Ramblings of a depraved gaming madman or pure genius? You decide.

I am weak.

I gave up Lineage 2 about a year ago after getting burned out on the skull melting, will crushing grind. I shut it off for the last time and uninstalled it and said enough is enough. 

Then the wandering began. I never was an MMO drifter until then, I always stuck with my MMO, I started with AC way back in the day and played about a year, I moved to DAoC and played that about a year, from there I went to WoW and played a bit less then a year. From then on I was in L2 (about a year or more) Inbetween I had several "quickies" with many other MMO's none of which were really any good. (SWG, EQII, all the usual suspects)

So like an outcast, I left Aden and went in search of the mythical "superior" modern MMO. What I found was a wasteland of uncompelling and dull MMO's, most of which either were severly broken, dead or dying. I went back to DAoC only to find the game had died in my absence.  I was sad. After a while I got fed up and dropped MMO's. I went on a frenzy of shooters and single player games. I played, and became addicted to "BF2 - Point of Existance".

I wandered around in those games but eventually got the itch to take a look at another MMO. So after many months I turned on my Station account. (Sept?) Again I was greeted by the empty servers of  many dying MMO's (its as if only a few voices cried out all at once...do you want to buy gold?) I slapped myself for turning on an SOE game...I had sucker written all over my face. So I washed it off and actually purchased a copy of Vanguard (like an idiot) off of ebay. I loaded it up and it was aweful. (I'm not going to talk about this here) So now what? My wife had pretty much given up on LotR so playing that was out of the question. I had a level 20 dwarf or something but it was about as interesting as cutting the grass.

In the meantime, I had this NCSoft timecard in my wallet. I had totally forgetten about it until I accidentally handed it to the gate guard at work (which he was not amused with, MP's are like that) And the wheels started turning. I resisted but as I said, I am weak. I was tormented. Aden was calling now.

So last night I loaded up WoW. Yes, I was going to attempt to resist. I figured I am dying for an MMO but everything is pretty much a waste of time but WoW is still thriving. Its "fun", I have high level toons, I have plenty of ingame cash, why not? It finished patching. I looked at my wallet to get the credit card out and pulled out both the CC and the time card and placed them on the desk. Oh the pain. Did I really want to play WoW? I really liked my Dwarf, he had a rifle after all and whats more fun then angry dwarves with guns? What was more fun?

I opened up my play NC account and logged in. (I had reloaded the game when I remembered about the timecard) Now in the course of the year I got myself a huge widescreen monitor and a 512mb graphic card. Now let me tell you Lineage is stunning. (L2 is actually made with the same base graphic engine as Vanguard by the way "unreal 2) I looked at my gallery of toons and said to myself "you magnificent bastards, I've missed you" (ok, so its a bit dramatic) If my Dwarf could talk, he would have said "its about f&*king time". I logged in to take a look at my situation and found I wasn't in as bad financial shape as I remembered. All my toons were fully outfitted and ready to go....where to start?

There was the music, the captivating music, the city was jammed with player shops, how I hate and dispise player shops....and all the selling spam going on...it was glorious lol...it was "alive". Everything I was looking for was right here all along.

Within a few minutes I got a tell....one of my old guildies was on. (I had been booted from the guild in my long absense) we talked a few minutes, he gave me the low down on what was happening since I left. The guild had dissolved, wars had happened, much drama, old friends were now enemies, comrades were now hunted. New alliances had formed, new allies had been made...what I found was that I was one of the only ones that had left. This made me sad again. 

Then I got another tell "so you are back you prick" LoL, yes old enemies STILL remembered me. I replied "Lol, yes...so watch your back, I missed you to" I actually got a smile back and I'm sure thats the last time he will ever say anything nice to me. 

I met up with my old friends and we grouped, I talked about a new toon...I want a damage dealer this time. We got on vent and chatted, its been a long time. B(name edit) was glad to hear from me, she put on some tunes and the group got to the grind.

It was good to get home.  I am greatful that my friends will have me back and honored my enemies still remember me. This is what makes a great "living" world, the people both friends and enemies, without them an MMORPG is nothing.

I was weak not because I went back to Aden but because I was lured away in the first place.

I hope that a player named "angleofaden" is still out there. I'm back.

(this rant was written mainly for me, I don't care what you think of L2 as a game, my point is sometime maybe we are looking to hard for something we might already have...did you leave your home also?)

I'm not going to talk about what should be in MMO's, instead I am looking at some of the current "rat traps" we have out there.

I have seen this comment a few times on differnt post concerning a few different games and I wonder...what crack is this guy smoking and can I have some? "Vanguard" for example has no "living" world. Its an empty grinder. I have seen the same said about EQII. I think "WTF is wrong with me" cause I sure don't see that.

So what is a living world anyway? Is it NPC's shelling out "kill 10 rats" for a shiny reward? Is it grinding in foelds until eye bleed just to repeat raids? 

In order for a gameworld to have any sort of "living" quality, the players need to have some sort, any sort of dynamic impact. Killing Jojo the monkey king raid boss for the umteenth time isn't dynamic impact. Its an extra large portion of grind. (And sure, everything becomes repetitive after a while, I understand that also...the guy that says "X game gets repetitive after 2 or 4 years...well duh. I'm sure a porn star feels the same way...well maybe not....bad example)

The only real examples of games with successful "living" worlds (of the games I played...I haven't played every MMO on the market...I don't have that sort of time) are games like DAoC, Lineage 2, and EVE. Now sure each of those games are far from perfect and have some serious issues but they do convey a feeling (or did) of a living world. What is it that makes it "living" its not necessarily the fact that they are rely on a PvP but the fact that the players can have actual tangable effect on the gameworld.

Now you could easily put in a PvE mechanic it doesn't really matter which one but what does matter is it gives the players 2 key elements

1) Ownership of the gameworld (and I'm not talking about building houses to decorate...unless that is earned somehow through player interaction)

2) a stake in the gameworld

The games like Vanguard / EQII / or numberous other grinders fail to see this keep figuring that more kill task and raids will make things better. Here is where LotR really dropped the ball. Although they put in a PvP element, its half hearted and there are no stakes and nothing to really gain by doing it. WoW works because WoW is played by a different audience. (see my other rant) WoW works mainly because you gather points for more loot and that gives the player a clear stake in things. Ownership....meh, it doesn't have any right now. It works well because its goal driven and the rewards can be used to knock other players on the head with.

The is one other key thing I mentioned that I want to explain...Player interaction. Here is where MMOs are even more confused then ever before. Now, I am no advocate of forced grouping. However, without some sort of reason to interact with other players...well what do you have? A giant single player game with lots of people running around in it. Now I understand the need to have solo abilities for players but most games have really swung in the direction of accessability which most devs have come to interpret as "make things even easier". Now, I have a few braincells left in my old age and I would think that most of us are able to figure out some things on our own. (I dunno, based on some of the post around here...I wonder) but correct me if I am wrong but whats the point of playing an MMO that doesn't have some sort of player interaction in it that has some sort of dynamic impact? Vanguard is a perfect example. Why play it aside from an appreciation of the ascetics or some of the base mechanics? ZERO baby. You get to wander around and talk to static NPC's and an unchanging world. Build a house, build a boat, it doesn't matter because you don't really need it or have anything to do with them aside from show them off.

Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno. What I do know is that MMO's in the western market are for the mostpart disappointing and uncompelling. I do know that MMO's have become more generic and softer in their approach. More limiting. I do know that the only the MMO's that players can have an impact in, seem to be compelling and worth playing.

Of course it is a matter of taste and I guess if you feel Vanguard or EQII are "living" and breathing I envy you.