I agree whole heartedly with pretty much everything on this post. Hell, Skyrim has a way bigger "community" than any MMO. The only thing I can say, while I will play the shit out of Guild Wars, I doubt it's going to the sacred messiah everyone claiming it will be. 

Developers seem to have forgotten that one and only thing that makes an MMO different from other genres, it has thousands of REAL LIFE people running around. If you want to get the genre back, start with that seed of an idea and let the creative juices flow (and I know there ways of making it actually 'multiplayer' and still cater to the 'casuals'). 

Originally posted by Pilnkplonk

It' s because all those so called mmos are trying to be single-player rpgs with monthly sub or a cash shop attached.

When you ask "Why mmorpgs are still around" I'll answer "mmos are not still around". What the big devs are trying to sell us is single-player rpgs with just enough mmo and coop features to be able to hit us for a sub. The "proper" mmos are crummy half-finished "labours of love" that are almost umplayable due to lack of proper funding.

It's a clear case of tail wagging the dog, in this case the devs dictating to players what they should play and that's why I don't play any mmo at the moment. Nothing they offer interests me in the least. I'd rather play a proper srpg such as Skyrim than a patchwork mutant such as SWTOR or mr. plasticman which is WoW.

The next gen of mmos might finally break this stranglehold, but at the moment there really is no reason to play any mmo currently out.

 

I agree on all counts.

People nowadays are calling Guild Wars and League of Legends MMOs. The title officially means NOTHING, and its just an excuse to attach a monthly fee.

Originally posted by precious328

Originally posted by nomatics856 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

If you're talking about socializing with NPCs, then you are correct.

In all fairness single player games are not much better than our MMO selections, just different.

Single player games have great graphics and great experience for the 1 hour of content they have.

MMO have 6 hours of content but less so on the graphics and experience...:)

swear to god TV advertisers are behind all this, they are trying to get us to go back to TV

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

Originally posted by precious328

Originally posted by nomatics856 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

If you're talking about socializing with NPCs, then you are correct.

In all fairness single player games are not much better than our MMO selections, just different.

Single player games have great graphics and great experience for the 1 hour of content they have.

MMO have 6 hours of content but less so on the graphics and experience...:)

 

swear to god TV advertisers are behind all this, they are trying to get us to go back to TV

At least, unlike SWTOR, the things you do  in singleplayer games impact the game world and change it.

Originally posted by nomatics856

I enjoyed SWTORS single player aspect a lot more than its mmorpg aspect, and when playing dungeons and PVP "The group aspect" of the game it just felt dumbed down and not that interesting at all, combat was delayed and frustrating, laggy to all hell, buggy. It made me wonder do people enjoy this? If people wanted their Co-Op fill couldnt they just play a FPS or some free dungeon crawler?

 

I can see if the game was Everquest/ UO where almost all exploration is done in a party or group, strong social interaction with other players, overcoming 80% of the games challenges with other players. You know "Social Interaction", then I  can understand playing and paying for a mmorpg every month.

 

But in Swtor and not just swtor but other current "Next gen" mmos as well I find myself soloing 75-80% of the game and the other 20% of group content is either raids, a few dungeons or PVP, All instanced give me the loot now types.

 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

1) There are no alternative for good small group content. I can't play SKYRIM with my sons, or friends.

2) I don't know about you. But when I play WOW (also count as a current gen MMORPG), i group almost all the time, including leveling. With LFG tools, there is no reason to solo unless you reallyl want to.

3) People are not playing a game for social interactions. They are doing it for either co-op play or PvP.

4) Many LIKE instance based "balance" e-sport type pvp. See the other instanced pvp thread for why people like it.

Originally posted by Cuathon

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Originally posted by nomatics856

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

Because they're long term RPGs that you can share items between friends and characters and save your work and come back to it years later if you so desire.

Its something single player games can't do.

Diabloe 3 dude. Its not an MMO and you can do all those things.

And it is NOT out yet. BTW, when Diablo 3 is out, i think that will be my main game.

However, without that, there are NO good RPG that i can play co-op with my family & friend.

Originally posted by precious328

Originally posted by nomatics856 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

If you're talking about socializing with NPCs, then you are correct.

I have more socalized interaction with NPCs then social interaction with actual players in mmorpgs.

The idea of an MMORPG is very powerful and attractive. Teamwork, friendship, accomplishing a task that you could never do alone, a big world you can impact and so on. Most of us have probably bought into those ideas at some point in time.

But most games fail to meet expectations... whether it be from greed, tech limitations, bad luck or simply not finding the right game for the right gamer, there have been problems with this genre. But the idea of an MMORPG will remain attractive nonetheless.

Its funny how suckers like the ones who bought SWTOR are paying a monthly fee for something that is offered for free with same or better quality. 

Originally posted by SignusM

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

Originally posted by precious328

Originally posted by nomatics856 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

If you're talking about socializing with NPCs, then you are correct.

In all fairness single player games are not much better than our MMO selections, just different.

Single player games have great graphics and great experience for the 1 hour of content they have.

MMO have 6 hours of content but less so on the graphics and experience...:)

 

swear to god TV advertisers are behind all this, they are trying to get us to go back to TV

At least, unlike SWTOR, the things you do  in singleplayer games impact the game world and change it.

for the 1 hour of game play.

I joke not when I say that the ONLY reason I play MMOs is because they typically have more long term content and larger world than a single player game. I dont play MMOs to socialize

Originally posted by Theonenoni

Its funny how suckers like the ones who bought SWTOR are paying a monthly fee for something that is offered for free with same or better quality. 

very true.

we got millions of people to buy a new game we dont care if they dont like it once they buy it.

take the money and run...

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by nomatics856

I enjoyed SWTORS single player aspect a lot more than its mmorpg aspect, and when playing dungeons and PVP "The group aspect" of the game it just felt dumbed down and not that interesting at all, combat was delayed and frustrating, laggy to all hell, buggy. It made me wonder do people enjoy this? If people wanted their Co-Op fill couldnt they just play a FPS or some free dungeon crawler?

 

I can see if the game was Everquest/ UO where almost all exploration is done in a party or group, strong social interaction with other players, overcoming 80% of the games challenges with other players. You know "Social Interaction", then I  can understand playing and paying for a mmorpg every month.

 

But in Swtor and not just swtor but other current "Next gen" mmos as well I find myself soloing 75-80% of the game and the other 20% of group content is either raids, a few dungeons or PVP, All instanced give me the loot now types.

 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

1) There are no alternative for good small group content. I can't play SKYRIM with my sons, or friends.

2) I don't know about you. But when I play WOW (also count as a current gen MMORPG), i group almost all the time, including leveling. With LFG tools, there is no reason to solo unless you reallyl want to.

3) People are not playing a game for social interactions. They are doing it for either co-op play or PvP.

4) Many LIKE instance based "balance" e-sport type pvp. See the other instanced pvp thread for why people like it.

 

 

But thats not what MMOs are about. What you described is the Diablo genre. There are tons of alternatives for people like you, that want balanced instanced content with a small group of real life friends. If all of you "MMO" fans just played Diablo clones instead of WoW clones maybe us original MMO gamers could have our genre back.

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

Originally posted by SignusM

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

Originally posted by precious328

Originally posted by nomatics856 

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

If you're talking about socializing with NPCs, then you are correct.

In all fairness single player games are not much better than our MMO selections, just different.

Single player games have great graphics and great experience for the 1 hour of content they have.

MMO have 6 hours of content but less so on the graphics and experience...:)

 

swear to god TV advertisers are behind all this, they are trying to get us to go back to TV

At least, unlike SWTOR, the things you do  in singleplayer games impact the game world and change it.

for the 1 hour of game play.

I joke not when I say that the ONLY reason I play MMOs is because they typically have more long term content and larger world than a single player game. I dont play MMOs to socialize

That's because the gameplay is all padded. How many hundreds of "kill 10 rats" quests have you done? To me, that's not content, that's a chore.

The games are focusing on the psychological needs of the players in diferent ways than before..

Achieving, ---- this requires online gaming.

Explorer,

Social, ---- this requires online gaming.

Collector,

Pavlov/reward.

From the shown psychological factors, only 2 require online gaming.. thus a game can focus on beeing single player oriented ( with all the plus in terms of development costs and technology used to keep a game playable with xxx players in the same screen or zone area ) while giving limited online aspects that fulfill those 2 points.

Thats what swtor did.. and most games are doing now.. and will go on while its profitable, eventually adapting to our RLs needs.

What swtor did wrong, was hitting hard the Achieving factor to players playing the Republic faction of the game.. and even a bit of the Social factor aswel. And when a player looses those factors or part of them, he realizes he/she is not addicted anymore to an online paying environment and its only supporting the big cow.. Simple as that.

Once the devs started taking interdependency out of MMOs people started becoming rude assholes. Why? Simply because they could. There are no repercussions for being a total piece of trash. In the older MMOs you needed other people. Your toons name meant something. Now its all a joke.

I wonder how many people would want to solo if they never had some of the negative experiences grouping that everyone who has played an MMO has had.

Originally posted by nomatics856

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

Single player RPG + in game Steam chat owns many modern MMOs.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by Cuathon

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Originally posted by nomatics856

So why do people still play these games? Single Player rpgs have way more social interaction nowadays then these so called mmorpgs, better and more story, more dialog, no need to pay to play every month. Etc etc etc.

Because they're long term RPGs that you can share items between friends and characters and save your work and come back to it years later if you so desire.

Its something single player games can't do.

Diabloe 3 dude. Its not an MMO and you can do all those things.

And it is NOT out yet. BTW, when Diablo 3 is out, i think that will be my main game.

However, without that, there are NO good RPG that i can play co-op with my family & friend.

 

define "good" and "RPG"

Because of the top of my head:

Borderlands

Magicka

Dead Island

Guild Wars (not an mmo)

sacred 1&2

Two Worlds 2

------ old

Baldurs Gate

Icewind dale

NWN

Arcanuum

System Shock 2

Diablo 2

Like i said, from the top of my head...

PS: All Elder Scrolls Games since Morrowind have working multiplayer mods.

Originally posted by EduardoASG

The games are focusing on the psychological needs of the players in diferent ways than before..

 

Achieving, ---- this requires online gaming.

Explorer,

Social, ---- this requires online gaming.

Collector,

Pavlov/reward.

 

From the shown psychological factors, only 2 require online gaming.. thus a game can focus on beeing single player oriented ( with all the plus in terms of development costs and technology used to keep a game playable with xxx players in the same screen or zone area ) while giving limited online aspects that fulfill those 2 points.

Thats what swtor did.. and most games are doing now.. and will go on while its profitable, eventually adapting to our RLs needs.

What swtor did wrong, was hitting hard the Achieving factor to players playing the Republic faction of the game.. and even a bit of the Social factor aswel. And when a player looses those factors or part of them, he realizes he/she is not addicted anymore to an online paying environment and its only supporting the big cow.. Simple as that.

What SWTOR did wrong wasn't specific mechanics being unbalanced. What SWTOR did wrong was call itself an MMO and charge a monthly fee, when its a glorified coop game at most.

SWTOR is widely known to have poorly implemented MMO-aspects and is not representative of every MMORPG in existence...question answered.

Originally posted by Creslin321

SWTOR is widely known to have poorly implemented MMO-aspects and is not representative of every MMORPG in existence...question answered.

It's perfectly in line with how MMOs have been going since WoW came out. Each MMO has been easier, more streamlined, and solo focused than the last. Games like WoW  with its dungeon finder and phasing, LotRO with its instancing, they're more like Diablo than real MMOs.