Where did the arguement that MMORPG are getting easier come from?

I know it cant be from World of Warcraft.

something happen today, while I was playing rift. the group tank decided to start WoW bashing, because I guess thats cool.

He said something about WoW being easier. Yet he say the highest level character he has is a level 59 hunter. LOL.

I been seeing this argument thrown around about MMORPG being too easy. But I really curious, if the people making these claims are like the Tank I had in my group, who doesnt even play. I guess a game would be easy, if you dont play it. right?

lol level 59, yet the game is easycake... lol smh

It came from themeparks. MMORPGs didnt get easier, they got redifined. Sheep will always follow. Probably what you ran into with the guy from rift.  I guess if there isnt a bot program that will level you to cap its considered hard now? Rift was for kids imo. At least WOW got harder so adults could enjoy the gameplay too.

What does his being level 59 have anything to do with whether the game is easy or hard?

It came from this website tbh, its all i hear. {mod edit} this community constantly goes on about how WoW noobified the gaming industry in some form or another. The only arguement people have made to any game being easy is how fast you get to level cap.. which is ridiculous.

Originally posted by FikusII

It came from themeparks. MMORPGs didnt get easier, they got redifined. Sheep will always follow. Probably what you ran into with the guy from rift.  I guess if there isnt a bot program that will level you to cap its considered hard now? Rift was for kids imo. At least WOW got harder so adults could enjoy the gameplay too.

Nothing hard about Sandbox games, especially the old ones, they more like TIME SINK games, ment for people who had more than enough time in their lives to play.

Usually the:

College Student.

Unemployed.

Retired.

Old mmo's were harder back when I used to have to walk to school in 10 feet of snow, uphill both ways with no shoes on.  

Nostalgia makes everything look better.  Except my high-school senior picture...it's still terrible.

Originally posted by MMOtoGO

Old mmo's were harder back when I used to have to walk to school in 10 feet of snow, uphill both ways with no shoes on.  

Nostalgia makes everything look better.  Except my high-school senior picture...it's still terrible.

Some of them old schoolers would say that took skill!

Can you solo level faster now than you could?

Think about LK - there were Elites that required groups - then they did not.

Pretty clear cut example.  MMORPGs are generally getting easier.

Originally posted by VirusDancer

Can you solo level faster now than you could?

Think about LK - there were Elites that required groups - then they did not.

Pretty clear cut example.  MMORPGs are generally getting easier.

Are you suggesting that time=difficulty? Some might argue that time=annoyance.

You see it in patch notes across all mmos: Elite mobs become reduced to non elite. Group content gets nerfed so it can be done solo. Raids and dungeons get adjusted as time goes by, offering passive buffs to players and debuffs to bosses. Experience gain and amounts get adjusted so that people can level up more quickly. That all adds up to mmos becoming easier in my book. Were they hard before? Maybe not hard per se, but more tedious and time consuming.

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Originally posted by MMOtoGO

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Originally posted by VirusDancer
Can you solo level faster now than you could?
Think about LK - there were Elites that required groups - then they did not.
Pretty clear cut example.  MMORPGs are generally getting easier.

---

Are you suggesting that time=difficulty? Some might argue that time=annoyance.

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WoW...

1. Removed +heal gear and +spell damage gear, repacing it with +spell power gear.  Easier because a healing caster no longer needs 2 sets of gear.
2. Doubled quest XP in the middle Burning Crusade.  Easier because leveling got faster.
3. Added a dual spec system so changing specs back and forth is no longer needed.
4. Removed pet loyalty system making it easier for hunters to train pets.
5. Removed pets being tamed at their initial level replacing it with pet jumping level, making it easier to train pets.
6. Removed ammunition and ammunition bags, making it easier for classes who use ranged weapons to keep space open in inventory.
7. Removed questing for epic mounts for Warlocks and Paladins, making it easier to get the mounts.
8. Changed normal mounts from 40 to 20, making traveling easier.
9. Changed epic mounts from 60 to 40, making traveling easier.
10. Changed flying mounts from 70 to 60, making traveling easier.
11. Adding flying in Azeroth, making traveling easier.
12. Changed channeled heal for hunters to instant cast making it easier for hunters to keep pets healed.
13. Converted some of the Vanilla dungeons to shorter runs making it easier and faster to do a full run.
14. Added crafted BOE epics so non-raiders could have easier access to high quality gear sold on AH.
15. Added a cross-server dungeon finder system making it easier to find groups for dungeon runs.
16. Added dungeon rewards for running randoms.
17. Removed elite mobs from dungeon entrances.
18. Reworked the quest system providing easy access to location information needed to complete quests.
19. Reworked leveling in Cata so level cap can be achieved in significantly less time than the 240 hours which was common during BC.
20. Added Death Knight as hero class allowing players with high level characters to completely skip the first 58 levels.

This is just from memory.  There are probably some I missed.

The problem is, to many people consider 'difficulty' with 'tediousness' and just general stuff that makes things much more of a grind. Lets not pretend it makes it harder, it doesn't.  Anyone who claims things are harder because "You need to spend more time individually buffing everyone" or "You need to spend hours before a raid preparing or its to easy" are really confusing difficulty with just general time wasting.

Are games becoming easier? Yes, a lot are. Are a lot of the arguements about it being easier actually justified? No. I'm not going to even remotely pretend that for, lets say WoW (due to it being used) it was more difficult in the past getting a mount in vanilla (epic). it wasn't more difficult it just took a great deal more time to work for it. It was more time consuming, and what I did to get it wasn't hard at all.

Originally posted by MMOExposed

 

something happen today, while I was playing rift. the group tank decided to start WoW bashing, because I guess thats cool.

He said something about WoW being easier. Yet he say the highest level character he has is a level 59 hunter. LOL

As if anyone playing Rift right now can legitimately complain that WoW is too easy? RIft wasn't difficult to begin with and it's been nerfed multiple times since launch.

Originally posted by Foomerang

You see it in patch notes across all mmos: Elite mobs become reduced to non elite. Group content gets nerfed so it can be done solo. Raids and dungeons get adjusted as time goes by, offering passive buffs to players and debuffs to bosses. Experience gain and amounts get adjusted so that people can level up more quickly. That all adds up to mmos becoming easier in my book. Were they hard before? Maybe not hard per se, but more tedious and time consuming.

Your forgetting that most mmo's are established now. You have majority of players that are max level, making it not as easy to find a group for new or alt players leveling. The option for slow leveling is still there, but then we get those poeple complaining how it's too grindy.

So either way it's a LOSE LOSE situation.

Originally posted by MMOtoGO

Originally posted by VirusDancer

Can you solo level faster now than you could?

Think about LK - there were Elites that required groups - then they did not.

Pretty clear cut example.  MMORPGs are generally getting easier.

Are you suggesting that time=difficulty? Some might argue that time=annoyance.

I even gave an example.

Then - Elite mob.  Hard to kill on your own.

Later - Elite mob.  Can solo easily.

As for time being an annoyance for some - guess what - it's a MMORPG . . . maybe it was not the game genre for them.

Originally posted by Slowdoves

Originally posted by Foomerang

You see it in patch notes across all mmos: Elite mobs become reduced to non elite. Group content gets nerfed so it can be done solo. Raids and dungeons get adjusted as time goes by, offering passive buffs to players and debuffs to bosses. Experience gain and amounts get adjusted so that people can level up more quickly. That all adds up to mmos becoming easier in my book. Were they hard before? Maybe not hard per se, but more tedious and time consuming.

Your forgetting that most mmo's are established now. You have majority of players that are max level, making it not as easy to find a group for new or alt players leveling. The option for slow leveling is still there, but then we get those poeple complaining how it's too grindy.

So either way it's a LOSE LOSE situation.

 

The thing that happens with this though is:

Player is Playing Game A - which has a certain difficulty, speed of leveling, etc, etc, etc.  It does not matter if the game is a billion years old, Game A has set the player's expectations for when they go to Game B.

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Where did the arguement that MMORPG are getting easier come from?

 

 

lol level 59, yet the game is easycake...

Apparently they are coming from you.

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

WoW...

 

1. Removed +heal gear and +spell damage gear, repacing it with +spell power gear.  Easier because a healing caster no longer needs 2 sets of gear.
2. Doubled quest XP in the middle Burning Crusade.  Easier because leveling got faster.
3. Added a dual spec system so changing specs back and forth is no longer needed.
4. Removed pet loyalty system making it easier for hunters to train pets.
5. Removed pets being tamed at their initial level replacing it with pet jumping level, making it easier to train pets.
6. Removed ammunition and ammunition bags, making it easier for classes who use ranged weapons to keep space open in inventory.
7. Removed questing for epic mounts for Warlocks and Paladins, making it easier to get the mounts.
8. Changed normal mounts from 40 to 20, making traveling easier.
9. Changed epic mounts from 60 to 40, making traveling easier.
10. Changed flying mounts from 70 to 60, making traveling easier.
11. Adding flying in Azeroth, making traveling easier.
12. Changed channeled heal for hunters to instant cast making it easier for hunters to keep pets healed.
13. Converted some of the Vanilla dungeons to shorter runs making it easier and faster to do a full run.
14. Added crafted BOE epics so non-raiders could have easier access to high quality gear sold on AH.
15. Added a cross-server dungeon finder system making it easier to find groups for dungeon runs.
16. Added dungeon rewards for running randoms.
17. Removed elite mobs from dungeon entrances.
18. Reworked the quest system providing easy access to location information needed to complete quests.
19. Reworked leveling in Cata so level cap can be achieved in significantly less time than the 240 hours which was common during BC.

 

This is just from memory.  There are probably some I missed.

None of these were HARD or took any skill to begin with.

These examples you have listed are nothing more than a  convenience.

Originally posted by Jimmac

What does his being level 59 have anything to do with whether the game is easy or hard?

Play the game and find out.  It's really quite obvious.