Ramblings From An Addict

Short Commentary on MMORPGS.

Author: telebreth

Lately I have read some commentary on what things make MMORPG's worth playing. What should be kept and what should be tossed even what things should be considered for the future. I would like to take this time to share a couple of my concerns as I look forward to continuing my contribution in MMO gameplay over the 10-20 years.

Things that should be kept:

    Leveling- Leveling is what makes Role-Playing Games the unique genre it is. In and of itself its what we have been doing that keeps us coming back to the genre. While there are many other rewards to gameplay at least for me, there is nothing more rewarding than knowing each time we get to a certain experience something about our character changes or improves. Whether its increased stats, increased skill knowledge or improved skill knowledge we grow and change as we interact with our environment. Its like "growing up" without having to "grow up" each year we grow up at a pre-determined pace set by experience points or skill points so that we get daily enjoyment instead of the monotony of real life time as we know it.

    Classes- Classes give us a back bone for the things we wish to do with our character. Classes should in some way remain in an RPG Genre so that we can track as gamers where we desire our character to be without a deep knowledge of a specific games mechanics. If every time I switch playing an RPG and have to adopt a new Class System or way to make my character do specific things I may loose interest as I do not spend my life gaming as well as MOST subscribers wish to log in and play for enjoyment. Are there hardcore gamers who will spend thousands of hours learning new methods and ways of doing things? Absolutely. However, to assume the majority of the population wish this undertaking is neglecting the opinion of many for the opinion of the few.

    Races- It is always important as well as with the LORE of a game to include rich choices of people groups that are unique people unto themselves. Certain traits no one else has, abilities or skills make character creation more enjoyable because we are only ever given one race in RL to be a part of and in the fantasy world it is nice to experience what other people groups experience inlcuding but not limited to the discrimination existing in the worlds we play for the races I speak of.

    PvP- Fact of the matter is, people do not always get along. Engaging in combat with races, classes, or even people JUST LIKE US should be implemented. I would love to see this expanded on in the future where we may find sects of each class or race that may fall under their own discriminations creating more vast uses of PVP Content. It is sad to know the only identifier at the moment is I wish to flag on and attack people for no reason...That is chaotic. However, defining this combat and giving people reasons to attack others would be unique and MUCH more believable as I play. Instituting a Guild System not run by players or based on things like the race you are or the classes you play would allow much more for this. Even including quests to engage in PvP for a reason rewarding the victor and taking from the loser would bring more depth as well.

    Seamless Environments- When you travel from one point to another it takes time. I enjoyed this in WoW. While Dungeons were instanced the world as we knew it was seamless it took time to travel continent to continent. It made the adventure much more realistic. The traveling from one town to another in LOTRO being automated took away from this. Just as the instancing of towns and even the general world in Guild Wars did as well. Dungeons are understandable but give us the feel of travel in our fantasy avatars and we will thank you for it.

    Instanced Dungeons- Are awesome. With being multi-player at the emensity an Online Role-Playing game is...I do not want to have to fight a Dungeon Boss against the entire server. I do not want to have to compete for a kill. I enjoy taking my group in and discovering a strategy and killing the things in a location as if I was playing an RPG by myself but with a few other RL people instead of an automated party I command what to do.

    Skills, Talents, Feats- Regardless of what Class we choose or type of character we pick, we need to have diversity of abilities. Not everyone that plays a warrior should have to be a warrior the same exact way as another warrior. I think atm instead of making 25 skill for a warrior accessible by all and then choosing the five-ten abilities you will use....make 100 and have specific events make certain ones available at certain times. In my opinion I dont care exactly how its done.....Just dont take these away. Allow us to use skills, talents or feats and then allow us to customize them for ourself. So they become unique to us.

Things that do not need to be kept:

    Free 2 Play Models- Ok its getting old. The only thing a free to play model is out to do is rob me of money for a service. I have to be honest. I would rather pay 15.00 a month for WoW than spend 1,000.00 to get gold, items and the like so I can have a toon that is "kick ass" Sorry. You can expect to not have me as a subscriber of your game. 

     Click To Move- Sorry, I have been spoiled by cool games. I enjoy free movement. If I cant have a key bound for free movement on my MOUSE...I wont play the game. Its available....other games do it....If you think that "We wont do it because WoW does it....Then you are selfish and you will never be able to get beyond WoW being better than you. " Get over it. WoW isnt better than anyone....If your development team allows status quos to direct your vision or direction for a game you are making then that status quo will always own you. Fact is...the feature is nice...enjoyable...And makes for realistic gameplay. Get with the times or get left behind.

    Experience Points- Just because leveling should stay does not mean that experience points should as well. It is nice to think that you could use an ability and based on your comfort with that ability it levels....Come up with something new....no one wants to kill monsters for 50 hours to gain said amount of levels. I mean come on we could just sit in Elwynn Forest and kill 65,450,999 boars to get to 60....anyway you get the point.