in the beggining games were alternative worlds where you would enter in order to play in a balanced enviroment as the player of the game, the designers wanted to create a world, a universe

But now, there has been a few changes, more specifically the rewards for failing/dying have been reduced immensly compared to older games and the rewards for doing almost minor unimportant things have been increased like:

"Wooh, you reached level 52 without breaking your spine, congratulations your awesome, also your the stories chosen one and your incredibly skilled"

It seems games have become more of a tool to make gamers feel better for themselves by paying money even though they dont deserve to feel better about all those achievements since most achievements are silly and fake, and i am not only talking about the silly achievement system but also things like "i ve spend millions of hours ingame doing repetitive task in order to get top gear, i deserve respect because i achieved something"(which doesnt require any skill)

it seems designers forgot about making Balanced universes and just focus on finding ways to make gamers feel better about themselves for the money they spent

I don´t think your Thread Topic is very accurate....

Games are Games.... and most of them are exactly that....just Games.

A Game is usually a way to just have fun,and most of them cover that.

I understand your point of view though...but i think it doen´t make them "less game"....

...don´t forget not all games are designed for the same audience....

by balanced btw i meant balanced as a universe, not being punished for failure and being rewarded for even the most brainless task doesnt seem very balance

one is high and the other one is low

Originally posted by Wolfy2449

in the beggining games were alternative worlds where you would enter in order to play in a balanced enviroment as the player of the game, the designers wanted to create a world, a universe

But now, there has been a few changes, more specifically the rewards for failing/dying have been reduced immensly compared to older games and the rewards for doing almost minor unimportant things have been increased like:

"Wooh, you reached level 52 without breaking your spine, congratulations your awesome, also your the stories chosen one and your incredibly skilled"

It seems games have become more of a tool to make gamers feel better for themselves by paying money even though they dont deserve to feel better about all those achievements since most achievements are silly and fake, and i am not only talking about the silly achievement system but also things like "i ve spend millions of hours ingame doing repetitive task in order to get top gear, i deserve respect because i achieved something"(which doesnt require any skill)

it seems designers forgot about making Balanced universes and just focus on finding ways to make gamers feel better about themselves for the money they spent

If anything, MMOs have become less of a toy/toolset and more of a game as time has gone on.

I think you're talking about two entirely different things. One is MMOs being more like video games instead of "balanced universes", another is the reduced penalties and increases rewards.

Mario is a pretty good example of a video game that's not a balanced universe. In fact, GW2 tried to mimic Mario quite successfully by having optional platforming sequences that don't make much sense in-universe, but were pretty successful player response wise.

I do agree the current trend for rewarding everything is ridiculous. It should be all about challenge, but if devs made dungeons that require 20 tries to get through instead of ones that you have to blow through 20 times to get a Shiny Helmet +10, the current MMO community would probably hate them.

Originally posted by Wolfy2449

in the beggining games were alternative worlds where you would enter in order to play in a balanced enviroment as the player of the game, the designers wanted to create a world, a universe

 

But now, there has been a few changes, more specifically the rewards for failing/dying have been reduced immensly compared to older games and the rewards for doing almost minor unimportant things have been increased like:

 

"Wooh, you reached level 52 without breaking your spine, congratulations your awesome, also your the stories chosen one and your incredibly skilled"

 

It seems games have become more of a tool to make gamers feel better for themselves by paying money even though they dont deserve to feel better about all those achievements since most achievements are silly and fake, and i am not only talking about the silly achievement system but also things like "i ve spend millions of hours ingame doing repetitive task in order to get top gear, i deserve respect because i achieved something"(which doesnt require any skill)

 

it seems designers forgot about making Balanced universes and just focus on finding ways to make gamers feel better about themselves for the money they spent

Here's a really cynical approach described that will really "bake your noodle":

The Designer's Notebook: Selling Hate and Humiliation

Seems devs control the conten too much - EVE Online devolves control as much as possible to the players verbatim. UO did the same with "awesome" results: A Secret History Of MMORPGs: Meridian 59, Ultima Online & Asheron's Call

now they try to SELL you some fun for very high cost, so all fail, IMO
I don't see any game which offers you anything decent but all starts by call you to use any kind of item shop.
and not only f2p versions but any kind of game.

I hear here we can't get fun anymore before we gonna pay a lot of money or spend (not all game aloud it too) hours of boring farming.

Originally posted by Wolfy2449

in the beggining games were alternative worlds where you would enter in order to play in a balanced enviroment as the player of the game, the designers wanted to create a world, a universe

 

But now, there has been a few changes, more specifically the rewards for failing/dying have been reduced immensly compared to older games and the rewards for doing almost minor unimportant things have been increased like:

 

"Wooh, you reached level 52 without breaking your spine, congratulations your awesome, also your the stories chosen one and your incredibly skilled"

 

It seems games have become more of a tool to make gamers feel better for themselves by paying money even though they dont deserve to feel better about all those achievements since most achievements are silly and fake, and i am not only talking about the silly achievement system but also things like "i ve spend millions of hours ingame doing repetitive task in order to get top gear, i deserve respect because i achieved something"(which doesnt require any skill)

 

it seems designers forgot about making Balanced universes and just focus on finding ways to make gamers feel better about themselves for the money they spent

Actually, games become more a tool to make more money and you definately see the outcome in the last years. Less quality, faster production, different marketing strategies i.e. f2p, less creativity and therefore less risk even some did fail miserable after release. The mmorpg market did change quick into a multi billion industry, often a game ball on the stock markets.

The masses buy everything which is at least mediocre, provided the press and magazines hype the game enough. Additional services like steam were introduced to make players dependent aswell to eleminate the second hand market, DLC was introduced and sold which was already on your  DVD or which was before actually included in a finished game.

It will change even more in the future probably, its not different like we see in other areas of our life.