My MMO trash

I hate blogs, it's like the mind's trashbin but sometimes I got some trash so I made this. I'll update it with new content once a year and will not reply to any comments ...if we're lucky.

Author: Eternal-Master

*[I’m getting tired so let’s wrap this up, eh?]*

Simply put, the community has to be mature. This means not trying to cater for the casual gamer, not having to make things easy. We aren’t stupid children, and for those that are, well there are other games, simple as that. The business side does come in here, make more money by appealing to as many people as possible. Yea, that’s lovely but if you’re about the money maybe go into different business, please? No? Well then maybe just be satisfied with all the people that don’t require for the game to be completely easy? EQ and other games seem to do OK...

Now I’m not saying it should be for the hardcore gamer either, let’s not get the wrong idea here. The devs should not be scared to give people responsibilities that’s all. People needing to learn to play their roles/classes is fine, it can be a good thing! It brings in good players, and filters out annoying ones.

Exp/gaining levels should be average (not in WoW terms). Reaching maximum level should not be that easy, it should take time, a good amount of time, it should be almost a freaking achievement, until you learn all the ins and outs of the game. A bit of grinding is actually fine, shouldn’t be able to cruise through levels by doing only quests, sometimes it should only get you close to the level.

About solo and grouping, well, the game should be a grouping game for certain. Not as a requirement but more as inevitability. Sure you can solo OK by picking off the mobs 1 or 2 at a time and doing related quests, but the real rewards should be deep inside that base or whatever where the help of other people is needed.

Don’t explain weather the quest is group or solo. Oh, personally, I like to see some more player integration in the acquisition of quests too. In EQ you had to type in keywords, that was rather cool.

Good communication between the devs and community... well that’s freaking obvious but it’s part of what made EQ great.

I’m done. Did we crack the magical EQ formula? Yea I don’t think we did. Is it even possible? Hell if I know but right now I’m tired so I don’t even care.

### EDIT: I'd be interested to see other people's take on what made EQ so good, that sets it apart from the other games. Leave your comment

First of, I should explain that the point of this piece of trash writing is to maybe figure out why I (we? ...something tells me I aint the only one.) cannot find another game that's as good as EQ back in the day. If you don't know what I mean then it's probably best you click away right now. Oh and the, "because it was the first MMO I played" reason isn't good enough for me, I don't think it's that simple ...even if it may be true.

I'll begin with an intro...

*[I know most have read this kind of thing before but, this is how I decided to do it, even if I could change it, I wouldn't do it for you.]*

My first MMO was EQ. The best gaming experience of my MMO gaming life. I haven't had such fun in any other MMO so far.

Some were not bad actually but all of them were 'just another MMO' except with the addition of some gimmick or 'innovation'. Seems like 'the devs' (what I'm going to call the body of people responsible for games' creation) think that you just need to think up something new to make the next big MMO that people want to play (and keep playing).

Yea, that makes sense, seeing nothing that hasn't already been done in other games makes the new game boring; why would anyone bother with some kind of 'clone', right? 

Hey, does it seem like I'm referring to WoW here? (the freaking clone factory technically) 'Cause I assure you I wasn't trying to but seeing that we're on the subject... it's a good example of how you don't need some new super-cool feature for everyone to like your game.

Does this mean we established that the "exciting super-dooper-cool feature that has never been seen before" is NOT everything and, NOT something that 'makes or breaks' an MMO? [but obviously it makes things nicer if it works]

You know what? Maybe it's not WHAT features the game has but HOW they're implemented into the game? As long as it all works cleanly, gameplay is good... you won’t have a game as good as EQ. You would just have a decent game. However, for sweet integration of the features the devs would have to personally care for the game. Something that I think MMOs of the current age are lacking. [Though I should mention that WAR seems to be on the right track to me.] Current MMO game devs seem to be only concerned about creating the game that they sat out to do in their plan. Also, the design always seems to be "player will see this" and "player will need to do that" style. That kind of thinking for other people is screwing with the development. They should put themselves into the game a lot more, they should experience their game (and other MMOs) a lot more too. Instead of relying on tester's reactions and what they’re saying only. It’s as if the devs wouldn’t be able to tell on the state of the game without ‘real’ gamers. Kinda sounds like the devs don’t know what they’re doing, funny huh?

So basically, seems like the devs have to have personal interest in the game that they’re making. Play their game plenty (as well as other MMOs) too. Look at the whole thing LESS as if they’re executing a business plan and MORE like doing their best to make a good game (that means the design plan shouldn’t be set in stone; forget your one cool distinctive feature if it’s not working out). OK that’s good to know, don’t you agree?

So, I think that all this covers one half of the ‘EQ formula’. But the other half.... I think it’s the community also, the connection between the community and the devs.