Originally posted by kadepsyson

There was a time when people didn't care how much SWAG your YOLO HASHTAG had.

 

You ever see the movie "Idiocracy"?  It was supposed to be a comedy, but will become a documentary.

 

It is said children are our future.  I see today's children, and I have no hope.

I remember a time as well where people didn't incessantly talk about sub numbers, economics, demographics, and market share and investment bs, once upon a time we talked about the games we loved and what we wanted to see in the future, what happened? Everyone became a armchair economist and show me the numbers and profit.... quite ridilicous tbh.

Most of these oldschool games still exist.

Go play them and see why you stopped. If enough people do so maybe they'll keep updating them.

I think the main difference is that as combat has become more complex, you need less social intelligence, you don't need to interact with others, just follow the breadcrumbs.

I love gw2 but the high amount of focus on combat really reduces my ability to talk, where in some less action oriented games you could type during auto attacks or cooldowns.

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Originally posted by fat_taddler
I watched an interesting video the other day regarding this topic (see link below).   I think it may explain to some extent why MMO's seem to feel "dumbed down"  to many players these days or why so many games only keep us engaged for a month or two at best.

A lot of what made the older MMO's so much more immersive and time consuming (in a good way) was the fact that most of us had no idea what we were doing.  This in and of itself was a huge part of the fun and contributed greatly to the social aspects of games.

These days, players can simply go to a website and within minutes they can see the most optimized way to play any class.

Couple this with Youtube videos on boss strats, money making techniques, etc and you've basically taken a large portion of the challenge out of any MMO.   

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1nl27rS-kM

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Blunt honest truth, When you have data gathering tools such as parsers and such it really detracts from the experience. if you leave a lot to the imagination and hide stuff behind the veil i think you would get a more dynamic experience imo.

Originally posted by emikochan

Most of these oldschool games still exist.

Go play them and see why you stopped. If enough people do so maybe they'll keep updating them.

 

I have heard this multiple times now in this thread and others.I am well aware that some of those older games are still running. I imagine everyone else that posts here would know this as well.

The fact that some of the old sandboxes are running does not mean that there is no demand for a NEW game. It is an irrelevant point.

Playstation 3 is still selling yet Playstation 4 is on the way. By your logic, they wouldn't need to make a Playstation 4 at all because Playstation 3 is still capable of playing games.

What right do you have to tell me I don't desire a new game?  

Who do you people think you are?

Where do you get the nerve to tell me what to go play?

I will do what I want to do, thank you very much.

Originally posted by dumpcat
To me it seems like I already understand a game from day one now. I have played so many MMOs that I feel like a vet immediately when I play a new one. Every once in a while there will be something new to learn, but once that's done, it's the same old rinse/repeat routine.

I concur with your view.

Originally posted by paulytheb

What right do you have to tell me I don't desire a new game?  

Who do you people think you are?

Where do you get the nerve to tell me what to go play?

I will do what I want to do, thank you very much.

Lighten up, Francis.

Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by paulytheb

What right do you have to tell me I don't desire a new game?  

Who do you people think you are?

Where do you get the nerve to tell me what to go play?

I will do what I want to do, thank you very much.

Lighten up, Francis.

** SMOOCH **

I'm not saying "you can't have a new game" I'm just saying that the things you want back, obviously aren't that appealing, or you'd still be playing the originals.

What exactly are you looking for? Either way, mmos are changing again, for better or worse, maybe this new wave of kickstarter  and crowdfunded projects will be more niche focused.

I think it's pretty great to see devs talk about sandparks or whatever the current buzzword is :P

Originally posted by firefly2003

I remember a time as well where people didn't incessantly talk about sub numbers, economics, demographics, and market share and investment bs, once upon a time we talked about the games we loved and what we wanted to see in the future, what happened? Everyone became a armchair economist and show me the numbers and profit.... quite ridilicous tbh.

i have different memories

for mmos, people have always talked about the most popular mmo (on gaming forums)

it was the same concept back in 2000

example:  this mmo is going to be the EQ Killer !  (as fans of AC, DAOC and Shadowbane used to claim)

now its focused on WOW instead

Originally posted by emikochan

I'm not saying "you can't have a new game" I'm just saying that the things you want back, obviously aren't that appealing, or you'd still be playing the originals.

alot of the originals are not the same anymore

anyone wanting Classic WOW will have to play on a private server - same for Everquest

both EQ and DAOC have created classic servers in the past but it still included new game changes that happened over the years

i played both games on their classic servers and the game mechanics included all the patches from the last 5+ years (for better or for worse)

Originally posted by Torgrim
Checkout older games from late 80s to 2000 and compare them to games after 2000 to 2012 and you can clearly see the games have gone from difficult and challenging to fast food industry gameplay with little brain activity needed to be able to play.

im assuming you are talking about PC gaming

on one level

it seems devs are trying to make their game enjoyable to as many people as possible

diminishing challenge because that may turnoff some players

on another level,

user interface design in software has come a long since the days of DOS games and Windows 3.1

(im ignoring apple even tho macs defeat my argument on ui improvements in the last 20 years)

PC gaming ui has improved dramatically -- the poor UI of old games also made them more challenging

i havent been to an arcade in years (since the 1980s) but hopefully the arcade games of 2012 are as challenging as the 1980s

or maybe Arcades are a dieing breed like Drivein Theatres

Too smart for MMOs? Lol, hardly, If people are tiring from newer MMOs its because they're made so much more accessible and easy compared to older titles (like classic WoW which required a serious amount of grinding to raid regardless of being a softcore or hardcore player).

The grind in a game is a tricky thing, because almost everyone has cursed the grind in X game for being boring or monotonous - but if the grind hadn't been there we probably wouldn't have played it for as long as we did - thats what i feel is missing in newer MMOs such as GW2 (which i tried to like so hard, but just couldn't): The grind you hate and secretly love.

Add to the fact most cancerclones have been watered down so little billy and his mom can play.

Originally posted by karmath

Add to the fact most cancerclones have been watered down so little billy and his mom can play.

Yep.  Little Billy and his Mom have just as much money to spend as we do.

Money talks. "True Gamers" cry in their beers.

Originally posted by oubers

 

I raise you a cat!

Originally posted by Trudge34
Doesn't help that there have been maps with a compass that show which way you're facing, trails and markers everywhere showing you where to go for every quest so you don't have to read the text at all and some companies even posting guides to the dungeons on their own website. I don't disagree that player made websites and walkthroughs have helped, but IMO a larger portion of the dumbing down has been built right into the game. 

WTB my sense heading skill and no maps again, Such great times getting lost in Everquest was so much fun XD

Nadia has a point, the UI improvements are huge, you can even contribute some of wow's success to quality addons fixing the ui.

Combine that with the fact that we've all played mmos and have more experience, it might be magnifying any percieved dumbing down.

Not saying it's not there but mmos are quite susceptible to rose glasses.

Also I concede that I didn't take into account massive patches changing things, in my experience they've only ever made things better.