Meandering through MMORPG's...

Author: t0nyd

 Earlier today I was argueing with a friend over what really differentiates an mmorpg from a first person shooter. We reminisced about the good old DAoC days, having so many people in open world pvp that the server struggled and it was very obvious that it was. It seems to me that games like WoW have done everything in their power to take the word massive out of mmo. I can understand why. Graphics and player capacity are inversely proportional. The more attractive the game looks (skyrim), the less likely you are to see thousands of people running around the game world. Developers assume that the average first person shooter mantra of "it better look realistic or I aint buying it", is something that rpg'ers subscribe to. With games like Skyrim, its pretty obvious why. In my opinin Skyrim is loads of pretty and lacks much substance but that is an arguement for another time.

 When it gets down to it, I believe that rpg'ers and mmorpg'ers have split at some point in the last few years. Where mmorpger's want innovative and dynamic content, rpg'ers are fine with stagnate worlds that never change. Personally, as an altoholic, i detest static worlds where if I am to create a new character, i dont want to be forced to repeat the same exact linear play over and over. I also do not believe that mmo'ers are as visually obsessed as our rpger and fps brethren. I believe we are perfectly fine playing a game that's visually 2001, if we get a truly massive rpg.

As time goes by i notice that developers are still assuming that the mmo'er is of the same mind as the rpg'er. They give us new and improved graphics engines and the "instance" plagues us at every turn. I understand the need to instance some things. I for one am all about instancing starting areas due to the fact that an mmo is going to be overwhelmed with new players at launch and it is perfectly fine to instance these areas at the beginings of an mmo. The problem is when half the so called MMO becomes instanced as to where you are lucky to observe 100 players in a particular area. When I ponder a 25 man raid, the word massive does not come to mind. I remember playing first person shooters with 50 people in the same match. This leads me to believe that mmo's are becoming match based game play much like an fps.

 Take the time to actually ponder what has become of MMO's. Remember having so many people on the screen at south shore that the server shit itself. So how about we move small portions of the player base into instanced battlegrounds. Open world bosses? How about we move small portions of the playerbase into PvE instances and call that Raiding. Ummm. Did they even try to give us a reach around when they took our so called massive multiplayer games and turned them into first person shooters. Blizzard did not even try to hide the fact. Hey lets play capture the flag. Sweet some team fortress 2. No man, I mean WoW. uhhh....

And let the sheeple rejoice, led into games they do not want to play, paying for it all the while...

 I simply do not understand why Skyrim is getting all this recognition. Skyrim is obviously a pretty game, which never translates well into an mmo due to the average user not being able to play it at max settings and due to obvious performance issues with 20 people on the screen let alone 100. in my opinion, Skyrim wouldnt make a viable mmo and here is why I believe this...

[Simplistic Combat]

I would say that the biggest bane of the elder scrolls games has been its combat. I simply do not see how people enjoy the combat in this game. Swing, Block, Swing, Swing, block, does combat ever get any more complicated than this, no. Simplistic combat seems to be the common denominator of skill based roleplaying games. This type of combat brings to mind Darkfall and do we need another Darkfall?

[Roleplaying]

Can you imagine 9000 dragonborn running around. This being an mmo pretty much destroys the theme of Sklyrim, that being dragonborn are rare. The same problems occured in SW Galaxies with Jedi. For me atleast, it destroyed the theme of galaxies when I first noticed a screen full of lightsabers. Skyrim is a world built for one and it should stay that way.

[Engine]

When you play an mmo like WoW, its obvious that it is crafted in such a way as to do what it does and do it well. A game like Skyrim is crafted in such a way that there are a myriad of frustrating glitches. Physics glitches alone are numerous. I have a friend with a pretty much identical system and like clockwork, every hour upon the hour his game crashes. I simply can not see Bethesda creating a stable enough engine that would support an mmo.

[Conclusion]

 I find it odd that people even compare single playing rpg's and mmo's. People like to go on and on about story and cut scenes but they simply do not realize how a single player game vs a massive multiplayer game do not compare even in the slightest. What is beloved in a single player game can be disruptive and unfun on a massive scale. When crafting a single player experience, balance isnt much of a thought and story becomes the prime focus. When you are in your own univierse you care not what levels the fastest, what the best gear is, or if you get to endgame content in a reasonable time. Its your world and thats entertaining all on its own. The moment you throw others players into the world is the moment all the tiny holes that you noticed playing solo become massive chasms that ruin your enjoyment of the game.

 A friend of mine recommended Lineage 2 as a PvP mmo option. Obviously I am bored to death of the current so called PvP mmo's out there. I decide to install l2 and give it a go. Thankfully I had little to no expectations because if I did, I would have been disappointed.

[Soul Shots]

In an age where a majority of mmo's are steering clear of consumable based ranged attacks, L2 has consumable based melee, ranged, and magic attacks. What an odd concept. When I imagine the tedium of using a consumable on every single melee attack, fun doesnt come to mind. This is probably the worst concept that I have ever come acrossed in an mmo, especially of the item shop kind. All this concept is, is a money sink. If everyone must use a consumable on every attack to be optimal in combat, this mechanic has no impact on the game due to everyone everywhere always using it, thus making it a rather pointless mechanic.

[Leveling and Class Variation]

I have always hated the concept of minor classes lead to bigger and better classes. Lineage 2 epitomizes the failures of this concept.  Anyone that enjoys making multiple characters will be displeased with the fact that if you want to create multiple casters, you will have to level from 1-20 the exact same way with the exact same abilities, doing the exact same quests, in the exact same newbie area. Once you have accomplished the level 1 to 20 newbie experience there is simply no reason to ever do it again other than you are forced to if you decide to create a new character.

Thankyfully the level 1-20 experience can go pretty fast if you rush it, and you will. Now you are out of the training zone and off to more of the same? As I hit 30 I wonder, still more of the same? Of course its the same kind of boring quests or grind as you have done for the first 30 levels. So where is this PvP my friend was talking about.

[PvP]

The only PvP that I have seen has been when a random stranger attacked me so I decided to fight back. I died due to not using soul shots of my appropriate level because I simply refuse to use a consumable on every attack and to be honest it is the only way to make the game challenging at all is to not use soul shots. As I respawn I find that no npc will talk to me and thats when I notice that my name is purple. I ask around and I am quickly informed that I am an asshole PKer and that I must farm mobs to remove bad karma and to top it off, I do not get exp for those kills. This blows me away. I get ganked and defend myself and now I must suffer a penalty. With the frustration of this and the fact that this guy also whacked my pet, which is causing me to be constantly spammed by a "your pet doesnt have suffiencient hitpoints to do that" message at such a rate that it is near impossibly to communicate with anyone, this concludes my voyage into what I was told was " A PvP game"...