I believe the reason so many people read and post to this forums is because they're hoping for some mysterious mmo that they've never heard of that's incredibly fun to play. Unfortunately, if you've played EQ1/2, WoW, and dabbled with Eve, you've pretty much seen the extent of this genre. Every game is pretty much the same with plus or minus the expected features and little to no fun factor because it has been totally erased by having played these games over and over.

The only game that I can think of that added a little refreshment in this genre has been Atlantica Online for its turn-based implementation. Other that, maybe Planetside. But that's about it.

This genre needs a major overhaul and it's really in need of something groundbreaking. I don't care what game you decide to play right now, it's going to be the same thing with a different skin.

I'm at the point where I can't even play these games anymore. As soon as I meet the first NPC and they say "Go talk to so-n-so and return to me when you're finished", I just get this instant feeling of disappointment and boredom.

This genre really needs new game mechanics and needs to utilize the hundreds of players on the server in a completely different way.

Sorry for the rant, but I once loved this genre and I'm feeling like I can't even enjoy it anymore. Where's the innovation?

I'm not sure you even know what the term "jumped the shark" means...

I know exactly what it means. It means the beginning of the end of a great tv show. I used the metaphor to signify the beginning of the end of a great game genre.

Tonights forcast. Doom and Gloom. Followed by: Tony the adorable dancing puppy!

Jumping sharks.

You have been enlightened

Obviously you're not very passionate about this genre, yet you're perusing the "I'm bored stiff and don't know what to play anymore" forum.

i am bored. Im also doing everything i can to not ever WANT to comeback to the genre but there's always a new hope around the corner. Of course my problems will probably be solved when modern warfare 2 comes out.

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

In my opinion pvp has no business in mmo's because it breaks pve servers and forces rule changes.

If you want to pvp, go play cod or cs or something.

Agreed. What can you do? What ive done is stopped playing them, even ignoring the new ones that come out unless I hear something spectacular. It doesnt help that wow clones are all chargin a monthly fee which isnt justified in this day an age anymore. Im not paying $50 for a 30 day trial. If Guild Wars, one of the better mmo's out there can put out that much content with a flat rate one time fee so can the others. Good bye monthly fee mmo, not even gonna look at you.

I thought that using the phrase "jumped the shark" had jumped the shark...

It's a copy cat league, one does it a certain way and has success and they all have to copy except for a certain few out there.

Originally posted by joeballs

Unfortunately, if you've played EQ1/2, WoW, and dabbled with Eve, you've pretty much seen the extent of this genre.

Can't this be said about just about just about every genre...
One FPS isn't much different then another... same with RTS games.
They are all basically the same... with their own twists.

Originally posted by lornphoenix

Originally posted by joeballs

Unfortunately, if you've played EQ1/2, WoW, and dabbled with Eve, you've pretty much seen the extent of this genre.

 

Can't this be said about just about just about every genre...
One FPS isn't much different then another... same with RTS games.
They are all basically the same... with their own twists.

 

You're not playing the right FPS and RTS games obviously :P

I totally agree with the OP... either that or I'm not playing the right MMOs.

Innovation is hard to find, but it's out there.  Lunia and Dragonica Online are good examples of games where combat isn't as traditional (both play out more like an arcade style beat-um-up than a RPG) and AoC has some innovation as well.  They just suffer from poor implementation at the moment, but the innovation is there.  Also don't forget some of the older games that people tend to forget like Puzzle Pirates.  Puzzle Pirates is a completely different take on the MMO genre.

While I don't think you'll see much innovation this year (maybe Huxley), I think next year and the year afterwards you'll see MMOs trying to adopt some more unique (ie: twitch based) combat styles.  I think game companies are starting to realize if you want a large number of subscribers trying to compete with WoW (by making a game with similar mechanics) just isn't a good bet.

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

In my opinion pvp has no business in mmo's because it breaks pve servers and forces rule changes.

If you want to pvp, go play cod or cs or something.

That's pretty naive thing for you to say considering that some of the first mmos ever created were designed with PvP (i.e. MUDS). Maybe YOU shouldn't be playing mmos and should be playing single-player RPGs?

Originally posted by joeballs

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

In my opinion pvp has no business in mmo's because it breaks pve servers and forces rule changes.

If you want to pvp, go play cod or cs or something.

 

That's pretty naive thing for you to say considering that some of the first mmos ever created were designed with PvP (i.e. MUDS). Maybe YOU shouldn't be playing mmos and should be playing single-player RPGs?

Well PvPing ganker or not. the OP has somewhat of a point. I really don't blame any particular genre. I do however blame F2P games because while they might not all be WoW clones. they are carbon copies of each other. While cash shops seem to pull in tons of money for the company. Rarely is the hardware, software, graphics and over all gameplay added to. There are A FEW that might break this mould. Such as Atlanitca and Runes of Magic. But I severly doubt they will ever go as far as completly re working their graphics engines like some of the P2P games have done over the past year or so.

I say give it time. With the next gen of MMOs getting ready to come out Like Aion, Blade and Soul, Star Trek and Star Wars: Old Republic. Maybe we will finally see some new intovations with new technologies avalible. Only sad thing is here in the next 6 years this argurment will start all over again lol

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

I disagree, PVP fans are easy to please.

Toss us on a map face us toward the other faction and we will kick the shit out of eachother for months if not years.

Toss in some territorial control and were happy as a pig in shit.

PVErs on the other hand require a stacked endgame, A game loaded with handholding quests and constant content updates since they seem to powerlevel and bitch that it takes more than 3 months to make more dungeons to run.

Originally posted by Arekaine

Originally posted by joeballs

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

In my opinion pvp has no business in mmo's because it breaks pve servers and forces rule changes.

If you want to pvp, go play cod or cs or something.

 

That's pretty naive thing for you to say considering that some of the first mmos ever created were designed with PvP (i.e. MUDS). Maybe YOU shouldn't be playing mmos and should be playing single-player RPGs?

 

Well PvPing ganker or not. the OP has somewhat of a point. I really don't blame any particular genre. I do however blame F2P games because while they might not all be WoW clones. they are carbon copies of each other. While cash shops seem to pull in tons of money for the company. Rarely is the hardware, software, graphics and over all gameplay added to. There are A FEW that might break this mould. Such as Atlanitca and Runes of Magic. But I severly doubt they will ever go as far as completly re working their graphics engines like some of the P2P games have done over the past year or so.

I say give it time. With the next gen of MMOs getting ready to come out Like Aion, Blade and Soul, Star Trek and Star Wars: Old Republic. Maybe we will finally see some new intovations with new technologies avalible. Only sad thing is here in the next 6 years this argurment will start all over again lol

Not saying it isn't a clone of something else, but Ether Saga has at least raise itself above the others just a little by offering a graphical environment that is a step above some of the others.  Anime-style or not, if you've tried you would have to admit it is one of the better f2p's compared to those like it.  It's not much I know, but it is certainly worthy of being called a sub-clone. ^^

I have to agree with the OP, MMOs are sadly begining to blend together in my mind. Sure sometimes you'll see a new feature like special combat (Spellborn/Age of Conan) but really these just don't make up for the feeling of familiarity I feel everytime I get a quest or kill a mob or visit a NPC store.

When I first got involved in MMOs (a decade ago) it was like a breath of fresh air, here was a place I could do anything, be anything, but now it's like... Why would I want to be anything again, I've already been this and that. I had a great time doing it, but nothing you've got I haven't seen or done better already. Top of the world, everything else seems like a step down.

After you get that feeling and it passes...well then anything else is pretty bland. We've all been the heroes, been the villians, conquered the world and saved it hundreds of times. So any MMO developer has to look at everything done in the past and say, "What can I show you that will knock your socks off?"

I don't really think there is anything like that I've heard of upcoming. Only thing I'm interested in now is Star Trek Online, which I fear will probably suffer the same flaws.

I have heard simular terms been used and they are very accurate.

First game I actually played Multiplayer wise Was unfortunetly Runescape, I am back playing Mabinogi atm as it is fairly simular, but as one of my friends explained to me essentially WoW popped my MMO Cherry and not much else is capable of satisfying my expectations of a game.

The term Jumped the shark refers to when something changes from its origional intent to be something entirely different and or bad.

For instance, if you've seen Terminator the sarah connor chronicles when they stopped running away from terminators and when Sarah Conner was having a mental break down in season 2.

The entire thing wasn't really based off the origional idea, and hence jumped the shark.

If MMO's jumped the shark it would be if they pretty much all made games like Guild Wars and stopped making gmaes like WoW.

Although i agree the genre has turned into shit it has far from jumped the shark.

The term' jumping the shark is from the show Happy Days where Fonzie is water skiing and jumping over a shark. The scene was so rediculous it pretty much signified the end of 'Happy Days'. As far as i know MMORPGS have never been so popular as they are now. Back in the day the highest a MMO could achieve was EQ numbers which were around the 350.000 mark. Today millions of people plays MMOs and MMORPGS.

MMORPGs are expanding more and more into the mainstream market and we can thank Blizzard and WoW for that. They made MMORPGs the facebook and myspace of the genre. The genre is far from over. Only over for us vets that prefer them old school style. The old school MMORPGS died with Brad McQuaid leaving the business and good riddance

Originally posted by Laughing-man

The term Jumped the shark refers to when something changes from its origional intent to be something entirely different and or bad.

For instance, if you've seen Terminator the sarah connor chronicles when they stopped running away from terminators and when Sarah Conner was having a mental break down in season 2.

The entire thing wasn't really based off the origional idea, and hence jumped the shark.

If MMO's jumped the shark it would be if they pretty much all made games like Guild Wars and stopped making gmaes like WoW.

Oooooh... now I get it. 

I could have sworn it was this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4   < ayyyyy

...at least that was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title of this thread.

hehe

Originally posted by JGMIII

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

Judging by his signature, i see this as a pvp person who hates pve elements.

PvP fans i believe are the most difficult to appease on any level.

 

I disagree, PVP fans are easy to please.

Toss us on a map face us toward the other faction and we will kick the shit out of eachother for months if not years.

Toss in some territorial control and were happy as a pig in shit.

 

PVErs on the other hand require a stacked endgame, A game loaded with handholding quests and constant content updates since they seem to powerlevel and bitch that it takes more than 3 months to make more dungeons to run.

I agree with Kungaloosh1 here,

In response to JGMII:

PvE'ers do require stacked end-game cant argue there more the better.  Alot of us older PvE MMO'ers hate the the handholding that goes on. We can thank WoW for that. As it seems the casual PvE'ers who love handholding far outnumber the "hardcore" PvE and PvP'ers combined X10. Alot of us do like challeneging PvE and thankfully that number is growing due to all this handholding crap being released, and people finally get fed up with it. However were still a long ways away from where we need to be. But we are a niche group just like hardcore PvP'ers. Again WoW made instant gratifacation and everybody a winner with little to no effort. Casual PvE'ers eat it up like candy, sub up in masses thus thats where the money is at so devs are trying to cash in. EQI and FFXI has no handholding, not all are cakewalks.

The majority of PvP'ers are not even remotly easy to please. If they loose to another person its instant crying about such and such is OP. God forbid someone is a better player. Devs spend all their time nerfing and buffing classes, and it never gets balanced.

Classes are not suposed to be balanced IMO. Its the old Rock, Paper, Sissor, argument. How many times does Paper beat sissors? ummm............... NONE.  But PvP'ers cant have this, they dont understand this concept. Everthing has to be equal, when things shouldnt be equal. Making it impossible to be equal. Learn to pick your fights wisely. In a game that trys to mix 50/50 pvp/pve, just go look at the game forums what you will see a good 65-75% of the posts dealing with class balance issues.

AoC was the last MMO i bought so ill use it as an example, and that was a year ago, the forums were ablaze with PvP'ers crying for nerfs and buffs, and the devs listened and spent patch after patch messing with classes, when their time should have been allocated to me important issues like server problems and memory loss isues, or even fixing the OP gems which would have solved some of the PvP'ers problems.

I can't say I 'hate' hand-holding as a certain lvl of it is sometimes helpful if the systems are unfamiliar, but it does get old real quick, I tried two recently where this hand holding was WAY too much, Dragonica online was pretty bad and the other, whose name is forgotten as being completely unimportant, was TERRIBLE not to mention horribly done.  There is certainly more appeal in just being dumped into sink or swim as it gives you a feeling of accomplishment as you figure it out on your own.