I gotta say one thing that I've been noticing alot is the complete lack of scary monsters in most mmo's nowadays. I mean monsters that are a real threat and made you RUN from them because they were so horrible.  Or what they did was so terrible that you paused before you fought them.

Remember the one hit kill monsters from EQ like the Gryphon or the Sand Giants? Or even the skeletons that came out and ran a train on your butt at night? Game designers seemingly have gotten pretty lazy with their monster designs. There is no longer any fear seeing anything in most mmorpgs. Its like most beasties are just there to kill and move on to the next part of your quest. When are monsters going to be given the love that they deserver again. When are we going to see new monsters from cultures that have not been done to death? There are alot of damn good beasties out there that could be put into a game. One's that if done right can really be memorable. Russian Demons, real vampires that actually can do what vampires do. Godzila sized Giants that cause mini tremors in an area. Rocs! Humongous winged birds that were able to pick up and fly off with elephants in myth.

Where are these creatures? And more so when is there going to be a game that acknowledges their awesomeness. Especially in a fantasy mmorpg?  I would pay good money for a monster that was unbeatable. Hell give me a basilisk that could turn me to stone and its an instakill. Or some giant/automaton/colossus thing that would instakill if it stepped on you. Where are those guys?

Let me hear your thoughts on this. And list down the monsters you thought were scary in ANY mmorpg (I still remember peeing in my pants having a mob of Rikti chase me down in Perez Park and I had to run all the way to zone to flee them. This was in COX Rikti were the end all be all baddies at the time and Perez Park is a lowbie zone, so I had no chance in winning that fight and it was all random, they normally do not appear in that area at all.)

Personally I am a bit tired of dragons they appear to often for my tastes.  We need more than them, and definitely need more care given to monsters in mmos that make them more than just another thing to kill.

So again put down any monster that you feel needs to be done right in an mmo and that can give that "oh shit run!" feeling, or the scariest monster that you remember in an mmo that  you've played. Any mmorpg.

Originally posted by RefMinor
Little or no death penalty, dumbed down easy mode games, catering to those who haven't got the time for MMOs but feel entitled to succeed.

 You know what I don't buy this. Hard elites that can instakill have nothing to do with how easy a game is. They can be there just so that the game can remind you every now and then that you can get your ass kicked in this world. COX is not a hard mode game, and it had random spawnings of high monsters in lowbie areas.

Originally posted by Maquiame

Originally posted by RefMinor
Little or no death penalty, dumbed down easy mode games, catering to those who haven't got the time for MMOs but feel entitled to succeed.

 You know what I don't buy this. Hard elites that can instakill have nothing to do with how easy a game is. They can be there just so that the game can remind you every now and then that you can get your ass kicked in this world. COX is not a hard mode game, and it had random spawnings of high monsters in lowbie areas.

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by Maquiame

Originally posted by RefMinor
Little or no death penalty, dumbed down easy mode games, catering to those who haven't got the time for MMOs but feel entitled to succeed.

 You know what I don't buy this. Hard elites that can instakill have nothing to do with how easy a game is. They can be there just so that the game can remind you every now and then that you can get your ass kicked in this world. COX is not a hard mode game, and it had random spawnings of high monsters in lowbie areas.

 

They can be, but they are not.

True.

I agree that monsters in MMOs usually lack some imagination. Most of the monsters and humanoid races are in 90% of all MMOs. We have dragons and elves, griffons and dwarfs, giants and gnomes.

It is a little sad, not only do most devs only invite a few monsters themselves, when they do they reuse them over and over with some different colors like Wows merlocks. They could at least steal different mythological creatures, even in western mythology there are plenty of nasty beasts that rarely makes into a MMO, like perygons, fylgjas, manticores and many more.

As for scary I agree. A few monsters that are scary and a bit tougher than everything else in the zone is fun. Like those shelobs (giant spiders) in Lineage, all never players feared them. They looked scary and were though, not impossible to kill but you needed a few people of the standard level in the zone to take one down.

They doesn´t even have to be many, but a lone manticore that is hard to take down in the zone and player knowing that manticores are bad@ss would make the game more fun. 

Yes, it would be cool to have these sorts of monsters.

Actually Loko* linked a Dungeon Explore game: http://www.grimrock.net/ eg Dungeon Master where that claustrophobic, something surprises/scares/jumps you around the next corner...

This is missing in mmorgps. It could be 1-hit monsters, or more serious penalty type of attack as well as scary visuals. But it's the fear of loss/surprise sharp turn of events that is missing perhaps?

In TTS I am going to  have all the standard monsters but also some newer scarier ones. Horrors, but actually horrible and not just a cartoon sphere with 5 mouths and random feet sticking out, and some insectoid stuff that is quite scary and some other stuff.

Also a selection of monsters from the overarching Children of the Thousand Suns campaign within which TTS is contained. None of the really epic stuff, because TTS is post Fall and so those mostly don't exist anymore, but still some creepy and scary stuff. Maybe a couple remnants if I get around to it.

Just imagine blizzard would put a death panalty in wow , lets say lose of 10% exp.

I bet they would lose like 80% of their subscribers in on month.

Death panalty is a relict of the past and have no role to play in the mmo of the future. Even for hardcore players it sucks, in daoc it was the reason why not goups with some newbies were disbanded, cousing hate for newbies. Sure for soloplay it can creates a more dangerous feeling and can be exiting, but we dont play solo games here.

Nevertheless monsters can be scary, its the job of the developers to make them scary. I remeber those stealth spider that are running around WOW-BC, they surprised with an scary noisy sound... the first time they did this I almost get an heart attack.

Final Fantasy XIV proved that having 90% of the accessible monsters in the game kill you in one hit was a terrible game mechanic and did not excuse bland, generic creature design. I want to control a hero, not some featherweight with a wooden stick who can't fight anything but giant rats. Developers in these types of games are clearly too lazy to make monster fights actually require skill rather than just a huge player mob.

Second, the monsters you cited earlier do not qualify as "original" by a long shot. They're generic fantasy creatures with no interesting lore and no explanation of how they came to exist. I appreciate interactivity, but originality means having to move beyond the standard D&D archetypes. Deathclaws in Fallout 2 were original. The Krogan in Mass Effect were original. Heck, even the Koopas in Super Mario Bros were an original concept and design. The 40 year old generic fantasy monster kit we expect in all MMOs is not original in any form.

You would expect that as graphical capabilities increase, the scariness of monsters will increase but the hypothesis is clearly failing.

I think it's becuase ever since WoW, games are seeking after this cartoonish art style which I don't particularly prefer; high in contrast, bright, and overexadurated..

No MMO is going to be scary if they continue to make it so easy to win you can do it while eight boxing a 20 man raid, and don't even care if you you fail because its just a trip to the respawn and a few gold in EQ repair.

Originally posted by Maquiame

I gotta say one thing that I've been noticing alot is the complete lack of scary monsters in most mmo's nowadays. I mean monsters that are a real threat and made you RUN from them because they were so horrible.  Or what they did was so terrible that you paused before you fought them.

Remember the one hit kill monsters from EQ like the Gryphon or the Sand Giants? Or even the skeletons that came out and ran a train on your butt at night? Game designers seemingly have gotten pretty lazy with their monster designs. There is no longer any fear seeing anything in most mmorpgs. Its like most beasties are just there to kill and move on to the next part of your quest. When are monsters going to be given the love that they deserver again. When are we going to see new monsters from cultures that have not been done to death? There are alot of damn good beasties out there that could be put into a game. One's that if done right can really be memorable. Russian Demons, real vampires that actually can do what vampires do. Godzila sized Giants that cause mini tremors in an area. Rocs! Humongous winged birds that were able to pick up and fly off with elephants in myth.

Where are these creatures? And more so when is there going to be a game that acknowledges their awesomeness. Especially in a fantasy mmorpg?  I would pay good money for a monster that was unbeatable. Hell give me a basilisk that could turn me to stone and its an instakill. Or some giant/automaton/colossus thing that would instakill if it stepped on you. Where are those guys?

Let me hear your thoughts on this. And list down the monsters you thought were scary in ANY mmorpg (I still remember peeing in my pants having a mob of Rikti chase me down in Perez Park and I had to run all the way to zone to flee them. This was in COX Rikti were the end all be all baddies at the time and Perez Park is a lowbie zone, so I had no chance in winning that fight and it was all random, they normally do not appear in that area at all.)

Personally I am a bit tired of dragons they appear to often for my tastes.  We need more than them, and definitely need more care given to monsters in mmos that make them more than just another thing to kill.

So again put down any monster that you feel needs to be done right in an mmo and that can give that "oh shit run!" feeling, or the scariest monster that you remember in an mmo that  you've played. Any mmorpg.

tha's why I like EVE, the monsters are the other players and some of them are downright homicidal.

The monsters just need a certain presence and ambiance. For awhile WoW did really good with this despite popular belief. EPL was actually a place i dreaded going to, the area was creepy and it was hard to see when and where crap was going to pop out and get ya. Vanilla/TBC were great at having big bads running around you either avoided or wanted to test your abilities against.

Any old WoW players i can think of 3 mobs they've had issues with, Scarlet courier, The backstabbing ogre in dunemaul and felreavers in hellfire. (ever mistake the rare crust burster in hellfire for the small ones? i did)

WoW didn't ruin your monsters, the community did. People complained, wanted it easier and guess what other companies were starting to give it so what was blizzard to do? Stay ahead of the game.

Fel Reavers. Giant mechanized machines of death that roamed around Hellfire Peninsula, smashing hapless players into a fine paste. Hearing that strange, mechanical roar and seeing the screen begin to shake as you're fighting a quest mob used to be quite the cure for constipation. I'd imagine it still is.

There are other areas in WoW with those types of mobs in them (memory is kinda rusty though), and some of those zones were incredibly fun to play in. Sadly, that kind of thing fell by the wayside when WotLK and Cataclysm were released.

Nowadays players probably just bitch and moan about them so much that companies have decided it's just not worth it to use mobs like that anymore. For shame.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Fel Reavers. Giant mechanized machines of death that roamed around Hellfire Peninsula, smashing hapless players into a fine paste. Hearing that strange, mechanical roar and seeing the screen begin to shake as you're fighting a quest mob used to be quite the cure for constipation. I'd imagine it still is.

There are other areas in WoW with those types of mobs in them (memory is kinda rusty though), and some of those zones were incredibly fun to play in. Sadly, that kind of thing fell by the wayside when WotLK and Cataclysm were released.

Nowadays players probably just bitch and moan about them so much that companies have decided it's just not worth it to use mobs like that anymore. For shame.

My faves were the very large dragons that roamed around.  One in Duskwood, One in the Hinterlands, One in Feralas  , One in Ashenvale. The huge Lava golem in Burning Steppes was awesome. I saw a dude get his ass crushed by him LOL.

Originally posted by RefMinor
You need some great Lovecraftian monstrosity, you would get a really bad feeling that something horrible was in the shadows but you couldn't quite see it......then you would be dead.

Guess what game is already planning on doing that Ref

>.>

<.<

Well actually I think the monsters in Tera are quite fresh in many cases, at least the ones in Poporia are nice but i doubt they have as goal to scare people and the fact that you got scared was probably because you had something to lose from dying which you dont nowadays.

While those might not be very original there are some more original types in game but I find those the most interesting, probably due to my love for horror.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/10/26/tera-creeps-us-out-with-a-monster-movie/

Originally posted by RefMinor
You need some great Lovecraftian monstrosity, you would get a really bad feeling that something horrible was in the shadows but you couldn't quite see it......then you would be dead.

Perfect!