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

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.