against them or play with them. By listening to the losers of the game, and doing what they want you cut out the competition of the game, and really lose what MMO's are all about, which is competition. MMOs never ever should be about instant gratification, because competition never is.
What i think is a perfect Massively Multiplayer Online game is one that has classes that are balanced in PvP against eachother, and complement eachother in PvE. Its not as hard as it sounds, it just takes some concept thinking of devs before you start production. WoW has done about as good a job at seperating the PvPers and the PvEers as ive seen with the way they made the gear. PvP gear is almost useless in PvE and PvE gear is almost useless in PvP. You can still have massive amounts of people in one area PvPing eachother, and you can have massive amounts of people doing PvE together, and that fulfills the MMO idea
If you make a game like this, the PvP option will be open for those who truly want to be casual, and PvP once in a while, and the PvE people who spend much more time on the game, wont dominate in PvP. We just need to get some devs to look at this logically, stop catering to the losers, and make a game that everyone can be happy about.
The one thing that they need to make sure they realize however is that there will always be losers when you are talking about massive amounts of people, and the losers will ALWAYS complain, so you can not afford to listen to them. Just make the game that has an option for casual players, while not completely nerfing the PvE aspect that your most devoted costumers like so much.
I didnt even mention grinding at all for the record. I was mostly making a point about avoiding taking competition out of a game, which has nothing to do with grinding at all, and giving people things that they totally dont deserve
i.e. Blizzard making it so brand new players could get arena gear just by losing in arenas (that doesnt count as a grind) and even though it got fixed, it was a problem for months.
Way to make yourself look like a complete jackass
And for the record i hate grinding as much as the next person, but totally taking grinding out of any game except for an action game is impossible. The FF series was super popular, and grinding was necessary to get through it. The idea is to make the game still fun, and worth playing despite the grind.
Wed Dec 19 2007 7:20AM ReportThis last comment is what a looser say when he loose.
Wed Dec 19 2007 1:13PM ReportI have to admit , you hit it right on the head. I agree 100%.
Wed Dec 19 2007 2:29PM ReportAnd?... How does that make it so that you don't lose?
Wed Dec 19 2007 5:24PM ReportSo you are saying that your time invested is worth more than my own? MMO companies should cater to the person with no life who plays 24/7? You pay just as much a month to play the game as anyone else. What makes you so important? Because you are so called "good" at a completely imbalanced pvp game? Your logic is flawed. Try again.
Wed Dec 19 2007 8:14PM ReportI understand Auspice's points, and I agree that sometimes game companies will give something to losers to keep them in the game.
It just a sad, cold, hard truth that game companies want to keep their customers from getting too frustrated from losing and quit, and you can't blame them for doing that.
Beside, it's just a game, there will be time for everything, and no one really wins it all.
I also want to add that WoW isn't really a top class good game, it's fine, but not the best for me.
I am old style Ultima Online gamer, and I like MMO to be able to actually play with other players in a presistant world, so I don't consider Guild War as an MMO, and WoW nor Everquest is as massive as Eve Online which every players play in 1 world.
Also, I think character level or rank level game system is totally stupid (although I agree that it will simplify much of gameplay system), and I tend to enjoy more toward real world sim style person, so I still love skill based games like UO and Eve Online - There are no experience points in the real world.
Thu Dec 20 2007 3:21AM ReportFreud is turning in his grave with all the penis envy contained in this blog.
Thu Dec 20 2007 7:02AM ReportLike many others out there you mistake effort for skill. Playing more than other players doesn't necessarily mean you are the "better" player (the one with more skill).
I agree with soulwynd: it looks like penis comparison. Better get up ....
Thu Dec 20 2007 6:47PM ReportI'm not sure how I feel about this article. you seem to detest those that want 'instant gratification' but really its pretty common amongst 'Achiever' types. They are paying customers just like you. They pay for results, games like WoW and such treat them as such. If you wanted to illustrate how harmful they are to the industry- then you needed to bring more points across then you did. So perhaps for your next entry you should highlight this. Right now it's not too clear. Do FPS players want instant gratification? No, we want for our player skill to count. Games like BF2142 apply diminishing returns just like MMORPGs do over the long haul but difference is our player skill determines victory rather then time investments.
Next you seem to think someone that puts in more 'effort' deserves all the best rewards whether or not they have 'skill'. That is fine but its conventional RPG thinking and it is how mmorpgs are built atm whereas a Veteran can wipe a newbie after they put in X number of hrs. What is sad, this article appears to make you seem 'elite' all because you can invest 4+ hours to raid (or what have you). But what about the 'Casual' that spends just as much time as you but its merely broken up? Why do you deserve more then them? You dont. But MMOs cater to your type because of their heavy vertical/treadmill nature
Next, you seem to be a proponent of artificial restrictions and boundaries. That is fine but not my cup of tea.
Fri Dec 21 2007 8:04AM ReportI more or less agree with vajuras. MMOs are usually built on time spent and gear gathered. I personally don't like this, I can live with it and have gotten decent at doing the math involved, but I don't like it. This is probably because I am an import from the FPS market where the only thing that matters is your kill/death ratio and reflexes.
Now don't get me wrong. I love MMOs. I just don't think that the guy who can play 16 hours a day 365 days a year should get special treatment than the guy who has to work for a living (A.K.A., me).
And are you saying that PvPers are casual? I apologize if I misread, but thats what it sounded like you were saying.
Sat Dec 29 2007 8:50PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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